Coronavirus infections in the Dakotas are growing faster than anywhere else in the nation, fueling impassioned debates over masks and personal freedom after months in which the two states avoided the worst of the pandemic.

The argument over masks raged this week in Brookings, South Dakota, as the city council considered requiring face coverings in businesses.

The city was forced to move its meeting to a local arena to accommodate intense interest, with many citizens speaking against it, before the mask requirement ultimately passed.

Amid the brute force of the pandemic, health experts warn that the infections must be contained before care systems are overwhelmed.

North Dakota and South Dakota lead the country in new cases per capita over the last two weeks, ranking first and second respectively, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers.

People wear red in solidarity against a potential city-wide mask mandate during a city council meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020, in Brookings, South Dakota

Nurses are seen at a drive-thru COVID-19 testing center in Bismarck, North Dakota

On Thursday there were 263 new cases and four deaths in South Dakota, while in North Dakota there were 333 new cases and three deaths.

Although the numbers seem relatively small compared to other states, both have populations of less than 900,000 people. This compares to New York state with a population of almost 20 million which on Thursday had 880 new cases and five deaths.

South Dakota has also posted some of the country's highest positivity rates for COVID-19 tests in the last week - over 17 percent - an indication that there are more infections than tests are catching.

Infections have been spurred by schools and universities reopening and mass gatherings like the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which drew hundreds of thousands of people from across the country.

'It is not a surprise that South Dakota has one of the highest (COVID-19) reproduction rates in the country,' Brookings City Council member Nick Wendell said as he commented on the many people who forgo masks in public.

The Republican governors of both states have eschewed mask requirements, tapping into a spirit of independence hewn from enduring the winters and storms of the Great Plains.

North Dakota: On Thursday were 333 new cases and three deaths in North Dakota

South Dakota: On Thursday there were 263 new cases and four deaths in South Dakota

The Dakotas were not always a hot spot. For months, the states appeared to avoid the worst of the pandemic, watching from afar as it raged through large cities. But spiking infection rates have fanned out across the nation, from the East Coast to the Sun Belt and now into the Midwest, where states like Iowa and Kansas are also dealing with surges.

When the case count stayed low during the spring and early summer, people grew weary of constantly taking precautions, said Dr. Benjamin Aaker, president of the South Dakota State Medical Association.

'People have a tendency to become complacent,' he said. 'Then they start to relax the things that they were doing properly, and thats when the increase in cases starts to go up.'

Health officials point out that the COVID-19 case increases have been among younger groups that are not hospitalized at high rates. But infections have not been contained to college campuses.

'College students work in places where the vulnerable live, such as nursing homes,' said Dr. Joel Walz, the Grand Forks, North Dakota, city and county health officer. 'Some of them are nursing students who are doing rotations where theyre going to see people who are really at risk. I worry about that.'

Over 1,000 students at the states' four largest universities - the University of North Dakota, North Dakota State University, South Dakota State University and University of South Dakota - left campus to quarantine after being exposed to the virus, according to data released by the schools.

The Sturgis rally also spread infections across the region, with health officials in 12 states reporting over 300 cases among people who attended the event.

Infections have been spurred by schools and universities reopening and mass gatherings like the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

But requiring masks has been controversial. In Brookings, opponents said they believed the virus threat was not as serious as portrayed and that a mandate was a violation of civil liberties.

'There are a lot of things we have in life that we have to deal with that cause death,' business owner Teresa Holloman told the council. 'We live in America, and we have certain inalienable rights.'

Though Brookings passed its ban, another hot spot - North Dakota's Morton County, just west of the capital city of Bismarck - soundly rejected a mask requirement after citizens spoke against it.

Brookings may be the lone municipality with such an order in the Dakotas outside of Native American reservations, which have generally been more vigilant in adopting coronavirus precautions. Native Americans have disproportionately died from COVID-19, accounting for 24 per cent of deaths statewide.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem have resisted mask requirements. Burgum promotes personal choice but tried to encourage masks with a social media campaign.

Noem has discouraged mask requirements, saying she doubts a broad consensus in the medical community that they help prevent infections.

At a press briefing, Burgum displayed a slide that showed active cases in neighboring Minnesota rising to record levels since implementing a mask mandate July 25.

'In the end, its about individual decisions, not what the government does,' he said.

Noem, who has yet to appear at a public event with a mask, carved out a reputation as a staunch conservative when she defied calls early in the pandemic for lockdown orders.

The rally drew hundreds of thousands of people from across the country

But both governors face increasing pressure to step up their approach.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, infectious disease chief at the National Institutes of Health, told MSNBC that the states' virus levels were 'disturbing,' especially as fall weather arrives and Americans begin spending more time indoors.

'You dont want to start off already with a baseline thats so high,' Fauci said.

Neither governor appears ready to yield any ground.

'We will not be changing that approach,' Noem spokesman Ian Fury said Thursday, citing a low hospitalization rate and the fact that only 3% of intensive-care beds are occupied by COVID patients.

Doctors in both states warn that their health care systems remain vulnerable. Small hospitals in rural areas depend on just a handful of large hospitals to handle large inflows of patients or complex procedures, said Dr. Misty Anderson, president of the North Dakota Medical Association.

Aaker, the president of the South Dakota physician's group, said medical practices have seen patients delaying routine care during the pandemic, meaning that doctors could soon see an uptick in patients needing more serious attention.

'Now we are adding a surge in coronavirus cases potentially,' he said. 'They are worried about being overwhelmed.'
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I love the smell of coffee in the morning without a face mask!

Hoi An has just lifted some of its COVID-19 restrictions and life is cranking up again. The kids are racing around on oversized bicycles, the Central Market is roaring back to noisy bartering, and bad jokes and food are being hacked to death on wet boards.

Its all just in the nick of time, too. Judging from the slightly unhinged comments from expats on social media, it seems some of the darker side of my friends has risen to the surface. From rants about coronavirus conspiracies to wails of despair that one group gets to do this while the other group has to suffer in silence.

Urging compatriots to calm down and ignore all the visa fee doomsday warnings has taken up some of my time between grooming my dogs and telling the neighbors to pick their own damn leaves. Its hard to stay focused on writing stories that dont depress people when my mates seem to be losing it over things that are out of anyones control.

Expressing thoughts about what is happening back in your home countries is kind of counter-productive when youre living in Vietnam. Have some banh me and a bowl of pho instead, which is guaranteed to chill you out when the world is in free fall.

The simple soothing act of watching the world go at a cafe or beach restaurant should be enough to convince anyone that you are in the right place for the right reason  Vietnam!

A man buys vegetables at a market in Hoi An, Quang Nam Province, Vietnam, September 13, 2020. Photo: Stivi Cooke

Its amusing, however, when locals are back to their old ways: face masks but no helmets, loudspeakers blaring, and market streets where just one old lady loading up a motorbike with veggies and live chooks can jam an entire street. One thing will have to return to normal: we need less food stalls now! Ducking and weaving my way back home in the morning breakfast rush hour is getting dangerous with hungry kids and frazzled mums consuming hot bowls of noodles in seconds before racing to school.

The toy shops are still doing a brisk trade in time-occupying gadgets for kids awaiting school reopening. The shops have already started to sell those horrible toy drums for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Yet its lovely to see the early evening plastic chair group conversations on footpaths around town. Its reassuring to watch people chat for hours over a bowl or two of something. While a foreigner might assume that local shops have died, many families here are busy making plans and looking to re-organize for business comebacks. The bars and cafes that some claim will never re-open are just biding their time. If you can cook, youll always be able to get another job in Hoi An.

The beach sites are starting up too and its funny to watch the tourists shuffling around the tables to keep their distance from others. Its hard to relax when you have to be so wary! Unfortunately, the dreaded backpacker motorbike gangs are back, ignoring helmet requirements, failing to wear enough clothing to be modest in town, and believing that they will never have an accident. I think GoFundMe will be busy this and next year.

People gather at a market in Hoi An, Quang Nam Province, Vietnam, September 13, 2020. Photo: Stivi Cooke

If COVID-19 could show us all how nice it would be to have a quieter and slower pace of life, it does however feel better to be in the middle of so much energy and determination to get on with life. I get exasperated by the litany of complaints on social and news media from the rest of the world. Wheres the toughness of our parents and grandparents who endured wars and economic depressions? Wheres the willingness to march and stand up for reasonableness and fairness for everyone? Have Westerners become total snowflakes?

But for the meanwhile, I continue to bask in the morning sunshine and coffee smells as the world whizzes around me. I still wear a face mask on the bike and sweat away in my full face helmet but Im now free to roam around and be silly again.

Wherever you are in Vietnam right now, at least savor the fact youre in a pretty safe place  coronvirus-wise  compared to the unending mismanagement of the pandemic overseas. Theres still the possibility of other periods of restrictions around central Vietnam but while the opening-up of life is available, Im lapping it up for all its worth. Even my dogs are thrilled to have people to bark at, instead of empty streets!

Yep, even if this moment of normalcy doesnt last for long, it is a sigh of relief.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 14)  All Metro Manila mayors have agreed to temporarily close cemeteries and columbarium for one week around the November 1 All Saints Day holiday to prevent mass gatherings that could further spread COVID-19. But MMDA on Monday clarified that the Inter-Agency Task Force has not yet decided on the date and duration of implementation.

Metro Manila Council Chairman and Paranaque Mayor Edwin Olivarez said all 17 local chief executives in the region agreed to have a "unified policy" to not allow visitors in public and private cemeteries from October 29 to November 4. He said those who will visit cemeteries before and after the said dates will be required to wear face shields and face masks.

"We encourage them to visit the cemetery on a spread time. One month before or one month after Undas para ma-implement pa rin po ang ating physical distancing (so we can implement physical distancing)," he told CNN Philippines.

He said interment and cremation services should continue even on these dates. MMDA General Manager Jojo Garcia said detailed rules and restrictions for Undas will decided by the mayors.

Meanwhile, MMDA Spokesperson Celine Pialago said Metro Manila residents can visit cemeteries beginning today.

Maaari na ho [silang] pumunta sa kanilang mga mahal sa buhay starting today hanggang October 28 po, Pialago told CNN Philippines Newsroom Ngayon.

[Translation: They can visit their loved ones starting today until October 28.]

But local government units have yet to release guidelines on the early visitation, she said.

The MMDA spokesperson bared that residents may visit cemeteries outside Metro Manila, should they be granted permission by the provincial government.

They also need to secure medical certificates and travel passes from the local authorities, she added.

Health Spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire lauded the "good practice" initiated by Metro Manila mayors, saying DOH may recommend to implement a similar scheme to be carried out nationwide.

"Kapag dumating 'yung panahon na 'yan (Undas), maaaring makapag-recommend din tayo so that it can be implemented across the country," she said in a media forum.

[Translation: When that time comes (Undas), we may also give similar recommendations, so that it can be implemented across the country.]
New Delhi: Bollywood songs are a rage all over the world with fans consistently putting out videos of them singing or dancing to Hindi songs.

Another popular emerging trend is to recreate scenes from Bollywood movies and some of these have been widely shared on social media platforms.

This video recreation of Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham's popular hit song 'Bole Chudiyan, Bole Kangana' by an Indonesian who is a huge Hindi movie buff has gone viral these days.

The video was shared by Vina Fan, an Indonesian dancer, YouTuber and a huge Bollywood fan. She and her group recreated the hit song and the netizens cannot seem to get enough of it.

Vina plays Kareena Kapoor Khan's part in the video and other group members play the other stars. Their remake version shows every character recreating shot-by-shot scene from the original video.

They wear the same attire and match hairstyles too, even their expressions in the music video are on point.

Watch video:

The video has garnered over 1.4 million views on YouTube and has been shared on other social media platforms as well. Some people have tagged Karan Johar and the film's stars Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Hrithik Roshan urging them to react to the fan recreated video.

The nearly eight-and-a-half-minute long video has more than 152k likes and has over 22k comments on it.

Notably this is not Vina Fan's first such recreated video, previuosly she has made dance covers of songs like Kamli, Tumhe Jo Maine Dekha, Zara Sa Jhoom Loon Main, Chori Chori Chupke Chupke and many more.

The movie Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham directed by Karan Johar was released in 2001 and is one of the most popular hits in Bollywood. The movie featured an ensemble cast of bigwigs like Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Kajol, Hrithik Roshan and Kareena Kapoor.


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Find all of the most important pandemic education news on Educating N.J., a special resource guide created for parents, students and educators.

An Elizabeth high school was closed Friday for cleaning after a staff member tested positive for coronavirus, officials said.

Thomas A. Edison Career and Technical Academy will reopen Monday, said Elizabeth Public Schools Spokesman Pat Politano.

Students in the district began the school year on Friday virtually, but teachers in the district are live-streaming their lessons from classrooms.

Keep up with the latest in N.J. schools coverage. Sign up with your email here:



Politano said it is unlikely the staff member contracted the virus at work.

The Elizabeth City Health Officer notified the district early this evening that a staff member tested positive for COVID-19. The Health Department further informed the district that theres a 95 to 98 percent probability that the individual contracted the virus outside the school, Politano said in a statement.

There are no other known cases in the district, Politano said.

Other schools throughout New Jersey have also reported positive cases of COVID-19 since the start of the school year. Positive test results have resulted in schedule changes in Howell, Little Silver, Chatham and East Brunswick have tested positive for the virus.

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.
BE NOT AFRAID

Show some empathy, do not be afraid. You should be able to vote by mail within a few weeks. If you have applied for a mail-in or absentee ballot you can track the progress of your application and the ballot itself on votespa.com. You can go to votespa.com on a computer, tablet or smart phone or ask a family member with a phone or computer to do it for you. Click on the envelope icon and scroll down to track the status of your ballot. Enter your name, birth date and county. It will tell you if your application has been received. You have not received a ballot yet because the election board will not start sending the ballots out until the third week in September. Just remember, fill out your ballot and put it in the privacy envelope, sign the outer envelope and mail it all back as soon as possible. Postage is prepaid.

JVR

WHAT WILL IT TAKE?

Um, as for the Arab/ Isreal relationship. This has been worked on for the last three elections. What has Trump done for the U.S.? Beside lie about COVID-19 (its on tape)? Call my grandfather, who was killed in WWII, a fool and idiot, which I am totally upset about. What about our Gold Star Families? They gave the ultimate sacrifice, but they were fools. No one in the Trump family has ever tried to fight for this, my country. I joined the Marines at age 23. To my dismay I couldnt because of a heart problem and bad knees. But I tried. What have the Trumps done? Nothing! They use their money to keep them from joining. The Trumps are only worried about their money. Not America. Oh soon the virus will just disappear, he said. Now 500,000 children are suffering. What will it take for this idiot to forget about himself and start worrying about our country? Not the rich, everyone.

ALTERNATIVE FACTS

I realize that columnist Jerry Shenk would take issue with any Democratic candidate, because hes a hack. However, for him to use the word depravity in a description of Biden begs the question of where this gentleman has been these past three and a half years, and if his eyes and ears have been open during this time. Assuming hes not mentally challenged, he has taken intellectual dishonesty to a new and almost frightening level.

JB

FEAR ITSELF

Trump did broker the Middle East peace deal. He had to appoint professional, capable and knowledgeable people as his representatives which he has done and has given them credit for doing so. Unfortunately you probably get all of your knowledge from CNN. Look who Obama/Biden appointed  Al Gore, who gave millions to Iran and created more friction in the Middle East. Biden is a man who is in decline mentally and physically, has to read from a teleprompter to answer simple questions. Who is giving him the answers? His wife Jill, Bernie, AOC, Kamala? How is this man going to stand up to foreign leaders like Putin?

PEACE IS THE ANSWER

Its a shame people dont realize all those people that gave their lives on 9/11, especially the ones in that airplane that gave up their lives to save us. And yet you people are just fighting back and forth. Stop the fighting. Lets make peace. Thats what we need. Peace. Not this fighting and bickering between the Democrats and the Republicans and talking about the president. Give it up. Lets make peace. On 9/11 those people gave their life so we could have peace, so grow up.

SENIOR CITIZEN

BIG BUSINESS WINS AGAIN

Recently Upper Darby lowered or removed any penalties for certain amounts of recreational marijuana after one of the councilwomen said this would be very beneficial to her people. Our people meaning people who obviously are locked up, been fined or sent to jail for marijuana usage or possession of marijuana. I just wonder does this councilwoman ever look at TV and see all the ads for drug treatment centers? I wonder how many people that are in the same start out with marijuana. And then graduate to cocaine, heroin, Oxycontin or whatever. We do everything thats politically correct in this country, but we lost our sense of right and wrong.
The next problem to pop up may be even more embarrassing for Saudi Arabia: compliance questions concerning the United Arab Emirates, the kingdoms long-time ally. By its own admission, the UAE has pumped about 100,000 barrels a day more than it should have in August due to peak summer electricity demand, putting its compliance at 82%. But that may be an understatement, according to the so-called secondary sources OPEC relies on to monitor its deal.This spells the potential for more unwanted friction when the JMMC meets later this week. Its a really bad sign that one of the more disciplined members is now changing its tune. It will make it more difficult to convince other producers to continue to toe the line. Its a real shame, coming just as the group would prefer to celebrate its successes rather than dwell on its challenges.
Former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is throwing his weight behind Joe Biden - REUTERS

Michael Bloomberg is ready to spend as much as $100 million to help Joe Biden with the pivotal state of Florida in Novembers presidential election.

The billionaire media mogul and former New York mayor, who sought the Democratic nomination himself, pledged his support in a state which has 29 votes in the Electoral College.

According to the latest opinion polls, Mr Biden enjoys a wafer-thin lead in the state over Donald Trump.

Much of the money will be spent on advertising slots aimed at Florida's large Hispanic community where Mr Biden appears to be underperforming compared with Hillary Clinton four years ago.

Mike's substantial investment in Florida will allow Democrats and the Biden campaign to invest heavily in other key states like Pennsylvania, which will be critical to a Democratic victory, his spokesman said.

And, this will force Republicans and the Trump campaign to shift even more of their limited resources to Florida.

Democrat hopes of winning the state were dealt a blow last week when a Republican-dominated federal appeals court ruled that convicted felons, who were enfranchised by a state referendum, will not be able to vote until they have paid off outstanding court fees and fines.

This could remove as many as 800,000 people - including a large number of African-Americans - from the electoral roll this November.

The latest national opinion polls show Mr Biden maintaining a lead over Mr Trump although the margins have narrowed over the past month.

However, with the presidential race approaching its final lap, Mr Biden has been far more successful in raising cash than Mr Trump.

Figures for August showed that the Republican National Committee had raised $210 million, around $154 million less than the Democrats.

According to the Washington Post, the Republican cash crunch has seen the party scale back television advertising at a time when Mr Biden is flooding the airwaves especially in swing states such as Florida and Michigan.

Story continues

Mr Trumps response has been to step up rallies, hurtling around the country to take his message in person to voters, despite concerns about the threat posed by Covid-19 in mass gatherings.

On Saturday night the president appeared in Nevada and accused the states governor, Steve Sisolak, of trying to use mail-in voting to fix the election.

The Democrats are trying to rig this election because thats the only way theyre going to win, he said.

He also floated again the possibility that he would seek a third term if he was re-elected.

Roger Stone - Samuel Corum/Rex

The Republicans have gone to court trying to overturn a bill expanding mail-in voting in Nevada where, according to the latest poll, Mr Biden has a four-point lead.

Roger Stone, the Republican strategist whose 40-month jail term for lying to Congress was commuted by Mr Trump, called for ballots in Nevada to be seized because they are completely corrupted

He also urged the president to invoke the Insurrection Act to stay in power.

Appearing on Infowars, the network run by right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, he also called for Mr Trump to arrest Bill and Hillary Clinton, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, Apple chief executive Tim Cook and anybody else who can be proven to be involved in illegal activity.

Mr Bidens narrowing lead has caused alarm among some Democrats, notably Bernie Sanders, who reportedly has voiced fears that the Democrats moderate strategy could hand the election to Mr Trump.

Accused by Mr Trump of capitulating to the far left, the former vice-president has tacked towards the political centre-ground.

Faiz Shakir, who acted as Mr Sanders campaign manager when he sought the election, confirmed that he had urged Mr Biden to make some strategic adjustments including focusing on raising wages and expanding health care coverage.
Mumbai, Sep 13 : Actor Namit Das has started shooting for "Aafat-E-Ishq", based on the Hungarian film "Liza, The Fox Fairy". He says it is amazing to be working on its Indian adaptation.

This venture is Namit's first big film following the lockdown.

"The original Hungarian film ('Liza, The Fox Fairy') is a favourite of those who love world cinema and it's amazing for me to be working on its Indian adaptation with such a talented ensemble cast. It's a very unique, quirky rendition of the original movie and I hope to entertain viewers through it," said Namit.

Directed by Indrajit Nattoji, the film also features Deepak Dobriyal and Neha Sharma.

The film had been in the pipeline for Namit for quite some time and the shooting for it began a few days ago in Nasik with all due safety precautions.

"Aafat-E-Ishq" will be available on a streaming platform later this year.
JERUSALEM  Israel is heading back into a nationwide lockdown for at least three weeks starting on Friday, the eve of the Jewish New Year holiday, in the clearest sign yet of the governments failure to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

The announcement on Sunday came barely four months after Israel emerged from its last lockdown  too hastily, many critics said  and as its per capita infection rate rose to among the highest in the world. More than 1,100 people in the country have died from the virus.

The public sector and some private businesses will continue to work under tight limitations, and citizens will only be allowed to move within 500 meters of their homes. Schools, which reopened for the new school year on Sept. 1, will also close on Friday for the duration of the lockdown.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the drastic and unpopular measures in a televised address on Sunday, shortly before he boarded a flight to Washington, D.C. for a ceremony at the White House ushering in formal Israeli diplomatic and business ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Social events and political rallies have led to a rise in COVID-19 cases in Tripura capital after the lockdown was withdrawn on August 5, a study conducted by the state government said. The survey, carried out by the administration of West Tripura district of which Agartala is a part, showed that the COVID-19 tally started rising from August 17.

"The lockdown was lifted on August 5. We found that the COVID-19 caseload was increasing from August 17, and a sharp growth was noticed from August 26. "Many social functions, including 3,000 weddings and some pujas, and political rallies took place in the district after the lockdown restrictions were withdrawn," West Tripura District Magistrate Sailesh Kumar Yadav said on Saturday.

People became relaxed and they did not follow the health safety norms, he said. "This is the only reason behind the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in the district, mainly in Agartala,"Yadav said.

Currently, 2,400 patients are under home isolation in the district and 1,674 of them are in the state capital. They are being provided free ration, he said. The district administration started the mapping of the coronavirus cases to deal with the situation and identified 10 wards under the Agartala Municipal Corporation to conduct more tests.

"We are conducting 400-700 tests every day in these places. We have detected three hotspot areas in Agartala," hesaid. Delays in visiting hospitals are among the reasons for increased deaths, he added.
Chinas Defense Ministry on Sunday blasted a critical U.S. report on the country's military ambitions, saying it is the U.S. instead that poses the biggest threat to the international order and world peace.

The statement follows the Sept. 2 release of the annual Defense Department report to Congress on Chinese military developments and goals that it said would have serious implications for U.S. national interests and the security of the international rules-based order.

Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Wu Qian called the report a wanton distortion of China's aims and the relationship between the Peoples Liberation Army and Chinas 1.4 billion people.

Many years of evidence shows that it is the U.S. that is the fomenter of regional unrest, the violator of the international order and the destroyer of world peace, he said.

U.S. actions in Iraq, Syria, Libya and other countries over the past two decades have resulted in the deaths of more than 800,000 people and displacement of millions, Qian said.

Rather than reflecting on itself, the U.S. issued a so-called report that made false comments about Chinas normal defense and military construction," he said in the statement. We call on the U.S. to view Chinas national defense and military construction objectively and rationally, cease making false statements and related reports, and take concrete actions to safeguard the healthy development of bilateral military relations."

Running to more than 150 pages, the Defense Department report examined the PLA's technical capabilities, doctrines and the ultimate aims of China's military buildup. It said it includes becoming a practical instrument" of China's statecraft with an active role in advancing Beijing's foreign policy and aims to revise aspects of the international order."

Certainly, many factors will determine how this course unfolds," the report said. What is certain is that (the ruling Communist Party) has a strategic end state that it is working towards, which, if achieved and its accompanying military modernization left unaddressed, will have serious implications for U.S. national interests and the security of the international rules-based order."

Much of the report was devoted to analyzing China's strategy toward Taiwan, a U.S. ally which China considers a part of its territory to be annexed by force if necessary. China's military capabilities dwarf those of the island of 23 million in numerical terms, although any invasion of Taiwan would be complex and would carry major political risks, the report said.

It also looked at areas where the 2 million-member PLA, the world's largest standing military, has overtaken the U.S., including in the size of its navy, now the world's largest with approximately 350 ships and submarines compared to around 293 for the U.S.

China has also built a considerable arsenal of land-based ballistic and cruise missiles and has one of the worlds largest forces of advanced long-range surface-to-air systems, the report said.

This year's report comes as relations between Beijing and Washington have hit their lowest ebb in decades amid simmering disputes over trade, technology, Taiwan, human rights and the South China Sea.
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Volkswagen and Tesla have been having some sort camaraderie for quite some time now that seems a little more than just healthy, mutual respect. Recently, Elon Musk test drove the Volkswagen ID.3, and now, VWs CEO, Herbert Diess, took a drive in the Tesla Model Y. This leads to speculations if Tesla and Volkswagen are joining forces, but the German automakers CEO put an end to the rumors saying there is no deal between the two companies. But, could the two giants tag-team EVs in the future?

Not exactly the pair we want, but this unholy matrimony could create wonders; if it ever happens LISTEN 02:49

Whats Cooking, Guys?

Herbert Diess test drove the Tesla Model Y and said that Volkswagen will use it as a reference car.

He shared an image with the Model Y and said, Of course I also tested a Tesla Model Y  with my colleague Frank Welsch. This car is for us in many aspects (not in all!) a reference: user experience, updatability, driving features, performance of the top of the range models, charging network, range.

The CEO has not been shy of showering praises for Teslas cars and its technologies. Electrek reported an internal leak earlier this year that has the VW CEO admit that Tesla has taken a significant lead when it comes to software and its use in its self-driving program. He was even quoted saying,

What worries me the most is the capabilities in the assistance systems. 500,000 Teslas function as a neural network that continuously collects data and provides the customer a new driving experience every 14 days with improved properties. No other automobile manufacturer can do that today.

Volkswagen is said to have taken appropriate measures and is heading in the right direction to close this gap between itself and Tesla.

Final Thoughts

Diess also pointed out that automakers arent able to catch up in the EV segment because they arent building vehicles from the ground up. He said, Big advantage: Model Y was/is thought through as an electric car  as is the ID.3. Many of our competitors still using their ICE platforms. The result: They arent getting the best EVs. As confirmed by Diess, there is no deal between the two automakers. For now, Volkswagen and Ford are working together and we could expect a lot of re-badged and re-engineered products from both the brands in the future. So, this Volkswagen-Tesla pairing seems unlikely as of this moment. But hey, who knows what the future entails?

Do you think Tesla and Volkswagen could work together on EVs? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Source: Electrek
Beijing labelled 12 Hongkongers captured at sea while reportedly trying to flee to Taiwan last month as separatists, as Shenzhen police broke their silence to confirm on Sunday that they were under criminal detention.

The foreign ministry in Beijing declared that the group of young fugitives, some of them linked to last years anti-government protests, were elements attempting to separate Hong Kong from China, after the US State Department claimed the arrests signalled a worsening of human rights in the city.

The Yantian office of the Shenzhen public security bureau issued a statement confirming that 11 men and a woman, aged 16 to 33, had been arrested on August 23 on suspicion of crossing the border illegally.

Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.

They are under the compulsory measure of criminal detention in accordance with the law. Investigation of the case is under way. The public security authorities will protect the legitimate rights of the suspects in accordance with the law, the statement said.

Hua Chunying had responded to a tweet from a US State Department spokeswoman. Photo: AP

It was the first formal announcement on the case from authorities in mainland China.

The 12 were arrested in mainland waters after the China Coast Guard intercepted their speedboat. They were said to be heading for Taiwan to seek political asylum. At least one had been arrested under Hong Kongs new national security law, and some had been charged with protest-related offences.

Family members of the detained said mainland lawyers they had hired had been denied access to their clients. The Shenzhen authorities told them they were already being represented by other lawyers.

The case adds to a list of flare-ups between the United States and China, with Hong Kong in the middle.

US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus wrote in a Twitter post that the arrest of the 12 democracy activists is another sad example of the deterioration of human rights in Hong Kong.

Story continues

Legitimate governments do not need to wall their countries in and prevent their citizens from leaving, she wrote.

Morgan Ortagus had tweeted about the 12 Hongkongers. Photo: AFP

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying tweeted back: Seriously? Fact check: The 12 people were arrested for illegally crossing the border in waters. They are not democratic activists, but elements attempting to separate Hong Kong from China.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was the first US official to challenge Beijing over the case, releasing a statement on Friday to express concern that the detainees had been denied access to lawyers of their choice.

Pompeo accused mainland authorities of withholding information on the welfare of the 12 and the charges against them, and also questioned Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngors commitment to protecting the rights of Hong Kong residents.

Families of six of those detained in mainland China spoke to the media on Saturday. Photo: Felix Wong

That prompted Chinas foreign affairs arm in Hong Kong to express its strong disapproval of and firm opposition against the groundless remarks by some American politicians.

The Office of the Foreign Ministrys Commissioner in Hong Kong said in a statement: [They] turned a blind eye to the problems at home  and showed unusual concern about and meddled with internal affairs of other countries instead.

We strongly urge American politicians to abide by international law and basic norms governing international relations, refrain from overreaching, manage their own affairs well, and immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs and Chinas internal affairs as a whole.

Yantian district detention centre in Shenzhen. Photo: Handout

Family members of some detainees had held a press conference on Saturday for the first time and complained that all attempts to reach out to them had been in vain over the past three weeks.

They said the detainees had been denied access to their chosen lawyers, and accused the Hong Kong government of being indifferent to their plight.

Two opposition lawmakers, the Democratic Partys James To Kun-sun and Eddie Chu Hoi-dick of Council Front, along with localist activist Owen Chow Ka-shing, have been helping the families.

Hitting back at Huas tweet, To said he did not believe the 12 had entered the mainland to separate Hong Kong from China.

The foreign ministry said on Saturday that China is governed in accordance with the law  Such a country should send the suspects back to Hong Kong, he said.

Chow said a family member of one of the 12 was now more worried about his relatives situation in Shenzhen after seeing Huas comment.

Chu said it was meaningless for the Shenzhen authorities to claim they would protect the suspects rights. No one will believe those written statements until we can see the suspects with our own eyes, he said.

Eddie Chu. Photo: AFP

A spokeswoman for the Hong Kong government said by noon on Sunday, the authorities had received requests for help from the families of 11 arrestees.

She said the 12 people were in good health. Government officers had explained to the families the channels for telling mainland authorities about the detainees medication needs.

Meanwhile, a Taiwanese journalist revealed that he was the major driving force in bringing five Hong Kong protesters to the island in July after they had also fled the city.

Its been two months since they have arrived in Kaohsiung, Edd Jhong wrote on his Facebook page. They do not have any channels to contact the outside world  They cant even see lawyers who have been helping them.

He accused the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, which announced a humanitarian plan for protesters in June, of not being as supportive as it had appeared to be.

Taiwans semi-official Central News Agency quoted an unidentified source as saying the five who fled Hong Kong were still being detained but they were given the right to consult lawyers, and were not denied such visits as the journalist had said.

The Mainland Affairs Council was not immediately available for comment.

A source familiar with the matter said at least one of the five detained had had contact with his family.

Hong Kongs Security Bureau said it had not received any information regarding the fugitives in Taiwan.

Additional reporting by Chris Lau and Lawrence Chung

More from South China Morning Post:

This article Beijing labels 12 Hongkongers caught at sea as separatists, as Shenzhen police confirm group under criminal detention first appeared on South China Morning Post

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The experiment might make you feel sick, but it could be very interesting if it were confirmed. English and Gambian researchers have used dirty socks to see if certain dogs are capable of detecting malaria.

In the past, studies have shown that malaria changes the production of certain hormones to make us more attractive and appealing to mosquitos, which therefore helps to spread the disease. And, although our noses are incapable of sensing the difference, it seems that a dogs sense of smell could actually be able to detect it.

175 pairs of socks from Gambia

To look into this theory, researchers gathered socks worn by children during the night in Gambia. Of the 175 pairs that were collected and sent to England, 30 belonged to children infected with malaria as revealed by blood tests. And the socks werent sent just anywhere but to the non-profit organisation Medical Detection Dogs in Milton Keynes.

In this centre, dogs have been trained to detect certain types of cancer but also to recognise early signs of Parkinsons disease. As part of the new study that was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene held in New Orleans, some dogs have also been trained to recognise the specific odours released by malaria before the first symptoms even begin to appear.

The results of this first experiment showed that the dogs managed to identify 70% of the pairs of socks that were owned by children infected by malaria. They also correctly recognised 90% of the socks that were worn by children that werent suffering from the disease. Professor Steven Lindsay from Durham University is leading this research. The Professor stated:

I think its quite extraordinary.

He continued by saying that he would like to see malaria-detection dogs help patrol in airports and seaports of countries that have recently become malaria-free and help to completely eliminate malaria in countries where it is still an issue.

The specialist, however, noted that at the moment, this was only a proof of concept. He would definitely like to see dogs better trained to improve their success rates and have more tests like this carried out in more realistic settings. So, the socks used in this experiment had to be frozen while they were transported which could have possibly changed the way they smelled when thedogs first came into contact with them.

A quick and inexpensive way to detect malaria

Researchers also hope to be able to train dogs to recognise the smell of malaria in humans rather than just from their clothes. The aim is that the canines will be able to identify this smell in more environments in order to reduce the spread of the disease and find asymptomatic patients faster in order to treat them quicker.

Malaria is one of the largest scourges in hot countries, with 216 million people infected throughout the world and which is responsible for more than 400,000 deaths every year. This disease is transmitted by infected female mosquitos that carry the parasites in their saliva. Sniffer dogs could also actually be used to detect malaria quicker than other methods and for a much lower cost.
(Alliance News) - Keir Starmer has committed Labour to back Boris Johnson's new Brexit legislation if the prime minister addresses "substantial cross-party concerns".

The Labour leader accused the prime minister of having "turned the clock back" and of "reigniting old rows" by working to override his own Withdrawal Agreement.

Starmer contended a free trade deal can still be struck with Brussels if negotiators from both sides "hunker down in good faith and break the logjam".

Senior shadow minister Rachel Reeves confirmed Labour would vote against the UK Internal Market Bill as it stands with the party's MP planning to table amendments.

But, writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Starmer threw down the gauntlet to Johnson as he faces a rebellion from within his own party by saying Labour could back the Bill with substantial changes to go help ministers "get on with Brexit".

"Labour is prepared to play its part in making that happen. If the government fixes the substantial cross-party concerns that have been raised about the Internal Market Bill, then we are prepared to back it," Starmer said.

"But if they do not, and the talk collapse, then it is their failure and incompetence that will have let the British people down."

But the changes necessary to win Labour's support are understood to be major, with it needing to no longer risk breaching international law and to address devolved administrations concerns of a "power grab".

Starmer said ministers are facing a task "as ludicrous as it is frustrating" in telling the public to stick to rules to prevent the spread of coronavirus while defending the potential breach of international law.

"The priorities of the British people. We should be getting on with defeating this virus, not banging on about Europe," the MP said.

"Get on with Brexit and defeat the virus. That should be the government's mantra."

Three Conservative former leaders, including ex-prime ministers Theresa May and John Major, are among those to have called on Johnson to change the legislation.

And senior Tories are tabling an amendment to the Bill, which is due to be debated in the Commons on Monday.

Conservative Party co-chairman Amanda Milling struck back at Starmer.

"He claims he wants to move on from Brexit, but he simply wants the British public to forget he spent the last four years trying to overturn what they voted for," she said.

"Meanwhile, we're focusing on securing a free trade agreement with the EU and building back better for the people of this country."

By Sam Blewett, PA Political Correspondent

source: PA

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Emily Gale didn't imagine herself becoming a birder. Growing up in London, the most exotic birds were pigeons and sparrows.

But then the second lockdown hit Melbourne and rather than listen to podcasts or multi-task during her daily walk, she found herself noticing birds she had never seen before along the Merri Creek trail.

Amateur birdwatcher Emily Gale, one of many Melburnians who have discovered the hobby during lockdown. Credit:Simon Schluter

"I got the impression from my mum that birdwatchers were country folk. She finds it amusing that I know about birds now," the 45-year-old author said.
Doctors say it will be at least two months before Tamara Shpakova can walk again - Misha Friedman

"Crouch down!" a female prison guard shouted to Tamara Shpakova, forcing her to strip for a cavity search after she was picked up by police outside a supermarket in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, in August.

"I said: 'I can't, my leg is broken,'" the 35-year-old engineer told The Telegraph.

For 24 hours Ms Shpakova, a tall woman with bright blue hair, was in custody, passing out from the pain of a broken kneecap, lying on a pile of men bludgeoned by truncheons in a police van, trying to get some rest on the cement floor of her prison cell.

Belarus, one of the sleepiest former Soviet republics where crossing the street at a red light is unheard of and demonstrators clean up after a rally, descended into chaos last month after President Alexander Lukashenko unleashed thousands of riot police officers on his own citizens who had cast doubt on the landslide victory at the polls that extended his 26-year rule.

Protests erupted in Belarus in the aftermath of the election - Reuters

The impromptu rally on election night on August 9, when Mr Lukashenko was announced to have won 80 per cent of the vote, was dispersed with staggering brutality.

For several nights, packs of black-clad riot police in full gear were on a rampage across Minsk and other cities and towns, hunting down protesters and even passers-by in the street, firing rubber bullets, throwing stun grenades and detaining thousands who were later subjected to torture and humiliation reminiscent of the Nazi occupation of Belarus during the Second World War.

Faced with police violence that mainly targeted young men, Belarusian women have, in recent weeks, emerged as a driving force behind the opposition movement. Many have confronted riot police, taking off their masks in a defiant attempt to shame them and reveal their identities.

Women block a police vehicle during a protest in Minsk - TUT.BY

Mr Lukashenko will meet his key backer Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, on Monday in their first face-to-face contact since the unrest began. As Mr Lukashenko faced another day of protests on Sunday, with more than 100,000 people taking to the streets, Moscow offered him support by saying it would send paratroopers to Belarus for "Slavic Brotherhood" joint drills.

Story continues

Before the trip, Mr Lukashenko denied reports of torture at the hands of his security forces, claiming that "some girls got their butts smeared in blue paint" to imitate bruises.

Yet hundreds of victims are still reeling from August's nights of violence and grappling with debilitating injuries.

Ms Shpakova was discharged from hospital on Tuesday, and every chore is now a challenge  the young woman who enjoyed dancing and fencing can now only hobble around on crutches, her right leg in a knee brace. Two male friends come over to help her down the stairs from her fifth-floor apartment for a doctor's appointment.

Volunteers carry Tamara Shpakova down the stairs of her home in Minsk - Misha Friedman

An engineer at an IT company, Ms Shpakova was outraged by brazen vote-rigging at the polls and Mr Lukashenko's declared triumph. She joined a friend for the election night protest but was able to get home safe and sound.

Two days later, when Minsk was swarming with riot police, Ms Shpakova did not feel like being alone and went to see friends about half an hour walk away. With the internet connection down and no way to get a taxi, the friends walked her back home.

When a few dark-green police vans drove by, they turned back to the local supermarket, fearing trouble. A moment later, a blue unmarked minivan pulled up and a horde of black-clad riot police charged. The doors of a nearby casino that glowed with neon lights were shut in front of them.

"There were no protesters, no flags, no placards. Police were grabbing everyone they saw," Ms Shpakova told The Telegraph.

She and her friend Nadezhda, whose husband managed to escape, were lying face down on the asphalt, getting bludgeoned with truncheons and kicked with police boots. At one point Ms Shpakova felt a searing pain  this is when her kneecap got broken. Officers dragged her into the police van by her hair.

A woman gives a victory sign from a police van after being detained in Minsk - Shutterstock

Inside the van, which had a few grated windows, women huddled together on long benches along the wall with men lying on the floor on top of each other  she described "piles and piles of bodies"  being bludgeoned and kicked by riot police. One officer was jumping on the bodies, roaring with laughter.

A few moments later, the detained women were told to sing the Belarusian national anthem to drown out the screams. "We, Belarusians, are peaceful people," the words say.

Black-clad, burly men would shout out to the scared detainees that they had been paid to protest and were better off with Mr Lukashenko.

Soon, Ms Shpakova and hundreds of others arrived at the jail on Okrestina street which has become a byword for state-orchestrated terror. Out in the corridor, dozens of people were told to stand with their faces against the filthy-looking dark green wall.

"At some point I started passing out from pain  I was standing on one foot," she said. "Then someone came up to me and said: 'Do you think you can go around with blue hair like that in any other country?' He smashed my head against the wall."

Guards were shouting to prisoners to stand still. "I said: 'I can't stand. You can kill me right now but I can't stand. My leg is broken  I need medical help,'" Ms Shpakova said.

Exhausted, the young woman was allowed to sit down but had to get up and crawl to the examination room, where female guards asked women to get undressed and examined their mouths and genital areas.

Ms Shpakova mentally recited all the Russian poetry she knew to stay sane.

The four by five-metre section of the exercise yard, with concrete walls and a strong stench of urine, was packed with 29 women. Ms Shpakova took off her light-grey sneakers and sat down on them so she would not have to sit on the damp cement floor.

An avid reader, she had always dreamed that she'd be a character in someones book: "I just didn't think I'd end up in a Solzhenitsyn novel," she said, referring to the Russian author who produced arguably the most searing description of life in Soviet Gulag prison camps.

Tamara Shpakova: 'I just didn't think I'd end up in a Solzhenitsyn novel' - Misha Friedman

The night was pierced by the constant screams of men in the courtyard and in cells who were being savagely beaten.

The following day, with no food and hardly any water, Ms Shpakova was brought before a judge and his secretary who held trial in the dimly-lit corridor by the cells. "I hope you die, scum," a prison doctor told her as she passed by.

The 35-year-old insisted she was not demonstrating and told the court she was denied medical help.

She was charged with taking part in an illegal assembly but she has not received the court ruling or even her case file. Shortly afterwards, Ms Shpakova was in an ambulance with five other detainees, including a man with a broken spine.

At hospital and in safety, Ms Shpakova, who prides herself on being a confident and composed woman, broke down. "I was sobbing, all my body was shaking," she said.

Tamara Shpakova, pictured at a hospital in Minsk - Misha Friedman

Belarusian volunteers who work with victims of police torture and beatings have documented more than 450 cases like Ms Shpakova's after about 2,000 people were arrested in Minsk and twice as many in the rest of the country last month.

The UN, which said last month that four people had died in Belarus after sustaining injuries during the protests, last week urged an investigation into reports of torture and abuse.

Belarusian rights group Viasna has been providing legal and psychological help for the victims since the crackdown began last month. At one of the secret locations in central Minsk, clinical therapist Yevgenia Pankova was recently getting ready to moderate an interview with one of the victims that Viasna films in an effort to document the instances of torture for future legal redress.

"I had no idea anything like this would be possible in our country. This is a collective trauma," Ms Pankova said. "People got released, their injuries begin to heal, but what happened to their mental well-being didn't go away."

Police pen in protesters during a demonstration in Minsk - Misha Friedman/AP

Ms Pankova, a therapist with two decades of practice, herself experienced a burnout last month after sitting in on a dozen interviews with victims in the space of three days. Viasna now does not allow therapists to do more than two shifts a week.

Belarusian authorities still deny that hundreds of civilians were beaten and tortured by riot police and Interior Ministry troops in the aftermath of the election.

Oleg Pashkevich, the coordinator of Viasna's public outreach office, has said he is not aware of a single criminal inquiry launched into the reports of torture and beatings.

Ms Shpakova, who holds back the tears when she speaks about the kindness of doctors, friends and family throughout her ordeal, is defiant, saying she is even more convinced now that she wants to stay in her country and fight on.

"Belarus as a nation has risen up," she said, sitting in a coffee shop that brought her favourite blend to the hospital after staff found out about her injuries. "All the pain from that broken kneecap was worth all the joy, warmth and tenderness that I saw only from friends and family but also from strangers."

It will take at least two months before Ms Shpakova can walk again, doctors say.
When Robert Moses, the notorious New York master builder, wanted to cow the journalists who covered him, he knew he didnt have to harangue or threaten his way to a favorable story. Food and drink did the trick. A reporter on the Moses beat, whether covering the opening of a new hydroelectric power dam or a row of toll booths, could expect to be treated to a fountain of liquor, a 40-foot buffet table, or a chartered airplane packed with celebrities. In addition to these Dionysian ribbon cuttings, Moses hosted working lunches for the press, a way to advance his agenda while offering special access.

Hospitality has always been a potent political weapon, Robert Caro wrote in The Power Broker, his seminal biography of Moses. Moses used it like a master.

This practice continues unabated, as made clear in a recent batch of hacked emails released by WikiLeaks. The meals may be smaller and the settings less lavish, but the goals remain the same: for a person in a position of power, in this case Hillary Clinton, to groom a friendlier press corps. Non-journalists, as well as conservative outlets, reacted with anger and incredulity at emailsthe Clinton campaign has not disputed their validitythat showed the campaign setting up off-the-record dinners and cocktails with John Podesta, the campaign chairman, and Joel Benenson, her chief strategist. (The Huffington Post had reported on the Podesta meeting previously.) Journalists mostly shrugged at the revelations.

Their dismissal is misguided. The emails may highlight business as usual, but it is a business practice that has helped stoke distrust of the press in 2016 and has propelled a narrative, pushed by Donald Trump, that the mainstream media is in the bag for Clinton. The implications of that will linger long after Election Day.

Related: Journalists shower Hillary Clinton with campaign cash

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On April 9th, 2015shortly before Clinton officially announced she was running for presidentPodesta cooked for at least 28 reporters at his Washington DC home. The reporters came from leading national outlets like the Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and NBC. According to the leaked email, the dinner had five goals for the Clinton campaign: Getting to know reporters closely covering Clinton; setting expectations for the announcement and launch period; framing Clintons message and the race; demystifying key players on Clintons campaign; and having fun and enjoying good cooking.

For reporters, the goals were likely twofold: to cultivate high-level Clinton sources to bolster their campaign coverage, and make themselves known to the influential people serving a woman who is favored to become the next president of the United States. Journalists will argue they need to get drinks with sources, attend dinners and play the role of chum to gain the kind of access they need to do their jobs. No right-thinking reporter would turn down the opportunity to lap up Podestas cooking.

But outsiders not privy to the favor trading of traditional journalism are right to decry the clubby relationship between reporters, particularly those covering presidential candidates, and the campaigns they must hold accountable. In an election year that has been defined by the failure of elite political operatives and members of the media to anticipate the volcanic discontent that drove the insurgencies of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, the idea of reporters and campaigns periodically shedding their oppositional roles to party together seems particularly odious. An already jaded public takes a whiff and smells collusion.





Youre less likely to spit in the face thats smiling back at you from across the dinner table.

Witness WikiLeaks emails that showed one reporter offering up whole chunks of a story for Podesta to read before publication in a seeming effort to ensure it conformed to the portrait the campaign chief had painted of his fundraising efforts. Or a Clinton email identifying a friendly reporter to help shape their campaign narrative. Clinton still does come in for plenty of harsh coverage, and the national reporters they cultivate will bite the hand that feeds them. No tactic is foolproof.

If the reporters understand, implicitly or explicitly, that these events exist solely to advance the agenda of a particular candidate, why show up? Why spend a night in the spin zone over Podestas creamy risotto, knowing the campaign is trying to co-opt you? If reporters can document with outrage the ways in which lobbyists fete elected officials, why is the practice okay when reporters are on the receiving end?

Its worth remembering that the most inspired reporting from this presidential race has sprung from people who clearly didnt need to cajole high-powered campaign sources to get their scoops. David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post has doggedly documented how little Trump has given to charities, inviting readers on Twitter to help him along. Andrew Kaczynski, a former BuzzFeed reporter now at CNN, has spent the election cycle exhuming old audio clips of Trump that contradict public statements he makes now, doing his digging without glad-handing. Its also not clear how a Podesta dinner wouldve helped The New York Times Michael Schmidt break the news that Clinton had used a personal email account to conduct government business when she was secretary of state.

Related: Best journalism of October 2016

But theres no denying that theres a certain warm feeling you get when a particularly important or famous person recognizes you. Its an age-old sensation dating back to the schoolyard days: you know you are in, not out.

Before I go on, let me say that I have not always practiced what Im preaching here. For two years, I was a member of the New York City Hall press corps and attended several off-the-record parties at Gracie Mansion, the lavish mayoral residence on the Upper East Side. I went because, in addition to thinking the visit would be good for building sources, it felt nice to amble around a mansion with a buzz. Important people were around me, so I felt important. I regret going now and I dont intend to show up again. No knock against Mayor Bill de Blasios hors doeuvres, all reimbursed by my former employers at the New York Observer, but it makes far more sense for the mayor to host one of these soirees than for me to show up. I canand shoulddo my job despite them.

The trouble with the Moses, Podesta, and Gracie Mansion parties isnt so much the degree to which reporters are fed and supplied with booze. A mansion versus a townhouse, five glasses of white wine against onequantity is not immaterial, though its also not the point. Socializing with powerful people can soften reporting. Youre less likely to spit in the face thats smiling back at you from across the dinner table.

The best reporting is done on the margins, away from the siren charms of power and prestige.

Caro, a former Newsday reporter, saw the folly in journalists drawing too close to their sources. Of Moses, he wrote: Coupled with his overpowering personality, a buffet often did as much for a proposal as a bribe. Lunches with Moses were relentlessly social: friendly, easy, gracious. For most men, this setting made disagreement difficult. Moses knew his elegant feasts were an excellent way to reinforce the status quo. The press happily obliged.

Since WikiLeaks did not target Trump, we do not know the extent to which his campaign tried to court the press, though based on the ways he either tried to curtail access or denigrate reporters, its unclear whether they were ever extended the same dinnertime courtesy. Sure, journalists reportedly went to a strip joint with Trump advisers, but that kind of clubbiness has been more the exception, not the rule. In New York and Washington, Trumps vulgar populism is anathema to the reporters who either cover him or look on from the distance in horror. The millions of people who intend to vote for Trump probably think (and perhaps rightly so) that the urbane press corps has more in common with the people in Clintons orbit.

Of course, even less sophisticated campaigns dont have the same type of wherewithal or resources, so their coverage tends to suffer. There likely were no bountiful off-the-record dinners to tee up coverage of the Jill Stein or Gary Johnson campaigns. The same holds true for activists or those beyond the electoral power structure who cant hope to court reporters in that manner. They wont get their voices in the room to the same degree, especially if they arent living in a tony section of New York or DC. In turn, a certain weltanschauung is amplified, and reporters only hear from the people they want to hear: those that talk like they do, and offer a window into the inner sanctum of power. With few exceptions, most journalists still sniff at anyone daring to hold multiple positions outside the center-left to center-right consensus. If youre an emissary from a marginalized group hoping for the ear of the campaign press corps, youre out of luck.

As Caro understood, the best reporting is done on the margins, away from the siren charms of power and prestige. It is more difficult to challenge a mans facts over cocktails than over a conference table, Caro wrote. More difficult to flatly give the lie to a statement over a gleaming white tablecloth, filet mignon, and fine wine than it would have been to do so over a hard-polished board-room and legal pads.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Ross Barkan is a journalist and writer from New York City. He frequently contributes to the Village Voice and his work has appeared in the New York Times, New York Magazine, Esquire and Reuters.
Within the confines of Melbournes lockdown, great music is just waiting to get out.

Michael Gudinski understands that for musicians who live to perform and the venues which provide them a stage, it will be a slow road back. He also knows the pandemic has led to a massive outbreak of creativity.

'Creative bursts': Michael Gudinski says musicians have been busy writing songs and are busting to perform. Credit:Simon Schluter

Artists are absolutely busting to play live, he says. On a brighter side, a number of artists have had very creative bursts. I know there has been some great songwriting being done, here and overseas.

The positive is that when we start slowly coming out of it, it will give great Australian acts a chance to shine. Music isnt just about number-one artists and pop artists or big alternative artists. There are so many different styles of music that can work under different circumstances. There will be a way out.
Officers shut down Saturdays gathering and everyone in attendance, including minors, proceeded to the parking lot and were directed to arrange for rides home, according to the village statement. Because of the large number of participants, Orland Park police requested assistance from neighboring agencies to ensure that all of the minors were picked up safely.
Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins says the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny shows that the European Union must get more realistic about its dealings with Russia.



"What still has to happen to see that this is a Russia that is dangerous for Europe and for our European values? Karins said in an interview published on September 13 by German broadcaster ARD. "We must finally open our eyes."



Karins said targeted sanctions under consideration by the EU are only symbolic, and therefore is reiterating his call for Germany to stop the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.



Other Eastern European countries -- Poland, Estonia, and Lithuania -- are pressing for a halt to the project, and Karins said since the Navalny poisoning, its no longer possible to ignore these calls.



Latvia believes that Russia's motive is to increase German dependence on Russian natural gas, Karins said, accusing Moscow of using Europe's reliance on gas as a political weapon.



Some European politicians say that the EU must be use caution when dealing with Russia on international conflicts because it can use its veto power on the UN Security Council to block important resolutions. Russia also is a major ally of Syria, and the EU needs its cooperation to ensure deliveries of humanitarian aid.



Karins nevertheless said in the ARD interview that Russia today is not the Russia that many once believed would move toward democracy. Europeans must recognize that the Russian government is far from democracy, he said.



Berlin has been facing increasing calls for a sharper response to the poisoning. Some opposition politicians have called for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to be canceled.



The controversial pipeline project is more than 90 percent complete. It has become controversial because it would largely reroute natural gas to Europe around Ukraine, depriving Kyiv of billions of dollars in annual transit fees.

The United States opposes the project on the grounds that it strengthens the Kremlin's grip on the European energy market and punishes Ukraine, which is battling Russia-backed separatists in its eastern provinces.



European vessels laying the pipeline halted their work in December following the first round of U.S. sanctions that specifically targeted their activity.



Russia is hoping to complete it using its own ships, but the United States has taken steps to stop that by widening the sanctions beyond vessels to any company working on the project.



Navalny remains in a hospital in Berlin after German doctors concluded without doubt that he was poisoned with a military nerve agent from the Soviet-designed Novichok group. The 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner was flown to Germany on August 22, two days after falling ill on a flight in Siberia.



Germany has demanded that Russia explain the affair, but Russia denies any involvement and has pressed Germany to share the evidence that led to the poisoning conclusion.

Based on reporting by ARD
A 'groundless' new trial faced by British-Iranian journalism charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in Iran has been postponed at short notice with no future date set.

The 42-year-old mother-of-one has been detained in Iran since 2016, when she was sentenced to five years in prison over allegations of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government.

She was accused of running an online BBC journalism course which prosecutors claimed was aimed at spreading propaganda against the government.

Her husband Richard Ratcliffe previously said Sunday's trial would hear charges of spreading anti-government propaganda.

It was a case officials dropped in December 2017, after a visit from the then-foreign secretary Boris Johnson, but reopened in May 2018.

But on Sunday he confirmed that the trial has been postponed and no new date has been set.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe (pictured embracing her daughter Gabriella) has been detained in Iran since 2016, when she was sentenced to five years in prison over allegations of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government

Amnesty International UK accused the Iranian authorities of 'playing cruel political games' with Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and called on the UK Government to make it their 'absolute priority' to get her home for Christmas.

MP Tulip Siddiq said: 'This morning I spoke to Nazanin's husband Richard.

'Her 'trial' has been postponed and will not happen today. She is relieved, frustrated, stressed and angry.

Her husband Richard Ratcliffe previously said Sunday's trial would hear charges of spreading anti-government propaganda

'Once again she's being treated like a bargaining chip.'

A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokeswoman said: 'We welcome the deferral of this groundless court hearing, and call on Iran to make Nazanin's release permanent so that she can return to her family in the UK.'

This week Mr Johnson described the decision to bring new charges as 'indefensible and unacceptable', according to Downing Street.

Mr Ratcliffe has said the new charges against his wife were further evidence she is being held for 'political leverage' amid a multimillion pound dispute between Britain and Iran.

Having been moved to house arrest in March, when thousands of prisoners were granted clemency and released from Iranian jails amid the Covid-19 outbreak, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was returned to court on Tuesday only months from her expected release date and told she would face a second trial.

Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK, said: 'Nazanin has already been unjustly convicted once after a deeply unfair trial.

'It is a nonsense that she should ever have even faced a second court date.

'It appears the Iranian authorities are playing cruel political games with Nazanin. The situation has gone on long enough.

Mr Ratcliffe has said the new charges against his wife (pictured) were further evidence she is being held for 'political leverage' amid a multimillion pound dispute between Britain and Iran

This week Mr Johnson described the decision to bring new charges as 'indefensible and unacceptable', according to Downing Street. Pictured: Richard Ratcliffe, husband of British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe jailed in Tehran since 2016, holds his daughter Gabriella

'Nazanin has continued to suffer in Iran away from her husband and young daughter.

'The UK government has had four and a half years to secure her unconditional release and has failed to do so.

'Securing Nazanin's release should be an absolute priority.

'As a matter of urgency, ministers now need to step up their efforts to get Nazanin home in time for Christmas and provide a clear plan on how they will do this.'

It has been claimed Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is being held in order to force the UK into settling a multimillion pound dispute with Iran.

The debt dates back to the 1970s when the then-shah of Iran paid the UK 400 million for 1,500 Chieftain tanks.

After he was toppled in 1979, Britain refused to deliver the tanks to the new Islamic Republic and kept the money, despite British courts accepting it should be repaid.
Louis Zbinden Jr., a longtime San Antonio pastor who dedicated his life to helping others often forgotten by the rest of society, has died.

Zbinden led First Presbyterian Church in San Antonio for more than three decades, championing efforts to improve the lives of people experiencing homelessness by helping to create Christian Assistance Ministry and SAMMinistries, two nonprofits that serve as a safety net for the citys families.

Among loved ones and friends, he is remembered as a man whod open his own home to anyone in need  someone who would give of himself, beyond what anybody else could imagine.

Louis Henderson Zbinden Jr. Born: Feb. 11, 1936, Chattanooga, Tenn. Died: Sept. 11, 2020, San Antonio Survived by: Wife Katherine "Kip" Shoaf Zbinden; son Louis Henderson Zbinden III; daughters Anne Zbinden, Katie Zbinden Farrimond and Betsy Zbinden Baker; grandchildren Louis Zbinden IV, Pearse Zbinden, Mollie Farrimond, Hunter Farrimond, Abbie Farrimond, Owen Baker and Elizabeth Baker; and brother Mark Zbinden. Service: Arrangements are being made with Porter Loring Mortuary. For more information, visit PorterLoring.com. See More Collapse

He died at his home Friday of medical complications at age 84. He was surrounded by his family while the song Battle Hymn of the Republic played in the background. One of his daughters said he died just as the song reached the chorus: Glory, glory, hallelujah.

He was just a larger-than-life kind of man, said his daughter Katie Farrimond, 54. Professionally, he was the kind of man who challenged obstacles. He was the kind of man who said, Well, why cant we do that?  which is how he got so much done. He wouldnt take no for an answer.

Zbinden was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tenn. He met his wife, Katherine Shoaf  who goes by Kip  while attending Southwestern University in Memphis. They didnt date in college but ran into each other at a wedding after graduation. They hit it off.

At some point while they were dating, Zbinden injured his knee. No one is quite sure how it unfolded, but while she was visiting him in the hospital as he recovered from knee surgery, Zbinden proposed.

Its the strangest thing  neither one of them remembers how it came about, Farrimond said. But she walked in not engaged and walked out engaged.

The couple celebrated 61 years of marriage Aug. 14.

Early in his career, Zbinden served in Presbyterian churches in Virginia and North Carolina, until he became senior pastor of San Antonios First Presbyterian Church in 1971.

Fred Middleton, 82, met the pastor when he first arrived in Texas. Zbinden was 34 at the time and had pork chop sideburns and a double-knit suit that left him sweltering in the summer heat.

When Middleton first saw him, he thought, Well, that must be a preacher.

That was roughly 50 years ago. The two quickly became friends, frequently escaping to Middletons ranch an hour southwest of San Antonio to go bass fishing.

Middleton said his friend was gentle and generous  to a fault almost. Zbinden gave so much of his life to the church, and he touched thousands of lives. Middleton just tried to be there to support him, giving him a chance to get away on the lake.

He was a real person  he didnt put himself on a pedestal, Middleton said. Others might have, but he didnt like it up there.

Zbinden had four children. When they were growing up, their lives revolved around the church. At night, Zbinden would work at the dining table to finish writing his sermons.

That was one of Louis Zbinden IIIs favorite memories of his father.

I would be sitting in there watching him do that and draw on a piece of paper and pretend like I was writing a sermon, too, the 56-year-old said.

His father worked at church almost every day of the year, except when the pastor would take his family for a four-week-long trip to Port Aransas during his sabbatical. Theyd spend hours on the beach each day, reading and splashing in the surf. Even the parents would play duck-duck-goose and fly kites.

It was his only vacation of the year, said his youngest daughter, Betsy Baker, 46. That was a really special time for our family.

Zbindens service to the community didnt stop when he left the church building. His children said he often invited people into their home  sometimes to stay for days.

Theyd call the church in the middle of the night, and obviously he took the phone call, Farrimond said. He would go pick them up in the middle of the night; and the next morning, wed have a stranger in our house.

Farrimond said her father and mother grew up in tight-knit communities where there were no strangers. So when someone in San Antonio lost their home or couldnt afford rent, one of the Zbinden children would clear out their bedroom for the new guest.

The Zbindens had been opening their home to strangers for years by the time Farrimond said her father was approached in 1981 by a man living on San Antonios downtown streets. The man asked for money. Zbinden didnt give him any.

The next morning, the man was dead on the church property, Farrimond recalled. At that point, he said, This is wrong, we have to do something.

Thats how San Antonio Metropolitan Ministry  now known as SAMMinistries  was formed. The first shelter was launched in the basement of Zbindens churchs youth building, initially drawing the ire of downtown business owners who grumbled about the crowds of people whod line up each evening for a hot meal and a bed to sleep in, said Anne Zbinden, his oldest daughter.

He was very persuasive in saying, This is the right thing to do, said Anne Zbinden, 59. You may not be comfortable with it, but this is the right thing for you to do.

Marina Starleaf Riker is an investigative reporter for the San Antonio Express-News with extensive experience covering affordable housing, inequality and disaster recovery. To read more from Marina, become a subscriber. marina.riker@express-news.net | Twitter: @MarinaStarleaf
A day after Memorial Day in 2018, H-E-B issued a voluntary recall of store-branded ice cream because pieces of broken metal were found in equipment used to make the products at its San Antonio plant.

The recall involved various flavors and container sizes of Hill Country Fare and EconoMax ice cream and H-E-B Creamy Creations sherbets.

No injuries were reported at the time of the recall. Nevertheless, the incident proved costly for H-E-B, which sustained more than $1 million in damages. They included damage to its equipment, loss of income due to the contamination and investigation costs.

On ExpressNews.com: Ex-San Antonio man sues for more than $1M after Coke bottle exploded in H-E-B

H-E-B submitted an insurance claim for reimbursement for its damages and received an undisclosed amount from Starr Surplus Lines Insurance Co.

Starr now is suing the equipment manufacturer, blaming improper design, manufacture or installation of the equipment for causing the contamination.

Larine Urbina, a spokeswoman for Tetra Pak Inc., the manufacturer, said the company doesnt comment on pending litigation.

Regarding the equipment in question, I can say that thousands operate at customer sites around the world without incident, Urbina added in an email. The company bills itself online as the world leader in liquid food processing and packaging. Its part of a Swiss-based multinational conglomerate.

H-E-B uses Tetra Pak self-contained freezers to make its own ice cream products.

According to the lawsuit, the ice cream runs through a metal canister barrel housed inside the freezers. A unit called a dasher is inside the barrel and has metal blades to scrape the ice cream off the barrel.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio man sues H-E-B after cashier allegedly whacked him with cucumber

H-E-B workers opened a freezer to complete a scheduled monthly preventative maintenance in late May 2018. They discovered the dashers scraper blades were damaged to the point of missing metal. Some particles were found inside the dasher, but no metal fragments were found, just missing chunks of metal from the blades, the suit alleges.

H-E-B suspected the metal fragments were smaller than roughly a fifth of an inch because there is a metal detector positioned at the end of the production line that detects anything larger, the suit adds.

Based on the findings, H-E-B issued the recall and submitted an insurance claim to Starr. By virtue of the payments it made, Starr says its essentially substituted for H-E-B to pursue any claims against Tetra Pak. H-E-B is not a plaintiff in the case.

Starr accuses Tetra Pak of selling a freezer with a defective dasher, which caused metal to break off inside the dasher and chunks of metal from the blades to be missing. The defects rendered the freezer unreasonably dangerous, the suit adds.

Starr is suing for product liability, breach of warranty and negligence. The complaint was filed Wednesday in state District Court in San Antonio.

A lawyer for Starr didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. H-E-B spokeswoman Dya Campos said the company had no information on the dispute.

Patrick Danner Patrick Danner covers banking, insurance, business litigation and bankruptcies. To read more from Patrick, become a subscriber. pdanner@express-news.net | Twitter: @AlamoPD
In a significant development in strengthening the surveillance system along the border, Indian Air Force has planned to set up air defence radar facilities in Uttarakhand. Indian Air Force which is one of the tripartite services of the Indian Armed Forces, discussed the requirement of land for setting up advanced landing ground (ALG) and radar facilities. Setting up of airstrip and radar facility to strengthen the surveillance system along the Line of Actual Control remains of prime importance as Uttarakhand is one of the states that shares the border with China. Air Officer Commanding in Chief of IAF Central Air Command, Air Marshal Rajesh Kumar met Uttarakhand Trivendra Singh Rawat.

Visuals from the meeting

READ | 'Rafale Jets Expected To Intimidate & Dominate': IAF Chief Mentions 'current Scenario'

READ | Rafale's Air Show Video: IAF's Most Advanced Jets Thrill All Beholders; Watch These Moves

Strengthening of the Indian Armed Forces is of paramount importance as there are regular attempts of infiltration and encroachments by the adversaries along the LOC and LAC.

Rafale fight jets' induction into IAF

In a major boost to India's defence arsenal, French-made Rafale Fight aircraft were formally inducted into Indian Air Force on September 10 with the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and French counterpart Florence Parly at Ambala airbase. The ability to strike air-to-air targets up to 150 km away and at the same time also hit land targets up to 300 km within enemy territory makes the Rafale aircraft one of the world's most dangerous fighter jets. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh along with his French counterpart Florence Parly attended the ceremony of these Rafale jets at Ambala's Air Force Station on September 10.

The speed, capability to attack land and air target and 4.5 generation system allow Rafale aircraft to challenge the most dangerous fighter jets. Powered by two SNECMA M88 engines, Rafale jets are known to attain a top speed of 2,223 km and a range of more than 3,700 km. It also has a Martin-Baker Mark 16F zero-zero ejection seat, capable of operating at zero speed and altitude. The jets are well-equipped with laser-guided bombs weighing around 900 kg. 2500 rounds per minute can be fired from the jet's internal cannon. The new birds in the arsenal of IAF also come with the AESA radar, SPECTRA Electronic Warfare System and IRST system.

Pakistan's US-made F-16 is no competition with India's Rafale. Rafale aircraft can carry a payload of 24.5 tonnes while the F-16 is capable of carrying only 21.7 tonnes. This implies that the Rafale can load more weapons. Lastly, Pakistan's F-16 does not have the nuclear capability which the Rafale aircraft has.

In contrast to China's air to air missile systems, India's Meteor's unique propulsion system gives it ab edge over them. This is because Rafale jets instead of burning off all its fuel immediately after the launch can throttle its engine during the cruise. Therefore, as soon as the target approaches, Rafale can throttle up, while making its terminal attack at its highest possible energy state around Mach 4.5, even if fired over long ranges.

READ | After Rafale Jets, Dassault Aviation Interested In Dealing With India For More Aircraft

READ | NSA Ajit Doval Holds Meeting With French Defence Minister After Rafale Induction
Over 5,000 card readers were destroyed in a fire incident that occurred at the headquarters of INEC in Ondo State late Thursday barely one month to the governorship election in the state. The incident occurred few days after hoodlums largely made up of NURTW members barricaded the entrance of the Ondo State House of Assembly. Also, the presidency organised a two-day retreat to review the performance of ministers who clocked one year in office on August 21 while former President Olusegun Obasanjo again lamented the current situation in Nigeria.

Presidency holds retreat for ministers

A two-day retreat for the review of the performances of ministers, permanent secretaries and other top government officials opened at the State House, Abuja, on Monday.

The ministers were inaugurated on August 21, 2019.

Declaring the event open, President Muhammadu Buhari, represented by his deputy, Yemi Osinbajo, said there would be negative consequences if the government continues with the business of fixing or subsidising the prices of petrol.

He said the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) approved that tariff adjustments had to be made but only on the basis of guaranteed improvement in service.

In his remarks, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, said the first year of Mr Buharis second term in office had been the most productive of the government.

Hoodlums take over Ondo Assembly Complex

Thugs on Monday barricaded the entrance of the Ondo State House of Assembly complex, creating a huge stir among lawmakers and staff of the assembly.

The hoodlums, who comprised members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, were at the complex at the instance of the Speaker of the House, Bamidele Oleyelogun.

The incident occurred barely a month to the October 10 governorship election in the state.

Mr Oleyelogun later claimed that the hoodlums were in the assembly complex for prayers.

Buhari inaugurates committee on Agenda 2050

On Wednesday, President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated the National Steering Committee to oversee the development of the Nigeria Agenda 2050 and Medium-Term National Development Plan (MTNDP) to succeed Vision 20:2020 and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017  2020.

The committee is co-chaired by a businessman, Atedo Peterside, and finance minister, Zainab Ahmed.

The main objectives of these Successor Plans are to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty within the next 10 years, particularly given the World Banks projection that Nigeria will become the worlds third most populous country by 2050 with over 400 million people, Mr Buhari said.

Ohanaeze demands additional states, LGAs for South East

The highest Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, on Thursday, asked President Muhammadu Buhari to send a bill to the National Assembly requesting the creation of additional states and local government areas in the South East geo-political zone.

Ohanaeze made the request through its spokesperson, Chuks Ibegbu.

The South East geo-political zone is the only one with less than six states. It comprises Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States.

The group lamented the losses the states and their people have incurred for having the least number of states and local government areas in Nigeria.

Edo 2020: Deputy governors wife accuses Oshiomhole of threat to life

Maryam, wife of the deputy governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu, on Thursday, accused a former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole of threatening to kill her.

In a petition she sent to the police through her lawyers, Idemudia Ilueminosen & Co, Mrs Shaibu said Mr Oshiomhole did not only threaten to deal with her but also sent thugs to monitor her in Etsako West Local Government Area to carry out the threat.

She demanded an investigation into the threat.

Over 5,000 cards burnt as INEC head office in Ondo goes up in flames

INEC headquarters in Akure, the Ondo State capital, was gutted by fire on Thursday.

The incident occurred at about 7.30 p.m., according to the commissions Facebook account.

The spokesperson of the commission, Festus Okoye, who was in Ondo State at the time, confirmed the development.

He however told PREMIUM TIMES that the incident would not affect the October 10 governorship election.

The burnt card readers cannot affect the election. 4,141 belongs to the Ondo State INEC office while the remaining 1,000 were brought from Osun, he said.

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Since it is one month to the election, we will just take smart card readers from other states to replace the burnt one so that the election wont be affected. So, rest assured that it will not affect the conduct of the election, he said.

The governorship election in the state holds on October 10.

CJN inaugurates tribunal judges for Edo, Ondo governorship polls

The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Muhammad, on Thursday inaugurated members of the Edo and Ondo States Governorship Elections Petitions Tribunals.

The elections hold on September 19 and October 10, respectively.

Inaugurating the 85 judges at the Supreme Court Complex in Abuja, Mr Muhammad urged them to conduct their affairs in a manner that they would be confident to answer to God.

He said he will not condone any act of recklessness, abuse of power and public trust.

He added that justice dispensation should be done with the fear of God and in line with the oath of office and the law.

Ex-President Jonathan canvasses electronic voting to check electoral fraud

Former President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday said only electronic voting would guarantee credible elections in Nigeria and other parts of Africa.

Mr Jonathan, who was Nigerias leader between 2010 and 2015, spoke at the 2020 edition of Osasu Show Symposium.

He said true democracy is only attained when votes count.

And taking a critical examination at the way elections are conducted across the continent at least from the ones Ive observed, Ive seen that the only way that we can get there is through electronic voting, he said.

Obasanjo says Nigeria sliding into failed state

A former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, said on Friday that Nigeria was slowly becoming a failed, divided state, and the poverty capital of the world.

Mr Obasanjo, who fought in the Nigerian civil war, said he had never seen the country in such a bad state, attributing it to poor management of its diversity.

The former president spoke in Abuja at a consultative dialogue attended by various socio-cultural groups.

Among the groups were Afenifere, Middle Belt Forum, Northern Elders Forum, Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo and Pan Niger Delta Forum.

PDP demands reversal of petrol price hike

Nigerias main opposition party, PDP, asked the federal government to reverse its decision on the removal of subsidy which led to an increase in the price of petrol to N160 per litre.

The party, through its spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, demanded an immediate downward review in the pump price of fuel, adding that the attempt to justify the increase to N160 was unacceptable to Nigerians.

The PDP totally rejects this attempt to hinge the increase in fuel price on presumed removal of oil subsidy, he said.

Mr Ologbondiyan said it was not logical to predicate the increase in the price of the commodity on a faulty comparison with costs in other countries.
As coronavirus tightens its grip around the country, a 105-year-old woman from Karnataka beat coronavirus after undergoing treatment for the viral infection at home. The woman, Kamalamma Linganagouda Hiregoudar, hails from Katarki village in Koppal taluk.

According to official sources, as the elderly woman had a fever, she was made to undergo a test and the result came out positive last week. As the centenarian had no other health issues, also considering her refusal to go to hospital, she underwent treatment in isolation at her sons residence.

Representational Image

After undergoing treatment at home under the supervision of grandson, Srinivas Hyati, who is a doctor by profession, Kamalamma has recovered and her test reports have come negative now. Speaking to reporters, Kamalammas grandson said he felt it was challenging considering her age, but as she had no other health issues, she was under normal treatment and his grandmother is now an inspiration for those who fear COVID-19.

Though the elderly woman hesitated to take food, she was administered porridge and water, and medicine that was prescribed to her was limited. Till last evening, Koppal had reported a total of 8,802 COVID-19 cases, including 186 deaths and 6,870 discharges.



Reuters

As of September 12 evening, cumulatively 4.49 lakh positive cases have been confirmed in Karnataka, which includes 7,161 deaths and 3.44 lakh discharges.

COVID is dubbed fatal mostly for elderly and those with comorbidities, however in the past, many in their 80s and 90s have recovered from the novel coronavirus.


The Ministry of National Defense spokesman Wu Qian. [Photo/mod.gov.cn]

BEIJING -- A Chinese defense spokesman on Sunday expressed firm opposition to a recent report released by the US Department of Defense.

Wu Qian, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, said the report titled "Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2020" is further proof of the US intent to smear China and its military.

China deplores and firmly opposes the action by the US side, Wu said.

The report deliberately distorted relations between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese military, misinterpreted China's national defense policy and military strategies, and hyped up the so-called "Chinese military threat," Wu said.

The US side issued such reports in the past 20 consecutive years, Wu said, describing it as a blatant act of hegemony and provocation that has severely hurt bilateral and military-to-military relations.

China has lodged stern representations with the US side, Wu added.

Stressing that the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the people's armed forces under the CPC leadership, Wu said upholding the Party's leadership is the soul of the PLA and the PLA is committed to whole-heartedly serving the people.

China follows the path of peaceful development and adheres to a national defense policy that is defensive in nature, said Wu, adding that China's military development is aimed at safeguarding the country's sovereignty, security and development interests.

"It does not target any country, nor does it pose a threat to any other country," Wu said.

Wu reiterated that there is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China.

He said tensions across the Taiwan Straits are primarily caused by the Democratic Progressive Party's attempts to bank on foreign support and use of force to resist reunification, as well as the external anti-China elements' attempts to use Taiwan to contain and divide China.

Citing the US wars and military actions against countries such as Iraq, Syria and Libya over the past two decades, Wu said the United States has proven to be the one that instigated regional chaos, violated international order and destroying world peace.

Wu said the Chinese military will faithfully put to practice the vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity, firmly safeguard the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter, actively take part in regional security cooperation, and promptly provide international public security goods.

"The Chinese military is committed to safeguarding world peace, contributing to global development, and upholding international order," Wu said.
FNBO awards grant to Multicultural Coalition

First National Bank of Omaha has awarded a $5,000 grant to the Multicultural Coalition in Grand Island as part of its workforce stability grant awards.

The Multicultural Coalition will use the grant to provide support for Employment Ready Immigration Services to aid immigrants in receiving documentation needed to begin or continue employment as well as employment case management support.

This award is part of $660,000 in grants awarded to 37 organizations in Nebraska. In all, $895,000 in workforce stability grants has been given to 63 organizations in Nebraska, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, South Dakota and Texas, providing additional relief to individuals and businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In total, through two rounds of funding this year, FNBO has provided more than $3.9 million in philanthropic and impact investments to community partners working to support those most financially impacted by the current crisis.
The death has occurred of Kathleen Mary Savage (nee Lane), Castleconnell and formerly of Clonskeagh, Dublin and Manchester.

Peacefully, in her 99th year at Milford Care Centre.

Deeply regretted by her daughter Jane (Holmes), son in law Stephen, grandchildren Sarah & Luke, great grandchildren Jessica & Esme, niece & nephews.

Funeral service at All Saints Church, Castleconnell at 9.30 a.m. on Tuesday 15th September, followed by cremation in Shannon. Please adhere to government guidelines regarding number of people and social distance. Family flowers only.

"The day Thou gavest, Lord, is ended"

The death has occurred of Anna Connolly (nee Quish), Rathaney, Hospital.

Peacefully, in the tender care of the staff of Beech Lodge Nursing Home, Bruree.

Predeceased by her husband John, Sister Cait and Brother Pat. Sadly missed by her children Denis, Mairead, John, Mary and Aidan, her grandchildren, nieces and nephews, relatives, neighbours and friends, Rest in Peace

A family mass will take place in St Mary's Church Knockainey on Monday followed by burial in the adjoining cemetery.

In line with government recommendations on public gatherings this funeral will be private. Condolences can be submitted through rip.ie, letters of sympathy can be sent to O Leary's Funeral Undertakers, Main St, Hospital, Co. Limerick.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

A New Mexico State Police officer was shot Saturday morning after making a traffic stop on Interstate 40 near Laguna, the agency said early Sunday morning.

The officer suffered injuries that were not life-threatening. State Police have not released her name but said she was taken to a hospital and treated and released.

The suspect, 28-year-old Robert Benjamin Nelson of Scottsdale, Arizona, is in custody at the Cibola County Detention Center. He is facing felony charges of attempt to commit murder, aggravated battery upon a peace officer and shooting from a motor vehicle and a misdemeanor count of resisting, evading or obstructing an officer.

Its unclear why the officer pulled Nelson over. Authorities say the details leading up to the traffic stop and subsequent shooting are under investigation by the New Mexico State Police Investigations Bureau. The FBI is also investigating.

Nelson, who was in a GMC pickup, was pulled over at about 9:30 a.m. State Police say he appeared to fire multiple rounds at the officers head.

After being struck, the officer was able to recover and return fire at the suspect, State Police said in a news release. The agency said Nelson was fled east on I-40.

Despite having multiple injuries, the officer returned to her vehicle, gave chase and a pursuit ensued, the release says.

According to State Police:

Nelson stopped near milepost 135 and got out of his vehicle. Laguna officers arrived and helped the State Police officer.

Nelson was arrested shortly thereafter without incident.

He could face federal charges, State Police say, because the officer who he shot is also a commissioned federal task force officer.

Part of I-40 was shut down for hours while authorities investigated. Traffic was backed up for about seven hours as officers redirected travelers to N.M. 6.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signs Assembly Bill 2147 after he toured the North Complex Fire zone with California Secretary for Environmental Protection Jared Blumenfeld and California Secretary for Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot in Butte County outside of Oroville, Calif., on Sept. 11, 2020. (Paul Kitagaki Jr./Pool/The Sacramento Bee via AP)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom: I Quite Literally Have No Patience for Climate Change Deniers

Commentary

As Californians deal with the double-whammy of out-of-control wildfires due to the states lack of environmental stewardship and forced black-outs due to the states reliance on unreliable green energy, California Gov. Gavin Newsom had the audacity to say that he has no patience for climate change deniers.

Wait, what? Instead of actually addressing the massive problems at hand, which are mostly due to his boneheaded policies, Newsom unleashed a vicious verbal attack on those who question his newfound religion, known as climate change and/or global warming.

Newsom, who is not one to bite his tongue when it comes to delivering tongue lashings towards so-called climate change deniers, refuses to take responsibility for the ineptitude of his own policies, and instead tries to pin blame on those who simply refuse to believe in his holier-than-thou global warming pronouncements.

As Newsom put it, I say this lovingly  not as an ideologue, but as someone who prides himself on being open to argument, interested in evidence  but I quite literally have no patience for climate change deniers.

That statement is the definition of an oxymoron. How can one be open-minded yet steadfast that anyone who does not believe in climate change is akin to a Holocaust denier? After all, that is the intended argument at play.

Newsom explained that Its completely inconsistent, that point of view, with the reality on the ground, the facts as we are experiencing. You may not believe it intellectually, but your own eyes, your own experiences tell a different story.

Once again, Newsom resorts to ad hominem attacks against anyone who dares to question his assessment that all things bad in California can be blamed on, you guessed it, climate change.

Newsom, offering zero evidence to support his stance that climate change is the scourge of mankind, stated, All these things are connected. This is a challenging time. But were up to this challenge, and we are committed and resolved, not only to deal with this situationally, but to sustainably address these issues across the spectrum from energy to the issues of wildfires.

So, is Newsom going to own up to the fact that his states lack of available power, which was so bad a few weeks ago (before the massive fires) that millions of Californians literally were left in the dark, is due to his insistence on making the Golden State the mecca of renewable power? Not likely.

Apparently, Newsom has such little respect for his own residents that he has the gall to blame his catastrophic policies on the fact that some people (who most likely dont live in California anyways) question whether global warming is solely due to manmade carbon emissions.

And, adding insult to injury, does Newsom believe Californians are unable to simply look this stuff up on the internet, after which they can come to their own conclusions?

Once again, Newsom is the one who seems unwilling to take a neutral approach on the issue of global warming. In fact, if anyone is a so-called denier, it is Newsom, who constantly denies the truth that his policies are responsible for the pain and suffering that has befallen on so many Californians this summer.

Yet, as usual, Newsom attempts to take the moral high ground, by invoking pseudo-religious orthodoxy in terms of his obedience to the global warming cult. As he said recently, Never have I felt more of a sense of obligation, sense of purpose, to continue to lead and maintain Californias status internationally, not just nationally, in terms of addressing the issue of climate change head-on.

As usual, Newsom ignores the grim reality that is taking place right before him. Instead of owning up to the fact that his policies have been disastrous, he invokes platitudes and doubles-down on his failed ideas.

Bringing this full circle, ironically, Gov. Newsom is the denier.

Chris Talgo is an editor at The Heartland Institute. Talgo writes op-eds, articles for Health Care News and Environmental and Climate News, and hosts podcasts.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
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Roger Stone, a former political consultant for the Trump campaign and convicted felon, has said the president should impose martial law if he loses the election in November.

The veteran Republican operative said Donald Trump should invoke the Insurrection Act and arrest Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Tim Cook of Apple, Bill and Hillary Clinton and anybody else who can be proven to be involved in illegal activity.

I do not advocate preventive detention, but people who commit crimes and think they can continue to get away with it because we have two-tier justice are just wrong, he told conspiracy theorist Alex Jones during a call to his online Infowars show.

Stone repeated uncorroborated claims of voter fraud in Florida and Nevada, and said that votes from the latter state, where the president held a campaign rally on Saturday, should not be counted because they are already flooded with illegals.

The ballots in Nevada on election night should be seized by federal marshals and taken from the state, he said.

They are completely corrupted.

No votes should be counted from the state of Nevada if that turns out to be the provable case.

Send federal marshals to the Clark county board of elections, Mr President.

Stone said he wants an honest, legal and transparent election in which the real winner takes office  but he ruled out Joe Biden as that real winner and said force will be met with force if Mr Trump is not re-elected.

He recommended forming an election day operation using the FBI, federal marshals and Republican state officials across the country to be prepared to file legal objections [to voting results] and if necessary to physically stand in the way of criminal activity.

Stone went on to suggest that journalists, specifically those from the Daily Beast, be jailed if they are found to be involved in seditious and illegal activity, in response to a report on the website detailing what left-wing groups plan to do if Mr Trump loses Novembers election but refuses to leave office.

He said: If the Daily Beast is involved in provably seditious and illegal activities, their entire staff can be taken into custody and their office can be shut down. They want to play war, this is war.

Stone was indicted by federal prosecutors on seven counts, including witness tampering and lying to federal investigators, following Robert Muellers November 2019 investigation into the Trump campaigns involvement in Russia hacking the 2016 election.

He was found guilty and sentenced to 40 months in federal prison, but Mr Trump commuted Stones sentence in July 2020 after he publicly pleaded for him to do so.
Colombo: The Sri Lankan government's proposed 20th Constitution Amendment has faced internal resistance from within a faction of the ruling SLPP parliamentary group itself, ahead of its inclusion in Parliament's order paper, the party members said on Sunday.

The government on September 2 gazetted the 20th Constitution Amendment draft, the new proposed legislation that would replace the 19th Amendment introduced in 2015 that curtailed the powers of the President and strengthened the role of Parliament.

The 19A was seen as the most progressive pro-democracy reformist move since Sri Lanka came to be governed under the all-powerful executive presidency in 1978. It depoliticised the government administration by ensuring the independence of key pillars such as the judiciary, public service and elections.

The 20th Amendment proposes to restore full legal immunity to the President, removing the provisions made in the 19A to take legal action against the President.

The office of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in a statement on Saturday night said that a nine-member ministerial committee has been appointed to review the 20A in its present form and, if needed, a fresh gazette will be issued.

Ever since the government gazetted the 20A, some of the ruling SLPP's own parliamentarians and the party's allies have been publicly expressing unhappiness over its certain provisions, the party members said.

If the 20A is implemented in its present form, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will be the hardest-hit as his current powers as the premier would be diminished with his younger brother and the President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, assuming full executive power, they said.

Moreover, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is also a two-time president, will not be able to contest for the presidential election again as the two term bar has been retained in the 20A draft, the party members said.

The draft legislation was to be placed in Parliament's order book this week for debate and adaptation. However, it faced internal resistance from within a faction of the SLPP parliamentary group. And now, with Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is also the leader of the Sri Lanka People's Party (SLPP), appointing a committee, this process could be delayed, they said.

The committee is expected to submit its report by September 15.

The 20A has proposed several changes which include the replacement of the vital Constitutional Council (CC) with a new body called the Parliamentary council.

"The PC will consist only of members of parliament with no place for civil society representatives," according to local media reports.

Also, three independent commissions, which include the Election Commission, will be abolished.

According to 20A, the chairpersons and members of the commissions shall be appointed by the president. In making such appointments, the president shall seek the observations of the Parliamentary Council (PC).

Earlier under the 19A, all these appointments were the responsibility of the CC.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa outlined his commitment to abolish the 19th Amendment during his ceremonial address to Parliament last month.

The 19A Amendment adopted in 2015 by the then reformist government was subject to much criticism by the powerful Rajapaksa clan as it prevented dual citizens from contesting elections. At the time, two of the Rajapaksa family members, including the current president, were dual citizens of the US and Sri Lanka.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa had to renounce his US citizenship to contest the presidential election in November last.

His younger brother and SLPP founder and its National Organiser, Basil Rajapaksa, is a dual citizen of the US and Sri Lanka. There are five of them already in the government.

During the August 5 general election, the SLPP sought two thirds parliamentary mandate or 150 seats in the 225-member assembly to effect constitutional changes, the foremost of them was the move to abolish the 19A.

The SLPP and allies won 150 seats and have a two-third majority to effect the constitutional change they desire.

While Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected as the Sri Lankan President in November last year, his eldest brother Mahinda Rajapaksa won the general election and assumed charge as Prime Minister on August 9.

Significantly, under the 20A draft, there is no provision on the Right to Information Commission, which was established by the 19A, while two important commissions -- Audit Service Commission and National Procurement Commission -- established by the 19A have been abolished.

Under the 20A draft, no fundamental rights petition can be filed against the president.

Article 35 in it says while any person holds office as president, no proceedings shall be instituted or continued against him in any court or tribunal in respect of anything done or omitted to be done by him either in his official or private capacity, according to the draft of 20A.

Also, the president is empowered to dissolve Parliament at his will after one year of a new Parliament is elected, which means the president can remove the prime minister and his cabinet at his will even though a Parliament will be elected for a five-year term.

The 20A draft provisions also do away with the limitation on the number of cabinet ministers.

The 19A limitations on the number of the cabinet (30) and deputy ministers (45) have been dropped. The president is empowered to appoint any number of ministers, according to the draft.
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India's third Covid wave likely to peak on Jan 23, daily cases to stay below 4 lakh: IIT Kanpur scientist

India logs over 3.17 lakh new Covid cases in last 24 hours; daily positivity rate up at 16.41 per cent

India-China commanders meet expected to bring about certain level disengagement

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Sep 13: All eyes would be on the meeting of Indian and Chinese military commanders in the backdrop of the five point agreement arrived at Moscow by the foreign ministers of the two nations.

While a wider de-escalation may take more time, the commander level talks are expected to bring about a certain degree of disengagement.

Opposition MPs give notices in Parl seeking discussion on India-China standoff: Report

On Friday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh chaired a two hour long meeting with the NSA and the military brass. Chief of Defence Staff later appeared before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on defence. However the China issue was not discussed. The CDS agreed to a request by NCP leader, Sharad Pawar who sought to know the details of the border row and said that a letter would be submitted to the comittee.

These developments took place after External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar met with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi at Moscow. During the meeting both sides agreed that the troops should maintain proper distance and also ease tensions.

The foreign ministers of India and China underlined the importance of disengagement at the Line of Actual Control as the first step towards deescalation of tensions.

The military commanders of India and China will meet in the next couple of days to discuss disengagement from friction points along the LAC. While no date has been fixed as yet, sources say that there are some issues under discussion before the military commanders could meet.

Officials say that the military commanders would work out the process to disengage. China's Foreign Minister, Wang Yi and his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar agreed that the de-escalation should follow comprehensive disengagement.

India told China that the massing of Chinese troops along the Line of Actual Control is a cause of grave concern. Beijing was told that the provocative behaviour by the Chinese along the LAC showed complete disregard for bilateral agreements and protocols. When Yi said that the bi-lateral ties should continue on a parallel track, Jaishankar reminded him about the immense build up of Chinese troops. China has deployed 50,000 men, tanks, missiles and 150 aircraft.

Five missing Indians handed over by China reached Arunachal Pradesh

While Yi spoke about thinning of troops, he had no clear answer about the massive troop build up. Jaishankar however added that while India is all in favour of bi-lateral ties, this could work well only if the borders were peaceful.

Yi said that it was important to move back all personnel and equipment that have trespassed. The frontier troops must completely disengage so that the situation may de-escalate, China also said.

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Story first published: Sunday, September 13, 2020, 6:42 [IST]
Sir David Attenborough has revealed how he helped reunite the families of two Jewish refugee sisters who fled Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport and were taken in by his parents during the Second World War.

Irene and Helga Bejach, aged 13 and 12 respectively, arrived in August 1939, just 17 days before war broke out, and were among the 10,000 Jewish and half-Jewish children who fled to Britain as part of a mass humanitarian rescue effort.

Their mother had died many years prior when Helga was three-years-old, while their father, Dr Curt Bejach, was taken by the Nazis and deported to Auschwitz.

German-Jewish refugee sisters Irene and Helga Bejach were looked after by the Attenboroughs after leaving Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport in August 1939

The girls, who were not brought up in the Jewish faith, also left behind an older sister, Jutta, who at 18-years-old was not eligible for the Kindertransport because of her age.

They would not see their sister again until nearly four years after the war ended.

Helga with Mary Attenborough, who alongside her husband Frederick, took in the Jewish refugee sisters and looked after them during the Second World War

Feeling compassion for their plight, Attenborough's parents, Mary and Frederick, decided to take the girls in to their Leicester home, where they would live for the next seven years and become like 'sisters' to their three sons, David, Richard and John.

Brothers David and Richard Attenborough spoke about how the German-Jewish refugees became like 'sisters' to them while they lived with the family during the Second World War

Richard Attenborough: 'They were our sisters' Lord Richard Attenborough In 2009 - five years before his death - Lord Richard Attenborough recalled his memories of Helga and Irene Bejach: I will never forget when Helga and Irene first arrived at our home. They were two pale waifs with their pathetic little cases. They looked sad and ill. They were also nervous wrecks. Their house in Germany had been smashed by Nazis with guns and theirfather taken away. After the girls had been with us for three weeks, mybrothers David, John and I were called into the study by our parents. Our mother said, 'We absolutely love you boys, but we will have to showeven more love to these girls because they are here on their own andwithout their parents. It is entirely up to you, darlings, if they stay. We realised, even though we boys were all quite young ourselves, howshocked and frightened the girls were. My parents always stood up andwere counted wherever they saw an injustice being done. And theKinderstransport was a great example of caring for human dignity, forracial tolerance and for compassion. The three of us boys had no hesitation in taking Helga and Irene into our family. We really did see them as sisters, virtually from the time we were told they were going to live with us. Initially, they were very reclusive, but they grew into attractive and confident young women.They helped shape our lives. We went on holidays together, and played together as brothers and sisters, and I adored them. After the war, Helga and Irene moved to America to join relatives, and both married there. I would talk on the phone to them at least once a month, certainly for the first 20 years after the war, and would see them when I went to America or they came over here. We loved them and cherished them  and were so proud of them. Advertisement

Filmmaker Richard, who passed away six years ago, recalled in 2009 how their mother said at the time: 'We absolutely love you boys, but we will have to showeven more love to these girls because they are here on their own andwithout their parents.

'It is entirely up to you, darlings, if they stay.'

He revealed: 'We realised, even though we boys were all quite young ourselves, howshocked and frightened the girls were.

'My parents always stood up andwere counted wherever they saw an injustice being done.

'And theKinderstransport was a great example of caring for human dignity, forracial tolerance and for compassion.'

He added how the Attenborough brothers 'really did see them as sisters' for the duration of their stay with the family.

While the brothers attended Wyggeston boys' grammar school, the sisters enrolled at the girls' school and Helga began to show promise as a ballet dancer.

In one revealing letter, Mary related how Helga had been placed under the guidance of Royal Ballet founder Dame Ninette de Valois, who was severe in her criticism of the young dancer.

Nevertheless, she was enrolled at a boarding school for dance and drama that was evacuated to Boscastle in Cornwall during the war.

In October 1946, a year after the war ended, the sisters left the British shores to join their uncle in New York and start life anew.

Now many decades later, veteran broadcaster Sir Attenborough, 94, has revealed that he hosted a reunion last July for the sisters' descendents.

Describing it as 'an unforgettable afternoon', the natural historian modestly told The Sunday Times: 'I feel sort of inhibited about revealing it all because it's nothing to do with me  it's a credit to my parents.'

Helga's daughter, Beverly Rich, 58, added: 'I think the gravity of the visit really didn't hit me or David until we were saying goodbye and hugging, because he was very modest and saying, 'It's really my parents', and was not taking any type of accolade or responsibility.

'I think when he looked at all of us leaving, it hit him that we would probably not have existed if it was not for the humanitarian kindness of his family.'

Helga's daughters have since given her diaries, letters sent via the Red Cross and other personal papers in a long-term loan to Leicester University, in a bid to ensure the actions of the Attenborough family are recorded for posterity.

After the war, the bonds between the girls and the Attenboroughs remained strong, with one of Helga's daughters, Hilary Waldman, 71, recalling how Lord Attenborough invited them to his film premieres in New York.

Helga died in 2005 and Irene in 1994. Their eldest sister, Jutta, is still alive, aged 99.
TROY  Gangster and bootlegger John T. Legs Diamond has been dead nearly 89 years but his story has kept a hold on the nations imagination through novels, movies, a musical and biographies that built a legend around the man who grabbed the countrys attention through the Roaring '20s.

From 1914 until he was gunned down in a Dove Street boarding house on Dec. 18, 1931, after celebrating his acquittal in Troy on kidnapping charges, Diamond has never really disappeared.

But Diamonds paper trail through the local courts and police records is harder to trace. Its almost in keeping with his "Legs" nickname, believed to be given for either his dancing or his ability to outrun trouble.

The Rensselaer County Clerks Office has a bundle of 29 documents that have sat forgotten in storage for most of the last nine decades since the headline-grabbing trial in the countys grand Ceremonial Courtroom, which was once a church. Those few surviving documents provide insight into Diamonds medical condition, whispered conversations with his lawyer to avoid being overheard by State Police, presidential commutation of his military sentence of five years of hard labor and his criminal history.

Considering the celebrity status of the case, thats a little surprising, said Brian Keough, head of the UAlbanys M.E. Grenander Special Collections and Archives at the University Libraries, who also launched UAlbanys National Death Penalty Archive.

Its hard to document history of the pre-20th century and even into the early 20th century, Keough observed.

What does survive can be hard to find. County Clerk Frank Merola said, They didnt start indexing the files until 1900. The more people dig, the more people find whats there.

As one opens up Diamonds files, Merola said, history percolates: Its got everything in it. It was an exciting case even for Troy.

Unfolding the trifold court documents is to plunge back to April 1931 when Diamond was living in Acra in Greene County where he was establishing his bootlegging business among the Catskills resorts.

Diamonds move to Greene County caused problems for residents and businesses. Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt stepped in, appointing state Attorney General John. J. Bennett Jr. to smash Diamonds gang. Arriving with 20 state troopers and assistant prosecutors, Bennett took a public role in moving ahead with the five counts of assault, coercion and kidnapping against Diamond.

The surviving court papers show how Daniel H. Prior, Diamonds attorney from Albany, made Bennett the focal point for getting the trial moved from Greene County. Thats what brought Diamond to Troy for trial.

Bennett has made the direct charge by affidavit that gangsters have been terrorizing the residents of the County of Greene and it is well know that his reference to gangs and gangsters and to the leadership of such gangs causing terrorism refers to this defendant, Prior argued in his motions for a new court venue.

The Attorney Generals Office was fierce in fighting Diamond. When it came time for bail, the state argued, This defendant has a criminal record. He was convicted of burglary in 1914. Furthermore, he has a record of convictions and prison terms as a result of offenses committed while in the service of the United States Army, resulting in his discharge and commitment to five years in a Federal Penitentiary.

This is where the court papers offer details of Diamonds past. His criminal history detailing arrests starting with the burglary count in 1914 to his charges filed in Catskill and his court martial record are filed with the prosecutions various legal arguments.

Diamond enlisted in the New York National Guard before the start of World War I. He was assigned to a trench mortar company as part of the coastal artillery. A private, he deserted from his training camp in New Jersey on Jan. 31, 1918 and was later arrested in New York City on April 16, 1918 for stealing trousers, two overcoats, a waistcoat and a razor. He was carrying a pistol. Sentenced to five years of Fort Leavenworth, he was released in 1919 in a general commutation of sentences by President Woodrow Wilson.

Diamond was soon back in New York City and deep into the citys underworld.

By 1931, Diamond was known across the country for his bootlegging, showgirl mistress and multiple failed attempts to kill him. It was while facing the Greene County charges that Diamond was slammed with a couple of blasts from a shotgun at the Aratoga Inn, the third unsuccessful attempt to kill him.

Its narrow escapes like this that capture the publics imagination. So when Diamond died in Albany after being shot in the head, newspapers ran photos of him showing the location of each of the 15 wounds from the attempts to kill him were on his body.

Diamond was the protagonist of a true crime story who delivered tale after tale of his doings through newspaper accounts.

Its just a fascination with how it is people can do terrible things. And a lot of these people are very colorful and lead these interesting lives, said Richard W. Lachmann, a sociology professor at University at Albany who studies pop culture and the impact of war and terrorism.

Another element, Lachmann said, is people like to puzzle out the crimes themselves to see if they could solve it. Details get eaten up by the public. Lachmann said crime always has fascinates Americans. Novels like William Kennedys Legs or movies based on the Mafia have audiences.

Theres an interest in investigation. How do you figure this out? Have you solved this mystery? Thats the appeal of Sherlock Holmes, Lachmann said.

Details can make the story. For Diamond, recovering from his wounds from the Aratoga Inn hit was part of the story in heading to trial. It played a part in the legal arguments when he was moved from Albany General Hospital to the Greene County Jail.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Two troopers guarding Diamond at the hospital provided affidavits about his condition and meetings with Prior. Troopers John J. Stewart and George J. Van Antwerp worked 12-hour shifts.

Stewart said Prior visited Diamond 14 times between April 28 and May 29, 1931 at the hospital with each meeting lasting about three hours.

During the visits, Diamond and Prior would converse together and at length, talking in whispers and with their heads close together, at frequent intervals, Stewart said.

The state was able to get Diamond transferred from the hospital to the Greene County Jail. The attorney generals office provided statements saying the jail wasnt a bad place to be for Diamond.

Diamond is confined within a large room approximately twelve by twenty-four feet, well lighted by three large windows and equipped with sanitary conveniences. The afternoon sun streams through the southern window, and the remaining two windows face approximately east. The room is clean and well kept. The outer walls are of concrete, while the inner walls are of steel. The room contains two cots, equipped with bedding, but Diamond is the only occupant,  Dr. Stanley E. Alderson wrote in June 1931.

His food is supplied to him from an outside restaurant, said Alderson, who found Diamond could stand the strain of a trial.

The surviving Rensselaer County court records end before Diamonds two trials in Troy. He was acquitted at both trials, although he was convicted in a federal bootlegging case held between the two state proceedings.

The Albany County Hall of Records can only document Diamonds homicide through the newspaper clippings the Albany Police Department compiled from 1888 through 1954, said Craig Carlson, the deputy county clerk who oversees the archives.

Clippings of Diamonds killing at 67 Dove St. the night he beat the charges in his Troy trial dominate the scrapbook pages for the end of 1931. Serving the publics lust for details, the clips contain maps of the second floor room in which he was killed, interviews, speculation and that photo with a key depicting every spot where Diamond suffered bullet wounds including the fatal head shots.

The popularity of the crime investigation you can see in the scrapbook but theres nothing else in the Hall of Records, said Carlson.

Veteran Albany Police Detective Lt. Howard Schecter is the person with knowledge of the departments Diamond records, Carlson said. Schecter is interested in history and saddened by what became of the Diamond records.

Forty years ago I saw some of them. I know they existed, Schecter said. A 42-year veteran of the department, Schecter saw them at the start of his career.

Now, the department has nothing. Schecter tells you what he thinks happens to the records that would be of high interest.

Everything was stolen. I have been spending the past years trying to find them, the detective lieutenant said.

Those volumes of Albany police scrapbooks are the most common way of crime stories, not matter how high profile there were surviving. In collecting details of the 15,000 capital cases in the UAlbany archives, Keough said that before 1950 the official court record is a rare find and that nearly the only accounts available are newspaper clippings.
BERRY CREEK, Butte County  When Ira Payne reached the green suspension bridge over Lake Oroville at about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, the hill beside it was in flames and an overturned car was blocking the only road out.

Payne and his neighbor doubled back to a boat dock along the lake, with a line of cars and two fire trucks behind them. For an agonizing half-hour, about 100 people could do nothing. It was pitch black. They couldnt see the fire, but they could smell it burning.

Right there was probably the most nerve-wracking, Payne said. Basically hell.

Once firefighters cleared the flipped car from the road, the residents raced down the mountain and across the bridge, which was ablaze in orange flames. But in the massive, fast-moving inferno of the North Complex that exploded that night, not everyone made it out. The Butte County Sheriffs Office confirmed Saturday evening that 12 people had died, with two identified from Berry Creek. Sheriff Kory Honea said the victims were aware of fire but chose not to immediately evacuate.

Their deaths were the result of a confluence of factors, said residents who fled and family members who lost loved ones. Strong winds pushed the fire, which had been burning for three weeks north of Berry Creek, straight toward the town, leaving little chance for warning. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. had shut off power Monday night, a planned outage to prevent wildfires, leaving some residents without TV or internet in an area where cell phone service is hit or miss. And in the fire-weary community, some residents shrugged off the evacuation orders they receive every year.

This is one of the fires where there was no warning, said Zygy Roe-Zurz, whose 77-year-old aunt died near her car, trying to escape. On Saturday, he was still waiting for word of his uncle and mother, who also lived there and were missing. He wasnt hopeful.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

The power was out. The major means of communication wasnt available to them. All these things came together to create this tragedy, he said. Its really, really unfortunate and Im really sad.

Berry Creek, a town of around 3,000, drew people looking to escape into the mountains, to raise their kids in peace and quiet, or to pay less to live. The town had a small school with about 50 kids up to eighth grade, and a handful of businesses. In the past few years, evacuation orders have annually driven residents out of their homes, with fires devastating nearby areas but never quite reaching Berry Creek.

This year was different. As soon as Cal Fire sent word of the imminent danger, Honea sent out an evacuation warning to the town around 2:45 p.m. Tuesday, and then an order 45 minutes later.

As soon as we understood the gravity of the situation from our counterparts in the fire service, we issued evacuation orders utilizing multiple ways and methods including sending deputies up into those areas, and got that evacuation going, Honea said Friday.

Some residents left immediately. Others, lulled into complacency from their past experiences, didnt. Still others said the lack of communication services left them in the dark about the risks, with some but not all residents receiving push alert notifications to evacuate on their cell phones. Payne said he never got an alert: The same day, his sister tried to call him for three hours, with no answer.

Samantha Jarrell, who lived in Berry Creek for 9 years, did get a warning on her phone to evacuate, but wasnt worried. She left only after seeing the fire on the evening news three hours later, grabbing the familys Social Security cards, birth certificates and tax papers. Her three kids packed three outfits and their favorite books. They all thought they would be back soon.

Samanthas husband, Josh Jarrell, stayed behind to ride out the fire at their home on Sugar Pine Drive. But by 11 p.m., it started snowing ash. Embers flew through the air. The bottoms of his boots started to melt.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

Jarrell, the last one on his road to leave, careened in his beat-up white truck to the Village Market, the only gas station and grocery store in Berry Creek. The owner and some residents were still in the parking lot.

People were in hysteria, Josh Jarrell said.

He honked and yelled at them to get out as he took off. Driving down Oro Quincy Highway, the ash was so thick he had to use his windshield wipers.

He could hear propane tanks exploding. The tops of the trees were glowing and flames shot up on both sides of the winding road.

Just north of Berry Creek in Brush Creek, Chris Woolf knew he had to leave when he put his drone up in the sky and saw flames engulfing trees on three sides of his cabin. Within 15 minutes, he and his sister grabbed their three dogs and drove down the dirt road between walls of orange flames before screeching onto the highway and heading to Oroville.

Woolf, who lived in Brush Creek for nine years, had never followed evacuation orders, even when the Camp Fire, which burned through the town of Paradise in 2018, got within a quarter-mile of his home.

Too many times the warning came out and we would ignore it, he said. Every year about this time theres been a question of am I going to get burned out. This was the year it finally got me.

Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mallorymoench
MUMBAI: Locked in a bitter faceoff with ruling Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, actress Kangana Ranaut plans to meet Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Sunday (September 13).

According to reports, the 'Manikarnika' actress wants to inform the Governor about her ongoing tension with the state government before leaving Mumbai. She is scheduled to meet the Governor at 4.30 pm on Sunday and expected to leave the city on September 14.

Asked where she was headed, Kangana's team told IANS: "Owing to security protocol we cannot disclose details of her travel."

Kangana has found herself in the midst of controversies after her PoK comment drew ire from Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. Her recent remark comparing Mumbai to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) didn't go down well with Shiv Sena. She later accused Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut of threatening her to not return to Mumbai if she has no faith in the police.

On September 9, Her office in Mumbai's Palli Hill was demolished by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation before she landed in the city.

The actress has been naming and shaming several big Bollywood celebrities for fanning nepotism and recently in the drug conspiracy related to actor Sushant Singh Rajput death case.

Before her visit to Mumbai, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had granted Y-plus category security to the actress.

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government has also ordered a probe in Kangana Ranaut's alleged link in drug nexus. The probe was ordered after a 2016 interview of actor Adhyayan Suman, who is her ex-boyfriend, went viral. Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said that the Mumbai Police will probe allegations by Adhyayan Suman that Kangana Ranaut took drugs.

On September 13, a video of the actress claiming that she 'used to be a drug addict' has gone viral on social media. The video was taken in March 2020 during Navratri when Kangana was in her hometown Manali. It was posted on her Instagram account.

The 4-minute clip has Kangana talking about running from home when she was all of 15-16 and then becoming a film star. She later says she became a drug addict and reveals how she changed her life.
Kyrgyzstan reported on Sunday 53 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total cases to 44,881, Trend reports citing Kabar.

The republican headquarters on COVID-19 reported that the total number of recoveries from COVID-19 in Kyrgyzstan increased to 40,922 after 143 new ones were added.

There are still 2,482 active cases in the country, 509 of them receive treatment in hospitals and 1,973 at home.

The death toll in the country stands at 1,063, no death was reported from the virus in the previous 24 hours.

In total, 3,167 medical workers have been contracted COVID-19 in Kyrgyzstan since the pandemic, 2,685 of them have recovered and 83 have died.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-14 01:51:06|Editor: huaxia

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RIYADH, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia announced Sunday it will lift restrictions on the departure and arrival of its citizens from January 2021.

The Interior Ministry in a statement on the Saudi Press Agency attributed the delay in lifting the restrictions to the outbreak of COVID-19 in some countries.

The Health Ministry said it has the right, according to the situation, to impose certain precautionary measures. Some sectors would be allowed to travel, including government officials, diplomats and ill individuals.

The kingdom will partially lift the ban of international flights and open land, sea, and air borders for those who were excepted from the travel ban to enter and leave Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia has been witnessing a decline in daily COVID-19 infections. The Health Ministry confirmed Sunday 601 new cases, raising the tally to 325,651. Enditem
Ireland's 14-day incidence rate of Covid-19 per 100,000 people has increased by more than a third in the past seven days.

New figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control puts the country's average at 40.6 - it was 29.6 last Saturday.

The UK is now at 45.1 while Germany is at 21.1.

It comes amid a fresh appeal from the acting Chief Medical Officer to the people of Dublin to break the "chains of transmission" following a rise in Covid-19 cases.

Dr Catherine Motherway, Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine at University Hospital Limerick, is worried about what might happen if cases continue to increase.

"As we have more numbers, the more likely we are to see older people get the disease and we know that older people are at more risk of requiring hospitalisation and requiring intensive care," said Dr Motherway.

"We also know that as we try and prepare for the winter in the hospital system we want to continue to deliver care to our scheduled patients and if we see a surge in Covid then that will interfere with that because we all know our hospital system is stretched."
Of course the Government needs to act to contain and suppress the spread of Covid-19, a serious disease that has killed many and could kill many more.

All reasonable people recognise that an outbreak on this scale needs to be met with effective action. The difficulties arise when we consider what that action should be and how long it should last.

It is now almost six months since the Government moved, as it said, to flatten the curve of coronavirus outbreaks and so avoid a catastrophic overload of the NHSs emergency and intensive care services.

As it happens, the curve was quite rapidly flattened. Since April 8 the number of Covid deaths has been falling more or less without interruption, and the daily toll remains mercifully low.

Now the PMs new rule of six has aroused justifiable scepticism in many who until now had been ready to go along with whatever the Government did

The great success of the building and staffing of the Nightingale hospitals was an extraordinarily impressive feat of organisation and hard work.

But it turned out not to be needed.

Though there will be arguments about this until the end of time, let us accept that this swift decline in the number of dangerous cases was an achievement of the initial lockdown, and a vindication of the Prime Ministers swift and decisive leadership.

So far so good. And, while some may have wished that these actions had been taken sooner, the reopening of high streets, of pubs and restaurants, and the necessary economic stimulation of the eat out to help out initiative, all helped to reinforce the idea that the Government was keen to get back to normal as soon as possible.

The furlough scheme, though enormously costly, also appears to have prevented many immediate job losses, though it remains to be seen if this effect will be permanent. We have to hope very hard that indications that we shall have a rapid V-shaped economic recovery turn out to be correct.

The Government also eventually succeeded  despite an initial failure  in reopening schools, perhaps the single most vital step towards a revival of normality. A slow but definite return to work is under way in many sectors, though parts of the Government machine seem to have been reluctant to encourage this.

But in recent weeks it seems to have been a case of two steps forward, three steps back. The deeply unpopular and hard-to-justify imposition of quarantine on returning travellers destroyed many long-planned and much-needed family holidays.

And those who loyally obeyed the instruction in many cases found that  having done as they were asked  their actions were barely monitored.

Returning college students face restrictions on teaching and socialising that will drain their university experience of much of what would normally make it valuable, despite the statistically very small risk to the young from the virus.

The deeply unpopular and hard-to-justify imposition of quarantine on returning travellers destroyed many long-planned and much-needed family holidays

Various local lockdowns, supposedly justified by rising numbers of infections, devastated businesses that were just climbing out of their difficulties and gave a general impression that we were all living at the Governments behest, free of interference only so long as a Minister or expert decided we should be.

Now the PMs new rule of six has aroused justifiable scepticism in many who until now had been ready to go along with whatever the Government did, on the grounds that it must know what it is doing.

Nobody seems to have any idea where this new maximum figure for a social or family gathering even came from.

But in hundreds of thousands of homes it appears to mean that plans for Christmas are now illegal, not least because of the considerable vigour with which Mr Johnson underlined his determination to impose this rule. But how can this limit realistically be enforced?

Countries that are used to being law-abiding will put up with a great deal, and the British people have certainly done so in the long months since the start of the lockdown on March 23. But when normal life is made illegal, and Christmas dinner appears to have turned into an arrestable offence, the patience of many will be tested too far.

This is the sort of law-making that can all too easily bring the law itself into disrepute, accompanied by damaging mockery of the sort that permanently undermines authority.

The problem is partly that the PM is under great pressure and operating in a small circle of close advisers increasingly shielded from normal daily life. He has also mistakenly swallowed the idea that there is something called The Science that is definitive and supports this sort of policy.

When normal life is made illegal, and Christmas dinner appears to have turned into an arrestable offence, the patience of many will be tested too far

The fact is that science is a constant debate, fuelled by experiment and investigation. There are disagreements among scientists  epidemiologists, virologists, statisticians, and pathologists.

Perhaps it is time that the PM and his advisers opened their doors to such figures as the Oxford professors Sunetra Gupta and Carl Heneghan, to the advice of the world-renowned expert on microbiological medicine, Professor Sucharit Bhakdi of Mainz, to Professor Hugh Pennington of Aberdeen, who doubts the likelihood of the much-touted second wave, to the distinguished Pathologist John Lee  and to the man who has guided Sweden through the pandemic, Anders Tegnell.

In fact, now that Sweden has finally come off the quarantine list, is it not time for Mr Johnson to send a fact-finding mission to the European country that has managed to escape most of the worst aspects of lockdown and has  at the very least  done no worse than us as a result?

A breath of fresh expertise and new thinking is certainly needed. There is a grave danger that the restrictions of the lockdown are a ratchet, remaining in place long after they should have gone, and perhaps becoming permanent because nobody has the courage to end them.

The heartrending open letter that The Mail on Sunday details today, detailing the misery caused by the continuing (and unauthorised) separation of mothers and fathers during the birth of their children, is a poignant illustration of how such needless severity hurts individuals.

This is certainly not the only instance where caution has degenerated into officiousness and bureaucratic inertia, of the kind that Mr Johnson has always disliked.

Yes, indeed we must continue to be vigilant and careful, and ensure that the virus is contained. But that does not mean that we need to treat an entire nation of good-hearted and patient people as if they were naughty schoolchildren who cannot be trusted to make sensible decisions on their own. In fact the whole episode has shown that the people of this country are exceptionally responsible.

Do we really need legions of Covid Marshals who will for certain abuse the small authority they are given, to tell us to be good and sensible? If the PM were getting better advice, and listening to some new voices, he would not be making mistakes such as this.

He has spent too long in his bunker. He should let the light in, sniff the fresh clean air of controversy and allow himself to be the Boris he has always been, open-minded and prepared to listen.
As kids across the province make their way back to school, there is one question that parents cant stop worrying about: what if a case of COVID-19 hits my childs school?

At a number of school boards across Ontario, this has already become reality.

Even before students returned to schools in Halton and Peel, the school boards have seen cases of the virus among staff. And in Ottawa, nearly 200 children and staff at five French Catholic schools were sent home this week to self-isolate after being exposed to the virus by six people associated with the schools.

School boards say they have implemented guidelines based around the education ministrys document for school outbreak management, as well as guidance from their own public health units, to prevent the spread of the virus. And thus far, Halton and Peel say those guidelines were precisely followed when they became aware of positive cases among staff over the past few weeks.

On Monday the Halton District School Board was informed that an employee who had been present at staff PA days in early September at Oodenawi Public School in Oakville tested positive for COVID-19, said board spokesperson Marnie Denton.

According to our protocol, Halton Region Public Health was informed of the positive test result and completed their contact tracing procedure. Staff members who were in close contact with the COVID-positive individual have been ordered by Public Health to self-isolate for 14 days, said Denton, adding that all staff and families at the school were notified of the positive case in a letter.

Denton said the school underwent enhanced cleaning before reopening for staff this week and said there is no risk of exposure to students.

Peel has also had three staff test positive, before the return of students to school.

Both Halton and Peel will be updating their websites daily when cases emerge with information about the number of cases and the numbers of classrooms/cohorts affected.

The province has also launched a website to track outbreaks in Ontario schools and child-care centres. The province said the website will be updated every weekday and include a summary of cases, as well as more detailed information on where the numbers come from. On Friday morning, the website had 13 cases in Ontario, including four students from French Catholic schools in Ottawa.

In Ottawa, the medical officer of health said the cases did not come from the school but through community transmission. Ottawa Public Health then reached out to everyone who was in close contact with those infected, telling them to self-isolate and get tested  include those who may have been on the school bus with a positive case, or in a class.

At the end, 193 students and seven staff members were told Monday night to stay home.

But a group of doctors and data scientists with a group called masks4canada.org, who have been tracking and mapping all of the cases of COVID-19 in schools across the country, say looking beyond the province may give us some insight of what is to come.

We have been watching Quebec with alarm, said Shraddha Pai, a data scientist at the University of Toronto who is also leading the project with masks4canada.org. The counter keeps going up.

They have been in school for just over two weeks and have (more than 200 cases), she said. Its very sobering.

She said her group launched the map to inform public policy and see emerging trends.

There is a lot of nervousness around school reopenings, said Pai. As you can see our case rates are going up, and meanwhile the province has a patchwork of school policies that could be much better around masking, class sizes and improving ventilation.

We feel there is a need for transparency around COVID numbers in school  so that parents can make better informed choices, or they can help push for policy to make schools safer, said Pai, adding the group will be relying on publicly released information, and information from the public to fill in the map.

At a city council meeting this week, Ottawas medical officer of health said that despite the scare last week, there has been no evidence of in-school transmission. But she says the key to keeping COVID out of schools will come down to families and staff actively monitoring their health.

The objective is prevent that transmission of COVID-19 by keeping it out of schools, said Dr. Vera Etches. A big focus of ours  is to make sure emphasizing to families, employees, anyone entering the school environment to use the screening the tool  to make sure that you check for those symptoms.

If someone in your home has symptoms, we need everyone to stay home until it is determined to not be COVID-19. This is hard for families. But it is harder for schools to have to close down because of transmission in schools.

With files from The Canadian Press

Has your child been assigned to a large class or has your school kept class sizes low? We want to hear from you. Tell us about your familys experience with in-person school by emailing schools@thestar.ca . Please include your school board in the email.

Noor Javed is a Toronto-based reporter covering current affairs in the York region for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @njaved
On the Frontline Against China, the US Coast Guard Is Taking on Missions the US Navy Can't Do

Competition with China has drawn more Pentagon resources to the Pacific, but the most visible U.S. military presence there...
The Government's supposedly 'world-beating' Covid-19 testing system is said to be 'in chaos,' with a backlog of 185,000 swabs as it desperately sends tests to Germany and Italy in a bid to catch up.

The system is claimed to have capacity for 375,000 tests a day, but the number being tested dropped to 437,000 a week at the start of September.

The figures, shared by The Sunday Times, amounted to just 62,000 daily tests for that week.

Its report claims Covid-19 hotspots in the North of England are struggling to get tests, leaving residents with no choice but to travel hundreds of miles for an appointment.

The Government's 'world-beating' testing system was said to have capacity for 375,000 tests a day - but by the end of the first week of September, there was an average of 62,000 daily tests

No tests were available in Bolton between Thursday and Saturday, as the city struggles with Britain's highest infection rate - at 180 weekly cases per 100,000 people.

Earlier this week a 'glitch' in the system sent hundreds of people, from as far as London and Cornwall, to an overwhelmed testing site in Telford.

Tory MP Lucy Allan said: 'On Tuesday evening, hundreds of cars from across the country - and I mean hundreds - descended on Telford and its testing site as directed by the booking system.

'Tests quickly ran out, roads were blocked, people who had travelled from as far away as Cornwall, Stockport and London were turned away, and my constituents were no longer able to access tests in the area - and they in turn were sent elsewhere.'

The Government's testing system is said to be 'in chaos,' as it struggles to reach the 375,000 daily test target, while labs cope with a backlog of 185,000 swabs

Hundreds of cars from across the country descended on a test centre in Telford on Tuesday, due to a 'glitch,' in the testing system, the town's MP revealed

Some claimed they were turned away from the site after being told it had run out of tests.

Sarah-Jane Marsh, the director of testing at NHS Test and Trace, last week admitted that people were unable to get coronavirus tests because laboratories had reached a 'critical pinch-point'.

With the Government facing a backlog of 185,000 tests, MailOnline understands it has plans to 'rapidly expand,' its systems in the coming weeks, and improve technology to improve turnaround.

Randox, which picked up the 133million testing contract at the start of the pandemic, is said be having major staffing problems - as it continues to void thousands of tests.

Documents seen by The Sunday Times claim the company disposed of 12,401 used swabs on September 2.

Since the start of August it has voided 35,000 used test kits - with no chance of a result - since the start of August.

The company, based in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, is said to be blaming leaks, damaged tubes and people sending urine rather than saliva, as the reason for voiding the tests.

Leaked figures reportedly show three-quarters of all tests take longer than 24 hours to get a result back, with a quarter taking longer than 48 hours.

Officials claim the tests are being thrown away after an arbitrary period.

Randox hit back last night, saying it followed 'accepted timelines,' warning it could 'jeopardise the accuracy and reliability of NHS Test and Trace,' if it did not.

The Sunday Times claims Randox has blamed the high number of voided tests on staff taking holiday.

Whilst Randox was said to have blamed staff holidays for the voided results, it itself said it didnt blame staff taking leave.

Steve Hynd drove two hours from Wales to get his sons, aged one and three, tested in Telford - but was told by officials there were no more tests left

Mr Hynd - whose father Mike, 80, tragically died from the disease - was then told he would have to go 68 miles away for another test the morning after

It has reportedly placed job adverts to boost its workforce, with advertisements saying it's not essential to have a scientific background.

Earlier today the Mail on Sunday revealed Boris Johnson had written to more than 50 universities in a desperate bid to get more workers in Lighthouse Laboratories - a separate contract from Randox.

The Prime Minister appealed for 400 'technicians, post-docs or graduate students with molecular biology experience' to staff the Lighthouse laboratories in Milton Keynes, Cambridge, Manchester, Newport and Glasgow, and for 'qualified technicians/post-docs with management experience, to join the Test and Trace Laboratory Team to help manage our overall lab capacity'

Tests are being sent abroad to deal with the current backlog, but there are claims swabs being sent to Germany could also be voided as they've been transported at the wrong temperature.

Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth told The Sunday Times: 'People ill or with a sick child desperate for a test will be astonished that tests are piling up, left unprocessed, or even thrown away, because of errors in transportation and swabbing, while at the same time we are testing less than capacity. This really is ministerial incompetence at a whole new level.'

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: 'NHS Test and Trace is working and our capacity is the highest it has ever been but we are seeing a significant demand for tests including from people who do not have symptoms and are not otherwise eligible.

'New booking slots and home testing kits are made available daily for those who need them and we are targeting testing capacity at the areas that need it most, including those where there is an outbreak, and prioritising at-risk groups.

'Our laboratories are processing more than a million tests a week and we recently announced new facilities and technology to process results even faster.

'If you do not have symptoms and are not eligible to get a test you can continue to protect yourself if you wash your hands, wear a face covering and follow social distancing rules.'
" " A live firing of a Javelin missile. Courtesy U.S. Army

The main reason the Army decided to go the virtual route with its Javelin training program has to do with cost. Javelin missiles are expensive, ranging between $75,000 and $80,000 each. As you can imagine, it's hard to run an effective training program when every shot costs more than $75,000. Multiply that by the number of soldiers the Army must train and the cost becomes astronomical.

The Army's solution to the training dilemma was to build a virtual reality Javelin simulator that could recreate the experience of using a CLU. The Army partnered with Raytheon and Lockheed to design and fabricate a Javelin simulator called a Javelin Basic Skills Trainer (BST). Today, the Army has more than 500 BSTs in classrooms around the world [source: AMC News Dispatch].

Advertisement

Soldiers get a chance to work with the BST in a classroom setting. The class is a two-week course in which the soldier becomes familiar with the Javelin's systems and capabilities. The instructor uses a sophisticated computer program that combines real-world images with virtual enemy units. The CLU simulator looks and feels like the real thing. The trainee looks through the simulator's site and sees images of real terrain -- the Army uses actual infrared-imagery rather than computer-generated terrain. A computer supplies the images to the BST -- a thick cable connects the BST to the computer.

The CLU simulator uses gyroscopes and accelerometers to track the unit's movements. It can detect changes in pitch, roll and yaw. As the soldier moves around to survey the simulated terrain, the CLU sends information to the computer. The computer interprets the soldier's movements and sends corresponding video data back to the CLU. To the trainee, it appears that the CLU is giving him or her a live view of actual terrain.

The computer creates virtual enemy units that move along the real terrain. The soldier's task is to detect, identify, lock on and fire upon enemy units. After the soldier has located and identified an enemy, he or she can switch to missile tracking mode. At this time, the soldier will see two track gates appear in the site view.

" " (c) 2008 HowStuffWorks

The soldier can adjust the width and height of the track gates to frame the target. Next, the soldier activates the missile lock mechanism. All that's left to do is to pull the trigger. Once fired, the missile will seek out the target and attack it based on the mode the soldier selected.

How effective are the simulators? According to soldiers who have used them, a few hours of training can prepare you for the real thing. In his book "Roughneck Nine-One," Sergeant 1st Class Frank Anentori describes a dramatic battle in Iraq in which Javelin missiles played an important role. Anentori credits the time spent with the Javelin BST at Fort Bragg for preparing him and his fellow soldiers for actual combat using real Javelin launchers [source: Anentori and Halberstadt].

The Javelin BST makes a convincing case study for virtual reality military training. As weapons and vehicles become more complex, familiarizing soldiers with new equipment on a wide scale becomes a challenge. Virtual reality simulators can provide a safe, effective and inexpensive alternative to using the actual systems for training.

To learn more about virtual reality and other topics, take aim at the links on the next page.
The Centre on Sunday issued guidelines for patients recovering from the deadly coronavirus disease.

After acute Covid-19 illness, recovered patients may continue to report wide variety of signs and symptoms including fatigue, body ache, cough, sore throat, difficulty in breathing, etc, the health ministry said in an advisory where it listed chyawanprash, yoga, pranayama and walks among the suggestions.

A holistic approach is required for follow up care and well-being of all post-Covid recovering patients, it said.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage

At an individual level, the government advised patients to continue following the Covid-19 appropriate behavior like wearing a face mask, washing hands, maintaining social distance, and other respiratory hygiene.

It also suggested carrying out regular household work if health permits. Professional work should be resumed in a graded manner, the ministry stated in the advisory.

Stressing on the need to self-monitor the health at home, the ministry advised those recovering from Covid-19 to take the temperature and check blood pressure on a regular basis. It also asked them to take oxygen readings on pulse oximeter on the advice of doctors.

Diabetic patients have been advised to check the levels of their blood sugar regularly.

At the community level, the government advised individuals who recovered from the Covid-19 to share their experiences with their friends and relatives and spread awareness regarding the virus.

The sharing of these experiences on social media, said the ministry, will help create awareness, dispel myths and stigma.

Take support of community-based self-help groups, civil society organizations, and qualified professionals for recovery and rehabilitation process (medical, social, occupational, livelihood), it also said.

The ministry further advised patients to seek mental health support if there is a need.

The issue of post-Covid management protocol comes as the country is recording the highest number of daily cases. In the last seven days, India has been registering more than 90,000 cases daily, which has pushed the tally to above 46 lakh-mark.
A coin from a rare batch in the year 2000 is being sold at auction for more than $4,000.

Coin collectors are bidding for a unique $1 coin called a 'mule' through auction site The Purple Penny.

The mule is a hybrid of a 10 cent piece and a $1 coin and was in production at the Royal Australian Mint for a year before the mistake was discovered.

The coins are thicker than a regular $1 coin, with a double rimmed edge and a picture of the Queen on the back.

A rare 'mule' coin (pictured left) is being sold in an online auction for more than than $4,000

'The mule was made when a technician at the Mint in Canberra accidentally paired the mob of 'roos dollar reverse with the Queen's head obverse, normally used for the 10 cent piece,' the Australian Coin Collecting Blog reads.

The mule is being offered for $4,250 and is described by the auctioneer as 'the nicest weve ever seen'.

'Easily in the top 10 known coins of this type,' the description reads. 'Almost impossible to improve on and represents excellent value.'

Steve Troha from Town Hall Coins and Collectables estimated there would be around 6,000 of the mule coins in circulation.

He previously told Daily Mail Australia the majority of the coins appear to have been sent to Perth.

'The first place they were discovered was the Burswood Casino [now Crown Perth],' he said.

The coins are thicker than usual and heavier, with a double rim on the outside and are being offered for $4,250 (pictured)

'A gentleman who used to work there and had access to the coins and went through them and supposedly he found 300 to 400 of them just through the casino - thats when it exploded in popularity.'

Mr Troha said the coins initially sold for $300 each but their value increased with their publicity.

'I wouldnt call it a rare coin, I would call it a scarce, very well publicised and known coin,' he said.

Tiny minting errors on ordinary coins are highly sought after by collectors but many are going unnoticed because people rarely check for them.

A tiny 5c piece from 2007 accidentally made with the Queen's head on both sides was sold for $3000.

Coin expert Matthew Thompson said that particular minting mistake made the double-headed coin a rare 'double-obverse' that can be worth thousands of dollars in good condition.

'The last one I sold was for $3500,' Mr Thompson told Daily Mail Australia.

Numismatist Matthew Thompson from Town Hall Coins and Collectables with a rare double-stamped $2 coin that is worth $3000 due to a mistake by the mint during manufacturing

'That one was in top end condition and so was worth thousands. One in really poor condition, you'd still be looking at a few hundred for,' he said.

Mr Thompson said most people don't check their coins and pass on rare coins worth thousands of dollars by accident.

Others are keen to inspect every coin in their change jars, which is a process called 'noodling'.

'I've done it before if I've a bag of coins or change jars. If you just spend a bit of time going through them it can certainly pay off,' he said.

Sometimes coins get clipped during the minting process when the discs are not ejected properly along the conveyor belt during the manufacturing process.

The blank disc can also get double-stamped by the high-pressure die.

This double-headed 5c piece from 2007 is one of the rarer minting errors. A coin in really good condition can sell for about $3500, while those in poor condition still fetch a few hundred

'People don't expect institutions like the Mint to make mistakes,' he said.

'But from time to time things can go awry. If you see mistakes on a coin, if you have something interesting, odd or out of place, then other people are likely to find it interesting, too - that's why people collect.'

Mr Thompson noted the $1 mule coins held exceptional value.

'If you see two rings on your dollar coin, it could be worth a few hundred or up to $4,000 in really good condition,' he said.

A more common $1 variant is 'rabbit ears' on the hopping kangaroos, which can make a coin worth up to $30, depending on condition.

Detecting Downunder, a Facebook page run by coin collectors, said the recurring fault can be found on $1 coins from the years 1984, 1985 1994, 1998, 2000, 2006 ,2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2015 and 2016.

Facebook page Detecting Downunder said this common 'rabbit ears' fault on the $1 coin can be worth up to $30 in good condition. Many people have reported finding it in their change

The blank disc of this $2 was double-stamped by the high-pressure die during manufacture

More than 1900 excited treasure hunters commented on Detecting Downunder's post, some of which had found more than one.

'Found mine just a week ago in my change from a train ticket,' wrote Jual Robert Butler.

Detecting Downunder also reported a rare 20c piece made in 1966 with a wavy baseline fault on the number '2' is now selling for up to $2000.

Although the Mint made 58.2 million 20c coins that year, only a few of them had the unique wavy baseline, making the faulty coins valuable to collectors, Detecting Downunder wrote on Facebook.

'If you happen to find one of these little beauties, it could be worth big money as these coins are currently selling for between $350 and $800 EACH on eBay, with one at $2000, and they're only getting more valuable each year,' Detecting Downunder wrote.

This rare 20c piece made in 1966 with a wavy baseline fault on the number '2' is worth up $2000. The bottom of the '2' is usually straight

The way to spot a wavy baseline fault is to look at the bottom of the number '2' on the playtpus side of the coin.

On a normal coin both the top and bottom edges of the bottom of the '2' are straight.

The faulty 1966 coin has a wavy top edge on the base of the '2' that is clear to see, while the bottom edge remains straight.

Many people also collect Australia's pre-decimal currency, and while copper pennies are common, there are some years you should look out for.

Mr Thompson advised people sitting on a bag of pennies to be on the lookout for 1925, 1930 and 1946 years that can be worth a little or a lot more.
Digital generated image of financial line chart showing fallings because of coronavirus COVID-19 on blue background.

A record-breaking 150 funds have underperformed the market this year, in a more than 50% increase from the last time the same research was carried out.

Tilneys and investment service Bestinvests annual report of dog funds  ones that underperformed indexes  showed a 65% increase from the 91 funds in its last report. This is the highest number on record and a sign of how much coronavirus has roiled financial markets.

The Spot the Dog report found the level of assets held in dog funds has also increased significantly to 54.4bn ($69.6bn), up from 43.9bn in the last edition.

Although there are many more funds included than last time, many of these are small in size  with the median fund being valued at 133m.

The report applies two filters to identify underperforming funds: First it looks at the fund universe to identify those that have failed to beat the benchmark over three consecutive 12-month periods.

The second criteria is that the fund must have underperformed the benchmark by 5% or more over the entire three-year period of analysis.

There are 18 funds which hold over a billion in assets from prominent fund groups. Of these, Invesco (IVZ) is crowned top dog for the fifth time, with 13 funds worth 11.4bn of assets. The combined value of assets represents 21% of all dog fund assets.

St. Jamess Place (STJ.L) also ranked highly with eight dog funds totalling 6.9bn, while blue chip fund manager Schroder (SDR.L) is notable for now having 10 funds included with a combined value of 2.7bn, according to the report.

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Private equity income and global equity income saw the highest proportion of dog funds, representing 26% and 25% respectively. This, in part, reflects the slew of dividend cuts during the COVID-19 pandemic and the outperformance of growth stocks, according to the report.

Overall the lowest proportion of dogs were found in the UK All Companies and Global Emerging Markets sectors, both of which had just under 11% of their eligible fund universes classified as dog funds.

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The report found that serious, consistent underperformance was rare among funds focused on smaller companies  parts of the market which are poorly researched by analysts and where there are more opportunities for fund managers to add value by spotting hidden gems.

Those that have avoided the list include Aviva Investors, Baillie Gifford, BlackRock, Evenlode, Fundsmith, JO Hambro Capital Management, Lindsell Train and Stewart Investors.

Jason Hollands, Managing Director at Bestinvest, said: Markets have given investors a rollercoaster ride this year. The COVID-19 crash between late February and the end of March was very rapid but the rebound in stock markets since then has been impressive.

However, look beneath the bonnet and there have been big disparities in performance across industry sectors. The relative winners have been areas like technology, online stocks and consumer staples companies, but at the other end of the spectrum major sectors like energy and financials have been hit really hard.

This has resulted in very wide disparities in performance between fund managers, depending on where their funds were positioned.
Why didnt you tell us about the felony on your record? the manager of a Target angrily asked Bryan Strong over the phone.

I dont have a felony on my record, Strong replied.

That is the conversation that led to Strong being part of a class action lawsuit addressing discriminatory hiring practices. His situation illustrated the problem, although he was only a small part of the case.

The conversation was when Strong realized Target had dug really deep in its background check. It wasnt the first time, and it wasnt the last time, that Strong says corporations digging into his history have hurt his ability to get a job.

This phone call occurred in the summer of 2016. Strong had been hired to work at the Target department store in Pleasant Prairie. But about two weeks after he was told he had been hired, the Racine native still had not been given a start date. He called the store, and thats when the manager inaccurately accused him of being a felon and not disclosing it.

Strongs past

When Strong was 17, he was accused of trying to pass a counterfeit bill at the now-closed Pick n Save on Rapids Drive across from Horlick High School. Using a counterfeit bill can be prosecuted as a felony, but the case was never investigated, Strong said. He also has had another misdemeanor case expunged from his record.

The remains of those cases have somehow live on in background checks  making it tougher for him to get hired, particularly at major corporations.

Thats got to be illegal, Strong thought to himself after the Target manager hung up on him. But he found there wasnt much he could do about it at the time.

According to Christopher McNerney, an associate in the national law firm Outten & Golden, on the federal level, there are no protections that specifically say a private employer cannot deny someone based on criminal history. However, if a company is going to deny someone a job, they cannot do it discriminatorily.

A multimillion-dollar civil case (Times v. Target Corp.) that McNerney started working on in 2018 alleged that Target was acting discriminatorily because it was filtering out so many applicants due to criminal background.

The basis for that argument was that, in the American legal system, people of color have been continuously prosecuted, investigated, tried and convicted at higher rates than the average. As such, the plaintiffs argued, Targets screening process was overbroad and discriminatory since it was so consistently screening out people of color for jobs for which they were qualified.

Bigger issue

According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Black adults are 5.9 times as likely to be incarcerated than whites, and Hispanics are 3.1 times more likely. The Sentencing Project, a criminal justice advocacy nonprofit based in Washington D.C., concluded that African Americans are more likely than white Americans to be arrested; once arrested, they are more likely to be convicted; and once convicted, and they are more likely to experience lengthy prison sentences.

When it comes to businesses, you have to have a reasonable (background check) process, McNerney said. You cant have overbroad screens  you cant paint with too broad of a brush. You have to look at each specific persons situation.

In winter 2019, Target agreed to pay upwards of $3.7 million in the case and agreed to review its screening practices.

Due to the bias and prejudice present in every level of the criminal justice system, Black and Latinx individuals are disproportionately likely to have an arrest or conviction record, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund said in a statement about the case. These disparities are then carried over into the employment realm, when companies implement overly broad criminal background screening policies. Under Targets prior screening policy, a disproportionate number of otherwise-qualified Black and Latinx applicants were automatically disqualified from employment opportunities.

The plaintiffs fought for that settlement not by showing Target was discriminatory toward people with a criminal record, but by showing Targets broad screening out of people with smudges on their records was racially discriminatory toward people of color because people of color have been disproportionately and heavily prosecuted.

By having background checks that arent too strict, McNerney also pointed out that businesses would expand the pools of quality applicants. Thats one of the ways businesses can counter systemic racism, he said: I think thats one of the things were trying to address with these lawsuits: Showing that having a conviction in and of itself is a bar to employment (because) thats not fair and thats not right.

This is a very American concept, that we are more than just the worst thing we did.

Strong, who is Black, said that the Black Lives Matter movement wont make a difference unless this type of discrimination is ended.

Times v Target check to Bryan Strong A check for $156.86 was sent to Bryan Strong as a part of the agreement in the class-action lawsuit Times v. Target, in which Target Corp. agr

Strong was part of Times v. Target. But he received just $156.86, according to a copy of the check he received. He could have made that money in a couple shifts had he been hired at Target, which is now paying a minimum of $15 per hour to its employees.

Now 34, Strong says he has run into similar issues with other corporations, which have stated directly that the decision not to hire Strong was influenced in part by information contained in a consumer/investigative consumer report, according to a copy of an employment rejection letter that Strong provide to The Journal Times. Although hes talked about these problems in the past, there is rarely any recourse. Cases like Times v. Target are few and far between.

Most recently, Strong was working at Amazon after fighting to get a job in Kenosha, but he left in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic; he is at higher risk of complications due to a respiratory problem. Once again, he finds himself out of work.

Correction: Bryan Strong's history has been updated since it was originally published in this story to clarify two prior cases that no longer are supposed to be on his record but have come up in background checks conducted by potential employers.
Computer-generated results have not received a good press in recent weeks, particularly with the A-level results debacle.

So it is no surprise that some investors are questioning whether they should be willing to trust a computer with managing their hard-earned cash?

Applying algorithms  or predefined sets of rules  to stock market data in order to make investment decisions is nothing new. The Medallion Fund, managed out of New York by Renaissance Technologies since the 1980s, has a stellar performance record.

Automation: Most algorithm-based funds in the UK can be cheaper than traditional funds run by investment managers

Although now not open to new investors, the fund recorded gains in March this year when global stock markets all fell sharply.

Renaissance founder James Simons, a Cold War codebreaker and maths genius, used a secret strategy to decide what to trade when setting up the fund.

Most algorithm-based funds in the UK are easier to fathom and have the advantage that they can be cheaper  in terms of annual charges  than traditional funds run full time by investment managers.

Martin Bamford, a financial adviser at Informed Choice, is a fan of such funds.

He says: 'Where a computer can cheaply and consistently apply a pre-determined set of rules to investing, that's preferable to investing blindly in the most expensive companies in a given index, or trusting the judgment of a fund manager.' Bamford adds: 'Algorithm funds have a bright future.'

A MIX OF MAN... AND MACHINE

Just like the creators of the A-level algorithm, those who champion algorithm funds like to position them as the ultimate mix of man and machine.

Man sets the parameters  deciding what characteristics will make a fund fly  and then sets the machine to do the work of deciding which shares fit a set of strictly defined criteria.

The result is a portfolio tilted towards certain financial characteristics, managed in a way that is a hybrid of traditional active and passive funds. Funds that use this approach might be described as 'factor investing', 'smart beta' or 'strategic beta'.

Some funds are 'multi-factor', which means they construct the portfolio using several characteristics.

So, for example, they might set the computer parameters to look at the price volatility of individual stocks as well as the dividends they pay and their cash flow. Others are 'single factor', so may simply look at a stock's dividend record when picking which shares to include.

Many algorithm funds are set up as Exchange Traded Funds. This means they can be traded like shares. Jason Hollands, a director of wealth manager Tilney, says the funds should be viewed as 'complex trackers'.

He says: 'They hold a basket of shares or bonds selected on objective criteria or factors  for example, profitability, dividends, balance sheet strength, valuations or a combination of these.

'Such funds therefore provide investors with a lot more control over the characteristics of companies they are exposed to, but at lower costs than paying for active management.'

Hollands gives the example of Invesco FTSE RAFI US 1000. This is an exchange traded fund that provides exposure to the 1,000 largest stock-market-listed US companies.

Individual holdings are not determined by market capitalisation but a basket of other factors  including revenues, cash flow and dividends.

Such an approach, says Hollands, can help investors avoid the dangers of market bubbles.

This is because the fund's algorithm skews the portfolio in favour of more conservative companies and away from stocks with high market valuations and limited revenues or cash flow.

A similar exchange traded fund, recommended by Teodor Dilov of wealth manager Interactive Investor, is SPDR S&P Global Dividend Aristocrats. This tracks high dividend-yielding companies within the S&P index that have increased or held their dividends for at least 25 years.

Similar products are offered by Vanguard. It provides funds that are weighted towards companies that pay dividends, or shares that have 'momentum'  their prices have been rising for a while.

ARE ALGORTHM FUNDS VALUE FOR MONEY?

Ongoing charges for these funds sit between the low fees levied on index tracking funds and the higher fees imposed on actively managed funds.

For example, S&P Global Dividend Aristocrats has an annual charge of 0.35 per cent, compared with 0.07 per cent for the iShares tracker fund that replicates the performance of the S&P 500 Index.

Invesco FTSE RAFI 1000 charges 0.39 per cent  lower than active funds such as Terry Smith's Fundsmith Equity which charges 1 per cent.

Opinion is divided on the value for money offered by algorithm funds.

Ben Willis, head of portfolio management at financial planner Chase de Vere, says they are 'usually too expensive for what is basically a plugged-in computer programme, especially when you compare them to standard passive funds which are keenly priced'. But Informed Choice's Bamford describes them as 'a sensible middle ground between expensive actively managed funds and dirt cheap index trackers'.

Hollands says the funds are not perfect. He adds: 'They are not a panacea and they do have limitations.

'The algorithms are set up on historic data and  as all investors know  the past does not guarantee the future.'

HOW HAVE THEY DONE IN THE PANDEMIC?

Like Boris Johnson's 'mutant' exam algorithm, most algorithm funds have been tested by the pandemic.

Darius McDermott, managing director at Chelsea Financial Services, says they have 'little flexibility to adapt to changes in markets'.

Some did well. For example, Vanguard Global Momentum Factor has registered gains of 16.2 per cent over the past six months  26.7 per cent over the past three years.

This is because momentum investing  buying shares that have already performed strongly  has very much been in vogue.

By way of contrast, Vanguard Global Value Factor  which favours companies with strong cashflow in out-of-favour sectors  has recorded three-year losses of 8.7 per cent.

IS IT TIME TO LET THE ALGORITHM RUN?

Algorithm funds are relatively low cost, but if you are going to use them it is important to understand what is going on in the 'black box'.

Hollands says the funds work best in more established stock markets due to the widespread availability of company information on which to base the algorithm. A good starting point is the Lifestrategy range of funds from Vanguard.

Here, the funds simply invest in a set mix of shares and bonds. So, investors can choose a mix of 20 per cent bonds and 80 per cent equities  or 40 per cent bonds and 60 per cent equities, depending upon appetite for risk.

The funds have a low 0.22 per cent charge. They are run by computers that re-balance the portfolios daily.

Vanguard's 80 per cent equity fund, 20 per cent bond fund has made profits of 59 per cent over the past five years  17 per cent over three year. Even in the last six months it is up 12 per cent.
A ten-year-old girl from Corrientes was molested by her stepfather and got her pregnant. Instead of condoning the act, their local church hold an eccentric baby shower. It is a bizarre affair that was even posted on social media.

Images are seen on social media even wherein the little girl is wearing a dress with a sign that said baby on board. Behind the child where gifts intended for the baby's use.

She was impregnated by her step-father, who is thought to have sexually molested the child in an unknown number of times when the mother and daughter moved in. The rapist and molester is identified as Horacio Insaurralde, age 31, during early 2020. He molested the innocent girl in his home at Monte Caseros, Argentina, reported The Sun.

The relationship did not last long, and the mother left with her daughter after the break-up.

After two months of leaving the suspect, the grandmother noticed the child's tummy growing. She was checked by the doctor to determine what was happening. In the examination, it was found out that the child was pregnant.

In Argentina, having an abortion is not allowed because of the Catholic church. Now, the family decided on using a law that exempts rape victims.

Sources relate that a family doctor aired opposition to having the fetus ended at 24-months. One of the reasons is the doctor was religious too. She was against abortion in the first place, the age of the pregnancy.

Elsewhere, the Apostolic and Prophetic Ministry Church of Monte Caseros sets up a baby shower for the girl at the family's request.

Also read: Starving 9-Year-Old Who is Locked in Closet Dies Covered With Vomit Due to Stepmom's Abuse

A newspaper Pagina 12, interviewed the priest and was told the occasion follows COVID-19 guidelines to keep participants safe. Stressing further that only the closest relatives can attend the baby shower.

Pictures taken of the occasion shows the girl holding a teddy bear with a child's stroller. Pastor Mari of the Apostolic and Prophetic Ministry church of Monte Caseros told a paper about COVID precautions for everyone in the baby shower. The pastor added that it is important to accompany the girl and her family in this ordeal.

Two days later, the girl was brought to the Neonatal Eloisa Torrense de Vidal Hospital that was 300 or more miles away for a medical procedure.

The child was brought to the hospital because experts thought that at 10-years-old, the subject was too immature to bear the child. A C-section was done and the girl had a successful C-Section birth to a baby boy.

The child molester and rapist should face the law and pay penalties in full, referring to the accused boyfriend of the child's mother, Horacio Insaurralde, who has been jailed already. The pastor is a woman who expressed that rapes and molestation are terrible but expressed favor in non-abortion.

She said that she was neutral and it was the family's choice not hers. She added that keeping the family's decision without any influence is important, citing the impact on the young girl's mind and the kind of life she will have.

Related article: 22-Year-Old Oklahoma Man on the Run for Abusing 6-Month-Old Baby, US Marshals on the Lookout

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Nile waters in Sudan have begun to drop after reaching record levels this year and causing deadly floods across the country, the water and irrigation ministry said on Sunday.

Heavy rains usually fall in Sudan from June to October, and the country faces severe flooding every year.

But this year officials said they had recorded the highest waters on the Blue Nile -- which joins the White Nile in the Sudanese capital Khartoum -- since records began over a century ago.

On September 7 the waters had reached 17.67 metres (58 foot), but by Sunday the level went down to 17.36, the ministry said, adding that the drop was being registered in several control stations across the country.

On Thursday the UN said that the floods had affected more than half a million people in Sudan, destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of homes and raised the risk of water-borne disease outbreaks.

According to Sudan's civil defence, at least 106 people have been killed and 54 others injured.

The disaster prompted the Sudanese government to declare a three-month state of emergency.

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Ocado sales could exceed 2billion for the first time this year after customers flocked to order food from its new partner Marks & Spencer.

Credit Suisse forecasts that the grocery delivery giant has increased sales by two thirds in the past three months to reach more than 600million.

It said this could surprise some in the City who had raised concerns about its ability to cope with high levels of demand.

Driving force: Ocado struggled to keep pace with orders during lockdown, when sales increased 44 per cent

Ocado struggled to keep pace with orders during lockdown, when sales increased 44 per cent, and it appeared be facing similar issues after the M&S launch.

But analysts at the Swiss bank said it had addressed some of its 'capacity concerns'.

Its shares have doubled in value from 10.77 in early March to 22.66, valuing the business at 17billion.

But the bank warned that the shares could now be overvalued because investors are 'overestimating' the number of future partners for its global solutions business, and underestimating 'execution risk'.
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and the coldest planet in our Solar System. Dubbed an ice giant, Uranus was discovered in the year 1781 by Sir William Herschel. It has the coldest atmosphere where the minimum temperatures are anywhere near -371 degrees Fahrenheit.

Similar to other beautiful planets and celestials, observing the Uranus can be a fun experience for stargazers. If you are looking to catch a glimpse of the ringed planet, this week will be the perfect time to do so as it has been best aligned for viewing in the late-evening sky. Read on to know how to see Uranus.

Also Read | NASA Invites Private Partners To Bid For Lunar Payload Launches Before Manned Mission

Can you see Uranus?

People who have good eyesight can observe Uranus with the naked eye. It can be a bit difficult to spot at times, however, it can be easily spotted in the event of a clear and dark sky with not much distractions. It is also good to have some knowledge beforehand where exactly you should be looking. It shines at a +5.7 magnitude and can be easily observed using binoculars. It has a greenish disk which can be seen through a telescope.

Also Read | 5 Asteroids Are Heading Towards Earth; NASA Reveals How Closely They Will Pass Us

Is Uranus visible tonight?

Uranus will be spending the entire year in the constellation of Aries, the Ram. Currently, it can be found in the constellation Aries  a few degrees towards the left of Mars. In Mumbai, it will rise on Saturday, September 12, at 21:19 IST and set on Sunday, September 13, at 10:03 IST. It will be visible to the naked eye, however, it is best to observe the planet using a pair of binoculars or a telescope.

According to timeanddate website, the planet will be visible for over 9 hours until sunrise. As per the website, the planet will have average visibility during this period, so, it is recommended that you try to observe it using binoculars or a telescope. You can get the exact time for your location by visiting the website and entering your location or region. Uranus is approximately around 1.771 billion miles from Earth during this week.

Also Read | NASA To Buy Moon Resources Mined By Private Companies; Transfer Of Ownership Before 2024

Also Read | NASA Releases Iconic Images Of Far-flung Stars, Galaxies And Supernova Explosion

Image credits: NASA/Erich Karkoschka (Univ. Arizona)
The series on Tiger King's Joe Exotic marks the first regular television role of Nicolas Cages career

Hollywood star Nicolas Cage-led scripted series about Tiger Kings Joe Exotic has landed at Amazon Studios for development.

The series, which had been in the works at CBS TV Studios, hails from Brian Grazer, American Vandal showrunner Dan Lagana, and Paul Young.

According to Variety, Amazon Studios will produce the project along with CBS TV Studios and Imagine TV.

The eight-episode series is based on Leif Reigstads June 2019 Texas Monthly article, Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild.

CBS Television bought the rights to the article in 2019.

The story focuses on around Joe Schreibvogel, aka Joe Exotic, an eccentric, exotic zookeeper in Oklahoma who fights to keep his park even at the risk of losing his sanity. The series will live in the lions den with Joe, explore how he became Joe Exotic and how he lost himself to a character of his own creation, the shows synopsis reads.

The project marks the first regular television role of Cages career. The actor will also serve as executive producer.

Netflixs Tiger King has made Joe Exotic an object of fascination and controversy. He is now known as Joseph Maldonado-Passage and is serving a federal prison sentence for his conviction in a murder-for-hire plot and for animal abuse.

(With inputs from Press Trust of India)
Image: Tut.by via AP

Viewers of a news show on Belarusian state TV got an unpleasant surprise recently when a disparaging report about protests sweeping their East European nation got the countrys name wrong. It referred to Belarus as Belorussia, a Soviet-era designation that was dropped nearly three decades ago but is still widely used in Russia.

The blunder followed a flood of Russian journalists into Belarusian state media to fill posts left vacant by locals who have quit in droves in solidarity with protesters. The slip highlighted what is now perhaps the biggest obstacle confronting opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko: They are no longer struggling against just their own president but also the Kremlin.

After more than a month of protests, there is still no clear endgame in sight for either side, with Lukashenko and his foes both insisting they can prevail but neither offering a clear and plausible path to victory  other than continued peaceful defiance by protesters and relentless repression by the government.

On Saturday in Minsk, the capital, burly security agents wearing masks to hide their identities arrested dozens of protesters attending what has become a weekly demonstration by women. Videos posted on social media showed women pulling off the masks of agents as they grabbed protesters.

But Lukashenko will have to stop eventually, said Ivan Kravtsov, the executive secretary of the oppositions Coordinating Council, a body set up last month but now denuded of its leading members by a wave of arrests and expulsions.

Kravtsov was forced to flee to Ukraine on Tuesday, leaving Svetlana Alexievich, who won the 2015 Nobel Prize in literature, as the sole member of the councils leadership now still at large inside Belarus. Unidentified men tried to enter her apartment Wednesday but she avoided detention, probably thanks to a visit by several European diplomats.

Lukashenko, Kravtsov said in a telephone interview from Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, where he is now sheltering, cannot possibly expel or jail everyone in Belarus who wants him gone, and so does not know what to do anymore. Our strategy of peaceful protest really works.

But the opposition does not seem to know what to do next either, beyond staging yet more protests and pleading, as Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the main rival to Lukashenko in a disputed Aug. 9 election, recently did from exile in Lithuania, for the United Nations to send monitors to Belarus to document the situation on the ground.

Confident that President Vladimir Putin of Russia will not, at least for the moment, let him fall, Lukashenko has no need to worry about the United Nations: Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council and can block any move that might weaken his grip.

Nor does he have to worry much about pressure from the West generally. The United States and the European Union have both condemned the violence against protesters but have taken no concrete steps to punish Lukashenko and his security officials or to support his opponents.

European leaders agreed in August to set in motion new sanctions that would include visa bans and asset freezes on selected Belarusian officials, but that plan has been stalled by Cyprus, which has entangled the issue in separate quarrels with Turkey.

The United States is also preparing to impose sanctions against individuals and business entities in Belarus. A senior U.S. official said Friday that the measures should be ready in a few days, and that they would not be held up by any delays in European sanctions.

Reluctance to take stronger and swifter action has been fueled in part by fears that support for the protest movement in Belarus would only play into the hands of Lukashenko and Putin, who have both cast protesters as tools of a Western plot to bring about a color revolution.

One way to break the stalemate that all sides, including Russia, say they could support would be constitutional changes to pave the way for new elections. But Lukashenko, having declared in August that until you kill me, there will not be any more elections, has shown no real interest in changing anything any time soon. He refuses to even talk with his foes, denouncing them as treasonous rats and tricksters who belong in jail, not at the negotiating table.

Instead, he has focused on rounding up workers who organized strikes and methodically dismantling the opposition, whose most prominent figures have, one by one, been forced to flee abroad or been thrown in jail.

Maria Kolesnikova, the last member still in the country of a trio of female activists who led an initial groundswell of opposition to Lukashenko, filed a legal complaint Thursday describing how, after being abducted Monday in Minsk by masked security officials, she had been warned that she would be forced to leave Belarus either alive or in pieces.

Having avoided expulsion by tearing up her passport at the Ukrainian border, she is now under arrest on subversion charges.

Protesters have defied expectations by turning out in huge numbers each Sunday for the past four weeks despite government threats, a feat they hope to repeat this weekend. But Lukashenko, emboldened by Russian support, has only grown more insistent that he is not going anywhere.

Speaking to state prosecutors in Minsk on Thursday, Lukashenko mocked those calling for him to leave office.

They often reproach me saying He will not give up power, he said. They are right in their reproaches. Power, he added, is not given away.

Maryna Rakhlei, a Belarusian researcher at the German Marshall Fund in Berlin who supports the protesters, conceded: It is a total deadlock. It does not look as if either side is going to give up. But, she warned, at some point there will be a mistake by either side that could turn peaceful protests into a dangerously violent confrontation.

With Russia on his side, Lukashenko seems confident he can win, either by waiting out the protesters or, in the event of a violent conflagration, crushing them with overwhelming force, as the Chinese Communist Party, the Belarusian leaders only vocal foreign supporter other than Russia, did with protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

That his fate now rests with Russia as much or more than with the people of Belarus was made clear this past week when, for his first interview since his implausible election victory with 80% of the vote, Lukashenko chose to speak not to representatives of his own countrys media but to editors from Russian state television.

Telling the Russians that only I can really protect Belarusians now, he warned: If Belarus collapses today, Russia will be next.

His opponents, who insist they have no desire to see Belarus tilt away from Russia and toward the West, as Ukraine did after it toppled its president in 2014, are hoping that Russian support is far more tentative than Lukashenko has made out.

Russia is giving only verbal support, said Kravtsov, and understands that a leader who does not have real support in his own country is not worth anything. Russia, he added, would be more comfortable with a leader who is supported by his people.

But Russia has so far shown no inclination to dump Lukashenko in favor of a more popular alternative. Although many analysts believe that Moscow will eventually cut him loose, they do not believe it would do so under pressure from the street.

While initially lukewarm in his backing of Lukashenko, with whom he has long had testy relations, Putin announced at the end of August that he had formed a reserve force of Russian security officers ready for action in Belarus if the situation gets out of control.

About the last thing Putin wants, said Nigel Gould-Davies, Britains former ambassador to Belarus and a onetime diplomat in Moscow, is to see the strongman leader of a neighboring Slavic country overthrown by peaceful people power because that would only set an example Russians might be tempted to follow.

Now it is Russia and Belarus together. There has been a visible escalation of Russian support, said Gould-Davies, a researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Lukashenko, according to the Kremlin, will visit Russia on Monday for talks with Putin on strengthening ties between the two countries.

The promise of Russian support has given Lukashenko breathing space to rethink his strategy against the protesters.

Instead of deploying wild police violence, an approach used last month that only inflamed public anger and encouraged more protests, Lukashenko is now using relentless but more targeted pressure to pick apart the protest movement. This has not stopped the protests but has stripped the movement of its leaders and also of its initial euphoric hopes that Lukashenko would fall swiftly.

Russian support, however, carries serious risks for Lukashenko, who has spent years trying to maintain a modicum of independence for Belarus from Moscow and keep Kremlin-favored Russian oligarchs from gaining control of his countrys prize economic assets, which include one the worlds largest producers of potash fertilizer.

Weakened by the protests, Lukashenko is likely to have a hard time resisting, as he has done in the past, Kremlin demands that he open his companies to Russian investors; agree to host a Russian military air base; and implement a stillborn 1990s agreement that committed Belarus and Russia to form a so-called Union State, an entity that, if ever put into effect, would largely merge the two countries.

But Gould-Davies, the former ambassador in Minsk, believes that Lukashenko, while clearly desperate, still has some leverage left with Russia.

Lukashenko knows that Moscow has no obvious trustworthy alternative and does not want to see him toppled by pressure from the street.

That is an example that would resonate very badly with the Kremlin, the former diplomat said.

Moscow, however, clearly believes it now has the upper hand. Russias official news agency, Tass, stressed in a recent analysis of Belarus that the Kremlin still wanted to form the union state with Belarus. Lukashenkos political troubles, it said, would have a certain effect on merger negotiations and on his readiness to compromise on major issues.

By Andrew Higgins

c.2020 The New York Times Company
San Francisco, Sep 13 : A hacker group is targeting porn surfers running vulnerable and older versions of Adobe Flash Player and Internet Explorer (IE) on their computers as the attackers have infected "practically all adult networks" with malware on the web.

The hacking group dubbed Malsmoke has infected popular porn sites with malicious ads, using them to attack victims with malware, according to researchers from the cyber security firm Malwarebytes.

Most exploit kits are built around vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash and Internet Explorer as most internet users have now either uninstalled Flash or moved to Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

"Despite recommendations from Microsoft and security professionals, we can only witness that there are still a number of users (consumer and enterprise) worldwide that have yet to migrate to a modern and fully supported browser," Malwarebytes said in its report.

Once a victim clicks a malicious ad, they are redirected to a page that attempts to start downloading malware if it can exploit vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer or Adobe Flash.

Microsoft has announced to end support for Adobe Flash Player on Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer 11 at the end of 2020.

There are no security updates available for Adobe's Flash Player. The last time Adobe Flash got a security update was in June this year.

Microsoft 365 apps and services will no longer support Internet Explorer 11 (IE 11) by August 17 next year, the company has announced as it pushes people to install revamped Chromium-based Edge browser.

According to ZDNet, the role of the hacker group's malicious ads was to use "JavaScript trickery and redirect users from the adult portal to a malicious site that was hosting an exploit kit".

The exploit kits would then use vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash Player or Internet Explorer to install malware on the user's computers, with the most common payloads being "Smoke Loader, Raccoon Stealer, and ZLoader".
Wavefront Technology Solutions, an oil field service provider, has entered into a non-exclusive distribution agreement in Saudi Arabia with Synergy International Energy Company.



Within Saudi Arabia coiled tubing companies providing well services to the National Oil Company (NOC) are limited in their market access, i.e., no single coiled tubing company has access to all oil and gas fields or wells. Beyond the Companys control, Wavefront had seen its Powerwave technology product line activity decline under its past exclusive distributor, a coiled tubing company.



In engaging Synergy as Wavefronts non-exclusive distributor, it is postulated that it will reduce reliance on any one coiled tubing company and increase market penetration of Wavefronts technology in the Kingdom by accessing all thirteen registered coiled tubing companies providing oil and gas well stimulation services to the NOC across all oil and gas field assets.



We are very pleased to be working with Synergy who has a solid track record in representing international companies in the Kingdom, said Wavefront President and CEO Brett Davidson.



Wavefront has generated impressive results with the NOC and in many instances Powerwave is requested as the technology of choice by engineers of the NOC. We are very confident that Powerwave technology will continue to deliver outstanding results to the NOC and we will be able to more fully commercialize Powerwave in the Kingdom and grow the Companys bottom-line results.  TradeArabia News Service
- Defeating illness is one of the things worth celebrating in life, and a 14-year-old girl identified as Queen has just done that

- The teenager took to her Twitter page to disclose that she was diagnosed with lymphoma eight months ago and that she has beaten the cancer

- Tweeps flooded her comment section to congratulate her for giving the cancer a bloody nose

Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in

A 14-year-old Zimbabwean girl simply identified as Queen has taken to Twitter to disclose how she defeated lymphoma.

According to Mayo Clinic, lymphoma is a cancer of the lymphatic system, which is part of the body's germ-fighting network.

Queen with the Twitter handle @Melissatana11 said she was diagnosed with lymphoma eight months ago, adding that she had her chemotherapy and God came through for her.

READ ALSO: Church member reveals how Ps Sylvester snatched his wife from her ex (video)

Queen says she was diagnosed with lymphoma eight months ago and that she has beaten the cancer. Photo credit: @Melissatana11/Twitter

Source: UGC

She tweeted: "I am only 14 years old and 8 months ago I got diagnosed with lymphoma cancer. I Had my chemo, God came through and I beat it."

Tweeps took to the comment section of her tweet to congratulate her on her victory against cancer.

READ ALSO: I warned him this would happen - Ps Sylvester Ofori's spiritual father who resides in Ghana speaks in video

Robert Makuku with the Twitter handle @RobertMakuku wrote: "God is great, and to you thanks for being strong. Stay brave and positive."

Another Twitter user with the handle @PertuniaHleta wrote: "You're the light and a survivor. Glory be to the lord for your life."

@Tshidax61 wrote: "Praise to God. Stay strong. Upward and forward mogirl."

@simelanemlu wrote: "Bless you. May you continue being a living testimony and an inspiration to many. Keep shining."

Below are other reactions:

In other news, a Lashawn Flowers, a hardworking Black woman who gave birth when she was only 16, now works together with the baby girl she gave birth to as joint-CEOs.

According to a report by Blackbusiness.com, the 51-year-old mother and her 35-year-old daughter named Shanita Vickers just bought themselves two Black-owned gas stations in South Florida, United States.

As Shell franchisees, the two are making history as women entrepreneurs and causing quite a stir on social media.

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John Mahama's emotional moment on stage at the NDC's manifesto launch | #Yencomgh

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Adam Driver is a talented actor who has taken on comedic roles, like hosting Saturday Night Live; serious roles, as seen in Marriage Story; and villainous roles, like Kylo Ren. With such a varying work portfolio, its hard to classify Driver as a particular actor. Still, some people categorize him as an intense actor. Driver doesnt get it.

Adam Driver | Mike Marsland/WireImage

Adam Driver has taken on a variety of roles, from Star Wars villain to Colorado police officer

As a kid, Driver would watch grownup movies that his father shared with him, including Predator and Total Recall.

We didnt travel  no one could afford to go to Europe, so for me and my friends, our access to the outside world came through films, he explained to The Telegraph. Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, and going to the movies were pretty much our only avenue to get out of this really depressed, industrial town.

Drivers love of film translated into his desire to become an actor, but his career got a later start than most. After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, he joined the Marines. After serving for over two years, he was medically discharged from a mountain biking injury. It was then that Driver enrolled in the Juilliard School.

After graduating from Juilliard, Driver went on to do Broadway and off-Broadway productions. His first on-screen performance was in The Unusuals, followed by his breakout role as Adam Sackler on the HBO series Girls. Today, Driver is best known for roles in films like Star Wars and Inside Llewyn Davis.

Many people classify Adam Driver as an intense actor

A lot of people consider Driver to be an attractive actor. Others consider him to be somewhat of an intense actor. Thats likely because of the darker, heavier roles he takes on, like Star Wars Kylo Ren or even Charlie Barber in Marriage Story.

I dont understand what that means, Driver told Vulture regarding how people classify him.

[Does it mean] that I show up on set and glare at people? he continued. That before every scene Im like, I need to fire off a rocket really quick and then Ill come back and act? That I carry around cold cuts that I smash before every scene?

Adam Driver doesnt think hes intense at all

Ironically, Driver doesnt view himself as an intense actor.

I dont think of myself as an intense person, he elaborated. If what Im doing is so abnormal that its intense  yeah, I have no idea.

RELATED: Adam Driver Says Being an Actor Only Requires 10 Percent Acting  the Rest Is Bullsh*t

Driver isnt a method actor, either. Instead, he focuses on the task at hand. I like to stay focused on set, but its not because I have a process that Im imposing on everybody else, he said. Sometimes you have to be more focused in between scenes because whats happening is that.

Driver specifically cited the set of Star Wars, where its pure comedy in between takes. More specifically: Its stormtroopers running into walls because they cant see through their helmets. So I dont know where the intense thing came from.

Regardless of how Driver views himself as an actor, fans are delighted by his work and looking forward to his future projects.
(Newser)  Wendy Jerome was brutally raped, killed, and left by a dumpster 35 years agoa crime officials say has finally been solved with DNA testing, CNN reports. The news emerged at an emotional press conference Friday in Rochester, New York. "I never thought I would see this day, and now it's here," said Wendy's mother, Marlene Jerome. "I just wish my husband had been alive to see this." Suspect Timothy Williams, 56, was arrested Wednesday at his residence in Melbourne, Florida, and charged with second-degree murder, the Democrat & Chronicle reports. Officials relied on DNA taken from semen during an autopsy, but a 1999 search on the FBI's DNA database came up cold. Then came a "familial DNA" test.

story continues below

Approved by New York law in 2017, familial DNA searches can identify the suspect's family members and generate new leads. In this case, officials say Williams lived near Wendy when she vanished on Thanksgiving Day 1984 while delivering a birthday card to her closest friend. The 14-year-old died "from massive blunt force trauma as well as multiple lacerations about her body," said Rochester Police Capt. Frank Umbrino at the press conference, per 13WHAM. "Honestly the extent of the injuries are too horrendous to talk about here. What it is safe to say is that Wendy did put up a fight." His voice breaking, he added: "Marlene, I'm sorry it took so long, but we finally did it," and embraced her. Officials say Williams was later confirmed with a second DNA sample. (Read more cold cases stories.)
Sure, it might be warm Wednesday, but what about the rest of the week?
This article is the fifth in a series that focuses on your childs transition back to school. The series will run throughout August and into September. Go to www.loveparenting.ie to read earlier articles in the series and to access online supports and resources relating to your childs return to school.

The coronavirus has turned family life upside down. Families have had to change and adapt and develop new routines.

Children with additional needs and their families have faced lots of changes in their daily lives: doing school work at home, parents taking on the role of teacher, less social contact and less exposure to the community.

All these changes may have affected your child positively or negatively. For example, a child who found the demands of school difficult may have enjoyed being at home, whereas a child who needs structure and routine may have found changes difficult to adapt to.

As a parent of a child with additional needs, you may have many questions and concerns around returning to school. It is normal for change and uncertainty to cause anxiety in both parents and children. Children with additional needs may find it difficult to control and talk about their emotions.

You may see changes in their behaviour e.g. more meltdowns, withdrawn behaviour, sleep and routine issues, more aches and pains, increase in habits/mannerisms e.g. lining things up.

If you are concerned that your child may be very anxious when they return to school:

Q It is important to talk to your childs teacher.

Q Acknowledge your childs feelings to help them feel understood. You can use picture cards to help talk about feelings with your child.

Q Use relaxation exercises e.g. exercise, taking deep breaths, blowing bubbles, colouring etc.

Q Try some relaxation and mindfulness apps, e.g. Calm app, Breathing Bubbles app, Dreamy Kid app.

Q Spend time with your child doing something fun.

Q Keep things calm and predictable at home, show the routine with a visual schedule.

Some children might have developed specific fears related to Covid-19, such as a fear of masks, fear of germs and touching surfaces. Other children may be very focussed on the rules around Covid-19 like social distancing. This might result in them behaving as though they were a mini policeman and correcting others.

There are different ways to help your child with these behaviours e.g. social stories. Check out www.mwcds.ie or www.asiam.ie for more information on social stories. Go to www.vimeo.com/410089106 where Edinburgh Childrens Hospital Charity provides a child friendly video explaining why we need to wear PPE.

This article was contributed by clinicians working with West Limerick Childrens Service Early Intervention Team. West Limerick Childrens Service is a member of Parenting Limerick, a network of parenting and family support organisations. For more information on this and other topics go to www.loveparenting.ie.
Two inmates including a rape accused allegedly escaped from a jail in Dewas district, 153 kilometres south east of Bhopal on Saturday night, police said on Sunday.

According to police, the two jail inmates, both undertrials- Chhote Lal and Mukesh, both residents of Uday Nagar, scaled the wall of the jail with the help of a rope made of pieces of blankets, said police.

Additional superintendent of police, Dewas Suryakant Sharma said, The rape accused Chhotelal was lodged in the jail since August 26 while Mukesh was brought to the jail on August 21. Both cut blankets into several pieces to make a rope with the same and scale the wall of the sub-jail.

The police officer said, An FIR was lodged on the complaint of the jail authorities. Several teams of police have been formed to nab the accused. However, no arrest has been made so far.

Earlier, in the second week of August four undertrials escaped another sub-jail in Indore, the neighbouring district of Dewas by scaling the 17-foot wall. However, all the four were captured by jail staffers with the help of villagers who raised an alarm on seeing them outside the jail. All the four accused were allegedly involved in kidnapping and murder of a businessman, according to police.

As per National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)s prison statistics of India, 2018 report as many as 673 prisoners including 14 from Madhya Pradesh escaped during 2018 of whom 113 escapees had escaped from the police custody and 560 escaped from judicial custody. Of those who escaped from judicial custody 52 escaped from inside jail during the year.
Charles Ollivon (R) captained France during the opening rounds of this year's Six Nations

France will face Fiji, Italy and Scotland during November's 'Eight Nations' tournament, AFP learned on Tuesday.

Les Bleus will finish their Six Nations campaign by hosting Ireland on October 31 ahead of the competition.

Fabien Galthie's side will host the Pacific Islanders on November 15, travel to Edinburgh a week later and welcome the Azzurri seven days afterwards.

Georgia have been invited to feature to replace Japan, sources have told AFP, and will face England, Wales and Ireland.

Galthie's men will face Wales in a warm-up on October 24 before the new tournament which ends on the weekend of December 5-6 with play-offs to decide the final standings.

mca/ll/iwd/lp
OSHAWA, Ont. - Funeral arrangements have been announced for the four family members who were slain in their Oshawa, Ont., home earlier this month.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 12/9/2020 (496 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Durham Police forensics truck sits in front of a home on Parklane Avenue in Oshawa, Ont. on Friday, September 4, 2020. Funeral arrangements have been announced for the four family members who were slain in their Oshawa, Ont., home earlier this month. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

OSHAWA, Ont. - Funeral arrangements have been announced for the four family members who were slain in their Oshawa, Ont., home earlier this month.

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The Oshawa Funeral Home says on its website that a drive past visitation for Chris Traynor, his sons Bradley and Joey and his daughter Adelaide, will held on Sept. 16 at 10 a.m. A private funeral and interment will be held the following day.

Loretta Traynor, the children's mother and Chris's wife, was seriously injured in the Sept. 4 mass shooting.

A fourth child, Sam, wasn't home at the time of the incident but is now by his mother's side.

Police say the attacker, 48-year-old Mitchell Lapa of Winnipeg, was a relative of the family and an "uninvited person" to the home.

He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2020.
On 3 June a trial was launched in the UK to test whether ibuprofen can help Covid-19 patients with breathing difficulties.

The team of researchers from King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas' hospital hope the treatment, if successful, could keep patients off ventilators and reduce hospital stays.

But this follows months of suggestions that ibuprofen was more dangerous than paracetamol for those with the virus.

On 17 March, the UKs chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said the sensible thing would be to avoid ibuprofen if you have coronavirus.

How photographer captured baby image in coronavirus lockdown Show all 12 1 /12 How photographer captured baby image in coronavirus lockdown How photographer captured baby image in coronavirus lockdown Photos Reuters How photographer captured baby image in coronavirus lockdown Reuters How photographer captured baby image in coronavirus lockdown Reuters How photographer captured baby image in coronavirus lockdown Reuters How photographer captured baby image in coronavirus lockdown Reuters How photographer captured baby image in coronavirus lockdown Reuters How photographer captured baby image in coronavirus lockdown Reuters How photographer captured baby image in coronavirus lockdown Reuters How photographer captured baby image in coronavirus lockdown Reuters How photographer captured baby image in coronavirus lockdown Reuters How photographer captured baby image in coronavirus lockdown Reuters How photographer captured baby image in coronavirus lockdown Reuters

This followed comments made by French authorities warning that people shouldnt be taking anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen and instead should be relying solely on paracetamol.

The NHS never updated its advice to say people should avoid ibuprofen - instead saying you should self-isolate and avoid antibiotics.

So is ibuprofen safe to take if you have coronavirus?

Why are we talking about paracetamol and ibuprofen with regards to Covid-19?

On 14 March the French health minister, Olivier Veran, tweeted: The taking of anti-inflammatories could be a factor in aggravating the infection.

In case of fever, take paracetamol. If you are already taking anti-inflammatory drugs, ask your doctors advice.

It is not clear whether Verans tweet was based on evidence from Covid-19 cases in France explicitly, or more generally on some studies which have previously suggested that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (known as NSAIDs) can weaken the immune system  something which could be dangerous when your body is trying to fight off the coronavirus.

So should people in the UK with suspected coronavirus be buying paracetamol rather than anti-inflammatory drugs? And if you do take anti-inflammatories, is this a problem or just less effective than paracetamol?

Is paracetamol safer than ibuprofen?

Public Health England (PHE) told The Independent there is not currently enough information on ibuprofen use and Covid-19 to advise people to stop using ibuprofen.

A spokesperson said: Currently there is no published scientific evidence that ibuprofen increases the risk of catching Covid-19 or makes the illness worse. There is also no conclusive evidence that taking ibuprofen is harmful for other respiratory infections.

They add that patients who have been prescribed NSAIDs for other long-term health problems should continue to take them as prescribed.

Dr Rupert Beale, group leader in cell biology of infection at The Francis Crick Institute agrees that there isnt any widely accepted additional reason to avoid it [NSAID drugs] for Covid-19. He adds: Patients taking cortisone or other steroids should not stop them except on advice from their doctor.

On 14 April, the government's website published an update on research into the topic, stating: "The Commission of Human Medicines (CHM) Expert Working Group on coronavirus (COVID-19) has concluded that there is currently insufficient evidence to establish a link between use of ibuprofen, or other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and susceptibility to contracting COVID-19 or the worsening of its symptoms.

Are there risks to taking ibuprofen for Covid-19?

PHE says there is currently no evidence that ibuprofen can make Covid-19 worse.

But Dr Tom Wingfield, senior clinical lecturer and honorary consultant physician at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, says that paracetamol may be preferable because it is less likely to cause side effects if taken over a long period.

Dr Wingfield says: In the UK, paracetamol would generally be preferred over non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) such as ibuprofen to relieve symptoms caused by infection such as fever. This is because, when taken according to the manufacturers instructions in terms of timing and maximum dosage, it is less likely to cause side effects.

The NHS says possible side effects of NSAIDs when taken for any length of time, include indigestion, stomach ulcers, headaches, drowsiness, dizziness, allergic reactions and in rare cases problem with your liver or kidneys.

Dr Charlotte Warren-Gash, associate professor of epidemiology at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine agrees that if people have underlying health conditions they should take NSAIDs with caution.

In England, NICE recommends prescribing the lowest dose for the shortest duration to prevent adverse effects such as gastrointestinal bleeding and cardiovascular or kidney problems, she says.

Should I switch to paracetamol?

Both Dr Wingfield and Dr Warren-Gash agree it is not clear whether the advice given by French health minister Olivier Veran to switch to paracetamol is just following generic good practice guidelines or specifically related to data emerging from cases of Covid-19.

For COVID-19, research is needed into the effects of specific NSAIDs among people with different underlying health conditions, which takes into account the severity of infection, says Warren-Gash.

For now Public Health England says that people should not be worried about taking ibuprofen: Most people with Covid-19 will have a mild illness and some people may need to take medicines, such as paracetamol or ibuprofen, to help with raised temperature, headache and other pains; always follow the instructions on the label if you do take these medicines and do not exceed the stated dose.

On 16 April, the NHS updated its guidance on whether patients with coronavirus symptoms should take paracetamol or ibuprofen.

"The Commission on Human Medicines has now confirmed that there is no clear evidence that using ibuprofen to treat symptoms such as a high temperature can make coronavirus (Covid-19) worse," the health service wrote on its website.

"You can take paracetamol or ibuprofen to treat the symptoms of coronavirus. We recommend that you try paracetamol first, it has fewer side effects than ibuprofen and is the safer choice for most people."

The NHS added you should "always follow the instructions that come with your medicine".
Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton was still in law school when the Twin Towers collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001, literally shaking Manhattan and claiming the lives of nearly 3,000 Americans.

As a Harvard law student in his early twenties, Cottons life took a big turn on that day. He had planned on being a lawyer. But like thousands of other Americans, Cotton set his own life plans aside after that day and patriotically joined the military in the War on Terror.

Its been 19 years since the towers fell. In an interview with Breitbart on Friday, Cotton mentioned a notable contrast in the way 9/11 had once unified the nation compared to the division in America today, now facing a pandemic and civil unrest.

In this screenshot from the RNCs livestream of the 2020 Republican National Convention, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) addresses the virtual convention on Aug. 27, 2020. (Courtesy of the Committee on Arrangements for the 2020 Republican National Committee via Getty Images)

Even though we had just lost 3,000 Americans in the first attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor, Cotton said, [] Americans felt more confidence and more optimistic about the future of their country than they had anytime previously in my lifetime. I think thats unfortunately been lacking.

The pandemic in recent months has become the latest issue weaponized to further divide the nation along political lines. But, says the senator, no American ought to be blamed for what originated in a foreign land:

No one in America is responsible for the pandemic we face. Plenty of leaders, Democrat and Republican alike, have had missteps in it. Weve tried to correct those to improve conditions. Whos ultimately responsible for [] 9/11 is a foreign adversary. This time its the Chinese Communist Party, that time its Al-Qaeda.

Recalling that day back in law schoolin the days before the Flood, before Wi-Fi and smartphones, he saidCotton was sitting in evidence class on the morning of 9/11. He and his classmates had no idea that anything had happened until they got out of class and saw hundreds of students gathered with shocked looks on their faces.

And I remember being back in the Student Union just in time to see the second tower collapse, Cotton said.

I was in law school finishing up my last year, I was going to go on to be a lawyer, but from that day forward, I resolved that I wanted to serve in our military and go overseas to defend America and defend our freedom.

People walk outside Harvard Law Schools Langdell Hall on May 10, 2010, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. (Darren McCollester/Getty Images)

Smoke pours from the World Trade Center after it was hit by two planes Sept. 11, 2001, in New York City. (Robert Giroux/Getty Images)

A more normal approach, he said, would have been to join the military and use the GI Bill to go to university or college and come out with a degree and no loans. Cottons method was the opposite. I guess you might say the less intelligent way, he joked. But it actually wasnt that unusual in the days and months following 9/11, as there were many Americans who heeded the call to defend their nation as Senator Cotton had, putting their lives aside.

I met a remarkably diverse array of young men and women who did take very unusual paths who did give up a tremendous amount of opportunities: whether they were in business already, or on an academic path at a prestigious university, or working as lawyers, people who had been on active duty in the 90s who had left but stayed in the Reserves and they volunteered to mobilize, he recounted.

So, there are literally thousands of people who took very unusual paths in the country all because of what happened 19 years ago today, he added.

Nor was his decision even a difficult one to make. Just the opposite.

At first it was a little bit tougher not to rush out and do it right away, the Republican senator told the news outlet. I did consider that, as so many people did in the fall of 2001. But some friends of minefriends who had been in RTC for instance and gone on into the Army or friends who previously served in Armythey encouraged me to take a knee and collect my thoughts, as we said in the Army, pointing out that: the Army has been around for a very long time; it probably wasnt going to go anywhere; and our enemies werent going anywhere; and if I quit law school after taking out three years worth of loans and not getting a degree, my loans probably not going to go anywhere on a lieutenant salary, either.

He joked: Once I was clearing about $400 a month in basic training, I appreciated the point they had made.

A detachment of the 82nd Airborne Division stands at attention before a U.S. flag flying at half-mast at an afternoon ceremony Sept. 11, 2002, at Orgun-e forward base in Afghanistan. (Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

As it happened, patiently waiting paid off for the ardent young law student. After three years, finishing law school, and paying off loans, Cotton finally joined the Army.

And as he later found out, waiting afforded him another benefit: maturity.

It really gave me time also to grow up a little bit more, and not just put financial affairs in order, the senator said. But being more mature leaders that join the Army, we entrust our young lieutenants and young sergeants with a tremendous degree of responsibility at a very young age. I know for sure that I was a much better platoon leader in Iraq at age 29 then I would have been an age 23.

We would love to hear your stories! You can share them with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.nyc
Last week, the Central African country of Zambia was thrown into mourning. President Edgar Lungu led a government delegation to express his condolences. The opposition did similarly. The CSOs were also there. Indeed, the whole of Zambia was there. Zambia was united in grief at the Copper Belt University, Kitwe, Zambias second-biggest University.



Mafishi (Big Fish)



The deceased was neither professor nor student. The deceased was a fish! Yesfish! Mafishi which translates Big Fish was said to be about twenty-two years old and had lived all its life in a fish pond at the university. Mafishi had assumed iconic status because it was seen as bringing good luck to students during their examinations. Its interesting dance moves also relieved students of stress.



Same Period Home



During the same period in Ghana, a frustrated news presenter analysing events of the week asked what is wrong with us? At a time the death of a fish had brought Zambians together in mourning, we were busy tearing each other apart and mudslinging at the highest level simply for power, when the Bagre Dam spillage was killing Ghanaians! Divisive language that will only ruin us as a nation flowed freely!



A tit-for-tat game given the name equalization has replaced rational objective commonsensical thinking.





The Generals chat



While doing my cadet training overseas in the early 1970s, a General I sat next to at a function asked what my country Ghanas largest export was. Cocoa, I said. Smiling, he said no, try again! When I said cocoa, he shook his head and asked me to try the third time. I told him if he gave me a hundred chances, my answer would be cocoa. He then pointed his index finger at his head! When I asked what that meant, he simply said brains!



He then educated me that, there were top Ghanaian engineers in the Detroit automobile industry, in Medicine, Science and Technology as well as in the Arts in the US. He added that there were Ghanaians in NASA sending astronauts to space and back.



Ghana-Malaysia



Having had the opportunity of traveling the world, I have no doubt about what the General said about Ghanas brains. So my question, why is our per capita income $ US2,223 while Malaysias is $US11,137 when both countries gained independence from Britain in 1957? Worse still, why are we busy insulting one another in the full glare of the world simply because we must have power?



ECOWAS Presidency



At a meeting in Niamey, Niger during the week, the ECOWAS presidency moving to Ghana made no news. A radio submission was that, if Ghana could suggest that another statue be added to that of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia simply with the aim of reducing his iconic stature, to the disbelief of Africans, why should Ghanaians jubilate over an appointment which is only rotational? I felt sad being a Ghanaian, and wondered if Ghanaians love Ghana.



Short memories



Ghanaians have also been told we have short memories! Therefore we can be told anything and we shall soon forget. However, that claim reminds me of my experience as a lieutenant in the Sinai desert, Egypt while on UN peacekeeping in 1975.



A senior colleague, a captain who did Latin as one of his A Level subjects always impressed us with his wits. As we listened to him attentively one day he told us this.



In life, when somebody takes you for a fool, make him aware that, you might not be as foolish as he thinks you are. You have only chosen to look so for the sake of peace. But at the appropriate time, show him that he was wrong in taking you for a fool!



Ghanaians certainly do not have short memories! When appropriate, they demonstrate their ability not to forget.



Conclusion



After the 2016 elections, I had calls from friends from other African countries congratulating Ghana for once again demonstrating leadership. The question is, do we always have to pull back from the brink after such heightened insecurity and fear?



In these covidian times, we must put Ghana before all other considerations. We have been a beacon as the Black Star of Africa. We must not allow self-centredness, exploiting petty tribalism to disunite us. We grew up in boarding schools as brothers/sisters unconcerned about tribe.



Perhaps we can learn from Zambia where a dead fish brought humans of all persuasions together.



Ghana is too blessed with human and natural resources to allow our disintegration based on petty selfish considerations of tribe, religion, politics etc. Remember, HUMILTY pays!



Fellow Ghanaians, WAKE UP!





Brig Gen Dan Frimpong (Rtd)



Former CEO, African Peace Support Trainers Association

Source: Brig Gen Dan Frimpong (Rtd)









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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Looks like voters casting mail-in ballots in the November general election either will have to rely on the U.S. Postal Service or drive to the Bexar County Elections Departments office west of downtown to drop their ballots.

Proposed ballot drop-off locations in the community are a no-go this election cycle under Texas election laws. But we think satellite elections offices should be considered in the future as ballot drop-off sites.

In light of guidance I have received from the Texas Secretary of States Office, I have concluded that drop box type mail ballot drop-off locations are not currently authorized under existing Texas election law, District Attorney Joe Gonzales said in an opinion issued Aug. 27.

At issue was the wording in the Elections Code, which states a ballot must be submitted to the early voting clerks office specifically as opposed to being submitted to the clerk.

The secretary of states office determined that because the code explicitly mentions the building and not a person, it would not be possible to interpret that any deputy early voting clerk may accept a voted ballot by mail.

The opinion came in response to a question posed by Precinct 2 Bexar County Commissioner Justin Rodriguez, who is seeking to expand voting options due to COVID-19. Rodriguez was specifically asking if the county could establish drop-off locations for mail ballots in the community.

On ExpressNews.com: Records: Texas assistant AG who lost job over tweets was fired, had been warned about social media

Gonzales legal conclusion leaves the door open for the county to establish election branch offices that also could serve as ballot drop-off locations in future elections.

These branch locations would operate like satellite elections offices.

Rodriguez said this is an idea worth exploring, but it wont be a quick turnaround project. In an optimum situation, he said, the county would establish a branch elections office in each of the four county precincts to make it more convenient for residents to conduct election-related business without having to drive downtown.

The commissioner said he is pleased there might be a way to expand ballot drop-off options for voters in future elections.

It may not be a practical setup at this point, but I just wanted to clarify that nothing Im asking for is illegal under the Election Code, Rodriguez said.

All ideas making it easier for voters to cast their ballots are worth exploring.
A box truck is loaded with supplies for victims of Hurricane Laura at the Christs Community Church in Denham Springs. Members of the church, who recalled receiving assistance from other areas in the aftermath of the floods of 2016 that inundated Livingston Parish, gathered together to pay forward that assistance by rushing to the aid of the hurricane that devastated the Lake Charles area in late August. Teams from the church made repeated trips to the area affected by the hurricane.
Police are asking for the publics help after two men were shot in Salem County on Saturday evening, leaving one of the victims in critical condition.

The men, who were traveling in a car eastbound on Route 49 in Quinton Township, were attempting to make a left turn into the Hudocks Custard Stand parking lot around 5:15 p.m. when someone fired multiple shots at the vehicle from another car, striking the 20-year-old driver and a 23-year-old passenger, according to a New Jersey State Police spokesman.

The passenger was airlifted to Cooper University Hospital, Camden, where he was listed in critical but stable condition Sunday. The driver was treated at Salem Medical Center and released.

Three backseat passengers were not injured.

The shots were fired from a vehicle described as a tan or brown sedan, police said.

No additional details were released.

Anyone with information is asked to contact troopers at the Woodstown Station at 856-769-0775.

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

Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com.
Why Zoom Can't Save the World



By Ricardo Hausmann



CAMBRIDGE  Before COVID-19, spending on business travel totaled $1.5 trillion a year (about 1.7 percent of world GDP). Now it is down to a trickle, as countries have closed their borders and social distancing has taken hold. Planes have been grounded, hotels are closed, and executives are not earning frequent flier miles. Many travel and hospitality jobs are feeling the consequences. But if this were all there was to it, the impact, however large, would probably be much smaller than the decline in general international tourism and easily reversible, once the pandemic is over.



Alas, recent research by Harvard's Frank Neffke, Michele Coscia of IT University in Copenhagen, and me, just published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Human Behavior, finds that the impact of closing down business travel may be much larger and more durable. To understand why, we first must ask ourselves why business travel was so big to begin with. And why had it been growing at three times the rate of global GDP, despite the availability of Skype, Facetime, WhatsApp, or just e-mail  all tools that predate both COVID-19 and Zoom?



Was it all about perks, or was that $1.5 trillion mostly money well spent? If so, why, and what are the implications if those activities are now restricted?



Clearly, when we started this research, we could not have imagined such a complete shutdown of business travel. But our analysis does shed light on the possible consequences.



At the time, we were studying technological diffusion. Technology, we argue, is really three types of knowledge: embodied knowledge in tools; codified knowledge in codes, recipes, formulas, algorithms, and how-to-do manuals; and tacit knowledge in brains. Of the three, tools and codes are easy to move around, but knowhow moves very slowly from brain to brain through a long process of imitation, repetition, and feedback, as when learning to speak a new language or to play a musical instrument.



As Malcolm Gladwell argues in his book Outliers, it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become good at something. Faced with the difficulty of moving knowhow from brain to brain, people long ago figured out that it was much easier to just move the brains. Many scholars, including us, had studied the movement of knowhow between firms, regions, and countries through labor mobility, migration and diasporas.



But what about business travel? In previous work, we had shown that it is poorly correlated with trade or even new flows of foreign direct investment. It seems to be much more closely correlated with the number of establishments in one country that are owned by firms in another country.



According to Dun & Bradstreet, there are 1.5 million such establishments in the world. To run a firm, you need not only information, but also the capacity to figure things out. You need knowhow. One of the advantages of multinational corporations and global consulting, accounting, and law firms is that they can move that capacity to different points in their network.



With anonymized and aggregated data on business travel provided by the MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth, we were able to figure out if business travel was important in technological diffusion by making knowhow available to recipient countries. That is exactly what we found. Business travel from countries that are good in a particular industry translates into higher productivity, employment, and exports in those industries in the recipient country in the subsequent three years. Moreover, the variation in business travel associated with differences in bilateral visa regimes enables us to interpret this relationship not just as a correlation, but as a causal link.



The countries that benefit the most from inflows of knowhow through business travel are Austria, Ireland, Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, Hong Kong, and Singapore. There are no developing countries among the top 25 recipients. The best performers in the developing world are Panama, Uruguay, Serbia, Malaysia, South Africa, and Chile. The countries that share their knowledge more profusely are Germany, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea, France, and Japan. India, Brazil, and China rank 12th, 15th, and 17th, respectively.



According to our estimates, a complete permanent shutdown of international business travel would shrink global GDP by over 17 percent of GDP, an order of magnitude larger than the 1.7 percent of GDP that was being spent in 2018, before the pandemic. The worst-affected countries would be those that currently benefit the most from inflows of knowhow.



The pre-Covid-19 world as we knew it increasingly relied on the ability to source knowhow globally. Economies that were able to connect to these knowhow flows benefited from higher productivity, output, and exports. Much of the developing world was quite peripheral to these flows, but whatever they got was still very important for their diversification and development.



Many people, including me, are finding that they can be as productive working from home and connecting through Zoom as they were in the office or traveling for business. But this may be a short-term illusion that varies significantly by activity. The International Monetary Fund has been able to disburse financial assistance to many countries quickly, by doing deskwork, talking through Webex, and then just wiring funds. But development banks have had much more trouble putting together infrastructure projects, where physical presence is unavoidable. Local firms have had trouble building structures, repairing equipment, or figuring out how to improve operations without access to global in-person knowhow.



Our research implies that the world will pay a significant price for the shutdown of business travel, which will become apparent through lower post-crisis productivity growth, employment and output. Time is a non-renewable resource and the lost travel is not coming back, even if future travel returns to normal. Although the shutdown of travel is unavoidable, given the public-health imperative, the costs are real.



These costs will rise further if we forgo the global investments in vaccinations and certifications, needed to reopen travel safely as quickly as possible. And, obviously, countries will pay an even higher price if they use COVID-19 as an excuse to advance a restrictive visa agenda, as U.S. President Donald Trump's administration tried to do by restricting professional visas and barring foreign students whose campuses do not reopen in the fall.



To be sure, the pandemic and technologies such as Zoom is likely to show that some business travel will really not be necessary. But our research suggests that moving brains to share knowhow will be just as crucial in the post-COVID-19 world as it was before, and that the consequences of shutting down business travel will be long-lived.



Ricardo Hausmann, a former minister of planning of Venezuela and former chief economist at the Inter-American Development Bank, is a professor at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and director of the Harvard Growth Lab. This article was distributed by Project Syndicate (www.project-syndicate.org)




By Express News Service

BENGALURU: The Janata Dal (Secular) on Saturday hit out at Congress leader Zameer Ahmed Khan for dragging the party into a controversy over his visit to Sri Lanka. Defending his visit to Colombo, Khan had said he had visited the city several times even with Kumaraswamy and other JDS MLAs.

Reacting to this, in a series of tweets, former CM Kumaraswamy said it is not correct to link the 2014 visit to Sri Lanka for discussing the partys political strategy to the present situation. JDS MLAs, MLCs and he had visited Colombo in 2014. We did not hide it and I had spoken to the media before and after visiting Colombo... we had even sent the clippings of our meeting to the media, Kumaraswamy tweeted.

Since the cost of Goa resorts and Colombo was almost the same, we decided to opt for the latter. This was my first and last visit to Colombo, he stated. Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar, who is in Chikkaballapura, asked if being a minority was a tag for protection. Zameer had earlier alleged he was being targeted for being a minority.

Sudhakar said the BJP government will take action against all involved in the drugs case despite their financial status, community or religion. Responding to Congress leader Siddaramaiahs statement that the BJP government is misusing drug probe, he questioned why the previous government hadnt taken action.

He said the government will take action no matter how powerful the people are and said that the CM and the Home Minister have taken important steps in this regard. Jumping to his party MLAs defence, senior Congress leader H K Patil said, Zameer has said if allegations against him are proven, he will write his property to the State government.
I am no fan of Donald Trump, but as a veteran his outrageous comments about and attitude toward the military have made me angrier than normal. How dare he denigrate our service whether in popular or unpopular wars?

I am not a loser or a sucker. I am a decorated Vietnam vet who is proud of his service, even in a bad war. I didnt try to get out of military service with bone spurs. In 1968 I was drafted into a war I opposed, yet I served honourably in the 9th Signal Battalion, 9th Infantry Division in Dong Tam, Mekong Delta, becoming a Specialist Five and earning the Army Commendation Medal and Bronze Star.

Throughout my year in Vietnam I put up with a lot more than wet hair, which was Trumps excuse for not visiting a war cemetery in France in 2018, the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. Other world leaders went to the cemetery.

My unit was located right next to a hospital and we saw a daily parade of medevac Huey Slick helicopters bringing wounded and dead soldiers from the field. They were not losers or suckers either. Nor were the medical professionals who treated them, most of whom had likely volunteered for that duty. I am sure the president has no understanding of volunteering, especially at the risk of life or higher income.

While in Vietnam I found time to visit an orphanage, taking food and toys and, perhaps most importantly, some attention to these sad little war orphans. Has Trump ever been to an orphanage? Of course not. That would require compassion and empathy, of which he has exactly none. And what about the police? Are they suckers and losers for choosing to serve their community and sometimes making the ultimate sacrifice? Not in my book.

The loser in this scenario is the traitorous Putin Puppet. Loser? The president should look in the mirror (something Im sure he does often enough). And want to see suckers? Look at the adoring crowds at those rallies.

When I was in the Army we had an ongoing, friendly feud with the Marines, each branch thinking it superior to the other. But the cemetery that Trump didnt want to be bothered to visit is hallowed ground for them. So as an Army vet, I salute them with their battle cry: Oorah!

This may seem like an old vet venting. Well, we vets are determined to get Trump and his enablers out of office. Democrats Abroad, of which I am a Toronto member, has a Veterans and Military Families Caucus. We are working overtime all across the world to save our democracy from this hateful administration.

Any American citizen living abroad can vote in U.S. elections, usually in the state where they last lived. For more information, visit the website for Vote From Abroad (votefromabroad.org) Beware, Cadet Bonespurs! We are not going down without a fight!

David Markham is a dual U.S./Canada citizen, retired teacher and noted historian and author. He is also a lifelong Democratic activist.

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DUBAI (Reuters) - Oman welcomes Bahrain's decision to normalise relations with Israel and hopes it will contribute to Israeli-Palestinian peace, Oman state media said on Sunday.

Bahrain on Friday became the second Gulf country to normalise ties with Israel after the United Arab Emirates said they would do so a month ago, moves forged partly through shared fears of Iran. [nL8N2G83Z3]

"[Oman] hopes this new strategic path taken by some Arab countries will contribute to bringing about a peace based on an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and on establishing an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as capital," the government statement said.

Israel's intelligence minister said a few days after the UAE-Israel accord was announced on Aug. 13 that Oman could also formalise ties with the country. Oman has welcomed the UAE and Bahraini decisions, but has not commented on its own prospects for normalised relations.

In 2018 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Oman and discussed peace initiatives in the Middle East with then-Omani leader Sultan Qaboos.

In a turbulent region, Oman has maintained its neutrality. It has kept friendly relations with a range of regional actors, including arch-foes the United States and Iran.

(Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; Writing by Lisa Barrington; Editing by Catherine Evans and Alexandra Hudson)
New Delhi: Just weeks away from the state Assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at a virtual meeting of the NDA leaders, declared incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as the Chief Ministerial candidate and the face of NDA in Bihar.

A former opponent of Kumar, the Prime Minister showered praise on his ex-nemesis saying it was Nitish Kumar who got Bihar out of the dark age and played a huge role in the rebuilding of the new India and a new Bihar.

With the fear of anti-incumbency taking its toll amid the governments failure to check spread of Coronavirus in the state, Modi ratcheted up the rhetoric on his support for the Janata Dal  U leader saying it was only under the leadership of Nitish Kumar Bihar was able to break out of its lack of development, widespread corruption, and poor financial decisions by his predecessors for the past several decades.

The Prime Minister then went on to list Kumars achievements including development in the area of road and highway construction, internet connectivity, and reform in the areas of social justice for poor and downtrodden.

Assuring the people of Bihar that the Center was solidly behind its commitment for the development of every sector in Bihar, Modi, who previously backed out of granting special economic status to Bihar despite years of agitation in the forms of various yatras by Nitish Kumar at the cost of taxpayers money, said that the JD-U leader was the right man to continue to lead the state in its march on the path of progress, development, and prosperity.
Joe Biden spent his Sunday attending his granddaughter's Natalie's confirmation ceremony along with his family members.

The Democratic presidential nominee looked dapper in a blue suit and red tie for the special occasion at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church in Wilmington, Delaware.

He attended mass at the church earlier in the day and returned for the confirmation ceremony.

Natalie, 16, is the child of Bidens late son Beau Biden and his widow Hallie. Beau Biden died of brain cancer at the age of 46 in 2015.

Joe Biden spent his Sunday attending his granddaughter's Natalie's confirmation along with his family members. Biden pictured holding onto Natalie Biden (left) and his grandson Robert 'Hunter' Biden (right)

Biden attended mass at the church earlier in the day and returned for the confirmation ceremony. Pictured wearing a mask and speaking with Natalie left

Biden looked dapper in a navy blue suit and a red striped tie for the special occasion

Biden pictured departing church wearing a face mask following the confirmation service

Jill Biden pictured departing St. Joseph on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church in Wilmington on Sunday

Joe Biden had four children, two of whom are living.

Biden's late wife Neila and daughter Naomi Biden died in a car accident in 1972. Hunter Biden is 50 and Ashley Biden is 39.

He also has several grandchildren including Natalie, 16, and Robert 'Hunter' Biden II, 14, whose parents are Beau and Hallie Biden.

Naomi Biden, 26; Finnegan, 20; and Maisy, 16, are Hunter Bidens daughters with his first wife Kathleen, whom he divorced in 2017.

During the Democratic National Convention Bidens grandchildren recited the Pledge of Allegiance and revealed fun facts about their grandfather, saying he always talks to them on the phone and has a love for ice cream.

Biden has several grandchildren including Natalie, 16, and Robert 'Hunter' Biden II, 14, whose parents are Beau and Hallie Biden

The former Vice President shared a hug with his grandchildren as they left the service

Biden's oldest son, former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, who died of cancer in 2015; and Biden's first wife Neilia Biden and their daughter Naomi, who died in an automobile accident in 1972, are all buried in the church's cemetery

Biden pictured leaving the church ceremony and site on Sunday afternoon

Just last Sunday the former Vice President was pictured at the very same church where he attended Sunday mass and visited his loved ones' graves buried nearby.

His son Beau , late wife Neilia and their daughter Naomi are buried there.

However, Biden was mocked by Francis Brennan, Trump's campaign director of strategic response, for not speaking to media during the emotional visit.

Brennan tweeted video of Biden walking through the cemetery.

A reporter is heard saying: 'Mr. Vice President come talk to us!' and Biden responds with a wave before walking to his waiting SUV after church services.

Natalie's parents former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden with wife Hallie above in November 2010

Biden's grandchildren pictured speaking in this video shared during the Democratic National Convention

Grandchildren of Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, including Finnegan Biden, Hunter Biden, Natalie Biden, Naomi Biden and Maisy Biden, lead the Pledge of Allegiance during the first night of the Democratic National Convention

Brennan sarcastically captioned the video: 'Joe Biden just keeps meandering along.'

In reality Biden had waved and smiled at reporters gathered at the church but didn't stop for comments as he paid a visit to his loved ones' resting places.

Brennan was heavily criticized on social media for the insensitive comment.
He is already a devoted father-of-four from two marriages.

And Peter Andre has admitted that he's ready to welcome a fifth child- his third with wife Emily - after growing closer in lockdown.

The reality star, 47, revealed on Sunday that lockdown has strengthened his bond with his wife of five years, 31, and they are considering having another baby before he retires.

Baby on the way? He is already a father-of-four and Peter Andre admitted that he's ready to welcome a fifth child with his partner, Emily (pictured 2019)

Peter is father to Junior, 15, and Princess, 13, from his previous marriage to Katie Price, and he also has two children, Amelia, six, and Theodore, three, with his wife, Emily.

He told The Sun: 'We are talking about it. If were talking about it, it will eventually happen, right?

'Ironically lockdown has brought us both closer together and so well have more of a chance.'

Future plans: The reality star, 47, revealed that lockdown has brought him closer to his wife of five years, 31, and they are considering having another baby before he retires

However, the final decision rests with Emily as Peter revealed he is willing to get a vasectomy if she decides she doesn't want anymore children.

He added: 'I think every guy is scared of having the snip because it means a closed chapter. But why should the woman always be the one to take precautions?'

As Peter approaches the age of 50, he revealed that he is eager to get involved in new projects, and even plans on heading to America to unleash his inner Tom Cruise and land an acting role.

Family: Peter is the father to Junior, 15, and Princess, 13, from his prior relationship with Katie Price (pictured) and he also has two children, Amelia, six, and Theodore, three, with Emily

The TV personality revealed his US visa is approved and he is itching to fulfil his acting and songwriting dreams before retiring for at the age of 55.

However, Emily doesn't plan on travelling to America any time soon as she is currently in the trenches, battling the coronavirus pandemic as an NHS doctor.

According to Peter, she began exhibiting symptoms of Covid-19 at the start of lockdown including a sore throat, a loss of taste and smell, and has since tested positive in the antibodies test.

His eldest son, Junior, also showed signs of the virus and was forced to self-isolate at their lavish home in Surrey.

Peter looked after his family, but admitted he was terrified of catching the virus: 'It was terrible. Id make them both food, take it upstairs, knock then run back down.'
The polls could be cancelled only in case of the introduction of martial law or a state of emergency.

Ukraine's Central Election Commission (CEC) says that the local elections scheduled for late October 2020 should be held even if a particular district has been included in the so-called red zone during the COVID-19 quarantine.

CEC member Serhiy Postivy made this statement during debates of the 6th Donbas Media Forum, according to UATV.

"Being part of the red zone, according a government decree, is in fact not a reason for cancelling the elections," he said.

Under Ukrainian law, elections to local councils on October 25 could be canceled only in two cases  the introduction of martial law or a state of emergency, he said.

Read alsoElections in Donbas amid "leaky" border unimaginable  Kuleba

Postivy says the CEC has no information at the moment about any prerequisites for the cancellation of postponement of the elections in Ukraine or in its certain area because of the quarantine.

Yet, he said, cancelling or postponing the polls is "theoretically possible" if the country's leaders declare a state of emergency.

However, in his opinion, this is a complicated procedure.

"As of today we have no grounds to say that there will be any cancellations," he said.

Ukraine 2020 local elections in brief
If you told me a global health crisis fueled by ill-advised political leadership would hold American citizens hostage and infringe on basic voting rights a year ago, I wouldnt have believed you.

Sadly, that is the situation we find ourselves in today.

The current administration is threatening to remove letter collection boxes, impose budget cuts to the U.S. Postal Service, and derail vote-in mailing systems as we approach the November election. Unfortunately for them, we have the power to take a stand and protect our rights  and we know the tools that will get us there.

With the USPS still under threat and COVID-19 continuing to claim lives, its no secret that voting options are limited. Luckily, the simple solution of ballot drop boxes presents a safe, easy and fair solution for voters all across New Mexico.

Drop boxes are monitored: Theyre completely locked and surveilled either by camera or security guard.

Drop boxes are mobile: Theyre easily accessible and able to reach even the most remote voters.

Drop boxes are safe: Theyre composed of quarter-inch steel, weighing between 250 and 750 pounds, and cemented to the ground, similar to ATMs.

Drop boxes are direct: ballots returned via drop box are collected directly by election officials, cutting out the mail system altogether.

Whether youre concerned about the threat of COVID-19, mail delays, or any number of other factors at play this election, drop boxes provide an outstanding solution for New Mexico voters.

While drop boxes present an outstanding option to all New Mexicans, it may just be those of us on tribal lands who need them most. According to the New Mexico Department of Health, Native Americans represent a staggering 31% of the states coronavirus cases, despite making up just 10% of the states total population. This pandemic extends well beyond major population centers like New York and Los Angeles; its ripping through our tribal communities. And its impact extends well beyond our public health; its jeopardizing our democracy.

As the executive director of NM Native Vote, I know firsthand that tribal communities are worried about how they can safely get out the vote. Ahead of Junes primary election, I spoke to a grandmother  a head of a household for a family of 18 eligible voters  who stayed home, fearful of what a COVID diagnosis could mean for her familys health and safety.

With her and so many others in mind, one simple truth cannot be stressed enough: no eligible voter should have to choose between the health of their family and their constitutional right to vote.

Unfortunately, none of the options available  vote-by-mail, early voting or even in-person options on Election Day  are completely free of obstacles or risks, especially for voters in remote areas who may have trouble making it to a polling place or post office. What drop boxes offer are an alternative, both for that grandmother and the countless other voters who just arent sure of the safest way to cast their ballot this November.

Through all of the injustices and inequities faced by New Mexicos Native communities, its hard to say that something so simple as drop boxes would be an all-encompassing solution. Still, its something as simple as drop boxes that could alleviate voter fears and provide safe, secure and easy access to eligible tribal voters.

Drop boxes arent political. They dont have prejudice. They dont care who their users vote for. They just give them a secure and accessible option to turn in their ballot. Nothing more, nothing less.

By installing drop boxes on or near reservation communities, New Mexico election officials could protect not just peoples lives, but their right to vote in our democracy. Regardless of party affiliation, I urge county clerks to do whats right for the people of New Mexico. Dont make people choose between protecting their lives or protecting their right to vote; install drop boxes and ensure that every eligible voter can safely cast a ballot this November.
Guwahati, Sep 13 : The raging oil well fire in Assam which continued for more than three months has been largely controlled and it would take a few more weeks to fully control the gas leakage and fire, state-owned Oil India Limited (OIL) officials said on Sunday.

"The natural gas of the well number five at Baghjan has been diverted partly into production and partly flared in two flare pits. The main aim of this operation is to reduce well head pressure of the blowout well which will help in next action for killing the well. The oil well fire and gas leakage is largely controlled, and it would take some more time to fully control the situation. Foreign experts, firefighters and OIL engineers are working in a war footing to control the situation," OIL spokesman and Deputy General Manager Tridiv Hazarika told IANS.

Natural gas and oil condensate started leaking from an oil well of the state-owned OIL field at Baghjan in eastern Assam's Tinsukia district 110 days back. The leakage caught fire 97 days back on June 9. Hazarika said with the purpose of reducing the surface-level well head pressure of the blowout well number five at Baghjan, the process for restoration of diversion of flow of gas from the well head to Baghjan EPS (Early Production Setup) and two flare pits was successfully implemented on Sunday.

He said the operation was carried out after foreign experts and OIL engineers completed the checking and inspection of the well head and safety inspection along with specific job safety analysis of entire system on Saturday.

"The flow of gas was diverted to EPS on Sunday morning after closing the BOP (Blowout Preventer) and flaring part of the gas which was diverted to two flare pits," the OIL official added.

Assam's Commerce and Industry Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said in Guwahati last week that a team of experts from Canada with all modern equipment was on the way to Baghjan to "kill" the well through "snubbing technology".

"After carrying out preparatory works, the Canadian experts may take six to eight weeks to plug the gas leakage and douse the fire," the minister said.

"The OIL experts and engineers are also working to control the well at least temporarily by diverting the gas flow through a diverter and then generating natural gas through two parallel lines," he said.

As many as 3,000 families have been shifted to 14 relief camps and the OIL along with the state government was providing relief to them, Patowary added.

American and Canadian experts and engineers, who were associated with a Singapore-based firm M/S ALERT, firefighters, NDRF personnel and OIL and ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation) engineers were continuing their efforts to check the gas leak and douse the well fire at Baghjan.

Another OIL official who refused to be named said besides the recent floods and hostile weather, experts, engineers and workers have been facing numerous other problems in putting out the fire and capping the gas leak at Baghjan, nearly 550 kms east of Guwahati.

Till now since May 27, a huge amount of crude oil and natural gas have been lost as a section of agitators continue with their protests for higher compensation and on other issues at a few locations in Tinsukia district.

Though some of the agitators called off the protests and lifted the road blockades, others continue to demand higher compensation for the affected people and hold OIL responsible for the mishap. OIL has till now provided Rs 30,000 to each of the affected families and arranged shelter and relief for them.

OIL officials said transportation of consignments comprising heavy machinery and equipment from Rajahmundry (Andhra Pradesh), Vadodara (Gujarat) and other places was delayed due to Covid-19 protocols and standard operating procedures (SOPs) which are in place.

However, the Army has built a 150-metre bridge over a water body to facilitate technical work to control the gas leak and oil well fire following a request from Tinsukia Deputy Commissioner Bhaskar Pegu.

Environmentalists and local people said the fire had left a trail of devastation in the adjoining areas, including the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park. Farms with standing crops as well as ponds and wetlands in the adjoining villages have also been affected.

Various NGOs and government bodies, including The Energy Research Institute (TERI) have been conducting environmental and pollution studies in view of the fire and gas leak. TERI was also arranging drone cameras for aerial photography and videography of the affected areas and surveys were being carried out depending on the weather conditions.
This is part of an ongoing series of stories  The Road to a Vaccine  that will look at Canadas quest to secure a COVID-19 vaccine amid the global pandemic, as well as the hurdles and history it faces to do so.

With the race on for a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine, the fastest route to the return of some semblance of normalcy, Canadians have been primed to fixate on the countrys efforts to procure enough doses for its own citizens.

But experts, including those on Canadas vaccine task force, say its just as important to focus on whats happening beyond our borders. A failure to achieve widespread immunity globally  whether due to inequitable access to vaccines in low-income countries, or pockets of vaccine refusers in developed ones  would hurt us, too.

The pandemic started with one person being infected in Wuhan. If we dont stamp out the fire everywhere, itll just restart, said Alan Bernstein, a member of Canadas COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force and president of CIFAR.

The task forces mandate is explicitly Canada-centric: its 18 members were gathered to help the country acquire and produce promising COVID-19 vaccine candidates. But the group has nonetheless taken a broader international outlook and wants Canada to participate in efforts to distribute COVID-19 vaccines equitably around the world, members say.

The fact that this is an infectious disease means that its a global problem, says Dr. Joanne Langley, co-chair of the task force and an infectious disease doctor at Dalhousie Universitys Canadian Centre for Vaccinology.

Because everything is integrated, our well-being is (other countries) well-being, and their well-being is our well-being.

The federal government has so far signed agreements with four companies that have COVID-19 vaccines in development. Together, those contracts would give Canada, a country of 38 million people, a minimum of 88 million and a maximum of 190 million doses. Individuals will probably need to receive more than one dose, and some or all of those vaccine candidates may end up failing in late-stage trials.

Health experts have become increasingly vocal in urging Ottawa to ensure that low-income developing countries will receive the same access to vaccines as wealthy ones like Canada.

On Friday, a coalition of more than 100 Canadian global health experts published a call to action that criticized the government for engaging in a vaccine power play and urged Canada to work in global solidarity with efforts for equitable worldwide distribution.

The 118 signatories of Fridays statement are urging Canada to participate in and increase funding for COVAX, an initiative that would supply successful COVID-19 vaccines to countries that cant afford direct agreements like the four Canada has signed, and guarantee some domestic supply.

The success of this plan is now under threat due to the behavior of many wealthier nations, including Canada, who are currently maneuvering to secure vaccines for their own citizens  a phenomenon known as vaccine nationalism,  the statement reads.

A spokesperson for the Public Health Agency of Canada said the government has already submitted a non-binding confirmation of intent letter to participate in COVAX, signalling the countrys intent to sign a binding commitment by Sept. 18.

The government is looking forward to engagement with those involved in the collaboration, with the aim of developing a mechanism that works for all countries and supports equitable global access to safe, effective and affordable COVID-19 vaccines, once developed, said Geoffroy Legault-Thivierge.

Langley, speaking for herself and not the task force, said a global collaboration would be more effective than individual nations working in their own interests.

We have a problem of perceived scarcity of vaccines, whereas in reality, I think we could provide vaccines for the worlds people if we looked at this as a global problem, and collaborated together. I think were moving towards that bit by bit. Were not there yet.

While primarily a humanitarian concern  the pandemic has disproportionately affected marginalized communities within Canada, and vaccine hoarding could replicate that imbalance on a global scale  the persistence of COVID-19 in poor countries would also be an active threat to Canadians.

Viruses dont respect borders, says Dr. Jeff Kwong, interim director of the Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases at the University of Torontos Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

Another threat to Canada from beyond its borders  and potentially within  is vaccine hesitancy, the reluctance or refusal to receive a vaccine when one is available.

Surveys of Canadians have shown high levels of willingness to take a COVID-19 vaccine when one is available. A Statistics Canada online questionnaire found that roughly three-quarters of respondents were very or somewhat willing to get vaccinated. Polls in the U.S. have shown varying levels of willingness to take a vaccine, with some finding much lower support, and multiple surveys have found that large majorities of Americans believe the regulatory process for ensuring vaccine safety will be rushed or skewed for political reasons.

Polls of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy should be viewed with caution, says Heidi Larson, a professor of anthropology and director of the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. People may feel more willing to take a vaccine when one actually exists and has been properly vetted, especially as the human and economic toll of the pandemic balloons.

Reporting of these polls also lump together those who have questions about the approval process  a reasonable position  with those who would outright refuse to be vaccinated and have made up their minds in advance, a much more immovable threat, Larson says.

Larson, who will be presenting to Canadas COVID-19 vaccine task force in the coming weeks, co-authored a study published in the Lancet this week that tracked vaccine confidence globally. In addition to the U.S., European countries including Poland and Ukraine may see pockets of refusal, too, Larson says.

I think it could happen in many countries, Larson says. Public opinion is volatile, with confidence in vaccines generally waning and waxing in some countries and more stable in others.

Kwong agrees that with enough vaccine refusers in the U.S., absolutely theres a risk to Canada, pointing to a major measles outbreak that began at Disneyland and resulted in cases imported to Quebec.

We are a really interconnected world now, and it doesnt take very long for viruses to travel around the planet. We cant keep our borders closed forever.
Standard Charted Group CEO Bill Winters speaks in an online career mentoring session with Korean university students at the bank's headquarters in Seoul, Sept. 9. / Courtesy of SC Bank



By Kim Bo-eun



Standard Chartered Group CEO Bill Winters is set to meet with the chiefs of leading fintech firms as well as financial authorities during his one-month stay in Korea, according to SC Bank. The first of his meetings will be with Kakao Bank CEO Yoon Ho-young this week.



The U.K. banking group's global CEO is spending a month in Seoul to learn about the Korean market, its digital banking infrastructure and fintech industry, as well as speak with employees of the bank's unit here.



This week, Winters is scheduled to meet with the leader of Korea's most competitive internet lender, Kakao Bank.



He will meet with the lender's CEO on Thursday, at the bank's Pangyo headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, where a cluster of IT startups is located. Yoon set up the lender from scratch, leading the taskforce for Kakao Bank's launch.



SC Group is seen to be conducting market research as it readies to launch its second internet bank in Singapore, after the first in Hong Kong.



Kakao Bank was opened as Korea's second internet lender without physical branches in July 2017. It attracted over 10 million users in the two years since its launch, and currently has more than 12 million customers.



Its business is growing rapidly  Kakao Bank posted a net profit of 45.3 billion won in the first half of the year, a 372 percent surge from its earnings in the same period of 2019.



Kakao's banking app has the largest number of monthly active users among applications of local lenders. This is attributed to the bank's focus on improving user experience, given its tech strengths backed by its parent company, IT conglomerate Kakao.



SC Group launched the virtual bank Mox in Hong Kong earlier this year. Mox introduced services including a numberless bank card. The group is preparing to launch its second digital bank in Singapore, partnering with Singapore's National Trades Union Congress.



Winters will also visit Lee Seung-gun, CEO of financial services platform Toss' operator Viva Republica, on Friday. Toss is getting ready to set up a digital bank next year.



SC Bank has invested in Toss, holding 6.67 percent of shares in the fintech company.



In addition, SC's global CEO will meet with Financial Services Commission Chairman Eun Sung-soo next week.



Winters has visited Korea multiple times, but this is the first time he is staying for a full month.



"It is part of a series of one-month stays in major markets for the latter half of the year. Starting with Korea, the global CEO will head to Hong Kong and Singapore, to look into each market," an SC Bank official said Sunday.



"The CEO will share know-how with the heads of fintech firms here, as Korea is one of the leading markets in fintech."




You are here: China

The Shanghai Tourism Festival opened on Saturday night in the Nanjing Road Walkway, in a bid to boost culture and tourism consumption in autumn.



The festival, which will last until Sept. 27, features 102 travel routes and products, as well as 156 activities.

Companies, including Trip.com Group, Meituan, and Baidu, as well as other cultural, tourism, and internet giants, will launch special activities during the ensuing weeks in a bid to provide brand-new experiences to tourists.

Shanghai also launched an online festival platform for the first time, on which people can get guidance and advice for traveling and shopping by scanning a QR code on their cellphones.

Provinces and cities across the Yangtze River Delta jointly participated in the festival by setting up special venues in the cities of Nantong, Wenzhou, and Huangshan, launching cross-provincial tourist activities, and offering tourism products with discounts.

The authorities have set up work teams for epidemic prevention and control.

The first Shanghai Tourism Festival was held in 1990.
Actress Kangana Ranaut has tweeted a cryptic post amidst her war with Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government.

In this chaos there are potent pauses that engulf me. Where am I? I dont recognise. What life threw at me so far I could barely catch up with but its asking for more, I give every ounce of me still it needs more and suddenly chaos engulfs me again," Kangana tweeted on Sunday.

In this chaos there are potent pauses that engulf me. Where am I? I dont recognise. What life threw at me so far I could barely catch up with but its asking for more, I give every ounce of me still it needs more and suddenly chaos engulfs me again. pic.twitter.com/8ZyMByCPyB Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) September 13, 2020

She also posted her photo that shows her lost in her thoughts with a pen in her mouth.

The tension between the actress and the state government began after she compared Mumbai with Pakistan occupied Kashmir and called the citys police force a sham".

Kangana arrived in Mumbai on September 9 with the Y-plus security provided to her by the Central government.
UPDATE Sept. 14, 2020: Dowdell has been found dead. Original article continues below.

A 22-year-old Alabama State University student has been missing since late Tuesday night.

Adam Belle Dowdell, a graduate of Montevallo High School who is in his second year at ASU, left his dorm room Tuesday night to go the ATM and hasnt been seen or heard from since then. His mother, Toya Cohill, is frantic and hasnt left Montgomery since she first learned of his disappearance.

"I just want my child back,'' Cohill said.

ASU spokesman Ken Mullinax late Saturday night released this statement: ""The Alabama State University Police Department received notification on Wednesday of a male student who was possibly missing. The student is from the Alabaster, Alabama, area and has not been seen since Tuesday afternoon. ASUPD has opened an active, ongoing investigation with help from Central Alabama Crime Stoppers and assistance from surrounding law enforcement agencies."

Alabaster police also on Saturday night posted about Dowdells disappearance.

Adam Dowdell, a graduate of Montevallo High School who is in his second year at ASU, has been missing since Sept. 8, 2020. (Contributed)

Cohill said she last spoke with her son Monday, and his siblings spoke with him on Tuesday. Early Wednesday, she started receiving messages from his friends that he had not returned to his dorm room and that no one had heard from him.

She said shes learned that on Tuesday night that he left with another student saying he was going to get cash from the bank. He was last known to be wearing a white shirt, checkerboard pants and Air Jordan 12 sneakers. Dowdell does not have a car with him at school, and his mother said if he had been planning to be gone long, he would have taken his book bag and a phone charger with him. Both were left behind.

"His phone may get down to 1 or 2 percent but he never lets it go dead,'' she said.

Cohill and other family members rushed to Montgomery Wednesday and have been there since. She said theyve been unable to track his phone because the location has been turned off and the phone is dead.

Friends and family have been searching and handing out flyers, so far to no avail. "Ive slept three hours a day,'' Cohill said. She said someone even fired shots at the group on Friday night.

Its not like Dowdell to disappear. "He always talks to all of us,'' Cohill said. From my mama to my daughter to my son, somebodys going to talk to him every day.

"This is not like him,'' she said. I cant even explain the hurt.

Anyone with information on Dowdells whereabouts is asked to call 911 or ASU police at 334-229-4400.
Sono almeno 250 le persone arrestate a Minsk, in Bielorussia, nell'ennesima domenica di proteste contro la rielezione di Alexander Lukashenko.

Decine di migliaia di persone sono scese per le strade della capitale della Bielorussia nonostante fosse stata chiusa la metropolitana e limitato l'accesso ad internet: "Non permetteremo a Lukashenko di vendere il Paese", hanno urlato i manifestanti.

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, considerata la vera vincitrice delle presidenziali del 9 agosto, ha inviato un videomessaggio ai manifestanti chiamandoli "eroi". "Continuiamo la nostra battaglia per la liberta", ha dichiarato l'ex casalinga che e scappata in Lituania per sfuggire al pugno duro di Lukashenko.

Che domani vola a Mosca per un colloquio faccia a faccia con il presidente Vladimir Putin, il primo dall'inizio delle proteste. Secondo gli analisti, Putin cerchera di strappargli delle concessioni sul fronte dell'Unione tra i due Paesi, anche se qualsiasi accordo che metta a rischio l'indipendenza e la sovranita della Bielorussia rischia di far crescere ancora di piu la rabbia dell'opposizione.

 Riproduzione riservata

(Unioneonline/D)
In a recent revelation about the upcoming book about US President Donald Trump, it has been reported that the President claimed that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un told the president about the execution of his uncle and has displayed his headless body to North Korean authorities.

The dictator's uncle by marriage, Jang Song Thaek, was also a powerful person in the regime. However, in 2013, Jang was executed due to charges of corruption and treason. His execution was one that showed a great assertion of authority in the Kim regime.

Based on excerpts from Trump's soon to be released book, "Rage," the president told Bob Woodward, an investigative journalist from the Washington Post who is to pen the book that the North Korean leader tells him everything.

According to ABC News, Trump told Woodward that Kim had his uncle killed and the body with the severed head was placed in the steps of a building that was used by senior officials in Pyongyang. It was also stated that the head was placed right on top of the chest of the dead body.

Details about the execution of Jang has not been officially released by the North. But several reports in the past have claimed that an anti-aircraft gun was utilized in enacting his sentence.

While Trump's statement was only meant to demonstrate his apparent closeness with the North Korean leader, the revelation was the first mention of decapitation as a form of execution from a senior Pyongyang official.

Read also: Trump's Campaigns Gain Edge Over Biden in Presidential Race Using Obama Strategy

Nuclear Negotiations

Meanwhile, despite the claimed close relationship between the leaders of the two nations, nuclear negotiations between the Hermit Kingdom and the US remain stagnant until now. This is since an agreement was not reached during last year's Hanoi summit which discussed sanction relief from the US and the things that the North is willing to give up in exchange.

According to Japan Times, officials from Pyongyang have announced that they have offered the US the dismantling of its Yongbyon area nuclear production facilities, however, analysts have stated that the rogue nation has other nuclear sites that need to be dismantled.

Based on "Rage," Trump had demanded the North to give up at least five of its site in order to reach a deal. Trump also stated that Kim told him that Yongbyon was the biggest site and it was already a lot to give up, but the US president countered his statement that while it is the biggest, it was also the oldest.

Due to this, Trump told the dictator that the North is not yet ready to make a deal and left Kim who was still in shock.

Since then, the negotiations between the two nations have hit a roadblock and were not able to push through. Due to this, the ties between the two countries have also plummeted, yet, Trump has repeatedly insisted that he is still in good terms with the dictator.

"Rage," the book about Trump's life is set to be released next week. The book is said to contain at least 25 letters that were exchanged by the two leaders.



Related article: North Korean Authorities Issues 'Shoot to Kill' Order to Keep COVID-19 Out of its Borders

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Sittings of State Parliament scheduled for this week have been thrown into doubt after a security guard tested positive for COVID-19, forcing the closure of the Spring Street building for deep cleaning.

Parliamentary authorities said on Sunday that the guards close contacts were being traced and the building and its grounds would remain shut "until further notice".

The Health Department said the private security contractor had not been working while Parliament was sitting.

Parliament's activities have already been severely curtailed by the pandemic; sitting has been cut back drastically and the 164-year-old building has been closed to the public for several months.
Charleston's 350th Commemoration

In 2020, the City of Charleston and its citizens will commemorate its 350th anniversary of the arrival of English settlers from Barbados to Charles Towne Landing in 1670 and share Charlestons full and accurate story up to the present day. Throughout the year, we will honor the customs, diverse cultures, and rich heritage through a deep reflection and true representation of the citys history.
LEXINGTON  Speaking in an auditorium full of Virginia Military Institute cadets, Vice President Mike Pence reiterated a message that President Donald Trump reveres the men and women of our armed forces.

Pence delivered his remarks at the nations oldest state-supported military college on Thursday, the day before the 19th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He honored the memory of the VMI graduates who died fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq in the years that followed.

We will never forget or fail to honor the graduates of this institution and all of those who have served and fallen in service of the United States of America, Pence said. Were grateful to them.

Pence went through various examples of ways he said Trump has supported the men and women in the armed forces.

The visit to Lexington came on the heels of a report about disparaging remarks Trump reportedly made, saying U.S. service members killed in combat are losers. The Atlantic published the anonymously sourced article last week citing several instances of such remarks.

In one example, the Trump administration canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery outside Paris in 2018 because of bad weather.

Why should I go to that cemetery? Trump said, according to the report. Its filled with losers.

Subsequent reporting by other media outlets, including the Associated Press, has backed up some of the assertions, which Trump, a Republican battling for reelection against Democratic candidate Joe Biden, vehmently denied.

President Donald Trump reveres and honors members of armed forces and their families, Pence said Thursday.

The vice president said Trump gave the troops a pay raise. He backed a large increase to national defense spending. He created the Space Force, the sixth branch of the U.S. Armed Services.

Weve made the strongest military in the history of the world stronger still, Pence said.

He praised Trump for ordering air strikes in Syria following a chemical-weapons attack and ordering the killing of Gen. Qasem Soleimani, Irans most powerful commander.

For all those gathered here who will answer the call to serve, or are active duty military, or are among us and looking on, I can tell you firsthand, in President Donald Trump, you have a commander in chief who will always have your back, Pence said.

Pence said hes been with Trump when the presidents been on the phone consoling family members of service members who died. He described a story about being with Trump at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day and talking to a mother who asked the president to remember her son.

Pence gave advice to the cadets to have discipline and approach their call with humility. Anna Armfield, a cadet at VMI, said Pences address reinforced why she is commissioning in the Navy.

He had some really good advice, and Im going to take that to heart, she said.

While the Atlantic article made Trumps attitude toward the military an instant campaign issue, it wasnt the first time Trump has spoken ill about those who served in the armed forces. While talking about former Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Navy pilot and prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, Trump said in 2015 that he prefers veterans who werent captured. When McCain died in 2018, Trump waited two days to lower flags to half-staff and issue a formal statement.

Outside Cameron Hall, where Pence spoke, a small group of protesters held signs saying Vets 4 Biden and Do not support a president who does not support our military. Lexington resident Michael Gilmore carried one that said VMI does not equal sucker and loser.

VMI graduates have died while serving this country, and none of them were losers or suckers, said Gilmore, who served in the Navy, has a son-in-law on active duty, and a son who served in the armed forces. What the president said made my stomach crawl.

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So far, Vietnam has offered free-of-charge quarantine and testing for both locals and foreigners.

Incoming foreign visitors to Vietnam in the upcoming time will likely have to pay testing and quarantine expenses, a government official has said.

Foreign visitors to Vietnam will bear quarantine and testing fees. Photo: Zing

Upon arriving in the country, the visitors will be quarantined at lodging facilities for five days, according to a government plan.

The conditions will apply to holders of official and diplomatic passports, staff of international organizatons, experts, managers, skilled workers, investors and their relatives.

The visitors, who are required to have health certificate for coronavirus testing three days before they board for flights to Vietnam, will be tested via real-time polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR) for SARS-CoV-2 twice.

Visitors who enter Vietnam after transit in Japan and South Korea need to undergo 14-day mandatory quarantine.

Towards international visitors: careful but not strict

Vietnams Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Friday told local authorities to be careful in resuming international flights but not too strict in reopening the borders.

Mr. Phuc said that relevant agencies and the health sector need to cooperate to effectively implement precautionary measures altogether to avoid new waves of infections when Vietnam reallows foreign arrivals.

The PM made the statement at a time when Vietnam is considering the resumption of a number of international flight routes after the country has undergone nine days without locally-transmitted coronavirus infections.

Currently, the Ministries of Transport, Health, Defense, Public Security, and Foreign Affairs are working on people who are eligible to enter and airports set to receive international commercial flights.

Flights

On September 11, a representative of the Ministry of Transport said that Vietnam from September 15 will resume four air routes namely Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to Taiwan (China), Chinas Guangzhou, Japan, and South Korea.

Connections to will be expanded to Cambodia and Laos by the month-end.

Accordingly, there will be four flights each on the Ho Chi Minh City  Guangzhou, Hanoi/Ho Chi Minh City  Tokyo, Hanoi/Ho Chi Minh City  Seoul, and Hanoi/HCM City  Taipei routes per week.

At present, Vietnam has reported 1,060 Covid-19 infections, of them 85.09% have recovered, and 35 fatalities. Hanoitimes

Linh Pham

Quarantine waived for foreigners entering on short-term diplomatic, business trips: Health ministry Foreigners entering Vietnam on a short-term working trip may not be subject to 14-day quarantine but there will be a number of conditions attached.
KEY FACTS 1:18 p.m.: Toronto salons can now offer facials, beard trims

11:30 a.m.: VRBO bans 1-night rentals in Arizona, cites large gatherings

11:24 a.m.: Ontario reports one new COVID death, 204 cases

The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Sunday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.

7:10 p.m.: University Health Networks chief executive says he is alarmed by increasingly sloppy habits that could intensify the viruss GTA resurgence.

After Kevin Smith tweeted Im worried and noting the UHN  which includes Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto General Hospital and Toronto Western Hospital  is again seeing COVID-19 patients, he told the Stars David Rider that the UHN went from a peak of about 100 COVID-19 patients to none. Now, one patient admitted about a week ago has grown to seven cases.

That concerns me, coupled with me continuing to see and hear GTAers not taking this risk as seriously as we once did, he said. Im seeing a lot less physical distancing, a lot of people gathering, a lot of social events occurring and worst of all poor masking. I see so many people who think (their mask) is a chin warmer or dont bother to cover their nose.

Read the full story here.

4:55 p.m.: Quebec has reported 279 new cases of COVID-19, and one death.

In total, the province has had 64,986 cases since the pandemic began.

Quebec Health Minister Christian Dube said in a tweet that increases in COVID-19 cases have been reported across the province, describing the situation as under control, yet concerning.

4:20 p.m.: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that a new countrywide lockdown will be imposed amid a stubborn surge in coronavirus cases, with schools and parts of the economy expected to shut down in a bid to bring down infection rates.

Beginning Friday, the start of the Jewish High Holiday season, schools, restaurants, malls and hotels will shut down, among other businesses, and Israelis will face restrictions on movement and on gatherings.

Our goal is to stop the increase (in cases) and lower morbidity, Netanyahu said in a nationally broadcast statement. I know that these steps come at a difficult price for all of us. This is not the holiday we are used to.

The tightening of measures marks the second time Israel is being plunged into a lockdown, after a lengthy one in the spring. That lockdown is credited with having brought down what were much lower infection numbers, but it wreaked havoc on the countrys economy, sending unemployment skyrocketing.

The lockdown will remain in place for at least three weeks, at which point officials may relax measures if numbers are seen declining. Israelis typically hold large family gatherings and pack synagogues during the important fast of Yom Kippur later this month, settings that officials feared could trigger new outbreaks.

Israel has had more than 150,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and more than 1,100 deaths. Given its population of 9 million, the country now has one of the worlds worst outbreaks. It is now seeing more than 4,000 daily cases of the virus.

3:15 p.m.: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his ministers will confront the challenge of how to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic from doing even more damage to Canadians lives, and livelihoods, at a two-day cabinet retreat.

The retreat starts Monday and is being held as COVID-19 cases are spiking again, amid concerns of a second wave this fall.

Trudeau last week warned Canadians are going to have to learn how to continue to live with COVID-19 for many, many more months. The government has made the grim assumption that the fight against the deadly coronavirus will continue for at least two more years.

1:18 p.m.: Toronto announced today that you will now be able to receive facials, beard trims, eyelash extensions and other services from salons.

Face masks will still be required, but these can be removed temporarily while receiving services on the chin, mouth or nose areas.

12 p.m.: Toronto Public Health is asking anyone who visited Club Paradise between Aug. 29 and Sept. 10 to monitor for symptoms of COVID-19 after seven people at the club tested positive for the virus.

Six employees and one patron of the west-end strip club tested positive for COVID-19 since Sept. 4. The club has closed voluntarily for two weeks.

Dr. Vinita Dubey, Associate Medical Officer of Health, told the Star the employees were working when they were infectious.

Using contract tracing logs at the club, public health reached out to people who had close contact with the confirmed cases and instructed them to get tested and self-isolate for 14 days, said Dubey.

11:30 a.m.: The VRBO vacation rental site say it is implementing a months-long ban on one-night rentals in Arizona in response to concerns over large gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The single-night rental ban will run through January and was disclosed in a letter Tuesday to Gov. Doug Ducey, the Arizona Republic reported.

The site's parent company, Expedia Group, plans to develop long-term steps to help eliminate large gatherings through changes in the reservation system and through identification of bad actors after the fact to prevent future incidents," the letter said.

11:24 a.m.: Ontario is reporting more than 200 new cases of COVID-19 for a third straight day, along with one new death from the novel coronavirus.

There were 204 new cases in today's report, following 232 cases on Saturday and 213 cases on Friday.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says Toronto is reporting 63 new cases, with 47 in Ottawa and 35 in Peel Region.

She says 27 public health units are reporting five or fewer cases, with 16 reporting none.

Elliott says 64 per cent of today's cases are in people under the age of 40.

The total number of cases has reached 44,504, with 39,841 considered resolved and 2,815 deaths.

10:41 a.m.: With the race on for a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine, the fastest route to the return of some semblance of normalcy, Canadians have been primed to fixate on the countrys efforts to procure enough doses for its own citizens.

But experts, including those on Canadas vaccine task force, say its just as important to focus on whats happening beyond our borders. A failure to achieve widespread immunity globally  whether due to inequitable access to vaccines in low-income countries, or pockets of vaccine refusers in developed ones  would hurt us, too.

Read the Stars Kate Allens full story on why Canadas vaccine nationalism could end up jabbing us in the back.

9:40 a.m.: With increasing cases of COVID-19, Ethiopia has opened a facility to produce kits to test for the coronavirus and says its researchers are working to develop and test a vaccine.

The company producing the testing kits is a joint venture with a Chinese company, called BGI Health Ethiopia.

Ethiopias number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has risen to nearly 64,000 causing almost 1,000 deaths, according to government figures. On Sunday, Ethiopia also opened a field hospital to hold up to 200 severely affected Covid-19 patients, which will start admitting patients immediately.

Ethiopia has conducted more than 1.1 million tests, making it the African country that has carried out the third-highest number of tests, according to Ethiopian health officials. The country is struggling with a shortage of testing kits, ventilators, and intensive care beds, they said.

8 a.m.: There have been fewer doorbells and more phones ringing in New Brunswick during Canadas first pandemic election campaign.

Across the country, eyes are on the Atlantic province as the coronavirus has dictated drastic changes to the way campaigns are run.

Gone are the big rallies and the factory tours for major platform announcements. Gone, too, are the shaking of hands and kissing of babies. Theyve been replaced by lonely, outdoor announcements at podiums in the middle of fields where media sometimes outnumber prospective voters.

Also gone  or severely curtailed, at any rate  is a staple of election campaigns past: door-to-door canvassing. And that has political strategists in the rest of the country watching this election closely.

Read the full story from the Stars Steve McKinley.

7:06 a.m.: Domestic air travel in Wuhan, the epicentre of the global coronavirus outbreak, has returned to pre-pandemic levels, authorities say.

The virus was first detected in Wuhan late last year and the city underwent a draconian 76-day lockdown as its hospitals struggled to deal with a tidal wave of cases that required the rapid construction of field hospitals to handle the overflow.

Since reopening in early April, life has gradually returned to normal and numbers of domestic flights serving the city, as well as the number of passengers, had both fully recovered, according to the operator of Wuhan Tianhe International airport. It said 64,700 passengers were transported aboard 500 domestic flights on Friday.

7:03 a.m.: India has registered a single-day spike of 94,372 new confirmed coronavirus cases, driving the countrys overall tally to 4.75 million.

The Health Ministry on Sunday also reported 1,114 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking total fatalities up to 78,586.

Even as infections are growing faster in India than anywhere else in the world, the number of people recovering from the virus has also risen sharply. The countrys recovery rate stands at 77.77% and nearly 70,000 recoveries have been reported every day in the month of September, according to the Health Ministry.

The ministry attributed Indias COVID-19 recovery pace to aggressive testing and prompt surveillance, but experts say India needs to test more due to its huge population. Its climbed to the second worst-hit country behind the United States, and is now testing more than 1 million people every day.

6:50 a.m.: A prominent Israeli minister resigned on Sunday in protest over an expected government decision to impose a nationwide lockdown this week ahead of the Jewish New Year due to rising coronavirus cases.

Housing Minister Yaakov Litzman, who served as health minister during the initial outbreak of the virus in Israel, criticized the anticipated lockdown measure as extreme and said it would cause undue suffering to the public.

Litzman, who heads an influential ultra-Orthodox faction in the coalition government, expressed particular ire toward restrictions that will limit observant Jews from attending communal prayers at synagogues during the upcoming holidays.

6:41 a.m.: South Korea says it will ease social distancing rules in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area following a declining number of new coronavirus cases.

Health Minister Park Neung-hoo told an online briefing Sunday that the greater Seoul area recorded about 80-110 new virus cases each day last week, down from 110-180 in the previous week.

Under eased rules that are effective from Monday for two weeks, Park says authorities will lift a ban on dining at restaurants after 9 p.m. in the Seoul area. Theyve been allowed to provide only takeouts and deliveries after 9 p.m. since late August.

6:35 a.m.: Austrias leader says his country is seeing the start of a second wave of coronavirus infections. He is appealing to his compatriots to comply with newly reinforced rules to keep down infections.

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced Friday that the government would reimpose measures such as an obligation to wear masks in shops to curb a rise in new infections. Austria recorded 859 new infections on Friday, the highest daily figure since late March.

Kurz stepped up his rhetoric on Sunday. He told the Austria Press Agency in a written statement that what we are experiencing at the moment is the beginning of a second wave. He added that developments in the capital, Vienna, are particularly dramatic, with the city accounting for around half of new cases.

Kurz said that Austria will soon hit the 1,000 per day mark. He called on Austrians to reduce social contacts, wear masks and keep their distance as well as possible.

Saturday 7:30 p.m.: Some First Nations in Manitobas Interlake region are reporting members in their communities have tested positive for COVID-19.

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs had said in a recent statement posted on Facebook that there had been a total of 29 lab-confirmed and probable First Nations COVID-19 cases in Manitoba, but that so far all had been off-reserve.

However, Fisher River Cree Nation said on its website Friday that a community member tested positive after being exposed in Winnipeg and returning to Fisher River while asymptomatic.

The First Nation says the test has been sent to the provincial public health laboratory for confirmation.

Click here to read more of Saturdays coverage.
By AFP

DOHA: Peace talks between the Taliban and Afghan government get down to business today, with the search for a lasting ceasefire one of many key challenges up for discussion.

A slick opening ceremony in the Qatari capital Doha on Saturday saw the Afghan government, and allies including the US, call for a ceasefire.

But the Taliban, who have fought a guerrilla campaign against both since they were forced from power in 2001, did not mention a truce as they came to the negotiating table.

The head of the peace process for the Afghan government suggested to AFP that the Taliban could offer a truce in exchange for the release of more of their jailed fighters.

ALSO READ | Afghan leaders must seize historic opportunity to end years-long conflict: Paksitan on intra-Afghan talks

"This could be one of their ideas or one of their demands," said Abdullah Abdullah, the chairman of Afghanistan's High Council for National Reconciliation.

Negotiations will be arduous and messy, delegates warned during the opening ceremony, and are starting even as deadly violence continues to grip Afghanistan.

"We will undoubtedly encounter many challenges in the talks over the coming days, weeks and months," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said as he called for the warring sides to "seize this opportunity" to secure peace.

Nearly two decades since the US-led invasion that toppled the Taliban, the war still kills dozens of people daily and the country's economy has been shattered, pushing millions into poverty.

The Taliban have long worried that reducing violence could lessen their leverage.

'Very positive'

During a speech at the opening event, Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar repeated the insurgents' message that Afghanistan should be run according to Islamic law, highlighting a likely sticking point.

A comprehensive peace deal could take years, and will depend on the willingness of both sides to tailor their competing visions for Afghanistan and the extent to which they can agree to share power.

President Ashraf Ghani's government wants to maintain the Western-backed status quo of a constitutional republic that has enshrined many rights, including greater freedoms for women.

Four of the 21 people on the Kabul negotiating team are women.

The Taliban, who stripped women of all basic freedoms while in power from 1996-2001, had no female negotiators.

In a statement, Ghani called for "a lasting and dignified peace" that preserved "the achievements of the past 19 years".

Kabul negotiator Habiba Sarabi told AFP the start of talks had been "very positive".

The US-backed negotiations come six months later than planned owing to disagreements over a controversial prisoner swap agreed in February.

Under the terms of that force withdrawal deal struck between the US and the Taliban, 5,000 Taliban prisoners have already been released in exchange for 1,000 government forces.
MINSK, Belarus  A day before high-stakes talks in Russia, President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, the embattled strongman leader of Belarus, deployed his security forces in large numbers to deter ongoing protests. But tens of thousands of people still took to the street on Sunday to once again clamor for his resignation.

Despite a huge show of force by riot police officers, masked men and what looked like soldiers, crowds of protesters gathered in Minsk, the capital, and in several other cities, many of them waving the former national flag  a red and white banner that Mr. Lukashenko scrapped soon after coming to power in 1994.

The authorities, in an effort to stop protesters from coordinating movements, also ordered telephone operators to cut mobile internet services, a tactic used during an early round of protests over the disputed presidential election on Aug. 9.
Peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government opened in Qatar Saturday, for what US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called a "truly momentous" breakthrough in 19 years of war.

Negotiations will be arduous and messy, delegates acknowledged at an opening ceremony in Doha, and are starting even as deadly violence continues to grip Afghanistan.

"We will undoubtedly encounter many challenges in the talks over the coming days, weeks and months," Pompeo said as he called for the warring sides to "seize this opportunity" to secure peace.

"Remember you are acting not only for this generation of Afghans but for future generations as well, your children and your grandchildren."

Nineteen years since the US-led invasion that toppled the Taliban, Afghanistan's war still kills dozens of people daily and the country's economy has been devastated, pushing millions into poverty.

Abdullah Abdullah, who was previously Afghanistan's chief executive and is heading the peace process for Kabul, said 12,000 civilians have been killed and another 15,000 wounded just since the US signed a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban on February 29.

Abdullah called for an immediate, humanitarian ceasefire -- but his plea went unanswered by Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who made no mention of a truce in his opening remarks.

The Taliban have long worried that reducing violence could lessen their leverage.

Instead, Baradar repeated the insurgents' message that Afghanistan should be run according to Islamic law, highlighting what likely will be the main sticking point in negotiations.

Abdullah did suggest that the Taliban could offer a truce in exchange for the release of its jailed fighters.

"This could be one of their ideas or one of their demands," Abdullah told AFP.

A comprehensive peace deal could take years, and will depend on the willingness of both sides to tailor their competing visions for Afghanistan and the extent to which they can agree to share power.

Story continues

The Taliban want to reshape Afghanistan as an Islamic "emirate", while the adminstration of President Ashraf Ghani wants to maintain the Western-backed status quo of a constitutional republic that has enshrined many rights, including greater freedoms for women.

- Women's rights -

Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide urged all sides to include "women, victims and minorities and other stakeholders" in the process, saying such inclusivity is the key to an enduring accord.

Four of the 21 people on the Kabul negotiating team are women. Not surprisingly, the Taliban, who stripped women of all basic freedoms while in power from 1996-2001, had no females on their team.

In a statement, Ghani called for "a lasting and dignified peace" that preserved "the achievements of the past 19 years".

Kabul negotiator Habiba Sarabi told AFP the start of talks had been "very positive".

"Everybody including Secretary Pompeo shared their solidarity, from the Taliban side also. ... We're on the way to building the trust," she said.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy who led talks with the Taliban, said the timetable for foreign troops to quit Afghanistan by May remained on track, and that he wanted a comprehensive ceasefire before then.

"The hope is ... there will be a reduction of violence immediately," leading eventually to a permanent ceasefire, Khalilzad said.

He cautioned that Washington would not underwrite a future Afghan state that was not in line with "universal values" -- including women's rights.

"There is no blank cheque," Khalilzad said.

- 'Power of diplomacy' -

The foreign ministry in Iran, which had worked alongside Western powers to help drive out the Taliban from Afghanistan after the 2001 US-led invasion, welcomed the start of the Doha talks.

"Dialogue and negotiations" are the solutions to Afghanistan's problems, the ministry said in a tweet, calling for the withdrawal of foreign troops from its neighbour.

The US-backed negotiations come six months later than planned owing to disagreements over a controversial prisoner swap agreed in February.

They are being held in a luxury hotel in Doha, where chairs were dotted at socially distanced intervals facing a banner emblazoned with the words "Afghan Peace Negotiations" in four languages.

Doha also hosted the signing of the US-Taliban deal in February that paved the way for peace talks.

The Taliban claimed "victory" after that deal, and see their bargaining position as stronger now than at any time in the last two decades.

A who's who of international stakeholders in the Afghanistan conflict spoke at the opening ceremony, including UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.

Qatar has quietly guided the process, which has been complicated by violence in Afghanistan and the coronavirus crisis. Doha's chief mediator Mutlaq al-Qahtani stressed "the power of diplomacy".

Doha invited the Taliban to open a political office in 2013 and helped broker February's US-Taliban deal.

Since that agreement, the insurgents have continued to launch daily attacks and targeted assassinations. The Afghan defence ministry told AFP clashes had been reported in more than 20 provinces in the past 24 hours.

burs-gw-wat/hkb
MUMBAI: Retired Indian Navy officer Madan Sharma, who was assaulted allegedly by Shiv Sena workers recently for allegedly forwarding a cartoon on Uddhav Thackeray, on Sunday (September 13) demanded resignation of the Maharashtra Chief Minister.

"I'm injured and stressed. What happened is saddening. I'd like to tell Uddhav Thackeray that if you can't look after law and order then resign and let people decide who should look after it," Sharma (65), a resident Lokhandwala Complex in Kandivali east, Mumabi, was quoted as saying by ANI.

He said that the entire organisation of the Chief Minister and its workers should apologise for the act and should ensure that it will not happen to anyone. "All workers and organisations of Uddhav Thackeray ji should seek apology from the entire nation and ensure that such incident does not take place again with anyone else," Madan Sharma told media.

Meanwhile, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh today spoke to the navy veteran and wished him a speedy recovery. "Spoke to retired naval officer, Madan Sharma who was attacked by hooligans in Mumbai and enquired about his health. Such attacks on ex-Servicemen is completely unacceptable and deplorable. I wish Madan ji a speedy recovery," Defence Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted.

Earlier in the day, BJP leaders, and daughter of Madan Sharma staged protest outside the office of Additional Commissioner of Police demanding the accused to be booked under non-bailable offences.

On September 12, Shiv Sena leader Kamlesh Kadam and five others, all Shiv Sena workers, were arrested by the Mumbai police overnight after an FIR was registered in connection with alleged assault on retired Navy officer in Mumbai. They were granted bail later in the day

The incident happened on September 11 afternoon when a group of around 8-10 persons, all allegedly Shiv Sena workers, came and assaulted Sharma in his society compound. According to reports, the Sena workers had reportedly found the cartoon forwarded by Sharma as objectionable and attacked him.

Several BJP leaders, including Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis slammed the Sena and ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi government for the attack, and demanded stringent action against the perpetrators.
Bobby Green's reaction is moving and so much more human than the interviewer trying to get things "back on track".

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Yeah, "but listen, back to the action here tonight" like WTF!?!?!?

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Bobby Green is a goddamn superstar.. that raw emotion and anger :(

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wow that interviewer is a POS

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whatever the 'back on track' was felt so trivial compared to what he was saying. I'm glad he ended up walking off.

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i had no idea about this, this is disgusting, inhumane and terrifying. rest in power. can i assume the same human rights groups are trying to get his brothers released? He's younger than my younger sister, idk that just hits me in the gut.



and i just genuinely can't at the audacity of biden--even if that's a shot at trump and what's going on in nationwide, especially portland and elsewhere--that shit was happening under you and your bestie.

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Exactly!! The audacity.

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That Biden tweet REALLY got my hackles up

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Biden isn't slick for that peaceful comment, totally disgusting

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Protesters in Portland are not being murdered on the streets, lets not begin to makes this comparison to somehow downplay the atrocities of what is happening to protesters in Iran.

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utterly repulsive. so much of the world just doesn't know what goes on around us, what could be happening. the privilege i have here in canada to know that no one i love will ever be at risk for something like this.... my god.

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Wtf bruh D: this is horrifying beyond words... like.... legit speechless

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Edited at 2020-09-13 07:00 pm (UTC) Considering that innocent people are executed in the US on a fairly regular basis. The outrage coming from US politicians is a joke. What happened to Navid was indeed a travesty and an epic injustice but Im going to those of us in America to do better at home, because right now we arent that dissimilar from Iran. #thetruthhurts

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this ethno-centric bullshit - 1,500 protesters were murdered by the Iranian regime in one week.... 1,500! That's not even counting the number of them that were utterly disappeared by this regime. Since 1976 the US has executed 1,516 people in total.



Stop bring America into every discussion, what Iran has done here with an Olympic level wrestler and national champion is horrific ON ITS OWN

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this user is clearly responding to the fact that the first tweet in this post is from Joe Biden and is pointing out the hypocrisy inherent in his (and other us politicians) outrage when you have thousands of people killed by the police each year--outside of formal executions of those that have been convicted of a capital crime--in addition to all the peaceful protestors that have been arrested in just the last year alone.



yes its horrific on its own, but i don't see the issue with pointing out political hypocrisy if those politicians choose to be public with it.

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Stop bring America into every discussion



thank you. so many US posters on here do this and I'm sick of it. newsflash, those from us who aren't from the States know that the US is a mess. that doesn't mean that Americans (especially white Americans) aren't far more privileged than many other countries out there. let Iranians grieve their own and have the spotlight for one goddamn second.

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Thank you.

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This is disgustingly Americentric. Do you even realize the level of depravity the Iranian government has put its own people through even when it never gets internationally talked about? Let Iranians get attention for a horrific situation they are currently grieving without redirecting the focus to whats going on in America.

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WTF is with this comment....Americans can still vote for a better president and actually have the privilege to say something against their government without putting a target on their backs!! Might as well say America is similar to North Korea while you're at it.



Edited at 2020-09-14 02:44 am (UTC)

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This is beyond horrific. My stomach dropped while reading this. I can't even imagine... RIP

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27! That's beyond evil. I hope his family has some sort of support.

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they don't - the military police wouldn't let his mother even come close to his body and they won't be allowed to mourn properly; his brothers remain still in custody

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Speechless. I sincerely hope the people are free of that murderous regime soon.

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the footage of his burial will never leave me. this entire thing has split my heart wide open.

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Thats fucked up omg. This world is a hell hole.

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fucking disgusting. there are no words.



also wtf @ that interviewer, like... have some tact, asshole.

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"waging war against the state"



As citizens can do of course, with all their tanks and power and money and foreign countries supporting them...



This is sad.

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wow I'm speechless

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wow i had no idea about this and i'm in shambles. this world is so cruel and i feel so damn helpless. his family is literally experiencing hell on earth right now. fuck!

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Lest we forget, it's USA's fault things are so bad over there to begin with. I don't know why people are still bright eye'd and bushy tail'd in the tweets talking about how America should sweep in to save the day and show them how wrong and barbaric they're being. Like??? Where you think they learned that shit from?? I have no idea what that country can or should do but if anyone thinks they're going to listen to another country that doesn't even let their OWN civilians protest without hauling off and disfiguring/wanting to kill them, then they're out of their rabbitass mind. It sucks beyond words that this dude suffered and died. Hopefully at least eventually his brothers will be spared.

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^^Someone who's historical illiterate about Persian regimes throughout history and who doesn't recognize their privilege



If you actually gave a shit about this, you would know that the movement has currently moved to bar Iran from competing in the next Olympics, no one is asking for America to swoop in and save shit, people from the Middle East are not the dumb idiots you want us to be. American protesters might as well be going for a nice evening stroll compared to what the Iranian youth movements have had to endure this last decade. You know nothing.

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Truly. Americans dont get it. I didnt get it until I befriended an Iranian activist who found asylum here. What he told me is sickening.



Americans need to learn when to step back and recognize their privilege. Free speech is such a huge privilege!

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I think the OP is saying the opposite, that people who say on Twitter that the US should sweep in need to shut up, because US interference hasn't helped anyone but some rich US peoples interests in the past.

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This. I worked in Jordan for a time on an archeological dig and one of my coworkers was an Iranian refugee and the stories hed tell me still horrify me. As a privileged white American woman I cannot even begin to fathom any of it. He and his family escaped when he was in his teens and moved to the UK but he still is traumatized by his life there.

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Fascist regimes around the world cannot topple soon enough. What can we even do anymore at this point?

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(CNN)  As doctors worry about a coronavirus-and-flu "twin-demic" that could overwhelm the health care system, Americans must contend with another possibility: fighting both viruses at the same time.

"You can certainly get both the flu and Covid-19 at the same time, which could be catastrophic to your immune system," said Dr. Adrian Burrowes, a family medicine physician in Florida.

In fact, getting infected with one can make you more vulnerable to getting sick with the other, epidemiologist Dr. Seema Yasmin said.

"Once you get infected with the flu and some other respiratory viruses, it weakens your body," said Yasmin, director of the Stanford Health Communication Initiative.

"Your defenses go down, and it makes you vulnerable to getting a second infection on top of that."

On their own, both Covid-19 and the flu can attack the lungs, potentially causing pneumonia, fluid in the lungs or respiratory failure, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Each illness can also cause sepsis, cardiac injury and inflammation of the heart, brain or muscle tissues.

Having both illness simultaneously "would increase the risk of longer-term effects of any of those organ systems," said Dr. Michael Matthay, a professor of medicine and a critical care specialist at the University of California, San Francisco.

But it's too early to know exactly how much worse that double whammy could be, compared to having each virus on its own.

That's because Covid-19 didn't spread across the US until near the end of the last flu season, Matthay said. So there's not a lot of data yet on people who get both illnesses at the same time.

But Matthay suspects the potential for pneumonia would be greater if the body is infected with both the flu and coronavirus.

"The two (viruses) together definitely could be more injurious to the lungs and cause more respiratory failure," he said.

Respiratory failure doesn't necessarily mean your lungs stop working. It means the lungs can't get enough oxygen into the blood.

"Acute respiratory failure can be a life-threatening emergency," the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute says. "Respiratory failure may cause damage to your lungs and other organs, so it is important to get treated quickly."

How can I tell if I have Covid-19 or the flu (or both)?

"Symptoms of influenza and Covid-19 are pretty similar, so it's difficult to distinguish the two," said Dr. Leonard Mermel, medical director for the Department of Epidemiology and Infection Control at Rhode Island Hospital.

Both the flu and Covid-19 can give you a fever, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, sore throat, body aches and a runny or stuffy nose, the CDC said.

"Some people may have vomiting and diarrhea, though this is more common in children than adults," the CDC said.

But unlike the flu, Covid-19 can cause a loss of taste or smell.

And about half of coronavirus transmissions happen between people who don't show any symptoms. (Many of those people are pre-symptomatic and are more contagious before they start showing symptoms.)

So the best way to know if you have the novel coronavirus or the flu (or both) is to get tested.

The CDC has created a test that will check for both viruses, to be used at CDC-supported public health labs. The agency said it is continuing to manufacture and distribute these tests.

How can I avoid this flu-Covid-19 double whammy?

Wear a mask and keep physical distancing. Health officials have stressed the importance of masks and physical distancing if Americans want to control Covid-19 -- and get the economy back on track.

With the imminent flu season, such precautions can "doubly protect us from both of those viruses," Yasmin said.

In the Southern Hemisphere, which is just ending its winter months and flu season, several countries have reported astonishingly low flu numbers as people wear masks and social distance.

In Australia, for example, the number of lab-confirmed flu cases plummeted from 61,000 in August 2019 to 107 cases this August.

But in the US, some people are getting lax about mask wearing and social distancing. And that's a big problem, said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

She said there could be a "perfect storm of accelerated Covid-19 activity, as people gather more -- inside, in particular -- as they become continually fatigued with the mask wearing, the social distancing and the hand hygiene, and as they are exposed to seasonal influenza."

Get a flu vaccine. This may sound obvious. Yet about half of all Americans don't get vaccinated against the flu, including most children who die from the flu.

Even if you get a flu shot and still catch the flu later, the symptoms are usually less severe than if you got no flu vaccine at all.

And since no Covid-19 vaccine is publicly available yet, the flu shot is the only way you can help inoculate yourself against having both viruses at the same time.

Pediatricians say it's important for children 6 months and older to get the flu vaccine, ideally before the end of October. "Timely influenza vaccination is particularly important" this flu season, the American Academy of Pediatrics wrote this week.

Getting a flu shot can also help many more people than just yourself, said immunologist Dr. Susan Bailey, president of the American Medical Association.

"Since hospitals and doctors' offices are going to be very busy caring for Covid-19 patients, a flu vaccine can help decrease burdens on the health care system and make sure that those who need medical care are able to get it," Bailey said.

About 140,000 to 810,000 Americans get hospitalized with the flu each year, according to the CDC. And the number of Covid-19 hospitalizations are expected to surge more than 150% between now and December 1, according to the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

"Every year, many patients get severe influenza with respiratory failure," Matthay said. Among patients who get severe pneumonia from the flu, "the vast majority of those patients have not had their flu vaccine that year."
A busy September of stakes action at Woodbine Mohawk Park comtinues tonight and COSA TV has it covered with live broadcasts scheduled for each Saturday during the month.

The Peaceful Way and the William Wellwood Memorial will highlight this weekends show while later in the month viewers can tune in to watch the Canadian Trotting Classic, Metro Pace, first ever Mohawk Million and much more.

COSA TV wants horseplayers to help do their part with a goal of reaching a combined $12 million in wagering over the four Saturday programs during the month. It has launched a hashtag challenge across their Twitter, Instagram and Facebook platforms where fans can use the hashtag "#SeptemberToRemember_cosatv" to be automatically entered for one of three $100 COSA gift cards following the Mohawk Million broadcast on September 26.

COSA TV will also feature a four-week guest handicappers challenge. Each week the guest capper will receive a $100 voucher to wager on the designated feature race of the night. The combined winnings after the four weeks of the challenge will be donated to the Ontario Standardbred Adoption Society (OSAS) and COSA TV will guarantee a $500 donation to the organization.

Each of the broadcasts will be available on the COSA TV social media platforms as well as the Standardbred Canada website.

Upcoming shows on COSA TV appear below:

Canadian Trotting Classic  Mohawk (Sept. 19)

Mohawk Million/Metro Pace  Mohawk (Sept. 26)

OSS 3YC Pace  Western Fair (Oct. 9)

OSS Grassroots Finals  Mohawk (Oct. 10)

OSS Super Finals  Mohawk (Oct. 17)

SBOA Finals  Mohawk (Nov. 14)

(COSA TV)
One week ago today, six artists took to the streets alongside more than 1,000 volunteers to paint Black Lives Matter murals on six Kansas City, Missouri, streets. Organizers say the KC Art on the Block project was the largest of its kind. With 1,200+ gallons of paint handy, teams got together to hand-paint the murals last...
It Is What It Is: The Future of Marriage

Commentary

Is marriage fading as it loses its essential and distinguishing qualities? If so, can it be saved? Or is marriage simply changing in non-essential ways, while remaining the same institution it has always been? What is marriage anyway, what explains its key features, and when does it cease to exist and become something else? What can be done to support and preserve marriage who want it?

As sex gets cheap, marriage gets expensive. So argues sociologist Mark Regnerus, author of Cheap Sex in his new book, The Future of Christian Marriage. The traditional exchange whereby men sought sex and women exacted promises of commitment and marriageenforced by social norms and, in the event of pregnancy, by the girls family (the shotgun wedding)has given way.

As a result of the contraceptive pill and their increased education and career opportunities, young women have become choosier about whom, if anyone, they will marry. Young men, with easy access to more and alternative sexual outlets (dating and hookup services and porn among them), with no promises or commitment required, are less motivated to marry. The result is later and fewer marriages and, in consequence, fewer children.

Marriage used to be a path to adult status, a foundation on which a young couple built a life together, exchanging resources and making a home and the means of providing for the children they anticipated. Instead, it has become a capstone, a sign and celebration of achievement rather than a path to it. Marriage is more likely to follow than precede completing education, establishing a career, and securing housing and assets. The capstone vision of marriage depends on cheap sex, Regnerus argues, and would collapse without it.

Is Marriage Changing or Receding?

Some commentators minimize these changes. Nothing to see here, they say, except people getting married a few years later, having fewer children, with some more inclined to cohabitation as an alternative to marriage and others as a precursor, a kind of live-in engagement. In some countries, people of the same sex have access to legal marriage as couples. Some, like the New York Times with two polyamory-promoting articles in eight days, are pushing for social acceptance and legal recognition of polyamory, a marital bond involving three or more people.

Regnerus examined the question of marriage by interviewing serious Christians, those seemingly most likely to hold a traditional view of marriage. His team interviewed almost 200 young Christians in their 20s to early 30s, some married, some not. They were Catholics (of both Roman and Maronite rites), Orthodox, Evangelicals, and Pentecostal. In all seven countries studiedas different culturally, politically, and economically as the United States, Nigeria, Russia, Poland, Lebanon, Mexico, and Spainthe interviewees articulated and affirmed an understanding, in line with Christian teaching, of marriage as a sacrament or covenant, involving the gift of each to the other, sacrifice, and openness to children.

In all those countries, however, the team found, among those same informants, a strong influence of wider secular pressures and tendenciesto later marriage, fewer children, and support for cohabitation and premarital sex. Everywhere the interviewees, like secular people, talked about marriage, not as a path to or foundation for adult life, but as a capstone to what they had achieved prior to marriage, in education, career, and housing. Regneruss conclusion is that marriage is not changing but receding.

What Is Marriage?

In one view, marriage is a malleable, elastic concept. It changes, even substantially, over time while remaining recognizable as marriage. In Regneruss understanding, on the other hand, marriage has a core definition and key supports without which it falls apart and is no longer marriage. It loses any rationale, coherence, or boundaries with other kinds of relationship like those involving partners, friends, or family members.

In his treatise Of the Good of Marriage, Augustine (354430 AD) defended the greatness and dignity of marriage. He described three fundamental values or nuptial goodsoffspring, chaste fidelity, and the unbreakable bondthat are essential and defining properties of marriage that distinguish it from all other relationships between two persons.

Consistent with this approachand with the outstanding 2012 book What Is Marriage? by Girgis, Anderson and George, just republished in a second editionRegnerus defines marriage as the exchange of resources between husband and wife (in a sexual union) that rests on four central supports. These are (openness to) children, permanence, fidelity (i.e., exclusiveness of the pair bond) and totality or comprehensivenessa union in all aspects of life, sexual, spiritual, material and so on, not a limited partnership or friendship with benefits.

Without such a definition of marriage, its hard to see what rationale the institution has or what purpose it serves, or why the state or church should be involved in it at all.

Marriage, which long preceded both church and other faith traditions, offers the optimum context for the raising and socializing of children. Thats what provides the states and societys interest in it in the first place. As we find in the earliest legal codes, predating Christianity by millennia, the social purpose of marriage as a legal institution was to create and sustain fatherhood as a social and legal state that assured children, where possible, the right to be raised by their own two biological parents.

The United Nations ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child as recently as 1989. The Convention asserts the right of the child, as far as possible, to know and be cared for by his or her parents. It stands in stark contrast to more recent views, say of surrogacy, in which the child is created on assignment as a commodity with the intent from the start that he or she will never know his or her mother or she her child.

Some marriages, of course, do not produce children, and in no marriage does every procreative act result in pregnancy. Those facts do not undermine the centrality to marriage of children and of the one and only sexual act that produces them.

In both civil and canon law, the conjugal act, whether resulting in pregnancy or not, is required to consummate and perfect the marriagea clause to which exceptions were made in recent years (in the case of two people of the same sex and so intrinsically incapable as a couple of procreative sex) or that was abandoned altogether. But the nature of the conjugal act itself, as inherently of the kind that produces new life, was until yesterday basic to the purpose and understanding of marriage. Without that orientation to children and openness to life, the distinctive nature of marriage disappears.

Marriage is meant to be permanent and exclusive, an unbroken bond between man and woman that lasts until death. Neither the bond nor the fidelity of husband and wife to each other characterizes other kinds of friendship. The married couple is a single reproductive system, comprising a male and a female part.

Other kinds of friends do not usually see sex as intrinsic to their relationship, nor love as requiring exclusiveness, the complete gift of self in a comprehensive bond that by its nature excludes others. Nor are other kinds of love, such as that between parents and children, or siblings, or close friends, total in the sense of tying people to each other on every level and in every sphere of life, sexual, spiritual, or emotional.

It Is What It Is

Marriage is what it is. Its not for everyone and never has been. Some seek to extend the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples, or throuples, or other combinations of people of various numbers and sexual orientations. They have made strong headway with great speed and little or no argument.

But whatever ones views of these other kinds of sexual relationships and their consequences for individuals and society, they lack some or all of its defining features and so in that sense are not marriage at all. The shift in practice away from marriage as the way a young couple builds a foundation for a fruitful life together toward a capstone view, even among practicing Christians of different traditions and in different countries and cultures, signifies not a change in marriage itself, but its fading. Its a loss of interest in what marriage is.

Despite this gloomy picture of marriage and its prospects, Regnerus does not believe marriage will disappear or dissolve completely into state-registered friendship. The reason is that society cannot thrive or reproduce itself successfully without it.

There have been many attempts to dispense with marriage or define it out of existence, some of which, like that of Soviet Russia in the 1920s, Regnerus discusses. Such attempts to deinstitutionalize marriage and get state and church alike out of the marriage business by making it a purely private matter, do not succeed. In the Russian case in the 1920s, the unintended result was mass desertion by fathers, homelessness, and social chaos that required more, not less, state regulation and care of children.

In our own hard time of confusion and anxiety about marriage, when we are living off the fumes of countless sacrifices that husbands and wives, mothers and fathers have been making for many decades, as Regnerus writes, theres much to be done to keep marriage alive for those who want it.

Personal modeling and storytelling of how to do marriage are important, while bad examples, as one Russian interviewee put it, are a sort of vaccine against marriage. Regnerus discusses the importance of mentors and of small groups that support and help young couples in their uncertainties and anxiety. None of this requires large government programs, but it all depends on families and communities that can respect and transmit the reality and tradition of marriage.

Paul Adams is a professor emeritus of social work at the University of Hawaii and was a professor and associate dean of academic affairs at Case Western Reserve University. He is the co-author of Social Justice Isnt What You Think It Is and has written extensively on social welfare policy and professional and virtue ethics.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Zenobia Morris says she's lucky to be alive after being shot three times and wounded in both legs. It was around 2 a.m. Aug. 30 as Morris was leaving 9ine Ultra Lounge when gunfire erupted in the parking lot. "There was so much shooting.
MBABANE  It was bound to happen!

The ban on alcohol sale has provoked a decision that is more likely to seriously impact the countrys tax revenue collection and the economy at large. Apart from the financial effects, imminent job losses in the form of retrenchments are on the cards in the liquor industry as Eswatini Beverages has this week resolved to shut down its alcohol production plant in order to cut costs.

The company, which manufactures 60 per cent of its alcohol products and imports 40 per cent, took this decision after extensive consultation with beer industry movers in neighbouring countries and abroad, it has been gathered.

The decision comes just a few days after government decided to extend the alcohol ban, pending a review at the end of this month.

The Eswatini Revenue Authority (SRA), on the other hand, said companies that manufacture locally, contribute a larger chunk of tax and a shutdown would result in a huge loss to income tax.

Income tax is a type of tax that governments impose on income generated by businesses and individuals within their jurisdiction. By law, taxpayers must file an income tax return annually to determine their tax obligations.

Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Manqoba Khumalo said he was not aware of a decision by Eswatini Beverages to shut down its manufacturing plant. I am not aware of that, our conversation with them this morning (yesterday) was not on that topic, the minister said.

Last week Saturday, Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini listed five reasons why government had decided to extend the ban on the sale of alcohol, which, according to the premier, would be reviewed in October. The PM stated that alcohol had short and long-term effects on every single body organ; that alcohol weakened the immune system; that it alters ones judgment or decision making; it also increases the risk of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and that group drinking would result in imbibers failing to observe social distancing.

Subsequent to the extension, the Times SUNDAY established that Eswatini Beverages had no option but to decide on how it could sustain itself and prevent a further loss. It has done so by reviewing its working model by weighing options on whether it should continue with the production of liquor in Matsapha or rather stick to importation.

Eswatini remains the only country in the SADC region that has banned alcohol sale as part of precautionary measures to curb the spread of COVID-19. By yesterday, the entire management had agreed that the production department should be shut down.

Well-placed sources within the company confided that the general understanding was that government would not consider lifting the ban anytime soon. The sources argued that this was because the PM indicated that the Kingdom of Eswatini needed to attain less than 50 active cases to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19 if the ban was to be lifted  a target they said would be impossible to achieve. The sources explained that it was clear and sundry to all that with the current rate of infection, the targeted 50 cases would not be possible for now since active cases were still above 700. The sources further opined that health experts have projected November as a peak month for coronavirus cases. The sources believe that the peak might force government to consider a ban once more to flatten the curve in the spread of the virus. This would be if government would lift the ban over the next days before October.

The sources confided that the proposed shutdown would result in alcoholic beverages that include Sibebe Premium Lager, Castle Lager, Castle Milk Stout, Hansa Pilsner and Black Label no longer being produced locally.

international award

Last year, Sibebe Lager hoisted the countrys flag after scooping an international award for being one of the best beers in Africa.

Even though these products would continue to be available in the market, they would be imported. For example, Heineken is not produced locally but is widely available in the country because it is imported. Other brands supplied by the company include Reds, Flying Fish and Smirnoff brands such as Pine Twist and Smirnoff Spin.

Bridget Makhura, Country Managing Director of Eswatini Beverages, has confirmed that the company has considered closing the manufacturing plant. Makhura revealed this when responding to a questionnaire that had been sent to Mpumelelo Makhubu, the Head of Legal and Corporate Affairs, regarding the companys future plans.

Makhura stated that the COVID-19 trading environment has proved to be one of the most challenging times in collective memory.

In a bid to survive, many businesses have had to take various measures to ensure their long-term viability. Eswatini Beverages is no different, following a 16-week ban on the sale of alcohol; the business has come under significant pressure and as a result, has initiated a process of reviewing its business model to explore a cost-effective means for supplying the market. The options include discontinuing local production, she stated.

operating uncertainty

She explained that the impact of the 16-week ban on alcohol has been severe to the industry, and has led to significant operating uncertainty for business, the companys partners, as well as colleagues in the industry, including participants in the entire value chain.

The protracted nature of the ban has made maintaining the manufacturing plant costs during the ban unfeasible. Throughout this crisis we have remained committed to ensuring business continuity and as such implemented a number of interventions to soften the impact of the bans, including cutting salaries for all staff by 10 per cent, from July 2020. We understand the impact a closure in manufacturing will have on jobs in our business and the entire value chain and we have initiated a process of proactively engaging stakeholders including employees in manufacturing and other departments who will be directly impacted by the outcome of the review, stated Makhura.

She further explained that the company remained committed to being a part of the solution and was supporting governments COVID-19 response efforts with financial and material support.

She said the company also appreciated the regular engagements with government for the purpose of effectively navigating through this challenging period.

Meanwhile, Bongani Mdluli, chairman of the Eswatini Consumer Association, has requested government to consider lifting the ban with immediate effect.

Its a very unfortunate state of Affairs. Imagine the loss of employment and loss of revenue in taxes. The black market is now going to flourish. We request government to relax the ban and put stringent COVID-19 measures in the relevant establishments, he said.

Secretary General of the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) Mduduzi Gina said government should allow the company to at the least produce the alcohol for stocking even if it was for minimum production.

If the news of the closure of the Inbev plant in the country is true, this will cause a devastating impact on the economy of Eswatini. We are aware that Inbev is concentrated on the alcohol brewing while Coca-Cola carries out the soft beverages manufacturing. The possible retrenchment of the workers employed by Inbev will increase the unemployment rate which is already high in the country, he said.

He continued: It is common cause that there are no industries of the magnitude of Inbev that can consume the workers. The country is bound to lose huge amounts in corporate and PAYE taxes, taking into account that the company was paying reasonable wages as compared to the other Matsapha companies. It is common knowledge that their products were widely accepted by its clients hence it follows that they were making huge profits which were then taxed.

bad results

Gina said he had no doubt that the shutdown would yield bad results for the countrys economy.

Meanwhile, Business Eswatini said it had noted that the domino-effect of the alcohol ban was wide-ranging and far more deleterious to the economy than previously thought. Nathi Dlamini, the Chief Executive Officer, said the shutdown would be extremely unfortunate on many fronts because job losses would be inevitable. Furthermore, each time a manufacturing plant closes down it means that we have to start importing from outside the country. This is tantamount to exporting jobs which is something we are trying extremely hard to avoid, especially during this season of rampant layoffs due to COVID-19. Also, when you import, foreign exchange reserves of the country are always adversely affected, again which is something we were trying to avoid. As Business Eswatini, we are hoping and praying that the reports of a possible closure are not true, Dlamini said.

He said given the ban on alcohol distribution whose end remains unknown even to date, it would not be alarming to hear of rumours about plant shutdowns, Eswatini Beverages included.

These companies have been bleeding profusely of late due to COVID-19. Eswatini Beverages at some point had to decant their inventory after it had expired, thereby suffering undue losses. This company is top-notch when it comes to paying taxes and being compliant with the laws and rules of the country. They have always been a model company and to see them on the brink of collapse for reasons not of their making is disheartening, to say the least, he said.

He said currently the market has been taken over by bootleggers and smugglers who are bringing into the country copious amounts of illegal alcohol without paying government duties and taxes.

On top of that, he said the smugglers are practising price-gouging with impunity.

People are imbibing and getting totally smashed on alcohol from which government makes no revenue whatsoever, and yet when these people get recklessly drunk and spread the infections to each other, they will call a government number  977. This is unfair to all concerned especially government who made not even one cent tax from that alcohol, he said.

He said the situation, however, has somehow prompted businesspeople to re-assess the merits and commercial sensibilities of effecting a beverage lockdown.

unrestrained access

He said if people have unrestrained access to alcohol from bootleggers, what would be the point of what government was doing.

The very sad thing though is that these unscrupulous individuals have invaded the traditional supply chain channels used by legitimate suppliers. Once the ban is reversed, which we hope can be soon, the damage done can take a long time to fix, argued Dlamini.

He continued: We have received disturbing stories from hotels that bar staff are already being retrenched as we speak. Not only them but also cleaning and security staff are all victims of this ban. Our economy is taking a huge pounding while government is losing millions a day. The math doesnt add up anymore.

He said businesspeople understood governments position to strike a balance between health and a robust economy. He said in light of the situation at hand, it was difficult to claim that the country was making headway on either of the objectives.

On Friday, during a meeting held at The George Hotel by the Swaziland National Liquor Association, liquor traders announced a planned mass protest action.

They resolved that everyone who was affected by the ban on alcohol sale would be allowed to accompany the leaders of the association to deliver a petition to three government departments.

Eswatini Beverages Ltd (EBL) was a subsidiary of SABMiller until October 10, 2016 when it was acquired by Anheuser-Busch InBev. The company was formed in 1995 by the merger of Eswatini Breweries, Ngwane Breweries, and Eswatini Bottlers. EBL produces and markets soft drinks, beer, and other alcoholic drinks. Government suspended liquor production on April 8, 2020, and the ban has lasted for 16 weeks.






Former Bihar chief minister and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad on Sunday condoled the death of his colleague for over 30 years and former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh who passed away at AIIMS, Delhi, due to post-Covid-19 complications.

Singh had caused a political flutter in Bihar just ahead of the elections by resigning from the RJD, apologising to Lalu Prasad for the move. In a one-page letter, Singh wrote: Since the death of Jannayak Karpoori Thakur, I stood behind you for 32 years, but not now. I got the affection of party leaders and workers, besides common people. Please forgive me."

This prompted a rebuttal from the former Bihar CM, who refused to accept the resignation. We will talk once you are well. You are not going anywhere, Prasad had said.

Singh had earlier announced his resignation as the party vice president on June 23 but was persuaded by Lalu to stay back. Singh, a five-time former MP from Vaishali who held several portfolios in the Manmohan Singh government, including that of rural development, was reportedly unhappy over the proposed induction of alleged mafia don and former Lok Janshakti Party MP from Vaishali, Rama Singh, into the RJD.

Rama Singh had defeated the RJD leader in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, breaking his winning streak since he was first elected from there in 1996. He was also not happy with the style of functioning of Lalus heir apparent and leader of the opposition in Bihar assembly Tejashwi Yadav, party sources said.

The resignation came as a big blow to the RJD ahead of assembly elections, with the NDA constituents hailing Singhs decision.

Raghuvansh babu commands respect of all. Why was he forced to quit the party he nursed with his blood and sweat?" Bihar BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand said.

Anand said Singh was humiliated" by RJD supremos elder son Tej Pratap Yadav after he announced his resignation from the post of party vice president. What difference will it make if a pot of water is taken out of the sea?" Tej Pratap had said.
In the fourth of a book series titled From the Memory of Land and River, we fall under the spell of Syria and Lebanon, the land of cupid, poetry and jasmine

The land of Cupid, poetry and jasmine, Ibrahim Shalaby, From the Memory of Land and River, Al-Balsam Publishing House, Cairo, 2017, pp.197

Seeking revenge from Apollo (the god of sun), Cupid (the god of love) aimed his golden arrow at Apollos heart and his lead arrow at Daphnes, the fairy. Smitten with love, Apollo kept chasing her until she sought the aid of her father, the god of the river, who transformed her into a Laurel tree. Desperately in love, Apollo proclaimed her his holy tree, keeping her forever green and making the laurel wreath a symbol to honour the heroes, reads the book that delves into the myths and tales along the banks of Al-Asi (Orontes) river.

From the Memory of Land and River (Al-Balsam Publishing House) was written by 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 book delves into the land of wonder, India and Pakistan, from the perspective of mango (Soresh) and pomegranate (Rakshanda). His fourth is told through the Apricot fruit.

In this book, Shalaby waltzes between the cultural lace tableau of Syria and Lebanon, reflecting their richness and variety which are as enchanting as the art of shadow puppets that flourished in the area back then.

Damascus, the city of jasmine, was the capital of the Umayyad state, the biggest in Islamic history. It was ruled by the fifth Caliph Omar Ibn Abdel-Aziz whose reign was known to be the most prosperous and charitable. Damascus has the oldest wall in the world, which was built by Noah after the flood. The Temple of Damascus (currently the umayyad mosque), though claimed by numerous religions, has never seen prayers disrupted in over 3,500 years.

My religion is that of love, echoed the famous poetry of great Sufi poet Ibn Arabi, who was buried in Salheia. Adopting the same line of thought that promoted love and respect to all religions is Prince Abdel-Qader Al-Gazaeri, founder of modern Algeria and an icon of resistance against French occupation, who was exiled to Damascus, taught in the Umayyad mosque and combated sectarian violence that started in Lebanon and reached Damascus in 1860.

The Umayyad mosque housed the tomb of Prophet Yehia (John the Baptist) whose life was that of an inspiring pious man. The book shares a rare quote of Prophet Yehia: If you are strong, then be splendidly honest... like a king who dons the crown on his head and raises his sword in the face of evil if you are not this strong, then be an honest supporter like a productive farmer who extracts the yield from the soil to provide strength to the splendidly honest.

In Lebanon, Baalbek enchanted people with the poetry of Khalil Motran, and the mountains recalled the mystical origins of Cedar trees that date back 3,000 years. The book highlights the iconic Rahbani brothers, the legendary Fairouz and great Lebanese poet Jubran Khalil Jubran.

In Qadesh we witness the first peace treaty documented in the history of mankind. The treaty between the Egyptians and Hittites was concluded in 1258 BC and its replica is hung at the premises of the United Nations headquarters in New York.

From Maryamein, a Sufi icon in the 10th century, heads of Beni Helal tribe migrated from the Arab Peninsula before they arrived in Upper Egypt. From this spot started their famous Helaly Epic that has over a million stanzas," reads the book.

Many more historic gems are revealed in this book briefly telling the history of the Levantine. The book contains an annex of the ancient art of shadow puppets, compiled by artist Ahmed Soliman.

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Party General Secretary and State President Nguyen Phu Trong, on behalf of the Party and the State, has sent a letter of congratulations to the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) on its proud achievements over the 75 years since its establishment.

He wrote that amid the countrys celebrations of the August Revolution (August 19) and National Day (September 2), the agency also marks its 75th anniversary (September 15, 1945 - 2020) and the 60th anniversary of the Liberation News Agency (October 12, 1960 - 2020), while receiving the title Hero of the Peoples Armed Forces.

The Vietnam News Agency receives the Ho Chi Minh Order (second time) at a ceremony marking its 65th founding anniversary (September 15, 1945-2010) (Photo: VNA)

The leader said that since September 15, 1945, when the agency, known as Viet Nam Thong tan xa at the time, aired the full text of the Declaration of Independence and the list of the members of the provisional Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (now the Socialist Republic of Vietnam), it has always been accompanying the nation. During the countrys struggles for national independence and reunification, VNA reporters fulfilled their mission of sustaining the flow of information to readers in Vietnam and overseas.

Trong also spoke about the VNA today, which he said follows current developments and publishes news on the Partys orientations and the States laws and policies, encouraging the people in the cause of nation building and safeguarding, as well as the countrys renewal and international integration, and in actively joining Party building activities and strengthening national solidarity.

Amid the far-reaching impact of the fourth Industrial Revolution on all socio-economic areas, he said he hopes and believes the VNA will continue to consolidate its role as the official, trustworthy media agency of the Party and State, providing domestic and international news in various forms for people from all walks of life.

He concluded the letter by wishing all VNA officials, reporters, editors, and technicians good health, happiness, and success.

VNA
An experiment in which cars communicate with one another is about to hit the road in Ipswich, but researchers need people to drive the project  literally.

The Ipswich Connected Vehicle Pilot will use 500 drivers to test the safety benefits of fitting cars with a system that allows them to talk to one another and receive real-time information on road conditions.

Road safety researchers are about to start the largest trial of connected-vehicle technology in Australia. Credit:QUT

Miranda Blogg, director of the Co-operative and Automated Vehicle Initiative in the states Transport and Main Roads Department, said the system was based on those being used in Europe.

Connected vehicles can assess the information they get from other connected vehicles and the cloud to decide whether the information is relevant to the driver's location and driving behaviour, Ms Blogg said.
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Kashmir: A massive cordon and search operation has been launched and all entry and exit points have been sealed after receiving inputs of 2-3 terrorists being trapped the area.

The terrorists had earlier fired upon the security forces that were patrolling at Parigam village in Pulwama. After a brief exchange of fire, massive searches were launched in the area.

As per the reports terrorists fired upon the Army's patrolling party, however, no injury has been reported in the attack, said a police official. The attack was retaliated and a brief exchange of fire happened.

A police official said after the attack, a massive search operation has been launched in the area to nab the attackers.

(This is a developing story, more details awaited)
An estimated 200 Kazakh protesters have called for the release of political prisoners and the declaration of a credit amnesty. They have also urged that Chinese Ambassador Zhang Xiao be expelled from the Central Asian country, quoting "China's expansion" in its economy. The rally permitted by authorities took place in the city of Almaty on September 13 and was organized by journalist and activist Zhanbolat Mamai, who leads the unregistered opposition Democratic Party.
An annual event celebrating those who champion transparency in government will feature Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward.

Woodward will be the keynote speaker during the 2020 William S. Dixon, First Amendment Freedom Award event on Oct. 1.

The New Mexico Foundation of Open Government, or FOG, said the event will be held virtually and will start at noon.

After Woodwards opening, this years Dixon awards will be given to local citizens, government employees and watchdogs in the law and journalism sector.

Woodward is best known for his coverage, alongside Carl Bernstein, of the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

A longtime Washington Post journalist, Woodward also shared a Pulitzer Prize for the papers coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and has a book, Rage, coming out Tuesday, about President Donald Trump.

This years recipients of the Dixon award are Teri Garcia and Stefanie Mortensen, Gallup, in the citizen category; Rep. Jim Townsend, Artesia, and Ethan Watson, Albuquerque, in the government category; Adam Flores, Albuquerque, in the law category; and Ryan Lowery, Las Vegas, in the media category.

The release says attendees can pay $30 to attend virtually or $60 to attend the event and receive a one-year membership to FOG. Virtual tables of 14 will also be available for $600.

All proceeds benefit the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, a 501(c)(3) New Mexico nonprofit corporation.

Tickets

For more information, call 505-764-3750. Go to NMFOG.org and click on events to buy individual tickets to this virtual event.
Close to 4 million students residing in government-controlled areas in Syria have returned to school today. Schools are being sanitized around the clock under the supervision of Ministry of Health officials.

More than 3 million Syrian students returned to school on Sunday as the new academic year in the government-controlled areas began amid precautions against the COVID-19, state news agency SANA reported.

A total of 3,735,521 students went to 13,280 schools across Syria as the Education Ministry took several measures to clean schools and used detergents to disinfect classrooms and the interior of schools.

The schools' opening was initially scheduled for the beginning of September but was postponed until Sunday over COVID-19 concerns.

At the Amir al-Khatib school in the capital Damascus, students were seen wearing face masks on their first school day while educational supervisors were spraying disinfectants on their hands before they entered classrooms.

Milad Shiha, an educational supervisor at Amir al-Khatib, told Xinhua that the parents' fears about sending their children to school are understandable.

"It's the right of parents to fear for their kids but I ask the parents to follow the medical advice, keep in touch with the school administration and turn the medical advice into a lifestyle," she said.

Zeina Mahmoud, a health supervisor, said health advisors and supervisors have been assigned to each school to assess and report the health situation and the wellbeing of students.

"There is a health advisor whose job is to check on all the cleaning and disinfection measures and the wellbeing of the students and teachers from the beginning to the end of the school day with the aim of maintaining public safety at school," she noted.

Meanwhile in Kurdish-controlled areas, SANA said the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) prevented high school students from entering their schools in Hasakah Province in northeastern Syria.

Citing educational officials in Hasakah, SANA charged that the SDF is taking schools as bases in the region.

The SDF has not yet responded to the charge.

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Bengaluru, Sep 13 : Former Karnataka Chief Minister, H.D. Kumaraswamy on Sunday urged the state government to take immediate steps to close down all the dance bars in Bengaluru, saying that these bars have become dens of drug supply centres in the city.

Speaking to reporters in Bhadravati town in Shivamogga district, Kumaraswamy quipped that the incumbent government is not dependent on anybody's mercy, hence, the Chief Minister, B.S. Yediyurappa should take this bold step of announcing closure of dance bars.

"There has been ample evidence against dance bars in Bengaluru, where many peddlers and addicts come together for a jaunt. The state government must take steps to stop this by banning the dance bars," he said.

Answering to a question, Kumarswamy retorted that even when he was the Chief Minister, he was under someone's mercy, he had taken all steps but a step short of closing down these bars as his government by then had lost majority on the floor.

"Yediyurappa can do it even now, as I have completed all the formalities to issue ban orders," he said.
New Delhi: For the first time in two decades, the parliament will not host all-party meeting in the monsoon session which begins on Monday.

The departure from the convention could be seen due to the growing rift between the opposition and the Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla, a report in NDTV said.

A meeting has been called of the Business Advisory Committee today to discuss issues including abolition of Question Hour and the curtailing of Zero Hour. The speaker will discuss the agenda of the house in the meeting which will go up till October 1.

The opposition is likely to raise India-China standoff, contraction in the economy and the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, News18 had earlier reported that a discussion on the India-China face-off is unlikely to be allowed soon.

The government has to decide whether it will agree for these short-duration discussions without voting. Earlier in 2017, the government had refused discussion on Doklam citing national security.

The government had adjourned sine die due to the Coronavirus pandemic in March which led to a national lockdown starting from March.

The parliament resumes after 20 soldiers were killed in Ladakh after clashes with China in June.

The parliament session will start amid strict precautionary measures amid rising cases of Covi-19. All the members and staff are to get themselves tested for coronavirus before coming to the parliament. The parliament has also launched application for digital attendance.

Lok Sabha will function from 9 am to 1 pm on the first day and from 3 pm to 7 pm till October 1. Rajya Sabha will function from 3 pm to 7 pm the first day and 9 am to 1 pm the rest of the days. The parliament has decided to work even on weekends.
Sharon Stone has said she has empathy for Trump, stating that she thinks hes had some childhood trauma.

When asked about her views on the controversial president, the Basic Instinct star divulged, Actually, I have empathy for him because its heartbreaking to watch.

Stone told The Telegraph, I think hes had some childhood trauma. I look at this man and it feels to me like whatever his traumas are, he is torturing and hurting himself.

The 62-year-old went on to say the same might be true of Trumps voting base too, Its affecting so many people that are coming out in support [of] him, with Nazi masks and all that stuff.

Those are also people who have a heartbreaking level of internal rage, and that rage comes from feeling so insecure and so hurt.

Stone rose to fame after the release of Basic Instinct in 1992

In the same interview, Stone voiced her support of actor Johnny Depp in regards to his recent libel trial against The Suns publishers. Depp sued the newspaper after it referred to him as a wife beater in a column, following domestic abuse allegations made against him by his ex-wife Amber Heard.

The Pirates of the Caribbean actor is defending himself against accusations of domestic violence, alleging that it was Heard who had been abusive in the relationship.

Ive known Johnny from when he was a kid and hes a terrific guy: sweet and nice and very warm and generous. So I have a feeling its more about this young lady, said Stone.
Democratic presidential candidates (L-R) former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), former Vice President Joe Biden, former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) arrive on stage for the Democratic presidential primary debate in Las Vegas, Nev., on Feb. 19, 2020. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Michael Bloomberg to Spend up to $100 Million in Florida to Help Biden

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is going to spend $100 million in Florida to aid Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the battleground state against President Donald Trump.

A spokesperson for Bloomberg told his namesake media, Bloomberg News, on Sept. 13 that the money will be spent on voter-turnout initiatives and communicating with Hispanic voters.

Mike Bloomberg is committed to helping defeat Trump, and that is going to happen in the battleground states, Kevin Sheekey, senior Bloomberg adviser, said on Sept. 13.

The move drew a rebuke from Trump on Sept. 13. I thought Mini Mike was through with Democrat politics after spending almost 2 Billion Dollars, and then giving the worst and most inept Debate Performance in the history of Presidential Politics, he wrote on Twitter.

Pocahontas ended his political career on first question, OVER! Trump added, using a nickname for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a former Democratic presidential candidate. Save NYC instead.

Bloomberg, the former three-term mayor of New York City, spent hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money on running for president earlier this year. He eventually bowed out of the race and endorsed Biden.

Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg arrives on stage for the Democratic presidential primary debate at the Charleston Gaillard Center in Charleston, S.C., on Feb. 25, 2020. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Earlier this year, Warren criticized Bloombergs leadership and comments that he had made about women at his company.

Id like to talk about who were running against, she said about the media mogul. A billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians. And no, Im not talking about Donald Trump. Im talking about Mayor Bloomberg.

Trump on Sept. 13 later questioned how Bloomberg, 78, made his massive fortune. Bloomberg started his financial company, Bloomberg LP, in the early 1980s before it expanded to Bloomberg News and Bloomberg TV.

In the highly competitive world of high tech, how come nobody has ever challenged Mini Mike Bloomberg and his very average, & supposedly outdated, stuff that he sells to so many? Trump wrote on Twitter. Did he use his position as Mayor of New York to create what is now a monopoly? Just askin?

Bloombergs announcement to provide funds to reelect Biden came after the Cook Political Report declared that Florida is now a toss-up after labeling it as leans Democrat.

A more competitive Florida contest is good news for Pres. Trump, who cant afford to lose this state, Cooks national editor, Amy Walter, wrote. Even so, many Democrats never expected Biden to be able to win here, having long written off the Sunshine State as a loser.

Bidens campaign didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.
KLM will resume its operation to Kuwait City from September 24, starting with two flights per week to and from Amsterdam.

The flights will be operated with an Airbus 330-200, with additional sanitary measures to ensure passengers safety.

Flight KL0491 will depart Amsterdam to Kuwait at 11.45 am on Thursday and Saturday and arrive in Kuwait at 6.30pm same day. Flight KL0492 will depart Kuwait at 5.25 amd on Friday and Sunday and arrive in Amsterdam at 10.35 am same day.

We are delighted to announce the news about the resumption of our flights to Kuwait city. Our passengers, safety, comfort, health and well-being remain our highest priority. All of our flights are operated with additional sanitary measures to ensure our passengers safety. We profoundly thank our customers for their patience and the authorities involved for their continuous support, said Yeshwant Pawar, General Manager, Air France KLM, Gulf, Iran and Pakistan.

These flights will allow passengers to reach Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, where KLM gradually resumes its flights. Passengers will have the possibility to connect flights to some European and Intercontinental destinations, a statement said.

Prior to booking and travelling, KLM encourages its customers to contact the authorities for information on the formalities for entering and residing in their countries of destination and transit, as these are likely to have been modified following the Covid-19 epidemic, it added.  TradeArabia News Service
The finance ministry on Sunday said banks have sanctioned loans worth over Rs 1.63 lakh crore to more than 42 lakh business units under the Rs 3-lakh crore Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for the MSME sector.

On the disbursement front, however, over Rs 1.18 lakh crore doled out to 25 lakh MSME units, till September 10, which were hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns.

The scheme is the biggest fiscal component of the Rs 20-lakh crore Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan package announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in May to mitigate the distress by providing credit to different sectors, especially micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

As of September 10, as reported by public sector banks (PSBs) and top 23 private sector banks, "additional credit amounting to Rs 1,63,226.49 crore has been sanctioned to 42,01,576 borrowers," the ministry said in a statement.

"Amount of Rs 1,18,138.64 crore has been disbursed to 25,01,999 borrowers, it said while sharing the progress of implementation of various schemes under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan package.

Sharing details of other schemes being implemented by the finance ministry, the statement said banks have approved purchase of portfolio of Rs 25,055.5 crore under Rs 45,000-crore Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme 2.0 for NBFCs, HFCs and MFIs to do fresh lending to MSMEs and individuals scheme as on August 28.

Lenders are currently in the process of approval/negotiations for additional Rs 4,367 crore, it said.

Talking about income tax refunds, it said the department has issued Rs 1,01,308 crore to more than 27.55 lakh taxpayers between April 1, 2020 and September 8, 2020.

"Income tax refunds of Rs 30,768 crore have been issued in 25,83,507 cases and corporate tax refunds of Rs 70,540 crore have been issued in 1,71,155 cases. In fact, all corporate tax refunds up to Rs 50 crore have been issued in all cases, wherever due. Other refunds are under process, it said.

With regard to Rs 30,000 crore Special Liquidity Scheme for the stressed non-banking financial companies (NBFCs)/housing finance companies (HFCs)/micro finance institutions (MFIs), it said 37 proposals involving an amount of Rs 10,590 crore have been approved while six applications seeking financing of Rs 783.5 crore are under process as on September 11.

It further said under the Rs 30,000 crore additional Emergency Working Capital Funding for farmers through NABARD scheme, Rs 25,000 crore has been disbursed till August 28.

"Balance amount of Rs 5,000 crore under Special Liquidity Facility (SLF) allocated to National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) by RBI for smaller NBFCs and NBFC-MFIs. NABARD is finalising operational guidelines to roll it out soon, it said.

Besides, NABARD has also launched Structured Finance and Partial Guarantee scheme in collaboration with two agencies and banks to help unrated NBFCs/MFIs to get credit from lenders, the statement said.

On May 20, the Cabinet approved additional funding of up to Rs 3 lakh crore at a concessional rate of 9.25 percent through ECLGS for MSME sector.

Under the scheme, 100 percent guarantee coverage will be provided by the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company (NCGTC) for additional funding of up to Rs 3 lakh crore to eligible MSMEs and interested Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) borrowers in the form of a guaranteed emergency credit line (GECL) facility.

For this purpose, a corpus of Rs 41,600 crore was set up by the government, spread over the current and next three financial years.

The scheme will be applicable to all loans sanctioned under GECL facility during the period from the date of announcement of the scheme to October 31 or till the amount of Rs 3 lakh crore is sanctioned under GECL, whichever is earlier.
The death toll is 30 people in the past 24 hours.

The number of daily COVID-19 coronavirus cases in Ukraine is on the decline for the first time in the past three days.

Some 2,476 new active cases were confirmed across the country in the past 24 hours as of September 13, 2020, after 3,103 new cases recorded as of September 12 and 3,144 cases recorded as of September 11, according to the interactive map of the country's National Security and Defense Council.

Read alsoTravel amid COVID-19 restrictions: Ukraine updates list of red, green zone countries

The total number of confirmed cases grew to 154,335.

The death toll is 3,178 with 30 fatalities recorded in the past day.

As many as 68,893 patients, including 547 in the past day, have recovered.

There were 82,264 active cases as of September 13.

Global developments as of September 13
UPDATE: This story has been updated with a comment from the Rockford Public Schools superintendent.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI  Another student in the Forest Hills Public School District has tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

According to a letter sent to families of students at Northern High School, a student there tested positive for COVID-19. The school learned of the positive test on Saturday, Sept. 12 - the same day the letter went out - and the student was last on the schools campus, 3801 Leonard St. NE, on Tuesday, Sept. 8, the letter read.

Kent County Public Health will contact people who have come into close contact with the student, reads the letter, which was authored by principal Jon Gregory.

It will not affect the schools opening. The district is operating a mix of in-person and virtual learning this year.

RELATED: Forest Hills Public Schools student tests positive for coronavirus

On Thursday, Sept. 10, a letter went out to families at Central High School, 5901 Hall St. SE., saying that a student there had tested positive after experiencing COVID-19 symptoms beginning on Saturday, Sept. 5.

On Saturday, the district updated its mask policy, banning the use of neck gaiters, bandannas, and masks with vents or made of mesh.

Other Kent County schools have responded to positive cases among their students and staffs over the last few weeks, as the school year gets underway.

A staffer at North Rockford Middle School, 397 E. Division St. NE, tested positive for COVID-19, according to a notice sent to families on Friday, Sept. 11.

Rockford Superintendent Michael Shibler told MLive that the staff member had no contact with other staff or students, so there was no need to do anything else beyond that point.

Other districts notified families in August about cases including, Caledonia, Grandville and Kentwood school districts.

Caledonia High School closed for two weeks after five students and a staff member tested positive for COVID-19 in late August. The school is set to reopen for in-person learning on Monday, Sept. 14.

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Close to 20 rounds of bullets were fired in the Capital in less than 18 hours between Saturday and Sunday, leading to the deaths of four people, and reigniting fears of gun violence returning to Delhi after months of relative calm.

Three of the four shootings appeared to be motivated by what police say was likely personal enmity, and the gunmen in all four crimes followed a similar modus operandi: they arrived in pairs on motorcycles and intercepted their victims before opening fire. The latest shooting took place on Sunday when the victim stopped at a traffic signal on a busy road in Patparganj.

The first two crimes took place within minutes of each other. At 8:30pm in Outer Delhis Swaroop Nagar, 36-year-old Sonu Rana was stopped by three men on a motorcycle while he and a friend had halted at the Palla traffic signal on their own two-wheeler. The men chased away Ranas friend before firing four rounds into their target, who died at the spot.

Meanwhile in north-east Delhis Dayalpur, four men on two motorcycles reached a factory where they sought out 45-year-old vegetable vendor Farookh Pehwalwan. Pehalwan was shot dead inside the factory, police said, estimating that 4-5 rounds were fired.

Approximately 15 minutes later and roughly 600 metres away in Nehru Vihar, the same men are believed to have shot dead 47-year-old property dealer Abdul Hamid in his office. Police said Hamid knew Pehalwan and are investigating the shootings as connected.

The fourth crime took place on Sunday at 2pm in the heart of East Delhi, when three men on a motorcycle surrounded a white hatchback that had stopped at the traffic signal near Hasanpur bus depot in Patparganj. The shooters blocked both front doors before pumping at least seven bullets through front windows, killing the lone occupant who was identified as Yogesh.

None of the suspects have been detained yet, senior police officials associated with the cases said.

Police data till June 30 shows that firearms were used in 292 serious cases: 48 of these were murders, 117 attempted murders, 125 robberies and two were dacoities. This number was, however, nearly 30% less than 2019, when 415 cases of murder, attempt to murder, dacoity and robbery were reported during the corresponding period last year.

According to an analysis of data from last years crimes till mid-October, there were at least 1,017 shots fired across the city in 310 incidents. The bullets killed at least 102 people and left another 164 injured, a trend that some former and current police officers described as disturbing and scary.

Delhi Police officials defended the forces actions in curbing firearm crimes. Delhi Police makes continuous endeavour to end the gun culture in the city and for that all-round efforts, which include identifying the illegal manufacturers, unearthing their factories, and neutralising their entire chain of suppliers and receivers, are being made, said Delhi Police spokesperson, Eish Singhal.

Apart from catching members of criminal gangs with illegal firearms as well as dreaded criminals, we are now following the back trail and reaching up to the prime source from where the weapon was supplied, the spokesperson added.

But, experts reiterated the current trends were worrying. What kind of policing is being done if four people were murdered in as many shooting incidents in 18 hours and that too in the national capital? The use of firearms in all the cases shows how gun culture has been increasing among criminals. At the same, it also reflects poorly on the police that have failed to keep a check on illegal firearms manufacturers, suppliers as well as users. These four shootings are certainly a wake-up call for the police, said former Uttar Pradesh director general of police (DGP) Vikram Singh.

The shooting on Sunday took place at a busy traffic signal, triggering panic among the people. According to deputy commissioner of police (east) Jasmeet Singh, Yogesh had a criminal background and was involved in at least two crimes, including a murder that he committed in 2011 in Ambedkar Nagar area.

A second official, who asked not to be named, added that the gunmen were reported to have fled the area while brandishing their weapons, leaving stunned onlookers who later began taking photos and videos of the crime scene.

In the cases the night before, police said all incidents were due to personal enmity. Pehalwan, who was killed in the factory, had a criminal background and is likely to have been murdered by a man he tried to have killed recently.

We have learnt that on Pehalwans instructions, his associate executed an attack on the criminal (the prime suspect in the shooting) but he survived. Prime facie, it appears that the criminal took revenge of the attack by killing Pehalwan and Hamid. Our teams are looking for the suspects, said joint commissioner of police (eastern range) Alok Kumar.

In the case of Rana, who was shot dead near the Palla traffic signal, police suspect the role of people known to him, including the man who was accompanying him.

We registered a case and during the probe learnt that Ranas murder conspiracy was hatched by a person known to him. The friend who was with him on the bike also knew about the conspiracy. We are questioning some persons in the case. Prime facie, it appears to be a case of murder over personal enmity, said deputy commissioner of police (outer north) Gaurav Sharma.
Rajesh Asnani By

RAJASTHAN: Until some years ago, in the village of Geeta Solanki in Barmer, the desert zone of Rajasthan, girls were not expected to study beyond 8th standard. In Kawas village, about 30 km from Barmer city, things were made very clear for Geeta: she would get married after school. Each time Geeeta wished her teacher-father, shed imagine herself in his position. She should study further, but how? The question lingered on, even as she got married.

It all flashed through her mind as she got up to receive the Teachers Day award from President Kovind a week ago. I invited a lot of snide remarks when I tried to study further. My husband, a matriculate, stood by me, recalls Geeta, who belongs to an OBC community. Bound by social norms, she had to do all the house chores and study in secret.

From cooking and cleaning to walking miles for getting drinking water, to grazing the cattle  I did all the work that my in-laws expected me to do. Since I had to study in secret, I would spare some time and go to our farmland to study, says Geeta. In 2004, she passed the 10th exams and got a job under the Shiksha Karmi scheme of the Rajasthan government  at a time when she was expecting her first child.

Then she completed her Senior Teaching Certificate degree, and was made a permanent teacher to educate children of her area. That was the bold new beginning. Initially, she taught children under the shade of trees. In her village in the first year itself, she had 55 students in her school. Finally, Geeta gathered courage to ask her father-in-law to provide her some land to set up a school.

By then, Geeta earned a monthly salary of Rs 1,200, and she gave her three-month wages to her father-in-law. In return, he agreed to give her 3-bigha land which the family owned to set up her school. In 2006, when Barmer suffered freak floods and Kawas was one of the worst-affected villages, Geeta faced her toughest challenge. At least 15 of my students died in those floods and we all were devastated. Though my school remained flooded for more than a year, I started teaching my students in some Army tents gifted to our village, she recalls.

Since we had no books, I used to collect the wrappers of Parle-G biscuit packets to help my students learn the alphabets. The Unicef then stepped in to help us with books, says Geeta. Today, her school  the Rajkiya Shikshakarmi Prathmik Vidyalaya  is a living monument to her efforts, perseverance and courage. Since 2015, about 80 students have taken admission every year and nearly half of them are girls.

Geeta has won the national award for Innovation in Education. She had to face three interviews in three different cities before she was finally chosen for the award.

In government schools, we hardly have any funds for creative activities. To overcome this, I keep telling my students that waste is best. I encourage students to use the waste all around. We train them to create something useful out of waste material. Once they create something, students also learn to value and care for those things, says Geeta. Geeta now earns a monthly salary of Rs 52,000, but her larger struggle continues. Since 2012, she has been demanding a road for her school, but has been unable to get one. Her greatest consolation is that she is not alone.
Massachusetts officials reported Sunday that the statewide COVID-19 death toll has now reached more than 9,000 since the pandemic began.

The state Department of Public Health reported 267 new cases of COVID-19 and confirmed 14 more people have died from illness linked to the virus as of Sunday.

A total of 9,001 people have died in the commonwealth throughout the pandemic, according to DPH. Massachusetts currently has the sixth-most coronavirus-related deaths of any state, behind New York, New Jersey, Texas, California and Florida, according to The New York Times. When including probable cases, the state says 9,210 may have died in connection to the disease.

As of Sunday, at least 122,904 Massachusetts residents have tested positive since the pandemic began.

Sundays newly reported cases are based on 12,102 molecular tests, according to DPH. Throughout the pandemic, 3,006,158 molecular tests have been administered.

After months recording a seven-day weighted average of positive molecular tests at about 1%, the rate has held below 1% throughout the month of September. The rate as of Sunday is 0.8%.

There are 313 people hospitalized with the virus on Sunday, with 61 in the intensive care unit, DPH reported.

The latest statistics come as schools and universities have been cracking down on parties or shifting reopening plans after reports of large gatherings.

Officials at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School announced Saturday that the school year will begin fully remotely after police on Friday night broke up crowded indoor and outdoor student party that involved alcohol and a complete lack of safety precautions to protect against the spread of COVID."

The district had planned to open the high school with a hybrid schedule, but the school will back up its hybrid plan until Sept. 29. If officials identify students who attended the party, they may be isolated from the school, monitored and tested.

Last week, nearly a dozen first-year Northeastern University students were dismissed after they allegedly violated university and public health protocols during the pandemic by gathering in a room at the Westin Copley Place Hotel in Boston.

The CDC this week released a study suggesting a link between the spread of coronavirus and going to bars and restaurants.

Nationwide, more than 6.5 million Americans have tested positive for coronavirus. At least 193,551 have died as of Saturday, according to COVID-19 data compiled by the Times.

As of Sunday, these are the number of coronavirus cases in each county:

Barnstable County: 1,682

Berkshire County: 683

Bristol County: 9,525

Dukes County: 60

Essex County: 18,679

Franklin County: 396

Hampden County: 7,857

Hampshire County: 1,196

Middlesex County: 26,182

Nantucket County: 69

Norfolk County: 9,832

Plymouth County: 9,367

Suffolk County: 23,194

Worcester County: 13,842

Unknown location: 340

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New York, Sep 13 : The health of democracy in the United States has reached its lowest point amid racial justice protests and Covid-19 pandemic, a new survey has found.

The Bright Line Watch's survey found considerable declines since 2017 in the performance of democratic principles concerning limits on government power and accountability for its misuse.

Bright Line Watch is a multi-university initiative to monitor democratic practices, their resilience and potential threats.

"Performance declines since March 2020 are greatest for protections of free speech, toleration of peaceful protest, and protection from political violence," the survey said.

"While there are a few bright spots in the latest report, the overall picture is cause for consternation," said Gretchen Helmke, professor of political science at the University of Rochester.

"It is concerning that there has been so much erosion across the board on so many principles".

The survey was completed before the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, August 23.

The 776 responding experts, polled between July 27 and August 17, see the overall quality of US democracy continuing on its downward trend, reaching the lowest point since Bright Line Watch began its surveys in early 2017.

Experts are concerned about the state of American elections.

"Although relatively few express significant concerns about fraud, the majority does not believe that elections are free from foreign influence".

Two-thirds of the experts do not think that citizens have an equal opportunity to vote, or that all votes have equal impact.

"The most alarming findings, though not particularly surprising, are the steep declines in government protection for peaceful protest and the prevention of political violence," Helmke said.

"This is really a new and quite worrisome trend, and, of course, our polling for this survey took place even before the events in Kenosha".

The only significant improvement in performance is on the principle that the judiciary can effectively limit the executive, which rose from 44 per cent to 58 per cent of experts saying that the US "mostly" or "fully" meets this standard, the findings showed.
Internet search trends on gastrointestinal problems could help predict COVID-19 hotspots as much as four weeks ahead of an actual rise in case numbers, a study has found.

Researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital noted that internet searches for diarrhoea and loss of appetite and taste, in California, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York were indicative of a future rise in COVID -19 cases in those regions, Bloomberg reported.

The study, published in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, was conducted over a four-month period from January 20 to April 20 and used Google Trends to track search volumes of COVID-19 symptom-related keywords.

Researchers found that the spike in search items strongly co-related with a spike in cases reported three to four weeks later. The hospital said the hypothesis is supported by similar methods used to track case trends during the influenza pandemic.

Follow our LIVE Updates on the coronavirus pandemic here

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

Writing in the study, Kyle Staller, a gastroenterologist and the director of Mass Generals gastrointestinal motility laboratory, and colleagues said that Google Trends may be a valuable tool for prediction of pandemics and the data underscores the importance of geographical symptoms as a potential harbinger of COVID-19 infections.

The study was prompted by a majority of patients reporting gastrointestinal symptoms, such as abdominal pain and diarrhoea, the report said.

Besides internet search trends, researchers are also looking at the presence of the novel coronavirus or SARS-CoV-2 in the waste water to identify hotspots.
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Hundreds of anti-lockdown protesters have massed in Melbourne for a second day, with some throwing fruit at police after raiding market stalls.

Protesters chanting 'Freedom' and 'Power to the people' were outnumbered by officers at Queen Victoria Market on Sunday.

Footage of violent scuffles and officers on horseback moving through a group inside the market has been posted online.

'There were a few tense moments when protesters started grabbing fruit and throwing it at police,' photographer Erik Anderson said from the scene.

Protesters yelled 'this is not a police state' and 'you've got to be on the right side of history'.

Mr Anderson estimated that police had arrested dozens of protesters.

Huge crowds of protesters were filmed marching down empty streets in Melbourne, calling for Daniel Andrews to ease the city's draconian lockdown restrictions.

One man was spotted kicking a police horse as officers attempted to calm crowds hurling abuse at them as they rode through the markets.

'There were a few tense moments when protesters started grabbing fruit and throwing it at police,' photographer Erik Anderson said from the scene

About 150 people gathered at the protest on Sunday, including a man in a Make America Great Again cap (left)

Footage of violent scuffles and officers on horseback moving through a group inside the market has been posted online

Police detained a female protester at Melbourne's Queen Victoria Market during the rally

Protesters are seen during an anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne, Sunday, September 13

Melbourne remains in a Stage Four lockdown, meaning residents cannot leave their houses without a valid reason, and restrictions are in place to limit movement more than 5km from a person's home.

The restrictions remain in place, and both a State of Emergency and State of Disaster, have been extended a further four weeks despite the embattled state only recording 41 new cases and seven deaths on Sunday.

The latest figures released on Sunday morning take the state's death toll to 723 and the national count to 810 since the start of the pandemic in late January.

Leading up to the demonstration, organisers used encrypted phone apps to communicate, in an attempt to avoid police finding out the location of the planned rally, Herald Sun reported.

In messages sent to participants, organisers encouraged people to 'be agile, like water' and stick together throughout the course of the day.

'Be ready to swarm the location to assemble. Once we have assembled, we are all safe,' one of the organisers said.

Police put a mask on a protester (left) during an anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne while other officers arrest another woman (right)

Footage of violent scuffles and officers on horseback moving through a group inside the market has been posted online

About 150 protesters chanting 'Freedom' and 'Power to the people' were outnumbered by officers at Queen Victoria Market on Sunday

Protesters clash with Police at the Queen Victoria Market on September 13 during an organised rally

A woman is detained by police on the ground at a protest about lockdown in Victoria

'Conducting these protests is dependent on having sufficiently large numbers to outnumber any police presence at a location of assembly.

'Best way to achieve this is to ensure you have talked to everyone you know that might be interested in attending, and attempt to just bring at least one other person with you.'

Tensions between police and protesters escalated 11.45am on Sunday when about 50 people were cornered by police on Peel Street.

Riot police had to separate the crowd and Peel Street remains blocked off to the public.

Pictures taken at the scene show officers shepherding protesters through the streets and arresting people who do not comply with orders.

Tensions between police and protesters escalated 11.45am on Sunday when about 50 people were cornered by police on Peel Street

Pictures taken at the scene show officers shepherding protesters through the streets and arresting people who do not comply with orders

'Life is beautiful... It's the system that is ugly,' one sign at the protest on Sunday read

Pictures taken at the scene show officers shepherding protesters through the streets and arresting people who do not comply with orders

One man wearing a red and black bandanna told police he had lost faith in authorities throughout the pandemic.

He told police he felt unsafe in their presence, and that contributed to his decision to attend the illegal protest.

'Dude I'm scared. I don't even know how I'm going to pay this fine,' he said.

'Heartless soulless people. We've all lost faith.'

The second protest for the weekend comes hours after a woman shared footage of police dragging her from her car.

Natalie Bonett, 29, said she was making her way through the COVID blockade in Wallan, 60km north of Melbourne, on Saturday when she was stopped by police.

At least 100 police officers, including those from Public Order Response unit, have the group surrounded and several people have already been arrested

A woman hangs out of a car window near police wearing masks during the anti-lockdown protest

Protesters have been clashing with police on Sunday and several people have been arrested

Protesters have clashed with police during a 'freedom walk' on Sunday to protest Victoria's strict lockdown

They informed her it was against the law to have her phone attached to a car charger which was mounted onto her windshield.

Following a brief and tense exchange, video shows the officer reach in drag the masked woman from her car as her passenger tried to pull her back in.

Ms Bonett, a lash technician in Melbourne, screamed and pulled away from the officer in the footage, demanding he stop touching her and get out of her car.

A passenger in the car attempted to hold her back, trying to tell the officer she's 'got anxiety' while Ms Bonett became increasingly distressed.

'What the f**k are you doing, what the f**k, get off me,' she shouted at the officer.

Moments earlier, the cop had given her an opportunity to state her name, and asked her several times to get out of the car.

'No, I don't feel safe. You're armed,' she responded.

Pictured: : A man is detained by members of Victoria Police at the Queen Victoria Market

Police are seen at the Shrine of Remembrance before a planned anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne, Saturday. The protest continued on Sunday

Ms Bonett claimed officers called for backup when she wouldn't leave her car and that a total of four police officers eventually arrested her

Police move protesters on during an anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne, Sunday, September 13

Mounted police used their horses to break through heavy congestion, moving people along in the process

Police previously vowed to issue more $1,652 fines ahead of Sunday's protest.

'Police had significant prevention activity in the lead up to and duration of today's which included visiting 90 persons of interest to urge them not to attend,' a police statement on Saturday said.

'Our investigations into this protest will continue, and we expect to issue further fines once the identity of individuals has been confirmed.'

'Anyone thinking of attending a protest can expect the same swift and firm response from police as has occurred today and at previous protests that were in breach of Chief Health Officer restrictions.'

Officers on horseback and in riot gear marched through the city during Saturday's protests.

Demonstrators were taken away in handcuffs as police tried to avoid a repeat of last week's protest that saw violent clashes leading to 17 arrests.

Police arrest a protester during an anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne, Sunday, September 13

Confronting footage shows the moment a young woman was dragged from her car screaming while she attempted to pass through a coronavirus checkpoint in Melbourne

On Sunday, hundreds of people took to the streets again, chanting 'freedom' and demanding draconian lockdown restrictions be eased

One man was arrested on Saturday after holding an anti-lockdown sign and calling out to police outside the Shrine of Remembrance.

The man told News Corp he wasn't a conspiracy theorist but was anti-government and nodded when asked if it was 'worth the fine'.

Another mask-wearer was seen being spoken to by an officer while holding a sign that read: 'I am just exercising... my human rights'.

One elderly woman had her details taken by police after she held up a sign with the message: 'open our churches'.

One woman was dramatically restrained on the ground by multiple officers at the Observatory Gate because she wouldn't give her ID, the Herald Sun reported.

She was shoved into the back of a police car while screaming to be let go.

'They've arrested me because I won't say my name. I've been in Melbourne all my life, I just want to go for a walk,' the woman said.

A man wears a face shield with Mr Andrews' head on the back while speaking to police at the march

On Sunday, hundreds of people took to the streets again, chanting 'freedom' and demanding draconian lockdown restrictions be eased

Meanwhile a man with a picture of Premier Daniel Andrews stuck to the back of his face shield paraded through the protest while another had a mask saying 'sack Daniel Andrews'.

The 'Freedom Walk' is believed to be the doing of sacked Clive Palmer political candidate and conspiracy theorist Tony Pecora, 43.

Mr Pecora was arrested by police after allegedly planning the event and charged with two counts of incitement.

The 43-year-old allegedly created the event on social media under the alias Arkwell Tripellego.

He believes the deadly coronavirus was 'genetically engineered by world banks to kill off weak humans'.

He then quoted Midnight Oil, allegedly telling police if someone contracted coronavirus at one of his events 'it would be better to die on your feet than live on your knees'.

One man was arrested after calling out to police and showing them an anti-government sign on Saturday morning

Pictured: Protesters at the rally on Saturday

Members of the mounted police unit are out in full force in Victoria on Sunday. Pictured on Saturday

A demonstrator is taken away from the illegal rally by police in handcuffs on Sunday

On Sunday, Mr Andrews announced an extension of the State of Emergency and State of Disaster in Victoria.

Minister for Health Jenny Mikakos said the extension of the State of Emergency, which will now last until at least October 11, was crucial for the implementation of necessary COVID-safe guidelines.

'The State of Emergency ensures we have all the tools we need to fight this virus  keeping all of us safe,' she said.

Meanwhile Minister for Police and Emergency Services Lisa Neville said it wasn't an easy decision to make.

'Extending a State of Disaster is never a decision we make lightly  and it won't be in place a moment longer than it needs to be,' she said on Sunday.

'We are at a critical point right now. And we have to do everything we can to hold onto the gains we've made, which means giving Victoria Police everything they need to enforce the Chief Health Officer's directions as we keep driving down cases.'

The financial rescue package will inject up to $1.1billion into small and medium sized businesses that are most affected by coronavirus restrictions.

A further $251million will be dedicated solely to support bars, restaurants, pubs, clubs and hotels which have been decimated during the two lockdowns.

Tensions between police and protesters escalated about 11.45am on Sunday when about 50 people were cornered by police on Peel Street

Mr Andrews (pictured at a press conference on September 11) has extended the State of Emergency and State of Disaster for a month

Singage is seen in a window of a closed pub in Melbourne on Thursday, September 10

The Licenced Venue Fund will provide grants of up to $30,000 to venues, while the government has also waived liquor license fees for 2021.

'For our state to recover, we need our businesses to recover too. As we take our first safe and steady steps towards COVID Normal, this support will help make sure we get through this together,' Mr Andrews said.

'We'll continue meeting with and listening to businesses, so we can do everything we can to support them and their workers.'

From Monday, the city of Melbourne will move from the strict Stage Four lockdown into the first step of the roadmap toward reopening.

While modest, the changes will allow for more time outdoors and social interactions.

Mr Andrews said if numbers were kept low the state could open with 'real confidence' and keep them low.

'You can open up and stay open,' he said. 'That is what we want and that is what we will deliver.

'That is what we will deliver in regional Victoria and right across metropolitan Melbourne, not bouncing in and out of lockdowns, but making sure that everything that Victorians have given counts for something and delivers us, as I said, a summer that will be like no other.'

A heavy police presence was visible at Queen Victoria Markets during the protest on Sunday

Another mask-wearer was seen being spoken to by an officer while holding a sign that read: 'I am just exercising...my human rights'

What is the difference between a 'State of Emergency' and a 'State of Disaster'? State of Emergency A State of Emergency can be declared when there is a serious risk to public health. It first came into effect in Victoria on March 16 to give Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton wide-ranging powers to enforce new coronavirus restrictions. Professor Sutton had the authority to direct health officials to detain people, force entire suburbs and regions into lockdown or search premises without a warrant if he felt it was necessary to protect the health of the public. The State of Emergency initially allowed the government to enforce social distancing and mandatory quarantine. State of Disaster While the State of Emergency grants powers to Professor Sutton, a State of Disaster grants additional powers to police and enforcement agencies. The State of Disaster came into effect on August 2nd and has faced several one month extensions since then. To declare a State of Disaster, the premier must be concerned that an emergency 'constitutes or is likely to constitute a significant and widespread danger to life or property in Victoria'. A pandemic, plague or epidemic falls into this bracket. The State of Disaster allows the enforcement of curfews and restrictions of movement within a city. Advertisement

People wearing face masks exercise in Williamstown in Melbourne. Melburnians wil be able to exercise for two hours each day under new, eased restrictions

People living alone or single parents will be able to invite one other person into their homes.

Mr Andrews said he would allow 'social bubbles' even when exercising outdoors, which will now be extended to up to two hours per day - which can be split over two sessions.

Playgrounds and outdoor fitness equipment will reopen, and Melbourne's 8pm lockdown has been pushed back to 9pm.

Regional Victoria will also enjoy the loosening of several restrictions after successfully stemming the spread of the virus.

Up to five people from two separate households will be able to gather in public places, while outdoor pools and playgrounds will also open.

Religious services will be able to go ahead with up to five people.
In his address to the state through social media platforms, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday focused on the worsening Covid-19 scenario even as he alleged that attempts were being made to defame the state and that he could weather both, political storms and the coronavirus.

Thackeray asked people to take precautions and follow social distancing norms the as coronavirus, he pointed out, could take a monstrous form. He also warned them that the state will have to start penalising those violating social distancing norms to curb its spread.

While he did not make a political speech, the chief minister said that attempts were being made to defame Maharashtra and his silence should not be taken as a weakness or failure to respond. Right now, I wont talk about politics but attempts are on to defame Maharashtra. I dont talk, that doesnt mean, I dont have answers. I am sitting on the chair of the chief minister and have to act accordingly, he said.

He made no mention of actor Kangana Ranaut and the political controversy that unfolded in the city last week over the Mumbai civic body demolishing parts of an office owned by the 33-year-old celebrity.

Senior Shiv Sena leaders said the chief minister had decided not to give any importance to the actor and had asked all leaders to follow suit by ignoring her.

Recently, Ranaut had likened Mumbai to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK), triggering a sharp reaction from Sena leaders who accused her of insulting the city and its police.

On coronavirus, Thackeray said: The scenario that I was afraid of is before us now. The cases of coronavirus are rising and will continue to rise. The cases have again started increasing in Mumbai and other areas. They are spreading in rural areas as well. There is a concern that it can take a disastrous form. The World Health Organisation (WHO) too has stated that this can be an indication for another major crisis.

Like other countries, the state will have to start penalising people for violating social distancing. For instance, people will be fined for not wearing a mask at a public place; action against people for crowding a public place etc. We will have to take such steps as people are not following the norms seriously, the chief minister added.

He said that the state government doesnt want to re-impose lockdown restrictions but this can be avoided only when people start taking all the precautions, he warned.

Thackeray also challenged the Oppositions charge that he was missing in action on the ground. He said, They make allegations that I dont go on field but with the help of video-conference technology, I have already reached the remotest areas where they have yet to reach.

He also asked people to share responsibility while mentioning that the governments new initiative of house-to-house survey will begin from September 15. The survey called My Family, My Responsibility aims to identify each and every citizen for Influenza Like Illness (ILI), Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) and citizens with co-morbidities. A team of health workers will inspect every person of a family and suggest available services for the diseases. Those with Covid symptoms will also be recommended for swab test etc.

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By Luis Jaime Acosta and Oliver Griffin

BOGOTA (Reuters) - The mayor of Bogota begged forgiveness on Sunday and called for reconciliation after protests in Colombias capital the past week left 10 civilians dead and hundreds injured.

Protests in Bogota and satellite city Soacha began following the death on Wednesday of Javier Ordonez, 46. A widely shared video showed the father of two being repeatedly shocked with a stun gun by police. He died later in a hospital.

During protests on Wednesday, seven young people, including teenagers, died after being shot in Bogota. Three other people died in connection with the protests on Thursday night, including a woman who was hit by a stolen public bus.

Three people were also killed in Soacha during the protests.

Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez called for reconciliation in the aftermath of the clashes and made apologies to the victims' families.

"We are here today to ask forgiveness of all victims of police brutality," Lopez said during a televised event to commemorate those who died in the protests.

Relatives of the victims called for justice but said further protests should be peaceful.

"From our hearts we ask that justice be done, because we know of other such incidents that have gone unpunished and we don't want the same to happen with each one of these victims," said Bryan Baquero, whose sister Angie was killed in the protests.

Later on Sunday, crowds of demonstrators marched through the center of Bogota, with clashes between protesters and police in some places.

In the past week, hundreds of civilians have been injured in clashes between protesters and police in Soacha and Bogota, with dozens wounded by gunshots in the capital.

Close to 200 police officers were also injured, while at least 60 police stations were vandalized, as well as dozens of public transport vehicles.

Police said Ordonez was found drinking alcohol in the street with friends in violation of coronavirus distancing rules. Two police officers implicated in Ordonez's death have been fired and face charges of homicide and abusing their authority.

A further five officers connected to his death have been suspended.

(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta and Oliver Griffin; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Peter Cooney)
Qatar's ruler helped launch the second day of long-awaited Afghan peace talks in Doha on September 13 between representatives of the Afghan government and Taliban militants, but reports of ongoing clashes back in Afghanistan were a reminder of obstacles ahead.



The first day included a formal ceremony and efforts to agree on a framework and other broad aspects of the first direct negotiations between the two sides since a breakthrough agreement between the United States and the hard-line Taliban in February.



But the Afghan Defense Ministry said that, even hours after the official start of talks, Taliban and central government forces were still fighting in many places in Afghanistan.



"With the start of intra-Afghan talks, we were expecting the Taliban to reduce the number of their attacks, but unfortunately their attacks are still going in high numbers," Reuters quoted Fawad Aman, a ministry spokesman, as saying.



Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, who is hosting the negotiations in Doha, met with both sides on September 13 and wished them success, according to Qatari state media.



The peace talks could quickly turn to a discussion of a lasting cease-fire.



Abdullah Abdullah, the country's former chief executive officer who is heading an Afghan negotiating team that includes members of the opposition and individuals outside the government, told AFP that the Taliban could offer a truce in exchange for the release of more of their jailed fighters.



"This could be one of their ideas or one of their demands," Abdullah, who is also chairman of Afghanistans High Council for National Reconciliation, said.

'A Momentous Occasion'



At a ceremony opening the talks a day earlier, the Afghan government and allies, including the United States, called for a cease-fire. But the Taliban did not mention a truce as they came to the negotiating table..



Abdullah said during the opening ceremony that history will remember the start of the talks "as the end of the war and suffering of our people."



U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the start of the talks was a "momentous occasion," telling participants that they carry "a great responsibility" and an opportunity to overcome divisions.



Taliban leader Mullah Baradar Akhund said that Afghanistan should "have an Islamic system in which all tribes and ethnicities of the country find themselves without any discrimination and live their lives in love and brotherhood."



"Negotiations may have problems but should move forward with patience," he said.

Washington helped broker the on-and-off peace talks in Qatar, where the Taliban has a representative office.



Analysts said that, although getting both sides to the negotiating table was a major achievement, this does not mean the path to peace will be easy, especially with violence increasing around the country.



"Nothing should prevent a cease-fire being accepted and implemented by both parties," Josep Borrell, the high representative for foreign affairs of the European Union, told the Doha meeting via video link.



Negotiations will be arduous, delegates warned, and are starting even as deadly violence continues to grip Afghanistan.



"We will undoubtedly encounter many challenges in the talks over the coming days, weeks and months," Pompeo said as he called for the warring sides to "seize this opportunity" to secure peace.



President Donald Trump made the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan a promise before the 2016 presidential election. In the countdown to this November's presidential polls, Washington has ramped up pressure to start intra-Afghan negotiations.



Trump has said Washington expected the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to be down to 4,000 troops by November.



Nearly two decades since the US-led invasion that toppled the Taliban, the war still kills dozens of people daily and the country's economy has been shattered.



The talks are expected to tackle thorny issues, including a permanent cease-fire, the rights of women and minorities, and the disarming of tens of thousands of Taliban fighters and militias loyal to warlords, some of them aligned with the government.



Constitutional changes, power sharing, and even the name of the country and the flag are expected to be on the agenda as well.



Many people in Afghanistan fear a return of the Taliban as part of a governing arrangement. The extremist group was accused of human rights violations and abuse of women during its years of rule, which ended when U.S. forces invaded and drove the militants from power in 2001.



The Taliban controlled Afghanistan at the time and harbored Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan, AFP, Reuters, and dpa
The Shiv Sena has now trained guns on actor Akshay Kumar asking why other Bollywood stars are silent about the conspiracy to defame Mumbai.

Not all, but at least half of them should have expressed their views about Mumbais defamation and said Kangana Ranauts stand was not that of the entire Hindi film industry. Is Mumbai only for making money to them? asked Sena MP Sanjay Raut.

Mumbai has given them everything. The bigger artists like Akshay Kumar should have come forward for Mumbai. But they feel pain when it comes to expressing gratitude for Mumbai, he said in his weekly column Rokhthok (forthright) in the Sena mouthpiece Saamana on Sunday.

Referring to Kanganas statements, Raut said, An actress calls Mumbai as Pakistan. She uses derogatory language against the Chief Minister of Maharashtra by sitting in Mumbai, but the people of the state should not react on it. What kind of one-sided freedom is this?

The Sena MP alleged that there are systematic efforts to undermine the importance of Mumbai. Its continuous defamation is a part of this conspiracy. Some people think that Maharashtra will automatically collapse by damaging the glory of Mumbai, he added.

Raut also slammed the Maharashtra BJP for supporting Kangana in this matter. It is really unfortunate that the BJP, which is the main opposition party in the state, has stood behind the actress, who has called Mumbai as Pakistan and BMC as Babar. They want to win elections in Bihar by backing Kangana. For this, it is okay for them to insult Maharashtra. Not a single Marathi Union minister in Delhi has felt bad about Maharashtras insult, he said.
Lucknow, Sep 13 : The assailants of a 30-year-old Dalit farmer, Ram Vilas Rawat, in Malihabad, on the outskirts of Lucknow, will be booked under the stringent National Security Act (NSA).

The SHO of local Malihabad police station has been suspended for negligence.

The five accused-Ghulam Ali, Mustaqeem, Mufeed, Shanu, and Guddu-drove their bikes over a hosepipe on Thursday night. Ali and his accomplices attacked Rawat when he objected.

Rawat was seriously injured in the attack and succumbed on his way to the Malihabad community health centre.

The farmer's death led to widespread protests in the area leading to clashes with the police.

Inspector General of Police (Lucknow range) Laxmi Singh said that a case under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code for culpable homicide has been registered and the accused have been also booked under the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Singh said three accused, Gulam Ali, Mustaqeem and Mufeed, have been arrested while efforts were on to arrest the remaining accused.

Lucknow District Magistrate Abhishek Prakash visited Malihabad on Saturday and gave a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the bereaved family.

He assured Suman Devi, widow of the deceased farmer that the family would be given a house under Gramin Awas Yojana and pension for Rawat's widow and father.

He assured the family of the strict action against the people involved in the attack on the farmer and that they would be booked under the NSA.
Published on 2020/09/13 | Source

The Seoul Metropolitan Government on Tuesday locked down parts of the Han River Park after the weekend saw thousands of revelers come out to mingle there.

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Access has been restricted to the park in Banpo, Yeouido and Ttukseom areas.

People are still allowed to pass through the park but not to loiter.

The three areas are most popular along the river with young people looking for places to drink and meet up with friends amid a recent fresh lockdown of bars and restaurants.

Coffee shops and convenience stores in the park must also close down at 9 p.m, as must the 43 parking lots in the park, reopening at 2 a.m. the following day.

Seoul city officials vowed to crack down on visitors who ignore social-distancing rules in the evening from Friday to Sunday.

A city official said, "We had to take the necessary measures for the public safety".
New Delhi, Sep 13 (UNI) A day ahead of the beginning of the Monsoon Session of the Parliament, the Congress on Sunday said it will raise the issues of decline in economy, Corona and Chinese transgression in the Parliament.

Addressing a press conference here, the Party spokesperson Jairam Ramesh said that the Congress will oppose the Bills related to the agriculture sector as they have provision to end the system of providing mandi and minimum support price to the farmer.

In the same way, in the proposed Banking Bill, there is a provision to harm the interests of common people, abolishing the rights of farmers' loan waiver, so the Congress will strongly oppose the three agriculture related bills as well as the ordinance changing the banking sector, Mr Ramesh said.

Congress spokesman also said that Opposition is being united against these Bills in Parliament as the ruling party is not in majority in the Rajya Sabha, so the Congress is in touch with the Opposition parties not to allow these bills to be passed.

Referring to his partys stand on PM Cares Funds for COVID 19, he said that the Government plans to pass the ordinance issued for the Prime Minister's Care Fund, but there should be transparency regarding the money deposited in this fund and provision should be made in the Bill and to maintain transparency there must be a provision of CAG audit into it.



Describing the pathetic condition of the Indian economy, Mr Jairam Ramesh said that the state of the economy has become catastrophic and unemployment has reached a peak, so they will also raise this issue vigorously in Parliament.

Regarding the economic policies, the Congress Party will question the Government about the measures by the government to bring the economy back on track. Unemployment has reached a peak and the crisis has arisen in front of the small scale industry, the government needs to answer this question, he added.

Mr Ramesh further said that the issue of Chinese transgression on LAC remains the biggest crisis and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had tried to mislead the country on this issue, so he should tell what is the situation there today. The country wants to know from Mr Modi about the status quo on the China border.

In response to a question, he said that sick or elderly Members of the Parliament who have been advised not to participate in the proceedings of the House due to Kovid-19, should be provided the facility of speaking in the House through video conferencing.

UNI AKS SHK1908
COLUMBIA  The owner of a longtime Piggly Wiggly in downtown Columbia was defiant Saturday, insisting his store will remain open even as discount grocer Lidl makes moves toward taking over the site.

The store on Devine Street, in a sought-after commercial corridor and affectionately known as the "Social Pig," will stay open through the duration of his lease, said Darrell Miller, who owns the store location.

"To my knowledge, that is what we are going to do," Miller said.

He declined to say how long his lease lasts. Piggly Wiggly has had a store at the Devine Street site for more than 40 years.

On social media, Miller assured customers that it has no plans to leave the location.

"Over the years many companies have sought to obtain ownership of our iconic 'Social Pig' location," Miller posted on Facebook. "From recent reports it appears that a new entry into the American business community is perhaps the latest to covet our store. As the store owner, let me be clear  there is no deal in place to transition our store to that company or any other."

He added, "Our lease structure provides us many more years to operate our store."

But the owner of the shopping center where the Social Pig is located appears to have other ideas.

An application that the Columbia Planning Commission will hear Monday would put signs for German-based Lidl on the building.

Andrew Franklin, chief operating officer of Virginia-based Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust, which owns the shopping center, said Friday that Lidl is in a study period on the property.

They are exploring the site to see if they can do what they want to do with the space, he said.

But requesting sign permits often is one of the later steps in building or renovating a new store site, said Patrick Palmer, director of retail services for NAI Columbia.

Palmer is not involved in the Piggly Wiggly deal, but he said signage generally is not a deciding factor in whether to use a site. A prepared plan for replacing the signs indicates that planning for a possible store changeover is well underway, Palmer said.

Lidl, which has two stores in the Midlands, did not respond to requests from comment Saturday. In August, the company announced that it was adding 50 more stores across the Eastern United States, including a North Charleston location.
Enero Group Limited (ASX:EGG) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. Investors can purchase shares before the 17th of September in order to be eligible for this dividend, which will be paid on the 2nd of October.

Enero Group's next dividend payment will be AU$0.035 per share. Last year, in total, the company distributed AU$0.06 to shareholders. Calculating the last year's worth of payments shows that Enero Group has a trailing yield of 3.7% on the current share price of A$1.605. Dividends are an important source of income to many shareholders, but the health of the business is crucial to maintaining those dividends. So we need to investigate whether Enero Group can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.

See our latest analysis for Enero 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. Fortunately Enero Group's payout ratio is modest, at just 48% of profit. That said, even highly profitable companies sometimes might not generate enough cash to pay the dividend, which is why we should always check if the dividend is covered by cash flow. The good news is it paid out just 16% of its free cash flow in the last year.

It's positive to see that Enero Group'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?

Stocks in companies that generate sustainable earnings growth often make the best dividend prospects, as it is easier to lift the dividend when earnings are rising. If earnings fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. That's why it's comforting to see Enero Group's earnings have been skyrocketing, up 29% per annum for the past five years. Earnings per share have been growing very quickly, and the company is paying out a relatively low percentage of its profit and cash flow. This is a very favourable combination that can often lead to the dividend multiplying over the long term, if earnings grow and the company pays out a higher percentage of its earnings.

Story continues

Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. Enero Group has seen its dividend decline 28% per annum on average over the past 10 years, which is not great to see. Enero Group is a rare case where dividends have been decreasing at the same time as earnings per share have been improving. It's unusual to see, and could point to unstable conditions in the core business, or more rarely an intensified focus on reinvesting profits.

To Sum It Up

Has Enero Group got what it takes to maintain its dividend payments? It's great that Enero Group is growing earnings per share while simultaneously paying out a low percentage of both its earnings and cash flow. It's disappointing to see the dividend has been cut at least once in the past, but as things stand now, the low payout ratio suggests a conservative approach to dividends, which we like. Overall we think this is an attractive combination and worthy of further research.

With that in mind, a critical part of thorough stock research is being aware of any risks that stock currently faces. For example, we've found 1 warning sign for Enero Group that we recommend you consider before investing in the business.

If you're in the market for dividend stocks, we recommend checking our list of top 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.
Ayodhya: Days after being defrauded of a huge sum of money, the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust in Ayodhya has written a letter to SBI Bank asking for a refund of the amount.

General Secretary of the trust Champat Rai said that it was SBI bank's mistake to have made the payment for the cloned cheque from Punjab National Bank. Therefore, SBI Bank should return the organistation's money.

However, now the trust will not take any payment in the form of cheques. The trust will is deciding on an alternate method of payment in a secure manner which is in discussion with the SBI Bank.

Sources had informed Zee Media on Thursday that around Rs 6 lakh was withdrawn from two bank accounts of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra using forged cheques.

It is learnt that when the fraudster tried to withdraw money for the third time then Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra General Secretary Champat Rai was informed about the withdrawal by phone.

On the Ram temple construction work, General Secretary Champat Rai said that piling work is being done at three places.

At first, piling was done in two places, the task of piling will take place at the part which lies inbetween them as well. Piling has been completely at two places outside of the temple and concrete has been filled. On September 28, the strength of the piling work will be measured. Based on which IIT Chennai will prepare the report and further work will commence.

Champat Rai expressed his gratitude to Iqbal Ansari for his appeal to the devotees to donate for the construction of the temple and also expressed happiness in the commencement of the piling work.

Meanwhile, Rai denied the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's statement that Uddhav Thackeray will not be allowed to come to Ayodhya. He said that no such authoritative statement has been made by VHP and it is also not appropriate to speak this way.

Rai has left for Karsevak Puram for Madhya Pradesh for a two-day program.
Opposition supporters take part in a rally against police brutality following protests to reject the presidential election results in Minsk, on Sept. 13, 2020. (Tut.By/Reuters)

At Least 100,000 Belarus Protesters Rally Against Lukashenko

MOSCOWAt least 100,000 Belarusian protesters took to the streets of Minsk on Sept. 13 in one of the biggest demonstrations yet against President Alexander Lukashenko since he claimed a landslide victory in an election his opponents say was rigged.

Opposition supporters take part in a rally against police brutality following protests to reject the presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus, on Sept. 13, 2020. (Tut.By/Reuters)

As public anger continues to build against Lukashenko, who has ruled the former Soviet nation for 26 years, Moscow has offered support by saying it would send paratroopers to Belarus for Slavic Brotherhood joint drills.

A wave of protests has swept Belarus since the Aug. 9 presidential election, which demonstrators say was actually won by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. Key opposition figures have since either been jailed or fled the country, with Tsikhanouskaya now in Lithuania.

Opposition supporters take part in a rally against police brutality following protests to reject the presidential election results in Minsk, on Sept. 13, 2020. (Tut.By/Reuters)

Lukashenko denies the election was rigged and has said foreign powers are behind the protests.

A vast column of protesters marched through the capital Minsk toward a government district on Sept. 13, chanting long live Belarus and youre a rat, a taunt that has frequently been used against Lukashenko during demonstrations.

They came to a halt and chanted fascists as hundreds of riot police with shields blocked off the road. Meanwhile, in the city of Brest, police used water cannons on protesters, according to the Nexta Live channel.

Law enforcement officers detain a protester during a rally against police brutality following protests to reject the presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus, on Sept. 13, 2020. (Tut.By/Reuters)

Police said they had detained about 250 people in Minsk.

The atmosphere was tense, with a large police presence in parts of the capital, and some central areas sealed off with barbed wire, including Oktyabrskaya Square and Independence Squarecommon focus points of anti-government rallies.

A protester with a historical white-red-white flag of Belarus kneels in front of law enforcement officers during a rally against police brutality in Minsk, on Sept. 13, 2020. (Tut.By/Reuters)

The Interfax Russian news agency reported that shots had been fired into the air to warn off protesters in an area of Minsk where the Belarusian leadership lives.

An Interior Ministry official denied that any shots were fired in the air.

Russian Paratroopers

The unrest comes as Lukashenko, in power since 1994, prepares to travel to Russia on Sept. 14 for talks with President Vladimir Putin.

Moscow, a neighbor and traditional ally, has stepped up support, offering to potentially restructure Belarusian debt, and providing banking liquidity. It has also said Russian riot police could be made available if needed.

On Sept. 13, Russias Defense Ministry said it would send paratroopers from its elite Pskov division to Belarus for the joint drills starting Sept. 14 and running until Sept. 25, the TASS state news agency reported.

On the streets of Minsk, some critics of Lukashenko expressed hope that the sheer size of the protests would undermine the Belarusian leader and make it difficult for Putin to back him openly.

We have to show with this march that he (Lukashenko) doesnt control the country, that he is not in a position to speak on behalf of Belarusians, said Gennady, 35, a logistics worker who declined to give his surname.

By Katya Golubkova and Tom Balmforth
We need one good Catholic. In fact, every school district in the state of Iowa needs one. Someone who goes to Mass every morning, hits confession on Friday, takes Communion on Sunday and kisses the bishops ring when he comes to the local parish.

This is important because of last weeks ruling by a Johnson County District Court Judge that Gov. Kim Reynolds did not overstep her authority in denying the Iowa City Community School Districts attempt to mitigate the impact of coronavirus by going to online or virtual learning only. Given that decision, the only hope local school boards have in taking steps to mitigate COVID-19 in their facilities is to go down to the governors office and beg forbearance from her edict. Best to send someone who knows how to genuflect.

This will surprise some given the legislative action in 2017 when the Republican-controlled Legislature decided, with great fanfare, to lift the restrictions on what actions school boards could take independent of state permission. It was termed as an almost complete repeal of what was known as Dillions Rule, an 1872 decision by then Supreme Court Justice Forest Dillon that held unless an action taken by a city, county or school district was permitted by the state, it could not be done. This was meant to free up these lesser level governmental units to operate more freely to adjust to local conditions without worrying about state permission. This law, which was known as Home Rule, mirrored to some extent the rights previously granted to cities and counties.

Through the action completed by this last legislative session we are back under Dillons Rule, only with more restrictions. With the proclamations the governor has issued, with the authority of this statute, her power has expanded to almost dictatorial levels. If one has not seen its impact on schools, you need only look at her ability to selectively close bars and restaurants in some counties but not in others.

In ruling that the Iowa State Education Association and Iowa City School District did not meet the very heavy burden of obtaining a temporary injunction to halt the governors action, the court did seem mindful of the predicament school districts face, writing COVID-19 certainly presents the risk of harm to Petitioners members, staff and students.

So, what is really going on here? Three years ago, the very conservative Legislature hailed the passage of granting home rule to school boards. One legislator even said, Its time to set the schools free. That legislation was followed this year by more restrictions being put in place. The simple answer: politics.

The Republican base is rural Iowa, and rural conservative Iowans do not want anyone telling them what to do, like wear a face mask. In passing this legislation Republicans deprive school boards of local control, but they also take them off the hook for hard decisions.

Secondly, it goes back to the desire by conservatives to get the economy moving before Nov. 3. It is what our new czar of education, the governor, proclaimed the balancing between living lives and earning a livelihood.

Finally, as the Washington Post observed in reporting on the Iowa courts decision, it involves the governors personal ambition. The Post observed, Many of the presidents allies are trying to fulfill his pledge, pressing local school systems, even those in coronavirus hots spots, to reopen, disregarding public health guidance and overruling the wishes of local school boards. Reynolds, a close ally of President Trumps, has forced schools across the state to reopen.

Can you say guess the next secretary of education? Perhaps Iowas own Kim Reynolds.

All of which leads me to one conclusion. Forget what I wrote about sending a good Catholic to Des Moines to ask the governor for relief. Go instead to Mass twice a day and pray for divine intervention. Youll have a better chance.

Dave Nagle is a Waterloo attorney and former U.S. congressman.

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Boris Johnson is facing mounting criticism over his legislation overriding his Brexit deal, as leaders from across the political spectrum attacked the threat to break international law.

Senior Conservatives were not backing down on their rebellion against the British Prime Ministers plans despite his warning that Brussels could carve up our country without his new Bill.

Former prime ministers Sir John Major and Tony Blair united to urge MPs to reject the legislation, saying it imperils the Irish peace process, trade negotiations and the UKs integrity.

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Sir Keir Starmer accused Mr Johnson of having reigniting old rows by working to flout his own Withdrawal Agreement, but pledged Labour support if he addresses substantial concerns.

Tory rebels suggested their numbers were growing and opinions were only hardened by Mr Johnsons increased rhetoric that the EU could impose a trade border in the Irish Sea.

Sir John and Mr Blair, the former Conservative and Labour leaders, united to condemn Mr Johnsons controversial UK Internal Market Bill in an article for the Sunday Times.

We both opposed Brexit. We both accept it is now happening. But this way of negotiating, with reason cast aside in pursuit of ideology and cavalier bombast posing as serious diplomacy, is irresponsible, wrong in principle and dangerous in practice, they said.

It raises questions that go far beyond the impact on Ireland, the peace process and negotiations for a trade deal  crucial though they are. It questions the very integrity of our nation.

Sir Keir called on Mr Johnson to throw out clauses that could breach international law and those that lead the devolved administrations to warn of a power grab to get Labour support.

If the Government fixes the substantial cross-party concerns that have been raised about the Internal Market Bill, then we are prepared to back it, Sir Keir wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.

But if they do not, and the talk collapse, then it is their failure and incompetence that will have let the British people down.

The newspaper also reported that ministers are considering opt-outs from the Human Rights Act, and that a formal review could be announced in the coming weeks.

The Tory manifesto pledged to update the Act after Brexit, but the move is contentious with Brussels and negotiators have expressed concern over the UKs commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland, who is under pressure to explain how Government plans to override elements of the Brexit deal are consistent with obligations under international law, will face questioning from the media on Sunday.

His Labour shadow, Lord Falconer, said: A future where (the) UK breaks its international law obligations, and opts out of Human Rights protections is a very bad future.

Despite Mr Johnsons attempts to drum up support, Tory chairman of the Commons defence committee Tobias Ellwood said on Saturday that he could not support the legislation without it being changed.

Already this Bill is damaging brand UK, diminishing our role-model status as defender of global standards. As we go to the wire, lets see more British statecraft  less Nixonian Madman Theory, he tweeted.

Commons justice committee chairman Sir Bob Neill, who has tabled an amendment which he said would impose a parliamentary lock on any changes to the Withdrawal Agreement, said he still contends it contains objectionable elements.

Damian Green, who was Theresa Mays deputy when she was prime minister and is backing the amendment, was also understood to not have been won over by Mr Johnsons argument.

Sir Roger Gale also remained a vehement critic, telling Times Radio: If anybody is responsible, if it happens, for bringing the union down, it will be (chief aide Dominic) Cummings and Mr Johnson.
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Clevis and Nalgene spent the night of Sept. 11, 1990, at the Doyle Hotel in Duncannon  a popular place with Appalachian Trail hikers.

The young couple  Geoffery Hood and Molly LaRue  were through-hiking the 2,180-mile trail. Their trail names were Clevis and Nalgene.

Bill McCullough was a construction worker from Georgia at the time. He had camped with the couple at the Delaware Water Gap a few weeks before and was about four days behind them on the trail.

They were so quiet, such humble-type people, he said. They felt if they tried, they could make a change in the world.

But Hood, 26, and LaRue, 25, who by all accounts likely would have made an impact on the world, were brutally murdered 30 years ago before they got the chance.

After arriving at the Doyle the couple unpacked, called their parents, got a meal and picked up their mail. The next day, after lunch with family, they headed back onto the trail. They spent their last night on earth at the Thelma Marks shelter on top of Cove Mountain.

They were murdered there early in the morning on Sept. 13, 1990, by drifter Paul David Crews.

The original Thelma Marks shelter on the Appalachian Trail where Molly LaRue and Geoff Hood were murdered on Sept. 13, 1990. (The Patriot-News)

The murders shook trail hikers and local residents alike.

Some hikers began skipping the section where the murders took place.

In Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, home of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, hikers left messages and mourned the loss of kindred spirits.

Patriot-News reporter Ted Anthony, now of the Associated Press, wrote about some of those messages at the time:

Molly and Geoff, Im sure, were wonderful people that are now walking in heaven on the trail that never ends. Were thankful to be here. Every day from now on, well be more thankful, wrote Biff and Cindi Bowen of Amherst, Va., the Lone Moccasins.

Whetherman, in Harpers Ferry last Monday, was a little freaked out and skipped the Duncannon area.

Skip Muskrat Richards promised that this hikes for you, Geoff and Mollie.

Two hikers found the bodies of Hood of Signal Mountain, Tenn., and LaRue of Shaker Heights, Ohio, in the early evening on Sept. 13.

Hood had been shot three times and LaRue had been stabbed in the neck, throat and back.

Paul David Crews at a bond hearing in Martinsburg, W.Va., Sept. 26, 1990. (Ted Anthony, The Patriot-News)

James LaRue, father of Molly LaRue, said the family was supposed to reunite the following weekend in Harpers Ferry. We were all looking forward to it, he said.

He said the couple who were planning to spend their lives together and had started their hike from Maine to Georgia in June.

They were recent college graduates with art degrees, but had committed their lives to working with troubled children, he told The Patriot-News.

They had worked in Kansas until late May, he said, and had taken a group of troubled children backpacking on mountains in the West.

LaRue said his daughter was a licensed Outward Bound instructor, an emergency medical technician and had many years of backpacking experience. She became involved with hiking through her church, he said. LaRue said they were planning to go to graduate school in January after the trip.

They had not decided on the college, but hoped to earn degrees that would aid them in working with children who have difficulties.

If there was one place Molly would have liked to die it would have been in the woods, he said. It would have been nice, though, if she would have been 85 instead of 25.

Paul David Crews is led from the Perry County Courthouse by Perry County Sheriff George Frownfelter, left, and Deputy Sheriff Stephen Hile, in May 1991. (Allied Pix for The Patriot-News)

Crews, 38, was arrested on Sept. 21 near Harpers Ferry, after he was found by law enforcement authorities carrying items that belonged to Hood. He said his name was David Casey Horn.

He waived extradition from West Virginia to Pennsylvania on Nov. 15. The next day he was being held in Perry County Prison without bail.

Crews of Loris, S.C., was convicted in May 1991 and is serving two life terms without the possibility of parole for the shooting death of Hood and the stabbing death and rape of LaRue. Crews had been sentenced to death but in 2006 that was reduced to the life terms.

Paul David Crews is escorted from the Perry County courthouse in New Bloomfield after his resentencing Thursday, December 21, 2006. (Dan Gleiter/The Patriot-News)Dan Gleiter/The Patriot-News

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There have been fewer doorbells and more phones ringing in New Brunswick during Canadas first pandemic election campaign.

Across the country, eyes are on the Atlantic province as the coronavirus has dictated drastic changes to the way campaigns are run.

Gone are the big rallies and the factory tours for major platform announcements. Gone, too, are the shaking of hands and kissing of babies. Theyve been replaced by lonely, outdoor announcements at podiums in the middle of fields where media sometimes outnumber prospective voters.

Also gone  or severely curtailed, at any rate  is a staple of election campaigns past: door-to-door canvassing. And that has political strategists in the rest of the country watching this election closely.

Few people really like door-to-door canvassing. For candidates, its a grind: hour after hour spent trudging up and down driveways, trying not to step on the flowers, getting doors closed in their faces. Publicly, any candidate worth their salt will tell you they love hitting the streets, talking to real people, getting in touch with the grassroots. Privately, theres the wan smile and the look you used to give your mom when she asked you to take the garbage out right after mowing the lawn.

Many voters dont much like it either; those knocks on the door usually come in the early evening hours, when families are just settling down after a workday.

But to campaign managers, those door knocks are a data gold mine, and the cumulative results are essential to any election strategy.

Beginning in 1999, and following up through the next few years, American political scientists Alan Gerber and Donald Green  the former from Yale and the latter from Columbia University  conducted a series of experiments testing the effects of face-to-face canvassing on voter turnout.

Their results showed that face-to-face canvassing in all cases increased turnout, and by a far greater extent than other methods, such as telephone calls or mailings.

Its all about what we call voter identification, said Liberal provincial campaign manager Donald Arseneault. His party, like many, uses data-collection software  theirs is called Liberalist  to keep track of supporters.

Typically, when canvassers knocks on a prospective voters door, they try to gauge support for their candidate. Whether the answer is yes, no or maybe, it gets entered into the database. As the campaign goes on, a picture is built of how much support each party has in each riding.

On election day, a party can cross-reference its list of supporters with voters at polling stations.

When somebody goes in to vote, they say their name, you scratch it off your list, said Arseneault. This is how I used to do it: Every hour, a runner goes into the polling station, goes to your worker, and takes that sheet away from them. And then, when you go back to the headquarters, you (say), OK, who still hasnt voted that said they were going to support us? and thats your get-out-the-vote strategy.

Door-to-door canvassing not only gives campaign strategists an idea of how much support their candidate has in a particular area, it also gives them tools to decide where their candidate should spend more of their time. And to those running the campaigns, anything else is a poor substitute.

To identify support, there are limited ways to do that, said New Brunswick Progressive Conservative spokesperson Bob Fowlie. One of them is on the telephone and another one is face-to-face.

All the people who are smarter than you and I like to sit in iron chairs and pontificate about politics. They have indicated that, yes, the telephone (is good), yes, the social media (is good), but its all going to come down to  more than any other campaign  who literally gets their voters to go out and get their vote in the box. And thats the role that, in a normal election, is primarily accomplished by door knocking.

At the beginning of the campaign, New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs, leader of the PC party, issued a directive to candidates against door-to-door canvassing and leaving pamphlets.

Other parties have made it optional, while issuing to their candidates strict guidelines about social distancing and protective wear. In the Liberals case, they ran those guidelines by the provinces chief medical officer before sending it off to candidates.

So door-to-door canvassing is not gone, but it is severely curtailed. And the big question is: Given its importance to a campaign, how do parties compensate?

The answer, predictably, is more phone calls, more Zoom meetings and more social media.

Generally speaking, social-media campaigns are thought to skew toward a younger demographic, but with most campaigns in New Brunswick relying heavily on Facebook to communicate with voters, campaign managers say they are reaching an older demographic as well.

The advantage in a pandemic election, then, may be to the party that is able to conduct the best social-media campaign.

The Peoples Alliance Party of New Brunswick  the provinces other conservative party, which held three seats in the legislature  has, since its inception in 2010, turned to social media to offset a lack of mainstream media coverage, said campaign chair Sterling Wright. As a result, according to Wright, its social-media presence cuts across all the demographics. People who support the party are used to getting their information on the Peoples Alliance in this way.

Weve always relied heavily on social media to get our message out, said Wright. And now thats more important than ever, but because weve relied on it for so long, were pretty damn good at it. And I think it serves us well.

Curiously, given the importance of face-to-face contact with voters and the name recognition of incumbents, it may be the challengers in a given riding who benefit more from the lack of door-to-door canvassing, says Jack Cunningham.

Cunningham, the program director at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, says that severely curtailed canvassing would, for a challenger, offset the established volunteer team of an incumbent.

Often, a close election will be decided by who has the better get-out-the-vote operation; whose troops are actually stronger on the ground? he said. And thats largely a function of going door to door, and having people in place on election day.

If that advantage is removed because of pandemic conditions, it could conceivably help challengers who would otherwise be disadvantaged running against such incumbents.

Whether that advantage turns out to be significant will be determined after the polls close on Monday. And for those watching outside the province as well as those involved in this most unusual campaign, the post-mortem will begin immediately.

As always, well find out, well talk about it on Sept. 15, and decide how successful all this stuff was, said Fowlie.

SM Steve McKinley is a Halifax-based reporter for the Star. Reach him via email: stevemckinley@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @smckinley1

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COLOMBO, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), of which Sri Lanka is an early participant, are beneficial to developing countries and multipolarity in world affairs.

Former General Secretary of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CPSL) D.E.W. Gunasekera told Xinhua that the China-Sri Lanka ties have reached a new high due to the implementation of BRI and massive Chinese investment in infrastructure and energy projects in the island country.

BRI, a reference to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, is aimed at building a trade, investment and infrastructure network that connects Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes.

Gunasekera, who served as the general secretary of the CPSL for 16 years until his resignation in August, said China's development has enabled a multipolar world with new economic centers emerging in Africa, Latin America and Eurasia.

"A new continent called Eurasia is emerging due to the Belt and Road Initiative," Gunasekera said. "The Asian economy is the vanguard of the world economy."

Cooperation with China is imperative for developing countries like Sri Lanka so as to safeguard national interests and make use of China's massive market, Gunasekera said.

He said that the CPSL played a significant role in convincing the then government of Sri Lanka to sign the Rubber-Rice Pact with China in 1952, and establish the formal diplomatic ties with China in 1957.

Commenting on China's development, Gunasekera recalled that he was part of a CPSL delegation to visit Shenzhen in 1980s, when only basic infrastructure had been built in the fishing village in south China, which has now been transformed into a global technology hub.
Oil executives have been secretly recorded sharing their real views on climate change, contradicting their public claims that methane emissions, which scientists say leads to global warming, are under control.

In June 2019 Ron Ness, the president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, spoke at a discussion by the Independent Petroleum Association of America, a group that represents energy companies, where he rebelled against the need to increase methane regulation.

'Were just flaring a tremendous amount of gas. This pesky natural gas. The value of it is very minimal,' he admitted in the recording at the gathering in Colorado Springs.

He called stronger methane regulation 'an unnecessary burden', claiming the industry already produced 'valuable energy resources in a responsible manner', according to a New York Times report.

His comments came at a time when the public worried oil producers intentionally flared or burned off too much methane, which contributes to climate change.

At least three oil and gas executives were secretly recorded sharing their views on climate change and methane regulation, which defy their public claims that companies have the methan emissions crisis under control

In a June 2019 meeting among gas and oil industry leaders Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, called stronger methane regulation 'an unnecessary burden'. 'Were just flaring a tremendous amount of gas. This pesky natural gas. The value of it is very minimal,' he said, refuting industry claims that they were flaring minimal amounts or trying to capture it

Oil wells produce oil and natural gas, but oil commands high prices and producers use flaring as a cheap way to get rid of the gas.

Ness said theres so much natural gas some producers drill primarily for oil and have little use for the gas that comes with it.

But the dramatic flares have been heavily criticized in the public eye and they are a 'huge, huge threat' to the industrys effort to portray natural gas as cleaner and climate friendly, Ness said.

The recording runs one hour and 22 minutes where industry heads covered threats posed by solar and wind energy and the federal leasing of oil and gas rights.

The audio was provided by an organization dedicated to tracking climate policy that said the recording had made by an industry official who attended the meeting. The group declined to be named for fear of retribution.

Three people heard in the recording including moderator Ryan Ullman of the Independent Petroleum Association said it reflected their comments.

The oil industry has presented itself as part of a solution to climate change and that natural gas is a 'bridge fuel' to help the way move away from coal and towards renewable energy.

But natural gas when burned emits half the planet-warming greenhouses gases that coal, the world's dirtiest energy source, does.

Flaring off natural gas, rather than capturing it for use, creates pollution without creating usable energy.

Drilling for gas can also cause leaks of methane into the atmosphere and it can escape through faulty flares. Companies are also known to at times deliberately release gas from wells and pipelines in an act known as venting.

At the Colorado meeting in June 2019 Ryan Flynn of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association was recorded expressing worries over public backlash among young voters. He said: 'Young voters, female voters, Hispanic voters, really every sector except for older conservative male voters, their No. 1 issue when it comes to our industry is always going to be environmental stewardship'

But this is dangerous as methane can trap more than 80 times more heat in the earth's atmosphere than carbon dioxide over the short term.

A coalition of oil and gas companies have pushed the Trump administration to undo Obamas proposed regulations on their production, including having them install technology to detect and fix methane leaks from wells, pipelines, and storage facilities.

Lawyer James D. Elliott representing the coalition led by the Independent Petroleum Association said in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency in November 2019: 'The oil and natural gas industry has a pure economic incentive to prevent every molecule of pollutant from escaping to the atmosphere.'

The Trump administration has proposed to eliminate federal methane rules, a moves that sparks controversy over who has the authority to regulate methane as a pollutant  the White House or the EPA.

At that same Colorado meeting executives worried about potential backlash against the oil and gas industry especially among young voters as more people grow passionate about climate change.

'Young voters, female voters, Hispanic voters, really every sector except for older conservative male voters, their No. 1 issue when it comes to our industry is always going to be environmental stewardship, and concerns about what were doing with the environment,' Ryan Flynn of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association said in the meeting recording.

Dan Haley, the president of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, suggested gas and oil make emotional marketing tactics to 'win these battles'. He said: 'The activists are doing this when they talk about banning fracking in Colorado. They dont show explosions. They dont show rigs. They show women and children'

Dan Haley, the president of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, said: 'Hippies were going to change the world, until they wanted to get a job and buy a BMW.'

'In Colorado, weve been kind of playing a game of whack-a-mole. We went from where fracking was the dirty word, and contaminated your water. And we inundated them with information about that and blitzed the TV airwaves. Then slowly that changed into a health and safety messaging. And so were ramping up our health and safety messaging,' he added.

He argued that the industry needs to get to the public by hitting their emotions.

'The activists are doing this when they talk about banning fracking in Colorado. They dont show explosions. They dont show rigs. They show women and children,' he said.

'We have got to begin playing at that same emotional level or we will not win these battles,' he added.

Flynn said to the Times that in those statements he was expressing public concerns about the oil and gas industrys effect on the environment and the need to better address those issues.

'We absolutely need to address young peoples, all peoples, concerns about climate change. Weve taken criticism at times from our peers that we are engaging on these issues. But its critical for the future of our industry,' he said.
For the first time, human-snake conflict hotspots will be mapped in Uttarakhands Kumaon region while the state forest department conducts a three-year long project to learn more about the different types of snakes found in the region.

The forest department aims to train 750 locals from 250 villages, considered high-risk from the human-snake conflict point of view, under the project named Community based human-snake conflict mitigation in Kumaon Himalayas of Uttarakhand, India

Tejaswini Patil, chief conservator of forests (CCF) Kumaon region said that the state government had been spreading awareness about human-snake conflict, but with this project, the department will also be able to learn more about the different types of snakes found in the region.

A lot of different kinds of snakes are found in the Kumaon region, but not a lot is known about them. Every year, we conduct awareness generation programmes due to which people now, do not kill snakes but rather inform quick response team for rescue, but still as the awareness level is low, people always feel a threat. With this project, we will be studying different types of snakes found in this region and map the areas where they are found, to find conflict hotspots, said Patil.

Also Read: 5,000 Himalayan streams to be rejuvenated under MGNREGA in Uttarakhand

She added that the project aims to assess the abundance, intensity of human-snake conflict and awareness level in communities for snakes and mitigation of human-snake conflict. As part of the project, the status of the conflict will be studied division and species wise. It will also study the mitigation measures currently employed, status of compensatory measures and public opinion on this issue.

As part of the project, the forest department will train three people from each high-risk village in snake rescue and rehabilitation process.

Also Read: Rare species of orchid found for first time in western Himalayas

Snake sightings increase in the state with the onset of monsoon. Every few days, snakes are sighted in and around residential areas in different parts of the state. In the first week of September, forest department officials rescued 12 snakes, including six cobras, from Haldwani area of Nainital district. A copper-headed trinket snake, Forstens cat snake, Russells viper, two rat snakes and a python were also among those rescued. In the last week of August, state forest department officials rescued a 15.4 feet long King cobra snake from Jamunwala area in Dehradun, claiming it to be the largest King cobra they had ever rescued in the district so far.

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It has been announced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, that the evacuation of stranded Ghanaians abroad due to the COVID-19 restrictions has officially come to an end.

The Ministry, in a statement, indicated that the end of the exercise followed the opening of the Kotoka International Airport to commercial flights from Tuesday, September 1.

It said the evacuation exercise, which commenced on May 23 after the closure of borders in an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19, brought home over 9,000 Ghanaians and resident permit holders from countries around the world.

The countries are South Africa, The Gambia, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America, China, Benin, Burkina Faso, and Togo.

The rest are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, India, Iraq, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Kenya, Kuwait, Mali, Oman, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, and Sierra Leone,

The statement said to address cases of Ghanaians in distress, the Government-assisted and covered the cost of travel and quarantine of a number of them, especially those arriving from China, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and all the evacuation undertaken within the West Africa region, including students who arrived during the period.

The statement said in so doing, the Ministry received financial support from well-meaning Ghanaians and mentioned Mr Kennedy Agyapong, Member of Parliament for Assin Central, who made a personal donation of 200,000 dollars and raised an additional 228,650 dollars from his friends and associates towards the evacuation of Ghanaians from Lebanon.

It also mentioned the Sethi Brothers, who donated GHC200,000 to defray the cost of quarantine for passengers arriving from the United Kingdom.

The statement advised the public to continue to observe the safety protocols to contain the virus and strictly adhere to global travel rules and regulations prior to travelling as well as register with Ghana's missions abroad to ensure their safety.

It expressed appreciation to the Office of the President, and the National COVID-19 Task Force made up of the ministries of Finance, National Security, Health, and Aviation, the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, Ghana Airport Company Limited and the Ghana Health Service for the support.

Also in the commendation list are the Ghana Immigration, Police and Fire services, Bureau of National Investigations, National Disaster Management Organisation, Ghana Armed Forces, National Ambulance Service, the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Greater Accra Passenger Transport Executive (Ayalolo), the International Organisation for Migration, and Ghana missions abroad.

The statement expressed gratitude to all airline companies and hotels that supported the evacuation exercise.

---GNA
One of two suspects arrested amid demonstrations over handling of probe into attack on mother travelling with children.

Pakistani police say they have arrested one of two suspects in the rape of a woman who was dragged from her car and attacked after her car broke down on a desolate highway in central Punjab province.

The woman, who police say is in her early 30s, was driving late on Wednesday night outside the eastern city of Lahore with her two children when her vehicle ran out of fuel.

She phoned the police for help, but before they arrived, two men took her and her children out of the vehicle at gunpoint and raped her in a field along the highway.

The suspects are also accused of stealing cash and jewelry from the woman before fleeing.

Chief of the criminal investigation wing of the Punjab police, Atif Nazeer, on Sunday said the arrest of one of the men was made after they tracked phone records and collected forensic evidence from the scene.

Nazeer said the suspect denies any involvement in the rape. Local media reported that the suspect turned himself over to police to plead his innocence.

The arrest came after protests continued across Pakistan for a second day on Saturday over the handling of an investigation into the assault.

Inam Ghani, Inspector General of Punjab province had told reporters on Saturday night that police had identified the two suspects through DNA tracing.

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I am hopeful very soon we will reach them and arrest them, he said.

Musarrat Cheema, a spokesperson in the eastern Punjab province, said raids were being conducted to find the culprits.

Prime Minister Imran Khans office said the protection of women is a first priority and responsibility of the government, adding that such brutality and bestiality cannot be allowed in any civilised society.

Protesters are not satisfied with the probe and calling for the sacking of the lead police investigator [Akhtar Soomro/Reuters]

But protesters are not satisfied, and called for the sacking of the lead police investigator assigned to the case, Omar Sheikh, who has reportedly pointed out what he felt the victim had done wrong.

Sheikh is reported to have said the woman should have taken a different, busier, highway, not travelled at night, and made sure her vehicle had enough fuel.

He also said she appeared to be under the impression Pakistan was as safe for women as France, her country of residence. Requests for comment to the French Embassy in Islamabad went unanswered

In Islamabad, several hundred protesters gathered, some waved French flags, and others held signs saying hang the rapists.

Its very simple, these sort of incidents are not very new the issue is that rather than catching the criminals or catching the perpetrators, we always blame the victims, said Aleena Alvi.

I think the laws have also changed around the rape victims, there was a law of womens protection act, instead of this act, there has now been no protection that has been given to victims.

Hundreds, mostly women, also gathered in Lahore, Karachi, and the northwestern city of Peshawar. Shatter the silence, stop the violence, read one placard in Peshawar.

Global rights watchdogs have pointed out that Pakistan has not done enough to stem violence against women, including ensuring perpetrators are held accountable.

The attack has especially angered women who say public space in the country was already limited.

And now the police are telling you that you are responsible for your own safety, said Yamna Rehman at the Islamabad protest, organised by the Women Democratic Front collective.
The increased policing will see more officers out on foot, in car and on bike throughout the county. Picture: Arthur Carron

THERE has been one more death and 255 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.

There has now been a total of 1,784 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland and 30,985 confirmed cases, according to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre.

Of the cases notified today, 129 are men and 123 are women. Some 68pc are under 45 years of age.

The HPSC said that 34pc are confirmed to be associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case, while 69 cases have been identified as community transmission.

There are 156 new cases in Dublin, 22 in Waterford, 13 in Donegal, 11 in Wicklow, nine in Limerick, eight in Kildare and five in Clare.

The remaining 31 cases are in Carlow, Cork, Galway, Kerry, Laois, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Offaly, Tipperary, Westmeath and Wexford.

The HSE is working to identify any contacts the patients may have had to provide them with information and advice to prevent further spread.

Earlier on Sunday, gardai said they are increasing high visibility patrols in Dublin in response to the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the capital.

The increased policing will see more officers out on foot, in car and on bike throughout the county.

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Deputy Commissioner, Policing and Security, John Twomey said urged Dubliners to limit their social contacts and comply with public health guidelines.

"There has been very good compliance with the public health guidelines to date. We want to thank the public for this," he said.

"However, as the Acting CMO has said, in Dublin we are now entering a critical phase. As a result, we will have a high visibility presence throughout Dublin to support the public health guidelines and regulations.

"It is vital that people living in, working in and visiting Dublin limit their social interactions, maintain social distancing, wear face masks in shops and on public transport, and not gather in groups larger than outlined in the public health advice."

Those who feel vulnerable or are need help or assistance are encouraged to call their local Garda station.

Gardai say the increased policing does not include the re-introduction of Operation Fanacht as there are no travel restrictions in place at this time.

It comes after new legislation giving gardai additional powers to enforce compliance with coronavirus restrictions came into force on Saturday after President Micheal D Higgins signed the Criminal Justice Enforcement Powers Covid-19 Bill 2020 Bill into law.

The legislation gives gardai powers to seek temporary closure orders of pubs breaching rules, such as the requirement to serve food.

Closure orders issued by a district court could result in a pub being shut for up to 30 days.

Gardai can also issue fines of up to 2,500 euros or a maximum of six months in prison if bars infringing social distancing regulations refuse to close for a day.
San Francisco, Sep 13 : Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has hit back on tech billionaire Bill Gates who earlier cast doubt on his ability to develop electric vehicles for long-haul travel.

Reacting to a Twitter follower who asked Musk about his opinion on Gates' comment on the viability of electric trucks, Musk replied: "He has no clue".

Gates wrote in a blog post in late August that the problem with long-haul electric vehicles is that batteries are big and heavy.

"Even with big breakthroughs in battery technology, electric vehicles will probably never be a practical solution for things like 18-wheelers, cargo ships, and passenger jets. Electricity works when you need to cover short distances, but we need a different solution for heavy, long-haul vehicles," Gates wrote.

He pointed to biofuels -- rather than battery power -- as a possible solution for commercial vehicles.

On the other hand, Musk is pretty excited about electric trucks and has reportedly directed Tesla to ramp up production of the Semi, a commercial vehicle with a range of up to 800 kms, for its upcoming debut.

Gates further said that "you'll even be able to buy an all-electric pick-up truck soon thanks to legacy companies like GM and Ford and new carmakers like Rivian and Bollinger".

Microsoft co-founder Gates told CNBC last month that "Elon's positioning is to maintain a high level of outrageous comments". He was referring to Musk's comment on fake Covid-19 positive cases being reported, indirectly questioning the Covid testing process of the US government.

"He's not much involved in vaccines. He makes a great electric car. And his rockets work well. So he's allowed to say these things. I hope that he doesn't confuse areas he's not involved in too much," Gates was quoted as saying.

Gates is the world's second-richest person while Musk is now at fourth position.

The electric car maker Tesla is set to showcase "many exciting things" at its Battery Day on September 22, Musk has said.
A man, 55, and a woman, 40, were shot on East Third Street Saturday afternoon.

At approximately 2:13 p.m., Chattanooga Police were called to a local hospital after two adults with injuries from gunshot wounds arrived via personal vehicle. Both victims were suffering from non-life threatening gunshot wounds.

It was stated to police that the victims were in a car traveling in the 1100 block of East 14th Street when they were shot.

A third person in the vehicle was not injured. A crime scene was located by CPD Neighborhood Policing Officers.
(Natural News) A new poll has found that a majority of likely voters in Oregon disapprove of the ongoing rioting in Portland and a significant plurality of them believe that the law enforcement units trying to quell the violence are not using enough force against the rioters.

The 15-minute online survey was conducted from September 3 to 8 by Portland-based opinion research organization DHM Research. It consisted of 502 likely Oregon voters, with a little under half of them residing in either Multnomah, Washington or Clackamas County  the tri-county area in and around Portland. A quarter of participants live somewhere else in the Willamette Valley, and the remaining respondents live in other parts of the state.

According to the poll, 66 percent of Oregon voters disapprove of the ongoing rioting and violence in Portland, while 31 percent approve of them. For people who live within the tri-county area, 61 percent disapprove with 36 percent approve.

The only demographic who approved of the rioting were likely voters aged 18 to 29, with 62 percent of them saying that they approve compared to 33 percent who disapprove. Respondents who identified as people of color, meanwhile, were split almost evenly down the middle, with 49 percent approving and 46 percent disapproving.

Furthermore, when the survey respondents were asked if they believe the violence in Portland was helpful or harmful to Black Portlanders, a strong plurality of 48 percent said that they were not helpful. Twenty-nine percent said that the rioting was helpful, 16 percent answered that they were neither helpful nor harmful and seven percent were unsure. Similarly disapproving numbers appeared when they were asked if the rioting was helpful to race relations and to genuine efforts to pass meaningful police reforms.

Similar demographic differences can be seen, as young people and people of color were more likely to believe that the demonstrations were helpful to Black Portlanders, to improving race relations and to passing reforms.

Survey shows Oregonians want more decisive action against rioting

When asked whether they believe the demonstrations were either mostly violent or mostly peaceful, 56 percent said they were the former, while only 36 percent said the latter and seven percent were not sure. There is a strong partisan difference in this assessment, as 57 percent of people who identified as Democrats believed the demonstrations were mostly peaceful compared to 83 percent of Republicans who said they were mostly violent.

Furthermore, a large plurality of the voters  42 percent  believe that the Portland Police Bureau and the Oregon State Police have not used enough force in their response to the rioters, compared to just 29 percent who believe that they have used too much force and 18 percent who think the amount of force currently being used against the violent mobs is just right. Eleven percent were unsure.

A majority of respondents  55 percent  believe that the word riot, rather than protest, more accurately describes the ongoing events in Portland.

When asked about how much they like or dislike the way Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, both Democrats, have responded to the rioting, nearly six in 10 Oregonians  57 percent for Brown and 58 percent for Wheeler  have expressed their disapproval.

When the fact that Oregonians believe that law enforcement needs to use more force against the violent riots is taken in with the data that shows that they largely disapprove of the way Brown and Wheeler have handled the civil unrest, it shows that they believe more needs to be done to finally bring peace to the state, and that they do not believe Brown and Wheeler are capable of finally bringing law and order to Portland. (Related: Antifa war encampment found in Portland, housing agitators who emerge from tents each night to unleash CHAOS and violence.)

Previous polls show disapproval of riots growing

Previous surveys conducted to ask Oregonians how they feel about current events in their state shows that the discontent over the nightly violence is growing.

From August 25 to 30, opinion research and strategy company FM3 Research conducted a survey of 434 likely voters in Portland and found that 67 percent of them supported the protests while 31 percent opposed it. A slight majority also believe that police use of force, including the use of tear gas and batons, has been inappropriate.

An earlier poll conducted by DHM Research back in late July showed that there were also more mixed views regarding the rioting in Portland at that time, with 67 percent of respondents stating that they approved of the recent protesting, and 66 percent stating their support for the Black Lives Matter movement. In this survey, only 19 percent of respondents believed the riots were mostly violent, compared to 27 percent who said they were mostly peaceful.

John Horvick, DHM Researchs Director of Client Relations and Political Research, believes that something has changed in the publics minds about the events that have been happening in Portland. Horvick argues that the new data may have been influenced by the fact that Oregonians watch footage of the nightly clashes between police and demonstrators, which often includes depictions of massive vandalism and property destruction.

Ron Noble, a Republican member of the Oregon House of Representatives, said that he was not surprised by the latest survey from DHM Research. Noble was supportive of the initial protests, which helped the state legislature pass several police reform bills such as a ban on the use of chokeholds and the creation of a public records directory on disciplinary actions made against individual officers to make it harder for other state law enforcement agencies to hire abusive cops.

Unfortunately, the pursuit of meaningful police reform has been overshadowed by the massive criminality displayed by the Black Lives Matter and Antifa rioters.

Its not about racial equity anymore, said Noble. In fact, that message has been co-opted, to where its really more about anarchy.

The tide is turning against the rioters. Stay updated on the latest events concerning the civil unrest in the country by reading the articles at Rioting.news.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

DHMResearch.com 1

OregonLive.com

DocumentCloud.org

OPB.org 1

DHMResearch.com 2

OPB.org 2
The Trump administration announced in late July that 10-per-cent tariffs on primary aluminum imports from Canada would be levied once again, heeding the demands of a small group of industry insiders calling themselves the American Primary Aluminum Association (APAA).

The APAA knows there are reasonable explanations for the increase in Canadian primary aluminum imports into the United States. For one, aluminum smelters cannot simply switch their production off at a moments notice. After the American automotive industry paused operations in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian producers temporarily switched to primary aluminum exports.

But as economic conditions improved, Canadian exports of P1020 aluminum to the U.S. dropped by 40 per cent over June and July. Whatever spike in Canadian exports was a blip on the radar.

The APAA also knows that the real danger to the aluminum industry in both countries has been surging volumes of offshore aluminum from China and Russia, which have been granted billions of dollars in tariff exemptions by the U.S. and have been allowed to sneak their aluminum products in through the back door via Mexico.

Finally, the APAAs insinuations that the Canadian aluminum industry is somehow subsidized by the government are simply unfounded. In fact, the opposite is true: two American aluminum producers behind the APAA are intent on having the U.S. government subsidize their failing business models through these tariffs.

The APAA was founded in 2018 by Century Aluminum Co. and Magnitude 7 LLC. Century and their CEO Mike Bless have taken the lead in pushing the Trump administration to re-impose tariffs on Canada. According to public records, Century has spent $419,000 in 2020 alone employing seven influential Washington lobbyists with direct White House connections to remove Canadas Section 232 tariffs exemption.

It doesnt take too much digging to understand why. Century has lost money for nine years running and is currently sitting on a mountain of debt  approximately $375 million worth, with only $174 million in cash reserves.

By reimposing aluminum tariffs on Canada, the Trump administration is throwing good money after bad and subsidizing a company that is doomed to fail, ultimately at the expense of the American consumer.

Behind the APAA stands Glencore Plc, one of the largest commodity traders in the world with international headquarters in Switzerland and a 47-per-cent stake in Century Aluminum.

While not an aluminum manufacturer, Glencore is a major player in global aluminum trading and arbitrage and recently struck a deal with Russian aluminum producer Rusal to purchase up to $16.3 billion in aluminum.

Glencore is also no stranger to controversy  it is currently under investigation in the U.S., U.K., and Switzerland for suspicions of bribery, facilitating corruption and money laundering linked to its operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Venezuela.

For both Century and Glencore, re-imposing tariffs on Canada presents an obvious route to increasing regional prices in North America. By starving the U.S. of a reliable supply of aluminum from Canada, prices will invariably increase allowing regional traders who are sitting on stockpiles of the metal to profit.

Ironically, more layoffs are probably in store for the U.S. than if Century and Magnitude 7 were simply left to fend for themselves. American manufacturers downstream will be forced to cut their workforce to adjust to declining profit margins and 86 per cent of the 58,000 workers in the American aluminum sector are involved in processing.

Left with no choice, the Canadian government also announced that it will impose $3.6 billion worth of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. aluminum products, which will further hurt American manufacturing at a critical moment during their economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.

The return of a costly and senseless trade war between Canada and the United States will ultimately hurt Canadians and Americans alike without producing any economic benefit for either country. The tariffs must end now.
Covid-19 fear failed to dampen the spirit of examinees appearing for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), conducted by the National Testing Authority (NTA), in three Jharkhand districts on Sunday, an official said.

The examination, which was earlier opposed by the JMM-Congress led Jharkhand government and some student organizations, was conducted peacefully with all Covid precautions. The exam was held at 36 centres in Ranchi, Bokaro, and Jamshedpur where over 21,000 students were supposed to appear. As per the report from different districts, the attendance recorded was around 85%.

Follow NEET 2020 live update

In Ranchi, the examinations were conducted at 25 centres in which around 12,600 students were supposed to appear.

The city coordinator for the NEET examination in Ranchi, Ram Singh, who is also the principal of Delhi Public School (DPS), Ranchi, said, The examinations passed off peacefully without any trouble. Around 85% of students wrote the papers in Ranchi.

An examinee Pankaj Kujur, who took his examination at Tender Heart School-based centre in Ranchis Tupudana area said, Questions were doable from all three subjects-Physics, Chemistry and Biology. For me, biology was easy, while physics was a little tough but it was okay. The chemistry was average.

Kujur, who passed his class-12 board exam this year, said, There were a total of 180 questions and total marks were 720. I hope to crack the examination.

Another examinee Vishal Kumar, who wrote his papers at Ranchis Guru Nanak Public School-based centre said, Questions were moderate. It was neither easy nor tough. Most of the questions were from NCERT and many questions of previous year examination were repeated this year.

The examination was held in the other two districts- Bokaro and Jamshedpur- of Jharkhand. In Bokaro, seven examination centres were set up in which 4,523 students appeared for the examination.

Students expressed happiness over the Covid preparedness in the examination centres by the district administrations. The temperature of students was checked two times, one before entering the centre, while another during entering the examination halls. All students had been asked to reach the centre campus by 12.30 noon so that they could be given entry maintaining the social distance.

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WASHINGTON - A whistleblowers allegation that he was pressured to suppress intelligence about Russian election interference is the latest in a series of similar accounts involving former Trump administration officials, raising concerns the White House risks undercutting efforts to stop such intrusions if it plays down the seriousness of the problem.

There is no question the administration has taken actions to counter Russian interference, including sanctions and criminal charges on Thursday designed to call out foreign influence campaigns aimed at American voters. But Trumps resistance to embracing the gravity of the threat could leave the administration without a consistent and powerful voice of deterrence at the top of the government heading into an election that U.S. officials say is again being targeted by Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is not deterred, said Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, a Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee. Himes said Putin feels empowered, probably inoculated in the U.S. because of the presidents behaviour.

Brian Murphy, the former top intelligence official at the Department of Homeland Security, alleges in the complaint made public Wednesday that he was instructed to hold back intelligence on Russian interference because it made the president look bad. That follows reports that Trump berated his then-intelligence director after a congressional briefing about Moscows interference, and that the president sought the firing of another official who told Congress he supported intelligence agencies assessment that Russia had interfered in 2016 with a preference for Trump.

The department denied Murphys allegation, and the White House issued a statement describing instances in which it said the president had it taken action against Russia.

This president has been resolute that any foreign adversary seeking to disrupt our elections will face tremendous consequences, White House spokeswoman Sarah Matthews said.

Senior Trump administration officials have been eager to focus more on China in discussing election interference, asserting that Beijing is the more potent danger. Though career intelligence officials do say China is a major espionage concern, there is also bipartisan consensus, including in a Republican-led Senate intelligence committee report, that Russia directly interfered in 2016 with the goal of helping Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. This year, intelligence officials say, Russia is working to denigrate Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

Murphy is not alone in alleging that he felt stymied from raising the Russia threat head-on.

Miles Taylor, as chief of staff to former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, participated in high-level administration meetings and has in recent weeks publicly conveyed his concerns about Trumps leadership. In an interview, Taylor said Nielsen had to create a shadow National Security Council to deal with the issue because she felt the presidents own team had not convened enough meetings to co-ordinate a response.

Once when Nielsen tried to communicate the seriousness of the threat heading into the 2018 election, Trump responded that the whole issue was all (expletive), Taylor said.

In addition, Taylor said Trump president once tried to have the Homeland Security Departments then-intelligence chief fired after hearing that the official had told lawmakers that he agreed with the assessment of Russian interference during the 2016 election.

The president himself has threatened to fire multiple individuals in the administration for even publicly supporting the intelligence community assessment on Russia, and that had a direct and chilling effort on the ability of key Cabinet secretaries to get out and do what they needed to do to thwart foreign interference in our democracy, Taylor said.

Trumps stance on Russian interference, including publicly questioning intelligence agencies assessment at a Helsinki news conference with Putin, has colored his relationship with spy chiefs.

Last February, Trump erupted after learning of a congressional briefing involving Russian interference, a senior administration official has said, and berated the then-acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire.

In arguing that Trump has been tough on Russia, the White House pointed to actions including the closure of Russian consulates on the West Coast, the expulsion of dozens of Russian agents from the U.S., sanctions on hundreds of targets, the U.S. suspension of a decades-old nuclear arms treaty and millions of dollars in election-related funding.

The administration has also issued public statements acknowledging ongoing efforts by Russia and its proxies to interfere in the election, including one last month that said Russia was denigrating Biden. The Treasury Department on Thursday sanctioned a Ukraine lawmaker who has leaked recordings of Bidens calls that Trump has promoted on Twitter but that his own administration has said rely on a false narrative. Also Thursday, the Trump administration Justice Department announced charges against a Russian national in a plot to sow discord in the U.S.

But Taylor said that when he was in the administration, far tougher options that were contemplated were not always pursued when it came to Russia.

We felt like it was mission critical that the president firmly come down on the Russians and punish Moscow for their interference and punish them hard enough that they would be dissuaded from engaging in foreign meddling again, Taylor said. The president didnt want to do that.

Some administration officials contend that China, which has been aggressive in efforts to steal American intellectual property, is the more assertive adversary. Intelligence officials say China prefers that Trump lose because it views him as unpredictable and has been expanding its influence operations and weighing risks and benefits of more aggressive action.

But a statement from intelligence officials that accused Russia of actively trying to undermine Biden suggested that Chinas actions against Trump were less direct. Microsoft, in identifying both countries as well as Iran as being involved in election-related hacking, has said that people associated with the Biden campaign were among those targeted by Chinese state-backed hackers.

Himes, the House Intelligence Committee member, said he was concerned heading into the Nov. 3 election about intelligence being twisted for political reasons.

Im not sure people naturally understand the destruction, he said, that can be caused by the politicization of intelligence.

____

Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The special cell of the Delhi Police on Sunday late night arrested the former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader Umar Khalid on the charges of stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

He was arrested after 11 hours of interrogation.

He will be produced before a Delhi court on Monday, they said.

"Khalid was called for questioning on Sunday and arrested. His family was informed about his arrest," said sources in Delhi Police.

Khalid was questioned by the Delhi Police Crime Branch for a couple of hours on September 2 in connection with the riots.

He was earlier booked under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in another case related to the riots.

In April, his name figured in the FIR registered in connection with the northeast Delhi riots that broke out in February following a series of protests held in favour and against the contentious citizenship amendment act (CAA).

His mobile phone was also seized by the police.

My son Umar Khalid has been arrested tonight at 11:00 pm by Special Cell, Delhi Police under UAPA. Police was questioning him since 1:00 pm. He has been implicated in Delhi Riots. #StandWithUmarKhalid  Ilyas SQR (@sqrIlyas1) September 13, 2020

In August also, he was summoned by the Special Cell and faced grilling for three hours.

Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after violence between supporters of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and those against the legislation spiralled out of control, leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.

In their attempt to prevent violence, 108 police personnel received injuries and two died.

The Delhi Police on Sunday said it was investigating the role of all individuals who allegedly took part in the riots and were part of a larger conspiracy in organising violence in the northeast Delhi and inciting communal passion and hatred amongst communities, an official statement stated.

According to the force, the Delhi Police has registered 751 FIRs in connection with communal riots that took place in the last week of February this year.

ALSO READ | Delhi riots: Police name Sitaram Yechury, Yogendra Yadav, Jayati Ghosh, Apoorvanand as co-conspirators

As far as the investigation is concerned, Delhi Police has carried it out meticulously in the most professional manner, officials said.

After collecting and collating all evidences, the investigation has been finalised in most of the important cases and the charge sheets have been submitted in the court for trial, the police also said, adding the riots also caused large-scale damage to both private and public properties.

Ex student of JNU Umar khalid has been arrested in Delhi riots case. He was earlier on Sunday called by the special cell for questioning in links with the communal riots @theparvezsultan @NewIndianXpress @TheMornStandard pic.twitter.com/rboWWF8jEL  Gayathri Mani (@gayathrireports) September 13, 2020

So far, police have arrested 1,575 people in 751 cases.

Over 250 chargesheets have been filed in the riots related cases in which 1,153 accused have been charge-sheeted.

(With PTI Inputs)
A list of the 50 favorite American actresses of all time, as determined from data collected from YouGov Ratings. The survey was conducted between 2017 and 2018.
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Linkedin Abhaya Srivastava (Agence France-Presse) Gurgaon, India  Sun, September 13, 2020 10:07 495 e22cd4161040e111d73a5626c447b5d3 2 Food CoCo-Ichibanya,curry,food,restaurant,Japan,India Free

One of Japan's most popular restaurant chains is embarking on what could become one of the all-time crowning achievements of salesmanship -- selling curry to India.

CoCo Ichibanya has more than 1,400 locations worldwide but its owners are eager to find a foothold in the world's second-biggest nation, and favor among a middle class with a growing appetite for international food.

But it remains to be seen whether its own signature curry dish -- a distinctive, thick brown sauce and sticky white rice -- can lure diners accustomed to local varieties honed over thousands of years.

"We are not here to compete with Indian curries," Ichibanya India's assistant chief executive, Devesh Srivastava, told AFP.

"We have a flavorful Japanese curry which is a bit different from the Indian one... and the response has been pretty good so far. People are coming back as well."

Beef and pork are absent from the tailor-made menu, in deference to religious requirements and local tastes.

Substitutes such as paneer and eggplant are on offer instead, making a unique global hybrid cuisine reflecting the chain's dual origins.

Curry originated in India thousands of years ago but in the late 19th century British seafarers introduced it to Japan, where it evolved into a beloved national comfort food.

Rising disposable incomes have left India an attractive market for Japanese companies, which are looking to offset declining consumer spending at home by expanding abroad.

Read also: Gordon Ramsay 'can't wait' to put beef 'rendang' on his restaurant's menu

Ichibanya believes its successful step into Thailand, another curry-loving nation, is a sign the chain could succeed in India.

"Initially there is going to be a lot of interest," Kavita Devgan, an author and food columnist, told AFP.

"If the curry works for the Indian palate and is not very unfamiliar, then it has a chance."

It has shrugged off the challenges of opening in India during the coronavirus pandemic, at a time when many restaurant-goers are tightening their purse strings and eating at home.

Its first Indian franchise opened in August near the capital New Delhi and immediately piqued local interest.

Diners said they enjoyed exploring the contrast between the flavor of the Japanese sauce and the familiar Indian varieties laden with onion, tomatoes and local spices.

"The taste is something that is very addictive," said Aakash Nakra. "You want to eat more and more and more."
A young skier who put on 25kg and almost wound up with diabetes because her 'healthy' snacks were full of sugar has landed a multi million-dollar deal with Coles.

Keira Rumble's Olympic dreams were crushed when she shattered her shins and broke both arms while training at the age of 15 in 2006.

The accident sparked the beginning of a five-year sugar addiction the Sydney woman developed as a coping mechanism.

When she started experiencing constant headaches, nausea, fatigue and depression as a result of her sugar consumption, Ms Rumble started exercising and making what she thought were healthier food choices.

Keira Rumble's Olympic dreams were crushed when she shattered her shins and broke both arms while training at the age of 15 in 2006

Ms Rumble (pictured with a Beauty Bar) started experiencing constant headaches, nausea, fatigue and depression as a result of her sugar consumption

But when her weight plateaued, she realised her favourite pre and post exercise protein balls were the culprits - containing the equivalent of two cinnamon doughnuts' worth of sugar.

'I felt almost betrayed by these companies that say they are the healthier option. So much branding and marketing goes into the products, it's misleading,' the 30-year-old previously told Daily Mail Australia.

Spurred on by a warning from her doctors that she would become 'diabetic before you know it' if she didn't improve her lifestyle, she realised she needed to make a change and wanted to help others do the same.

Ms Rumble, now 30, combined her passion for nutrition with her love of beauty products and created Krumbled Foods - a health food brand specialising in $4 'Beauty Bars'.

Ms Rumble (pictured left, at her heaviest weight and right, in 2019) used her pre-diabetic diagnosis as motivation to launch her now-booming business

Ms Rumble said she will 'never use dates' - the sweetener typically used in 'health foods' - because of their high content of natural sugar

The bars have just 2.8 grams of sugar and are sweetened with monk fruit, a small green melon native to southern China used as a substitute for refined sugar.

She said she will 'never use dates' - the sweetener typically used in 'health foods' - because of their high content of natural sugar.

'They're a big no-no for us because it's the cheapest way to bulk out a product,' she said.

'Dates are great in moderation if you've got an active lifestyle, but especially now during COVID when we're a lot more sedentary, the sugar catches up on you.'

Each bar also has skin-improving collagen, vitamin C and E, prebiotics and probiotics - an idea that came about when she realised how much money she was spending on cosmetics, skin and gut supplements.

Ms Rumble on the slopes shortly before her life-altering accident in 2006

Ms Rumble's Beauty Bites (pictured in the basket) are now stocked in Coles and Priceline Australia-wide

Krumbled Foods' Beauty Bites, $4 snack bars sweetened with monk fruit and laced with 3,800mg of collagen which come in flavours like coconut lemon and white chocolate

The qualified nutritionist explained that getting all the right vitamins often involves taking a cocktail of powders, tablets, capsules and liquids.

'I knew there had to be an easier way to get my collagen and gut health supplements into a more enjoyable experience,' she told news.com.au.

'I wanted something that you can pop in your handbag and away you go, but I also wanted to replace what I was eating with my morning coffee.'

Collagen is linked to a slew of health benefits including reduced wrinkles, stronger bones, brighter skin and smoother movement of joints.

Sydney businesswoman Keira Rumble, 30, whose healthy snack brand banked her six figures in its first three weeks of business

She started making Beauty Bar prototypes in her kitchen with the aim of concocting something 'delicious'.

Experts helped her bring the recipe to ensure it met food regulations, and had the right flavours and textures.

The product launched in 2017 and was picked up by chemist Priceline in 2019 - selling out of what was supposed to be a year's supply in just three weeks.

The unprecedented sales brought in a six figure profit, but her most recent deal with Coles has cemented the bars as a leading health snack.

'We launched into Coles in the middle of a pandemic, which was extremely nerve-racking,' she said.

About 50 per cent of supermarkets sold out of Beauty Bites in July.

Fans sent Ms Rumble videos of supermarket customers filling their trolleys with whole boxes of the bars

Fans sent her videos of supermarket customers filling their trolleys with whole boxes of the bars.

Krumbled Foods is set to make $5million in its second year as a result of the Coles and Priceline contracts.

Ms Rumble was also chosen as the Australian recipient of this year's Sephora Accelerate Program, which scouts promising female entrepreneurs in the health industry and provides them with funding, mentoring and connections to investors.

She is preparing to release six new products before the end of the year, coronavirus-related logistical issues notwithstanding, along with a clean cosmetics line called Habitual Beauty slated to launch in October.

New flavour Choc Cherry Coconut will be added to the already popular White Chocolate Raspberry, Lemon Coconut and Apple Cinnamon.
We're about two weeks away from a government shutdown, as Congress and the White House remain deadlocked in negotiations over another coronavirus relief bill.

The latest: Negotiations between House and Senate leadership and the White House over a continuing resolution are expected to begin in earnest next week when the House returns from recess. Remember this deadline: Midnight on Oct. 1.

Details: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi insist there wont be a shutdown. Leaders on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue appear as far apart as ever on coronavirus relief funding, and a stimulus bill before November looks highly unlikely.

Both parties are pushing for a clean continuing resolution (CR) that would largely maintain current levels of funding for government agencies until some point after the election, Senate Appropriations Chair Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said last week.

There was an early decision among leadership on the Hill and at the White House not to couple coronavirus relief to the CR talks, a Senate leadership aide told Alayna. Having that agreement means well likely not see a shutdown.

Be smart: Election Day may be the saving grace when it comes to averting a shutdown.

A lot of people want to get out of town to campaign and address these types of things in the lame-duck sessions, a GOP congressional source said.

Between the lines: Republicans prefer a CR that runs only through December. That could give them more power to push their own priorities if they lose control of the White House.
More than 80% of doctors in Northern Ireland believe a second wave of Covid-19 is likely within the next six months.

Almost half said it was their greatest fear for the health service.

GP and hospital clinicians expressed concern about capacity to manage the pandemic alongside restarting routine care for patients, the BMA in Northern Ireland said.

Expand Close Almost half of doctors said a second Covid-19 wave was their greatest fear for the health service (Danny Lawson/PA) PA / Facebook

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Chairman Dr Tom Black said: The past few days have clearly demonstrated that we are only through the first phase of this pandemic and there is going to be a long winter ahead.

Our members, who have worked throughout the last six months either on the wards, in practices, in the community or remotely, are rightly worried that we have not been able to get this disease under control.

Measures limiting social interaction between households amid soaring Covid-19 infection rates in the Belfast council area come into effect on Monday.

Members of the BMA were asked what they felt presented a risk of causing a second peak, 57% strongly agreed that confusing messages on public health measures including mask wearing and household social interactions presented a risk and 52% strongly agreed that a lack of monitoring of public health measures created was a risk.

When asked about what needs to be done to prevent a second wave, most surveyed felt there needed to be a coherent approach to local outbreaks and a fit for purpose testing and tracing system.

There also needed to be better public messaging on measures like wearing face coverings, social distancing and contact with non-household members.

Dr Black added: From this survey we can see that doctors think we need two things to prevent a second, worse peak of Covid-19; a fit for purpose track and trace system and a coherent, rapid and consistent approach to getting local outbreaks under control.

Last week the Executive made the right moves in that direction with localised lockdowns and alongside that we need clear messages for the general public so they understand what they are being asked to do and why.

For the health service itself doctors identified two clear priorities to get it back onto a sustainable footing; Covid-secure workplaces and adequate supplies of PPE, and prioritisation of patients to clear the backlog of those who need assessed urgently.

People living in Ballymena town and postcode areas BT43, BT28 and BT29 have also been given guidance discouraging non-essential journeys outside the affected zones.

There will also be new legally enforceable social restrictions  residents in these areas cannot visit other households.
Vingroup rejects rumour about selling its stake in Vinmec and Vinschool, reiterating that these two systems play a crucial role in the groups ecosystem.

Putting rumours to rest, the representative of Vingroup also affirmed that the group will continue to invest to expand these systems.

We are still looking for opportunities to co-operate with both local and foreign partners to make Vinmec become an international-level hospital system with branches overseas. Regarding Vinschool, it targets the local market only and as such, it is not looking to cooperate with new partners, the representative said.

Previously, Reuters quoted a source saying that Vingroup is likely looking for partners to buy its education and hospital systems. According to the source, the group has yet to select a consultant unit for the deals but it has been negotiating with two potential partners.

Vietnams major conglomerate Masan on January 1 announced its takeover of 540 million shares or an 83.74 per cent stake in VinCommerce Services and Trading Development, Vingroups subsidiary in charge of retail business.

The company now owns VinCommerces network of 2,600 supermarkets and convenience stores of VinMart and VinMart+ across 50 cities and provinces in Vietnam, along with a customer base of millions.



VIR
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday called for a diplomatic solution to the confrontation between Greece and Turkey over energy reserves in east Mediterranean waters, saying ongoing military tensions between two NATO allies only serve the alliances foes.

Increased military tensions help no one but adversaries who would like to see division in transatlantic unity, Pompeo said after talks with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades.

Pompeo said President Donald Trump has already spoken with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in hopes of ending the standoff.

Greek and Turkish warships have been staring each other down in recent weeks as Turkish research vessels and drill ships continue searching for hydrocarbons in waters where Greece and Cyprus claim exclusive economic rights.

So far, three sizable gas discoveries have been made inside Cyprus exclusive economic zone where energy companies including Total of France, Italys Eni and ExxonMobil are licensed to carry out hydrocarbons searches.

EU members Greece and Cyprus have accused Turkey of violating international law and have been trying to rally fellow bloc members to impose tougher sanctions against Turkey.

Turkey, which doesnt recognize Cyprus as a state, insists it has every right to prospect in those waters and is doing so to defend its rights and those of breakaway Turkish Cypriots on ethnically divided Cyprus to a potential mineral bounty.

We remain deeply concerned by Turkeys ongoing operations, surveying for natural resources in areas where Greece and Cyprus assert jurisdiction in the eastern Mediterranean, said Pompeo, repeating Washingtons support for Cyprus right to exploit hydrocarbon deposits in its territorial sea and exclusive economic zone.

Cyprus has been divided into a Greek-Cypriot south and a Turkish-occupied north since a 1974 invasion by Turkey in response to a coup seeking to unite the island with Greece. A breakaway state in the north is recognized only by Turkey.

The US top diplomatic also repeated that any potential hydrocarbon wealth should be shared equitably between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.

Anastasiades said he fully supported Washingtons position that regional disputes should be resolved through dialogue and not by gunboat diplomacy. The Cypriot president repeated his governments offer to either negotiate with Turkey directly on marking maritime borders or taking the issue to the International Court of Justice.

Pompeos lightning visit to Cyprus also aimed to affirm Washingtons active engagement in tumultuous region just four days after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pitched Moscows offer to help ease tensions during his trip to the island nation.

Reminiscent of a Cold War-era rivalry, the visits by Pompeo and Lavrov to Cyprus underscored a renewed interest in a region where Moscows footprint has grown larger due to its military involvement in neighboring Syria.

Security cooperation matters all the more as we see nations that dont share our values trying to obtain footholds in the region, said Pompeo.

Cyprus has tried to leverage its geographic proximity to the Middle East by striving to bolster relations with the US while at the same time maintaining strong ties with Moscow on whose support it counts on in the United Nations.

Pompeo said US-Cyprus relations have never been better, but repeated to Anastasiades Washingtons concerns over Russian money laundering activities in Cyprus as well as ports of call Russian warships make at Cypriot ports.

The centerpiece of closer Cyprus-US links was last years congressional approval of the Eastern Mediterranean Energy and Security Partnership Act that underscores US support for an energy-based partnership between Greece, Cyprus and Israel.

Under the Act, the US is providing Cyprus with funding for military training and has partially lifted an arms embargo that was enacted 33 years ago to prevent a possible arms race harming peace talks. The lifting of the embargo was made possible after Washington waived a requirement that Cyprus cease to offer refueling and other port services to Russian warships.

We know that all the Russian military vessels that stop in Cypriot ports are not conducting humanitarian missions in Syria, Pompeo said.

The move  as well as US officials accusing Russia of playing a very destabilizing role in the region  angered Moscow, with Lavrov accusing Washington of using divide and rule tactics to drive a wedge between Russia and countries in the region.
Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see Spark New Zealand Limited (NZSE:SPK) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next four days. You can purchase shares before the 17th of September in order to receive the dividend, which the company will pay on the 2nd of October.

Spark New Zealand's next dividend payment will be NZ$0.15 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of NZ$0.25 to shareholders. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, Spark New Zealand has a trailing yield of approximately 5.2% on its current stock price of NZ$4.77. Dividends are an important source of income to many shareholders, but the health of the business is crucial to maintaining those dividends. So we need to investigate whether Spark New Zealand can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.

View our latest analysis for Spark New Zealand

Dividends are typically paid out of company income, so if a company pays out more than it earned, its dividend is usually at a higher risk of being cut. Last year, Spark New Zealand paid out 108% of its income as dividends, which is above a level that we're comfortable with, especially if the company needs to reinvest in its business. That said, even highly profitable companies sometimes might not generate enough cash to pay the dividend, which is why we should always check if the dividend is covered by cash flow. It paid out 80% of its free cash flow as dividends, which is within usual limits but will limit the company's ability to lift the dividend if there's no growth.

It's disappointing to see that the dividend was not covered by profits, but cash is more important from a dividend sustainability perspective, and Spark New Zealand fortunately did generate enough cash to fund its dividend. If executives were to continue paying more in dividends than the company reported in profits, we'd view this as a warning sign. Very few companies are able to sustainably pay dividends larger than their reported earnings.

Story continues

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. 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 Spark New Zealand, with earnings per share up 2.7% on average over the last five years.

Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. Spark New Zealand's dividend payments are effectively flat on where they were 10 years ago.

To Sum It Up

Has Spark New Zealand got what it takes to maintain its dividend payments? While earnings per share have been growing slowly, Spark New Zealand is paying out an uncomfortably high percentage of its earnings. However it did pay out a lower percentage of its cashflow. Overall it doesn't look like the most suitable dividend stock for a long-term buy and hold investor.

Although, if you're still interested in Spark New Zealand and want to know more, you'll find it very useful to know what risks this stock faces. Be aware that Spark New Zealand is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis, and 1 of those makes us a bit uncomfortable...

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.
Mark James Miller is an Associate English Instructor at Allan Hancock College and President of the Part-Time Faculty Association. He can be reached at mark@pfaofahc.com.
RTHK: Ship in Greece row has returned to coast: Turkey

Turkey on Sunday said the research ship at the centre of a row with Greece over energy exploration had returned to the Turkish coast, but insisted the move did not mean Ankara was "giving up".

"There will be planned movements backwards and forwards," Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar told state news agency Anadolu in Antalya, southern Turkey.

Akar said the movement away from contested waters did not mean Turkey "would be giving up on our rights there" during the interview broadcast live on Turkish news channels.

Tensions between Greece and Turkey escalated after the Oruc Reis research vessel backed by navy frigates was deployed to waters near the Greek island of Kastellorizo on August 10.

The mission was then extended three times despite protests from Greece and the European Union.

Athens says Ankara is violating its sovereignty by exploring in Greek waters, but Turkey insists it has rights because of its nearby coastline.

Ship-tracking websites marinetraffic.com and vesselfinder.com showed Oruc Reis was just off the coast of Turkey near Antalya on Sunday afternoon.

The Turkish minister lambasted Greece's "militarisation" of 18 islands, which was a "provocative" move that "increased tensions" between the neighbours.

But Akar reserved his harshest comments for French President Emmanuel Macron who has led the criticism of Turkey over its energy exploration in the region.

"It seems obvious that Mr Macron's policies have failed," Akar said during his visit to the Turkish seaside town of Kas in Antalya, only two kilometres from the Greek island Kastellorizo. The Greek people should not be overcome by Macron... or be used by him in his attempts to save himself," the minister added.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Saturday announced a "robust" arms purchase programme, which included the acquisition of French-made Rafale fight jets, as well as an overhaul of the country's military.

Such moves were "provoked and encouraged" by Macron, Akar said, as he called for dialogue to resolve the problems.

Akar also criticised the United States' recent lifting of a decades-old arms embargo on Cyprus, a divided island.

The northern third of Cyprus has been controlled by Turkey since a 1974 invasion following a coup aimed at unification with Greece.

"This won't lead us to peace or a solution, it will lead us to a deadlock," Akar said, adding the decision was "not in harmony with the spirit of alliance". (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2020-09-13. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Neha Dhupia publicly invited Abhishek Bachchan for her talk show No Filter Neha on Twitter but the Guru actor has turned down the offer. Neha had invited Abhishek on popular demand after a user called him one of the wittiest celebrities but the actor had his own reasons to give it a miss.

A user wrote to Neha on Twitter, @NehaDhupia Please please bring @juniorbachchan on #NoFilterNeha Hes one of the wittiest celebrities and would love to hear him. The show host replied, I would love that ... and on now on popular demand ... @juniorbachchan have invited you personally now inviting you publicly #nofilterneha.

Wit and "no filter " are two separate things.  baksh dijiye.  Abhishek Bachchan (@juniorbachchan) September 12, 2020

However, Abhishek soon turned down the offer to appear on the show which is known for the guests making hilarious revelations about their personal and professional life. Abhishek replied to Neha, Wit and no filter are two separate things. baksh dijiye (please spare me).

Neha recently returned to host season 5 of No Filter Neha with Saif Ali Khan as the first guest. The show is known for a conversation with no filter and makes headlines for the secrets shared by the guests. Recently, Saif had revealed on the show that he refused to go naked for Vishal Bhardwajs Omkara.

Also read: Himani Shivpuri tests positive for Covid-19, Happu Ki Ultan Paltan co-star wishes her Get well soon Amma

Saif said he was ready to go naked for a scene in Omkara but kept a condition for director Vishal Bhardwaj, which he refused to fulfil. He said, So, he said, in fact, I think you should do it naked. I said, what? He said, ya itll look good, youre standing there naked with your back to the camera. He said dont worry it will be very dimly lit, like the movie. So, I said listen, you and Tassaduq (director of photography) stand there with me naked while you direct me and I will stand there naked. I dont mind, Ill do it. He said Im not directing you naked. I said arre, if youre not going to be naked then why should I be naked. So, wasnt. But in retrospect, I shouldve done it, it was just too new an idea. I think after John Abraham, showed his half butt, I wouldve been the first butt of Bollywood on screen.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

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Medical team wearing protective suits walk to a clinic, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Misrata

MISRATA, Libya (Reuters) - As the pandemic started to rage through Libya last month, medics working in the war-ravaged country's few functioning hospitals faced their nightmare scenario - a surge in cases and dwindling resources.

Hamza Abdulrahman Jelwal, 35, a supervising nurse at a quarantine centre in the coastal city of Misrata, has not seen his family since Libya's lockdown began in March. He has also not been paid.

He tested positive for the coronavirus in August and was quarantined in the same facility. As soon as he got better, he got up and went back to work.

"We work 12 hours a day. It is exhausting for medical staff because there is no rest," he said.

His experience underscores the high stakes and growing challenges for Libyan medics as the number of confirmed cases spikes. Figures have climbed rapidly from a few hundred last month to almost 20,000 now.

The United Nations' acting Libya envoy, Stephanie Williams, has told the Security Council that the real number of cases in Libya is almost certainly far higher and that the health system is "unable to respond".

Libya has been divided since 2014 between the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli and the west, and areas of the east and south held by Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA).

The two rival administrations operate parallel governments that have issued differing public health orders aimed at controlling the spread of the virus, but both closed their foreign borders early in the crisis.

SHORTFALLS AND DELAYS

Despite that measure, an outbreak began in July in the southern desert city of Sebha, attributed by some local people to the return of Libyans flown home after being stranded abroad.

The virus then spread into the main urban centres in the coastal cities of Tripoli and Misrata on the GNA side and Benghazi, controlled by Haftar.

The quarantine centre where Jelwal works, in the Gharara district, had been a private clinic but was taken over for the crisis by the state-operated Misrata Medical Centre.

Story continues

Administrative issues closed it for most of a month early this summer, he said, contributing to the accelerating number of cases as people could not come in to quarantine.

That was when staff started to quit because they had not been paid, he said. There are few ventilators and little other equipment. State funding, regularly hit by shortfalls and delays, has been particularly disrupted this year because of a blockade on oil exports by the LNA and its allies.

Jelwal was not the only member of staff to fall ill as they tried to cope with the onslaught of new cases.

A colleague, Aisha Milad Belhassna, another nurse at the centre also caught the disease.

"Suddenly the air starts to decrease until you reach the point where you feel like you are losing your life," she said.

(Reporting By Ayman al-Sahily, writing by Angus McDowall, editing by Andrew Heavens)
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who was discharged from AIIMS nearly two weeks ago after post Covid-19 care, was readmitted to the hospital last night after he reportedly complained of breathlessness.

The sources told that 55-year-old Shah was admitted around 11 pm on Saturday night and he is being kept in CN tower, a facility reserved for VVIPs. The BJP leader is being treated by Dr Randeep Guleria, director of AIIMS and his condition is said to be stable now.

Shah has been suffering from post-COVID ailments for a month now. He was previously admitted to AIIMS on August 18 after he suffered post-COVID ailments days after his recovery from COVID-19 disease. On August 2, Shah had said on Twitter that he had tested positive for COVID-19, following which he was treated in Medanta Hospital, Gurugram.

After being tested negative he was discharged on August 14 only to re-admitted in AIIMS days after to treat his post-COVID complication on August 18. Amit Shah, Union Home Minister, is admitted at AIIMS, New Delhi for post-COVID care. He has recovered and is likely to be discharged in a short time," the AIIMS had said in a statement on August 30.

The coronavirus pandemic has cast a shadow over the parliaments monsoon session, which is set to begin tomorrow amid Covid safety measures, including compulsory face mask and social distancing in place. As many as 200 out of 785 members of parliament are above 65 years of age, and at least seven Union Ministers and two dozen lawmakers are currently recovering from COVID-19.
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The French First Lady Brigitte Macron has revealed how she felt 'helpless and scared' after the birth of her first child in a rare new interview.

Emmanuel Macron's wife, 67, had three children with her first husband Andre-Louis Auziere after their wedding in 1974 and today she has seven grandchildren.

Speaking to the French magazine Elle, Brigitte, who had her first child aged 21, admitted she felt 'helpless' when she left the maternity ward after giving birth.

She said she dreaded being responsible for this child, revealing: 'I was scared not to know [what to do], I was scared something would happen to him. He spent the three first weeks screaming night and day.'

Brigitte Macron, the French First Lady and wife of Emmanuel Macron, opened up about her struggles as a first-time-mother in 1975 when she gave birth to her first child Sebastien, aged 21 (pictured in February 2020)

She explained: 'We never talk about how alone and helpless a young mother can be.'

'At 21, right after the birth of my first child, I was standing in front of the hospital waiting for his father to take us home, and I wanted to make a U-turn and run to hide in the maternity ward,' she said.

After the baby spent three weeks crying 'day and night', Brigitte phoned for a doctor who assured her the baby was fine.

However, while she doesn't reveal what the issue is, she later discovered her son Sebastien suffered from a medical problem which was later solved with an operation.

Brigitte Macron's first child, Sebastien Auziere with his wife and their children on the day Emmanuel Macron became president

Admitting that being a mother was 'hard,' Brigitte said that protecting children should mean more support for mothers.

The grandmother of seven had three children during her first marriage, which lasted from 1974 to 2006.

Her firstborn, Sebastien, is now 45, an engineer and the Vice President of a polling agency.

Brigitte has also had two daughters: Laurence Auziere-Jourdan, who is a cardiologist and Tiphaine Auziere, who is a lawyer and who used to be in the same class as Emmanuel Macron in high school.

Emmanuel and Brigitte pictured a year into his presidency in 2018. The couple married in 2007, a year after Brigitte finalised her divorce from her first husband

The couple, who met when Macron was just 15 and Brigitte 39, share an atypical romance, to say the least.

The pair met in high school, with Macron the brilliant student falling fast and hard for the passionate literature teacher. The two grew close, especially after Macron, then 16, joined the school's drama club - managed by none other than Brigitte.

When news started to spread of a blossoming romance between the mother-of-three and teenager, it was said Macron was sent to Paris by his parents in order to put some distance between Brigitte and him.

Her parents - both doctors - were treated 'like they had the plague', had their door spat on and were sent letters denouncing their daughter.

But the attraction between the pair was too strong to be ignored, and a passionate finally developed - though the couple denied anything romantic took place before Macron was old enough.

The pair eventually tied the knot in 2007, a year after Brigitte's divorce from her first husband Andre.
Premier Daniel Andrews will appear before the official inquiry into Victoria's ill-fated hotel quarantine program to answer questions about its failures.

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Senior ministers Martin Pakula, Jenny Mikakos and Lisa Neville are also expected to front the inquiry into the government's handling of the isolation hotels for returned travellers.

Two Melbourne hotels used to quarantine returned travellers are the source of Victoria's second wave of coronavirus, which has claimed nearly 700 lives and forced Melbourne into its tough stage four lockdown.

The Premier confirmed on Sunday evening he was scheduled to appear at a public hearing on September 23.
McCarthy, McCarthy, McCarthy, McCarthy! No, not Andy of Hambletonian fame, but little brother Todd, who stole the show at The Meadowlands Saturday night (Sept. 12).

The recent Australian invader won four times on the 13-race card to record his first victories at the mile oval.

McCarthy, 27, arrived from Down Under at the end of August and has made an immediate impact racing in the States, winning 11 times from 87 starts entering action Saturday.

Australia was good to me. Its been great for years, said McCarthy. I was the top driver at Menangle Racetrack in Sydney for the last five years. The timing was tricky [to come to the States] the way things are in the world right now, but it was a good time to come over and give it a go. The racing here is definitely faster and a little more aggressive, but so far its been great and Im really enjoying it.

So did those who bet him Saturday night.

McCarthy got the ball rolling in the third race, finishing first in a dead heat. Guiding A Major Omen, he managed to catch Griffon Hanover at the wire to record his first career Big M win in 1:52.2 in a low-end conditioned pace, paying $7.20 to win. Both horses went off at odds of 6-1.

Somebodyitreasure and McCarthy hooked up to destroy their foes in a non-winners of two pace by five-and-three-quarter lengths in 1:49.4 as the 6-5 favourite in Race 4 before Flyingevenbettor N gave McCarthy his third win of the night in the sixth race non-winners of four pace in 1:51.2 as the 1-2 public choice.

Completing McCarthys grand slam was 7-1 chance The Bettormack N, who got the better of 3-5 favourite Ocean Colony nearing the finish of Race 7. The time for the mile in the mid-range conditioned pace was 1:50.

Ive had a good night, McCarthy said. With a lot of help from some good horses and some good trainers. Ive been a lot busier than I thought Id have been. I think for anyone in the harness racing industry, you look at America, The Meadowlands is the pinnacle. To crack one tonight and then to get a few more after that, it was pretty awesome.

Big brother Andy has been in his corner. Andys been a key factor in throwing a lot of work my way, said Todd. The fact that hes been away [racing in Canada] has been a help. Hes told some of the trainers, Im away, you can throw my brother down on something.

McCarthy said he plans to race at Philadelphia, Pocono Downs and The Meadowlands in the coming months. Ive enjoyed every track Ive raced at, said McCarthy.

BOMBS AWAY! Driver Pat Berry, aka The Blueberry Bomber, was up to his old tricks again, guiding three winners on the card, none close to being the post-time public choice.

Berry scored with Always The Sun ($15.20 to win) in the first race and Imageofarocker ($12.00) in the fifth before saving his best for last, winning with 33-1 shot Harambe Deo ($68.40) in the 10th.

On March 7, the last night of racing before the coronavirus shutdown, Berry swept the late double that paid $2,700.40 with horses who went off at 47-1 and 27-1.

A LITTLE MORE: With a carryover of $37,159 serving as the catalyst, Early 20-cent Pick-5 players got to shoot for a total pool of $188,387. Those correctly selecting five winners cashed in for $271.46.

With Harambe Deo providing the big upset, neither the Late 50-cent Pick 4 nor the Late 20-cent Pick 5 were hit. When racing resumes, the Late Pick 4 will have a carryover of $38,390 while the Late Pick 5 will start out with $21,811 in the hat.

All-source wagering on the 13-race card totaled $2,744,326.

The Big Ms next live racing program is Friday (Sept. 18). Post time is 7:15 p.m. (EDT).

(Meadowlands Racetrack)
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Adam Ferrier, a consumer psychologist and founder of Thinkerbell advertising agency, has contributed to an online course about surrealism being run by the National Gallery of Victoria on the relationship between advertising and Salvador Dali, which he says is both superficial and deep. Credit:Joe Armao
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 10:10:03|Editor: huaxia

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KATHMANDU, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Nepal's Department of Immigration decided to resume all the visa services starting from Sunday after suspending the services over a month ago, a senior official of the department said.

The department had suspended visa services on Aug. 10 after one of its staffs tested positive for COVID-19.

"The resumption of visa services will basically benefit the foreigners who have been staying in Nepal even during the current pandemic," Ram Chandra Tiwari, information officer at the department told Xinhua on Saturday. "We will also provide a visa on arrival services to the foreigners at the airport."

According to the department, over 10,000 foreign passport holders are still staying in Nepal.

The immigration department said it would regulate the visa of foreigners till Sept. 27 without any fee or penalty considering the impact of pandemic. "But others can get visa renewal till Dec. 15 by paying regular tourist visa fee," said the department.

The Nepali government has allowed foreign diplomats, representatives of international institutions and donor agencies and foreigners who have received prior approval from the Nepali government to come to Nepal on regular flights. But restrictions on foreign tourists are still in place.

Nepal has allowed resumption of scheduled international flights in most of foreign destinations except a few foreign destinations which are highly affected by the coronavirus. Earlier, the Nepali government suspended the international flights since March 22.

As of Saturday, the Himalayan country has reported a total of 53,120 cases of COVID-19, with a total death of 336 from the pandemic. Enditem
Over the past 10 years, the number of children under the age of 11 being prescribed anti-depressants by their doctors has skyrocketed.

New figures released to the Sunday Independent show that children under 11 have been prescribed this medication on 1,593 occasions between 2010 and 2019.

The year-on-year rise in young children being placed on anti-depressants is stark. In 2010, just 43 children in this age category were on anti-depressants, while last year 358 under-11s were taking this medication.

The figures for adolescents aged between 12 and 15 are even higher.

Last year, some 1,011 youths in this age bracket were taking these drugs, compared with just 94 10 years previously - a ten-fold increase.

There was also a huge jump over the most recent 12-month period - with 602 youths on anti-depressants in 2018, compared with 1,011 last year.

In total, children up to the age of 15 have been prescribed anti-depressants 4,571 times over the 10-year period.

The figures were released under the Freedom of Information Act.

The data does not include this year, which encompasses the period of the Covid-19 pandemic, during which there has been a huge rise in the numbers of both children and adults struggling with their mental health.

Shocking figures

In addition, the data covers only anti-depressants prescribed to children whose parents have a medical card or a GP card. Therefore, the figures released do not include private prescriptions, meaning the true figure is much higher.

Dr Maeve Doyle, consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist, said that the general public might be shocked that young children are being put on anti-depressants.

However, a decision to put youngsters on such medication is not taken "willy-nilly" but only in cases where children are in serious psychological distress, she added.

"It might come as a shock that children would need pharmacological medication.

"Some children are so anxious they are unable to eat and their breathing is fast.

"They can have bad physical manifestations. Their minds are racing, some of them are not able to go to school and cannot play with their peers," said Dr Doyle, who is also director of communications and public education with the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland.

"If children are feeling like that, they may not be able to access talk therapy.

"They might need medication to avail of talk therapy. Child psychiatrists do not reach for the SSRIs [anti-depressants] first."

Children and adolescents who are prescribed anti- depressants would have been referred to a secondary mental health clinic, called Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

These nationwide facilities deal with youths with moderate to severe mental health disorders, Dr Doyle added.

"We would do an extensive assessment first, including talk therapy. We might also try cognitive therapy. When symptoms are severe, we will try medication in addition to therapy."

There are currently 2,000 youths on a waiting list to be seen by medical professionals at the service nationwide, she said.

CAMHS received 18,000 referrals last years - 8,000 of which have yet to be dealt with, although some of these cases have been referred elsewhere, she said. "We are under strain, we are struggling to keep up with demand."

But Dr Doyle said she "wouldn't agree" that the increase in numbers being prescribed anti-depressants was down to long waiting times.

She suggested an increase in population could be one possible reason.

Dr Vincent McDarby, a chartered member of the Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI), said there were also "huge waiting times" for children with mental health problems at a primary care level, which deals with mild to moderate cases. "They are massive, a year to a year-and-a-half. That is a problem.

"If left unaddressed, a mild issue in a child of anxiety or depression can develop into a more serious problem.

"By the time they get to the top of the waiting list, they can have much more serious problems. And then that child does need to be referred to CAMHS."

Dr McDarby, who has a background in working with children, said anti-depressants are "much more effective" when combined with talk therapy.

However, he did question whether anti-depressants were being over-prescribed for children. "There are certain children who would benefit from them. If there is an increase of anti-depressants being prescribed to children, does that mean more need them?

"Or does it mean that more children are being inappropriately prescribed them? I don't know.

"There hasn't been much research on the use of anti-depressants in children."
DES MOINES  Gov. Kim Reynolds indicated Friday she may act early to reopen bars in six counties, including Black Hawk.

The governor last month declared a public health emergency that closed taverns in Black Hawk, Dallas, Johnson, Linn, Polk and Story counties until at least Sept. 20.

Restaurants that serve alcohol were allowed to remain open but must stop serving alcoholic beverages after 10 p.m.

Reynolds took the action to slow the spread of COVID-19  especially among people in the 19- to 24-year-old age range.

Its not an easy decision to make, and its not one that I wanted to make, the governor said Friday.

She made the move as community spread of COVID-19 spiked  most notably in college towns where the resumption of classes was accompanied by students crowding into bars with little regard for masks or social distancing.

Last week Reynolds said counties with higher COVID-19 numbers were making progress.

Im hoping next week the data, the trend, is moving in the right direction, and we monitor that every single day, the governor said Friday. So, Im hoping by the beginning of next week at least well have some counties and, hopefully, most of them, that well be able to move off. And then really from there forward, try to target our efforts on the bad actors.

Reynolds unveiled a plan last week offering one-time $10,000 grants to eligible bars impacted by her closure order. The Iowa Economic Development Authority, overseeing the $5 million program, began taking applications Thursday.

The governor said the funding was intended to ease the closure orders impact until we can get them back open, and Im hoping that we can do that next week.

A group of bar owners in Polk and Dallas counties sued Reynolds, arguing the governor was unfairly targeting their industry and had given them just a few hours notice to shut down, adding to the financial strain their businesses suffered from earlier closures in the spring.

A district court judge declined to issue a temporary injunction but did allow the business owners to go to trial and argue the governors actions are unconstitutional.
MINSK  Tens of thousands of Belarusians jammed the streets of Minsk and other cities and towns, as opposition protesters pressed their nearly five-week campaign to pressure President Alyaksandr Lukashenka to call new elections.



The Interior Ministry reported more than 400 arrests in the September 13 protests. Among them was RFE/RL photographer Uladz Hrydzin, who was with another photographer in a bar when a group of people wearing balaclavas detained them and confiscated their equipment.

Hrydzin, who was recently stripped of foreign-media accreditation, was detained just before he sent photos of the protest. He is due to appear in court on September 14.

The turnout in the Belarusian capital and elsewhere was the latest indication that opposition activists, and many average Belarusians, have been undaunted by thousands of arrests, beatings, and other intimidation tactics used by Belarusian security forces.



Chanting, "Long live Belarus!" and. "Sasha, youre fired!", crowds packed one of Minsks main boulevards, waving the red-and-white opposition flags and carrying signs that taunted Lukashenka and government officials. One sign carried by protesters showed a photograph of Lukashenka and Russian leader Vladimir Putin and read: "Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are."

Lukashenka, who has ruled the country for 26 years, has refused to hold talks with his opponents, and rebuffed calls to hold new elections. The United Nations has estimated up to 6,000 people have been subjected to detentions and, in some cases, torture by Belarusian security agents.



Lukashenka made no public comment, or any public appearances, on September 13, one day before he was scheduled to fly to Russia to meet Putin for talks.



Authorities did not immediately release any estimate of the crowds; in the past, however, the public figures have been exceedingly low. The human rights group Vyasna, meanwhile, estimated the turnout at more than 150,000.

Trucks and some armored vehicles belonging to law enforcement agencies could be seen parked along some central Minsk streets, and, ahead of the demonstration, the Interior Ministry said it had increased police and troop numbers "to prevent illegal action by protesting citizens."



Some activists reported Internet outages in Minsk, a possible repeat of what happened in the hours after the August 9 election. Activists said the outages then were a tactic aimed at shutting down independent news reporting.



Helmeted security forces were reported to be detaining some marchers in parts of Minsk on September 13, and later in the day, masked riot police were seen marching, and carrying, detained protesters into police vans. The Interior Ministry reported that more than 400 people had been detained by nightfall.



The ministry also said "around 250 people" had been detained a day earlier, for offenses like displaying the banned red-and-white flag and banners, "including an insulting one."



Sizable protests also took place on September 13 in the southeastern city of Homel, and in the western border city of Brest, where activists reportedly carried a banner that read, "Hello to Khabarovsk from Brest" -- a reference to the weeks of anti-government protests that have occurred in the Russian Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk.



Brest police deployed a water cannon at one point to disperse protesters. It was unclear if there were detentions or injuries from the confrontation.



"Participants in the unauthorized mass gathering blocked traffic and public transport and created a threat to the safety of road users," Interior Ministry spokeswoman Olga Chemodanova said in a post on Telegram.

A day earlier, hundreds of women marched through Minsk, confronting masked riot police and security agents. The Interior Ministry said 114 people had been detained around the country, 99 of them in the capital, in connection with those demonstrations.

The Interior Ministry's press department, meanwhile, described the women protesters as "aggressive."



"It's a shame to watch: screams, screeching..." the ministry said. "Such behavior is unfeminine."



Many of Belaruss most prominent opposition leaders are women, including exiled presidential candidate Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya and detained members of the Coordination Council like Maryya Kalesnikava and Lilia Vlasova.

Tsikhanouskaya, who fled to Lithuania after the election amid reports she might be arrested, appealed for protesters to "remain peaceful" and urged international support to encourage a peaceful resolution to the "deep political crisis."



Kalesnikava reportedly tore up her passport to avoid being forced out of the country after being snatched off the street in Minsk, and remains in Belarusian detention. Another prominent leader is Veranika Tsapkala, who went to Ukraine and then Poland along with her ex-diplomat husband.



Tsikhanouskaya, Kalesnikava, and Tsapkala have been nominated for this year's Sakharov Prize for human rights activities.

At the Belarusian State University in Minsk, teachers from the languages department issued a video appeal for freedom of speech. More than a dozen students were detained last week at a protest near the school's languages department.



"Fear is bad, violence is bad, lies are bad. You cant pretend like nothings happening," the appeal, which included nine speakers, said.



Lukashenka has long had a sizable base of support, particularly from the countrys older population, many of whom are nostalgic for the Soviet period. But cracks have also opened among segments of the population, like blue-collar workers, where Lukashenka has traditionally sought vocal public support in the past.



The strike committee at one of the world's largest processors and exporters of potash fertilizer, Belaruskali, said via Telegram on September 13 that one of its members had been detained and was at a local police station.

Lukashenka, meanwhile, was scheduled to travel to Russia to meet President Vladimir Putin on September 14. Though the two have spoken more than five times by phone since August 9, the meeting, to be held in Black Sea resort of Sochi, will be the first face-to-face talks since Lukashenka publicly pleaded for help from Moscow to put down the demonstrations.



Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said their talks would focus on energy cooperation and bilateral ties.



Putin has pressed a reluctant Lukashenka on closer military and political integration between their countries -- including by promising military assistance under a bilateral military pact, including a police force -- but has largely given only tepid support.



Opposition websites and social-media supporters have adopted the slogan, "We won't let him sell the country" ahead of the Sochi meeting.



Russia's Defense Ministry said on September 13 that its troops would participate alongside Belarusian soldiers in the annual Slavic Brotherhood tactical exercise at a training range in western Belarus.



A Russian paratrooper division will take part in the drills beginning on September 14, it said.



Ales Byalyatski, the director of the Vyasna human rights center, warned that Lukashenka would seek to intensify detentions and threats ahead of the Putin meeting "to show the Kremlin that the protests are abating and he is in control of the situation."



But so far repression has had the opposite effect, he said.

With reporting by Current Time, Interfax, and TASS
It's not always easy to learn local customs as a traveller and for some unlucky jet-setters, attempts at politeness can land them in hot water with the locals.

While it would be considered a lovely gesture to pay the bill for everyone in the UK or the US, it's seen as the height of rudeness in Russia and Austria, which Australian traveller Sarah Ryan discovered.

After accidentally committing a 'cultural no-no' traveller she took to Facebook to consult the members of Girls LOVE Travel over the cultural differences they have encountered, and was met with over a thousand responses.

Read on to discover the etiquette mistakes you will want to avoid while abroad, including handing an object over with your left hand in Sub-Saharan Africa and not thanking people twice in Japan.

Travellers often face misunderstandings due to cultural differences surrounding money, dining and interactions with strangers (stock image)

1. Paying the bill

Croatia: People take it in turns to pay rather than splitting

Austria: Announce to the group if you're paying for everyone

Russia: Men should pay for women

In many western countries the gesture of paying for the bill after a meal with friends or colleagues is considered a kind and considerate action.

However for Sarah Ryan, a travel enthusiast from Australia and writer of the Facebook post, her travels in Austria revealed that the country's customs were quite the opposite.

She wrote: 'I paid the bill for a group of friends in Austria. Where I'm from, that's not something you announce, you just do it and don't really say.

'My Austrian boyfriend at the time was really upset with me, saying that I should have told them I was going to pay so they knew to thank me.

Sarah Ryan took to Facebook to consult the members of Girls LOVE Travel over what cultural differences they had encountered

'But in Australia if you say you're going to pay, they don't let you. It really put him at odds with me for a while.'

Another commenter had a different perspective, Cvita Lucija Bucevic from Croatia wrote: 'It is unusual in my country that when people hang out everyone has to cover their exact amount of bill every time. That's not how we do it.

'It's generally a normal thing that one person covers the bill one time and the next time someone else will do it.'

She added that when out with foreigners she had learnt to use bill splitting apps 'so no one would hold grudges because of these differences'.

Mariya Varnakova wrote: 'My Finnish colleague (a girl) once paid for the dinner with two Russian men colleagues in one small Russian city. They were really offended as in Russia men are paying for women especially if there are few men and only one woman. She actually had to apologize for that and promise to let them pay next time for her dinner.'

Thousands of commenters shared their embarrassing stories of how they accidentally offended locals while travelling, including smiling too much and shaking a man's hand

2. Smoking near people

France: People won't mind

Australia: You might be challenged

With many different global attitudes to smoking in public and around others this smoker said she encountered a difficult situation when out for a meal with friends.

Pauline Vergnet wrote: 'Loads of French people smoke and people are so used to it that it's not a problem (that said, I know that was a terrible habit, I'm not trying to defend that) and when I was in Melbourne [Australia] a couple of people put me back in my place because I was smoking while having a coffee.

'It was allowed to do so but they really didn't like it. To be fair, it served me well.'

3. Declining food or drink

Africa and Romania: Considered rude to say no

When travelling you may want to think twice before refusing the offer of food or drink in someone's home. These travellers reveal why...

Dayna Jones wrote: 'When I was in Africa I was offered tea and biscuits from a friend, who I actually know from the US, and I thought I politely declined.

'I didnt want to take anything because the house we were at was obviously extremely poor and I felt anything they had was better off being used for them than me.

'I didnt realize I was being incredibly rude until he told me. Fortunately they were all very patient with me and they explained that even though my intentions were kind, I was greatly insulting them by not accepting their hospitality.

Shelby Mays stated that she does not point with one finger as this is considered rude in parts of the globe

'I was shocked and embarrassed, but now I know. The last thing in the world I wanted to do was make anyone feel bad and if I ever travel that area of the world again I will graciously accept anything that anyone gives me, knowing that hospitality comes from a true place of heart rather than excess or abundance.'

She adds: 'Were so used to the world revolving around us and thinking that we are right that we quickly jump to why the other culture is wrong or how they misunderstood us rather than just accepting that things are different in other places and we need to respect that. A little humility goes a long way.'

Lauren Atkinson Rosky from the U.S. wrote: I remember in Romania it was considered rude to turn down food or drink in someone's home.

'They served this alcoholic drink that was soooo strong and I had to fight every urge to gag because I am not a big drinker (even average American liquor makes me gag) but this stuff was like gasoline!

'I also had to learn in Poland not to throw specific compliments around to easily because you could just say you like someones necklace and next thing you know they are taking it off to give it to you!'

4. Using your left hand when interacting with others

Avoid in India, Nepal, parts of the Middle East, Ghana and Nigeria

Aliyah Alli explains how she was met with anger after using her left hand to hand over her passport in Nigeria.

She wrote: 'Handed my passport to a customs officer in Nigeria with my left hand and he got so angry at me, and he said "Never hand something to someone with your left hand.

'In Nigeria it is seen as highly disrespectful because your left hand is for specific things.'

In some countries, including India, Nepal and parts of the Middle East, the left hand is seen as unclean as it is used for cleaning yourself after going to the bathroom.

In those cultures it is better to use the right hand to pay or interact with others.

Barbara Ewurama Fosua Amoako added: 'If you go to Ghana, well probably most if not all of Sub-Saharan Africa, dont use your left hand to touch anything or shake hands. That is a no no!'

5. Talking too much or not enough

Norway and France: People like personal space

Ireland and Australia: Seen as rude not to be talkative

With no guidebook explaining whether cultures are likely to want to speak to you or not it's difficult to know when your words are welcome.

Trine Malene Friis wrote: 'I'm Norwegian, my boyfriend is Irish. In Norway it's polite to leave people alone, not talk to them, give them personal space.

'In Ireland it's sometimes seen as rude if you're not talkative, even with strangers - people might say "she's quite shy, that one", but they tell their friends afterwards that they thought you were rude.'

Pauline Vergnet also found that her French attitude to strangers did not come across well in Australia.

She wrote: 'At the beginning I would come across as a very cold person. Australians are amazingly friendly, generous and laid back. They really try to help. But when I first got there, I was used to France where strangers won't really come up to you unless they want something.

'I remember that guy who saw I was confused by which tram to take in Melbourne and offered to help. I was so convinced that he would want something in exchange that I basically told him to leave me in peace. I must have come across as the rudest person on earth that day! I realised afterwards that he was just genuinely trying to help.'

Emily Christine Ellis wrote that even making a toast in Belgium could lead to offence if you do not look others in the eye while doing so

6. Saying thank you

Japan: Make sure to do it twice

For most cultures saying thank you is accepted as polite, however to maintain etiquette in Japan you will have to remember to say thank you twice.

Oana Capota, from Romania, wrote: 'In Japan, you should always thank people twice: when you first get a present, and then again the next time you see them.

'It might be easy to remember the next day, but if you see them a year later, you might forget.'

7. Eating and drinking politely

Poland: Don't burp at the table

Japan: Slurp your noodles!

Belgium: Look everyone in the eyes when you toast

Maggie Slomiak writes: 'If you burp at a table in Poland, its sooo rude! It is the opposite in south east Asia tho!'

Oana Capota added: 'Slurping noodles in Japan is actually polite. My boyfriend's family had a soba restaurant and they thought I didn't like their food because I was eating quietly.

'I also remember hearing something that maybe the Chinese like to feed their guests a lot so they like to see plates with food people couldn't stuff into themselves, as opposed to Japanese people who think it's polite to the host to eat everything off your plate.'

Emily Christine Ellis from the U.S. wrote: 'In Belgium when you are toasting/cheersing with drinks, you have to look every other person in the group in the eyes before you drink, or it is considered bad luck and very very rude.

'I know this is true in France and some other places as well, but they seemed to make more of a show of it in Belgium, and I was glad someone told me because we don't do that in the US.'

8. Scheduling time with friends

Romania: Don't phone ahead, just turn up

Oana Capota, who grew up in an 'Anglo-Saxon culture' before returning to her native Romania wrote: 'I am used to being more cautious with new friends, where you schedule activities with friends, don't act overly eager, etc.

'I once got to spend six months in Romania while my grandmother was dying. And I became friends with the chef at this restaurant I frequented. Every week, I would phone him to see about meeting up for a coffee when he wasn't at work. After a few months, he got mad at me. "Why don't you just show up instead of calling to schedule?" I told him that, since I had to find a ride into town, I didn't want to just show up if I wasn't meeting him.

'He said, "Just show up. If I'm not home, knock on my neighbour's door and ask them where I am. They'll phone around and find me." And what should I do while I'm waiting for them to find you? "Easy," he said. "They'll invite you for coffee and cake while you wait. You make a new friend."'

Mary Grace added: 'My parents are Italian immigrants. My husband is 100 percent Canadian. He calls his parents two weeks in advance to make appointments. I just tell my parents were coming over now are you home? I dont know if thats his family but I find it very strange to have to schedule a visit with your family.'

Danya Jones encourages travellers to accept hospitality, which she said comes from the 'heart' rather than 'excess or abundance'

9. Dinner plans with friends

Croatia: Don't ask guests to contribute to the meal

Kenya: Person who extends the invitation pays

Cvita Lucija Bucevic from Croatia wrote: 'In my country if you invite someone for a dinner at your house it would be considered super rude to ask your guests to give you money for ingredients.

'Unless the person who is coming offered this and you agreed on this (or it's a really big party). But I noticed some Germans and Scandinavians feel the opposite.

'Also it felt a bit weird and cold that again some nations will ask people for their money back even if it is a small amount like 50 cents. For me that would be very embarrassing and rude to do.'

Sandra Ray, from Kenya, also expressed how inviting someone for a meal usually meant you would be expected to pay for it all.

She wrote: 'In my country [Kenya], if I tell you "let's go for lunch or dinner", the person expects you to cater for bill because its said you invited someone who had no plans for eating or drinking at that moment. Until I met some Germans. If they say let's go for dinner or drinks then you have to cater for your own bills.'

10. Smiling at strangers

Russia: Comes across as arrogant

You may think that cracking a smile is endearing in any international location however Tessa Heemskerk from Amsterdam revealed otherwise.

She wrote: 'Ive lived in Russia for a while. One thing I struggled with the most is not smiling to random people you make eye contact with on the street.

'No one smiled to randoms because they think you are being fake as we all have problems in our lives we deal with.

'Smiling is like saying your life is great, which is considered rude. Also while on the phone they dont end the calls with saying goodbyes they just hang up. It's time efficient for sure but this is considered rude in my country.

'Lastly they appreciate it, when you pay cash, that you pay the exact amount. Ive had numerous times clerks saying they don't have change, when they obviously had.

She concluded: 'I love Russian culture though, because once you get to become friends with them you have a friend for life.'

Jeanne Gallo explained how she believed her smiling attracted unwanted attention: 'My first night in Paris, I was so excited to be there and unconsciously found myself smiling at strangers as I looked around and took in the sights of the city (I'm a happy, smiley American, by nature).

'A man, not realizing I was just permanently smiling, interpreted my smile as flirtation and proceeded to tell me very aggressively how inappropriate I was to smile at him in front of his wife. After that, I worked to not make eye contact with people to avoid any further misunderstandings.'

11. Getting the server's attention

Benin and Chad: Make a hissing sound

Natalie Engdah from Sweden shared the vast differences in approach culturally that can cause upset whilst attempting to get the attention of a waiter or waitress.

She wrote:'l I was at a bar/cafe with two friends from Africa (Benin and Chad) in the Hague in the Netherlands.

'One of them hissed (tss-sound) to get the waitress' attention, as is the norm in their countries. The waitress got so offended, I tried explaining there was no disrespect meant, but she wouldn't have it.

I get that it's offensive there (I'm from Sweden and it would be crazy offensive here too) but I also feel like she worked in service in the Hague - clearly a very international city with people from all over the world, and can't apply her own cultural interpretations on her customers.

And I have myself wasted sooo much time trying to get a waiters attention in countries in Africa with a soft "excuse me". Now i tss there too.'
London, Sep 13 : Former UK Prime Ministers Tony Blair and John Major have urged MPs to reject incumbent premier Boris Johnson's "shameful" attempt to override parts of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, it was reported on Sunday.

The Internal Market Bill, which will be formally debated in the House of Commons for the first time on Monday, addresses the Northern Ireland Protocol - the part of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement designed to prevent a hard border returning to the island of Ireland, the BBC reported.

If it becomes a law it would give UK ministers powers to modify or "disapply" rules relating to the movement of goods between Britain and Northern Ireland that will come into force from January 1, if the UK and European Union (EU) are unable to strike a trade deal.

The EU has warned the UK it could face legal action if it does not ditch controversial elements of the Internal Market Bill by the end of the month.

But the government has argued that the measures in the bill were needed to protect the integrity of the UK and the peace process in Northern Ireland.

Writing in the Sunday Times, Major and Blair said the Johnson-led government's actions were "irresponsible, wrong in principle and dangerous in practice".

"It raises questions that go far beyond the impact on Ireland, the peace process and negotiations for a trade deal - crucial though they are.

"It questions the very integrity of our nation," they said.

The former leaders, both vehement opponents of Brexit, said that respecting treaty obligations was "just as important" as domestic law, and called for MPs to reject the legislation.

"As the world looks on aghast at the UK - the word of which was once accepted as inviolable - this government's action is shaming itself and embarrassing our nation," BBC quoted the former Prime Ministers as saying.

On Friday, Johnson urged Conservative MPs to back the bill during a Zoom call, while Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove insisted that the proposals were a means of protecting the "integrity" of the UK.

But opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer has accused Johnson of "reigniting old rows" by working to override his own Withdrawal Agreement.
The City of Sydney has warned that land the state government has earmarked for a new park at a motorway junction for the WestConnex is polluted and unsuitable as a recreation spot.

The council said it had investigated the proposed site for the 2.5-hectare park at St Peters in the inner-west and found the land to the south of Campbell Road to be "highly contaminated, of variable compaction and requiring leachate control structures to be managed".

The St Peters site that has been earmarked for a park. Credit:Edwina Pickles

"Remediation of the site would be extremely expensive and the land was found to be not suitable as a recreational area," the council said.

The promised parkland  one of two to be created at the St Peters interchange  is due to be opened by 2024, after the completion of the final state of the $16.8 billion WestConnex project.
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A woman who was dramatically dragged from her car by a police officer at a COVID-19 checkpoint has shared photos of her bruised body after footage of the arrest went viral.

Natalie Bonett, 29, was making her way through the blockade in Wallan, north of Melbourne, on Saturday for her commute to work when she was stopped by police.

The officer informed the lash technician it was against the law to have her phone attached to a car charger which was mounted onto her windshield.

Following a brief and tense exchange, video showed the officer reach in drag the masked woman from her car as her passenger tried to pull her back in.

Moments earlier, police asked Ms Bonett to provide her name and driver's license but she requested to speak to another officer because the one that pulled her over made her feel 'deeply uncomfortable'.

'I didn't refuse to show my license, I simply refused to show it to him,' she told 9News.

Confronting footage shows the moment a young woman was dragged from her car screaming while she attempted to pass through a coronavirus checkpoint in Melbourne

The beauty business owner claimed the officers were being 'rough' and kneed on her back, constructing her airways and leaving her with bruises down her arms (pictured)

Ms Bonett, who suffers from an autoimmune disorder and anxiety, said she didn't feel safe getting out of her car but had her permit in her hand.

'I had everything ready to go, he said that's illegal you need to remove that (car charger). I was just confused why he was stopping me in the first place,' she told the Herald Sun.

Ms Bonett said the police officers' response was disproportionate to her actions.

'If I had known I would be dragged out of the car and my clothes ripped, scratched and bruised, I wouldn't have done it, but I didn't know,' she said.

'I was in disbelief. I thought he was attacking me, I was happy to comply. I didn't deserve that, I don't think anyone does.'

Ms Bonett, who denied she is a 'COVID conspiracy theorist,' said she was handcuffed for 15 minutes before her boyfriend gave her driver's license to the police and she was released.

The beauty business owner claimed the officers were being 'rough' and kneed on her back, constructing her airways and leaving her with bruises down her arms.

Ms Bonett claimed officers called for backup when she wouldn't leave her car and that a total of four police officers eventually arrested her

Ms Bonett said the police officers' heavy-handed response was disproportionate to her actions.

Ms Bonett, who denied she is a 'COVID conspiracy theorist,' said she was handcuffed for 15 minutes before her boyfriend gave her driver's license to the police and she was released

The video showed Ms Bonett screaming while being pulled away from the officer, demanding he stop touching her and get out of her car.

Her boyfriend and passenger attempted to hold her back, trying to tell the officer 'she's got anxiety' while Ms Bonett became increasingly distressed.

'What the f**k are you doing, what the f**k, get off me,' she shouted at the officer.

Moments earlier, the cop had given her an opportunity to state her name, and asked her several times to get out of the car.

'No, I don't feel safe. You're armed,' she responded.

The officer assured her she would be safe before eventually losing his patience and dragging her out himself.

The disturbing footage ended as Ms Bonett slipped off camera when she was dragged from the car.

Victoria Police were quick to hit back at criticism of their arrest, alleging Ms Bonett repeatedly refused to provide her details and driver's licence.

Police said she refused to supply her details or her driver's licence, despite being warned she would be arrested if she continued to.

She was charged on summons with driving with obscured vision, fail to produce licence, fail to state her name and address, resist arrest, assault police and offensive language.

Ms Bonett screamed and resisted in the footage, demanding the officer stop touching her and get out of her car

Ms Bonett said she would 'mention more' when she was in 'the right headspace'

Ms Bonett said she usually passes through the checkpoint with no issues, showing her license and permit to the officers on duty.

But on Saturday, she said officers took issue with the way her phone was mounted which led to the exchange.

The officer told her 'the problem' was with her refusing to provide her name and personal details.

She later revealed on Facebook she filmed her entire 14 minute arrest.

'If you want to see the video.... you will all be disgusted. I am shaking, crying and in complete disbelief that I was treated this way.'

Ms Bonett claimed officers called for backup when she wouldn't leave her car and that a total of four police officers eventually arrested her.

'They grabbed me by the legs and pulled me out of my car and arrested me,' she said.

'While trying to cuff me, they had their knees in my back and couldn't breathe.'

The officer assured her she would be safe before eventually losing his patience and dragging her out himself

Ms Bonett claimed officers called for backup when she wouldn't leave her car and that a total of four police officers eventually arrested her

The video has attracted thousands of comments online and divided the public.

Liberal MP Tim Smith said he found the entire ordeal 'ugly'.

'It's ugly and appears a massive overreach' he said when sharing the footage on his Twitter.

'I won't jump to any further conclusions as context is important, but there had better be a good explanation by the Andrews Labor government tomorrow.'

In response to his post, Ms Bonett insisted there was no further context needed.

'I am the woman in this video... I pass this checkpoint everyday and always produce my license,' she insisted.

'I see the military daily and don't have any issues with them, this wasn't about COVID, this was about me having a car charger on my windscreen and before they asked me to produce a license, they tried opening my car.'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Victoria Police for comment.

'I see the military daily and don't have any issues with them, this wasn't about COVID, this was about me having a car charger on my windscreen and before they asked me to produce a license, they tried opening my car,' Ms Bonett said.

Ms Bonett said she usually passes through the checkpoint with no issues, showing her license and permit to the officers on duty

While Melbourne will remain under stage four lockdown until at least September 28, stage three restrictions in regional Victoria are expected to ease within days.

Mr Andrews said there are only 58 active coronavirus infections in regional Victoria and no new cases since Friday's update.

He remains hopeful the Stage Three restrictions will be eased by the middle of next week, allowing regional Victoria to be 'essentially open'.

'Regional Victoria remains on track to be open to take not one but two steps,' Mr Andrews said on Saturday.

'It is very good news for regional Victoria and I hope every single person in metro Melbourne is looking to the numbers in regional Victoria and seeing what can be delivered.

'Regional Victoria is so close, just a few days and they will potentially be able to take not just a single step but two of those steps and be essentially open.'

Victoria on Sunday reported 41 new cases and seven deaths, bringing the state's death toll to 723.
President Donald Trump hosted a crowded indoor political rally Sunday in Nevada, ignoring objections by the governor and others that he might have spread COVID-19 to unknown numbers of people.

"Tonight, President Donald Trump is taking reckless and selfish actions that are putting countless lives in danger here in Nevada," said Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat. "The president appears to have forgotten that this country is still in the middle of a global pandemic."

Trump, who has held outdoor rallies in recent months, said the owner of the building near Las Vegas thought it was "unfair" for the president to be denied permission for indoor events.

"Tell your governor to open up your state," Trump told hundreds of supporters  most of them packed together on a factory floor, many of them not wearing masks given out by the Trump campaign.

More: Donald Trump may need Nevada to win. So what's motivating his supporters? We asked them

More: Trump rallies 2.0: Behind the curtain at the president's campaign events in the COVID-19 era

Otherwise, the president delivered his standard stump speech, filled with full-throated attacks on opponent Joe Biden and the Democrats over violence in cities, energy development, running mate Kamala Harris, foreign policy, trade, immigration, and the party's "left-wing" agenda.

It was Trump's first indoor rally since a June 20 event in Tulsa, Okla., that preceded a spike in coronavirus cases in that city. Campaign staff members and Secret Service agents tested positive for the virus right before that Tulsa rally.

The Nevada rally  at a manufacturing business in Henderson, near Las Vegas  likely violated state restrictions on large gatherings in the midst of the COVID pandemic.

Henderson officials issued a compliance letter and verbal warning to the event organizers. Kathleen Richards, a spokeswoman for the city of Henderson, said that "gatherings of more than 50 people in a private or public setting is prohibited."

Story continues

"If the governors directives are not followed," she said, "the city may assess a fine of up to $500 per violation as well as suspend or revoke the business license."

Biden aides criticized the rally as a threat to public health.

Holding a mass event indoors reflects "the same toxic attitude that has crippled Trump's incoherent pandemic response, cost over 193,000 Americans their lives, killed millions of jobs, and needlessly torn the nation apart when we need to come together in this moment of crisis," said Biden spokesman Andrew Bates.

In a statement, the Trump campaign said that everyone attending the event received a temperature check, was provided a mask (and encouraged to wear it), and had access to hand sanitizers.

If you can join tens of thousands of people protesting in the streets, gamble in a casino, or burn down small businesses in riots, you can gather peacefully under the 1st Amendment to hear from the President of the United States," said campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh.

Since the problems in Tulsa, Trump has conducted a series of smaller rallies outdoors at airports.

The indoor rally capped a day that continued a western campaign swing by raising money, attacking Democrats, and soliciting Latino voters in Nevada.

I have achieved more for Hispanic Americans in 47 months than Joe Biden in 47 years," Trump said while criticizing his Democratic challenger during Latino "roundtable" meeting at a Vegas hotel.

Supporters wait for President Donald Trump to speak at a rally Sunday in Henderson, Nevada.

Trump also hosted a pair of fundraisers in the Las Vegas area Sunday expected to raise about $18 million.

In remarks at the roundtable, Trump stressed the impact of policies on Latino residents, a key constituency in battleground states, which include Arizona, Florida and Nevada.

Arizona is on Trump's itinerary Monday as he hosts a similar roundtable in Phoenix. Trump is also scheduled to visit California to review the damage from the deadly wildfires.

More: Trump claims during Nevada campaign rally that Democrats are trying to 'rig' upcoming election

More: Trump will visit California on Monday for briefing on devastating wildfires

Biden, Harris, and their aides have said that Trump's actions to curb immigration are aimed at people of color, particularly Latinos. The president has said that Mexico and other countries are only interested in sending "rapists" and criminals across the U.S. border.

That said, Democrats said the votes of many Latinos in key states are up for grabs ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

"We know that we have work to do," said Biden senior adviser Symone Sanders, speaking on ABC's This Week. "We have said from the beginning  and Vice President Biden has been very clear about this as has Sen. Harris  that we are really working to earn every single vote in this country, and we want to earn the votes of the Latino Hispanic community."

Nationwide polls give Biden an overall edge over Trump little more than seven weeks ahead of Election Day.

During his meeting with Latino supporters, Trump again made unfounded accusations regarding Democrats and their push to expand mail-in voting, claiming that "the only way they're going to win is with rigged ballots."

At the rally, Trump attacked Sisolak over mail-in voting, and told supporters that "they might not count your ballot in this state."

Democrats said Republicans also use mail-in voting, and that Trump is lying about the system in order to lay the groundwork for a protest of the election he is likely to lose.

Four years ago, Democrat Hillary Clinton narrowly defeated Trump in Nevada by a margin of 47.9%-45.5%, a little less than 2.5 percentage points.

A recent New York Times/Siena College gave Biden a narrow lead over Trump in Nevada, 46%-42%.

During his day in Las Vegas, Trump said he signed a new executive order that he claimed will lead to lower drug prices, though those are subject to market forces.

Trump again touted his COVID-19 response  "we are rounding the corner"  even though coronavirus cases in the U.S. are still rising and the number of deaths is approaching 200,000.

At the roundtable and the rally, Trump attacked the violence in "Democrat-run cities," including the Saturday shootings of two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies.

Hoping that authorities will track down the gunman, Trump told the rally crowd: "He's not a human being  he's an animal."

Biden also condemned the shootings of the deputies.

"This cold-blooded shooting is unconscionable and the perpetrator must be brought to justice," the Democratic nominee tweeted.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump, Nevada governor Steve Sisolak clash over indoor rally
You are here: China

A senior Chinese legislator has stressed the thorough implementation of the Charity Law to promote the healthy development of China's charity services.

Wang Chen, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and vice chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, made the comments during an inspection tour on the law enforcement of the Charity Law in northeast China's Liaoning Province from Wednesday to Friday.

The inspection team from the NPC Standing Committee heard reports from local authorities, held symposiums with representatives from the governments, charitable organizations, experts and donors, and conducted on-site inspections and random spot checks.

Wang applauded Liaoning's efforts in fully enforcing the Charity Law and the progress and achievements gained.

He stressed building modern charitable organizations with good social reputation, strong professional ability, good managing structure and reasonable division of labor.

He underlined that the internet and other new technologies and platforms should be fully used to promote the sustained and healthy development of online charity activities.

Wang also called for greater promotion and publicity of the Charity Law among the public.
The next corps commanders meeting between Indian and China, which is expected later this week, is crucial as it will show whether the Peoples Liberation Army is ready to work on ground towards disengagement and de-escalation after the foreign ministers of the two countries agreed on a five-point agenda during their meeting last week in Moscow.

Sources said all the diplomatic dialogue will mean nothing unless the Chinese military is ready to disengage on the ground. India wants that the status quo ante of April 2020 should be restored, and the Chinese should withdraw their 50,000-odd troops which they have pushed near the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh.

The corps commanders may meet this week. The dates have not been confirmed yet, the sources said.

After drawing up the five-point understanding with all its diplomatic rhetoric, the ball is back in the military field. Wonder how the disengagement and proper distancing is possible without a common reference point or mutually known LAC alignment. India must insist on the delineation of the LAC, former Army Chief Gen. Ved Prakash Malik tweeted on Saturday. The Chinese use negotiations to gain time, strengthen positions on the ground and keep the adversary guessing about their real intentions. Troops need to remain fully alert, stand firm and not be lulled by diplomatic talks, he added.

This will be the sixth round of corps commanders talks between the two sides. A major general-level meeting was also held on August 8 at Daulat Beg Oldie to discuss disengagement at the strategic Depsang plains.

The last and fifth corps commanders meeting was held on August 2 at Moldo, where the Chinese had refused to go back from the Finger area in Pangong Tso. The Chinese side also did not meet its earlier commitment to disengage in other standoff points, including Gogra Post. There was a feeling that the Chinese side was using the corps commanders meeting to buy time to strengthen their positions in the transgression areas.

However, the situation changed after August 29-30 when India occupied some strategic peaks in the Chushul secto,r which overlook the Chinese garrison in Moldo. In the Finger area in Pangong Tso, Indian soldiers are now at several points which are higher than the Chinese positions on the ridgelines of Finger 4. The domination at key points by the Indian Army has put added pressure on the Chinese Army.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President JP Nadda met Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar on September 12 to discuss the seat-sharing arrangement for the forthcoming Assembly polls in the state, The Indian Express reported.

Both BJP and JD(U), along with other parties, are part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Nadda, according to the report, met Kumar along with Bihar BJP in-charge Bhupender Yadav and Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi. Sources told the newspaper that while an exact seat-sharing formula has not yet been formulated, JD(U) wants to be the senior partner while the BJP is trying to be an equal partner.

Elections for the 243-member Bihar Assembly are due in October-November this year, although the Election Commission of India is yet to announce the schedule for them.

"Both the principal alliance partners BJP and JD(U) may contest equal number of seats while the LJP may get around 20-22 and HAM(S) four-to-five seats to contest," a senior JD(U) leader told The Hindu.

Nadda had, after the meeting, asserted that the NDA in Bihar, will contest upcoming assembly polls in the state 'unitedly' under Kumar and retain power with a thumping majority.

Nadda's statement, according to reports, dropped hint that the party was looking forward to using its clout to iron out the differences between Kumar's JD(U) and Chirag Paswan-led LJP, which have been at loggerheads for some time.

It is speculated that the chief minister is of the view that LJP is a late entrant in the NDA in Bihar and hence it need not be given much leeway in seat sharing arrangements since the JD(U)-BJP alliance has achieved spectacular successes in the past.

On its part, LJP has reacted with indignation and recently some of its leaders asserted that while it will remain in the NDA, it might consider fielding candidates against JD(U) nominees.
The Nigerian political landscape features scores of political parties, most of which are only alive during elections.

But the system has, over the years, been troubled by flagrant breaches of the laws guiding the electoral process, especially campaign finances, by politicians with little or no restraints.

The political process thrives on the availability of funds for political parties to play their roles. But since the return to civil rule in 1999, electioneering campaigns in Nigeria has been characterised by lavish spending of money, denying the participants a level playing ground in favour of those who control governments and state resources.

PREMIUM TIMES in this analysis explores election campaign finances and the loopholes in the Electoral Act (2010 as amended) that political parties and their candidates may exploit in the coming elections.

Campaign finances

As observed earlier, Nigeria has a history of electoral finance violations.

Since 1999, Nigerias Electoral Act has been amended three times (2003, 2006 and 2010), often a year before general elections. This is to expand or jettison some of its provisions, including election campaign finance laws.

Political parties derive their funds from multiple sources, including contributions by party members, supporters and donations from corporate organisations.

To check undue monetisation of the election process, the Electoral Act mandates political parties to submit their financial reports to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at specified intervals. But lawyers and analysts have observed that the electoral commission has not been effective in enforcing that provision of the Electoral Act.

Citing Section 89 and 92 of the Act, a political analyst, Jide Ojo, said annual report, election contributions report and election expenses are the three reports every political party is mandated to to submit to INEC.

The election contributions report is to provide the details of monetary and other forms of contributions received by a party for an election. It is to be submitted three months after election results are announced.

The election expenses report gives the breakdown of money spent by or on behalf of the party on elections and is due for submission six months after election day.

The third of these statutory reports, the political partys annual report, is a detailed statement of party asset and liabilities and analysis of its sources of funds and its expenditure for a year. It is due for submission at the end of March of the following year, whether there is an election or not.

Non-compliance, breaches

PREMIUM TIMES on different occasions had reported that political parties do not comply with the requirement for the submission of their financial reports to INEC.

At a review of the last general elections with political parties in July 2019, INECs Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed that only one presidential candidate has submitted a financial expenses report, three months after the election.

A PREMIUM TIMES exclusive report, after the 2019 general elections, also showed that most of Nigerias political parties, including the major parties, APC and PDP, violated Section 93 (4) of the Electoral Act which provides that a political party sponsoring the election of a candidate shall, within three months of the announcement of the results of the election, file a report of the contributions made by individuals and entities to (Independent National Electoral) the Commission.

Johnson Omede, a legal expert, said the laxity of INEC in prosecuting parties over breach of relevant sections of the Electoral Act and the lack of more stringent structure of investigating parties campaign finances have widened the breaches of the law.

Mr Omede further observed that the Electoral Act, which provides the limits that a politician can spend during an election, fails to state the manner of enforcement and procedure of investigation into how much a party can spend in an election.

There is nobody that the Electoral Act has appointed to investigate the amount spent on a candidates account or that of the party. There is no provision that you must investigate every money spent in an election, Mr Omede said.

Meanwhile, the Senate, in 2018, made three attempts to review upward the spending limits during electioneering campaigns. Section 91(2-3) of the Act says presidential and governorship candidates can spend a maximum of N1 billion and N200 million respectively on election campaigns.

The amendment to the section, however, was denied assent by President Muhammadu Buhari on the grounds of preserving INECs constitutional powers to decide on election matters, among other reasons.

Mr Ojo said incumbent candidates or ruling parties often contravene the electoral campaign laws more than the opposition candidates and parties.

He noted that sitting governors often use state resources such as media, security personnel and other assets (which they would otherwise have paid for if not in government) to run their re-election campaigns, without accounting for the cost.

When you look around the abuse of state resources, Section 100 of the Electoral Act states that state resources, including the media, must not be used to the advantage of any candidate, Mr Ojo said.

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But in our own clime, we have seen situations where governors will deny their opposition access to the state television or radio station. Meanwhile, he, who is also fielding, will be running his campaign on that medium, which runs on the state finances. The abuse of state resources also includes the use of government personnel, security or vehicles and even using government time.

Will you say that since the campaign started in Edo, the two major parties, APC and PDP, have not spent more than N200 million? But they never bothered because they know that nothing will happen at the end of the day, Mr Ojo said.

He also cited other instances such as the denial of the Rabiu Kwankwansos presidential campaign access to use of Eagle Square in the run-up to the 2019 elections, after the authorities in Abuja traced the payment for the facility to Mr Kwankwasos account. He noted that the then presidential candidate was denied from using the venue under the guise that the area is prone to traffic, an excuse that may not be applicable had it been that it was the ruling party that wanted to make use of the venue.

Stressing how difficult monitoring the finances of political parties can get, Mr Omede warned that the provisions of the 2010 Electoral Act on campaign finances would continue to be observed in breach, if the procedures for investigation and enforcement are not put in place.

In the case of Edo, I can tell you that the rule will be observed in breach, because it is almost a do or die affair: Obaseki must return as a governor and Ize-Iyamu must win as governor. Now, the contest is so sporadic that they dont only banter words, they have also issued threats that whatever you bring on board I will match it with you. Financially, they are ready to match up, in thuggery they are ready to match up. They are ready to do whatever will make them excel at the poll.

If you look at it carefully, the Edo election is not going to be a money play kind of election, it is also going to be a power play kind of politics, he said.

Profiting from loopholes

Political parties and politicians have exploited the loopholes in election campaign finance laws and regulations to escape sanctions.

Among the noted ambiguities in the Electoral Act is Section 91 (9), which places limits on donations with an addendum stating the number of donors. The provision, many observers have noted, gives undue advantages to political parties and candidates with access to large funds.

The sub-section prohibits an individual or entity from donating above N1 million, but politicians exploit this by disguising public funds as donations.

Mr Omede said whenever donations exceed the limit, the party is expected to use its discretion to exercise in compliance with the law by not spending above the limit.

However, evidence from at least three previous general elections did not reflect the use of such discretion.

Asides overlooking the violation of the Act by incumbents who often run their campaign finances on state resources, another prominent ambiguity noted is the use of candidate in Section 91.

The section puts spending limits on candidates and not political parties.

Election expenses shall not exceed the sum stipulated in subsections (2)-(7) of this section. (2) The maximum election expenses to be incurred by a candidate at a Presidential election shall beN I,000,000,000.00. (3) The maximum election expenses to be incurred by a candidate at a Governorship election shall he N200,000,000.00, Section 91, sub-sections 1 to 3 of the Electoral Act state.

However, Mr Omede said the court has decided severally, in a number of cases, that a candidate does not contest an election, it is the party that contests elections.

When the Electoral Act mentions a candidate, it is by extension referring to the party. A candidate ordinarily does not finance its own campaign, it is the party that finances its campaign.

You will discover that at no point in time in the history of the electoral process in Nigeria has a candidates name appears on the ballot paper, it is the name and logo of the party that you will see on the ballot.

The use of that word candidate in the Electoral Act, I think it is an oversight on the part of the Legislature because it is already in contravention of what is obtainable, he said while alluding what happened in Kogi State when Abubakar Audu, the APC governor-elect died and his running mate, James Faleke, who was supposed to inherit the post was overlooked for Yahaya Bello, who had returned second behind Mr Audu in the APC primary.

Such could happen because it was the party that contested the election and has the power to put whoever it pleases in that post since it has won the election, Mr Omeide explained.

In line with Mr Omeides argument, it is noteworthy that the law requires political parties, not candidates, to submit annual reports, contributions and election campaign expenses.
But the Scheeringa family has recently made some moves to buy the land.

"At the time all of this came about we did not have the funds," Janille Scheeringa said during the virtual council meeting. She then noted that her family now has the money to purchase it.

Griffith resident Kathie Furjel Kepchar believes the Scheeringa family was once told that they could buy the site if it ever went up for sale.

"I think it was a handshake deal many years ago," she said.

For its next move, Russell will again appear before the Plan Commission to create a two-lot subdivision, which is usually just a procedural formality before final approval.

One possible stumbling block to the project could sit with the Redevelopment Commission.

There is an agreement, made by the former town council, for the town to pay for the reconstruction of Ernie Strack Drive, an unofficial road that runs along the farmland, from Kleinman Road, and leads into the Strack complex.

It would also serve as one of the entrances to the senior living complex.
Anthony Fauci, USA's top infectious disease expert, is not of the same opinion as President Donald Trump. Trump said that USA has rounded the corner with regards to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But Fauci thinks it will last till the end of 2021, according to Agencies.

AFP

The statistics... they are disturbing, Fauci told MSNBC.

If youre talking about getting back to a degree of normality which resembles where we were prior to COVID, its going to be well into 2021, maybe even towards the end of 2021, he added.

AFP

COVID has held the world hostage since March this year.

The virus originated in Wuhan late last year and now has affected our way of living. The world is not the same, this is the new normal.

AFP

In USA, there are close to 67 lakh cases and almost 2 lakh deaths. Worldwide, nearly 3 crore are affected and over 924,000 people have died.
Tim Scott

Scott is director of elections for Multnomah County.

The clock is ticking toward the Nov. 3 general election. COVID-19 may have presented us with some new challenges, but Multnomah County Elections remains fully confident in the reliability and security of our system. Our office is committed to conducting a secure, transparent, accessible and accountable vote-by-mail election,  the same as we have for more than 20 years.

Thats why, well ahead of the 8 p.m., Nov. 3 deadline for returning ballots, Multnomah County Elections is asking voters to make a plan to vote.

We want you to take steps to ensure your ballot is received by the election day deadline, and we want to make sure youre equipped with accurate and trusted information from elections officials in order to do so.

What does it mean to make a plan to vote?

 Register to vote.

 Get your ballot.

 Vote your ballot.

 Return your ballot.

 Have a voice and make a difference.

First and foremost  Register to vote: The registration deadline for this election is Tuesday, Oct. 13 . If youve recently moved;

updated your address or changed your name, then you should check your voter registration.

Even a seemingly minor change, from a P.O. box to a regular mailing address, applies. Its easy

to register online or update your voter registration. Just visit: sos.oregon.gov or visit

mcelections.org for more information.

Get your ballot: Ballots will begin to be mailed Wednesday, Oct. 14, which is the day after the voter registration

deadline. Many ballots will arrive in voters' mailboxes as soon as the following day, Thursday, Oct. 15.

However, if you havent received your ballot by Thursday, Oct. 22, take action by calling the

Elections Division. In Multnomah County that number is 503-988-VOTE (8683). Multnomah

County voters can also sign up for the countys Track Your Ballot service and receive alerts when their ballot has

been mailed, received and counted. You can sign up at: multnomah.ballottrax.net

Vote your ballot: After filling out your choices, seal the ballot in the provided envelope and remember to sign the back. Your signature is your identification. If you forget to sign your ballot or your signature does not match, Multnomah County Elections will send you a letter and contact you via Track Your Ballot so you can take action to ensure your vote counts. The

earlier you return your ballot, the more time youll have to resolve any potential issues around a

forgotten or mismatched signature.

Return your ballot: You have two options for returning your ballot: by mail, with free postage, or by depositing it in an official ballot drop site. If you return your ballot by mail, make sure you send it by Tuesday, Oct. 27.

Thats one week before the election. Postmarks do not count. You can also drop off your ballot

at any 24-hour Multnomah County Library drop site or official ballot drop box anywhere in the state, as long as you do so

before 8 p.m. Nov. 3.

Have a voice and make a difference: Track Your Ballot will confirm that Multnomah County Elections has received your ballot and accepted it for counting. Youll even get a virtual I Voted sticker. Unofficial election night results will be posted on mcelections.org at 8 p.m. Nov. 3. Election results will be certified Nov. 23.

Remember to always seek trusted and official sources of information for all your election information: mcelections.org and sos.oregon.gov. You can always contact the Multnomah County Elections Office: 503-988-VOTE (8683).

Subscribe to our free weekly Oregon Opinion newsletter. Email:


The new data comes two days after Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said current data on the U.S. Covid-19 outbreak is "disturbing ," disagreeing with President Donald Trump , who said the U.S. outbreak was "rounding the corner."

The states were Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Wisconsin hit a record high in its average of daily new cases, reporting 1,353 new infections, a roughly 32% increase from a week ago, the Hopkins data shows. Kansas and Montana both hit record highs for new deaths.

Covid-19 cases were growing by 5% or more, based on a weekly average to smooth out daily reporting, in 11 states as of Sunday, according to a CNBC analysis of data collected by Johns Hopkins University, an increase from eight states on Friday.

Coronavirus cases continued to grow over the weekend in nearly a dozen U.S. states as Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert, warns about the nation's worrying level of new infections.

A bicycle rider in Liberty State Park wears a mask during the fourth phase of reopening on August 30, 2020 in Jersey City, New Jersey.

While cases are growing in 11 states, the overall daily average of new cases in the U.S. is declining. Over the past seven days, the country has reported an average of about 34,300 new cases per day, down more than 15% compared with a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of Hopkins data. That's far lower than the roughly 70,000 new cases a day the U.S. was reporting weeks ago.

Still, the 34,300 new cases a day is alarmingly high, infectious disease experts say, and U.S. health officials fear the outbreak could get worse as the nation enters the fall and winter seasons. Health officials have repeatedly warned that they are preparing to battle two bad viruses circulating later this year as the coronavirus outbreak runs into flu season. Earlier this month, Fauci said daily new cases were "unacceptably high" this close to fall.

Health officials say the U.S. is unlikely to return to "normal" until there is a safe and effective vaccine. There are currently no U.S.-approved drugs or vaccines for the virus, though U.S. regulators have authorized some treatments for emergency use for hospitalized patients.

Earlier in the day, the CEO of Pfizer, one of the frontrunners in the race for a Covid-19 vaccine, said its vaccine could be distributed to Americans before the end of the year if found to be safe and effective.

The company is currently in late-stage testing and hopes to enroll up to 44,000 participants.

Albert Bourla told CBS' "Face the Nation" that the drugmaker should have key data from its late-stage trial for the Food and Drug Administration by the end of October. If the FDA approves the vaccine, the company is prepared to distribute "hundreds of thousands of doses," he said.

Even if a vaccine is approved to be distributed before the end of the year, it will likely be in short supply. The vaccine will likely require two doses at varying intervals, and states still face logistical challenges such as setting up distribution sites and acquiring enough needles, syringes and bottles needed for immunizations.

For now, leaders can stop new outbreaks by practicing the "basics" of public health and disease control, medical experts and officials say.

The World Health Organization recommends that people wear masks as a way to slow the spread of the virus. Scientists say Covid-19 can spread through respiratory droplets that pass when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Studies suggest the masks may serve as a helpful barrier to spreading infection.

The agency also recommends people wash their hands regularly, maintain their distance from others and avoid going to crowded places. If you have a fever, cough and difficulty breathing, seek medical attention, but call by telephone in advance if possible and follow the directions of your local health authority, the WHO said.
Ashley Banjo attends the National Television Awards on January 25, 2017 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

Ashley Banjo made a defiant entrance on Britains Got Talent this weekend, walking onstage to Elton John classic Im Still Standing.

Last weekend, a performance by dance troupe Diversity depicted Banjo being knelt on by a white police officer in reference to the death of George Floyd at the hands of US police.

The powerful Black Lives Matter performance has since been complained about over 15,000 times, according to TV watchdog Ofcom.

The only TV incident to receive more complaints in the past decade is Celebrity Big Brothers 2018 punchgate, which garnered over 25,000 complaints when former Emmerdale star Roxanne Pallett falsely accused Coronation Streets Ryan Thomas of hitting her.

Jordan Banjo, Perri Kiely and Ashley Banjo of Diversity attend the Nickelodoen Slimefest at Blackpool Pleasure Beach on October 19, 2019. (Photo by Shirlaine Forrest/Getty Images for Nickelodeon Slimefest)

A spokesperson for Ofcom told MailOnline last week: We are assessing the complaints against our broadcasting rules, but are yet to decide whether or not to investigate.

Banjo addressed the backlash on Instagram.

Read more: Jordan Banjo reveals online abuse as Ofcom complaints over Diversity's Black Lives Matter routine near 3000

Posting a picture of himself, boxer Antony Joshua and Formula 1s Lewis Hamilton with a caption suggesting black stars should not discuss racism, he wrote: For the people sending this: 1. You do not represent or speak for the Great British public. 2. Silence was never and will never be an option. 3. Change is inevitable... Get used to it.

Banjo received a host of support from fellow entertainers and friends, including BGT colleague Alesha Dixon, who said people sending Banjo such messages could kiss my black a***.

JLS star Aston Merrygold also commented, saying: Its like that yeah! Guess its time to speak louder for the people that cant quite hear!

Banjos brother and Diversity colleague Jordan Banjo spoke of the response to the performance, saying though they had received positive messages, there had been some negativity too.

Story continues

Read more: Alesha Dixon backs Diversity after 'BGT' dance sparks complaints

Talking on Wednesdays edition of Kiss Breakfast Show, he said: We also got bombarded with messages and articles of horrible stuff about us, about our families I cant speak for anyone else. Its sad, its sad, genuinely.

I feel really anxious and worried saying something like black lives matter when thats all we want, man. Love and positivity.

No one is saying only black lives matter, its all positivity and love. Lets keep it moving.
Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department (LASD) deputies walk outside St. Francis Medical Center hospital following the ambush shooting of two deputies in Compton, in Lynwood, Calif., on Sept. 13, 2020. (Patrick T. Fallon/Reuters)

Los Angeles Mayor Calls Protests Near Hospital Treating Wounded Deputies Abhorrent

Two deputies out of surgery, reports say

Los Angeles Democrat Mayor Eric Garcetti responded to protesters who gathered near a hospital treating two sheriffs deputies over the weekend after they were shot in an apparent ambush, saying their actions were abhorrent. Officials, meanwhile, said the two deputies are out of surgery.

Theres no place in civilized society for anybody to draw an arm and to shoot our law enforcement officers that put their lives on the line, Garcetti said in an interview on Sunday when he was asked about protesters who gathered near a medical facility where the deputies were being treated. Some of the protesters cheered for the deputies deaths and chanted Black Lives Matter slogans.

And I wont ever let a couple voices that not only are uncalled for, but its abhorrent to say something like that when we have two deputies, who are sheriffs deputies, in grave condition, Garcetti, a Democrat, said in the interview.

To the protesters blocking the entrance & exit of the HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM yelling We hope they die referring to 2 LA Sheriffs ambushed today in #Compton: DO NOT BLOCK EMERGENCY ENTRIES & EXITS TO THE HOSPITAL. Peoples lives are at stake when ambulances cant get through, the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department wrote on Twitter.

Garcetti said that people should pray for the deputies rather than condemn them.

Update: The gunman walked up on the deputies and opened fire without warning or provocation. pic.twitter.com/cBQjyKkoxJ  LA County Sheriffs (@LASDHQ) September 13, 2020

Videos on Twitter show that the agitators appear to identify themselves as Africa Town Coalition members, as they walk toward the hospital before threatening officers there. Some of them shouted anti-police slogans.

The 31-year-old female deputy and 24-year-old male deputy underwent surgery Saturday evening, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said in a late-night news conference. Both graduated from the academy 14 months ago, he said.

It pisses me off. It dismays me at the same time, Villanueva said of the anti-police sentiment.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti listens during a press conference in Los Angeles, Calif., on March 27, 2020. (Carolyn Cole/Pool/Getty Images)

Authorities also told the Los Angeles Times and other media outlets that the deputies are out of surgery as of Sunday.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, called the shooting a horrific, cowardly act on Sunday.

A 31 year-old mother and a 24 year-old are fighting for their lives because of this cowardly, horrific act. The perpetrator must be quickly brought to justice. Praying for a full recovery for the deputies. @JenSiebelNewsom and I are keeping their loved ones in our thoughts, he wrote.
With operations in more than 35 countries and revenue in the tens of billions of dollars, the world's second biggest mining company, Rio Tinto, has come a long way since its formation in the 1870s when a group of investors bought the rights to a rich mineral site in south-west Spain.

It's a company that has had its fair share of financial and management upheavals over the decades, but when it comes to reputational damage, the destruction in May of the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge heritage rock shelter in Western Australia was one its biggest faux pas. While the company's board finally took decisive action last Friday, removing chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques and two deputies, there is clearly still some way to go.

Rio Tinto's outgoing chief executive, Jean-Sebastien Jacques. Credit:Bloomberg

The structural issues that led to the blasting of the ancient site appear to have been years in the making. A federal parliamentary inquiry into the incident heard late last month how the mining company had centralised power in the group's London headquarters.

Bruce Harvey, who ran Rio's global community and Indigenous relations until 2013, told the inquiry Mr Jacques transferred what had been his role to London after becoming CEO in 2016 and diluted the role of individual mine site leaders. And Glynn Cochrane, an adviser at Rio until 2015, explained that Rio had sidelined anthropologists and archaeologists from Aboriginal relations in recent years and had instead hired people with more of a focus on "branding, marketing and media".
Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the countrys civil aviation regulator, has decided to take part in Boeings proposal for training pilots to fly the revamped 737 Max that is expected to start in London from Monday.

DGCA will join aviation regulators and pilots from several countries, including the United States of America (USA), Brazil, Canada and the European Union (EU), who have also agreed to review Boeings proposal.

We are in discussions with Boeing and other stakeholders. We will participate in the training exercise, said Arun Kumar, director-general (D-G), DGCA .

Also read: DGCA seeks report from IndiGo for violating social distancing norms on a flight with Kangana Ranaut aboard

Earlier, DGCA had announced the grounding of all Boeing 737 Max planes on March 12, 2019, following the decision of aviation bodies in the USA and European countries to remove the accident-prone aircraft model from service.

Boeings 737 Max was involved in the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines flight on March 10, 2019, killing over 180 passengers and crew members.

A flight of Lion Air, an Indonesian low-cost carrier, had also crashed in October, 2018, leading to suspicion over design faults in the aircraft model.

A statement issued by DGCA in March last year had stated that no 737 Max would be allowed to enter or transit Indian airspace.

Two Indian airlines, SpiceJet Ltd and the now defunct Jet Airways, are the only airlines to possess 737 Max aircraft.

All 17 of SpiceJets 737 Max have been grounded since March, 2019.

The US regulator, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), had proposed a wide range of changes that included updating flight control software, revising crew procedures and rerouting internal wiring.

FAA is set to review Boeings proposal for training pilots to fly the refurbished 737 Max aircraft.

The review exercise is likely to begin from Monday at Londons Gatwick Airport in a bid to ensure that the changes carried by the American aircraft manufacturer comply with FAAs safety regulations.

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In a demonstration of astounding psychopathetic brutality, Black Lives Matter protestors blocked the entrance to a Los Angeles emergency room as two near-mortally wounded sheriffs, ambushed in cold blood in Compton, were brought in bleeding. And to make sure nobody misunderstood their intentions, they chanted in unison: "We hope they die."

(1/3) #LASD Century Sheriffs Station Watch Commander reports the following:



After deputies issued a dispersal order for the unlawful assembly of a group of protesters blocking the hospital emergency entrance & exits, a male adult protester refused to comply & cooperate  LA County Sheriffs (@LASDHQ) September 13, 2020

Here's the cold-blooded hit-job against the two cops sitting in their car in a well-lit area, done on camera. According to news reports, the victims now in critical condition and fighting for their lives were a male 24-year-old rookie and a 31-year-old mother of a six-year old child.

Update: The gunman walked up on the deputies and opened fire without warning or provocation. pic.twitter.com/cBQjyKkoxJ  LA County Sheriffs (@LASDHQ) September 13, 2020

Democrats, as of this writing, are silent. The district's congresswoman, Nanette Diaz Barragan, is focused on keeping her congressional district's population numbers high enough to keep her seat, is calling for an end to immigration enforcement. Not a word about the crime in her district, including this act with a striking resemblance to a Mexican cartel hit job.

Other leftists are gaslighting, questioning whether the chants ever happened:

Is there any evidence the "we hope they die" chant actually happened? Video? Someone who heard it? Someone admitting to it? I feel like I need a source beyond a law enforcement Twitter account.  Rachel  (@herenowhere3) September 13, 2020

And the mainstream media is covering up for them:

In quickly covering the cowardly ambush of two LA County Sheriff's deputies last night, @ABC's @GMA disgustingly covered up how Black Lives Matter extremists blocked the entrance to the Emergency Room and chanted "We hope they die," according to the sheriff's office. pic.twitter.com/OspPTTeVcW  Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) September 13, 2020

Suffice to say, if the sheriff says that's what happened, and they were there on the scene, that's what happened.

This is the violent, ugly face of the money-rich Black Lives Matter movement, which is anything but peaceful in its protests. The act done is attempted murder, with stated intent. It's quite similar to the last thing this protest movement attempted to pull, setting a Portland courthouse on fire with people in it, same as the M-19 Marxist guerrillas of Colombia once did, teaming up with Pablo Escobar. Now they're blocking hospital entries on critically wounded patients, which is another bid to kill.

Next time some leftist brings this up, it needs to be thrown in their faces. Next time a Democrat brings it up, such a clown needs to be called out. This kind of act is a monstrosity by any civilized standard. The perpetrators must be identified and arrested. No civilized society can carry on without it.

Image credit: Twitter screen shot, Los Angeles County Sheriff
Meath student Cathal Mitchell said he was "extremely dissatisfied" to receive calculated grades in two subjects as the marks were lower than those he achieved in his mock examinations.

Cathal, from Trim, said his hopes of attending Trinity College Dublin were dashed by the "surprising and disappointing" grades in the two subjects so he intends to appeal.

"In my business mock examination I received 96pc, which was the best in my year. I never received less that a H2 in the subject in the Christmas and summer exams.

"But then I received a H3 in the Leaving Cert," said Cathal, who attended Castleknock College in Dublin.

"This is especially hard to take when business is the subject I want to pursue at third level," he said.

"Furthermore, in agricultural science I received not only 100pc in my Christmas exams but also 100pc in my mock examination; the best in the year at school. However, somehow I've only got a H2 in the Leaving Cert," he said.

Cathal got an A in science in the Junior Cert and he has a agricultural background, living on his family's farm, so he always expected he would be strong in the subject. He has also worked as an exercise rider for National Hunt racehorse trainer Gordon Elliott.

"Now I am left wondering how could I have done any more to prove my worthiness of H1s in both these subjects after getting H1s in the mocks," he told the Sunday Independent.

Cathal would have expected close to 580 points if he had sat the examinations and his aim was to get into the global business course in Trinity. "To my shock, this dream course was quickly brushed away when I only received 532," he said.

Cathal accepts that even if he was given top marks in business and agricultural science, he would not have enough points for global business but he would still be going to Trinity as his second choice was business, economics and social science there.

But he does have enough points to settle for his third choice, which would mean pursuing a business degree elsewhere. "The Government should implement an appeals process whereby you can't get lower in your overall Leaving Cert points than you did in the mocks," said Cathal.
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Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 08:49:12|Editor: huaxia

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ISLAMABAD, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- One soldier was killed in a roadside blast in Pakistan's northwest tribal district of North Waziristan, the Pakistani military said in a statement on Saturday evening.

According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan army, an improvised explosive device exploded near a check post in North Waziristan, a district in the country's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan.

A soldier of the Pakistan army lost his life in the attack, said the ISPR, adding that the security forces cordoned off the area for clearance operation.

No group or individual has claimed the attack yet.

Pakistani security forces have been conducting clearance operations to eliminate the remnants of the terrorist outfits in the region.

Earlier on Monday, the Pakistani military said at least five terrorists, including a high profile commander, were killed in an intelligence-based operation by the security forces in North Waziristan. The military also claimed to have arrested 10 other terrorists during the operation. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 09:43:17|Editor: huaxia

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BOGOTA, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- A total of 6,876 COVID-19 cases have been reported in Colombia over the past 24 hours, bringing the national count to 708,964, the health ministry said on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the nationwide death toll rose by 216 to 22,734, it said.

Luis Fernando Suarez, governor of the northwestern department of Antioquia, said that the mayor of the town of Taraza had died from the disease.

Miguel Vergara, secretary of economic development for Atlantico, said that beaches in the towns of Santa Marta and Puerto Colombia would be reopened on Sept. 18 with strict bio-security measures.

President Ivan Duque has announced that the Selective Isolation, Distancing, and Individual Responsibility would come into force this month in a bid to reactivate the nation's economy. Enditem
John Kovach / Hearst Connecticut Media

STRATFORD  Longbrook Avenue will be closed at the railroad bridge for two to four weeks starting Monday, Sept. 14.

The total closure, in effect 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is necessary to connect a road to remove contaminated waste from the former Contract Plating property on Longbrook Avenue as part of the Raymark Superfund cleanup.
Footage shows two police officers being shot at close-range in Compton (Los Angeles county sheriff's department)

Two sheriffs deputies in Los Angeles are in critical condition following a shooting in Compton, California on Saturday.

Surveillance footage captures a suspect walking up to the deputies parked patrol car and firing into the passenger side window before running from the scene.

Here is what we know so far:

Officials called the shooting an ambush after a suspect fired into a patrol car, injuring two deputies  a 24-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman  on Saturday night. Both deputies joined the office 14 months ago, according to Sheriff Alex Villanueva.

Update: One male deputy and one female deputy were ambushed as they sat in their patrol vehicle. Both sustained multiple gunshot wounds and are in critical condition. They are both currently undergoing surgery. The suspect is still at large.  LA County Sheriffs (@LASDHQ) September 13, 2020

Donald Trump  who has demanded retribution and supported extrajudicial killings in the wake of police brutality protests  has called the suspect an animal that must be hit hard and called for the death penalty. Only way to stop this! he said on Twitter.

If they die, fast trial death penalty for the killer. Only way to stop this! https://t.co/K3sKh28GjX  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 13, 2020

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said: This cold-blooded shooting is unconscionable and the perpetrator must be brought to justice. Violence of any kind is wrong; those who commit it should be caught and punished. Jill and I are keeping the deputies and their loved ones in our hearts and praying for a full recovery.

This cold-blooded shooting is unconscionable and the perpetrator must be brought to justice.



Violence of any kind is wrong; those who commit it should be caught and punished.



Jill and I are keeping the deputies and their loved ones in our hearts and praying for a full recovery. https://t.co/330QfeIUGg  Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 13, 2020

California Senator and Biden running-mate Kamala Harris also condemned the attack: The perpetrator must be brought to justice.

Story continues

Doug and I are keeping the two Los Angeles County Sheriffs deputies in our hearts as they currently fight for their lives after a horrific attack last night. The perpetrator must be brought to justice. https://t.co/ckuRllMtzv  Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) September 13, 2020

Both deputies are on the sheriffs transportation detail.

Law enforcement officials have not announced whether they have identified a suspect. The FBI is assisting the investigation.

The Los Angeles Sheriffs Department has faced intense scrutiny over the recent killings of residents by police, which have renewed ongoing protests against police violence throughout the state.

Sheriff Villanueva called the handful of people heckling officers who guarded the outside of the hospital an unlawful assembly of a group of protesters who are "blocking the hospital emergency entrance and exits. Journalists video from the scene does not appear to show evidence that the entrance and exits were blocked.

Hi folks, I was trying to send this tweet before I was arrested and the video apparently just uploaded now.  Josie Huang (@josie_huang) September 13, 2020

Josie Huang, a reporter for LAist and NPR affiliate KPCC in Los Angeles, was arrested while filming the arrest of one of the people outside the hospital. Local media captured several deputies pinning her to the ground.

The sheriffs office said in a statement on social media that Ms Huang "did not identify herself as press and later admitted she did not have proper press credentials on her person" though she was wearing press credentials around her neck.

This is our terrific reporter @josie_huang who has been covering this story for hours. @LACoSheriff @LASDHQ where is Josie? Why are reporters being arrested? Where can I go get her? https://t.co/2eomkLwN3K  Megan Garvey (@garveymcvg) September 13, 2020

According to Deputy Juanita Navarro of the Sheriff's Information Bureau, Ms Huang was accused of interfering with a lawful arrest and held at Century Regional Detention Center before she was released without bail and cited for obstruction. According to KPCC, Ms Huang had visible bruises and scrapes, a sore shoulder and a blackened eye.

LAist and KPCC have demanded that the sheriffs office drop the charges against her: We offer condolences to the two sheriff deputies who were shot Saturday evening. These are challenging and stressful times for everyone, but Josie Huang was arrested while doing her job."
Jewish Seminary students study behind protective plastic screen cells to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus disease COVID-19 in a Hesder Yeshiva on September 9, 2020 in SDEROT, Israel.

Israel will enter a three-week nationwide lockdown starting on Friday to contain the spread of the coronavirus after a second-wave surge of new cases, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

During the lockdown, which comes during the Jewish high-holiday season, Israelis will have to stay within 500 meters of their houses, but can travel to workplaces that will be allowed to operate on a limited basis.

Schools and shopping malls will be closed but supermarkets and pharmacies will remain open. The public sector will operate with fewer staff, but non-governmental offices and businesses will not have to close, as long as they do not accept customers.

Indoor gatherings are limited to 10 people and no more than 20 people outdoors.

"I know those measures will exact a heavy price on us all," Netanyahu said in a televised address. "This is not the kind of holiday we are used to. And we certainly won't be able to celebrate with our extended families."

The Finance Ministry said the lockdown will cost the economy, which slipped into a recession in the wake of the virus, an estimated 6.5 billion shekels ($1.88 billion).

Netanyahu, who has faced increasing criticism over his handling of the coronavirus crisis, said he instructed his finance minister to come up with a new economic package to assist businesses hurt by the lockdown.

Israel declared an even tighter lockdown in April when the virus first arrived, after which daily cases dropped to low double digits among a population of nine million.

But as the economy reopened, daily infections jumped, passing 4,000 last week. On Saturday, 2,715 new cases were reported. Since the outbreak began, 1,108 people have died.

The country's health system "raised a red flag" a few days ago, spurring the government to act, Netanyahu said.

The director general of the Health Ministry, Hezi Levy, said in a radio interview earlier on Sunday that "dozens of localities are being sucked into the circle of morbidity."

"We have to impose severe restrictions, but they will be able to stem this wave and not bring us to the brink of an abyss," Levy said.
Victoria will take the first step in its road out of coronavirus lockdown today as Melbourne's tough Stage Four restrictions slightly ease.

Few changes are being made, but a small amount of extra social interaction will be allowed along with more time outside - bringing some relief to a city that has been under tough Stage Four lockdown since Sunday, August 2.

Under the new rules, two people or a household can meet outdoors to exercise or socialise for two hours, instead of just one hour - but they must still remain within 5km of their home.

Pictured: two women walking at Albert Park Lake on Wednesday. Melbourne residents who live alone will be able to designate one person to be their 'single social bubble' friend to meet

The 14-day rolling average of new daily cases has been falling rapidly to reach 56.9 on Sunday. Step Two easings will be triggered when new daily cases hit between 30 and 50 per day for 14 days, the Victorian Government says on it's website.

The outdoors time can only be split into a maximum of two sessions.

People living alone and single parents will now be able to designate one friend to visit, who can also visit them in what has been termed a 'single social bubble'.

If the person you choose lives with other people, then you can only visit them when they are alone.

Pictured: a usually busy Hosier Lane is seen completely empty on Thursday night in Melbourne's CBD. Melbourne's Stage Four lockdown is the strictest in the nation

The 5km limit does not apply to the single social bubble however those in Metropolitan Melbourne cannot nominate someone living in regional Victoria, which is under Stage Three restrictions.

No permit or proof is required for the single social bubble, the Victorian Government is relying on a trust system, asking people to do the right thing so the state can crush the virus and return to normal as soon as possible.

STEP ONE CHANGES Few changes are being made, but Melbourne's tough Stage Four lockdown is easing slightly - Two people or a household can meet outdoors for two hours instead of just one hour - Outdoors time can be spent socialising or exercising in a maximum of two split sessions within 5km of home - People living alone and single parents can have one designated friend to visit and spend time with in a 'single social bubble' - People living in metropolitan Melbourne cannot choose someone living in regional Victoria for their bubble - Melbourne's curfew has been reduced by an hour to 9pm to 5am Advertisement

Melbourne's curfew remains but has been reduced by an hour, starting from 9pm to 5am instead of from 8pm.

Outdoor playgrounds will also open and physical distancing limits will apply, however skate parks and sporting facilities remain closed.

Other than these changes, the existing Stage Four restrictions apply in Melbourne and Stage Three in regional Victoria.

Progress to more relaxation under Step Two will depend on improvement in the 14-day rolling average of new case numbers.

Step Two will be triggered when new daily cases hit between 30 and 50 per day for 14 days, the Victorian Government says on it's website.

The Victorian Government is aiming at September 28 as the date for Step Two which will allow more than 100,000 workers to go back to work in construction, manufacturing, and maintenance.

The rolling average has been falling dramatically reaching 56.9 on Sunday from 120.8 two weeks previously.

Victoria recorded 41 new coronavirus cases on Sunday bringing the state's total to 19,835 with 723 deaths, the DHHS said in an emailed release.

There are 1,157 active cases of which 116 are in hospital and 11 in intensive care.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the number of 'mystery' cases, where the source of community transmission cannot be traced, had fallen by 11 since yesterday, however he has extended the State of Emergency and the State of Disaster for another four weeks.

Victoria's State of Disaster came into operation on Sunday, August 2, alongside the Stage Four restrictions.

The State of Emergency was already in force at the time, and the two declarations have operated together.

The State of Emergency is what allows the Victorian government to make emergency coronavirus rules such as making face masks mandatory, introducing covid-safe work plans and requiring people to isolate in quarantine.

Pictured: people exercising at Albert Park Lake, Melbourne, on Friday. Step One easing means outdoors time has been increased from one hour to two hours daily

The State of Disaster gives the police special powers to enforce them.

Mr Andrews said the two declarations underpin the emergency coronavirus rules.

'It underpins taking those safe and steady steps,' he told reporters on Sunday.

The State of Emergency and State of Disaster are now scheduled to end just before midnight on October 11.
09/13/2020 06:09 PM Tropical Storm Sally strengthened off the west coast of Florida on Sunday and was poised to become a category 2 hurricane, bringing the threat of dangerous storm surges and high winds to the U.S. Gulf Coast, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

The storm track was disrupting oil production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico for a second time in less than a month. The Miami-based NHC said the storm was likely to reach hurricane strength on Monday, and approach the north-central Gulf Coast late on Monday and Tuesday.

Hurricane conditions were expected by early Tuesday from Grand Isle, Louisiana to Ocean Springs, Mississippi, including New Orleans, the center said.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said he had spoken earlier in the day to U.S. President Donald Trump and had also requested a federal declaration of emergency in advance of Sally, which allows for early support from the federal government.

We have every reason to believe that this storm represents a very significant threat to the people of southeast Louisiana, Bel Edwards told a news conference.

As of 4 p.m. CDT (2100 GMT), Sally was about 165 miles (265 km) south of Panama City, Florida, and heading west-northwest with top sustained winds of 60 miles per hour (95 kph).

Sally is expected to become a category 2 hurricane with 100-mile-per-hour (161-kph) winds by the time it makes landfall in southeast Louisiana on Tuesday, an official with the U.S. National Weather Service said.

VERY, VERY HEAVY RAINFALL

Sally carried the danger of storm surges  when the ocean rises at the coast over normal tide levels  of up to 11 feet (3.35 m), and rainfall of up to 12 inches (30 cm), the center said.

The biggest issue here is going to be life-threatening storm surge and then the very, very heavy rainfall thats going to accompany this, said Jim Foerster, chief meteorologist for DTN, an energy, agriculture and weather data provider.

The storm follows Laura, which rampaged across the Gulf of Mexico three weeks ago and grew into a Category 4 hurricane with 150 mph (240 kph) winds. It shut hundreds of offshore oil facilities, leveled coastal Louisiana towns and left residents of Louisiana and Texas without power for weeks.

On Sunday, two more oil companies, BP Plc and Equinor ASA, evacuated staff from some offshore platforms following similar action by Chevron Corp and Murphy Oil Corp on Saturday.

BP said it evacuated non-essential workers from its Nakika and Thunderhorse platforms in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, while Equinor shut its Titan platform.

Laura halted up to 1.5 million barrels per day of output and a half dozen refineries, two of which are still in the process of making repairs.

Mandatory evacuation was also ordered in parts of Louisiana on Sunday.

Further off in the Atlantic Ocean, Hurricane Paulette was moving closer to Bermuda, and was expected to move near or over the island on Monday morning, the NHC said. Paulette was carrying top sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph) and was expected to strengthen during Sunday.

(Reporting by Gary McWilliams Additional reporting by Joshua Franklin in Boston Writing by Frances Kerry Editing by Susan Fenton, Nick Zieminski and Diane Craft)

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters USA Louisiana Windstorm Energy Oil Gas Hurricane Mexico
Several Muslim artistes like Madhubala, Dilip Kumar, Meena Kumari or Sanjay Khan took Hindu names as the industry was secular in that era

In a veiled attack on actress Kangana Ranaut, Shiv Sena on Saturday said that Bollywood legends have never betrayed Mumbai. They have always been grateful to Mumbai and Maharashtra, it said.

In a strong-worded editorial in its mouthpiece Saamana, Shiv Sena mentioned several names in Bollywood stalwarts saying many of them came to Mumbai and made their names, but they were never dishonest to their Karmabhoomi.

The Sena said that the foundation of the Indian film industry was laid by Dadasaheb Phalke, a Maharashtrian, and artists have achieved success in the industry due to talent and not religion. People from all over came to try their fate in Mumbais cine-world, first lived in hovels or on pavements, but after luck smiled on them, went onto build palatial homes in Juhu, Pali Hill or Malabar Hill. But they were never ungrateful to Mumbai-Maharashtra, it said.

Several veteran Muslim artistes like Madhubala, Dilip Kumar, Meena Kumari or Sanjay Khan took Hindu names as the industry was secular in that era. Even when Marathi and Punjabi dynasties ruled the roost like the Kapoors, Roshans, Dutts or Shantarams, as many families do today. There were several others with no gharana behind them like Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra or Jeetendra who came up with hard work, and launched their own gharana for their children, the editorial said.

But none of these legends betrayed Mumbai, they contributed to its growth and progress. They did not create enmity with the crocodile while living in the water or pelt stones at others while living in glass houses. Those who dared were cursed and dug their own grave, said Sena.

It is well-known that Mumbai symbolises national integrity. Then why should the controversy-mafia always blow this trumpet only for Mumbai and not in any other state capital? asked the party.
In 2013, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal famously warned his fellow Republicans, We must stop being the stupid party.

Well . . . it was a nice try.

Today millions of Republicans still deny that global warming is real and human-induced; millions more think the COVID-19 pandemic is nothing worse than the flu and refuse to wear a mask; and still more believe the ever-growing list of QAnon conspiracy theories. And, of course, if Donald Trump loses the election, those Republicans will believe his claim that the election was rigged.

Here in Montana, its important to remember that Republican candidates have sold their souls to Donald Trump en masse. That includes Greg Gianforte, Steve Daines, Matt Rosendale, Christi Jacobsen, and others.

How did the GOP become the party that ignores science, spurs racial division, disrespects women, sabotages the Post Office, and disregards ethics? Bobby Jindals statement provides the answer. Republican leaders crave wealth and power but know their constituents wont vote for them solely on those issues. Therefore, to get what they want, they must depend on votes from the demographics they can most easily manipulate.

Donald Trump discovered that concept years ago. At one time, he was a Democrat, and overall hes changed his party affiliation five times since 1987. In reality, Trump doesnt care about Democratic or Republican values. All he cares about is himself.

That brings me to the uncomfortable subject of Trumps Christian followers. While there are many highly intelligent, savvy Christians who are resistant to manipulation, the reason Trump ultimately ended up as a Republican was because he knew he could get the Christians in that party to do his bidding. After all, if such people already believed in a talking snake, getting them to believe in a tweeting despot wouldnt be a stretch.

For Trump, the Bible is merely a prop to hold up for a post-tear-gassing photo op. Theres nothing Christian about the man, and he only tosses his evangelical followers a few political favors to keep them on his side and looking the other way. And remember, all those Montana political candidates who are in lockstep with Trump are just as self-serving as he is.

In the Bible, Jesus preached in favor of love and against the rich. What could be more unchristian than an obsession for giving tax breaks to the wealthy and making it easier for greedy corporations to pollute? If Jesus arrived in America today, would attacking health care, robbing Social Security, hobbling the USPS, and promoting guns and racism really be issues hed support? What about cheating, as the Republican Party has done in Montana with their unscrupulous signature gathering to put the Green Party on the ballot and their suing to stop mail-in voting? And, obviously, the GOPs prolife stance is quite the opposite of what it pretends to be. After all, whats prolife about favoring power and profits over protecting Americans from COVID-19 and global warming?

If you regularly vote Republican, its time to take a deep breath, swallow your pride, and recognize that your partys candidates are using you. When Donald Trump proclaimed in a February 2016 speech, I love the poorly educated, he was merely rephrasing the old line, Theres a sucker born every minute. Yes, Trump thinks youre a sucker.

Even though Republican politicians rejected Bobby Jindals plea many years ago, this is the year for would-be Republican voters to get smart, stop voting against themselves, and realize that compromising ethics for a few symbolic political favors is not good for America. And the best way to do that is to vote Democratic.

Marty Essen is a college speaker and the multi-award-winning author of five humorous political books. His sixth book, Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer, will be published next year. He lives in Victor.

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Korea Health Personnel Licensing Examination Institute's main building in Jayang-dong area in Seoul's Gwangjin-gu District. Yonhap



Senior medical students boycotting the state licensing exam said Sunday they will put on hold their collective action taken in protest of the government's medical workforce reform plan.



Medical students in the fourth year have refused to take the exam and junior students have taken a leave of absence in protest of the government's plan to increase admission quotas at medical schools.



As trainee doctors returned to work last week after weeks of a strike over the government's policy, the medical students' collective action has served as a lingering source of tensions between the government and the medical sector.



Doctors and the government have been at odds over whether to give medical students another opportunity to take the licensing exam. Doctors insisted students should be allowed to take the test even if they did not register before the deadline, while the government has rejected such a step.



Representatives of senior medical students said they will halt their collective action, a move seen as expressing their willingness to take the exam.



"We will monitor whether the government will reconsider its policy and implement medical policy for the sake of the people. If the government and the parliament push ahead with the wrong medical policy, we will start the collective action again," they said in a joint statement.



The government welcomed the students' decision to stop their protests but reiterated its earlier stance that it will not allow medical students to retake the medical licensing exam. Earlier, the government said public opinion is still overwhelmingly negative toward giving an extra chance to students who had withdrawn their applications.



"The government's position remained unchanged," Sohn Young-rae, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said in a press briefing. "As there will be a sincere discussion among the Korean Medical Association (KMA), the government and the parliament, we again ask medical students to return to school."



The KMA, the country's largest doctors' association representing some 130,000 doctors, has demanded the government ensure medical students who had withdrawn their applications take the exam.



The government's plan to expand the number of medical students by 4,000 over the next 10 years and open a new public medical school sparked tensions within the medical sector. Thousands of trainee doctors staged a strike for 18 days starting in mid-August over the policy.



A group of doctors and the ruling party agreed in early September to end a nationwide walkout on concerns that the prolonged collective action could disrupt the health care system amid the new coronavirus outbreak.



In response to the deal, the government backed down and promised to halt the medical reform plan in early September. (Yonhap)


If you have the ability to make sure that you are able to speak directly to all of these different communities and where they live, then you are going a long way to securing the states for Biden in this election, Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) said. Im glad that Mike Bloomberg recognized this and is prepared to make an investment to make sure that every one of those communities will be aware of the importance of this election.
President Trump's nominee Mauricio Claver-Carone has been elected to lead Latin America's top development bank.

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is the region's primary economic development lender, said Al Jazeera.

Claver-Carone is Trump's senior Latin America adviser. But his win as the development bank's head sparked some criticism from some countries in Latin America.

He will take office in October. His single term will last for five years.

He would be the first American to lead the bank. It broke the norm for the IDB president to come from the region, sparking the criticism.

Latin American countries are not the only ones to question his headship. Development groups and the European Union were also critics.

"A Passionate Advocate"

Before voting, he told the bank governors that he would be "a passionate advocate" of the bank and its staff and the region.

During an electronic meeting with votes for at least 15 of the 28 regional member nations, the voting was done, said a Bloomberg report.

As per the National Security Council, Claver-Carone won with 30 votes, 23 of which are from the region. It makes up 66.8% of the total. There are 48 governors in the banks.

Three sources familiar with the vote told Reuters that 16 countries abstained.

Politico noted that with Trump's pick in the development bank, his influence on the region is solidified whether he wins or loses the U.S. election in November.

Argentina chose to abstain in protest and urged other nations to join it. Meanwhile, Mexico, Chile, and Costa Rica urged a delay in the election. They did not get enough backing to do so.

They said the countries lacked the right amount of time to debate the bank's future because of COVID-19.

Not Just Tradition

A report from The Economist said that the nomination was not just a hot topic because of its break from tradition. A Latin American diplomat said it was also because Claver-Carone "would bring ideology directly into the bank."

Sources described him as "arrogant and confrontational."

But the new head said time after time that he would stay away from partisan politics. He added that he welcomes criticism of his nomination as a chance to draw attention to the bank.

He said he is still committed to working with the bank's member countries. The plan for his term is to outline a strategy in strengthening the bank and respond to the region's needs.

He also wanted to "create opportunities for shared prosperity and economic growth."

Some U.S. officials congratulated Claver-Carone through statements: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo.

He will be taking over the position of Luis Alberto Moreno, who was a former Colombian ambassador to the U.S.

Moreno served the IDB for 15 years.

The IDB is the primary source of funds for development in Latin America and the Caribbean. Countries in this region are part of it, Europe, the U.S., Canada, Israel, Japan, South Korea, and China.

It lends over $10 billion per year. These funds go to social and infrastructure programs.

It is seen as key to finance the Latina American region's recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

.

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Trump Gets Second Nobel Peace Prize Nomination Following Historic Deal
The Little Village Chamber of Commerce decided to cancel this years parade for the safety of our community residents. In the chambers post on Facebook about the cancellation, several people said they would go downtown and have their own parade. While Mexican Independence Day is Sept. 16, the parade had been scheduled for Sunday, along with the Fiestas Patrias Festival.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 13:24:14|Editor: huaxia

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by Yosley Carrero

HAVANA, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- China's poverty reduction favors a successful interaction between social, economic, and political fields with a comprehensive approach, a Cuban analyst told Xinhua in a recent interview.

China has lifted more than 700 million people out of poverty, which marks great social progress, said Ruvislei Gonzales, head of the Asia and Oceania division at Havana's Center for the Study of International Politics.

"The Chinese government and people have been working hard to eradicate extreme poverty by 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic," he said.

The leadership of the Communist Party of China, he said, has been a fundamental pillar of the important transformations carried out by the Chinese people over the past few decades.

"The reform and opening up since 1978 has paved the way for the impressive achievements China shows to the world today," he said.

Gonzales said that many countries follow a strategy of addressing extreme poverty by building houses or subsidizing the acquisition of them, but "China has done more."

"China implements a poverty alleviation program meant to provide communities and towns with infrastructure and boost economic development nationwide," he said.

"China has also demonstrated that it is possible to implement public policies to improve living conditions of the people," said Gonzales. "The Chinese government has combated poverty at all levels."

By lifting millions of people out of poverty, China has made a contribution to tackling one of the major problems that worldwide governments and societies are confronted with at present, he said.

The expert also noted the importance of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which will have a direct impact on billions of people and boost regional and global trade.

In that respect, the BRI seeks to reduce poverty inside China and extend development from the east to west of the country, he said.

"Also, the BRI is facilitating the possibility for members participating in this project to put into practice similar strategies to those implemented by China to reduce extreme poverty," said Gonzales.

Gonzalez said that Cuba can learn from China's strategy to combat extreme poverty.

"The Chinese government and local authorities have worked together to eliminate extreme poverty the same way the Caribbean island is doing right now in the context of the ongoing economic reforms," he said. Enditem
Bahrain announced on Friday it would become the latest Arab state to recognize Israel, a triumph both for the Jewish state and US President Donald Trump who is looking for pre-election wins.

The deal is another step in a cherished dream by Israeli and US conservatives to win Arab recognition of Israel without establishing a state for the Palestinians, who quickly denounced Bahrain.

The announcement, weeks after the United Arab Emirates also said it would recognize Israel, comes against the backdrop of soaring tensions with Iran, an arch-enemy for Gulf Arabs, Israel and the Trump administration.

Here are how the developments affect the key players:

Bahrain, a Sunni-ruled kingdom with a large Shiite population, has especially tense ties with Iran and relies on the United States, which stations its Fifth Fleet on the tiny Gulf island.

Trump reversed course from his predecessor Barack Obama by selling weapons to Bahrain despite human rights concerns and has encouraged the kingdom to strengthen unofficial ties with Israel, with Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner last year launching the administration's Middle East plan in Manama.

Read: Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu announces normalisation deal with Bahrain

Will Wechsler, director of the Middle East program at the Atlantic Council think tank, said that Gulf Arabs were also reacting to a perceived US withdrawal from its leadership role, which they found "hugely concerning."

With historic Arab power centres Cairo, Damascus and Baghdad focused inward, the Gulf states are increasingly worried by the influence of non-Arab players -- Shiite clerical state Iran, Muslim Brotherhood-linked Turkey and Vladimir Putin's assertive Russia.

"What you're seeing now is the emergence of a new coalition to be able to fend off those parties," Wechsler said.

Israel and Gulf Arabs "are not natural allies. There are cultural differences, but they are all being overcome right now because they share this perception in geopolitics and of opportunities," especially economic, he said.

The recognition is a coup for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will come to the White House on Tuesday to sign with both the UAE and Bahrain.

The Arab states are the first to recognize Israel in more than two decades, bringing the Jewish state closer to its goal of acceptance on the world stage and further connecting it within the region, including through direct flights to the Gulf.

Netanyahu's main concession was to give up a controversial plan blessed by Trump to annex much of the occupied West Bank -- but it is no closer to allowing a Palestinian state, a goal the UAE and Bahrain say they still support.

Wechsler said that annexation would have been a "massive strategic disaster" for Israel and the normalization deals effectively forced it to "avoid shooting itself in the foot" -- especially with the possibility that Joe Biden defeats Trump in November.

The Palestinian Authority called the agreement by Bahrain another "stab in the back" amid fears its cause for an independent state is losing steam among Arab governments.

Also Read: Bahrain agrees to normalise relations with Israel, follows UAE's footsteps

Trump has spared no self-praise over his achievement, with the White House trumpeting that the president had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize -- which requires only a submission from a lawmaker.

With the deal, Trump can make an even stronger case that he has been an ally of historic proportions to Israel after bucking the international consensus with steps such as recognizing Jerusalem as its capital.

Israel enjoys wide support within Trump's crucial electoral base of evangelical Christians.

Bahrain's announcement came just as Afghanistan's government opens talks with the Taliban, moving Trump closer on another key international goal.

Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, welcomed the Bahrain agreement but questioned Trump's role.

And he said the agreement did nothing to reduce tensions with Iran or move toward a Palestinian state.

"The agreement is mostly the result of shifting interests and alliances that have been in motion for many years," he said.

"It is unlikely that this deal, combined with the one between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, will fundamentally shift the overall instability in the Middle East."
Johnson accuses EU of plotting food 'blockade' on UK Johnson said his government remained committed to finding agreement with the EU by the end of the year

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has accused the European Union of threatening to tear the UK apart by imposing a food "blockade" between Britain and Northern Ireland, throwing new fuel on the fire of simmering Brexit talks.

Writing in Saturday's Daily Telegraph newspaper, Johnson said the EU's stance justified his government's introduction of new legislation to rewrite its Brexit withdrawal treaty -- a bill that is causing deep alarm among former prime ministers and his own MPs.

Talks between London and Brussels on a future trading relationship are deadlocked as both sides struggle to prise apart nearly 50 years of economic integration, after British voters opted for a divorce.

"My assessment is that an unregulated situation (no deal) would have very significant consequences for the British economy," German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz warned after an EU meeting in Berlin.

"Europe would be able to deal with it and these would not be particularly difficult consequences after the preparations we have already made," he added.

But absent a deal by the end of this year, when the full force of Brexit kicks in, Johnson said the EU was bent on an "extreme interpretation" of rules for Northern Ireland under the divorce treaty both sides signed in January.

"We are being told that the EU will not only impose tariffs on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, but that they might actually stop the transport of food products from GB to NI," he wrote.

"I have to say that we never seriously believed that the EU would be willing to use a treaty, negotiated in good faith, to blockade one part of the UK, to cut it off, or that they would actually threaten to destroy the economic and territorial integrity of the UK."

Johnson said the EU's stance would "seriously endanger peace and stability in Northern Ireland".

- 'Nonsense' -

"We disagree," former prime ministers Tony Blair and John Major, who led Britain through historic peace talks in the 1990s, retorted in the Sunday Times.

Story continues

"The government's action does not protect the (1998) Good Friday Agreement -- it imperils it," they wrote in a joint opinion piece, calling Johnson's claims to have only belatedly unearthed problems in the EU treaty "nonsense".

"As the world looks on aghast at the UK -- the word of which was once accepted as inviolable -- this government's action is shaming itself and embarrassing our nation."

The EU has threatened Britain with legal action unless it withdraws its unilateral changes by the end of September, and leaders in the European Parliament on Friday threatened to veto any trade pact if London violated its promises.

Paolo Gentiloni, the EU's economics affairs commissioner, said it was up to Britain to "re-establish trust" with the bloc.

"And in any case... we are prepared to deal with extraordinary negative outcome of this discussion," the former Italian prime minister added in Berlin.

Under the EU withdrawal treaty, Northern Ireland will enjoy a special status to ensure no return of a border with EU member Ireland, in line with the 1998 peace pact that ended three decades of bloodshed.

The food dispute centres on the EU's refusal so far to grant Britain "third country" status, which acknowledges that nations meet basic requirements to export their foodstuffs to Europe.

The EU is worried that post-Brexit Britain could undermine its own food standards, as well as rules on state aid for companies, and infiltrate its single market via Northern Ireland.

- 'Harmful act' -

Johnson's article appeared after he held a chaotic videoconference on Friday evening with mutinous Conservative MPs who are aghast at the prospect of the government tearing up an international treaty.

Senior Conservative backbencher Robert Neill was unimpressed by Johnson's calls to push the bill through and prevent a renewal of the Brexit infighting that paralysed parliament last year.

"I believe it is potentially a harmful act for this country, it would damage our reputation and I think it will make it harder to strike trade deals going forward," Neill told Channel 4 News, a point echoed by Blair and Major.

The government celebrated one breakthrough Friday when it clinched its first post-Brexit trade pact, with Japan. But critics noted it would boost Britain's long-term economic output by just 0.07 percent, and that trade with the EU is far higher.

jit/jj
Weekend Todays Lauren Phillips managed a coup when she surprised hosts Richard Wilkins & Rebecca Maddern with a surprise appearance from Chris Hemsworth.

Thor even gave an impromptu weather report, from a field in Scone NSW.

The downside to the story was plans to film some young cheerleaders from Ballina was shelved when the crew could not make it in time.

They say they will reschedule but I dont think that will happen, Kev Graham, father of two cheerleaders, told news.com.au.

I understand that Chris is the golden ticket for ratings but I think most families that watch Today would have loved watching the athletes show off their sport.

For some families it would even be an introduction to competitive cheerleading in Australia.

Nine declined to comment.
Sir John Major and Tony Blair speak as they walk across the Peace Bridge in Derry, Northern Ireland, on June 9, 2016. (Jeff J Mitchell-WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Former UK Leaders Blair and Major Slam Government Plan to Breach Brexit Treaty

Former British prime ministers Tony Blair and John Major have issued a joint warning against the governments plan to override parts of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, an international treaty it had negotiated and signed with the European Union.

Writing in The Sunday Times, the two former leaders warned that tearing up part of the withdrawal agreement will jeopardize peace in Northern Ireland, make it harder to negotiate trade deals, and destroy trust in Britain.

Former British Prime Ministers Tony Blair and John Major attend the Remembrance Sunday ceremony at the Cenotaph, in London, on Nov. 8, 2015. (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)

Prime Minister Boris Johnsons government concluded the Brexit withdrawal agreement with the EU in October 2019, and signed it into law in January. The pact lays out the UKs terms of exit from the bloc and has the status of an international treaty.

But the British government openly admitted last week that its proposed Internal Market Bill, which potentially breaches the treatys Northern Ireland protocol, does break international law, albeit in a very specific and limited way.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson attends a virtual press conference at Downing Street in London on Sept. 9, 2020. (Stefan Rousseau -WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Shaming the Nation

Major, a Conservative prime minister from 1990 to 1997, and Blair, his Labour successor for a decade, called the governments action shocking, as it is shaming itself and embarrassing our nation.

The plan to override the treaty strikes at the very heart of the withdrawal agreement and puts the Good Friday agreement at risk, they wrote.

The Good Friday agreement, reached in 1998, ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland. Major and Blair played crucial roles in this process.

Then British Prime Minister John Major shakes hands with security personnel on duty in the Ennskillen area of Northern Ireland on 31 Mar. 1994. (PA/AFP via Getty Images)

This has wide-ranging ramifications, they wrote, because once trust is undermined, it will not only make negotiation with the EU more difficult, but also any trade negotiations with other nations, including the United States.

The two former prime ministers urged Parliament to reject the proposed bill. If parliament deliberately passes legislation known to undermine international law, what will that do to the reputation of parliament and our nation?

UK Integrity Threatened

The planned legislation, which will be debated by British lawmakers from Monday, has led to a furious outcry within the EU as it would diminish the blocs previously agreed oversight of trade between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland if a UKEU trade agreement isnt secured.

EU Chief negotiator Michel Barnier, second from left, arrives with his team at the Westminster Conference Centre in London, on Sept. 9, 2020. (Alberto Pezzali/ AP Photo)

The reputation of the UK  as a trusted negotiating partner on important issues like this is being damaged in a very serious way, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney told the BBC on Sunday.

Johnson says the new legislation is needed to clarify the Northern Ireland protocol, to protect free trade between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland.

Writing in The Telegraph on Saturday, Johnson accused the EU of threatening to use an extreme interpretation of the Northern Ireland protocol to impose a full-scale trade border down the Irish Sea, and to destroy the economic and territorial integrity of the UK.

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier rejected that charge. He said on Sunday that the Northern Ireland protocol is not a threat to the integrity of the UK, and had been agreed by the two sides to protect peace on the island of Ireland.

UK Politicians Divided

Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party, said his party would oppose the bill in Parliament unless concerns were addressed.

We have broken the trust of our international partners, Starmer wrote in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer leaves his home in London on April 22, 2020. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)

The government is also facing pressure from some of its own backbench members of Parliament who are uneasy at the prospect of the government breaching international law.

Former Prime Minister Theresa May said in Parliament last week that the government risked serious damage to its international image.

How can the government reassure future international partners that the UK can be trusted to abide by the legal obligations of the agreements it signs? May asked.

Then British Prime Minister Theresa May leaves Number 10 Downing Street for Prime Ministers Questions in Parliament in London on Feb. 13, 2019. (Jack Taylor/Getty Images)

Tobias Ellwood, a former Conservative minister who currently chairs of the Defence Select Committee in the House of Commons, also said he could not accept the legislation, arguing that the bill diminishes our role-model status as defender of global standards.

Nick Gutteridge, Reuters, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Tibetans hold anti-China protest in solidarity with Special Frontier Force commando in New York. Members of the Tibetan community in New York organised a protest against China at Jackson Heights, also known as Little India, to show their solidarity with SSF (Special Frontier Force) commando Nyima Tenzin.

Members of the Tibetan community in New York organised a protest against China at Jackson Heights, also known as Little India, to show their solidarity with Special Frontier Force (SFF) commando Nyima Tenzin.Nyima, a Tibetan-Indian hero of the elite covert paramilitary unit SFF was killed on the night of August 29-30 in eastern Ladakh in India.

The 51-year old soldier died after he stepped on to a 1962 vintage anti-personnel mine near the southern bank of the Pangong lake. The Tibetan community across the world is angry about Chinas recent aggression in Ladakh and they accused Beijing of occupying Tibet for the past several decades.

The Tibetan National Congress led by President Tseten Lhagyal also held solidarity prayers as a tribute to brave SFF commando Nyima Tenzin.The Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) belongs to the Tibetan refugee community that has settled in India due to Chinese atrocities.SFF is an Indian security unit that is primarily drawn from the thousands of Tibetan refugees who now call India home.

ALSO READ: US Senators send letter to Disney CEO to explain why it cooperated with Xinjiang authorities over Mulan

It was formed in the immediate aftermath of the 1962 war with China.A former SSF soldier Migmar Tsering Rangzen said they are ready to go back to the border by adding that Tibetan are always with India. And we shouldnt say Indo-China border, but Tibet-India border.

ALSO READ: Covid-19 one of greatest challenges in history: UN General Assembly
If you've ever lived in a city, you're more than familiar with the industrial weeds that are scaffolds blighting buildings for months and even years on end. But eventually, these metal cocoons are torn down, revealing a butterflied structure underneath. Unless you live in Belgium, where public building projects take so long, people assume that putting long metal bars on the outside of buildings is the country's dominant architectural style.

Belgians like to boast that they're a nation of builders. What they fail to mention is that they're the shitty kind who take twice as long as quoted and rub their builder's cracks all over your coffee mugs. The country is notorious for endless renovation projects of its 19th-century buildings, leaving most cities looking like someone crashed their computer in the middle of a very productive game of Sim City 2000. In Antwerp, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts (the Belgian Met) has been completely boarded up with scaffolds from 2011 until (optimistically) 2022. Meanwhile (and it is a while), the country's Royal Conservatory was put in scaffolds in the mid-'80s, only to have the actual renovations begin in  well, they haven't actually started yet, but maybe 2023?
San Francisco, Sep 13 : Video calling app Google Duo is now available for Android TV four years after the app arrived on the scene.

The search engine giant teased the arrival of the app earlier this week, saying it will be available in beta for Android TV.

One can head to the Google Play Store on the phone/PC browser and install the app remotely on the TV or "go for a direct install through the Google marketplace available on the Android TV platform", reports 9To5Google.

However, once a user installs Duo on Android TV, the service is not functional.

"The Duo won't be added to the home screen or the app tray. The only way to open it would be to go through the Settings app or using Sideload Launcher".

For voice-only calls, it uses the microphone that is built into the remote control but a user can't yet receive calls on Google Duo on an Android TV.

This is something Google will work out in future versions of the app.
Indian Railways on Saturday started operating additional 80 (40 pairs) of trains across the country. The list include India's first semi-high speed train Vande Bharat Express which started operating between New Delhi and Varanasi after a gap of more than 170 days.

Indian Railways suspended the operations of Vande Bharat Express on 23 March after a nationwide lockdown was imposed to stop the spread of covid-19 in the country. The second Vande Bharat Express train which operates between New Delhi and Katra however remains suspended

As of now Indian Railways have started the New Delhi-Varanasi Vande Bharat Express which will operate five days in a week except on Monday and Thursday.

However, on the first day of its operation, the premium train saw a low occupancy rate with just 2% passengers booking tickets on this train.

"This is just day one. Many trains are weekly, bi-weekly and so on. Reservation for those trains is expected to pick up as we get closer to those days," said a railway official.

The train will be numbered 02435 which will leave Varanasi at 3pm for New Delhi and 02436 will leave New Delhi at 6am for Varanasi.

With the railways stating that they have introduced special trains in areas where there is more demand and tickets are being waitlisted, only three among the 80 have managed to garner even 50 per cent occupancy on the first day of booking, according to the data.

It is significant to note that when the railways announced that bookings were open for the 15 pairs of trains running on the Rajdhani routes since May 12 and 100 pairs operating since June 1 -- the tickets were all booked within a few hours.

Earlier, at a media briefing, the railway board chairman VK Yadav said, "Eighty new special trains or 40 pair of trains will start operating from September 12. Reservations will begin from September 10. These will run in addition to the 230 trains already in operation." Yadav said the railways will monitor all the trains that are currently in operation to determine which trains have a long waiting list.

"Wherever there is a demand for a particular train, wherever the waiting list is long, we will run a clone train ahead of the actual train, so that passengers can travel," he said.

The key factor in deciding the 80 new trains was the fact that there were many stations from where the migrant workers are going back to their workplace, Yadav said.

*With inputs from agencies

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Antananarivo (AFP) - Key dates in the history of Madagascar since independence from France 60 years ago on Friday.

- Decolonisation -

On June 26, 1960, Philibert Tsiranana becomes the Indian Ocean island's first president.

- First republic in flames -

Tsiranana faces popular anger over his perceived subservience to France.

In 1972 protestors set fire to city hall in the capital Antananarivo, the start of a popular uprising that is repressed with the loss of 40 lives.

The demonstrations force Tsiranana to resign, bringing an end to the country's first republic as he hands over to an army general, Gabriel Ramanantsoa.

- Ratsiraka in power -

In 1975 a socialist constitution is installed and Didier Ratsiraka becomes president.

General strikes paralyse Madagascar. Hundreds of thousands of people rally for months in 1991 in peaceful protests.

The opposition occupies ministries and establishes a transitional authority led by Albert Zafy.

The situation turns violent when guards open fire on a march at the presidential palace. More than 100 people are killed.

In 1992, a new constitution puts an end to the unrest. A year later, Zafy wins the presidential election but in 1996 is impeached for violating the constitution.

In elections the following year, Ratsiraka returns to power.

- Battle for the presidency -

After a nearly seven-month crisis, Marc Ravalomanana, a millionaire dairy mogul, is declared winner of presidential elections in 2002 against the outgoing Ratsiraka, who disputed the results.

Ravalomanana is reelected in 2006.

- Mayor's 'coup' -

In March 2009, Antananarivo mayor Andry Rajoelina seizes power from Ravalomanana with the backing of the military.

The international community denounces what it deems a coup and for nearly four years foreign aid and investment are frozen, driving the island deeper into poverty.

In September 2011, the main political factions draw up a roadmap to guide Madagascar to elections.

- Rajaonarimampianina elected -

Story continues

In December 2013 with the support of the outgoing regime, Hery Rajaonarimampianina wins presidential election, taking over at the start of 2014.

Neither Ravalomanana nor Rajoelina ran against him, amid fears abroad that this would reignite political turmoil.

But just 16 months later, parliament votes overwhelmingly to dismiss Rajaonarimampianina for alleged constitutional violations and overall incompetence.

In June the Constitutional Court throws out the impeachment demand.

Protesters hit the streets of Antananarivo again in April 2018 over Rajaonarimampianina's efforts to change electoral laws that opponents say are intended to favour his party.

The crisis ends with the creation of a consensus government to stage polls by year's end.

- Rajoelina president -

In January 2019 Rajoelina is declared victor of the December presidential election as a top court throws out accusations of fraud by rival Ravalomanana.

- Anti-COVID brew -

In April 2020, Rajoelina launches a local herbal concoction claimed to prevent and cure the novel coronavirus.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has repeatedly cautioned that the brew needs to be clinically tested to support such claims.
Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. is shown in a file photo. Hite, since 2012 the Philadelphia School District leader, is the subject of a petition expressing no confidence recently started by the principals' union. Read more

Citing a failure of leadership, Philadelphias principals' union has lost faith in Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. and is asking members of the community to sign a no-confidence petition.

Superintendents are tasked with three duties: keeping students safe, educating them, and fiscal stewardship. Dr. Hite has failed at all three, the leadership of the Commonwealth Association of School Administrators wrote in a petition that had garnered more than 1,500 signatures by late Sunday afternoon.

It is a dramatic, unprecedented step for the union, whose members have not traditionally been vocal in criticizing district leadership.

But Robin Cooper, president of CASA, which represents 650 principals and other administrators, said the time has come. Hite and his leadership team practice the kind of top-down micromanagement that makes it difficult for principals to do their jobs, Cooper said, and things have worsened during the pandemic.

Hes created a hostile environment," Cooper said. Her union did not take a vote authorizing the petition, but she said it expressed the sentiments of her members.

Tensions between principals and the administration have run particularly high since COVID-19 hit, Cooper said. Now, many are unhappy that administrators will soon have to physically report to their schools, though students wont return to buildings until at least mid-November.

Hite has said that principals are needed to supervise building engineers and cleaners who are currently working inside schools and the support staff who will soon come back; those workers typically interact directly with children, but will be directed to perform other tasks to ready buildings. Cooper said that without students, there will be little work for those employees.

Returning to school buildings without children is just risking our health unnecessarily, and it makes no sense, said Cooper. This is not about her members wanting to work, she said, or being difficult to get along with: Its a fundamental lack of respect for the quantity and quality of work administrators have done keeping schools afloat, during the pandemic and prior to it.

Asked to comment on the no-confidence petition, district spokesperson Monica Lewis said the school system is grateful for the hard work that all of our staff, including school leaders, teachers and custodial staff, have been safely performing both remotely and on-site in our schools and offices since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Our school leaders have done amazing work supporting our students, families and school-based staff as we began the year with students engaged in digital learning."

Lewis said extensive health and safety protocols will be enforced as principals and other staff are phased back into schools and offices.

School board member Mallory Fix Lopez, who has publicly raised concerns about Hites leadership, said Sunday that she took seriously the boards responsibility to hold the superintendent accountable and that Hites evaluation is upcoming.

If principals are not confident in leadership, I do find that concerning, Fix Lopez said.

The petition points to errors by the Hite administration on building conditions, particularly around the error-ridden construction project at Benjamin Franklin High School. Inquirer reporting and an Inspector Generals report concluded that on the project, begun to co-locate Science Leadership Academy inside Ben Franklin, the district ignored warning signs, rushed crucial work, wasted money, and endangered students and staff.

It also calls out Hite for the incremental academic gains made during his tenure, and suggests his often-stated goals of focusing on equity in schools are just lip service. CASA has called for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office; the superintendent has said he wants diversity, equity and inclusion to be the work of all offices and has convened an equity committee that will soon begin meeting.

Cooper says the committee has no teeth.

Time for change, one petition signer wrote.

Dr. Hite and his leadership, throughout his tenure, have placed our students in harms way, the petition states. The failure of his leadership has centered around a lack of attention to diversity, equity and inclusion, showing a pattern of negligence in addressing issues of environment, fiscal irresponsibility, instruction and climate and culture in the School District of Philadelphia.

In late August, the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools, a small group made up of mostly retired district educators, called for Hites resignation.

Founders Lisa Haver and Karel Kilimnik, in a letter to the board, cited the many revelations contained in the Inspector Generals report of the Hite administrations failure to protect the health and safety of the students and staff of Benjamin Franklin and SLA high schools.

Hite is paid $317,902 a year to run the district, which educates about 125,000 students in 200-plus schools. His contract runs through August 2022.

The principals' action comes as the district is in the midst of negotiating a teachers' contract. The 13,000-member Philadelphia Federation of Teachers contract expired Aug. 31; president Jerry Jordan has said that the school system insists any salary increases are tied to the PFTs agreeing to a school reopening plan.
A leading producer says commercial TV networks should be allowed to move their Australian drama, childrens and documentary content to their streaming or catch-up services, leaving their main channels for reality, entertainment, sports and news programming.

Australians want to watch drama, and they want to watch Australian drama, says Chris Oliver-Taylor, Asia-Pacific chief executive officer of Fremantle, one of the biggest local producers of both scripted and unscripted content. But you need to go where the audiences are going."

Fremantle Media Australia chief executive Chris Oliver-Taylor on the set of Neighbours. Without regulation in the form of content quotas, he says, the show would almost certainly disappear. Credit:Fremantle

There should be some incentives and structure around, say, Netflix and Seven working together, Nine and Stan, Ten and CBS, to make sure they can put their drama offerings on the right platform at the right time, and the free-to-air model can be designed around sport, reality and news.

The comments mark a significant intervention by the respected industry figure in the debate around the future of the industry as the federal government considers its response to the Options Paper prepared by Screen Australia and the ACMA and released in April. Allowing the broadcasters to acquit their obligations in drama, children's and documentary off their main channels would be a major concession from the production side of the industry.
You should learn whether youre an investor or a gambler before the market teaches you the difference.

Stock gamblers are on the rise. But, sooner or later, they will lose mostif not allof their recent gains.

Just look at options trading, which has been surging. Many traders use options as a cheap way to try hitting the jackpot: stock-market Powerball.

In late August, a record 62% of premiums paid for options initiating bets on rising stock prices came from people buying no more than 10 contracts. (The long-term average is 34%.) Nearly all such small-fry are inexperienced retail traders, says Jason Goepfert of Sundial Capital Research in Minneapolis, which tracks market sentiment.

In the week ending Sept. 4 alone, says Mr. Goepfert, small traders shelled out $11.5 billion this wayan all-time high and nine times last years average. To put that weeks bets in perspective, in all of fiscal 2019 Americans spent $91 billion on lottery tickets.

Derived from the Latin optio, or choice," an option entitles but doesnt obligate you to buy or sell an underlying security at a fixed strike price" anytime until the option expires.

A call" option can pay off if a stock rises; a put," if it falls.

Lets say youre optimistic about a stock and it rises above the strike price of your call before expiration. You then can sell or exercise the option and earn a bigger profit with a smaller cash outlay than if you had bought the stock outright.

On the other hand, if you expect a stock to fall, and it drops below the strike price before expiration, you can sell your put. You would make more money than if you had bet against the stock by selling it short.

Earlier this week, for instance, you could buy a call option on 100 shares of Apple Inc. with a strike price of $125 per share expiring Oct. 2. Your premium, or cost, was $3.30 per share. So Apple would have to hit $128.30 by Oct. 2 for you to break even.

If Apple, trading then around $117, were to rise above $128.30 by the beginning of October, you could sell your option at a quick profit.

If Apple hit $130, your options contract would be worth that minus the $125 strike price, or $5. You paid a $3.30 premium, leaving you a gain of $1.70 per share, or $170 on your outlay of $330. Thats a 50% return in less than a month.

If Apples stock doesnt go above $125, the most you could lose is your $330 premium.

So why doesnt everybody trade options all the time?

Because its risky.

Stocks and other securities dont always go up-or down, for that matter. Which way they move, and how much and when, can stupefy even the most experienced professionals.

And, although stock trades are free at most brokerages, you cant trade optionswin or losewithout paying the premium. Guess wrong a few times, and youll be out thousands of dollars with nothing to show for it but a churning stomach.

Youll also pay your broker a spread," often five or 10 cents and up per options contract, or at least $5 to $10 on an option tied to 100 shares. And short-term capital-gains taxes will eat into your profits like acid.

Because demand for options rises in sharply fluctuating markets, premiums are higher than normal right now, so retail options buyers need sizable moves to make money," warns Joanne Hill, head of research and strategy at Cboe Vest, a firm in McLean, Va., that designs and manages option-based strategies.

As jumpy as markets have been recently, theyd have to get even jumpier in a hurry to fulfill the dreams of many newbie traders.

Small losses arent likely to discourage such speculators.

In her new book, Innumeracy in the Wild: Misunderstanding and Misusing Numbers," psychologist Ellen Peters of the University of Oregon shows that a potential gain comes alive with feeling" when people know they also can lose a little money.

Consider an experiment. One group of people is asked how much they would like to take a wager with a roughly 20% chance of winning some money. The catch is that theres an 80% chance they will suffer a very small loss. Another group is asked how much they would like to make a similar bet if they had the same chance to win, but with no chance of losing anything.

Youd think the second group would rate that wager as more attractive. Youd be wrong.

It turns out the possibility of winning doesnt seem that thrilling if nothing is at stake. Comparing a possible profit against the potential of a small loss makes the gain feel bigger and better.

Surprisingly, the more numerate people are, the stronger this effect seems to become.

Numbers may be counted, sorted and manipulated by our thinking minds," writes Prof. Peters, but, in the end, numbers influence and inform choices through our feeling minds."

View Full Image Call option purchases, by traders' size

No wonder trading can become an addiction. Surveys among individual traders in the Netherlands and in France found that roughly 4% met standard criteria for compulsive gambling.

Among the signs that someone is a trading addict: escalating trades to sustain excitement, borrowing money from friends or family to cover losses, lying about losses, and attempting and failing to quit.

If this sounds like you, confess to your friends or family and get help before the market cures you the hard way: with massive losses that can wreck your life.

As experienced gamblers understand, its vital to know what kind of game youre playing. Some forms of gamblingblackjack and poker are good examplesinvolve large amounts of skill alongside luck. Others, like the lottery or slot machines or roulette, depend almost entirely on luck.

Trading options involves lots of skill if you know what youre doingand nothing but luck if you dont.

Disclaimer: This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.

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By PTI

NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, whose penchant for obscure many-syllable words is well-known, on Sunday had an odd-request from author Chetan Bhagat who asked the word wizard to praise him using "big words".

Much to the delight of Bhagat, Tharoor obliged in no time and used choicest of words -- "sesquipedalian" to "limpid perspicacity" and whatnot -- from his voluminous vocabulary, famously called 'Tharoorosaurus', in his tweet addressed to the author.

It all started after Tharoor, 64, took to Twitter and praised Bhagat for his article in Times of India, titled "The youth need to shut their phones and ask about the economy".

The Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram termed Bhagat's opinion piece as "superb" and one with a "clear message".

"Superb piece by @chetan_bhagat on all that ails our country & what we should do about it. Chetan's great virtue is the simplicity and directness of his writing. His message is clear & I hope his fans in the government act on it," tweeted Tharoor, a best-selling author himself.

Taken aback by the lavish praise from Tharoor, Bhagat who said he will be framing the tweet requested the Congress leader to use "big words" to praise him.

"Ok I still can't get over this. The @ShashiTharoor has praised @chetanbhagat. I am floating. Just one request sir, next time can you use some big words to praise me, like ones that only you can do. Superb is nice but a big one would really make my day!," Bhagat tweeted.

Sure, @chetan_bhagat! Its clear you are not sesquipedalian nor given to rodomontade. Your ideas are unembellished with tortuous convolutions & expressed without ostentation. I appreciate the limpid perspicacity of todays column. https://t.co/GI3mbnlion  Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) September 13, 2020

Soon the diplomat-turned-politician replied, "Sure, @chetan_bhagat! It's clear you are not sesquipedalian nor given to rodomontade. Your ideas are unembellished with tortuous convolutions & expressed without ostentation. I appreciate the limpid perspicacity of today's column."

The entertaining Twitter exchange gave way to a flurry of memes and hilarious tweets.

"Google is also unable to translate," tweeted Raja Ram Singh.

"Enjoyed this @ShashiTharoor chetan_bhagat can write another book 'The 4th Mistake of My Life'," tweeted Dominic Savio.

"After so many days I needed a dictionary #shashitharoor#chetanbhagat," tweeted Mayur Shinde.

BroJack tweeted, "12 years of ICSE upbringing, just to not even be able to figure out if he's talking for or against Chetan Bhagat."

For the unversed, 'sesquipedalian' means a word being polysyllabic, 'rodomontade' is boastful, 'convolutions' means complex, 'ostentation' means being pretentious, 'limpid' is clear and 'perspicacity' is to be shrewd.

In 2017, Tharoor's tweet, with words like "exasperating farrago of distortions", made headlines and became the buzz word of the Internet.

His latest book, aptly titled "Tharoorosaurus", is a collection of 53 such words, one from every letter of the alphabet.
The sister of a young woman who was banned from attending her father's funeral in Brisbane last week has hit out at Prime Minister Scott Morrison for "politicising" her family's tragedy, saying a "very private moment has been made very public".

Alexandra Prendergast, 32, moved to Queensland from Melbourne in late June, between Victoria's two lockdown periods, to spend time with her father, Bernard Prendergast, before he lost his battle with cancer on September 2.

Alexandra Prendergast with her late father Bernard.

The family's anguish gained national attention last week after Ms Prendergast's stepsister, Sarah Caisip, was initially denied an exemption to leave hotel quarantine to say goodbye, despite arriving from the ACT, where there are no active cases.

The situation ended in a stand-off between Mr Morrison and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, whose government compromised and allowed the 26-year-old Canberra nurse a few minutes alone with her father's body at the end of the funeral.
Parents and students wait outside a school in Tongliao, in China's northern Inner Mongolia region, on Sept. 10, 2020. (Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images)

Inner Mongolia Government Staff Punished for Protesting Against Mandarin-Only School Lessons

After Inner Mongolian authorities implemented plans to phase out Mongolian teaching in classrooms and replace it with Mandarin Chinese, waves of protests broke out across the region.

Many parents stopped sending their children to schools, including government officials and employees who are ethnic Mongolian. Leaked documents obtained by The Epoch Times reveal that local authorities are monitoring government employees and issuing punitive measures for those who do not support the new language policy.

Since late August, local protests erupted after the local education bureau issued new regulations requiring classes in primary and middle schools to be taught in Mandarin Chinese and use standardized Chinese-language textbooks. The region is home to many ethnic Mongolians, who have a distinct language and culture from the Han Chinese ethnic majority who speak Mandarin.

Local media also reported that in the Xilin Gol League, officials were seeking to hire more bilingual teachers fluent in Mongolian and Mandarin, who would replace those who taught only in Mongolian.

The new policy caused anxiety and fears among ethnic Mongolians that their unique cultural identities were being eroded.

The Epoch Times recently obtained Inner Mongolia government documents, revealing that any Chinese Communist Party members and government employees who opposed the policy would be penalized. Authorities also monitored staffs children to ensure that they are not boycotting classes.

On Sept. 6, many local governments in Inner Mongolia issued a notice requiring public officials to send their children to school. If anyone doesnt comply, the person will be suspended, all benefits will be temporarily removed, and he or she will be investigated and held accountable.

Local media reports confirmed that there were several officials who were suspended for opposing the language policy.

Another Inner Mongolia document stated that any Communist Party members and cadres who take an active role in preventing their children from going to school or enrolling would first be given a talking to, followed by a criticism and education [session], a warning, a severe warning, then dismissal or expulsion from the Party.

Also, since Sept. 1, the Communist Party committee of Bayar Tohushuo town began collecting information on the school enrollment and attendance status of town officials and Party cadres children, as instructed by higher-ups, according to one document.

Officials must make sure employees in the unit send their children to school tomorrow (Sept. 5), read another internal government report.

Another document revealed that the town government was investigating whether any Party members had participated in local protests since Aug. 25.

Despite the threats, locals posted on social media that there were still students in many areas of Inner Mongolia who have not returned to school. Fewer students were attending the Party flag-raising ceremony, which is held every Monday at all elementary, middle, and high schools.

Radio Free Asia reported that hundreds of Mongolians have been arrested or pressured to resign from public office due to their refusal to comply with the language policy.

On Sept. 4, Su Rina, a Mongolian female official from the government office of the Alxa League in Inner Mongolia, fell from her residence and died, according to local media. Some netizens relayed what her husband Alateng Bagna said: His wife died after she had disagreements with officials about the new policy and received pressure from higher-ups.
Victoria will gouge a further $3 (US$2.1) billion into its budget to help businesses survive COVID-19 as the state begins a slow emergence from lockdown.

The Labor government on Sept. 13 announced a suite of cash grants, payroll tax deferrals and fee waivers in a move Premier Daniel Andrews described as the biggest package of business support in the history of this state.

It is an unprecedented set of challenges that business face. We want to get to the other side and we want to make sure that, yes, weve protected lives but also protected livelihoods, Andrews said at a press conference Sept. 13.

The government insisted that the measures come off the back of substantial dialogue with business across all sectors.

There will be payroll tax deferrals for up to 12 months for businesses with payroll of up to $10 million a year, which will come at a cost of some $1.7 billion to the state, Treasurer Tim Pallas said.

The latest raft of measures relies on the states very strong budget and takes to $6 billion Victorias COVID-19 economic support, the government said.

That is more than any other state, any territory and might I say in terms of a percentage of our own sourced revenue compared to the Commonwealth, it also challenges, if it doesnt exceed Commonwealth contributions, Pallas said.

Andrews expected about 80,000 businesses to receive support and promised the money will be distributed as soon as possible, as he reconfirmed the state was expected to reach 11 percent unemployment by the end of 2020.

Elements of Victorias strict lockdown measures will be eased in Melbourne on Sept. 14. Regional areas, where there are just 52 active cases, could return to near-normal in coming days.

The state on Sept. 13 reported 41 new cases and seven further deaths.

The statistics for the past 24 hours take the states death toll to 723 and the national count to 810 since the start of the pandemic.

The 14-day case average for regional Victoria sits at 4.1 and in Melbourne is 56.9, inching closer to the sub-50 target.

Andrews said the figures were encouraging and aided the states plan to ease lockdown restrictions, but he refused to rush the process.

I can announce that we have extended the state of emergency and the state of disaster for a further four weeks, he said.

That underpins all the different rules. It underpins taking those safe and steady steps.

Victorias opposition leader, Michael OBrien criticised Sundays package, instead calling for businesses to reopen.

Businesses dont want welfare, they just want the opportunity to safely reopen with a COVID planthats what they should be given, OBrien said.

Australian Industry Group, boss Tim Piper said agreed that dipping further into the governments coffers is not the solution and suggested reassessing the COVID-19 roadmap to easing out of lockdown.

The best thing the government can do is to remove the impossible targets it has set for restriction easing and work to get the border open with New South Wales, said Piper.

Most measures apply to businesses with annual payrolls of up to $10 million

By Andrew Drummond
First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford visits Page's fish and chip shop restaurant on August 3, 2020 in Cwmbran, Wales. He concluded the move to higher levels of home-working could drive regeneration and economic activity. Photo: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

The Welsh government has said that around 30% of workers in the nation could regularly work from home, even after the pandemic has ended.

At odds with UK central government messaging to get back to work, Welsh ministers have said working remotely has had positive benefits.

The devolved parliament said it would seek to drive changes to Waless working culture to drive productivity and promote a healthy work-life balance.

Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford concluded the move could drive regeneration and economic activity through people spending money in their communities.

Other benefits to working from home that the Welsh government cited were a green dividend through a sharp drop in congestion on roads.

The Welsh government said: The intention is to develop a hybrid workplace model, where staff can work in the office, at home, or in a hub location.

READ MORE: Brexit: Key facts ahead of next week's talks

Deputy Minister for Transport and Economy, Lee Waters said: "The UK government instruction for everyone to go back to the office is not one we are repeating in Wales.

"We believe many people will want to continue to work remotely in the longer term and this could be a step-change in the way we work in Wales."

These plans have been released despite calls from industry groups to rally people back to offices.

Shopkeepers have warned that many shops will go under unless regular working patterns resume.

In reports on Tuesday Helen Dickinson OBE, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), said: Unless businesses and government can successfully persuade office workers back into city and town centres, some high street retailers will be unable to afford their fixed costs.

Government will need to act fast or September will see more shops close and more job losses realised, she said.

READ MORE: Philip Green's Arcadia in U-turn to pay full salaries for staff facing redundancy
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DALLAS  When she left the increasingly bustling downtown of Big D, Marie Combs, a single, white petroleum geologist, chose a suburb just outside the loop, drawn by big lots, peace and green spaces.

At first, she felt like an outsider in suburban Donald Trump country, and a dejected Democrat after her partys losses in 2016. In four short years, all that changed.

Now, theres a mix of people whove come from downtown, she said, describing Latino and African American neighbors. I like that my street is a mix of people. I like that my street looks like America.

Now in 2020, the battle for political power in the nation and Texas is being waged in suburbs just like hers which are increasingly less white and less conservative. Trumps race baiting over these semi-urban hinterlands, his tweets quaintly beckoning suburban housewives isnt just bigoted or misogynist; its just ill-informed. He is right to focus on women voters  they are at the heart of the struggle over keeping Texas red or turning it blue because they are the rare demographic of Trump voter whose support has actually frayed.

Recent polls put Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden just one to two points apart, but truth is, Trump has been dragging down Texas Republicans for a year. In a state usually ignored by Democratic presidential nominees, Biden is airing advertising in Texas. Democrats know that a Biden victory in the land of 38 electoral votes is their best hope of winning by a large enough margin to blunt Trumps expected claims of a rigged election should he lose.

The usual chorus of It Cant Happen Here is already cranking up its conventional wisdom sound machine.

Texas will never be blue, says Jeff Roe, who ran U.S. Sen. Ted Cruzs 2018 squeaker against Beto ORourke. It is highly likely that in the next four or eight years that it will be purple and competitive.

But the suburban shifts are so fundamental that the nay-saying chorus is very well singing a swan song. Claims of Texas stasis are greatly exaggerated. The Lone Star State is going to the Democrats in 2020. Need proof? Look first beyond Republicans themselves. Behold the great blue yonder.

Geography is destiny

As I get older I guess I get a lot more conservative in my predictions, James Henson, the director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin told me recently. Im not seeing a bunch of Republicans defecting from Trump right now.

Look, there are a hell of a lot of Republicans in Texas. But the composition of these districts has changed. The lines the Republicans drew in 2011 have decayed. he went on. Theyre just very different. Theyre white liberals priced out of the cities. Theyre people of color. That shift is something the Republicans have missed and everybody has missed.

Not everybody.

Out yonder in Albuquerque lives Sally Davis, who left Highland Park years ago but still considers the wealthy Dallas enclave her hometown; she grew up a childhood friend of rich and powerful people such as Jim Moroney, whose family owns A. H. Belo Co. But she became a teacher, a Democrat, a grandmother. She believes in the healing power of bone marrow broth, buys from an organic farm, and in 2018 set out to do the impossible: turn a sprawling red New Mexico congressional district safe within the confines of whats known as Republican Little Texas blue.

A handful of phone bankers transformed that year into a busload of door-knockers, convincing timid Democrats to vote and flip the seat. They did, electing Xochitl Torres Small.

We were ecstatic. We could not believe it! We just flipped it! Davis says. that was some of the hardest door-knocking in the country.

Though the Democrats hold is tenuous and pandemic politics seem to have put the district in play once again, Davis is trying to employ her winning strategy to flip Republican-held legislative seats in Texas.

Working as part of a seven-woman team, backed by a national fundraising and grassroots organizing group, her target this time is the seemingly obscure Texas House District 96, which contains about 160,000 voters in the suburbs of Fort Worth and Arlington.

Established after Trumps election, Swing Left is a national, progressive fundraising and organizing machine which helped Democrats take the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington in 2018. Founded by Ethan Todras-Whitehill, a writer and teacher, marketing expert Miriam Stone, and technologist Joshua Krafchin who bills himself on LinkedIn as a radical growth agent.

The group identified Texas as a super state with multiple opportunities from the presidential race to the legislature, which will soon redraw congressional districts. Democratic lawyer Joe Drago is trying to win the District 96 seat still rated as leaning Republican by the Baker Institute in Houston.

Its all about the numbers, says Davis. Her group organizes weekly on Zoom and can call 1,000 people a day and send personal letters to voters; in the last cycle Swing Left produced 10 million letters across the nation. In Tarrant County, they will focus just on getting Democrats out to vote. Pretty soon well have the seven of us and access to 70 phone bankers, Davis says.

Inside Texas, the Lone Star Project, led by longtime Democratic activist and consultant Matt Angle of Arlington, is arming selected candidates, including Drago, with opposition research on Republicans, staff training, prepping candidates for interviews, providing data and more.

Who else is helping Drago?

Beto ORourke, arguably the most popular Democrat in Texas, who has dedicated his new organization to targeting 17 state House districts and flipping at least eight seats that could be pivotal in influencing the redrawing of political boundaries that will be in place for a decade.

Beyond Beto

Of course, all this Democratic enthusiasm would be nothing more than fantasy if not for another unintended ally: Trump himself.

I call it the Trump Turmoil, said Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University. Theres a ripple effect of him doing something in Washington that roils the state almost constantly.

Trump has privately been the bane of Republican politicians since last year, as revealed in a private recording of state House Speaker Dennis Bonnen.

With all due respect to Trump  who I love, by the way  hes killing us in urban-suburban districts, Bonnen said, adding hed seen polling showing Trump down 15 percentage points in one battleground state House district, while the GOP incumbent was even.

Six Republican members of Congress suddenly retired last fall, a stampede known as Texodus. Trumps border wall has been divisive. His cruel immigration policies have upset many Texans, where these policies have, in fact, been carried out in places such as El Paso, Tornillo and Brownsville. His interruptions of border bridge traffic and trade with Mexico royally pissed off business.

Way back in November, a University of Texas-Texas Tribune poll reported that just half of voters would vote for Trump in 2020. The other half wanted him out.

A flip is also more plausible if you consider history. Texas is in the long process of realigning  again. It did so from the 1960s through the 1980s, culminating in 1994 with George W. Bush winning the governors mansion, much of it the result of Midwestern Republicans moving to the Texas suburbs. The same process is happening again but in reverse, from the early 2000s to today, from Republican to Democrat.

Texas has been purple a long time, with Democrats controlling the big cities but Republicans controlling the big state offices. The rest you know: In 2016, Trump beat Hillary Clinton by only 9 points, the smallest Republican margin in modern history. In 2018, not only did ORourke nearly upset Cruz, but he created a bow-wave of new Democrats swamping Republican congressional districts and elected judgeships.

Sea change

Of course, the Democrats can blow this and relegating Texas and Latino speakers to the margins at their convention proves it. But Democrats remember how vital it is to deliver Texas for Biden each time they hear Trump falsely warn of the the most corrupt election in history: Eking out a victory in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania may not drive him from office. A blizzard of lawsuits could ensue. Imagine the Supreme Court having to pick a president weeks later, just like it did in 2000.

The best electoral response is Texas, ORourke told me one morning in his home in El Paso. Its an interesting place, where Pancho Villa in 1915 met very publicly with leaders of the U.S. Army to plot revolution. ORourke reminds me of a bruised but determined revolutionary himself.

You have to defeat Trump and put him away in the electoral college. It forever changes the electoral map in this country. It would also flip the state House and bring down Republican Sen. John Cornyn, he continued. Its a sea change.

So far overlooked is the influence ORourke still has on the presidential race he bowed out of. His campaign manager, Jennifer OMalley Dillon, helped him forge his Texas-first idea. Now she is managing Bidens campaign. And she just announced the $280 million advertising buy that includes Texas along with 14 other states.

It didnt have to be like this for the Republican Party. In North Dallas, Luisa del Rosal, running for the state legislature, is precisely the kind of ideal, new Republican candidate that the party is trying to recruit. A millennial, the executive director of the Tower Center at SMU in Dallas, del Rosal is brilliant, friendly and good with people. (Full disclosure: I spoke at the center.) Now she is the Republican nominee for the state Houses 114th district in north Dallas, captured by Democrat John Turner in 2018 after 30 years of Republican control.

Im an immigrant from Mexico but Ive always been a proud Republican, del Rosal, 33, explains.

Weve got ideas, she insisted. Weve got free market ideas.

Unfortunately, decades of one-party monopoly in this state have made too many Republican Party leaders comfortable and their vision increasingly narrow.

To me, 2020 is a reminder of another year everybody has forgotten: 1980. For the first time, Texas voted for a Republican for president, Ronald Reagan, even as Democrats and Republicans continued to fight it out for power in Austin and split the two U.S. Senate seats. This year could bear a striking resemblance, with Biden winning the state, changing the course of presidential politics in Texas as the fight over power continues for years until the state is solidly blue.

Parker is the author of Lone Star Nation: How Texas Will Transform America.
A security guard at Victoria's Parliament House has tested positive for coronavirus.

Victoria's Parliament House and grounds have been closed for cleaning and contact tracing has begun.

Politicians are waiting on advice from Victoria's Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to see if they need individual testing, although some have already taken this precaution.

The security guard tested positive on Thursday to the virus.

Victoria's Parliament House pictured on Sunday. A security guard has tested positive to coronavirus, prompting the closure of Parliament for deep cleaning

The Legislative Assembly room, pictured in August. The MLAs last sat on September 3 and 4, while the security guard tested positive on Thursday September 10.

It is not yet known whether he was infectious and working when parliament sat earlier this month.

The Legislative Assembly last sat on September 3 and 4, while the Legislative Council sat on September 1 and 2, according to the Parliament of Victoria website.

Legislative Assembly Speaker Colin Brooks and Legislative Council President Nazih Elasmar said in a joint statement on Sunday that the contracted security guard had stayed home on the day and started to feel unwell.

'Deep cleaning of the areas where the person worked in the building has been undertaken and is continuing. This is on top of the ongoing high-level cleaning already undertaken in Parliament House each weekday,' the statement said.

A woman is tested for coronavirus in Bonbeach, Melbourne on August 20. Victoria recorded 41 new cases on Sunday for a total of 19,835 of which 1157 are active. The States of Emergency and Disaster which underpin the new coronavirus rules have been extended by a month

Parliament House and grounds have been closed for cleaning until further notice, however it is likely they may be re-opened in time for the Legislative Council's next scheduled sittings on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Parliamentary security guards are unable to work elsewhere under current contract arrangements.

Victoria recorded 41 new coronavirus cases on Sunday bringing the state's total to 19,835 with 723 deaths, the DHHS said in an emailed release.

There are 1,157 active cases of which 116 are in hospital and 11 in intensive care.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the number of 'mystery' cases, where the source of community transmission cannot be traced, has fallen by 11 since yesterday, however he has extended the State of Emergency and the State of Disaster for another four weeks, beginning tomorrow.

The Parliament of Victoria building and grounds (pictured on Sunday) are closed until further notice. The Legislative Council is scheduled to sit again on Tuesday and Wednesday. It is not known whether this will be affected

Victoria's State of Disaster came into operation on Sunday, August 2, alongside the Stage Four restrictions.

The State of Emergency was already in force at the time, and the two declarations have operated together.

The State of Emergency is what allows the Victorian government to make emergency coronavirus rules such as making face masks mandatory, introducing covid-safe work plans and requiring people to isolate in quarantine.

The State of Disaster gives the police special powers to enforce them.

Mr Andrews said the two declarations underpin the emergency coronavirus rules.

'It underpins taking those safe and steady steps,' he told reporters on Sunday.

The State of Emergency and State of Disaster are now scheduled to end just before midnight on October 11.
If anyone had been able to tell a pimpled little girl that she would be the first Indian influencer to walk the Cannes Film Festival or have her picture on a billboard in Piccadilly Circus as the face of Maybelline If anyone had told that teenager afraid of speaking in public or in English, that one day she would address the British House of Commons on International Womens Day, she would never have believed a word of it!

This is not a monologue from a forthcoming film. These are the words of a young woman who dared to dream and now lives that dream every day. With more than a million followers on Instagram @diipakhosla, as many as seven international magazine covers, and the title of Influencer of the Year for three consecutive years by Vogue, Elle and Grazia, Diipa Buller-Khosla is definitely on a roll.

Diipa feels the word influencer is misused at this time. Wardrobe: Gown, Rahul Mishra; jewellery, Sunita Shekhawat (Hari Nair)

Though her chosen role in life has made her dreams come true, Diipa thinks that the word influencer is somewhat misused at this time. I would much rather be called a new-age digital celebrity, the 29-year-old says. You can be an influencer only if you have managed to influence people so much that it has led to some kind of a social change.

I would much rather be called a new-age digital celebrity Diipa Khosla

But shes being too self-deprecating, we think. Based in the Netherlands, Diipa was in India earlier this year in February as a TED speaker, and its obvious that she has actually brought about a social change in her own way because she uses her clout to work with the UN and other NGOs to champion female empowerment and the anti-racism cause.

After finishing a bachelors degree in international human rights law, Diipa moved to London for her masters. Wardrobe: Gown, Pankaj & Nidhi (Hari Nair)

The making of clout

Born in a traditional Punjabi family, Diipa spent the first six years of her life in Delhi before her parents decided to shift to Chennai first and afterwards to Ooty, where she went to a British boarding school. Keen to study law abroad, she won a full scholarship that took her to the Netherlands.

After finishing a bachelors degree in international human rights law, Diipa moved to London for her masters. In a four-month break between university and a job as a full-fledged lawyer, she got herself an internship at a fashion agency in London.

The biggest obstacles Diipa had to overcome on the global stage were the colour of her skin and her gender. Wardrobe: Outfit and jacket, Rahul Mishra (Hari Nair)

To my utter surprise, it turned out to be Europes first influencer agency! she says. I knew nothing about this world, yet on my third day in the sales team, I was closing huge deals with fashion brands like Mango and Kiara.

Diipa began to understand the kind of power an influencer wields, and how, if used wisely, it could be a great business module.

(Clockwise from top left) Diipa during her wedding with Dutch diplomat Oleg Buller, in Udaipur; Attending David Koma Londons 10th anniversary show, 2019; As the face of MAC cosmetics; At the Milan Fashion Week, 2020

At that time, almost all the influencers came from the US and Europe, and it struck me that there was no Indian representing us in the global beauty and fashion space, she says. I realised that if I could do this, I could totally change the whole influencer game.

Colour of success

That was four years ago. She began as just any other brown girl, but in three years she had 1.1 million followers, has posed as a cover girl for several international magazines, walked at the Cannes and Venice Film Festivals and has been ambassador for brands like Estee Lauder and Kerastase.

Influencers should focus on community building! Diipa Khosla

It wasnt easy, says Diipa. It was possible only with hard work and very clear goal setting. This is something I want to tell all young people. Have your goals crystal clear. Be as clear as to think: I want to be in Times Square! How it will happen and when it will happen can be figured out, but just be clear.

The biggest obstacles Diipa had to overcome on the global stage were the colour of her skin and her gender. I have faced these issues my entire life, she says and adds: In 2016, I was rejected by a PR firm to attend a London Fashion Week show and another influencer, who was caucasian with less followers, was allowed. The only difference being our skintones!

But I used the negativity as fuel to push myself harder. Every time I faced a sexism issue, I would think: one day I will be your CEO and then men will know what sexism is.

As a teenager, Diipa had bought into the fair skin syndrome. But when I went to the West, I started to realise my uniqueness lay in being different and what makes me unique is my identity, my culture and my beautiful skin tone, she says. I started owning it and wearing my Indianness like a gold medal and that gave me confidence. For instance, I stopped wondering how I would ever be in the front row at the Milan Fashion Week, and just went for the challenge. Soon I was not only sitting in the front row but also playing muse to the same design brand that at one time had issues with my colour.

Diipas picture on a billboard in Piccadilly Circus, as the face of Maybelline

Change about

Her parents initially were wary of what she planned to do, but when they saw her success, they were happy. Besides being a fashion and beauty influencer, I also started focusing on womens empowerment and started the Post For Change Foundation, which uses social media for social change, explains Diipa. When my parents saw I was doing things bigger than myself, they were proud. At the TED Talk in Amritsar, they were in the audience and smiled when I spoke. Later, after taking selfies with young girls, when I asked my mother why shed been smiling so much she said, You know the little girl who was taking selfies with you? You were like that 10 years ago. And that is so true.

In 2019, Inflow, the worlds largest influencer platform, recognised Diipa as The Changemaker Influencer of 2019. With her husband, Dutch diplomat Oleg Buller, Diipa had set up the Post for Change Foundation in May, 2019.

(Clockwise) On the covers of Brides UK, and Conde Nast Traveller India and Grazia Pakistan; Diipa at the premiere of Lion King, July 2019

What makes me unique is my identity, my culture and my beautiful skin tone Diipa Khosla

I got the idea for the foundation during a massive international influencer trip with a huge brand, says Diipa. The brand managers told me they had become one of the biggest global fashion brands using influencer marketing as their main marketing channel. I realised I could use the same idea of influencers using their voices for causes around the world. Basically, use social media for social change.

With the idea in place, Diipa dived into the project with 100 per cent conviction. I had a five-year plan from the start, she says. It also tied in with the fact that there was not a single influencer representing India on a global scale. So, I decided it was about time I change that.

In 2019, Inflow, the worlds largest influencer platform, recognised Diipa as The Changemaker Influencer of 2019

Change has happened again with the Covid-19 pandemic. Influencers for sure have to change their business model at least for the moment, Diipa says. Fashion and beauty brands will have big losses and hence smaller budgets for influencer marketing. So, influencers should focus on building their community instead.

She is using this global lockdown to make more of herself. I am busier than ever before, she says over the phone from her Amsterdam home. Everyone is online! And I am working hard to give them amazing content. At the same time, I am also learning the truly important things in life. Im currently doing a psychology course online along with meditation, fitness and cooking courses.

Diipa being Diipa, she has yet another goal: A big, beautiful family!

From HT Brunch, September 13, 2020

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Normally this time of year the Santa Fe Plaza would be bustling with people and music and the smell of roasted corn on the cob, turkey legs and green chile chesseburgers would fill the air while townspeople would celebrate the Santa Fe Fiesta.

But the Plaza has been quiet this weekend due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Because of the restrictions and in the interest of public safety, we decided to cancel all events on the Plaza, said Aaron Garcia, president of the Santa Fe Fiesta Council. We didnt want to do a huge public event for the safety of the community.

But never was there a thought of not holding the event, considered the oldest community celebration in country, dating back 308 years. They had a promise to keep.

Going back to the basics, its about community, peace, honoring Our Lady and the promise that was made and the proclamation of 1712, he said, referring to the promise Don Diego de Vargas made to La Conquistadora  since rechristened Our Lady of Peace  a 29-inch wooden statue that had been rescued from a burning church before the Spanish fled the area during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. As the story goes, De Vargas prayed to the marian while he led the effort to resettle northern New Mexico 12 years later, promising she would be honored annually if the reconquest of the region could be accomplished without bloodshed.

Two decades later, city leaders passed a proclamation that established an annual celebration with Vespers, Mass, Sermon, and procession through the Main Plaza.

While there will be no procession through the Plaza, Garcia said this years Fiesta is focusing of the religious aspects of the celebration, which are being livestreamed on Facebook.

The Fiesta concludes today with the Mass of Thanksgiving at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis Assisi at 9 a.m. and a vesper and candlelight service at 6 p.m.
The police on Sunday said they busted a gang of three persons for allegedly duping over 100 people of more than 2 crore on the pretext of selling life insurance policies. The police said that they have arrested the mastermind of the gang and two suspects are on the run.

The police recovered a mobile phone and three registers, three passbooks and 22,500 cash from one of the suspects possession. The arrested suspects has been identified as Dharmesh Thakur ,38, from Badarpur in Delhi. The two other suspects, who are on the run, were identified as Aakash Verma of Ghaziabad and, Deepak Sharma of Gautampuri in Delhi. The police said that all three suspects are class 10 dropouts.

The police said the gang used to operate from different locations and often work from a moving car to evade being identified.

The police said Thakur was the mastermind of the gang. He had allegedly started duping people in 2018 after getting inspired from movies. He analysed a lot of fraud cases of insurance companies to figure out ways how to dupe people following which he formed the gang and involved his two friends who had an experience of working in call centres, the police said.

The police started searching for the gang members after one Mukesh Kumar, a resident of Gururgam, filed a complaint of cyber police station stating that on September 10, 2019, he had received a call from a man impersonating as an executive of a reputed insurance company. The impersonator sent a link to Kumars mobile phone and email id following which 50,000 each was deducted in four transactions and he lost 2 lakh from his bank account.

After detailed investigation, a case was registered ay cyber crime police station under sections 420 (fraud) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 66D of Information Technology Act on April 30 this year and a probe was initiated in to the matter, said the police.

KK Rao, commissioner of police, said a team from cyber police station tracked the location and Thakurs movement and arrested him from Faridabad on Friday night. During questioning, he confessed to the crime and revealed that he had formed a gang with his two friends and used to run a small-time call centre to dupe people, he said.

Rao said the suspects used to make calls using data they had bought through an executive working in a call centre in Delhi. They used to send a link on peoples mobile phone and email id after luring them with heavy discounts of premiums of life insurance and cashback schemes. They used to get the money transferred through e-walltets and used to keep changing locations to evade arrest, he said. The suspects used to pose as officers from financial service firms, seeking takes and payments under various heads.

Rao said as per their records, the suspects have duped more than 100 people of over 2 crore, but exact details are yet to be ascertained.

The suspects, the police said, even underwent a voice and ascent training from BPO trainers so that they could gain their victims trust.

During the probe, the police team took details from banks and the details of their phone numbers through which the calls were made. The suspects used to switch off their mobile phones after making the calls used the same mobile numbers every day. The team reached the Thkaurs location in Faridabad using technical surveillance Friday late night, he said.

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Recent autopsy reports of the Glee star Naya Rivera reveals that the star 'accidentally drowned' in the river while boating with her 4-year-old son. The reports also indicated that the star had raised her arms and had called for help. Read on to know more about the autopsy report.

Also Read | Amber Riley performs a heartfelt tribute for friend and co-star Naya Rivera; watch

Naya Rivera's Autopsy report

On Friday, Naya Rivera's autopsy report made it clear that the actor had accidentally drowned in Lake Piru. The reports mentioned that she had helped her son get back on the boat and the boy 'noticed the decedent put her arm up in the air and yelled 'help'. It had been made clear by the authorities earlier that Naya had drowned but no reports mentioned that star had shouted for help.

Also Read | Naya Riveras fans hold emotional vigil three weeks after she drowned in lake Piru

Another report added that the star knew how to swim 'well' and the man from whom she had rented the pontoon boat also mentioned that she didn't want to wear a life vest. The owner of the boat mentioned that he put a life vest in the boat anyways. Other reports also mentioned that the star had vertigo and was also suffering from a sinus infection. There was also a little amount of 'prescribed amphetamines in her system' but drugs or any other physical conditions did not factor into her death.

Also Read | Naya Riveras sister Nickayla calls her yin to my yang in her emotional tribute

nayas memorial is getting so big, she is loved by so many people and has touched so many lives this is so beautiful  pic.twitter.com/ytNVBb5q51  laur  BLM (@sapphicsnix) July 30, 2020



Toxicology tests also confirmed that drugs had no part to play in the whole scheme. Naya's son was later found asleep drifting in the boat alone and has since been reunited with actor Ryan Dorsey, Naya's ex-husband. Naya's body was found floating 5 days after the incident and the sheriff reported that she was most likely trapped in vegetation underwater.

Also Read | Heather Morris pens emotional note for Naya Rivera, regrets not saving her last posts

Since her death, many fans of the actor have come up to talk about Naya and her life. Many of her Glee co-stars mentioned that she was a kind and strong person. Others mentioned that Naya was a very good mother. In her last post on Instagram. Naya could be seen with her son and the post is captioned as, ''just the two of us'' (sic). Take a look at her post:

Promo Pic Credit: Naya Rivera's Instagram
Today, smartphones with the 'flagship killer' moniker have become mainstream, with several brands offering flagship specs with few compromises at reasonable prices. The flagship killer trends, which started off with Chinese brands, has now even been adopted by companies like Samsung and Apple. But none of this would have been possible if one company hadn't kicked off the trend, to begin with.

It has been a while since OnePlus launched its first flagship killer in 2014, since then the company has been consistently delivering quality handsets at excellent prices. However, OnePlus ditched its 'long flagship killer' strategy in 2019, with the launch of the OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro, the latter designed to entice new premium customers. But in terms of expectations, the OnePlus 7 Pro fell marginally short of the premium experience promised.

Now, over a year on, we have the OnePlus 8 Pro, a worthy successor to the OnePlus 7 Pro and the company's latest premium smartphone. We've had the OnePlus 8 Pro for a few months now and stick around for this long term review to find out if OnePlus 8 Pro is truly worthy of the 'premium' moniker or if it falls just shy of greatness like its predecessor.

Specs OnePlus 8 Pro Chipset Snapdragon 865 Display 6.78-inch QHD+ Fluid AMOLED, HDR10+, 120Hz, 1 billion colours RAM 8GB/12GB LPDDR5 Storage 128GB/256GB UFS 3.0 Rear Camera 48 MP, f/1.8 (PDAF, OIS, Laser AF) + 8 MP, f/2.2 Telephoto (PDAF, OIS) + 48 MP, f/2.2 Ultrawide (PDAF) + 5 MP Colour Filter Front Camera 16 MP, f/2.5 Battery 4510 mAh, 30W Fast Charging, 30W Wireless Charging, 3W Reverse Wireless Charging Software Android 10.0; OxygenOS 10.0 Price Rs 54,999 / Rs 59,999

Design

There's not a lot to complain about on the design front; the OnePlus 8 Pro looks phenomenal. The phone is available in three finishes Onyx Black, Glacial Green and Ultramarine Blue. Our model arrived in Glacial Green, which is a unique colour and definitely the best of three options. The shimmer does tend to change from green to blue when ambient light hits the surface.

The Glacial Green colour option features a matte soft-touch frosted glass back and a sandblasted matte aluminium frame. Not only does the matte finish give the phone a more premium vibe, but it also eliminates fingerprint smudges. However, the trade-off here is that the phone is slightly more slippery, although that seems like an acceptable trade-off. It is worth noting that in the long run, you will start to see some smudges if you don't use the included case, but those are easy to wash away.

The reason we said 'wash away' was because unlike any OnePlus phone that has come before, the OnePlus 8 Pro has an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. An IP rating is premium smartphone one-o'-one. The other changes on the OnePlus 8 Pro are the bigger camera bump that does cause the phone to wobble on a surface and the punch-hole camera cutout on the screen as opposed to the machinal pop-up selfie shooter.

Display

Since we are on the subject of the display, let's take a look at what has changed from its predecessor. Unlike the Galaxy S20 phones, the OnePlus 8 Pro retains the screen curvature. While the display's curved edges do not offer any utility, they sure do look good. But there is so much more to this display than just form factor.

The screen features a QHD+ (1440*3168 pixels) resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate, a step up from the OnePlus 7 Pro's 90Hz panel. Unlike the Galaxy S20 series, the 120Hz refresh rate on the OnePlus 8 Pro can be used in the full QHD+ resolution. Additionally, the panel also boasts HDR10+ capabilities, a peak brightness of 1,300 nits, and support for 10-bit colour. It is also protected by 3D Gorilla Glass 5.

The AMOLED screen on the OnePlus 8 Pro is arguably the best out there. You can find several colour profiles in the 'Screen Calibration' section. We already know about the 8 Pro panel's record-breaking A+ DisplayMate score, but how does that translate to real-world performance; well, to sum it up in one word, 'dazzling'. The screen looks more vibrant and punchier, with accurate colour representation. Another 'pro' here is the 1,300 nits of brightness, which makes the device excellent for outdoor use.

The screen also has a couple of cool and utile features, including

Comfort Tone  Uses the RGB sensors to change the screen's colour temperature according to the ambient light.

SDR-to-HDR up-mapping  Automatically converts SDR content to HDR.

MotionEngine  Powers Motion Estimation/Motion Compensation, which interpolates frames to boost the frame rate of videos. This will upscale videos from YouTube and Netflix from 24fps to 120fps to match the OnePlus 8 Pro's refresh rate. This also works on Amazon Prime Video up to 60fps.

You also get Brightness Smoothing, for finely tuned brightness transitions, and DC diming 2.0.

So, let's talk about that 120Hz refresh rate. From smoother animations to dynamic wallpapers, OnePlus is doing everything it can to remind you that the display refreshes at 120 hertz. If you are coming from a 60Hz panel, the 120Hz refresh rate is a huge step up. The difference is noticeable even if you are coming from a 90Hz screen, although the 144Hz panel on the Asus ROG Phone 3 did seem smoother.

Overall, the screen on the OnePlus 8 Pro is the best in the business. The QHD+ resolution may not be noticeable unless you are actually looking for it, but the high levels of brightness and the vibrant colours really make this a standout display. OnePlus has also fixed the black clipping and green tinting issues that were popping up before. However, the only shortcoming of this display is its curvature, apart from looking good, it does not offer any utility and can be a nightmare to use at times.

Performance

We've been using the OnePlus 8 Pro for quite a while now, and there is literally nothing that the phone cannot do. The OnePlus 8 Pro is powered by a Snapdragon 865 SoC paired with a 5G modem. The chipset is paired with up to 12GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage. The LPDDR5 RAM boosts memory speeds by 30-percent while lowering power consumption by 20-percent. Additionally, the UFS 3.0 storage standard offers a significant bump in read and write speeds over UFS 2.1. Our model arrives with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, although the 8 Pro doesn't have a microSD card slot for storage expansion.

Because the OnePlus 8 Pro features flagship specs, gamers can enjoy gaming at 120fps on supported games. While playing Fortnite, we noticed that the phone did get a little toasty in the start but settled down after 20 minutes. Because of its capable hardware, the OnePlus 8 Pro can manage high frame rates in any game that supports it. If you are looking for a list of games that can support the high refresh rate, you can check the link at the end of the review. Performance is definitely a 'no-brainer' on the OnePlus 8 Pro.

Camera

Now, to one of the most exciting aspects of the OnePlus 8 Pro, the camera. The camera is the main aspect that separates a flagship from a flagship killer. And OnePlus has made big improvements to the 8 Pro's main camera setup. The primary sensor has been updated to a 48 MP Sony IMX689 sensor, which is 35-percent larger than the sensor on the OnePlus 7 series.

But it isn't just the main camera; even the ultrawide camera has been updated to a 48 MP sensor, similar to the primary rear camera on the OnePlus 7T. The two cameras on the OnePlus 8 Pro are a telephoto shooter and colour filter; the latter lets you apply artistic filters as you're shooting. On the front, the hole-punch camera cutout houses a 16 MP selfie shooter with an f/2.5 aperture.

Main Sensor

The new Sony sensor on the OnePlus 8 Pro nails white balance perfectly. Additionally, the sensor produces great images with good dynamic range and impressive levels of detail and colour accuracy. HDR processing works very well without being too aggressive; photos offer a good balance between saturation and contrast with astounding detail.

You also get a natural depth of field while taking photos because of the sensor size. In bright outdoor lighting, the OnePlus 8 Pro can go head-to-head with the best in the business. The camera also does a great job in low light, far better than any OnePlus phone that has come before it. The company has also made huge leaps in Nightscape processing, not quite on Pixel level, but definitely on-par with Samsung and Apple.

Telephoto and Colour Filter

The telephoto lens can achieve 3x "lossless" zoom, which is not quite the levels of the Galaxy S20 Ultra or Note 20 Ultra but is pretty decent. While you can go all the way to 30x zoom, images tend to fall apart after 10x magnification. Overall, in the right light, shots taken on the telephoto camera are detailed, while colour and contrast are consistent with the other cameras. Lastly, the colour filter camera lets you add artistic filters as you're shooting.

We really don't see the point of having a dedicated lens and sensor for colour effects. Because of the low resolution, it is not much better than applying effects in post. Remember the Photochrom and all the buzz of being able to see through certain plastic and clothing materials. Thankfully, OnePlus has already rolled out an update to address the issue, so you can't really see through plastic anymore.

Ultrawide Sensor

A new and improved primary sensor is not something out of the ordinary and is standard with most generational upgrades. However, OnePlus has also given quite a bit of love to the ultrawide camera here. The improvements are massive over the OnePlus 7T Pro and OnePlus 7 Pro. It is safe to say that consistency across all camera lenses on the OnePlus 8 Pro has caught up to the top-end Galaxy S series and iPhone 11 series.

The dynamic range is incredible with solid detail, while the 119-degree field of view is excellent to capture more in your frame. The images taken from the ultrawide camera on the OnePlus 8 Pro are some of the sharpest and most detailed of any smartphone. Even in low light, the ultrawide does a pretty decent job. You can also take close up shots using the ultrawide camera's macro mode.

Video and Selfies

Moving on to video, and the OnePlus 8 Pro can record videos in 4K resolution across all camera sensors. Stabilization is excellent, while consistency across all three lenses is pretty good. It's not iPhone level video quality, but it is certainly better than most Android phones, and can easily go toe-to-toe with the best Samsung, Google, and Huawei have to offer. The selfie camera on the OnePlus 8 Pro is quite good. The camera produces great colours and contrast, while dynamic range is also pretty good. We'd say the front camera is pretty good, but not flagship-grade and still has a lot of catching up to do if it is to rival Samsung, Google, or Apple.

Software

One of the best parts of using a OnePlus phone is the software experience. OxygenOS offers a clean UI experience, akin to stock Android on the Pixels. OxygenOS brings some nice additions on top of Android 10. There is an improved dark mode that is compatible with more apps. The launcher now integrates Google's Discover feed instead of OnePlus' Shelf. Other excellent features on OxygenOS, include Parallel Apps, Apps Locker, OnePlus Switch, Zen Mode, and more.

Additionally, the software experience has also been optimized for the 120Hz panel. The software now features smoother animations and new dynamic wallpapers as well as support for custom icons. OxygenOS is one of the biggest strengths of the OnePlus 8 Pro, and in our experience is one of the best software skins for Android.

Battery

The OnePlus 8 Pro packs a 4,510 mAh battery, the biggest battery used on a OnePlus smartphone. The battery on the OnePlus 8 Pro was quite impressive considering its QHD+ resolution, 120Hz panel, and flagship Snapdragon chipset. The battery is more than sufficient to get you through a full day of use and then some. It is worth noting that while using the phone, we defaulted to FHD+ resolution and a 60Hz and scaled up refresh rate only while gaming.

OnePlus has also added a 30W power adapter in the box that is capable of delivering a full charge in little over an hour. Additionally, this is also the first OnePlus phone to feature wireless charging, and we've only had to wait until 2020. While we haven't tested the Warp Charge 30 Wireless charger, it is said to be almost as fast as the wired charger included in the box. The OnePlus 8 Pro also supports reverse wireless charging with Qi-compatible devices.

Audio

The OnePlus 8 Pro features a stereo speaker system, with one on the bottom and the earpiece doubling as the second. The speaker setup is one of the loudest of any smartphone but does not manage to deliver a balanced output. The speaker system supports Dolby Atmos, delivering a decent experience when listening to music or watching movies. There's no headphone jack, so you'll have to rely on wireless or USB Type-C headphones.

Verdict

The OnePlus 8 Pro is by far the most impressive OnePlus phone we've seen. OnePlus has addressed all the shortcomings of the OnePlus 7 Pro to make this device more than worthy of the 'Pro' moniker. With the OnePlus 8 Pro, the company has finally made a complete transition from flagship killer to flagship. But what's even more impressive than the improvements is the fact that OnePlus has made all these improvements while maintaining the same price as the OnePlus 7 Pro (At launch).

The OnePlus 8 Pro features some massive improvements in the camera department, making it a viable alternative to the Galaxy S20 series and iPhone 11 series. Additionally, the screen is definitely the best we've used on a smartphone. And then there is the added benefits of superb performance and excellent battery life.

Even shortcomings like the lack of wireless charging and an IP rating have been addressed. Sure, if we're nitpicking, you will find problems with the curved display, audio, and charging speed, but these issues weren't too bothersome. The only bothersome issue for us was that the selfie camera had not been upgraded to flagship levels like the other areas of the device.

If you were hesitant about switching to OnePlus because of compromising on certain features; rest assured that isn't the case with the OnePlus 8 Pro. In fact, we're going to take it one step further and say that the OnePlus 8 Pro is currently the best phone of 2020. It's true that value diminishes as price increases, but with the OnePlus 8 Pro you get a whole lot of value for the price  "As far as flagships go".

The OnePlus 8 Pro has all the makings of a premium smartphone, without the price tag, especially when you consider premium phones that adopt a no-compromise approach, often start from Rs 70,000 in India.
The U.S. Embassy in Libya said Hifter agreed to reopen oil fields and terminals no later than Saturday. By Sunday evening, it was not clear whether the blockade had been lifted. Hifters spokesman did not answer phone calls and messages seeking comment.
I wrote about this not long ago:

And Sveta has been waiting for a response to her application. yesterday she got that response and now she is making up her mind as to what she will do.if she takes the trial vaccine she cannot use the flue vaccine and she will have to change her movements for a while. She has to report on a consistent basis as to the results of the test. She also found out that 25% of those taking the vaccine will get a placebo

I think that the placebo thingy is the biggest question she had, but I explained to her what and why a placebo part of the testing is very important. I support her in literally all things she does and this testing of the vaccine is no different. I am proud of my girl and it looks like she will go through with the testing

Not this Tuesday from today, but next Tuesday after, Svetochka gets a medical check up and if that is all good, will start the testing of the King Corona Vaccine

Clinical trials have begun in Moscow, Murashko said, adding that the ministry had also created the worlds first mobile application that allows participants to report on their condition throughout the lengthy trial period.

Source: Sputnik V launched: Russia dispatches first batches of pioneering Covid-19 vaccine to all of its 85 regions  RT Russia & Former Soviet Union

Lets talk about Russian health Care:

In that last few weeks there have been a couple of cases of what Russians take for granted and people in the USA would not comprehend. 1. Sveta has a friend who has cancer & 2. Russians will not pay for anything to do with the Corona Vaccine

1. Bone cancer is bad news: But life is not always a bowl of cherries, for those pits get in the way at times. In my world that I grew up in, cancer, like a heart attack can be financially devastating. I have had both six heart attacks and a brain tumor. I know how bad things get when you are not blessed with low deductibles and decent healthcare. Even with so called healthcare, it can get very very bad financially at times

To make this simple; Svetas friend will be cared for at home (that means all care), get the best chemo therapy that is available (best in the world available) and she will not pay a single cent or in this case a single ruble to go through all this treatment

It is amazing to me being from America, that doctors, nurses and specialists come to you if you desire to be treated. Even I as an outsider can have a doctor come to treat me. I would pay for it, because I am not a Russia, but they would not hesitate to save my life first and foremost. The cost would be very minor for my care in Russia. I have talked about this many times on this blog.

It is as with everywhere. Russians many times do not comprehend what it is like not having healthcare. So they grumble at times about their healthcare. Yet, here is a struggling Russian example. A mother of three kids, husband is dead and her kids are taken care of, she gets disability to pay the bills and she gets the finest healthcare available in her home

I will pray for Svetas friend and hope that a miracle happens. The doctors are positive about it all and really that is all you can go on at this point. At least she does not have to sell the children and mortgage the home to get it done. That is a huge pressure relief off anyones back.and that translates into better recovery

2. Another interesting issue recently. Russians will not pay for the Corona Vaccine. It would not even be considered for a Russian citizen to pay for it. they will not be forced to take it. But it will be offered as is the flue vaccine free of cost forever. Yes, for me as an outsider, I will have to pay and it will be a very small amount of money. There is never any thoughts of ripping the people off for profits in the Russian healthcare.maybe the localized vendor selling his wares is a rip off, but not for things country wide as in a vaccine and other healthcare issues. Interesting thought: It is Russian Tax money that pays for this vaccine and thus Russians have already paid, yet they are no expected to pay again and again for such things. That is how it is suppose to work.your tax money for you when it is needed!

Just some thoughts this morning as I wake up. I will watch as Sveta makes her decision on the trial vaccine and realize that if she does, it is better that I am here in the Tiny Russian Village. That leaves her free to deal with her issues and basically only her issues.This has been hard on her. She has had to deal with the family and make sure they all have food and the care they need. Her mom and her uncle are both late 80s and she has been very attentive to their needs, as well as her own son and his family

When her trial of the vaccine is done, I will be going home to be with her in Moscow? Maybe I should say, we will try to have me get home!

I miss my Sweetpea

WtR
New Delhi, Sep 13 : The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare stressed on ayurvedic intervention to manage post-COVID conditions in its latest guidelines issued on Sunday for recovered patients, including use of chyawanprash and AYUSH medicines.

In the guidelines, the Ministry recommended the use of immunity-boosting medicines like Ayush Kwath and Samshamani Vati on a daily basis, for effective recovery from post-COVID health conditions.

"In the clinical practice, chyawanprash is believed to be effective in post-recovery period," a Ministry advisory said while listing yoga, pranayama and daily walks among the other suggestions.

At the individual level, the Ministry advised people to strictly follow protocols like wearing face masks, washing hands, maintaining social distance, and other respiratory hygiene.

It also suggested involvement in regular household chores, if health permitted. "Professional work should be resumed in a graded manner," the Ministry advisory added.

Stressing the need to self-monitor one's health at home, the Ministry advised recuperating persons to check body temperatures and blood pressure on a regular basis. It also asked them to take oxygen readings on pulse oximeters on the advice of doctors. "Look for early warning signs like high-grade fever, breathlessness, unexplained chest pain, onset of confusion, and focal weakness," it said.

At the community level, the Ministry advised for spread of awareness by recuperating persons about coronavirus by sharing experiences with friends and relatives and through the social media. "The sharing of these experiences on the social media will help create public awareness, dispel myths, and stigma," the advisory read.

Besides, the Ministry advised for mental health support, if needed. "Seek psycho-social support from peers, community health workers, and counsellor. If required, seek mental health support service. Take support of community-based self-help groups, civil society organisations, and qualified professionals for the recovery and rehabilitation process (medical, social, occupational, livelihood)," it said.


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Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 17:48:10|Editor: huaxia

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LANZHOU, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Data from China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism shows that the number of tourists and total income of rural tourism in July and August have recovered to more than 90 percent of that of the same period in previous years.

Traveling to city's suburban areas has become the first choice for people to go out and have fun under the current situation, according to the ministry.

At a meeting on rural tourism held in Lanzhou, capital of Gansu Province, Hu Heping, the minister of culture and tourism, said that the rural tourism revenue dropped 77.1 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of this year, but the industry quickly recovered in the second quarter.

From January to August, a total of 1.207 billion trips to rural areas were made across the country, with a total revenue of 592.5 billion yuan (about 86.7 billion U.S. dollars), data shows.

About 94.5 percent of the business in rural tourism has returned to operation, hiring 10.61 million employees.

In 2019, the total number of trips to rural areas in China was 3.09 billion, accounting for more than half of the total domestic trips, and the total revenue of rural tourism was 1.81 trillion yuan. Enditem
Scott Disick and Sofia Richies relationship may have lasted a lot longer than she expected, but Kourtney Kardashian always knew they werent a match made in heaven.

According to a new report, the Keeping Up The Kardashians star wasnt confident in the pairs relationship from the start as she never felt that the model was the best fit for Disick.

Kourtney Kardashian, Scott Disick, and Sofia Richie | Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic; Mat Hayward/Getty Images for Sugar Factory American Brasserie; Paul Morigi/Getty Images for NYFW: The Shows

Scott Disick and Sofia Richie dated for nearly three years

During the early days of their relationship, Disick and Richie made it seem as though they were made for each other and would be together forever.

Though many questioned their romance due to their 15-year age gap, they eventually proved many people wrong by maintaining a loving relationship for nearly three years.

RELATED: Report Says Scott Disick and Sofia Richie Broke Up Due to His Love for Kourtney Kardashian

However, things soon turned sour between the pair.

In May 2020, Disick and Richie called it quits after his brief stay at a Colorado rehab facility.

Sofia and Scott breaking up was only a matter of time. Scott isnt the best version of himself right now and it has been a lot for Sofia, a source told Us Weekly at the time. [Sofia] is sad about the situation, but trying to take care of herself.

After spending close to two months focusing on themselves, the pair appeared to have gotten back together in July. However, an insider told E! News in August that the A-listers were officially done for good and no longer on speaking terms.

They have been off and on for two months, the source shared. Sofia really pushed to make things work between them after they initially broke up, but Scott officially called it off recently and they are no longer speaking.

Kourtney Kardashian didnt think Richie was the one for Disick

Though Disick and Richie proved a lot of people wrong by staying together longer than expected, there were a few people who always knew the pair werent going to last.

In addition to the models father, Lionel Richie, who had previously said her relationship with the reality star was just a phase, Disicks ex-girlfriend Kourtney Kardashian was also confident he and the 22-year-old would eventually part ways.

RELATED: KUWTK: Kourtney Kardashian Revealed How Scott Disick Was Completely Violated by Rehab Leak

In fact, an insider recently told HollywoodLife that Kardashian was always convinced the pair would eventually split up, noting that she never thought Richie was the one for Disick.

Kourtney accepted Sofia [while she was with Scott], but she always felt that she wasnt the best fit for him, the source shared.

Both Disick and Richie have since moved on with their lives

Though things didnt work out in the way they probably hoped, Disick and Richie havent let their breakup stop them from moving on with their lives in healthy and happy ways.

Since the breakup, the Flip It Like Disick star has spent more quality time with Kardashian and their three kids: Mason, 10, Penelope, 8, and Reign, 5.

Hes always been a good father to the kids, but its a lot less stressful now that hes single again, claimed the HollywoodLife insider. Hes spending more time with the kids, which has helped take his mind off of things. Hes doing really well, though. Its amazing how much hes matured.

As for Richie, she was recently spotted having a very flirty beach date longtime friend Jaden Smith.

A source told E! News the pair only had eyes for each other, as they swam in the water together and wrapped their arms around each other. They held hands as they went in and out of the water and then they pulled each other in for a hug.

Its good to see that Richie and Disick arent letting their recent breakup keep them down.
T his is the terrifying moment the Turkish province of Ankara was hit by a freak sandstorm.

Footage shared online shows a huge dust cloud enveloping buildings as it sweeps over Polatli in Ankara on Saturday.

The sandstorm also hit the district of Haymana at about 3pm.

Six people were injured in the strong winds, according to officials

The freak sandstorm sweeping over Polatli / DHA/AFP via Getty Images

Ankara governor Vasip Sahin wrote on Twitter: "According to the first determinations made by our teams regarding the heavy wind incident in Polatli and its surrounding districts, 6 of our citizens were slightly injured due to objects flying in the air, and for now there is no evidence of any other loss of life or property."

Mursel Yildizkaya, mayor of Polatli, urged people to stay indoors and not to open doors and windows.

Small fires also reportedly broke out due to lightning strikes.
KATHMANDU : India on Sunday handed over a consignment of disaster relief material to Nepal for flood- and landslide-affected families, officials said.

On behalf of the Government of India, Deputy Chief of Mission of the Indian Embassy here Namgya C Khampa handed over the material to Chanda Chaudhary, president of the Nepal-India Women Friendship Society.

The relief material includes tents and plastic sheets for distribution to flood- and landslide-affected families in the countrys five districts, the Indian mission said in a statement.

In view of the recent destruction and loss of life caused by floods and landslides, the entire consignment will be distributed through the society in coordination with the local governments in the affected districts of Sindhupalchok, Kailali, Mahottari, Nawalparasi and Sarlahi in Province 2, Bagmati Province, Province 5 and Sudur Paschim Province.

This was part of the Government of Indias regular humanitarian assistance and disaster relief support to Nepal.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.

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Clashes between the Afghan army and the in the country's southern province of Kandahar and eastern province of Nangarhar have left at least six insurgents killed and many injured, a Sputnik correspondent reported on Saturday, citing officials.

"This morning, the attacked a number of security checkpoints in the Maiwand district [Kandahar province]," Khwaja Yahya Alawi, a spokesman for the 205th Atal Corps, said.

The attack was repelled by the Afghan air force, with the airstrikes killing six insurgents and injuring three others, according to the military official.

Some of the Taliban's equipment was also destroyed, he added.

In a separate clash in the Zojan Qala area of the Sherzad district of Nangarhar, a clash between the army and insurgents left at least 13 casualties on the Taliban's part, including nine Pakistanis, Attallah Khogyani, the governor's spokesman, said.

The Taliban have not yet commented on the matter.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former Maharashtra minister Arjun Khotkar on Sunday said he has tested positive for COVID-19. He shared the information on his Twitter handle.

He said he would undergo treatment in Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai. Khotkar, a Shiv Sena leader, was a minister in the Devendra Fadnavis government.
The decision to reopen the Taj Mahal for tourists from September 21 has given a ray of hope to Agras marble traders after the Covid-9 pandemic had all but flattened their business.

Adding to that hope is the optimism after the decision to lift weekend market curbs in the city.

The 2,000 crore marble work business in Agra had suffered a setback even before the lockdown. There used to be Chinese tourists in large numbers in February but visas were disallowed to Chinese tourists as corona was at its peak in China during that phase, said Prahlad Agarwal, a prominent marble trader of Agra and Agra Tourist Welfare Chamber president.

Besides, there used to be many tourists from Iran where the New Year is celebrated in the first quarter of the year but they too were in the grip of coronavirus and could not come to Agra this year and thus, the marble trade in Agra suffered, Agarwal stated.

However, despite markets opening now, marble emporium owners say business is still tepid as there are few tourists in the city.

Road and rail transport is not at its optimum. With the end of weekend closures we expect domestic visitors from the city and in and around Delhi on weekend trips to Agra, Agarwal opined.

Still it is a tough track to revival as international flights are still not functioning. We need foreign tourists for handicraft trade, especially marble. Out of total of 2,000 crore marble trade, 700 crore is by way of export internationally and 1,300 crore trade comes through emporiums which are still to open in Agra, said Agarwal.

The US government has issued an advisory against visiting India due to Covid-19 pandemic. The European nations pay heed to such advisories thus we have to work around this advisory if we hope to revive tourism, he said.

The business through emporiums is still to pick up although exports are picking up at a steady pace with shipments moving. Things have improved in European nations and Christmas is only a few months away. Thus we can see improvement in exports but a major component of trade through emporiums is dependent upon the Taj opening and staying open, he said.

There are about 30,000 to 35,000 families relying on marble work in Agra. The skill of working on marble is mostly hereditary with the son following the footsteps of the father.

However, this corona pandemic has caused erosion in this hereditary trend, and unable to find suitable returns, many artisans are deviating from their traditional source of income, said Agarwal.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 18:11:29|Editor: huaxia

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KABUL, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Counter-Narcotics Police of Afghanistan (CNPA) arrested 10 individuals over drug smuggling in seven provinces over the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Interior said in a statement Sunday.

Heavy quantity of drugs, two pistols, three hand-grenades and ammunition were also confiscated during the operations, the statement added.

The arrestees' files have been referred for further investigation to the related departments, the statement said. Enditem
We now have a better understanding of Covid-19 transmission that indicates symptom-based screening has limited effectiveness because people with Covid-19 may have no symptoms or fever at the time of screening, or only mild symptoms, the C.D.C. said in a statement.

Temperature checks are akin to getting the oil checked before you go on a long car trip, said Dr. David Thomas, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. It makes you feel better, but its not going to keep you from wrecking the car or prevent the tires from falling off. Its not going to make your trip any safer.

Its something you can do, and it makes you feel like youre doing something, he said. But it wont catch most people who are spreading Covid.

Most people who spike a fever feel lousy, and presumably would cancel their dinner plans, said Dr. Thomas McGinn, Northwell Healths senior vice president and deputy physician in chief. Temperature checks might pick up a few individuals who are unaware of their fever, he said.

But the absence of fever means nothing, he said. Its not a very sensitive test.

It does, however, convey a strong public health message, serving as a reminder that people must take precautions, and that itself may be of benefit, Dr. McGinn said. It makes people think twice, and reminds them that this is a big deal, we still need to be careful, you need someone to stand by the door to do that, he said.

But heres the rub: While fever can be a symptom of Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, not everyone infected with the virus develops a fever, or many other symptoms, for that matter. Physicians writing in the New England Journal of Medicine have called the phenomenon of symptomless spread the Achilles heel of Covid-19 pandemic control.

Evidence of asymptomatic spread dates back to early in the pandemic, but has been mounting ever since. A recent study from South Korea published in JAMA Internal Medicine in August offered even more proof, finding that infected individuals who dont feel ill may carry just as much virus in their nose, throat and lungs as those with symptoms  and for almost as long.
Lawrence Brooks at his 111th birthday party at his home in New Orleans. Courtesy of The National WWII Museum

Lawrence Brooks, who turned 111 on Saturday, is considered the oldest surviving US World War II veteran.

Brooks served in the predominately Black 91st Engineer Battalion in New Guinea and the Philippines during the war.

The National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana, which has hosted Brooks' birthday for the past five years, had a social-distanced celebration with the veteran.

Brooks received more than 10,000 birthday cards from every US state and seven countries.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

The oldest-known US World War II veteran celebrated his 111th birthday on Saturday.

Lawrence Brooks was born September 12, 1909, and went on to serve in the predominately Black 91st Engineer Battalion in New Guinea and the Philippines during the war.

He was drafted at age 31 and served at a time when the military was still segregated. He eventually reached the rank of Private 1st Class.

Brooks spoke with National Geographic for an interview published in May in honor of the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. Brooks recalled being stationed with the US Army in Australia and told National Geographic that he felt he was treated more equally there compared with America at the time.

"I was treated so much better in Australia than I was by my own white people," Brooks told National Geographic. "I wondered about that. That's what worried me so much. Why?"

Brooks at the National World War II Museum in 2019 with his own military portrait. Courtesy of The National WWII Museum

Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, 1.2 million were African Americans who were "serving the nation that treated them like second-class citizens," as described by the National World War II Museum.

Brooks told National Geographic that he never spoke about the inequalities with fellow Black service members.

"Every time I think about it, I'd get angry, so the best thing I'd do is just leave it go," Brooks said in the interview.

After his service, Brooks worked as a forklift operator and retired in his 70s. He has five children, 13 grandchildren, and 22 great-grandchildren, according to National Geographic.

Story continues

Brooks, who was born in Norwood, Louisiana, currently lives in New Orleans. The National World War II Museum, which is located in New Orleans, has hosted Brooks' birthday parties for the past five years.

The Victory Belles performed for Brooks from a safe distance. Courtesy of The National WWII Museum

At past events, Brooks was serenaded by the museum's historical vocal trio, The Victory Belles, and participated in other activities organized by the staff. This year, due to COVID-19-related health and safety regulations, the museum wasn't able to host a traditional party for Brooks. Instead, the museum's staff asked people to send him birthday cards.

Brooks marked his 111th year with a private party at his home. The museum delivered his birthday cards and helped arrange a socially distant celebration, complete with military aircraft flyovers.

"There was a private celebration. The Victory Belles trio sang to him and there were two military flyovers. Everything was socially distanced and Mr. Brooks was on his porch," a representative for the National World War II Museum told Insider.

Brooks celebrated with well-wishers from his front porch. Courtesy of The National WWII Museum

Brooks received birthday wishes from around the world, according to the museum representative.

"We did get close to 10,000 cards. There was at least one card from every state and there were cards from seven different countries," the representative said.

Read the original article on Insider
Loading I ended up losing nearly $16,000, which was all my savings. Then I was scanning a website that features common pictures scammers use for fake profiles and there he was. I realised at that moment that he really was a scammer, but I was so in love it was a long time before I cut him off. If he had not been a scammer, he would have been the perfect partner  when we were talking it was 18 months of sheer joy. I always thought of myself as quite intelligent and sophisticated so it comes as a surprise to me that this happened. 'It has put me off another relationship' Sarah*, 53, a Melbourne nurse, lost almost $20,000 over two years.

I went on a dating site about eight years ago and connected with a man who called himself Charles. He said he was a vet working in Sydney. We were going to meet up, but he was called over to a farm in the UAE to immunise livestock. He made up an excuse about not being able to access medication after it was seized at the dock, and asked for $5000 for help. Initially I said no way. But then I thought maybe he really was in trouble so I decided to send some money. Id been talking to him for about four months by that stage, via [Facebook] Messenger. I would feel euphoric at times, like being on drugs. 'I never told my family and they still dont know. The embarrassment and the shame are the worst. It has put me off another relationship, and I still dont think I have fully recovered.' A few times I would say, "I think youre a scammer," and he would deny it. I would tell him he needed to prove it by coming over to visit, and he convinced me to send him money for a plane ticket. It went on for two years with me sending him money, but no trip forthcoming. Finally, he suggested we Skype and I saw he was an African man, not Charles. My father had just died and that was the final straw for me. I cut off contact and reported it to police.

In the back of my mind I always knew, but I didnt want to believe it. There were lots of red flags: things moved much more quickly than usual in a relationship, and he said hed grown up in Germany but knew nothing about the country. Taking into account the interest on the credit card, I lost $20,000 and I nearly lost my house, too. I sold my car and saw a financial counsellor, and, after two to three years, I was back on my feet.

I never told my family and they still dont know. The embarrassment and the shame are the worst. It has put me off another relationship, and I still dont think I have fully recovered. 'People around me were warning me' Jan, 67, handed over more than $260,000 to a scammer. She has since started the not-for-profit Life After Scams service. I moved to Melbourne to be closer to family when I was 59. Everything was going well and I had a good corporate job, so I decided to start looking for companionship, someone I could explore Victoria with.

I put my profile on a dating site and connected with a man. He moved our conversations off the site very quickly. He would say things like, "I only want to talk to you. I think we are destined to be together. I have been waiting for you all my life." We were intimate, we had cyber sex, and he confessed his love for me. I had fallen in love with him and when he asked me to marry him I said yes. We spoke on the phone, texted and exchanged emails. We would video-chat  although, rather conveniently, his camera wasnt working each time we spoke. Loading He purported to be a British engineer on a contract in Dubai, but there came to be a lot of problems: he couldnt access his money, he was robbed, in a car accident, in hospital. I would send him money, which he promised he would pay back, and he showed me his fake bank statements with millions in the bank. I made a conscious decision to lend him money out of love because I didnt want to be cynical, even though I knew he could be a scammer. People around me were warning me not to send money, but I was already in too far to hear that.

Over the next month, I loaned him  because I thought it was a loan  $260,000. This included $166,000 from my self-managed super fund that I had put aside to buy a property and $30,000 I put on a credit card. Eventually, I sent my weekly pay. Finally, he said he was boarding a plane back to England and a few days later I realised he was never going to contact me again. I had only known him for 72 days. I suffered low-level depression for about 18 months, but my family was supportive in a non-judgmental way. I had to be creative about my finances but I was able to eventually get myself out of debt. Luckily, I am in a good rental situation at the moment, but I do exist solely on the age pension now. Signs of a love scammer They are quick to declare love.

There are holes in their stories.

They invent hurdles that prevent them from meeting in person.

They quickly move victims from the online site to a private messenger chat.

They supply a fraudulent image of themselves, which a quick Google Image search will reveal to be fake. Source: ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard. I have since started a not-for-profit, Life After Scams, to support other victims. This support is important because in the immediate aftermath you dont understand how it happened, and I know now that it is because of the hypnotic altered state youre in when you fall in love. However, people feel ashamed, and they dont tell anyone because of the shame. But that shame is very damaging to carry around alone.
Five states, including worst-hit Maharashtra, account for 58% of the recovered cases of the coronavirus disease in the country as 3.7 million people have been cured of Covid-19 so far, the government said on Sunday.

Indias Covid-19 tally mounted to 4,754,356, with 94,372 new infections and 1,114 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the Union health ministrys dashboard at 8am. The death toll has climbed to 78,586, data showed.

The countrys recovery rate now stands at 77.87% after 78,399 patients were cured of Covid-19 between Saturday and Sunday morning, according to the Union health ministry.

The government said Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh are among the states that have contributed to the 3,702,595 recoveries. Maharashtra has reported 17.2% recovered cases, Tamil Nadu 13.1%, Andhra Pradesh 12.2%, Karnataka 7.9% and Uttar Pradesh 7.8%, the Union health ministry said.

Maharashtra continues to lead with more than 13,000 recoveries while Andhra Pradesh has contributed over 10,000 to the single-day recoveries, it said.

Also read | Rise in Mumbai cases prompts rethink, BMC mulls roping in more private hospitals

The same five states also account for 60% of the 973,175 active Covid-19 cases in the country. Of the 94,372 new infections that have been reported in the past 24 hours, Maharashtra alone has contributed to more than 22,000 cases. It is followed by Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka with more than 9,000 cases each, the ministry said.

Nearly 57% of the new cases are reported from five states. These are also contributing 58% of the new recovered cases, it said.

Also read | Covid-19 vaccine latest developments: AstraZeneca resumes trial, China develops nasal spray

The health ministrys data showed there are 973,175 active cases of Covid-19 in the country, which comprises 20.47% of the total caseload. Maharashtra has more than 280,000 cases followed by Karnataka with more than 97,000 cases, the ministry said.

Maharashtra (28.79%), Karnataka (10.05%), Andhra Pradesh (9.84%), Uttar Pradesh (6.98%) and Tamil Nadu (4.84%) account for 60% of the active Covid-19 cases in the country. Out of the 1,114 fatalities in the last 24 hours, the western state has reported the maximum of 391 deaths followed by Karnataka with 94 deaths, whereas Tamil Nadu has seen 76 deaths.

(With PTI inputs)
The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has urged the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, Ghana Gas, Aker Energy, Newmont Ghana and other corporate bodies to come on board in supporting the medical drone initiative which is saving lots of lives, especially in the hard-to-reach areas of Ghana.



Dr. Bawumia was speaking during the commissioning of the third Zipline medical drone delivery site located at Vobsi in the West Mamprusi Municipality of the North East Region.



The cost of delivering medical products to the various health facilities is paid by corporate entities in and outside of Ghana while Zipline and its partners also pay for the infrastructural set-up, the drones and all its software.



The Vice President said, the cost of this life-saving intervention is not directly on the shoulders of government. A number of organizations have already donated money to the fund dedicated to paying the delivery cost of Zipline. I want to use this opportunity to extend my heartfelt appreciation to these corporate entities who are bearing the cost of this important innovation through their corporate social responsibility obligations. I encourage other companies like the Ghana Gas, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation and others who have pledged their support to kindly redeem these pledges immediately.



The General Manager of Zipline Ghana, Mr Daniel Marfo, has announced that the company has completed the construction of all four distribution sites within a record twelve-months after the launch of the first site in April 2019. At full capacity, all four distribution centres will serve about two-thousand health facilities.



Dr Bawumia, however, directs the Ministry of Health to quickly ensure that, for the purposes of inclusiveness, the mandate of Zipline is extended to build four additional sites which is required before all parts of the country could be adequately covered. There are a number of health facilities in Upper West, Volta, Oti, Bono East and some other places along the coasts that this service must urgently reach, he said.



Currently, the services of Zipline is in high demand especially in the five regions of the north that have been affected by the recent flooding. The daily emergency medical deliveries from the Vobsi distribution site has shot up from an average of fifty to ninety. This, the Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Okoe Boye, explains to mean the importance of the service to all those areas that are cut off as a result of the flood. This, though just numbers, are actually real lives that are being saved on a daily basis. All of us, in government and out of government, therefore need to give our full support to this project as it is solving one of the critical needs in health delivery; promptness in accessing critical medical commodities, he said.

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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President Trump at Flight 93 National Memorial 19th Anniversary Observance

Shanksville, Pennsylvania - Remarks by President Trump at Flight 93 National Memorial 19th Anniversary Observance:

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, David, very much. Its a great honor to be with you.

Nineteen years ago, on this day, at this very hour, on this field, 40 brave men and women triumphed over terror and gave their lives in defense of our nation. Their names and their stories are forever inscribed on the eternal roll call of American heroes.

Today, we pay tribute to their sacrifice, and we mourn deeply for the nearly 3,000 precious and beautiful souls who were taken from us on September 11th, 2001.

To the family members of Flight 93: Today, every heartbeat in America is wedded to yours. Your pain and anguish is the shared grief of our whole nation. The memory of your treasured loved ones will inspire America for all time to come.

The heroes of Flight 93 are an everlasting reminder that no matter the danger, no matter the threat, no matter the odds, America will always rise up, stand tall, and fight back.

To every 9/11 member all across this nation: The First Lady and I come to this hallowed ground deeply aware that we cannot fill the void in your heart or erase the terrible sorrow of this day. The agony renewed, the nightmare relived, the wounds reopened, the last treasured words played over and over again in your minds.

But while we cannot erase your pain, we can help to shoulder your burden. We promise that unwavering love that you so want and need, support, devotion  and the very special devotion  of all Americans.

On that September morning, when America was under attack, the battle turned in the skies above this field. Soon after taking off from Newark, New Jersey, radical Islamic terrorists seized control of United 93. Other hijacked planes struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center, and then the South Tower, and then the Pentagon.

The terrorists on Flight 93 had a fourth target in mind. It was called: our nations capital. They were just 20 minutes away from reaching their sinister objective. The only thing that stood between the enemy and a deadly strike at the heart of American democracy was the courage and resolve of 40 men and women  the amazing passengers and crew of Flight 93.

Donald and Jean Peterson were grandparents traveling to vacation in California. Deora Bodley was a student headed back to college. Richard Guadagno was returning from celebrating his grandmothers 100th birthday. Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas was three months pregnant with her first child. Every passenger and crewmember on the plane had a life filled with love and joy, friends and family, radiant hopes and limitless dreams.

When the plane was hijacked, they called their families and learned that America was also under attack. Then they faced the most fateful moment of their lives.

Through the heartache and the tears, they prayed to God, they placed their last calls home, they whispered the immortal words, I love you. Today, those words ring out across these sacred grounds, and they shine down on us from Heaven above.

When terrorists raced to destroy the seat of our democracy, the 40 of Flight 93 did the most American of things: They took a vote, and then they acted. Together, they charged the cockpit, they confronted the pure evil, and in their last act on this Earth, they saved our capital.

In this Pennsylvania field, the 40 intrepid souls of Flight 93 died as true heroes. Their momentous deeds will outlive us all.

In the days and weeks after 9/11, citizens of all faiths, backgrounds, colors, and creeds came together, prayed together, mourned together, and rebuilt together.

The song God Bless America became a rallying cry for the nation. We were united by our conviction that America was the worlds most exceptional country, blessed with the most incredible heroes, and that this was a land worth defending with our very last breath. It was a unity based on love for our families, care for our neighbors, loyalty to our fellow citizens, pride in our great flag, gratitude for our police and first responders, faith in God, and a refusal to bend our will to the depraved forces of violence, intimidation, oppression, and evil.

In New York, Arlington, and Shanksville, people raced into the suffocating smoke and rubble. At Ground Zero, the world witnessed the miracle of American courage and sacrifice. As ash rained down, police officers, first responders, and firefighters ran into the fires of hell.

On that day, more than 400 first responders gave their lives, including 23 New York City police officers, 37 Port Authority workers, and 343 New York City firefighters. Today, we honor their extraordinary sacrifice and every first responder who keeps America safe.

With us today is David DeMato, a retired Chicago police officer and a current officer of the Navy Reserves. On 9/11, he drove from Chicago to Ground Zero. As David says, While the sights and smells of working at Ground Zero will forever be etched in my mind, what is more profound is the way this country came together afterwards. The police officers and firemen were revered as the heroes they truly are; the military was appreciated in a manner not seen in decades; and common people found new meaning in values like friendship, kindness, and selflessness.

Thank you, David. Such beautiful words. And thank you to every member of law enforcement who risks their lives to ensure our safety and uphold our peace.

This morning, we also remember the 183 people who were killed in the attack on the Pentagon and the remarkable service members who crawled straight through the raging blaze to rescue their comrades.

We express our undying loyalty to the nearly 6 million young men and women who have enlisted in the United States armed forces since September 11th, 2001.

More than 7,000 military heroes have laid down their lives since 9/11 to preserve our freedom. No words can express the summit of their glory or the infinite depth of our gratitude. But we will strive every single day to repay our immeasurable debt and prove worthy of their supreme sacrifice.

America will never relent in pursuing terrorists that threaten our people. Less than one year ago, American warriors took out the savage killer and leader of ISIS, Al-Baghdadi. Soon after, our warriors ended the brutal reign of the Iranian butcher who murdered thousands of American service members. The worlds top terrorist, Qasem Soleimani, is dead.

Here in Shanksville, this community locked arms and hearts in the wake of tragedy. With us today is Chuck Wagner, a heavy equipment operator who lives just a few miles away. Very soon after the attack, Chuck helped search for the black box. He was so changed by what he experienced that he joined with several members of his church to become what they call Ambassadors for the 40 men and women on Flight 93.

Chuck and his neighbors learned about each person, cared for their families, and each day, rain or shine, they took shifts standing vigil over their final resting place.

Long before this place was a national memorial, back when it was marked by a simple wooden cross, Chuck and his fellow Ambassadors were always here waiting to tell visitors about those we lost. Nineteen years later, Chuck says his life is devoted to three things: his family, his church, and preserving the memory of the men and women of Flight 93.

To Chuck, his wife Jayne  (applause)  thank you very much. Thank you very much. To Chuck and his wife Jayne, thank you so much for being here. And to the over 40 Ambassadors with us today, please stand and receive Americas thanks. And this is a very deep thanks. Please. (Applause.) Thank you very much.

Also with us is Marine veteran Jason Thomas, from Long Island. On September 11th, Jason had just retired from the Marines. But he immediately put back on his uniform and raced into the nightmare of ash and debris. At Ground Zero, he found a fellow Marine, Dave Karnes. Together, they began to call out: United States Marines! United States Marines! If you can hear us, yell, tap. Do whatever you can do. Were the United States Marines. Soon they heard a shout for help. Two police officers were trapped beneath 20 feet of rubble. Jason and Dave dug for hours on end knowing that, at any moment, the wreckage could come down on them, crushing them alive. At one point, someone told Jason to stop. Jason replied, Im a Marine. I dont go back. I go forward.

That day, Jason helped save the lives of those two officers. For years, Jason said nothing about what he did on 9/11. He did not even tell his five children. But when he saw the rescue recounted on TV, he decided to meet those officers. One of them gave him a gift: a steel cross made from a beam that Jason helped lift to free them from the hell on Earth.

As Jason said about the cross, It means a lot. Its a symbol of what we are as Americans. Because that day, we all came together and stood as a nation, as Americans. It didnt matter what race you were, what religion you were. It didnt matter. We all came together to help one another. Id die for this country. Id die for this country.

Jason, thank you very much for bearing witness to the character of our nation. Jason, thank you very much. (Applause.) Thank you very much. Thank you, Jason.

The men and women of Flight 93 were mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, husbands and wives. Nothing could have prepared them for the dreadful events of that morning. But when the moment came, when history called, they did not hesitate, they did not waver. Forty towering patriots rose up, took charge, made their stand, turned the tide, and changed the course of history forever.

Our sacred task, our righteous duty, and our solemn pledge is to carry forward the noble legacy of the brave souls who gave their lives for us 19 years ago. In their memory, we resolve to stand united as one American nation, to defend our freedoms, to uphold our values, to love our neighbors, to cherish our country, to care for our communities, to honor our heroes, and to never, ever forget.

Thank you. God bless you. God bless the heroes of Flight 93. God bless all of the families. 9/11  well never forget. God bless you all, and God bless America. Thank you very much. (Applause.)
Former New York City Mayor is committing at least USD 100 million to help Joe Biden's presidential campaign in the crucial battleground state of

Bloomberg's late stage infusion of cash reflects Democrats' concerns about the tight race in a state that is a priority for President Donald Trump. A victory for Biden in Florida, the largest of the perennial battleground states, would significantly complicate Trump's path to reaching the 270 Electoral College votes needed to secure a second term.

The billionaire Bloomberg launched his own campaign for the Democratic nomination late last year amid worries about Biden's strengths. Despite spending USD 1 billion on his campaign, Bloomberg struggled and dropped out in March, quickly endorsing Biden.

Bloomberg's new spending is intended to boost Biden before the start of early voting in Florida, which begins on September 24. A Bloomberg adviser said much of the money will go to television and digital advertising.

(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.)
RACINE  Urban and rural blight refers to buildings that have been abandoned and left to decay. Studies dating as far back as the 1920s have in various ways linked blighted properties to marked increases in neighborhood crime and reduced economic activity.

Most studies focus on abandoned residential properties, but nationwide real estate investor Phoenix Investors noticed a pattern between its large-scale industrial redevelopments and crime reduction.

Phoenix Investors core business is the revitalization of former manufacturing facilities throughout the United States; as such, the company has significant experience in urban and rural blight abatement.

Phoenix Investors owns over 30 million square feet of industrial real estate space spanning 21 states. A recent national survey conducted by NREI ranked Phoenix Investors as having the 28th largest total industrial real estate portfolio.

Over a decade ago, our core focus shifted to the renovation of large former industrial plants, and I began to see a correlation between our redevelopments and crime reduction, said Frank P. Crivello, Chairman & Founder, Phoenix Investors. This pattern became quite clear across all states and impacted urban and rural blight in a similar way.

Today, Phoenix Investors is by far the largest owner of industrial real estate in Wisconsin with over 9 million square feet across the state, including completed acquisitions in Racine, Mount Pleasant, and Kenosha.

Approximately seven years ago, Phoenix Investors acquired its first industrial property in Racine County at 7505 Durand Avenue, Mount Pleasant. In 2016, Phoenix acquired industrial properties at 1220 Mound Avenue, Racine and 3122 14th Avenue, Kenosha.

The Mount Pleasant building was originally built in 1970 by Bosch Rexroth Corporation.

The Racine building was built between 1906 and 1951 by Western Publishing.

The Kenosha building was built in 1953 by Dynamatic Corporation, a division of Eaton Corporation. Each of the buildings had elements of blight and required renovation upon Phoenixs acquisition.

In partnership with public partners in Mount Pleasant, Racine, and Kenosha, Phoenix Investors renovated the buildings, resulting in blight reduction, improved economic activities, and success in attracting new tenants to the renovated buildings.

Most often when we complete a major industrial renovation, businesses and homes near our projects began to see investment and improvement, said Frank P. Crivello. Our renovations are a catalyst for investment and economic activity. We were pleased to see these changes begin in Racine and Kenosha and grateful for the support we received from local public partners.

About Phoenix Investors

Founded by Frank P. Crivello in 1994, Phoenix Investors and its affiliates (collectively Phoenix) are a leader in the acquisition, development, renovation, and repositioning of industrial facilities throughout the United States.

Utilizing a disciplined investment approach and successful partnerships with institutional capital sources, corporations, and public stakeholders, Phoenix has developed a proven track record of generating superior risk-adjusted returns, while providing cost-efficient lease rates for its growing portfolio of national tenants.

Its efforts inspire and drive the transformation and reinvigoration of the economic engines in the communities it serves, currently encompassing over 30 million square feet. Phoenix continues to be defined by thoughtful relationships, sophisticated investment tools, cost-efficient solutions, and a reputation for success.

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Irina Shayk gave her more than 13.9 million Instagram followers an intimate look at her bedroom, as she posed for a sultry mirror selfie on Sunday morning.

The 34-year-old supermodel showcased her gym-honed midriff and incredible legs as she snapped the shot wearing a black-and-white lace lingerie set.

Posing with one hand in her tousled bun, she put on a busty display in her signature Intimissimi triangle bra and matching underwear.

Posing: Irina Shayk gave her more than 13.9 million Instagram followers an intimate look at her bedroom, as she posed for a sultry mirror selfie on Sunday morning

The model styled her brunette locks into a sweptback blow-dried hairdo and added a slick of glamorous makeup to enhance her stunning features.

Behind her, fans got a glimpse of her minimalist bedroom, which included a black and white blanket, a fiddle-leaf fig in the corner and white carpet over her light wood floors.

On her Instagram Story, the Vogue cover girl cozied up to pals Stella Maxwell and Ben Schwerin on a brown leather couch in a NYC apartment.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by irinashayk (@irinashayk) on Sep 1, 2020 at 5:31am PDT

The trio appeared at ease, as the Russian bombshell placed her legs atop Maxwell in a pair of bright orange shorts and a loose-fitting, grey sweatshirt.

For their picture, the Victoria's Secret Angel smoldered at the camera, sporting an oversized denim jacket, a choker necklace and her blonde tresses pulled back.

Meanwhile, the mother-of-one maintained a soft pout and kept her arms crossed.

Lounging: The Vogue cover girl cozied up to pals Stella Maxwell and Ben Schwerin on a brown leather couch in an NYC apartment on her Instagram Story

Shayk's sighting comes after a slew of platonic reunions with her ex Bradley Cooper, who is the father of her three-year-old daughter Lea.

The former couple have been making the most of their time together, as they were photographed together on Tuesday and Thursday.

Bradley and Irina began dating in 2015. Lea was born in 2017, but they called it quits in June 2019.

Exes: Bradley and Irina split in June 2019 after four years together. They're seen at the 2018 Met Gala above

The couple haven't let the end of their romance or their busy schedules interfere with their co-parenting.

'There are still challenges because he does have a very busy schedule and she's back at work now so there are times they have to compromise, and they do,' a source told HollywoodLife in March.

'He's been making an effort to take projects that aren't too far from New York so he can be there to share custody, he's very committed. And so protective, if it were up to him he'd carry her everywhere.'

Rumours: It comes after Irina and art dealer Vito Schnabel continued to spark relationship rumours over the weekend

'He's totally devoted to Lea, it's really sweet to see how much he loves being a dad,' the insider went on.

He's been back in NYC after spending time in Southern California shooting a yet-to-be-titled Paul Thomas Anderson film.

She has been spotted several times with her potential new boyfriend Vito Schnabel, who is a longtime pal and previously dated Heidi Klum.
Political Science Lecturer, Dr Richard Amoako-Baah, is doubtful of former President John Dramani Mahama's ability to adeptly handle the affairs of this country.



Even though he has been President before, Dr Amoako-Baah opines the economy was in bad shape with continuous power outages (dumsor) under his (Mahama) tenure.



Speaking in an interaction on Neat FM, he believes a vote for the flagbearer of the NDC will be taking the country backwards.



"Yes, things didnt go exactly how you wanted in Akufo-Addo's government; a lot of disgruntled people but that doesnt mean you vote against the ruling party.



"Personally, I dont agree with him (Akufo-Addo) on many things but Mahama cant govern efficiently and it's not because of politics; he just cant do it. Nana Addo should be allowed to continue; hes the only one who can," the Political Science Lecturer intimated.



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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Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 04:31:04|Editor: huaxia

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Shi Yuewen (2nd R), minister counselor for cultural affairs of the Chinese Embassy in Egypt and director of the Chinese Cultural Center in Cairo, presents the award for China's show "Luocha Land" during the closing ceremony of the 27th Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre in Cairo, Egypt, on Sept. 11, 2020. The 27th Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre was closed on Friday with a show played by the National Theatre of China winning a prize. Titled "Luocha Land," the show won the second prize as the best performance in the Recorded Performance Segment of the festival's International competition. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

CAIRO, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The 27th Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre was closed on Friday with a show played by the National Theatre of China winning a prize.

Titled "Luocha Land," the show won the second prize as the best performance in the Recorded Performance Segment of the festival's International competition. This year's festival consisted of two new sections, namely the Recorded Performance Segment and the Lockdown Performances Segment.

"It is encouraging that experimental theatre from China can win a prize on the international stage," said Shi Yuewen, minister counselor for cultural affairs of the Chinese Embassy in Egypt and director of the Chinese Cultural Center in Cairo.

Shi added that it was not easy to record and send the play to participate in the festival amid the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Being able to participate in this festival can not only promote the exchange of theatres between China and Egypt, but also make artists from other countries pay attention to the development of Chinese experimental theatre," he pointed out.

Somaya Ahmed, an Egyptian theatre critic, said that China's participation in the festival was outstanding, expressing admiration of the Chinese performance.

The critic added that the performance of the Chinese artists was unprecedented, adding that the plot of the play and the video-making of the show were stunning.

Meanwhile, Sameh Bassyouni, Executive Director of the 27th Cairo International Experimental Theatre Festival, expressed appreciation of China's interest to join this year's edition despite the hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The Chinese play was a strong competitor, that is why it won a prize," Bassyouni told Xinhua, "I'm glad that China was an important part of the festival this year."

The festival was founded in 1988 and is held every year. In 2011, it was forced to terminate due to the outbreak of the Egyptian revolution. In 2016, the festival returned and attracted more experimental theatre groups from many countries to participate. Enditem
Workers would be able to take up to five days leave a year for IVF, endometriosis, vasectomies or serious menstrual pain under the first claim for reproductive health leave in Australia.

The move would provide leave provisions for health workers experiencing symptoms or treatments linked to menopause, poly-cystic ovarian syndrome, sperm and egg donations or gender reassignment and has been backed by the ACTU.

Kate Marshall, of the Health and Community Services Union initiated the push for reproductive leave after needing fertility treatment to have her daughters, Ava and Lucy. Credit:Eddie Jim

Victoria's Health and Community Services Union has put the claim for leave and other flexibility around reproductive health issues to employers in the Victorian Hospitals' Industrial Association, and the national Health Services Union wants unions around the country to adopt similar clauses.

ACTU president, Michele O'Neil backed the health union's claim that workers going through treatments including assisted reproduction, termination, prostate cancer and other conditions covered by the claim should not be forced to take sick leave or personal leave.
China is concerned about terror groups like Taliban coming to power in Afghanistan while its close ally Pakistan, in contrast, wants to see a Taliban government that will be remotely controlled by Islamabad, according to an expert in international affairs.

Kabul [Afghanistan], September 13 (ANI): China is concerned about terror groups like Taliban coming to power in Afghanistan while its close ally Pakistan, in contrast, wants to see a Taliban government that will be remotely controlled by Islamabad, according to an expert in international affairs.



In the backdrop of US-Taliban peace talks, China does not want to see a Taliban government in Afghanistan as its primary concern regarding terrorism in Afghanistan is about the security of Xinjiang Province, which is home to the Uyghur Muslims, according to Habiba Ashna writing in an op-ed article for Pajhwok News Agency. The writer says the security of Xinjiang Province is directly relevant for Beijings March West strategy which includes the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and related projects in Central Asian countries. For China, the key is to counter jihadi terrorism in this regard.



On the other hand, Pakistans outright support to the terror groups in the region, many of which have foreign fighters and are based in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to name a few, is unlikely to help to ensure security in Xinjiang and its nearby areas of the Central Asian countries and Afghanistan.



ALSO READ: US Senators send letter to Disney CEO to explain why it cooperated with Xinjiang authorities over Mulan

ALSO READ: Covid-19 one of greatest challenges in history: UN General Assembly

According to Ashna, Chinas move of engaging Pakistan and Afghanistan on a bilateral level is seen as an attempt to ensure that Pakistans support to jihadi terrorism does not move into Beijing and endanger any BRI project.



From Kabuls vantage point, China is the only country that is likely to be able to keep Pakistan in check. From Pakistans vantage point, this trilateral is useful for both optics, as well as to remain relevant in any Afghanistan-China dialogue, the author notes.



The Taliban is not seen as anti-China so far and Beijing maintained direct communication channels with it since the 1990s when the terror group was in power in Afghanistan. However, China does not hold a direct grip over the Taliban, but it is Pakistan which possesses such leverage.



Hence, a Taliban government in Afghanistan will mean a fundamentalist Islamist theocracy in control over a strategic territory with China having limited controls over the developments, says Ashna.



The writer states, Combined with the USs increasing inroads in Central Asia (especially with the USs new February 2020 Central Asia Strategy), and the thawing US-Taliban relationship, this does not portend well for Chinese objectives.



In contrast, Pakistan believes that installing a Taliban government in Afghanistan will be a way to ensure its own security along its western borders and it is unlikely that it will abandon such attempts.



While economic interests could, perhaps to a degree, enable overcoming this conundrum, the extent to which it has the potential to calibrate these opposing priorities is debatable. As such, at present, the trilateral relationship is unlikely to deliver any substantial outcome, the author notes.



The intra-Afghan talks between the Afghanistan government and the Taliban opened in Qatars Doha on Saturday, which is aimed at establishing peace and stability in Afghanistan after nearly two decades of war.



The Afghan governments 21-member negotiating team was led by Masoom Stanekzai, a former intelligence chief. On the other hand, the Taliban was led by Mawlavi Abdul Hakim, the terror groups chief justice and a close aide of the groups chief Haibatullah Akhunzada, Al Jazeera reported.



Speaking at a conference on Afghan peace negotiations in Doha through video conferencing, Indias External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that Afghan soil should never be used for carrying out anti-India activities, in an apparent reference to Pakistan. (ANI)

ALSO READ: US, UAE sign agreement for increased consular privileges and immunities
It's 14 years since David Linley infamously auctioned off precious valuables belonging to his mother, the late Princess Margaret, to settle a 3 million inheritance tax bill.

And now the familys treasured possessions and mementos are up for grabs again.

Antiques, photographs and collectibles from Apartment 1A at Kensington Palace, which was home to the party-loving Princess and her husband Lord Snowdon during the 1960s, are being sold off in an auction at Christies by Linleys half-sister, Lady Frances von Hofmannsthal.

Antiques, photographs and collectibles belonging to Princess Margret from Apartment 1A at Kensington Palace are being sold off in an auction. Pictured: Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon with their two children at Kensington Palace in London in 1964

The sale, titled Snowdon: A Life In Art And Objects, comprises 150 lots including a mahogany sleigh bed that belonged to Margaret.

At just 119.5cm wide, it is an unusually snug bed for the 5ft 1in Princess and her 5ft 5in husband.

The item, which has an estimate of 4,000 to 6,000, has already attracted a bid for the 4,000 reserve  little wonder, given the listing makes much of the fact that it was part of the furniture in the couples home, which at the time hosted wild parties with guests such as Dudley Moore, Mick Jagger and Peter Sellers.

The sale comprises 150 lots including a mahogany sleigh bed that belonged to Margaret (L), which has an estimate of 6,000, and chairs designed by Snowdon for Prince Charles's investiture as Prince of Wales

Today the flat has been fully refurbished as the London home of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

The lot includes a photograph of a label which reveals the bed made for HRH Princess Margaret had to be resprung in 1962.

Lady Frances, 41, is Lord Snowdons daughter with his second wife, Lucy Lindsay-Hogg, who inherited from her fathers estate along with all his possessions (or chattels, as his public will listed them) after his death in 2017.

Lord Snowdons children with Margaret  David Linley and Lady Sarah Chatto  also benefited from the estate along with a son born out of wedlock, Jasper Cable-Alexander.

Other listings include a print of a 1985 Snowdon photograph of a natterjack toad climbing out of a glass tumbler (L), and a bird automaton

The party-loving Princess and her husband Lord Snowdon lived at the flat during the 1960s and hosted wild parties with guests such as Dudley Moore, Mick Jagger and Peter Sellers

Today the flat has been fully refurbished as the London home of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. A general view of the State Apartments of Kensington Palace and Apartment 1A

Probate records show, however, that Lord Snowdons illegitimate daughter Polly Fry, who was born while he was on honeymoon with Princess Margaret, was left out of his 3.2 million will.

The lots come from Lord Snowdons final home on Londons Launceston Place, a grand white stucco villa built in the 1840s.

A stones-throw from Kensington Palace, where he lived with Princess Margaret until their divorce in 1978, the 75,000 for the Grade II listed house actually came from the Queen on the proviso that while Lord Snowdon could have it for his lifetime, it was in trust for Linley, 58, and his sister Lady Sarah Chatto, 56.

Prince William, 39, and Kate, 38, live with their children in the private home  number 1A - when staying in London. Pictured in 2016, when the couple hosted US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle at their home)

The house was sold for 7.3 million in 2018 to Stuart Rose, the former executive chairman of Marks & Spencer, just 18 months after Lord Snowdons death in January 2017 at the age of 86.

The latest sale at Christies  of which Linley is honorary chairman  is set to net Lady Frances between 190,200 and 309,800, according to the auction house.

Margarets own children, Linley and Lady Sarah, are not thought to be benefiting.

The listings include chairs designed by Snowdon for Prince Charless investiture as Prince of Wales, a print of a 1985 Snowdon photograph of a natterjack toad climbing out of a glass tumbler, and a bird automaton.

In 2006, David and Lady Sarah courted controversy when they netted 14 million after selling 800 family heirlooms including Princess Margarets wedding tiara, which fetched 926,000. The auction  also at Christies  had been expected to raise 3 million.
New Delhi: The Sikh separatists in the West are purportedly trying to drum up interest in a referendum on their demand for an independent state called Khalistan  meaning, Land of the Pure. But India has banned the referendum and interest is low among Sikhs. In Punjab, millions of Sikhs voted for a fiercely anti-separatist state government.

A closer look suggests that its Pakistanis, not Khalistanis, who are driving the campaign.

In Khalistan: A Project of Pakistan senior journalist Terry Milewski reveals the concept of Khalistan as a project of Pakistan, designed to subvert the national security of both Canada and India.

No matter how low the support for Khalistan sinks in India  and it has sunk very low indeed  the cause still survives in Pakistan, where jihadist groups have made common cause with Sikh separatists against their shared enemy, India, writes Terry Milewski.

An example is the leading Khalistani figure in Pakistan, Gopal Singh Chawla, who makes no bones about his friendly alliance with Pakistan's Hafiz Saeed, leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba. Saeed directed the terrorist attacks of November 2008 that killed 166 people in Mumbai. He is now in prison. Chawla told an Indian reporter that Hafiz Saeed is my ideal person".

The report added, For Canadian-Sikh separatists, the Pakistan connection has been problematic, but still essential. As weve seen, Babbar Khalsa terrorist and Talwinder Parmar certainly knew where to go when he fled Canada. A picture from a Pakistani gun bazaar at Darra, near the Afghan frontier, shows him hefting an antique machine gun in in July, 1989.

Another Canadian citizen, Satinderpal Singh Gill from Surrey, BC, actually lived for years in Pakistan as a senior official of the International Sikh Youth Federation  banned as a terrorist organization in India, Canada, the UK and the US, but not in Pakistan.

More recently, two other Canadians, Bhagat Singh Brar and Parvkar Singh Dulai, are fighting their inclusion on a government no-fly list, after the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) accused them of aiding Khalistani terrorist activities in India. Brar, it said, was among a group of individuals linked to and co-operating with the Pak ISI.

For his part, Dulai has long been a prominent figure at the Dasmesh Darbar gurdwara in Surrey, BC, where martyr posters of Talwinder Parmar have a place of honour. Dulai insists he has nothing to do with Sikh extremists but, until it was banned as a terrorist organization in 2003, he posted on the Internet a photo of himself wearing the colours of the Babbar Khalsa, founded by Parmar. Neither he nor Brar has been charged with any crime in Canada.

According to an official count by the Punjab Police (KPS Gill Undated), the 12 years of Sikh insurgency ending in 1993 were scarred by hijackings, stabbings, shootings and bombings which took a staggering 21,469 lives  and most of the victims, whether civilian, police or separatist fighters, were Sikhs.

Fourteen hundred Punjab policemen were murdered, along with many of their family members. Farmers, judges, teachers, journalists, bankers who lent to the wrong people, and delivery men who brought the wrong newspapers were all butchered.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, on a visit to Toronto in 2010, made a point of condemning Sikh extremism on Canadian soil. Sikh extremism, separatism and militancy were a problem in India more than two decades ago, he said. Today, Punjab is at peace and there is growth and prosperity, he had said.

It appears, then, that Pakistan wants the Sikhs to be free, but not in Pakistan. The separatists, in turn, clearly know where their patron sets the limits. Even drawing a map which presumes upon Pakistans generosity is a step too far  one that could sever the lifeline which has sustained the dream of Khalistan for so long. Judging by the silence, even the fiercest Khalistanis feel they must accept this abbreviated, Pakistani version of their new country without a murmur of dissent. writes Terry Milewski.

As per report, Punjabi writer and broadcaster Tarek Fatah, a Muslim who lives in Canada, recalls how in 1973 as a young journalist he had heard Pakistans then prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto telling a group of reporters that Pakistan would tear off a piece of India  Khalistan  to avenge the loss of the 1971 war with India, in which East Pakistan was torn off and turned into independent Bangladesh.

Pakistan will also have Bangladesh carved out of India, Bhutto promised, except it will be on Pakistans border.

But the Pakistani interest in Khalistan was not confined to revenge and it only grew more intense under his successor, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani Ambassador to Washington, says that bleeding India was certainly the main motive, but a second was to create a strategic buffer between India and Pakistan.

Thirdly, he says, a state of Khalistan would end Indias land access to Kashmir, to the north  another key interest for the Pakistani leadership. Haqqani adds, though, that the creation of a Sikh state remains implausible, leaving only the original motivation for pursuing it: causing India pain.
New Delhi:

Social activist Swami Agnivesh on Sunday equated female foeticide with terrorism and asked people to fight the menace.



Saying that lakhs of girls are killed in their mothers womb across the country every year, he termed female foeticide as the most malicious and heinous crime plaguing the society.



Whenever there is an act of terrorism, the whole world unites against it. In our country lakhs of girls are killed in the womb of their mothers every year. Isnt it terrorism? he asked.

Also read | World Economic Forum 2017 meet to begin on Monday; over 100 people from India to attend



Talking about peace and brotherhood, Agnivesh batted for one parliament and government for the world.



Addressing the Spiritual Brotherhood Day gathering to mark the 48th ascension anniversary of founder of Prajapita Brahms Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya, he said he will raise these issues at World Economic Forum in Davos.



The gathering was also addressed by ex-CBI director DR Karthikeyan and head priest of Judah Hyam synagogue EI Malekar.

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Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin is tightening his embrace of beleaguered ally Alexander Lukashenko as the Belarusian ruler intensifies a crackdown on month-long protests.

Putin, who hosts Lukashenko for talks in Sochi on Monday, is determined opposition demonstrators won't topple the Belarusian president, said five people close to the Kremlin, who asked not to be identified discussing internal policy.

It's their first face-to-face meeting since daily protests erupted in Belarus demanding Lukashenko's resignation after claiming a landslide win in August 9 elections.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko speaks during a cabinet meeting in Minsk, Belarus. Credit:AP

The planned meeting comes as at least 100,000 Belarusian protesters took to the streets of Minsk on Sunday in one of the biggest demonstrations yet against Lukashenko after he claimed a landslide victory in an election his opponents say was rigged.
New Delhi: A business management graduate from Bengaluru, who was suspected to have joined the Islamic State, has reportedly been killed in Syria.

Faiz Masood, belonging to a wealthy family in Bengaluru, was missing for the last seven years, a report in Indian Express said.

The death of Faiz Masood had been confirmed by a doctor who was arrested recently by the NIA in connection with an Islamic State Khorasan Province case, sources speaking to Indian Express said.

According to sources, Abdur Rahman, an opthalmologist, was among those who travelled to Syria in 2013-14 to join the IS.

Masood was closely associated with the IS in Iraq and Syria and was a key player in recruiting youths from Bengaluru. He is left behind his parents, wife and two children.

Officials said that Masood died after an attack on his camp. Masood had left for Qatar in September 2013 and had disappeared then. His disappearance was not reported to the police by his family.

Security agencies came across his name in 2014-15, as being one of those Indians possibly killed in fighting in Syria. Officials then began investigating identities of IS recruits from India.

Investigations carried out revealed that Masood was part of a group of wealthy Muslim youths from east Bengaluru who often met in 2012-13 and discussed religion. Several from the group later joined the IS, reported Indian Express.
Union home minister Amit Shah, who recently recovered from COVID-19, has been admitted to AIIMS in New Delhi for 1-2 days for a complete medical check up before the Parliament session begins, hospital authorities said on Sunday.

The 55-year-old minister was admitted to the hospital at 11 pm on Saturday.

Shah was earlier admitted to the AIIMS here on August 18 for post-COVID care and discharged on August 31 following recovery, hospital authorities had said.

"As per advice given at discharge, he has now been admitted for complete medical check up before Parliament session for 1-2 days," AIIMS said in a statement.

The monsoon session of Parliament begins on Monday.

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan prayed for the good health to Shah.

"Just received the news about the ill-health of Union Home Minister Amit Shah. I pray to God for his good health," Chouhan tweeted in Hindi.

On August 2, Shah had said on Twitter that he had tested positive for COVID-19.

He had undergone treatment at Medanta Hospital and was discharged after he tested negative for the disease.
Mumbai

Actor Kangana Ranaut on Sunday met Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and complained to him about the treatment given to her by the state government. She was accompanied by her sister Rangoli and met the governor for around 20 minutes.

A short while ago I met His Excellency the Governor of Maharashtra Shri Bhagat Singh Koshyari Ji. I explained my point of view to him and also requested that justice be given to me it will restore faith of common citizen and particularly daughters in the system, tweeted Ranaut after the meeting.

Ranaut has been locked in a war of words with the Shiv Sena over the Sushant Singh Rajput case -- especially after she likened Mumbai to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation demolished her Bandra office, citing violation of building norms.

Talking to reporters after the meeting at Raj Bhavan, the actor said, I met the governor. He heard me as a daughter. I came to meet him as a citizen. I have nothing to do with politics. I told him about the injustice meted out to me and what happened was improper. It was indecent behaviour, she said.

Commenting on the meeting, Sena MP Sanjay Raut said Anyone can meet the governor. He further said the party would not speak about her but all her statements would be noted. We will just listen to what she says but will not react to her. We will however take note of all her statements, he added.

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HONG KONGA group of Hong Kong families on Saturday demanded the urgent return of their pro-democracy activist relatives detained last month by mainland Chinese authorities as they tried to flee the city by boat to Taiwan.

Relatives of six of the 12 detained activists donned masks and hats to shield their identities as they made their first public appeal for help and information on their plight, supported by several local politicians.

Some sobbed and wept as they pleaded for those detained to be allowed to consult lawyers appointed by the families and not the Chinese Communist Party and to be allowed to call their relatives in Hong Kong.

I cant imagine whats the worst case scenario, said a woman surnamed Li, whose son Li Tsz-yin, 29, is among those being held in a detention centre in the southern city of Shenzhen.

These 20 days were very tough for us, we didnt know whether or not hes safe or alive. she said.

They said they still had no information on the charges their relatives faced, and the Hong Kong government had given no concrete assistance.

A boy aged 16 is the youngest being held.

Several need medication, the relatives said. The brother of one detainee, surnamed Tang, said he had no way of getting asthma and skin allergy prescriptions to his sibling.

A spokesperson for the Immigration Department said staff were assisting in the case and were in regular contact with the families.

The Chinese Coast Guard Bureau posted on its social media site on Aug. 27 that it had arrested at least 10 people on Aug. 23 after intercepting a boat off the coast of the southern province of Guangdong.

Hong Kong media, citing unidentified sources, said the 12 were headed to Taiwan to apply for political asylum. Their arrests come as local activists and politicians fear a worsening clamp-down across the city as a sweeping new national security law imposed by Beijing in July takes full effect.

The law means Hong Kong people can face mainland courts in serious national security casesa prospect that has alarmed many across the former British colony.

Hong Kong has its own independent legal system and rule-of-law traditions vastly different from mainland China, where the justice system is ultimately controlled by the Communist Party.

Hours before the families appearance, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States was deeply concerned about the activists. He noted they had been denied access to lawyers and local authorities had not provided any information on their welfare or the charges against them.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said earlier this week that if they had been arrested for breaking mainland law then they have to be dealt with according to the mainland laws.

By Jessie Pang

NTD staff contributed to this report.
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Linkedin Alya Nurbaiti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, September 13, 2020 08:46 495 e22cd4161040e111d73a5626c447aa67 1 City athletes-village,kemayoran-athletes-village,Kemayoran,COVID-19,#COVID19,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,COVID-19-Jakarta,doni-monardo,task-force,BNPB,hospital,asymptomatic,referral-center Free

As the number of confirmed cases and fatalities from COVID-19 continues to rise, the government has prepared an apartment tower from the former Kemayoran athletes village  now an emergency hospital for infected patients in Central Jakarta  to house asymptomatic coronavirus patients for isolation, a top official said on Saturday.

With the hospital bed occupancy rate in Jakartas 67 COVID-19 referral hospitals having surpassed 60 percent, the government was working to create more space by sending patients with mild to moderate symptoms to the athletes village, National COVID-19 Task Force chief Doni Monardo said.

Towers 6 and 7 currently accommodate patients with mild to moderate cases. Half of them are asymptomatic. With the addition of Tower 5, the government is providing more facilities for the people who tested positive for COVID-19 but show no symptoms, as their own homes are not sufficient for self-isolation, he said on Saturday, adding that at least 1,500 beds were prepared in Tower 5.

Read also: Jakarta gears up for possible collapse of healthcare system

Doni also said that the government was preparing two-starred and three-starred hotels to isolate asymptomatic COVID-19 patients.

Moreover, he called on the COVID-19 referral hospitals to immediately release patients whose conditions had improved to free up isolation beds for other patients.

Earlier this month, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said that his administration would issue a policy requiring all COVID-19 patients in the capital city to be quarantined at coronavirus referral centers. The new regulation would stipulate that COVID-19 patients, whether or not they show symptoms, would be quarantined in state facilities in a bid to break the chain of infection.

Indonesia recorded 3,806 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Saturday, bringing the total number of infections nationwide to 214,746 with 8,650 fatalities and 152,458 recoveries. Jakarta remains the epicenter of the outbreak nationally with 1,205 new cases, bringing the city's total to 52,840.
The actor said she met the governor as a citizen to tell him about the 'injustice' meted out to her and added that she has nothing to do with politics

Mumbai: Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut, who is locked in a bitter battle with the ruling Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, on Sunday met state Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and told him about the "injustice" done to her.

The meeting came days after the Shiv Sena-ruled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) demolished alleged illegal alterations at Ranaut's bungalow at Pali Hill in suburban Bandra.

Talking to reporters after the meeting that took place at the Raj Bhavan, the actor said, "I met the governor. He heard me as a daughter. I came to meet him as a citizen. I have nothing to do with politics."

"I told him about the injustice meted out to me and what happened was improper. It was indecent behaviour," she said.

Kangana was accompanied by her sister Rangoli Chandel. Both of them removed their masks for clicking photos when they met the governor. Kangana bowed to touch Koshyari's feet.

A short while ago I met His Excellency the Governor of Maharashtra Shri Bhagat Singh Koshyari Ji. I explained my point of view to him and also requested that justice be given to me it will restore faith of common citizen and particularly daughters in the system. pic.twitter.com/oCNByhvNOT  Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) September 13, 2020

The trouble between the Sena and Kangana started after the actor recently said she feared the Mumbai police more than the "movie mafia" and likened the Maharashtra capital to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Reacting to her statement, Sena leader Sanjay Raut had purportedly said, "We kindly request her not to come to Mumbai. This is nothing but an insult to Mumbai Police."

The 33-year-old actor, who returned to Mumbai on Wednesday from her home state Himachal Pradesh the same day as her house was partially demolished by the civic body, had alleged that the Maharashtra government was targeting her because of her clash with the Sena.

She had also criticised Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, saying his "ego will be destroyed" the way her Bandra home was demolished.

On Friday, the "Queen" actor had urged Congress president Sonia Gandhi to intervene and stop the "harassment of women". In a tweet, she had asked Gandhi if she was not anguished by the treatment given by the Maharashtra government, in which the Congress is also a part.
The Telugu Desam is changing its colours from yellow to orange. The party which followed a pro-Telugu ideology for the past 38 years with a secular stand as a party that belongs to all communities with a pro-business/development attitude is turning a saviour of the Hindu religion, strongly protesting attacks on Hindu religious places for the past few days in AP.

Calling upon the Hindu community to perform a week-long devotional protest from September 13 against the Antarvedi incident, the TD is seeking protection of the Hindu religion donning the role of Hindu protector and saviour.

Senior political analysts maintain that the TD is planning to restrain the BJP from strengthening its base in AP by hijacking the Hindutva ideology of saffron party. They recall that TD launched a massive campaign on Antarvedi by sending party leaders and cadres to the spot, appointed a fact-finding committee and further put the demand of CBI inquiry before the BJP started any agitation.

Analysts point out that Naidu, Lokesh and most party leaders have now called for week-long pujas to gather the support of the conventional Hindu community. They recalled that earlier there was no chance for the BJP to strengthen its base in AP due to its alliance with TD and further due to the secret cooperation of saffron leaders and the yellow party.

After Somu Veerraju assumed charge, the BJP has started to grab the main opposition party position from TD, analysts feel that Naidu, with 40 years of experience, has started a counter- strategy by hijacking the Hindutva ideology of BJP claiming himself as the protector of the Hindu religion and damaging the saffron party by attracting Hindutva supporters.

TD politburo member, Varla Ramaiah, called Hindus to conduct pujas from Sunday to Saturday against attacks on Hindu temples and sought protection for Hindus. He lamented that 100 above incidents damaging Hindu sentiments have unfolded in the state after the YSRC assumed power.

Former TD MLA, Bonda Umamaheswara Rao, said that besides performing pujas, TD cadres will conduct protests in front of the surya devalayam (sun temple) on Sunday, Shiva temples on Monday, Anjaneyaswamy temples on Tuesday, Ayyappa temples on Wednesday, Sai Baba temples on Thursday, Ammavari devasthanams on Friday and Vishnu temples on Saturday.

He demanded that the government explain why a series of attacks took place only after YSRC came to power. He further demanded that Chief Minister, Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, should explain why there were no arrests being made in connection with the attacks on the temples, hinting at the allegation that the YSRC is a pro-Christian party as Jagan is Christian.
Rugby Australia and New Zealand Rugby are locked in a heated Bledisloe Cup scheduling stand-off as Wallabies coach Dave Rennie slammed "unacceptable" quarantine protocols and his side's limited preparation time for his first match in charge.

With news Australia will now host a six-week Rugby Championship in November and December, NZR is in the process of confirming dates for two Bledisloe matches in New Zealand beforehand, and sources with knowledge of negotiations say it wants to begin the Test calendar on October 10.

Dave Rennie has put the heat on New Zealand Rugby. Credit:Louise Kennerley

RA, conversely, wants the opening fixture staged on October 17, given the strict quarantine requirements to which the Wallabies will be subjected when they touch down.

Under NZRs plan for an October 10 opener and factoring in its government's quarantine rules, the Wallabies would have to leave Australia on September 20, the day after the Super Rugby AU final, before players then spend the first four days on Kiwi soil isolated in their rooms.
KYODO NEWS - Sep 13, 2020 - 14:14 | Feature, All

Ninety percent of young people belonging to the Japanese diaspora around the world want to make connections with "Nikkei" in other countries, according to what is billed as the first awareness survey of young Nikkei adults.

The survey also found that 74 percent of respondents feel a strong sense of Nikkei identity, and that 82 percent choose the Japanese word "gambaru," or "do your best," as the most important Japanese value that shapes their Nikkei identity.

"One of the key findings of this research is that young Nikkei adults desire to build a global community and develop a transnational connection and understanding of a global Nikkei identity," said the Nippon Foundation, a Tokyo-based organization that conducted the survey with the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.

However, the survey may not necessarily be an accurate reflection of the views of the estimated 3.8 million people descended from Japanese emigrants around the world because it was conducted primarily through Nikkei organizations, which tend to involve people with higher interest in Japan.

According to the survey, 79 percent of the respondents feel a tie with Japan, with 48 percent saying they feel it strongly and 31 percent moderately.

The survey, conducted last year, covered some 3,800 Nikkei aged between 18 and 35 in 36 countries and territories from North to South America to Asia and Europe.

Aside from "doing your best," 78 percent cited "sonkei," or "respect," as the most important value as a Nikkei, 69 percent selected "kansha," or "gratitude," and 68 percent picked "mottainai," an expression of regret when something is used wastefully.

Although self-rated, the respondents have different levels of Japanese-language proficiency, with 7 percent not speaking any at all, 29 percent speaking a few words, 25 percent speaking a little and 17 percent speaking a lot.

Twenty-one percent cited anime as a source for learning about Japanese pop culture, followed by manga, mentioned by 14 percent, and karaoke, by 13 percent.

Thirty-four percent said they eat Japanese food once or twice a week at home and 36 percent eat out at Japanese restaurants a few times a month.

"To be Nikkei is to understand and practice Japanese principles while adapting to the values of one's country of origin. A Nikkei is a person who can find the balance between the two worlds," a respondent in Brazil was quoted as saying by the Nippon Foundation.
Last week, despite intense pressure from Sinn Fein and media, Taoiseach Micheal Martin refused to degrade Irish politics by doing a Donald Trump and venting his anger at Boris Johnson.

As a result, he won the respect of the EU and the United States and left Johnson looking like a lout.

But since Brexit there has been a greening and coarsening of political and media discourse that has seeped like a sewer overflow into wider waters.

Last week, led by Mary Lou McDonald, the Opposition worked itself into a war fever fury.

The Sinn Fein leader demanded there be no "diplomatic niceties", meaning the Taoiseach should lower himself to Johnson's level.

Alan Kelly, leader of Labour, supinely followed her in some cheap Brit-bashing, dashing hopes he would take a different, progressive, pluralist stance from the tribalism of Sinn Fein.

Sadly, Kelly sounded little different from Richard Boyd Barrett, who jumped up like a Sinn Fein Jackeen in the Box demanding the end of partition!

But the Taoiseach, a follower of Michelle Obama's motto, 'When they go low, we go high', had three other major reasons for rejecting Sinn Fein pressure.

First, beating up on Johnson has absolutely no effect on Tory policy - but the EU would be edgy about backing an Irish leader who dealt in bluster.

Second, answering Johnson angrily in Ireland not only adds to the Anglophobia on which Sinn Fein thrives, but Trumpifies our political discourse.

Third, Martin, being an historian, knows that every successful Irish statesman has chosen cool words to win international respect and shame the aggressor.

De Valera did not respond to Churchill's post-war barbs by telling him he was a drunken old buffoon.

But De Valera's dignified demolition still slyly got in the dig about drunkenness when he referred to Churchill "in the first flush of victory".

In 1984, Mrs Thatcher's hectoring response to the New Ireland Forum Report, was: "Out, out, out."

Garret FitzGerald defied pressure to respond in kind, waited it out, and got his reward. Because Thatcher's shrill tone came across as so grating on international television that it garnered huge sympathy for FitzGerald abroad.

Even Ronald Reagan started to lean on Thatcher to give Garret something - that something being the Anglo-Irish Agreement 1985.

Finally, there is the brilliant example of Bertie Ahern eating humble pie at the end of the Good Friday talks - but only to get what he wanted from the start.

Last week, at least one commentator claimed Ahern would have aggressively taken lumps out of Johnson.

Let me put them straight on that by showing how Ahern always spurned cheap rhetoric and always put his personal ego aside in pursuit of his political aims.

In April 1998, he agreed an elaborate list of north-south bodies, not with the UUP, but privately with Tony Blair, who then asked George Mitchell to present the list to the unionists on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.

It was a big win for Irish nationalism but Ahern did not do a Leo and leak his success to the media.

Ahern's mother died on a Monday morning, and he left for Dublin. At the removal on Tuesday night he was told Trimble would not accept the north-south bodies, and the UUP were prepared to leave the talks.

Ahern knew Trimble did not bluff, had a long think about what was at stake, decided to fly to Belfast next morning after the removal, and renegotiate the north-south bodies face to face with Trimble.

In the end, and defying pressure from DFA officials, Ahern sacrificed all the gains he made with Blair to keep Trimble in the talks.

Trimble was churlish about it at the time, bragging to his colleagues on the Thursday at one stage: "I've just witnessed the ritual humiliation of the Irish prime minister."

Ahern resisted the temptation to tear into Trimble or react in any way. He got his reward next day when he put his name to the historic Good Friday Agreement.

Jean Monnet said you could get anything done if you didn't want the credit. Ahern went one better in showing that you must also put your ego aside.

Alas, Simon Coveney is no Ahern and no believer in putting his ego aside.

Last Wednesday, at a press conference, he went back to his bad habit during the last Brexit bout, of using the North as a negotiating tool, warning about "Northern Ireland being too fragile and important to be used as a pawn in Brexit negotiations".

To which Steve Aiken leader of the UUP - and a Remainer - tweeted: "Massive irony alert from Simon Coveney."

Aiken was mordantly referring to the fact that Coveney has never been averse to using Northern Ireland as leverage.

Back in the autumn of 2017 (as charted by Philip Ryan and Niall O'Connor in their biography of Leo Varadkar) both Coveney and the then Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, made the dangerous tactical decision to dramatise and "play hardball" with the Border.

In the same year, with the hand of hubris on his shoulder, Coveney attended Martin McGuinness's funeral and baldly declared himself a nationalist who aspired to a united Ireland in "my political lifetime".

In contrast, the Taoiseach, by virtue of age and background, has learned the necessity of the shared island approach the hard way, having watched the carnage in Fianna Fail caused by Charles Haughey's blustering polemics and armchair nationalism.

But judging by the liverish leaks from a Fianna Fail meeting in the Irish Examiner, the anti-Martin dissidents, like the anti- Lynch dissidents, have learned nothing.

Unlike Stephen Collins in last Friday's Irish Times, Martin's selfish critics give him no credit for a steady hand on Covid, Brexit and Northern Ireland.

They forget that Leo Varadkar locked us down in sunny weather, lashed out the pandemic payments and read us inspiring speeches from an autocue.

In contrast, Martin's thankless task has been to get people back to work in bad weather while preparing them for gradual cuts on pandemic payments.

Despite the drag factor of replacing two ministers, a hostile media mad for another election, and a Tanaiste trying to steal his thunder, Martin has done remarkably well.

He has coped with Covid, calmed unionist nerves with his Shared Island strategy, picked a minister, Norma Foley, and stepped out of her light to support her in the background while she got the schools open.

He has steadied EU nerves by not letting Boris Johnson's boorish behaviour tempt him to fit the stereotype of a petulant Paddy blustering in a bar.

But far from saluting the Taoiseach's success, the death-wish dissidents in Fianna Fail continue to nurse a muzzy feeling that Martin should have either done a deal with Sinn Fein or made flashy speeches like Leo Varadkar.

Let me predict they will get their wish. Because as soon as Martin steps down, the dissidents will be swiftly swallowed up by Sinn Fein and politically disappeared while decent elements will end up in Fine Gael.
An Australian flag flutters in front of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing - Jason Lee/Reuters

Michael Smith, a reporter for an Australian newspaper, was jolted from his sleep in his Shanghai apartment last week by six state intelligence officers who questioned him under a bright spotlight.

Almost 800 miles away Beijing, meanwhile, as drinks flowed in the middle of a party at his flat, Bill Birtles, correspondent for Australia's state broadcaster, received an almost identical visit.

The message from authorities was the same: pack your bags.

Details were sketchy but Mr Smith and Mr Birtles were now 'persons of interest' in a case and were subject to an exit ban.

The reality is more nuanced.

The Australian pair had become the latest journalists to be swept up in the growing animosity between China and the West  casualties of a spiralling row that is now rapidly closing our window into a rising global superpower.

A collapse in cordial relations has triggered expulsions of a group of US journalists too and sewed a culture of fear among the shrinking number of foreign reporters left inside.

Recalling his interrogation, Mr Smith wrote: I wondered if ... I was about to be 'disappeared' to one of China's notorious black jails."

Michael Smith, left, and Bill Birtles, right, were evacuated from China - EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

The visit to his flat came following the detention of Cheng Lei, an Australian anchor for Chinese state media, in a secretive national security case.

Although neither Mr smith nor Mr Birtleswas suspected of a crime, they now feared the same fate.

The move by the Chinese authorities coincided with a sharp decline in Canberras relations with Beijing - and both men were relieved to finally be allowed to go home to Australia after a tense diplomatic standoff.

But the incident heralds a darker era for foreign media in China that not only deprives Australia of accredited reporters for the first time since the 1970s, but which has worrying implications for the free flow of information out of an increasingly assertive and authoritarian power.

As well as expulsions, harassment is on the rise. Last week Alice Su, a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, was interrogated at a police station, grabbed by the throat and pushed into a cell and held for more than four hours before being forced to leave Inner Mongolia, northern China. The police have since denied this account.

Story continues

The US and Australian media have so far borne the brunt of Chinas ire, but China experts warn the British press could be next if ties between London and Beijing, under strain over unrest in Hong Kong, deteriorate further.

Midnight police visits, embassy refuge and high level negotiations - The inside story of my hasty, unexpected and unfortunate exit from China: https://t.co/iBZUGljzn0  Bill Birtles (@billbirtles) September 8, 2020

Its a huge loss for our understanding of China. Its going to go back to the Cold War days basically where you can only look at China from Taiwan ... an Iron Curtain is falling again over the Pacific, said Gerry Shih, a Washington Post correspondent who was one of several US reporters expelled in March.

Like his colleagues, Mr Shih was blindsided by the foreign ministrys sudden decision to rescind visas - an increasingly common tactic - for the Post, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

He had been watching Netflix at home when he received a late evening message from a colleague about the announcement.

Mr Shih, now based in Taiwan, said hostility towards foreign media was not just a result of deteriorating forieng relations but was also linked to internal struggles within the Communist Party.

Seemingly reciprocal actions taken by the US and Australian governments against Chinese journalists, most of whom work for state media and have been accused of engaging in espionage, have also inflamed the situation.

Australian intelligence agents raided the homes of four Chinese journalists in June in connection with alleged breaches of foreign interference laws.

The inside story of my last week in China. A midnight visit by security police, exit bans, consular refuge and the high stakes negotiation to secure our freedom. https://t.co/w2WJ5b5fc9  Michael Smith (@MikeSmithAFR) September 8, 2020

The banishing of US journalists in March came weeks after President Trump limited the number of Chinese citizens who can work in the United States for five state-run Chinese news organisations.

But the row had initially escalated after Beijings angry expulsion in February of three Wall Street Journalists over a headline  which none of them were responsible for - that read "China is the Real Sick Man of Asia.

Critical reporting on sensitive issues like Beijings crackdown on Hong Kong pro-democracy protests and the treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority in Xinjiang had already inflamed tensions, said Steven Lee Myers, the New York Times bureau chief who in March was forced to leave China within ten days and relocate to South Korea.

You have to go back really to the era of the Cultural Revolution to imagine a time when reporting was restricted as much as it is now, he said. Unfortunately, it feels to me like we are returning to that kind of era of hostility.

China analysts predict that Beijings treatment of the foreign media will continue to deteriorate as Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, seeks to exert more control over the narrative his country projects to the world.

Reporting on the Hong Kong protests has been one point of friction between Beijing and the foreign media - Jerome Favre/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Charles Parton, a former diplomat to China, warned British journalists would very likely face similar treatment to their US and Australian colleagues.

Their fate may depend on the UK governments reaction to a broad strategy of Chinese interference and threats to our freedom of speech, academic freedom, and in some cases to the way our democracy works, he explained.

A trigger point for future friction, he said, could be an upcoming ruling by broadcast regulator Ofcom that could ban the China Global Television Network (CGTN) from UK airwaves for showing forced confessions.

The government should engage in more imaginative reciprocity when restrictions were placed on British journalists in China, argued Mr Parton.

But he cautioned it was inevitable that reporters would find themselves a little bit more on the frontline than they would wish if democracies were to stand up for their values.

The US and Australia were leading the way, but I think that if other democracies wish to defend their own systems, they too will get it in the neck. If they dont, they will be kowtowing to China and they will reap the consequences of that.
The opposing forces on either side of the border wall in Laredo  the Trump Train and the No Border Wall Coalition  have worked with the city to avoid a literal confrontation on Saturday.

The Trump Train is a group of local supporters of President Donald Trump who will embark on a car parade through parts of Laredo on Saturday. Hector Garza, president of the local Border Patrol union and co-creator of this event, said 300 people have confirmed their participation in the parade.

Garza said for the past two weeks theyve been in contact with different city officials about this endeavor. Part of their tentative route was to go over the No Border Wall Coalitions new defund the wall mural on Victoria Street.

However, the coalition had already secured a permit from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. that same day to close this block of Victoria to repaint and retouch the mural. Tricia Cortez, one of the leaders of the No Border Wall Coalition, emailed the citys traffic director on Aug. 27 requesting permission for the touch-ups to take place Sept. 12.

One event would have to accommodate the other.

City Manager Robert Eads on Thursday said they were trying to find a middle ground with the two groups to be fair to them both.

The Trump Train has not obtained a permit for the parade with the city. Eads said its being considered like a birthday parade and that they will follow all traffic laws, so they wont need a police escort.

The city has stopped requiring parade permits during the pandemic so that their police and fire departments could focus on other, more important tasks, Eads said.

In the end, Garza and the Trump Train organizers decided to alter their path so that it does not conflict with the No Border Wall Coalitions permit.

Garza said the event is still going to happen largely as planned and that the changed route will be announced Friday. He also wanted to remind the participants that it will be a peaceful event.

There are over 5,000 members of the Laredo Trump Train group on Facebook, 85% of whom are indeed from Laredo, Garza said, citing Facebooks data.

He and others founded the group because they felt city and county leaders were only representing the people who are against the border wall.

Now were showing that people are supporting President Trump in Laredo and his policies, including the border wall, Garza said.

After holding back for months, in June the City of Laredo came to an agreement with the federal government and allowed them the right of entry for the 982 acres the city owns along the Rio Grande.

However, a few weeks later the government filed a second declaration of taking against the city for 208 acres of their riverfront property, most of which was included in the first lawsuit.

On Wednesday the city again signed an agreement with the federal government for the right of entry. This means federal officials can now freely access the land and conduct surveys to develop the alignment of a future border wall.

Garza said he was very excited about this update and that it meant the city can now come together with the Department of Homeland Security to work on design plans for the downtown bulkhead.

Julia Wallace may be reached at 956-728-2543 or jwallace@lmtonline.com
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, September 13, 2020 15:25 495 e22cd4161040e111d73a5626c448f775 4 News travel,destination,tourist-destination,PSBB Free

Twenty-seven tourist attractions in Jakarta will be closed to visitors starting Monday following the reinstatement of large-scale social restrictions (PSBB).

"Activities [at tourist sites] managed by the Jakarta [administration], such as Ragunan Zoo, Monas, Ancol [Dreamland Park] and city parks, will be halted," Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan told an online press conference on Wednesday as quoted by kompas.com.

Among the places to be shut down are the Kota Tua area in West Jakarta, Anjungan DKI at the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII) cultural park in East Jakarta, Planetarium Jakarta, Taman Ismail Marzuki, Jakarta Art Theater, Textile Museum in West Jakarta, Onrust and Kelor islands in Thousand Islands regency and the Wayang Orang Bharata show.

Some of the sites, such as Ragunan Zoo, TMII and Ancol, had reopened to visitors in late June with health protocols in place and attracted tens of thousands of people looking to unwind on weekends.

Anies said Friday that the restrictions would presumably be lifted on Sept. 28.

However, he warned people not to expect the pandemic to be over in just two weeks. "It wont. If this high rate [of COVID-19 transmission] does not slow down, [the PSBB] will continue." (kes)
On a day when the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) was held in over 200 centres across Tamil Nadu, neighbouring Puducherry's Chief Minister V Narayanasamy said a Congress regime led by Rahul Gandhi as the prime minister would cancel the examinations if they come to power at the Centre.

"We will cancel NEET if Congress regime, led by Prime Minister Rahul Gandhi, comes to power at the Centre," Narayanasamy said, according to news agency ANI.

Earlier on September 12, Narayanasamy had said that the people will teach the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government a 'lesson' during polls for playing with the lives of the youth by holding the NEET despite protests.

The Chief Minister said he had written several letters to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to drop the NEET-based selection of the students. He said NEET, designed on the basis of the CBSE syllabus, would be tough to crack as students here have been following state board syllabus. So, he said, NEET should be done away with in the interest of the students in Puducherry.

Gandhi had wished those appearing for NEET earlier in the day while taking a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "My best wishes to the students appearing for NEET exam and my sympathies to those who couldn't take it due to the COVID pandemic and floods. Wish Modiji was as concerned about JEE-NEET aspirants and students as he is about his crony capitalist friends," Gandhi had said.

The examinations were held on September 13 amid sporadic protests against the exam, following alleged suicides of three medical aspirants.

The protests, seeking scrapping of the national test, were staged by Left leaning student outfits, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, fringe Dravidian parties at places, including Madurai, Theni, Kumbakonam, Pudukottai, Rajapalayam and Karur, police said.

The exam, which was held between 2 pm and 5 pm, saw elaborate security arrangements and individual distancing signs marked on the ground.

Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' in a tweet, quoting the National Testing Agency (NTA), said around 85-90 percent students appeared in the exam nationwide.
The shots were fired around 6:30 a.m. and shattered a window and hit the overhead door of the firehouse at 6239 N. California Ave., home to Battalion 9 and Engine 71, according to Fire Chief Juan Hernandez. It happened around the time a person sought refuge at the firehouse and was allowed inside, the chief said.
At the Angelus Pope Francis urges forgiveness in families and society. In God "justice is pervaded by mercy, while our human attitude is limited to justice". Bearing a grudge is "like an annoying summer fly". Solidarity and closeness to all the victims of the fire that broke out in the Moria (Lesbos) refugee camp which the Pope visited in 2016. May the Churches work "in favor of dialogue and in favor of reconciliation" in places of conflict between civil society and political powers. The Collection for the Holy Land.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - An appeal for forgiveness, recalling that God is both justice and mercy; another to the international community to mobilize for the refugees from the Moria detention center (Lesbos), following a devastating fire; a third appeal for reconciliation for all places where civil society demonstrates against political power. The pontiff did not mention any place in particular, but it is likely that he has Belarus, Lebanon, Iraq, Thailand, Hong Kong in mind ...

Before the Angelus prayer with several thousand pilgrims in St. Peter's Square, Francis emphasized the urgency of forgiveness: "How many broken families who do not know how to forgive each other! How many brothers who carry this grudge inside! We need to apply merciful love in all human relationships: between spouses, between parents and children, within our communities, in the Church and also in society and politics ".

Commenting on today's Gospel (Matthew 18: 21-35) of the two debtor servants, the Pope first of all showed the disproportion between the servant who "owes his master ten thousand talents, an enormous sum, millions and millions of euros" and the another servant who owes that first servant a "... very small debt, perhaps like a week's salary".

"In the parable - he explained - we find two different attitudes: that of God - represented by the king - and that of man. In the divine attitude, justice is pervaded with mercy, whereas the human attitude is limited to justice. Jesus exhorts us to open ourselves with courage to the strength of forgiveness, because in life not everything can be resolved with justice. There is a need for that merciful love, which is also at the basis of the Lords answer to Peters question, which precedes the parable: Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? (v. 21). And Jesus replies, I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times (v. 22). In the symbolic language of the Bible this means that we are called to forgive always.

How much suffering, how many lacerations, how many wars could be avoided, if forgiveness and mercy were the style of our life! Even in the family! How many broken families who do not know how to forgive each other! How many brothers who carry this grudge inside! We need to apply merciful love in all human relationships: between spouses, between parents and children, within our communities, in the Church and also in society and politics.

This morning, as I was celebrating mass, I was struck by the first reading of Sirach, which says: Remember the end and stop hating! Let's think about this very touching phrase. And it is not easy to forgive. In quiet moments we say: this person has done me great wrong! But I've also done great wrong. But then the grudge returns like an annoying summer fly. We must always forgive, not just in a single moment.

"Let us entrust ourselves to the maternal intercession of the Mother of God: May she help us to realise how much we owe to God, and to remember Him always, so that our hearts may be open to mercy and goodness."

After the Marian prayer, Francis recalled the fire that devastated the refugee camp of Moria (Lesbos) on 9 September last. The pontiff had visited that camp in 2016.

"The memory of my visit there and of the appeal launched together with the ecumenical patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Hieronymus of Athens to ensure a humane and dignified welcome for migrant women and men still resonates in me, said the Pope. To refugees, to those seeking asylum in Europe. I express solidarity and closeness to all the victims of these dramatic events.

The Pontiff launched another appeal for all places where there are tensions between civil society and political powers. The Pope cited many situations (without mentioning the name of any country) where "numerous popular demonstrations of protest take place that express the growing unease of civil society in the face of particularly critical political and social situations".

And he added: "While I urge the demonstrators to present their demands in a peaceful way, without giving in to the temptation of aggression and violence, I appeal to all those with public and government responsibilities to listen to the voice of their fellow citizens and to meet their just aspirations by ensuring full respect for human rights and civil liberties.

Francis then invited the ecclesial communities living in such contexts to work "in favor of dialogue and in favor of reconciliation".

The Pope also recalled that today is the Collection day for the Holy Land. Traditionally, it takes place on Good Friday, but this year, due to the pandemic, it was moved to 13 September, the eve of the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

In the current context - he explained - this collection is even more a sign of hope and solidarity with the Christians who live in the land where God became flesh and died and rose again for us. Today we make a spiritual pilgrimage, in spiritu, with the imagination, with the heart, to Jerusalem, where, as the Psalm says, we find our source. And let's make a gesture of generosity for those communities.
MOSCOW : At least 100,000 Belarusian protesters took to the streets of Minsk on Sunday in one of the biggest demonstrations yet against President Alexander Lukashenko after he claimed a landslide victory in an election his opponents say was rigged.

As public anger continued to build against Lukashenko, who has ruled the former Soviet nation for 26 years, Moscow offered him support by saying it would send paratroopers to Belarus for "Slavic Brotherhood" joint drills.

A wave of protests has swept Belarus since the Aug. 9 presidential election, which demonstrators say was actually won by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. Key opposition figures have since either been jailed or fled the country, with Tsikhanouskaya now in Lithuania.

Lukashenko denies the election was rigged and has said foreign powers are behind the protests.

A vast column protesters marched through the capital Minsk towards a government district on Sunday, chanting "long live Belarus" and "you're a rat," a taunt that has frequently been used against Lukashenko during demonstrations.

They came to a halt and chanted "fascists" as hundreds of riot police with shields blocked off the road. Meanwhile in the city of Brest, police used water cannons on protesters, according to the Nexta Live channel.

Police said they had detained about 250 people in Minsk.

The atmosphere was tense, with a large police presence in parts of the capital, and some central areas sealed off with barbed wire, including Oktyabrskaya Square and Independence Square - common focus points of anti-government rallies .

The Interfax Russian news agency reported that shots had been fired into the air to warn off protesters in an area of Minsk where the Belarusian leadership lives.

An interior ministry official denied that any shots were fired in the air.

RUSSIAN PARATROOPERS

The unrest comes as Lukashenko, in power since 1994, prepares to travel to Russia on Monday for talks with President Vladimir Putin.

Moscow, a neighbour and traditional ally, has stepped up support, offering to potentially restructure Belarusian debt, and providing banking liquidity. It has also said Russian riot police could be made available if needed.

On Sunday, Russia's defence ministry said it would send paratroopers from its elite Pskov division to Belarus for the joint drills starting on Monday and running till Sept. 25, the TASS state news agency reported.

On the streets of Minsk, some critics of Lukashenko expressed hope that the sheer size of Sunday's protests would undermine the Belarusian leader and make it difficult for Putin to back him openly.

"We have to show with this march that he (Lukashenko) doesn't control the country, that he is not in a position to speak on behalf of Belarusians," said Gennady, 35, a logistics worker who declined to give his surname.

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Air quality in Portland John Locher/AP Photo

Oregon Fire Marshal Jim Walker resigned on Saturday after Oregon State Police placed him on paid administrative leave earlier that day.

While the state police did not give a reason for his leave, sources close to the situation say the police chief lost confidence in Walker's ability to handle the wildfire crisis in Oregon.

Walker's replacement will be former Chief Deputy Mariana Ruiz-Temple.

Oregon's unprecedented wildfire season has already killed ten people and left dozens missing. Over 10% of the state is under an evacuation order or alert, and the state is preparing for a "mass fatality incident"

This year's historic wildfire season can be tied to climate change, and may have lasting economic impacts across the West Coast.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Oregon Fire Marshal Jim Walker resigned on Saturday, Oregon Live first reported.

The Oregon State Police announced on Saturday that Walker had been put on paid administrative leave. His resignation followed just hours later.

The state police did not say give a reason for Walker's leave, but a source familiar with the situation told Oregon Live that Superintendent Travis Hampton "lost confidence" in Walker's ability to lead the department against the wildfires. Chief Deputy Mariana Ruiz-Temple will take Walker's place at the head of the Office of State Fire Marshal.

Former Chief Deputy Mariana Ruiz-Temple, who has just been appointed Oregon's new Fire Marshal. Courtesy of the Oregon State Police

"Mariana is assuming this position as Oregon is in an unprecedented crisis which demands an urgent response," Hampton said in a press release. "This response and the circumstances necessitated a leadership change. I have the absolute confidence in Mariana to lead OSFM operations through this critical time."

The wildfire situation in Oregon is becoming increasingly dire. Ten people have died, 40,000 have evacuated, and at least 500,000, or more than 10% of Oregon's total population, are under an evacuation alert.

Dozens of people remain missing, and the state is preparing for a "mass fatality incident," Oregon's emergency management director, Andrew Phelps, told reporters on Friday.

Story continues

The 2020 wildfire season has already scorched 3 million acres across California, Oregon, and Washington, and is already far more severe than the 2019 wildfire season. Scientists say the increased severity of the wildfire season is strongly tied to climate change, according to the New York Times.

Economists say 2020's historic wildfire season may result in lasting economic consequences for the entire West Coast. Long-term air pollution at current levels would be a drastic hit to worker productivity, Matthew Khan, a Bloomberg distinguished professor of economics and business at Johns Hopkins University and a provost professor of Economics at the University of Southern California, told Business Insider on Saturday.

Air quality in Portland is currently the worst in the world. Other West Coast cities like Seattle, Vancouver, and San Francisco rank closely behind.

Khan also said that the wildfires may result in brain drain for Silicon Valley and other major economic hubs on the West Coast, as workers may perceive these areas to have a decreased quality of life.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Funeral arrangements have been announced for the four members of an Oshawa family killed in a shooting at their home early in the morning of Sep. 4.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, a drive-past visitation for Chris Traynor and his children Bradley, Adelaide, and Joey, will take place Wednesday between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. at the Oshawa Funeral Home, 847 King St. W.

Members of the community will be able to offer a prayer or leave an expression of condolence.

A private family funeral will be held the following day.

Chris Traynor, 50, was a teacher at Monsignor Paul Dwyer Catholic High School. He, and his sons Bradley, 20, and Joey, 11, and daughter Adelaide, 15, were killed in their home in the early hours of Sept. 4.

His wife, Loretta Traynor, also a teacher, was wounded. A surviving son, Sam, a university student, was not injured.

Obituaries for the Traynors note that memorial donations to Feed the Need in Durham would be appreciated in lieu of flowers.

The surviving family members issued a statement Thursday.

Loretta, Sam and the entire Traynor family would like to state how profoundly grateful we are for all the kind messages of condolence and support this past week, as well as for the tributes at the house and the schools, the statement reads. Loretta is recovering from her injuries, with Sam remaining closely by her side. Both are devastated over the tragic loss of Chris, Bradley, Adelaide and Joey, but the support provided by the staff and students at the familys schools, the Durham Catholic District School Board and the entire Oshawa community have been of great comfort to the entire family.

Durham police identified the shooter as 48-year old Mitchell Lapa of Winnipeg, the brother of Loretta Trainer. Police said Lapa was an uninvited person to the home.

Police say Lapa shot and killed himself in the home.

Neighbours said the Traynor family had recently returned from their North Kawartha cottage. Property records show the Peterborough County cottage previously owned by Loretta Traynors parents, Matthew and Marilyn Lapa, was transferred to her in April 2018. No money was exchanged.

Her father, Matthew Lapa, died in January 2019, predeceased by his wife Marilyn.

CBC reported that Lapa was largely shut out of the will, which included the cottage.

The investigation continues.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday talked up his administrations response to the Covid-19 epidemic, telling supporters at an election rally that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi was impressed and complimented him on the scale of the testing in the United States.

The president, who has faced criticism of his handling of the epidemic that has killed nearly 190,000 Americans, came under further scrutiny this past few days for admitting to Bob Woodward, for his upcoming book, that he had downplayed the threat from the virus though he knew exactly how lethal it was.

Trump blames the high number of US infections  6.4 million  on more testing, which he goes on to compare to lower testing numbers in India several times before, to defend his administrations response. He also throws in the size of the population of the two countries tor effect.

We have the best testing programme in the world by far, he told supporters at an election rally in Nevada, a battleground state. Weve tested more people than India, than many, many big countries put together. Indias second, we are 44 million tests ahead of India. They have 1.5 billion people.

And Prime Minister Modi calls me (and) says what a job youve done with testing, he said, recounting a conversation with the prime minister, the details of which could not be ascertained immediately. They last spoke in early June and they had discussed Covid-19 then, among a host of other issues.

The United States had conducted 95.6 million tests by Saturday afternoon according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). India had done 56.2 million, according to the Indian Council Medical Research. The president, it seems, used an outdated number for Indias testing total when he claimed the US was ahead by 44 million.

Trump moved on to other subjects at the rally shortly. But bringing up Modi to endorse his response to the Covid-19 epidemic was perhaps a first and, notably, at an election rally.

Trump trails former Vice-President Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, in national polls, though the gap has narrowed in recent day and will reduce further closer to November 3, the election day. He is now behind Biden by 7.5 points in the RealClearPolitics average of polls.

The Trump 2020 campaign released recently a video made of clips from the Howdy Modi event that he attended with Modi in Houston last September and the Namaste Trump rally at Ahmedabad in February, in a bid to woo 1.8 million Indian Americans voters; they could count in battleground states.

Biden has picked an Indian American, Senator Kamala Harris, as his running mate, and rolled out an expansive plan for the welfare of India Americans and for US-India relations if he was elected president.
Still, there is no expectation that things will continue like normal. Were not pushing the kids to log on, Ms. Oxford said, because the majority have lost everything.

California is among the states hit hardest by the pandemic, with at least 758,000 coronavirus cases and over 14,000 deaths since the outbreak began. The vast majority of its school districts started the year remotely, only to deal soon after with fires, smoke and rolling blackouts across much of the state, creating another layer of disruption.

Its a difficult, difficult time, said Linda Darling-Hammond, the president of the state Board of Education. And at the same time, all of those difficulties that we experienced earlier have produced some ways of connecting and learning that are really, really valuable right now.

Because of the pandemic, the state required districts to create instructional continuity plans, to prepare them to keep teaching even if students and staff members had to be in and out of school buildings as infection levels rose and fell in their communities over the course of the academic year.

Ms. Darling-Hammond said that California adopted the idea from Miami, where hurricanes and floods frequently close schools for days and weeks at a time. She said that as climate change drives more disasters in California and across the county, that kind of contingency planning will be critical for all schools.

Were going to have climate-related events regularly, she said, even once we get a vaccine for Covid.
The supposed cure for coronavirus is turning out to be worse than the disease. As analysis by the Mail reveals today, more lives are being wrecked by the official response to Covid than by the virus itself.

In a bizarre paradox, ill-directed efforts at protecting public health are creating a public health disaster.

When the outbreak began, the Government decided to shield the NHS, with the aim of maintaining its capacity for the imminent tidal wave of cases. All resources were focused on this goal.

From March, the treatment of other conditions and illnesses was put in abeyance for three months. And to this day, the NHS has not resumed anything like normal service. But the predicted Covid deluge never materialised.

Even now the fiercely disputed current Covid death toll of 41,628 is barely half the total fatalities of the 1968 flu epidemic in the UK.

The streets of Soho, London where people are all in groups before the new restrictions start on Monday where you can only be in a group of six maximum

Yet the impact of Covid has been truly devastating in a much more insidious way. As todays figures reveal, the effective suspension of much of the NHS, and the mass deferral of non-Covid cases, have wreaked havoc on the nations health.

Hospital admissions for cancer were down by 36 per cent in April and another 37 per cent in May. As a doctor who served as director of cancer services in Rotherham for over 12 years, I feel despair at these statistics.

For ultimately they are proof that this crisis has warped the Governments and medical authorities senses of reality, purpose and compassion.

In my field of cancer, NHS guidelines give patients who show any potentially cancerous symptoms  such as a persistent cough, sudden weight loss or blood in the stool  a legal right to be seen by a specialist within two weeks of an urgent GP referral.

Diagnosis should be made within 28 days and, if needed, 95 per cent of patients should begin treatment within 62 days from the original referral.

But in the post-Covid climate of severe healthcare rationing, this target has simply been abandoned. One member of my family who found blood in their urine had to wait more than three and a half months just to be seen.

Tragically, the whole point of cancer pathways is to catch the disease early before it advances and spreads. Yet that basic medical requirement has been ignored in the obsessive attention paid to coronavirus.

Members of staff attend to motorist at a Covid-19 testing centre in central London last week

And so the very ministers and public health bureaucrats who constantly claimed to be saving lives have put numerous lives at risk with their distorted priorities.

Due to wilful neglect, the damage caused to cancer patients will be felt for years to come. The same applies to so many other conditions, including cardiovascular problems, diabetes, mental health and dementia, where patients have been denied timely care. Of course, it is not just delayed treatment that is to blame.

The draconian lockdown, now in its second incarnation, also fuels poor health by the harm it inflicts on the economy  through poverty and unemployment  as well as by putting people in enforced isolation. It is a tragic fact that, as history demonstrates, higher suicide rates invariably follow declines in a nations GDP, particularly among the young  those least likely to suffer from Covid.

As for the elderly, who are most vulnerable to Covid, in another bitter irony, they are the ones who suffer most from the latest restrictions introduced today, the Rule of Six guidelines. Every doctor knows that life can never be about simply the avoidance of death: its also about the quality of life.

Yet too many older people have been forced to endure a kind of solitary confinement, denied ordinary pleasures such as contact with friends, hugs from grandchildren, or local outings. Even more cruel is the arbitrary rule that only one relative at a time can be at the bedside of a loved one, even in their final moments.

Tearing families apart, denying them comfort at the end, Covid authoritarianism generates the antithesis of compassionate care.

All of which makes it all the more frustrating that this callous, illiberal approach is built on such shallow foundations. There is precious little evidence that coronavirus was ever an exceptional threat to our nations wellbeing. In effect, the State has wildly over-reacted, partly as a result of being in thrall to scientists such as Professor Neil Ferguson with unproven theories and dubious modelling.

Despite the Governments misplaced talk about the dangerous consequences of a second wave, the reality is that the rising number of infections  the inevitable result of greatly increased testing  has not clearly resulted in a significant increase in Covid hospital admissions or deaths.

More than 1,600 people die in Britain every day, yet, despite the Governments scaremongering, the coronavirus daily death toll has been in single or low double figures for weeks.

Indeed, if coronavirus were really the deadly menace that is painted, there would have been a massive spike in cases and deaths after the Black Lives Matter protests, illegal raves and huge gatherings at the seaside during the summer. But nothing of the sort has happened. Yet still the Government refuses to change its doomladen narrative.

On the contrary, the bullying is becoming more intense, reflected in the appointment of Covid marshals and the ritualistic orders to wear masks. The great Irish author C S Lewis wrote that of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than omnipotent moral busybodies.

As this country finally faces up to the real healthcare toll of imposing lockdown, such words could have been describing Britain in 2020.

Dr Lee is a former professor of pathology at Hull York Medical School and a recently retired NHS consultant
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 19:33:03|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese defense spokesman on Sunday expressed firm opposition to a recent report released by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Wu Qian, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, said the report titled "Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2020" is further proof of the U.S. intent to smear China and its military.

China deplores and firmly opposes the action by the U.S. side, Wu said.

The report deliberately distorted relations between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese military, misinterpreted China's national defense policy and military strategies, and hyped up the so-called "Chinese military threat," Wu said.

The U.S. side issued such reports in the past 20 consecutive years, Wu said, describing it as a blatant act of hegemony and provocation that has severely hurt bilateral and military-to-military relations.

China has lodged stern representations with the U.S. side, Wu added.

Stressing that the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the people's armed forces under the CPC leadership, Wu said upholding the Party's leadership is the soul of the PLA and the PLA is committed to whole-heartedly serving the people.

China follows the path of peaceful development and adheres to a national defense policy that is defensive in nature, said Wu, adding that China's military development is aimed at safeguarding the country's sovereignty, security and development interests.

"It does not target any country, nor does it pose a threat to any other country," Wu said.

Wu reiterated that there is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China.

He said tensions across the Taiwan Strait are primarily caused by the Democratic Progressive Party's attempts to bank on foreign support and use of force to resist reunification, as well as the external anti-China elements' attempts to use Taiwan to contain and divide China.

Citing the U.S. wars and military actions against countries such as Iraq, Syria and Libya over the past two decades, Wu said the United States has proven to be the one that instigated regional chaos, violated international order and destroying world peace.

Wu said the Chinese military will faithfully put to practice the vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity, firmly safeguard the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter, actively take part in regional security cooperation, and promptly provide international public security goods.

"The Chinese military is committed to safeguarding world peace, contributing to global development, and upholding international order," Wu said. Enditem
Home Minister Amit Shah has been re-admitted to All India Institute for Medical Sciences (AIIMS) after complaining of breathing issues. As per the sources, Shah was admitted around 11 p.m. on Saturday night. He is being kept in CN tower, a facility reserved for VVIPs and getting treatment under Dr Randeep Guleria, director of AIIMS. His condition is said to be stable now.

Home Minister Amit Shah has been re-admitted to All India Institute for Medical Sciences (AIIMS) after complaining of breathing issues.

On August 2 he had tested COVID-19 positive and received treatment at Medanta Hospital in Gurugram. He was discharged after testing negative on August 14.



Source: Medindia

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On August 18, he was admitted to AIIMS after he suffered post-COVID ailments days after his recovery from COVID-19 disease, which he contracted in early August.
Ministers are under pressure to intervene in the 30billion takeover of British chip-maker Arm Holdings.

The Government was already facing calls from opposition MPs to prevent the new owners of Arm, Britain's most valuable tech company, moving its headquarters abroad.

Now Tory figures are understood to be leaning on Business Secretary Alok Sharma to ensure Arm remains at its base in Cambridge, preserving thousands of British jobs.

Under pressure: Tory figures are understood to be leaning on Business Secretary Alok Sharma

Arm was snapped up by US rival Nvidia in a 31.2billion deal this weekend, just four years after it was bought by Japan's Softbank.

When Softbank stumped up 24billion for Arm in 2016, Theresa May's government insisted on guarantees which would keep its HQ in Britain. MPs are now urging Sharma to impose similar requirements on Nvidia, to prevent the UK losing its tech sector 'crown jewel'.

But Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang said in a statement that the Arm brand would be retained, it would continue to be based in Britain and additional staff would be hired.

Huang said: 'Arm will remain headquartered in Cambridge. We will expand on this great site and build a world-class AI research facility, supporting developments in healthcare, life sciences, robotics, self-driving cars and other fields.'

His comments come as Labour MP Ed Miliband, shadow business secretary, said: 'The Government should show leadership and seek legally binding assurances from Nvidia, should it take over the company, to keep Arm headquartered in the UK.'

Arm's co-founder Hermann Hauser told BBC Radio that the deal was an 'absolute disaster'

Arm's co-founder Hermann Hauser said the deal was an 'absolute disaster'.

'I think it's an absolute disaster for Cambridge, UK and Europe,' he told BBC Radio 4.

'Nvidia will destroy ARM's business model. The business model of Arm is being the Switzerland of the semi-conductor industry, of dealing with over 500 licensees, most of which are competitors of Nvidia.'

Arm, which makes vital chips used in smartphones, employs around 3,000 UK workers and has 6,500 staff globally.

When Softbank bought the business four years ago, ministers heralded the deal as a vote of confidence in post-Brexit Britain.

But critics said the UK was allowing foreign investors to snap up its most promising companies.

Labour Partys Ed Miliband has urged the Government to obtain 'legally binding assurances' ARM would remain in the UK

Former City minister Lord Myners called the sale of Arm to Softbank a 'tragedy'. He said last month that the UK should 'introduce more legal and national protection around assets that we think are of significant importance'.

The Government can intervene in takeovers on national security grounds, and guidance cites examples of firms designing complex tech infrastructure, like Arm, among those that need protection.

Science and technology union Prospect also wrote to Sharma last week, urging him to stand up for Arm.

In a hint that ministers were considering restrictions, a Government spokesman said it was monitoring developments, adding: 'Where we feel a takeover may represent a threat to the UK, the Government will not hesitate to investigate, which could lead to conditions on the deal.'
NEWSALERT-YEMEN-SAUDI-STRIKE Yemeni Houthi rebels' health minister says 70 detainees killed in Saudi airstrike on a rebel-run prison in Saada. (AP)Yemeni Houthi rebels' health minister says 70 detainees killed in Saudi airstrike on a rebel-run prison in Saada. (AP)
ALTON  Nickie Eddins winced, his eyes watered and he sneezed, but within a few seconds his COVID-19 test was over.

Its not hard at all. Its just a nose swab, just like a little Q-tip swab inside your nose, Eddins said. Then they put it in a bag and send it off to the lab

Eddins was one of many people who queued up in cars to take advantage of the free COVID testing on Saturday at Monroe Memorial Church in Alton.

My wife is a COVID tester and she gets tested every week, and me and my boys get tested every month, Eddins said. It makes you feel real good when your test results are negative and not positive. It , it lets you know you can continue to live a normal life.

A small tent was set up in the church parking lot and people in waiting cars filled out paperwork as they circled around the tent, stopping to have their nasal swabs taken by staff from H.R. Support, a contract COVID-19 testing business.

Late Friday, the Madison County Health Department announced 114 people have now died in the county from the coronavirus. As of Saturday, the county had recorded 65,422 tests and 4,832 cases  1,941 of them still active.

At the Alton church Saturday, staff wore protective medical equipment including gowns, masks, face shields and gloves. They cleansed with hand sanitizer between each test.

Its not a hard test to do at all,  said H.R. Support site manager Lawrence Keel. We go half a centimeter up both nostrils, 10 to 15 seconds apiece. We dont go up to the brain; we dont go near that far. But we do want to get as much mucus membrane as possible.

Keel said H.R. Support operates several mobile testing sites throughout southern Illinois. Anyone, regardless of residence, can come and get tested for COVID-19. The test specimens are driven to a laboratory in Pekin. Those who are tested receive their results within 48 to 72 hours, he said.

More Information Want tested? The Madison County Health Department will offer free testing 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on:  Monday and Tuesday: Quad City/Mt. Nebo Complex, 1634 7th St., Madison  Wednesday and Thursday: Church of God, 800 E. Bethalto Road, Bethalto  Saturday and Sunday: Bread of Life Church, 500 Humbert Road, Alton. No appointments are needed; masks must be worn. See More Collapse

We have had a nice turnout today in spite of the rain, said Keel. And despite being on the front lines of the COVID battle, I have not tested positive, thank God, and I dont plan on it either, he said.

Lora Smith of South Roxana waited patiently in line on Saturday for her first-ever COVID test.

My daughter encouraged me to do it because Im older, Smith said. Ive also got a sinus infection. My doctor prescribed me an antibiotic but he also told me I should get tested.

Alton resident William Watson said he had been tested before and observed that its not as bad as some people say.

Its good that the tests are readily available. At least I dont have to drive too far to get one, Watson said. I just want to make sure Im not positive. As long as it comes back negative, Im happy.

The free Saturday tests were sponsored by the Madison County Health Department and the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Monuments in Khajuraho | Chhatarpur, Madhya Pradesh (Image: Flickr/Paul Mannix)

The culture ministry is planning to introduce a number of digital initiatives, including a web series on India's Independence struggle and a virtual tour of important monuments, officials told Hindustan Times.

The ministry, Union Minister for Culture Prahlad Patel told the newspaper, is also trying to ensure that all the information can be made available online and are launching initiatives to that end.

For the web series, the ministry reached out to the National Film Development Corporation of India (NDFC) about three weeks ago to understand a 'framework' within which the series can be done. According to the report, the series may consist of 20 episodes and may air on platforms such as SonyLIV, Netflix and Amazon Prime.

"The NDFC has to tell us the framework within which the web series can be done, what kind of budget is needed, how many directors, etc," an official said.

A second official told the newspaper that the series is likely to go on air before August 15 next year.

In addition to that, the ministry is also planning to do virtual tours of important monuments in India. This will require 360-degree videography of the monuments to be uploaded online.

An official said that the ministry is assessing the cost of this initiative. "But it will be a major change as more people who are unable to travel will be able to learn about monuments that are far away while experiencing the feel of being in them," the official said.

According to the report, the Centre has also begun culture mapping of districts. This will ensure a detailed knowledge of the different dance forms, paintings, food and festivals of the districts.

"It will capture the tangible and the intangible heritage of any given place and help create a complete documentation of Indias heritage," the second official said.

This information would then be uploaded on a Wikipedia-like website, called 'e-heritagepedia'.

"From the Paranthewali Gali, to the food habits of Hampi, it will have all the information," the first official said.

In similar vein, the government is also creating an 'e-artistpedia' where information regarding all Indian artists will be made available. It will also serve as an online marketplace where indigenous arts and goods can be purchased.
Mauricio Claver-Carones nomination drew criticism from some Latin American countries, development groups and the EU.

United States President Donald Trumps nominee has been elected to lead the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the regions main economic development lender, a decision that has sparked criticism from some Latin American countries.

Mauricio Claver-Carone, Trumps senior Latin America adviser and the senior director for western hemisphere affairs at the US National Security Council, told the banks governors before voting began on Saturday that he would be a passionate advocate for the bank, its staff and the region.

When he takes office on October 1, Claver-Carone will become the first US citizen to lead the institution in its decades-long history.

The bank is the main source of financing for development in Latin America and the Caribbean. It comprises 48 countries: nations in the region and Europe, plus the United States, Canada, Israel, Japan, South Korea and China.

Trumps decision to nominate a US candidate to head the organisation broke with a tradition for the IDBs president to come from the region and led to criticism from some Latin American countries, development groups and the European Union.

Five-year term

In a statement on Saturday, the IDB said Claver-Carone was elected to a five-year term.

Thirty of the banks 48 governors voted for Claver-Carone, including 23 from the region, amounting to a third of the vote, a spokesman for the US National Security Council said.

Three sources familiar with the vote told the Reuters news agency that 16 countries abstained.

Argentina, Mexico, Chile and Costa Rica  concerned about the longer-term precedent of the move  initially sought to delay the vote but failed to win sufficient backing to do so.

Some countries also were concerned about electing Claver-Carone should Trump lose the November 3 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden, whose campaign also criticised the Trump administrations nomination.

But Claver-Carone had the backing of many of the USs regional allies, including Brazil, Colombia and Bolivia.

Arrogant and confrontational

Claver-Carone said Saturday that he would work with IDB member countries to strengthen the bank, respond to the needs of the region and create opportunities for shared prosperity and economic growth.

In June, The Economist reported that Claver-Carones nomination was controversial not just because [it] breaks with tradition.

Hes a guy who comes with very Miami-type baggage, adversarial to Cuba and Venezuela and representing a conservative alliance, a Latin American diplomat told the news outlet. He would bring ideology directly into the bank.

Claver-Carone has also been described as arrogant and confrontational by those who have dealt with him, The Economist reported.

Senior US officials unsurprisingly welcomed the Trump nominees victory on Saturday.

Congratulations to Mauricio Claver-Carone, the newly elected President of @the_IDB. Under his leadership and strong advocacy for democratic institutions, the Inter-American Development Bank will advance peace and prosperity in the Western Hemisphere.  Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) September 12, 2020

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin both congratulated Claver-Carone for his win, which Pompeo said will advance peace and prosperity in the Western Hemisphere.

I look forward to working with the IDB and our partners in Latin America and the Caribbean to support the recovery from COVID-19 and promote economic growth and development across the region, Mnuchin said in a statement.

Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), also congratulated Claver-Carone and said she looked forward to continued collaboration between the two institutions.

Claver-Carone previously served as US representative to the IMF and senior adviser to the under secretary of international affairs at the US Treasury Department.
Friends and colleagues of an Australian academic jailed in Iran will meet up and run through her New South Wales home town in a show of support.

Sept. 13 marks two years since University of Melbourne lecturer Kylie Moore-Gilbert was arrested at Tehran Airport after attending a conference.

She was later convicted of espionage but denies the charges.

Moore-Gilbert is understood to be serving a sentence of 10 years and was in July transferred to Qarchak prison, which is infamous for killings and torture.

Her Australia-based support group says Moore-Gilbert has been doing laps of the small jail exercise yard in her only footwear, prison-issued slippers.

They will gather in Bathurst on Sunday morning and show their support by running.

Running with Kylie sends a message of love and support to Kylie and her family, Jessie Moritz, friend and colleague from the Australian National University, said.

She may be 12,000 kilometres away, but this way shell know that shes not alone when she runs.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne says securing Moore-Gilberts release remains an absolute priority and the federal government does not accept her charges.

(Sunday) marks two years of unimaginable pain for our family, her family said in a statement released on Sept. 11.

We love Kylie very much and we remain strong and far from losing hope.

For those who also know and love Kylie, they will recognise her fortitude and strength. We know this strength remains with her throughout this ordeal.
An 18-year-old suspected of drunken driving was arrested after police say be drove through a stop sign in Northeast Portland and caused a crash that killed a pedestrian.

Aidan Moran was driving south along Northeast 18th Avenue about 6:45 p.m. Friday when he failed to stop his Subaru Forester at East Burnside Street and was t-boned by a Toyota Tacoma heading east, Portland police said.

The crash sent the teens car careening into a man walking on the sidewalk, which pinned the man against a building, according to a news release Saturday. The pedestrian, who was not identified by police, later died at a hospital.

A pair of passengers in Morans Subaru fled the scene of the crash, police said. One of them returned and talked to investigators.

Police arrested Moran, who was later found to have a blood-alcohol level of 0.12%, the news release said. The legal limit for people ages 21 or older is 0.08%.

Moran was booked into the Multnomah County jail on suspicion of second-degree manslaughter, driving under the influence of intoxicants, reckless driving and three counts of reckless endangerment, records show.

Police said the pedestrians death marked the 35th fatal crash in Portland this year.

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632

Email at skavanaugh@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @shanedkavanaugh

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St. Augustine, Florida, Sept. 11, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CareFast+ is pleased to offer urgent care services in a new building on the Flagler Hospital Campus in support of the hospitals mission to become a total care enterprise that advances the physical, social and economic health of the communities served. CareFast+ is operated through a joint venture partnership between Flagler Health+ and TeamHealth Ambulatory Care. Under this partnership, TeamHealth provides full operational support, including staffing and management of urgent care services.

In partnership with TeamHealth, we launched CareFast+ to further deliver on our promise to bring high quality, low cost, compassionate and convenient care solutions to the residents of St. Johns County and surrounding communities, commented Flagler Health+ President & CEO Jason Barrett.

TeamHealth Ambulatory Care offers hospital/system partners the support of a tenured team dedicated solely to ambulatory care, providing patients an unparalleled outpatient experience. An urgent care setting provides a convenient, affordable solution for people who are not able to make an immediate appointment with their doctor or have a health concern that does not require the emergency room. We are excited to bring the highest level of care and service from our skilled clinicians to the community, said Joseph Chow, MD, President, TeamHealth Ambulatory Care and President Elect, Urgent Care Association. By accepting a wide variety of insurance plans and being open 365 days a year with hours extending into the evenings, we make obtaining quality healthcare easy for the patient.

TeamHealth Ambulatory Care is led by George Tracy and Dr. Joe Chow, following TeamHealths paired leadership philosophy that matches seasoned physicians with top business minds to create fervent supporters of quality and innovation in patient care. With more than 25 years of experience in consumer-driven urgent care services, TeamHealth Ambulatory Care offers customizable partnership models, including joint ventures, management services agreements, or consulting relationships. We are proud and feel privileged to provide hospitals and systems solutions that drive efficiency, increase patient satisfaction, and further support consistency of care, shared George Tracy, Chief Executive Officer, TeamHealth Ambulatory Care.

Story continues

About Flagler Health+

Flagler Health+ is a total-care enterprise aimed at advancing the physical, social and economic health of Northeast Florida communities. From serving as the lead agency for the Continuum of Care with an aim to end homelessness to bringing a new concept in health villages throughout the region, Flagler Health+ is here to serve as our patients partner on the journey of life. Flagler Health+ is an extension of Flagler Hospital, which has a 130-year legacy of caring for the community. The 335-bed hospital has been named among Americas 100 Best Hospitals out of nearly 4,500 nationwide. Learn more about CareFast+ at www.carefastplus.com.

About TeamHealth

At TeamHealth, our purpose is to perfect the practice of medicine, every day, in everything we do. We are proud to be the leading physician practice in the United States, driven by our commitment to quality and safety and supported by our world-class operating team. Through our more than 16,000 affiliated healthcare professionals and advanced practice clinicians, TeamHealth offers emergency medicine, hospital medicine, critical care, anesthesiology, orthopedic surgery, general surgery, obstetrics, ambulatory care, post-acute care and medical call center solutions to approximately 3,100 acute and post-acute facilities and physician groups nationwide.

TeamHealth Ambulatory Care provides full-service management of 26 urgent care locations in four states. These locations treat more than 400,000 patients annually for non-life threatening needs. Customized service models include pediatric urgent care, adult urgent care, primary care, and occupational medicine which produce top percentile patient experience results.

CONTACT: Heather Vines-Tillery TeamHealth 865.293.5544 heather_vines@teamhealth.com




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Ireland's prime minister (Taoiseach) Leo Varadkar statement on Phase I of the Brexit negotiations was postponed as Northern Ireland's DUP expresses doubts about UK-EU post-Brexit Irish border deal. Monday, 4 December 2017, in Dublin, Ireland.

Ireland sees a window of opportunity for British and European Union negotiators to make progress on a new trade deal before British legislation opposed by the EU comes into law, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said on Sunday.

"The EU will not negotiate under that kind of threat" that will be created once Britain's proposed Internal Market Bill enters into law, Coveney told RTE radio in an interview.

"This legislation I believe will probably get delayed... That is going to give us a window to hopefully to try and address some of these issues in a comprehensive way so we can do away with this legislation," Coveney said.

The British government said explicitly last week that it plans to break international law by breaching parts of the Withdrawal Agreement treaty that it signed in January, when it formally left the EU.

Johnson says the new legislation is needed to clarify the Northern Ireland protocol element of the Brexit deal, to protect free trade between the four constituent nations of the United Kingdom.

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said on Sunday that the Withdrawal Agreement on Northern Ireland "is not a threat to the integrity of the UK", and had been agreed by the two sides to protect peace on the island of Ireland.
A rights group in Bahrain have appealed to the government to urgently intervene to stop debt collection harassments and abuses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

People dont need yet another stress in the form of debt col- lection harassment during this pause in the economy. Yet, Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society (BHRWS) says, thats just what is happening.

We are calling on companies to stop harassing people, especially expatriates with low income who have been hardest hit, said BHRS in a statement to the Ministry of Commerce Industry and Tourism And Tel- excommunication Regulatory Authority.

The rights officials, in its appeal, points out that the lock- down has produced a massive financial impact on businesses and workers.

Were calling on companies to step up and help customers who are experiencing hardship, said Lyn Le. Altarejos, Director of the Foreign Workers Society of Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society. Harassment wont be of any help.All are affected.

Normal life will be never the same again, with low-income earners being the worst affected.

What we need at this hour for agencies is to practice humanity.

Debt collector initiated telephone communications to employers have even resulted in several losing their jobs, BHRWS points out.



Repeated calls have resulted in employers terminating employees to avoid troubles.

This has further aggravated the situation, pushing people into physical and mental trauma.

Faisal Fulad, the Secretary-General of Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society, has called on all to respect peoples privacy and not to exploit them for the other purposes.



Supporting Fulad, Altarejos, urged the debt companies not to approach customers with the threat of arrest or court proceeding in the event of a lapse.

Many of them have lost their jobs, or got embroiled in visa, rents and electricity bill issues.

We need compassionate support from all Government Authorities to help our foreign workers.
Kentucky congressman against mandates says he has COVID
New Delhi, Sep 13 : Former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, who recently resigned from the Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD), succumbed to post-Covid illness at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, on Sunday.

Singh was suffering from a lung infection and was put on ventilator two days ago after his health deteriorated. He was admitted in the ICU unit of the hospital a week ago after contracting an infection in his lungs, a post-Covid illness he developed after contracting the Covid-19 disease.

Singh had tested positive with the Covid-19 in June and was treated at AIIMS, Patna.

74-year-old Singh had resigned from the RJD a few days ago. He had written a series of letters to various politicians while undergoing treatment at AIIMS, Delhi. In one of his letters, circulated in the media, Singh had flayed the culture of dynastic politics and taken indirect potshots at family-rule in the RJD.

Singh had represented the Vaishali constituency of Bihar was the national vice president of the RJD.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
The Union Ministry of Finance informed that an amount of Rs 30,000 crore Special Liquidity Scheme has been progressed for non-banking, housing finance companies and Monetary Financial Institutions (MFI) as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat package. According to the Finance Ministry, 37 proposals involving Rs 10,590 crores have been approved as on September 11.

The Union Ministry of Finance informed that an amount of Rs 30,000 crore Special Liquidity Scheme has been progressed for non-banking, housing finance companies and Monetary Financial Institutions (MFI) as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat package.

According to the Finance Ministry, 37 proposals involving Rs 10,590 crores have been approved as on September 11. While six applications seeking financing of Rs 783.5 crore are under process. The Ministry on Sunday updated on the progress made in the implementation of the ongoing schemes of the Atmanirbhar Bharat package to date.

Rs 30,000 crore Special Liquidity Scheme for Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFCs)/ Housing Finance Companies (HFCs)/ Monetary Financial Institutions (MFIs) has progressed well. As on September 11, 37 proposals involving an amount of Rs 10,590 crores have been approved. Six applications seeking financing of Rs 783.5 crore are under process, said the Ministry in a press release.

Also Read: Reliance offers Amazon $20 Billion stake in retail arm: Report

As reported by Public Sector Banks and top 23 Private Sector Banks, additional credit amounting to Rs 1,63,226.49 crores sanctioned to 42,01,576 borrowers as on September 10, the Ministry added. The Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme 2.0 for NBFCs, HFCs and MFIs to do fresh lending to MSMEs and individuals.

The banks have approved the purchase of a portfolio of Rs 25,055.5 crore and are currently in the process of approval/negotiations for additional Rs 4,367 crore, the Ministry said. Updating on Additional Emergency Working Capital Funding for farmers through NABARD, the Ministry said that as on August 28, Rs 25,000 crore has been disbursed. Meanwhile, the balance amount of Rs 5,000 crore has been allocated to NABARD under the Special Liquidity Facility (SLF). Reserve Bank of India has allocated this amount for smaller NBFCs and NBFC-MFIs.

NABARD is finalising operational guidelines to roll it out soon, said the Ministry.

Besides, NABARD has also launched a Structured Finance & Partial Guarantee scheme in collaboration with two agencies and banks to help unrated NBFCs/MFIs to get credit from lenders stated the release. This mechanism worked out with two such agencies and banks will enhance eligibility of credit by 5-6 times to those small MFIs who do not have any rating, the Ministry added in the hope to reach out to the people in remote and unreached areas.

Once all the earmarked Rs.500 crore for this scheme is deployed, the credit availed by those small NBFCs/MFIs to an extent of Rs. 2500 to Rs 3000 crore is envisaged, the release added. (ANI)

Also Read: American Express commits more than USD 200 million to help get customers shopping small with its largest-ever global Shop Small campaign
Assemblyman Sean Ryan, D-Buffalo, is calling for the state Department of Environmental Conservation to suspend the operating permit for Amigone Funeral Home's crematorium in the Town of Tonawanda until the state agency finishes an investigation.

The Sheridan Drive crematorium drew attention on Wednesday when thick, black smoke emanated from the facility for about an hour.

Ryan sent a letter to the DEC's commissioner, Basil Seggos, calling for the suspension of the operating permit. Ryan said he is also seeking "full transparency with residents on the status of the pollution control system, operation permits, inspections, and maintenance" of the Sheridan Drive facility.

The DEC has said it is investigating the cause. On Thursday, Tonawanda Town Councilwoman Shannon Patch said the DEC told town officials that the inside of the crematory had reached an excessive temperature . That caused the pollution control system to be bypassed with direct discharge out of the stack of the crematory.
The divide between regional Victoria and metro Melbourne deepens. The ring of steel around Melbourne is to be strengthened as the regions open up. What is the public health message for metro Melbourne then? The Premier tells us this is proof positive that the strategy is working.

Yes, we all get it that we have to get the numbers low to keep them low. But the question is not whether a sledgehammer will crack a walnut, it is whether a nutcracker will suffice.

Lockdown bites: An empty Flinders Lane. Credit:Getty

Should Melbourne be happy that regional Victoria is hitting its targets? Absolutely. This success is actually critical given Melbournes target of five cases for step three is statewide. The "mystery" case count is also statewide for Melbournes step three target and, given there is often a few weeks' lag to closing off on these, it is not clear how long we must wait for the final classification of cases under investigation. The steps remain complicated and operationally unclear.

But all this might change. There has been increasing emphasis on common sense in the Victorian press conferences, corresponding with widespread pressure to explain the modelling. The University of Melbourne believes the modelling has been misrepresented, and argues for more realistic targets.
For many months now, Indias cities have focused their battle against the coronavirus on social distancing, quarantine and testing. People have stayed home, shunning crowded spaces; masks and pocket sanitisers have become part of ones clothing, and a cough and mild fever have had people lining up to be tested.

For all these pains, India is now sitting atop 47 lakh Covid cases. We are adding an incredible one lakh cases a day. At this rate, in a matter of weeks, India will be crowned the Covid capital of the world.

Track live updates on coronavirus here

So we clearly got something wrong. Do we give up the fight, and go Ram bharose?

Not quite, is the answer from a group of experts. But their advice is radical: Dont worry about mass testing or large containment zones. Its too late for all that. Concentrate instead on protecting the vulnerable, and make testing and containment highly focused, letting normal people go about their lives as near normal as possible.

As the virus spreads like wildfire, the strategy needs modification to identify those at risk of having complications, said Oommen John, a public health researcher at the George Institute for Global Health. We cant have one blanket strategy for the entire country.

In other words, health services need to target their response towards high-risk individuals, health care workers, elderly people with comorbidities and those going in for surgeries.

Also Read | Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases

Indias new mantras in the fight against Covid-19 should be micro-containment, micro-surveillance, targeted testing and death aversion. One way to achieve this is to adequately train frontline health workers to quickly identify hypoxia patients (those with a shortage of oxygen) so that they can be immediately put on supplementary oxygen. Many

of these recommendations are to be found in a recent report released by three prominent public health associations.

The most important of the new interventions will need to come in testing. Expanding the testing net indiscriminately in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai, where lakhs have tested positive and sero-surveillance surveys show exposure of an even larger population, makes little sense. A preoccupation with mass and indiscriminate testing diverts attention from essential, inexpensive and achievable public health measures.

Indiscriminate testing is useless. Since neither the RT-PCR nor the rapid antigen test can pick up all the positive cases [both give significant numbers of false negative results], in a country with 130 crore people, the health system would eventually end up doing only the tests and nothing else. K Srinath Reddy, President, Public Health Foundation of India told DH.

COVID-19 Pandemic Tracker: 15 countries with the highest number of coronavirus cases, deaths

The current benchmarks for adequacy of testing are 140 tests per million population per day, and a sample positivity rate of less than 5%. Indiscriminate testing is aimed at meeting this target. Testing by itself is not a control strategy. Daily testing of more than one million, mostly ill-defined population, is imposing heavy economic cost without commensurate benefit for control effort. There is a need to relook at the testing strategy in a way that it results in guiding the public health response and effectively limiting the spread of the disease, the report by the Indian Public Health Association, Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine and Indian Association of Epidemiologists said.

Experience from other countries indicates that increased testing does not prevent deaths from Covid-19. Japan and Sri Lanka with one of the lowest testing rates have the lowest fatality. Canada has dramatically reduced community spread with half of the testing capacity of the USA, which is reeling from the pandemic despite having the worlds highest per capita testing rate.

Using testing to prevent transmission of SARS-CoV2 on a large scale is like using the weather report to prevent global warming, Alexander McAdam of Boston Childrens Hospital and Matthew Pettengill of Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, critics of the mass testing theory, said.

Two-pronged approach

Public health specialists said testing strategies in densely populated urban areas and rural areas should be different depending on the transmission dynamics.

In most cases, by the time the testing is done and the results are made available, the infection has already spread to close contacts. This is more pronounced in rural areas.

With two-thirds of Indias population living in villages, where the spread of the disease appears to be limited as of now, the big challenge for the administration is to prevent a rapid spread of the virus in the countryside. Testing and containment may be useful for that purpose if the district administration knows local transmission dynamics. Unfortunately, such district level monitoring is non-existent in the majority of the 700 plus districts, said Oommen John.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 15:56:23|Editor: huaxia

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MONTREAL, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) mourned the passing of its former president John Fahey and will observe a moment of silence at the beginning of its Executive Committee meeting on Monday, the agency said on its official website.

Fahey, who passed away at the age of 75, served as WADA's second President from 2008 to 2013, during which he built key partnerships with the pharmaceutical industry and with global law enforcement agencies including INTERPOL.

"John was a marvelous President and an outstanding person. He had very strong values and always acted in the best interests of WADA and clean sport. He felt strongly about making sure that the partnership between all stakeholders worked well for the system and the athletes. He was a true leader, statesman and gentleman, and he will be greatly missed by everyone who knew him and worked with him at WADA," WADA Director General Olivier Niggli said.

"On behalf of everyone who has served on WADA's Foundation Board and various Committees, as well as management and staff, past and present, I want to pass on our condolences to John's wife, Colleen, their extended family and wide circle of colleagues and friends. May he rest in peace."

Before succeeding Richard Pound as WADA president, Fahey was elected as a member of parliament in New South Wales, Australia, in 1984 and rose to become the State Premier in 1992. He was appointed the Federal Minister for Finance and Administration upon being elected to National Parliament in 1996 and served until his voluntary retirement nearly six years later. Enditem
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Linkedin Tri Indah Oktavianti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, September 13, 2020 13:17 495 e22cd4161040e111d73a5626c4482e91 1 National Bakamla,North-Natuna-Sea,Natuna,Natuna-sea,EEZ,coast-guard,Chinese,Chinese-vessel Free

The Indonesian Maritime Security Agency (Bakamla) has driven off a Chinese coast guard vessel that entered Indonesia's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the North Natuna Sea near Riau Islands without authorization.

The vessel, Chinese coast guard ship 5204, was detected by Bakamla patrol ship KN Nipah 321 through an automatic identification system at around 10:00 a.m. local time on Saturday.

According to the agency, the Chinese ship insisted that it had the right to patrol around the so-called nine-dash line  Chinas geographic expression in the South China Sea that denotes Chinas traditional fishing grounds. One of the nine dashes slices through waters north of the Natuna Islands.

Bakamla is currently coordinating with the Office of the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister and the Foreign Ministry regarding the matter, the agency reported through its written statement on Sunday.

KN Nipah 321 is one of the patrol ships Bakamla deployed for Operation Cegah Tangkal (Prevent and Repel) over the western maritime zone. The operation started on Sept. 4 and is set to continue until November.

The main purpose of this operation is to guarantee sea security in each prioritized maritime zone, Bakamla chief Vice Adm. Aan Kurnia said earlier this month as quoted by kompas.com.

In 2016, an international tribunal dismissed the nine-dash line as legally baseless. In addition, the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) also dismissed Chinas nine-dash line and it granted Indonesia sovereign rights to explore and exploit natural resources in its EEZ.
Not for distribution to U.S. newswire services or for dissemination in the United States

OAKVILLE, Ontario, Sept. 11, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Giyani Metals Corp. (TSXV:EMM, GR:A2DUU8) ("Giyani" or the "Company") announces today that it is increasing the size of its previously announced private placement financing from $1.0 million to $1.2 million.



The Company's partly brokered private placement of units will now consist of 9,600,000 units priced at $0.125 per unit to accredited investors and other exempt purchasers, with each unit consisting of one (1) common share of the Company (each, a "Common Share") and one half () of one Common Share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"). Each whole Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one common share at an exercise price of $0.20 per share for a period of 18 months from the closing of the private placement (the "Offering").

To date the Company has received subscription agreements totalling approximately $1,100,000. This includes received director, officer and insider subscriptions totalling approximately $280,000.

In connection with the Offering, the Company has retained Tactex Asset Management Inc. ("Tactex"). Tactex is entitled to receive a 6% cash commission on the aggregate dollar amount of subscriptions for units provided by Tactex as well as agent's warrants equal to 6% of the number of units purchased by eligible investors provided by Tactex. The agent's warrants will be exercisable with an exercise price of $0.125 per unit. The securities to be issued to Tactex will be subject to a four-month-and-one-day hold period from their date of issuance.

Completion of the private placement remains subject to receiving the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV"), and subject to receiving that approval, the closing on received subscriptions is expected on or about September 17, 2020. Securities issued in the private placement will be subject to a four-month-and-one-day hold period from their date of issuance.

Story continues

Robin Birchall, CEO of Giyani Metals Corp. commented:

"We are delighted with the additional demand in this placing. We are very appreciative of the support from our existing shareholders, especially RAB Capital. This will enable us to expand some of our upcoming workstreams, for which we will update the market in due course."

About Giyani

Giyani Metals Corp. is a mineral resource company focused on the development of its K.Hill, Lobatse & Otse manganese oxide prospects in the Kanye Basin, Botswana, Africa. The Company's flagship K.Hill project is a near-surface deposit currently going through a feasibility study to produce high-purity electrolytic manganese metal and manganese sulphate, both key cathode ingredients for batteries in the expanding electric vehicle (EV) market.

Additional information and corporate documents may be found on www.sedar.com and on Giyani Metals Corp. Website: https://giyanimetals.com/.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Giyani Metals Corp.

Robin Birchall, CEO

Contact:

Giyani Metals Corporation

Robin Birchall

CEO, Director

+447711313019

rbirchall@giyanimetals.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

The securities described herein have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and accordingly, 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 promulgated under the U.S. Securities Act ("U.S. Persons"), except in compliance with the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities requirements or pursuant to exemptions therefrom. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the Company's securities to, or for the account of benefit of, persons in the United States or U.S. Persons.

Forward Looking Information

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, that address events or developments that Giyani expects to occur, are "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "does not expect", "plans", "anticipates", "does not anticipate", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential", "scheduled", "forecast", "budget" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could", "should" or "might" occur. Specific forward-looking statements and forward-looking information herein includes completion of receipt of TSXV approval for the private placement and completion of the private placement.

All such forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of the relevant management as of the date such statements are made and are subject to certain assumptions, important risk factors and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Giyani's ability to control or predict. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on estimates and assumptions that are inherently subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In the case of Giyani, these facts include their anticipated operations in future periods, planned exploration and development of its properties, and plans related to its business and other matters that may occur in the future. This information relates to analyses and other information that is based on expectations of future performance and planned work programs.

Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause actual events or results to differ from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information, including, without limitation: inherent exploration hazards and risks; risks related to exploration and development of natural resource properties; uncertainty in Giyani's ability to obtain funding; commodity price fluctuations; recent market events and conditions; risks related to the uncertainty of mineral resource calculations and the inclusion of inferred mineral resources in economic estimation; risks related to governmental regulations; risks related to obtaining necessary licenses and permits; risks related to their business being subject to environmental laws and regulations; risks related to their mineral properties being subject to prior unregistered agreements, transfers, or claims and other defects in title; risks relating to competition from larger companies with greater financial and technical resources; risks relating to the inability to meet financial obligations under agreements to which they are a party; ability to recruit and retain qualified personnel; and risks related to their directors and officers becoming associated with other natural resource companies which may give rise to conflicts of interests. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect Giyani's forward-looking information. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in the forward-looking information or statements.

Giyani's forward-looking information is based on the reasonable beliefs, expectations and opinions of their respective management on the date the statements are made, and Giyani does not assume any obligation to update forward looking information if circumstances or management's beliefs, expectations or opinions change, except as required by law. For the reasons set forth above, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. For a complete discussion with respect to Giyani and risks associated with forward-looking information and forward-looking statements, please refer to Giyani's financial statements and related MD&A, all of which are filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com .

GIYANI METALS CORP.

1155 North Service Road West, Unit 11

Oakville, Ontario L6M 3E3

T: 289-291-4032

www.giyanimetals.com TSX.V-EMM




The past has its way of catching up with us. Its something Akilla Brown (Saul Williams) has always known, and in many ways, hes accepted his fate. In Charles Officers fast-paced neo-noir, Akillas Escape, the director turns his lens on two versions of the same man. In the present, Akilla flies through Torontos underworld as a notorious supplier, increasingly wary of his high-risk lifestyle. In the past, Akilla is a 15-year old living in Brooklyn in the 90s, terrorized by his menacing gangster father, Clinton (Ronnie Rowe), and helpless to help his broken mother, Thetis (Olunike Adeliyi), find a way out.

Akillas Escape forces the past to collide with the present

At 40, the exhausted drug supplier can sense that his time is running out; he just doesnt quite know when. Though hes making plans to shutter his Toronto-based marijuana farm to go legit and open a dispensary, his boss and business partners are not on board. Still, troubled by memories of his childhood and determined to move in a different direction than hes done for the past 25 years, Akillas mind made up. Everything changes for him one night when his past comes barreling into him.

In Akillas Escape, Officer seeks to do more than present a tapestry of the criminal underworld in the past and present. Instead, he unpacks the legacy of violence and oppression that has swept though countries and communities across the globe, specifically Jamaica. The films opening credits chronicle the history of Jamaica, through the enslavement of Black people, colonial rule, independence, and years of corruption, greed, and violence. Taking over someone elses land, enslaving human beings, and leaving only after youve stripped away resources and imposed your twisted ideas about humanity onto them, yields chaos.

Thamela Mpumlwana and Ronnie Rowe in Akillas Escape | Courtesy of TIFF

RELATED: TIFF Review: Blackbird Is a Dark Comedy with Characters Youve Seen Before and a Few You Havent

Akillas Escape explores history, legacy, and the ties the bind us

Without overly stating so, its clear that this legacy has impeded itself into Clinton, a one-touch in New Yorks Garrison Army. (As one of Garrisons runners explains to Akilla, The bigger you get, the less you touch.) The life lessons that Clinton wields upon Akilla about manhood are volatile riddles that lead to his indoctrination into the Garrison Army as a runner. In his life, the things Clinton has seen, especially in his homeland of Jamaica, haunt him, stripping him of compassion and understanding  making him monstrous.

In the present, memories from his boyhood confront Akilla one night during a violent robbery. Narrowly evading the criminals, Akilla captures a teen named Sheppard (Thamela Mpumlwana), who doesnt seem to have the stomach for a gangsters life. Seeing his own life mirrored in Sheppards eyes, especially after finding out that the boy is entangled in the Garrison Army, Akilla feels compelled to help him find a way out. In the course of one night, Akilla desperately tries to retrieve what was stolen from him while trying to save Sheppard from the world that will either kill or cage him.

Canadian Films Set to Make a Big Splash at a Slimmed-Down Toronto Festival https://t.co/i1l1MvJuJV pic.twitter.com/0EPUvhSsw5  Variety_Film (@Variety_Film) September 9, 2020

Akillas Escape is about second chances

Though told in parallel timelines, and despite Williams absolutely riveting performance, the past is the most evocative here. Mpumlwana, as young Akilla, is wide-eyed and compelling. He is calculated but continually underestimated by those around him  especially Clinton. Rowe is stellar as the seething gangster thrusting the demons of his own upbringing onto his only son. This period is more layered and textured that present-day Toronto, which is mostly cloaked in darkness.

Though overly stylized at times, Saul Williams 40-year old Akilla Brown juxtaposed with Mpumlwanas 15-year old Akilla fortify Officers crime drama. Instead of a movie about a drug deal gone wrong, Akillas Escape is a film about manhood, mercy, and second chances.

Akillas Escape was reviewed for the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival.
Villagers in Uttar Pradesh Midania village were initially alarmed when they found a crocodile lurking in the local pond. However, initial jitters faded away into a plan- to take it hostage and demand a ransom.

The two-metre (eight-foot) reptile from a nearby nature reserve turned up in the village of Midania in impoverished Uttar Pradesh state after monsoon flooding on Tuesday, officials said.

Anil Patel, an official responsible for the buffer zone around the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve told AFP that the locals caught the crocodile and then demanded Rs 50,000 (almost $700) to give it back.

It took us hours to convince them with help from local police and authorities to release the crocodile," Patel said.

The villagers were also threatened with legal action, with officials explaining that they risked being jailed for up to seven years.

The crocodile, Patel said, is free now. We released it into the Ghagra river the same day."

They had no idea that the crocodile was a protected animal under the Wildlife Protection Act. Its important for us to educate more people about wildlife," he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-14 02:12:36|Editor: huaxia

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TEHRAN, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Iran's medical aid has been delivered to Kyrgyzstan for combating the novel coronavirus, Iran Press news agency reported on Sunday.

Iran's aid included medical equipment such as ventilators, thermometers and pulse oximeters (oxygen meters), as well as PCR test kits.

It was the second shipment of Iran's humanitarian and medical aid to the central Asian country at the request of the Kyrgyz side, said the report.

Iranian Ambassador to Bishkek Saeed Kharrazi said, at the ceremony to deliver the medical aid, that "despite all the difficulties and pressures (Tehran faces), Iran considers it its duty to send humanitarian aid to meet the needs of the Kyrgyz people."

All the devices and equipment that have arrived in Kyrgyzstan were produced by the Iranians in domestic companies, Kharrazi added. Enditem
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday condoled the death of former Union Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, who passed away at AIIMS in Delhi, and described him as someone who understood poverty.

"At the beginning of the programme, I have a sad news to share with you. The veteran leader of Bihar, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, is no longer with us. I bow to him," Modi said at the outset of inauguration of three metro projects in Bihar.

Modi said that Raghuvansh 'Babu's' demise had created a void in the politics of Bihar and the country. "A person associated with land, a person who understood poverty, spent his entire life in the struggle of Bihar," the PM said.

The veteran politician, who recently resigned from the Rashtriya Janata Dal, succumbed to post-COVID illness at All India Institute of Medical Sciences here on Sunday.
President Donald Trump appeared to give a nod to law enforcement officers killing suspected criminals, describing the death of an alleged shooting suspect by U.S. Marshals as retribution. Speaking in an interview with Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, Trump spoke of the incident in which a law enforcement officer killed a self-described anti-fascist activist earlier this month in Washington state as they sought to arrest him on suspicion that he fatally shot a right-wing protester in Portland, Oregon. Trump seemed to endorse the killing. This guy was a violent criminal, and the U.S. Marshals killed him, Trump told Pirro. And I will tell you somethingthats the way it has to be. There has to be retribution.

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Trump on a purported antifa sympathizer who allegedly killed someone in Portland being killed by federal forces: "This guy was a violent criminal, and the US Marshals killed him. And I'll tell you something -- that's the way it has to be. There has to be retribution." pic.twitter.com/WfIP9b37sA  Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 13, 2020

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Trump was referring to the killing of Michael Forest Reinoehl on Sept. 3. Reinoehl was a key suspect in the killing of a member of the far-right group Patriot Prayer during a protest in Portland on Aug. 29. In an interview published by Vice News hours before he was killed, Reinoehl said he acted in self-defense. You know, lots of lawyers suggest that I shouldnt even be saying anything, but I feel its important that the world at least gets a little bit of whats really going on, Reinoehl said. I had no choice. I mean, I, I had a choice. I could have sat there and watched them kill a friend of mine of color. But I wasnt going to do that. Reinoehl, an Army veteran, said during the interview that he provided security at Black Lives Matter protests.

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Shortly after that interview was published, law enforcement agents shot and killed Reinoehl as they moved to arrest him. Officers claimed Reinoehl was brandishing a weapon, but it isnt clear whether he fired at police. No law enforcement officers were injured. Initial reports indicate the suspect produced a firearm, threatening the lives of law enforcement officers, the Marshals Service said in a statement. Task force members responded to the threat and struck the suspect who was pronounced dead at the scene.

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Witnesses have differing accounts of what happened that day. One person who witnessed the killing said Reinoehl was clutching his cellphone when two unmarked cars showed up and officers began firing. Officers shot multiple rapid-fire rounds at Reinoehl before issuing a brief stop command, quickly followed by more rapid-fire shooting by additional officers, according to a statement provided by the witness. Two other witnesses who were nearby, though, say they saw Reinoehl open fire and the officers fired back. It reminded me of a video game, one of the witnesses said.

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New Delhi: It is important to create awareness about Gadia Lohars (blacksmiths) to help them get the required support, says UK-based filmmaker Deana Uppal, whose documentary Indias Forgotten People explores the world of the nomadic community. According to Deana, the community is mostly unknown and misunderstood.

The documentary delves into the history of the community and chronicles their royal legacy as well as the reasons that led to their current state of poverty, she said. The Gadia Lohars are an intriguing community living without government help or support. Despite a royal legacy, they were once the blacksmiths for the legendary 16th century ruler of Mewar, Maharana Pratap, they have been reduced to being roadside blacksmiths living in poverty, the director said.

Also an actor and businesswoman, Deana shot her yet-to-be released maiden documentary venture across Rajasthan. Her aim she said is to break the popular perception that the community is engaged in crime. Contrary to belief, they are a peaceful community and has zero crime rate. The documentary aims to present all of these important factors in a light manner." Deana was accompanied by four crew members as the team travelled to Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Chittorgarh, and various other villages in the state. Produced by DKU productions, the documentary was shot over a period of one year, and the makers are planning to release it soon. The shooting took one whole year. The crew needed time to bond with the people in the film and to gain their trust to be able to film their lives. Now the film is complete and we want to release it as soon as possible, a DKU Productions representative said.
This spot in West Boylston feels like a camping retreat in the mountains. Theres a tent, a canoe, a vintage Coleman grill and plenty of firewood.

While it has all the makings of an outdoor weekend getaway, its actually the home to Campfire Cannabis, a marijuana shop planning to open soon in West Boylston.

When the Patel family decided to break into the states emerging marijuana industry, they wanted to create an atmosphere that was nostalgic, interactive and comfortable. Its a departure from the decor seen at some of the states retail cannabis shops, where sleek countertops and clean lines offer a modern ambiance.

One reason why we chose campfire is when were going out hiking or by a campfire, a lot of it is a sense of community with your friends, with your family. We wanted to bring that inside the store, said Nehar Patel, chief business officer at Campfire Cannabis.

The company is women- and minority-owned. Mita Patel (mother of Chief Operating Officer Neel Patel), Alpa Patel (Nehars mother) and Anand Patel (cousins with Nehar and Neel), are owners and CEOs of the business. Nehar, Neel and Anand will be the day-to-day operators.

Anand says he has plenty of fond memories at backyard fires with growing up with friends. For Nehar, studying abroad in South Africa gave him a new appreciation for nature.

At Campfire Cannabis, budtenders will be called rangers," a nod to the countrys national parks. Once a customer has their ID checked at the front vestibule, the ranger will greet the customer and take them to different stations around the dispensary that will have a selection of products on display. At the tent station, a vintage cooler has been outfitted with locks so rangers can safely show off products to customers.

The process will give customers the chance to ask questions, explained Anand Patel, creating an interactive experience before checkout.

While the space at 65 West Boylston St. is already dotted with decor reminiscent of a national park, theres still work to be done. The Patels are adding an RV to the property, which will be a focal point.

Campfire Cannabis received its final license from the state Cannabis Control Commission during its Thursday meeting. That means the company can start bringing marijuana products into its shop and get ready for final inspections before getting the green light to open. The Patels hope they can open in October.

Campfire Cannabis is partnering with wholesalers in Massachusetts to offer a variety of products.

One of our goals is to have almost all the products in the state available, Nehar Patel said. A wide selection of quality products and customer service and experience are the priorities, Anand Patel added.

The family has owned convenience stores in Connecticut for years and wanted to secure a new venture for the younger Patels.

Our family saw this as a good opportunity to invest in the future generation, Nehar Patel said.

For Anand Patel, a lot of excitement comes with breaking into a new emerging industry.

Initially, Campfire Cannabis plans to hire 20 to 30 employees, said Anand Patel, adding that hiring a racially diverse staff is a priority. Applications are being accepted now at careers@campfirecannabis.com for those interested, the Patels said.

In addition to the West Boylston location, the Patels are planning to open a Campfire Cannabis dispensary with a more nautical take in Salisbury. For that location, the Patels have received a provisional license.

When looking for a location for Campfire Cannabis, the Patels said West Boylston was welcoming and offered feel of a close-knit community.

One thing that especially resonated, Neel Patel said, is West Boylstons town motto: small town, big heart.

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Erdogan seeks to expand Turkey's military influence abroad, restoring its Ottoman-era glory as the Islamic world's foremost power - Anadolu

In the eyes of some, he is the Islamic world's most powerful gun-for-hire, a well-connected ex-general with thousands of battle-hardened Syrian mercenaries at his command. A close confidant of Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Adnan Tanriverdi claims expertise in all the dark arts of warfare, from sabotage and counter-insurgency to assassinations.

But as with many prominent soldiers of fortune, it can be hard separating the man from the myth. Is he, as critics say, Mr Erdogan's private henchman, running secret Islamist armies in Libya and Syria? Or is he, as he himself claims, just a respectable patriot who has been smeared by the president's enemies?

"We haven't sent any mercenaries or other personnel to Syria or Libya," he insisted to The Telegraph last week, after he was accused by the US government of dispatching thousands of Syrian fighters to Libya. "I would like to highlight again that our firm is not a mercenary organisation. It doesn't have any connections with terrorist organisations or groups."

Generals at the Pentagon's Africa Command beg to differ. In a report to the US government earlier this month, they said Sadat was supervising around 5,000 Syrian mercenaries - including "extremists with previous terrorist links" - in Libya. The hired guns were said to fighting for the Government of National Accord, the side Ankara has backed in Libya's civil war.

The report said the mercenaries, allegedly paid and mentored by several dozen Sadat trainers, had helped the GNA retake territory from Khalifa Heftar, the Gaddafi-era strongman backed by Turkeys rivals, the UAE and Egypt. But it claimed that many of the fighters had also run amok. "There were increasing reports of theft, sexual assault and misconduct by these mercenaries, which is likely to further degrade the security situation," it said.

Adnan Tanriverdi

The US allegations have fuelled the growing sense of intrigue around Sadat Group in Turkey, which Mr Erdogan's opponents say acts like a private presidential army. They draw comparisons with Russia's Wagner Group, which does foreign military operations for President Vladimir Putin, including fighting for General Heftar's forces in Libya.

Story continues

The claims come as Mr Erdogan seeks to expand Turkey's military influence abroad, restoring its Ottoman-era glory as the Islamic world's foremost power. He is currently in a stand-off with European leaders over his decision to resume gas exploration in contested waters around Greece and Cyprus, parts of the Mediterranean that Turkey regards as its backyard.

A former special forces commander, Mr Tanriverdi was among a group of officers allegedly forced out of the military in the late 1990s because they shared Mr Erdogan's Islamist leanings. He set up Sadat Group with other ex-colleagues in 2012, although unlike other most soldiers of fortune, who simply work for the highest bidder, he has an ideology: to train Muslim nation's armies to the point where they are no longer reliant on Western help.

Or, as his website, which has flashy videos of elite forces in training, puts it: "The aim of Sadat Defense is to help the Islamic World take the place where it merits among Super Powers."

Sadat, he claims, operates like any other modern private military firm, offering governments training in soldiering and counter-insurgency. However, like Wagner Group, its activities are swathed in secrecy, with Mr Tanriverdi declining to say publicly in which countries it has set up operations.

That has not stopped Turkey's opposition politicians, who have a tense relationship with Mr Erdogan, detecting Sadat's hand in all manner of skulduggery. As well as allegedly training Islamist fighters in Syria and Libya, the group is accused of giving the president behind-the-scenes help in defeating the attempted military coup against him in 2016. Sadat officers, it is claimed, were involved in some of the vicious street fighting that took place in Istanbul as the coup was quelled.

Those suspicions stemmed partly from the fact that shortly after the coup, Mr Erdogan made Mr Tanriverdi his chief military advisor. He resigned earlier this year, after a controversial speech in which he said Sadat was paving the way for the return of the Mahdi, a Messianic figure in Islam.

A file photo taken on June 18, 2020 shows members of the self-proclaimed eastern Libyan National Army - AFP

Two years ago, Meral Aksener, a former Turkish interior minister and secular opposition politician, alleged that Sadat had also been running training camps for pro-government militias near Turkey's Black Sea coast. Their job, she claimed, was to stir up trouble if elections did not favour President Erdogan's ruling AKP party.

Mr Tanriverdi denies such claims, insisting to the Telegraph that his firm had less than a dozen advisors, none of whom were ever deployed in direct combat. "Do you think a firm that has about ten staff can have a role in suppressing a coup plot?" he claimed.

He also bristled when asked if Sadat formed the president's private army, suggesting it was a notion that only a British newspaper might believe. "Turkey is a democratic republic, its head of state is chosen by popular vote," he asked. "Since we don't have kings or queens, dominance of a family or hereditary rulership, you might be having hard times to understand."

Professor Howard Eissenstat, an expert on Turkey at New York's St Lawrence University, said Turkey's opposition had perhaps over-exaggerated Sadat's importance, taking at face value the grandiose vision spelt out on its website.

But he added: "I don't think there is any question that Sadat has worked closely with the Turkish government in Syria and Libya, and they are very explicit about this idea of projecting Turkish power to the Muslim world. We just have to be wary about assuming that they are as important as they present themselves to be."

That would appear to be a view shared by Mr Tanriverdi, who claims his only mission to Libya was in 2013, when his firm negotiated for a bid to build a military pentathlon facility for the Libyan army.

Because of the unrest in Libya, the negotiations stopped, he said.

He insisted, though, that there would soon be many other Turkish firms like his touting for military business. "Turkey needs tens of, maybe hundreds of, firms like Sadat," he added. "This is for the security, prosperity and survival of Islamic nations."
The Roger Sherman Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, which serves Greater New Milford, will celebrate Constitution Week Sept. 19 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Local DAR members will be at the bandstand to commemorate Constitution Week, which runs Sept. 17-23.
Businesses in Phuket are gearing up to receive tourists amid Travel Bubble discussions

To redress the financial impacts of COVID-19, the Thai Government has been in talks with a handful of low-risk countries around the world over setting up travel bubbles to rebuild its economy, which would allow passengers from those select countries to travel to Phuket and other parts of Thailand as tourists.

tourismhealthSafetyCOVID-19

By Advertorial

Sunday 13 September 2020, 10:00AM

The Best Western Plus The Beachfront Hotel is confident it can provide the high level of safety guests deserve. More details at: bwplusbeachfront.com

While the local government has not made any official announcements on when the travel bubble agreements will be in effect, many businesses in Phuket, an island whose economy is heavily reliant on tourism, are gearing up to welcome tourists.

The Best Western Plus The Beachfront Hotel in Phuket, developed by one of the leading real estate developers in Thailand, Blue Horizon Developments, is one such business that has been taking strict measures to increase travelers safety.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, travelers around the world are not just demanding safety, but they have come to expect it like a basic right, as they should, says Claude Baltes, the hotels General Manager.

At Best Western Plus The Beachfront Hotel, we have always practiced high standards of hygiene and cleanliness, and we have now taken our commitment to travelers safety up a notch.

Best Western Plus The Beachfront Hotel has recently received the COVID-READY Certificate by Hotel Resilient, the worlds only scientific benchmarking and certification body for disaster risk management and climate change adaptation of hotels and resorts. The certification is based on the verification of key documents and is awarded to hotels and resorts that pass with a promising score of 80% or above.

After being certified COVID-READY, we now have peace of mind knowing that our hard work and efforts have essentially been a step in the right direction, said Baltes. We are confident that we can provide the high level of safety our guests deserve.

Best Western Plus The Beachfront Hotel has also been actively engaged in community activities. Baltes organised a donation drive and received generous donations from private donors in Luxembourg. Using the funds raised, the hotel recently carried out its fourth distribution of 200 dry food bags, which consisted of rice, cooking oil, salted eggs, and Chinese sausages among other necessities, to the needy in Rawai.

In addition, the hotels different teams clean the beaches around Phuket together with Blue Horizon Developments staff members and have removed a few hundred kilos of trash so far.

We want to present Phuket in all its glory to travelers, says Baltes.
Most of the members of the Taliban team have worked together for more than a year negotiating with the United States. The team is under the new leadership of the movements chief justice, Abdul Hakim, but theres no apparent political or religious diversity in its membership. This relative unity and greater experience is expected to give the Taliban negotiators an advantage.
F ormer prime ministers Tony Blair and John Major are urging MPs to reject Boris Johnson's attempt to override parts of the UK's Brexit deal, calling it "irresponsible", "dangerous" and "wrong".

Mr Johnson is facing mounting criticism over the Internal Market Bill, as leaders from across the political spectrum attack the threat to break international law.

Senior Conservatives are not backing down on their rebellion against the Prime Ministers plans despite his warning that Brussels could carve up our country without the Bill.

Sir John and Mr Blair said the legislation imperils the Irish peace process, trade negotiations and the UKs integrity.

Boris Johnson is pushing on with the Bill despite mounting criticism / AP

Sir Keir Starmer accused Mr Johnson of reigniting old rows by working to flout his own withdrawal agreement, but pledged Labour support if he addresses substantial concerns.

Tory rebels suggested their numbers were growing and opinions were only hardened by Mr Johnsons increased rhetoric that the EU could impose a trade border in the Irish Sea.

Keir Starmer has urged the PM to address 'substantial concerns' / Getty Images

Sir John and Mr Blair, the former Conservative and Labour leaders, united to condemn Mr Johnsons controversial UK Internal Market Bill in an article for the Sunday Times.

We both opposed Brexit. We both accept it is now happening. But this way of negotiating, with reason cast aside in pursuit of ideology and cavalier bombast posing as serious diplomacy, is irresponsible, wrong in principle and dangerous in practice, they said.

It raises questions that go far beyond the impact on Ireland, the peace process and negotiations for a trade deal  crucial though they are. It questions the very integrity of our nation.

Michael Gove backs Boris Johnson's Brexit warning

Sir Keir called on Mr Johnson to throw out clauses that could breach international law and those that lead the devolved administrations to warn of a power grab to get Labour support.

If the Government fixes the substantial cross-party concerns that have been raised about the Internal Market Bill, then we are prepared to back it, he wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.

But if they do not, and the talk collapse, then it is their failure and incompetence that will have let the British people down.

The newspaper also reported that ministers are considering opt-outs from the Human Rights Act, and that a formal review could be announced in the coming weeks.

The Tory manifesto pledged to update the Act after Brexit, but the move is contentious with Brussels and negotiators have expressed concern over the UKs commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland, who is under pressure to explain how Government plans to override elements of the Brexit deal are consistent with obligations under international law, will face questioning from the media on Sunday.

His Labour shadow, Lord Falconer, said: A future where (the) UK breaks its international law obligations, and opts out of Human Rights protections is a very bad future.

Despite Mr Johnsons attempts to drum up support, Tory chairman of the Commons defence committee Tobias Ellwood said on Saturday that he could not support the legislation without it being changed.

Already this Bill is damaging brand UK, diminishing our role-model status as defender of global standards. As we go to the wire, lets see more British statecraft  less Nixonian Madman Theory, he tweeted.

Commons justice committee chairman Sir Bob Neill, who has tabled an amendment which he said would impose a parliamentary lock on any changes to the Withdrawal Agreement, said he still contends it contains objectionable elements.

Damian Green, who was Theresa Mays deputy when she was prime minister and is backing the amendment, was also understood to not have been won over by Mr Johnsons argument.

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Sir Roger Gale also remained a vehement critic, telling Times Radio: If anybody is responsible, if it happens, for bringing the union down, it will be (chief aide Dominic) Cummings and Mr Johnson.
Former Minister for Higher Education, Scientific Research and Technological Development Mihnea Costoiu considers the hybrid learning system to be an unsatisfactory solution, as teachers and parents are burdened with responsibility in such case.

"First of all, it is utter chaos, as the schools are abandoned; teachers, parents and students are left to fend for themselves. Second, the hybrid system is an unsatisfactory solution as parents and teachers are saddled with responsibility for that. (...) As you know, some of the students, regardless of the solution, do not have access to tablets," Costpiu told AGERPRES on Sunday.In his opinion, the solutions proposed for the beginning of the 2020 - 2021 school year are also unsatisfactory."The pre-university solutions are unsatisfactory solutions. I personally am deeply dissatisfied with the way we start the academic year, together with the entire Romanian society. (...) I am talking about those who manage the schools and who are in an absolutely desperate situation. Because, if in principle decentralisation is a good thing, eschewing responsibility has in fact replaced the so-called decentralisation, because, at the level of the government, at the level of the Ministry of Education, at the level of the Ministry of Health, everyone (...) have washed their hands off and shifted responsibility to the schools without giving the schools anything that the schools should have. It has no financial resources, no human resources, no very clear methodologies," Costoiu said.He mentioned the situation withthe tablets, accusing the education Ministry of hypocrisy."So far as I know, the Ministry of Education, which had to deliver the 80,000 tablets yesterday, has at its disposal about 1,500 tablets that it promised, nothing more, which proves once again not only that it is chaos, but it is also a lot of hypocrisy, not to mention a lie," said Costoiu.He called on school principals, teachers, to try under these special circumstances to compensate with their abnegation for the major shortcomings of this period and the ensuing chaos."At the same time, I am calling on parents to be understanding, to understand the special situation and to help both the schools and the students, their own children, go through this very complicated period. I know as a parent, as a man working in the education area that it is difficult to answer such call, but it is the only solution we have now. Our effort, of each of us, to help save ourselves at this time," the former minister said.
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Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Sunday the city government has instructed 33 big private hospitals in the national capital to reserve 80 per cent of ICU beds for COVID-19 patients, amid a shortage of such beds at some facilities.

Delhi has been witnessing a surge in novel coronavirus cases from the last week of August. Delhi recorded its biggest single-day jump of 4,321 fresh COVID-19 cases on Saturday, taking the city's tally to over 2.14 lakh, authorities said. It was for the fourth day in a row that over 4,000 fresh cases were recorded in Delhi.

"Yesterday, we instructed 33 private hospitals to reserve 80 per cent of their ICU beds for coronavirus patients. This has been done since issues were being faced with regards to ICU beds in some private hospitals. I also held a video conference over this and an order has been issued in this regard," he told reporters here.

Jain said there are sufficient number of ICU beds in state-run and Centre-run hospitals, and also said there are sufficient number of other beds in hospitals.

Also read: 'India fighting two wars against China, at border and against virus,' says Arvind Kejriwal

"We have also instructed hospitals to increase bed strength by 30 per cent for coronavirus patients, in case they want to. More than 50 per cent beds are available in hospitals. Out of the total 14,372 beds available for COVID-19 patients, 7,938 are vacant, according to live status on Delhi Corona app," he added.

Asked if there can be another lockdown amid a spurt in coronavirus cases, the Health Minister ruled out the possibility.

"The time for enforcing a lockdown has ended. We have gained enough experience through the lockdown and know that wearing masks is an effective way to fight the infection. We are creating awareness to wear masks," he said.

Jain said the national capital has ramped up testing, which is why an increase in cases is being observed and stressed that it will help in containing and isolating cases of the infection. On Saturday, over 60,000 COVID-19 tests were conducted.

"If you test positive without symptoms, we will be able to isolate you in time and prevent the infection from spreading. The number might be increasing at this point but this will help in containing the virus," he added.

Sharing numbers, he said the positivity rate in the national capital is 7.19 per cent while the death rate in the last 10 days has been 0.68 per cent, "which is a good sign". The overall death rate is 2.23 per cent, he said.

Also read:Coronavirus situation under control in Delhi, not terrible, says Kejriwal
A man and woman have been sentenced to a combined nine years in prison for pickpocketing passengers at a busy bus station in Ho Chi Minh City.

The Peoples Court in Thu Duc District on Saturday tried Quach Chinh Nhan, 48, and Duong Thi Sen, 55, both charged for theft.

Nhan and Sen were members of two separate gangs of pickpockets who targeted passengers at a bus station near Suoi Tien Theme Park, which lies at the border of District 9 and Thu Duc District.

Nhan had been convicted of theft for multiple times and sent to jail for two years for the crimes.

After finishing his prison term, Nhan colluded with several other suspects to form a pickpocket gang at the bus station.

At the trial, Nhan said he was a drug addict and committed the offense to earn money for personal purposes.

Duong Thi Sen stands her trial at the Peoples Court in Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City, September 12, 2020. Photo: Minh Hoa / Tuoi Tre

From September 24 to October 13, 2019, Nhan and his accessories stole from many bus passengers in the area.

Police have only been able to identify the victims in three cases, with stolen property totaling over VND20 million (US$860).

Meanwhile, Sen and her accomplice, Bui Van Hien, who still remains at large, stole the belongings of many bus goers worth about VND19 million ($820) from September 28 to October 5, 2019.

Sen, however, denied knowing Hien during the trial.

The woman had previously served seven years and six months in prison after being convicted of theft twice.

At the end of their trial, the jury decided to sentence Nhan to five years and six months in prison and Sen to three years and six months behind bars.

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A remarkable positioning of six planets in their own houses-the rarest of rare phenomena will be witnessed for 51 hours, 48 minutes from 10.37 am of September 13 to 2.25 pm on Tuesday (September 15).

Such positioning of planets was not witnessed for centuries together. According to noted astrologer and Almanac writer P. Srinivasa Gargeya, he had verified 400-year-old positioning of planets, but he has never found such a positioning. Planets like moon (Cancer), sun (Leo), mercury (Virgin), jupiter (Sagittarius), saturn (Capri-corn) and mars (Aries) are in their own houses.

However, Gargeya said that such positioning will be witnessed again on July 2, 2022 (9.45 am) to July 3 (6.30 am) for 20 hours and 45 minutes. He said that the latter positioning will be better than the present positioning of the planets as the planets will be positioned like a string and that would be a good sign for the country.

Speaking about Sundays planet position, he said that it brings bad omens for mankind. It may result in outbreak of several viruses, imprisonment of prominent personalities, national calamities, among several such bad signs. However, he said that people should make a conscious effort to control their pride and egos and they should not take any hasty decisions during this period.

He said that people should cultivate a spirit of surrender and worship of the planets and then the beneficial imp-act of the moon on the mind and the impact of mercury on the intellect in particular can be felt.

Drukh Siddantha Almanac Writers President H. Subrahmanya Sarma said that though the six planets are positioned in their houses and symbolise bad signs, people need not worry as the planets are in a weakened position. He said that due to last Decembers eclipse, many of the planets were positioned in one Rasi, but now they are dividing each other and positioning in their houses.

Bhuvaneswari Peetam chief and prominent Almanac writer Chinta Gopi Sarma found fault with some of the suggestions of the astrologers about the stoppage of performing rituals to their ancestors. He said that the present days are considered as Mahalaya Pakshas and this is auspicious for performing obeisance to manes for their ancestors.

Former president of Drukh Siddantha Almanac writers G.M. Pattabhi Sastry said that the rare phenomena is not a good sign for the world as there will be an economic crisis and the problem of unemployment would worsen.

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Beth Shelburne is a writer and journalist based in Birmingham. She previously served as a news anchor and reporter at Fox 6 WBRC. She currently works part-time as an investigative reporter for the Campaign for Smart Justice with ACLU of Alabama.

35 years, 4 months and 22 days. Thats how long the state of Alabama has kept Michael Schumacher, 60, in prison for a robbery he committed in 1985. Schumacher was sentenced to a mandatory life without parole  the harshest punishment next to the death penalty  under Alabamas draconian habitual felony offender act, because he had three prior drug-related convictions from Georgia on his record. If convicted today, the maximum sentence Schumacher would face under Alabamas current guidelines would allow him to be considered for parole after 15 years.

AL.coms ALABAMA PRISONS coverage

Schumacher is among more than 500 people Alabama has sentenced to die in prison under our states repeat offender law. Ive been talking to many of them over the last several years, trying to elevate the lived experience of incarceration when the punishment does not fit the crime. At least 300 of them, like Schumacher, are there for robberies, burglaries and drug cases, many that resulted in no physical injury. The average age in this population is 54. They are part of an aging prison population that has exploded by 3000 percent in Alabama in the last 40 years, largely due to the habitual offender law, which imposes longer sentences each time someone commits a felony. For years, it mandated a life without parole sentence for anyone convicted of a Class A offense who had any three prior felony convictions on their record.

Everybody will admit privately it is the root of a lot of the problems we face now, Dick Brewbaker said, a retired Republican lawmaker. He supported reforming the law because it not only crowded the prisons, but also took away judges' discretion, turning criminal sentences into one-size-fits-all.

It just turned into vending machine justice, he said.

I traced this evolution of Alabamas habitual offender law in a recent feature published by The Daily Beast, arguing that its story demonstrates the difficulty in unwinding excessive criminal justice policy, no matter how broken the system. The law was designed by former attorney general Charlie lock-em-up Graddick in the late 1970s, the same man that Governor Kay Ivey appointed as director of the Bureau of Pardons and Paroles. Since he took over, paroles have plummeted to unprecedented, historic lows, even as Alabama prisons grapple with a raging, deadly virus and monstrous overcrowding.

Since the 70s, many Alabamaians have grown to view the habitual offender law as unnecessarily harsh, but over a dozen attempts to soften the mandatory punishments in the following decades fizzled under pressure from law enforcement and the victims advocacy organization VOCAL. Finally, lawmakers amended the law in 2000, ostensibly to make it less severe, but the damage was never undone. Then in 2014, the legislature inexplicably reversed the amendment that allowed people like Schumacher to appeal their sentences, slamming the door on their opportunity for a second chance. Over 100 of them have already served at least 30-years in prison, a longer sentence than some people receive for rape or murder.

Gov. Kay Iveys Alabama solution to our unconstitutionally violent and crowded prisons is to build even more prisons at a cost of $2.6 billion of taxpayer money. On September 3, Ivey announced that two private companies were awarded contracts to design and build three mega-prisons, which the companies will own and lease back to the state. One company, CoreCivic, is the second largest private prison company in the country with a long record of abuses similar to the problems that drew the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and conclude the Alabama Department of Corrections' cruel and usual punishments violate the Constitution. In addition to shady math, Iveys plan ignores Alabamas over-incarceration, particularly among people of color. Three out of four people sentenced to life under the habitual offender law are Black.

People like Ronald McKeithen, who was sentenced to life without parole at 22 for a robbery of a grocery store. At the time, McKeithen was using IV drugs and admittedly, making terrible decisions. But today, he lives in the honor dorm at Donaldson prison and has a stellar prison record. Even the victim in the case, Farooq Janjua, believes the sentence is excessive. When I contacted him, he didnt believe McKeithen was still in prison for the 1983 robbery. That was a long time ago, Janjua said. If hes really still serving time for that robbery, it looks like thats not fair.

Schumacher, McKeithen and hundreds of others are not the same people they were decades ago when they committed crimes. Despite their hopeless sentences, they havent given up on themselves. As theyve grown up and matured in prison, theyve taken classes and now mentor younger prisoners and go to church. McKeithen is an accomplished artist. Schumacher won the prisons scrabble tournament. These are good people who deserve a chance to live a normal life again.

When Governor Ivey says new prisons will allow Alabama to move from warehousing criminals to rehabilitating future citizens, shes not telling the truth. Our prisons have always warehoused human beings, which is what they were designed to do, and building bigger prisons wont change that. If leaders were really interested in rehabilitating future citizens, they would do more to create real pathways out of prison, like fixing our parole crisis and repealing the habitual offender law that turns prison into a dead end, instead of building new prisons to keep people like Schumacher and McKeithen locked up for the rest of their lives.
Find all of the most important pandemic education news on Educating N.J., a special resource guide created for parents, students and educators.

MORE: Elizabeth HS closed for 1 day after staff member tests positive for coronavirus

MORE: Another N.J. school district switches to remote classes after student tests positive for COVID-19

A person tested positive for the coronavirus at an elementary school in the Howell School District and now at least some students will have to switch to remote instruction for 14 days, according to a letter sent to parents from school officials.

In addition, Griebling Elementary School will have all-remote classes on Monday and Tuesday to allow for additional cleaning, district officials said in letters sent to parents Saturday. All students are remote Wednesday as part of the districts hybrid learning plan.

This action will allow us to partner with the Monmouth County Health Department as they work through their contact tracing to ensure a safe reopening for our students and staff, stated the letter from the Griebling principal and district superintendent. While we have already begun the extensive cleaning process, this additional time will allow us to optimally complete the process.

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Howell students returned to schools on Thursday under a hybrid cohort plan for those families that opted for in-person learning. One group attended school Thursday and the second cohort had in-person classes Friday under a special schedule for the first shortened week of school.

On normal weeks, the first cohort attends Monday and Tuesday and the second cohort is in class on Thursday and Friday with all students remote on Wednesday. Howell is also allowing elementary students in its kindergarten to second grade schools, like Griebling, to attend school on the opposite cohort days, but the students remain with their group in a separate classroom and learn virtually under supervision from another instructor.

The letter did not state if the person who tested positive for the virus was a staff member or student.

The principal and superintendent did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday night.

You are encouraged to observe our child for any signs and symptoms of COVID-19 for the next 14-days, the letter read. Please contact your childs physician if any signs and symptoms are noted. Additionally, please notify your childs school nurse if your child presents with any signs or symptoms of COVID-19 or if your child tests positive for COVID-19.

Other schools throughout New Jersey have also reported positive cases of COVID-19 since the start of the school year. Students in Little Silver, Chatham and East Brunswick have tested positive for the virus.

The New Jersey Department of Health issued several matrices to help schools decide if and when they should ask students to quarantine or shut down school buildings if someone tests positive for COVID-19.

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Rebecca Panico may be reached at rpanico@njadvancemedia.com.
Since the release of High School Musical in 2006, fans have been endlessly curious about the life of Zac Efron. Many of us have more or less grown up with Efron and watched him grow up and enter more serious and adult roles in his acting career.

Hes still active today, and still on the minds of many of his fans. This naturally includes his personal life.

Very recently, Efron has entered a new relationship with a woman named Vanessa Valladares. Because this relationship is so new, fans are intensely curious about Valladares and how she ended up with Efron.

So who is Valladares? And how did she end up dating Efron?

Zac Efrons career

Zac Efron | Rich Polk/Getty Images for IMDb

RELATED: Brad Pitt and Zac Efron Have the Same Strategy for Skipping Showers

Efron has been acting since the early 2000s, but his first and probably most famous role was that of Troy Bolton in the 2006 Disney musical High School Musical. This film spawned a massive franchise thats still popular with nostalgic audiences.

Efron has held other major roles. He played Link Larkin in the 2007 remake of Hairspray and starred in the popular Seth Rogen comedy Neighbors and its sequels. More recently, he portrayed serial killer Ted Bundy in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, and is producing his own reality series on Netflix, Down to Earth with Zac Efron.

Efrons personal life

Fans arent just interested in Efrons acting career. His personal life and relationships have been an object of interest since he starred in High School Musical.

One aspect that was initially of interest was Efrons relationship with High School Musical costar Vanessa Anne Hudgens. The couple apparently started dating while they were filming in 2005, and throughout the years there were rumors about the exact status of their relationship.

Sometimes tabloids claimed that the two had broken up, while other times they claimed that Efron and Hudgens were engaged. The couple did break up in 2010, though that didnt stop speculation about whether they had gotten back together.

A few years later, he entered a relationship with the model Sami Miro. This relationship lasted for two years, and the two kept relatively private about their relationship. Perhaps Efron was interested in privacy after the intense publicity of his relationship with Hudgens.

Efrons personal life has also included struggles. In the early 2010s, Efron revealed that he had had problems with substance abuse, which he eventually overcame. Shooting Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile was also reportedly difficult for Efron and had a strong toll on his mental health, and led him to turn to Transcendental Meditation to maintain his sanity.

Who is Vanessa Valladares?

Recently, Efron spent some time Byron Bay, Australia. There, hes been in a relationship with a model  Valladares.

Reportedly, they met this July, but have become very close very quickly. According to Page Six, Efron has been looking to buy a house in Australia to be closer to Valladares.

So who is Vanessa Valladares? What we know right now is that she isnt a major celebrity like Efron. Shes an aspiring model and was apparently working as a waitress when she met Efron.

The fact that the two were dating was made official to the world with photos of the two going on a ski trip together in July. Valladares reportedly is very into traveling, and her Instagram includes shots of her in locations like Indonesia and India. She also has a spiritual side that can be seen on her Instagram, which is a good match for Efrons interest in meditation.

It seems like Efron and Valladares are trying to maintain relative privacy about their new relationship. However, with the level of celebrity that Efron has, its inevitable that fans are going to want to know more about the relationship.
San Francisco, Sep 13 : Southern California remained shrouded in a blanket of smoke on as two massive wildfires continued to rage in the region with little containment.

A smoke advisory was in effect in most of Los Angeles County and parts of Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties due to the Bobcat Fire burning in the Angeles National Forest which has scorched 29,245 acres with only 6 per cent containment, reports Xinhua news agency.

In the San Bernardino Mountains, the 14,043 acre El Dorado Fire, which erupted on September 5, was contained by 39 per cent Saturday noon.

A map updated by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) showed air quality in the region during this weekend is expected to range from moderate to unhealthy for sensitive groups, such as children, elderly, and people with respiratory or heart disease.

In some areas near the wildfire scenes, the air quality is forecast as "unhealthy" level.

"Breathing in smoke can aggravate lung disease, cause asthma attacks, cause acute bronchitis, and increase the risk of respiratory infections," the National Weather Service warned on its official website.

The SCAQMD issued a smoke advisory every day since the El Dorado and Bobcat fires erupted last weekend and brought ash, dust and debris across the region.

Additionally, smoke from wildfires in Northern and Central California is making its way south.

Meanwhile, evacuation warnings remained in the cities of Duarte, Bradbury, Monrovia, Arcadia, Sierra Madre, Pasadena and Altadena, which stand along the foothill of Santa Ana Mountain where the Angeles National Forest is located.

Meanwhile, the total deaths in the state's recent blazes has increased to 22.

Uncontained wildfires have so far scorched more than 2.8 million acres of land, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The August Complex Fire is now the largest in state history, according to the Department.

"Grateful for the brave firefighters and first responders who are on the frontlines battling these historic fires. Stay safe," California Governor Gavin Newsom tweeted on Saturday.

The White House said on Saturday that President Donald Trump will visit McClellan Park in Sacramento County on Monday to be briefed on the fires by local and federal officials.
China has declared graphite a strategic mineral. It has 195 mining areas across 20 provinces that account for 70 per cent of the world's exports of processed graphite resources. Its dominance and proliferation-brand of state-linked companies has sharpened the concerns of governments that, in the event of a shortage or a military dispute in the South China Sea, the tap could be turned off. Resources Minister Keith Pitt: 'If you only have one supply line, that is an increased risk.' Credit:Dominic Lorrimer "It does not matter if you are importing loaves of bread or anything else, if you only have one supply line, that is an increased risk," Pitt says in an interview in Canberra. In the last few months of 2019, China had begun winding back its exports, well before its relationship with the US, Australia and Europe was pummelled by the coronavirus and China's crackdown in Hong Kong. From August to September 2019 alone, rare earths exports from China to the US dropped by 18 per cent. Australia, which has historically focused on more common, highly profitable exports such as iron ore, is sitting on a graphite reserve in South Australia of 200 million tonnes.

"You are touching my nerves," says Professor Dusan Losic, the director of Australia's graphene research hub, which collaborates between five Australian universities, including the University of Melbourne and the University of Adelaide. "We have very huge reserves just sitting down there," he says. "But nothing can be done with a lack of investment." Why so rare? Australia is the world's No.2 producer, making up 13 per cent of global output.

Mined in Mount Weld and Browns Range, WA; Nolans, NT.

Used in: speakers, wind turbines, hybrid cars and magnets.

Rare earths are not that rare: A family of 17 obscure minerals found near the bottom of the periodic table, they occur everywhere in the earth's crust and in greater amounts than many other elements. Even the rarest of rare earth materials, thulium, is more plentiful than gold.

Rare earths including cerium, dysprosium, erbium, neo-dymium, praseodymium, neodymium, scandium, cerium, lanthanumand lutetium are rare in the sense they are sprinkled all over the planet in very small concentrations. The government has committed $125 million to exploring two 2500 kilometre-long corridors in the hope of hitting another rare earths payload. One stretches from the Gulf of Carpentaria down to the border of NSW, South Australia and Victoria. The second runs from Darwin to the Great Australian Bight. The government has also invested $4.5 million in critical mineral research and development through the CSIRO and Geoscience Australia but industry figures say it is not enough. Losic says the cost of starting up a single graphite processing plant is $60 million. Perth USAsia Centre research director Dr Jeffrey Wilson says Australia has abundant geology and technical capabilities, but the investment risk is higher than the private sector can manage.

"China holds a global monopoly on the production of rare earth minerals, which are used across the civilian and defence technology ecosystems," he says. "With China applying trade sanctions to many countries in early 2020, there is a real risk the rare earths weapon may be deployed in the coming months." Australia signed a strategic partnership in June that will allow for Australia to supply rare earth resources to India. Another deal with the US followed in July after Australian rare earths miner Lynas announced it would process the minerals at a Texas facility in partnership with the Pentagon. Australian resources company Syrah is also establishing a production line in the US state of Louisiana that will be the first to completely transform graphite into the active anode material used in electric vehicles outside China. Pitt says: "We are being watched very closely internationally right now. I think every Australian will recognise how critical this is in terms of our nation. It is also about our strategic partnerships as well. That is why we are working very closely with South Korea and Japan and the US, Europe and a lot of other countries.

"They recognise it is in their interests to have a diverse source of materials into their countries, not just a single one." Lynas says COVID-19 has heightened the focus on resilient supply chains and securing a diverse supply of critical minerals. "Its only when there is a risk that a component like rare earths will not be available that it comes to the attention of business leaders," a Lynas spokeswoman says. One of the reasons for China's dominance in processing graphite is its use of highly toxic chemicals in the purification process, which other countries have been reluctant to replicate.

China's processors use hydrofluoric acid to remove impurities. The chemical is highly corrosive and discharges chemicals into surrounding land and water. Processing graphite also produces air pollutants that can cause respiratory illnesses. Pitt says there is no intention to change any environmental controls to allow for more mining or processing. "If you work within that framework, you reduce the risk substantially," he says. Loading EcoGraf has spent the past three years developing an eco-friendly purification process that will avoid hydrofluoric acid and the discharge of air pollutants. Its new plant, the first graphite purification facility in Australia, is set to be established in Kwinana, Western Australia, after the company secured investment from Export Finance Australia and the German government to source graphite from a mine in Tanzania. Spinks says the establishment of an Australian Critical Minerals Office, headed by Jessica Robinson, a former senior official in the Treasury and in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, is a sign of how seriously the government is taking the rare earths supply challenge. But he says more government support is needed to buttress the significant upfront costs of mining and processing the material.
More than 4,000 homes and other structures have been incinerated in California alone over the past three weeks, but in the small mountain town of Paradise, many residents have chosen to defy the recurring wildfires, rebuilding the place they call home. FRANCE 24s Alyssa Caverly reports.

Weve been in Paradise our entire lives. Its home, thats why were rebuilding here, a resident explains as he shows FRANCE 24 around his new home after his former one burned down to the ground in one of the deadliest wildfires in the states history in 2018.

I love this town, I love its people  especially after everything that happened. It just makes me feel that much closer to everybody. Im not going to live in fear, Im going to live my life.

But its not just an emotional attachment to the town that is keeping the population of 4,000 in Paradise, it is also financial. House prices in Paradise cost just one-sixth of those in San Fransisco.

To watch the full report, please click on the video player above.
Karsten Warholm has emerged from the coronavirus lockdown in terrific form

Norway's Karsten Warholm continued his rich vein of form over 400m hurdles by eclipsing American legend Edwin Moses' meet record as he clocked a winning time of 47.08 seconds in Berlin on Sunday.

The 24-year-old crushed the field at the German capital's Olympic stadium, with 3,500 fans allowed in the 70,000-seater arena.

Racing last month in Stockholm, Warholm came within 0.09 seconds of Kevin Young's long-standing world record of 46.78sec which the American set at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

While the Norwegian didn't come close to that in Berlin, he beat the previous meet record of 47.17sec set by Moses in 1980.

"A win and new meeting record tonight at @istaf_berlin 47.08 in a fantastic stadium!!" two-time world champion Warholm said on Instagram.

Mirroring Warholm was another Scandinavian in the shape of Sweden's world record holder Armand Duplantis, who won the pole vault with a best of 5.91 metres.

Home favourite Johannes Vetter didn't go close to the monster 97.76m javelin throw he achieved last week in Poland, the second furthest ever thrown after Czech Jan Zelezny's effort of 98.48m in 1996.

But he did win his competition, with a best of 87.26m.

cpb/lp/mw
A former investigator judge with the Tehran Prosecutor's Office, Bijan Qassemzadeh Sangroudi, is sentenced to "permanent dismissal from government service, ten years in prison, confiscation of properties achieved through bribery, and payment of a fine" for receiving bribery from local news outlets in Iran, as reported on Saturday, September 12.

Qasemzadeh's name was mentioned in the high-profile legal case related to financial corruption and bribery, led by the former deputy of the Islamic Republic's judiciary, Akbar Tabari.

Tabari served as the former deputy head of administrative affairs at the judiciary and was later promoted to be the head of executive affairs and then executive deputy under then judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani from 2009 to 2019.

In its ruling, Tehran's criminal court sentenced Tabari to 31 years in jail and ordered him to pay more than 430 billion rials ($1.65 million) in fines. It also ordered the seizure of illegally acquired properties.

Qassemzadeh Sangroudi was one of the 22 defendants in Tabari's case.

Nevertheless, the real reason behind his "fame" goes back to the case of filtering Telegram messages on May 10, 2017, when his order blocked the most popular messaging app in Iran.

The Telegram instant messaging service has more than fifty million users in Iran, and 60% of the country's Internet's bandwidth is spent on using this app.

In the heat of protests on December 8, 2017, Telegram was blocked for more than a week and finally became available again on December 23, 2017.

Once again, it was reblocked on May 10, 2017, by Sangroudi's order. The judicial declaration of the Tehran Prosecutor's Office said at the time that ISPs must block Telegram in a way that nobody could have access to it even with filter breakers or tools similar to VPNs.

Within two days, the popular app was filtered by every ISP operating nationwide.

The judicial order triggered rumors about ICT Minister Jahromi's resignation, which he was later forced to deny. However, the ICT Ministry released a statement criticizing the judicial order and stating that it's impossible to restrict the flow of information online.

Meanwhile, Rouhani's government has repeatedly been accused of secretly considering the topic of blocking access to Telegram, with Rouhani recently insisting on April 3, 2018, that Iran is not planning to ban the popular messaging application Telegram.

Reacting to reports about the possible banning of the application, Rouhani explained in a meeting with high-ranking state officials that introducing homegrown messaging applications aims to put an end to Telegram's monopoly on messaging in Iran.

The two-time experience of blocking Telegram in Iran shows that Iranian users did not migrate to alternative services, such as the foreign WhatsApp or the domestic Soroush messenger, but resorted to Internet censorship circumvention, BBC reported on June 6, 2018.
Press Release

September 13, 2020 Drilon wants SAP cash aid included in 2021 nat'l budget To ease the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Filipinos and prevent millions from sliding back to poverty, Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon pushed for funds for the social amelioration program in the proposed P4.5 trillion national budget for next year. "Ang kailangan ngayon ay tulong - walang pagkain, walang trabaho. Mas dumami ang pamilya na mas mahirap ngayon dahilan sa pandemic. We should therefore continue the SAP," said Drilon during an interview with radio station DWIZ on Saturday. Drilon was referring to the financial aid, popularly referred to as "ayuda" given to about 18 million Filipinos when the country was placed under the enhanced community quarantine. The government did not include any allocation for SAP for next year. For Drilon, the grant of cash aid of P5,000 to P8,000 to poor families affected by the pandemic should continue next year. "The way I see it, the proposed 2021 budget basically leaves the poor to fend for themselves. If we do not increase the allocation for the social services sector, then poverty could be even worse next year. We will be wasting away years of strategies to end poverty. We were winning the war against poverty before the pandemic. We can still win it by providing more meaningful assistance to the poor," Drilon said in a separate statement. The government think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) estimated that as much as 5.5 million Filipinos can be pushed into poverty absent enough economic aid from the government, Drilon noted. Drilon also pointed to the statement made by acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua that poverty could worsen by next year particularly in the urban areas. The most recent SWS survey on hunger estimates that 5 million families are experiencing hunger, he noted. "We must provide funding for SAP in the 2021 national budget to combat the worsening poverty. There are items in the budget that we can tap to provide the much-needed cash subsidies to the poor," he stressed. Drilon made the call amid the discovery of P469 worth of lump-sum appropriations in the National Expenditure Program (NEP) purportedly for various infrastructure projects requested by congressmen. The minority leader said that lump-sum appropriations are considered unconstitutional pursuant to the ruling of the Supreme Court on the pork barrel case. Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado during a briefing in the Senate said his agency would submit an errata containing a list of projects to be funded from the said lump-sum appropriations. Drilon said that the social service sector should receive a bigger budget over infrastructure during a pandemic. Drilon said that while infrastructure may be beneficial for the economic recovery, what the people truly need today are food and livelihood. "What we need is direct and immediate government assistance through the SAP. Ang sabi nga aanhin mo pa ang damo kung patay na ang kabayo," he added. He said he will ask the Senate Committee on Finance to look for excess funds in the budget that can be tapped to provide for SAP.
Here's how global warming makes weather more extreme

There are multiple reasons why global warming contributes to more extreme weather, said Andreas Prein, a scientist who specializes in the hydrologic cycle for the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Warming has added heat and water vapor to the atmosphere, intensifying the hydrologic cycle. As a result, when it rains, there's more water in the atmosphere to rain out.

On the other hand, helpful, lesser rainfalls are being suppressed by the changes in weather patterns.

The effects of a rapidly warming Arctic are contributing to weather patterns in this part of the country getting "stuck." That can show up as unrelenting hot, dry weather or unyielding rainy stretches.

Also, with more heat in the atmosphere, when droughts flare up, they are becoming hotter, which sucks up water even faster when it does fall.

"This results in a future climate with bursts of heavy rainfall followed by longer dry periods," he said.
For the past four years, the question uppermost on the minds of many keen observers of politics in Maharashtra, is not Nathabhau (Eknath Khadse) ko gussa kyon aata hai?

While the reasons for the disgruntlement of the senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader are obvious, there are speculations about why he has uncharacteristically failed to take his running battle to the logical end. But, like many complex questions in politics, this too may lack any ephemeral explanations or answers.

Despite publicly voicing his anger at the party leadership, especially former chief minister and incumbent leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis, after he was forced to quit the state cabinet in 2016 and subsequently sidelined, Khadse (68) has stopped short of biting the bullet.

However, earlier this week, Khadse launched his strongest such broadside at Fadnavis and his clique for conspiring against him and Bahujan leaders, indicating that this time, things may not go as per the previous script.

Khadse, one of the partys prominent other backward class (OBC) faces, has now claimed he had been scapegoated as he was a chief ministerial aspirant. While Shiv Sena minister Abdul Sattar has invited Khadse to join the Sena, the latter has however claimed that he will not quit the BJP.

Khadses loyalists claim that despite their leaders disgruntlement, his emotional connect with the BJP runs strong as someone who helped build it ground-up at a time when it was derided as a party of the Shetjis (merchants) and Bhatjis (Brahmins).

Khadse was initially groomed by a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker and Jan Sanghite Ashok Phadke in Jalgaon. Khadses Leva Patil community in North Maharashtra was then firmly with the Congress due to the influence of senior leader Madhukarrao Chaudhari. Khadse gradually helped the BJP strike roots in this landed agrarian group and other OBCs.

In 1990, Khadse was elected to the state legislative assembly from the Edlabad constituency (now renamed Muktainagar) in Jalgaon. The seat was once represented by Pratibha Patil of the Congress, who became the President of India in 2007.

In the assembly, Khadse earned his spurs cornering the erstwhile Congress government over a sensational sex scandal in Jalgaon. In 1995, when the Shiv Sena-BJP regime came to power, Khadse held cabinet portfolios for departments like finance and irrigation.

Though the saffron alliance regime lost to the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 1999, Khadse was known for his legislative interventions, holding forth in lengthy monologues in his trademark style.

After becoming leader of opposition in 2009, Khadse actively promoted Devendra Fadnavis, who would sit on the second row behind him in the assembly.

Along with BJP stalwart late Gopinath Munde, Khadse threw his weight behind Fadnavis ensuring that the young MLA from Nagpur became the state unit president in 2013, replacing Sudhir Mungantiwar, a loyalist of incumbent Union minister Nitin Gadkari.

In 2014, when the BJP snapped its alliance with the Shiv Sena for the Maharashtra assembly elections, it was Khadse who delivered the coup de grace in a press conference. This move came as a cropper as the BJP shrugged off its position as an also-ran and emerged as the single-largest party. Khadse later claimed that he was among those who prevailed on the leadership to pursue the go-it-alone line.

However, despite being a claimant to the chief ministers position, Khadse was beaten to it by Fadnavis. Though he was the veritable number two in the cabinet, with portfolios like revenue, agriculture and state excise, Khadse made his ambitions clear.

Referring to his OBC identity, Khadse claimed that the masses wanted a Bahujan as the chief minister. This was a reference to Fadnavis being a Brahmin and being seen as an appointee of the central leadership rather than a popular choice.

Apart from getting his widowed daughter-in-law Raksha (wife of his son Nikhil who died by suicide in 2013) elected as a Lok Sabha MP from Raver, Khadse also ensured his wife Mandakini became the chairperson of the powerful state co-operative milk federation. Daughter Rohini Khadse Khewalkar was accommodated as the chairperson of the Jalgaon district central co-operative bank. These and other factors like his outspoken nature are said to have earned him the ire of many in the government and the party, including some central leaders.

In 2016, Khadse had to quit the Fadnavis-led cabinet. This came after a string of charges, including him being in touch with the wife of dreaded underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, and the controversial purchase of land reserved for the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) at prices less than the market rates.

Khadses partisans allege this smear campaign was run at the behest of those close to Fadnavis.

In 2019, Khadse was denied a renomination from his traditional Muktainagar seat and his daughter Rohini, who was fielded instead, lost by a thin margin to a Shiv Sena rebel. His loyalists attribute this to internal sabotage.

Incidentally, another chief ministerial aspirant and OBC leader, Pankaja Munde, the daughter of Gopinath Munde, also faced a shock defeat at the hands of estranged cousin and incumbent NCP minister Dhananjay Munde.

Khadse was also overlooked in favour of newly-minted entrants to the BJP during the nominations to the state legislative council earlier this year.

Later, he was not given a prominent position in the newly-constituted state BJP executive committee, and accommodated only as a special invitee. State unit chief Chandrakant Patil indicated that Khadse would have to contend himself with being a permanent fixture in the states version of the margadarshak mandal.

Now, there are speculations on Khadses plan of action. Some feel that he may quit for greener pastures once the coronavirus pandemic in Maharashtra subsides, as the BJP leadership seems to be intent on tiring him out. Biding time may lead to sympathy for Khadse petering out.

His supporters claim Bhau is being propped up by other disgruntled leaders in the party and hence may choose to remain within the BJP, and form an anti-Fadnavis caucus. There is a perception within some state leaders that Fadnavis rubbed the Shiv Sena the wrong way, leading to the BJPs longest-standing ally finally walking out on it, ensuring that the BJP had to sit on the opposition benches despite being the single-largest party.

This, coupled with resentment among BJP loyalists against outsiders being given prominence by the Fadnavis camp, may lead to Khadse emerging as a figure around whom these disgruntled elements can coalesce.

However, Fadnavis loyalists claim that Khadse is trying to assert his nuisance value for an honorable political rehabilitation.

Despite the political setbacks, it is obvious that Khadse is not a pushover. His Leva Patils, who are akin to the Patidars of Gujarat, wield influence in parts of North Maharashtra. Khadse is known to have stitched together a local rainbow coalition of Bahujan, non-Maratha castes in the sub-region, being elected for consecutive terms from a constituency with a fair sprinkling of castes like Marathas, Kolis and Gujar Patils.

With the BJP succeeding in snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in Maharashtra, as Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray heads a Sena, Congress and NCP government, there is said to be growing restiveness among a section of BJP legislators, especially imports from other parties.

The strategy of the BJP leadership to nominate a leader from the non-dominant caste (Fadnavis) as the chief minister has also failed to pay dividends beyond a point in Maharashtra despite an initial consolidation of non-Marathas.

Already, a backlash by OBC groups like Telis (oil pressers and sellers) and Kunbis (peasants) in Vidarbha, is said to have cost the BJP heavily in the assembly polls. With one of its strongest OBC faces making his anger obvious, the BJP will have to work hard to manage the fallout on its core vote base.

In his latest outburst, Khadse has warned that he is not willing to walk into the political sunset soon. Those familiar with the man claim that despite his flaws, he is a doughty fighter, overcoming the trauma of his sons suicide and a kidney transplant to hit the ground running.

As many political adversaries who have crossed paths with Khadse admit, the man from Muktainagar neither forgives nor forgets. The coming months may test the veracity of this claim.
The British government said explicitly last week that it plans to break international law by breaching parts of the Withdrawal Agreement treaty that it signed in January, when it formally left the EU.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the new legislation is needed to clarify the Northern Ireland protocol element of the Brexit deal, to protect free trade between the four constituent nations of the United Kingdom.

Commenting on the government's plans to breach parts of the Withdrawal Agreement treaty, British Justice Secretary Robert Buckland told the BBC there was "a difference between the domestic law position and the international law position."

Coveney and Buckland made the statements hours after former prime ministers Tony Blair and John Major criticized Britain for its "shocking" plan.

European lawmakers have warned they would not approve any new trade deal unless the withdrawal agreement was fully implemented, while there is also talk of possible legal action.
(Natural News) A coalition of progressive groups supporting the Democratic Party are planning to threaten their way to the White House, warns the Washington Free Beacons editorial board.

(Article republished from WND.com)

The SEIU, AFT, Color of Change, Indivisible, MoveOn, Demos and others are organizing for mass public unrest, according to the Daily Beast.

Occupy s, hold space, and shut things down, not just on Election Day but for weeks, the groups instruct.

The Free Beacon observed that only a fool would think that this nonviolent civil disobedience will stay nonviolent after a summer thats seen over 500 riots across the nation.

In 2000 we had the Brooks Brothers riot; in 2020, Democrats are promising the real deal.

The plan revealed to a sympathetic outlet is the latest example of the lefts campaign of extortion: If you want the protesting, rioting, and murder wave to end, all you have to do is hand Joe Biden a landslide, the editors wrote.

The organizations claim to be preparing for an election without a clear outcome, or the possibility that President Donald Trump refuses to concede. Of course, they have also worked to assure an ambiguous election night by pressing for a massive, disorganized switch to mail-in voting, even as public health experts say in-person voting is as safe as grocery shopping, the editorial said.

Both the promised unrest and the scaremongering over the possibility Trump will not concede are part of the same drumbeat that Democrats have marched to over the past four years: Trump, and indeed the entire GOP, are not just bad but illegitimate.

Its why Hillary Clinton already has told Joe Biden not to concede, no matter what.

But the Democrats want to convince voters of a looming coup detat, and the danger is an act of treason by Democrats, the Free Beacon editors contended.

Democrats are ginning up a variety of unsettling and unlikely scenarios because their electoral strategy is to use these as an excuse to threaten more rioting in the streets  whatever they need to do to retake power.

Its really a campaign by insurgent ideological groups to threaten and intimidate their way to victory and nothing less than electoral terrorism.

Read more at: WND.com
Eileen Kramer doesn't like to talk about her age. She is "a working woman"  a dancer, choreographer, author and artist who has been writing a story a day during lockdown in her aged care facility.

Asked about her age at the latest hearings of the aged care royal commission, she replied "105 and a half".

Eileen Kramer in a dance project in 2017. Credit:Sue Healey

Living at St Luke's aged care facility Lulworth House in Sydney, Ms Kramer preferred to talk about her work: "What interests me is that my spirit is still at work."

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the number of people aged 85 years and over is projected to double by 2042, increasing to more than 1 million.
Express News Service By

NEW DELHI: Judges have become soft targets of slanderous social media posts and juicy gossips in the garb of criticism, Supreme Court judge NV Ramana said on Saturday.

As judges are self-restrained from speaking out in their own defence, they are now being construed as soft targets for criticism, said Justice Ramana, who is next in line to become the Chief Justice of India April 2021 after incumbent SA Bobde retires. He added the proliferation of social media is to blame for the sudden spike in attacks against judges.

Concurring with Justice Ramana, CJI Bobde said the freedom of speech of judges is curtailed by the same laws which prevent people from saying whatever they feel like, adverse to the independence of the judiciary.

They were speaking at the launch of a book authored by former SC judge Justice R Banumathi. CJI Bobde stressed the importance of an independent judiciary is not just limited to independence from executive powers, but from other pressures and prejudices as well.

The judicial independence is not for the personal benefit of the judges, but for the nature of power vested with the judiciary.

Justice Ramana said there seems to be a misconception that judges lead a luxurious life. From my own experience, I can state that the life of a judge is not a bed of roses, he said, adding that the reality was quite different from what people comprehend.

Best judges of the same are the family members, who are usually torn between restraints and relationships.

He pointed to the self-imposed restrictions judges follow in social life to remain independent. I believe judgeship in the present day requires sacrifices unparalleled in any other profession, and the same is required to be made as the countrys future is dependent on strong independent judges.

For judges, the CJI said, the biggest challenge is to ensure the country inches towards the goals set in the Constitution. To achieve the same, he asserted, an independent judiciary is essential.
After Ladakh and the South China Sea, the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) is poised to open another front against Bhutan, with a build-up in western and central part of Kingdom in a bid to settle the border on terms favourable to China in the forthcoming 25th round of boundary talks, people familiar with the matter said,

While Thimpu has been sensitised at the highest levels about the PLA threat, the people added, Beijing will likely use PLA transgressions and encroachments in central Bhutan for a possible trade-off on already encroached areas and claims in the western part of the kingdom in the forthcoming negotiations.

Bhutan is central to Indias national security as the country lies next to the Siliguri corridor and any territorial compromise made by Bhutan will have an adverse impact on Indian defences in the area. Although India helped Bhutan Hold its own against PLA during the 73-day stand off at Doklam plateau in 2017, the Chinese army has not stopped testing the armies of the two close allies in the area, the people, in Indias military, diplomatic and security establishment said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Chinese territorial claims in Bhutan include 318 sq km in the western sector and 495 sq km in the central sector. Continuing with its expansionist polices under the grab of peaceful coexistence, the PLA is continuing to construct roads, build and improve military infrastructure and intimidate the miniscule Royal Bhutan Army through aggressive patrolling and denial of access, the people explained.

According to diplomats based in Thimpu and New Delhi, since the 2017 Doklam stand-off, PLA has intruded into five areas of western Bhutan and laid claim to a new boundary that extends approximately 40 km inside Bhutan, to the east of Chumbi Valley. It has methodically built up infrastructure, improved defences, constructed roads, tracks, helipads for troop movement and last mile logistics.

In true Middle Kingdom style, PLA patrols on August 13 and 24 crossed the main stream of Torsa nullah (Dolong Chu) into south Doklam and asked Bhutanese herders to vacate the area near Raja Rani lake in which they were grazing their livestock. The basic idea behind the PLA move is to force both India and Bhutan to agree that Chinas boundary extends to Gyemochen on Jhampheri ridge rather than on the Sinche la -Batang La axis, the true alignment of the trijunction. This is exactly what PLA was attempting to do in 2017, when it was stopped by the Indian Army.

According to national security planners, PLA has increased surveillance in north Doklam by installation of surveillance cameras and continues aggressive military technical upgradation on the Chinese side of the contested plateau. Thimphu has asked the Royal Bhutanese Army to prepare for a reaction plan by deploying additional troops in order to prevent PLA from coming south of Torsa nullah or unilaterally alter the disengagement lines agreed to by Beijing in Doklam in 2017.

The PLA expansionist plans are not limited to western Bhutan. In June , China raised an objection against Bhutans Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary (SWS) Project on the contention that it was located in a disputed border area. Spanning some 750 sq km, the sanctuary is located in the eastern Trashigang Dzongkhag of Bhutan, bordering India and China. This new claim may draw India again into The contest since the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary abuts Arunachal Pradesh which China claims as its territory.

The development came as a surprise to Bhutan. China had never before claimed the land of the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary or, for that matter, any land in eastern Bhutan, analysts said. Even more puzzling, Beijing had not mentioned the region during 36 years of diplomatic talks that the two sides have held to resolve their boundary differences. Naturally, the Bhutanese government strongly opposed the Chinese claim questioning the sovereignty of Bhutan. While rejecting the claim of China, Thimpu has also conveyed that the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary is a sovereign territory of Bhutan and Not disputed. Chinas Foreign Ministry, however, has a different perspective and made an official declaration that the boundary between China and Bhutan has never been delimited. There have been disputes over the eastern, central and western sectors for a long time.

It is notable that the Chinese stand emerged in early June  at a time when Beijing was involved in a series of military standoffs along its Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India in Ladakh. Chinas new territorial claim in eastern Bhutan indicates Beijings intent and its sudden territorial claim reinforces the expansionist narrative that the country has now embarked on under Xi Jinping.

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New York, Sep 13 : A team of researchers in the US has published striking images of SARS-CoV-2 infected cells in the respiratory airways that are very graphic in nature.

In a laboratory setting, the researchers at University of North Carolina School of Medicine inoculated the new coronavirus into human bronchial epithelial cells, which were then examined 96 hours later using scanning electron microscopy.

The New England Journal of Medicine featured this work in its "Images in Medicine" section.

Camille Ehre, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, captured these images to illustrate how intense the SARS-CoV-2 infection of the airways can be in very graphic and easily understood images.

The images show infected ciliated cells with strands of mucus (yellow) attached to cilia tips (blue).

Cilia are the hair-like structures on the surface of airway epithelial cells that transport mucus (and trapped viruses) from the lung.

A higher power magnification image shows the structure and density of SARS-CoV-2 virions (red) produced by human airway epithelia.

Virions are the complete, infectious form of the virus released onto respiratory surfaces by infected host cells.

According to the researchers, this imaging research will help illustrate the incredibly high number of virions produced and released per cell inside the human respiratory system.

The large viral burden is a source for spread of infection to multiple organs of an infected individual and likely mediates the high frequency of Covid-19 transmission to others.

These images make a strong case for the use of masks by infected and uninfected individuals to limit SARS-CoV-2 transmission, the authors wrote.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Former union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singhs health condition deteriorated in the intervening night of Friday and Saturday and he was put on ventilator at the ICU unit of AIIMS, New Delhi, where the 74 year old has been undergoing treatment for over one week.

Raghuvanshji is having problems in intake of oxygen and is put on ventilator support, said a close aide of the veteran socialist on phone from New Delhi, seeking anonymity. He said the leaders health deteriorated at around midnight, following which he was put on a ventilator.

We are praying for his early recovery. He is being constantly monitored by doctors, the aide said. Singh has been in news for the last few days after he resigned from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Thursday, apparently peeved over his marginalization in the party in the last few years, leading to speculations that the ailing former union minister could switch over to the ruling JD(U) in the coming days.

Also Read: The importance of Raghuvansh Prasad Singh

Singh has also written a series of letters with one addressed to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, in which he has demanded changes in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) job scheme and development of Vaishali. In one of his letters, circulated in the media, Singh has also flayed the culture of dynastic politics and taken indirect potshots at family-rule in the RJD.

Also Read: JD(U) takes exception to Lalus letter to Raghuvansh Prasad, terms it violation of jail manual

Singhs exit from the party has given the JD(U) and BJP leaders another opportunity to train guns at the RJD, claiming the opposition party does not know how to respect its elders.
Update September 14: Sebastiana Paun has been located safe and well. Gardai have thanked the public for their assistance.

Gardai seek help locating missing Dublin teen

Gardai are seeking the public's assistance in finding a teenager missing from Dublin.

Sebastiana Paun, 13, was last seen in Blanchardstown Shopping Centre on Friday, September 11 at 9.15pm.

She is described as 5'5", of slim build with long brown hair and brown eyes.

When last seen Sebastiana was wearing a black jacket, black leggings and a black t-shirt.

She is known to frequent the city centre and also Ballymun area.

Anyone with information on her whereabouts are asked to contact Gardai in Swords on 01 6664700, the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111 or any Garda station.
Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza), one of the leading free zone operator in the Middle East region, said it has ramped up efforts to support the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector affected by COVID-19.

The free zone hosted a webinar titled Empowering Growth During Business Uncertainty that attracted top industry experts and Jafza associates including Abdullah Alajaji, Founder, Driven Properties, Paul Bryson, Director of Domestic Structuring, Virtuzone and Mohammed AlDahbashi, Co-Managing Partner, Al Dahbashi Gray.

According to Jafza, SMEs account for 94 per cent of all companies operating in the UAE and generate more than 86 per cent of the private sectors jobs. The Jafza Customer Support Initiative launched earlier this year, offered a 50 to 70 per cent reduction of registration, licensing and related administration functions fees in Jafza as well as for new investors.

The initiative included the waiver of the application and attestation fees for all new incoming business. The key objectives of the exercise were to ease cost burdens for customers, increase Jafza market share, and maximise asset base.

Ahmad Al Haddad, Chief Operating Officer, Parks and Zones  DP World, UAE Region, said: Cost of doing business is, and has always been, a crucial element of our support strategy for existing and potential customers. The reductions in registration, licensing and other administrative fees were carefully planned and implemented across our vast customer base of over 8,000 so every company benefitted from them.

At Jafza, weve worked diligently towards ensuring our customers are fully satisfied with the support we give them and our service excellence. The initiatives are also designed to further incentivise customers to continue to operate from Jafza, especially in the prevailing market uncertainties.

Abdullah Alajaji, Founder, Driven Properties, said: In turbulent times, it is of paramount importance to embrace change. With the landscape of doing business evolving via technology and talent, it is those businesses with the right discipline and growth mindset that will thrive and capture a larger market share in their respective sector.

Paul Bryson, Director of Domestic Structuring, Virtuzone said: "In 2020 we have witnessed dramatic changes across the world, but we are certain that businesses will not only recover, they will bounce back stronger. The challenges of the past months presented the business communities with opportunities to pivot and upgrade their plans and processes. It is our role, here in the UAE, to empower SMEs with the tools they need to push through and grow in times of uncertainty. At Virtuzone, we have taken this role very seriously and we are working relentlessly with our partners to find new tactics to support businesses at any stage of growth. We are therefore pleased to be part of this webinar with Jafza."

Mohammed AlDahbashi, Co-Managing Partner, Al Dahbashi Gray said: The worldwide legal system faced many challenges when COVID-19 evolved. In Dubai, the Courts were already running approximately 70% electronically - case filing, registration, archiving, decisions and publishing were implemented via online and electronic systems. When the country went into complete lockdown, we witnessed the legal industry transform overnight into a complete tech-based online resource platform. In a short period, the Courts were able to redirect all services electronically. This was possible because of the vision of the leaders of this country and is one of many examples of how Dubai was able to limit the disruption in certain sectors and help keep the business community steady during such turbulent times.

Among Jafza's frontline offerings are the Business Incubators that provide startups with 360-degree administrative and advisory support services. The aim is to help and guide new companies along a sustainable roadmap that would give them financial viability and organic growth.

Located at the flagship business centre, Jafza One, the incubators offer bespoke, region-specific solutions to suit the needs of the small and medium partners. Jafzas one-stop, plug-and-play ecosystem for trade and industry, is complemented by DP Worlds global network of ports and logistics capabilities.TradeArabia News Service
Amid rising tension between Kangana Ranaut and the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government, the Bollywood actress plans to meet Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Sunday.

It is believed that the actress wants to inform the governor about her ongoing tension with the state government before leaving Mumbai. She is scheduled to meet the governor at 4.30 pm on Sunday and expected to leave the city on September 14.

Asked where she was headed, Kanganas team told IANS: Owing to security protocol we cannot disclose details of her travel."

The tension between Kangana and the state government began after she made derogatory remarks about Mumbai, comparing the city with POK and calling the citys police force a sham".

Following this, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh reportedly said that the actress has no right to stay" Mumbai. Just a few days after Kanganas sarcastic exchange with Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation initiated a demolition drive at her office building.

Meanwhile, Kangana arrived in Mumbai on September 9 with the Y-plus security provided to her by the Central government.
Overt harassment and subtle intimidation during fieldwork compound the discrimination that Black scientists already feel in academic settings

WASHINGTON (AP)  University of Washington ecologist Christopher Schell is studying how coronavirus shutdowns have affected wildlife in Seattle and other cities. But when planning fieldwork, he also thinks about how hes perceived in neighborhoods where he installs wildlife cameras.

I wear the nerdiest glasses I have and often a jacket that has my college logo, so that people dont mistake me for what they think is a thug or hooligan, said Schell, who is African American.

The recent episode of a white woman calling the police on a Black birder in New Yorks Central Park shocked many people. But for Black environmental scientists, worrying about whether they are likely to be harassed or asked to justify their presence while doing fieldwork is a familiar concern.

Tanisha Williams, a botanist at Bucknell University, knows exactly which plants shes looking for. But after being questioned by strangers in public parks, Williams, who is Black, has started carrying her field guides with her.

This 2020 photo provided by Tanisha Williams shows her in Lewisburg, Pa. Williams, a botanist at Bucknell University, knows exactly which plants shes looking for. But after being questioned by strangers in public parks, Williams, who is Black, has started carrying her field guides with her. (Tanisha Williams via AP)

Ive been quizzed by random strangers, she said. Now I bring my wildflower books and botanical field guides, trying to look like a scientist. Its for other people. I wouldnt otherwise lug these books.

Overt harassment and subtle intimidation during fieldwork compound the discrimination that Black scientists and those from other underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds already feel in academic settings.

Now researchers in the environmental sciences are increasingly raising issues of discrimination and marginalization in the wake of a national reckoning on race. They are also pointing out how a lack of diversity among scientists can lead to flawed or incomplete research.

A National Science Foundation survey found that in 2016, scholars who identified as Black or African American were awarded just 6% of all doctorates in life sciences, and less than 3% of doctorates in physical and Earth sciences. Students who identified as Hispanic or Latino were awarded less than 8% of doctorates in life sciences and about 5% of doctorates in physical and Earth sciences. According to the most recent census, Black people make up 13.4% of the population, and Latinos 18.5%.

Story continues

READ MORE: Lovecraft Country shows Black science fiction lives matter too(Opens in a new browser tab)

The issue is not lack of interest on the part of students from the underrepresented groups, said the University of Washingtons Scott Freeman, who studies educational pipelines to degrees in science, technology, engineering or math. But many of those students come from families with fewer financial resources and face gaps in access to secondary education that is geared toward the sciences or college preparation. Those factors can influence how well they perform in freshman general chemistry  considered a gateway course for pursuing these so-called STEM majors.

Its possible to decrease the impact of these disadvantages by adjusting teaching styles, such as replacing traditional large lectures with hands-on learning, according to Freemans research. And students from underrepresented backgrounds who overcome initial obstacles are  hyper persistent  in their studies, continuing at higher rates in STEM fields compared with their white peers, he found.

Tanisha Williams (Tanisha Williams via AP)

Addressing these gaps has taken on new urgency as the U.S. confronts systemic racism in the wake of nationwide protests after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police.

At a meeting this summer of the Society for Conservation Biology North America, one panel was devoted to why conservation science needs to prioritize racial and social justice. Hundreds of scientists have joined a wider discussion among academics about racism, posting their personal experiences of discrimination under the Twitter hashtag #BlackintheIvory, referring to the ivory tower.

But environmental scientists must confront discrimination not just in the halls of academia but in the field as well.

Carnivore ecologist Rae Wynn-Grant, a fellow at the National Geographic Society, said she has to put her feelings aside when her fieldwork takes her to places where she encounters racist symbols. While driving in rural Maryland to study bears, Wynn-Grant, who is Black, passed several Confederate flags and a cloth doll of a lynched man hanging from a tree.

This is the extra labor Black people have to do in order to participate in something theyre interested in, she said.

Many researchers say that exposing middle school and high school students to scientists from diverse backgrounds is essential to combating systemic racism.

Growing up, the only Black botanist Id heard of was George Washington Carver, said Williams, the scientist at Bucknell, who helped organize a Twitter campaign to highlight the achievements of Black botanists.

Itumeleng Moroenyane, a doctoral student at the National Institute of Scientific Research in Quebec, grew up in post-apartheid South Africa and said he was the only Black botany student in his universitys graduating class. Moroenyane now makes it a priority to mentor younger Black scholars.

This 2019 photo provided by Itumeleng Moroenyane shows him in Laval, Quebec, Canada. Moroenyane, a doctoral student at the National Institute of Scientific Research in Quebec, grew up in post-apartheid South Africa and says he was the only Black botany student in his universitys graduating class. (Itumeleng Moroenyane via AP)

Corina Newsome said her passion for biology started during a high school internship at the Philadelphia Zoo, where a zookeeper who mentored her was the first Black scientist she had met.

Now an ornithologist at Georgia Southern University, Newsome, who is Black, said institutions can promote diversity by helping students find mentors and offering paid internships. To enter wildlife studies, you are often expected to do a lot of free labor and free internships early in your career, she said. This automatically excludes many people.

Empowering ecologists and other researchers from diverse backgrounds can improve the research itself, scientists say.

Deja Perkins, a Black conservation biologist at North Carolina State University, has studied gaps in how community-science bird-watching projects are conducted in wealthy and poor communities.

This 2020 photo provided by Deja Perkins shows her on Sapelo Island, Ga. Perkins, a conservation biologist at North Carolina State University, has studied gaps in how community-science bird-watching projects are conducted in wealthy and poor communities. (Jason Ward/Deja Perkins via AP)

Its a problem if data from poor neighborhoods isnt collected, and that shapes wildlife management plans, she said.

READ MORE: Oil spill in Mauritius causes ecological disaster, France and India assist(Opens in a new browser tab)

The University of Washingtons Schell noted that Black scientists have led the field of urban ecology to examine crucial questions about how redlining  racial discrimination in mortgage-lending practices  has shaped urban landscapes, influencing which neighborhoods have more or less green space and biodiversity.

This 2020 photo provided by Deja Perkins shows her in Raleigh, N.C. Perkins, a conservation biologist at North Carolina State University, has studied gaps in how community-science bird-watching projects are conducted in wealthy and poor communities. (Murry Burgess/Deja Perkins via AP)

Who you are affects the questions you ask and the type of data thats being collected, Schell said. We cannot understand how our natural world interacts with our cities without understanding the problems and legacy of racism.

___

Follow Larson at www.twitter.com/larsonchristina.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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The post Black scientists highlight racism in the lab and the field appeared first on TheGrio.
By PTI

MUMBAI: At a time when ruling Shiv Sena in Maharashtra is facing criticism for the assault on a retired Navy officer by its workers, its alliance partner Congress on Sunday alleged an ex-serviceman from Jalgaon was fighting for justice since 2016 when he was "attacked" on the orders of then BJP MLA who went to become an MP.

The retired Navy officer, Madan Sharma (62), was attacked in suburban Kandivali on Friday for allegedly forwarding a cartoon lampooning Maharashtra Chief Minister and Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on social media.

State Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant alleged ex-serviceman Sonu Mahajan from Jalgaon has been fighting for justice since 2016 when he was "attacked on the orders of then BJP MLA Unmesh Patil who went to become an MP".

"The Devendra Fadnavis government did not file an FIR despite the CM also being the home minister at the time. An FIR was filed on the orders of the High Court in 2019 but even then the government did not take action against Patil," Sawant claimed.

He asked if Defence Minister Rajnath Singh would step in to ensure Mahajan gets justice.

In a video posted by Sawant, a man identifies himself as former BSF (Border Security Force) jawan Sonu Mahajan.

Sawant added a case was filed against the men who attacked retired Navy officer Madan Sharma in Mumbai on Friday and they were arrested.

He said the Congress would pursue the Sonu Mahajan case to ensure he gets justice.

Meanwhile, Kandivali (East) MLA Atul Bhatkhalkar of BJP slammed Sena leader Sanjay Raut, who he said claimed that "Sharma had worked in Merchant Navy and not in the Indian Navy".

He said Sharma had retired as chief engineer from the Navy and posted the latter's ex-serviceman identity card on Twitter.

When contacted, Raut told PTI that he never said that Sharma didn't retire from the Navy.

Raut said Maharashtra is a state that follows the law of the land, and added that Friday's assault was an expression of anger by Shiv Sainiks.

The attackers were immediately arrested, Raut said, adding that it was sad the Opposition was politicising the incident.

"People may lose patience if those occupying Constitutional posts, like that of president, prime minister, governor, chief minister etc are ridiculed," Raut said.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 13)  The Department of Health announced on Sunday that 20,472 more patients in the country have recovered from the coronavirus disease, raising the number of survivors of the disease to 207,568 since its first outbreak in January.

Every Sunday, a huge rise emerges in the national tally of recoveries, as the DOH reports new data weekly under its time-based and symptoms-based Oplan Recovery program.

Under the program, mild and asymptomatic cases are cleared of the infection after a certain number of days in quarantine and after symptoms have disappeared upon a doctors assessment.

Meanwhile, the DOH also reported that 3,372 more people have been diagnosed with COVID-19, taking the nationwide case count to 261,216.

The DOH also said 38 percent, or 1,307 cases, of the new infections were registered in Metro Manila, while Cavite had 240, Laguna had 207, Negros Occidental had 199, and Bulacan had 145 patients.

Coronavirus deaths in the country also climbed to 4,371, with 79 more deaths tallied by the DOH. Of the newly reported fatalities, 57 occurred in September, 14 in August, and eight in March to July.

The number of active cases or currently ill patients in the country is now at 49,277, or around 19 percent of the tally of infections. The latest surge in recoveries brought it down from over 66,000 active cases  which was 25 percent of the total case count  listed just a day before, following a gradual rise in figures over the past week.

The DOH said it removed 19 duplicates from the total case count as part of its cleaning process. It added that after final validation, seven cases previously reported as recoveries turned out to be deaths, while one turned out to be an active case.

Meanwhile, two new recoveries were recorded among overseas Filipinos by the Department of Foreign Affairs, as the total rose to 6,433. No new infection or death due to the viral illness was reported among Filipinos abroad, with the number of cases remaining at 10,181 and deaths at 768.

The disease has infected over 28.7 million people across the world and killed around 920,000, according to data from the US-based Johns Hopkins University.
Brisbane City Council has awarded a $25 million contract to a single supplier to build a ferry terminal at Howard Smith Wharves and upgrade the South Bank ferry terminal.

The contract came before council on Tuesday with an amendment to give priority to local fabrication when evaluating the bids as part of council's efforts to support local business during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new South Bank terminal will replace the existing dual-berth pontoon. Credit:Brisbane City Council

The South Bank ferry terminal upgrade will combine all ferry services, including CityCats and the smaller monohulled ferries, into one terminal covering the existing two berths.

The Howard Smith Wharves terminal, co-funded with HSW Nominees and the Fantauzzo group, with a $3 million contribution, will allow for dual berthing of CityCats and have the ability to berth monohulls.
LESBOS, Greece  Theyve been sleeping on tombstones and on the side of the road, in parking lots and among dried weeds on the hillsides. Theyve pitched makeshift tents with bamboo poles and blankets. Theyve used the few clothes they have to make mattresses so their babies dont sleep on tarmac.

About 4,000 children, including hundreds of infants, and 8,000 adults have been stranded without shelter or sanitation on the Greek island of Lesbos, most of them packed along a 1.5-mile stretch of coastal road, since blazes last week razed their squalid refugee camp, Europes largest.

We escaped from fire, but everything is black, said Mujtaba Saber, sitting on a thin blanket spread on a street, next to his napping three-year-old son. His 20-day-old baby slept nearby in her mothers arms.

The fires have intensified what was already a humanitarian disaster on the Aegean islands, where Europe warehouses tens of thousands of migrants in overcrowded camps with severe shortages of toilets, showers, medical care and even food.
Even some Democrats are unsure about what the next step will be as the assembly begins to move beyond legislation on police and social justice reforms that have dominated the first 24 days of the special session.

Communication has not been good between the two bodies, said Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, a new member of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee.

As chairman of a joint subcommittee on mental health, Deeds is looking for ways to salvage some of the $135 million in proposed new spending on behavioral health care that the assembly froze in the budget in April and Northam now proposes to cut. I dont know whats happening with the budget, he said.

Procedural fight

The special session began with a fight over a procedural resolution that the House adopted and the Senate rejected because the bodies couldnt agree on the operating rules, including those for acting on the budget and new revenue forecast that Northam proposed on Aug. 18.

There will be a collaborative decision made between the Senate and the House, but that has yet to be determined, House Appropriations Chairman Luke Torian, D-Prince William, said Friday.
It was a bittersweet moment for the parents of Charlie Gard.

As they introduced their precious newborn son to Charlies final resting place, the poignancy almost overwhelmed them.

Cradling little Oliver Gard, they told him why this tranquil spot is so special to them.

Connie Yates said: I was cuddling him and saying, This is your big brother Charlie. Were so sorry you cant actually meet him, and play with him. We were just telling Ollie how amazing Charlie was.

The 34-year-old care worker and her fiance Chris Gard make frequent visits to their first sons grave.

They sit on a wooden bench they had made and remember his tragically short life.

Connie Yates and Chris Gard bring their newborn son Oliver to his late brothers grave. Connie said: I was cuddling him and saying, This is your big brother Charlie."

Charlie, who had a rare genetic condition, died in 2017 a week before his first birthday after his parents fought an extraordinary legal battle against the medical system to be allowed to try pioneering treatment.

They gained global support including from the Pope and President Donald Trump, but eventually lost their case.

The couples cherished second son arrived last month, and to their relief he is completely free of the devastating mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome.

His parents are determined Oliver will not just be Charlie Gards brother, but they do want him to know all about his legacy as they battle to introduce a Charlies Law to help other families.

Tragic Charlie, who had a rare genetic condition, died in 2017 a week before his first birthday

Oliver, affectionately known as Ollie,vwas born last month on August 5 weighing 8lb 6oz. Mr Gard said: 'After losing Charlie we dont take anything for granted. Every noise, every gurgle Ollie makes is so precious to us.'

Postman Mr Gard, 36, said: It is bittersweet because obviously we would have loved them to have met in person, but as Ollie gets to the right age he will certainly find out about his older brother and what a hero he was to us.

Ollie will be coming here a lot with us, but when he gets older well combine it with bike rides and picnics and all the fun things we have always longed to do as a family.

It was while visiting Charlies forever bed  as they call his resting place  on the anniversary of his birthday last month that Miss Yates went into labour with Oliver.

To the couples relief Oliver is completely free of the devastating mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome. Pictured: Oliver in the arms of his mother

She said: For so many reasons, this is a sacred place for us, so peaceful among the trees. Well never forget Charlie. He should be starting school around now, and it breaks our hearts. But Ollie is such a beautiful light in our lives.

Mr Gard added: Hes really thriving. Hes a little bruiser, constantly eating, always hungry, and even the crying  we didnt get to hear Charlie crying for a lot of his life because he was on a ventilator in hospital  so even the crying doesnt annoy us, its music to our ears.

Were just so grateful and privileged. A lot of people take things for granted, but after losing Charlie we dont take anything for granted. Every noise, every gurgle Ollie makes is so precious to us.

We are very lucky to be where we are today.

The couple, from South-West London, set up the Charlie Gard Foundation to help other families, and are campaigning for Charlies Law, which would give parents more involvement in life-and-death decisions if their child is seriously ill.
Dubai, Sep 13 : Dubai Police have honoured an Indian expatriate with a certificate of appreciation for being responsible resident for returning a bag with $14,000 cash and 200,000 dirhams worth of gold, the media reported.

On Saturday, Brigadier Yousef Abdullah Salim Al Adidi, Director of Al Qusais Police Station, awarded Retesh James Gupta and emphasised the importance of collaboration between the community and police, reports Gulf News.

Details about where he found the bag and whether police have given the bag to its owner were not provided.
KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) - A third person has been charged in connection with a fatal shooting that happened on Aug. 10 in Raytown during what witnesses called a "drug deal gone bad." According to the Jackson County Prosecutor, 17-year-old Deterice R. Doss has been charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action.
Ugandan police said Sunday that 13 people had been arrested after a mob attacked a camp housing tens of thousands of refugees in the country's northwest, killing six South Sudanese.

Regional police spokeswoman Josephine Angucia told AFP the violence occurred late Saturday at Rhino Camp, a major settlement in the West Nile area near the border with South Sudan accommodating more than 100,000 refugees.

"Thirteen people who are suspected to have taken part in the attack on the refugee camp have been arrested, and we are looking for others," she said.

The alleged assault of a grazer from the local community by refugees from Rhino Camp ignited tensions that spilled over into violence, Angucia said.

"The mob then descended on the camp, killing six refugees before police and the army deployed and prevented more attacks," she said.

"Order has now been restored."

There are more than 1.4 million refugees in Uganda, according to the UNHCR, more than anywhere else in Africa.

Most come from neighbouring South Sudan, where civil war left some 380,000 dead and four million on the run.

Rhino Camp is one of the largest refugee settlements in Uganda, but tensions between the host community and the refugees has boiled over into violence.

In December, a South Sudanese refugee was killed and several others wounded during clashes with locals at a camp in the northern border district of Adjumani.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- In the latest of a string of lawsuits, another former resident of the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin at Mount Loretto alleges he was repeatedly sexually abused by clergy and staff members there.

New Jersey resident Francisco Pamias was molested by a priest, the late Rev. Eugene Mangan, as well as a religious brother, and was physically abused by two lay counselors while at the Pleasant Plains shelter for homeless and destitute children, a civil complaint alleges.
Here are todays top news, analysis and opinion at 9 AM. Know all about the latest news and other news updates from Hindustan Times.

50th BSF-BGB high-level talks begin in Dhaka today

The biannual talks between Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) director-general Major General M Shafeenul Islam and Border Security Force (BSF) head Rakesh Asthana will begin on Sunday in BGBs Pilkhana headquarters in Dhaka. The meeting will last for six days and end on September 18. Read more

Delhi to have partly cloudy, humid Sunday: IMD

Delhi is likely to have a partly cloudy sky with high moisture levels on Sunday. As per the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast, though there will be clouds, no rainfall activity is expected in the national capital until early next week. Read more

Akshay Kumar thanks fans for celebrating his birthday: I exist because of you, watch

Actor Akshay Kumar, who turned 53 earlier this month on September 9, took to Twitter to thank fans for celebrating his birthday. He released a video to express his gratitude. Read more

Watch him, see how he plays, observe his technique: Zaheer Abbas asks Pakistan players to learn from Indian batsman

Legendary Pakistan batsman Zaheer Abbas named an Indian batsman he really likes. Abbas heaped praise on Indias limited-overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma and termed him a classical player. Read more

New Google Groups interface rolling out to all G Suite users on Sept 15

The new version Google Groups came out of beta and officially launched earlier this year in May. But the new interface of Google Groups could be turned off by group admins. Google is now changing that and making the new Groups default for all G Suite users. Read more

Chemistry problem gets a Nicki Minaj rap inspired twist, leaves tweeple in fits

Twitter is often a goldmine for odd content that excites and educates netizens, often all at once. Case in point is this post by a Twitter user named Elise Morgan which showcases a chemistry problem. And while usually, numbers mixed with elements from the periodic table often make people cry, this post is doing the exact opposite by making many people chuckle. Read more

New York: Anti-China protest by Tibetans; Indian Army martyr eulogized

The Tibetan community in USA reportedly held a protest against China. The protest was reportedly held in New Yorks Jackson Heights. Demonstrators also paid their respects to an Indian army martyr. The protestors eulogised Nyima Tenzin, a soldier of special frontier force. Tenzin died at LAC in ladakh amid tension with china. He was killed in a landmine blast near Pangong Tso. Tenzin is probably the first S.F.F. soldier to have been given a public funeral. The S.F.F. is a secretive unit of Indian Army with Tibetan and Gurkha soldiers. The Indian tricolour and the Tibetan flag were also hoisted at the protest. India has been a haven for Tibetans fleeing Chinese persecution. Watch the full video for more.
Australia's corporate bosses are pressuring Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews to immediately remove Melbourne's 'wartime' night curfews, saying they 'don't make sense'.

The chief executive of health firm CSL Paul Perreault called for the curfews to be immediately lifted and urged Mr Andrews to rethink his 'roadmap' out of lockdown.

'I don't see (curfew) happening anywhere else in the world. No one is using curfews  I don't see the rationale for it frankly,' Mr Perreault told The Australian.

'From what I have seen of [Mr Andrews' roadmap] and read of it, it seems to be inconsistent and using data that doesnt make a lot of logical sense.'

BHP Chairman Ken MacKenzie (left) and CSL Chief Executive Paul Perreault (right) have called on Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews to end the curfew and review the strict lockdown

Pressure is rising as hundreds took to Melbourne's streets for a second day in a row to protest. Pictured: a protester is detained at Melbourne's Queen Victoria Market on Sunday

CSL is a beneficiary of the Federal Government's $1.7 billion vaccine deal, and is set to produce 84.8 million doses if and when one is approved.

The Morrison Government turned on Victoria's Labor premier in late August over the strict lockdowns and has since repeatedly accused Mr Andrews of 'unacceptable' failures.

The CSL chief said he was not interested in scoring political points, however, and offered his company's scientific resources including data scientists to help Mr Andrews change course.

Joining CSL was BHP chairman Ken MacKenzie who said the shutdown was damaging livelihoods and the economy beyond repair.

'I support the view that businesses with clear and effective workplace protocols should be allowed to return to work in a staged, sensible manner,' he said.

Wesfarmers Managing Director Rob Scott (left) has joined the corporate voices slamming Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews (right) for the strict curfew and lockdowns

Melbourne's lockdown restrictions will ease signficantly in Step Two which is expected on September 28 so long as the 14-day new case average (pictured) falls below 50 per day

Wesfarmers Managing Director Rob Scott also added his voice to the calls for a review of the modelling.

'The impact on isolation, loneliness, depression is reaching a crisis point  curfews undermine confidence for no discernible health benefit. It shouldn't be the case of the "computer says no",' he said.

Five million Melbournians have been banned from leaving their homes from 8pm to 5am since August 2 under strict Stage Four lockdowns.

Premier Andrews personally made the call to introduce Melbourne's curfew and has remained unrepentant despite mounting pressure.

Health experts including the Grattan Institute's Stephen Duckett have said there is 'very, very limited' epidemiological evidence to support a curfew.

Mr Andrews defended his 'captain's call' by saying it wasn't about the virus directly but about making it easier for police to enforce the lockdown rules.

'These are hard rules to enforce,' he told reporters at his daily media briefing on Tuesday.

'We reckon there's a bunch of people that are out when they shouldn't be out, and a curfew ... is much easier for Victoria police.'

However, Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said on Thursday that the curfew was introduced with no input from Victoria Police.

'The reality is, I was never consulted,' Mr Patton told 3AW.

Mr Andrews was also forced to retract his previous claim that he had taken advice about the curfew from Victoria's Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton, after he revealed he hadn't recommend the curfew either.

Tensions have been rising in Victoria under the strict lockdowns imposed when daily new infections spiked to more than 700 a day as the outbreak spread out of control in late July and early August.

Hoping for a reprieve when Premier Andrews announced the long-awaited road map out of the crisis, Victorians were disappointed at facing a long, difficult and complicated four-step process.

The conservative road map is designed to avoid a devastating third wave, which would mean restrictions would have to be reimposed.

It has sparked anger from businesses large and small who fear the economic impact of the virus will damage them for years.

Hundreds gathered in Melbourne's CBD to protest against lockdowns and several people were detained by police on Sunday

'Protesters started grabbing fruit and throwing it at police,' photographer Erik Anderson said from the scene at Melbourne's Queen Victoria Market on Sunday

Former Australian Competition & Consumer Commission chairman Graeme Samuel told The Australian that the lockdown had forced many small businesses to close and they would not be re-opening - ever.

Riled by tough restrictions and encouraged by political disunity, hundreds of demonstrators have taken to Melbourne's streets to protest.

On Sunday the anti-lockdown protesters massed in Melbourne for a second day in a row at Queen Victoria Market in the CBD.

Protesters chanting 'Freedom' and 'Power to the people' were outnumbered by police and footage of violent scuffles has been posted online.

'There were a few tense moments when protesters started grabbing fruit and throwing it at police,' photographer Erik Anderson said from the scene.

Police horses wore protective face shields but protesters were seen kicking at them in Melbourne on Sunday

Protesters clashed with police on Sunday and several people have been arrested

Mr Anderson estimated that police had arrested dozens of protesters.

The Andrews Government reduced Melbourne's 'wartime' curfew by an hour late on Sunday night as Step One relaxations were introduced.

Huge crowds of protesters were filmed marching down empty streets in Melbourne, calling for Daniel Andrews to ease the city's draconian lockdown restrictions.

The controversial curfew now starts at 9pm instead of 8pm and runs until 5am.

Melbourne is set to stay under strict Stage Four lockdown until the first significant easing to Step Two which will allow more than 100,000 workers to go back to work in construction, manufacturing, and maintenance.

Step Two is expected on September 28, so long as the 14-day rolling average of new cases falls below 50 per day, for 14 days.

The rolling average has been falling dramatically reaching 56.9 on Sunday from 120.8 two weeks previously, according to statistics website Covid19data.com.au.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 14:10:22|Editor: huaxia

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a press briefing in Washington D.C., the United States, on March 5, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

- "We remain deeply concerned by Turkey's ongoing operations surveying for natural resources in areas over which Greece and Cyprus assert jurisdiction in the Eastern Mediterranean," Pompeo said.

- Turkish foreign ministry spokesman said EU countries should abandon a policy of "blindly" taking the side of Greece and Cyprus, and called on Greece to enter unconditional and direct talks to settle down disputes.



NICOSIA, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Visiting U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Saturday that the United States is "deeply concerned" over Turkey's gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean amid growing tensions between Turkey, Cyprus and Greece.

"We remain deeply concerned by Turkey's ongoing operations surveying for natural resources in areas over which Greece and Cyprus assert jurisdiction in the Eastern Mediterranean," Pompeo said at a joint press conference with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades.

Turkey and the two European Union members are engaged in a war of words over oil and gas reserves and maritime rights in the disputed region, prompting fears that tensions will continue to rise.

Photo taken on June 20, 2019 shows the drilling vessel Yavuz at a port in Kocaeli province, Turkey. (Xinhua/Xu Suhui)

Anastasiades, for his part, voiced readiness to enter negotiations for a comprehensive solution of the disputes, urging Ankara to end "aggressive actions."

Seven Mediterranean states on Thursday urged Turkey to resolve territorial disputes with Greece and Cyprus through negotiation, warning of "further restrictive measures" if Turkey does not halt its "unilateral activities."

On Friday, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said EU countries should abandon a policy of "blindly" taking the side of Greece and Cyprus, and called on Greece to enter unconditional and direct talks to settle down disputes. 
Bahrain's leading Shia cleric Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, now living abroad, said he is against normalisation between Arab countries and Israel, and called on the region's people to resist.

In a speech published by dissolved Bahraini opposition party al-Wefaq, a group close to Qassim, he said the accords reached by Israel with the UAE and with Bahrain, and with any more countries to come, go against the will of the people.

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(Refiles to make clear headline refers to EU imports of food from UK)

LONDON, Sept 13 (Reuters) - The European Union has made it clear there is no guarantee it will add Britain to its list of approved third countries for food imports, London's top Brexit negotiator David Frost said on Sunday.

Earlier, Frost's EU counterpart Michel Barnier said the bloc had not refused to add the UK to its list. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said any refusal would amount to a "blockade" of food trade between Britain and Northern Ireland.

"(It) has been made clear to us in the current talks that there is no guarantee of listing us," Frost said on Twitter. (Reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by Catherine Evans, William Maclean)
An artist, who goes by the name of Vawongsir, uses a smiley face as his logo to encourage his students. He was let go from the Hong Kong secondary school where he taught amid a wave of political persecution. (Chan Long Hei / For The Times)

The high school visual arts teacher couldnt go to the front lines of protest, but he took inspiration from the pro-democracy marches and unleashed his own brand of subversion: cartoons.

He drew a policeman sweeping a bloodied protester under a rug fashioned after the Chinese flag. Another sketch captioned "Lunchtime" depicted popular snacks  an egg custard tart and deep-fried French toast  next to a canister of tear gas. He captured the unrelenting despair that seized Hong Kongers after the demonstrations each night with an image of a man lying in bed crying himself to sleep.

Everywhere Wong looked, he saw China constricting the freedoms that had made Hong Kong an unabashed city of towering glass, raucous politics and quicksilver commerce. He drew in harrowing detail what he was losing, sharing his work on social media under the pen name @vawongsir. He thought his identity was safe. But then came the anonymous complaint to the Education Bureau that he was publishing inappropriate illustrations online."

Wong would end up losing his job.

"I felt powerless," he said.

With China's tightening control over Hong Kong, including passage of a new national security law, the territory's pro-democracy activists, politicians, journalists and others are facing a Communist Party determined to crush dissent. Perhaps the greatest threat from this new purge  one that will affect generations to come  is the increasing pressure on schools and teachers over what to put in the minds of students. Both activists and bureaucrats know that a nations soul is distilled in the classroom; history can be erased with the silencing of teachers and rewriting of textbooks.

A Hong Kong art teacher going by the name Vawongsir expresses his thoughts through pro-democracy doodles, which he shares online anonymously. He lost his teaching job after a complaint was made to the authorities. (Chan Long Hei / For The Times)

"They are turning education into a tool for controlling thought in Hong Kong," said Ip Kin-yuen, a pro-democracy lawmaker representing the education sector who is vice president of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers Union. There are a lot of cases of teachers being wronged, facing exaggerated accusations. I would describe it as political persecution.

Story continues

Hong Kong is being remade before the world. Chinese leader Xi Jinping is capitalizing on his country's economic power and the planets preoccupation with the coronavirus to rein in Hong Kongs democratic ambitions. Xi wants to subsume this defiant territory into his vision of national unity, even as China faces diplomatic fallout, most notably from the Trump administration, which has drawn closer to a new Cold War with Beijing in a fraught time of high-tech surveillance, shifting supply chains and Americas fallen stature of a global leader.

It is this city of 7 million at the center of a great power rivalry  where China sees its future and the West is in danger of losing a vital nexus in the Pacific Rim  that will determine the fate of teachers such as Wong, 30, who was too scared of retribution to give his first name. As an authoritarian makeover takes root, he and many others feel they have no place in the classroom.

It's unclear how many teachers have been disciplined or let go for their political views. The Education Bureau said it received 222 complaints about teacher misconduct in the 12-month period ending in June. Of them, 117 were substantiated, resulting in reprimands or warnings for nearly half. The remaining half are under review. The bureau declined to disclose the nature of the complaints.

Wong was one of those complaints. Months after his cartoons began appearing on social media, officials at his secondary school, considered one of the best in the city, demanded to know if he was running the account. They prodded him about his political views. Wong sought legal advice and the school backed down.

Months passed without a resolution. Wong continued to teach his group of 10 students, who knew he was behind the drawings but never mentioned it. Then on the last day of June, hours before the new national security law was introduced dismantling Hong Kong's democratic freedoms, Wong was summoned to the principal's office. He was told the school no longer had the resources to renew his contract.

Dispirited and unable to push back, Wong went home that night and reposted a drawing of a teacher with a hand clasped over his mouth. On a blackboard behind him were the words, Goodbye, students."

An art teacher, who calls himself Vawongsir, cannot join the Hong Kong protests in person because he has an ailing mother. Instead he expresses his support of the protest movement through artworks. (Chan Long Hei / For The Times)

"The biggest pity is losing my students. They are always my top priority," said Wong, still overcome with guilt for not protesting earlier alongside his pupils, including one who was arrested for demonstrating.

"Why is this their responsibility?" he asked. "Why do they have to take up this burden and be repressed for speaking up against injustice when they could have been playing basketball or video games and eating fish balls and siu mai? As a teacher, I was very ashamed that, at a time of a danger, I wasn't there to protect my students."

Wong, who remains unemployed, was so desperate to retain his job in order to pay for his ailing mother's medical bills that he offered to work for half his $46,000 salary. The school declined, and Wong had no recourse.

He was not alone. In June, a middle school music teacher's contract wasn't renewed after she failed to prevent students from performing a protest anthem during midterm exams.

Another teacher at the prestigious Diocesan Girls School was also denied a new contract after he was investigated by the school for his role in pro-democracy demonstrations. The liberal studies instructor was partially blinded in one eye after reportedly being shot by a police projectile while attending a protest last year.

Educators say they work under a cloud of fear, subject to arbitrary complaints from surreptitious minders policing classrooms. One lawmaker suggested installing surveillance cameras in every school to monitor teachers to see if their speech constitutes subversion of the state.

Social work lecturer Shiu Ka-chun sits in his empty office at Hong Kong Baptist University. He was let go in July, shortly after China implemented a new national security law on the territory. (Chan Long Hei / For The Times)

Two university educators known for their political activism, Benny Tai and Shiu Ka-chun, say their institutions were pressured to fire them in July. Afterward, Chinas Liaison Office in Hong Kong hailed the terminations as a purification of the teaching environment."

The harm to Hong Kong's reputation for educational freedom has been swift, with academic associations around the world ruling out the city for future conventions and seminars.

Hong Kong's dramatic transformation from a largely free society to one that more resembles the tightly controlled mainland wasn't expected to fully take place until 2047  the end of a 50-year period from when Britain returned the territory to China in 1997 under a special arrangement known as one country, two systems that was supposed to guarantee Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy.

But the arrangement grew increasingly incompatible with an emboldened China led by Xi. The president's grand ambitions for a rejuvenated Chinese nation could not abide challenges to Beijing's authority from a former European colony on China's doorstep. Confrontation with the United States under President Trump has only hastened the change.

The national security legislation  which threatens violators with life in prison for acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces  targets anyone who opposes the Chinese Communist Party's will.

The law has been used to arrest government critics such as media tycoon Jimmy Lai and his sons, and to disqualify anti-establishment candidates from legislative elections. Its chilling effect resulted in the cancellation of a prayer campaign for democracy by a local Catholic group. More consequentially, it's altered behavior. Self-censorship abounds. Critical thought is being forced underground. The mass protests that captivated the world a year ago have largely fallen silent.

Shiu, one of the recently dismissed college educators, said former colleagues at Hong Kong Baptist University now shun him for fear of angering the government. One former co-worker invited Shiu to lunch but insisted on meeting at a restaurant far from campus to avoid being seen.

"You'd think I was having an affair," said Shiu, who served six months in jail for his involvement in the 2014 Umbrella Movement protests.

Social work lecturer Shiu Ka-chun, who cleared his office at Hong Kong Baptist University, waits for the moving company to come. (Chan Long Hei / For The Times)

His former colleagues "are now accomplices in the crackdown," he said. "The Chinese government may be threatening, but it doesnt excuse the moral failure of the university and intellectuals. When you see your co-workers giving in one by one, it is not just loneliness you feel. Its heart-wrenching."

The repressive law also points up China's failure  after years of economic incentives and patriotic appeals  to convince millions of independently minded Hong Kong residents that their lives would be better under mainland rule.

Stubborn resistance to China's lure is often blamed on foreign influence, especially the city's schools and universities, which have been accused of radicalizing youths with Western ideals and preventing a Chinese national identity from flourishing.

The government believes that young people were against the government because they were incited by others," said Ip, the pro-democracy lawmaker and union official. "They need to justify this narrative, so they blame the large number of arrested teenagers on the education system, the teachers, the teaching materials, the curriculum, even the public exams. Teachers essentially became scapegoats.

Hong Kong's staunchly pro-Beijing chief executive, Carrie Lam, reinforced those claims at an education forum where she said more than 3,000 of the 7,500 people arrested for participating in illegal protests over the last year were students. Of them, nearly half were younger than 18.

Officers in riot gear pin down protesters as police confront demonstrators with tear gas, batons and shields and make mass arrests near Hong Kong police headquarters in September 2019. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

"It is extremely worrying that anti-government and anti-country thoughts have been planted in the hearts of the youth," Lam said. "We cannot help but ask, 'What has gone wrong with Hong Kongs education?'"

The chill on academic freedom harks back to the Cold War era, when students and teachers in Hong Kong were forbidden to discuss politics by order of the British colonial government. Mao-inspired communist ferment was spilling over from across the border, agitating the local population and leaving authorities on edge. It wasn't until the 1970s that the British began to loosen control.

Hong Kong's young minds would be far easier to mold in Beijing's vision if the colonial structure were still in place. But the city's education system maintains an independent and progressive tradition that dates to the waning days of British rule, when educators were given freedom to develop their own curriculum.

"The fact that Beijing has a problem with Hong Kongs education system is confirmation that Britain did not leave behind a legacy of colonial education. Instead, it left behind a legacy of a liberal education, one that encourages free and critical thinking," said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute at University of London.

That gave rise to a generation of politically minded youth responsible for leading protests in 2012 against a patriotic education plan and in 2014 during the pro-democracy Umbrella Movement. When protests erupted last year, students were again front and center, staging walkouts and human chains and barricading themselves on campuses.

Authorities are moving fast to prevent repeats of such behavior. Hong Kong's Education Bureau said expressing anti-government opinions or participating in protests will result in discipline.

Meanwhile, teachers are expected to undergo mandatory training to integrate the national security law into their lessons. Textbooks are being modified so that liberal studies material no longer mentions "separation of powers" or political organizations formed by activists. Descriptions of clampdowns on freedom of speech have been replaced by passages about economic opportunities China has provided Hong Kong. Politically sensitive books, including those written by pro-democracy leader Joshua Wong as well as titles related to the Tiananmen Square massacre or the Cultural Revolution, are being pulled from library shelves.

Many young minds are corrupted for years, but now with the national security law, the government can supervise, regulate, manage and promote [national security] through different channels, Hong Kong's secretary for security, John Lee, told the pro-Beijing newspaper Ta Kung Pao recently. In the same interview, he called for the removal of "bad apples" from schools.

Support for Beijing in Hong Kong is by no means scant, a reflection of the decades China has spent cultivating influence since the days of British rule. Though still in the minority, many welcome the crackdown on protesters and their sympathizers. One group formed in May to monitor schools, teachers and learning materials said it has recruited 800 volunteers, including parents, teachers and students.

"We ask the informants for evidence and verify with the schools," said David Cua, who heads Help Our Next Generation. "If children are unknowingly contaminated [with anti-government thinking], shouldnt teachers face the punishment they deserve?"

Teachers beginning their careers under the new restrictive climate say they're paralyzed with anxiety about saying the wrong thing.

Brian Chan said he's already having misgivings about teaching liberal studies, a controversial course in secondary schools designed to foster critical thinking that both the local and mainland governments have attacked for inciting students to protest. Chan wants the freedom to teach his students about current events truthfully, especially now, when so much misinformation is available online. But he fears that when it comes to China and Hong Kong's recent history, his students will be fed a sanitized version of events.

"I'll treasure the time I have teaching, but I have to prepare for the worst," said Chan, 23, who was about to start his first full-time teaching job this year until the pandemic closed the city's schools. "The room for academic freedom is diminishing."

A primary school teacher surnamed Tang, who declined to use her first name over fears of being reprimanded, said her employment was placed under review after a parent complained that she had asked her students to comment on the necessity of a national security law.

I have to make them understand what politics is, Tang said about her students. And I try to offer them more while I still can and let them debate these topics as much as they can because they wont have the opportunity to do so in the future.

Tang, who is in her 20s, always sought to make her classroom a second home for her students. She decorated the room, stocked it with board games and organized her schedule so she could spend time with her students during recess.

As the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to close in January, Tang turned to a digital classroom. Each day, she posted stories, games and news articles. She shared documentaries produced by the citys public broadcaster, including one that drew parallels between the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown and the Polish Solidarity movement.

The feedback had been positive. One parent, who was vehemently against the Hong Kong protests, still thanked Tang for investing in her child. Another, an immigrant from mainland China, said the news articles helped the family understand and better integrate into Hong Kong society.

As the protests intensified, the school repeatedly reminded Tang and her colleagues to be careful about what they said. Unfazed, she continued to push her students to discuss sensitive current events, including the national security law.

After a complaint from a parent was made to the government authorities, the school called Tang in for questioning and issued a letter to the parent apologizing for the error.

"When they remove all other information they deem sensitive, the official line becomes the only thing the [students] know," Tang said. "In a way, they are successfully brainwashed.

Tang's digital classroom has since been shut down, and she was suspended until further notice. A Chinese flag, usually raised only once a month at her school, now permanently waves at the top of a pole.

(This is the first in a series of occasional articles about the effect China's global power is having on nations and people's lives.)

Times staff writer Pierson reported from Singapore and special correspondent Cheung from Hong Kong.
PITTSBURGH - Since 1959, Al's Cafe has been known for cold beer, hearty hoagies and the occasional coconut shrimp platter. But since the coronavirus outbreak, the Bethel Park eatery has become the staging ground for an unlikely anti-government rebellion.

First came complaints that owner Rod Ambrogi and his patrons were failing to abide by a statewide mask mandate imposed in July by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat. Ambrogi has since put on a mask, but he refuses to prevent customers from bellying up to the bar in defiance of state rules strictly limiting indoor dining.

"I can see [wearing] the mask now. But the rest of it is stupid," said Ambrogi, 74, who has rallied local tavern owners to defy the rules. "There are people going out of business every day around here."

Six months into the coronavirus pandemic, restrictions on dining have left restaurants and taverns across the nation struggling to stay afloat. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has blamed President Donald Trump for a bungled pandemic response that has left at least 190,000 dead and millions unemployed. But in Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state Trump carried by just 44,000 votes in 2016, a debate is raging over whether the Republicans in Washington or the Democrats in Harrisburg bear more responsibility for the industry's economic pain.

Nationally, jobs in food service and drinking places fell 49 percent from February to April, according to Gus Faucher, chief economist for Pittsburgh's PNC Financial Services Group. In Pennsylvania, the job loss was steeper, at 59 percent. And in the Pittsburgh metropolitan statistical area, which includes seven counties in the state's southwest corner, those jobs plummeted by 62 percent.

While some have bounced back, July figures show that Pennsylvania bars and restaurants are still hurting. In Pittsburgh, only about a third of lost food and drink jobs have returned, leaving about 33,000 people still unemployed.

"Who are those 33,000 people out of work?" Faucher said. "And who are they going to hold responsible?"

For some, the answer is the governor. After closing restaurants and bars along with other nonessential businesses when the pandemic struck in mid-March, Wolf began permitting them to reopen this spring. But when the number of new infections began rising, the state health commissioner cranked up restrictions on indoor dining, a key vector of infection.

Under the new rules, alcohol could be sold only if customers also ordered food. Sidling up to a bar for a brew was forbidden.

Most infuriating to owners: Eateries that had been preparing to reopen at 50 percent capacity were suddenly told they would have to operate at 25 percent capacity. Pennsylvania is one of just three states to impose such severe limits, according to a database compiled by the National Restaurant Association, though some local jurisdictions have done so.

Many bar and restaurant owners say the state is denying them the right to earn a living. Rui Lucas, 45, who owns three restaurants in suburban Philadelphia, formed a trade association this summer to push for counties, rather than the state, to set coronavirus standards for bars and restaurants.

"Of course, we're all scared. On many levels," Lucas said. "We know we are at the fate of the virus. But we are also at the fate of Governor Wolf."

State health officials defend the decision to keep a tight rein on bars and restaurants, saying it is based on data, including information from people who tested positive after dining out. The number of new cases has fallen, and White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx praised the state earlier this month, saying only five others have a lower case count.

Still, Sarah Boateng, executive deputy secretary at the Pennsylvania Department of Health, said she understands the blowback. "I hear the frustration of the restaurant owners. I appreciate it," she said. "We know it's not been easy."

In general, state residents give Wolf good marks for his handling of the crisis. According to an August Monmouth University poll, 62 percent of Pennsylvania voters said the governor has done a good job, while more than half the state's voters - 53 percent - said they disapproved of Trump's handling of the virus.

But approval for Wolf's performance slipped from 67 percent in July. And the same survey showed Biden leading Trump by just four points - 49 percent to 45 percent - down from a 13-point advantage a month earlier.

Lara Putnam, a history professor at the University of Pittsburgh who monitors political activity on Facebook and other social media sites, said she sees "an intensity of agitation online, especially farther outside of metropolitan areas, to blame Tom Wolf" for the grim economic situation. The state's overall unemployment rate was 13.7 percent in July, the most recent available, significantly above the national July average of 10.2 percent.

"If you're a waitress who has lost all your hours," Putnam said, "who are you going to blame?"

Ambrogi, who so far has called back only 40 of 60 employees at Al's Cafe, knows precisely whom he blames. He blasts Wolf's restrictions on dining as "unconstitutional."

"Look, I know it's a bad virus. And no one wants to see anyone get sick," Ambrogi said. "But it comes to a point: The general public has had enough of this."

On Tuesday, with new infections down, Wolf granted restaurateurs a reprieve: Starting Sept. 21, they can operate at 50 percent capacity. But they will also have to stop serving alcohol at 10 p.m., an hour earlier.

"We wanted a ham and he gave us a hot dog," complained Ambrogi, a stalwart Trump supporter. Of the new time for last call, he said, "I don't know what that will mean" for business.

Since leading a local revolt against the restrictions, Ambrogi has corresponded with restaurant owners across the state. He said he has also written to Wolf and reached out to state lawmakers from both parties. Only Republicans responded, he said.

"Where are the Democrats? Are they waiting to make Trump look bad?" said Phil Catagnus, one of Ambrogi's brothers in arms and the owner of the Double Visions go-go bar outside Philadelphia. "We are the people stuck in the middle of this."

Because people can no longer drink without ordering food, Catagnus, 64, joked that he now sells "virus-killing hot dogs." Still, the restrictions on indoor dining are killing business, he said.

"I'm very grateful for being open. But the margins are so small," said Catagnus, who plans to vote for Biden despite feeling neglected by Democrats in Harrisburg.

Meredith Meyer Grelli grew up in Pittsburgh's North Hills, teaches entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University and runs Wigle Whiskey, the first distillery in Pittsburgh since Prohibition. Before the pandemic, nearly 150 customers showed up for Saturday tours. These days, Grelli relies heavily on bottle sales to stay afloat.

"What's frustrating for bars and restaurants is they have been singled out, but there has been no effort to provide specific support," said Grelli, 35. "We are fortunate that we have bottle sales. But this capacity issue? No one builds a business to operate at 25 percent or 50 percent."

Grelli said that she doesn't blame the state for her problems but that she understands why many bar owners are angry.

The distillery "gave up on profitability a long time ago," she said. "We are bleeding money like anyone else."

Lawyer-cum-brewer Peter Kurzweg co-owns the Independent Brewing Company and two other craft beer halls in Pittsburgh. He used to pack 120 people into his hipster beer room in the city's Squirrel Hill neighborhood on Friday nights. Today, he has no indoor seating because he thinks ventilation is key to controlling the virus.

Kurzweg, too, is unhappy with the statewide restrictions. "I have lost count of the number of good restaurants that have closed," he said.

But Kurzweg, 38, said he places greater blame on Trump. While countries like Germany kept the virus at bay and largely have returned to normal life, he said, the White House failed to gain control of the outbreak, allowing it to become a national calamity.

"I have mixed feelings about what the state did. They needed to find a happy balance," Kurzweg said. But "fundamentally, I attribute what we have now to a lack of a strong federal response and strong federal guidance."
As we gradually emerge from months of hibernation and start to reengage with old habits, there will undoubtedly be a period of adjustment, especially for the business community. A virus-shaken public will be doing more than social distancing and sanitizing surfaces: People will be concerned about the transfer of germs from many long-held customs. One of these is the handshake.

One thing that has become abundantly clear to most of us is the frequency with which we touch our faces, even when wearing a mask. It is hard enough to keep from spreading the virus whenever we touch a surface and accidentally touch our face, let alone dealing with all the germs on someone elses hands. But will the business community find an adequate replacement for the handshake? Will we really get used to fist bumps and shoe-taps, or will the handshake gradually slip back into vogue?

Related: Why COVID-19 Is Inspiring Empathetic and Quiet Leadership

The consensus seems to validate the handshakes demise. Dr. Anthony Fauci, of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, suggested on the Wall Street Journals podcast that Americans should not shake hands again. What are the things you could still do and still approach normal?" Fauci asked. "One of them is absolute compulsive handwashing. The other is you dont ever shake anybodys hands.

Suddenly, an ancient ritual with enormous cultural significance is socially questionable.

Why do we shake hands in the first place?

Understanding the cultural significance of this change requires a look back at the history of the handshake, and why people are inclined to touch an acquaintance or stranger. Turns out these customs had an evolutionary purpose that, along with language, helped foster social ties, make allies, and maintain relationships.

Touch also helps reduce aggression between people, according to Tiffany Field, director of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami. When youre socially touching someone, its very hard to be aggressive towards them.

Shaking hands is thought to have originated many centuries ago as a way to ensure neither party was carrying a weapon. Neuroscientists have studied this further and found that areas of the brain involved with processing rewards are activated when people shake hands.

Related: 3 Ways Customer Relationships Will Change Forever In Light Of COVID-19

Handshake alternatives

The handshake is not the only custom that has evaporated during the pandemic, even though it is the most obvious one for businesspeople. We can also say goodbye to fist bumps, shoulder squeezes, high fives, and hugs. None of these will be possible when we stand at least six feet apart.

What are some potential alternatives that may replace the handshake? Some people seem to be partial to the elbow bump, the namaste gesture, a foot tap, a brief nod, or a bow. None of these involve skin on skin contact, and a few do not require standing closer than six feet apart. It is still unclear if any of these will prevail. A lot will depend on an individuals political views, values, and belief systems.

What the post-pandemic world will look like

Just as we get accustomed to a world without handshakes, there are a few other areas where the business community will need to adjust.

Public touchscreens where customers normally place orders are not much different than handshakes. In fact, they could be worse. Thousands of fingerprints are touching the same piece of glass or plastic throughout the day, making it impossible for business owners to disinfect between each use. While much of the bacteria found on these surfaces is not harmful to people, all it takes is one person with coronavirus who just sneezed, and youve got community spread.

Long lines where people are crowded together may not be something people miss, but this will inevitably affect peoples shopping habits. No more big crowds waiting for doors to open on Black Friday, and you can forget buying concert tickets in person, let alone attending concerts again. Of course, safe social distancing is possible in most instances, but that requires lots of indoor space to spread out.

Related: 3 Hourly Workforce Trends We're Seeing in the Wake of COVID-19

Open-floor offices may not be going away completely, but they will certainly be changing. Employers are hyperaware of the health risks of maintaining an open office design, whether real or imagined, because of the potential for liability if people get the virus. Countless businesses across the country are using plexiglass dividers between desks and blocking off every other conference chair in meeting rooms.

A cashless society always sounded like something far off in the distant future but, thanks in part to COVID, it is coming sooner than you think. Before you can say, put that on my credit card, banks will be finding new ways to ensure you never have to hand over cards to anything other than a machine. And it will not be long before we start seeing cash not accepted signs at more retailers. Less tech-savvy shoppers and people without a bank card will suffer.

The business traveler may soon become a relic from the past as well, but that might take a bit longer. Already, so many conferences rescheduled for 2021 are registering more virtual attendees than ever. The rise of videoconferencing companies like Zoom and Microsoft Teams are making business travel seem like a fanciful indulgence. Some travelers, such as media reporters, lawyers, and professional athletes, will not be able to conduct business online, but the rest of us will be looking for ways to stay far away from airports and hotels.

As we move towards this new normal and get back to business, the most insightful entrepreneurs will look at these trends and find ways to capitalize on them. Now is the time to think about how your business can make the most of our reimagined future.

Related:

How the Health Crisis Will Change Socializing in Business Settings

Free Webinar | Sept. 30: Winners and Losers of the Post-COVID World

Tips to Follow When Re-Fitting Your Business Model to the New Normal



Copyright 2020 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), one of the largest school divisions in the US, was hit by Maze ransomware operators.

Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) was victim of an attack carried out by the Maze ransomware operators.

FCPS is one of the largest school districts in the US with an approved budget of $3.2 billion for 2021.

The Fairfax County Public Schools has more than 188,000 students in grades prekindergarten through 12 and approximately 25,000 full-time employees working in 198 schools and centers within the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia.

FCPS recently learned that ransomware was placed on some of our technology systems. We are taking this matter very seriously and are working diligently to address the issue. reads a statement published by FCPS. We currently believe we may have been victimized by cyber criminals who have been connected to dozens of ransomware attacks in other school systems and corporations worldwide. We are coordinating with the FBI on the matter.

The institution has notified the authorities and is investigating the incident with leading security experts to determine the extent of the attack.

At the moment the exact date when the ransomware impacted FCPSs network is not yet known but the school district says that it collaborating with the FBI to determine what ransomware gang is behind the attack.

FCPS is committed to protecting the information of our students, our staff, and their families, concludes the statement. We will work with law enforcement to the fullest extent to prosecute any individuals or groups that attack our systems.

The statement did not disclose the threat actors behind the attack, it only pointed out that the same ransomware gangs has been connected to dozens of similar attacks against school districts and businesses worldwide.

The Maze ransomware operators claimed responsibility for the attack and leaked an archive of roughly 100MB (2% of the total amount of stolen data).

The leaked archive contains students info, administrative documents, and an LSASS dump that could allow retrieving Windows credentials.

An update sent Saturday afternoon to the school community said the school system is working diligently to protect the information of our staff, students and their families.

The institution added that the ransomware intrusion did not disrupt the school systems distance learning program.

Lucy Caldwell, a spokesperson for Fairfax County Public Schools, told WTOP that she expected remote learning will be not impacted by the infection.

In August, experts at threat intelligence firm Cyble came across a post published by Maze ransomware operators claiming to have breached the steel sheet giant Hoa Sen Group.

A few days before, Maze ransomware operators also published internal data from LG, Xerox, and Canon after the companies did not pay the ransom.

The list of victims of the Maze ransomware gang includes Conduent, IT services giant Cognizant, system-on-chip (SOC) maker MaxLinear, and Banco BCR,

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs  hacking, Maze ransomware)
London: Britain is preparing to opt out of major parts of European human rights laws, risking an explosive new row with the EU.

Boris Johnson's aides and ministers are drawing up proposals to severely curb the use of human rights laws in areas where judges have "overreached".

Prime Minister Boris Johnson Credit:Getty Images

Plans under discussion include opt-outs of the Human Rights Act, which could prevent many migrants and asylum seekers from using the legislation to avoid deportation, and protect British soldiers against claims relating to overseas operations. The Act allows British courts to apply the European Convention on Human Rights.

The move sets up a major new confrontation with the EU, which has demanded the UK commits to remaining signed up to the convention, and keep the Human Rights Act in place, as the price of future "law enforcement cooperation" between the bloc and Britain.
Kuhn also railed against the rampant negative stereotypes about older people in the media, charging, in testimony before Congress, that old people are depicted as dependent, powerless, wrinkled babies. So the Panthers monitored how older people were portrayed on television  if they appeared at all  and then lambasted network executives for demeaning caricatures, and got some eliminated.

But crucial to the Panthers progressive agenda were intergenerational alliances to promote issues that remain of pressing concern today: affordable housing, better access to health care, racial equality in employment, economic justice and environmental protection. Their motto was age and youth in action. Kuhn was also outspoken about the ravages of racism and sexism.

Were the elders of the tribe, she said. We are concerned about the tribe surviving. Older Americans, she said, are most free to transcend special interests and seek public interests. She shared her home in Philadelphia with panther cubs, youthful activists, and argued against age-segregated housing that isolated older people from the young. She was especially perturbed by how the generations were pitted against each other in the media, with older people cast as getting benefits they didnt deserve.

So why have she and the Panthers been mostly forgotten? In part, its because Kuhn was such a charismatic leader that once she died, the organization began to drift. In the decades since, theres been a shift away from activism on the part of older people and toward more institutionalized forms of political power; these, in turn, have certainly seen some success. Starting in the 1980s, the American Association of Retired Persons expanded and built up its lobbying activities. Now called simply AARP, it focuses almost exclusively on issues affecting older people, like ageism and preserving their safety net. Its magazine combats stereotypes but emphasizes self-actualization, not activism, a safer and often more comfortable message. It does not seek to unite old and young in the name of broader social justice efforts.

Today were seeing the limitations of that narrower agenda.

On the one hand, many older people, including older women, are more visible and powerful than ever before. Disengaged is the last word you would use about Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters or Elizabeth Warren, not to mention Joe Biden.

On the other hand, the fate of nursing home residents in the coronavirus pandemic  a true debacle  has revealed the persistence of ageism. Weve seen narratives about the pandemic pit old and young against each other, with the old cast as expendable and the young as irresponsible.

At the same time, the Trump administrations cruel, destructive and divisive policies continue to expose great inequities in our country across multiple lines  race, gender, class and age. Kuhns activist agenda, both age and youth in action, is more relevant, and more necessary, than ever.
Protesters have allegedly blocked the entrance to an emergency room at a Los Angeles hospital where two police officers are being treated for gunshot wounds after an ambush, the sheriffs office has claimed.

Two deputies suffered multiple gunshot wounds in what appears to have been an unprovoked, close-range attack through the passenger window of their patrol car in Compton on Saturday night.

The shooting has sparked a manhunt for the culprit, a furious reaction from many across the nation, including Donald Trump, and has seen a small group of protesters gather outside the hospital.

To the protesters blocking the entrance & exit of the HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM yelling We hope they die referring to 2 LA Sheriff's ambushed today in #Compton: DO NOT BLOCK EMERGENCY ENTRIES & EXITS TO THE HOSPITAL, tweeted LA County Sheriffs department.

People's lives are at stake when ambulances can't get through.

Footage posted to social media showed a handful of protesters arrive at the hospital only to be met with a heavy police presence and escorted away from the building. The Independent could find no evidence of them blocking emergency exits.

The footage taken by a man identifying himself as Kevin Wharton Price of the Africa Town Coalition sees him refer to the injured deputies as "two of America's most notorious gang members", while another protester can be heard shouting we hope they die.

The sheriffs department said shortly afterwards that it had issued a dispersal order for the unlawful assembly of a group of protesters blocking the hospital emergency entrance and exits.

They arrested a man who allegedly refused to comply and cooperate and a member of the press who police claimed interfered with" their arrest of the protestor.

During his arrest, a struggle ensued at which time a female adult ran towards the deputies, ignored repeated commands to stay back as they struggled with the male and interfered with the arrest, the sheriffs department tweeted.

The female adult, who was later identified as a member of the press, did not identify herself as press and later admitted she did not have proper press credentials on her person.

The 31-year-old female deputy and 24-year-old male deputy who were shot both underwent surgery on Saturday evening, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said in a late-night news conference. Both graduated from the academy 14 months ago, he said.

The deputies were shot while sitting in their patrol car at a metro station and were able to radio for help, the sheriff said. Mr Villanueva, whose department has come under fire during recent protests over police brutality against black people, expressed frustration over anti-police sentiment as he urged people to pray for the officers.

"That was a cowardly act," he said. "The two deputies were doing their job, minding their own business, watching out for the safety of the people on the train."

"Seeing somebody just walk up and start shooting on them. It pisses me off. It dismays me at the same time. There's no pretty way to say it," he added.

Captain Kent Wegener said officers were blanketing the area in search of the suspect seen opening fire with a pistol, but said police had only "a very, very generic description".

Mr Trump sought to link protesters and the culprit as he shared police footage of the shooting, tweeting: Animals that must be hit hard!

Additional reporting by AP
A jaguar crouches on an area recently scorched by wildfires at the Encontro das Aguas park in the Pantanal wetlands near Pocone, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2020. Firefighters, troops and volunteers have been scrambling to find and rescue jaguars and other animals before they are overtaken by the flames, which have been exacerbated by the worst drought in 47 years, strong winds and temperatures exceeding 40 degrees centigrade (104 fahrenheit). (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

A vast swath of a vital wetlands is burning in Brazil, sweeping across several national parks and obscuring the sun behind dense smoke.

Preliminary figures from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, based on satellite images, indicate that nearly 5,800 square miles (1.5 million hectares) have burned in the Pantanal region since the start of Augustan expanse comparable to the area consumed by the historic blazes now afflicting California. It's also well beyond the previous fire season record from 2005.

Brazil's National Institute for Space Research, whose satellites monitor the fires, said the number of Panantal fires in the first 12 days of September was nearly triple the figure for the same period last year. From January through August, the number of fires more than tripled, topping 10,000.

Fernando Tortato, who has been working and living near the Encontro Das Aguas reserve since 2008, said he's never seen the fires as bad as this year.

"It is an immense area that has been burned and consumed by the fire. And we still have another two, three or four weeks without rain" ahead, he said.

Firefighters, troops and volunteers have been scrambling to find and rescue jaguars and other animals before they are overtaken by the flames, which have been exacerbated by the worst drought in 47 years, strong winds and temperatures exceeding 40 degrees centigrade (104 fahrenheit).

Men fish in the Cuiaba river amid smoke from fires at the Encontro das Aguas park at the Pantanal wetlands near Pocone, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2020. A vast swath of a vital wetlands is burning in Brazil, sweeping across several national parks and obscuring the sun behind dense smoke. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

While illegal logging, mining and faming operations have been blamed for most of the fires in the Amazon region to the north, a spokesman for Mato Grosso state's firefighters, Lt. Col. Sheila Sebalhos,said one of the causes of this year's Pantanal fires is the practice of burning roots to smoke wild bees from their hives to extract honey.

The Pantanal holds thousands of plant and animal species, including 159 mammals, and it abounds with jaguars, according to the World Wildlife Fund. During the rainy season, rivers overflow their banks flood the land, making most of it accessible only by boat and plane. In the dry season, wildlife enthusiasts flock to see the normally furtive jaguars lounging on riverbanks, along with macaws, caimans and capybaras.

About 200 jaguars in the area already have been injured, killed or forced from their territories by thew fires, according to Panthera, an international wild cat conservation organization.

A jaguar turns away from an area recently scorched by wildfires at the Encontro das Aguas park in the Pantanal wetlands near Pocone, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2020. Firefighters, troops and volunteers have been scrambling to find and rescue jaguars and other animals before they are overtaken by the flames, which have been exacerbated by the worst drought in 47 years, strong winds and temperatures exceeding 40 degrees centigrade (104 fahrenheit). (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

An otter eats a fish at the Encontro das Aguas park at the Pantanal wetlands near Pocone, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020. Wildfire has infiltrated the part as the number of fires at the world's biggest tropical wetlands has more than doubled in the first half of 2020, according to data released by a state institute. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

An recently burned area at the Encontro das Aguas park at the Pantanal wetlands near Pocone, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020. Wildfire has infiltrated the state park, an eco-tourism destination known for its population of jaguars. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

An alligator remains idling at the Encontro das Aguas park at the Pantanal wetlands near Pocone, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020. Wildfire has infiltrated the part as the number of fires at the world's biggest tropical wetlands has more than doubled in the first half of 2020, according to data released by a state institute. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

An recently burned area at the Encontro das Aguas park at the Pantanal wetlands near Pocone, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020. Wildfire has infiltrated the park as the number of fires at the world's biggest tropical wetlands has more than doubled in the first half of 2020, according to data released by a state institute. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

A boat travels at the Encontro das Aguas park as fire consumes an area at the Pantanal wetlands near Pocone, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020. Wildfire has infiltrated the state park, an eco-tourism destination known for its population of jaguars. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

A jaguar limps along the banks of the Piqueri river in the Encontro das Aguas Park near Pocone, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020. Wildfire has infiltrated the state park, an eco-tourism destination known for its population of jaguars. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Vultures stand next to the carcass of a alligator on the banks of the Cuiaba river at the Encontro das Aguas Park in the Pantanal wetlands near Pocone, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020. Wildfire has infiltrated the state park, an eco-tourism destination that is home to thousands of plant and animal species. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Firefighters and the Mato Grosso environment ministry have created a center for rescued animals.

"We feel a little discouraged, but we try to have hope to rescue the few animals we can," said veterinarian Karen Ribeiro, 26, who was treating an injured bird on Friday.

The same day, Brazil's navy used a helicopter to rescue a burned jaguar cub and take it to a veterinary hospital.

Explore further Wildfires sweep into Brazil park harboring jaguars

 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, September 13, 2020 15:40 495 e22cd4161040e111d73a5626c449024e 4 News Mount-Bromo,Bromo-Tengger-Semeru-National-Park,national-park,travel,destination Free

The Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park (TNBTS) has increased the visitor quota for the popular destination in East Java to 1,265 people a day.

The park had previously limited the number of tourists to 20 percent of its normal capacity, or 739 people per day. With the new rule, the visitor quota is now 40 percent of its normal capacity.

While being more lenient with regard to the number of visitors allowed in, the park now applies age limits, banning visitors below 10 years and above 60 years of age.

As reported by kompas.com, the agency's public relations head, Sarif Hidayat, said the aforementioned regulations were the result of an evaluation meeting attended by representatives from the administrations of Malang, Pasuruan and Probolinggo as well as the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) and other partners of the agency.

Visitors are required to buy tickets online at the parks website.

The TNBTS officially reopened on Aug. 28. (kes)
SAO PAULO, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- China has been committed to putting people's lives first throughout its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, which is also contributing to its speedy economic recovery in the post-pandemic era, a Brazilian professor has told Xinhua.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, it has been "very clear that the priority for the Chinese government is to save people's lives," said Luis Antonio Paulino, a professor in the Faculty of Philosophy and Sciences at Sao Paulo State University.

During its fight against the virus, the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of health workers, and the rapid construction of new hospitals allowed patients to receive immediate treatment, the professor said, adding that all of these actions have made China's number of deaths per million inhabitants one of the lowest figures in the world.

In addition, "it is important to note that China's strategy to prioritize people's lives also allows its economy to recover faster," said Paulino, who is also an expert in economics and public finance, noting that China's actions have proved "there is no contradiction between saving lives and preserving the economy."

What's more, the Chinese government's leadership during the combat against the virus has also played a key role.

Such success in combating the pandemic, one of the greatest challenges China has faced in recent decades, would not have been possible if the Chinese people were not united around their leadership, said the expert.

When it comes to Brazil's domestic fight against COVID-19, Paulino pointed out that China's assistance toward developing countries, including Brazil, in sending anti-epidemic supplies, has been "invaluable."

"It will certainly contribute to the further strengthening of the friendship between the Chinese people and the Brazilian people," Paulino added.

Noting that the main threats facing the world today, such as global warming, pandemics and poverty, are problems for the planet as a whole, Paulino said the only possible way to overcome these challenges is through international cooperation.
Britain's top lawyers have accused Attorney General Suella Braverman of wrecking the country's reputation abroad with the Government plan to break international law over Brexit.

The Bar Council, the professional association for barristers, asked Ms Braverman how the UK could retain a 'shred of credibility' in demanding other countries follow international law while admitting its own intentions to breach those agreements.

Five QCs attacked the AG at Saturday's annual general meeting, emphatically telling her that someone committing a crime in a 'specific or limited way' nonetheless commits a crime, The Guardian reported.

The Government has been facing mounting criticism after Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis admitted on Tuesday that provisions in the UK Internal Market Bill represented a 'specific and limited' breach of international law.

Attorney General Suella Braverman answering questions before the Justice Select Committee at the House of Commons, on the subject of the Work of the Attorney General in July

Suella Braverman: Nurse's daughter with sky-rocketing career Suella Braverman, the 39-year-old MP for Fareham, was born and raised in north-west London by parents who came to the UK from from Kenya and Mauritius in the 1960s with little money in their pockets. Her mother was as a nurse with the NHS for more than 45 years after being recruited at just 18, while her father worked for a housing association. Speaking of her modest upbringing on her website, the former Attorney in New York says her parents were 'proud to serve their local community' of Wembley, which no doubt sparked her interest in politics. 'No problem was too small. Whether it was trying to save the local library, or keep the local playing fields open or help a resident get a better home,' she wrote. The aspiring lawyer was state educated in Brent before she won a scholarship to an independent girls' school in the nearby borough of Harrow. From there, she gained a place to study law at the Queens' College, Cambridge University, where she was president of the university Conservative Association, before gaining a master's at the Sarbonne in Paris. Braverman sat her Bar Exam in New York State qualifying as an attorney, and has seen her career sky rocket ever since. During her 10 years as a barrister, she was on the Attorney General's Treasury Panel, and defended the Home Secretary in immigration cases and the Ministry of Defence in the Guantanamo Bay Inquiry. Braverman, who lives in Tichfield Common with husband Rael and son George, worked as a barrister in London specialising in judicial review and immigration - before winning her constituency seat in 2015. A staunch Brexiteer, she campaigned Leave in 2016 and was made chair of the European Research Group of pro-Leave Conservative MPs a year later. But she relinquished that role when she was appointed a junior minister Department for Exiting the EU (DExEU) - but lasted just nine months. On the day Theresa May's proposed deal was published, she resigned in protest, saying Northern Ireland Backstop 'robs the UK of the main competitive advantages from Brexit'. Advertisement

A legal opinion circulated to MPs by Ms Braverman on Thursday argued that Parliament was sovereign in domestic law and was entitled to pass legislation which breached the UK's treaty obligations.

However the House of Lords Constitution Committee said measures in the Bill to give ministers powers which deviated from provisions in an internationally binding treaty could lead to the whole Withdrawal Agreement 'unravelling' with 'far-reaching consequences'.

'Any breach of international law threatens to undermine confidence in future treaty commitments made by the UK Government, and increases the likelihood that the governments of other countries will breach their international law obligations,' it said.

'Those practical consequences are of great significance. The proposed course of action also appears to be in tension with the constitutional principle of the rule of law.'

The Justice Secretary said today he will resign if the Government breaks the law 'in a way that I find unacceptable' amid growing criticism of Boris Johnson's Brexit plans.

Robert Buckland said he does not believe the UK will 'get to that stage', insisting legislation that could break international law was a 'break the glass in emergency provision if we need it'.

His defence came as Irish foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney said the UK was damaging its international reputation as he hit out as Mr Johnson's 'spin' in denying Europe could impose a 'blockade' between Britain and Northern Ireland.

Boris Johnson is under increasing pressure to back down on plans to override elements of his own Withdrawal Agreement, with former leaders calling on Tory rebels to vote his Bill down.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland has faced calls to explain how the plans are consistent with obligations under international law and was pressed on Sunday over whether he would resign.

'If I see the rule of law being broken in a way I find unacceptable then of course I will go,' he told The Andrew Marr Show.

'I don't believe we're going to get to that stage. I know in my mind what I have to do. But the Government collectively here also has a responsibility, we've got to resolve any conflict that's what we will do.'

His Labour shadow, David Lammy, accused Mr Buckland of 'putting career before country', adding: 'Each time the Government breaks the law it's a travesty.'

The Justice Secretary was forced to insist the Government is 'committed to the rule of law' and said the position was in accordance with 'honourable traditions of the British state'.

But he said the controversial UK Internal Market Bill, which will be debated in Parliament on Monday, is needed in order to 'prepare for the worst'.

He also insisted the Prime Minister does genuinely want to broker a free trade deal with the EU, telling Sky's Sophy Ridge: 'He wanted a deal last year, I believed him, I was right in my belief, I know and believe he wants a deal this year.'

Attorney General Suella Braverman arrives in Downing Street in central London on September 1, 2020 to attend the first weekly meeting of the cabinet since the summer recess

Mr Johnson has increased his rhetoric as senior Tories prepare to rebel against his legislation, warning that Brussels could 'carve up our country' without his new Bill.

Former prime ministers Sir John Major and Tony Blair united to urge MPs to reject the 'shaming' legislation, saying it imperils the Irish peace process, trade negotiations and the UK's integrity.

'It raises questions that go far beyond the impact on Ireland, the peace process and negotiations for a trade deal - crucial though they are. It questions the very integrity of our nation,' they wrote in the Sunday Times.

Despite Mr Johnson's attempts to drum up support, Tory rebels suggested their numbers were growing and opinions were only hardened by Mr Johnson's increased rhetoric.

Commons justice committee chairman Sir Bob Neill has tabled an amendment which he said would impose a 'parliamentary lock' on any changes to the Withdrawal Agreement.

Labour minister Rachel Reeves said the party would 'need to look at the detail' of Sir Bob's amendment and said Labour MPs will table amendments of their own.

She told the Marr show that said Labour will vote against the Government's Bill if it still contains clauses overriding the Withdrawal Agreement.

In a statement from the Chair of the Bar Council, Amanda Pinto QC, said last week: 'We share widespread concern about the Government's stated intention to break international law in publishing new legislation on customs rules in Northern Ireland today.

'It should not need to be said that this country is built on, and subject to, the rule of law. Undermining this vital principle will fatally puncture people's faith in our justice system, both at home and internationally.

'Someone committing a crime in a in a "specific and limited way" nonetheless commits a crime, and an admitted breach of international law in a 'specific and limited way' is nonetheless a breach.'
Disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein is set to be stripped of his CBE by the Government this week after his conviction for rape.

Weinstein, 68, who was sentenced to 23 years in prison by a US court earlier this year, is expected to lose the CBE when the Honours Forfeiture Committee meets on Friday to consider recipients who have brought the system into disrepute.

The move follows a campaign by playwright Polly Creed for Britain to follow the example of France, where President Emmanuel Macron set in train the process for removing Weinstein's Legion d'Honneur within days of the allegations surfacing in 2017.

Disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein is set to be stripped of his CBE by the Government this week after his conviction for rape

A string of actresses made harassment claims against Weinstein, including Ashley Judd, Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Lea Seydoux.

More than 80 women came forward  with many saying they were blacklisted from lucrative projects if they rejected his advances.

Weinstein was awarded the honorary CBE in 2004, for services to the British film industry.

Those who have had honours stripped include Russian spy Anthony Blunt and Fred Goodwin, who steered the Royal Bank of Scotland to an annual loss of 24.1billion.
A MENTAL health campaigner has urged more investment and better care in the HSEs day hospitals.

Caherdavin man Stephen Leahy, who has more than 4,100 Instagram followers, and shares his experiences with anxiety disorder, has questioned the effectiveness of facilities in Limerick after being a patient of the Tevere House hospital at the Shelbourne Road in Limerick city.

This came after the 28-year-old had been suffering from a severe anxiety disorder.

He feels there could be better care of those using the facility, and has backed it up with testimonials from previous patients.

They really didnt do a lot for me there. The first time I walked into the door, I wasnt greeted. Youre buzzed in and sent into a waiting area, he said.

My first vision of walking in the door was a girl sitting in the corner of the waiting area crying by herself. Youre looking at this, and thinking its a public waiting area  surely there is somewhere else she could go, or someone who could help her?

But she sat there and cried for the whole 35 minutes I waited, he said.

Stephen feels there could have been more done to get to the root of his problems.

I was getting to my wits end with the panic attacks, it got to the point where they were making me vomit.

Stephen sharply contrasted his experience of Tevere House with the support he received from the suicide prevention charity Pieta, whose centre is based in Mungret.

Obviously, Pieta dont prescribe medication, but when you were walked in, you were made feel welcome. It was one-to-one and more personal.

Although Stephen acknowledged Pieta did not solve his issues, he said he felt a hell of a lot better leaving from there.

Hes able to keep his depression and anxiety at bay using various bits and bobs hes picked up through the years.

But he admits he is lucky  that perhaps others may not have had the mental fortitude to do the same.

He thinks there should be a HSE-funded number people can call to speak to a professional on  to help people get on, get up, do what you have to do and get out the door.

The HSE did not return a request for comment from the Limerick Leader.
A Turkish research ship at the centre of a row with Greece over gas exploration has left disputed waters in the eastern Mediterranean and returned to the coast in a move hailed as a "positive first step" by the Greek prime minister.

The Oruc Reis seismic survey vessel backed by Turkish navy frigates has been deployed to waters near the Greek island of Kastellorizo since August 10 despite repeated protests from Athens and the European Union.

Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar confirmed that the ship has returned to the Turkish coast while ship-tracking websites marinetraffic.com and vesselfinder.com showed it in waters near the port of Antalya.

"There will be planned movements backwards and forwards," Akar told state news agency Anadolu in Antalya.

He said the movement away from the contested waters, which are claimed by both countries, did not mean Turkey "would be giving up on our rights there".

But the decision not to extend the ship's mission was viewed as "a step towards giving diplomacy a chance," the pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper said on Sunday, linking it to attempts to kickstart talks between Greece and Turkey, who are both NATO partners.

"This is a positive first step," Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told reporters at a press conference in the Greek city Thessaloniki on Sunday. "I hope there will be more of them."

France, already at odds with Turkey over Libya and Syria, has sent in its own naval ships into the region to support Greece, which announced major new arms purchases on Saturday, including French-made Rafale fighter jets.

Akar slammed French President Emmanuel Macron, accusing him of "provoking and encouraging" Greece.

The decision to send the Oruc Reis ship to map out potential gas and oil drilling spots is seen as part of Turkey's so-called "Blue Homeland" strategy of staking out claims to energy resources in the eastern Mediterranean.

Story continues

The lack of agreed maritime borders between Turkey and Greece, or Turkey and Cyprus, have led to tensions since the discovery of major hydrocarbon reserves in the region in the past decade.

- NATO talks -

Efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the latest standoff have so far proved fruitless.

NATO said earlier this month that officials from both sides had agreed to take part in technical talks to avoid accidents between their navies.

Athens denied this was the case, but the Turkish defence ministry said on Thursday that the first round of talks between Greek and Turkish military delegations took place at NATO's headquarters in Brussels.

While Turkey repeatedly said it was ready for dialogue without preconditions, Greece said there could only be talks once Ankara stopped making "threats".

Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou visited the island of Kastellorizo near the disputed waters on Sunday where she said Turkey was "mounting pressure" on Athens.

"We are going through a difficult and dangerous period. The Turkish leadership... is undermining the peaceful coexistence that was built over many decades by Greeks and Turks, who saw the sea between them not as an impenetrable frontier but as a passage of communication," Sakellaropoulou said.

Leaders of seven European countries on the Mediterranean met at a summit last week in Corsica where they said they were ready to back EU sanctions on Turkey over the dispute.

Any action by Brussels will be discussed at a European Council summit on September 24 and 25.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday warned Macron "not to mess" with Turkey in his latest verbal salvo directed at Paris.

"Don't mess with the Turkish people. Don't mess with Turkey," Erdogan said during a televised speech in Istanbul.

kan-raz/adp
Vice President Mike Pence has canceled plans to attend a Trump campaign fundraiser in Montana following revelations that the event's hosts had expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theory.

President Donald Trump's reelection campaign told The Associated Press on Saturday that Pence's schedule had been changed.

The campaign did not provide a reason or say whether the fundraiser might be held at a later time.

The change comes after the AP reported Wednesday that hosts Cayrn and Michael Borland in Bozeman, Montana, had shared QAnon memes and retweeted posts from QAnon accounts.

Mike Pence had been due to attend a fundraiser on Monday hosted by QAnon backers

Fundraiser plans: Caryn and Michael Borland will host top Republicans led by Mike Pence next week in Montana. They two have shared QAnon memes and retweeted posts from QAnon accounts - as well as donating six figures to the cash-strapped Donald Trump campaign and posed with the president

Memes: These are just some of the images posted by Michael Borland on his Twitter account. His Pizzagate claim features infamous British pedophile Jimmy Savile, a celebrity whose prolific child abuse was unmasked after his death, but also after decades of suspicion

The baseless conspiracy theory alleges Trump is battling an entrenched bureaucracy and sex trafficking ring run by pedophiles.

Three Republicans seeking election in Montana also had been scheduled to attend the fundraiser - U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, who faces a November challenge from Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock; U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte, a Republican running for governor; and state auditor Matt Rosendale, a candidate for the U.S. House.

Pence, Daines and the other Republican candidates are still scheduled to hold a campaign rally Monday afternoon in Belgrade, near Bozeman.

Pence will host a rally earlier in the day in Wisconsin, an event that was added as a substitute for the fundraiser, the Trump campaign said.

Daines campaign spokesperson Julia Doyle said the first-term senator does not know the Borlands nor 'does he know what QAnon even is.'

She referred questions on whether the event would be rescheduled to the Trump campaign.

Not just Trump: Michael Borland posted proud images of him with Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, at the Trump Hotel in Washington during the RNC

Cards on the table: Michael Borland's Facebook profile shows his support for QAnon

Gianforte, who faces Democratic Gov. Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney in November, also does not know the Borlands or what QAnon is, spokesman Travis Hall said.

A Rosendale spokesman said he was unaware of QAnon.

Rosendale 'isn't focused on false conspiracy theories and the attempts of liberal extremists to smear the President,' spokesman Andy Westberry said in an email. He declined to say if Rosendale knows the Borlands.

The Borlands have donated over $220,000 to Trump's reelection bid, the bulk of which was made in Caryn Borland's name, and they were guests at the national GOP convention last month.

The QAnon narrative has grown to include other long-standing conspiracy theories, gaining traction among some extreme Trump supporters.

The movement is often likened to a right-wing cult. Some followers have run for office, primarily in the Republican Party, though some have been independent or run as third-party candidates.

The president has refused to condemn QAnon, recently telling reporters that the conspiracy theory is 'gaining in popularity' and that its supporters 'like me very much.'

The QAnon theory is an idea that Donald Trump has been sent to save the world from Satanists

QAnon supporters are a regular site at rallies held in support of Trump and Pence

Pence has said it's a conspiracy theory and last month told CBS, 'I don't know anything about QAnon, and I dismiss it out of hand.'

The Borlands have shared multiple QAnon social media posts, as well as other discredited conspiracies.

Michael Borland prominently featured several QAnon 'Q' logos on his Facebook page. Caryn Borland has retweeted or engaged with QAnon Twitter accounts. In April, she responded to a pro-Trump Tweet from a QAnon account by replying 'Always' with a praying hands emoji.

The Borlands have not responded to Pence's decision.
London: A Chinese technology company has compiled a database on tens of thousands of Australian and British figures and their children and families for the use of the country's intelligence agencies.

Files on senior Australia and British politicians, members of the royal family, religious leaders and military officers are stored on a Chinese server as part of a worldwide intelligence collection operation by a private firm that describes its mission as "the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation".

Zhenhua refers to its broader set of databases as the Internet Big Data Military Intelligence System.

The data includes names, dates of birth, educational history, professional biographies and other information scraped from publicly available sources on the internet.

It has compiled profiles on more than 35,000 Australians from Prime Minister Scott Morrison to billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, according to the Australian Financial Review. The company counts among its clients the People's Liberation Army and the Communist Party.
https://www.aish.com/ci/s/Why-is-a-Convicted-Terrorist-Speaking-at-San-Francisco-State-University.html

The university should rescind their invitation to Leila Khaled and take a stand against terrorism.

Fifty years ago, Leila Khaled did all she could to murder Jews and Israelis. She hijacked two planes for the vicious terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and continues to support them and the violence and murder theyre responsible for to this day. She glorifies murder, dismisses violence, and publicly calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.

Shockingly, instead of being repudiated for her murderous history and hateful rhetoric, Khaled has become a radical-chic icon in the West. On September 23, 2020, shes even scheduled to speak at a San Francisco State University virtual event: Teaching Palestine: Pedagogical Praxis in the Indivisibility of Justice. That jargon-loaded title obscures the ugly truth that the online conference is implicitly defending Khaleds violence and attempted murder by asking her to speak. Inviting her normalizes violence against Jews and is completely unacceptable.

Instead of condemning Khaleds blood lust and distancing herself from this would-be mass murderer who openly consorts with other killers, University president Lynn Mahoney has defended Khaleds invitation. We recognize that the exercise of free speech and academic freedom can result in discomfort or pain for others, President Mahoney retorted when she was criticized for hosting Khaled.

Does Pres. Mahoney have any idea of Khaleds hate and propensity for violence? Causing discomfort and pain to others was certainly Khaleds goal in 1969 and 1970 when she helped hijack TWA Flight 840 from Rome Tel Aviv in August 1969, and tried to hijack an El Al flight from Amsterdam to New York in September 1970. During both those hijackings, Khaled was armed and dangerous, and ready to kill and terrorize Jews.

The August 29, 1969 hijacking of TWA Flight 480 shocked Israelis and Jews and made Jews around the world realize they were targets of terrorists no matter where they were. Khaled and another terrorist hijacked the flight after it took off from Rome. They announced theyd planted a bomb on board and forced the plane to divert to Syria.

As soon as the plane touched down in Damascus, Khaled and her accomplice ordered the passengers to get out immediately because the bombs were about to go off. Terrified men, women and children scrambled out of the airplane as quickly as they could. Many were in tears. One elderly woman wet herself in terror. Moments after the passengers left the airplane, the front end of the plane exploded.

Syrian authorities took charge. Though they arrested Khaled and her accomplice, they let them walk free a few weeks later without filing any charges against them. Instead, Syrian authorities seized six of the Israeli passengers. This was only two years after the 1967 Six Day War, in which some Israeli soldiers had been taken captive and tortured in Syria.

The following day, Syria released four of the Israeli passengers. The other two would only be released, Syria announced, once a long list of Arab terrorists were released from Israeli jails. Negotiations went on for months; eventually, 71 Egyptian and Syrian terrorists were released in a prisoner swap for the two Israeli passengers, three months after the hijacking. By then, Khaled and her accomplice had long been freed.

Leila Khaled learned that she would face few, if any, sanctions from the international community for waging a war of terror against Israelis and Jews. She underwent some minor plastic surgery to alter her nose and chin to help her evade security, and then teamed up with the Nicaraguan terrorist group the Sandinista National Liberation Front, to help plan more attacks against Jews.

They cooperated with the PFLP for an audacious, large-scale terror attack: the September 6, 1970 hijacking of four flights, all simultaneously. Khaled and her Nicaraguan accomplice hijacked one of the planes, El Al Flight 219, as it embarked on the second leg of its Tel AvivNew York flight, after stopping over in Amsterdam.

Once the flight was in the air, Khaleds accomplice pulled out a gun and held it to the head of one of the stewardesses. He would shoot her if the pilot didnt open the cockpit door immediately, he announced. (El Al was the only airline in those days to have reinforced, locked cockpit doors, a result of the intensity with which the PFLP targeted them and attempted to hijack El Al planes.) At the same time, Khaled pulled two grenades out of her underclothes, and threatened to blow up the entire plane, which was cruising at 29,000 feet.

The pilot on that flight was Uri Bar Lev, an accomplished pilot whod flown missions as a 16-year-old soldier during Israels War of Independence in 1948. He heard the stewardess frightened message through the cockpit door, and made a split-second decision. Instead of complying, he sent the large passenger jet into a deep nosedive, sending all of the passengers and crew flying to the nose of the plane. As the plane plummeted through the sky, the chief steward on board, Shlomo Vider, charged at the terrorists and was shot several times. El Al knew that its planes were targets for terrorists and placed air marshals on each flight. Air Marshall Avihu Kol also charged the terrorists, killing Khaleds accomplice and arresting Khaled.

With three other hijacked planes in the air, Israeli security issued an order to Bar Lev: Come home"  return to Israel immediately. Yet Bar Lev was concerned about Shlomo Vider. He asked if there were any doctors on board. The only medical professional was a dentist. The flight was about five hours away from Tel Aviv. Bar Lev requested permission to land in London. His quick thinking saved Shlomo Viders life; when Vider was finally brought to a hospital in London, the doctors there later said hed been just five minutes away from death.

Khaled was arrested in London but she was never tried. Britain released her three weeks later in a prisoner swap for passengers whod been hijacked in the other three flights that same day. While she was in prison in London, Khaled wrote a letter to her mother, which was later included in British Prime Minister Edward Heaths personal papers. She describes being treated well by British police, as if I were an official state guest. After being released, Khaled moved to Amman, Jordan, where she continues to reside, a free woman.

Almost immediately, Khaled was lionized in the West as a glamorous figure. She was widely depicted in a series of photos from a PFLP publicity shoot in which shes wearing a keffiyeh scarf, cradling a machine gun, and wearing a ring that she liked to tell interviewers she made all by herself out of a grenade and a bullet. Many Western journalists lapped up the aura she created of a radical freedom-fighter. Her conventional prettiness only added to her allure

From the safety of her home in Jordan, Khaled continues to call for violence against Jews and Israelis. In a 2014 interview, she gave her opinion that the Second Intifada  in which over 1,100 Israelis were killed and over 8,300 were injured  was not violent enough. She called on people to escalate the violence, including using arms.

She supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement aimed at isolating the Jewish state, but doesnt feel it goes far enough. BDS helps us to continue the struggle to isolate Israel, she explained in a 2014 interview, but explained that what she really longs for is physical violence and harm against Israelis.

Khaled continues to profess support for the PFLP which continues to carry out deadly attacks against Jews. Last year 17-year-old Rina Shnerb was hiking with her father and brother Dvir when a bomb set by Samer Arbid, a commander of a PFLP terror cell, exploded on their path. Rina was killed in the terror attack and her father and brother were wounded.

Anyone who supports such wanton murder has no place in civil discourse.

For fifty years, Leila Khaled has been lionized as a glamorous heroine. She shattered a million and one taboos overnight and she revolutionised the thinking of hundreds of other angry young women around the world, wrote British journalist Eileen MacDonald in her 1991 bestselling book Shoot the Women First.

Its time to stop to this obscene lionization of a brutal terrorist. San Francisco State University should rescind their invitation to this terrorist and not give her the luxury of using their school as a platform to spread her odious views.

Write a polite letter to San Francisco State University to ask them to rescind Khaleds invitation to speak. If you do choose to speak out, keep your message polite and civil. Its crucial that we model polite, courteous, constructive speech.

The main phone number of San Francisco State University is (415) 338-1111.
BT, which owns UK mobile operator EE, has pulled the plug on its relationship with retailer Dixons Carphone after more than 20 years, choosing not to renew its contract.

BT's cancellation follows in the wake of O2, which cut ties with Dixons Carphone in April after failing to agree on a partnership deal.

In a statement, A BT spokesperson said: After more than 20 years of close partnership, we have taken the hard decision to not renew our EE Mobile contract with Dixons Carphone and shift our focus and investment to growth in our own stores and online channels. This has not been an easy decision to take and follows many months of challenging discussions and negotiation. However, as our strategy moves toward convergence and our focus on customer value and retention increases, we will be resetting our distribution strategy to prioritise sales and service in our own channels.

Dixons Carphone has been a great partner for many years, and we thank the team for all the work they have done with us helping to grow our business and wish them well as they pursue their own renewed strategy. Customers will not be affected by this change.

Commenting on the move, Kester Mann, director of consumer and connectivity at analyst firm CCS Insight, said the announcement came as no major surprise as UK operators continue to up their focus on direct channels to cut commission to third-parties and build stronger relationships with their own customers.



The news is yet another blow to Carphone Warehouse after O2 exited the embattled retailer earlier this year. Caught in the crossfire of dwindling sales of mobile phones and high-street apathy, Carphone Warehouse was forced to close all 531 standalone stores," he said. With the recent loss of two of its largest customers, its hard to see how Carphone can turn around its mobile business in a market now far more orientated toward retention than acquisition.

In March, Dixons Carphone said it would permanently close all of its 531 Carphone Warehouse mobile phone shops, as it moved towards selling mobile phones online and in its Currys PC World stores.
In 1970, Patriot-News columnist Paul Beers said that the new Founders Hall at Milton Hershey School might well be one of the finest buildings in all of Pennsylvania, if not in the nation.

Founders Hall was dedicated on Sept. 13, 1970  50 years ago. According to Milton Hershey School it was built as the new administrative center in honor of both Milton and Catherine Hershey as cofounders of the school.

Since then its walls have seen countless milestones  high school graduations, gubernatorial inaugural balls, homecoming dances and concerts.

The dedication was held on what would have been the 113th birthday of Milton Hershey and the 60th anniversary year of Milton Hershey School.

Beers wrote, "The buildings architecture is contemporary and functional, with its aim on multi-purpose utility rather than commemorative massiveness. It is not a highly decorated building. Its art is in its construction and engineering, rather than in specific attention-getting art pieces and fixtures.

The building displays remarkable originality without being either a pioneer in architectural style nor a fixed historical model. It is constructed and designed to last at least a century, if not much longer, and the intention is clear that no other structure on the boys school campus ever will replace it as the symbol of Mr. Hersheys heritage.

In the front is a fountain with 50 metal fish, sculpted by Aristides Demetrios, a young artist from San Francisco. The fountain is just an [accoutrement] to Founders Hall, but it has no rival as a fountain in Central Pennsylvania.

The metal fish fountain at Founders Hall, Milton Hershey School in Hershey, Pa., Oct. 16, 2017. (Mark Pynes | mpynes@pennlive.com)HAR

On the stairway leading from the fountain is a plaque listing the 45 Hershey graduates who have given their lives for their country, including the two most recent men, Bruce Anello and Walter L. Goshorn of the class of 1965.

The rotunda of Founders Hall itself is the size, or slightly larger, than the William Penn Memorial Museum. Its dome is 138 feet 10 inches, from the Vermont maple floor, unusually high for a building of its type but not the 272 feet of the State Capitol dome.

The rotunda is 160 feet wide on the outside and 122 feet wide in the interior. It is marble throughout. The crystal chandeliers are from Austria. The grillwork is molded fiberglass. A sweep of marble stairs leads from the rotunda to the balcony of the auditorium chapel.

A sweep of marble stairs leads from the rotunda to the balcony of the auditorium chapel. The rotund is so designed that the boys can suspend artificial ceilings and decorate it as a ballroom for their dances.

To each side of the rotunda are immense lounges, one of which has a lighted map of the Hershey community for the interest of tourists. Off from this lounge is a small auditorium. Sweeping back from the rotunda are two levels of executive offices, inconspicuous from the center of the building.

The auditorium chapel rivals the State Forum for beauty and exceeds it in size and perhaps acoustics. With a seating capacity of 2,640, it could be the finest orchestra hall between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. It has a side entrance, with a portico.



The auditorium has 807 more seats than the State Forum and 536 more seats than the Hershey Community Theater.

As a chapel, it does have a stain glass window but no Christian cross or Star of David in keeping with the non-sectarian tradition of the school. It has a Bible and a stage which can be turned into an altar-like proscenium for religious services. It has two curtains, a new Austin organ, a backstage that is so large it is equivalent to most theaters in total, and a moveable orchestra pit.

Most impressive is the cathedral ceiling of the auditorium, which the largest beam weighing 47 tons. In the back is a large balcony and there are logue-like seats on the side, to give it the pleasing appearance of both a chapel and a theater. The aisles are made of rough brick. The design is Romanesque and the entire atmosphere of this auditorium-chapel is that of compelling seriousness and reverence.

Unquestionably, the auditorium-chapel is the most profound piece of architecture in the entire Founders Hall. By itself, it is one of the most beautiful constructions in all of Pennsylvania.

To the rear of the auditorium are rehearsal rooms for bands, orchestras and choirs, as well as a new school television studio where such projects as conversational German can be broadcast right to the classrooms, cottages and even dining rooms of the boys.

The Camelot dining room, split level, seats 1,700. It is fully carpeted and designed in King Arthur style, with a knight in armor on a horse as decoration. The boys eat from King Arthur patterned plates and with stainless steel ware.

In 1970 when Founders Hall first opened, the Founders Hall Dining Room was called the Camelot Room. It transported middle school students who dined there into a different era through an elegant atmosphere and lessons in etiquette. The Founders Hall Dining Room recently reopened with a new look. (Provided by Milton Hershey School)

Founders Hall has a hallway of distinguished alumni. The pictures begin with Arthur R. Whiteman, class of 1927, and one of Mr. Hersheys first boys and for years a corporate colleague.

In the building are the administrative offices of the school, complete with computer facilities. An open display is there for visitors, with the one-room class that Mr. Hershey attended in 1863-64 taught by his uncle, Elias Hershey.

In the center of the rotunda is a time capsule surrounded by medallion on the marble floor, done by Leif Neandros, of the 12 stages in the life of Mr. Hershey. Among the items put in the time capsule are the signatures of each of the boys now at the school."

Founders Hall is three stories tall and 230,543 square feet, according to the school.

The dome measures 74 feet from the floor to interior ceiling and 137 feet and 3 inches from the floor to the exterior roof.

Inside are an auditorium, the high school dining room, administrative offices and the visitors center.

Founders Hall is being renovated and is closed to the public right now. Renovations started in 2016 and are expected to be completed in November.

Founders Hall was meant to be a source of inspiration for the future and tribute to the past. The classical design elements, including the dome, rotunda, and use of marble are modeled after the Pantheon in ancient Rome. Instead of a cornerstone, Founders Hall includes a time capsule placed in the center of the rotunda, which remains there today. The inscription on the base of the statue of Mr. Hershey with his arm around a student reads: His deeds are his monument. His life is our inspiration. (Provided by Milton Hershey School)

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On Sunday, senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut defended the attack on the ex-navy veteran Madan Sharma and said that the attack was not government-sponsored. He also took a jibe at defence minister Rajnath Singh for highlighting the case, stating that if the Chief Minister is defamed, people will get enraged.

Speaking to reporters, Raut also questioned the silence of the Defence Minister on previous such incidents and added that it is wrong to blame the government.

"There was an attack on a person who worked in the Merchant Navy. I saw that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is taking interest in this issue, let him. If you are a citizen and defame the Chief Minister, then people will get enraged. If such things are told, then attacks can happen - be it you or me. When veterans got attacked in UP, that time Rajnath Singh did not take any action," he said.

Further, condemning the incident he said, "So what if they are from Shiv Sena? They did not ask us and attack. Why blame the government. I condemn any attack on any innocent, but one must maintain peace in society."

READ: Rajnath Singh dials assaulted Navy veteran; condemns Shiv Sena goons' deplorable attack

Madan Sharma: "CM must resign"

Earlier in the day, the Navy veteran Madan Sharma demanded that CM Uddhav Thackeray tender his resignation if he is unable to control the law and order situation in the state. Sharma, who was being discharged from Kandivali's Shatabdi hospital held Thackeray responsible if any untoward situation occurred to him or his family. Sharma's assailants - which include two Sena shakha chiefs have been granted bail.

"Uddhav Thackerayji, if you can't control law and order then resign, let the public decide which government can handle it. Those (assailaints out on bail) are infuriated - hence I ask the CM to arrange for security to me and my family. Uddhav Thackerayji along with his party must apologise to the nation and ensure such an incident must not repeat," he said.

READ: Assaulted Navy veteran seeks CM Uddhav's resignation; reminds him of Cartoonist Balasaheb

62-year-old Navy veteran attacked

On Friday, Shiv Sena goons allegedly attacked an ex-Navy officer over a Whatsapp forward. CCTV footage from the area shows the goons dragging Sharma, slapping him as he tries to run away. Sources report that Sharma- a Kandivali resident, was attacked by goons led by a Shiv Sena 'Shakha' head, who allegedly barged into Sharma's compound. Calling the ex-Navy officer to come out of his house, the Sena unit chief allegedly attacked him. The Whatsapp forward was a satirical cartoon featuring Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and his allies - Sharad Pawar and Sonia Gandhi. The police arrested six people - Shiv Sena Shakha chiefs Kamlesh Kadam, Sanjay Manjre and four others on Friday. All have been granted bail now.

READ: CM Uddhav claims 'plot to defame Maharashtra; My silence isn't weakness'; won't elaborate

READ: Shocker: Sena justifies attack on Ex-Navy officer, says was spontaneous in a fit of Rage"
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On Sunday the LA county sheriffs office tweeted about the protests outside the hospital

Protesters have blocked the entrance to the hospital where the two Los Angeles sheriff's deputies ambushed in a shooting Saturday are fighting for their lives, chanting: 'We hope they f***ing die.'

The officers, one the 31-year-old mother of a six-year-old boy, were shot at the Metro Blue Line station at Willowbrook Avenue and Oak Street in Compton by a male suspect who then fled the scene.

Donald Trump on Sunday said the man who opened fire should face a 'fast trial death penalty' if the deputies die. He earlier called the shooter an 'animal' who needed to be 'hit hard' as the FBI was called in to help investigate.

The president tweeted: 'If they die, fast trial death penalty for the killer. Only way to stop this!' He had rewarded his son Donald Jr. who shared the footage, writing: 'Please pray for these two Sheriff Deputies. Their lives matter!!! #BlueLivesMatter.'

Joe Biden said: 'This cold-blooded shooting is unconscionable and the perpetrator must be brought to justice. Violence of any kind is wrong; those who commit it should be caught and punished. Jill and I are keeping the deputies and their loved ones in our hearts and praying for a full recovery.'

Kamala Harris added: 'Doug and I are keeping the two Los Angeles County Sheriffs deputies in our hearts as they currently fight for their lives after a horrific attack last night. The perpetrator must be brought to justice.'

Shameful footage said to have been taken outside St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood on Saturday night shows as one protester yells: 'I want to deliver a message to the family of the pigs, I hope they f***ing die.' The protesters had been connected to the Black Lives Matter movement on Twitter but that has not been officially confirmed.

Another demonstrator tells police: 'Y'all gonna die one by one. This ain't gonna stop.'

On Sunday the LA county sheriffs office tweeted: 'To the protesters blocking the entrance & exit of the HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM yelling 'We hope they die' referring to 2 LA Sheriff's ambushed today in #Compton: DO NOT BLOCK EMERGENCY ENTRIES & EXITS TO THE HOSPITAL.

'People's lives are at stake when ambulances can't get through.'

Police on Sunday were still hunting the shooter, offering a $100,000 reward. They said: 'The suspect is described as a male Black 28-30 years-old, wearing dark clothing.' He was last seen in a black, four door sedan, cops said.

Protesters have blocked the entrance to the hospital where the two Los Angeles sheriff's deputies ambushed in a shooting Saturday are fighting for their lives, chanting: 'We hope they f***ing die'

Video released by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department shows the moment that male suspect opened fire on two deputies at a Compton bus station

One local faith leader had told KABC: 'They were saying 'Death to the police' and 'Kill the police,' and these are sheriffs, but the message is still the same. They were using all types of curse words and derogatory terms. Unacceptable behavior, because a hospital should be a sanctuary.'

A radio reporter who was near the protest scene was taken into custody, KABC-TV reported. The sheriff's department later tweeted that the reporter interfered with the arrest of a male protester.

Police later added: 'After deputies issued a dispersal order for the unlawful assembly of a group of protesters blocking the hospital emergency entrance & exits, a male adult protester refused to comply & cooperate

'During his arrest, a struggle ensued at which time a female adult ran towards the deputies, ignored repeated commands to stay back as they struggled with the male and interfered with the arrest

'The female adult, who was later identified as a member of the press, did not identify herself as press and later admitted she did not have proper press credentials on her person. Both individuals have been arrested for 148 P.C.'

After shooting multiple rounds at the deputies, the male ran away

A radio reporter who was near the protest scene was taken into custody, KABC-TV reported. The sheriff's department later tweeted that the reporter interfered with the arrest of a male protester

President Trump said that 'animals' must be 'hit hard' after the Los Angeles sheriff's department released video of the gunman who opened fire on two deputies

Video released by the sheriff's department Saturday shows the suspect walking up to the car and immediately opening fire on the male and female officers before running off.

'The gunman walked up on the deputies and opened fire without warning or provocation,' the department said in a post.

Both deputies sustained multiple gunshot wounds and are in critical condition, according to the department's Twitter account.

One has been described as a married 31-year-old mother of a six-year-old boy. The other deputy is a 24-year-old male.

Both graduated from the academy 14 months ago. Neither have been officially named.

During the press conference, Sheriff Villanueva said that the two deputies initiated radio contact after they were shot. They were transported with the assistance of other deputies,' he shared.

'That was a cowardly act,' Villanueva added.

'The two deputies were doing their job, minding their own business, watching out for the safety of the people on the train.'

'Seeing somebody just walk up and start shooting on them. It p***es me off. It dismays me at the same time. There's no pretty way to say it.'

Footage of the protesters surrounding the hospital where they are being treated sparked outrage online.

@themetskipper wrote: 'This is the result of the anti police narrative.'

Capt. Kent Wegner said: 'He walked along the passenger side of the car. He acted as if he was going to walk past the car and then he made a left turn directly toward the car, raised a pistol and fired several rounds inside of the vehicle, striking both of the sheriff's deputies.'

During the press conference, Sheriff Villanueva said that the two deputies initiated radio contact after they were shot

The two deputies, a male and female officer with the Transit Services Bureau, have undergone surgery

'Moments ago, 2 of our Sheriff Deputies were shot in Compton and were transported to a local hospital,' the department said in a Saturday night Twitter post.

'They are both still fighting for their lives, so please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

We will update this thread with information as it becomes available.'

The FBI has shared that they are now assisting in the search for the gunman.

'FBI Los Angeles has offered resources and stands ready to assist in response to reports of an attack on @lasdhq deputies tonight,' FBI Los Angeles said on Twitter.

Capt. Wegener said officers were blanketing the area in search of the suspect seen on the video opening fire with a pistol.

'We have a very, very generic description,' he said.

LAPD Chief Michael Moore tweeted: 'Tonight we pray for these two guardians to survive. I recognize and acknowledge we live in troubled times. But we must as a community work thru our differences while loudly and resoundly condemn violence. Blessed are the Peacemakers.'
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is shown Sunday, March 15, 2020, in Atlanta. AP Photo/John Bazemore

An email obtained by Politico shows a Trump political appointee accusing career scientists at the CDC of undermining the president's messaging on COVID-19.

"CDC to me appears to be writing hit pieces on the administration," Dr. Paul Alexander, a scientific advisor to agency spokesperson Michael Caputo, wrote in the Aug. 8 email.

Caputo and Alexander appear to have successfully delayed publication of a CDC report that recommended against using hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug falsely touted by President Trump as a potential cure for COVID-19, Politico reported.

"Nothing to go out unless I read and agree with the findings... and I tweak it to ensure it is fair and balanced and 'complete,'" Alexander said in the email.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Trump administration officials have sought to water down reports from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Politico reported Friday night, with one political appointee accusing career scientists of trying to undermine the president's campaign to reopen schools.

"CDC to me appears to be writing hit pieces on the administration," Dr. Paul Alexander, a scientific advisor to agency spokesperson Michael Caputo, wrote in an Aug. 8 email to CDC Director Robert Redfield. Alexander, who was appointed this spring by Caputo, a former Trump campaign official, accused scientists of seeking to "hurt the president," according to the email obtained by Politico.

Caputo and his communications staff have worked to delay CDC reports that contradict President Donald Trump's rhetoric. One publication was held back for about a month, according to Politico, for recommending against the use of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug touted by the White House as a potential cure for COVID-19.

The reports, written by career scientists, are known as the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports, and according to Politico, are used to "inform doctors, researchers, and the general public about how Covid-19 is spreading and who is at risk." Jennifer Kates, of the Kaiser Family Foundation's global health work, who has relied on past reports, told Political they are "the go-to place for the public health community to get information that's scientifically vetted."

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The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization of the drug in late-March but revoked it in June after it was found to not be effective against COVID-19 with potentially fatal side-effects. Several scientific studies have also shown that hydroxychloroquine is not effective for COVID-19.

In the Aug. 8 email, Alexander took particular aim at a scientific report that warned of the dangers from reopening schools.

"CDC tried to report as if once kids get together, there will be spread and this will impact school re-opening," Alexander wrote. "Very misleading by CDC and shame on them. Their aim is clear."

Since mid-July, nearly 2,500 schools and campuses have reported confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to a database maintained by the National Education Association. Dozens of schools that reopened have been forced to put students and staff in quarantine. There have been at least 34 deaths.

Alexander, in this missive, said any future reports related to the coronavirus "must be read by someone outside of CDC like myself," calling previous work "outrageous" and "lunacy."

"Nothing to go out unless I read and agree with the findings how they CDC, wrote it and I tweak it to ensure it is fair and balanced and 'complete,'" Alexander told Redfield and other officials.

In a statement to Politico, Caputo defended Alexander, "an Oxford-educated epidemiologist."

Caputo was appointed to his role at the health department in April is and is a loyalist to Trump. He's worked on Republican campaigns since the 1980s and also worked as a public-relations consultant for a Russian state-owned energy company in the 1990s.

Caputo has also asserted conspiracy theories including claiming that the Russia probe and the Ukraine investigation, which led to Trump's impeachment in 2019, were part of a plot to "enrich global insiders like Hunter Biden, George Soros, and more."

"Dr. Alexander advises me on pandemic policy and he has been encouraged to share his opinions with other scientists. Like all scientists, his advice is heard and taken or rejected by his peers," Caputo said in a statement.

Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, suggested the revelation of political interference with the CDC's work should prompt legal action.

"The level of corruption involving public health  meaning more people dying because of it  by Trump and his minions is so, so high, and so, so despicable," he wrote on Twitter. "All of these people should be prosecuted for reckless endangerment."

Trump has repeatedly made claims about the coronavirus that contradicted the information presented by public health experts. The president has also admitted to veteran journalist Bob Woodward of downplaying the severity of the coronavirus pandemic early on.

"I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down because I don't want to create a panic," Trump told Woodward on March 19.

The CDC did not reply to Business Insider's request for comment at the time of publication.

Have a news tip? Email this reporter: cdavis@insider.com

Read the original article on Business Insider
Position Paper of the People's Republic of China on the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations

2020/09/10

I. The year 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations (UN) and the 75th anniversary of the end of the World Anti-Fascist War and the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. Seventy-five years ago, with the determination to "save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind", we the peoples founded the UN as the most universal, representative and authoritative international organization and established an international order and system underpinned by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. Thus began a new era in mankind's pursuit of peace and development.

Over the past 75 years, with peace as its mission, the UN has set up and operated a collective security mechanism, engaged in active mediation to settle disputes peacefully and deployed over 70 peacekeeping missions to conflict zones. In the past three quarters of a century, the UN has been instrumental in mitigating regional conflicts, preventing new world wars, and maintaining overall peace and stability in the world.

Over the past 75 years, with development as its goal, the UN has capitalized on the trend of economic globalization and mobilized resources on a global scale to establish and implement the Millennium Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. With its help, billions of people are marching toward modernization. Smallpox and many other infectious diseases that plagued humanity for millennia were eradicated. A large number of developing countries moved into the fast lane of development.

Over the past 75 years, with equity as its founding principle, the UN has promoted equality among countries, large and small, as well as the spirit of democracy. Under its auspices, the 193 Member States set international rules together, run global affairs together and share development fruits together.

The COVID-19 pandemic is compounding the once-in-a-century transformations unfolding in our world. We are entering a period of turbulence and change, and witnessing the rise of protectionism, unilateralism and bullying practices. Certain countries and political forces keep playing the blame game, clamoring for "decoupling", and pulling out of international organizations and agreements. What they are doing is sabotaging international cooperation, stoking confrontation between ideologies and social systems, and putting the world in serious jeopardy.

Such actions notwithstanding, peace and development remain the theme of our times. The rise of emerging markets and developing countries remains unchanged, the trend toward a multi-polar world remains unchanged, and continuous economic globalization despite twists and turns remains unchanged.

In this context, all countries need to look beyond the pandemic and find answers to major questions such as what the world will look like and what kind of UN the world needs. We should all work together to draw a new and better blueprint for the sake of succeeding generations.

II. The 75th anniversary of the UN presents important opportunities. As the world battles COVID-19, it is all the more important to renew the founding mission of the UN, forge international consensus on building a community with a shared future for mankind, and build an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity.

1. Countries should jointly uphold the outcome of World Anti-Fascist War and oppose any attempt to turn back the clock of history. We must reject unilateralism, hegemonism and power politics. We must champion multilateralism, safeguard the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, defend the UN-centered international system and the international order underpinned by international law, and work together to make international relations more democratic, rules-based and equitable.

2. All countries are equal, irrespective of their size, strength or wealth. We need to respect other countries' independent choice of social system and development path, oppose interference in internal affairs, and promote a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness, justice and win-win cooperation.

3. We need to work for a new model of international development partnership that is more equitable and balanced, and consolidate the cooperation architecture with the UN at its core, North-South cooperation as the main channel and South-South cooperation as a supplement. We should strengthen international cooperation on poverty reduction and prioritize this endeavor in implementing the 2030 Agenda so as to eradicate extreme poverty as early as possible.

We must uphold the WTO-centered and rules-based multilateral trading regime, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and build an open world economy. We should all create an enabling environment for sustainable development and make economic globalization more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all.

4. In view of the weaknesses and deficiencies exposed by COVID-19, we need to improve the governance system for public health security. We need to respond more quickly to public health emergencies and establish global and regional reserve centers of anti-epidemic supplies. We need to increase policy dialogue and exchange. All parties should put people's life and health front and center, place public health security high on the international agenda, and build a global community of health for all.

5. We need to respect nature, follow its ways and protect it. We need to seek harmonious coexistence between man and nature, pursue sustainable development of economy, society and environment as well as well-rounded human development, and improve global ecological conservation. We need to encourage green, low-carbon, circular and sustainable ways of life and production, and address climate change with concrete actions to protect our shared planet.

6. We need to advocate consultation, cooperation and shared benefits in global governance and adopt a Member States-led and action-oriented approach to improve the global governance system. The aim is to make it better reflect the changing international landscape and the aspirations and interests of the majority of countries, especially emerging markets and developing countries, and to tackle global challenges more effectively.

III. The 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, taking place at this special moment, carries great significance. "The Future We Want, the UN We Need: Reaffirming Our Collective Commitment to Multilateralism", the theme of the commemoration events, is highly relevant. China hopes that all parties will focus on this theme, re-energize the international peace and development agenda, and bring hope and confidence to people around the world.

1. We need to strengthen solidarity and reject any politicization or stigmatization associated with COVID-19. We should fully leverage the key leadership of the World Health Organization (WHO), and take concerted global action to combat the disease. We need to increase information sharing, policy communication and action coordination, speed up the research and development of medicines, vaccines and testing, and strive for earlier breakthroughs. While maintaining vigilance against the virus, countries where conditions permit may reopen businesses and schools in an orderly fashion in compliance with WHO's professional recommendations, and make timely and calibrated adjustments as the COVID-19 situation evolves.

2. This year marks the beginning of the Decade of Action to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We need to support relevant UN endeavors and put development at the center of international cooperation. Efforts should focus on poverty reduction, food security, education, health and other areas of common concern for developing countries. More resources should be pooled to support developing countries, including in funding, technology and capacity-building. They deserve a better external environment.

The impact of COVID-19 on developing countries deserves great attention from the international community. There must be joint actions to help countries in need pool resources to tackle COVID-19, stabilize the economy, and realize the SDGs as planned.

China is working with other G20 members to implement the Debt Service Suspension Initiative for the poorest countries. And we call for debt suspension over a longer time-frame. We need to bolster support for the hardest-hit countries under the greatest debt strain, and encourage international financial institutions and private creditors to take concrete actions to help this effort.

3. The international community should work toward full and faithful interpretation and effective implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement, and advance toward an equitable climate governance regime that is cooperative and beneficial to all. Biodiversity loss and the deterioration of the ecosystem pose grave risks to human development. As the host of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, China stands ready to work with all parties for an ambitious, balanced and action-oriented post-2020 global biodiversity framework.

4. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women. The international community should further the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and highlight the protection of women and girls' rights and interests in COVID-19 response. The UN should focus more on ending violence, discrimination and poverty and bridging the digital gender divide, and increase the representation of women in the UN system.

5. China welcomes the global ceasefire appeal by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and calls for ceasefire and cessation of violence by all relevant parties as soon as possible. The Security Council needs to act as the international collective security mechanism, assume primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security, and work for the political settlement of regional issues.

China strongly opposes any unfounded threat or use of force, unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction. No enforcement action shall be taken without Security Council authorization. The UN needs to improve the capacity of peacekeeping operations to fulfill their mandate, observe the three principles of "consent of parties, impartiality, and non-use of force except in self-defense and defense of the mandate", and help post-conflict countries build lasting peace.

The Palestinian issue is at the heart of the Middle East issue. China supports the Palestinian people's efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state that enjoys full sovereignty on the basis of the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital. We support Palestine's greater participation in international affairs as a state. We also support Palestine's legitimate demands and all efforts that are conducive to the settlement of the Palestinian issue.

The two-state solution is the right way forward. Dialogue and negotiation between Palestine and Israel as equal parties should be advanced on the basis of relevant UN resolutions, the "land for peace" principle and the Arab Peace Initiative, among other international consensus and norms. More efforts are needed from the international community to promote peace in an objective and impartial manner.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), endorsed by the Security Council in Resolution 2231, is an important outcome of multilateral diplomacy and a key element of the global non-proliferation architecture. Upholding the JCPOA is conducive to safeguarding multilateralism, the international system underpinned by international law, and peace and stability in the Middle East. China firmly upholds the authority of UNSCR 2231 and the validity of the JCPOA.

All stipulations in UNSCR 2231, including provisions on the lifting of arms embargo, should be implemented in good faith. The country which pulled out of the JCPOA has no legal right to trigger the "snapback" mechanism to reimpose sanctions on Iran unilaterally. China will work with the parties concerned and the broader international community to uphold the JCPOA and UNSCR 2231, safeguard multilateralism, and seek a political and diplomatic settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue.

Political settlement is also the only way forward for Afghanistan. China supports the Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process. We encourage and support broad-based and inclusive dialogue and talks among relevant parties in Afghanistan, and hope that they will make independent decisions on the country's future, prevent the country from relapsing into a breeding ground or shelter for terrorism and extremism, and achieve lasting peace and all-round development at an early date. The withdrawal of foreign troops should be conducted in an orderly and responsible manner. The international community needs to step up coordination and increase input to facilitate peace, reconciliation and reconstruction in the country.

6. Bearing in mind that "a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought", nuclear-weapon states should abandon nuclear deterrence policies based on preemptive moves, reduce the role of nuclear weapons in national security policy, stop developing and deploying global anti-ballistic missile systems, and prevent weaponization and arms race in the outer space. These efforts are essential for global strategic balance and stability. The United States withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and its attempt to deploy land-based intermediate-range missiles overseas will severely disrupt global strategic stability and undermine international and regional peace and security. China firmly opposes such moves.

In nuclear disarmament, countries should follow a step-by-step approach based on the principles of "maintaining global strategic stability" and "undiminished security for all countries". Countries with the largest nuclear arsenals have special and primary responsibilities in nuclear disarmament. They should extend the New START Treaty and make further cuts to their nuclear stockpile. China will not accede to the unfair and unreasonable call to join any of the so-called trilateral arms control negotiations with the United States and Russia.

Countries should work together to uphold the authority and efficacy of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and strive for positive outcomes at the tenth NPT review conference. We should firmly support the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and its early entry into force. We should uphold multilateralism, fully leverage the lead role of the UN, and faithfully observe the NPT, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction, and UN Security Council Resolution 1540. The aim is to build a just and inclusive international non-proliferation regime.

7. Global cooperation is needed to address non-traditional security threats. We must guard against the resurgence of terrorism around the world. International counter-terrorism cooperation can only be strengthened, not weakened. Combating terrorism requires a holistic strategy that addresses both the symptoms and root causes to remove its breeding ground. Terrorism and extremism should not be linked with any particular country, ethnicity or religion, and there should not be any double standards. COVID-19 sounded the alarm on global biosecurity governance. Countries should work more closely to prevent the threat of biological weapons and bioterrorism and promote the sound development of biotechnology for the benefit of mankind. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on global food security. It is imperative that countries further modernize the agricultural sector, increase productivity, engage in international cooperation and work together for an equitable, reasonable, sustainable and stable agricultural trade order. More technological and financial support should be given to developing countries, especially the least developed countries, to better safeguard food security in these countries.

8. The international community should step up dialogue and cooperation, on the basis of mutual respect and mutual benefit, to use cyberspace for economic and social development, international peace and stability, and global well-being. It is essential to oppose cyber war and arms race and to foster a peaceful, secure, open, cooperative and orderly cyberspace. The pressing task is to develop an international code of conduct for cyberspace that is acceptable to all. China opposes any country's overstretching the concept of national security to restrict normal information and communications technology (ICT) development and cooperation.

The ICT revolution is advancing rapidly, and the digital economy is thriving. Together with them come increasingly salient risks and challenges to data security. It is urgent to make international rules in this area that reflect the views and interests of the majority of countries. To this end, China proposes the Global Initiative on Data Security, which mainly includes:

-standing against ICT activities that impair or steal important data of other States' critical infrastructure;

-taking actions to prevent and put an end to activities that jeopardize personal information through the use of ICTs and opposing massive surveillance over other States with ICTs as a tool;

-encouraging and respecting companies' independent decision to choose data storage location, and refraining from forcing domestic companies to store data gathered and obtained overseas in their own territory;

-refraining from obtaining data located in other States through companies or individuals without other States' permission; and

-ICT products and service providers should not install backdoors in their products and services.

China calls on all governments and companies to support this Initiative, jointly shoulder global responsibility in the digital era, and realize win-win cooperation and common development.

9. 5G security is a technical issue. Any related assessment and conclusion should therefore be made based on facts and science. Access to the 5G market should be decided by the market and companies involved.

As for governments, they should treat all 5G companies in a non-discriminatory manner, uphold the principles of free trade and market competition, and enable an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment. No government should politicize 5G, or abuse the notion of national security to exclude or restrict a particular company.

Like other technologies, 5G belongs to mankind and should be used to benefit all.

10. Countries should conduct international human rights cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual respect, and reject the politicization of human rights and the practice of double standards. The Human Rights Council and other UN agencies should work in an impartial, objective and non-selective manner, facilitate international exchanges and cooperation on human rights, and promote balanced progress of the two categories of human rights, especially the rights to subsistence and development.

Under the current circumstances, it is imperative to address police brutality, failure in protecting people's rights to life and health during the COVID-19 response, and racial discrimination in certain countries, issues that have caused grave concerns of the international community. Only in this way can we realize the lofty goal of "human rights for all".

11. Countries should support the UN, UNHCR and other multilateral organizations as the main channel in addressing the refugee issue. Countries should work to ensure the effective implementation of the Global Compact of Refugees, and do their part under the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. It is important to address war, conflict, poverty, underdevelopment and other root causes, and create conditions for the voluntary, safe and sustainable return of refugees.

While unbalanced development is the main underlying cause of migration, migration has been a key driver for development. Efforts must be focused on development issues that lie at the heart of irregular migration, and prioritize sustainable development throughout the process of global migration governance.

Countries of origin, transit and destination should step up coordination and collaboration as they implement the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. The implementation of the Compact must be based on respect for national sovereignty, take into full account conditions of different countries, and accommodate the interests of all parties.

12. China supports better protection of intellectual property (IP) in the world. China is committed to improving the global governance system for intellectual property and promoting global IP governance featuring consultation, cooperation and shared benefits.

China will remain an active advocate, promoter and player in global cooperation on intellectual property and a staunch defender, participant and contributor of international IP rules.

In the face of COVID-19, countries need to step up international cooperation on IP protection, jointly address the challenges brought by the virus, and help create an enabling environment for innovators and market entities of all countries.

13. China appreciates and supports the efforts of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in advancing the reforms of the United Nations in recent years.

The UN needs to respond to the new situation and new tasks, and rally all parties together in a commitment to multilateralism. According to the mandates of relevant resolutions, the UN should work to improve efficiency, enhance its ability to respond to global challenges, strengthen the capacity of its development system to support Member States in implementing the 2030 Agenda, and enhance oversight and accountability. In terms of staff representation and resources distribution, the needs and interests of developing countries should be reflected as they account for four-fifths of the UN membership and 80% of the world population. All possible efforts should be made to meet the expectations from the international community.

IV. China is a founding member of the UN and the first country to sign the Charter. As the largest developing country and a permanent member of the Security Council, China embraces the lofty ideals of the UN by contributing to humanity's cause of peace and development and promoting with concrete actions a community with a shared future for mankind.

1. China follows a path of peaceful development. We have never sought invasion, territorial expansion or spheres of influence. We are committed to developing friendship and cooperation with all countries on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence. At the same time, we will firmly defend China's sovereignty and dignity, uphold China's legitimate rights and interests, and safeguard international justice and equity.

China actively looks for the settlement of major regional hotspots such as the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, the Iranian nuclear issue, Afghanistan, Myanmar, the Middle East, and Syria. As we pursue solutions to global and regional hotspot issues, we seek to do it in a Chinese way.

China has dispatched more than 40,000 peacekeepers to over 30 missions, contributing more peacekeepers than any other permanent member of the Security Council. The Chinese peacekeepers are highly commended by both the UN and the host countries for their strict discipline and professionalism.

2. China has ensured that the basic needs of its 1.4 billion people are met. This year, China will lift out of poverty all of its rural residents living below the current poverty line, and complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects. This will be a great contribution to human progress.

China is advancing the implementation of the 2030 Agenda at home in all respects, in line with its new philosophy of innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development. China is among the first to have published a National Plan and two Progress Reports on the implementation of the Agenda, and has achieved early harvests in many areas.

China is working with other countries to put development front and center in the global macro policy framework and seek greater synergy between the Belt and Road Initiative and the 2030 Agenda. China is helping other developing countries within the South-South cooperation framework with their implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

China will continue to pursue a win-win strategy of opening-up and share its development experience and opportunities with countries around the world. China's effective COVID-19 response and head start in business reopening gives us a good opportunity to promote an open world economy at a higher level and foster a new, dual-cycle development architecture with the domestic cycle as the mainstay and with domestic and international development reinforcing each other. Such efforts will contribute to global economic recovery and bring new development opportunities to the rest of the world.

3. No human right is more important than the right to a happy life. As a country that respects and safeguards human rights, China applies the universal principles of human rights in light of the national context, promotes the mutually reinforcing development of democracy and people's well-being, and pursues peace and development in parallel. It is committed to promoting and protecting human rights through greater development. This is a path of human rights development that suits China's national reality.

While vigorously promoting human rights at home, China follows the principles of equality, mutual trust, inclusiveness, mutual learning, win-win cooperation and common development. It takes an active part in UN human rights affairs, earnestly fulfills its international human rights obligations, and carries out extensive international cooperation on human rights. It is contributing Chinese wisdom and solutions to global governance on human rights.

4. China is firmly committed to safeguarding the UN-centered global governance system, the basic norms of international relations underpinned by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, the authority and stature of the UN, and the central role of the UN in international affairs. As a member to nearly all universal inter-governmental organizations and a signatory to over 500 international conventions, China has faithfully fulfilled its international obligations and honored its international commitments. China will work with the global community to fight back attempts to undermine the international order or trample on international rules.

5. In the face of COVID-19, China has actively responded to the UN-initiated Global Humanitarian Response Plan: a cash donation of US$50 million to WHO, assistance in kind to over 150 countries and international organizations, and medical exports to more than 200 countries and regions.

At the opening of the 73rd World Health Assembly, President Xi Jinping announced that China will provide US$2 billion in international assistance over two years, work with the UN to set up a global humanitarian response depot and hub in China, establish a cooperation mechanism for its hospitals to pair up with 30 African hospitals, make China's COVID-19 vaccine development and deployment, when available, a global public good, and work with other G20 members to implement the Debt Service Suspension Initiative for the poorest countries. China will implement these measures in letter and spirit, and contribute to the building of a global community of health for all.

6. While facing formidable development tasks at home such as improving people's well-being, China has readily taken international responsibilities commensurate to its development stage and national conditions, and has taken a host of policy actions in response to climate change. China's climate target for 2020 has been met ahead of schedule, a significant contribution to the global response to climate change.

An active participant in global climate governance, China is among the first state parties to the UNFCCC, and has made important contribution to the conclusion of the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement and its implementation guidelines. Thanks to the concerted efforts of China and other parties, the 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Madrid produced a set of decisions that upheld multilateralism and reflected the consensus on climate governance, laying the groundwork for follow-up negotiations.

7. At the 2015 summit meetings commemorating the 70th anniversary of the United Nations, President Xi Jinping announced a host of important initiatives and measures in support of the work of the UN. All of them have now been delivered on the ground.

China has registered an 8,000-strong standby force and a 300-member permanent police squad for UN peacekeeping missions. Six of its standby contingents have been elevated to Level Three in the UN Peacekeeping Capability Readiness System. As such, China now has the biggest standby force and most varieties of contingents among all UN Member States. The China-UN Peace and Development Fund has provided a total of US$67.7 million for over 80 projects, supporting the UN's efforts in areas such as peacekeeping, counter-terrorism, energy, agriculture, infrastructure, health and education.

China has assisted other developing countries with 180 poverty reduction projects, 118 agricultural cooperation projects, 178 aid-for-trade projects, 103 projects on ecological conservation and climate change, 134 hospitals and clinics, and 123 educational and vocational training institutes. The South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund has supported over 80 projects in more than 30 developing countries, injecting impetus for global sustainable development. China has also made important contribution to women's development in the world. With a donation of US$10 million to UN Women, China is the largest contributor among developing countries. It has completed 133 health projects for women and children and invited over 30,000 women from other developing countries to training programs in China.

Under the new circumstances, China will continue to shoulder its responsibilities and make its contribution as a major country. It will provide more global public goods and contribute its share to world peace and development. China will work with countries around the world to uphold and carry forward multilateralism, join the UN on a new journey with renewed commitments, and build a community with a shared future for mankind.
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At 30, Hoang Anh Duc is laser-focused on developing his countrys education sector.

Duc graduated as a valedictorian from the Maastricht School of Management (MSM) in the Netherlands.

He was listed among 30 talented young Vietnamese on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Vietnam list of 2020 thanks to the waves he is making in Vietnams education sector.

Life-long learner

Duc works to achieve his vision for education in Vietnam through his role as CEO for EdLab Asia, a non-profit education hub that focuses on administrative consultancy, school improvement, curriculum design, and teacher training courses.

EdLab Asia was started with the aim of becoming a center for educational studies and application, operating under the business model of a social enterprise, Duc explained.

EdLab Asias consultancy work is primarily targeted at private schools. The profits from such work are then used to finance endeavors geared toward supporting the nationwide community of educators.

Though Duc has successfully elevated several education institutions, his own educational journey was a bumpy road and, by his own admission, his outlook on his own studies involved simply meeting the lowest benchmarks needed to graduate.

The only forms of studying that interested me were learning via newspapers, virtual lessons, and field experiences. Such things deeply inspired me and helped me become aware of the importance of life-long learning and essential skills in the new era, Duc said.

Ducs view on education has evolved over the years to encompass the important role passion and discipline play in an individuals life-long learning.

He sees the mobilization of passionate, disciplined individuals as the key to improving the state of education in Vietnam.

It is critical for each individual to develop a capacity to learn by themselves in order to find their life path, Duc said, adding that knowledge is a primary element of organizational problem-solving.

Individuals can contribute to the learning capacity of organizations, institutions, and the country as a whole."

Tapping potential

Doing research on educational development for the last few years has led Duc to reckon that it is each individuals personal mindset that remains the biggest obstacle in their obtainment of new knowledge.

The simplest but also most challenging thing for individuals to do is to recognize their own failures and overcome their personal experiences to accept opinions that are different from their own, Duc said, adding that education is a meaningful path that helps a person build their own critical thinking while maintaining openness, independence, and collaboration.

Given this perspective, EdLabs educational philosophy is primarily geared toward creative and critical thinking.

The centers practical activities are all based on the foundation of social science research, including educational science and psychology.

More than money

Apart from its advisory operations, EdLab also publishes the online magazine Day va Hoc (Teaching and Learning), a free resource for educators that doubles as an opportunity for Edlab to obtain constructive feedback.

Currently, translated content accounts for about 80 percent of the site, but in the long run, EdLab hopes to gradually increase the number of original articles sharing practical experience in Vietnam in order to better relate to its Vietnamese audience.

Day va Hoc has been publishing two issues of about 40 pages each month for the past two years.

Features in the magazine are written by experts and educational managers from Vietnam and abroad.

Each of the 25 issues published has garnered between 10,000 and 11,000 views on the platform.

Even with its successes, Duc said EdLab still faces many hurdles, particularly personnel optimization.

It took us between six months and a year to train a capable researcher. Its difficult for them to strike a balance between research and improving administrative skills, which affects our ability to expand projects, he said.

EdLab is financed by its consultancy operations and sponsors. Ducs team has raised funds for some projects but not Day va Hoc, as they want to maintain the magazines independence and integrity.

We have received numerous offers of lucrative sponsorship deals for Day va Hoc over the last two years but we have rejected them altogether or suggested that the sponsorship be publicly announced [to readers] or implied in articles, Duc said.

We believe that in education theres no room to make compromises for money."

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Several states have seen surges in teachers filing for retirement or taking leaves of absence

With many teachers opting out of returning to the classroom because of the coronavirus, schools around the U.S. are scrambling to find replacements and in some places lowering certification requirements to help get substitutes in the door.

Several states have seen surges in educators filing for retirement or taking leaves of absence. The departures are straining staff in places that were dealing with shortages of teachers and substitutes even before the pandemic created an education crisis.

Among those leaving is Kay Orzechowicz, an English teacher at northwest Indianas Griffith High School, who at 57 had hoped to teach for a few more years. But she felt her schools leadership was not fully committed to ensuring proper social distancing and worried that not enough safety equipment would be provided for students and teachers.

Kay Orzechowicz poses Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020, for a portrait at her Griffith, Ind., home. After 35 years of teaching, Orzechowicz said COVID-19 pushed her over the edge to retire from northwest Indianas Griffith High School at the end of July. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Add the technology requirements and the pressure to record classes on video, and Orzechowicz said it just wasnt what I signed up for when I became a teacher.

Overall, there was just this utter disrespect for teachers and their lives, she said. Were expected to be going back with so little. When school leaders said teachers would be going back in-person, full throttle, thats when I said, Im not doing it. No.

Read More: South Carolina elementary school teacher, 28, dies from COVID-19

Teachers in at least three states have died after bouts with the coronavirus since the start of the new school year. Its unclear how many teachers in the U.S. have become ill with COVID-19, but Mississippi alone reported 604 cases among teachers and staff.

In cases where teachers are exposed to the virus, they could face pressure to return to the classroom. The Trump administration has declared teachers to be critical infrastructure workers in guidance that could give the green light to exempting them from quarantine requirements.

Story continues

Throughout Indiana, more than 600 teacher retirements have been submitted since July, according to state data. Although the state gets most of its teacher retirements during the summer, surveys suggest more retirements than usual could happen as the calendar year progresses, said Trish Whitcomb, executive director of the Indiana Retired Teachers Association.

Ive gotten more (teachers) calling me back saying, Well, Im going to go ahead and retire, Whitcomb said. Some still wanted to go back in the classroom, but they didnt think the risk was worth it. They looked at their grandkids and the life they have, and I think theyre saying, Im just not going to do it.

In Salt Lake County, Utah, the states most populated metropolitan area, more than 80 teachers have either resigned or retired early because of concerns about COVID-19 in schools. More than half of those happened in one of the countys five school districts, Granite School District. All of the districts teachers who left were fined $1,000 for failing to give 30 days notice.

Mike McDonough, president of the Granite Education Association teachers union, said the departures stem from frustration over how the schools have reopened. In Granite, most students will return to in-person instruction for four days a week, and there are few opportunities for teachers to instruct solely online.

FL Sen. Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) is forcing teachers & kids to return to school in a pandemic but his grandchildren won't be going back  for safety reasons.



The ruling class govern as if the lives of average people have far less value than the rich.  Lee Camp [Redacted] (@LeeCamp) July 22, 2020

Some teachers waited until the last minute, hoping that the district would change its reopening plan. But checking out of the classroom was the only way to keep themselves safe, he said.

Teachers are still scared and overwhelmed, McDonough said. I have heard from teachers that are just heartbroken to leave the classroom, but they didnt feel safe going back. They dont want that level of risk, and they have no other choice but to get out.

Education leaders in states including Arizona, Kansas, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Texas have said they are bracing for worsening teacher shortages as the pandemic drives away some educators.

To try to maintain staffing levels in classrooms, the Missouri Board of Education made it easier to become a substitute teacher under an emergency rule. Instead of the previous requirement  60 hours of college credit  eligible substitutes now only need to obtain a high school diploma, complete a 20-hour online training course and pass a background check.

Iowa responded similarly, relaxing coursework requirements and the minimum working age for newly hired substitutes.

In Connecticut, college students have been asked to step in as substitutes. Michele Femc-Bagwell, director of the teacher education program at the University of Connecticut, said the school has been getting requests to use fifth-year graduate students as substitute teachers. Heavy class loads and internship responsibilities, though, limit their availability to one day a week.

Many who work as substitutes are retired teachers such as 67-year-old Margaret Henderson, of Phoenix, who said she will not return as she had planned.

I dont want to get called into a classroom where a teacher has called out because of the virus or to quarantine.  And we know thats going to happen more and more, Henderson said. There are still uncertainties about the safety of reopening the school buildings. Can you blame (substitutes) for not wanting to go in?

Read More: Texas teacher placed on leave for BLM and LGBTQ posters in virtual classroom

In rural Iowas Hinton Community Schools, Hinton High School Principal Phil Goetstouwers said the school is already down to a third of the substitute teachers it had last year. More than half of those are also willing to sub in other districts, he said, making it even more troublesome when teachers are absent.

Allen Little, who retired as a math teacher in Sioux City, Iowa, this past spring, said the complexities of teaching during the pandemic made him decide to retire three years earlier than he had planned. Although he anticipated returning to work as a part-time substitute this fall, fears about the virus are holding him back. He encouraged his son, who is studying to be a social studies teacher and who considered getting experience as a substitute, to weigh the risks carefully.

Were thinking about students, our schools, our community with every decision we make, Little said. But we also have to think about ourselves and our families. Whats best for us, maybe more and more of us  is not being inside the classrooms right now.

Associated Press Writer Pat Eaton-Robb contributed to this report from Hartford, Connecticut.

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The post Teacher departures leave schools scrambling for substitutes appeared first on TheGrio.
LOS ANGELES - Authorities searched Sunday for a gunman who shot and critically wounded two Los Angeles County sheriffs deputies who were sitting in their squad car  an apparent ambush that drew a reward for information and an angry response from the president.

The 31-year-old female deputy and 24-year-old male deputy underwent surgery Saturday evening, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said in a late-night news conference. Both graduated from the academy 14 months ago, he said.

They performed in an admirable fashion in spite of grave adversity, Villanueva said Sunday during a conversation with local religious leaders. God bless them, it looks like theyre going to be able to recover.

He said the wounded female deputy was able to get help for the male deputy by calling in on the police radio despite having been shot.

Theyve survived the worst, he added.

The deputies were shot while sitting in their patrol car at a Metro rail station, the sheriff said. Villanueva, whose department has been criticized during recent protests over racial unrest, expressed frustration during his Saturday night briefing over anti-police sentiment as he urged people to pray for the deputies.

It pisses me off. It dismays me at the same time, he said.

The department tweeted video of the shooting that shows a person approach the parked patrol car on foot and shoot through the passenger-side window.

The gunman walked up on the deputies and opened fire without warning or provocation, the department stated.

An extended version of the video reviewed by the Los Angeles Times shows the shooter running away in the direction he came. He turns a corner out of the frame, past a second figure lingering on the sidewalk, according to the Times. Its unclear if the second person was involved in the attack. A sheriffs department spokeswoman declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.

Moments after the shooting, the passenger door opens and a deputy stumbles out, hand on head, according to the newspaper. The drivers-side door opens soon after.

The video sparked a reaction from President Trump who responded on Twitter, Animals that must be hit hard!

This cold-blooded shooting is unconscionable and the perpetrator must be brought to justice, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden tweeted. Violence of any kind is wrong; those who commit it should be caught and punished.

A handful of protesters gathered outside the hospital where the injured deputies were being treated. The protesters tried to provoke deputies stationed outside and at one point were prevented from entering the emergency room, Bishop Juan Carlos Mendez with the Churches in Action group told the TV station KABC.

Unacceptable behaviour. The hospital should be a sanctuary, we should leave hospitals alone, he said. Mendez and members of his group gathered nearby in prayer for the wounded deputies.

Although the sheriffs department tweeted that the protesters were blocking emergency entrances and exits to the hospital, video showed only a handful of men outside, some taking video on their phones.

A radio reporter who was near the protest scene was taken into custody. The sheriffs department later tweeted that the reporter interfered with the arrest of a male protester.

The female adult, who was later identified as a member of the press, did not identify herself as press and later admitted she did not have proper press credentials on her person, the department stated.

After being released, Josie Huang, a reporter for public radio station KPCC, a National Public Radio affiliate, said on Twitter Sunday that she had been covering the sheriffs news conference when she returned to the hospital after hearing protesters shouting. She was wearing her press pass and called out to deputies that she was press, she said.

One of several videos Huang said she shot moments before her arrest showed two men carrying red, black and green flags and yelling at deputies outside the hospital while a few other people stood by recording on their cellphones.

Huang tweeted that she began walking behind deputies who were following the small group of protesters.

I was filming an arrest when suddenly deputies shout back up. Within seconds, I was getting shoved around. There was nowhere to back up, Huang said on Twitter. In another video, Huang can be heard shouting Im a reporter... Im with KPCC as she falls to the ground.

The executive editor of the station, Megan Garvey, expressed outrage over the arrest and said her reporter appeared to be wearing her credentials and had shouted her KPCC affiliation. NPRs Editorial Director Nancy Barnes said the network was appalled by the arrest of a reporter doing her job.

The office of the Los Angeles County Inspector General, which oversees investigations and actions of the Sheriffs Department, has opened an investigation into the reporters arrest.

Meanwhile, the search for the gunman continued. Sheriffs officials announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Capt. Kent Wegener said Saturday that officers were blanketing the area in search of the suspect seen on the video opening fire with a pistol.

We have a very, very generic description, he said.

The incident happened around 7 p.m. a short distance from the Compton sheriffs station south of downtown Los Angeles.

The U.S. Justice Department would assist sheriffs investigators with all federal tools available, spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said on Twitter.

Protesters have railed against the LA Sheriffs Department for weeks over recent shootings by deputies, including the killing of a man on a bicycle last month. There was no known connections between the recent shootings and Saturdays ambush and investigators are chasing all leads, Villanueva told the Times.

Of course, theres an important conversation going on about policing in this country, but these are folks who put their lives on the line for us, and we will find justice for them, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said on CNN Sunday.
Prince William and Kate Middleton have been the pillars of the monarchy amid the coronavirus crisis. However, they could be at risk soon from the same virus that they are fighting.

As the whole U.K. slowly begins to reopen establishments, Prince William and Kate have returned to their London home to prepare Prince George and Princess Charlotte for the reopening of their school. The two young royals have been homeschooled since March 2020.

Prince George and Princess Charlotte are set to attend the Thomas's Battersea school in south-west London to begin Year Three and Year One, respectively.

Meanwhile, the youngest Cambridge, Prince Louis, is not yet attending school since he just turned two last April.

However, living in London -- the borough of Kensington and Chelsea -- is putting Prince William, Kate and the whole Cambridges' lives at risk. This is because there is a greater risk of infection in the said borough compared to Norfolk.

Currently, there are 721 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Kensington and Chelsea, which means there is a rate of 461.8 people being infected out of 100,000.

Compared to Norfolk which has 3,186 confirmed cases, its rate is only 351 per 100,000 people.

This is based on the "online calculator" tool created by experts at Imperial College London. They found out that Kensington and Chelsea is the borough most at risk of becoming a coronavirus "hotspot" soon. The area is also said to have a 57 percent chance of becoming a hotspot before September ends.

Furthermore, there is a 95 percent probability that the R number in Kensington and Chelsea is greater than one. It means that the number and rate of infections are increasing over time rather than decreasing.

The online calculator tool also predicts which parts of England and Wales have the greatest probability of hitting cases above 50 per 1000,000 population.

Since the Cambridges are the next in lines to the throne, it is necessary for Prince William and Kate to strengthen their defense against COVID-19.

Lockdown a "Gift" for Cambridges

Despite the warning, Prince William and Kate Middleton reportedly saw the whole lockdown period as a rare gift.

Per Royal expert Victoria Arbiter, the pandemic gave Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis a "privilege generations of royal youngsters have unavoidably been denied - prolonged time at home with just Mum and Dad."

"For George, Charlotte and Louis a lifetime of duty eventually awaits, but thanks to the relative normality their childhood affords, their royal calling will feel less like a prison sentence and more one to be proud of," Arbiter wrote for 9Honey.

In addition, the Duchess of Cambridge is doing a great job being Prince William's rock through the uncertainty and crisis.

"More than anything, knowing she can rely on Kate and Prince William to handle matters in her absence is the greatest comfort she could ask for," an Us Weekly insider revealed.

Aside from being the rock, Prince William sees her wife as the "backbone" of the entire family."

Hopefully, the Cambridges will be able to stay safe and protect their children despite the increasing risk of the dreaded disease.

READ MORE: Royal Pain: Queen Elizabeth II Choosing Prince William Over Prince Charles as King?
A former Queensland police officer investigates an unsolved case he could not shake off, on Australian Story.

Burnt-out former cop Jamie Pultz thought he was done fighting crime in south east Queensland.

But one case, the suspicious death of a charismatic young mum he had met on a domestic violence call-out, continued to haunt him.

I looked her in the eyes and said, has he threatened you? No. Has he hit you? No. Like, do you need us to help? No.

I felt helpless. I really did. I felt, you know, like, is this what being a police officer is? We had to drive away, he said.

Months later, when he heard Kirra McLoughlin had died, Pultz was hit hard.

He was the same age as Kirra  27  and he doubted her death was due to natural causes.

This case has been haunting me, he said. You look at other suspicious deaths and theres plenty of coverage about them. But this just seemed to go by the wayside.

After Pultz left the police, he joined forces with another young ex-cop Tom Daunt.

Together, they launched their own podcast investigation into why no one had been charged with Kirras death.

Neither of them would anticipate the dark paths they would go down or their startling discoveries.

Produced by Mayeta Clark.

8pm tonight on ABC.
Craig Ritchie had to steel himself to stop the tears from flowing when he unwrapped a dictionary that is reviving the sleeping language of his people, the Dhangatti from the Macleay River in northern NSW.

Mr Ritchie, the chief executive of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Studies (AIATSIS), grew up speaking and later teaching English, a "beautiful but nonetheless foreign language" to his family. Now he is teaching his grandchildren to call him 'babaa', grandpa in Dhangatti.

To mark the 13th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on Sunday, @TwitterAU will celebrate Australian Indigenous languages with voice tweets - a new feature on the social media platform - in language including Adnyamathanha and Erub Mer.

Zaachariaha Fielding and Michael Ross from the band Electric Fields, and author Boori Monty Pryor, will be among those sending messages and telling stories.
WASHINGTON  What in the world happened to hope?

Its hard to remember a gloomier time in our public life. So much of the analysis we read, the news we consume, and the hot takes that fly by us on social media suggest that the exits from this dreadful era are blocked. Were led to believe that our country faces inexorable decline and that those who see the possibility of reform and redemption are deluded.

We owe much of this pessimism to the presidency of Donald Trump, and not just because of his blindingly obvious failures. Unlike most incumbents in our history, he has bet his political survival on the proposition that the country is living through a dystopian nightmare that only he can dispel.

Trump talks relentlessly about a crisis of crime and violence, says that our electoral system cant be trusted, and argues that those who are against him are enemies of the country itself. He promises yet more division if he is reelected, threatens his political foes with prosecution and hints now and again that he would like to be our leader for life.

It is former Vice President Joe Biden, the challenger, who has the sunny view. The heart of his argument is that there is nothing wrong with our country that cant be cured as long as we throw Trump out of office.

From the first day of his campaign to this moment, he has made the same case: We can view four years of Trump as an aberration that we can put behind us. But eight years would set us on a course from which there would be no return.

Whats striking is that many who are Bidens strongest supporters and Trumps most fervent foes are deeply skeptical of the old warhorses optimism.

There is, first, the fear that even if Biden wins the popular vote  this now seems nearly inevitable  he might lose the electoral college. And if Biden prevails there, too, it is easy to imagine Trump trying to cling to power by discrediting the result with a pack of lies about the voting process.

This, in turn, means that Trumps most fervent loyalists will never accept a Biden victory. The new president will thus take over a nation torn asunder and the most somber pessimists predict that armed militias could threaten public order.

Less apocalyptic is the potential, thoughtfully outlined last week by my Washington Post colleague Annie Linskey, for post-election clashes within the broad coalition Biden has assembled. In this view, moderates and progressives in the party will wage war over specific issues such as the shape of a future health care program, and on the larger question of how adventurous Bidens overall agenda should be. And nobody is expecting Republicans to make Bidens job any easier.

In the face of all this grimness, I would offer a practical case for hope.

It is equally plausible from current polls to predict a close outcome or a Biden landslide. Which is to say Bidens current lead could shrink or grow. An overwhelming Biden victory, which becomes more likely if he performs well in the debates, would obviate many of the problems outlined above. In particular, a Biden sweep would make Trumps fraud claims look absurd to many of his own voters.

A big Biden win would help Democrats take control of both the Senate and the House, creating a real opportunity to govern effectively. OK, never underestimate the Democrats capacity to tear each other apart. But confronting a pandemic and an economic catastrophe would concentrate minds. Every Democrat, from center to left, would understand that blowing it this time would cause irreparable damage to themselves and to the country.

And while the differences across the partys wings are real, theyre also exaggerated. Between single payer health care and simply expanding Obamacare, theres a lot of room for compromise. Ditto on how to combat climate change and expand access to education and training. And the economy is in sufficiently dire shape that boldness, in both a short-term recovery plan and a long-term investment strategy, could look simultaneously like realism to centrists and a New New Deal to progressives.

Finally, as Adam Serwer argues in a powerful and historically informed essay in the Atlantic, a majority may well exist for a new Reconstruction Era on behalf of racial justice. Were a better country than Trump thinks we are.

Hope is not a feeling. Its a virtue. We have good reason to practice it right now  and no alternative but to embrace it.

E.J. Dionnes email address is ejdionne@washpost.com. Twitter: @EJDionne.

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Egypt has sent numerous airlifts of medical supplies and humanitarian aid as part of an air bridge it launched following the blast

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron have urged coordinating efforts to provide support to Lebanon after the devastating blast last month that killed dozens of people and left hundreds of thousands homeless, the presidency said on Friday.

Macron has visited Lebanon twice after the blast. He called on the world to provide support to Lebanon and urged reforms in the Arab country.

He had also called for a fundraising conference shortly after the explosion, where donors raised pledges worth 253 million euros ($299 million) for immediate humanitarian relief. The damage caused by the blast is estimated at more than $15 billion, according to Lebanons President Michel Aoun.

Egypt has also sent numerous airlifts of medical supplies and humanitarian aid as part of an air bridge it launched following the blast.

During their phone call on Friday, El-Sisi and Macron agreed on the need to help the Lebanese people and government with all possible means against political and economic challenges to preserve the countrys sovereignty and unity.

They also discussed the Libyan crisis and reiterated their countries support of a political settlement not influenced by foreign interference and armed militias.

The two presidents welcomed the constructive international efforts targeting de-escalation and peaceful settlement in Libya, including the Cairo Declaration, which urged ceasefire and removing foreign fighters from the country.

The Cairo Declaration was announced in June, during El-Sisis meeting with Libyan Parliament Speaker Aguila Saleh and Khalifa Haftar, head of the Libyan National Army who is fighting against the forces of the Government of National Accord, led by Fayez Al-Sarraj.

El-Sisi and Macro urged international efforts to resume negotiations between the Palestinian and Israeli sides within the framework of the peace process in the Middle East to reach a comprehensive and just settlement for the Palestinian cause in line with international references.

The two leaders affirmed their similar stances on issues related to the East Mediterranean region, including rejecting escalation and prioritising regional security and stability through coordination between France and Egypt.

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The Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) that India and Japan signed last week is an important milestone in Indias efforts to shore up its security. The agreement not only boosts India-Japan bilateral ties but also further concretises the Indo-Pacific co-operative security architecture.

The India-Japan pact will increase interoperability between the armed forces of the two countries. It will allow their militaries to access each others bases for repair and replenishment of supplies. In effect, this will mean that Japan can have access to strategic Indian ports, including its military facilities in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (ANI).

The ANI is located at the mouth of the Strait of Malacca, through which much of the worlds oil, including that headed to Japan and China, traverse. Under the ACSA, Japan could access Indian bases in the ANI should a threat emerge to its trade conducted via the Malacca Straits, for instance, or should India and Japan co-operate in dealing with a threat posed by hostile power. Conversely, India could use Japans base at Djibouti.

The India-Japan ACSA should not be seen in isolation. Like this pact, India has signed logistical agreements with other countries, including the US, Australia, Singapore, France and South Korea. With the ACSA with Japan, India has signed military logistics agreements with all the Quad countries; it will facilitate greater military co-operation among them.

How India, the US, Japan and Australia choose to take forward this co-operation in the coming weeks and months, especially in the context of rising tension between India and China, remains to be seen. Relations of all four countries vis-a-vis China have frayed seriously in recent months. They have been reticent about coming out in the open about their shared perception of a threat from China. Will that change, should armed conflict erupt along the LAC?

The military logistical pacts with Japan and other naval powers have extended Indias naval reach far beyond Indias waters into the Pacific Ocean. It signals Indias growing ambitions as a global power. However, for these ambitions to be realised, India must back the signing of logistics pacts by beefing up and mordernising its maritime and naval infrastructural capacity.

With Chinas reach into the Indian Ocean growing rapidly near sea lanes of communication vital for Indias trade and at critical choke points, whether through its building of warships, the Belt and Road Initiative or base arrangements with Indian Ocean states, India has a lot of catching up to do. Indias logistical pacts provide a foundation. The hard work of building on these pacts deserve attention.
By PTI

MUMBAI: Facing flak from detractors on both political and coronavirus fronts, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday said a conspiracy is afoot to malign Maharashtra.

"Whatever political storms come, I will face...I will fight coronavirus too," Thackeray said in a televised public address.

A day after COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra crossed the 10-lakh mark, Thackeray said his government has done effective work to tackle the pandemic.

Speaking in the backdrop of political criticism over demolition of actress Kangana Ranaut's bungalow in Mumbai and the way his government handled the Sushant Singh Rajput death case, Thackeray assured people that he would fight the political crisis too.

"I will have to remove the mask of Chief Minister to respond topolitics. I don't speak doesn't mean I don't have answers," Thackeray said.

Speaking on the state government's "Mission Begin Again" campaign during the pandemic, Thackeray said his administration effectively tackled the COVID-19 situation, cyclones and floods andwill also deal withthe political stormwith people's support.

Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray says he is talking with with everyone to resolve the Maratha reservation issue. Govt is with Marathas community..govt will give justice, we are finding the ways that will give relief to community @NewIndianXpress  Sudhir Suryawanshi (@ss_suryawanshi) September 13, 2020

Thackeray said the pandemic is showing no sign of a respite and the virus is spreading in rural Maharashtra as well.

"But the number of patients recovering is also more. Facts and figures show that if detected early, all patients recover fast," he said.

Asking people not to take the pandemic lightly, he said wearing masks, observing physical distancing, avoiding crowding and face-to-face contact with people is the only option as of now.

"We have slowly started to open up under Mission Begin Again. Some people think they can indulge in politics as part of Mission Begin Again. There is a conspiracy to defame and malign Maharashtra," he said.

He said the state government also reached out to the affected people during Nisarga cyclone and the floods in east Vidarbha and provided relief.

Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray says Maharashtra is known reformer state whether it is social or agriculture, Maharashtra is always in front foot to carry out the different experiment. He said he wants to do revolution in agriculture sector @NewIndianXpress  Sudhir Suryawanshi (@ss_suryawanshi) September 13, 2020

"Over 29 lakh farmers have benefited through the farm loan waiver scheme and Rs 700 crore have been disbursed towards relief and rehabilitation of those affected by the Nisarga cyclone," he said, adding Rs 18 crore have been given as immediate relief for floods in Vidarbha.

Thackeray said his government was doing its best to deal with all challenges.

"We should share our responsibilities to make the "my family, my responsibility" campaign (against coronavirus) which begins on September 15 a success.

This war can be won only with people's wholehearted support," he said.

It is not feasible for the government to undertake checkup of each and every one of the 12 crore populace of the state, he said.

The Supreme Court's interim stay on implementation of the Maratha quota was unexpected, Thackeray said.

The Maratha quota bill was unanimously passed by the state legislature and the legal team hired by the previous BJP-led state government was arguing in the apexcourt, he said.

Thackeray appealed to Maratha organisations to refrain from holding protests and demonstrations during the pandemic.

"The government is firmly with the cause of justice to Maratha community and is working on how to proceed ahead. I have spoken to Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis who is in Bihar now and he has assured the BJP's complete support," he said.

A decision on extension of the lockdown would depend on how the people follow the pandemic protocols, he said.

"While using public transport, don't speak, avoid face-to-face contact," he said.

On criticism that he doesn't venture out, Thackeray said , "I have been using technology to reach out to all parts of the state to review the pandemic situation and issue directives."
Many students with an associate's degree can graduate with little to no debt.

Hollywood actor Dennis Quaid is known for his performances in The Rookie (2002), Soul Surfer (2011), and Midway (2019). The dramatic actor now utilizes his skills hosting the educational program Viewpoint with Dennis Quaid. The TV segment highlights numerous topics to bring awareness to events and issues taking place across the country. An upcoming episode will feature the benefits of a skilled trade education.

Many college graduates find themselves with a degree they never use out of no longer having any interest in what they spent four years studying, or they are unable to find a well-paying job with their qualifications. As a result, more and more students are seeking out an education in trade schools where they know jobs after graduation are easier to come by.

Trade school degrees come with the bonus of taking less time to complete at a lower cost. While traditional four-year colleges have students continue down a path of learning, the average trade school sets students up to graduate after two years of education and sends them into the workforce.

A community college education comes at a lower price tag, toothe average tuition for a community college education in skilled trades is $10,000 a year. Many students with an associate's degree can graduate with little to no debt.

Community colleges offer education at a lower cost and give students the ability to obtain certifications that will set them up to find work that is in higher demand. Additional details will be in the upcoming episode of "Viewpoint."

"Viewpoint" with Dennis Quaid is cautiously reviewed before airing to a public audience. The educational program has accepted multiple awards.


When we talk about climate change all too often we focus on carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. But there is a much more potent greenhouse gas, methane, which is much more efficient at trapping radiation than CO2. Some estimates put it at 87 times more potent over a 20 year lifetime than carbon dioxide.

Flaring is the burning of natural gas that cannot be processed or sold. Flaring disposes of the gas while releasing methane emissions into the atmosphere. Photo credit: North Dakota Department of Health

And who is the biggest culprit for releasing methane in the U.S.? It is the oil and gas industry, which is the largest industrial source of methane pollution in the country, releasing 33 percent of all methane emissions in 2014.

There are a staggering amount of old and new wells with the potential to release methane. At least 3.5 million wells have been drilled in the U.S., with a quarter of those still active. Many old and new ones are leaking the potent greenhouse gas. Adding to the problem, there will be thousands of old wells leaking methane which the authorities do not even know the whereabouts of.

First lets look at existing wells.

A new report, published by the Center for American Progress on Monday, reveals that the onshore oil and gas industrys methane emissions totaled more than 48 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent or CO2e, in 2014.

To put this into perspective, this is the equivalent of 14 coal-fired power plants powered for one year.

The worst culprits were ranked in order and came out as: ConocoPhillips, Exxon, Chesapeake Energy, EOG Resources and BP.

Concern has been growing about the oil industrys methane emissions for a while. Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized limits on methane emissions from new sources in the oil and gas sector. Indeed, the Obama administration has set a goal of reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by 40 percent from 2012 emissions levels by 2025.

The biggest emitters were not necessarily the biggest natural gas producers. For example, ConocoPhillips was the sixth largest natural gas producer in 2014.

The parts of the country experiencing the worse methane pollution are of course the main oil and gas producing areas including the following: the Anadarko Basin of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas; the Gulf Coast Basin of Louisiana and Texas; the San Juan Basin of Colorado and New Mexico; the Permian Basin of New Mexico and Texas; and the Appalachian Basin in the eastern part of the U.S.

But now lets look at old wells.

There are other areas too which are suffering from chronic methane leakage from old wells. Yesterday, Bloomberg ran an article on the problems of methane leakage affecting Pennsylvania, the birthplace of the U.S. oil industry, where century-old abandoned oil wells have long been part of the landscape.

Bloomberg reports that these abandoned wells as now the focus of growing alarm, especially ones close to the new fracking fields, due to them leaking methane.

We had so much methane in our water, the inspector told us not to smoke a cigar or light a candle in the bath, Joe Thomas, a machinist, whose 40-acre farm has at least 60 abandoned wells, tells Bloomberg.

Pennsylvanias Attorney General is now reviewing the rules requiring drillers to document wells within 1,000 feet of any new potential fracking site. The obvious worry is that abandoned wells might interact with new fracking wells, creating an easy methane escape route from the frack well. And in Pennsylvania only ten percent of abandoned wells are documented.

One person searching for these abandoned wells is Laurie Barr, who co-founded Save Our Streams Pennsylvania. Over the last five years she has located almost 1,000 wells, most of which were not recorded.

Bloomberg quotes Mary Kang, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University in California who co-authored a widely cited paper on methane leakage from Pennsylvanias wells. These old wells are emitting methane into the atmosphere and they are worth considering in greenhouse-gas emissions inventories, she said.

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Clinical trials of one of the most advanced experimental Covid-19 vaccines resumed Saturday after a brief safety pause, as infection numbers continued to march upward in countries across the globe.

The world's hopes for a reprieve from the pandemic were dealt a blow earlier in the week when pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and Oxford University announced they had "voluntarily paused" their vaccine trial after a UK volunteer developed an unexplained illness.

But on Saturday the trial was given the all clear by British regulators to resume following a safety review.

The global death toll from the coronavirus has risen to 916,000 with 28.5 million infections, while France and the United Arab Emirates posted grim new milestones for daily infections on Saturday.

And with billions still suffering from the fallout of the pandemic, a worldwide race for a vaccine is underway, with nine companies already in late-stage Phase 3 trials.

Even during the pause, AstraZeneca said it remained hopeful that the vaccine could still be available "by the end of this year, early next year".

Thousands protest against anti-coronavirus measure in Munich. By Christof STACHE (AFP)

Oxford University said that "in large trials such as this, it is expected that some participants will become unwell and every case must be carefully evaluated".

Charlotte Summers, lecturer in intensive care medicine at Cambridge University, said the pause showed the researchers' commitment "to putting safety at the heart of their development programme."

"To tackle the global Covid-19 pandemic, we need to develop vaccines and therapies that people feel comfortable using, therefore it is vital to maintaining public trust that we stick to the evidence and do not draw conclusions before information is available," she said.

Backlash

That public trust will be crucial to convincing a public that is impatient for a vaccine -- and in some corners sceptical.

Among the impatient is US President Donald Trump, who has been accused by rival Joe Biden of "undermining public confidence" by regularly raising the possibility that a vaccine will be ready before November's election.

Biden also called Trump "reckless" for holding a rally in the Nevada city of Reno even after the venue had to be changed because the event breached local Covid-19 restrictions.

Several hundred demonstrators marched in Angola's capital over the death of a doctor detained by police for not wearing a mask. By Osvaldo Silva (AFP)

Some of those potentially sceptical about a vaccine meanwhile turned out in numerous German cities and Poland's capital Warsaw on Saturday, protesting against anti-coronavirus measures and often defying mask-wearing rules.

The movement is made up of a number of different groups, from self-declared "free thinkers" to anti-vaccine campaigners, conspiracy theorists and far-right activists.

France, UAE milestones

There are signs of a resurgence of the virus in numerous countries that lifted many coronavirus measures after beating back the first wave of infections months ago.

France reported 10,000 new infections on Saturday, the country's highest daily number since launching wide-scale testing.

The world toll of coronavirus infections and deaths, as of September 12 at 1100 GMT. By (AFP)

The milestone came a day after Prime Minister Jean Castex declined to announce any new major restrictions despite a "clear worsening" in the country's outbreak.

"We have to succeed in living with this virus, without returning to the idea of a generalised lockdown," Castex said, himself recently having left isolation after testing negative twice for the virus.

Fears were briefly raised after the prime minister spent part of last weekend with the boss of the Tour de France Christian Prudhomme, who tested positive for Covid-19.

Another country to hit a daily milestone on Saturday was the United Arab Emirates, which recorded more than 1,000 new coronavirus cases on Saturday for the first time.

In Spain, which this week became the first EU country to pass half a million infections, an infection was detected among Princess Leonor's classmates.

The 14-year-old heiress to the Spanish throne -- who only returned to school in Madrid on Wednesday -- will now have to observe a two-week quarantine.

The uncle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, businessman Mohamad Makhlouf, died from Covid-19 on Saturday, two close sources told AFP.

And in Latin America, which this week passed the milestone of eight million virus cases, worst-hit Brazil charted more than 131,000 deaths from Covid-19 as of Saturday, the second-highest in the world behind the US.

Latvia meanwhile reinstated a compulsory 14-day quarantine for arrivals from neighbouring Estonia due to an upsurge in cases there.

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Datacenters.com, the leading technology platform and marketplace for colocation, cloud and connectivity, announces the launch of network services to the Datacenters.com IGNITE Project Platform.

Many businesses today are focused on wide area network (WAN) technologies as the need for reliable, secure, and scalable network infrastructure demand accelerates with digital transformation. Cloud services, Internet of things (IoT), and edge computing are fueling demand for network modernization. These technologies, paired with large, global IP backbones are enabling greater resource management, employee empowerment, customer experience and insights, and speed to market for products and services for businesses worldwide.

With IGNITE Network Projects, IT professionals can design their networks and view available providers that match their requirements. Users can access powerful network configurators for software defined WAN (SD-WAN), multi-protocol label switching (MPLS), and private line networks. Based on the user's location and technology requirements, Datacenters.com intelligently matches users with the right network service providers. Network proposals are uploaded directly by providers to the IGNITE Project Platform making it easy for users to compare all of their options.

Datacenters.com has added 31 of the top network service providers including AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink, Aryaka, CATO Networks, Zayo, Palo Alto (Cloudgenix), China Telecom, and Colt Technology Services with the launch of IGNITE Network Projects. All of the providers have been on-boarded and trained on this platform.

Key Features:



First digital RFP for enterprise network services

Users can design their SD-WAN, MPLS and private line technologies online

Proprietary algorithm provides intelligent matching based on network requirements

Users can select all or specific network services providers to participate in their RFP

31 top network service providers have been on-boarded and trained on the platform

Proposals and pricing for networking solutions are delivered directly through the platform

Quotes:

High performance networks like SD-WAN and MPLS are critical for todays digital enterprise, said Michael Allen, VP of Solutions & Engineering at Datacenters.com. These solutions represent a core solution offering for us and were excited to launch the first fully automated, intelligent digital RFP tool to help users architect their network infrastructure.

Its amazing to think that we have on-boarded and trained 184 providers on the IGNITE Project Platform in 2020, said Heidi Humphreys, President of Datacenters.com. Theres a lot of excitement around the launch of the IGNITE Network Projects both internally and from our partners that were an integral part of this launch.

This is just the beginning for the IGNITE Project Platform, said Michael Price, VP of Software Engineering at Datacenters.com. We are continuously adding data and upgrading the platform to improve our intelligent matching algorithm and provide a better experience for Datacenters.com users and providers.

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About Datacenters.com

Datacenters.com is the #1 technology platform and marketplace connecting buyers and sellers of colocation, cloud, connectivity, managed services, and related IT services. We are dedicated to one thing  helping IT professionals research, purchase, and manage their technologies across a diverse range of solutions, providers and vendors.

Since 2014, Datacenters.com has attracted more than 1.6 million visitors. The platform provides detailed information on 335 providers, 2,937 data center facilities, and 173 marketplace products globally.

Datacenters.com is the sister company of Global Consulting Group, Inc. (GCG), a leading technology services distributor and IT consulting company headquartered in Englewood, Colorado.

Learn more at Datacenters.com and follow us on LinkedIn.
Store windows in the five-storey Huqiu Wedding Dress Mall in the Chinese city of Suzhou gleam with the reflection from rows and rows of elaborate gowns to entice potential buyers.

But there are few shoppers in the modern mall, a glitzy showcase of the city's huge wedding gown production industry that usually attracts visitors not only from across China but abroad.

Sales this year have so far not been good, I hope they will recover a little in the second half, Ma Li, the owner of the Hua Qing Yu Wedding Dress Store in the mall told Reuters as she dressed mannequins.

Ma Li puts a wedding dress on a mannequin at her store (Reuters)

Suzhou is one of the world's largest bridal goods exporters and has suffered after couples all over the world have delayed, downsized or cancelled their nuptials because of the pandemic.

Employees work on garments at Suzhou Jusere Wedding & Evening Dress Co Ltds factory (Reuters)

The manufacturing hub in eastern China also hosts factories belonging to Apple suppliers as well as a technology center for Microsoft, but wedding dresses are a major part of its business. And it is big business.

Wedding market sales in China surged from 923 billion yuan to 1.64 trillion yuan from 2014 to 2018, according to Frost & Sullivan, and the annual compound growth rate reached 15.5 percent. By 2023, the industry is expected to be worth 3 trillian yuan.

That speedy growth was interrupted by the discovery of the first coronavirus cases in Wuhan, about 740 kilometres (460 miles) west of Suzhou, in early January and lockdown measures imposed in China and other parts of the world.

An embroidered face mask at Suzhou Jusere Wedding & Evening Dress Co Ltd (Reuters)

An employee works on a wedding dress at Suzhou Jusere Wedding & Evening Dress Co Ltds factory (Reuters)

While China recently began allowing the resumption of some large wedding gatherings following a sharp fall in the number of new COVID-19 cases, companies in Suzhou told Reuters sales were far from reaching usual levels as many couples were downsizing their celebrations due to budget or lingering guest restrictions.

We basically have no clients, Zhu Yuan, the chairman of Romen's Wedding Dress, speaking from her showroom where dozens of embellished ivory dresses were crammed against each other on clothing racks.

Employees work in the export department of Suzhou Jusere Wedding & Evening Dress Co Ltd (Reuters)

Out of a hundred only 10-20% survived, said of her client businesses, including bridal studios and exporters.

Suzhou Jusere Wedding & Evening Dress Co Ltd, one of Suzhou's largest gown manufacturers, tried to mitigate the downturn by ramping up direct sales to brides and travelling to their customers.

But the escalation of the virus to a global pandemic saw foreign orders, which used to account for a tenth of the company's sales, all but disappear.

I hope that the epidemic abroad can get under control which will allow wedding dress studios to reopen. That can in turn drive consumption, said founder Xu Chuanhai.

A model poses for a photo as a women takes a picture of her at China Wedding Expo 2020 (Reuters)

The China Wedding Expo 2020, an annual event that draws wedding gown resellers, exporters and bridal studios descend went ahead in Shanghai last month but exhibitors said there were few visitors.

Jiang Xin, a representative of Hermosa Trading, said increasing costs of transportation because of the pandemic made exporting gowns expensive.

The tariff is fixed but transportation costs rose because many flights were cancelled, he said. The ordering cycle is longer so costs are rising.

Pan Wenjun and Wei Jiawen receive red envelopes from Pan's parents on the day of their wedding (Reuters)

Elsewhere in Shanghai, Wei Jiawen and her husband Pan Wenjun celebrated their nuptials with their family and friends in mid-August in a ceremony that was downsized from their originally planned celebration in February.

We were under pressure both physically and mentally for half a year because of the delayed wedding, said Wei, who gave birth to a daughter while waiting to reschedule the wedding.

Reporting by Brenda Goh, Reuters
LAS VEGAS - In open defiance of state regulations and his own administrations pandemic health guidelines, President Donald Trump hosted his first indoor rally since June, telling a packed, nearly mask-less Nevada crowd that the nation was making the last turn in defeating the virus.

Eager to project a sense of normalcy in imagery, Trump soaked up the raucous cheers inside a warehouse Sunday night. Relatively few in the crowd wore masks, with a clear exception: Those in the stands directly behind Trump, whose images would end up on TV, were mandated to wear face coverings.

Not since a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that was blamed for a surge of coronavirus infections has he gathered supporters indoors.

We are not shutting the country again. A shutdown would destroy the lives and dreams of millions Americans, said Trump, before using his inflammatory moniker for the coronavirus. We will very easy defeat the China virus.

He didnt mention the pandemics death toll  its killed nearly 200,000 Americans and still claiming about 1,000 lives a day.

The rally in Tulsa, which was his first in three months after the coronavirus reached American shores, was a disaster for the campaign, a debacle that featured a sea of empty seats and a rise in COVID-19 cases, including on his own staff. One prominent Trump supporter at the rally, businessman and former presidential candidate Herman Cain, died of COVID-19 weeks later, though it was not clear if he contracted the virus in Tulsa.

Recognizing that many supporters were uncomfortable to gather in a large group indoors, where the virus spreads more easily, the Trump campaign shifted to holding smaller, outdoor rallies, usually at airplane hangers. But those rallies have grown in size in recent weeks, with little social distancing and few masks.

And on Sunday, they returned indoors, in part as a nod to the Las Vegas-area heat. Temperature checks were given to all upon entrance at the industrial site in Henderson and while masks were encouraged, few wore them.

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, has limited in-person gatherings indoors and outdoors to 50 people since May, a recommendation based on White House reopening guidelines. In a statement released just before the rally began, Sisolak said Trump was taking reckless and selfish actions that are putting countless lives in danger here in Nevada.

To put it bluntly: he didnt have the guts to make tough choices, Sisolak said of Trumps handling of the virus. He left that to governors and the states. Now hes decided he doesnt have to respect our States laws. As usual, he doesnt believe the rules apply to him.

The city of Henderson informed Xtreme Manufacturing on Sunday that the event as planned was in direct violation of the governors COVID-19 emergency directives and that penalties would follow. The Trump campaign pushed back against the restrictions with the president saying he would support those in attendance if the governor came after you.

If you can join tens of thousands of people protesting in the streets, gamble in a casino, or burn down small businesses in riots, you can gather peacefully under the 1st Amendment to hear from the President of the United States, campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said.

To this point, the campaign has not been played out as a choice election between Trump and his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, but rather a referendum on the presidents handling of the coronavirus. By wide margins, Americans have disapproved of Trumps leadership, as the United States has suffered more deaths than any other nation.

Therefore, the presidents campaign believes it needs to change the subject and project the sense, despite evidence otherwise, that the pandemic was winding down and that a vaccine was on the horizon. Part of the plan: create images of normalcy, like the packed White House lawn for Trumps convention speech, though it was unclear if viewers were reassured or frightened.

In a rambling, hourlong speech, Trump mused on mandatory prison sentences for flag burning, praised various UFC fighters in attendance and appeared to endorse extradjudicial killings for those who target police officers. And Trump unleashed a series of attacks on Biden, labeling him a him a tired career politician and declaring him unfit to be president.

But, Trump ruminated, while complaining about the medias coverage: Maybe hell win because they dont like me, they dont like my personality.

The crowd answered with a deafening We love you chant.

The rally came the night before Trump was to travel to California to receive a briefing on the devastating wildfires racing through the region. He has largely been silent on the blazes that have claimed dozens of lives in Oregon and California.

Earlier Sunday, Trump aimed for further inroads with Latinos who could prove vital in closely contested states that could determine the White House race, promoting economic gains they made before the coronavirus pandemic.

Though Trump has made scores of inflammatory and derogatory comments about Latinos, his campaign is growing confident that he has won some support that could help in Florida, Arizona and Nevada, his target this weekend,

Winning support from Latinos has been an uphill climb for Trump, whose hard-line immigration policies and sometimes virulent depiction of immigrants have alienated many Hispanics.

In the first moments of his 2016 campaign, he declared that many Mexican immigrants were rapists. He has drawn criticism for his tepid response to a hurricane that ravaged Puerto Rico, his polices to separate children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border and his efforts to dismantle an Obama-era program that allows young immigrants living in the country illegally who were brought here as children to remain in the U.S.

Trump tailored his pitch to Latinos on Sunday, noting their low unemployment rate before COVID-19 reached American shores and affirming his anti-abortion stance. He again hammered home his recent push on law and order, saying that recent violence in American cities endangered Latinos. He was set to hold a similar event in Arizona on Monday.

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Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire

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APs Advance Voting guide brings you the facts about voting early, by mail or absentee from each state: https://interactives.ap.org/advance-voting-2020/
UAE-based Gallery Suites, a luxury holiday-home rentals giant, has launched an initiative to promote initiative to promote tourism between UAE and Israel in collaboration with its Swiss-based partner Smiling House.

Khurram Shroff, Chairman of the IBC Group headquartered in the UAE, has announced an initiative seeking to boost cross-border tourism between the UAE and Israel.

Coming in the wake of the momentous peace agreement between the two nations, the project will be a partnership between the groups subsidiary Gallery Suites Vacation Rentals and Smiling House of Switzerland.

The Swiss holiday rental management company, founded by Ira and Moriya Rockman, has a significant presence in the Israeli tourism market. The partnership of Gallery Suites and Smiling House extends the companys reach across the world, including in major Israeli cities such as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The duo will jointly engage in discussions with operators in Israel to promote collaboration, and showcase their exclusive and premium properties, to eager tourists in the Jewish state.

Gallery Suites has created a portfolio of meticulously curated luxury vacation homes, in some of the most sought after locations in Dubai, with convenient access to the rest of the citys attractions.

The historic peace accord, between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, is a new dawn in regional amity and cooperation, says Khurram. Theres already great excitement around the possibilities opening up, and the huge potential for mutual growth.

As is apparent from the extent we go to curate the stay of our guests, at Gallery Suites we have always considered tourism about being much more than recreation. People to people contact, and experiencing each others cultures, will form the basis of a truly integrated Middle East. We are especially keen to showcase the UAEs renowned hospitality, by offering holiday homes that are strictly compliant with Kosher guidelines, for those of our guests that request such facilities. But of course, all while adhering to strict Covid safety guidelines to safeguard everyone, he adds.

Recent years had witnessed an upswing in the numbers of Middle Eastern tourists travelling to international destinations, prior to the restrictions imposed by Covid-19. Khurram sees the UAE-Israel peace accord as an opportunity to revive regional tourism.

There is a strong economic incentive to travel between the UAE and Israel, particularly given the post-pandemic reopening of business activities. As the region looks to develop resilience against any future global crisis, we anticipate a growth in engagement and collaboration, hence the number of business travellers within the region, he reiterates.

Gallery Suites plans to host an Israeli delegation in Dubai, as well as taking a trip to meet potential partners and collaborators in Israel. The Middle East has a storied and ancient tale to tell. It has been the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of some of the worlds most devoutly adhered to religious traditions. We at Gallery Suites view facilitating our guests, in their journey to discover common ground within our variations, as a truly exciting and gratifying opportunity, Khurram concludes.

IBC Group Limited is a Substantial Investment Company based in the UAE since 2014, with a focus on private equity investment in Real Estate, Art and Proptech. Gallery Suites Vacation Rentals, a subsidiary of IBC Group Limited, has a significant presence in Dubai, with over 200 properties under management in JLT, JBR, Palm Jumeirah and Dubai Marina. -TradeArabia News Service
For 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the same amount of time that a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on the neck of a Black man named George Floyd, hundreds of people dropped to a knee in a Kennett Square intersection.

Naomi Simonson, who organized the event, looked around and wept.

She had grown up in Kennett, attended high school steps away, and in her 20 years never knew whether her mostly white neighbors and friends cared about the struggles of Black people like her. The sight of the crowd felt like an answer, she said.

I was looking around to see people I grew up with and their parents, Simonson said, and some police officers stopping traffic were on their knees, too. That was when I became emotional.

Two months later, in Ridley, there was emotion of a different kind as an angry white mob met Black Lives Matter protesters with shouts of Kneel to your masters, No one cares, and Go home.

Replied one protester: This is my home.

Across the Philadelphia suburbs this summer, residents held protests, marches, and rallies in towns that are predominantly white and may have never before seen racial-justice protests.

Stuck at home due to the coronavirus, which also disproportionately strikes Black and brown communities, they watched the local and national uprisings unfold on TV. They had free time to educate themselves, reflect on their privilege, and organize and attend protests. The events ended up both denouncing and exposing racism in their communities.

While Philadelphia is majority-minority, with Black people accounting for more than 42% of the population, its collar counties  Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery  are on average 80% white and 10% Black, according to census data. Across the river, the New Jersey suburbs  Camden, Gloucester, and Burlington Counties  are on average 75% white and 16% Black.

But some areas are even more homogeneous. In Bucks County, for example, less than 5% of the population is Black; in Chester County, that number is closer to 6%; and in some towns along the affluent Main Line, its about 3%.

Most suburbs began thriving around the time of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, as whites fled diversifying cities such as Philadelphia, said Sarah Willie-LeBreton, who serves as provost, dean of the faculty, and professor of sociology and Black studies at Swarthmore College. So in the past, some white people were involved in racial liberation movements, she said, but not in the suburbs.

Throughout June, suburban residents made their voices heard nearly every day in different towns outside Philadelphia. In recent weeks, these demonstrations have continued but become far less frequent.

Its too early to tell what long-term impact this summer will have on Phillys suburbs, and on hundreds of other small and midsize American towns.

But people involved in the movement have been heartened by the initial response  increased conversations about race; greater commitment by white people to educate themselves on racial injustice; less hesitancy to speak up against racism; and more openness toward participating in demonstrations.

Suburban protest organizers like Simonson could have journeyed to the city for large protests. The massive events  which were largely peaceful, but a few gave away to violence and destruction  sprung up across the country and world in June after Floyds killing, and then again in August after a Kenosha, Wis., police officer shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, in the back seven times.

But many suburban activists said they asked themselves: Why should we have to leave our neighborhoods? Why cant we make a statement right here, in white communities where it is easy to disconnect from the oppression of Black and brown people?

Before their protests, organizers werent sure how many of their neighbors would be moved enough to come out on hot summer days in the middle of a pandemic. Simonson thought only her friends would show up to the Kennett Square protest.

Lindsay Wetmore-Arkader expected 50 to 100 people would come to her Main Line Families for Black Lives Matter Solidarity event in Ardmore, she said, but a couple of hundred did.

Taj Gray-Vause, who organized the Main Line for Black Lives march, anticipated 100 to 200 people. Thousands came.

The demonstrations brought moving scenes of solidarity  such as a mass of mostly white people marching down Lancaster Avenue, and mothers pushing strollers as they chanted, Black Lives Matter.

We wanted [Black people] to know we stood with them, Wetmore-Arkader said.

Yet the demonstrations also brought hateful, racist backlash, just as they had in big cities and small rural towns across the country.

While disturbing and sometimes frightening, some suburban activists say this kind of response can make it harder for white residents  who do not have the lived experience of being victims of racism  to stay on the sidelines as the racism of their neighbors is out in the open.

Obviously those displays are horrible, said Meredith Meisenheimer, a white woman who is involved in the Black Lives Matter movement in Stratford, Camden County. But one thing they do is put to rest the idea that racism doesnt exist here.

At the same time, a lack of in-person resistance, particularly in wealthier towns, can be deceiving, said Willie-LeBreton, the Swarthmore provost.

Affluent people who hold deep-seated racist beliefs are more likely to keep them to themselves or voice them only in spaces where they know their views are shared, she said. They are less likely to counterprotest an antiracism march, which could cost them a high-powered job or social status, she added.

After Floyds death, friends Taylor Shiflett, who is Black, and Ashley Dolceamore, who is white, wanted to get more involved in local protests, but they struggled to find Black Lives Matter events near their Collingdale-area homes. So they founded their own group, Delco Resists.

They say the work has been rewarding but tiring, because of negative responses and racist interactions along protest routes.

It can be a little disappointing to put in so much work and see how much hate is in peoples heart, Dolceamore said.

Vitriol was on full display in early August when Shiflett, Dolceamore, and hundreds of others marched through Ridley Township, eventually taking over MacDade Boulevard.

The demonstration began peacefully, with a few white onlookers spontaneously joining in as the racially mixed group marched by their homes.

But it devolved as groups of angry white people, many on motorcycles and in pickup trucks, drove along the route, cutting in front of protesters, revving their engines, and blanketing the crowd with thick black exhaust. As the protest passed a park, dozens waved American flags, blasted patriotic music, and shouted in an attempt to drown out the message.

As tensions rose, two white fists raised out the front windows of a passing car.

One maskless man followed the protesters, and chanted, All Lives Matter.

Later, when the protesters took a knee to honor Floyd and other victims of racism and police brutality, a counterprotester shouted, Kneel to your masters!

Annette Deigh, 41, a Black woman from nearby Morton borough, and her children, Donyae, 3, and Donlyn, 8, went to the protest because they were tired of seeing such hatred in their town.

This is really important for us to fight for, she said, noting they had been victims of racism fairly often and she was not surprised at all to see the resistance.

Donyae and Donlyn wore shirts with the words My skin color is not a crime and held signs that read My thoughts matter and My future matters.

While white people outnumber minority populations in the suburbs, Black people are out here, too, their mother said.

How does one gauge progress in towns that are home to so few people of color? Three months after the height of the protests, can activists measure whether the initial enthusiasm was performative or indicative of change to come?

It depends on whom you ask.

In Stratford, a predominantly white township of about 7,000 in Camden County, supporters of racial justice have recently been listening to the experiences of Black people, Meisenheimer said, and asking them what theyd like to see change in their town. Racism in the school system is a top priority, she said. On the Main Line, Gray-Vause echoed this concern, adding that school curricula should address African American culture and history.

"I dont think there will ever be some concrete win and then its going be like Hey were done, " Meisenheimer said.

Delco Resists is continuing its work, too, and planning more protests.

Willie-LeBreton, of Swarthmore College, said she has been pleased to see an increasing number of Black Lives Matter lawn signs near her home in Media, the Delaware County seat. Similar messages, some handwritten in crayon or even mowed into lawns, can be spotted in front yards throughout the suburbs.

"Ive got some colleagues who say, Those are just signs, " she said. But I think signs are very symbolic, and symbolism matters.

She said she also believes the proliferation of suburban rallies and the increase in conversations about race show the movement is making an impact in the suburbs.

Im curious as to where the conversations are going to lead us, she said.

While promising, the conversations are also exhausting, she said, and white people who are newly committed to the movement have never felt this way before. Black people have experienced the exhaustion for a long time, she said.

If people in predominantly white communities can carry through on the mission of recent protests, she said they could prompt changes in the way companies approach hiring and schools teach students about U.S. history and racism, cause officials to address affordable housing in the suburbs, and result in community partnerships with police departments. Thats a big if, though, she said.

What happened in the suburbs this summer is the first step, but its only the first step, Willie-LeBreton said. It is not sufficient.
The Persbacker Family Fund at Connecticut Community Foundation has awarded college scholarships of $3,500 each to six Bridgewater residents for the 2020-21 academic year.

This years recipients and their college of choice and area of study are Taryn Crossley, Marist College, Class of 2024, law and legal studies; Julia Sinatra, Hamilton College, Class of 2024, languages, literature and linguistics; Kathleen Sinatra, Union College, Class of 2024, law and legal studies; Lars Vikstrom, Ithaca College, Class of 2021, biological and biomedical sciences; Annika Vikstron, Middlebury College, Class of 2024, political science; and Hunter Wilson, University of Northwestern Ohio, Class of 2021, agriculture and related sciences.
The usual electoral violence that has characterised elections is a thing of the past and the impending December 2020 elections will see no such acts.

This assurance and avowed pledge is coming from the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who has stated emphatically that the 2020 elections will be intimidation-free and violent-free.

The president said the NPP government had strengthened the nation's security system to ensure the forthcoming December 7 Presidential and Parliamentary elections would be absolutely a violent-free event.

"I would not allow intimidations and harassment of any person in Ghana in this coming December elections", the President emphasised.

President Akufo-Addo gave the assurance when he addressed a durbar organised by the Chiefs and people of Techimantia in the Tano South Municipality of the Ahafo Region.

It was part of his two-day working tour of the region.

The President said the Free SHS and all other government social intervention programmes could be sustainable only if there were political stability, peaceful co-existence and social cohesion.

He appealed to traditional authorities in the region and the country at large to support the government by collaborating with the security services within their respective traditional areas to perform professionally and efficiently.

President Akufo-Addo implored traditional authorities to make it a priority to admonish their subjects to promote peace to protect the nation's democratic development to boom the national economy and enhance the livelihoods of the people.

As part of the working visit, President Akufo-Addo inaugurated a business resource centre at Bechem.

Speaking at that inauguration, Mr. Alan Kwadwo Kyeremateng, the Minister for Trade and Industry said 37 out of 67 business resource centres being constructed had been completed.

He said the Centre would serve as a guide giving point for small and medium scale enterprises for improvement in the quality of products and services as well as create job opportunities for the unemployed.

---GNA
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 18:54:32|Editor: huaxia

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A competitor shows her talents and skills via video link during the final round of the Vietnam section of the 13th "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Sept. 13, 2020. The Vietnam section of the 13th "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students concluded its final round on Sunday in Hanoi. Nong Troung An from Thai Nguyen Specialized High School won the competition, which saw the participation of 12 students from six secondary schools in Vietnam. (The Confucius Institute at Hanoi University/Handout via Xinhua)

HANOI, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Vietnam section of the 13th "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students concluded its final round on Sunday in Hanoi.

The final round was divided into three parts, including themed speech, talent show and impromptu speech, and was held via video link due to COVID-19 concerns.

Nong Troung An from Thai Nguyen Specialized High School won the competition, which saw the participation of 12 students from six secondary schools in Vietnam.

"COVID-19 actually allowed me more time to learn Chinese by myself," An said. "I really hope to travel to different parts of China and learn about their culture and customs."

Luo Jun, a principal of the Confucius Institute at Hanoi University, said the contestants showed the charm of the Chinese language and Chinese culture, and would help attract more Vietnamese students to learn the language and the culture.

Peng Shituan, cultural counselor of the Chinese embassy in Vietnam, said that secondary school students are the future of China and Vietnam, and learning Chinese can help Vietnamese students contribute to the friendly exchanges between the two countries.

"I hope more Vietnamese high schools will set up Chinese courses, and more students will take part in such competitions," he said.

The competitions in Vietnam were co-organized by China's Center for Language Education and Cooperation, the Chinese embassy in Vietnam and Hanoi University, and held by the Confucius Institute at Hanoi University. Enditem
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Washington  Sun, September 13, 2020 16:06 495 e22cd4161040e111d73a5626c4490d16 2 Environment Dalai-Lama,climate-change Free

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama called on world leaders Saturday to join forces in fighting climate change.

"Now we should pay more attention about global warming," the exiled leader said in a video message to a virtual meeting of Group of Seven parliamentary leaders.

The session was hosted by the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, a longstanding advocate for the Himalayan region.

National leaders have been meeting less frequently with the Dalai Lama due to pressure from China.

In his video address, the Dalai Lama said people today have more of a sense of shared interest in saving the planet.

"If you look (at) past history, too much emphasis individual nation, individual religion, including color," the 85-year-old Buddhist leader said, according to a statement from the International Campaign for Tibet.

"So it creates a lot of problem. Basically, you see, they are selfish, self-centered attitudes," the 1989 Nobel peace laureate said.

Climate change is affecting some of the world's least powerful people, the Dalai Lama added.

"Due to global warming, too much rain some area. Some area dry. So these people suffer, the Dalai Lama said. "Particularly like in Africa and some area in India and China also."

The impact along economic lines is also imbalanced, he added.

"The rich people, big hotel, not much serious sort of feeling, the Dalai Lama said. But poor people, they really face serious problem."

Saturday's meeting brought Pelosi together with counterparts from Britain, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
Past few months have introduced the inspiring humanitarian side of Michelin-star chef Vikas Khanna to the world, hugely. During the ongoing pandemic, the known restaurateur, author and filmmaker turned his focus to his motherland that made him provide millions of meals to the needy and less fortunate.

My team has been working for various causes for long but when this pandemic happened and lockdown brought of the worlds largest country on standstill, we thought of doing something for those who suffered greatly under the Covid 19 lockdown. And thats how things got on a roll. Today, we have achieved the threshold of providing over 31 million meals across India, said Vikas over the phone.

Vikas remembers how once he gave the idea of the entire mission, he said, It was in March when I, along with my team, send out mailers asking people to understand the project and join in as we were in New York and required more hands working on the ground level. Soon there was tremendous support that inspired us to take the pledge. A guy in Bangalore who joined us from there was to take the meals to an old age home. After all transactions were through that guy just vanished from the face of the earth. Our contact numbers were blocked and we knew that we have been duped. I lost all hope and gave up the idea.

Disheartened he called up his mother. I narrated her everything and it was she who made me stand again. You belong to family of freedom fighters how can you give up on the country and its people just because of one such incident. Remember its because of Indias vast culinary heritage that you are one of best chef in the worldIts time to give back betaji she said. And hence, FeedIndia took off with a bang.

Being the real multitasker, Vikas has come up with a restaurant in Dubai and work on his next film. I love doing multiple things at a same time. The idea behind the new restaurant was to provide jobs to young jobless. Making cinema and writing books makes me reach to so many people in just a go. My film The Last Color that was based in Vrindavan and Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. My next directorial will see the legendary actor Shabana Azmi as the central character based in NY. It is slated for next year, he shared.
(People's Daily Online) Next week, President Xi Jinping will hold a video conference with Chancellor Merkel of Germany, President Michel of the European Council and President von der Leyen of the European Commission. This would be another meeting between Chinese and European leaders in just over two months. It shows that both sides place importance on China-EU relations and aspire to strengthen dialogue and cooperation.

This year is a significant year for China-EU diplomatic ties, as the two sides mark the 45th year into their relationship. Although COVID-19 undermined the chances of face-to-face exchanges between China and the EU, the two sides have since engaged in more frequent meetings through more flexible means online. Since June, important meetings including the China-EU Summit, the China-EU High-level Strategic Dialogue, and the China-EU High-level Economic Dialogue have been completed successfully. High-level communication between the two sides in green development and the digital economy have also produced fruitful results. Yang Jiechi, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the Office of Central Commission for Foreign Affairs and State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi have just concluded their respective visits to Europe, marking the resumption of face-to-face diplomacy between the two sides. Frequent high-level exchanges have enhanced the mutual understanding between China and Europe, advanced practical cooperation in various areas and made good preparations for the coming China-Germany-EU Leaders Meeting.

President Xi Jinping pointed out that China and EU are two strong forces, big markets and major civilizations in the world. What the two sides stand for, against and cooperate on is globally significant. Major forces are expected to do what they are supposed to do. Against the backdrop of changes unseen in a century and COVID-19, this coming meeting is important for not only China and Europe but the whole world, drawing attention and expectations far and wide:

- It is anticipated that China and Europe will lead international cooperation against COVID-19. As the virus is still spreading globally, the world economy is plunging into deep recession. China and Europe are at the forefront in vaccine development. Both sides stand that COVID-19 vaccines are global public goods and work to enhance their accessibility and affordability in the world. In the critical juncture of jointly fighting COVID-19 and working for post-COVID economic recovery, it is anticipated China and Europe will further enhance their unity and cooperation and lead the world to success against the virus. In this darkest hour for the world economy, we are expected to fully leverage our power as the twin-engine, resume dialogue and cooperation in various areas and contribute our share to world economic recovery.

- It is anticipated that China and Europe will deepen trade and investment cooperation. During the first half of this year, the trade volume between China and Europe have increased and for the first time in history, China is on track to becoming the EUs biggest trading partner during the year. China and the EU account for one third of the global economy, we are two major economies and the major force for economic globalization. Various parties and especially the business sector are following closely the negotiation progress of the Bilateral Investment Agreement and the Agreement on Geographical Indications. It is hoped that China and the EU can further open up to each other, deepen business cooperation, enhance the well-being of the two peoples and work for an open world economy.

- It is anticipated that China and Europe will join forces in addressing climate change. China highly values ecological conservation. We have completed our emission reduction target two years ahead of schedule and are now actively looking at formulating medium and long term targets. The European Commission announced in its European Green Deal, striving to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Next year, China and Europe will respectively hold important international conferences on climate change, biodiversity, and conservation. It is expected that the two sides will play a leading role in green development, strengthen mutual support, jointly address global challenges, promote a green lifestyle and build a beautiful homeland.

- It is anticipated that China and Europe will strengthen cooperation in the digital economy. Though a new round of scientific and industrial revolution is emerging with a flourishing digital economy, there is still a huge deficit in global digital governance and blanks to fill in the rules regarding digital security. China has a burgeoning digital economy and the European Union is advancing an ambitious plan of digital transition. The two sides have huge potential for complementary cooperation. The Global Initiative on Data Security just proposed by China speaks volumes to Chinas sincerity, openness and confidence in the field of data security. It is anticipated that China and Europe will jointly advance the digital economy, work to forge China-EU digital partnership and contribute to global standards and rules in the digital area.

- It is anticipated that China and Europe will jointly safeguard multilateralism. Multilateralism is essential for the development of all countries, especially for medium-sized and smaller countries. To safeguard multilateralism has become the biggest common understanding between China and the EU. Right now, unilateralism and hegemonic practices are rising up, which jeopardizes international rules and the international order. It is anticipated that China and Europe will uphold the commitment to multilateralism, take multilateral actions, observe multilateral treaties, strengthen multilateral institutions and prevent the world from repeating the mistakes of following the law of the jungle and engaging in cold wars.

This year marks the opening year for the new EU administration, and another German presidency of the EU in 13 years. China-EU relations are now enjoying a great opportunity for further development. It is believed that the China-Germany-EU Leaders Meeting to be held at this critical juncture will steer post-COVID China-EU relations to go further, inject impetus into all-round dialogue and cooperation between the two sides and bring more stability and positive energy into this world full of uncertainties.
A small steamer in the port of Jemulpo in the early 20th century. Robert Neff Collection



By Robert Neff



The Nanzing shipped a variety of things generally between Shanghai, Jemulpo and Fusan  mainly general goods, mining equipment and a little gold, but very little from Nagasaki apparently due to the ship's bad reputation.



In the spring of 1884, the agent at Jemulpo complained that none of the Japanese brokers in Nagasaki would ship their goods with the Nanzing because there had been so many complaints about damaged goods and shortages. The agent was convinced the Japanese consul in Jemulpo "who has been trying to do all the harm he can with the merchants in Nagasaki" was to blame for the false allegations. An examination of subsequent reports, however, clearly indicates that there were problems with missing goods and damaged items.



Not only did the company have to contend with the Japanese and the not-so-false allegations, it also had to contend with the American navy. In the early part of 1884, the company shipped a large supply of coal to Jemulpo convinced it would be able to sell it to the very small foreign community or, if that failed, to the Western staff of the Korean Customs Service. Unfortunately, the U.S.S. Enterprise, an American warship, traveled to Nagasaki to refuel its coal holds and brought back a large quantity of coal for the American legation in Seoul. Somehow the coal ended up being sold to the Korean Customs Service, which ruined the market for Nanzing's coal. Even with the price greatly reduced, it could not be sold and the agent suggested to his superiors that it be used as fuel for the steamer.





Chinese laborers eating lunch. Circa early 1900s. Robert Neff Collection



In September 1884, the Nanzing finally had a full cargo from Nagasaki  courtesy of the British government. The Royal Oak  a saloon in Nagasaki  was purchased by the government and carefully taken apart and shipped on the Nanzing to Jemulpo where it was reassembled and used at the British consulate. The cost to ship the saloon was about $400. A seemingly small price to pay but, if we are to believe Isabella Bird Bishop, the poor quality of the building would later cost the British Consul's life  a victim of pneumonia.









On the return trip to Nagasaki, the ship carried as passengers four prisoners  one Chinese and three Japanese. The Chinese was to go on to Shanghai where he would be tried for robbing a Korean noble and murdering another man. The Japanese were part of a group of men (Koreans and Japanese) accused of "the manufacturing of spurious Corean coins" on a small island off Jemulpo. The Koreans implicated in the counterfeiting were summarily beheaded and it was expected the Korean government would demand a similar punishment for the Japanese counterfeiters.



Not all the passengers were alive. In early August 1883, Georg von Mollendorff, a German working for the Korean government as an adviser, inquired to the cost of shipping 200 dead Chinese soldiers  in their coffins  from Jemulpo to Shanghai. The agent gave what he thought was a fair cost, but would not commit to transport them until he could verify the condition of the coffins and the corpses within. It is not clear if these corpses were ever transported.





Nagasaki in the late 19th century. Robert Neff Collection
The drilling wars of the Mediterranean

Massive migration flows from Africa and the Middle East towards Europe have traversed its waters, particularly in the wake of the Arab Spring and the subsequent conflicts in Syria and Libya.

At the same time, the enduring Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its biased management by the US continues to stir resentment. These crises have concerned the states overlooking the Mediterranean, but more recently, the resources hidden in its sea beds have fuelled controversy.

Oil and gas discoveries off the coasts of Egypt, Gaza, Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Cyprus have added a new dimension to old, unresolved conflicts. The dispute between Greece and Turkey for control over the Aegean Sea, the division of Cyprus, and the issue of maritime boundaries between Lebanon and Israel are just a few examples.

Almost all of the countries on the Eastern Mediterraneans shores claim conflicting and overlapping exclusive economic zones (EEZs) to exploit these resources up to 200 nautical miles from their coasts. A political and legal controversy - promising decades of work and fees for specialised international jurists and lawyers - is looming.

US leadership within Nato has not eased the decades-old rivalry between Greece and Turkey

These increasing tensions have been attributed to the alleged disengagement of the US from the area and from its recent historical role as referee. But a referee must be impartial, and the record of the US, from this point of view, is far from satisfactory.

The real problem is the lack of US leadership when it had the soft and hard power, as well as an intact reputation, to make a difference. American leadership within Nato has not eased the decades-old rivalry between the organisations two southernmost members, Greece and Turkey. The same can be said about the Cyprus issue.

Instead of solving problems, Washington has preferred to freeze or ignore them. The US now seems to be a narcissistic socialite who has received a VIP party invitation and wonders: Will they notice me more if I attend or I do not? Furthermore, from November onwards, the US will likely be paralysed for months in deciding who has really won the presidential election.

Ambitious agenda

When the US leaves a void, many are ready to fill it. Russia and Turkey are two perfect examples here. For around a decade, Russia has been smartly playing its cards in the Syrian and Libyan conflicts - and in any possible settlement of these crises, its interests will have to be taken into account.

Turkey is assertively promoting an ambitious regional agenda that includes the Aegean Sea, EEZs, Cyprus and, again, the conflicts in Syria and Libya. Furthermore, Ankaras support for the Muslim Brotherhood is stirring tensions in Egypt, Israel, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, as well as in some western democracies.

Turkey seems determined to reclaim the leadership of Sunni Islam that it held for centuries during the Ottoman Empire. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt, in particular, perceive this as an existential threat.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks in Ankara on 24 August (AFP)

Turkey has also been seeking for decades to join the European Union, an ambition it seems to have given up on. While it was long a secular country, that is no longer the case, and the strong reservations by Germany and France to such an entry have been insurmountable. No matter how secular Turkeys constitution has been, the core issue has remained its predominantly Muslim population.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan now has the attitude of someone who, after a very long engagement, realises he will never get to marriage, and reacts with acrimony and a spirit of vengeance. Historians in the future will establish whether his Islamist and authoritarian drive was planned since the beginning, or whether it was a reaction to the EU's resistance.

Zero friends

The truth is that Turkey, which once sought to maintain good relations with its neighbours, has moved to a position of having almost no friends in the neighbourhood. Ankara is experiencing tensions with Greece, Cyprus, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, France and the EU. It also has a hostile relationship with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, an ambivalent relationship with the US, and conflicting agendas with Russia in Syria and Libya.

The countrys economy is also in a state of uncertain health. But Erdogan is a shrewd player, and he still possesses some important cards: a strategic position on Natos southern flank, US military bases, and the ability to reopen the tap and send millions of Syrian refugees hosted in Turkey towards Europe.

Why is Turkey sending forces to Libya? The answer is gas Read More 

The large oil and gas reserves discovered in the Eastern Mediterranean should ideally be convoyed to Europe through a so-called East Med pipeline involving Egypt, Israel, Cyprus and Greece. Late last year, Turkey and the Tripoli-based Libyan government signed a maritime boundaries deal, potentially blocking any pipeline towards Europe. Egypt, Greece and Cyprus proclaimed their own zones, specular to Turkeys and Libyas.

While Russia and Turkey have shown conflicting agendas in Syria and Libya, on the East Med pipeline, they might be on the same page. Both nations have an interest in not enlarging the list of eastern energy suppliers to Europe.

The EU is acting in a scattered fashion. France is supporting Greece and sending its navy, Germany is trying to mediate, Italy is watching with the migration issue with concern and Brussels seems paralysed. Things are also very bad for Nato, diagnosed as brain dead by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Joint naval exercises in the area are not helping to calm tensions; in such circumstances, accidents are possible, and the capability to manage them cannot be taken for granted.

Tabling grievances

De-escalation is sorely needed, and to achieve it, a sort of consultation mechanism must be established. A contact group for the Eastern Mediterranean, where all political, economic and legal grievances could be tabled and discussed, may be a starting point.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres should consider the appointment of a special envoy for the Eastern Mediterranean

Such a group should encompass all the nations overlooking the basin, together with the US, EU, Russia and some other major European powers. Considering its status in the UN Security Council and that the southern corridor of its massive Belt and Road Initiative will go through the Eastern Mediterranean, Chinas presence may also be important.

Last but not least, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres should consider the appointment of a special envoy for the Eastern Mediterranean.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Children between the ages of 5 and 14 load gravel as they haul loads of construction materials to assist their families who have received government aid to build homes, in the Aldama district of Chiapas State, Mexico, Monday, Aug. 24, 2020. As students across Mexico restarted online and TV classes Monday amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, many children in remote rural areas without access to television or internet service were left out, with no way to restart their education. (AP Photo/Isabel Mateos)

COVID-19 Has Caused a Worldwide Education Crisis

With children all over Canada returning to school this fall during the pandemic, parents are worried. Worried about their children being infected, their educational futures, and protecting vulnerable family members.

Worldwide, 1.6 billion children in 190 countries are out of school and share our worries and more. This is unprecedented. For children living in poverty, school is not just about learning. It is a safe place to get food they might not get at home, routine vaccinations, a COVID vaccine when available, and more. Without school, millions of children will be forced back into extreme poverty.

To get our children back in school safely, COVID must be defeated everywhere and not just in Canada. This is why 1 percent of our domestic response to COVID must be put towards a global response to the pandemic. We are all in this together. Lets help ensure our childrens futures.

Norm Filiol

Ottawa, ON.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
(CNN) The AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine trial, halted last week after an unexplained illness in one of the volunteers, will resume, the University of Oxford announced Saturday.

The university, which is developing the vaccine with AstraZeneca, did not say when the trial would resume. AstraZeneca said the trial will only resume in the United Kingdom, adding that it's working with health authorities across the world to determine when other trials can resume.

Before the pause, the company was testing its vaccine, dubbed the Oxford vaccine, in the United States as well as in the United Kingdom, Latin America, Asia, Europe and Africa.

The university said in a statement that some 18,000 individuals around the world have received study vaccines as part of the trial. "In large trials such as this, it is expected that some participants will become unwell and every case must be carefully evaluated to ensure careful assessment of safety," the statement added.

US National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins told a Senate hearing Wednesday that pausing a trial was a standard precaution that is meant to ensure experimental vaccines don't cause serious reactions among participants.

"To have a clinical hold, as has been placed on AstraZeneca, as of yesterday, because of a single serious adverse event, is not at all unprecedented," Collins said at a hearing of the Senate Heath, Education, Labor and Pensions committee.

On Tuesday, AstraZeneca joined eight other companies in signing a pledge promising they would not seek premature government approval for any coronavirus vaccine. The companies promised to wait until they had adequate data showing any potential vaccine worked safely.

AstraZeneca did not provide any details on the issue that caused the trial to stop. While AstraZeneca didn't specify what the issue was, at the hearing on Wednesday Collins said the AstraZeneca hold was due to a "spinal cord problem."

On Wednesday, AstraZeneca issued a statement denying news reports that suggested the trial was stopped because of a case of transverse myelitis -- a rare inflammatory condition of the spinal cord. On the same day, AstraZeneca said it had paused its coronavirus vaccine trial not once but twice because of adverse events.

"We can also confirm that there was a brief trial pause in July while a safety review took place after one volunteer was confirmed to have an undiagnosed case of multiple sclerosis, which the independent panel concluded was unrelated to the vaccine," a company spokesperson said.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is one of three coronavirus vaccines in late-stage, Phase 3 trials in the US. It has the backing of the US federal government. Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTec are the other two groups with Phase 3 trials under way, also with federal government funding.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "AstraZeneca's Oxford vaccine trial to resume, the university says."
Hall of Famer Yves Filion made another successful visit to the Hippodrome 3R on Sunday (Sept. 13), as he guided Colonel Bayama to victory in the final leg of the Future Stars Series for two-year-old pacers.

The eight top point earners in the series will now return to H3R on Sunday, September 27 for the $55,000 finals. September 27 at the track has been dubbed 'Super Sunday,' which will boast more than $500,000 in purses, therefore making it the richest day of horse racing in all of Quebec.

Leaving from Post 5 in the $10,000 first race for the colts, Filion and Colonel Bayama were parked out to the opening quarter by D Gs Runforhim (who was driven by Jonathan Lachance) in :28.3.

Filion was able to back down the pace to the half mile in :59.3, as The Light Speed (Simon Delisle) came first-over with Major Damage (Steeven Genois) second-over.

Colonel Bayama continued to lead the field to the three-quarters in 1:30.1 and then held off all contenders down the stretch to win by a half length in 2:00.4. The Light Speed was second with D Gs Runforhim third.

The win was the maiden victory for Colonel Bayama. The colt by Sunshine Beach had been second in the first two rounds of the series. He is trained by Filion and co-owned and bred by Bayama Farms of Saint-Andre-DArgenteuil and Jacques Damours of Saint-Bruno. He paid $6.30 to win.

The rains came before the $10,000 filly division (Race 8) and the track was 'sloppy' with a two-second allowance, but that did not matter to Got Sexy Scars and driver Stephane Gendron.

Leaving from Post 3, Got Sexy Scars went to the early lead and parked out Platine Alpha (Carol Voyer) past the opening quarter mile in a speedy :28.2. Then the pace was pressed as GA Speed Sammy (Pierre-Luc Roy) came three-wide and they raced that way past the half in :59.1.

The pace did not slow down from there, as SOS Faline (Stephane Brosseau) then came three-wide in the backstretch as they reached the three-quarters in 1:29.2. It seemed then that Got Sexy Scars had enough and pulled away from the field, winning by two and one-half lengths in 2:00. SOS Faline was second with JS Miss Cornelia (Sylvain Lacaille) third.

The victory was the lifetime mark and the second win this season for Got Sexy Scars. She is by Sportswriter and trained by Gilles Gendron for owner-breeder Bruno Lepage of Beauharnois. She paid $5.80 to win.

Track Notes: After a fast half mile, driver Jessica Turenne bolted to the lead and never looked back with Uncle Bill ($9.90), winning the Lady Drivers Challenge with the beautiful roan pacer in 1:57.4 by the length of the stretch. The fourth-race pace was the 'Trainers Challenge' and conditioner Francis Richard wired the field with Guinness Panic ($3.80) in 1:58. Francis Richard led all horsepeople Sunday with a training triple. Live racing resumes next Friday at H3R with first-race post time at 1:00 p.m. For more information, visit www.hippodrome3r.ca.

To view the harness racing results for Sunday at H3R, click the following link: Sunday Results  Hippodrome 3R.

(Quebec Jockey Club)
Almost hidden at the north end of Oyama Lake is Lilypad Lane, a meadering waterway connecting Oyama Lake to Streak Lake. Kayaks almost disappear from sight as they weave through the lilypads and bullrushes, above.
Concerned Port Arthur residents gathered  socially distanced and online  Thursday night at a town hall meeting to discuss Valeros interest in buying out properties near its west-side refinery.

About 20 people attended in person outside the West Side Development Center while others listened in to the Zoom conference call as representatives from Lone Star Legal Aid provided some information property owners might need when considering their offer.

But the discussion of the night, at least at the in-person meeting, focused not on how residents could get a fair price, but whether some would participate at all.

This is gentrification at its best, and we knew it was possible, West Port Arthur resident Rosalind Queen said. We knew it was coming someday, but no one is really ready.

Queen said her familys ties to her property date back to 1944 when her parents raised their family there while working for Gulf Oil. She said she wanted the property to remain in her family for her grandkids, whatever their plans for it may be.

Robert Goffney, another west-side property owner considering an offer from Valero, had a different opinion.

Im selling everything, but Ill stay in Port Arthur even if that means I have to get a Winnebago and ride it down the road, he said.

Goffney has three lots on Fifth Street, one of which currently has a home which he rents. He said the buyout was a good opportunity for someone his age, but he didnt see it as an end to his connection with the community.

The meeting was hosted by the Port Arthur Community Action Network (PA-CAN), a group that has become increasingly involved in addressing problems.

In February, the group dropped a contestment it had filed in partnership with Lone Star Legal Aid against one of Motiva Enterprises permit applications after the company agreed to implement some community-based employment and energy efficiency programs.

Representatives from the company werent in attendance at the meeting or involved in its organization, but PA-CAN President John Beard said local refinery management was asked if the company would like to provide any information.

Valero hasnt publicly confirmed which properties it is looking at or if it has already acquired any, but offers seem to center on two tracts of land near the plants eastern edge off Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Abe Lincoln Avenue. One of the tracts may be roughly the size of two blocks.

Beard said the seeming inconsistency of some people in a neighborhood receiving letters from the company while others havent is likely part of the buyout process that will let Valero move and negotiate at its own pace, which is why the group moved to organize a chance for community members to get on the same page.

Mary Lathan, a west Port Arthur resident, said she hadnt received a letter or offer from Valero yet, but she attended the Thursday night meeting because several of her elderly neighbors had.

She said the prospect of leaving their homes had upset many of the older folks in her neighborhood, which inspired her to learn more in hopes of putting them at ease.

I will not back down in believing that we can enjoy that area, at least until the end of our lifetimes, she said.

Most residents who spoke at the meeting, whether they planned on selling or not, expressed some kind of doubt about whether the project would turn into a green space buffer between the plant and residential areas as Valero has expressed before.

Pamela Langford, director of development services for Port Arthurs planning and zoning department, was invited to explain what kind of zoning restrictions were in place for the proposed area of the buyout.

The property Valero has expressed interest in is zoned for either multi-family or single-family development, which wouldnt allow for an industrial or commercial project if the company purchased.

Langford reiterated that the city was not involved in the buyout in any way, but does control the zoning restrictions for property within the city limits. If Valero decided it did want to develop the property it purchased in the buyout, the company would have to start the application process with the city and the city would have to post public notices and hold public meetings before the zoning could be changed.

Another thing to look at is the deed itself, Langford said. A property owner could always look into a deed restriction that states how a property can be used.

Ultimately, experts advised residents that any decision to sell should be weighed with the personal needs and realistic expectations of the individual or family.

Amy Dinn, managing attorney for the environmental justice team at Lone Star Legal Aid, said property owners will have to be aware of hidden costs to moving, such as utility fees, closing costs and the difference in home values in other neighborhoods.

This could be an opportunity if you want to relocate and distance yourself from industry, but it is important to make sure it works for you, she said.

jacob.dick@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/jd_journalism
A group of six leading French doctors and professors have called for an end to private get-togethers as the Covid-19 epidemic worsens, echoing the governments appeal for more responsible behaviour. But other health specialists say the government lacks a strategy in how to stem the resurgence of the virus.

We are entering a new stage in the epidemic: it is spreading, the six health specialists wrote in a tribune published in Sundays Journal du Dimanche newspaper, warning there was probably little time left to act collectively.

Few could dispute their analysis: a record 10,561 new cases of Covid-19 were registered in the last 24 hours; 17 people have died.

Forty-two of Frances 94 departments are now classified as red zones (50+ cases per 100,000 inhabitants) and there are critical zones around Marseille, Bordeaux and in French overseas territory Guadeloupe.

After the joy on getting together in the summer, it is now time to pay attention to private gatherings, they wrote, citing the example of Birmingham in the UK which on Friday introduced a ban on get-togethers between friends and family members.

It is perhaps time to blow the final whistle on playtimeand avoid, as far as possible, private gatherings, they continued.

Lack of strategy

Their explanation is not new: the smaller the room, the closer people are, the less ventilation there is and the greater the risk of transmitting the virus.

The French government has also appealed to individuals to behave responsibly to stem the severity of the second wave, repeating the message to respect the face mask, hand-washing, physical distancing mantra.

On Friday the French prime minister Jean Castex also provided local authorities with the power to work out local strategies.

Prefects in the 42 red zones are allowed to introduce extra measures such as compulsory face mask wearing, limiting numbers at gatherings, and modifying shop, cafe and restaurant opening hours.

Story continues

But there is no obligation to do so, leading to a lot of disparity among the "red" departments.

In Paris, Marseille and Lyon, mask wearing is compulsory everywhere. In in other big cities like Nantes, Montpellier or Lille it's only mandatory in some busy streets.

While some are considering closing markets once more, others continue to authorise gatherings of up to 5,000.

The policy on schools also varies widely too: some schools have closed classes after one child tests positive, others remain open despite several cases.

The test, trace, isolate 'fiasco'

Individual responsibility is important, but its not enough, epidemiologist William Dab told JDD, insisting Frances strategy is still not clearly defined.

Dab is particularly critical of the test, trace and isolate scheme which Health minister Olivier Veran said was reaching around 700,000 people each week.

But people are struggling to get tested and were reassuring anxious people rather than identifying those who are ill. You cant follow the chain of contacts when the results are only available five days after the first symptoms, he regretted.

We identified five contacts per case in July, now its less than two. Its a fiasco.

Dab is in favour of saliva tests, which people can easily administer themselves and get immediate results.

France is still doing research on the feasibility of widespread saliva testing so, unlike in Hong Kong and the United States, they are not yet approved.

Even if they are less sensitive than the PCR [nasal version], we have to use them," said Dab. "Should we be losing even more time evaluating the test when they could be reducing queues at laboratories? Having those tests quickly would be a game-changer."
The recent lawsuit alleging that Montanas mail-in elections are risky discredits Montanas election administrators. Montanans can vote safely and securely by mail in this election and every election.

Over 70% of Montana ballots cast in the 2016 general election were absentee. Montanas June 2020 primary all-mail election had the highest voter primary turnout in recent history with a record-breaking number of ballots filed. Our county elections offices and US postal workers capably handled this surge in mail-in ballots. Managing 100% mail-in elections is not a stretch for the dedicated bi-partisan public servants who administer our elections.

Our election judges take an oath to protect the vote. They are the foot soldiers who defend our elections and guard our democracy. They deserve our support and gratitude, not unfounded accusations. Here are some facts about how Montana election officials in every county follow strict procedures to maintain the integrity of our elections:

 Your mailing envelope has a bar code, which is scanned and noted on your voting record in the Voter Database maintained by the Montana Secretary of State.

 Your signature on the mailing envelope is verified as a match to your signature in this database before your ballot is accepted.

 Accepted ballots are kept in a locked secure storage area as they are received.

 One to three business days before election day, elections offices are permitted to begin preparing the ballots for tabulation, after which the ballots are again locked in a secure room.

 Election judges work in teams of two to ensure accuracy and that no ballot is misplaced or mishandled.

 Your identity is kept separate from your ballot.

 Votes are tallied by hand or by machine and all original paper ballots are kept in case the votes need to be recounted.

Voting by mail lessens the risk of COVID-19. To ensure you can vote by mail regardless of the outcome of this baseless lawsuit, request an absentee ballot. Montana law allows you to vote by mail using an absentee ballot without explaining why you dont want to vote at a polling place. You can download the Absentee Ballot Request Form at the Montana Secretary of States website (sosmt.gov) and send it to your county election office. Do it soon! Absentee and all mail-election ballots will be mailed out to voters on Oct. 9, although you can request an absentee ballot after that.

The elections office must receive your ballot, not postmarked, by 8 p.m. on Nov. 3 for your vote to count. Plan to mail your ballot by Oct. 20 for the Post Office to deliver it in time or take it to your election office drop box. Montana law also provides the option of in-person voting at your county election office on Election Day.

The best tool to ensure your mailed ballot is safe and counted is My Voter Page (app.mt.gov/voterinfo) at the Secretary of States website. Go to My Voter Page to verify you are an active voter, check your address and whether you are getting an absentee ballot. Once ballots are sent, you can check whether you were mailed a ballot and whether the elections office has received and accepted your ballot on the My Voter Page. If the elections office hasnt accepted it by Nov. 3, you can go to the election office in person and request a replacement or provisional ballot on Election Day.

The League of Women Voters offers this information to help reassure Montanans as we head into the final weeks before our state and national elections. Vote by mail is safe and secure.

Honor our election officials by voting this year!

Nancy Leifer is president of the League of Women Voters Montana.

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The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has directed Serum Institute of India to suspend till further orders new recruitment in phase 2 and 3 clinical trials of the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine candidate in the backdrop of pharma giant AstraZeneca pausing the trials in other countries.

In an order, a copy of which has been accessed by PTI, DCGI Dr V G Somani on Friday also directed Serum Institute of India (SII) to increase the safety monitoring of the subjects already vaccinated as part of the trial, and submit the plan and report.

Follow latest updates on the Covid-19 pandemic here

Somani also asked the firm to submit clearance from Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) in the UK as well as in India to obtain clearance from his office (DCGI) prior to resumption of future recruitment in the trial.

The central drug regulator DCGI had issued a show-cause notice to SII on September 9 for not informing it about AstraZeneca pausing clinical trials of the vaccine candidate in other countries and also for not submitting casualty analysis of the "reported serious adverse events".

Following which the Pune-based firm, which has partnered with the British-Swedish biopharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca for manufacturing the Oxford vaccine candidate, on Thursday said it is pausing the clinical trials in India.

Earlier this week, AstraZeneca said it had paused the trials because of 'an unexplained illness' in a participant in the study.

"We are reviewing the situation and pausing India trials till AstraZeneca restarts the trials," SII said in a statement on Thursday.

According to the DCGI's order issued on Friday, the SII in its reply stated that DSMB has noted no safety concerns from the Indian study (part 1-phase-2 study) with the first dose and seven days post vaccination safety data.

In its reply, SII also stated that DSMB further recommended "to pause further enrolment into the study until ongoing investigations of SAE reported in the UK study is completed and the sponsor and the UK DSMB are satisfied that it doesn't pose any safety concerns".

"In the view of the above, I Dr V G Somani, Drugs Controller General of India, Central Licensing Authority, after careful examination of your reply and the recommendations of the DSMB in India, in exercise of the powers vested under Rule 30 of the New Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules, 2019, direct to you suspend any new recruitment in the phase 2 and 3 clinical trial till further orders," the order read.

"Increase the safety monitoring of the subjects already vaccinated with the vaccine under trial and submit the plan and report," the order further stated.

On August 2, the DCGI had granted permission to the Pune-based SII to conduct Phase 2 and 3 human clinical trials of the coronavirus vaccine candidate.

AstraZeneca, the biopharmaceutical giant in a tie-up with the Oxford University to produce the vaccine, described the pause of trials as a "routine" one following what was "an unexplained illness".
The exercises are scheduled to start on Monday, September 14.

Ukraine's State Border Guard Service has stepped up security measures along the border with Belarus.

This announcement was made by the agency's press service just one day before the launch of the Slavic Brotherhood military drills to be conducted by the Belarusian army jointly with the Russian Federation's military.

Read alsoUkraine's MFA comments on Lukashenko's accusations of meddling in Belarus' internal affairs

The State Border Guard Service says the situation on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border remains controllable and stable.

"The State Border Service has enough resources to ensure reliable security [along the border]. In particular, measures to protect that section of the state border have been enhanced with the involvement of additional reserves, including the DOZOR [the 10th separate rapid response squad of the Border Service that is used to counter human trafficking, arms smuggling, terrorism] and a K-9 unit," it said. "Airspace surveillance is carried out by the border aviation forces, including with the help of drones, on an ongoing basis, while SAFE Boat 27 vessels are additionally involved in patrolling the water sections of the border."

According to the agency, the security measures are being taken to prevent offenses and counter any provocations, irregularities, including illegal border crossings by groups of people.

"All available information that may affect the protection of the state border is being collected and processed now. Search units, district inspectors of the border service are actively engaged in the operation, the number of border patrols has been increased," it said.

Border patrols with specially trained dogs are on duty, while there is active observation from technical posts with the use of surveillance equipment, vehicles, and aircraft.

The Ukrainian-Belarusian border section is over 1,000 km long and runs through five Ukrainian regions, it said.

Russian-Belarusian exercises 2020
A political science teacher of Siliguri College in north Bengal has been accused of demanding 10,000 from a final-year undergraduate student to help her pass the examination by using his influence with the North Bengal University (NBU) authorities.

The NBU authorities filed a complaint at Matigara police station in Siliguri on Saturday after audio clips, in which the teacher was purportedly heard demanding money from the student to help her pass the undergraduate examination, went viral on social media two days ago.

Siliguri College is affiliated to the NBU.

Also read: Thief returns stolen phone to man in West Bengal after he fails to operate it

We received a complaint from Siliguri College. The student alleged that Amitava Kanjilal, the teacher, had demanded money from her. He had said he knew staff members of the university very well, said Dilip Sarkar, registrar, NBU.

Sarkar said he has urged the police to question Kanjilal and ascertain his alleged contacts in the university.

On Friday, the student lodged a complaint with Sujit Ghosh, the principal of her college.

Kanjilal denied the allegation. I am being targeted by some people who have vested interests, he said.

The college authorities have barred Kanjilal from all examination-related work.

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Oman Aviation Group (OAG) has sealed a strategic partnership deal in the field of air cargo with DHL company at Muscat International Airport.

The agreement seeks to establish an attractive environment for international investors and leading logistics industry firms. It reflects understanding for joint investment and exchange of benefits in the field of air cargo, which is considered a core component of future business growth, said a Oman News Agency report.

Mustafa bin Mohammed Al-Hinai, CEO of OAG, said this agreement will contribute to promoting the Sultanates attractiveness as a strategic regional business centre for eastern and western countries.

Al-Hinai added that, since its inception in 2018, OAG has set a raft of business objectives aimed at empowering the aviation sector in the Sultanate and contributing to the diversification of sources of income by supporting associated sectors.

He noted that these strategies go in line with Oman Vision 2040 goals of economic diversification and development of air cargo infrastructure configuration devised by the National Aviation Strategy 2030.

He pointed out that air cargo is one of the sultanates promising economic sectors, even as the Sultanate is gathering momentum in the Performance Index of World Bank. The cargo sector is greatest employer of national manpower in many countries, Al-Hinai added.

He explained that, as part of OAGs strategy, investment has been made in the setting up and development of air cargo buildings in Muscat and Salalah to benefit from an increase in air cargo rates expected to reach 730,000 tons by 2030.

Al-Hinai said: The National Aviation Strategy, launched in 2020, provided for increasing our current market share in GCC arena and the creation of headways in continents of Asia, Africa and Europe.
Jaipur: Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and other leaders condoled the death of former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh who passed away in AIIMS Delhi on Sunday. In a condolence message, the Governor described Singh as a voice of the poor" and said he had a personal association with him.

Chief Minister Gehlot said Singh was a grassroots-level leader. He always raised the voice for the rights of farmers, backward and destitute people," Gehlot said.

The chief minister said Singh was a seasoned politician who will be missed in the Indian politics. Former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot also condoled the demise of Singh and said he will be remembered for his work and contribution towards strengthening rural India.

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor
The house was quiet and the cribs were empty when Alysia and Colton Ford arrived home, three days after she was rushed into emergency surgery to deliver her twin boys.

Alysia was only 26 weeks pregnant. Shed been diagnosed with COVID-19 about two weeks earlier and spent more than a week in the hospital fighting the disease.

Six days after getting discharged, Alysias pregnancy specialist discovered that one of the twins wasnt growing. The doctor feared the baby wasnt getting an adequate supply of nutrients and oxygen from his mothers placenta.

Twenty-four hours later, the babys heart rate became unstable. On July 23, doctors performed an emergency cesarean section.

The newborns, delivered three months before their due date, were rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit at Childrens Hospital of San Antonio  so quickly that Colton barely caught a glimpse of them. Alysia could only hear their cries.

Because Alysia was still recovering from COVID-19, she wasnt allowed to visit her sons in the NICU until she finished the COVID-19 quarantine and wouldnt pose a risk to the babies and staff.

Colton would have to meet their sons for the first time, alone.



***

Lisa Krantz /Staff photographer

Since COVID-19 was a new disease, there wasnt enough data to understand how it affected pregnant women. But what was clear in the beginning of the pandemic  and early in Alysias pregnancy  was the sudden change to visitor policies at doctors offices and hospitals, aimed at slowing the spread of the virus.

Colton said he was allowed to attend only one out of roughly 20 sonograms. Otherwise, he waited in the car while Alysia attended appointments with her regular obstetrician and high-risk pregnancy specialist.

Alysia, 36, and Colton, 31, met while stationed overseas with the Air Force nine years ago and had been trying to have a baby for nearly five years  an effort that had included many losses. During her first pregnancy in 2017, Alysia developed a life-threatening complication and the baby died within hours of her premature birth at 23 weeks. Two and a half years later, her second pregnancy ended in a miscarriage.

The Fords then decided to try in vitro fertilization. By early February, Alysia was pregnant. Her due date was Oct. 28, their eighth wedding anniversary.

It had been a relatively smooth pregnancy. Until one day in early July when Alysias foot went numb. She feared she might be experiencing a blood clot.

The Fords rushed to a San Antonio emergency room  at the height of the citys spike in coronavirus hospitalizations, when government officials feared hospitals would run out of beds.

Doctors checked Alysia. Nothing was wrong. But a few days later, she came down with COVID-19.

She spent more than a week in University Hospital. Colton also contracted the virus but had much milder symptoms and recovered at home.

Breathing  let alone, talking  was so difficult that Alysia couldnt call her husband and had to text him updates from her bed. She was unable to eat through most of her stay because she was on the verge of needing a ventilator to breathe.

They were scared they were going to have to intubate me, she recalled.

As the coronavirus pandemic began to unfold, doctors didnt know whether it would hit pregnant women harder, as was the case during previous flu outbreaks and the H1N1 pandemic in 2009. Pregnant women accounted for 5 percent of all of U.S. deaths during that pandemic, even though they made up just 1 percent of the population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Lisa Krantz /Staff photographer

Dr. James Hill, the maternal fetal medicine specialist at Childrens Hospital of San Antonio who served as Alysias high-risk pregnancy specialist, said hormonal changes during pregnancy alter a womans immune system, increasing the risk for infections.

While the baby is developing, the mothers lungs, blood vessels and muscles are under additional stress  the same systems attacked by COVID-19. At the same time, the uterus presses up on a womans diaphragm as the baby grows larger, making it harder for her to clear fluid from her lungs at a time when she needs to consume more oxygen.

One recent study examining COVID-19 cases from China, Italy and the U.S. suggested that anywhere from 3 to 7 percent of pregnant women with the disease can end up being admitted to intensive care units, Hill said.

Pregnant women have these immunological and physiological changes that make them more susceptible to respiratory infections, Hill said.

The CDC recently found that, even when adjusting for age and underlying conditions, pregnant women afflicted with COVID-19 during the first few months of the pandemic were 1.5 times more likely to need intensive care and 1.7 times more likely to need ventilators to breathe than women who werent pregnant.

And, similar to the general population, in which people of color are at higher risk, pregnant women who are Black or Latina also appear to be disproportionately harmed by the disease, according to the CDC.

As of early September, nearly 21,000 pregnant women across the U.S. had been infected with COVID-19.

At University Hospital, Alysia underwent breathing treatments, steroids and IV therapies. Nurses carefully monitored the twins heartbeats, one time staying by her side the entire night. After more than a week, she was stable enough to go home.

But at her next pregnancy checkup, six days after she was discharged, her doctor found that one of the twins hadnt been growing properly since Alysia contracted COVID-19.

The babies best chance of survival, her doctor said, was outside of their mothers womb.



***

Lisa Krantz /Staff photographer

The twins were so small when they were born that doctors weighed them in grams.

Draconius Drake Blaze Ford, the oldest by a minute, weighed 980 grams  about 2 pounds, 3 ounces. Keenen Legend Ford, who hadnt been growing properly, weighed 810 grams  about 1 pound, 13 ounces. The average birth weight in the U.S. is around 7 pounds.

Alysia and Colton joked that they fought too hard for their children to have boring names. When the couple was able to visit them together five days after their births, they felt overwhelmed: Those tiny babies, sheltered inside isolettes and swallowed by medical tubing and wires, were their sons.

For now, the twins would stay in the Sunshine Bay  the wing of the childrens hospital reserved for the most fragile newborns. Healthier babies can be heard crying down the hall. But inside its yellow walls, the usual sounds are nurses chatting, monitors beeping and machines pumping oxygen to infants.

By mid-August, the Ford twins had been there for nearly three weeks.

Its a great day in the NICU, the nurse chimed one day. Do you notice anything different?

Keenen, the smallest, was now able to rely on a normal ventilator. A few days earlier, hed gone into septic shock and needed an oscillator to survive  a special machine that gives him hundreds of small breaths each minute, instead of just 30.

Hey Keenen, mom and dad are here, bud, Alysia cooed, standing over the isolette and lifting a corner of the baby blanket covering it to peer at her son. You look a lot better today. We see you got the blue respirator.

He looks a million times better, Colton said. So much better, dude.

Mom and dad love you, buddy, Alysia said.

Both twins needed machines to pump oxygen into their lungs. Electrodes stuck to their bodies, monitoring their heart beats. A blood pressure cuff wrapped around a calf; a blood oxygen reader over a foot. Semi-permanent IVs carried nutrition and medication through their blood.

The NICU roller coaster, Alysia and Colton call it. One day, its a rush of hope and joy as they hit a milestone, like the twins being able to consume breast milk through a feeding tube instead of getting all their nutrition from an IV. The next, feelings of anxiety and uncertainty as they rush to the hospital, called by the nurses in the middle of the night.

The Fords keep blankets and neck pillows at the NICU for the bad days. They stashed snacks in a break room fridge for when they get hungry in the middle of the night when the hospitals cafeteria is closed. When things have gone wrong  like when Keenen developed a sudden infection and needed exploratory surgery to locate it  they've waited at the hospital as long as 14 hours.

Its a tumultuous journey that parents face when newborns need weeks, and sometimes months, in intensive care to survive. Across the country, nearly one in 10 babies are born premature, a rate that rose for the fourth straight year in 2018, the most recent year the CDC has available. When the number of preterm births rise, so, too, do NICU stays. For babies born at less than 32 weeks, the average cost of a hospital stay can exceed $280,000.

Premature babies like the Ford twins are at higher risk of long-term health problems such as chronic lung disease and developmental delays. For now, theyre also more susceptible to infections and have higher risks of brain bleeds.

Even with the most advanced medical care, its much harder for infants to develop outside the womb.

Dr. Maria Pierce, the medical director for the Childrens Hospitals NICU, said the Ford twins are getting around-the-clock support from highly-trained nurses, developmentalists, physical therapists and occupational therapists.

The boys are fighting a gallant fight, Pierce said. But only with time will she and other members of their medical team begin to understand the long-term effects of their early birth.



***

The question that looms over Alysia and Colton is to what extent COVID-19 played a role.

Hill, Alysias maternal fetal medicine specialist, said emerging data shows the disease might lead to a higher risk of pregnancy complications, including preterm birth. One recent study of about 540 pregnancies found that the preterm birth rate was about 20 percent  nearly twice the rate for U.S. women without COVID-19.

Lisa Krantz /Staff photographer

Hill said most of the women in that study were from China. Because obstetric practices vary among countries, that information is still too limited to be able to show exactly how COVID-19 affects pregnant women in the U.S. Its even more sparse when focusing on women who already had high-risk pregnancies like Alysia.

You worry about whether this whole pregnancy was affected by COVID-19, and if the reason why we delivered her was related to that, Hill said. I wish I knew, because it would be nice to give her that information, but we just don't know that.

Alysia had two other strikes against her: She was carrying twins, who are more likely to be born prematurely, and she had a history of a rare and dangerous complication during a past pregnancy. Called HELLP syndrome, the disease can destroy red blood cells and the liver can bleed internally, killing women or causing health problems for the rest of their lives.

Until they have more answers, theres no way of knowing whether COVID-19 was one of the reasons Keenen wasnt growing in her womb.

***

By the time the twins were six weeks old, Drakes torso was the size of the nurses hand, his tiny arms and legs just a little wider than her fingers.

She gently scooped up Drake, lifting him out of the protection of the isolette and gently setting him down on his father, sitting shirtless in a recliner. Colton positioned one hand under Drakes diaper and the other on his back, stroking him gently to soothe him as the nurse adjusted the electrodes and wires monitoring the babys heart and breathing, still connecting him to the machines and isolette.

Next, it was Alysia and Keenens turn. For weeks, she had stared at both her babies in their isolettes, desperately wanting to hold them. But the logical side of her brain knew they were too fragile and needed the protection of the medical equipment to survive. So shed sit next to their tiny hospital beds, opening one of the isolettes portal windows and reading passages from childrens books that loved ones gave them. Other times, shed read a chapter from Golem in the Gears, the ninth book in the Xanth fantasy series.

But that day, for the one of the first times since they entered the world, both Keenen and Drake were stable enough that Colton and Alysia could hold the twins at the same time.

So the nurse repeated the same steps  carefully gathering the wires and tubes so they didnt pull out before she lifted Keenen, placing him on Alysias chest, with the lower part of his body tucked underneath her t-shirt. Skin on skin.

Youre OK, buddy, she cooed. Moms got you.

Lisa Krantz /Staff photographer

Keenen was still so little that when resting on Alysias chest, his face dipped below her chin and she couldnt see him when looking down over her face mask. With one hand, she gently held him on her chest, and with the other, a hand mirror so she could gaze at his face.

As the baby slept, she thought about how thankful she was that he was still here. She felt his heart beat through her skin, the rise and fall of his chest with each tiny breath.

Someday, she told him softly, youll be big enough to breathe all on your own.

Marina Starleaf Riker is an investigative reporter for the San Antonio Express-News with extensive experience covering affordable housing, inequality and disaster recovery. To read more from Marina, become a subscriber. marina.riker@express-news.net | Twitter: @MarinaStarleaf

This story was produced with support from USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism's Data Fellowship.
IT peripheral firm BenQ expects around 15-20 percent growth in India business this year on pick up in sales demand from home segment for monitors and high-definition projectors, according to a top official of the company.

According to BenQ India Managing Director Rajeev Singh, the company's institutional sales for flat screen wall and projectors have suffered due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but its impact has been compensated with an increase in sales of monitor and projectors by retail customers.

"In terms of percentage, we are definitely looking at a 15 to 20 per cent increase. We are expecting at least three times growth in our monitor business during this year as compared to last year, and we work on a calendar year basis," Singh told PTI.

He said because of work from home, learning and entertainment at home, the demand for company's business to consumer (B2C) products has increased, specifically for monitors.

Before COVID-19, two-thirds of BenQ's business came from sales of projectors and interactive flat panels and one-third of business was being contributed by monitors.

"Now the situation post-COVID has reversed. Now two-thirds of our total business is from monitors and one-third is from projectors and interactive flat panels because there's a shift from mainly B2B to B2C. We are seeing a net impact that is going to be positive," Singh said.

According to IDC, the company recorded 163 per cent year-on-year surge in sales of monitors during April-June quarter in 2020.

Singh said most of the sales for the company are now coming from e-commerce platforms and it is ramping up manpower to handle digital sales.

"I think going forward, things will improve, but a major part of the buying has happened from e-commerce platforms. We have been very active in promoting our products from Amazon.

"Right now, we are planning in a big way for the Diwali sales, and to support this, we are making continuous investments to ramp up our capability in the e-commerce part of the business as well as for digital marketing," he said.

The company had freezed hiring March 1 onwards, but revoked it on September 1.

"We are again looking at expanding our teams. In terms of a percentage, I can tell you, we plan to add close to a 15 per cent additional manpower in the next six months," Singh said.
The move will come as part of changes planned by the Ministry of Justice - Heathcliff O'Malley

Criminals who are given community sentences will be forced to spend up to 23 hours a day at home under curfew as part of changes planned by the Ministry of Justice.

Judges would be allowed to increase the time for which an offender is ordered to stay at home from 16 to 23 hours.

The move is expected to be unveiled in a White Paper, to be published next week, setting out a major shake-up of sentencing guidelines. The paper is also expected to double the amount of time for which a convicted criminal can be placed on an electronic tag from one to two years.

Meanwhile, ministers are due to outline plans to limit the number of times murderers convicted when below the age of 18 are legally entitled to demand a review of their tariff.

A youth murderer is detained at Her Majesty's pleasure and given a minimum tariff, the term set before they can be considered for release. At present, a youth murderer can apply for a tariff review halfway through their sentence and then reapply every two years.

However, it is understood that Robert Buckland, the Justice Secretary, is concerned that the repeated process is distressing for victims' families, who have to be contacted each time an offender applies for a review so they can provide a statement detailing their personal feelings about the criminal's release.

The White Paper is expected to announce a reduction in the number of reviews an offender is entitled to after they turn 18.

Earlier this year, the parents of Rhys Jones criticised their son's killer, Sean Mercer, for trying to get his tariff reduced.

Mercer was convicted at the age of 16 of shooting Rhys, 11, in 2007 in Croxteth, Liverpool, and was given a 22-year tariff. Now 29, he applied in May to have his tariff reviewed, prompting his victim's father, Steve Jones, to insist he should serve his full 22-year tariff.

The new changes to be unveiled in the White Paper come after The Telegraph revealed that teenage killers could spend the rest of their lives in jail after the Justice Secretary announced plans to lower the age at which murderers can be jailed for life without parole from 21 to 18.

Story continues

It is understood the "life means life" sentence would apply to terrorists or teenagers who pose an extreme risk to public safety.

Meanwhile, dangerous drivers who kill could also face life sentences under the new proposals, expected to be announced next Wednesday.

The White Paper will also propose longer jail terms for violent sex offenders. Anyone jailed for four or more years for sexual assaults or violence will have to serve at least two-thirds of their sentence before becoming eligible for parole. At present, they are automatically released halfway through.
Old-timers in Indian Army reveal PLA soldiers are very touchy about yaks

Hyderabad: The Line of Actual Control between India and China is crackling with the movement of modern artillery on both sides but neither side can do without a humble animal, the mule on the Indian side and the yak on the Chinese. It's a dependency that dates back decades, prior to even the 1962 war.

Sources acquainted with developments on the frontier say the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is heavily dependent on yaks. In fact, it has a dedicated yak unit that transports men and material through impenetrable mountain passes.

Just like the Indian Army is dependent on mules and ponies, Chinese troops cannot do without yaks and they keep recruit the best breeds, which happen to be Tibetan.

It's a multipurpose animal for the PLA. PLA soldiers drink yak milk and eat yak butter, both highly nutritious. They are also cures for various ailments. Yak blood is high in protein and raw yak meat is highly nutritious, a source said.

"Although the PLA soldiers kill and eat yaks, they do so mostly when an animal dies accidentally or is old and of no more use to them, though there have been instances where they have stolen yaks from local people in Tibet. They also use yaks for patrolling. PLA soldiers have survived on the mountains not due to their technological advancements but due to the yaks which even provide warmth to the soldiers who sleep beside them in harsh winter, the sources said.

The PLA consider the yak to be a symbol of good luck, success and strength. According to feng shui, a traditional practice that originated in ancient China, a yak's head and tail symbolise good luck. The head symbolises strength.

What makes the yak an animal best suited to the mountains is its massive respiratory system. Its blood takes in more oxygen than other bovines enabling it to survive in the rarefied air. Yaks hardly sweat.

Old timers who served in the Indian Army say the PLA is so touchy about yaks that it will not hesitate to go to war over them.

In fact a missing flock of 59 yaks and about 800 sheep triggered tensions between the two countries in 1965. It led to a border conflict in Sikkim in 1967. There were heated exchanges between soldiers over the yaks and sheep after the PLA accused Indian forces of stealing the animals from Tibetan herdsmen on the Sikkim border," a former army officer who worked on the LAC recalled.

Though there have been suspicions that the PLA sends yaks and sheep into Indian territory fitted with spying tools, the Indian Army, wary of the PLA's designs, has not found any concrete evidence of that.
By James J. Florio

In his ongoing efforts to crack down on the virtually nonexistent problem of voter fraud, President Trump recently shared with Sean Hannity on Fox News Channel that hes considering putting law enforcement officers on duty in polling places on Election Day. Were going to have sheriffs, and were going to have law enforcement, Trump said. And were going to have, hopefully, U.S. attorneys, and were going to have everybody and attorney generals.

Law enforcement personnel patrolling polling places  what could possibly go wrong?

Well, let me take you back to Election Day, 1981, in the State of New Jersey.

When voters in some locations  more on which locations in a moment  arrived at the polls to exercise their right as Americans to vote, they were met by off-duty police officers wearing armbands identifying them as members of something no one had ever heard of before, called the National Ballot Security Task Force (BSTF). They were out of uniform but their service revolvers and walkie talkies were plainly visible.

Large signs at the polling places proclaimed:

WARNING

THIS AREA IS BEING PATROLLED BY THENATIONAL BALLOTSECURITY TASK FORCE IT IS A CRIME TO FALSIFY A BALLOT OR TO VIOLATE ELECTION LAWS

This did not occur in all New Jersey polling places. For example, the NBSTF was present in Newark but not a few miles away in Short Hills. It was present in Trenton but not in nearby Princeton; in Camden but not in neighboring Cherry Hill.

Get the picture?

The purpose of the BSTF was not to prevent fraud. It was to intimidate minority would-be voters.

Leading up to Election Day, nearly 50,000 letters were sent to New Jersey residents  mostly those believed to be Latinos or African Americans. Many of the letters came back as non-deliverable, most likely because the registered voters had changed their address (which doesnt mean they were ineligible to vote).

The lines at polling places the BSTF patrolled grew longer and longer. Some people gave up and went back home or to their jobs. Some were simply intimidated by the signs and the cops and didnt even get in line.

The 1981 New Jersey gubernatorial election ended up being the closest in the states history. Out of more than 2.3 million votes cast, only 1,797 separated the winning candidate  Tom Kean  from the defeated candidate  yours truly.

That was the end of the election but not the end of the story. The Democratic National Committee sued in federal court on the grounds that the National Ballot Security Task Force violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act through illegal harassment and voter intimidation.

The Republican National Committee and the New Jersey Republican State Committee  the entities behind the Task Force  signed a consent decree in 1982 banning them from engaging in such conduct for the next 35 years. When similar suits against voter intimidation and harassment were filed across the U.S., they always were heard in Newark because the federal court there held jurisdiction.

After questionable activities on behalf of Trumps 2016 presidential campaign, Democrats sought to have the ban extended but the request was denied in 2018. And now the way is clear once more for targeted efforts to suppress the votes of people whose only crime is that one party doesnt believe it can  or doesnt want to try to  win their votes in a legitimate debate over issues. Instead, it seeks to simply shrink turnout.

National Ballot Security Task Force flyer scared many voters away, came with armed law enforcement officers at Black and Latino polling places.

For every positive development to expand voting rights in our nation  womens suffrage, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, lowering the voting age to 18, motor-voting  there have been reprehensible efforts to stop people from voting. In recent years, those efforts include closing polling places, reducing voting hours and imposing ridiculously strict voter ID laws. The nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice at New York Universitys School of Law calls such threats to democracy vivid and undeniable.

These efforts also involve trying to frame a debate where the Republican party tries to convince people not versed in voting rights history that only it stands between honest elections and rampant attempts of those people to steal elections. This is as clever as it is sinister, in that it attempts to hide the fact that the defenders against fraud actually are the ones committing fraud.

James J. Florio served as New Jerseys 49th governor, from 1990 to 1994.

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Washington, Sep 13 : Upon the conclusion of their annual meeting, the Group of Seven (G7) Speakers and heads of Parliament have agreed to focus on the need for strong international action to combat the disparities in health and financial security that have been highlighted by the climate crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic.

They observed that atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations this year were among the highest averages ever recorded.

"We, Speakers/Presidents of Parliament of the member states of the G7, affirm that the Covid-19 pandemic and climate crisis require a robust and coordinated international response," said a joint declaration after the virtual G7 Speakers' meeting concluded on Saturday.

The meeting included participation from all G7 nations and the European Union.

"By passing legislation, by approving national budgets and by holding governments to account, Parliaments are a key element in the commitment of states to the well-being of our citizens and the environment.

"As leaders in the international community, we commit to act with urgency to provide a healthy, clean and sustainable environment for our children and grandchildren and generations to come.

"The world is reeling from Covid-19. As of September 12, 2020, there have been more than 28 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 and the disease has claimed the lives of more than 900,000 people across the world.

"The pandemic has disrupted the regular life of our citizens, disproportionately hurt our most vulnerable communities and at-risk populations, including women and children, and destabilized our economies.

"We declare that our response to Covid-19, including vaccine development and its equitable distribution, will be based on science and medicine, focused on wide access rather than profitability, and informed by the knowledge that the pandemic will continue until it is addressed worldwide," said the declaration.

"As G7 nations, we have a moral, scientific and economic duty to serve as the standard-bearer for this global commitment.

"Unfortunately, the climate crisis does not pause as governments address the pandemic. Our nations cannot choose to ignore the climate emergency while we address the immediate crisis presented by the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Both the health and climate crises have and will continue to require unprecedented government action.

"As Parliaments develop legislation to rebound from the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, clean energy and other climate investments can power short- and long-term economic recovery.

"The climate crisis is the existential threat of our time, jeopardizing the health and well-being of every family in every community around the world.

"Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations in 2020 are among the highest averages ever recorded. The planet suffered through the second hottest year ever in 2019. As the earth heats up, climate-related impacts, including heat waves, hurricanes, wildfires, droughts, and flooding, are worsening," it said.

The statement went on to say: "The great rivers of our world are beginning to dry up, depriving millions of water, food, jobs, transportation and commerce. The degradation of the oceans is also a great matter of concern as we stated in Brest last year.

"We shall also pay particular attention to environmental justice for economically vulnerable and frontline communities.

"Committing to fight against environmental injustice requires providing a healthy environment, equal opportunity and meaningful involvement in environmental decisions to all people, regardless of race, colour, gender, orientation, national origin, belief, or socio-economic condition.

"Climate policy can end the perpetuation of systemic inequalities.

"We reaffirm the central role played by parliaments in democratic life. Parliaments, which are the assemblies that bring together all the components of society, are the key institutions of democracy: parliaments represent the expression of the people through their legislative and oversight roles.

"We therefore call upon all parties to take action on the climate crisis in accordance with the Paris Agreement.

"We pledge that we will maintain contacts between parliaments to ensure a high level of mobilization concerning the Covid-19 pandemic and the climate, the regular raising of questions linked to these crises and the dissemination of good practices.

"We believe that our parliaments must play a pivotal role in the response and recovery to Covid-19 and the fight to address the climate crisis with economic and environmental justice for all." In the run-up to the G7 Speakers' meeting, Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in a video message informed the participating nations that they should think of the whole world as interdependent and of the entire seven billion human beings as one human community.

"Global warming is very serious. Many people suffer. We must pay more attention," he said.

The participants comprised US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of Canada's House of Commons, Canada Anthony Rota, President of the European Parliament David Maria Sassoli, President of French National Assembly Richard Ferrand, President of the German Bundestag Wolfgang SchAuble, President of Italy's Chamber of Deputies Roberto Fico, Speaker of Japan's House of Representatives Tadamori Oshima and Speaker of UK's House of Commons Lindsay Hoyle.
If Sir Terence Conran's sole legacy was to have brought affordable style to the High Street, his place in Britain's history would be assured. But he achieved so much more than that.

When Habitat first threw open its doors in the mid-Sixties, his continental designs created the very idea of 'middle-class taste'. Without four times married Sir Terence, the country might never have had Le Creuset casserole dishes, duvets, woks, flat-pack furniture and Japanese-style paper pendant lampshades.

Yet this indefatigable man, who hated holidays because they interfered with work, was never going to rest there.

If Sir Terence Conran's sole legacy was to have brought affordable style to the High Street, his place in Britain's history would be assured. But he achieved so much more than that

After Habitat came the Conran Shop. Soon afterwards, he was opening the first of more than 50 restaurants, including Mezzo, the first in London to seat 700 diners.

Somehow he also found time to write or co-author more than 40 books, and launch the Design Museum. Then there was his architectural practice, where projects ranged from hotels to urban regeneration projects in London and Tokyo, and his role as an adviser to Margaret Thatcher when she was prime minister.

Above all else, however, it was as a 'visionary' and a 'proud patriot' that Sir Terence was yesterday described following his death at the age of 88.

His family said he died peacefully and had enjoyed an 'extraordinary life and career', adding: 'It gives us great comfort to know that many of you will mourn with us but we ask that you celebrate Terence's extraordinary legacy and contribution to the country he loved so dearly.'

They added that he had 'promoted the best of British design, culture and the arts around the world' with 'a very simple belief that good design improves the quality of people's lives'.

Wife No. 2: Terence and Shirley Conran in 1955  they had two sons, Sebastian and Jasper

Born in Kingston-upon-Thames, Sir Terence's first foray into furniture design came at the age of 12 as he lay in hospital recovering from a burst appendix. To pass the time he built furniture for dolls' houses  and never looked back.

Educated at Bryanston School in Dorset, he later studied at the Central School of Art and Design [now Central St Martins], where he recalled wearing 'rather outlandish clothes. 'I remember going to Cecil Gee and buying inappropriate things and my father being rather embarrassed when he had to stand on the train platform with me,' he once recalled.

'London was a depressed place at that time, with all its bomb sites. It was difficult to find anything decent to eat.

'My tutor at college was the artist Eduardo Paolozzi. He was very keen on his Italian food and used to get food parcels from his parents.

'I remember sitting with him to eat a black ink octopus risotto. He taught me how to chop up an onion and the importance of garlic. He, more than anyone else, was my food influence.'

After studying textile design and setting up his own furniture studio, he joined an architectural firm in 1950 and worked on the subsequent year's Festival of Britain.

He pioneered open-plan living and in 1958 invited a journalist to his London home to see for herself this 'new kind of house planning where you cook, eat, work and play in one enormous room'.

With third wife Caroline, left, with whom he had three children. Right: the designer met fourth wife Vicki in the south of France

The journalist was unconvinced and later pondered how a woman could listen to Perry Como when her husband 'wants quiet for his office papers'.

While the Conran empire included many retail brands, including Mothercare, it was for his fashionable furniture, interiors and homeware that he remains best known.

Products had to be simple and well-designed before they made it on to the shelves  and even the shelves themselves were like nothing any shopper had seen before.

Alongside beds and wardrobes were sold a number of smaller items, seductively displayed in overfilled bowls, or stacked casually on the black slate floor and against whitewashed walls. Such touches are ubiquitous these days, but 50 years ago it seemed like a concept from another galaxy.

After sleeping under a duvet in a hotel in Sweden, Sir Terence thought, 'Gosh, how comfortable, how easy and how sexy', and later became the first person to sell them in Britain.

Early Habitat targeted its goods at Britons on a teacher's salary. 'I suppose setting up Habitat is the thing that most stands out in my accomplishments  that and the Conran Shops, which really are a more sophisticated version of what Habitat was,' he once said. 'But I view opening the new Design Museum as the greatest achievement of my life.' The museum, in Kensington, West London, covers product, industrial, graphic, fashion and architectural design.

Leading the tributes to Sir Terence yesterday, the museum's director Tim Marlow said it was a 'privilege and an inspiration to know him', adding: 'Terence Conran was instrumental in the re-designing of post-war Britain and his legacy is huge. He is revered by generations of designers, from Mary Quant and David Mellor to Thomas Heatherwick and Jony Ive. 'He changed the way we lived and shopped and ate.

'He also created a great institution  the Design Museum  of which he was justifiably proud and with which he remained fully engaged right to the end of his extraordinary life.'

Sir Terence married his first wife, an architect called Brenda Davison, when he was 19. The marriage lasted barely six months. Then came Shirley Conran, novelist and author of the Superwoman books. They had two sons, Sebastian and Jasper, but the couple divorced in 1962.

'It wasn't acrimonious. It could have been,' Sir Terence once said. Then followed Caroline Herbert, with whom he had another three children  Tom, Sophie, and Edmund  but she left him for another man on their 30th wedding anniversary. He then met Vicki, his current wife, in the south of France. I had to make more of an effort to be a good husband,' he once said.

'Although my children will say, 'You are a good father', I don't think I was and I certainly don't think I was a good husband ... Too much time put into the business, quite honestly, and not enough time given to looking after them, although I always went on holiday with them.'

He once admitted to having made his staff take the stairs rather than the lift (he once shouted at an art director who took the lift, 'Do you know how much money you've just cost me?') and picking up pieces of crumpled paper in the bin, flattening them out and putting them back on his employees' desks to re-use.

'I'm a war child and if you are a war child you remember all those things that were drummed into you,' he explained.

Despite Sir Terence's frugality he always cut a glamorous figure, part of the set who would launch Swinging London in the Sixties.

Oozing self-confidence, he was perfectly placed to profit from the rise of the Sunday newspaper colour supplements educating the new breed of consumers in what constituted good taste. This meant bringing good design and good quality to a broader market  'a quality of life that is easy, not pretentious and not snobbish'.

It was once said that 'what Terence did was to create this idea of a life that appeared to be his, and that we would all like to live'.

Lord Mandelson, chairman of the board of trustees at the Design Museum, said: 'Terence Conran has filled our lives for generations with ideas, innovation and brilliant design. He is one of the most iconic figures of post-war Britain, starting to recast the world of design when as a young man he joined the team working on the 1951 Festival of Britain and never stopping from that moment on.

'He leaves a treasure trove of household and industrial design that will stay with us for ever.'

A Habitat spokesman said: 'Sir Terence Conran leaves a legacy of well-loved designs and our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time.'

In an interview a few years ago, the designer talked about his work ethic. 'I've never looked forward to retiring; I'm desperately busy even now,' he said. 'But the only time I've ever felt bad about getting older was when I got to about 35 and realised it was time to give up playing rugby.

'I try to avoid looking in the mirror. I've got a terribly bad back and the only way I feel relaxed is in my comfy old chair with a wood fire three feet away. I still enjoy smoking cigars and drinking whisky and wine. My doctor's a sensible man and he says enjoying life is more important than the pills he gives me. The young me would be amazed to see what I've done.

'What I've managed to achieve, in a small way, is to get the country to appreciate design. That's what I hope to leave behind.'
Two sheriffs deputies in Los Angeles are in critical condition following a shooting in Compton, California on Saturday.

Surveillance footage captures a suspect walking up to the deputies parked patrol car and firing into the passenger side window before running from the scene.

Here is what we know so far:

Officials called the shooting an ambush after a suspect fired into a patrol car, injuring two deputies  a 24-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman  on Saturday night. Both deputies joined the office 14 months ago, according to Sheriff Alex Villanueva.

Donald Trump  who has demanded retribution and supported extrajudicial killings in the wake of police brutality protests  has called the suspect an animal that must be hit hard and called for the death penalty. Only way to stop this! he said on Twitter.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said: This cold-blooded shooting is unconscionable and the perpetrator must be brought to justice. Violence of any kind is wrong; those who commit it should be caught and punished. Jill and I are keeping the deputies and their loved ones in our hearts and praying for a full recovery.

California Senator and Biden running-mate Kamala Harris also condemned the attack: The perpetrator must be brought to justice.

Both deputies are on the sheriffs transportation detail.

Law enforcement officials have not announced whether they have identified a suspect. The FBI is assisting the investigation.

The Los Angeles Sheriffs Department has faced intense scrutiny over the recent killings of residents by police, which have renewed ongoing protests against police violence throughout the state.

Sheriff Villanueva called the handful of people heckling officers who guarded the outside of the hospital an unlawful assembly of a group of protesters who are "blocking the hospital emergency entrance and exits. Journalists video from the scene does not appear to show evidence that the entrance and exits were blocked.

Josie Huang, a reporter for LAist and NPR affiliate KPCC in Los Angeles, was arrested while filming the arrest of one of the people outside the hospital. Local media captured several deputies pinning her to the ground.

The sheriffs office said in a statement on social media that Ms Huang "did not identify herself as press and later admitted she did not have proper press credentials on her person" though she was wearing press credentials around her neck.

According to Deputy Juanita Navarro of the Sheriff's Information Bureau, Ms Huang was accused of interfering with a lawful arrest and held at Century Regional Detention Center before she was released without bail and cited for obstruction. According to KPCC, Ms Huang had visible bruises and scrapes, a sore shoulder and a blackened eye.

LAist and KPCC have demanded that the sheriffs office drop the charges against her: We offer condolences to the two sheriff deputies who were shot Saturday evening. These are challenging and stressful times for everyone, but Josie Huang was arrested while doing her job."
But at the same time, Android 11 also comes with a series of bugs of its own on Android Auto, and as we told you earlier this week, one of them concerns phone calls More specifically, after updating a smartphone to Android 11, making phone calls from Android Auto no longer works correctly, as the UI just shows up but without anything happening after that. In some cases, Google Assistant looks like its starting the phone call, but in fact, it returns to the previous screen in Android Auto.For other users, a phone call started on Android Auto is then routed to the mobile phone directly, so you cant hear what the other person is saying in your cars speakers but on the smartphone.The workarounds are as easy as they could be.First and foremost, the generic trick that involves clearing the Android Auto app cache and data seems to restore the phone call experience for some users at least temporarily.Then, it appears that just re-pairing the phone and the cars head unit is enough to make phone calls work correctly in some cases, as the connection somehow ends up corrupted after the update to Android 11.Others have reported a rather awkward workaround. Simply unlocking the phone and only then starting the call seems to work, which seems to suggest that the whole thing only happens when the device is locked. Of course, doing this while driving isnt by any means recommended due to obvious reasons.At this point, Google is yet to acknowledge the bug and provide a fix, but the company is already investigating reports, so more information should be provided rather sooner than later.
As the accused some civil society activists of making provocative speeches and indulging in other such activities, the on Saturday said these people are "greater deshbhakts (patriots) than the fraudulent ones in power now".

The Congress' support for the civil society members came after the named CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav, economist Jayati Ghosh and Delhi University professor Apoorvanand in a supplementary charge sheet in the February riots cases, accusing them of "provoking and mobilising" anti-CAA protesters.

Reacting to the development, senior leader Jairam Ramesh said, "This is worse than atrocious. I am in full solidarity with those chargesheeted. They are greater deshbhakts than the fraudulent ones in power now."



Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also expressed support for the civil society members, saying, "If speaking truth to power is a crime, if exposing circle of hate is a crime, if standing up to rioters is a crime, if being righteous and just is a crime, then each one of us must be booked, chargesheeted and jailed."



"Only then will my country survive. Jai Hind!" he tweeted.

Some of those named have also been charged with, based on the statements of three students already arrested in the case, asking the protesters to go to "any extreme", spreading "discontent" in the community by calling CAA/NRC anti-Muslim, and organising demonstrations to "malign the image of Government of India".

(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.)
Prime Minister on



Sunday paid a moving tribute to former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, saying his death has left a deep void in Bihar and national politics.

Modi described Singh, who died at AIIMS, New Delhi, after prolonged illness, as a grassroots leader with deep understanding of poverty and problems of the poor.

He also obliquely referred to "churning" that the departed leader faced in his last days, hinting at his disenchantment with his party the RJD and its leader Lalu Prasad.

"An inner 'manthan' (churning) was going on in him during his last days. He remained true to the ideology he believed in..In the recent past, he had been in

"He was obviously in a state of inner turmoil since it had no longer remained possible for him to be by the side of his old associates. Finally, he gave expression to his feelings through the letters he wrote from the hospital bed, the prime minister said.

Modi made the remarks before dedicating to the nation three petroleum projects via video conferencing in Bihar.

The prime minister recalled his interactions with Singh when the RJD leader was a Union minister and he the chief minister of Gujarat.

I had occasions to interact with Raghuvansh babu many times. We used to take part in TV debates long back, putting forth our respective points of view. He used to represent his party while I used to represent the BJP as an office-bearer of the organisation, said the prime minister.

"I was worried about his health and often inquired about him," Modi said.

The prime minister spoke with admiration about Singh's concern for Bihar.

He referred to Singh's letter to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar days before his death where he raised the issue of development of his erstwhile Lok Sabha seat Vaishali.

"I will request Nitish Kumar to execute the development projects he wrote about in the letter. Let's together--the state and the Centre--fulfil his wishes," Modi said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Marjorie Taylor Greene in a campaign ad. Screenshot/YouTube

Kevin Van Ausdal, the Democrat candidate in the race for Georgia's 14th congressional district, announced on Friday he was dropping out of the race and moving out of the state.

Van Ausdal was running opposite the GOP candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene, the staunchly pro-Trump candidate who has expressed support for the baseless, far-right QAnon conspiracy theory.

Greene, who won a runoff primary race last month, had already been expected to win the seat in a heavily Republican district.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Kevin Van Ausdal, the Democratic candidate running against controversial GOP candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene in Georgia's 14th congressional district, suddenly dropped out of the House race on Friday.

"I am heartbroken to announce that for family and personal reasons, I cannot continue this race for Congress," he said in a statement posted to Twitter. "After lengthy discussions with my team, attorneys, party officials, and others, the answer was clear, stepping aside would be best for the voters.

Van Ausdal said he would be moving from Georgia, which would render him ineligible to run for the seat. He said he was resigning from the race so that the Democratic Party had "a chance to put forward a candidate that can carry this fight to the end."

Kevin Van Ausdal (D) (@KevinVanAusdal) September 11, 2020

"I will put every resource, every bit of knowledge into the campaign that comes behind me to defeat Marjorie and restore hope to the people of Northwest Georgia," he said.

According to a Politico report, the Georgia Democratic Party asked Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to officially disqualify Van Ausdal from the ballot and to be allowed to name a replacement candidate, though it's not clear if he will allow them to do so.

Story continues

According to Georgia law, a vacancy stemming from the "withdrawal of a candidate less than 60 days prior to the date of the election shall not be filled," as Politico noted.

Greene was already favored to win the race because the district leans strongly Republican. President Donald Trump won 75% of the vote there in 2016, Business Insider previously noted.

Greene, who in August won a runoff primary race to become the only Republican candidate in the race, has made headlines for controversial statements and her promotion of a baseless, far-right QAnon conspiracy theory that the world is run by a Satanic cabal of elites aiming to bring down Donald Trump and his presidency.

The QAnon the conspiracy theory, which originated on 4chan, is centered around an unknown online individual called "Q," who claims to have a top-security security clearance, as Business Insider's Sonam Sheth and Eliza Relman previously reported.

"Q is a patriot, we know that for sure, but we do not know who Q is," Greene said in a 2017 video posted to social media. "I don't know who Q is, but I'm just going to tell you about it because I think it's something worth listening to and paying attention to."

As Business Insider's Ben Gilbert previously reported, one QAnon belief is that former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are Satanists involved in a global pedophilia ring. The theories have no basis in reality and have been widely debunked by multiple reputable sources, including the New York Times.

As recently as Saturday, Greene appeared to double down on supporting the baseless theory, tweeting "with every cell in my body, I will always defend children and stop evil pedophiles."

Marjorie Taylor Greene For Congress (@mtgreenee) September 12, 2020

As Business Insider previously reported, Greene has espoused racist, anti-immigrant, Islamophobic, and anti-transgender rhetoric while dabbling in other far-right conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic.

In a tweet last week, Greene said that children should not wear face masks to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus, CNN reported. She also last week posted a photo of herself holding a gun next to photos of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib, encouraging "strong conservative Christians to go on the offense against these socialists." Both Facebook and Twitter removed Greene's controversial posts.

Expanded Coverage Module: insider-voter-guide

Read the original article on Business Insider
People were buying from a need state rather than a discovery state, said Rigo Viezca, global head of consumer goods solutions at Signals Analytics. What we saw in the [early days of the] pandemic, no one was in a discovery phase of trying new products just to try them. They were looking for brands that they knew would deliver. They wanted to take fewer trips and wanted to know they would like it.

Still today, two of General Mills major categories  soup and baking products  have a constrained supply chain where demand exceeds available inventory, Nudi said.

What is unknowable is the magnitude of demand (for the rest of the year), Bruce said. The company expects higher costs in order to ramp up production, much of which is dependent on external supply chains that are more costly.
Actor Prakash Raj took potshots at Kangana Ranaut and joked about her frequent references to playing Rani Laxmi Bai of Jhansi in her film, Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi. He made a mention of all the other actors who have also played legendary historical figures with aplomb.

He shared a picture collage of actors Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Deepika Padukone, Hrithik Roshan, Ajay Devgn and Vivek Oberoi playing emperor Asoka, freedom fighter Mangal Pandey, Chittor queen Padmavati, emperor Akbar, freedom fighter Bhagat Singh and PM Narendra Modi, respectively, to take a dig at Kangana. The collage also featured Kangana as Laxmi Bai.

The text on the poster read: If one film makes Kangana think that she is Rani Laxmi Bai then Deepika is Padmavati, Hrithik is Akbar, Shah Rukh is Ashoka, Ajay is Bhagat Singh, Aamir is Mangal Pandey and Vivek is Modi ji.

ALSO WATCH | Kangana Ranaut meets Governor amid tussle with Maharashtra govt

Kanganas fans were quick to respond. One person wrote: Respected@prakashraaj,she lost her property,her hard earned house, Its easy for you to compare movie characters, What happens to you if your house is demolished. Another person said: Sir, personally i believed that you are a real man. I respect you alot. But in this case its not happened. She lose her property, she lose her office, just think how many people lose their work right now in this pandemic situation.

Kangana and the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra were at loggerheads over her tweet comparing Mumbai to Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, in response has told her not to return to Mumbai. The matter spiralled out of hand with both parties hurling accusations at each other.

Also read: From being asked to serve food to Ayushmann Khurrana to getting groped at 12, Tahira Kashyap opens up on need to smash patriarchy

Kangana, who often gives the example of her film Manikartika to talk about her nationalist leanings, had taken to Twitter to claim how she has always stood for Maharashtra. Earlier this month, she had tweeted: All chaploos who are showing their love for Maharashtra must know I am the first Actor/ Director in the history of Hindi Cinema to bring Maratha Pride Shiva Ji Maharaj and Rani LaxmiBai to the big screen and I faced huge opposition during the release from the same people.

All chaploos who are showing their love for Maharashtra must know I am the first Actor/ Director in the history of Hindi Cinema to bring Maratha Pride Shiva Ji Maharaj and Rani LaxmiBai to the big screen and I faced huge opposition during the relase from the same people  https://t.co/HMzDMcpdwQ  Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) September 4, 2020

However, some in the state had asked Kangana not to come to Maharashtra. On September 9, she returned to the city, after getting Y plus security cover from central government, only to find her office in Mumbai, partially demolished by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation for illegal constructions.

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Inside Hook

On paper, Disneys live-action production of Mulan looked like a surefire hit. It follows in the studios recent pattern of reimagining its animated hits as live-action features  but in this case, numerous changes to its tone and cast of characters suggested the two films would each stand alone. The fact that its a war movie that puts a female lead at the center of the action also helps it stand out among other would-be blockbusters.



But not everything went according to plan. The pandemic caused the film to bypass theaters in most countries, winding up instead as a premium option offered to Disney+ subscribers. Much of the discussion of the film leading to its release had little to do with the film itself and more to do with the controversies surrounding it. Star Liu Yifei indicated her support for Hong Kongs police in the wake of pro-democracy demonstrations there last year. That sparked calls to boycott the film, as did the news that scenes from Mulan were shot in Xinjiang, where the Chinese government maintains detention camps for Uighur Muslims.
Its the greatest honor of my life, Kirby said afterwards from the red carpet, admitting that her knees were still shaking. Cinema is everything to me, and so the fact that were all together, everybody, to support it and honor it is all I can ask for.
A group of African-American families plans to start their own racism-free city on 90 acres of communally-owned land in Georgia.

The "Freedom Georgia Initiative" includes more than a dozen families and is intended to create a safe space for black families.

The project is being led by real estate agent Ashley Scott and her friend, entrepreneur Renee Walters.

The women were driven to pursue the settlement after the high profile killings of black individuals like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.

"Watching our people protesting in the streets, while it is important, and I want people to stay out in the streets, bringing attention to the injustices of Black people. We needed to create a space and a place where we could be a village, again, a tribe, again," Ms Scott told CNN. "We wanted to create this safe space where we can address our own issues and concerns."

The women pitched their idea to friends and family members. The group pulled their resources and purchased land in unincorporated Wilkinson County, just outside Toomsboro, Georgia. The land cost $1.7m.

Ms Scott told Insider that "for the same amount for a small apartment in New York, you could own a whole city."

She said the foundation of the initiative will be a strong community built on black-owned businesses, like banks and construction companies.

Though the settlement is intended to be a safe space where black families can thrive, Ms Scott said the community is not intended to be racially homogeneous.

"It's not even about being just a 'black thing,'" she said. "It's about having a place where we can all be proud and have human dignity, honor, respect, and equity amongst our black people because we have black talent."

Ms Walters said the group believed in order to see the change in society they longed for, they would have to act on their own.

"Once of our core goals is to show that it can be done," she said. "You don't have to wait on the politicians and the rappers and everybody to help us. We have to help ourselves."

The women plan on developing the settlement in stages, and eventually they hope to form a city recognised by the state of Georgia on the land.

Initially, the settlers will focus on developing the land, installing Wi-Fi, and planning for water and eventual zoning divisions. The group will prioritise using black-owned, women-owned and veteran-owned contracting businesses for the initial construction of the town.

During the early stages of construction, some members of the founding group will stay on the land in camps and trailers.
Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden accepts the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination during a speech delivered for the largely virtual 2020 Democratic National Convention from the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, August 20, 2020.

The United States was still staggering from the Great Depression when polio-stricken Franklin Delano Roosevelt walked slowly and painfully to the podium at the East Portico of the Capitol to deliver his first inaugural speech on March 4, 1933.

The country's GDP had fallen a third between 1929 and 1933, the stock market had lost 90% of its value, and the country had spiraled from full employment to 25% jobless. Just over a month earlier, Adolf Hitler had risen to power in Germany, and was already well on his way to establishing total control of the Third Reich, adding the Weimar Republic to the increasingly crowded graveyard of post-World War I democracies.

Early in the speech, FDR delivered the line enshrined in history that underscored the collective anxiousness of the nation he was addressing. "So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear," said Roosevelt, pausing for dramatic impact, "is fear itself  nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

Yet the loudest cheer came not there, nor when Roosevelt excoriated the "money changers," and condemned the "callous and selfish wrong-doing" of bankers and businessmen. Nor did it follow his praise for the enduring strength of the U.S. Constitution, which itself was in danger, as "the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has produced."

Most troubling to his wife Eleanor, the most robust audience response came near the end of the speech, when Roosevelt vowed, with a grim countenance he had maintained throughout, that if all other measures he proposed proved inadequate, he would ask Congress for "broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe."

That same afternoon in her new quarters at the White House, the First Lady slowly drew off her gloves and told her friend Lorena Hickock, one of the best-known female American journalists of her time, that she found the inauguration "very, very solemn and a little terrifying." Speaking quietly, the First Lady particularly worried about the crowd's delirious embrace of the possibility of wartime powers.

"You felt they would do anything  if only someone would tell them what to do," she said.

It is at this time when a newly elected U.S. president is again about to shape global history, for better or worse, that I took this summer to reflect upon lessons of a past when the United States faced economic threats, political divisions and rising authoritarian dangers that at times seemed insuperable.
Bestselling Author Shanna Hogan Dies at 38 After Pool Accident: Family

A New York Times bestselling crime author, Shanna Hogan, died after a pool accident in her home in Phoenix, Arizona, officials said. She was 38.

Hogan was known for the true-crime books Dancing with Death and Picture Perfect: The Jodi Arias Story.

Her light, though, will continue to shine on us all, said Christia Gibbons, Hogans former teacher and friend, as reported by AZCentral. We are better people for having had her in our lives.

The Phoenix Fire Department confirmed last week on Sept. 10 that a Phoenix woman was in critical condition after her husband discovered her in a pool and incapacitated.

Gibbons said that Hogans husband, Matt LaRussa, discovered her after Hogan had tripped and fell into the pool, where she nearly drowned. Her husband arrived home from work and performed CPR on the woman before she was taken to the hospital in critical condition, the report said. She eventually died days later in the hospital, family members said.

I wanted as much of her in this world as possible, and I can someday meet the recipients, LaRussa said in a quote that was provided by Gibbons, AZCentral reported.

According to a GoFundMe page, she leaves behind a husband and a 15-month-old son.

This fundraiser will raise money to pay for the familys extensive medical bills, memorial costs and to support Zander as he grows up without a mother. Please help us help this amazing family. Shanna was always there for her family, friends, co-workers and readers with her warm smile and support, the page reads. Now is our time to step up and be there for her family. Please help us in any way you can to reach our goal. If you are not in a position to donate at this time, please share this with everyone you know. We will never forget the mark Shanna left on our lives and on this world.
Tropical Storm Sally left south Florida on Saturday bound for the Louisiana-Mississippi coastline with predictions it will arrive as a Category 1 hurricane carrying the potential for "life-threatening storm surge," along with high winds and threats of flash flooding.

Update: Tropical Storm Sally's track has shifted west, and the storm is forecast to be a Category 2 hurricane at landfall. A hurricane warning is in effect for metro New Orleans.

The storm surge could arrive Monday with landfall currently expected Tuesday for the earliest named "S" storm in recorded hurricane season history. A hurricane watch was posted between Grand Isle and the Alabama-Florida border, and a storm surge watch was issued between the mouth of the Mississippi River and the Alabama-Florida border.

Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency Saturday evening due to the threat of strong winds as southeast Louisiana remained in the storms forecast cone.

"Barely two weeks ago, Louisiana suffered a devastating blow when Hurricane Laura came ashore as the strongest hurricane ever to make landfall in Louisiana history, leaving a trail of destruction in its path," Edwards said. "This, when combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, can make us all weary. I implore Louisianans to take their preparations seriously."

Forecasters warned of a potential storm surge of up to 9 feet into New Orleans' more vulnerable areas. Mayor LaToya Cantrell issued a mandatory evacuation order set to go into effect 6 p.m. Sunday for residents living outside of the parish's levee protection system. The order includes Venetian Isles, Lake Catherine, and Irish Bayou.

At the same time, the officials at the Sewerage and Water Board said they were scrambling to repair two drainage pumps that were offline as of Saturday evening. One of the offline pumps, located in Algiers, "could be a concern if it's not operable" before the storm hits, according to S&WB executive director Ghassan Korban.

"That's why we're working diligently to repair it," Korban said about the pump, located in Pump Station No. 13 in Algiers near Plaquemines Parish. He said he was less concerned about the inoperable pump in New Orleans East at the drainage station on Grant Street.

The city is lifting parking restrictions on Sunday and providing sandbags at four locations throughout the city: the Arthur Monday Center at 1111 Newton St.; the Dryades YMCA at 2220 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd; the Milne Recreation Center, at the corner of Franklin and Filmore avenues and the former Walmart and Sam's parking lot at 6901 Bundy Rd.

Cantrell said the city was also working to help about 12,000 Hurricane Laura evacuees staying in about 30 different hotels throughout New Orleans as Sally approached.

"No need to panic, however we need to take this seriously," she said.

Forecasters said the areas at greatest risk from storm surge  potentially 8 to 12 feet  were between the mouth of the Mississippi River and Biloxi, Miss. Lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas could get four to eight feet of surge.

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Portions of the New Orleans area hurricane levee system on the east bank of the Mississippi River, including in St. Bernard Parish and New Orleans East, are designed to protect from storm surge of 16 feet to 30 feet, but the areas outside that system could see significant flooding.

Forecasters said they would update the predictions around storm surge later in the weekend, but Collin Arnold, director of the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said predictions were dire enough to mandate evacuations outside the levee system, even though they hadn't been done for other tropical storms in the past.

"Nine feet of storm surge does trigger the Highway 90 and Highway 11 flood walls to be closed, and those will be closed at some point, either Sunday night or Monday morning," Arnold said. "So the residents out there need to know that their evacuation route will be cut off at a certain point."

The Saturday evening forecast had the eye of the storm near Belle Chasse and Lake Borgne area on Tuesday at 2 p.m. then turning hard north towards a final landfall on the Mississippi coastline with top winds of 75 mph. On that path, the threat to New Orleans and the North Shore areas is a bit lessened because they would be on the western, less windy side of the storm and would likely have lower storm surge heights. However, forecasters warned that it was still too early to lock in the exact track or intensity. The track error for storms 96 hours before landfall is about 150 miles, the average intensity error about 15 mph. And the storm's effects, including winds, surge and rainfall, could extend much farther from the center than the balloon shape used on forecast maps.

The Slidell office of the National Weather Service estimated peak winds in New Orleans could be 55 mph to 75 mph, with gusts to 95 mph and tropical storm force winds lasting from Monday afternoon until Wednesday evening. The highest chance of hurricane force winds was said to be from early Tuesday morning until Tuesday evening. Beginning Sunday morning, the Hurricane Center predicted, the storm will produce three to 15 inches of rain, with localized amounts higher, in portions of southeastern Louisiana and southern Mississippi. New Orleans was expected to get six to eight inches of rain  Baton Rouge and Lafayette up to two inches. The heaviest rain was expected to start Sunday and continue into the week, with water accumulation in low areas and spots with poor drainage making flash flooding "very possible" in southeast Louisiana. Hurricane watches were issued for Ascension, Livingston, Tangipahoa and St. James Parishes. Peak rainfall amounts were forecast from 2-6 inches in those parishes. East Baton Rouge had not yet been placed under any watches. Kevin Gilmore, a meteorologist for the National Hurricane Center's office in Slidell, underscored that the storm's location, the temperature of the water in the Gulf and other "favorable" atmospheric conditions, rain and storm surge could both lead to "very serious flooding concerns."

Michael Lowry, a strategic planner for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, also said the storm's slow crawl was particularly worrisome.

"The slow movement later in the forecast is especially concerning for water impacts," he said.

The forecast came as the National Hurricane Center was monitoring six other disturbances in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, and as southwest Louisiana is still reeling from Hurricane Laura. Laura intensified more quickly than forecasters had initially predicted before making landfall as a strong Category 4 hurricane two weeks ago near Lake Charles.

As Sally strengthened into a tropical storm, Tropical Depression 20 formed off the west coast of Africa on Saturday evening. It was unclear whether it will enter the Gulf of Mexico.

Tropical storms Paulette and Rene were also in the Atlantic, although they weren't headed for the Gulf of Mexico. One other disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico had just a 20% chance of forming into a depression in the next 5 days, while another off the coast of Africa had a 60% chance.

Gilmore reminded residents that it's currently the historical peak of hurricane season, which lasts from June 1 to Nov. 30.

"This is the time to be prepared," he said.
A woman from Slovenia, who deliberately sawed off her hand, has been jailed for insurance fraud. The 22-year-old Julija Adlesic agreed with her boyfriend to sever her left hand above the wrist so that they can claim 700,000 in insurance.

Self-mutilation

However, investigators found that the two had signed contracts with five insurance companies in 2019. Adlesic's boyfriend was sentenced to three years in prison while his father received a one-year suspended sentence.

Adlesic was given two years behind bars. In the hospital, Adlesic said that she injured herself while sawing branches, as reported by Mirror.co.

Authorities said that the three left the hand behind to make sure that the disability was permanent, but the police recovered it, and it was reattached.

Also Read: Fact Check: Did CDC Tell Parents to Prepare for Sleepovers at Schools Due to COVID-19?

According to prosecutors, days before the incident, Adlesic's partner searched online for information about how artificial hands work. During the trial, Adlesic claimed innocence and said that no one wants to be crippled.

Similar case

In June 2019, three men have been jailed for carrying out a crash-for-cash insurance scam. Police said that their chaotic and erratic driving caused a 50 mph crash with a driver on an M6 slip road in Coventry, UK.

The 47-year-old Mohammed Azam, 22-year-old Husnain Ahmed, and 24-year-old Sufyan Lone, all from Birmingham, each pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation, and they were jailed, according to BBC.

The City of London Police said that the men were focused on making a financial gain. At Birmingham Crown Court, Azam and Ahmen were each jailed for two years and one month. Lone was jailed for one year and ten months.

The dash-cam footage from the car of the victim revealed that the two cars in front were driving erratically and close together at junction three southbound.

The force's Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department or IFED, which investigates scams around the UK, said that the car directly in front then carried out an emergency stop, which caused the collision.

All three men were later put in fraudulent personal injury claims for whiplash amounting to 28,161. Hastings Direct rejected the applications due to dash-cam footage and first-hand accounts from other drivers.

Detective Con Kevin Hughes stated that the three men were focused on making a financial gain, and they clearly did not care about endangering the innocent driver that they targeted, as well as other drives in the area.

Detective Hughes then said that despite driving at such a high speed, no-one was seriously injured and it resulted in was the men getting the punishment that they deserve.

In February 2019, a man was arrested and charged with insurance fraud in the US state of New Jersey after pretending to slip and fall on ice cubes, according to DailyMail.

The allegation came after CCTV footage appeared to show a man deliberately throwing ice on the floor before faking a fall.

The Middlesex County prosecutor said that Alexander Goldinsky, a 57-year-old man from Randolph, filed a false insurance claim for ambulance service and hospital treatment he received for injuries he claimed he sustained at a company in Woodbridge, Township.

Goldinsky was charged with one count of insurance fraud and one count of theft by deception.

Related Article: 5-Year-Old Daughter Stabbed to Death by Her Own Mother in South London

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There has been considerable misinformation and disinformation pertaining to voting in the November election, particularly regarding vote by mail. As such I wanted to dedicate a column to the matter. Whether you are registered to vote or still need to do so, plan to vote by mail but aren't sure how, want to vote early or on Election Day, here's everything you need to know to make sure your vote counts in this year's election.





Make sure you're registered!





The first deadline for voters to be aware of is October 5, which is the last day you can register to vote and still be eligible to participate in this year's election. To be clear, if you register to vote anytime from October 6 on, you will not be on the voter rolls for the November 3 election. You can register to vote online here . If you are unsure whether you are registered to vote in Manatee County, you can check your voter registration status, here





Vote by Mail





Vote by mail has steadily increased in popularity since the botched 2000 presidential election. Since 2000, Americans have cast more than 250 million ballots by mail and the option now accounts for about 1/3 of all voting in the U.S.





Ever since the politicization of Vote by Mail became an issue in the 2020 Presidential Election, however, voters on both sides of the aisle have had concerns. Locally, we began receiving messages from readers as soon as ballots were sent out for the August primary wondering why in the world party identification was included on the return envelope. So, we asked Manatee Supervisor of Elections Mike Bennett.

"The answer, believe it or not, is history, said Bennett, speaking to TBT on primary election night. "Thats just the way theyve always been printed and, to be honest, weve never heard a single complaint before this year. Of course, theres never been an election like this either.

Bennett said that he understood, given the current climate, why voters would have concerns about such identification and that he couldnt say why the envelopes had been designed that way. He said that his office planned to request that the state discontinue the practice. Its important to note that party identification is only used on primary ballot envelopes in Florida, where the ballots differ based on registration. There are no such markings on general election ballots, which are all the same.

Bennett, a former Republican Florida Senator, has been a strong proponent of Vote by Mail for years and didnt seem to relish the idea of voters being scared away from the practice more than has already happened by the Presidents attack on vote by mail, despite having regularly used the option himself, including in this years Florida primary (Trump switched his registration from New York to Florida last year).

As a result of the presidents obsession with stopping vote by mail, which hes claimed is rife with fraud without offering evidence, there has been much confusion about the topic. The president later said that absentee ballots are fine, leading many of his supporters in Florida to argue that we should keep the latter and throw away the former. Only Florida doesnt have absentee voting and hasnt for years. Any resident can request a mail-in ballot, regardless of whether they are going to be present in the state on Election Day.

Most expressed concerns regard ballots erroneously sent out, however, they ignore the fact that such ballots are almost never counted. Even if someone gets ahold of someone elses mail-in ballot, a signature match is still required upon its receipt. This sort of voter impersonation fraud has, time and again, been shown to be infinitesimal.

report by the NYU School of Laws Brennan Center for Justice showed that it is more likely for an American to be struck by lightning than to commit mail voting fraud. A WAPO study done in conjunction with the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), revealed that when it comes to fraud in vote by mail, it amounts to only one six-millionth of one percent of all votes! In reality, such attempts are a high-risk, low-reward enterprise. The idea of being able to swing even the smallest local election in such a manner would be daunting, let alone a national presidential election.





How to make sure your mail-in ballot gets counted





If you would like to request a vote by mail ballot, you can do so online here or download the mail-in form here . The deadline to request a vote by mail ballot is October 24.





Vote by mail ballots must be signed and returned to the Supervisor of Elections Office by 7 p.m. on November 3 (Election Day), either by mail or by hand delivering the ballot to the dropbox at the SOE office. It does not matter when your ballot is postmarked. If it doesn't arrive by Election Day, with a signature, your vote will not be counted!





According to the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Office, 52,150 voters used the vote by mail option for last month's primary, and almost 800 of those ballots were discarded. More than half of the disqualified ballots did not arrive at the office by the August 18 deadline. The rest were either because the voter forgot to sign their ballot, or the signature block did not match the signature on file.





The Manatee County Canvassing Board reviews all signatures flagged for not matching the coinciding voter registration card. The board is comprised of Supervisor of Elections Mike Bennett, one of the Manatee County commissioners, and a county judge. The decision hinges on whatever a majority of the three officials decide, though the office may attempt to reach voters for clarification, time permitting.





Overseas Voting (military and civilian)





Overseas voters have the option to return the ballot and signed voter's certificate by fax or mail. The ballot and certificate must be faxed directly to the fax number provided by the Supervisor of Elections or to a fax number provided by the Federal Voting Assistance Program of the Department of Defense.

An overseas voter has 10 extra days from election day to mail back a vote-by-mail ballot. The 10-day extension applies only in presidential preference primary elections, general elections, and special elections (primary or general). The overseas voters vote-by-mail ballot must be postmarked or dated by Election Day and received within 10 days of the election in order to be counted, provided the ballot is otherwise acceptable.





Early Voting





Early voting has been extended to the full 14 allowable days for the general election (Florida law requires each county to offer at least 10 days of early voting and allows up to 14). Early voting will take place at six locations throughout the county from October 19 to November 1 from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., daily.





Election Day Voting





at their prescribed precinct , which can be found Once early voting has closed, voters wishing to participate must vote in-person on Election Day, which can be found here . On Election Day, polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Now, I've spoken to many voters over the years who prefer to vote on Election Day either because of tradition or to ensure that there's no chance of missing a last-minute revelation about a candidate that may cause them to change their mind. To be honest, I've always counted myself among this group. That said, this year is different.





For starters, we're in the midst of a pandemic and any effort to spread out crowds of voters over longer periods will make polling places safer, both for those voting and those volunteering at voting sites. It will also make the job of counting the votes much more manageable. Given the likelihood that this year's contentious presidential election is likely to once again be very close and come down to results in a handful of swing states like Florida, we Floridians would be doing everyone a favor to help make sure our state reports accurate results as early as possible. Trust me, the rest of the country still hasn't forgiven us for 2000.





That said, if you're reading this column, I'd bet dollars to donuts that you're a regular voter, and, for that, I salute you. It doesn't matter if we agree on the candidates and issues. Representative democracies require citizen participation from an informed electorate. So no matter what method you choose, invest some time in researching the candidates and issues, and make your vote count!





Dennis "Mitch" Maley is an editor and columnist for The Bradenton Times. With over two decades of experience as a journalist, he has covered Manatee County government since 2010. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University, where he earned a degree in Government. He later served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Click here for his bio. Dennis's latest novel, Sacred Hearts, is available here .








San Francisco, Sep 13 : Facebook on Sunday said it has started to pull down fake posts and misinformation claiming that wildfires in the Oregon state in the US were caused by arson from militia organisations like Antifa and far-left activists.

The announcement came after multiple organisations, including the Douglas County Sheriff's Office in Oregon, issued warnings on social media about the false rumours being spread about wildfires.

"We are removing false claims that the wildfires in Oregon were started by certain groups. This is based on confirmation from law enforcement that these rumours are forcing local fire and police agencies to divert resources from fighting the fires and protecting the public," Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone said in a tweet.

"This is consistent with our past efforts to remove content that could lead to imminent harm given the possible risk to human life as the fires rage on," he added.

There is no evidence Oregon's fires were caused by arson from far-left activists, reports NBC News.

Authorities arrested one person in connection with one of Oregon's 38 active wildfires, which have caused at least eight deaths.

Oregon's fires have charred more than 879,000 acres, according to state data.
Its totally understandable that the students we talked with were a little disappointed when they learned their summer internships were going remote. Some of them had some really exciting host venues to look forward to, like the renowned Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory just outside of San Francisco. But the students also expressed a sense that the unexpected format change meant the experience was different, but not necessarily less meaningful. Some told us they even feel like theyre walking away with a whole new set of work-from-home skills that could prove valuable in a post-pandemic world. Heres some of what they had to say about their summer experiences  and their advice about how to make the most of a remote internship.

Omimah Bazzi

Senior in Industrial Engineering

Internship: DTE Energy, Detroit

I started interning at DTE Energy in the summer of 2019, working with their Electric Field Operations department. My initial project focused on analyzing productivity metrics for their field reps. And more recently, I started working on a project thats now my senior design project, where were improving how field reps can organize tools and equipment on their trucks to continuously improve their works efficiency. We had just started this vehicle standardization project in February 2020, and then the pandemic hit and we had to switch the whole project virtually. It was a big challenge because we were planning on going out in the field and observing some of the challenges field reps were having. So I started reaching out to people to figure out a different approach, and I discovered that one of their engineers had created a dashboard that included all the completed jobs for the past three months. This totally gave us insight into what the most common jobs were. Then we organized focus group interviews to determine which tools the workers were using on those most common jobs. This new approach actually ended up saving us a lot of time, and now were figuring out ways we can pilot our recommendations without actually working with the field reps in-person.

On how to get the most out of a remote internship:

I think the biggest thing is that you have to try to stick to your original plan, but then brainstorm as many creative solutions as you can that will help you reach your initial goal. And reach out to the other people on your team, the managers, anybody who might have good ideas  dont just rely on yourself. The second thing Id say is, during virtual meetings, turn your camera on. Just because youre at home, you dont want to lose that connection with the other people on your team. Honestly, I forget sometimes that Im working from home; I feel like Im really at the office.

Alexus Warchock

Senior in Mechanical Engineering and Bioengineering

Internship: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California

I was really looking for an internship that would allow me to design something on my own, from the ground up, and Lawrence Livermore was offering an internship where I could design diagnostic components at their National Ignition Facility. I was scheduled to start in the summer, but then of course, everything shifted. They were absolutely gracious in handling it. In fact, initially my project wasnt able to be remote, but they found a different project for me within the same group that could be done remotely. Lawrence Livermore is known for lots of different things, but the National Ignition Facility is a government-funded project thats working on nuclear fusion ignition. For the research we were involved with, theres essentially a target with a diameter of about 5 millimeters filled with hydrogen that sits inside another giant 10-meter diameter ball called the target chamber. And then 192 of the worlds highest-energy lasers converge on that ball of hydrogen. The energy from the lasers causes the target to implode, and when its implosion creates more energy than what you put in from the lasers, thats fusion ignition. We need to be able to diagnose how well that implosion is happening, and my job was working on a Neutron Imaging System, which is one of many diagnostics we use to measure that.

On whether remote internships are worth it:

The work definitely felt real. There were many days where I was very, very busy, so I never felt like I was missing out on work experience. The one thing I did miss out on: The National Ignition Facility is known for being one of the most remarkable engineering spectacles in the world, so I was a little disappointed I didnt get to see the facility. But they actually extended my offer through next summer and Ive already been asked multiple times if Im planning on working here; Ive been told they typically hire about 80% of their interns. So it kind of worked out because if I would have had an in-person internship, it would have been over at the end of the summer. But now, because they know I can work well remotely, I have this opportunity to work throughout the school year, which Im super excited about. And Ive already started talking with other people about how to frame this experience on my resume to show all the really high-level stuff I did while working online.

Mariam Bazzi

Junior in Health and Human Services, Pre-Health concentration

Internship: SAFE Coalition, western Wayne County

SAFE is essentially a program that assists people who are struggling with mental health issues or substance abuse issues. They have a variety of crisis services, including some really innovative programs like a mobile crisis service unit. This is a new up-and-coming idea in the mental health field, and its essentially a team of medical and social service professionals who go to an individuals house when theyre having a crisis. My work was initially supposed to be going along with one of these mobile crisis teams and watching them work. But after the pandemic, we couldnt do that so we focused more on research. Early on, I looked into factors that affect stigma around mental health services in our community. I did a survey of how SAFEs services stack up against similar nonprofits. And we also took a look at how coronavirus was changing the kinds of services the community needed. For example, especially during those first few weeks of the pandemic, healthcare workers were experiencing a lot of crises themselves because they were so overwhelmed. And the isolation and lack of social interaction has really had an impact on people, so its important for our organization to understand those factors so we can figure out how to meet the communitys needs.

On the unexpected benefits of a remote internship:

In my case, I think an in-person experience would have been much more optimal. Working side-by-side with medical professionals, caring for individuals, seeing them deescalate conflicts  thats an experience you cant get except in person. But the remote experience was still beneficial, just in a different way. For one, Im walking away with a much higher-level view of some of the issues that impact mental health services. And personally, I became a much better researcher. In particular, I see how you have to utilize all kinds of resources  reports, news articles, videos, interviews with experts  to dig deeply into an issue and come away with a complete understanding of it.

Bi Li

Graduate student in Health Information Technology

Internship: Authority Health, Wayne County

As everyone knows, Detroit was considered a coronavirus hotspot early in the United States outbreak period, and my project was to understand the public health factors that were contributing most to these hotspots. To do this, I analyzed data from the Census Bureau and discovered correlations with a number of factors, such as low income, education, unstable housing, unsafe neighborhoods, poor nutrition and low transportation rates. I also looked at health factors identified by the Centers for Disease Control, like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. From data analysis of HCUP- hospital inpatient data  and 500 Cities health data, I confirmed the chronic health conditions correlated positively with COVID-19 case rates in Detroit. Based on my findings, I made several recommendations for policies and programs that could help Detroit public health agencies and community organizations prepare for the next pandemic and improve residents health and quality of life.

On how the internship contributed to my career goals:

My ambition is to further my career where I can make a difference in the lives of the people that I assist. I have always felt the importance of health IT due to my attention to detail, passion for high standard health care, and interest in computer sciences. This internship gave me a new perspective on how my study in a health information technology program might look in a work environment. It also introduced me to software and business platforms and developed my research, data analysis and qualitative skills. Moreover, I learned how to evaluate the data and present the reports. This internship enabled me to attempt a career and helped me to make more informed decisions on data analytics, which is what I want to do with my life.

Source: UM-Dearborn
Ambassador Tuan presented some medical equipment which was donated to the school by the Vietnam  Ukraine Friendship Association and the Ukraine  Vietnam Friendship Association.

Speaking at the event, the ambassador expressed his hope that the school will continue to be a bridge for the closer friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and Ukraine while paying great attention to repairing its room which showcases artefacts about President Ho Chi Minh.

He also presented certificates of merit and awards to two members of the jury board and students who won top prizes in the writing competition on President Ho Chi Minh.

The competition was launched by the Vietnamese Embassy in Ukraine, in collaboration with the school, on the occasion of the 130th birthday anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh.

Shulga Larysa Panteleivna, the schools principal, and Burdina Kateryna Mykolaivna, the manager of the room showcasing artefacts related to President Ho Chi Minh, affirmed that the writing competition on President Ho Chi Minh has helped Ukrainian students learn more about Vietnams history and the great leader of Vietnamese people.

The Principal expressed her sincere thanks to Vietnamese peoples support as well as practical medical gifts in the context of complicated Covid-19 pandemic.
The Tuscan Grand Prix was red flagged after a dramatic four-car pile-up on the seventh lap at Mugello.

The unusual accident was sparked after Antonio Giovinazzi crashed into the back of Williams driver Nicholas Latifi at the restart following a safety car period.

McLaren's Carlos Sainz then hit Giovinazzi sending the Alfa Romeo driver temporarily into the air.

Romain Grosjean has accused Valtteri Bottas of 'trying to kill us' after there was a major crash

The Tuscan Grand Prix was red flagged after a dramatic four-car pile-up on the seventh lap

Haas driver Kevin Magnussen was also caught up in the accident with all four cars sent into the barriers.

The drivers involved walked away unscathed but Romain Grosjean was furious with leader Valtteri Bottas for driving too slowly at the restart.

"That was f****** stupid from whoever was at the front," the Frenchman yelled over the radio.

"They want to kill us or what? This is the worst thing I have ever seen."

Bottas had assumed the lead from pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton after the world champion made a poor start.

Max Verstappen of Netherlands and Red Bull Racing and Pierre Gasly of France crash out

The safety car was issued after just two corners when Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly, last week's surprise winner at the Italian Grand Prix, ended up in the gravel.

It meant that by the end of lap nine, six drivers had retired from the race with the red flags out for the second grand prix in as many weeks.

Formula One is racing in Mugello for the first time to mark Ferrari's 1,000th Grand Prix.
A SUICIDE prevention patrol in Limerick has performed 450 interventions on the riverside in the last four years.

Limerick Suicide Watch, which has 70 volunteers, patrols the banks of the Shannon seven nights a week, providing support to those who may be in distress, as well as hosting awareness talks.

In that time, they say they have stopped over 450 people entering the water.

Two years ago this month, the group launched a smartphone application, which it describes as a one-stop shop for people to access a wide number of Limerick services at a click of a button.

A free app, theres a section on it listed as help, providing several services ranging from mental health to family support, drug, alcohol and homeless services.

Theres a direct phone number an email address in the case a person doesn't feel comfortable phoning.

And, its connected to Google Maps, which allows people to get an idea of the location of Limerick Suicide Watch in the Tait Business Centre at Dominic Street.

Off the back of this, the app  downloadable free from www.limericksuicidewatch.ie free of charge  has given its volunteers statistical details of when theres a spike in downloads.

Meanwhile, the voluntary group has appointed Alex Henriques as its new chairperson for 2020.

His vice-chairman is Ger Meehan with Shirley Johnston the secretary.

The group has big plans to increase its services across Limerick in 2021.

__________________________

If you have been affected by the preceding article contact any of the following organisations

Aware (1800 80 48 48)

The Samaritans (116 123)

Pieta House (1800 247 247)
With CI Financial recently purchasing WealthBar and rebranding to CI Direct Investing, we thought it was the perfect time to write an updated CI Direct Investing review for 2022.

What is CI Direct Investing and Is It a Robo Advisor?

CI Direct Investing is a combination of an automated investing platform and a personal financial advisor.

When it comes to taking a piece of your monthly pay cheque and turning it into a diversified investment portfolio  CI Direct Investing does that for you. That part of the business would be considered a robo advisor model.

What sets CI Direct Investing apart though, is the fact that right from Day 1, you will have access to excellent financial advice at your fingertips. This financial advisor will usually hold the credential of a Certified Financial Planner professional. Thats an important distinction, because it carries legal responsibilities far beyond that of a financial planner.

As the precursor to CI Direct Investing, WealthBar took great pains to emphasize the utilization of sound financial advice relative to other FinTech companies (which were often lumped together under the generic title of robo advisor).

What Accounts Does CI Direct Investing Offer?

When you register with CI Direct Investing (get started in as little as ten minutes) you can open the following accounts:

Basic non-registered accounts

Savings

Joint Account

TFSA

RRSP

Spousal RRSP

RIF/RRIF

RESP (including Quebec residents)

LIRA

LIF

Corporate Investment Account

Trust Accounts

Charitable Organization Investment Accounts

Group TFSAs and RRSPs (for your employees if you own a company)

Individual Pension Plans

Personal Pension Plans

CI Direct Investing Review: Fees

Your portfolio is going to have two levels of fees when you invest through CI Direct Investing.

The fees that your underlying ETFs will charge you. The fees that CI Direct Investing will take for helping you out on your investing journey.

The underlying ETF fees are going to cost between .17% and .19% for the ETF portfolios.

The fees that ETF fees that we refer to are known as a Management Expense Ratio (MER) and are commonly shown as a percentage of your overall assets. Because MERs are an inherent part of the ETFs themselves, clients will not see this money deducted from their CI Direct Investing account.

CI Direct Investings fees are charged under the following annual structure:

.60% on your first $150,000 invested

.40% on $150,000-$500,000

.35% on anything over $500,000

So, if you had $100,000 invested, youd owe CI Direct Investing about $600 for the year, and the internal costs of your ETFs would be around $180-$260 which would be reflected in your portfolios performance.

If you had $750,000 invested with CI Direct Investing, youd owe:

$150,000 x .6 = $900

$350,000 x .4 = $1,400

$250,000 x .35 = $875

Total CI Fees = $3,175

ETF Fees = $1,350-$1,950

Thats it  pretty transparent and easy to calculate!

CI Direct Investing for Canadian Non-Resident Expats

As of 2020 there is only one robo advisor option available for Canadian citizens who are also non-residents for tax purposes (aka: expats). Given my recent expat journey to Qatar, this was obviously very pertinent to me!

When doing my research, I did come across a couple of robo advisor-style platforms based out of Switzerland and Singapore  but they were prohibitively expensive and quite complicated to use. In my opinion, CI Direct Investing is by far the best option for Canadian expats.

I am very impressed with what CI Direct Investing has put together for their expat clients. If you want the easiest way to get into index investing as a Canadian expat  this is far and away the best solution! Youre going to pay a bit more than you would if you were index investing using a Canadian discount brokerage, but depending on how big your portfolio is, its quite possible that youll pay less in overall fees than you would with an international discount brokerage  plus you get a ton of additional services in return for your money.

The one caveat here is that CI Direct Investing is not available in the USA or certain other countries such as North Korea, Iran, etc.

Here were the answers to my expat questions when I emailed CI Direct Investing.

What do Canadian Expats need in order to open up a robo advisor account with CI Direct Investing?

$25,000 account minimum

Your downloaded account statement for a Canadian bank account

An electronic document issued by a Canadian government agency, or a cell phone company, or a utility company.

Canadian SIN

Any foreign tax ID numbers that have been assigned to you

A signature (either electronic or old school)

Do I have to be in Canada at any point or have a Canadian address in order to open a non-resident account with CI Direct Investing?

Absolutely not.

What accounts can I open as a Canadian non-resident?

You should stick to a plain, vanilla non-registered account as a non-resident. However, you could also transfer over any existing RRSP and/or TFSA accounts you have in order to keep life simple and have all your investments under one roof.

What taxes will I have to pay with CI Direct Investing?

The same taxes youd have to pay anywhere else as a Canadian non-resident. Namely, the withholding tax on Canada-sourced income. What you owe in your new country obviously depends on local laws.

How does having a CI Direct Investing account affect my non-resident status  and is it a strong resident tie?

Neither a non-resident CI Direct Investing account, nor a non-resident discount brokerage account is going to be a secondary residential tie to Canada. It will not be enough  by itself  for the CRA to consider you a factual resident. If you also own a car in Canada that you use when you come for the holidays, never cancel your provincial health insurance, and still have a provincial driving license The combination of all of those things might start to tilt the scales toward being considered a factual resident.

How Does It Work? CI Direct Investing ETF Portfolios

When you first sign up with CI Direct Investing, youll be matched to the right investment based on your goals and risk profile. You can connect with an adviser how and when it works for you. Simply connect via email, phone, video or chat.

CI Direct Investing has one main investing path (which is probably what you want) called ETF Portfolios and they also offer a second option called Private Investment Portfolios.

Within the broad ETF Portfolios at CI Direct Investing, there are five asset allocation options: Aggressive, Growth, Balanced, Conservative, and Safety.

Each of these all-in-one solutions is made up of the following ETFs  just held in different proportions depending on how much risk you want to take.

Horizons S&P 500 ETF (HXS) = US stocks

iShares Core MSCI EAFE IMI (XEF) = Non-Canada or US stocks from developed countries

BMO High Yld US Corp Bd Hdgd to CAD ETF (ZHY) = Bonds from USA corporations

Horizons S&P/TSX 60 ETF (HXT) = Canadian stocks

Horizons Equal Weight Canada REIT ETF (HCRE) = Canadian real estate

BMO Mid Corporate Bond Index ETF (ZCM) = Bonds from Canadian corporations

BMO Mid-Term US IG Corporate Bond Hedged to CAD Index ETF (ZMU) = Bonds from USA corporations

Then the more conservative portfolios will also use the Vanguard Canadian Short-Term Bond ETF (VSB), which consists of bonds issued by the Canadian federal and provincial governments.

For example, heres a look at the balanced ETF Portfolio (as currently constructed at the time of writing).

Fund Ticker Breakdown Horizons S&P 500 ETF HXS 24.0% BMO Mid Corporate Bond Index ETF ZCM 22.0% iShares Core MSCI EAFE IMI ETF XEF 12.5% Horizons S&P/TSX 60 ETF HXT 10.5% BMO High Yld US Cordp Bd Hdgd to CAD ETF ZHY 10.0% BMO Mid-Term US IG Corp Bd Hdgd to CAD Index ETF ZMU 8.5% Horizons Equal Eright Canada REIT ETF HCRE 7.5% Vanguard Canadian Short-Term Bond ETF VSB 5.0%

CI Direct Investing offers a clean-tech add on for investors interested in the Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) models. This add-on allows investors to put 5% of their money into the Invesco Cleantech Portfolio ETF (PZD). It Includes investments in renewable energy, water purification, logistics, and transportation.

Generally speaking, if you have longer term goals, and a higher risk profile, your ETF portfolio will be weighted more heavily towards stocks and less towards bonds.

CI Direct Investing has chosen the ETFs for their portfolios by using the following criteria:

Tracking error minimization to mirror the index

Higher trading volume ETFs selected for best pricing

Priority given to funds with higher Assets Under Management

All else equal, they choose the ETF with the lower share price

Country of origin considered to reduce currency exchange charges

Successful performance history verified

Lowest MER possible

If you want to change your selected ETF portfolio, you can do that at any time  BUT  keep in mind that you were placed in a portfolio for a reason. Has your risk tolerance really changed, or are you simply chasing recent performance? These are great conversations to have with your CI Direct Investing advisers.

How Does It Work? CI Direct Investing Private Investment Portfolios

To understand the difference between CI Direct Investings ETF portfolios and their Private Investment Portfolios, it helps to get a quick refresher on active vs passive investing.

Active Investing Mindset: Whomever I pick to manage my investments is smarter than the average person who invests in assets in the stock/bond/real estate/commodity markets. Because theyre smarter, they can pick investments that are currently worth more than what people are paying, or that will do better in the future than most people think. The ability to pick those better investments will lead to better overall returns on my investment money and/or my portfolio will have much less volatility (i.e. big ups and downs). Because the investment professionals will be working really hard to select these better-than-average investments, the people who will manage my investments will need to get paid and will charge me a percentage of my entire portfolio each year.

Passive Investing Mindset: There is no statistical evidence that we can identify which investment people or funds are going to be better-than-average when it comes to picking the best stocks/bonds/real estate/commodity investments. Its really, really hard to pick investments that beat the average, because a lot of incredibly smart people are trying to do precisely that every day. Because its really, really hard to pick investments that beat the average by even a small amount, that extra that Im paying in fees means that they have to be a super-duper All Star in order for me to pay their extra fees, and still have enough investment returns leftover to beat the average.

Im likely better off just cutting my fees as low as possible and taking the average of the asset class. I can do that by using the ETF portfolios to own nearly every large company in the world.

Active Investing + Different Asset Classes

CI Direct Investings Private Portfolios use actively managed Nicola Wealth Funds to build clients a portfolio of investments that include unconventional assets as shown below.

Aggressive Private Portfolio

There are three different Private Portfolio options available. Heres an example of what your asset allocation would look like if you chose the Aggressive option (accurate at the time of publishing).

Asset Class Breakdown Real Estate 36.0% US Equities 25.0% International Equities 10.0% Fixed Income 6.0% Canadian Equities 6.0% Mortgages 5.0% Alternative Strategies 5.0% Private Equity 2.0% High-Yield Bonds 2.0% Private Debt 2.0%

Fund Ticker Breakdown Nicola Core Portfolio Fund NWM254 50.0% Nicola Global Real Estate Fund NWM144 25.0% Nicola U.S. Tactical High-Income Fund NWM234 25.0% Portfolio MER 1.40%

Personally, I remain unconvinced that the Private Portfolios offer any extra utility to the average investor. I understand the theory of trying to diversify into asset classes that are not correlated to stocks/equities, but those high MER fees that go with active management scare me.

The Private Portfolios do have a relatively good track record over their short lifespan, but as with all things investing, Past results are not indicative of future performance.

I recommend keeping it simple and staying away from these more complicated options.

Is CI Direct Investing Safe?

Yes!

CI Direct Investing is as safe as any banking and investment option in Canada!

Of course, one has to remember that when it comes to investing, safe means different things to different people. There is no company that can guarantee investment returns. CI will make sure your information stays safe, and that your investments are protected from certain / some fraud or corporate bankruptcy  but your investments can still go down in value. If any company claims that they can guarantee the safety of your investment returns  Id walk away immediately.

CI Direct Investing is the robo advisor arm of a massive company that manages over $160 Billion of assets. Companies this large employ the latest in online security and encryption standards. I would hesitate to say that any website or online platform is hack-proof, but at the very least, youre as safe with CI as you would be anywhere online.

Some people ask, What happens if my robo advisor goes bankrupt?

No worries on that front. First and foremost, there are all kinds of laws that prevent financial companies from dipping into your investment assets to pay their expenses. So thats one level of protection.

The second level of protection is actually just the free market! Youre a fee-paying customer, and so if for some crazy reason CI Direct Investing decides that their robo advisor branch of the company isnt pulling its weight, its quite likely the company would be sold to another robo advisor platform, and your assets would stay nice and safe while new management took over.

The final layer of protection is perhaps the one that inspires the most confidence. When you use CI Direct Investing your investments are automatically insured by the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF) up to $1 Million per account through a 3rd party provider they partner with. This gives your investment portfolio the full protection of the Canadian government, and consequently is about as solid a guarantee as you can find.

When Did WealthBar Become CI Direct Investing?

In 2019 CI Financial purchased Wealthbar and merged the company into their large umbrella of Canadian investment companies. They also purchased the discount brokerage company Virtual Brokers.

In August 2020 the Wealthbar brand officially became CI Direct Investing  but the company took great pains to make it crystal clear that while the name had changed, the commitment to excellent customer service and financial advice had not.

Wealthbar was founded back in 2014 by Tea and Chris Nicola. In a Globe and Mail interview, Tea explained, I felt like finance needed a boost of benevolence to be honest, I wanted to be Robin Hood, in my own way. With a solid background of working at Nicola Wealth, the duo hit the ground running, quickly building what would become known as the Canadian robo advisor option that most emphasized sound financial planning.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there an account minimum? Yes. The account minimum is $1,000 for most individual investors, and a $25,000 account minimum for non-resident expats. Does CI Direct Investing charge commissions? No! There are no hidden commissions or kickbacks of any kind. Are there hidden fees? No! Simply read the section on fees above to thoroughly understand the fee structure. Does CI Direct Investing have a socially responsible option? CI Direct Investing offers a clean-tech add on for investors interested in the Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) models. This is accomplished by allocating a part of your portfolio to the First Trust Clean Edge Green Energy ETF [QCLN]  which is composed of companies focused on renewable energy and water purification. What accounts does CI Direct Investing offer? Non-Registered, Joint, TFSA, RRSP, Spousal RRSP, RIF/RRIF, LIRA, LIF, RESP, Corporate, Trust accounts, Accounts for charitable organizations, Group TFSAs & RRSPs for employers to setup for staff. Does CI Direct Investing do tax loss harvesting? No. CI Direct Investing does not offer tax loss harvesting. Does CI Direct Investing have a fiduciary duty to put my interests first? Yes! As registered portfolio managers, all CI Direct Investing advisors have a legal fiduciary duty to recommend investments that are in your best interests. Sadly, this is not the case with many mutual fund salespeople in Canada. Does CI Direct Investing use fractional share investing? No. CI Direct Investing does not offer fractional share investing. Does CI Direct Investing have a Mobile App? Yes, the app is available in both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. Can I link my CI Direct Investing Account to Mint? Yes. Simply generate a third party key from within your CI Direct Investing account, and use that to link to Mint, Wealthica, or similar services. Will CI Direct Investing send me tax slips? The following tax slips will be created and sent to you via your CI Direct Investing dashboard under the Documents tab: RRSP contribution slip, T4, T5, T500d, RL-16, RL-3, T3, T5013, RL-15, NR4 (for non residents).

Setting Up an Account: A Peek Inside CI Direct Investing

Heres what your screens will look like when you sign up, in addition to some of the more prominent advertising that CI Direct Investing is currently running.

CI Direct Investing Review: Who Is It Best For?

The one group of people who should unquestionably take a long look at CI Direct Investing are Canadian citizens who now live overseas. The investing options available to expats in their new countries are often very expensive and somewhat confusing.

The $25,000 minimum account size is a minor drawback, but the benefits of getting so much paperwork done on your behalf, utilizing their institutional knowledge of how expats are treated, and the beautiful simplicity of automated convenience makes CI a no-brainer for the expat crowd.

For Canadian residents, We still think Wealthsimple is clearly the better product. Theres a reason why we rate at the best Canadian robo advisor. I recommend taking a look at our writing on Canadian online brokers if youre more the DIY type.

Check out our interviews with Wealthbar co-founder and CI Direct Investing CEO Tea Nicola.



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The eldest sister of missing Irish schoolboy Philip Cairns has appealed for information to unlock the truth of what happened to her 13-year-old brother as time is running out for the family.

The Dublin family at the centre of one of the nation's most high-profile missing persons cases have had to endure unimaginably cruel phone calls from people claiming to have taken the child in the years since he disappeared.

In a new RTE Scannal documentary, Mary Cairns poignantly tells how part of her life has stood still since he went missing without trace 34 years ago.

"If anybody knows anything about what happened to Philip, I will ask you to please, please come forward, we don't know how much time any of us have left," she says in the documentary.

"We would really like to be able to bring Philip home, give him a burial and somewhere for our mother to go where she knows where he is."

On October 23, 1986, Philip went to Colaiste Eanna Secondary School in Rathfarnham in Dublin like any other day before returning to his home on the nearby Ballyroan Road for his lunch at 12.45.

The youngest of six children left the house at 1.30pm and was never seen again.

The new Scannal documentary forensically re-examines the intense garda investigation, extensive searches, numerous appeals and rewards in the unsolved case.

Behind the headlines about the case, which has been compared with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal, is the trauma endured by the family which has been exacerbated by horrific calls to their home.

"People ringing maybe to say what they had done to Philip where his body could be found.

"People saying that they had Philip in the background and someone screaming in the background," recalls Mary.

The documentary looks in detail at the garda leads, along with the rumours and speculation that surrounded the case in a bid to try and get fresh information about Philip's disappearance.

'Scannal - Philip Cairns: The boy who never came home' will be shown on RTE One on Tuesday September 15 at 7pm
In May, after the death of George Floyd while in police custody, activists poured into the streets with demands for racial justice and police reform. That multi-ethnic chorus expanded into a call for equity in every corner of the culture, from politics to fashion. In response, social media was quickly flooded with fashion companies, influencers and boldface names touting their support of Black Lives Matter with symbolic black squares and historical quotations about racial equality. The words of the Rev Martin Luther King Jr and James Baldwin were in heavy rotation. But like a litany of thoughts and prayers, the brief messages resonated as perfunctory rather than instructive.

A lot of people posted on Instagram, We stand in solidarity. What does that even mean? says designer Tom Ford, who serves as chair of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). This is not the first time outrage has overflowed its banks, Ford says. And in the past, sadly nothing happened. But this time is different. Perhaps.

People of colour who have remained silent about years of indignities in the fashion industry are speaking up. Mid-career designers whose advancement has been blocked because of biased talent searches are storming the industrys barricades. Designers are taking mass retailers to task for their gross failure to support black-owned businesses. Editors at glossy publications are posting on Twitter and Instagram blunt descriptions of being underpaid. And even those who have found success in fashion are revealing the barely healed scars accrued from the good fight.

And this time, folks were not willing to let companies issue a public relations statement and move on.

I was sitting in my house getting all these emails and seeing these Instagram posts in my thread, and it felt so empty to me  incredibly empty, says Aurora James, founder of the accessories brand Brother Vellies. I was receiving these messages as a black woman and as a black business owner. I was seeing it, but I wasnt feeling it. The business owner in me needed to put a metric on it to make me feel like [companies] meant what they said.

In a gust of frustration, James created the Fifteen Percent Pledge, an initiative challenging large retailers to commit 15 per cent of their shelf space to black-owned businesses. The number is roughly equivalent to the percentage of black people in the United States.

I knew intuitively as a business owner that these retailers werent even close to that number. They were sitting at 1-2 per cent on average, James says. The pledge requires businesses to audit their product mix and make those numbers public.

West Elm and LVMHs Sephora are two of the largest retailers who have signed on thus far. Vogue has also pledged to participate and to improve its hiring of black photographers and stylists, among other things. Vogue and Vanity Fair each only recently hired their first black photographer for a coveted cover shoot.

We have an internal benchmark that we are determined to meet in terms of external and internal talent and content and everything that were doing, not only at Vogue, but I think across all Conde Nast titles, says Anna Wintour, editor in chief of Vogue and artistic director for Conde Nast. Everybody is, you know, I think very conscious of moving forward, doing the right thing, recognising mistakes, knowing we can do better.

Anna Wintour (centre), editor in chief of Vogue and artistic director for Conde Nast (Getty/IMG)

The Fifteen Percent Pledge is only one of the unprecedented number of initiatives harnessing this moment to change the way the fashion industry operates so that its doors are opened to a wider variety of participants. The demand for greater diversity isnt focused simply on models and designers as it has been in recent years. Fashion is being called to account for the composition of corporate boards, brand managers, editors, photographers and anyone else who has a hand in an industry that shapes our sense of self.

The problems have been laid bare. The demands are specific. The voices are so numerous that they are harder to ignore. In all cases, inclusivity is the operative word. Inclusivity goes beyond numbers. It requires empathy, curiosity, respect and fairness. Creating an inclusive culture is a high hurdle, and knowing when a company has cleared it is, in many ways, subjective. How will the fashion industry know when it has succeeded?

From its earliest days, the fashion system as it exists in the United States and Europe  from Conde Nast to Dior  catered to white aristocrats, debutantes and socialites. American designers took style cues from Paris, and photographers swooned over muses such as CZ Guest and models like the Swedish-born Lisa Fonssagrives, one of the earliest fashion stars. The men and women running magazines were part of the tight social circle of one-percenters who were celebrated in their pages. For many young women, a stint as a junior editor was akin to a finishing school.

Fashion has known that racism has been there, and they havent done anything. I feel like fashion is having an awakening

Yes, there was a gritty, behind-the-scenes industry that was populated by recent immigrants and other bootstrapping strivers, but the gentry owned the spotlight. Fashion is not a business that was set up to help people with nothing win, says James, who grew up in a small town outside of Toronto.

Over the years, activists have tried to break open the system. Black designers have been advocating for greater access to financial capital and retail shelves. Theyve decried their lack of representation on the red carpet and in magazines  platforms that give brands the kind of visibility that could help increase their market share or attract investors. Theyve been frustrated by the lack of recognition from their peers that has epitomised by CFDA awards  or at least nominations for them. But as much as folks criticised the clout of publications such as Vogue and the clubby atmosphere of the CFDA, the goal has always been to break into the clubhouse, not burn it down.

Kevan Hall is one of the success stories and someone who has tried to prop open the clubhouse door for others. He was working under his own label in Los Angeles when, in 1998, he was hired as creative director at Halston, where he was charged with reviving the New York-based brand known for sexy, minimalist silhouettes. The offer came; I accepted it. There was some backlash [in the industry] over how could this African American man who weve never heard of, from California, take on this? Could he do it? Hall recalls in a phone conversation. After debuting at Halston with what he describes as 42 well-conceived ensembles, all doubters were silenced.

Halls tenure at Halston was creative, tumultuous and ultimately short-lived, as the business churned through a handful of presidents in about three years. It was crazy but brilliant, and I wouldnt change a moment of it, he says. It gave me more exposure. He returned to Los Angeles and his eponymous collection. In 2019, he co-founded the Black Design Collective in an effort to till the soil for the next generation of designers. The collective has raised money to support black entrepreneurs whose businesses have suffered during the pandemic and is producing a directory of black designers. Fashion has known that [racism] has been there, and they havent done anything, Hall says. I feel like fashion is having an awakening.

Today, fashion faces a philosophical divide over tactics. After so many fits and starts toward greater equity, will change ultimately come through diplomatic engagement  by insiders helping insiders? Or does the system need an outsider  or at least a band of disenfranchised actors  to pull down the sacred monuments? A little bit of how I got to where Im at, Im even keel. Im also an optimist. I do believe the world can be a better place. I formally say yes to that, says Virgil Abloh, founder of Off-White and menswear designer for LVMHs Louis Vuitton. (About 12 per cent of LVMHs US workforce is black.) I believe we can upend systemic racism. I believe that the fashion industry can mirror real people.

Off-White founder Virgil Abloh at Paris Fashion Week in 2019 (Getty)

So rather than setting dynamite to fashion institutions, Abloh is supporting the Fashion Scholarship Fund. He raised $1m (780,000) to support black students interested in careers in fashion  not only in design, but also on the financial side of the industry. If we talk about changing the complexion of the business, it has to be beyond the design side, says the funds executive director, Peter Arnold. Thats the only way to get executives of color.

The most prominent of the racial equity initiatives, the one that has won the support of companies such as Conde Nast, Tommy Hilfiger, Tiffany & Co, LOreal, Calvin Klein and others, is the Black in Fashion Council. Founded by Teen Vogue editor-in-chief Lindsay Peoples Wagner and public relations consultant Sandrine Charles, its goal is to create a numerical rating system that reflects the degree to which a company is inclusive. The system will be modelled after the Human Rights Campaigns (HRC) Corporate Equality Index, which measures a businesss support of its LGBT+ workforce. The HRC will conduct the fashion data analysis.

Although the criteria are still being hashed out, the Black in Fashion Council is focusing on the make-up of a companys board of directors, whether it advertises in black-owned media or media aimed specifically at black consumers, the diversity of its supply chain and whether unconscious-bias training is an ongoing effort. (While the companies wont pay to be rated, the council is supported by donations, and those donations can come from the industry.)

The council considers itself an internal agent for change, not an external one. Indeed, the CFDA chose to work with Peoples Wagner and Charles, over other initiatives, because of their openhanded community approach, says Steven Kolb, the CFDAs chief executive. The co-founders like to emphasize that they want to move from cancel culture to accountability culture.

Teen Vogue editor-in-chief Lindsay Peoples Wagner at the Teen Vogue Summit in 2019 (Getty/Teen Vogue)

Its that very spirit of diplomacy that raises skepticism in Kibwe Chase-Marshall, who is the leading voice behind the Kelly Initiative. Named after Patrick Kelly, who was the first black designer to become a member of Pariss fashion consortium, it has taken a more confrontational stance. In a letter to the CFDA, Chase-Marshall and co-founders demanded that the trade organisation conduct an industry-wide census detailing the racial make-up of fashion companies and organise a third-party audit of member companies hiring practices. They wanted a response by Juneteenth. They didnt get one and by mid-August still had not.

Chase-Marshall was born in Trinidad and grew up in Washington, DC. He built a career in New York as a designer working for brands such as Michael Kors and Oscar de la Renta, but he was also frustrated, as he was never promoted to the rank of creative director despite his experience. He eventually moved to Los Angeles, where he still designs but also focuses on writing and activism. Ive watched over the course of two years as a really disturbing hybrid of tokenism and a lottery system developed, Chase-Marshall says. He sees tokenism, for example, in Pradas decision to ask director Ava DuVernay and artist Theaster Gates to co-chair a diversity advisory council after the Italian company faced complaints for selling charms that resembled racist golliwog characters. And the many fashion competitions, such as the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, that provide the winner with money and mentoring are, for him, akin to having to hit the lottery to advance in the industry.

For years, Chase-Marshall hesitated to speak up because you fear professional retribution. And I didnt want to come off as bitter and unwilling to recognise my own inadequacies. But the fashion system is too racist to be fixed by a change of ideology, he says. A changing of the guard is needed at the CFDA and elsewhere. I have given up on any modicum of likability, Chase-Marshall says. There's no way to be likeable to make this change.

I recognise that there are moments and times people within the company, without the company, when they havent felt as welcome as they should be

Its no surprise that much of Chase-Marshalls antipathy has been directed at two targets: the CFDA and Vogue. The former is the closest thing the industry has to a governing body, even though the nonprofit organisation has no actual authority over its members. The CFDA is a bully pulpit controlled by a membership more inclined to cajole. We are limited, says Ford, the chair. We cannot force companies to do anything. But in taking on new members, we can certainly look at how diverse the company is, and that can affect who we accept.

Ford spent much of his design career based in Europe leading Gucci and Saint Laurent. His eponymous company brought him back to the United States and to Los Angeles. Over the years, Fords runways and marketing campaigns have been distinctive for two reasons: sex appeal and diversity. I've worked with black models my entire career. Ive been concerned with making every fashion show and campaign racially balanced, he says. We had black designers on our design team. We had black members of our executive team.

I live in a very liberal world where the pain people were feeling, I dont know that it had really struck me, he says. Now that it has, now that he has had black friends describe the way long suppressed frustration has recently come to the surface, hes trying to empathetically consider what it means to move through life as a Black person.

Soon after protests began, Ford convened a board meeting and the CFDA sketched out its plan for change. It includes building an in-house employment agency for black professionals. The organisation also hired Bonnie Morrison, a veteran public relations executive, to broaden its support of young talent; it added anti-racism activist Bethann Hardison to its board of directors; and promoted CaSandra Diggs, who is black, to CFDA president. Theres also a new advisory board chock full of high-profile people of colour, all of them very much fashion folks. Its focus is strictly on fashion concerns, despite internal lobbying to broaden its scope and address issues such as police reform. Theres enough to do righting whats wrong with the fashion industry, Ford says. I think we need to stick to our lane.

Model Lameka Fox wears a jacket, bra top and skirt by Marc Jacobs; earrings and bracelets by Almasika; ring by Khiry; and shoes by Brother Vellies (Washington Post/Itaysha Jordan)

Wintour, the second target of particular animus, has clout and influence that reach far beyond the Conde Nast publishing empire and into the psyche of the entire fashion ecosystem. After Conde Nast employees began to detail experiences of racial prejudice and disrespect, there was Twitter speculation that fashions most prominent power broker would tumble. Instead, Wintour, who has been at the helm of Vogue for 32 years, planted her flag more firmly, deciding to move into the storm rather than evacuate. I totally understand and recognise the voice of social media, Wintour says. But I still feel you have to look inwards and examine yourself and think about what youve done  what was right and what you have done that is wrong.

Conde Nast plans to conduct a census of its employees where possible. (There are prohibitions against collecting racial data in Europe.) It also expects to make the results public, at least to its workforce. The defunct Conde Nast internship programme is returning, with participants being paid for their efforts, which will reduce the financial burden of living in New York City for disadvantaged students. And Vogue specifically is hosting a mentorship initiative with about 20 veteran employees providing one-on-one support to newer ones.

Were sort of guinea pigs for the rest of the company, Wintour tells me during a video interview. Were to do it for six months and then its going to be rolled out across the company so that theres a real sense of communication and collaboration and people understanding what a road forward could be for them. And its also us learning what we can do in terms of communicating better and being more collaborative and understanding of our workforce.

I recognise that there are moments and times people within the company, without the company, when they havent felt as welcome as they should be, Wintour continues. And I would just say to all of them that we are working as hard and as fast as we possibly can to change that perception and to change it also as a reality. We want everyone to feel welcome at Conde Nast and to be welcome because of their talents and their passion and their creativity and their view on culture.

I will take full responsibility if the next time you and I speak, there isnt a sense that change has come or is being accomplished, or at least it is moving forward, she says.

Guccis blackface sweater didnt reveal fashions race problem, but in 2019 it made the crisis plain. In a decades-long bloodletting of one thousand cuts, this one nicked a nerve. The jumper in question was a black turtleneck with an exaggerated collar that extended up over the nose. The cutout for the mouth was outlined in bright red lips. A brown-haired, White model advertised the $890 trifle. Social media declared the sweater racist; and so, it was.

After apologising for the insult, the Italian luxury brand began wrestling with diversity, equity and inclusivity within its vast global workforce. It hired an academic to parse the role that systemic racism plays in fashion, as well as an experienced diversity chief to dissect its corporate culture. In other words, Gucci began to do what the whole of the fashion industry is being pushed to do now in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement and sweeping social upheaval: change its ways.

Aurora James, founder of the accessories brand Brother Vellies (Rex)

The crisis pushed us, Gucci president Marco Bizzarri said in an August conference call. We passed through it and did more thinking [about inclusivity] than others.

Mistakes will continue to happen, he says. The goal is to try to make sure that the more we are able to interact and not leave it to only one person to take [an idea] from A to Z, we minimise the mistakes. The holy grail is to have a workforce that is not cowed by the singular voice of a creative director or fearful of overstepping boundaries  one that feels empowered to speak up and voice a concern. To have an organic system of checks and balances work without stifling creativity  thats the goal, Bizzarri says. I think we are leading the way.

With a year-long head start, the company has already done or considered  and in some cases rejected  many of the things that this diffuse racial reckoning is seeking. Gucci has shown a preference for working with those who are intimately familiar with the industry rather than outsiders, as some activists would prefer. It believes in the ability of money to generate change as it deepens its commitment to scholarships. And, perhaps most notably, in light of all the metrics the industry is embracing, it has learnt that numbers dont tell the whole story.

In 2019, about 15 per cent of Guccis US workforce was black, which is reflective of the number of African Americans in the countrys population. Today, black employees make up 9.2 per cent of Gucci management in the United States; Hispanics or Latinos constitute 21.2 per cent, and Asians are 12.6 per cent. Diversity is a numbers game that Gucci arguably is winning. And yet, in the weeks after the blackface controversy, Gucci was a brand in shock. The company considered itself adamantly progressive in an industry populated by people who believed themselves to be exceptionally open-minded. Gucci had a track record for diversity and for responding to cultural sensitivities.

I was the diverse talent. I dont think Ive ever been in a meeting room where Ive been in the majority

The sweater controversy wasnt just an aesthetic issue. It was an indictment of corporate culture. Blackface is not a minority problem. Its one that runs through American history, indeed through world history. And everyone was silent. How could something that could be construed as so deeply offensive make its way from Europe to the American marketplace without anyone voicing concern?

Francois-Henri Pinault, chair of Gucci's parent company, Kering, expressed his frustration to me during an interview last year. We have thousands of people working in America. How come no one raised a finger? How come? Its our responsibility to make sure they feel comfortable saying, Hey guys, are you sure about that? Pinault told me he intended to make diversity and inclusivity priorities, not just at Gucci, but also throughout Kering. Its not enough to talk and express and convince, he said. Were at the point where we have to force it.

Gucci brought in a chief diversity officer; it lost that chief diversity officer  although she will continue to consult. One single person cannot create change, Bizzarri says. That's why we started the global equity board. It includes Hardison, a former model and talent agency owner, who is one of the many recurring protagonists in fashion's long, slow racial conversion. She speaks very freely and openly, Bizzarri says. Shes someone who understands and knows the business we are in.

Gucci has taken to conducting its first interviews with prospective hires by phone. While this has proven necessary during the pandemic, it was an idea that preceded the crisis as a way to eliminate at least some unconscious bias. The company also made several intentional hires of black executives at the vice president level  new positions that increase its management diversity without waiting for turnover at the top of the company.

At the corporate level, Kering added two people of colour to the board of directors  thus integrating the board. As of June, 62 per cent of Kerings US employees are people of colour, and 21 per cent of senior management fall into that category. Inclusion is the responsibility of every single person in the organisation, says Kalpana Bagamane Denzel, chief diversity, inclusion and talent officer at Kering. Denzel, who arrived in October, is a fashion outsider  an American who has spent much of her career abroad in Germany, Switzerland and now Paris. I grew up as the only Asian kid in class. My worldview is built on what I experienced, she says by phone from California, where she is visiting her children. People have to understand the lived experiences of people unlike them. That leads to empathy.

Lameka Fox wears a cape by Marc Jacobs, pants by Cushnie and ring by Mateo (Washington Post/Itaysha Jordan)

As a professional, I was the diverse talent. I dont think Ive ever been in a meeting room where Ive been in the majority, she says. The pressure is on that person to figure out how to read the room. It made a difference if the culture embraced me and I didnt feel like I was different.

Denzel is challenging Kering to reconsider the skills that are important in a specific job, to rethink what stellar credentials look like and to seek talent in fresh places. Shes encouraging people to sit in their discomfort.

In other words, fashion has to shake off its long-standing tropes. Theres a dedication throughout history where we trust the rightness and the authority of the old guard, the European genius who comes in as the creative director. Were dedicated to all those narratives that uphold a belief system thats tethered to race, says Kimberly Jenkins, an assistant professor of fashion studies at Ryerson University in Toronto. That includes the industrys stubborn admiration for the white genius who uses black ingenuity as raw material.

Jenkins spent six months counselling Gucci on fashions corrosive attitudes  just the beginning of any entitys tutoring, she says. The education thats required of people is a long game. It requires learning some things and unlearning some things, says Jenkins, who created the Fashion and Race Database, a website filled with historical and cultural reference material, to better inform an industry with magpie tendencies. It poses a challenge to the systems in place and the positions that some people have.

It takes visionary thinking, she says, and courageousness.

So when will Gucci and Kering know when they have succeeded? If we can get to a point where anybody can come into one of our [design] houses, and if asked, Do you feel like you fit in?  and they say yes Denzel explains.

Inclusivity requires constant nurturing and monitoring. Striving for it is never-ending. But ultimately, this sort of education has the potential to offer individuals far more than professional satisfaction. Kering wants their employees to take this with them into society, Denzel says. They want them to go well beyond taking this into work.

Having people go through what Gucci has gone through, weve been able to learn from that. Its a journey. This journey will be a long one.

 The Washington Post
A man was left to die in the brush in Texas while being smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico, police say.

Border patrol agents called police after they discovered a mans body on the side of road in Rio Grande City on Aug. 26, officials said in a Sept. 10 news release.

The man  later identified as 47-year-old Mauricio Zuniga Gamboa  had a shirt wrapped around his head with a blood stain showing through, according to police.

During an investigation, police learned that Jesus Gerardo Davila Jr, 21, had been paid a couple thousand dollars to make arrangements to smuggle Gamboa across the Rio Grande River into the U.S., police said.

To do so, Davila contacted an alleged smuggler named Fernando Martinez Perez, also known as El Venado, according to police.

As the three men attempted to cross into the country, Gamboa started to feel sick, according to police. At one point during their journey, Gamboa fell and hit his head while trying to climb over a wall, police said.

From there, Gamboas condition deteriorated and Davila and Perez removed him from their vehicle and dumped him in the brush where he was later discovered by border patrol agents, according to police.

After, Davila dropped off Perez at the port of entry in Hidalgo before returning to Rio Grande City, where he cleaned both the inside and outside of his vehicle at a car wash, police said.

Davila was arrested and charged with first degree smuggling of persons and third degree tampering of physical evidence, both felonies, according to police.

Officials are still searching for Perez, and there is a warrant for his arrest, police said. Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to contact investigators at (956)487-8892.
Industrialization requires high-quality foreign direct investment (FDI). Many issues must be addressed, including how to developed a skilled workforce.

Industrialization and FDI in Vietnam

Vietnams industrial profile, while better than in the past, remains limited and relies on processing and assembly, so intermediate products and components, especially those from China and Korea, must be imported.

Many plants are being relocated from the worlds factory China to ASEAN and India due to the United States - China trade war and Covid-19.

Vietnam should embrace these FDI inflows to boost supporting industrial products and, in so doing, tackle several issuesenhancing the industrial profile, slashing import and reducing reliance on China and Korea.

The profile of countries investing in Vietnam shows that most of them are newly developed and located close to Vietnam. Advanced economies except Japan play a limited role. Investment in Vietnam comes mainly from South Korea, Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Thailand. Even Japan, while an advanced economy, has yet to fully realize its potential.

Compared with countries that have been developed for centuries such as the U.S., Japan and those in Europe, countries close to Vietnam lack technological know-how or established multinational corporations. Moreover, the business culture and corporate social responsibility of most firms in these countries are plagued by problems.

For this new wave of FDI, Vietnam should focus on significant, technologically advanced projects from multinational corporations from the U.S., Japan and Europe.

The trade war between the U.S. and China has made Vietnam an attractive destination for new FDI projects. A survey by JETRO in late 2019 shows that among 142 Japanese firms that indicated in their responses their plan to relocate their factories from China, 37 picked Vietnam, 21 opted for Thailand and nine wanted to invest in Japan. Vietnam has also emerged as an alternative source for the global supply chain. It is the top destination for the relocation of factories from China.

However, there is a gap between plans and reality. Japan and advanced economies have yet to invest much while neighboring countries and territories, especially China, are rather active. Within the first six months of this year, of the US$12 billion worth of FDI poured into Vietnam, Singapore ranked first, followed by Thailand, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Japan ranked seventh only.

Without proper control, FDI can hamper local industries and create unnecessary competition for local firms. Given constraints facing such aspects as infrastructure, human resources and utilities, which cannot be improved drastically in the short run, poor-quality FDI projects will crowd out those in sectors that deserve priority.

How to lure high-quality FDI

Vietnam should actively strategize which FDI to attract and lay the foundations, in terms of human resources and infrastructure, for hi-tech projects with significant multiplier effects and beneficial impacts on its industrial profile transformation. The following policies are essential.

First, some industrial parks with the potential to attract important FDI projects should be identified. Their infrastructure and managerial quality should be enhanced. Vietnam has many industrial parks, but few can ensure electricity, water and other infrastructure-related conditions are optimal. There should be a road map for investment so that the number of high-quality industrial parks will rise.

Second, FDI projects which are easily substituted by technologically capable Vietnamese firms or not aligned with Vietnams development needs should be closely controlled. In particular, they should not be allowed to enter these high-quality industrial parks or enjoy tax incentives.

Third, medium-term and long-term plans for human resources should be promptly fleshed out to meet the needs of new FDI projects. This point will be elaborated on later.

Fourth, there should be a list of firms in supporting industries with the potential to enter the global supply chain and the production networks of multinational corporations about to invest in Vietnam. These are usually small and medium enterprises hampered by limited access to capital and rampant red tape. The Government should actively help these firms tackle their challenges.

Fifth, Government leaders (the Prime Minister, deputy prime ministers and ministers) should actively promote Vietnams future development plans and preparations, in terms of infrastructure, labor and supporting industries, in discussions with illustrious multinational corporations in the U.S., Japan and so on while gathering their feedback for further improvements in the business and investment environments.

The third and fourth strategies will show the Governments commitment to supporting domestic firms and developing human resources. Foreign enterprises will value such efforts at nurturing internal strengths, which will provide them with the necessary supporting industries and human resources.

Developing human resources

A bottleneck facing Vietnams industrialization in general and large-scale FDI projects in particular pertains to the lack of skilled workers despite its large population and huge workforce. To lure high-quality FDI, Vietnam must expand the number of skilled workers.

What can Vietnam do in the short term (within one year) and plan in the medium term and long term to address this bottleneck?

In the short run, it should promptly compile the list of trained personnel so that FDI projects about to take place are aware of labor supply. This list should include those working overseas. The number of people who have completed their internship in Japan is more than 2,300. This figure will rise if those still undergoing internships are included. Such data will be of interest to Japanese FDI projects.

In the medium term and long term, high-school and tertiary education institutions should be revamped as people graduate from them may join the workforce. The challenge lies in ensuring quality.

Given the 4.0 technological revolution, those with a diploma should have English and ICT skills and be familiar with the Internet. Apart from these fundamental skills, they should develop reasoning skills to analyze and solve problems and display competencies such as responsibility and interpersonal skills when working with others.

To swiftly cater to the need for human resources for industrialization, the curriculum at some high schools and tertiary education institutions may need to turn into two-year courses at junior collegesthe first year will cover general knowledge and the second year will focus on an area of expertise such as accountancy, middle management, technology, secretary jobs and so on. Demand for labor in these jobs is brisk.

In Vietnam, vocational training institutions are equivalent to junior colleges but do not appeal to potential students; these institutions also receive inadequate investment. Meanwhile, colleges take up three years, so most people will opt for a four-year university degree.

There should be structural changes so that junior colleges with high-quality two-year courses that offer students good employment prospects after graduation can thrive. This will reduce the number of people who spend four years in university but struggle to be gainfully employed or find a job that suits their expertise.

There should also be vocational high schools where there is a streamlined high-school curriculum complemented with skill training. These schools can offer four-year rather than three-year courses.

Junior colleges and vocational high schools should encourage internships. The roles of these institutions should be promoted. This will help young people realize how graduating from such institutions can ensure good prospects and social advancement (capable people can hold key positions).

SGT

Vietnam urged to improve infrastructure to attract more FDI Vietnam needed to improve its infrastructure in order to attract more FDI, a webinar heard on Monday.
Warwickshire County Council's Shire Hall headquarters in Warwick.

Warwickshire County Council has now allocated the majority of the countys share of Government funding to help people who are struggling to afford food and other essentials as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Warwickshire has been allocated just over 520,000 of the 63m Covid-19 Emergency Assistance funding distributed to local authorities in England to help residents who are finding it hard to feed their families.

This financial award will enable the council to further support communities who have been affected by Covid-19.

The council was given discretion over how the funding was used with conditions that it had to be used only for the provision of food and essential items, and that those in most need would be prioritised.

It was decided that some funding would be used to top-up Warwickshire County Councils local welfare scheme and the rest would be divided between a number of areas including; specific food projects, food for the homeless, food banks and supporting infrastructure.

Warwickshire community groups were invited to put forward bids for funding to develop local support relating to these areas. In total 21 bids that met the criteria for support were agreed and almost 400,000 has now been awarded. Allocation of the remaining funds will be made in due course.

The funding will support community cafes, the provision of fruit and veg bags, a community kitchen, mobile food banks, expansion of local food banks to provide chilled food and more.

Leader of Warwickshire County Council, Izzi Seccombe, said: The work done in partnership to allocate this funding was exemplary, and will ensure a broad offer of extra much needed help to people facing hard choices and struggling to afford food. The successful bids showed an understanding of need in communities across Warwickshire and demonstrated real innovation in helping people access food and essential supplies. Im pleased to see so many projects incorporating community elements in the proposals, giving people the opportunity to connect with others, build networks and play a bigger part in their local area.

This will be a great addition to support already in place across the county and will offer a lifeline to people by supporting them to feed their families and stay as healthy as possible. The pandemic may require us to distance ourselves from one another, but never before have we been more together, or has community been more important.

The successful projects will be promoted to people in local areas and more details will be made available as the projects develop. In the meantime Warwickshire County Councils Covid-19 hotline on 0800 408 1447 is open 9am to 5pm Monday-Thursday, 9am to 4.30pm on Fridays and 10am to 1pm over the weekend for people who need urgent help to access food and well-being support during these difficult times.

Warwickshire County Councils Local Welfare Scheme is accessible via the hotline, or online at www.warwickshire.gov.uk/localwelfarescheme and can also assist people in crisis by offering short term support to manage the needs of their households. To get support from the scheme people need to be a UK resident, aged 16 or over, and have no other financial means to access food or fuel. Anyone facing serious hardship is invited to get in touch to find out more.

For more information about council services and support during the pandemic, visit www.warwickshire.gov.uk/coronavirus.
Mobile and electronics industry body ICEA on Sunday asked the government to increase anti-dumping duty on optical fibre to 25 per cent, especially on cheap imports coming from China. In a letter to Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey and Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan, the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) said China has levied anti-dumping duty on Indian optical fibre to the tune of 30 per cent.

The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) has recommended 10 per cent anti-dumping duty on cheap imports from China, based on appeal from domestic manufacturers. While India aspires to be the worlds most competitive and significant global hub for electronics products manufacturing including fibre, it cannot let domestic industry get run over by predatory dumping," ICEA Chairman Pankaj Mohindroo told PTI.

DGTR decisions should be swift and also get implemented swiftly. While we welcome the 10 per cent recommendation by DGTR on fibre, we would like it to be implemented immediately and also a review be done for the 25 per cent rate to be implemented and Indonesia to be included," Mohindroo said. In the letter, ICEA said India has a free trade agreement with Indonesia, and Chinese companies may be taking the route of ASEAN country to circumvent duties.

It may be noted that five Indonesian companies are interested parties in the DGTR investigation and many of these could be Chinese companies resident in Indonesia. We urge the Committee of Secretaries to not blindly apply the 3 per cent waiver rule for developing countries, to view the issue in totality considering the possibility of circumvention," ICEA said in the letter.

DGTR, while considering provisions under Customs Tariff Act 1975, recommended in August that safeguard duty will not apply on imports from countries whose share in the segment is less than 3 per cent. This includes imports from Indonesia also.

According to the data shared by optical fibre makers, import in the segment increased 271 per cent to 9,918 route fibre kilometer (rfkm) in 2018-19 as compared to 1,902 rfkm in 2016-17. The Director General for Safeguard had proposed anti-dumping duty of 25 per cent on optical fibre, but DGTR later reduced it to 10 per cent.

The fact remains that there is grave injustice to the industry who were able to get 25 per cent safeguard protection in November 2019 recently. Based on the same data, the protection level has been reduced to only 10 per cent in the final findings," ICEA letter said.

Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modis speech on August 15 in which he announced that every village will be connected by optical fibre in the next three years, the industry body said optical fibre industry should remain only in India and not depend on China. ICEA alleged that China is seeking to destroy the Indian industry by putting stiff anti-dumping duty, ranging from 7.4 per cent to 30.6 per cent, on Indian exports.

It had imposed anti-dumping duty on Sterlite five years ago and on four other Indian companies in 2014. China recently extended this duty by another five years, while taking similar action on optical fibre producers from Japan, the US and Australia.

Thus, China is on a mission to kill the optical fibre industry all over the world. We in India must stop this from a strategic plan issued apart from a safeguard measure," the letter said. ICEA said Chinese companies seeking protection from India in their own countries are dumping in India.

We request that the Committee of Secretaries chaired by the Commerce Secretary with Member Department of Revenue as well as the concerned ministries impose the recommended duty of 10 per cent so far immediately, and also ask the DGTR to revise the duty of 25 per cent suggested in the preliminary findings and also include Indonesia in the action," ICEA said.
NEW DELHI: A man was shot dead by unidentified bike-borne assailants in east Delhi's Madhu Vihar area on Sunday (September 13). According to ANI, the assailants, three in number, shot the man several times while his car was at a busy red light in Madhu Vihar area and fled from the spot.

Officials told the agency the victim, who was shot at by the criminals, was declared dead. The police are on a lookout for miscreants.

According to the police, the deceased, Yogesh (33), used to run a car washing workshop in Dakshinpuri area in the national capital. The deceased was reportedly involved in several criminal cases, including a 2011 murder case, and was out on a bail.

Further details on the matter are awaited.
Dear Editor,

On Tuesday, Simon & Schuster will publish Bob Woodwards book, Rage, a week following the release of taped conversations between Woodward and the books subject, Donald Trump.

In March, a month after calling COVID-19 more deadly than even your strenuous flus, Trump was taped saying, I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I dont want to create a panic.

Huh?

In July, Team Trump disseminated a television ad called Abolished. Against a backdrop of mayhem, the text reads Joe Bidens supporters are fighting to defund police departments. Violent crime has exploded. You wont be safe in Joe Bidens America, and a panicked 911 caller is told, Due to defunding, no one is here to take your call.  Leave your name and number and someone will get back to you. Our estimated wait time is five days.

Joe Biden does not support defunding the police. What he does support is reform- primarily the introduction and funding of educational programs and mental health and drug treatment projects  to help police focus on policing.

Untrue to his word as usual, realizing its his only path to re-election, Trump indeed does want to create a panic, and has for four years aimed at immigrants, China, Blacks, protesters  and now Biden. With his every foul breath, Trump is attempting to frighten America.

Tom Cherwin

Saugerties, N.Y.
(Support Free Thought) -

Houston, TX  As TFTP reports on a regular basis, being entirely innocent is no defense against police officers kicking in your door and arresting, beating, or killing you. As the following case out of Houston illustrates, even retired police officers and their families arent safe from the gross negligence doled out by cops who dont even take enough time to read the address correctly on a warrant.

Louis Rodriguez is a retired Houston cop with no criminal record, who had not committed a crime the day Harris County deputies showed up to his home. Rodriguez is now speaking out, calling the deputies response unprofessional and intimidating after they broke down his front door to serve a warrant. The thing is, the warrant was not for Rodriguez, or his home. It was for another house and a completely different person who Rodriguez did not know.

The officers are looking for a Curtis Rogers in this house and there is no Curtis Rogers that lives in this house, said Louis Rodriguezs son.

When cops began trying to bang down their door on Sept. 1, Rodriguez and his son began filming. Despite being told they were at the wrong home multiple times, cops smashed in the innocent familys door with a battering ram, held everyone at gunpoint and temporarily kidnapped everyone in the home.

They went that quickly to bust my front door down and come to my home, said Rodriguez.

As ABC 13 reports, Rodriguez said it all happened so fast, his family was startled. Rodriguez said when he first looked out his window and heard the commotion he didnt know what to think. It was a chaotic situation.

Rodriguez, who has many years under his belt as a cop, said officers at the door did not even make it clear that they were cops. He didnt know who they were.

Out of control yelling, demanding, threatening they wanted to come in. I wasnt sure they were police officers at the time, he said.

As the video shows, before the cops busted down the door and held everyone at gunpoint, Rodriguezs son tries to reason with the officers, politely telling them they are at the wrong house.

Sir, you have the wrong house, yelled out Rodriguezs son in the video.

This had no effect and seconds later police come barging in, and begin assaulting this innocent family.

(They) manhandled myself and my son and brought us outside. (Then) they finally realized the mistake they made, he said.

Though the video goes dark when police attack Rodriguez and his son, you can hear the chaos unfold as the officers threaten and assault the innocent family.

After breaking into an innocent familys home, assaulting them with deadly weapons, and temporarily kidnapping them, police realized their blunder and left.

The Harris County Sheriffs Office issued the following statement:

Deputies attempting to execute an arrest warrant on Sept. 1 mistakenly approached the wrong home in the 21100 block of Royal Villa Drive and damaged the front door. Deputies subsequently realized they made a mistake and the sheriffs office arranged to have the door replaced. The sheriffs office regrets the mistake and the incident is under review.

After assaulting them in their home a captain on scene that day apologized to the family but Rodriguez says that is not enough.

That apology didnt suffice for me, Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez told ABC13 hes glad nothing major happened, but he cant help to think it could have taken a different turn.

That played on my mind. Thats another reason I was afraid, he said.

Hes now looking for a lawyer and hoping to file a complaint with the Harris County Sheriffs Office.

Id hate for this to happen to any family in Harris County, he said.

Sadly, it has happened to others in Harris County, repeatedly. One of the most tragic cases of police raiding an innocent family in the area took place in 2019 when criminal thug cops framed an innocent family by claiming an informant bought drugs at their home. The Houston police departments raid on the home of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas was based on lies and they were murdered in cold blood inside their home as a result.

When police officers arent even safe from cops wrongly raiding their home, it is high time we start having a conversation on how to fix this massive problem.
(Newser)  Pope Francis urged political leaders to listen to protesters and heed their calls for political and social change, an apparent reference to protests in Belarus against the country's authoritarian president. Francis didn't mention Belarus or any country in his appeal Sunday during his noontime prayer, but his comments came as the Vatican foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, traveled to Belarus to meet with church and civil authorities amid weeks of anti-government protests, the AP reports. "While I urge protesters to make their demands known peacefully ... I appeal to all those with public and governmental responsibilities to listen to the voice of their fellow citizens and to meet their just aspirations by ensuring full respect for human rights and civil liberties," Francis said.

story continues below

The pope also has spoken out in support of anti-racism protests in the US. Meanwhile, Protesters in Belarus have spent a month denouncing the results of the country's Aug. 9 presidential election as rigged and demanding the resignation of President Alexander Lukashenko. Facing criticism from the West, Lukashenko has worked to cement ties with his main sponsor, Russia. The Vatican would be loath to criticize Russia or Belarus publicly, given its longstanding efforts to improve relations with the influential Russian Orthodox Church. On Friday, the Vatican stressed the religious nature of Gallagher's visit. It said he was going to Belarus "to demonstrate the attention and proximity of the Holy Father to the Catholic Church and the entire country." (Read more Pope Francis stories.)
GRAND RAPIDS, MI  After a slowdown this spring, Wheeler Development Group is now moving full speed ahead with City Tower, a 24-story building planned for downtown Grand Rapids that was announced in January prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

John Wheeler, the groups CEO, said his firm is finalizing the buildings design, having conversations with prospective tenants and working on the structure of the deal. If the firm determines it can make the project a reality, a groundbreaking date and tenants could be announced this winter.
In modern times, peace in the Middle East has been as sought after and as elusive as the medieval search for the formula to transmute base metals into gold. But now, thanks to President Trumps revolutionary diplomacy, peace in the Middle East is nearing fruition. Were this happening on Obamas watch, it would be the only thing the press would speak about for months, piling on accolade after accolade. Instead, laughably, the Democrat-run media are trying to do anything but admit to the miracle happening before our eyes.

Democrat politicians are also desperately trying to keep the American public from recognizing the miracle before them. Nancy Pelosi called Trumps diplomatic successes a distraction. Biden, for his part, insisted that Trump had stumbled into peace accidentally. This Saturday, another distracting accident happened, when it emerged that is beginning to normalize its relationship with Israel.

Weve written before about President Trumps having broken out of the stale and failed Middle East peace process by creating an entirely different paradigm that sidelined the pesky Palestinians and focused on the regions common enemy  Iran. This fresh approach allowed Trump to ignore the fiction of a two-state solution to which the Palestinians would never agree.

Instead of demanding that the Israelis make endless concessions to the Palestinians, Trump just trampled over them by moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and announcing Israels right to the Golan Heights. Or, as Charles Lipson more elegantly explains in his excellent article about the Bahrain deal:

By pulling back from direct military engagement in the Middle East while he promoted hardline opposition to Iran, Donald Trump has forced all Arab-Muslim states in the region to choose between appeasing the mullahs or making a common front against them. The Bahrain and UAE agreements with Israel show that they are choosing the latter option. It was Trumps White House, not the State Department, behind those deals.

Trump gets the credit for forcing the Gulf States to see the benefits flowing from making peace with Israel. However, the speed with which the Gulf States are lining up comes from what Thomas Lifson described as a preference cascade. This is the type of paradigm shift that has one Arab Gulf state after another hastening to get the benefit that flows from a normalized and healthy political and economic relationship with Israel.

Democrats would never have wanted to see Trump be responsible for peace in the Middle East because it destroys their narrative. Having him be a peacemaker right before an election, though, is a complete disaster. The Democrats, therefore, are doing their best to denigrate Trumps extraordinary accomplishment. Monica Showalter describes here how the left is going haywire:

Start with sleepy, befuddled Joe Biden, whos been famously wrong about every single foreign policy issue, according to old swamp thing Robert Gates. For him, this baffling breakout in peace must have just...happened: Former Vice President Joe Biden acknowledged Thursday that President Donald Trump is making peace between Israel and several Arab states, but he said that he was doing so accidentally. I think Trump is going to accidentally do something positive here, in terms of this issue of  other Arab states making peace and establishing normal relations with Israel, Biden told a fundraiser hosted by the far-left J Street organization, as quoted by the Times of Israel.

For her part, Nancy Pelosi looked at the miracle of an unfolding peace in the Middle East and announced that Trump was just trying to distract attention from the Wuhan virus. Not unsurprisingly, this is the same wild-eyed lady who told people that the west coasts fires, rather than resulting from forty years of terrible fire management due to environmentalist control over Sacramento, insisted that Mother Earth is angry.

If the Democrats were crazy before Saturday, theyre going to be requiring straitjackets and padded rooms after Saturday. Al Arabiya is reporting that Morocco wants to get on board the peace train, starting with establishing direct flights. Sudan is moving towards Israel, as well:

Israel and Morocco are set to announce direct flights as part of the next step in US efforts to facilitate normalization efforts between Israel and Arab states, according to Israeli Channel 12. The Channel 12 report also said Israel is currently in talks with Sudan regarding plans to send a humanitarian aid plane carrying much-needed assistance amid major flash floods.

Just two weeks ago, Edward M. Gabriel, an ambassador to Morocco during the Clinton presidency (plus the first year of George W. Bushs presidency), said that Morocco would never normalize relations with Israel until the Palestinian situation was resolved. Gabriel was parroting the standard State Department view before Trump came on board.

What Gabriel didnt realize is that Trump has resolved the Palestinian situation. Because the Palestinians refused to behave like adults, they no longer have a seat at the grown-up negotiating table. This is not an accident. Trump made this diplomatic miracle happen on purpose.

Image: The Grand Mosque of Casablanca in Morocco, by errammani abderrazak. CC BY-SA 4.0.
The number of Palestinian homes demolished by Israel in the West Bank has increased sharply in recent months and further exposed displaced residents to the coronavirus pandemic, the United Nations said on Friday.

From March to August, 389 Palestinian-owned structures were razed, in what the the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said was the highest average destruction rate in four years. During that period, 442 Palestinians were made homeless, the agency said. In just the month of August, 205 people lost their homes, the highest displacement figure since January 2017.

The UN and human rights organizations say the policy amounts to collective punishment. According to OCHA, building permits are nearly impossible for Palestinains to obtain from Israel, describing the processing as restrictive and discriminatory.

Haaretz reported that between 2016 and 2018 the Israel government approved just 21 percent of 1,485 construction permit applications in Area C, the part of the West Bank under total Israeli control. The Civil Administration told the newspaper that most of the applications were for retroactive approval of buildings that were already under consideration for demolition.

The Coordinator of Government Activity in the Territories (COGAT), Israels military-run body handling civilian matters in the Palestinian territories, told AFP it had an obligation to maintain order. In the past, Israel has also said the demolitions are necessary because the buildings posed a security risk to Israeli soldiers operating in the vicinity.

On Friday, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories called on Israel to stop the demolitions, which he described as unlawful.

"The destruction of property in an occupied territory is prohibited under international humanitarian law, unless absolutely necessary for military operations," Jamie McGoldrick said. "The global pandemic has increased the needs and vulnerabilities of Palestinians who are already trapped in the abnormality of prolonged military occupation.

The coronavirus has worsened economic situation in the Palestinian territories, the UN warned this week, with donor support expected to drop to its lowest level in more than a decade. As of Thursday, the death toll from COVID-19 in Gaza and the West Bank had reached 224 and the total number of infections surpassed 37,000.
yellow rainfall warning been issued for western Scotland where as much as 50mm of rain could fall

Today mercury levels expected to rise to 86F and most of England will see sunny spells and dry weather

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The UK is set to bask in temperatures peaking at 87F as a plume of heat makes its way to the country once more from the start of this week.

Following a dreary start to the month, the country will see a north-south divide as western Scotland continues to be drenched by torrential downpours while the rest of the UK enjoys spells of sunshine and dry weather.

The Met Office has issued a yellow rainfall warning for western Scotland where as much as 50mm of rain could fall in hilly areas.

However in stark contrast, bright and sunny spells are expected to make their return to the rest of the UK, with temperatures reaching 77F today before continuing to rise during the week.

The September warmth follows on from an August heatwave which saw temperatures hit 93F (34C) for six days running last month.

The mini-heatwave also comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson brings in the so-called 'rule of six' from today in England meaning groups of more than half a dozen cannot meet socially, while lockdown will be imposed in the West Midlands from Tuesday.

Yesterday hundreds of visitors descended upon Bournemouth beach to enjoy the warm and sunny weather.

A group of people enjoy the sun and sea air as they descend upon Bournemouth beach today for a game of volleyball

Hundreds of Britons flock to Bournemouth beach to enjoy the sunny weather as the UK sees temperatures continue to rise

In Hyde Park, London, people paddle on boats at temperatures continue to rise across most parts of the country

A group of people enjoy the September sunshine on the beach at Barry Island, Wales, as mercury levels rise across the UK

Revellers arrive to Bournemouth beach with their beach gear as temperatures in the UK rise to 77F following a wet start to the month

People walk along Bournemouth beach just a day before the Prime Minister Boris Johnson's 'rule of six' rule is brought in

A group of people sit on their chairs at the beach at Barry Island, Wales, as most of the country enjoys sunshine and dry weather

The top temperatures expected on Tuesday could hit 31C (87F) and remain into Wednesday, but there is the possibility of some thunderstorms mixed in.

Met Office forecaster Simon Partridge told MailOnline: 'There's a stark difference between western Scotland and the rest of the UK.

'We've already see more than 50mm of rain in some parts of western Scotland overnight and a further 50mm is possible so there is a yellow rainfall warning for parts of north west Scotland. Also quite breezy so quite a windy day as well.

'The rain in the north will become a little lighter and patchier so less of an issue but still just lingering around in the far north west of Scotland.

'[Today] things get even warmer. We still have a risk of rain unfortunately for north west Scotland and they will continue to see rain throughout the day however it will be a warm day across all parts of the country and we might even see temperatures in the low to mid 20s.

'And then in the south east corner again, somewhere probably around the mid to the north of London, we will see temperatures peaking at 30C so a very warm and dry day, lots of sunshine and a light wind.

There will be a north-south divide as western Scotland continues sees torrential downpours while the rest of the UK enjoys spells of sunshine and dry weather

People decide to go punting along the River Cam as mercury levels begin to rise across most of the UK once again

A man soaks in the sun from his beach hut on Bournemouth beach as mercury levels continue to rise for most parts of England

Sun-seekers lie on the rocks and absorb the sun rays at Barry Island, Wales, as the Autumn sunshine returns to the country

A group of people play with a frisbee at a beach on Barry Island in Wales and the country braces itself for warmer weather

A woman lounges on a deck chair outside her beach hut on Bournemouth beach today as hundreds arrive to the beach

Beachgoers play a game of beach tennis in Brighton as temperatures continue to rise across the south coast

Malcolm and Ann Davis soak up the autumn sunshine outside their beach hut on Bournemouth beach on a sunny Sunday afternoon

Two people lie back on their beach towels and soak up the sunshine on Bournemouth beach as temperatures rise to 77F

Hundreds of Britons flock to Bournemouth beach as the country prepares for yet another mini-heatwave this week

A group of people sit down on the sunny beach at Barry Island in Wales to enjoy fish and chips and absorb the sun rays

People breath in the sea air while sitting on the beach on Barry Island, Wales, as the UK prepares for another heatwave

People soak up the sun and enjoy the autumn weather as they gather on Primrose Hill in central London

As temperatures continue to soar, a group of people eat lunch on a bench along the promenade on the beach at Barry Island, Wales

People lie on the beach at Barry Island in Wales as forecasters predict bright and sunny weather for many in the southeast

Cyclists absorb the sun rays and breath in the sea air as they ride their bikes in the coastal resort town of Bournemouth

As temperatures continued to rise, people took a stroll along the beach in Bournemouth (left) to enjoy the sunny weather. Elsewhere a cyclist was spotted riding along the promenade (right)

A group of people sit down on the sand at Bournemouth beach as the UK braces itself for another mini heatwave from next week

Hundreds of people arrive to Primrose Hill in London as the UK braces itself for a week of sunshine and dry weather

Britons flock to Bournemouth beach on a sunny Sunday afternoon as the country sees the beginning of yet another mini- heatwave

A group of people splash in the cool water on Bournemouth beach as mercury levels rise to 77F on Sunday

People gather on Primrose Hill in London to enjoy the sunshine as temperatures soar in the capital to a warm 77F

'Another mild generally dry night follows Monday night into Tuesday, still that little bit of rain through the north west and then there'll be a slight change on Tuesday.

'It will probably be overall a warmer day for the whole of the UK however it's going to be in a very select places because we will see more in the way of cloud pushing in across many western parts of the country on Tuesday.'

From today gatherings of more than six will be banned in the UK as the government tries to halt the spread of a second wave of coronavirus.

Announcing the new restrictions, Mr Johnson said: 'We need to act now to stop the virus spreading. So we are simplifying and strengthening the rules on social contact  making them easier to understand and for the police to enforce.

'It is absolutely critical that people now abide by these rules and remember the basics  washing your hands, covering your face, keeping space from others, and getting a test if you have symptoms.'

Meanwhile Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Sky News: 'Abiding by these rules is absolutely vital to protect life. We've seen the increase in the number of cases sadly in the last few days. We've seen that across Europe there's a second wave that many countries have experienced.

A group of people relax outside their beach hut at Barry Island in Wales as a plume of heat makes its way to the country once more

One sunbather lies on the beach at Barry Island, Wales, as temperatures continue to rise across the country

A large group of people arrive to Bournemouth beach on Sunday as mercury levels begin to rise across the country

A group of people sit down near the sea at Bournemouth beach today as temperature begin to rise across most of the UK

Sunbathers enjoy the heat and warm air on Bournemouth beach as September braces itself for another mini-heatwave

A group of people set up their chairs on Bournemouth beach along the south coast today as temperatures continue to rise

Sunbathers set up their tent on the beach as the UK welcomes another burst of heat and sunshine following a wet start to the month

'Some of those countries have then got that second wave under control. If you look at what's happened in Belgium they saw an increase and then they've brought it down, whereas in France and Spain that just hasn't happened.

'On the question of the Northern Ireland Protocol the Government has a number of international obligations and the primary amongst those in this context is about protecting the peace process.

'In the case of coronavirus everybody understands how important it is that we together keep this under control, we can't do it individually because of the nature of the disease.

'So, yes, it is incredibly important that everybody follows these new rules and we'll be bringing in strict enforcement.'

Sunbathers walk near Bournemouth beach today as most parts of England remain dry and sees spells of sunshine

A group of people make their way onto the beach on the south coast as mercury levels push to 77F today across most parts of England

A group of people enjoy the sunny weather at Bournemouth beach as most of the country is hit by sunny spells and dry weather

People enjoy the sun and sea air at Bournemouth beach today as the UK braces itself for another mini-heatwave next week

Revellers descend onto the beach in Bournemouth today as the country prepares for another mini-heatwave from Monday
Virus Outbreak Britain Cleaners arrive Birmingham Crown Court, which has been closed this afternoon and given a deep clean after a staff member reported COVID-19 symptoms overnight, in Birmingham, England, Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. Households in Englands second-largest city, Birmingham, are being urged to stop socializing with others from Friday as part of a dramatic tightening of coronavirus restrictions in the wake of a sharp spike in new confirmed cases. (Jacob King/PA via AP)

LONDON (AP)  Households in England's second city, Birmingham, were being urged to stop socializing with others from Friday as part of a dramatic tightening of coronavirus restrictions in the wake of a sharp spike in new confirmed cases.

Amid mounting evidence of increasing transmission rates across the U.K., the mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street, said tougher restrictions on household mixing in Birmingham, and the nearby boroughs of Solihull and Sandwell, were necessary in light of a big local increase in virus cases.

Though the ban formally comes into effect on Tuesday, Street advised affected residents "to avoid household mixing before then as it has been identified as one of the drivers of transmission.

Street said younger people have to take responsibility since the biggest growth in cases is among those below the age of 40. He also said that the restrictions don't apply to schools, workplaces or transportation.

It is about household mixing, he said.

The citys director of public health, Dr. Justin Varney, said the uptick in cases is linked primarily to private household gatherings at the end of August.

According to NHS Digital data, the latest seven-day rate for the city to Sept. 8 showed 78.2 cases per 100,000, with 892 infections over the period  among the highest in Birmingham since Aprils peak. For the previous seven-day period, the rate was just over 30.

The move, which affects more than 1 million people, is the latest hardening of restrictions following a recent spike in cases across the U.K, particularly among young adults.

Earlier this week, the British government, which has sole responsibility for public health matters in England, said social gatherings will be limited to six people from Monday both indoors and outdoors and that rule-breakers will face fines. The other nations of the U.K.  Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland  have announced similar restrictions on gatherings.

Over the past week, the number of confirmed cases in the U.K. has spiked dramatically. The daily increase has been running at near 3,000 for much of this week, around double the number the previous week. On Friday it was 3,539, the highest daily total since May 17.

Though much of the increase is due to more testing taking place in the community, it's clear that the epidemic has been spreading, though not at the speed it did in the weeks before the lockdown was announced on March 23.

Story continues

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, which advises the government on virus-related matters, said the virus' transmission rate was likely increasing across the whole of the U.K. It said the reproduction rate is now between 1.0 and 1.2, meaning anyone with the virus is infecting, on average, a little more than one other. At the height of the pandemic earlier this year, the R number was thought to be around 3. It was largely flat or below 1 over the summer, meaning the epidemic getting smaller.

Separately, a survey of over 150,000 volunteers, who were tested between Aug. 22 and Sept. 7, by Imperial College London and polling firm Ipsos MORI, found that the epidemic was doubling every seven to eight days.

Weve seen all across the world how a rise in cases, initially among younger people, leads to hospitalizations and fatalities," said Health Secretary Matt Hancock. The pandemic is not over, and everyone has a role to play to keep the virus at bay and avoid another further restrictions.

The Conservative government has faced strong criticism for its mixed messages since it started easing the coronavirus lockdown in late spring. It spent much of the summer, for example, encouraging people to eat out to help the hard-pressed hospitality sector and is now urging workers to return to their offices to help hard-hit businesses in city centers.

The U.K. has Europes worst death toll from the virus, with just over 41,600 deaths within 28 days of testing positive. The actual toll is believed to be far higher as the government tally doesnt include those who died without having been tested.

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Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
Deadly wildfires sweeping the West have displaced tens of thousands of people, per AP, as officials in Oregon warn of a "mass fatality event."

Of note: 10 deaths have been confirmed in Oregon, 20 in California, and one in Washington state this fire season. Most fatalities have occurred this past week. The death tolls are expected to rise sharply in coming days.

In Oregon, emergency management director Andrew Phelps said the state was "preparing for a mass fatality event." Phelps told MSNBC, "There are going to be a number of fatalities, folks who just couldn't get warning in time and evacuate their homes and get to safety."

The big picture: 97 large fires have burned millions of acres across the western part of the U.S., per USA TODAY.

Evacuation orders were in place in six states including, California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Idaho and Utah.

Rescue workers and firefighters, meanwhile, are searching for dozens of missing people in California and Oregon.

President Trump, who was criticized for remaining silent on the fires for at least three weeks, plans to visit California on Monday.

Officials along the West Coast have urged people to stay in doors as smoke from the fires continue to choke the region.

In photos: Wildfires rage across the West

A burned vehicle sits in front of a home destroyed in the North Complex fire in Berry Creek, California, on Sept. 11. Photo: Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Los Angeles County firefighters, using only hand tools, keep fire from jumping a fire break at the Bobcat Fire in the Angeles National Forest, north of Monrovia, California, on Sept. 11. Photo: David McNew/Getty Images

The Bobcat Fire burns through the Angeles National Forest on Sept. 11. Photo: David McNew/Getty Images

A aerial view on Sept. 12 of the destruction from a wildfire that swept through Talent, Oregon. Photo: David Ryder/Getty Images

The sun sets through wildfire smoke in Seattle, Washington, on Sept. 11. Photo: Lindsey Wasson/Getty Images

Editor's note: This article has been updated with more details on the fires and to reflect the rise in the death toll.
New Delhi:

Senior BJP leader LK Advani on Sunday suggested that Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) should include more women in its ranks.

Heaping praise on the organisation of 'Prajapita Brahma Kumaris' for placing women in lead positions in its hierarchy, Advani said that he wants people and also the RSS, with which he has been associated with for long, to emulate it.

"I have not seen any other organisation like this which is mainly led by women. It is really amazing. I have been associated with one organisation for years and respect it. I humbly tell anyone who meets me to learn from them.

"It is quite difficult and not very easy. The organisation I was referring to is Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh where mainly boys join during their childhood. Females also have a small representation," the 89-year-old leader said.

He was speaking at the 48th ascension anniversary of spiritual leader Pitashri Brahma, the founder of Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya.

In his address, he also lamented that Karachi, the capital of the Pakistani province, where he was born in a Sindhi family was not a part of India anymore and went on to add that India appears "incomplete" without Sindh in its territory.

"At times I feel sad that Karachi and Sindh are not parts of India anymore. I was very active in RSS during my childhood days in Sindh. It is matter of dismay. I believe that India appears incomplete without Sindh," he said.

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KALAMAZOO, MI  I understand the emotion, the time, the climate were in right now, but we as a community have to come together and heal together, said Kalamazoo Public Safety Assistant Chief Vernon Coakley.

Coakley, dressed in a Michigan State University jumpsuit, spoke briefly with a dozen or so people prior to a protest Saturday night outside of the Kalamazoo County Courthouse.

Related: Kalamazoo activists call for unity, accountability during protest outside county courthouse

The assistant chief said he made the decision to come to the event on his own as a member of the community, in order to speak with and listen to demonstrators who were protesting the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safetys handling of rallies and demonstrations that happened over the summer.

Im a member of this community, and also, my profession is about this community, Coakley said.

"I care about this community. Ive been in this community over 30 years. I work, live, play and worship in this community. So, what affects this community affects us all.

Coakley who turned down an opportunity to speak to the crowd as a whole, saying it wasnt his show, said it takes dialogue on both sides in order to learn and do better.

What is relationship building? Its dialogue, you get to know someone through meeting them and talking with them at times, that how you build relationships, it takes not just talking, but listening, and thats why Im here today, he said.

We need to learn from each other, not talk at each other, but learn from each other. Thats what diversity is about, giving everybody an opportunity to speak. ... And then lets take that and go where we can. What can we agree on, what do we disagree on? What can we change in that dialogue?"

Coakley said he reached out earlier in the day to one of the events organizers, Tamara TC Custard, and let her know he supported them invoking their right to assemble and work to create change.

After speaking to those who gathered, Custard told MLive she and three other area activists have a meeting scheduled with Coakley this week. She said she hopes the assistant chief will show them that he is genuine in that he stands in solidarity with them and wants to invoke positive change for the city and for KDPS.

Change does not happen overnight, she said, while addressing about 50 demonstrators on the drizzly night.

This is the moment where we come together in a most crucial time to get the policy change that we need, to get the new ordinances in place that we need ... to not only protect us but to protect but to protect the future generation following behind us.

One potential policy change Custard addressed is already being looked at by a subcommittee that was tasked with reviewing the public safety response to the Proud Boys rally Aug. 15. There was violence when the far-right group clashed with counter protesters in downtown Kalamazoo.

While discussing the preliminary report that came out Aug. 28, City Manager Jim Ritsema said potential changes to the citys permit process or ordinances were being examined that would help legally deter groups like the Proud Boys from selecting a city like Kalamazoo for their next march.

The report showed several areas for improvement by the city as it plans for the possibility of future public protests, demonstrations and rallies.

Related: Activists say Kalamazoo blew it with preliminary report on police response to Proud Boys rally

While many felt the preliminary report didnt address the issues in the way they should have, Coakley said lessons were learned and the biggest lesson was there needs to be more dialogue with the community.

Lets make change together, Coakley said. Lets be that beacon not only for the State of Michigan but for the United States of what change can be about in a community.

21 Black Lives Matter activists protest Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety

Also on MLive:

Kalamazoo police release videos from Proud Boys protest to the public

Police need to keep opposing protest groups separated, experts say after Proud Boys rally

Critics continue calls for resignations over Kalamazoos response to Proud Boys event

Counterprotester aggression was catalyst for violence at Proud Boys event in Kalamazoo, officers report says
The All India Congress Committee (AICC), in its recent reshuffle of leadership roles, appointed former chief minister of Uttarakhand and party national general secretary Harish Rawat as in-charge of its Punjab unit. However, political experts believe the move is not just a mere elevation but a sign of the party high commands trust in him which could lead to new political arithmetic in the Uttarakhand unit before the 2022 Assembly elections.

Rawat, who was earlier in-charge of the Assam unit, was given the charge of Punjab a few days ago. Since then, state political experts are of the view that the new role is the result of his active presence in Uttarakhand as well as the mark he has left in Assam as its in-charge. They also claim that he could soon land a major role during the upcoming 2022 state assembly polls which are going to be crucial for the state unit.

Rawats new role definitely says a lot about his stature in the party and his terms with the party high command which includes Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. This would surely lead to new political calculations in the Uttarakhand unit also, said MM Semwal, political expert and professor of political science at Garhwal Central University, Pauri Garhwal.

Also read: Former Union minister and Bihar leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh dies

Semwal said, Though he has been elevated in the national politics but his presence is still in the state. No leader in the states leadership is close to his stature and he had to work hard to reach where he is today. Both state president Pritam Singh and leader of Opposition Indira Hridayesh seem to be confined to their respective constituencies only unlike Rawat who holds sway across the Himalayan state.

He also said that given Rawats active presence in Uttarakhand, it would not be surprising if he is assigned a vital role in the 2022 elections.

The only face which Congress could project before the public in the state is Rawat only. No other leader has a pan-state presence like him. He would definitely be utilised in the 2022 elections, he said.

SMA Kazmi, another political expert who has been keeping an eye on states politics for nearly two decades, said Rawat has been rewarded for his loyalty to the Gandhi family which was evident in the recent letter episode in the party national leadership.

Rawat has played his cards very well both at the Central and well as state level. At the national level, he has been a loyalist to Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and at state level, he played the intra-state politics in a very calculative way. This has paid him dividends in the form of Punjab in-charge, said Kazmi.

On his role in the 2022 Uttarakhand Assembly polls, he said his plate is full.

His stakes are high in both Punjab as well as Uttarakhand with the Assembly polls due in both the states more or less the same year. In Punjab, he would like to retain the power for the party while in Uttarakhand he would like the party to win and become the CM himself. Hence his role in Uttarakhand polls has now become more important, he said.

Given Rawats stature in the party, state Congress unit head Pritam Singh and leader of Opposition Hridayesh, who are considered to be in the opposite factions of Rawat, took to social media to congratulate Rawat for the new role.

On the new responsibility and his possible role in Uttarakhand considering the 2022 elections, Rawat said that he is always ready for any responsibility in Uttarakhand to help the party.

I am very grateful to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi for giving me this opportunity to serve Punjab. This role will also help me in working in Uttarakhand also as per the requirements of the party. I work in Chandigarh in the morning and work in Dehradun in the evening on the same day. No issues for me, said Rawat.

Rawat also said that his new role will actually help the party in Uttarakhand too.

Punjab is a very significant state for Uttarakhand in terms of culture, economic and agriculture. The Uttarakhand unit could surely take advantage of my work in Punjab. I am able to dance to the same tune in Punjab as well as in Uttarakhand, he said.

At present, I have been working as a catalyst for the Uttarakhand unit leadership and will continue to do so.
Srinagar: National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, the member of Parliament from Srinagar, will attend the monsoon session of Parliament starting on Monday.

This will be the first session he will be attending since Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) was divested of its special status with the effective nullification of Article 370 on August 5, 2019 and the erstwhile state was bifurcated into two Union territories  J&K and Ladakh. The former CM and his son Omar Abdullah were detained in a crackdown that accompanied the constitutional changes.

Yes, I am going to attend Parliament. Though they have kept no provisions to ask question, we will have to sit four hours daily, Abdullah told HT. Nevertheless, I will raise our issues there,  he said.

During the debate in Parliament last year when the erstwhile states special status was revoked and his absence was felt in the House, Abdullah told the media in an interview in Srinagar that he had to break open his door to come out from detention within his house and denied the home ministers remarks that he was free.

The monsoon session will be held between September 14 and October 1 amid the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic and will have a shorter daily duration. The last parliamentary session was cut short on March 25 following the viral outbreak. The government has decided to do away with the Question Hour; the government will only provide written replies.

Nearly all of Kashmirs mainstream political leaders were detained hours before the central government effectively nullified Article 370 of the Constitution.

Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah were released on March 13 and March 24, 2020, respectively.

In an interview with HT last month, Farooq and Omar Abdullah, another former CM of J&K, said that they will contest the constitutional changes related to Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) pushed through by the Centre last year both politically and legally.

Another former chief minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti is still under detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA).
New York: US President Donald Trump has acknowledged the unprecedented nature of the wildfires ravaging Americas west coast, but has blamed the disaster on bad forest management.

A day after a visibly frustrated Californian Governor Gavin Newsom described the devastation across his state as a "climate damn emergency", Trump told supporters at a packed out rally in Nevada, "Theyve never had anything like this, but you know it is about forest management.

Jacen Sullivan, 14, from Talent, Oregon, holds a burned tomato he found in the garden at his burned home. Credit:AP

"Please remember the words. Very simple: forest management," he said, to roaring cheers.

The comments came as fires in California, Oregon and Washington state continued to tear through communities on Saturday (local time), destroying homes and businesses, and blanketing the west coast with smoke and ash.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa says his government is intending to seek assistance from South Africa in the arrest and extradition to Zimbabwe of some former Zanu PF officials, who are using social media to allegedly peddle lies about the social, economic and political situation in the country.

According to the state-controlled Sunday Mail newspaper, Mnangagwa, who made these remarks at a Zanu PF meeting in Gweru yesterday, said government is aware of the whereabouts of Saviour Kasukuwere, Patrick Zhuwao and others that are currently living in South Africa.

Indications are that the government is also looking for former Information and Higher Education Minister, Professor Jonathan Moyo.

He said the former Zanu PF officials, who are known to be members of the faction called Generation 40 which wanted Sydney Sekeramai to succeed the late former president Robert Mugabe before he was toppled in a defacto military coup in 2017, are allegedly working with the West to destabilize Zimbabwe.

Mnangagwa said they are facing various charges back home and as a result, they should be extradited to face the law.

He is quoted by the newspaper as saying, So, these G40 elements peddling falsehoods and fictitious narratives about Zimbabwe, we know where they are, but we had remained silent and reluctant. But now we have an extradition treaty between Zimbabwe and South Africa.

I am now going to give instructions to invoke this treaty so that we can extradite these elements to face the law. This is not an exception in Zimbabwe, even in America they do so, they evoke this treaty if they have a fugitive citizen they want. In Zimbabwe we have been reluctant but now we want them to come and face the law.

The Zimbabwe Defence Force in 2017 announced that it wanted to arrest corrupt people, who were influencing Mugabe to misrule Zimbabwe. At that time, Mnangagwa had been kicked out of the government for allegedly undermining the authority of the president. He came back home a few weeks after he was sacked and became the president of Zimbabwe.
She was known as Patient 1.

The Chicago woman in her 60s had traveled on Christmas Day to Wuhan, China, where she cared for her elderly father who had fallen ill to a mysterious, undiagnosed respiratory sickness.

After returning to Chicago in mid-January, her own symptoms emerged: fever, cough and fatigue, followed by nausea and dizziness.

While hospitalized for pneumonia, she became the first patient in Illinois and the second in the nation to test positive for the novel coronavirus, a new and little-understood illness that would soon burgeon into an international pandemic, sickening millions and altering all aspects of daily life across the globe.

Her husband, who had not gone to China, also tested positive days later, marking the first documented case of person-to-person transmission in the United States.

What medical experts learned from that local couple  through lengthy interviews, rigorous coronavirus testing and analysis of so many of their specimens  helped shape much of the nations earliest knowledge of the virus, which would later be called COVID-19.

The wife and husband remained anonymous to the public even after their recovery and discharge to home isolation in early February. Hospital officials said the wife in particular feared ostracism at a time when bigotry and xenophobia stemming from the virus hit a fever-pitch here and around the world.

Please do not let fear or panic guide your actions, a leader with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention implored the nation in late January. For example, please do not assume that just because someone is of Asian descent that they have this new coronavirus.

Rhetoric on many social media platforms had blamed the first Illinois patient for bringing the virus to the Chicago area.

Send her back, one local man had posted on Facebook when news broke of the first confirmed case.

To (sic) many people coming here from other countries bringing in disease, a woman wrote on the site. Keep out!

Scientists now know the highly contagious virus -- which has since infected nearly every country, leaving few parts of the world unscathed -- was already spreading undetected across the U.S., possibly as early as December. The Chicago couple were simply among the first to be diagnosed.

Yet their bodies and oral testimony provided early insight into everything from how the virus sheds to the length of time a patient is contagious to how COVID-19 is transmitted. These first cases also helped health officials develop infection control protocols, testing guidelines and best use of personal protective gear for staff, as well as the earliest local coronavirus contact tracing operation.

The wife and husband were treated in isolation at Amita Health St. Alexius Medical Center Hoffman Estates, a midsize suburban Chicago hospital that suddenly found itself in the epicenter of scientific inquiry and research into a world health epidemic.

Field teams from the CDC quickly converged with state, county and local health leaders, forming a makeshift command post of sorts in the basement of the hospital. To help draft a road map for care, hospital administrators contacted officials at the hospital in Washington state where the first U.S. coronavirus case had been confirmed days earlier.

New information was constant -- and constantly changing, recalled Polly Davenport, president of St. Alexius.

Guidelines, protocols, testing, she said. Just a lot of information coming very rapidly. Our team did a great job. But Ive been through hurricanes, Ive been through power outages. This was a lot of unfamiliar information coming very quickly.

The CDC announced on Feb. 25 that the new coronavirus will almost certainly spread in the United States, and urged schools, health facilities and businesses to prepare.

In retrospect, some local medical experts credit the states early and aggressive COVID-19 precautions to these first two Illinois patients, who served as a harbinger of what was to come.

It was almost a double-edged sword to have gotten the second case in the United States, because it was pretty taxing on our agencies, said Dr. Kiran Joshi, senior medical officer and co-lead of the Cook County Department of Public Health. But at the same time, we were forewarned in a way of what could happen, and I think as a whole reacted much more quickly than perhaps other states.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued an executive statewide stay-at-home order that began March 21, one of the earlier and more stringent government-mandated policies of its kind at the time. These restrictions were eased starting at the end of May, later than many other parts of the country.

While these measures faced much criticism and multiple legal challenges, the governor pointed to declining COVID-19 positivity rates and deaths as metrics indicating early success. Even as the pandemic reached its peak here in May -- and with 30 counties currently at a warning level for resurgence -- Illinois has never lacked hospital beds or ventilators.

While we definitely had a surge, there was never a point where our hospitals were overwhelmed, Joshi said. We put into place the appropriate public health measures statewide to prevent that.

A different time

The first Illinois patient tested positive for the coronavirus on Jan. 23, back when the virus still felt thousands of miles away, mainly afflicting China.

This was before social distancing became standard practice in the U.S. Before in-person school felt like a weighty decision. Before masks were required and routinely worn in most public spaces. Before the World Health Organization on March 11 declared COVID-19 a worldwide pandemic.

It feels like it was years and years ago, because the time between then and now has been so full with COVID and the pandemic in the United States, said Dr. Rachel Rubin, senior medical officer and co-lead of the Cook County Department of Public Health.

Joshi recalled meeting Patient 1 the day after she tested positive.

Before entering her negative air pressure room at St. Alexius, he and a colleague from the CDC both donned full personal protective equipment -- disposable gloves, gowns, eye protection and N95 masks.

It was a tense moment. So little was known about the new coronavirus, but both health officials had seen news coverage of so many deaths linked to the virus in China.

We made eye contact in our PPE, and we just shrugged and walked in, Joshi said. Like, here we go.

On Jan. 30, the first patients husband tested positive as well. He already suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, causing a cough and labored breathing, so it wasnt clear at first that his symptoms stemmed from COVID-19, according to an article published in the medical journal The Lancet in April.

Joshi described both the wife and husband as very forthcoming, giving multiple interviews that lasted hours, rehashing details of what they experienced and any possible contact they might have had with others post-infection.

Health officials from the hospital and various levels of government worked together to quickly develop a contact tracing operation, creating a web of people -- including many hospital employees -- who might have been exposed to the patients.

The learning curve was so steep, Rubin said. Learning about the virus, but also learning how to do the surveillance and investigations  and how to document this in the best way, knowing this is on a scale that none of us had ever seen before.

Both physicians recalled being surprised by how little the virus seemed to spread beyond the initial transmission from wife to husband, who had prolonged proximity from eating together, sleeping in the same bed and frequent face-to-face interaction.

We didnt see widespread transmission or a large number of secondary cases from this first case, Joshi said. Ive always been sort of struck by that.

About 350 contacts of both the husband and wife were actively monitored for symptoms, including 195 health care personnel and 152 contacts in the community, according to The Lancet article. Of the monitored contacts, 43 developed coronavirus-like symptoms within 14 days of exposure and were tested for the virus, along with a sample 32 asymptomatic health care workers who had some level of exposure.

But all 75 had tested negative for COVID-19, according to the article.

Going home

Nurse Monica Gomez recalled feeling fearful when she learned shed be caring for the first confirmed coronavirus case in the state.

I was scared for my life, because this was something unknown, it was a virus we had little research about, said Gomez, who works in a medical-surgical unit at St. Alexius. It was shocking to think it was in the United States. It was here, it was real. And Im actually taking care of a COVID patient.

To minimize exposure, the hospital had as few staff members as possible enter the room. Gomez recalled often communicating with the patient using an iPad translator, to help overcome a language barrier.

Under full personal protective equipment, the nurse had to keep visits to under 30 minutes, trying to cluster care as much as possible while balancing the patients medical and emotional needs.

Get her vitals. Do an assessment. Give any medication needed. Think of anything the patient might need -- ice water, tea, fresh linens -- to avoid extra trips, which would increase contact and waste protective equipment.

Sometimes on the floor Id think to myself. 'I cant even imagine how this patients handling this whole situation, lonely, not having their family come to visit them, Gomez said. I think one thing I learned is that even a good morning or making them smile can make a difference.

Jaime Zalewski, infection preventionist, recalled waving to the patient from outside her room.

You could see that she was scared, Zalewski said. If I were in her shoes, Id be very scared too. Theyre doing all these different tests, youre sitting in a room by yourself. I was worried for her, for her well-being.

The couple gave urine and stool samples for analysis. Blood was taken for serology testing. The wife and husband were also retested for the coronavirus every few days, back when uncomfortable nasopharyngeal swab tests -- often dubbed the brain biopsy -- were the only kind available.

Health officials said results took a while, because the CDC lab was the only facility processing them. The Illinois Department of Public Health became the first state in the nation to begin testing for the coronavirus in February, first at its Chicago lab and later at labs in Carbondale and Springfield.

Im sure she probably felt like a guinea pig, Zalewski said. And in some ways probably she was, because we just didnt know. And that information we received has really helped shape not only our protocols, how were handling this emerging pathogen, but how our nation is handling the emerging pathogen.

Condition reports for both patients were good throughout their hospitalization. Zalewski said the wife might not have even been admitted if shed been infected with COVID-19 now.

The wife and husband were discharged to home isolation in early February, with daily monitoring by public health officials.

They were happy they were able to go home together, that they were healthy going home, Zalewski said.

But she described their departure as almost a covert operation. The wife and husband gave hospital staff permission to sanitize the inside of their car and then move it to secret location, to try and protect their privacy and avoid media attention as they left.

They were scared to leave the hospital, she said. Scared of what could have potentially happened at their house, if people knew when they left. Was there going to be any backlash?

They were cleared to leave their home in mid-February. Public health officials said they checked in with the couple last month, and both were still in good health.
Donald Trump said on Sunday he had signed a new executive order aimed at lowering drug prices in the United States by linking them to those of other nations.

'My Most Favored Nation order will ensure that our Country gets the same low price Big Pharma gives to other countries. The days of global freeriding at Americas expense are over,' Trump said in a Twitter post.

He added: 'Also just ended all rebates to middlemen, further reducing prices.'

The president in July signed an executive order that, among other things, would require Medicare to tie the prices it pays for drugs to those paid by other countries. Its implementation, however, was delayed as the administration sought to work out a solution with the industry.

It was not clear if Trump signed a new order or was referring to that document, which was also referred to as a most-favored-nation executive order.

Trump in July signed four executive orders designed to reduce drug costs for consumers in a bid to highlight his commitment to cutting prescription prices before the November 3 presidential election.

The orders ranged from relaxing drug importation rules to cutting Medicare payments to drugmakers, but experts said they were unlikely to take effect in the near term. Similar proposals by the Trump administration stalled amid industry pushback.

Donald Trump said on Sunday he had signed a new executive order aimed at lowering drug prices in the United States by linking them to those of other nations

'My Most Favored Nation order will ensure that our Country gets the same low price Big Pharma gives to other countries. The days of global freeriding at Americas expense are over,' Trump said in a Twitter post Sunday. The president is pictured at a Latinos for Trump Coalition roundtable at Treasure Island Hotel & Casino, Sunday

Trump cast his July directives as far-reaching, but they mostly update earlier administration ideas that have not yet gone into effect.

'I'm unrigging the system that is many decades old,' he declared at the signing ceremony, promising 'massive' savings.

Trump came into office complaining that pharmaceutical companies were 'getting away with murder' and promising to bring them under control. Nearly four years later, things are much the same despite some recent moderation in price increases.

Days after signing the executive order in July Trump accused the pharmaceutical industry of running ads that lied about his new executive order to lower prescription drug costs.

The accusation came after industry execs refused to attend a meeting with the president at the White House to discuss the matter.

Trump tweeted: 'Big Pharma is taking television ads trying to make the case that I am raising prescription drug prices on seniors. The ad is a lie! What I have done will lead to a 50% REDUCTION in prices, at least, & Big Pharma is not happy about it.

'No other President would be able to produce what I have. So when you see those nasty ads from Big Pharma remember, the only reason they are going all out is the massive PRICE REDUCTIONS you are getting - not good for them. Plus, I was only President in 51 years that got a Prescription D reduction!'

President Donald Trump signs executive orders on prescription drug prices in the South Court Auditorium at the White House on July 24

A drive to enact major legislation this year stalled in Congress. Although Trump told Republican senators that lowering prescription prices is 'something you have to do,' many remain reluctant to use federal authority to force drugmakers to charge less.

Meanwhile, congressional Democrats calculate that the election will strengthen their hand, and they'll finally be able to enact a law that authorizes Medicare to negotiate prices directly. Neither side in Congress has had an incentive to deal, and the White House has been unable to work Trump's will.

Americans remain worried about drug costs, with nearly 9 in 10 saying in a recent Gallup-West Health poll that they're concerned the pharmaceutical industry will take advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to raise prices.

Drugmakers remain adamantly opposed to government efforts to curb prices.

Experts said any orders were unlikely to take effect in the near term. Similar proposals by the Trump administration stalled amid industry pushback.

Trump's administration 'has decided to pursue a radical and dangerous policy to set prices based on rates paid in countries that he has labeled as socialist, which will harm patients today and into the future,' Stephen Ubl, head of the pharmaceutical lobby, said in a statement.
As The Disciple releases on Netflix India, an interview with director Chaitanya Tamhane from Venice Film Festival 2020, where his Marathi film won the Best Screenplay Award.

This interview was conducted at the heels of Venice Film Festival 2020. It is being republished in view of The Disciple winning the Best Screenplay award at the festival's annual competition.

*

We have only been talking for 10 minutes, and I have already made my second gaffe in front of Chaitanya Tamhane. After calling him an 'intern' on the sets of Alfonso Cuaron's Roma (which I promptly correct to 'protege' in the next second), I am trying to veer the conversation towards the close collaborator and the producer of his second feature film, The Disciple. "From your number one collaborator in Alfonso Cuaron, let's move on to your number two," I say, only to be corrected with, "Actually, Vivek (Gomber) is number one."

He is right. Much before Roma, Tamhane and Gomber's first collaboration, Court, took the country by storm in 2014. After premiering at the 71st Venice International Film Festival, the film acquired distributors in parts of Europe and the US during a successful festival run, and became India's official entry to the 88th Oscars. Gomber, who debuted as a producer in Court, and acted in it too, is serving as producer on The Disciple as well.

Tamhane's latest film won the Best Screenplay award at the 77th Venice International Film Festival. The Disciple is the first Indian film to compete at Venice since Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding (2001). It is hard to imagine that this journey began in the office of Balaji Telefilms, while developing a K-serial nearly 16 years ago.

Growing up with a voracious appetite for mainstream Hindi films, Marathi theatre, and Hindi/Marathi TV, Tamhane's first affliction towards films possibly began with a Salman Khan-starrer. "My parents tell me that they got the VCR tape for Maine Pyaar Kiya (1989), and I apparently watched the film 74 times, till the VHS completely stopped working. I have no memories of it, but it must be true," he says. Taking up English Literature at Mithibai College for its 'vibrant theatre scene,' 17-year-old Tamhane's dreams of becoming an actor got sidetracked, when he took up a job as an assistant writer on Balaji Telefilms' Kya Hoga Nimmo Ka. "I developed the show, but it didn't air while I was still there. I don't know if it did well."

Writing and directing a play called Grey Elephants in Denmark by the age of 21 is where Tamhane first met his actor/producer. "He (Gomber) was supposed to leave for the US but he read the script, and he really liked the prospect of doing this part. It was the part of a magician and a mind reader, which involved a lot of training, so he cancelled his flight. It was a difficult process, and I used to be pretty hardcore (laughs) as a director. But he appreciated the fact that a 21-year-old kid was so passionate. And then we became friends."

By 23, Tamhane became disillusioned with the work happening around him. "I reached a point where I didn't want to work as an assistant, and I didn't want a 'job.' I wanted to work by myself, but it wasn't like I was being offered anything. I had a lot of creative impulses, and at that time, it was writing Court. I wanted to start writing the script  which would take a year to do, but then how was I going to sustain myself during that time was the question." Enter Vivek Gomber.

Impressed with his young director, Gomber offered help in the form of a monthly allowance of Rs 15,000 per month. The deal was that Tamhane would focus only on finishing the script of Court over the next year. Something Tamhane managed to do, kickstarting arguably the most high-profile Indian film of 2014. "He's just incredibly talented! What do I tell you? I read his work when he was 21, and he's 33 now. He's really talented and that helps, but above all I think I really like his character. I'm in awe of the writing process, which can be so isolating... you know? And I've not met anyone more meticulous than Chaitanya Tamhane in my life," Gomber says about his three-time collaborator.

"I think there are some core values that we share: like a lot of mutual respect, trust and love. Sometimes he dreams bigger than me, for me. It's almost like he's more ambitious about my career than I am," Tamhane says about his partnership with Gomber.

The euphoria of the stellar run of Court had barely settled when Tamhane was invited to apply for the Los Angeles-based Rolex Mentor-Protege Arts Initiative programme. He did, and he was selected to collaborate with auteur Alfonso Cuaron.

"I still remember it very clearly. I gave him some gifts that I was carrying from India  some agarbatti and a Ganesh idol. I told him that I'm an atheist, but this is just for good luck on the film. There was this air of secrecy because nobody had the script. After a couple of weeks, he said to me that it makes sense to show the script to you, I was one of the three people in the world who had read Roma. The film was in Spanish and Mixtec, and I was wide-eyed, in complete awe of the massive set-up... on a technical and a visual level, there was a lot to take in."

Soaking in this unfamiliar environment, Tamhane discovered a whole new mojo for the craft of filmmaking. About Cuaron, he says, "Talking to him sensitised me even more to the medium. There's just no end to learning you know? I wanted to work from bottom-up. I'm not formally trained in filmmaking so there's always this insecurity/hunger in me that I don't know enough. Watching someone with so much in command on their craft, and also so generous when it comes to sharing the knowledge with me in an unpretentious way, I came back really grateful and as an enriched person. Alfonso has so many techniques in his arsenal, how he uses VFX, how he manipulates sound, whether it's the cinematography, his editing; he was in total control throughout the shoot. It's all this experience accumulated over the years, that's being used in the service to communicate more effectively."

Five years after his fine debut, Tamhane is preparing for an even bigger release for his next film. What has really got everyone's attention is Tamhane's mentor Alfonso Cuaron agreeing to come on board as an Executive Producer on the film. Given Cuaron's stellar reputation in the festival circuit and his successful awards campaign with Roma (2018), having his name attached to his disciple's next film, co-incidentally also called The Disciple, lends a significant weight to Tamhane's film. Speaking to Film Companion, Tamhane mentioned that he was toying with a different idea when he suddenly found himself bitten by this 'bug of Indian classical music.

"The essential conflict in The Disciple comes from Grey Elephants  the play I had made with Vivek Gomber. I fell in love with the field because of all these stories, and secrets, this lost, ancient knowledge, and this complex, intimidating genre of music with roots in religion and spirituality. All of this collectively fascinated me. I started attending lots of classical concerts, and I travelled to places like Kolkata, Varanasi, Delhi, and even Mumbai has a really vibrant scene of Indian classical music. I began interviewing musicians. Most of the story and characters began to emerge from that," Tamhane says of his latest film.

While telling me how he has broadened the canvas for his second film, Tamhane cannot help but circle back to his eternal gratitude to Gomber for his 'blind faith.' "The Disciple is an expensive film, and I was allowed to make it with zero compromises. Everything I wanted, I was given. I don't know anyone else who would invest with so much blind faith in me. It becomes easier to trust you, once you have a body of work behind you. But for him to be so gutsy where he's putting his own money, he doesn't tell me but I'm sure he's selling off some property to meet the expenses of the production, you know? He's an indie producer in the truest sense. There's no black money involved (laughs). Everyone keeps telling him that he's crazy."

Gomber is not too far behind with compliments for his director, but he also seems to touch upon what has kept this partnership thriving even after 12 years. "I think directors and producers often get sucked into petty arguments. For example, do we need that drone shot in our film? Then let's get those guys from Hungary, or Turkey? Or let's look for drone operators within India, or let's buy the drones and learn to operate it ourselves. All of this needs to be a conversation between the director and the producer. When I met a 21-year-old Chaitanya, he had hired this tiny office in Sitladevi, where we used to rehearse our play. He produced that play, and he also arranged the finances for his short film, Six Strands. Deep down, Chaitanya is actually a producer, you know? He gets it, he always finds a way to stay true to his vision and text. I trust him that if Chaitanya's saying he needs that drone shot, I better give it to him because he has definitely thought about everything else."

There is a gnawing realisation that Tamhane does not quite fit into the mainstream industry, yet. "Many offers have come my way, and I've been to several of these 'meetings' (with studios), where most of them haven't even seen Court. They agreed to produce my second film without seeing my first, based only on the press or the awards they might have read about. I obviously don't want to generalise all studios, but some of these meetings have been rather odd."

Can the international trajectory of The Disciple change all this for Tamhane, where he gets a free hand to make something on the scale of Roma in a regional language, with the complete backing of a new-age studio like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video? For the time being, both Tamhane and Gomber are working relentlessly to manage their premiere in Toronto. "We still don't know if we'll be able to travel. We need to look after the promotional material in place. I'm doing so many interviews, I can't complain. And, of course, the kind of gloominess that had set in because of the pandemic has somewhat been shirked by this new goal."

All images from Facebook.
FEWER than two in every 10 rooms have been booked at hotels in the region for the next month, a shock new survey has revealed.

The industry study from the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) reveals hotels and guesthouses across Limerick, Tipperary and Clare have seen just 17% booking rates, as demand continues to collapse amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The IHF has warned that as many as 8,500 hospitality jobs in Limerick could be at risk as a result.

Hotelier Dermot Kelly, who chairs the Shannon branch of the IHF said the figures highlight the need for more support from government to support Irish tourism.

Our industry is operating in a quasi-lockdown. The existing supports are totally inadequate for our industry given the current restrictions. If appropriate measures are not put in place, more jobs will be lost. Prior to Covid-19 crisis, tourism supported 11,500 jobs in Limerick, contributing 327m to the local economy. With a predicted revenue loss of 240m, 8,500 of these jobs are now under threat, he claimed.

Mr Kelly  who manages the landmark South Court Hotel in Raheen  admitted he is frustrated at what he feels is a lack of consultation from government.

All areas of society negatively impacted by Covid-19 should be consulted, including businesses, when developing the Roadmap for Resilience and Recovery, which is due to be published on September 14. Public health goes hand in hand with ensuring a viable economy when this pandemic has passed, he added. The study reveals national occupancy is 24% on average.
When he missed the most important vote in the Connecticut legislature this year dealing with Police Accountability, Chris Perone complained he had new job training to attend and if he missed the training, hed lose the job.

I sympathize with that choice, but the fact is, Chris Perone was elected to show up in Hartford and represent his district. That is his job. He applied for it, he got it and he is paid for it.

Choices must be made. And Chris Perone chose his private job over the job he was elected to do.

As one legislator put it, Floor votes in the House of Representatives are the most important. You have to be on your death bed to miss a floor vote. Chris Perone has only been called on three days this year to participate in House of Representatives votes. He missed the first day entirely, attended the second, and attended part of the third before exiting to attend his other job.

He was one of only seven representatives in the 151-member House of Representatives to miss the vote on police accountability. And he was the one-and-only legislator to miss floor votes on two occasions this year.

Legislators dont make it easy to find their attendance records and in Chris Perones case there is good reason.

Chris Perone is a member of the Energy and Technology Committee  that is the legislatures oversight committee dealing with, among other matters, regulation of Eversource, our electric provider. Following the horrible performance by Eversource in restoration of power after Tropical Storm Isaias, the Energy and Technology Committee met via Zoom. Chris Perone was one of only four representatives not to attend that meeting. The Energy and Technology Committee met on 11 occasions during the 2019 session. Chris Perone was absent five times. This year, the Energy and Technology Committee met only three times. Chris Perone did not attend a single one.

The $28,000 base salary paid annually to Connecticuts representatives and senators ranks 20th highest nationally. The state also provides another $4,500 to representatives for expenses they dont have to document. Add to those dollars the medical insurance benefits provided for legislators and their families  with just a $15 deductible  and the compensation begins to look like its worth going to work. Dont forget there is a guaranteed retirement benefit given to legislators who have served as long as Chris.

Even if one were not to think of legislative financial reward as generous, elected officials accept their job and that pay with an expectation among constituents that when there is work to be done, they will show up to do the work.

Chris Perone has accepted more than nearly half a million taxpayer dollars during his time in Hartford, not including health care benefits and his anticipated pension. That is not small change. This year there was no more important nor consequential vote than that on police accountability and Chris missed it. There was no more important matter pertaining to public health, safety, and cost than the performance of utilities this summer and Chris missed that one, too.

As Chris Perone pointed out in assessing his private job, he expects to get fired if he does not show up. He ought to think the same way about the job we taxpayers pay for.

Ellen Wink is the Republican candidate, also endorsed by the Connecticut Independent Party, challenging Democratic state Rep. Chris Perone for the 137th District seat in the Connecticut Legislature.
A fire engine from the Idanha-Detroit Rural Fire Protection District sits on Detroit Avenue Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, in Detroit, Ore. The engine was destroyed on Wednesday when the Lionshead Fire over-ran the resort community of Detroit, Ore., merging with the Beachie Creek Fire. Only the post office and a market survived the fire in the town's business district. (Mark Ylen/Albany Democrat-Herald via AP)

Wildfire smoke that posed a health hazard to millions choked the West Coast on Saturday as firefighters battled deadly blazes that obliterated some towns and displaced tens of thousands of people, the latest in a series of calamities this year.

For people already enduring the coronavirus pandemic, the resulting economic fallout and political tensions evident in the Black Lives Matter protests and far-right counter protests, the fires added a new layer of misery.

"What's next? You have the protests, coronavirus pandemic, now the wildfires. What else can go wrong?" lamented Danielle Oliver, 40, of Happy Valley, southeast of Portland.

The death toll from the fires in California, Oregon and Washington stood at 31 and was expected to rise sharply. Most of the fatalities were in California and Oregon.

Oregon's emergency management director said officials were preparing for a possible "mass fatality event" if many more bodies turn up in the ash. And the state fire marshal resigned after abruptly being placed on administrative leave. The state police superintendent said the crisis demanded an urgent response that required a leadership change.

Oliver has an autoimmune disorder that makes her vulnerable to wildfire smoke, so she agreed to evacuate. She was nervous about going to a shelter because of the virus, but sleeping in a car with her husband, 15-year-daughter, two dogs and a cat was not a viable option.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown toured the Oregon State Fairgrounds in Salem, Ore., Saturday afternoon, Sept. 12, 2020, where she spoke with volunteers and evacuees. Brown also toured the animal facility where evacuated animals are being kept. Fires along Oregon's Cascade Range grew Saturday, but at a slower rate than earlier in the week. (Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian via AP, Pool)

The temperature checks and social distancing at the American Red Cross shelter helped put her mind at ease. Now the family waits, hoping their house will survive. She has previously experienced homelessness.

"I'm tired. I'm tired of starting all over. Getting everything, working for everything, then losing everything," she said.

Those who still had homes were not safe in them. A half-million Oregonians were under evacuation warnings or orders to leave. With air contamination levels at historic highs, people stuffed towels under door jambs to keep smoke out. Some even wore N95 masks in their own homes.

Some communities resembled the bombed-out cities of Europe after World War II, with buildings reduced to charred rubble piled atop blackened earth. Residents either managed to flee as the flames closed in, or perished.

George Coble walks through what remains of a home on his property destroyed by a wildfire Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020, in Mill City, Ore. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Millicent Catarancuic's body was found near a car on her 5-acre property in Berry Creek, California. The flames came so quickly she did not have time to get out.

On Tuesday, she packed several of her dogs and cats in the car but later called her daughter to say she decided to stay. Firefighters had made progress battling the blaze. The wind was calm. The flames still seemed far away. Then they rushed onto the property.

"I feel like, maybe when they passed, they had an army of cats and dogs with her to help her through it," said her daughter, Holly Catarancuic.

In Oregon alone, more than 40,000 people have been evacuated and about 500,000 are in different levels of evacuation zones, Gov. Kate Brown said.

Fires along Oregon's Cascade Range grew Saturday, but at a slower rate than earlier in the week, when strong easterly winds acted like a bellows, pushing two large firesthe Beachie Creek Fire and the Riverside Firetoward each other and the state's major population centers, including Portland's southeastern suburbs.

A man stops on his bike along the Willamette River as smoke from wildfires partially obscures the Tilikum Crossing Bridge, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Fire managers did get a spot of good news: Higher humidity slowed the flames considerably.

In California, a total of 28 active major fires have burned 4,375 square miles, and 16,000 firefighters are trying to suppress the flames, Cal Fire Assistant Deputy Director Daniel Berlant said. Large wildfires continued to burn in northeastern Washington state too.

In all, 22 people have died in California since wildfires began breaking out across the state in mid-August.

President Donald Trump will visit California on Monday for a briefing on the West Coast fires, the White House announced.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and the governors of California, Oregon and Washington stateall Democratshave said the fires are a consequence of global warming.

"We absolutely must act now to avoid a future defined by an unending barrage of tragedies like the one American families are enduring across the West today," Biden said.

A person rides a bike along the Willamette River as smoke from wildfires partially obscures the Tilikum Crossing Bridge, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/John Locher)

The same smoke that painted California skies orange also helped crews corral the state's deadliest blaze of the year by blocking the sun, reducing temperatures and raising humidity, officials said.

Smoke created cooler conditions in Oregon too, but it was also blamed for making the dirtiest air in at least 35 years in some places. The air quality index reading Saturday morning in Salem, the state capital, was 512.

The scale normally goes from zero to 500.

"Above 500 is literally off the charts," said Laura Gleim, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

Because past air quality was rarely so poor, the government's yardstick for measuring it capped out at 500, Gleim said. The department started monitoring in 1985.

The weather conditions that led up to the fires and fed the flames were likely a once-in-a-generation event, said Greg Jones, a professor and research climatologist at Linfield University in McMinnville, Oregon.

George Coble carries a bucket of water to put out a tree still smoldering on his property destroyed by a wildfire Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020, in Mill City, Ore. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A large high-pressure area stretching from the desert Southwest to Alaska brought strong winds from the east toward the West Coast, reducing relative humidity to as low as 8% and bringing desert-like conditions, even to the coast, Jones said.

Instead of the offshore flows that the Pacific Northwest normally enjoys, the strong easterly winds pushed fires down the western slopes of the Cascade Range.

It isn't clear if global warming caused the conditions, Jones said, but a warmer world can increase the likelihood of extreme events and contribute to their severity.

The smoke in Portland filled the air with an acrid metallic scent like dull pennies. It was so thick that Ashley Kreitzer could not see the road when she headed out to work as a ride-hailing driver.

"I couldn't even see five feet ahead of me," she said. "I was panicking, I didn't even know if I wanted to go out."

George Coble douses a still smoldering tree at his property destroyed by a wildfire Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020, in Mill City, Ore. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Smoke from wildfires fills the sky over Pasadena, Calif., in this view looking east down Colorado Boulevard on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020. The air was categorized as unhealthy by the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The National Weather Service said there were widespread smoke layers across the region. (AP Photo/John Antczak)

Downtown Los Angeles is seen through the smoke from the Bobcat and the El Dorado fires, Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. (Keith Birmingham/The Orange County Register via AP)

Cat food and water are seen as residents try to find lost pets who went missing during wildfires in Talent, Ore., Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, as destructive wildfires devastate the region. (AP Photo/Paula Bronstein)

Lexi Sovllios from Talent, Ore., holds her dogs as she looks at the ruins of her burned house in Talent on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, as destructive wildfires devastate the region. (AP Photo/Paula Bronstein)

Jackson County District 5 firefighter Captain Aaron Bustard works on a smoldering fire in a burned neighborhood in Talent, Ore., Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, as destructive wildfires devastate the region. (AP Photo/Paula Bronstein)

Ellie Owens, 8, from Grants Pass, Ore., looks at fire damage Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, as destructive wildfires devastate the region in Talent, Ore. (AP Photo/Paula Bronstein)

A burned residence is seen as destructive wildfires devastate the region on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, in Talent, Ore. (AP Photo/Paula Bronstein)

Smoke fills the area around the Oak Park Motel Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, in Gates, Ore. The motel, owned by Ron and Belinda Evans, was one of several business destroyed by the Beachie Creek Fire. (Mark Ylen/Albany Democrat-Herald via AP)

Jackson County District 5 firefighter Captain Aaron Bustard, right, and Andy Buckingham work on a smoldering fire in a burned neighborhood as destructive wildfires devastate the region on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, in Talent, Ore. (AP Photo/Paula Bronstein)

Smoke fills the air in the area of Detroit, Ore., on the main street of Detroit Avenue Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. Tuesday in this area stood a vacant hardware store, city hall, fire department and sheriff's substation. On Wednesday fire swept down a canyon destroying the town. (Mark Ylen/Albany Democrat-Herald via AP)

Firefighters monitor a controlled burn along Nacimiento-Fergusson Road to help contain the Dolan Fire near Big Sur, Calif., Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)

A trike that was in a small park along Detroit Avenue still stands near the Lake Detroit Market, Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, in Detroit, Ore. Smoke that poses a health hazard to millions is blanketing the West Coast as firefighters battle deadly wildfires that obliterated some towns and created tens of thousands of refugees. (Mark Ylen/Albany Democrat-Herald via AP)

Firefighters light a controlled burn along Nacimiento-Fergusson Road to help contain the Dolan Fire near Big Sur, Calif., Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)

Only the sign remains in front of the Detroit Community Church Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, in Detroit, Ore. The church along with the majority of businesses and homes in the resort community of Detroit, were destroyed when the Lionshead Fire swept through the community on Wednesday. (Mark Ylen/Albany Democrat-Herald via AP)

Brenda Pearson, left, Marion County's Emergency Management field branch manager, greets Oregon Governor Kate Brown, second right, before touring her through sections of the Oregon State Fairgrounds in Salem, Ore., Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020, where she spoke with volunteers and evacuees of the wildfires. Brown also met privately with county commissioners and other officials. In Oregon alone, more than 40,000 people have been evacuated and about 500,000 are in different levels of evacuation zones, Gov. Brown said. (Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian via AP, Pool)

Oregon Governor Kate Brown toured the Oregon State Fairgrounds in Salem, Ore., Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020, where she spoke with volunteers and evacuees. Brown also toured the animal facility where evacuated animals are being kept. Fires along Oregon's Cascade Range grew Saturday, but at a slower rate than earlier in the week, when strong easterly winds pushed two large fires, the Beachie Creek Fire and the Riverside Fire, toward each other and the state's major population centers, including Portland's southeastern suburbs. (Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian via AP, Pool)

Erik Tucker pours water on a smoldering stump in an area around his home burned by the Beachie Creek Fire, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020, in Lyons, Ore. Tucker lost a shed but his home was intact. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Erik Tucker carries a bucket of water to put out hot spots in an area around his home burned by the Beachie Creek Fire, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020, in Lyons, Ore. Tucker lost a shed but his home was intact. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Boats are partially obscured by smoke from a wildfire at a marina on Detroit Lake burned by the Beachie Creek Fire, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020, in Detroit, Ore. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A sign advises to social distance at a marina building on Detroit Lake burned by the Beachie Creek Fire, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020, in Detroit, Ore. (AP Photo/John Locher)

An injured cat named Prince is being treated for third degree burns on his paws, stomach and face by technician assistant Kaity Kelsey, left. and Vet assistant Kayla Weisz, right, both from Medford at the Southern Oregon Veterinary Specialty Center (SOVSC) which is a 24/7 hospital dealing with rescued animals from the destructive wildfires devastating the region on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020 in Central Point, Ore. (AP Photo/Paula Bronstein)

A burned cat temporarily named Chestnut is seen recovering from her injuries at the Southern Oregon Veterinary Specialty Center (SOVSC) which is a 24/7 hospital dealing with rescued animals from the destructive wildfires devastating the region on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020 in Central Point, Ore. (AP Photo/Paula Bronstein)

An injured cat named Prince is being treated for third degree burns on his paws, stomach and face by technician assistant Kaity Kelsey, left, and Vet assistant Kayla Weisz, right, both from Medford at the Southern Oregon Veterinary Specialty Center (SOVSC) which is a 24/7 hospital dealing with rescued animals from the destructive wildfires devastating the region on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020 in Central Point, Ore. (AP Photo/Paula Bronstein)

An injured cat named Prince is being treated for third degree burns on his paws, stomach and face by technician assistant Kaity Kelsey, left, and Vet assistant Kayla Weisz, right, both from Medford, Ore., at the Southern Oregon Veterinary Specialty Center (SOVSC), which is a 24/7 hospital dealing with rescued animals from the wildfires devastating the region on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020, in Central Point, Ore. (AP Photo/Paula Bronstein)

An injured 8 week old kitten with facial burns is being treated at the Southern Oregon Veterinary Specialty Center (SOVSC) which is a 24/7 hospital dealing with rescued animals from the destructive wildfires devastating the region on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020 in Central Point, Ore. (AP Photo/Paula Bronstein)

George Coble had no home to return to. He came with some of his employees Saturday to a wasteland of charred tree trunks just outside Mill City, Oregon. Coble lost everything: his fence-and-post business, five houses in a family compound and vintage cars, including a 1967 Mustang.

The familythree generations that lived in the compoundevacuated with seven people, three horses, five dogs and a cat.

"We'll just keep working and keep your head up and thank God everybody got out," Coble said. "There are other people that lost their family. Just be thankful for what you did get out with."

Erik Tucker spent the day hauling buckets of water through what remained of his neighborhood to douse hot spots smoldering in tree trunks five days after the wildfire tore through the area.

Tucker, who lives in Lyons, Oregon, had expected the worst but found his family's home still standing while homes just down the street were gone. He was coated in ash and smudged with charcoal.

"No power, debris everywhere, smoke, can't breathe," he said.

Explore further California battles largest-ever fire as eight killed in western US

 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Two deputy sheriffs in Compton, California were shot last night by a man who approached their squad car while it was parked on the street, and opened fire:

Update: The gunman walked up on the deputies and opened fire without warning or provocation. pic.twitter.com/cBQjyKkoxJ  LA County Sheriffs (@LASDHQ) September 13, 2020



The deputies are a 31-year-old woman and a 24-year-old man. Both were shot multiple times and are in critical condition. After they were taken to a local hospital, a mob of protesters gathered outside the hospital and shouted We hope you die, and so on. There were scuffles and arrests at the scene. Protesters reportedly tried to force their way into the hospitals emergency room, but failed.

To the protesters blocking the entrance & exit of the HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM yelling "We hope they die" referring to 2 LA Sheriff's ambushed today in #Compton: DO NOT BLOCK EMERGENCY ENTRIES & EXITS TO THE HOSPITAL. People's lives are at stake when ambulances can't get through.  LA County Sheriffs (@LASDHQ) September 13, 2020



I blame Black Lives Matter. And when I say Black Lives Matter, I include the corporations and foundations that have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into that violent, racist, Marxist organization.

UPDATE: A taxpayer-funded NPR reporter was among those arrested for interfering with efforts to clear emergency access to the hospital where the two sheriffs deputies were being operated on:
Coronavirus infections continue to rise across Europe, with France, the UK, Austria and the Czech Republic now all fighting second waves.

The Czech Republic reported its biggest one-day increase in infections for a third straight day on Sunday, recording 1541 cases as the country battles a surge in the virus.

A woman gets tested for COVID-19 in Prague, Czech Republic on Saturday. Credit:AP

It was the fifth day in a row with new infections above 1000 for the country of just 10.7 million after cases began to accelerate in August. One state health official confirmed a second wave was under way.

Adjusted for population, the country has reported 94 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the last 14 days, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control data. Only Spain and France have seen a bigger spike in that time.
If you are looking for the best ideas for your portfolio you may want to consider some of White Brook Capital's top stock picks. White Brook Capital, an investment management firm, is bullish on Mosaic Co (NYSE:MOS) stock. In its Q2 2019 investor letter  you can download a copy here  the firm discussed its investment thesis on Mosaic Co (NYSE:MOS) stock. Mosaic Co (NYSE:MOS) is the world's leading integrated producer and marketer of concentrated phosphate and potash.

White Brook Capital said that Mosaic Co (NYSE:MOS) was one of the portfolio's top underperformers in Q2 2019. Mosaic Co (NYSE:MOS) stock has posted a return of -19.9% in the trailing one year period, underperforming fund's benchmark the S&P 500 Index which returned 11.1% in the same period. This suggests that the investment firm was wrong in its decision. On a year-to-date basis, Mosaic Co (NYSE:MOS) stock has fallen by 16.0%.

White Brook Capital fund posted a return of 5.46% in the second quarter of 2019, outperforming fund's benchmark the S&P 500 Index which returned 4.30% in the same period. Lets take a look at comments made by White Brook Capital about Mosaic Co (NYSE:MOS) stock in the Q2 2019 investor letter.

"Mosaic reported a good quarter and has resolved its issues with its 2 Brazilian dams at or ahead of schedule. The floods in the Midwest that I flagged would be an issue over the short term as they pushed out or cancelled fertilizer orders continue to weigh on the stock. The Company trades at a similar level to where it traded 3 years ago, when it was more highly leveraged, commodity prices were lower, cash flow generation was more sporadic with future capital intensity more significant. The Company did not have regional diversity of production, and the global supply demand environment was worse. I believe the stock continues to be cheap as investors over-compensate for weather concerns combined with general disdain for non-SaaS stocks and a desire to be in stocks that are already working. In time, I believe Mosaic will be a very good investment story where our patience is paid off."

Story continues

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In Q1 2020, the number of bullish hedge fund positions on Mosaic Co (NYSE:MOS) stock remained unchanged from the previous quarter (see the chart here). Our calculations showed that Mosaic Co (NYSE:MOS) 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 leave no stone unturned when looking for the next great investment idea. For example, this mom trader turned $2000 into $2 million within 2 years. So, we are checking out her best trade idea of the month. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. We go through lists like the 10 most profitable companies in the world 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. You can subscribe to our free enewsletter below to receive our stories in your inbox:

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On Sept. 23, the 16th National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, an extremely prestigious assembly of the good and the great of U.S. Catholicism, takes place. At the event the Christifideles Laici Award will be given, In Honour and Gratitude for Fidelity to the Church, Exemplary Selfless and Steadfast Service in the Lords Vineyard.

The prize is named after Pope John Paul IIs exhortation, to stir and promote a deeper awareness among all the faithful of the gift and responsibility they share in the communion and mission of the church.

There are many Catholics who have given their lives to helping the poor and marginalized, and recognition for such heroes is only correct. This years recipient, however, is Attorney General William Barr.

Barr is someone who has championed and extended the death penalty in the U.S., supported Donald Trump in his most strident anti-refugee policies, done the presidents legal bidding in almost any way possible, and has often been accused of simple dishonesty. All of which runs directly contrary to Catholic teaching. Yet he is known as a conservative Catholic and is vehemently opposed to abortion.

The argument that those on the right who oppose abortion are pro-birth rather than pro-life has long been offered but the case is actually even stronger. They are merely pro-conception. Because for a mother to remain healthy and have a successful pregnancy she requires a medical system that will support her regardless of economic status.

Barr opposes socialized medicine. Indeed, the chances of a white, middle-class woman and her baby surviving pregnancy in the United States are far greater than those of a Black, poor woman  who are also much more likely to be affected by the criminalization of abortion because states promoting such policies are invariably in the South.

Barr also opposes contraception, public and affordable day care, taxation policies that would aid the poor, modern sex education in schools, and almost every other policy that would reduce abortion.

The reaction, the incredulity, to the Barr award has been substantial. Sister Helen Prejean, the Catholic activist and nun who was portrayed in the movie Dead Man Walking wrote, I raise my voice in fervent opposition to the National Catholic Prayer Breakfasts scandalous offer of an award to Attorney General Barr for his exemplary Christlike behaviour. I urge the group to immediately rescind their invitation, and I urge anyone reading this to join me.

But, frankly, it will do limited good. The lionization of Barr is part of an emerging pattern, one committed to trying to seduce the Catholic vote in Novembers presidential election. Shortly before the Prayer Breakfast announcement a video sermon by Catholic priest Father James Altman, pastor of St. James the Less Catholic parish in Lacrosse, Wisc., went viral  already seen by more than half-a-million people.

In it he condemns Democrats as godless and roars that You cannot be Catholic and be a Democrat. Period. Altman insists that, We can see in the many godless politicians, in the godless educational system, in the godlessness of so many sheeples, they are most definitely not serving him, they are not fulfilling their purpose in life, and then shows pictures of Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi, both Catholic Democrats.

The language and anger is extraordinary for an ordained cleric but while many in the church have reprimanded him, others have been inspired. Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Tex., tweeted: As the Bishop of Tyler I endorse Fr Altmans statement in this video. My shame is that it has taken me so long. Thank you Fr Altman for your COURAGE. If you love Jesus & His Church & this nation ... please HEED THIS MESSAGE.

Expect to see more of this in the weeks to come, as the Trump team struggles to secure enough of the Catholic vote that was once solidly Democrat. They made major inroads four years ago and while they know that the vast majority of white evangelicals are still MAGA-committed, its Catholic voters  particularly middle-class or in swing and rust belt states  who are the one who will make a major difference.

I can only imagine what the progressive Pope Francis thinks of all this. Im sure theres quite a word for it in colloquial Spanish!

Rev. Michael Coren is a Toronto-based writer and contributing columnist to the Stars Opinion section and iPolitics. Follow him on Twitter: is a Toronto-based writer and contributing columnist to the Stars Opinion section and iPolitics. Follow him on Twitter: @michaelcoren

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He's become the talk of town after accidentally sharing a very revealing snap of the male genitalia on Instagram.

And Chris Evans' brother Scott Evans did not let the moment fly by as he hilariously addressed it on his Twitter account on Sunday morning.

'Was off social media for the day yesterday. So. What'd I miss?' the 36-year-old tweeted.

'What did I miss?' Chris Evans' brother Scott Evans did not let the photo leak moment fly by as he hilariously addressed it on his Twitter account on Sunday morning

Chris' Avengers co-star Mark Ruffalo also attempted to cheer the actor up following the unusual photo leak.

'Bro, while Trump is in office there is NOTHING you could possibly do to embarrass yourself. See... silver lining,' Mark assured his costar.

The tweets were sent after Chris accidentally shared a photo of a penis during an innocuous game on Instagram.

The 39-year-old Avengers: Endgame star shared a short video to his Instagram Stories on Saturday of himself and some friends playing Heads Up.

Brotherly love: The duo shared a laugh during a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

'Silver lining': Chris' Avengers co-star Mark Ruffalo also attempted to cheer the actor up following the unusual photo leak (pictured February 2020)

But at the end of the video, a shot of the actor's phone camera roll came up, which featured a close-up photo of a penis. The entire clip has since been deleted.

The picture didn't leave anything to the imagination, but it was cropped too closely to have any identifying features.

Another image in the photo grid featured a headshot of the Avengers star with the words 'Guard That P***y' superimposed.

Hilarious: Evans poked fun at the incident on his Twitter account

Water under the bridge: Ruffalo reassured his costar on the social media platform

Evans quickly became the subject of hundreds of thousands of tweets about the shocking photo.

Most posts took a light-hearted approach to the accidental disclosure, with some gushing about the actor's potential anatomy.

One Twitter user joked, 'Chris Evans seeing the response online..' and paired the caption with a gif of his Knives Out character saying, 'We gotta do this more often!'

Whoops! Evans, 39, shocked social media users on Saturday after he accidentally shared a picture of a penis to Instagram in the middle of a PG-rated game with friends; shown in November 2019

Missed it: Evans shared a video of a game of Heads Up with friends to his Insta Stories, but a final shot of his camera roll revealed a picture of a penis; still from Captain America: First Avenger

Quick to action: It wasn't clear if the member belonged to Evans or someone else, but that didn't stop Twitter users from poking fun at the accidental disclosure

In the flesh: One person joked that they only wanted to see the penis if Evans showed it to them himself

Digging it: Others sounded excited at the prospect of the photo

Another person wrote, 'I don't wanna see Chris Evans' ding a ling unless he is showing it to me in person. Okkk?'

The verified user Ines Helene shared a lustier post.

'Chris Evans leaking his own nudes is my favourite thing ever. Okay daddy we see you [big eyes emoji],' she wrote, before following it up with, 'I'll never snitch on daddy.'

Security: The actor also had a headshot with the words 'Guard That P***y' superimposed, which elicited humorous tweets

Own worst enemy: Another poster joked about how Chris couldn't even trust himself not to leak nudes

Fakeout: A meme quickly developed in which users shared the camera roll but inserted a different unexpected photo in place of the penis

Surprise! One users inserted a joke image of Thanos from the Avengers films as he showed off his beefy physique

Another poster included a photo of one of the Queen's Guards at Buckingham Palace and wrote, 'i just KNOW that chris evans is gonna be guarding that p***y like this.'

One user wrote 'Seeing why Chris Evans is trending. Me:' and included a meme reading, 'Trust nobody not even yourself' that showed a man whose doppelganger was sneaking up behind him with a gun.

Although plenty of users had their own reactions to the accidental photo, a meme quickly developed in which Twitter posters shared the image of Evans' camera roll (which was cropped out by Twitter) but included something unexpected in place of the penis.

'Can someone explain why chris evans has this picture of thanos in his phone?' one post read, while featuring a camera roll snap including a humorous image of Thanos from the Avengers films with his bulging muscles and derriere exposed.

Do the right thing: But it wasn't all fun and games, and multiple posters urged people not to share the photos as they were released without Evans' consent

Too cute: Some users started sharing adorable photos of the Avengers star with his dog to break up the jokes

Perfect match: One tweet included a cute photo of Chris dog wearing the same cable-knit sweater he wore in Knives Out

It wasn't all fun and games, though, and multiple Twitter users called out those searching for the nude photo and posting about it because it lacked Evans' consent.

'I will put this right here: please do not share Chris Evans' nudes. It's not okay because he's a man, it's not okay because he's adored, it's NOT OKAY because he accidentally posted it himself. He's taken the images down; so should you. #consentmatters,' urged one person.

Another fan wrote: 'Everyone talking about chris evans leaking his own nudes needs to really not spread that video around. You're violating his privacy after he realized and deleted it. yall really need to not spread that around.'

Others tried to swamp the search results tied to the Captain America star's name with adorable photos of him with his dog Dodger, whom he adopted in April 2018.

'I feel so bad for him right now. Let's give this picture some attention because this man is incredible!' wrote Emma Fitzgerald, while including a sweet photo of the actor with in a New England Patriots shirt while cuddled up with his dog.

Another tweet juxtaposed a still of Evans in his popular cable-knit sweater from Knives Out with an adorable photo of his dog wearing a sleeveless update on the design.

History: Evans was linked to Baby Driver actress Lily James after they were spotted together twice in London in July, and he previously dated Jenny Slate and Minka Kelly, among others; shown in September 2019

Caitlyn Gray wrote, 'Chris Evans and his dog wearing matching sweaters is the only reason he should be trending today.'

Evans was most recently linked to Baby Driver actress Lily James, after they were spotted together twice while in London in July.

In 2016, he sparked a relationship with former SNL actress Jenny Slate.

The couple took a break in 2017 before reuniting later in the year, though they broke up for good in March of 2018.

Prior to that he had a years-long onoff relationship with Minka Kelly.
Sept 12 (Reuters) - Facebook has started removing false claims that the deadly wildfires in Oregon were started by various left-wing and right-wing groups, a spokesman for the social media company said on Saturday, after the rumors left state officials inundated with queries for information.

Since early this week, state officials have been attempting to debunk misinformation on social media that has blamed both left-wing and right-wing groups for the fires that have killed at least six people in Oregon this week.

Facebook, which earlier was attaching warning labels to such posts, decided to move to the stricter approach after "confirmation from law enforcement that these rumors are forcing local fire and police agencies to divert resources from fighting the fires and protecting the public," the spokesman, Andy Stone, said in a statement on Twitter.

Stone called the decision "consistent with (Facebook's) past efforts to remove content that could lead to imminent harm given the possible risk to human life as the fires rage on."

Flames have destroyed thousands homes in days, making Oregon the latest epicenter in a larger summer outbreak of fires sweeping the western United States.

One of Facebook's third-party fact-checking partners, PolitiFact, wrote on Thursday on its website that dozens of posts blaming antifa - a largely unstructured, far-left movement - for the wildfires had been flagged by Facebook's systems, and that collectively the posts had been shared thousands of times.

The FBI on Friday said in a statement that after investigating several reports that extremists were responsible for setting wildfires in Oregon, it found them to be untrue.

Earlier this week, police in Medford, Oregon, debunked a false post using the police department's logo and name suggesting that five members of the Proud Boys, a men-only, far-right group, had been arrested for arson. (Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler)
A Fox News reporter's live shot was photobombed by a galloping brown bear in California as she reported on wildfires that have killed at least 33 people along the West Coast.

Christina Coleman was in the middle of her live shot on Saturday in Monrovia, California, when the large bear made his debut.

'To talk about the wildlife that we mentioned, the woman that we interviewed said she was concerned about it - take a look over here, here is a brown bear that is just making its way through this neighborhood,' Coleman said, as the bear walked behind her in video from Fox News.

Fox News reporter Christina Coleman (pictured) was in the middle of her live shot on Saturday in Monrovia, California, when the large bear made his debut

'To talk about the wildlife that we mentioned, the woman that we interviewed said she was concerned about it - take a look over here, here is a brown bear that is just making its way through this neighborhood,' Coleman said, as the bear (pictured) walked behind her

Moments later, the bear is seen galloping (pictured) toward Coleman before slowing down to a walk

Crews continue to battle blazes from California to Washington state.

The flames have destroyed neighborhoods, leaving a barren, grey landscape in their wake, driven tens of thousands of people from their homes and cast a shroud of smoke over the region.

Jackson County Sheriff's office said late on Saturday that four people had died in the wildfire that burned in the Ashland area.

Authorities earlier this week said as many as 50 people could be missing from the blaze but they said the number of people unaccounted for is now down to one.

At least 10 people have been killed in the past week throughout Oregon.

Officials have said more people are missing from other blazes and the number of fatalities is likely to rise.

A total of 22 people have died in California and one person has been killed in Washington state.

Among the people killed was Millicent Catarancuic, who was found near her car at her five-acre home in Berry Creek, California.

Coleman was then seen calmly moving out of the way as the bear walked by her

Crews (pictured on September 9) continue to battle blazes from California to Washington state

The flames (pictured in Butte County, California) have destroyed neighborhoods, leaving a barren, grey landscape in their wake, driven tens of thousands of people from their homes and cast a shroud of smoke over the region

At one point she was ready to evacuate with her dogs and cats in the car but she changed her mind as the winds seemed to calm and the flames stayed away.

Then the fire changed direction, rushing on to the property too quickly for her to leave.

She died, along with her animals.

'I feel like, maybe when they passed, they had an army of cats and dogs with her to help her through it,' said her daughter, Holly.

George Coble lost everything just outside Mill City, Oregon  his fence-building business, five houses where his family lived and a collection of vintage cars, including a 1967 Mustang.

'We'll just keep working and keep your head up and thank God everybody got out,' Coble said.

In a town nearby, Erik Tucker spent the day coated in ash and smudged with charcoal, hauling buckets of water through what remained of his neighborhood to douse hotspots.

'No power, debris everywhere, smoke, can't breathe,' he said.

The Democratic governors of all three states have said the fires are a consequence of global warming.

The dry, windy conditions that fed the flames in Oregon were probably a once in a generation event, Greg Jones, a professor and research climatologist at Linfield University in McMinnville, said.

The warmer world can increase the likelihood of extreme events and contribute to their severity, he added.

Meanwhile, there was political turmoil as Oregon's fire marshal was forced out while 500,000 state residents were ordered to evacuate or warned to be ready to leave.

Details were scarce on why he was put on leave, then resigned.
Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Sunday said that Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting did not come to any conclusion on the issues raised by us, therefore, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will convene another BAC meeting on September 15. Congress leader attended the BAC meeting which took place in Parliament House Annexe and was chaired by the Speaker of the Lower House, Om Birla.

Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Sunday said that Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting did not come to any conclusion on the issues raised by us, therefore, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will convene another BAC meeting on September 15.

Congress leader attended the BAC meeting which took place in Parliament House Annexe and was chaired by the Speaker of the Lower House, Om Birla.

In todays BAC meeting, we did not come to a conclusion on what issues will be raised by the opposition. The Speaker will convene another meeting of the BAC on September 15 and it will be decided on what issues will be allowed to raise, said Chowdhury at a press conference here.

We have proposed the issues of unemployment, the status of migrant labourers and the economic scenario in the country, to be discussed in the upcoming session.

Also Read: 47 items to be taken up during Monsoon Session of Parliament

We urged the government that our voices should be heard in the Parliament. We want to have discussions on COVID-19, NEP, environment policy, floods, border tension with China. We will continue to raise peoples problem in the Parliament, he added. Congress leader further said that his party and the entire Opposition want to know what is happening at India-China border. We want to have a discussion on the current situation at the India-China border.

It is not only me but the whole nation wants to know it. We want to know the government views on this. We will support the government whatever decision it will take to counter China, he said. The Monsoon Session of the Parliament is scheduled to commence on Monday and is slated to conclude on October 1. There will be no question hour and private members business during the monsoon session. (ANI)

Also Read: Maharashtra CM announces My Family-My Responsibility campaign to battle coronavirus
Firefighters monitor a controlled burn along Nacimiento-Fergusson Road to help contain the Dolan Fire near Big Sur, Calif., Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. Read more

LOS ANGELES  President Donald Trump will visit California on Monday to meet with emergency officials about the wildfires that are ravaging the state, the White House announced Saturday.

The president will be briefed on the fires in McClellan Park in Sacramento County, White House spokesman Judd Deere said in an emailed statement.

"Since mid-August, President Trump and Governor Newsom have spoken by phone and the White House and FEMA have remained in constant contact with State and local officials throughout the response to these natural disasters," Deere said.

"The President continues to support those who are battling raging wildfires in a locally-executed, state-managed, and federally-supported emergency response."

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday that he talked on the phone with the president for nearly 30 minutes the day before about the state's fires, emergency declarations and federal wildfire aid. The governor credited Trump for being "proactive" in his efforts to provide assistance to the state.

Newsom also insisted that California will do more to fight climate change and took the Trump administration to task for its policies that reduce environmental protections.

Trump's visit comes nearly a month after the former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security claimed in a political ad that Trump tried to withhold disaster relief money for California's wildfires because voters in the state opposed him politically.

"He told us to stop giving money to people whose houses had burned down from a wildfire because he was so rageful that people in the state of California didn't support him and that politically it wasn't a base for him," Miles Taylor, who left the Trump administration in 2019, says in the ad.

The Department of Homeland Security oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Taylor doesn't say which wildfires he is referring to, but the group running the ad confirmed it was the Camp fire of 2018, and Trump toured the devastation in Paradise that year.

___

Los Angeles Times staff writers Noah Bierman, Eli Stokols and Taryn Luna contributed to this report.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 03:30:19|Editor: huaxia

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A man wearing a face mask waits to have his COVID-19 test outside a COVID-19 assessment center in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, on Sept. 4, 2020. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua)

Canada reported an average of 630-plus COVID-19 cases daily over the past week, more than 20 percent higher than the previous week, and over 65 percent higher compared with four weeks ago.

OTTAWA, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Canada is very concerned about the steady rise in the number of the COVID-19 cases as an average of 630-plus cases were reported daily across the country over the past week.

In a statement on Saturday, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) said that was more than 20 percent higher than the previous week, and more than 65 percent higher compared with four weeks ago when an average of just over 380 cases was reported daily.

There have been 135,626 cases of COVID-19 in Canada, including 9,163 deaths. Labs across Canada tested an average of 47,806 people daily over the past week with 1.1 percent testing positive, said PHAC.

The four most-affected provinces -- Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta, are each reporting between 100 to more than 200 new cases per day, the agency said.

Saturday morning, Quebec reported 244 new cases of COVID-19, the highest daily figure since the beginning of June while Ontario confirmed an additional 232 cases of COVID-19, also the highest daily surge.

People wait in their vehicles to have COVID-19 tests outside a drive-thru COVID-19 assessment center in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, on Sept. 4, 2020. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua)

"Increasing daily case counts signify heightened disease activity that poses a risk for accelerated or 'exponential' epidemic growth to occur," Theresa Tam, Canada's chief public health officer, said in the statement.

Meanwhile, Toronto opened a center for those with COVID-19 who cannot self-isolate at home, a service the Canadian government said is open to other cities across the country.

Toronto reported 77 new cases in the province on Saturday, the highest single-day count since mid-June.

Lower-income neighborhoods were disproportionately affected by COVID-19, in part because individuals living in these communities, once they tested positive, may have experienced difficulty to properly isolate themselves, Toronto Mayor John Tory said. 
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It will be an unusual school year for students and educators amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic -- returning to school buildings this month for the first time since mid-March with new health and safety protocols in place.

Students in New York Citys public schools and Catholic elementary schools will learn under a blended learning model or choose to learn remotely full-time this year. Plans for the boroughs Catholic high schools and non-public schools include full-time in-person learning and blended learning, with some schools implementing synchronous instruction, such as live streaming in-person classes.

While Catholic school students returned to school this past week, public schools will open their doors to kids on Sept. 21.

To help mark this remarkable school year, wed like to showcase how Staten Island teachers -- working at public, Catholic, and private schools -- are preparing their classroom.

How are you planning to bring students together, now more than ever, under these unusual circumstances? Will you have signs reminding students of safety protocols? How will student desks be set up? Where will students keep their supplies?

*** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK ***

And if youre a teacher who is planning to work remotely, we want to see how you are transforming your home into a teaching space.

You can send photos to Annalise Knudson at aknudson@siadvance.com.

Related stories:

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Coronavirus: Reopening plans for Staten Island charter schools

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Coronavirus: How NYC plans to safely reopen schools in fall

2020-2021 academic year: Reopening plans for schools across Staten Island

NYC schools reopening: State guidelines for special education

The Catholic elementary school reopening plan: Face masks, temperature checks and more

NYC schools reopening: Transportation plan for students remains unclear

FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER.






Madam,

Thank you for allowing me space to write in this widely read publication.

I want to address the issue of the ports of entry in the country which, although operating, are said to be for essential services only.

I am a hawker who purchases clothes and other items in South Africa and in turn sell them to fellow emaSwati. However, unlike others I have been struggling to get a permit to travel to SA to get stock for reasons not clearly explained to me by the officials at the ministry.

I, however, once tried my luck at one of the countrys borders and they allowed me through without much of a fuss.

I was surprised when I got to Gauteng that life is clearly back to normal as long as you try and social distance and wear your mask.

My question is to the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

Are our ministries in talks with their counterparts in South Africa to try and speed up the process of opening the borders so that trade can continue between the two countries and others in SADC? I ask this question because it seems when it comes to the issue of the borders we seem to depend on what South Africa may propose or suggest.

I believe we should be the ones taking the bull by the horns and sending a proposal to that government to open the borders and give them all the pros and cons.

I have utmost confidence that our government can do this as evidenced by the recent Kenyan Airways flights which have been used to repatriate emaSwati from various countries all over the world.

As much as we have seen that it is possible to fly without stopping at in SA we as hawkers still need the ground travel as our neighbours remain the only place which we can get our stock from.

I have also witnessed that there have been people who have been travelling to SA purely for pleasure to buy make-up and personal clothing while others have even attended parties. If you do not believe me please check social media pages and you will be amazed how these people got through the borders without giving their essential reasons.

The talk that South Africa may fully open its borders in February 2021 should not be entertained by our government.

I beg and trust the Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini led Cabinet to negotiate with their counterparts.

If this fails perhaps even the Southern Africa Development Comminity (SADC) can be roped in, including the other SACU member states.

We cannot allow COVID-19 to keep us trapped as life must surely go on.

Thank you for the space.

Desperate Hawker - Manzini






ROCKLAND, Mass., Sept. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- EMD Serono, the biopharmaceutical business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, in the US and Canada, today announced more than 30 abstracts will be presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Virtual Congress 2020 from September 19-21. The abstracts span the Company's clinical program in oncology across several innovative modalities and mechanisms that have the potential to advance treatment across a range of tumor types including biliary tract, lung and urothelial (bladder) cancers.

"Our oncology ambition is to discover innovative therapies with transformative results. The data being presented in urothelial cancer demonstrate this approach in action, where we are seeing promising results for a new first-line maintenance therapeutic option with BAVENCIO in this form of cancer," said Luciano Rossetti, Global Head of Research & Development for EMD Serono. "In addition, long-term follow-up data in advanced lung cancer from two of our in-house developed mechanismsour oral MET inhibitor, tepotinib, and our first-in-class bifunctional fusion protein immunotherapy targeting TGF-/PD-L1, bintrafusp alfacontinue to show sustained impact in one of the leading causes of cancer mortality."

Key data highlights at ESMO

Avelumab (BAVENCIO)

Phase III JAVELIN Bladder 100 (Presentations #699O; 704MO; 745P). Primary results from the JAVELIN Bladder 100 study demonstrated an overall survival (OS) benefit for BAVENCIO vs. best supportive care in the first-line maintenance treatment of advanced urothelial carcinoma, making BAVENCIO the first and only immunotherapy to significantly prolong OS in this setting. Three new abstracts from the JAVELIN Bladder 100 study will be presented at ESMO:

An oral presentation during the Proffered Paper 1  GU, non-prostate session scheduled on September 19, 2020 at 5:28pm5:40pm CEST/ 11:28am-11:40am EDT , will highlight associations between clinical outcomes and exploratory biomarkers (Presentation #699O)

at 5:28pm5:40pm CEST/ , will highlight associations between clinical outcomes and exploratory biomarkers (Presentation #699O) Two other abstracts provide more information on prespecified subgroup analyses, as well as patient-reported outcomes.

Phase III JAVELIN Head and Neck 100 (Presentation #910O). Primary results from this Phase III study will be presented. The study is a demonstration of our commitment to develop options for patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, and the results increase understanding in the field of the role of immunotherapy.

Tepotinib

Phase II VISION (Presentations: #1283P; 1286P; 1347P). Three posters from the largest study in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring METex14 skipping treated with tepotiniban oral, once-daily, highly-selective MET inhibitor. Data presented will highlight:

Durable clinical activity that has been consistent across clinically relevant subgroups both in treatment-naive and in previously treated patients as well as in patients with brain metastases as assessed by liquid biopsy or tissue biopsy (Poster #1283P)

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has been shown to be maintained, with clinically meaningful delays in the time to deterioration of cough, dyspnea, and chest pain (Poster #1286P)

A safety profile consisting of mostly mild-to-moderate adverse events with few treatment discontinuations.

INSIGHT 2 (NSCLC): The INSIGHT 2 study assessing the combination of osimertinib and tepotinib in patients with EGFR-mutant NSCLC that has developed resistance to first-line osimertinib treatment due to MET amplification is ongoing and actively recruiting patients (Poster #1415TiP).

Bintrafusp alfa (M7824)

Data from the [email protected] clinical trial program for first-in-class bintrafusp alfa, an investigational bifunctional fusion protein targeting both TGF- and PD-L1 pathways, shows promising and durable responses across multiple tumor types including NSCLC and biliary tract cancer (BTC) with a manageable safety profile in Phase I expansion cohorts.

Two long-term follow-up studies assessing efficacy and safety from the [email protected] clinical trial program will be presented as posters at ESMO 2020:

[email protected] Solid Tumor 001 three-year long-term follow-up for 2L treatment of NSCLC (Poster #1272P)

(Poster #1272P) [email protected] Solid Tumor 008 28-month long-term follow-up in patients with pretreated biliary tract cancer (Poster #73P)

In addition, preliminary analysis will be presented in a mini-oral presentation (#616MO) from a trial conducted by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the Quick Efficacy Seeking Trial (QuEST), investigating a triple combination therapy (BN-brachyury [BVax] + bintrasfusp alfa + N-803) in castration-resistant prostate cancer. Available on demand from September 18 at ESMO.org.

*BAVENCIO is under clinical investigation for the first-line maintenance treatment of advanced UC and not yet approved in any markets outside of the US.

Tepotinib is the International Nonproprietary Name (INN) for the MET kinase inhibitor MSC2156119J. Tepotinib is currently under clinical investigation in NSCLC and not yet approved in any markets outside of Japan.

Bintrafusp alfa is currently under clinical investigation and not approved for any use anywhere in the world.

About BAVENCIO (avelumab)

BAVENCIO is a human anti-programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) antibody. BAVENCIO has been shown in preclinical models to engage both the adaptive and innate immune functions. By blocking the interaction of PD-L1 with PD-1 receptors, BAVENCIO has been shown to release the suppression of the T cell-mediated antitumor immune response in preclinical models. In November 2014, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and Pfizer announced a strategic alliance to co-develop and co-commercialize BAVENCIO.

BAVENCIO Approved Indications in the US

BAVENCIO (avelumab) is indicated in the US for the maintenance treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma (UC) that has not progressed with first-line platinum-containing chemotherapy. BAVENCIO is also indicated for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic UC who have disease progression during or following platinum-containing chemotherapy, or have disease progression within 12 months of neoadjuvant or adjuvant treatment with platinum-containing chemotherapy.

BAVENCIO in combination with axitinib is indicated in the US for the first-line treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

In the US, the FDA granted accelerated approval for BAVENCIO for the treatment of adults and pediatric patients 12 years and older with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC). This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on tumor response rate and duration of response. Continued approval may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in confirmatory trials.

Avelumab is currently approved for patients with MCC in 51 countries globally, with the majority of these approvals in a broad indication that is not limited to a specific line of treatment.

BAVENCIO Important Safety Information from the US FDA-Approved Label

BAVENCIO can cause immune-mediated pneumonitis, including fatal cases. Monitor patients for signs and symptoms of pneumonitis and evaluate suspected cases with radiographic imaging. Administer corticosteroids for Grade 2 or greater pneumonitis. Withhold BAVENCIO for moderate (Grade 2) and permanently discontinue for severe (Grade 3), life-threatening (Grade 4), or recurrent moderate (Grade 2) pneumonitis. Pneumonitis occurred in 1.2% of patients, including one (0.1%) patient with fatal, one (0.1%) with Grade 4, and five (0.3%) with Grade 3.

BAVENCIO can cause hepatotoxicity and immune-mediated hepatitis, including fatal cases. Monitor patients for abnormal liver tests prior to and periodically during treatment. Administer corticosteroids for Grade 2 or greater hepatitis. Withhold BAVENCIO for moderate (Grade 2) immune-mediated hepatitis until resolution and permanently discontinue for severe (Grade 3) or life-threatening (Grade 4) immune-mediated hepatitis. Immune-mediated hepatitis occurred with BAVENCIO as a single agent in 0.9% of patients, including two (0.1%) patients with fatal, and 11 (0.6%) with Grade 3.

BAVENCIO in combination with axitinib can cause hepatotoxicity with higher than expected frequencies of Grade 3 and 4 alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) elevation. Consider more frequent monitoring of liver enzymes as compared to when the drugs are used as monotherapy. Withhold BAVENCIO and axitinib for moderate (Grade 2) hepatotoxicity and permanently discontinue the combination for severe or life-threatening (Grade 3 or 4) hepatotoxicity. Administer corticosteroids as needed. In patients treated with BAVENCIO in combination with axitinib, Grades 3 and 4 increased ALT and AST occurred in 9% and 7% of patients, respectively, and immune-mediated hepatitis occurred in 7% of patients, including 4.9% with Grade 3 or 4.

BAVENCIO can cause immune-mediated colitis. Monitor patients for signs and symptoms of colitis. Administer corticosteroids for Grade 2 or greater colitis. Withhold BAVENCIO until resolution for moderate or severe (Grade 2 or 3) colitis until resolution. Permanently discontinue for life-threatening (Grade 4) or recurrent (Grade 3) colitis upon reinitiation of BAVENCIO. Immune-mediated colitis occurred in 1.5% of patients, including seven (0.4%) with Grade 3.

BAVENCIO can cause immune-mediated endocrinopathies, including adrenal insufficiency, thyroid disorders, and type 1 diabetes mellitus.

Monitor patients for signs and symptoms of adrenal insufficiency during and after treatment, and administer corticosteroids as appropriate. Withhold BAVENCIO for severe (Grade 3) or life-threatening (Grade 4) adrenal insufficiency. Adrenal insufficiency was reported in 0.5% of patients, including one (0.1%) with Grade 3.

Thyroid disorders can occur at any time during treatment. Monitor patients for changes in thyroid function at the start of treatment, periodically during treatment, and as indicated based on clinical evaluation. Manage hypothyroidism with hormone replacement therapy and control hyperthyroidism with medical management. Withhold BAVENCIO for severe (Grade 3) or life-threatening (Grade 4) thyroid disorders. Thyroid disorders, including hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, and thyroiditis, were reported in 6% of patients, including three (0.2%) with Grade 3.

Type 1 diabetes mellitus including diabetic ketoacidosis: Monitor patients for hyperglycemia or other signs and symptoms of diabetes. Withhold BAVENCIO and administer antihyperglycemics or insulin in patients with severe or life-threatening (Grade 3) hyperglycemia, and resume treatment when metabolic control is achieved. Type 1 diabetes mellitus without an alternative etiology occurred in 0.1% of patients, including two cases of Grade 3 hyperglycemia.

BAVENCIO can cause immune-mediated nephritis and renal dysfunction. Monitor patients for elevated serum creatinine prior to and periodically during treatment. Administer corticosteroids for Grade 2 or greater nephritis. Withhold BAVENCIO for moderate (Grade 2) or severe (Grade 3) nephritis until resolution to Grade 1 or lower. Permanently discontinue BAVENCIO for life-threatening (Grade 4) nephritis. Immune-mediated nephritis occurred in 0.1% of patients.

BAVENCIO can result in other severe and fatal immune-mediated adverse reactions involving any organ system during treatment or after treatment discontinuation. For suspected immune-mediated adverse reactions, evaluate to confirm or rule out an immune-mediated adverse reaction and to exclude other causes. Depending on the severity of the adverse reaction, withhold or permanently discontinue BAVENCIO, administer high-dose corticosteroids, and initiate hormone replacement therapy, if appropriate. Resume BAVENCIO when the immune-mediated adverse reaction remains at Grade 1 or lower following a corticosteroid taper. Permanently discontinue BAVENCIO for any severe (Grade 3) immune-mediated adverse reaction that recurs and for any life-threatening (Grade 4) immune-mediated adverse reaction. The following clinically significant immune-mediated adverse reactions occurred in less than 1% of 1738 patients treated with BAVENCIO as a single agent or in 489 patients who received BAVENCIO in combination with axitinib: myocarditis including fatal cases, pancreatitis including fatal cases, myositis, psoriasis, arthritis, exfoliative dermatitis, erythema multiforme, pemphigoid, hypopituitarism, uveitis, Guillain-Barre syndrome, and systemic inflammatory response.

BAVENCIO can cause severe or life-threatening infusion-related reactions. Premedicate patients with an antihistamine and acetaminophen prior to the first 4 infusions. Monitor patients for signs and symptoms of infusion-related reactions, including pyrexia, chills, flushing, hypotension, dyspnea, wheezing, back pain, abdominal pain, and urticaria. Interrupt or slow the rate of infusion for mild (Grade 1) or moderate (Grade 2) infusion-related reactions. Permanently discontinue BAVENCIO for severe (Grade 3) or life-threatening (Grade 4) infusion-related reactions. Infusion-related reactions occurred in 25% of patients, including three (0.2%) patients with Grade 4 and nine (0.5%) with Grade 3.

BAVENCIO in combination with axitinib can cause major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) including severe and fatal events. Consider baseline and periodic evaluations of left ventricular ejection fraction. Monitor for signs and symptoms of cardiovascular events. Optimize management of cardiovascular risk factors, such as hypertension, diabetes, or dyslipidemia. Discontinue BAVENCIO and axitinib for Grade 3-4 cardiovascular events. MACE occurred in 7% of patients with advanced RCC treated with BAVENCIO in combination with axitinib compared to 3.4% treated with sunitinib. These events included death due to cardiac events (1.4%), Grade 3-4 myocardial infarction (2.8%), and Grade 3-4 congestive heart failure (1.8%).

BAVENCIO can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman. Advise patients of the potential risk to a fetus including the risk of fetal death. Advise females of childbearing potential to use effective contraception during treatment with BAVENCIO and for at least 1 month after the last dose of BAVENCIO. It is not known whether BAVENCIO is excreted in human milk. Advise a lactating woman not to breastfeed during treatment and for at least 1 month after the last dose of BAVENCIO due to the potential for serious adverse reactions in breastfed infants.

The most common adverse reactions (all grades,  20%) in patients with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) were fatigue (50%), musculoskeletal pain (32%), diarrhea (23%), nausea (22%), infusion-related reaction (22%), rash (22%), decreased appetite (20%), and peripheral edema (20%).

Selected treatment-emergent laboratory abnormalities (all grades,  20%) in patients with metastatic MCC were lymphopenia (49%), anemia (35%), increased aspartate aminotransferase (34%), thrombocytopenia (27%), and increased alanine aminotransferase (20%).

A fatal adverse reaction (sepsis) occurred in one (0.3%) patient with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma (UC) receiving BAVENCIO plus best supportive care (BSC) as first-line maintenance treatment. In patients with previously treated locally advanced or metastatic UC, fourteen patients (6%) who were treated with BAVENCIO experienced either pneumonitis, respiratory failure, sepsis/urosepsis, cerebrovascular accident, or gastrointestinal adverse events, which led to death.

The most common adverse reactions (all grades, 20%) in patients with locally advanced or metastatic UC receiving BAVENCIO plus BSC (vs BSC alone) as first-line maintenance treatment were fatigue (35% vs 13%), musculoskeletal pain (24% vs 15%), urinary tract infection (20% vs 11%), and rash (20% vs 2.3%). In patients with previously treated locally advanced or metastatic UC receiving BAVENCIO, the most common adverse reactions (all grades, 20%) were fatigue, infusion-related reaction, musculoskeletal pain, nausea, decreased appetite, and urinary tract infection.

Selected laboratory abnormalities (all grades, 20%) in patients with locally advanced or metastatic UC receiving BAVENCIO plus BSC (vs BSC alone) as first-line maintenance treatment were blood triglycerides increased (34% vs 28%), alkaline phosphate increased (30% vs 20%), blood sodium decreased (28% vs 20%), lipase increased (25% vs 16%), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) increased (24% vs 12%), blood potassium increased (24% vs 16%), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) increased (24% vs 12%), blood cholesterol increased (22% vs 16%), serum amylase increased (21% vs 12%), hemoglobin decreased (28% vs 18%), and white blood cell decreased (20% vs 10%).

Fatal adverse reactions occurred in 1.8% of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) receiving BAVENCIO in combination with axitinib. These included sudden cardiac death (1.2%), stroke (0.2%), myocarditis (0.2%), and necrotizing pancreatitis (0.2%).

The most common adverse reactions (all grades, 20%) in patients with advanced RCC receiving BAVENCIO in combination with axitinib (vs sunitinib) were diarrhea (62% vs 48%), fatigue (53% vs 54%), hypertension (50% vs 36%), musculoskeletal pain (40% vs 33%), nausea (34% vs 39%), mucositis (34% vs 35%), palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia (33% vs 34%), dysphonia (31% vs 3.2%), decreased appetite (26% vs 29%), hypothyroidism (25% vs 14%), rash (25% vs 16%), hepatotoxicity (24% vs 18%), cough (23% vs 19%), dyspnea (23% vs 16%), abdominal pain (22% vs 19%), and headache (21% vs 16%).

Selected laboratory abnormalities (all grades, 20%) worsening from baseline in patients with advanced RCC receiving BAVENCIO in combination with axitinib (vs sunitinib) were blood triglycerides increased (71% vs 48%), blood creatinine increased (62% vs 68%), blood cholesterol increased (57% vs 22%), alanine aminotransferase increased (ALT) (50% vs 46%), aspartate aminotransferase increased (AST) (47% vs 57%), blood sodium decreased (38% vs 37%), lipase increased (37% vs 25%), blood potassium increased (35% vs 28%), platelet count decreased (27% vs 80%), blood bilirubin increased (21% vs 23%), and hemoglobin decreased (21% vs 65%).

Please see full US Prescribing Information and Medication Guide available at http://www.BAVENCIO.com.

About Tepotinib

Tepotinib is an oral MET inhibitor that is designed to inhibit the oncogenic MET receptor signaling caused by MET (gene) alterations. Discovered and developed in-house at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, it has been designed to have a highly selective mechanism of action, with the potential to improve outcomes in aggressive tumors that have a poor prognosis and harbor these specific alterations. In March 2020, tepotinib became the first oral MET inhibitor indicated for the treatment of advanced NSCLC harboring MET gene alterations to receive a regulatory approval globally, with the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) approval for the treatment of patients with unresectable, advanced or recurrent NSCLC with METex14 skipping alterations. In September 2019, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation for tepotinib in patients with metastatic NSCLC harboring METex14 skipping alterations whose disease progressed following platinum-based cancer therapy. Tepotinib is also being investigated in the Phase II INSIGHT 2 study in combination with osimertinib in MET amplified, advanced or metastatic NSCLC harboring activating EGFR mutations that has progressed following first-line treatment with osimertinib.

About Bintrafusp Alfa

Bintrafusp alfa (M7824), discovered in-house at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and currently in clinical development through a strategic alliance with GSK, is a potential first-in-class investigational bifunctional fusion protein designed to simultaneously block two immunosuppressive pathways, TGF- and PD-L1, within the tumor microenvironment. This bifunctional approach is thought to control tumor growth by potentially restoring and enhancing anti-tumor responses. In preclinical studies, bintrafusp alfa has demonstrated antitumor activity both as monotherapy and in combination with chemotherapy. Based on its mechanism of action, bintrafusp alfa offers a potential targeted approach to addressing the underlying pathophysiology of difficult-to-treat cancers.

All Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, press releases are distributed by e-mail at the same time they become available on the EMD Group Website. In case you are a resident of the USA or Canada please go to www.emdgroup.com/subscribe to register for your online subscription of this service as our geo-targeting requires new links in the email. You may later change your selection or discontinue this service.

About EMD Serono, Inc.

EMD Serono - the biopharmaceutical business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany in the U.S. and Canada - is engaged in the discovery, research and development of medicines for patients with difficult to treat diseases. The business is committed to transforming lives by developing and delivering meaningful solutions that help address the therapeutic and support needs of individual patients. Building on a proven legacy and deep expertise in neurology, fertility and endocrinology, EMD Serono is developing potential new oncology and immuno-oncology medicines while continuing to explore potential therapeutic options for diseases such as psoriasis, lupus and MS. Today, the business has approximately 1,500 employees around the country with commercial, clinical and research operations based in the company's home state of Massachusetts. www.emdserono.com .

About Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a leading science and technology company, operates across healthcare, life science and performance materials. Around 57,000 employees work to make a positive difference to millions of people's lives every day by creating more joyful and sustainable ways to live. From advancing gene editing technologies and discovering unique ways to treat the most challenging diseases to enabling the intelligence of devices  the company is everywhere. In 2019, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany generated sales of  16.2 billion in 66 countries.

The company holds the global rights to the name and trademark "Merck" internationally. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the business sectors of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany operate as EMD Serono in healthcare, MilliporeSigma in life science, and EMD Performance Materials. Since its founding in 1668, scientific exploration and responsible entrepreneurship have been key to the company's technological and scientific advances. To this day, the founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed company.

Contact:

Julissa Viana

781 206 5795

SOURCE EMD Serono
NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro has warned Liberal colleagues that he will not be pushed out by them, despite a growing number of his Nationals MPs fearing his leadership is terminal.

As the NSW Nationals prepare for a bruising parliamentary sitting week, which will include a joint party room meeting with the Liberals, Mr Barilaro issued a blunt ultimatum: "Put up or shut up".

"I'll be in cabinet and I'll be at ERC [expenditure review committee] and I'll be as vocal as always, fighting for the bush," Mr Barilaro said. "It's simple, if you don't like it, you know where the door is."

Deanna and John Barilaro with their daughter Sofia at Taronga Zoo on Sunday.

But Mr Barilaro's message is unlikely to deter senior Liberal ministers, who have warned they will not give the Nationals any concessions in cabinet over the divisive koala planning policy if Mr Barilaro remains their leader.
Former FBI agent Peter Strzok, a favourite punching bag for Donald Trump and right-wing media, has said he still believes Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, have kompromat on the president that prevents him from serving the national interest of the US.

I believed at the time in 2016 and I continue to believe that Donald Trump is compromised by the Russians, Mr Strzok said in an interview on NBC's Meet the Press.

And when I say that I mean that they hold leverage over him that makes him incapable of placing the national interest, the national security ahead of his own, said Mr Strzok, who led the FBIs investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clintons use of a personal email server in violation of government security protocols.

"One of the largest ways that people in foreign governments gain leverage, certainly in the case of the president, is through financial entanglements," Mr Strzok explained on Sunday.

And I think when you take a look at the Trump financial enterprise, particularly its relationship with Russian, with Russian monies and potentially those related to organized crime and other elements, that those interactions have placed him in a position where the Russians have leverage over him and are able to influence his actions, he said.

Mr Strzok has become a bogeyman in conservative media for two episodes: one involving the probe into Ms Clinton and the other related to his work on former special counsel Robert Muellers team investigating Russian election interference and possible ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.

Mr Strzok was instrumental in editing the FBIs conclusions about Ms Clintons actions with regard to the personal email server, characterising them as extremely reckless instead of the originally drafted from grossly negligent  which could have constituted a criminal offence.

In 2017, Mr Mueller removed him from the special counsel team after becoming aware of personal texts between Mr Strzok and his mistress, then-Justice Department lawyer Lisa Page, expressing their mutual disdain for Mr Trump, raising the spectre of a political conflict of interest.

The DOJ inspector general issued a report concluding that neither investigation was influenced by political bias, but Mr Trump has continued to needle Mr Strzok and Ms Page at his campaign rallies for the text messages and their affair.

Mr Strzok lamented on Sunday how his text messages with Ms Page were weaponised by Mr Trump and his allies in Congress to undermine Americans faith in the integrity of Mr Muellers probe.

"I certainly regret sending the text messages that were absolutely weaponized and used to bludgeon the work of the FBI, the work of the special counsel, I'll always regret that," Mr Strzok said.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will address the state via video conference at 1 pm on Sunday, a statement from CMO said. The reason for holding a news conference is not known. However, the decision comes at a time when the Coronavirus cases in the state have crossed the 1 million mark and he is also facing enormous criticism over the actions of administrative bodies and the political party under his aegis.

WATCH UDDHAV THACKERAY'S FULL ADDRESS HERE:

CM Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray addressing the State https://t.co/PcA6OQvBuR  CMO Maharashtra (@CMOMaharashtra) September 13, 2020

Uddhav Thackeray spoke about Covid, launched a new 'my family, my responsibility' campaign, addressed issues like farm-loan waivers, Maratha quota and floods, but didn't speak about other key factors mentioned below. He had, however, started his speech by talking about how there was an attempt to defame the state and to not construe his silence as weakness. Here are some of the other issues under his aegis that he didn't address:

Assaulted ex-Navy Officer's advise to Uddhav

It also remains to be seen whether the Chief Minister will break silence on the assault of the retired navy officer Madan Sharma, allegedly by Shiv Sena workers for forwarding on social media a cartoon mocking Uddhav Thackeray. Six persons were arrested in the case and later granted bail. Speaking to reporters in Mumbai, Sharma said, "I'm injured and stressed. What happened is saddening. I'd like to tell Uddhav Thackeray that if you can't look after law and order then resign and let people decide who should look after it."

READ | CM Uddhav Thackeray takes veiled dig at Kangana Ranaut amid her tiff with Shiv Sena

READ | Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray meets BMC officials amid dramatic spat with Kangana

Kangana Ranaut vs Shiv Sena

The Chief Minister is also tight-lipped on the Kangana Ranaut vs Shiv Sena spat which escalated after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation razed a portion of the actors Mumbai office, alleging that it was built illegally.

Ranaut's recent remark comparing Mumbai to Pakistan- occupied-Kashmir (PoK) has drawn the ire of the ruling Shiv Sena. She had said that she feared Mumbai Police more than the "movie mafia", and would prefer security either from Himachal Pradesh or the Centre. The 33-year-old actor, who returned to Mumbai on Wednesday afternoon from her home state Himachal Pradesh, alleged that the Maharashtra government was targeting her because of her clash with the Shiv Sena.

Republic's reporter arrested; Shiv Sena #CantBlockRepublic

The Chief Minister has also been implored to immediately release Republic TV's reporter Anuj Kumar as well as his videojournalist Yashpaljit Singh and Ola cab driver Pradeep Dilip Dhanavade who have languished in illegal and unlawful custody at the hands of the Maharashtra police after being chased down while probing an investigative lead. Republic has moved the NHRC as well as the Bombay High Court to secure his release. Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court has ruled in Republic's favour over a Shiv Sena party wing threatening cable operators against airing Republic Media Network to people's homes in the state.

READ | Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray sanctions 16.50 crore for flood relief in Nagpur

READ | 'Uddhav Thackeray not welcome in Ayodhya' say angered seers & VHP over Kangana row
Los Angeles, Sep 13 : Two Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies were shotin an apparent ambush and are in critical condition, authorities said.

"One male deputy and one female deputy were ambushed as they sat in their patrol vehicle. Both sustained multiple gunshot wounds and are in critical condition," Xinhua news agency quoted the Sheriff's Department as saying in a tweet on Saturday night.

"They are both currently undergoing surgery. The suspect is still at large," it added.

Both deputies were shot in Compton, a city situated south of downtown Los Angeles, and transported to a local hospital, according to the department.

"They are both still fighting for their lives, so please keep them in your thoughts and prayers," said the Department.

One of the deputies is a 31-year-old mother of a six-year-old boy and the other is a 24-year-old man, said officials in a news briefing late Saturday night.

The suspect was described as a dark-skinned male, according to the officials.

A video clip of the shooting posted online by the Sheriff's Department showed the suspect in dark clothing moving towards a sheriff's vehicle parked by the roadside and opening fire without warning or provocation.

The shooter then ran away from the scene.

Law enforcement officials were searching for the suspect after the attack.

Local television live footage showed a large police presence is currently on the scene.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation Los Angeles said in a tweet that it has offered resources and stands ready to assist in response to reports of the attack.
NEET 2020: Biology was easier than physics and chemistry, says NEET aspirant from Odisha

Satya Prakash Dey, a first time NEET candidate from Balasore district, said, The questions were quite good. Biology was easier than physics and chemistry. Though I did not take any medical coaching, I have done well. In the exam hall we were given new masks. But it was difficult to keep it wearing for 3 hours. Many candidates discarded the masks as they felt stuffy.

NEET 2020: 85-90% students appeared in exam, says Education Minister

The Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal on Sunday tweeted, NTA informed me that around 85-90% students appeared in #NEET exam today. I sincerely thank all Chief Ministers and @DG_NTA for proper arrangements made to facilitate student participation. #NEET participation reflects the tenacity and grit of young #AtmaNirbharBharat.

NTA informed me that around 85-90% students appeared in #NEET exam today. I sincerely thank all Chief Ministers and @DG_NTA for proper arrangements made to facilitate student participation. #NEET participation reflects the tenacity and grit of young #AtmaNirbharBharat .  Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (@DrRPNishank) September 13, 2020

NEET 2020: 87.7% take exam in Lucknow, follow Covid protocol

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, nearly 87.7% candidates appeared in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for the undergraduate (UG) level in the state capital on Sunday. NEET is a medical entrance examination.

Of the 36,000 candidates who were registered to appear in the examination in Lucknow, 31,584 were present. Thus, 87.7% candidates took the exam at 72 centres in the state capital, said a district administration official. Read more

NEET 2020: Exam concludes peacefully in Bihar, students find Bio easy

Braving Covid-19 fear, thousands of medical aspirants along with their guardians poured in the capital city Patna for writing National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) held across 178 centres on Sunday.

Candidates coming out of exam centres seemed relieved after taking exam. Examinees said that exam was moderate to difficult and rated biology the easiest while chemistry and physics moderate.

Jyoti Kumari, who took exam at A N College, said, I found physics difficult than biology. Few questions of botany section were difficult to understand. Physics questions were time taking and calculative. Read more

NEET 2020: Aspirants reaction from Chandigarh after the exams

Satyam Chaduhary who had come from Yamunanagar in Haryana to give the NEET exam in Chandigarh said, The paper was based entirely on the NCERT books, and the answers to the questions were all straightforward. Physics was mostly formula-based and I will score the most in biology. Satyam added that all SOPs were followed to the book and 10 people were present in his class while two remained absent.

Karanvinder Singh from Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab also agreed that the exam was easy. It was on a similar pattern to the 2019 paper. It will be very scoring and the extra vigilance under the guidelines for Covid didnt make students lose their focus.

Arun Gandhi who hails from Chandigarh said, Although the exam was easy I found it a little lengthy. After the exam ended I still had around 10 questions left to answer. Physics was surprisingly easy, even compared to last year, and will be very scoring.

Manas Prabhu from Chandigarh said, Chemistry and biology were smooth sailings and I had practised questions similar to this before the exam. However, outside the centres crowds were forming even as the SOP was followed to the letter inside the exam centre.

NEET 2020: What students from MP said after the exams

A resident of Rajgarh Manisha Verma, who appeared in the exam from a centre in Indore, said, The paper was a moderate one. I found questions of Biology section so easy but questions of chemistry section a bit tough and tricky.

A resident of Shajapur, Shanya Rawle said, I found the question of Physics section a bit lengthy and tough. I couldnt be able to give my 100% as I came to Indore after travelling 100 km in the morning and got tired a lot.

NEET 2020: Candidates reaction from Jharkhand after the exams

An examinee Vishal Kumar, who wrote his NEET papers at Gurunanak Public School based centre in Ranchi, said, Questions were moderate neither tough nor easy. Most of the questions were from NCERT. Many questions of previous year examination were repeated this year.

Another examinee, 19-year-old Pankaj Kujur, who took his examination at Tender Heart School based centre in Ranchis Tupudana, said, Questions were okay from all three subjects including Biology, Physics and Chemistry. For me, biology was easy while physics was a little tough but it was doable.

NEET 2020 exam over

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET 2020) Undergraduate exam ended at 5 pm.

NEET 2020: Last year topper

The son of doctor parents from Rajasthans Sikar district, Nalin Khandelwal who scored 701 out of 720 and a percentile of 99.9999291 in the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2019. Read more

NEET 2020: Top Dental colleges

According to the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2020 rankings, heres is the list of top dental colleges in India:

Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Sciences, Delhi

Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Udupi

Dr. D Y Patil Vidyapith, Pune

Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai

A. B. S. M. Institute of Dental Sciences, Mangaluru

Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Mangalore

Read more

NEET 2020: Top Medical colleges

According to the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2020 rankings, AIIMS, New Delhi, PGIMER Chandigarh, and Christian Medical College, Bangalore are the top three medical colleges in India. Read more

NEET 2020: Post-examination measures

 Candidate exit from examination centres

 On completion of exam, the candidates should be permitted to move out in an orderly manner  One candidate at a time.

 The gloves and masks should be disposed in a pedal push covered bin at the Examination Centre and outside the examination room/hall only

 Required distance will be maintained without crowding anywhere.

 Volunteers will be present along the exit path to ensure orderly movement of candidates.

NEET 2020: Students from Uttarakhands hilly regions travel a day ahead to reach centres

As students appear for National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) on Sunday, many aspirants from remote hilly regions in Uttarakhand travelled a day in advance to reach their exam centres on time. Read more

NEET 2020: Candidates reactions before exam

Mohammad Ovais, who came from Moradabad to his exam centre in Dilshad Garden , said his entry slot was at 11 am.I left from Moradabad at 5 am. It is not that risky if everybody follows all precautions, the problem arises when people take it casually. There was no crowding at the centres as everybody had designated slots, he said.

Vanhika Chaurasia, a resident of Rohini said, Online exam would have been a better option than a pen and paper-based test but we have no option. More delay in exams would have caused loss of a year.

For Yuvraj Kumar, the bigger concern was travelling by public transport.

Thankfully metro services resumed before the exam because I was concerned about that and other modes of public transport are not as safe. We were given separate masks at the centre and we had to dispose the one we were wearing before, he said. Read more

NEET 2020 exam begins

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET 2020) begins for over 15 lakh registered candidates at 3,843 examination centres spread across the country. Read more

NEET 2020: Rahul Gandhi wishes aspirants appearing in the exam

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi wished students appearing for the medical entrance exam NEET on Sunday, while expressing his sympathies with those who could not take it due to the COVID-19 pandemic and floods. Read more

My best wishes to the students appearing for NEET exam and my sympathies to those who couldnt take it due to the Covid pandemic and floods.



Wish Modi ji was as concerned about JEE-NEET aspirants & students as he is about his crony capitalist friends.  Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 13, 2020

NEET 2020 exam to begin shortly

The NEET 2020 exam is scheduled to be held at 2 pm. Exam starts in less than 15 minutes.

NEET 2020: Temperature of candidates checked at exam centre in Chhattisgarh

Temperature of candidates checked at NEET 2020 exam centre in Chhattisgarh.

Chhattisgarh: Temperature of candidates being checked and social distancing norms being followed at an exam centre in Raipur, as they arrive at the examination centre to write the NEET exam (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test). pic.twitter.com/ScUJFqApOy  ANI (@ANI) September 13, 2020

NEET 2020: Measures to be taken after candidates enter exam centre

Candidates report in batches from 11:00 A.M onwards(as per the staggered time slot mentioned in admit card).

At the entry of Registration Room their body temperature is recorded through thermal gun.

If temperature (< 37.4C/99.4F) , they move to frisking personnel for frisking.

If temperature is (> 37.4C/99.4F), they will be taken to Isolation Room. All processes of frisking and document verification will be done after a period of 15-20 minutes. In this time their temperature may become even normal, if not they will be allowed to take the examination alone in a separate room.

Candidates display Admit card, Valid Govt. ID proof, PwD certificate(if PwD candidate), Scribe undertaking (if applicable in proforma given in Information Bulletin) to Invigilator on duty across the table.

After due verification, Invigilator checks seat allocation chart & direct them to their examination room as per roll number.

Invigilator on Duty outside the Registration Room ensures that students enter Registration Room in batches of 10 (first) and then 5, when first 5 leave . After leaving he/she directs Candidates to their Examination room.

NEET 2020: Measures to be taken during examination

 Candidate Authentication

 Videography/CCTV live streaming will be conducted in each room

 Manual Attendance and Handwriting sample at the candidate seat

 Manual attendance with signature (while wearing gloves) will be taken. No thumb impression will be taken.

 50% of the Invigilators will be assigned to work inside the rooms, and 50% will monitor the entry outside the gate and Registration room until the last candidate has taken their place inside the examination room/hall

 The practice of physical movement of Invigilators inside the room must be minimized to the extent possible.

 Masks and gloves will be mandatory for Invigilators

 In case Invigilator is required to help a candidate to resolve any issue, they will need to sanitize their hands before and afterwards (without removing gloves).

 Candidate must take permission from Invigilator before going for washroom

 Housekeeping staff manning the washrooms must insist that the candidates wash their hands before leaving the washroom.

 The practice of water dispenser will be discontinued

 Personal Water Bottles will be permitted at the table and should be brought by the candidate

NEET 2020: Directions for candidates after they enter the exam hall

Candidate will display the documents for Exam Functionary to view without touching the document.

Manual attendance with signature (while wearing gloves) will be taken.

No thumb impressions will be taken.

The practice of physical movement of Invigilators inside the room will be minimized.

Personal water bottles will be permitted at the table and should be brought by the candidate.

The gloves and masks should be disposed in a pedal push covered bin at the Examination Centre and outside the examination hall only

NEET 2020: Students arriving at exam centres in Tamil Nadu

Candidates begin arriving at examination centres in Tamil Nadu to appear in the NEET 2020 examination.

NEET 2020: Candidates arrive at examination centre in West Bengal

Candidates arrive at an examination centre in Siliguri to appear for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET).

West Bengal: Candidates arrive at an examination centre in Siliguri to write National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET).



A candidate says,"It's a test of 1.5 years of my hard work. We're taking all precautions including wearing masks and frequently sanitizing hands." #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/KwVtiHeVNe  ANI (@ANI) September 13, 2020

NEET 2020: Here is what you should know if you are a candidate

Every candidate has to cover their face with mask

Staggered time slots for reporting has been given to candidates to avoid crowd at the examination centre.

NTA has increased the number of exam centres from earlier 2546 to 3843 now, in order to maintain social distancing.

Number of candidates sitting in each room has been reduced from earlier 24 to 12 now.

All staff members and candidates will be checked with Thermo guns at the entry points to check their temperature

Candidates observed with having above normal temperature or displaying any symptom of Covid-19 suspect will be placed in separate isolation rooms

NEET 2020: Odisha CM extends his best wishes to candidates

Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik on Saturday extended his best wishes to the students appearing in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET 2020) examination scheduled to be held on September 13, 2020.

                 

Best wishes to all appearing for #NEET2020 during this challenging time. May you all be successful and come through with flying colours. pic.twitter.com/rqpvX3DxFy  Naveen Patnaik (@Naveen_Odisha) September 12, 2020

NEET 2020: Direct link to download admit card for entrance exam

Heres the direct link to download the NEET 2020 admit card.

NEET 2020: 1.6 lakh candidates to appear in UP, 2.2 lakh in Maharashtra

A total of 1,66,582 candidates from Uttar Pradeshsecond highest after Maharashtras 2,28,914 are to appear in National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) Under Graduate (UG) -2020. Read more

NEET 2020: Students arriving at examination centres in Chennai

Candidates begin arriving at examination centres to appear in the NEET 2020 examination.

Chennai: Candidates begin arriving at examination centres to write NEET exam (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test); visuals from Vidya Mandir in Mylapore.



A candidate says,"NEET is just an exam.There's nothing to fear about. If not cleared this time,we can reappear next year" pic.twitter.com/IpFRKR4Wc8  ANI (@ANI) September 13, 2020

NEET 2020: Each examination centre will have the following additional Inventory

1) Gloves and Masks for all staff on examination duty

2) Gloves & Masks for candidates in case they do not come with their own, Hand Sanitizer at entry and inside the Examination Centres as needed.

3) Spray bottles, Sponges/cloth for disinfecting items such as

desk/table, door handles, etc.

4) Disinfectant liquid with 1% sodium hypochlorite for spraying in the examination Centres

5) Liquid handwash/soap in washrooms for washing hands

6) Thermo guns for Temperature check of candidates and all staff on duty

NEET 2020: Education Ministers message to candidates appearing in exam

The Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriya on Saturday extended his best wishes to the students appearing in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET 2020) examination scheduled to be held on September 13, 2020.

 #NEET     3862                          Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (@DrRPNishank) September 12, 2020

NEET 2020: Items allowed inside exam centre

Mask on face

Gloves on hand

Personal transparent water bottle

Personal small hand sanitizer (50 ml)

Exam related documents as instructed (Admit Card, ID card, etc)

NEET 2020: Kolkata Metro specials and more than 2500 buses on road for candidates

The Kolkata Metro would run 79 special trains on Sunday for candidates appearing for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). Apart from the metro, the state transport corporations have planned to run more than 2,500 buses across the state for the candidates. Read more

NEET 2020 examination to be conducted today

The National Testing Agency will conduct NEET 2020 examination today , September 13, for over 15 lakh candidates at 3,842 centres spread across the country.
AMERSHAM, United Kingdom, Sept. 13, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cytiva, a global life sciences leader, is expanding its manufacturing capacity and hiring personnel in key areas to support the long-term growth of the biotechnology industry.

Emmanuel Ligner, President and CEO, Cytiva, says: "We know from our customers that availability and lead time are the most important considerations after quality. Cytiva's long-term commitment is to deliver the best product, at the right time, and support our customers with expertise. The industry is growing rapidly, now even more due to COVID-19. Accelerating this investment will reinforce these commitments."

While the COVID-19 pandemic is increasing short-term demand, the biotherapeutics industry was already predicted to grow by double digits between now and 20251. Cytiva's global product manufacturing and distribution network encompasses 13 sites across Asia, the Americas, and Europe. The investments, totaling around 500 million USD, will respond to in-region, for-region demand, bolster security of supply through dual manufacturing, and increase overall global capacity in key product areas.

Cytiva is investing in talent, too, hiring nearly 1,000 people around the world. Ligner says: "We're acquiring talent in every area of our business, from commercial to those on production lines, in order to better serve customers for the long term."

Single-use technologies are used to manufacture 85%2 of the biologics currently in pre-commercial and clinical manufacturing lines. As regulatory approvals occur, demand for single-use products at manufacturing scale is expected to grow substantially. Through additional equipment and infrastructure at multiple sites, Cytiva's capacity to manufacture single-use products will more than double.

In Asia-Pacific, single-use capacity will triple through a partnership with one of the largest healthcare technology suppliers in China, Wego, which is already producing consumables for Cytiva's customers in the region.

Cell culture media production will increase thanks to new manufacturing lines and cleanroom space in Logan, Utah, as well as additional shifts and personnel. The Singapore and Pasching, Austria locations are increasing output through more personnel and additional work shifts. This follows on from a tenfold increase in powdered cell culture media production announced in May 2018.

The manufacturing capacity of Cytiva's MabSelect and Capto chromatography product platforms has doubled, as part of a 70 million USD per year (2017 - 2022) capacity gains and facility modernization program at its Uppsala, Sweden site. Now, the plant is fully automated with the latest technology to allow continuous manufacturing. Other elements include the capacity extension of the Sephadex resin, setting-up additional facilities for in-house manufacturing, and the development of automation and digitalization infrastructure.

Cytiva is also enabling the rapidly growing cell and gene therapy market through an investment in a new facility in Grens, Switzerland to manufacture single-use kits for its Sepax and Sefia cell processing systems.

Cytiva has a longstanding and comprehensive Security of Supply program in place which enables manufacturing output to respond to market demands while ensuring that operations and service capabilities continue safely. For some product lines, part of the solution is having multiple sites able to deliver to customers.

Ligner says: "Dual manufacturing assures our customers that if one location encounters capacity constraints, we have plenty of back-up ready to activate."

About Cytiva

Cytiva is a global life sciences leader with over 7,000 associates across 40 countries dedicated to advancing and accelerating therapeutics. As a trusted partner to customers that range in scale and scope, Cytiva brings speed, efficiency, and capacity to research and manufacturing workflows, enabling the development, manufacture, and delivery of transformative medicines to patients.

1 BioPlan's 2020 Report and Survey of Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Capacity and Production, p 29

2 BioPlan's 2020 Report and Survey of Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Capacity and Production, p 58

SOURCE Cytiva

Related Links

https://cytiva.com


The western Quebec health authority says it will be temporarily suspending intensive care services at the Gatineau Hospital as of midnight Saturday night due to a shortage of nurses.

Patients requiring intensive care will have access to the "necessary care in other hospital settings in the region," the Centre integre de Sante et de Services sociaux de l'Outaouais (CISSSO) said in a French-language news release late Saturday afternoon.

The decision comes after intensive care and emergency nurses held a sit-in Friday morning at the hospital to draw attention to the staff shortages.

The intensive care ward was short six nurses that day, while the ER had one fewer nurse than usual, according to Radio-Canada.

Patrick Guay, the president of the nurses' union, told Radio-Canada that without proper staffing levels, the nurses feel they cannot do their jobs safely.

CISSSO said the shortage is due to "unexpected absences" and that it would be keeping western Quebec residents updated during the closure.
President Nicolas Maduro said Friday that an "American spy" had been arrested near two Venezuelan refineries, after authorities foiled a plot to "cause an explosion" at another oil complex.

"Yesterday we captured... an American spy who was spying in Falcon state on the Amuay and Cardon refineries," Maduro said in a televised address.

According to Maduro the individual was "a marine who was serving as a marine at CIA bases in Iraq" and who was captured with "heavy weapons" and "large amounts of cash."

The arrest, he said, occurred after authorities on Wednesday "discovered and dismantled" a "plan to cause an explosion" at El Palito refinery -- the closest to Caracas -- located in Carabobo state.

Maduro did not say, however, where the individual was being held.

Last month two former US soldiers, Luke Alexander Denman, 34, and Airan Berry, 41, were sentenced to 20 years in prison in Venezuela on charges including terrorism, after a failed bid to invade the Caribbean country last May.

Just hours before Friday's announcement, the Venezuelan government said it was establishing an "emergency plan" intended to regulate "fuel distribution" in light of severe gasoline shortages in the country, where people wait in lines stretching miles (kilometers) to fuel up their vehicles.

Venezuela suffers fuel shortages despite having the largest proven oil reserves in the world.

The petroleum industry was the cornerstone of Venezuela's economy a century ago, but production has fallen to a fraction of the 3.2 million barrels per day produced just over a decade ago.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-14 05:40:58|Editor: huaxia

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HOUSTON, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Mandatory evacuation orders were issued in parts of the U.S. state of Louisiana on Sunday as Tropical Storm Sally is expected to make landfall Monday night.

Louisiana's St. Charles Parish officials have ordered a parish-wide mandatory evacuation as Sally approaches the Louisiana coast.

Local media reported that Parish President Matthew Jewell signed the order Sunday afternoon, saying that the storm will cause widespread power outages.

Besides, Jefferson Parish and St. John the Baptist Parish also issued mandatory evacuation orders for residents in low-lying areas.

According to forecast, Sally is expected to strengthen into a Category 1 hurricane by the time it makes landfall on Monday night. The eye is projected to come ashore just west of the mouth of the Mississippi River. The National Weather Service has issued hurricane and tropical storm watches for areas of Southeast Louisiana.

On Saturday, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency ahead of Sally.

"This storm has the potential to be very serious," Edwards said. "This, when combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, can make us all weary. I implore Louisianans to take their preparations seriously." Enditem
Valerie Pecresse, a French presidential hopeful from the Republican party, who had the egregious audacity to illegally visit the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan on December 22, 2021, is now allegedly "infuriated" at the French government's "deafening silence" at Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's remarks that she would not have been permitted to leave the country, had Baku been informed about her illegal trip.
After a torrential rain destroyed the family farm, Maria Dolores Gonzales family was forced to move to Roy where she was born a year later.

Unemployed and homeless, Gonzales father found work with the Bureau of Animal Industry in Mexico as a liaison between English speaking livestock inspectors and Spanish speaking villagers. Canuto Gonzales documented his experiences in Mexico by taking many photographs of the villagers and their way of life.

Soon his family would see first hand what life was like in Mexico when they moved to Guadalajara in 1949. Some of the photos are included in Maria Dolores Gonzales memoir Atop the Windmill: I Could See Forever.

She seamlessly strings together her years in Mexico as if the events occurred recently instead of during her childhood.

I started jotting these things down when I was in my 20s and remembering the stories, Gonzales said. I think a lot of it had to do with just finding my voice, because when youre one of five children, I felt invisible. Therefore, I was looking for that voice. By telling the stories, the memories would come back and in the process the voice was there.

Gonzales created memories in Mexico that shaped her identity and strongly influenced her career path as an adult. Returning back to New Mexico in 1950, living in Roy and Rosebud in Los Llanos, eventually had her questioning who she was and suppressing the one thing she held dear to her heart  her language.

In the book, Gonzales describes the punishment children received for speaking Spanish. Having to suppress that part of her identity took its toll on her.

Youre being told that your Spanish is bad, or you shouldnt speak Spanish, or English is the dominant language, she said. So that affected me terribly and when I took my first university course in Spanish I was embarrassed. The professor embarrassed me. He humiliated me in the classroom and I couldnt believe it. I dropped out of the University of New Mexico for 10 years.

During her 10 year absence from the university, Gonzales got married and had two children.

However, she could not shake her drive to keep her culture alive and returned to UNM to take Spanish classes for four years. There she met professor Sabine Ulibarri who encouraged his students to love their language.

I took Spanish (classes) for like four years and any class I could take, I took, she said. I was so determined that I was taking back my language. I felt so robbed of something so precious and it was part of my identity. That was the thing, I couldnt feel complete until I took back my mother tongue Thats why Mexico was so important to me because thats where it really just blossomed. Thats where I started speaking.

Gonzales experiences in New Mexico, and the memories made in Mexico, pushed her to help others who have been subject to the same prejudices she endured. She received her doctorate degree in Spanish sociolinguistics and taught at UNM as well as in Las Cruces and Corpus Christi, Texas. She revived and coordinated the Sabine Ulibarri Spanish Heritage Program at UNM.

The first thing one has to become aware of is you dont teach Spanish in New Mexico as a foreign language, she said. It is a heritage language. It is our language. It has been spoken in New Mexico for 400 years and so how can it be a foreign language?  These students would come in I would get to know them. All of them would say I want to learn to speak to my grandmother in Spanish or Ive been trying so hard and people laugh at me or ridicule me and I knew what they were talking about and the pain.

After retiring from UNM, Gonzales established the Bilingual Strategies Language Institute and offers Spanish immersion retreats in northern New Mexico and Spanish conversation classes for adults in Albuquerque.

Her book Atop the Windmill: I Could See Forever can be purchased directly from its website at bilingualstrategies.com. Information about her organization is also available on the website.
Almost half of Irelands new coronavirus cases were in Dublin, the authorities said on Saturday.

The Government would have no hesitation in implementing special restrictions in the city to curb the spread of coronavirus, Taoiseach Micheal Martin has warned.

The Cabinet is due to consider advice from public health experts at NPHET on Tuesday following a series of warnings from the acting Chief Medical Officer about the deteriorating situation in the capital.

Dr Ronan Glynn said: 47% of the cases reported today are in Dublin city and county.

For the people of Dublin in particular, this is a critical moment to address the spread of the disease in the community.

Two further people have died with Covid-19. An additional 159 infections were confirmed, the Department of Health said on Saturday evening.

No more than six people are allowed to visit a house from no more than three households at present.

This could be reduced in Dublin to six from two households.

Dr Glynn said: Individual choices can make all the difference  reconsider your plans for the weekend, reduce the number of people that you meet and avoid social activities that involve large groups of people.

Mr Martin said ministers had learned from their actions during earlier clampdowns in Kildare, Offaly and Laois and would do what was necessary.

He told An tSeachtain le Mairin Ni Ghadhra on RTE Raidio na Gaeltachta: The most important thing about Dublin is how to get to grips with the virus to lower the number of cases and to put pressure on the virus.

We wont be afraid to implement measures specifically in Dublin, if thats the way forward.

Over the last two weeks, there have been 1,055 cases of Covid-19 in Dublin, giving a 14-day incidence rate of 78 per 100,000 people and a reproductive number of 1.4.

Acting chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn has issued another warning about infection rates in Dublin.

He said the virus was growing by 4% due to spread associated with households.

He said: This provides a window of opportunity for us to bring the current trajectory of disease under control.

To do so we need to act now to break the chains of transmission.

The Taoiseach said everyone had to stick to the guidelines, but added that the Government understood the need to be aware of their mental health impact.

We know from the research that the situation with the virus has had a terrible impact on physical and mental health, and we need to focus on that so were considering peoples lifestyles, and were looking at that in terms of sport and culture, we have to make exceptions and tailored plans for those sectors in this country.

Gardai have received legal powers to close restaurants and bars which do not meet coronavirus restrictions.

President Micheal D Higgins signed into law the Criminal Justice Enforcement Powers Covid-19 Bill.

Professor Sam McConkey at the Royal College of Surgeons says there are still ways to make connections with the people we love and it doesn't have to be through a laptop.

"Things like meeting outside and doing things outside together still allow an awful lot of getting to know people.

"It may not be wise or good to have 20, 50, 1,000 of people together but you can certainly do it in small groups.

"I don't feel that we should stop socialising, we are still social animals.

"That still allows for intimacy and friendship and meaningful relationships just in smaller numbers."
Adding some rosy hues to Sunday vibes, Rana Dagubattis wife Miheeka Bajaj made an appearance on fans social media feeds in a chikankari saree by designer Manish Malhotra and fashion police was on immediate alert. Miheeka and Rana had nothing short of a fairytale wedding on August 8 at Ramanaidu Studios in Hyderabad this year and the bride has left us smitten ever since with her fashion-forward sense.

Taking to his Instagram handle this weekend, Manish shared a picture featuring Miheeka looking jaw-dropping elegant as she added a touch of modernity to the ethnic look with an embroidered white belt cinched at her torso. Establishing her impeccable fashion game by rocking the trend of belted sarees, she accessorised her look with a pair statement chandelier earring and a ring.

Opting for mauve lipstick and minimal make-up, Miheeka sported kohl-rimmed eyes. Leaving her side-parted tresses to fall effortlessly down her back, Miheeka flashed her million dollar smile for the camera as she posed in the pastel pink Indian-wear.

Elaborating on the outfit, Manish wrote in the caption, Its a elegant timeless saree that always remains my favourite @miheeka looks gorgeous and elegant in a signature #manishmalhotralabel Tulle with threadwork Hand Embrodiered Threadwork Chikankari Saree (sic).

For the uninitiated, Miheeka is an event and wedding planner and knew Rana even before dating as they were family friends. During a live session with actress Lakshmi Manchu, Rana had shared, Miheeka is Venkatesh Babais daughter Aashrithas friend. Ive known her since long but fell in love with her only pre-lockdown. She is friends with my family and my group in Mumbai. She was there all these years, but we didnt feel it then.

Mihika too had shared a mushy post for her husband post their wedding with beautiful candid pictures. She had captioned it, My love, my life, my heart, my soul! Thank you for being everything Ive ever dreamt of and so much more!! You make me a better person in life. I love you! (sic)

When Rana confessed on social media about Miheeka accepting his proposal on May 12, 2020, fans scrambled to search through google about the diva. Left hooked with her sartorial elegance as seen in the varied pictures that came flooding during their wedding ceremonies, fans cannot seem to have enough of this new beauty in town and wait on the edge for latest updates on her style statements.

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Linkedin Michel Comte (Agence France-Presse) Ottawa, Canada  Sun, September 13, 2020 19:00 495 e22cd4161040e111d73a5626c449460d 2 Entertainment Naomi-Watts,Toronto-Film-Festival Free

Oscar-nominated actress Naomi Watts has worked with Hollywood icons such as David Lynch and Sean Penn, but admitted Saturday that a magpie stole her scenes in "Penguin Bloom," premiering at the Toronto film festival.

Watts plays Sam Bloom in the real-life drama about a mother who becomes paralyzed in an accidental fall, but is pulled out of despair by caring for an injured baby bird named Penguin.

"That made me nervous. How do we get a performance out of a bird and, you know, magpies are famously not super friendly," Watts told a virtual news conference.

The movie used some animatronics and CGI, but mostly "a multitude" of live birds, confirmed director Glendyn Ivin.

"They absolutely stole the scenes every single day," said Watts, describing how one used the bathroom on her head on the first day of filming.

Speaking from her home in Australia Sam Bloom said the real Penguin had "brought a bit of excitement and happiness into our house" after the accident "made everyone sad."

With a pandemic and a closed Canadian border forcing Hollywood stars and media to remain home, North America's biggest film festival has scrambled to find socially-distanced ways to present this year's line-up, with movies premiering online and at drive-in screenings.

Through a child's eyes

Earlier in Toronto, "Selma" star David Oyelowo unveiled "The Water Man," marking his directorial debut.

"I made it for my 12-year-old self, I made it for those kids who don't get to see themselves represented in this kind of story," he said.

Written by Emma Needell and backed by Oprah Winfrey, the film follows the adventures of a boy, played by Lonnie Chavis, who seeks out a fabled bogeyman hoping he can cure the terminal cancer plaguing his mother, played by Rosario Dawson.

"It's very rare to see a black family at the center of this kind of story," Oyelowo said.

"And I'm not just making it for black and brown people. I'm hoping that white people watch it and see themselves represented in it (too) because I do believe that seeing ourselves in different kinds of people is what engenders empathy and erodes ignorance," he said.

'Falling' into directing

"Lord of the Rings" star Viggo Mortensen also realized his dream of directing a movie, premiering "Falling," about a crotchety and demented father who relentlessly assails his son's homosexuality.

The three-times Oscar-nominated actor last appeared in "Green Book," which screened at the Toronto film festival before winning a Best Picture Oscar in 2019.

"It's one thing to know me as an actor, but I mean, I haven't directed anything," said the 61-year-old, who also stars in the main role.

The film shifts between the main character John as a boy, forced into tests of masculinity by his father, and John as an adult living happily as a gay man until his dad (played by Lance Henriksen) comes back into his life, spewing his usual vitriol and rancid homophobia.

Producer Daniel Bekerman shared an on-set anecdote to describe Mortensen's directing resolve: In the film Henriksen wades into the ocean with a lit cigarette, but splashing waves keep extinguishing it.

Behind the camera, Mortensen "had multiple lit cigarettes in (his) mouth" to give to Henriksen each time one went out.
SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio - While driving anywhere, weve all seen the political signs being displayed proudly on lawns across Northeast Ohio.

Given that the election is fewer than two months away, lawns are filled with Trump-Pence or Biden-Harris signs. Its usually a safe bet the family members are in agreement over their show of support.

Geraldo Riveras house in Shaker Heights is another matter.

The correspondent-at-large for Fox News and his wife, Erica, apparently have conflicting viewpoints over their presidential choices.

Ericas political sign clearly states her choice in Novembers election, while Rivera is taking another route. Next to a Biden-Harris 2020 sign is a homemade, magic-marker scrawled message, pointing to the pro-Democrat sign:

Husband is undecided. Leaning to: President Trump. But may vote Kanye."

Kanye is, of course, rapper-producer Kanye West. He is on the ballot in a dozen states, but not Ohio.

Rivera explained his sign in a recent interview with cleveland.coms Joey Morona.

I was getting all these vibes from people [about the Biden-Harris sign] and I said, Wait a second, thats Erica. Women have rights to be independent. So, I put a second sign that pointed to Ericas that says wife only and then it goes on and says husband is undecided, leaning to President Trump. Its pretty funny. Its become like a tourist attraction.

Related coverage: Fox News' Geraldo Rivera celebrates 50 years on television: Its been quite a ride
WASHINGTON  By the December, Connecticuts goal is to test 1 million people  about one third of the states population  every month for coronavirus.

Thats according to a testing plan filed by the state with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources in July.

Connecticut will have to more than double the amount of diagnostic testing it performed in August to meet that target. So far, the state has fallen short of each of the monthly testing targets it set in its plan, but not by much.

The state testing plan indicates that Connecticut will focus diagnostic testing this fall on schools, nursing homes and other congregate settings. The state is exploring using sample pooling for the first time to expand its reach and is part way through a statewide serology survey, intended to see how many people had the virus in the past.

Like diagnostic testing, the state also fell short of its July and August goals for serology testing, blood tests that indicate the presence of virus antibodies. Connecticut plans to ramp up serology testing to 500,000 per month by December, up from last months 8,335 serology tests.

But according to the Harvard Global Health Institute and the Brown School of Public Health, Connecticut is one of just a handful of states thats completing enough diagnostic testing to actually suppress the virus: proactively identifying cases and isolating new cases before the start of a wider outbreak.

Connecticut continues to do really well, said Thomas Tsai, professor of health policy and management at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and a surgeon at Brigham and Womens Hospital. It has been averaging 302 tests per 100,000 on a seven day moving average. That is above our mitigation target and above our suppression target as well. Connecticut had very sustained levels of testing over the course of the pandemic.

The states testing plan shows the road Connecticut will take to 1,000 diagnostic tests and 500,000 serology tests in December: expand testing sites, hire more personnel and obtain more testing equipment and loads of swabs and media.

The plan, made public by HHS last month, was required of Connecticut and other states by law in exchange for receiving billions in coronavirus testing money from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this spring. In lieu of one national testing strategy, the plans show that the nation has 64 unique testing schemes governing every state, territory and some cities.

This fall, Connecticuts plans to test symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals, despite the CDCs new guidance that people exposed to the virus who dont have symptoms may not need a test. The state testing plan shows the Connecticut will focus on testing educators and students at universities and schools, expand testing for nursing home residents and incarcerated people and increase community testing in targeted neighborhoods.

Most laboratories now processing COVID-19 samples in Connecticut are now reviewing the possibility of pooling, said Lora Rae Anderson, director of communications for the governors chief operating officer. Pooling means combining respiratory samples from several people and conducting one laboratory test on the combined to check for coronavirus; it allows labs to test more samples with fewer testing materials, according to the CDC. If the pool result is negative, the whole group is cleared; if positive, individual samples would be tested to identify patients with the virus.

A statewide serology survey is underway in Connecticut. A study of the results from 505 Connecticut adults residing in non-congregate settings found 18 had COVID-19 antibodies, resulting in a state level weighted seroprevalence of 3.1, according to a paper published in early August.

So far, Connecticut has under-performed its goal for serology testing. Connecticut conducted 8,335 serology tests in August and 14,384 in July, according to data shared by the governors office. The states targets for each month were 50,000 tests, the plan shows.

Anderson said Connecticut did not receive assistance from HHS in setting its testing targets, but the plan was reviewed by the CDC.

"Each jurisdiction must ensure their testing plan provisions are in place to meet current and future surge capacity testing needs, federal support for point-of-care testing in nursing homes and any other tactics in place designed to maximize the entire testing ecosystem," said Mia Heck, a spokesperson for HHS. "In addition, a multidisciplinary team of experts from HHS has completed a technical review for each jurisdictions' plan to ensure that it is sufficient to mitigate the spread of the virus, protect vulnerable groups, and account for adequate testing supplies and reagents to reach jurisdiction testing goals."

The nation now is at a "critical moment" for testing, Tsai said. It finally has the resources to shift from a reactive testing strategy  testing the symptomatic only  to a proactive strategy that layers on asymptomatic testing. It's a "paradigm shift" in thinking from a focus on simply testing more, to deciding who test, when to test them and with what tool.

How to test and who to test has at times been the subject of conflict between the federal and state governments. In late August, the CDC changed its testing guidelines to say people who have been in close contact with a COVID-19 patient may not need to be tested if they do not have symptoms. That was a reversal of the CDC's earlier guidance that close contacts should be tested even if asymptomatic.

Gov. Ned Lamont said Connecticut would not follow the new CDC recommendation, calling it "reckless" and not science-based in a joint statement with the governors of New York and New Jersey.

On Thursday, the Trump administration's testing czar, Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for Health at the US Department of Health and Human Services, also contradicted the CDC guidelines and told CNN "We do need to test asymptomatic people. There is no doubt about that. Full stop.

The 14-page state testing plan highlighted the limits created by the availability of testing component supplies, the capacity of laboratory machines that run the tests and personnel to run the process.

Manufacturing shortages and expense both play a key role as states try to expand testing, said Ben Linville-Engler, industry and certificate director at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose been involved in analyzing coronavirus testing with Harvard Global Health Institute, among other work on the coronavirus supply chain.

Whos paying for the testing? Theres CARES Act funding but theres not necessarily confidence that more funding is going to get passed and so states have to figure out how they are going to utilize that money through the rest of the year," he said. "What other funds can they draw on? Thats where the connection to this economic impact were having is really hitting cities and counties really hard. The budgetary shortfalls for cities and counties across the U.S. for sales tax is going to be huge. These places arent in a position to throw large amounts of money into increasing testing unfortunately.

The CDC awarded Connecticut $202.9 million in coronavirus testing money to fund its efforts. The state has used the money on testing basics like supplies, but also investing in contact tracing to target testing most efficiently, Anderson said.

"HHS and FEMA are meeting all state needs for COVID-19 testing supplies like swabs and media," Heck said. "As of September 2, the federal government has distributed 80 million swabs, 66 million media and over 40 types of other resources."

Meanwhile, HHS is sitting on more than $8 billion in funding Congress earmarked for coronavirus testing, said U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, who oversees appropriations for the agency.

If HHS is not going to use those funds to support testing, the Department should distribute those funds to the States, she said.

HHS responded that the agency has obligated over 90 percent of $100 billion in coronavirus funding it received. As of September 8, only $265 million out of $10.25 billion made available to states for testing purposes has been drawn down by the states, said HHS spokeswoman Kate Migliaccio-Grabill.The agency has used $8.3 billion in flexible funding to make testing and supplies available to states, nursing homes and vulnerable populations.

HHS continues to strategically and responsibly hold some funds in reserve to support any emergent needs or new technologies, especially as we head into flu season, Migliaccio-Grabill said.

Tsai said he worried the administrations decentralized testing strategy was creating a new system in which states would compete for testing resources like they did with PPE and potentially be limited in their testing by their struggling budgets.

It doesnt make sense to sit on $8 billion for a rainy day, when that rainy day is here and the sun is not out yet, he said.

emilie.munson@hearstdc.com: Twitter: @emiliemunson
New Delhi: As the vaccine companies throughout the world are in a race to deliver the Covid-19 vaccine, all eyes are on India which manufactures 60% of the worlds vaccines. But among all other cities in India, Hyderabad is the city which has the capacity to manufacture a third of the global vaccine, a report in Times of India said.

Whether it is the first indigenous Covid-19 vaccine- Covaxin, Russias Sputnik V, Johnson& Johnsons Ad26.Cov2.S, FlueGens CoroFlu or even Sanofis vaccine under development, all the above names have a Hyderabad connection.

Whether a vaccine for Covid-19 is developed in India or not, but the city is always vital for vaccine developed anywhere in the world, Dr Varaprasad Reddy, founder of Shanta Biotechnics Ltd said.

All Hyderabad vaccine companies are robust in manufacturing technology and have the capacity to manufacture millions of doses with good standards, Reddy reportedly said to TOI. Reddy is awaiting Sanofis own vaccine candidate in the first half of 2021, which is to largely manufactured in Hyderabad.

Mahima Datla, managing director of Biological E Limited also feels the same of Hyderabad. Her company is to develop its own vaccine candidate and a tech collaboration to manufacture Johnson& Johnsons vaccine in Hyderabad.

Experts suggest that most of Covid-19 vaccine candidates being developed by academic laboratories and non-vaccine companies, who dont have the required infrastructure will have no choice but to partner with India or China.

According to reports, Hyderabads vaccine manufacturers are informally discussing for manufacturing collaboration so that whenever a successful candidate is developed then the manufacturing can be done in Hyderabad.

Indian Immunologicals Ltd, a vaccine manufacturing company has a new 20 million single dose capacity which is coming at Genome Valley on Hyderabad outskirts which is ready to partner with third-party Covid-19 vaccine manufacturer. The company is already in talks with Russians for making Sputnik V, TOI reported.
President Donald Trump during a Fox TV interview praised the fatal police shooting of Michael Reinoehl, the self-described Portland antifascist accused of killing a right-wing Trump supporter, calling it appropriate retribution.

Trump characterized Reinoehls alleged shooting of Aaron Jay Danielson in downtown Portland on Aug. 29 as a cold-blooded killing and said he pushed two and a half days later for Reinoehls arrest.

I put out, When are you going to go get him?'" Trump said Saturday on the Justice With Judge Jeanine show.

And the U.S. Marshals went in to get him. And, in a short period of time, it ended in a gun fight. This guy was a violent criminal. And the U.S. Marshals killed him, Trump said. I will tell you something, thats the way it has to be. There has to be retribution when you have crime like this.

The president went on to say: There cant be guys standing up that want to fight. They want to fight. You cant throw bricks at people with shields on.

On Sept. 3, four officers from three different Washington law enforcement agencies fired at Reinoehl after confronting him outside an apartment near Lacey, Washington. The officers were part of the U.S. Marshals Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force.

The task force was trying to arrest Reinoehl on a warrant signed earlier that afternoon by a Multnomah County judge that charged Reinoehl with second-degree murder with a firearm and unlawful use of a firearm in the shooting of Danielson after a pro-Trump car caravan wound through downtown Portland.

Reinoehl was a self-described anti-fascist who said he provided security for demonstrators at ongoing protests in Portland against police violence and racial injustice after George Floyds death in Minneapolis. Danielson had participated in the Trump caravan and was a backer of Patriot Prayer, a right-wing group based in Vancouver known for clashing with antifa supporters in Portland.

In response to Trumps remarks, Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director of the NAACPs Legal Defense and Educational Fund, wrote Sunday on Twitter: So the President is admitting that federal authorities killed Michael Reinoehl for retribution? We are on our way to normalizing the execution of criminal suspects before arrest, trial or conviction. Its that serious.

So the President is admitting that federal authorities killed Michael Reinoehl for retribution? We are on our way to normalizing the execution of criminal suspects before arrest, trial or conviction. Its that serious. https://t.co/E5DiwwjSwj  Sherrilyn Ifill (@Sifill_LDF) September 13, 2020

In Washington, Reinoehl was armed with a handgun when police spotted him walking out of an apartment, but investigators havent said whether he fired any shots at officers, according to Thurston County Sheriffs Lt. Ray Brady.

Reinoehl, 48, died at the scene. An autopsy showed he died from gunshot wounds to the head and upper torso.

A day after Reinoehl was killed, U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr issued a written statement, calling the tracking down of Reinoehl a significant accomplishment and that the streets are safer with this violent agitator removed.

Witnesses have provided conflicting accounts of what occurred.

Nate Dinguss, a man who lives at the apartment complex and has obtained a lawyer, put out a statement last week, saying he didnt see Reinoehl pull a gun when officers began firing at him. He said officers didnt appear to issue any commands or orders to Reinoehl.

Reinoehl was heading to his car while eating candy and holding a cellphone, Dinguss said.

The night of the shooting, the U.S. Marshals Service issued a statement that said "initial reports indicate the suspect produced a firearm, threatening the lives of law enforcement officers. Task force members responded to the threat and struck the suspect who was pronounced dead at the scene.

In the Portland killing, investigators said in court documents that it appears Reinoehl targeted Danielson, who wore a Patriot Prayer cap. Reinoehl emerged from an alcove of a parking garage before firing two gunshots, one that hit Danielsons bear spray can and the other that hit him in the chest, according to police affidavits. Danielson was walking south on Southwest Third Avenue at the time.

In Trumps interview with Foxs Jeanine Pirro Saturday, he also called Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler a disaster, a laughingstock, claiming that if he sent federal officers back to Portland, within a half an hour the whole thing would be solved.

His administration sent federal officers from multiple agencies to Portland in early July to help secure the downtown Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse from vandalism during downtown demonstrations. Their presence, though, led to a greater number of demonstrators taking to the street and protesting.

After some in the crowd lobbed fireworks, frozen water bottles, rocks and other objects nightly at the officers, the federal officers responded firing tear gas and impact munitions, which has led to multiple lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Marshals Service.

An agreement reached in late July between Gov. Kate Brown and Vice President Mike Pence resulted in state troopers taking over the outside security of the federal courthouse for two weeks, while federal officers retreated inside. Protesters then turned their attention to various police precincts around the city and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement' field office in Southwest Portland.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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Domestic in Wuhan, the epicentre of the global coronavirus outbreak, has returned to pre-pandemic levels, authorities say.

The virus was first detected in Wuhan late last year and the city underwent a draconian 76-day lockdown as its hospitals struggled to deal with a tidal wave of cases that required the rapid construction of field hospitals to handle the overflow.

Since re-opening in early April, life has gradually returned to normal and numbers of domestic flights serving the city, as well as the number of passengers, had both fully recovered, according to the operator of Wuhan Tianhe airport.

It said 64,700 passengers were transported aboard 500 domestic flights on Friday.

The airport is preparing to eventually resume passenger flights to destinations such as Seoul, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, Qu Xiaoni, an airport representative was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.

cargo routes have already re-opened connecting the major industrial city and center of the Chinese auto industry with destinations such as Amsterdam and New Delhi.

has gone almost a month without registering a new case of local transmission and on Sunday, the National Health Commission reported just 10 new cases, all of them imported.

Hospitals are treating 151 people for COVID-19 and another 357 people are in isolation after testing positive for the disease without showing any symptoms, the commission said. has reported a total of 85,184 cases of COVID-19 with 4,634 deaths.
Dots and dashes: First District Congressman Kevin Hern joined legislation creating a temporary payroll tax holiday through the end of the year. ... Fourth District Congressman Tom Cole, favored to win a 10th term in November, told Roll Call that COVID-19 has caused him to cut back on constituent events and left him feeling more out of touch with my own district than I ever have during my congressional career. ... Inhofe signed onto a Republican letter to Attorney General William Barr expressing concern about what they said has been an increase in targeted attacks on law enforcement officers. ... Independent watchdog Center for Responsive Politics reports at least 30 candidates for federal office have spent $1 million or more of their own money on their campaigns.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 04:06:10|Editor: huaxia

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Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis delivers a keynote speech at the Thessaloniki Helexpo Forum in Thessaloniki, Greece, on Sept. 12, 2020. Mitsotakis announced on Saturday a new package of economic measures aimed to alleviate society's strain from the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, reforms to keep Greece firmly on the growth trajectory, as well as fresh defense expenditure to further boost the country's deterrent ability. (Photo by Dimitris Tosidis/Xinhua)

ATHENS, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Saturday a new package of economic measures aimed to alleviate society's strain from the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, reforms to keep Greece firmly on the growth trajectory, as well as fresh defense expenditure to further boost the country's deterrent ability.

Outlining his government's economic policy for the next 12 months, during a key policy speech at the Thessaloniki Helexpo Forum, in the city port of Thessaloniki in northern Greece, he announced a series of immediate tax cuts, benefits, reductions in social security contributions and programs to boost liquidity and investments in order to ease burdens from employees, pensioners, the unemployed and businesses.

For example, the state will provide subsidies for six months for 100,000 new positions, abolish a special property tax for the inhabitants of the 26 smallest islands, and extend until April 2021 the suspension of tax and social insurance obligations to professions hit by the pandemic.

In addition, the Greek government will continue reforms to support employment and growth by further reducing bureaucracy and improving the function of public sector services, and by introducing new rules for debt settlement to the state and banking sector, Mitsotakis said.

"Nothing in the world is the same as yesterday," he told a small audience symbolically comprising 50 representatives of all walks of life, during his address which was broadcast on Greek national broadcaster ERT.

"However, the crisis cannot become an alibi for stalling the implementation of great changes... Our program of actions has an underlying motto: confidence faced with the challenges ahead, confidence in defense, in healthcare and in the economy," he said.

Regarding the battle against the pandemic, Mitsotakis promised more ICUs beds and hirings of thousands more doctors and nurses.

Amidst tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea lately over maritime borders and the exploitation of energy reserves, the Greek leader spoke extensively also about the new 18 Rafale military aircraft, four Navy helicopters, four frigates and other armaments Greece is purchasing as well as a plan of staff reinforcement with 15,000 men and women for five years in order to strengthen its national defense.

Mitsotakis accused Ankara of "undermining peace throughout the Mediterranean," adding that "It threatens the borders of Europe and undermines security in a crucial crossroad of three continents."

The new weapons procurement program comes amid heightened tensions with Turkey over resources in the eastern Mediterranean. Its announcement dominated almost half of Mitsotakis' speech here.

"After the end of the current health adventure and tensions with Turkey, spring for the economy and our society may arrive sooner than expected," the Greek leader added.

Tensions have flared up between Turkey and Greece over energy explorations in the Eastern Mediterranean waters in recent weeks. They have overlapping maritime claims in the region. Enditem
Bankole Ogunnowo, a 41-year-old Nigerian, resident in the United Kingdom has narrated how he suffered malicious charges and extortion in the hands of the Nigerian police on marital issues between him and his British ex-wife.

Mr Ogunnowo, who married his ex-wife, Eileen Odumosu at the Ikeja Marriage Registry in February 2012 explained how altercations occurred between him and his wife which led to several court cases in the UK.

Unable to obtain a favourable court judgement in the Uk, Mrs Odumosu made complaints against Mr Ogunnowo to the Nigerian police.

Mrs Odumosu is a British of Nigerian extraction, and a filmmaker based in the UK.

In copies of the statement obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, Mrs Odumosu accused Mr Ogunnowo of deceitfully marrying her so he could obtain a visa to go to the UK and domestic violence and abuse.

Based on her statement, the Nigerian police levelled an eight-count-charge against Mr Ogunnowo on fraudulently contracted marriage with the intent to deceive, the swearing of a false affidavit, among others.

The police thereafter obtained court approval to extradite him from the UK with offence of threat to life, falsification of documents and impersonation.

Narrating his ordeal to PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Ogunnowo said the Nigerian police made no investigation but acted based on the complaints of his estranged wife.

The Nigerian police did not carry out any investigation, the next thing was I was notified of the extradition request in The UK court. They didnt bother to call me or hear from me, there were court cases between me and my ex-wife that were thrown out of the UK court.

I do not live in Nigeria and I have not committed any offence against Nigeria state. I now wonder how a matter between me and my ex-wife that we both live in the UK become a matter against Nigeria Government or the Police, Mr Ogunnowo said.

Mr Ogunnowo explained that he is a UK based entrepreneur with no criminal records in Nigeria or the UK. I have a legitimate job in the UK well known to the UK authority and Nigeria High Commission in the UK, he said.

Background

The drama between the estranged couple began in 2017 when Ms Odumosu approached a family court in the UK to level several charges against Mr Ogunnowo.

Part of the charges was that he did genital mutilation for the child he had with his ex-wife in Nigeria, Mercy Adetokunbo, and that his ex-wife had been impersonating her in Nigeria.

The allegations against Mr Ogunnowo by Ms Odumosu had been struck out in a family court in the UK for lacking merit.

PREMIUM TIMES could not get a copy of the family court judgement as it is against the laws of the UK to publish materials from a family court without obtaining approval from the judge.

The issues with my ex-wife started when her mother started interfering in our marriage. It got to a time when my mother-in-law approached my employer to make a request that my salary be paid into her account. I refused and this resulted in frequent issues in the house.

As a result of incessant domestic disputes, Mr Ogunnowo UK was removed from their shared apartment in 2013 by the police, he said.

Since then, my estranged wife and her mother have vowed to get me deported back to Nigeria, send me to prison, or have me killed. They have backed their threat with action by coming up with spurious, baseless, and malicious allegation of crime against me here in the UK. The allegations were duly investigated by both the UK Police and family court and I was found not culpable.

Mr Ogunnowo further explained that after their failure to nail him in the UK, his estranged wife and her mother approached the Nigerian police to allege that he forged papers to secure a visa and also forged the birth certificate of his daughter in order to secure a visa for her.

She also said I belong to an evil gang in Nigeria, all these were what she presented against me in the UK. The UK government investigated and saw that the allegations were baseless.

The British police reprimanded her twice and the court later gave a restraining order. I have not been in touch with her whatsoever, neither is she allowed to contact me, he narrated.

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted Mrs Odumosu about the matter, she refused to confirm her identity, claiming that there is no such person with the name (Eileen Adetokunbo) as contained in the statement she wrote to the Nigerian Police.

If this is a hoax or my estranged husband is trying to start indirectly harassing me again with him having a warning. I will inform the police, she later responded in a WhatsApp chat.

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Mrs Odumosu did not reply to all questions asked about her statement to the Nigerian Police and what transpired between her and her estranged husband. Her number has since then been unreachable.

Mr Ogunnowo Recounts Experience with the Nigerian Police

Mr Ogunnowo, said he has been a victim of harassment, extortion and abuse of human rights in the hands of the Nigerian police.

In a petition submitted to the Inspector-General of Police in 2019, he complained about conspiracy, malicious prosecution, official misconduct, abuse of office and breach of his fundamental human rights by the Nigerian police.

Mr Ogunnowo alleged that following the complaint by Ms Odumosu, a charge was filed against him at the Federal High Court in Abuja which he was unaware of until his extradition papers were sent to the UK.

My vindictive wife was able to buy the Nigerian police. It is disheartening to see how the police handled the matter without hearing my side of the story. The claimed police investigation was concluded and the extradition process without even investigating me.

The complainant does not even have a Nigerian passport, not a Nigerian, she does not live in Nigeria or ever went to Nigeria to write a statement at any police station in Nigeria. But the police took sides, after collecting money from her.

Mr Ogunnowo said the same officers who facilitated the charges against him after have since been exhorting him.

They collected over N1 million from me to facilitate the withdrawal of the charges against me, he said.

Mr Ogunnowo shared a proof of different payments made to one Olanrewaju Lawal, a police officer at the Interpol office in Abuja, who he said facilitated the extradition and assured to see to the withdrawal of the charges.

UK court throws out extradition request

The request to extradite Mr Ogunnowo by the Nigerian government was dismissed at the Westminister Magistrate Court, London, for lacking merits needed for extradition.

PREMIUM TIMES obtained a copy of the judgment delivered by the District Judge (Magistrates Court), Michael Fanning, where he discharged the Requested Person (Mr Ogunnowo) on the grounds of inadequate particularization and inherently weak case.

The court findings state that the complainants statement was written in the Nigerian Police Pro-forma style and was written by the complainant herself without being physically present in Nigeria.

I strongly suspect she did that herself, in London. I am certainly no sure to the contrary. On this basis alone, I am compelled to order RPs discharged under s.84(5), the judge said while also making stating that the same allegations against Mr Ogunnowo had been dismissed by a UK family court.

According to the judge, the request to extradite Mr Ogunnowo appears to be only the second of such requests made of the UK by Nigeria and there are no established bilateral relations between Nigeria and the UK in respect of extradition.

The court noted that Mr Ogunnowo had gone to the police prior to the allegation being made, warning them that his estranged wife had threatened to make a malicious allegation against him.

In short, if he is extradited on what appears to be an inherently weak case, and faces potentially lengthy (and arbitrarily so) pre-trial detention in prison conditions that are wholly inadequate, that must amount to an impermissible interference with the Article 8 rights of RP and his family, the judge said.

It was on this basis that the court concluded that there was no extradition offence and discharged Mr Ogunnowo.

Nigerian Police React

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted Olanrewaju Lawal, an inspector of police at Interpol, he said there was an ongoing process to withdraw the case.

We are Interpol, it was the General Investigations (GI) in Lagos that investigated the matter. They only sent the request for extradition to us. Now that he requested a withdrawal, we have sent our report to GI.

It is for GI to write to us, if they write to us, we will write to the Ministry of Justice that they should withdraw the charges and extradition, he said.

Mr Lawal declined comments when asked if he received about N1 million from Mr Ogunnowo and why he did so.

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted Markus Basiran, the head of the Police Compliance Unit, he said a report had been submitted to the Inspector General of Police (IG) on the matter and comments should be sought from the Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba.

My report directly reports to the IG. I have sent my report to the IGs office, the IG will look at it and give a directive on that before it goes public. If there are inconsistencies or mistakes, administrative or otherwise, they will be the ones to vet it and determine when it goes public.

When asked whether there will be a withdrawal of the charges and extradition of Mr Ogunnowo, Mr Lawal said he can only make recommendations and it is the prerogative of the inspector-general of police to determine the outcome. He refused to disclose what his recommendations were.

All efforts to reach Mr Mba on the case, as well as how and why the police filed such criminal charges against Mr Ogunnowo without adequate investigation were unsuccessful as he did not respond to calls and text messages to his phone.
Sir Philip Greens fashion chain, Arcadia, has U-turn on its plans to pay staff facing redundancy as little as half their notice salary.

The group, which include major brans like TopShop and Dorothy Perkins, will now pay full whack to head office workers at risk of losing their jobs.

Sir Philips net worth is some 930m, according to the latest edition of The Sunday Times rich list.

An Arcadia spokesperson said the move would affect about 300 people and issued a grovelling apology. Bosses were "extremely sorry to all those individuals impacted for the distress that we have caused and apologise unreservedly", they said.

In a statement, Arcadia Group said: "We recently implemented a policy for those employees who are working their notice on furlough to receive their furlough pay instead of their full pay.

Recommended Pizza Hut to close 29 UK restaurants putting 450 jobs at risk

"We got this decision wrong and the board has today amended this policy to ensure all affected employees will receive their full pay.

"They will be notified of this decision immediately."

The Unite union said it had threatened to take legal action for illegal deduction of earnings on behalf of more than 40 head office staff.

It welcomed the promise to pay head office staff full pay during their notice period and called it an " amazing victory".

Arcadia Group became part of Taveta Investments, owned by Sir Philip and his family, in 2002.

Its statement said executives had been forced to make "many tough decisions" during the coronavirus pandemic, including the restructuring of its offices.

It has looked to protect the welfare of its staff and customers and observed all guidelines and legislation during, it added.

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Ms Smart was sentenced in November, along with other members of Insulate Britain, to serve four months for breaking a High Court injunction by taking part in a blockade at junction 25 of the M25 motorway during the morning rush hour on 8 October last year PA UK news in pictures 13 January 2022 A TV presenter holds a copy of a newspaper outside 10 Downing Streetafter the Prime Minister apologised for attending a gathering of colleagues in the Number Ten garden in May 2020, while the UK was in strict lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic Getty UK news in pictures 12 January 2022 Fitness guru Derrick Evans after receiving an MBE during an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 11 January 2022 A couple walk underneath an umbrella during wet weather on Westminster Bridge in central London PA UK news in pictures 10 January 2022 A jogger passes the Covid Memorial Wall in London AP UK news in pictures 9 January 2021 The sun rises over horses at Seaton Sluice in Northumberland PA UK news in pictures 8 January 2022 Riders compete during the Veterans Men's race at the UK Cyclo-Cross National Championships 2022 in Ardingly, south of London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 7 January 2022 A dog looks out of a car window at the wintry conditions in Killeshin, Co. Laois PA UK news in pictures 6 January 2022 People walk through frost and mist alongside a frozen lake during sunrise in Bushy Park, London REUTERS UK news in pictures 5 January 2022 A skier jumps on the slopes at Allenheads in the Pennines to the north of Weardale in Northumberland PA UK news in pictures 4 January 2022 Freshly-fallen snow covers houses in Corbridge, near Hexham in Northumberland PA UK news in pictures 3 January 2022 Dean Morrison, 13, receives his Covid-19 vaccine from student nurse Anthony McLaughlin during a vaccination clinic at the Glasgow Central Mosque PA UK news in pictures 2 January 2022 Konastantinos Tsimikas of Liverpool with Chelseas Mason Mount during the Premier League match at Stamfrod Bridge Liverpool FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 January 2022 New Years Eve Lasers, drones and fireworks illuminate the sky in front of the Royal Naval College in Greenwich shortly after midnight in London EPA UK news in pictures 31 December 2021 Competitors in fancy dress run across the Pennine tops near Haworth, West Yorkshire, in the annual Auld Lang Syne Fell race which attracts hundreds of runners every year PA UK news in pictures 30 December 2021 Sunrise at Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland PA UK news in pictures 29 December 2021 The Very Revd Dr Robert Willis, Dean of Canterbury Cathedral, looks at Becket, a six month old red-billed chough as he visits Wildwood Wildlife Park in Kent on the anniversary of the murder of Thomas Becket PA UK news in pictures 28 December 2021 Troops of the Household Cavalry are seen reflected in a puddle during the changing of the Queens Life Guard, on Horse Guards Parade, in central London PA UK news in pictures 27 December 2021 A pedestrian walks past a winter sale sign outside a John Lewis store on Oxford street in London Getty UK news in pictures 26 December 2021 Riders take their bikes through the snow near Castleside, County Durham PA UK news in pictures 25 December 2021 Patrick Corkery wears a santa hat and beard as waves crash over him at Forty Foot near Dublin during a Christmas Day dip PA UK news in pictures 24 December 2021 People stand inside Kings Cross Station on Christmas Eve in London Reuters UK news in pictures 23 December 2021 Christmas shoppers fill the car park at Fosse Shopping Park in Leicester PA UK news in pictures 22 December 2021 The sun rises behind the stones as people gather for the winter solstice at Stonehenge. Getty UK news in pictures 21 December 2021 People take part in a winter solstice swim at Portobello Beach in Edinburgh to mark the solstice and to witness the dawn after the longest night of the year PA UK news in pictures 20 December 2021 An auction employee displays poultry to buyers and sellers attending the Christmas Poultry Sale at York Auction Centre in Murton PA UK news in pictures 19 December 2021 Joao Moutinho of Wolverhampton Wanderers looks on during the Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Chelsea at Molineux Getty Images UK news in pictures 18 December 2021 Freight lorries queuing at the port of Dover in Kent PA UK news in pictures 17 December 2021 Newly elected Liberal Democrat MP Helen Morgan, bursts 'Boris' bubble' held by colleague Tim Farron, as she celebrates following her victory in the North Shropshire by-election PA UK news in pictures 16 December 2021 Brussels sprouts are harvested by workers as they prepare for the busy Christmas period near Boston in Lincolnshire PA UK news in pictures 15 December 2021 Lewis Hamilton is made a Knight Bachelor by the Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 14 December 2021 The Royal Liver Buildings surrounded by early morning fog in Liverpool PA UK news in pictures 13 December 2021 People queue outside a walk-in Covid-19 vaccination centre at St Thomas's Hospital in Westminster Getty Images UK news in pictures 12 December 2021 People take part in the Big Leeds Santa Dash in Roundhay Park, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 11 December 2021 People arrive at a Covid-19 vaccination centre at Elland Road in Leeds, PA UK news in pictures 10 December 2021 Stella Moris speaks to the media after the US Government won its High Court bid to overturn a judges decision not to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange PA UK news in pictures 9 December 2021 Camels are lead around Salisbury Cathedral during a rehearsal for the Christmas Eve Service PA UK news in pictures 8 December 2021 Margaret Keenan and Nurse May Parsons, a year after Margaret was the first person in the UK to receive the Pfizer vaccine PA UK news in pictures 7 December 2021 Snowfall in Leadhills, South Lanarkshire as Storm Barra hits the UK with disruptive winds, heavy rain and snow PA UK news in pictures 6 December 2021 A person tries to avoid sea spray on New Brighton promenade in Wallasey as the UK readies for the arrival of Storm Barra Getty UK news in pictures 5 December 2021 People release balloons during a tribute to six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes outside Emma Tustin's former address in Solihull, West Midlands, where he was murdered by his stepmother PA UK news in pictures 4 December 2021 People walk through a Christmas market in Trafalgar Square Reuters UK news in pictures 3 December 2021 A pedestrian carries a dog as they dodge shoppers on Oxford Street in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 2 December 2021 Duchess of Cambridge inspects a Faberge egg at the Victoria and Albert Museum Getty UK news in pictures 1 December 2021 Meerkats at London Zoo with an advent calendar PA UK news in pictures 30 November 2021 Workers put the finishing touches to the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree ahead of the lighting ceremony later in the week PA UK news in pictures 29 November 2021 Home Secretary Priti Patel is greeted by a police dog at a special memorial service for Met Police Sergeant Matiu Ratana Getty

Unite regional officer Debbie McSweeney said: "We understand that it is almost without precedent for Arcadia to apologise for such behaviour towards employees - but this situation should have never been allowed to happen in the first place by Sir Philip Green, one of the country's richest men.

"Unite would like to sincerely thank our members for the solidarity and personal courage they have shown in standing up to Arcadia's management and playing their part in righting a flagrant pay injustice. It is an amazing victory."

Ms McSweeney claimed the Arcadia U-turn may also serve as a warning for employers who use of the government's furlough scheme, designed to protect jobs from the coronavirus-driven recession.

She said: "This puts down a strong marker to other employers who may be thinking of taking advantage of the government's furlough scheme - Unite is on high alert for such cases and how they may adversely affect our members.

"Unite will want to examine the Arcadia statement in detail before finally deciding to withdraw our legal action."

Additional reporting by Press Association
As part of efforts to resolve the political crisis in Mali, the Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), President Akufo-Addo, will on Tuesday, September 15 convene a consultative meeting at Peduase in the Eastern Region.



Disclosing this at the Ministry of Information on Sunday afternoon September 13, 2020, the Foreign Affairs Minister Hon. Shirley Ayorkor Botchway said it is part of several efforts by the Economic Community to resolve the crisis in the West African country.



Madam Ayorkor Botchway said the consultative meeting will be held to proffer conflict resolution strategies in accordance with relevant protocols to bring an end to the political crisis in the West African state.



You will recall that at the 57th Summit of the Authorities of ECOWAS Heads of States and Governments, Ghana was unanimously elected as Chair of ECOWAS authority for a period of 1 year.



The election of Ghana places President Nana Akufo-Addo in the same shoes as his predecessors  Jerry John Rawlins, John Agyekum Kuffour and John Mahama who previously had taken on such enormous task.



The Head of Authority is the supreme institution of the community and responsible for the general direction and control of the ECOWAS community.



It takes appropriate measures to ensure the progressive development of a community and attend to its objectives. The authority takes actions on all matters of conflict prevention, management and resolution, peace keeping and security as covered by relevant protocols, she added.



She noted that the consultative meeting is in line with efforts by the regional block to ensure progressive development of member countries.



The President will be joined by a number of Heads of State from ECOWAS to deliberate on the Mali situation.



The consultative meeting on Tuesday will be the first official assignment of President Akufo-Addo after assuming the position of Chairman of the Commission last week.



However, the Minister for Information noted that government expect that all stakeholders and parties involved would work together and assist so that the necessary diplomatic courtesies are extended to Heads of States and relevant authorities who will be coming into the country.

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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The Office of the Commissioner of the Chinese foreign ministry in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Saturday urged some U.S. politicians to immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs as a whole.



A spokesperson of the commissioner's office expressed strong disapproval of and firm opposition against the groundless remarks by the U.S. politicians about a case still under investigation, which involves Hong Kong residents suspected of illegal border-crossing.

The spokesperson said China is a country under the rule of law. Chinese judicial authorities handle cases in accordance with the law, protect the legitimate rights of criminal suspects, and deal with cases involving the mainland and Hong Kong in strict accordance with the "one country, two systems" principle. The U.S. side has no right to meddle in China's internal affairs.

The spokesperson pointed out that while the United States is fraught with economic and social challenges, with racial conflict flaring up and COVID-19 infections and deaths remaining high, some American politicians have, however, turned a blind eye to the problems at home and showed unusual "concern" about internal affairs of other countries instead.

"We strongly urge U.S. politicians to abide by international law and the basic norms governing international relations, mind their own business, and immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs as a whole," the spokesperson said.
My summer ends the way it began.

With a midnight trip to the emergency vet.

Luckily, it turned out OK.

But I need to thank the veterinarians, vet techs, and staff who, despite this horrible pandemic, never stopped taking care of our pets, even though our pets do things like eat tampons and dead mice.

Not just a hypothetical.

My summer began when Francescas dog, Pip, came home, and two things happened in my house that had not happened in recent memory.

Number one, there was a dog that ate bathroom trash.

Number two, there was a menstruating woman.

Not to be too graphic.

You can handle it, unless youre having breakfast.

In that event, grow up.

Women get their period.

Period.

Until that wonderful time in their life called menopause, but it should be called womenopause.

For obvious reasons.

You could also call it fun!

And great!

And freeing!

Getting my period wasnt a big deal for me, in that I didnt get cramps or anything like that, maybe because I have too much testosterone and/or bile.

Even though I didnt mind getting my period, I cant tell you how great it is not to get one anymore.

I dont have to worry about it anymore.

And, like most women, worrying is my hobby.

At the beginning of summer, Pip decided to make a meal of whatever was in the trash, which required an emergency trip to the vets office, where they made him throw up.

Maybe you did too, just now, a little, in your mouth.

And what happened yesterday was that Francesca, the dogs, and I were outside in the backyard and I happened to look over just as Pip gobbled something up from under a bush. I wasnt sure what he ate, but by the time we got to him, he sucked in the last bit of what looked like a tail.

If you saw Lady and the Tramp on their spaghetti date, you know what I mean.

By the way, I also eat spaghetti that way.

Which is why Im single.

Among other reasons.

So we assumed he had eaten a dead mouse, then remembered that we have some rat poison in the garage and under the chicken coop, for assorted vermin.

I know, I live a glamorous life.

I was told that if a pet ate a mouse who had eaten some poison, the pet would be fine, but when Pip got lethargic the next day and started throwing up, we werent taking any chances.

We rolled into the veterinary hospital at midnight, where there was a fleet of veterinarians and techs to look after him. They ran some blood tests; were still waiting on the results, but he does seem to be doing better.

So its a happy ending.

But Im very aware that not all endings are happy.

In further praise of veterinarians, lets not forget large-animal vets, who still make house calls and come over when horses or farm animals are sick. And thankfully, Dr. Gerry, my dedicated large-animal vet, came this summer, when my feisty brown quarterhorse, Mr. Fudgie, fell ill.

For the last time.

Mr. Fudgie was 40 years old, which is really old for a horse.

But his whole life, he was healthy as a ... well, you know.

I rescued him from a racetrack and he had a history of abuse, so I never blamed him for his crankiness, though he was always wonderful to me. He was fun to ride, if fast for this old nag.

(Me.)

He loved his life and his pasture, which he guarded with the vigilance of the North Korean border.

You may remember that I have written about Fudgies up-and-down health, but even after so many years, his heart was strong, willful, and stubbornly resistant to giving up. I was in no hurry to put him down, because he was happy, and Dr. Gerry felt the same way, because, as he always says, death is final.

But one day last month, Fudgie seemed oddly weak and tired, then he fell and wasnt strong enough to get up.

For the first time, he was unhappy, if not suffering.

Dr. Gerry came over, but he didnt have to spell it out for us.

The sight of a horse lying down for the last time will break your heart.

So we had to let Fudgie go.

Goodbye, to a great horse.

Its a loss, but I know others are experiencing many more significant losses during this awful time.

I mourn theirs, too.

We will get through this together.

With love and thanks, to the healers.

Theyre all heroes.

Look for Lisa and Francescas humor collection I See Life Through Rose-Colored Glasses, and Lisas first historical novel, Eternal, coming on March 23, 2021. Also look for Francescas debut novel, Ghosts of Harvard, on sale now.
The US has expelled more than 159,000 people under a pandemic-related measure that effectively ended asylum in March.

About 8,800 unaccompanied children have been quickly expelled from the United States along the Mexico border under a pandemic-related measure that effectively ended asylum, authorities have said.

The Trump administration has expelled more than 159,000 people since the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emergency order took effect in March, a figure that also includes more than 7,600 adults and children who crossed the border in families.

The figures on children were reported for the first time in a declaration by Raul Ortiz, the Border Patrols deputy chief, as part of the administrations appeal of an order to stop housing children in hotels.

The administration immediately expelled most children and families to Mexico but more than 2,200 unaccompanied children and 600 people who came in families were held until flights could be arranged to return home, Ortiz said on Friday.

{articleGUID}

The administration asked the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a ruling last week that found the use of hotels skirted fundamental humanitarian protections.

US District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles ruled that using hotels for long-term detention violated a 20-year-old settlement governing the treatment of children in custody. She ordered border agencies to stop placing children in hotels by Tuesday.

Justice Department lawyers argued that settlement does not apply during the public health emergency and that hotels were appropriate.

While in these hotels, the government provides minors with supervision by specialists, recreation, amenities, and protective measures against COVID-19, the lawyers wrote.

Before the pandemic, unaccompanied children were sent to state-licensed shelters operated by the Department of Health and Human Services and often released to family members while seeking asylum.
A day ahead of a one-day special session of the Delhi assembly, at least four MLAs had informed the Vidhan Sabha secretariat that they have tested positive for Covid-19. All legislators had been asked to mandatorily get tested for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) before attending the session on Monday and carry the report with them.

The session will be conducted with all Covid-19 protocols, officials said, with the legislators being allowed to sit on a first-come-first serve basis and following strict social distancing norms and wearing face mask.

Assembly secretariat officials said the MLAs who have tested positive until Sunday evening were BJP MLA from Ghonda Ajay Mahawar and AAP MLAs from Wazirpur Rajesh Gupta, from Kirari Rituraj Jha and Surendra Kumar from Gokalpuri. Besides legislators, 214 officials, security personnel and support staff were also tested through the rapid antigen test, of which three tested positive. These include two Delhi Assembly officials and one Delhi Police assistant sub-inspector.

Apart from these four, 29 MLAs had got RT-PCR tests done at the Delhi Assembly on Friday. While 22 legislators have tested negative, results of seven are awaited. Rest of the MLAs can either bring their Covid test reports on Monday or get a rapid antigen test done on the Assembly premises before the session begins, a senior government official, said on condition of anonymity.

According to the list of business, the session will have no Question Hour. However, it will have a special mention session where a few MLAs selected by Speaker Ram Niwas Goel will be allowed to speak.

Members (MLAs) have been requested to confine the text of the Special Mention to 8-10 lines only and not to deviate from the original text, while raising the same on the floor of the House. Any deviation will be disallowed and treated as summarily expunged from the proceedings. The matter should relate to only one department and raise only one issue, Goel said.

In the remaining part of the session, various bills and order will be tabled for the approval of the House. These include the recent tariff order issued by the Delhi electricity regulatory commission (DERC) and the Delhi goods and services tax (amendment) bill, 2020.

While Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators are planning to talk about the Delhi Model in Covid-19 management during the special mentions, the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) MLAs said they would raise the issue of demolition of 48,000 slums along Delhis railway tracks.

Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said, If the Delhi government fails to rehabilitate the slum dwellers, then BJP will do it and rehabilitate them in the vacant flats. The BJP will vociferously raise the issue of 48,000 slum dwellers ordered to be removed from railway land during the Assembly session, said Bidhuri.

This will be the second session of the assembly to be convened during the Covid-19 pandemic. Previously, a one-day session was held on March 23 to present the budget. But, there were no such precautionary measures being taken in that session except for members of the House being seated at a distance from one another.

The Speaker said visitors will not be allowed and the entry of media persons will be strictly on the basis of their Covid-19 negative report.

To maintain social distancing, additional extra chairs have been kept in the House. Usually, two MLAs sit on one bench, but now only one person will be allowed to sit on one bench, an Assembly official said.

Seats have been reserved only for the ministers. So, the rest of the MLAs will have to take the seats on first-come-first-serve basis.

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A distraught mum stuck in New Zealand with her dying daughter Stella amid the COVID pandemic is begging Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to save the teens life.

The NZ-Australia border closed on March 20 at the beginning of the pandemic, leaving Emily Beswick, 41, and her 15-year old daughter Stella Beswick stranded overseas without her much-needed medication.

Ms Beswick told Real Press in an emotional interview that her family was preparing to move to Australia because Stellas medication for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Type 2, a rare neuromuscular disorder, is not available in NZ.

She had sold their house and were set to fly out to Australia the day after the border shut.

The NZ-Australia border closed on March 20, leaving Emily Beswick, 41, and her daughter Stella Beswick stranded overseas without her much-needed medication. Source: Real Press

In a heart-felt plea to Ms Ardern, Ms Beswick said time is running out for Stella, who "is currently going downhill and losing the ability to hold her head up and strength in her arms.

The mum begged the PM to "show kindness and compassion" and not deny Stella her "basic human rights".

"Jacinda, these children are our most vulnerable. They live exceedingly tough lives. Everything is stacked up against them, and it disgusts me that you will not show kindness and compassion, she said.

Allow them to stay in their country with their support networks. Allow them to receive treatment and have hope for their futures, have hope of being able to continue to breathe, have hope to continue to chew, and to swallow," Ms Beswick said.

The drug Stella needs is called Spinraza, and while expensive - costing roughly $103,3792 for the first year and $523,651 annually - it at worst, stops the disease in its tracks, Emily said.

It is available in 40 countries, including Australia, the US and United Kingdom.

Ms Beswick said time is running out for Stella, 15, who "is currently going downhill and losing the ability to hold her head up and strength in her arms. Source: Real Press

Ms Beswick said if action is not taken soon, her daughter "will most likely die of pneumonia".

The mum said she has tried obtaining compassionate treatment from drug manufacturer Biogen, but "they declined the application."

She pleads that "New Zealand step up and fund the drug. Every moment Stella is not receiving treatment, she is going down hill."

Story continues

In New Zealand, around COVID, they have been bandying around the words 'kindness' and 'compassion'. It really feels like a slap in the face, because for us, we don't see any evidence of this, she said.

Leading cause of genetic death for children

Real Press spoke to Fiona Tolich, 39, the lead advocate for SMA in New Zealand and a Trustee with Patient Voice Aotearoa, a collective of patients, caregivers, advocates and charitable organisations, campaigning for patients' rights.

She slayed the New Zealand's drug agency PHARMAC, claiming it is an antiquated, underfunded organisation that discriminates against rare diseases.

"SMA is the leading cause of genetic death worldwide in children. There are now three treatment options available for I, Ms Tolich said.

Stella and her parents were planning on moving to Australia so she could receive life-saving medication. Source: Real Press

"We place more value on funding flavoured condoms than we do on life-saving treatment, she added.

Ms Tolich said when SMA sufferers receive treatment they are able to still partake in activities.

Real Press contacted American multinational biotechnology company Biogen, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with a request for comment but had, at the time of writing, not received a reply.

Real Press also contacted PHARMAC and was told in a statement from Chief Executive Sarah Fitt that "PHARMAC sought expert clinical advice about a funding application for this treatment in late 2019 and early February 2020.

"Our advisors (sic) recommended the medicine be funded.

"While we recognise the challenges faced by patients and their families, and their understandable desire to try new treatments, our job is to look at all the evidence and make a decision that is in the interests of all New Zealanders.

"PHARMAC has determined that, at this time, we will focus on progressing medicine funding options that are ranked higher than Spinraza."

Australscope

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Bihars administration has been exemplary in making sure that government schemes reach the common people.

He said, In the last 15 years Bihar has shown that if the right government is elected in a state, benefits of governments schemes can reach its people.

PM Narendra Modi inaugurated the three petroleum sector projects in Bihar which cost more than Rs 900 crores. The projects include the Durgapur-Banka section of the Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur Pipeline Augmentation Project and two Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) Bottling Plants in Banka and Champaran, according to news agency PTI.

These two LPG plants will be able to fill gas cylinders for several districts not only from Bihar but also for Jharkhand and few districts of Uttar Pradesh as well, Narendra Modi said.

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Bihar deputy CM Sushil K Modi were among those who were present in the virtual inauguration ceremony.

PM said that the Centre has worked extensively in developing all energy related projects in the state.

He said, We do not live in the age where one generation saw the inauguration of a project and another generation saw its completion. New India and new Bihar believes in fast-paced development.

He further added that the age when someone owned a gas connection was considered a bigwig is now a thing of the past.

He also highlighted that Centres schemes like Ujjwala has also empowered women and made sure that they do not spend hours collecting firewood which would later when burnt to cook would also cause respiratory ailments.

PM said eastern India and Bihars infrastructure was never prioritised. He further said that earlier people never imagined that they could get access to developed infrastructure because there were economic and political issues to which no one paid attention to despite the fact that the region is teeming with natural as well as human resources.

PM Modi specially thanked people who delivered gas cylinders to common peoples homes amid the Covid-19 pandemic while inaugurating the scheme.

PM Modi lauded Nitish Kumar, Bihar chief minister, for pushing Bihars youth and ensuring that the states education system nurtures talents.

He said, You can look at any sector in India - education, income tax, labour or healthcare. The contribution of Bihar in every sector is clearly visible. Bihar has assisted India in its growth.
Liberian President George Weah has declared rape a national emergency and has ordered new measures to tackle the problem after a recent spike of cases in the poor West African state.

The moves comes after thousands of Liberians protested rising incidents of rape in the capital Monrovia last month, in a bid to draw attention to the country's alarming rate of sexual assault.

Late on Friday, Weah said he would install a special prosecutor for rape in Liberia, as well as set up a national sex offender registry, a statement from his office said.

The government will also establish a so-called "national security task force" on sexual- and gender-based violence.

The high rates of rape in impoverished Liberia, forced to contend both with war and the Ebola virus in recent years, has been a longstanding concern.

A UN report in 2016 recorded 803 rape cases the previous year in the country of 4.5 million, and found that only two percent of sexual violence cases led to a conviction, for example.

It was the resulting sense of impunity and the legacy of the 14-year civil war between 1989 and 2003, when rape was commonplace, that had created the current problem, it said.

Incidents of rape appear to have risen sharply this year, however.

Margaret Taylor, the director of Liberia's Women Empowerment Network, told AFP last month that her NGO had recorded 600 cases of rape between June and August, for example.

That was up from between 80 and a hundred cases in May, she said.

Weah's announcement of a national rape emergency follows a conference in the capital Monrovia on tackling sexual violence on Wednesday.

Addressing the meeting, the footballer-turned-president said Liberia was "witnessing what is actually an epidemic of rape within the pandemic, affecting mostly children and young girls across the country."

Weah's office said in the statement on Friday that further anti-rape measures will be announced.

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President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at MBS International Airport in Freeland, Mich., on Sept. 10, 2020. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo)

Trump Signs New Executive Order to Lower Drug Prices

President Donald Trump on Sept. 13 announced his signing of an executive order on drug pricing.

Just signed a new Executive Order to LOWER DRUG PRICES! My Most Favored Nation order will ensure that our Country gets the same low price Big Pharma gives to other countries, Trump wrote on Twitter. The days of global freeriding at Americas expense are over, and prices are coming down FAST! Also just ended all rebates to middlemen, further reducing prices.

and prices are coming down FAST! Also just ended all rebates to middlemen, further reducing prices.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 13, 2020

The latest step would replace a July 24 Trump executive order.

It extends the mandate to prescription drugs available at a pharmacy, which are covered under Medicare Part D. The July version focused on drugs typically administered in doctors offices and health clinics, covered by Medicare Part B.

Specifically, it would pay a price for a drug that matches the lowest price paid among wealthy foreign governments. Medicare, the government healthcare program for seniors, is currently prohibited from negotiating prices it pays to drugmakers.

The president has made it a campaign point that he will take on big pharmaceutical companies, rejecting advertising campaigns from drug companies amid his efforts to lower prices.

The order will force drug companies to give Americans the best prices on pharmaceuticals.

Trump has often called for lowering the cost of prescription drugs. Congress hasnt yet passed a major drug price reform measure.

Trump took executive action in late July on drug prices, which included discounts on insulin and EpiPens for hospitals, which would be passed down to patients, allowing the United States to allow the legal importation of prescription drugs from Canada and other countries where prices are lower, and a Medicare program will be required to purchase drugs at the same price that other countries pay.

At the time, he also gave a one-month deadline for drugmakers to propose alternative plans to reduce drug prices, adding that his administration would place a cap on U.S. drug prices if hes not satisfied.

These providers should not be receiving discounts for themselves while charging their poorest patients massive, full prices, Trump said. Under this order, the price of insulin for affected patients will come down to just pennies a day from numbers that you werent even able to think about. Its a massive cost savings.

The president signed the measures in the midst of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic, which has reportedly infected more than 6 million Americans and resulted in about 190,000 attributed deaths.

These orders also come just weeks before the November election and at a time when pharmaceutical firms are vying to create a vaccine for the virus, commonly called the novel coronavirus. Drug companies including AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Novavax, and Moderna are performing clinical trials on possible vaccines.

The orders received swift pushback from the pharmaceutical industry. Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America said in a statement that the move was a reckless distraction that impedes our ability to respond to the current pandemicand those we could face in the future.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Prince Andrew is set to be carefully edited out of Prince Philip's 100th birthday celebrations.

He is reportedly not being invited to major events for the birthday next June and the organisers of a celebratory royal photo exhibition have allegedly been told to exclude pictures of him.

The shamed Duke of York, one of Prince Philip's four children, will also not be allowed to write an introduction to the exhibition programme, according to a source.

He has been somewhat shunned by the royal family after coming under fire for his links to disgraced paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, who was arrested for her role in allegedly procuring young girls for the financier.

Prince Andrew, 60, is set to be carefully edited out of Prince Philip's 100th birthday celebrations

The Duke, 60, is currently being called to help the FBI with their investigation of Ghislaine Maxwell.

His six-month standoff with the FBI deepened after Maxwell was detained for allegedly helping to lure underage girls who were then sexually abused by Epstein.

Her arrest in Bradford, New Hampshire, intensified calls for Andrew to be quizzed about any involvement he may have had, despite him denying wrongdoing.

He has also denied claims by Virginia Roberts, Epstein's sex slave, that he slept with her on several occasions.

He is reportedly not being invited to major events for the birthday next June and the organisers of a celebratory royal photo exhibition have been told not to include pictures of him

A source told The Sun: 'There is a warning from up high to play down Andrew. He will be included as little as possible.

'It's not whitewashing history because you can't leave him out entirely. But it will not make a big deal of his relationship with the Duke of Edinburgh over the years.'

The photography exhibition, run by the Royal Collection Trust, will display pictures of the royals throughout the years.

He has been somewhat shunned by the royal family after coming under fire for his links to disgraced paedophile Jeffrey Epstein (pictured together in 2011 - three years after Epstein admitted to procuring an underage girl for prostitution)

Prince Philip, who married the Queen in November 1947, will celebrate his 100th birthday on June 1 next year

Andrew was already cut from the official photographs of the wedding of his own daughter, Princess Beatrice, 31, earlier this year when she tied the knot with Edo Mapelli Mozzi, 37.

And his 60th birthday party was cancelled in February after he stepped down from his royal duties following a 'car crash' Newsnight interview last November which followed claims from Virginia Giuffre (nee Roberts) that she slept with him in 2001 after being trafficked to London at the age of 17.

Andrew's 60th birthday party was cancelled in February after he stepped down from his royal duties following a 'car crash' Newsnight interview last November which followed claims from Virginia Roberts (pictured together in 2001) that she slept with him in 2001 after being trafficked to London at the age of 17

Andrew claimed it couldn't have happened because he was at a Pizza Express in Woking on the night in question.

Epstein was found dead in jail last year after being arrested by the FBI.

The Royal Collection Trust said: 'Plans are not yet confirmed.'

Next year, the Royal Family will have several milestones to celebrate, including the Queen's 95th birthday, her Platinum Jubilee marking 70 years of reign and Prince Philip's 100th birthday.

So far Andrew has allegedly refused to be interviewed by prosecutors in the US but denies any wrongdoing.
1. Yes. Too many kids are staying home. They need a virtual learning option to keep up.

2. Yes. Teachers are out sick and subs cant handle the load. Online learning is needed.

3. No. Its too late in the school year to make a wholesale switch in teaching platforms.

4.No. Many parents arent in a position to stay home while their kids learn virtually.

5. Unsure. It may seem like a good idea from a health standpoint, but it has shortcomings.

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At the start of the classic novella, The Old Man and The Sea, which finally won Ernst Hemingway the Nobel Prize for literature, an entire village wishes to boycott Santiago, the old fisherman, because they fear he has gone salao and can no longer catch any fish. Parents dont wish to let their children fish with him. Derived from the Spanish word salado, salao means extremely irredeemably unlucky.

In Telangana, ruling party circles are speaking in hushed tones whether an irreversible whisper campaign is sweeping across the population, especially the rural masses, that chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao is salao. If what common people are talking is an indication, yes. KCR is a great leader but ever since he was elected for a second term, disease outbreaks have been raging in the state. Such talk began last year, when malaria, dengue, chikungunya and typhoid spread during the rainy season. With Covid, the ill-reputation is firming up. As one villager from KCRs constituency summed it up, whatever he gives us or not, like it would not rain when Chandrababu Naidu was CM, if KCR is in power we will fall ill. His reign means a divine curse of disease.

TRS leaders are hoping their supreme leader can defy the superstition like the old man in Hemingways epic.

Akbar scores over Kalvakuntlas

Talking of literary epics, K Chandrashekar Rao undergoes quite a bit of metamorphosis not too dissimilar to Franz Kafkas protagonist Gregor Samsa when it comes to facing the MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi. It is quite an unimpeachable dictum that KCR is Telanganas greatest orator, a speaker with peerless wit, a man whose rhetoric ranges from scathing rebuffs to chilling rebukes. His whiplash one-liners, smart squibs and snide retorts can destroy the courage of his opponents. Yet, the mighty KCR who waxes eloquent against most opposition leaders and gives an earful to journalists at press conferences, transforms a la Samsa into a reserved, timid and soft-spoken man on the back foot whenever he gets to face a barrage of questions from Akbaruddin Owaisi.

Barely does KCR start giving a reply when Akbar, with his perpetually angry and vituperative harangue, interrupts. Getting on KCRs nerves with ease, Akbar succeeds in pushing Chandrashekar Rao on the defensive  his legerity seems to vanish, he clambers for an answer and speaks in a soft diphthong of a tune, placating the angry young legislator from Chandrayangutta.

Not just KCR, but even his son, the grandiloquent and unfailingly brilliant KTR too finds it hard to parry the frequent assaults from the frenemy. Why is KCR so wary or even afraid of Akbar, politicians and Assembly watchers wonder and ask. It is not the recent demolition of two mosques that seems to be the issue, because KCR is never defensive on such issues. It is just that Akbaruddin gets the better of the father-son duo as no one else can in the entire state.

Danam ashamed of flaying KCR

Its not always that a politician faults himself while on record. That credit goes to Danam Nagender, the TRS legislator from Khairatabad who switched sides from the Congress. Speaking on the Revenue Bill in the Assembly, Danam began lauding chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao. Suddenly, he said he was ashamed of his earlier stance against the TRS and his verbal attacks on its leaders while in the Congress  Danam was a minister from 2009 to 2014. It was Danam who had called KCR and his K T Rama Rao galeeju gallu (nasty persons). His sudden confession took both the TRS and the Congress by surprise. An MLA was later heard saying that is is all the magic of power.

Vijaysai back to controversy

After a lull, apparently caused by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddys snub, V Vijayasai Reddy, YSR Congress general secretary, is back to his favourite activity of making controversial statements and landing his party in a tight spot. Recently, DGP Goutam Sawang wrote a letter to opposition leader N Chandra-babu Naidu to furnish evidence to support his allegations that the government had been tapping the phones of political leaders and legal luminaries.

Separately, the Chittoor district police issued notices to Chandrababu Naidu and his son Lokesh, asking them to furnish information in support of their allegations that an autorickshaw driver, Om Pratap, was killed by YSRC leaders. In the midst of this, Sai Reddy made the wild accusation that Chandrababu Naidu had a role in the recent gutting of the chariot at the Narasimha Swamy temple in Antarvedi, East Godavari district, inviting criticism as well as a demand from several quarters that he also be issued notices by the police seeking evidence to back his allegations, as had been done in the case of the Naidus. Watch this space for the next gaffe.
In continuance of their agitation against the three farm ordinances brought in by the Centre, 19 farmers unions on Sunday announced to block all roads in Haryana on September 20.

The announcement comes days after protesting farmers were lathicharged by the police during their statewide protest in Kurukshetra.

In a meeting in Jind, Haryana Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) chief Gurnam Singh Chaduni said the farmers unions have decided to hold protests in all district headquarters on September 15 and block roads across the state on September 20 for three hours, if their demands are not met.

If the government remains defiant on this issue, we will start a statewide yatra from September 27, Chaduni added.

The BKU state chief also alleged that the government is trying to start another parallel agitation against them to weaken their fight against the three ordinances.

A few political parties are trying to gain mileage from our agitation, but we will not allow them to pull the protest from our hands, he added.

Chaduni hits out at Vij, Dalal for calling protesters Cong workers

Hitting out at Haryana home minister Anil Vij and agriculture minister JP Dalal, Chaduni said all protesters were farmers fighting for their rights.

Our protest is only associated with farmers. BJP ministers and other political parties should refrain from dividing us, the BKU chief said.

He added, Vij is lying that the police did not resort to lathicharge on farmers. The videos are in public domain to expose his claim. The farmers were thrashed by policemen in civvies, who were deputed with an advance planning to thrash agitating farmers in Pipli, he added.
Colleges aren't the only schools that have had to close their doors soon after reopening.

And in some cases, school officials are laying the blame for their changing plans on families in their communities, where graduation and end-of-summer parties prompted spikes in positive COVID-19 cases.

That's what happened in the Carle Place School District in Long Island, New York, where Superintendent Christine A. Finn announced school would start with remote learning last Wednesday rather than in person.

"We have no choice but to put the safety of our staff and students first," she said in a letter that connected many of the new positive COVID-19 cases in the community to attendance at parties where some who tested positive had close contact with students.

"As we are learning the hard way, the actions of a few can impact the many," she said.

Diana Mejia, left, and Anna Sofiya Iskra, both 8, join their mothers, Olga Mejia, second right, and Olena Iskra, far right, at a demonstration Aug. 23 after the Mequon-Thiensville School District in Wisconsin decided to keep schools closed in the fall.

Carle Place isn't alone. Suburban school districts in Milwaukee and Georgia also have experienced an increase in COVID-19 cases among students, causing some to scrap or delay plans to open with some students in classrooms.

Parties are only one reason for the switch, with everything from staff shortages to broader outbreaks in the community forcing some districts to flip to an all-remote start.

More than 60% of public-school districts were scheduled to start the year online-only, according to Burbio, a company that aggregates more than 80,000 school calendars nationwide. That's up from early August, when 52% of those districts were planning for a remote start, the company said.

A USA TODAY analysis of the 15 largest suburban districts also found nine of those school districts planned to reopen remotely, with some flipping their plans as late as July or early August. Some of them plan to gradually reopen buildings throughout September and October.

Decisions draw parents' complaints

The changes have drawn the ire of parents in bedroom communities, many of them white-collar and not shy about voicing their criticism about their districts inability to get kids back into school buildings.

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District leaders have been scrambling to find staff as hundreds of teachers have requested to work from home, resigned or taken a leave of absence. In some cases, protective gear has been slow to arrive, and it has taken longer than expected to prepare buildings.

New Jersey has seen a number of suburban districts switch to virtual starts at the last minute.

Averting a potential teacher strike, New York delays school  but stays on track to reopen buildings

About 100 Bernards Township School District parents in upscale Basking Ridge, a suburb of New York City, protested the delay of in-person instruction about a week before the district started all students with virtual learning on Sept. 3.

Bernards wont open classrooms and shift to a hybrid schooling model until at least Oct. 1 because it needs time to meet state guidelines for holding in-person classes. That includes figuring out staffing and facility safety and obtaining protective gear for teachers, according to the district's reopening plan.

New Jersey's Freehold Regional High School District had to switch to an online start on Thursday, with a move to hybrid after 250 staff members filed to work from home or requested a leave of absence. The district reversed its plans for an in-person launch about two weeks before school started.

One big problem: Other nearby suburban districts had also flipped to a virtual start, leaving Freehold teachers in a child care lurch if they were going to teach in person, said Rebecca Policastro, Freehold's spokeswoman.

Once our state allowed districts to be remote, it created a domino effect throughout the state and unanticipated child-care issues, she said.

Many parents were upset that the district had to drop its plans for a hybrid start, with kids in class some days and learning at home on the others, district officials said.

The Wyckoff School District in New Jersey told parents it had to delay its plan for in-person classes until protective gear and new desks it ordered arrive in early September.

Chaos and calm: Schools with in-person learning juggle schedules and logistics

Teachers, parents and children march in the Brooklyn borough of New York on Tuesday to protest the reopening of city public schools amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the threat of a teachers' strike.

Tough calls for education officials

It has been challenging for board members and superintendents to balance students' and teachers' safety with the benefits of having them back in school, said Charlie Wilson, president of the national group representing state school boards associations.

Many factors are outside our control, he said.

That includes the often conflicting advice from local health departments.

For example, Wilson is a board member of Worthington Schools, north of Columbus, Ohio. His district and Columbus Schools are under one health department, but other schools in the same county answer to a different health department. One department recommended its safe for schools to hold sports; the other says its unsafe, Wilson said.

We thought we could take cues from our local health department, and that would provide stability, he said. But the public health department changes its recommendations  often when theres been no change in the trends for positive (COVID-19) tests.

Here's how parents can protect their kids from coronavirus as schools reopen

Worthingtons school board voted earlier to go all remote for the first nine weeks of school, starting on Aug. 31, because of rising COVID-19 cases. Then the district got enormous pushback from parents who wanted to return to work, Wilson said. The board recently voted to stay remote for a shorter period, until Sept. 28, when it will move to a hybrid teaching format.

Not everyone was pleased with that compromise, he added.

Outside Milwaukee, the upscale Mequon-Thiensville School District changed its school start plans at least three times this summer.

First it planned for in-person learning, then the district asked parents to declare whether they wanted their child to learn in person or remotely, and finally it announced it would start virtually Sept. 1.

'So much for honor': Despite COVID cases, college students partied Labor Day weekend away

To blame: the suburb's spike in infections, traced to a number of large graduation parties in the community over the summer.

Mequon-Thiensville Superintendent Matthew Joynt encouraged families to take responsibility for helping slow the spread of the virus so schools could reopen.

The local health department had recommended that ZIP codes have under an average of 350 cases per 100,000 people over a two-week period before opening classrooms.

Once the rate of infections declined, Mequon-Thiensville switched back to an in-person start for those who wanted it on Sept. 8. About 75% of students planned to come to school in-person every day while the other 25% learn from home, according to the district.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID-19 cases push some schools to scrap back-to-school plans
Opposition coalition that led anti-government protests before last month's coup has rejected a political charter pushed through by the ruling junta

The M5-RFP coalition in Mali that led anti-government protests before last month's coup has rejected a political charter pushed through by the ruling junta on Saturday, M5-RFP said.

After three days of talks with political leaders and civil society groups, the junta's roadmap was meant to chart an agreed transition after the Aug. 18 coup and reassure international powers, which fear Mali's political turmoil could further destabilise the region.

M5-RFP said the final version of the charter did not reflect the results of negotiations, which it said included a majority choice of a civilian interim president. Instead the charter says the interim president can be a civilian or a soldier.

"M5-RFP distances itself from the resulting document which does not reflect the views and decisions of the Malian people," it said in a statement released late on Saturday.

"The desire to grab and confiscate power for the benefit of the CNSP does not justify the means," it said, referring to the junta, which calls itself the National Committee for the Salvation of the People (CNSP).

M5-RFP's stance on the leadership of the transition reflects that of the West African regional bloc, which has given the junta until Tuesday to name a non-military president and prime minister to lead a one-year interim government.

Under the junta's charter, the interim president can be a civilian or a soldier and will preside over a transitional period of 18 months before elections are held, a spokesman for the talks said on Saturday.

It is not yet clear how the junta will proceed following the rejection of the charter by M5-RFP, under whose influence large-scale protests were held against President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in the run-up to the coup.

International powers are concerned ongoing political instability will undermine a joint fight against Islamist militants across West Africa's Sahel region.

Leaders from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which imposed economic sanctions after the coup, will meet on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Mali. The body has not said what it will do if its demands are not met.

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Nigel Howard's enthusiastic facial expressions and hand motions have become a popular feature of British Columbia's COVID-19 updates.

Now University of British Columbia students will get a chance to learn from the deaf interpreter in the university's first accredited American Sign Language (ASL) course that students can take for credit.

Howard previously led a pilot course at UBC, though it couldn't be taken for credit.

The former United Nations interpreter hopes the class will dispel some common misconceptions about sign language, particularly the notion that it's solely a tool for people who can't hear.

"It's not. It's a language in its own right," said Howard. "This fall, it will be taught as any other language is."

Like spoken languages, a rich culture accompanies ASL, he told Gloria Macarenko, host of CBC's On the Coast, earlier this week.

The radio interview was conducted over Zoom with the help of interpreter Deborah Russell.

Howard's work  a counterpart to Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry's calm advice and Health Minister Adrian Dix's stern warnings  has served as an important resource for non-hearing people.

While useful, closed captioning can't convey tone, noted Howard. Plus, ASL is widely seen as the first language among the non-hearing community, he said. English comes second.

"Seeing a sign language interpreter present on the television has been a very new experience for many of our community members," said Howard.

Submitted by Michelle Thorne

"For the deaf community, they feel like: 'Finally we're included at the same time. It's not that we get a transcript later. We're not an afterthought.'"

Meanwhile, for some, Howard's captivating signing has just been a welcome distraction from the daily dose of grim news.

Support for Howard has grown into something of a cult following. Some have begun selling t-shirts and posters featuring his likeness. A Facebook fan club dedicated to Howard now totals nearly four thousand members.

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The universality of ASL

ASL 100 offers students an introduction to the language, with an emphasis on grammar, vocabulary and contextual use, as well as ASL's connection to deaf culture.

Howard, who serves as the treasurer of the World Association of Sign Language Interpreters, hopes non-deaf people will begin to recognize the value of ASL.

"Learning American Sign Language gives you much more of an awareness of the role of body language and facial expression in any language," he said.

Howard recalled a time travelling with a group of other hearing-impaired people in Morocco. The group hired a driver to accompany them for the week, and by the end of the trip, Howard said the driver told them how much he'd enjoyed his time with the group.

Why? They had included him in the communication, despite not speaking a word. Howard said before they told him, the driver had no idea they were deaf.
Underbelly actor Gyton Grantley still gets called 'Carl' regularly on the street, after playing slain gangster Carl Williams in 2008 series.

Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph this week, the 40-year-old admitted the show turned his life 'upside down' with fans still recognising him as the character.

'I still get called Carl every day when I'm out on the street,' he confessed.

'I still get called Carl': Underbelly actor Gyton Grantley, 40, (pictured) has revealed how the hit show turned his life upside down during an interview with The Sunday Telegraph this week

The actor first played Carl Williams in Underbelly in 2008. He later reprised the role for the 2014 spin-off Fat Tony & Co, and most recently in Informer 3838 this year.

Carl Williams was a central gangland figure in Melbourne. He was a convicted drug trafficker and murderer. He was killed while in prison in April, 2010.

Gyton admitted he is 'done' now with the character. But said when he last portrayed Carl it was like meeting an old friend.

'It is like catching up with one of those dear old friends you haven't seen for years,' he said.

'I still get called Carl every day when I'm out on the street,' he admitted. Gyton has played slain gangland figure Carl Williams in Underbelly, Fat Tony & Co and in Informer 3838 (pictured)

'You may be a little anxious about how it's going to go and after about 20 seconds you're cracking the same jokes and having the same conversations.'

Gyton is an ambassador for Polished Man, which seeks to address the global scourge of family violence.

The actor has previously said how the hit show changed his life while speaking to News Ltd back in June, 2018.

Back on the chain gang: 'You may be a little anxious about how it's going to go and after about 20 seconds you're cracking the same jokes and having the same conversations,' Gyton said of the character. He with Tony Mokbel as played by Robert Mammone (L)

'My life got turned upside down overnight. I was famous all of a sudden,' he said.

'I had paparazzi outside my front door for a few months and everywhere you look there was just eyes.'

Gyton is married to glamorous wife Alex Ortuso with the pair sharing two kids: Rocco, four, and Sohi, one.

Family man: Gyton is married to glamorous wife Alex Ortuso with the pair sharing two kids: Rocco, four, and Sohi, one

Gyton dropped to one knee and popped the question while the pair were on holidays in Burano, Italy, in 2015.

The pair had been dating for five years.

The couple married in April in a secret ceremony surrounded by family and friends in Byron Bay in 2016.
El presidente @MartinVizcarraC supervisa el Laboratorio de Biologia Molecular de @EsSaludPeru, instalacion especializada para la deteccion de COVID -19. En vivo: https://t.co/chfPL60nZ6 pic.twitter.com/BFD36OnUe4
Justice secretary Robert Buckland has said he is prepared to resign. (Getty)

The justice secretary has said he will resign if the government breaks international law in an unacceptable way in regards to Brexit amid criticism over new legislation proposed last week.

Robert Buckland insisted he did not believe he would have to quit because the controversial UK Internal Market Bill was a break the glass in emergency provision if we need it and it probably wont be used.

Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis sparked fury on Tuesday when he admitted that changes in the legislation would breach international law in a very specific and limited way.

Boris Johnson is now under increasing pressure to back down on plans to override elements of his own Withdrawal Agreement with the European Union, with former prime ministers John Major and Tony Blair calling on Tory rebels to vote his bill down.

"If I see the rule of law being broken in a way that I find unacceptable then of course I will go," says Justice Secretary Robert Buckland, about the governments internal market bill which could breach international law#Marr https://t.co/Qoevttrfze pic.twitter.com/9vawyPqPmG  BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) September 13, 2020

As justice secretary, Buckland has faced calls to explain how the plans are consistent with obligations under international law and was pressed on Sunday over whether he would resign.

If I see the rule of law being broken in a way I find unacceptable then of course I will go, he told the BBCs The Andrew Marr Show.

I dont believe were going to get to that stage. I know in my mind what I have to do.

Read more: Boris Johnson: We expect everybody in this country to obey the law

But the government collectively here also has a responsibility  weve got to resolve any conflict, thats what we will do.

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Buckland insisted the government is committed to the rule of law and said its position was in accordance with honourable traditions of the British state.

Bucklands Labour shadow, David Lammy, accused him of putting career before country, tweeting: Each time the government breaks the law its a travesty.

The prime minister is now under increasing pressure to back down on plans to override the Withdrawal Agreement. (Getty)

Bucklands defence came as Irish foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney said the UK was damaging its international reputation as he hit out as Johnsons spin in denying Europe could impose a blockade between Britain and Northern Ireland.

Coveney dismissed the PMs suggestion that the EU could prevent food products from being transported from Britain to Northern Ireland.

Read more: What Boris Johnson promised about 'oven-ready' Brexit deal before general election

There is no blockade proposed, Coveney told The Andrew Marr Show.

That is the kind of inflammatory language coming from Number 10 which is spin and not the truth.

Coveney said there would be just limited checks on goods coming from Great Britain into Northern Ireland because there is an agreement to prevent the need of a physical border on the island of Ireland.
Conspiracy theorists have exploited the coronavirus pandemic and summer bushfires to split the community, raising concerns about a developing national security threat.

NSW Police and Emergency Services Minister David Elliott said on Sunday contingencies to address risks associated with conspiracy theories being used to undermine social cohesion were "front of mind".

Protestors at the 'Wake Up Australia!' march against mandatory vaccinations at Hyde Park in Sydney last month. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

The warning comes as violence erupted in Melbourne on Sunday at anti-lockdown rallies. The organiser was arrested and bailed last week after he was charged with inciting protest activity. A court heard on Friday the 43-year-old man believed coronavirus is a "genetically engineered virus created by world banks to kill off weaker humans".

Mr Elliott said the present climate was fertile ground for extremists.
On September 12, NASA shared a rare photo of the globular cluster NGC 1805, located near the edge of the Large Magellanic Cloud. Taking to its official Instagram handle, NASA shared the mystic photo of the tight cluster of thousands of stars located near the satellite of the Milky Way galaxy, captured by NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. In its center, thousands of stars are packed 100 to 1,000 times closer to one another than the nearest stars are to our Sun, NASA explained in the caption of the post. The striking difference in star colors is illustrated in the image, which combines different types of light: blue stars, shining brightest in near-ultraviolet light, and red stars, illuminated in red and near-infrared, it added.

The section of the universe packed with thousands of multicolored stars, scientifically known as the globular clusters are all born at the same time. However, the NGC 1805 is unique and different as it contains two separate populations of stars, which are located millions of years apart, tightened together in a cluster. The stars orbit closely to one another, like bees swarming around a hive. NASA said. There are stars, packed almost 100 to 1,000 times closer together compared with the nearest ever known star to the sun in the dense center of NGC 1805 that makes planetary systems around the formation impossible.

Read: NASA's Hubble Telescope Snaps Picture Of A Mysterious Titled Galaxy

Read: NASA To Buy Moon Resources Mined By Private Companies; Transfer Of Ownership Before 2024

Stars brightest in near-ultraviolet light

NASA explained that the stars comprised in the globular cluster were made of different types of light like the blue stars, shining brightest in near-ultraviolet light, and red stars, illuminated in red and near-infrared. Space telescopes like Hubble can observe in the ultraviolet because they are positioned above Earths atmosphere, which absorbs most ultraviolet light, making it inaccessible to ground-based facilities, NASA said. The unique colourful cluster can be viewed in the Southern Hemisphere, in the Dorado constellation, as per NASA. The constellation translates to Dolphinfish.

Read: NASA Launched First Ever Mercury Spacecraft Atlas 4 (MA-4) On This Day In 1961

Read: On Anniversary Of Kennedy's 'Moon Speech', NASA Invites Students For Interactive Programme
Festival drug users being fined has saved the criminal justice system nearly $200,000 but experts say the scheme could be unfair to those in disadvantaged circumstances.

The move away from having offenders attend court to on-the-spot fines for drug possession was recommended by an expert panel commissioned by Premier Gladys Berejiklian in the wake of two fatalities at the Defqon.1 festival in September 2018.

Defqon.1, where two revellers fatally overdosed in September 2018.

A report by The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) found that between January and June 2019, 300 criminal infringement notices were issued for illicit drug use or possession at music festivals across NSW.

Of those, 256 were issued for ecstasy possession, 21 were for cocaine, eight for amphetamine, and 15 for other drug possessions.
The party's comments came after Sitaram Yechury, Yogendra Yadav, Jayati Ghosh, and DU professor Apoorvanand were named in a supplementary chargesheet in Delhi riots case

New Delhi: The Congress on Sunday came out in support of Sitaram Yechury and others named in the supplementary chargesheet in the Delhi riots case and accused the Delhi Police of bringing the criminal justice system to ridicule.

The Opposition party said the BJP has "stooped to a new low" in its attempt to suppress peaceful dissent against its policies.

"Delhi police have brought the criminal justice system to ridicule by naming Mr Sitaram Yechury and many other scholars and activists in a supplementary charge sheet in the Delhi riots case," Congress leader P Chidambaram tweeted.

He questioned how "if an accused (Gulfisha Fathima) mentions a name in her statement, that person will be named as an accused in the charge sheet".

"Has the Delhi Police forgotten that between the Information and Charge Sheet there are important steps called Investigation and Corroboration," he asked.

Other than Yechury, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav, economist Jayati Ghosh and Delhi University professor Apoorvanand figure in the supplementary chargesheet.

However, Delhi Police have clarified that they have not filed a chargesheet against them and underscored the difference between naming someone as an accused and mentioning a name due to allegations.

Chidambaram said he was glad that former police officer Julio Ribeiro has "upbraided" the Delhi Police for its "biased handling" of the Delhi riots case.

"Will the Delhi police listen to this iconic police officer," he asked.

Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said, "The BJP has reached new lows in its attempt to suppress peaceful dissent against its policies which have torn the socio-economic-politico fabric of this nation."

"The misuse of Delhi police to choke voices like Sitaram Yechury and others is shameful and highly condemnable," he said.

Another Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has said, "This is worse than atrocious. I am in full solidarity with those chargesheeted. They are greater desh bhakts than the fraudulent ones in power now."

Party's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, "If speaking truth to power is a crime, If exposing circle of hate is a crime, If standing up to rioters is a crime, If being righteous & just is a crime, Then, each one of us must be booked, chargesheeted & jailed. Only then will my Country survive. Jai Hind."
Senior Biden campaign adviser Symone Sanders said former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris know there is still work to do as they court Latino and Hispanic voters around the country, while speaking with ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Sunday.

The big picture: Latinos will be the largest non-white voting bloc in the 2020 election for the first time in history. Hispanic and Latino voters make up more than 20% of the electorate in Florida and Arizona, two swing states that President Trump won in 2016.

The state of play: Some Democrats have been warning that support for the Biden-Harris campaign among Latino voters has been dipping.

Former 2020 presidential candidate Julian Castro told "Axios on HBO," "I think that we could win the battle and lose the war. ... We could win in November, but you could see a potential slide of Latino support for Democrats."

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has privately expressed concerns about the Biden campaign's efforts with Latino voters, saying they should campaign with people popular with younger voters like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), per the Washington Post.

What they're saying: "We know that we have work to do," Symone Sanders said. "We have said from the beginning, and Vice President Biden has been very clear about this as has Sen. Harris, that we are really working to earn every single vote in this country, and we want to earn the votes of the Latino Hispanic community."
About five million British kids under 13 years old were allegedly exploited on Youtube, as per the class-action lawsuit filed against the video-sharing platform. Under U.K. and E.U. laws, if a company wants to save user data in their system, they need to seek consent to the users affected. Youtube, however, failed to do so.

The United Kingdom court wants Youtube to face charges

As first reported via Daily Mail U.K., a class-action lawsuit worth $3.1 billion was filed in July against Youtube in the U.K.'s High Court. It was filed by privacy campaigner Duncan McCann and was said to be first of its kind in Europe.

McCann claims on the filing that Youtube allegedly breaches the privacy rights and data of their children users in the country. About five million kids under 13 years old were said to be victimized by the exploitation.

Documents showed Youtube has been getting children data without any consent and sell it to third-party advertising companies.

"We used to be worried about how children used the internet, the dangers of children being exposed to pornography, or being groomed," said McCann. "That is still a problem, but we should also be aware of how the internet is using children, which was not the case ten years ago. Are we comfortable with children being products of the internet rather than products of their parents?"

Under the U.K.'s Data Protection Act and the E.U.'s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), every company is required to seek consent from their users when getting their data. Failure to do so may follow punishments in the court.

Youtube is not for children under 13

Google, as the mother company of Youtube, will be the one to face the possible $3.1 billion class-action lawsuit. Once successful, all children and their parents will be compensated of around $640 each.

A Youtube spokesman, however, defended the issue and said that they did not exploit any info from their children users in UK.

As a matter of fact, they clarified that "Youtube [as a platform] is not for children under 13 years old." According to the post, Youtube's kids' platform called Youtube Kids app should be the one that these children must be using.

"We don't comment on pending litigation. YouTube is not for children under the age of 13. We launched the YouTube Kids app [in 2015] as a dedicated destination for kids and have made further changes that allow us to protect kids and families on YouTube better," said on the report.

Google may also argue that a lot of changes in privacy alerts were already applied by the platform over the years now.

These were a series of changes that it introduced last year to improve parents' notification, limit data collection, and restrict personalized adverts.

So far, Google nor Youtube have not yet updated their statements on the matter.

ALSO READ: #CancelNetflix: Cuties Director Admits That Film is 'Dangerous' and Explores Femininity to Break the Social Norm

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Jamie Pancho

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Turkish vessel leaves contested waters in eastern Med: report Turkey sent the Oruc Reis research vessel to disputed waters near a Greek island on August 10 and prolonged the mission three times despite repeated calls from the European Union and Greece to stop.

The Turkish research ship at the centre of a row between Greece and Turkey over gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean returned to a port in southern Turkey, local media reported Sunday.

Turkey sent the Oruc Reis research vessel to disputed waters near a Greek island on August 10 and prolonged the mission three times despite repeated calls from the European Union and Greece to stop.

But its deployment was scheduled to end on Saturday and has not been renewed by the Turkish authorities, pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak reported, adding that it had returned to Antalya port.

The decision not to extend the ship's mission was viewed as "a step towards giving diplomacy a chance," the newspaper wrote, linking it to attempts to kickstart talks between Greece and Turkey.

NATO said earlier this month that officials from both sides had agreed to take part in technical talks to avoid accidents between their navies.

Athens denied this was the case, but the Turkish defence ministry said on Thursday that the first round of talks between Greek and Turkish military delegations took place at NATO's headquarters in Brussels.

While Turkey repeatedly said it was ready for dialogue without preconditions, Greece said there could only be talks once Ankara stopped making "threats".

Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas welcomed the apparent withdrawal in an interview to Skai TV on Sunday.

"The fact there seems to be no new NAVTEX (deployment) is a positive step. We assess that as such and we are following the situation," he said.

Tensions escalated after Turkey sent the seismic research vessel and a small navy flotilla to waters claimed by Greece last month.

Greece then responded by shadowing the Turkish ships and staging naval exercises with several EU allies and the United Arab Emirates in its own show of force.

Leaders of seven European countries on the Mediterranean met at a summit last week in Corsica where they said they were ready to back EU sanctions on Turkey over the dispute.

kan-raz/adp
Governor Kay Ivey is urging precaution as a potential hurricane makes its way to Alabama shores.

While it is currently not being predicted as a direct hit to our coastal areas, we know well that we should not take the threat lightly, she said of Tropical Storm Sally in a statement Sunday.

Tropical storm Sally is moving toward the Gulf Coast and is expected to become a category 2 hurricane by the time it arrives Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

Significant flooding, tornadoes and wind damage are a concern for the coastal areas from Sally. The rest of the state will likely experience a tropical depression storm later in the week.

A second storm, Hurricane Pauline, also threatens land and could become a category 2 storm when it hits near Bermuda Monday morning.

The Mobile Department of Health is urging residents to revisit evacuation plans for themselves and their pets as the storm moves in, including preparation to get weather alerts on a cell phone or a radio.

The department says public shelters should be a last resort due to the threat of COVID-19.

Gov. Ivey said she is keeping a close eye on Sally and encouraged Alabamians to stay vigilant.

I urge everyone to stay tuned in to your local, trusted weather news source and to remain aware as this storm approaches. While COVID-19 remains a threat, do what you can to protect your health, but if necessary, remember that getting yourself and your family to safety in the event of severe weather takes precedent.
Bernie Sanders is privately concerned about how Democratic nominee Joe Biden is running against President Donald Trump.

The Washington Post reported Saturday that Sanders is urging Biden's team to talk about more pocketbook issues and campaign with Democrats including hip progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Sanders is warning that Biden could lose to Trump, like Hillary Clinton did in 2016, if he continues with his vague, down-the-middle approach, sources told The Post.

Former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is quietly worried about the campaign Joe Biden is running and has advised the Democratic nominee to talk more about pocketbook issues and campaign with popular Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Sanders believes Joe Biden (pictured) needs help with Latinos, young Americans and members of the progressive movement, three constituencies that went for the Vermont senator during the 2020 Democratic primaries

Biden's problem with Latinos could hurt him in Florida, Arizona and Nevada, where President Donald Trump (pictured) campaigned Saturday night at the Minden-Tahoe Airport, outside of Reno, Nevada

The Post wrote that Sanders believed Biden would be better served talking about economic populism, instead of simply criticizing the president.

Faiz Shakir, who ran Sanders 2020 presidential campaign, told The Post that Sanders is 'working as hard as he can' to get Biden elected, but admitted that Sanders advised some adjustments.

'Sen. Sanders is confident that Joe Biden is in a very strong position to win this election, but nevertheless feels there are areas the campaign can continue to improve upon,' Faiz said in a statement to The Post. 'He has been in direct contact with the Biden team and has urged them to put more emphasis on how they will raise wages, create millions of good paying jobs, lower the cost of prescription drugs and expand health care coverage.'

The Vermont senator 'also thinks that a stronger outreach to young people, the Latino community and the progressive movement will be a real help to the campaign,' Shakir said.

Latino voters could be critical for Biden in states like Floirda, where a recent poll saw Trump making gains among Latinos, and in Arizona and Nevada, where Trump is holding rallies this weekend.

In the early primaries, Latinos in Nevada swung that state decisively for Sanders.

Sanders captured a majority of the youth vote too, while progressives went for him or Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Sanders has tried to move his voters over to Biden's column.

He dropped out months earlier than he did in 2016 and immediately backed Biden.

Members of his campaign team joined up with Biden's to craft a 'unity taskforce' document outlining specific policy proposals they'd come to an agreement on.

But Biden - hoping to pick up disaffected Republicans and independents - has pushed back when Trump has tried to characterize him as a tool of the 'radical left,' a term the president uses to describe politicians like Sanders and AOC.

'You know me. You know my heart, and you know my story, my family story. Ask yourself, do I look to you like a radical socialist with soft spot for rioters? Really?' Biden said during a late August speech as he tried to distance himself from Black Lives Matter protests that had turned violent and destructive.

By Sunday morning, Trump's team was already taking advantage of yet another story about Democratic Party disarray.

Trump tweeted about the Sanders story, saying that Biden is 'relying on Castro lover Bernie Sanders' to bring in Latino voters

Jason Miller, a senior adviser with the Trump campaign, mentioned the Sanders story as he tried to push back on a new poll that showed the president's approval rating on the coronavirus sitting at 35 per cent.

'There is a reason why Bernie Sanders and other Democrats are so concerned about Joe Biden - the lack of enthusiasm with his candidacy,' Miller said.

Miller pointed to the thousands of people who showed up in Nevada Saturday night for a Trump rally there and said, of the crowd, '20 per cent didn't vote in 2016.'

'That's why our internal numbers show us actually winning Nevada,' Miller said.

And soon Trump was reacting to the Sanders story too.

'Sleepy Joe Biden has spent 47 years in politics being terrible to Hispanics. Now he is relying on Castro lover Bernie Sanders to help him out. That wont work!' Trump wrote. 'Remember, Miami Cubans gave me the highly honored Bay of Pigs Award for all I have done for our great Cuban Population!'
A man has been jailed for eight months in Western Australia after he twice breached COVID quarantine laws and drove with a suspended licence.

Police say the 37-year-old arrived at Perth Airport from Queensland on August 17 and was directed to self-quarantine at an address in Beechboro.

The man was not present when officers attended the property on August 23.

Upon returning he was summonsed to appear in court charged with failing to comply with a direction.

The man was not present when officers attended the property on August 23. Source: AAP

Four days later, police conducting traffic patrols in Midland stopped the man who was driving in breach of his quarantine directions.

He was arrested and taken to Perth Watch House before facing court the following day and being remanded in custody.

The man faced Midland Magistrates Court on Friday and was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for driving without a valid licence and a total of two months in prison for two counts of failing to comply with a direction.

He was disqualified from driving for nine months.

A woman who pleaded guilty to sneaking into WA in a truck from Victoria was last month jailed for six months.

Asher Faye Vander Sanden, 28, is appealing the sentence in the Supreme Court and has been granted bail ahead of the verdict.

Individuals found to have breached WA's strict quarantine laws face a maximum penalty of 12 months' imprisonment or a $50,000 fine.

WA recorded no new cases on Sunday. Four cases remain active.

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.
Pieces of a Woman was inspired by the grief the films Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczo and his screenwriter partner Kata Weber suffered when they lost their own child.

Vanessa Kirbys best actress win at the Venice film festival on Saturday confirms her ascension to Hollywood royalty after breaking through playing a real royal in Netflixs The Crown.

The 32-year-old British star was the rebellious Princess Margaret, the British queens younger sister, in the streamers flagship series.

Kirby had two films vying for the Golden Lion in Venice, the lesbian love story The World to Come and the tough drama Pieces of a Woman, for which she won the prize.

Both made big demands on a woman that Variety called the outstanding stage actress of her generation.

Pieces of a Woman opens with Kirby in a jaw-dropping 25-minute childbirth scene, which was filmed in one shot.

The film was inspired by the grief the films Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczo and his screenwriter partner Kata Weber suffered when they lost their own child.

Kirby threw herself "really deep" into her first lead role in a movie, she told reporters.

But she admitted trying to be true to the suffering of the women she talked to before the shoot was "really scary", and she named and thanked them and their lost children in her acceptance speech.

As tears welled up in her eyes, she said she wanted to share the prize with all those parents "who have lost children... sometimes before even life began".

"We can connect through our pain and heal through it," she said.

If that was not scary enough, Kirby was having to act opposite Shia LaBeouf, one of Hollywoods most intense and demanding leading men, who she thanked for "championing this very female story".

Kirby though is not someone to be intimidated by fame. She grew up around stage and screen legends Vanessa and Corin Redgrave, who were friends of her family in London.

And although she has not exactly been an overnight success, there was no mistaking she was a major talent, with the theatre critic of The Independent newspaper saying she was a star if ever I saw one" after seeing her in The Acid Test at Londons Royal Court in 2011.

A series of stage and television roles followed before she was cast in The Crown, for which she won an Emmy for best supporting actor.

Kirby then made her rather unlikely transition to Hollywood action films Mission Impossible  Fallout and Hobbs & Shaw two years ago.

While Pieces of a Woman won her the Venice prize, critics also adored her in The World to Come.

In it she plays a glamorous woman yolked to a backwoods farmer in 19th-century upstate New York who tries to escape the drudgery of her life when she begins an intense relationship with another farmers wife.

Critics were wowed by the slow-burn passion of this ravishingly beautiful love story, with The Guardians Xan Brooks saying he could stare at its dense forest landscapes all day.

The World to Come is one of a trio of acclaimed new historical lesbian romances, following Portrait of a Lady on Fire and Ammonite starring Kate Winslet and Soairse Ronan.
Russian flagship air carrier Aeroflot has resumed its flights to the UAE last Friday, a media report said, adding that the flights will be carried out twice a week - on Friday and Saturday.



The first flight was scheduled to take off at 2:30 Moscow time on Friday, reported Emirates news agency Wam, citing Russian news agency Tass.



Covid-19 PCR tests are mandatory for all inbound and transit passengers arriving to Dubai (and the UAE), including UAE citizens, residents and tourists, irrespective of the country they are coming from. Upon their arrival from UAE, Russian citizens will have to undergo another test and upload the results to the official state services portal.
After nearly two decades, it should be perfectly clear to Americans that the U.S. government has no interest in getting to the bottom of the 9/11 false flag. Whatever potential remains for the truth to be set free will largely be determined by the activists, journalists, and researchers who make up the 9/11 Truth movement.

When historians look back upon 2020, they will focus their efforts on understanding the innumerable ways in which the COVID-19 crisis has affected the world. There will be books, documentaries, dissertations, and news specials interviewing the politicians and government officials who played major roles in the events currently unfolding before our eyes. Perhaps, in time, the questions surrounding the limitations of the PCR test, the variables with the numbers of COVID-19 cases, and concerns about foreknowledge will be explored in a logical and fact-based manner. Or, as is the case with the attacks of September 11, 2001, the questions will be ignored by the masses and the media, while a steadily increasing portion of the population continues to search for the answers which are needed to fully grasp the scope and cost of the false flag.

As people from all over the world participate in ceremonies and events to mark the anniversary of 9/11, the many remaining questions surrounding the attacks loom large. Our collective minds may be focused on the fears and ramifications related to COVID-19, but understanding the truth about 9/11  the last major global event to affect billions of people  is still an extremely vital part of unraveling the control narrative spun by the Predator Class.

Justice Rising

On the 19th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks the 9/11 Truth movement is continuing their nearly two decades battle for the unvarnished facts. The 9/11 Truth movement includes victims, their families, and experts in a range of fields who are skeptical of the governments official line on 9/11. Some of the groups include Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, Firefighters for 9/11 Truth & Unity, Pilots for 9/11 Truth, 9/11 Families United for Justice Against Terrorism, Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice, and other local activist groups and individuals from around the globe. Its a loose-knit movement without an official position, and the opinions, theories and ideas espoused by members often conflict with one another. However, the movement is united by the belief that the official narrative promoted by the U.S. government is full of holes.

The non-profit Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth has been a vital component of the movement since the mid-2000s, organizing a number of conferences, protests, outreach events, and documentary screenings. For the 19th anniversary, AE for 9/11 Truth is organizing an online conference called Justice Rising, from Friday, September 11, to Sunday, September 13. The event will examine the continuing struggle for 9/11 justice and the destructive trajectory of the post-9/11 world. The conference will go for three hours each day and will be open to all free of charge.

On Friday evening the conference will feature Mick Harrison of the Lawyers Committee for 9/11 Inquiry to discuss the latest on the request for correction to the National Institute of Standards and Technologys (NIST) 2008 report on World Trade Center 7. Many 9/11 Truth researchers focus on the mysterious collapse of WTC7 as the smoking gun evidence that Americans were lied to about the attacks. WTC7 was not hit by a plane, yet it collapsed at 5:20 p.m. on Sept. 11, 2001. According to the NIST, the collapse was caused by office fires leading to thermal expansion of the buildings supportive columns and girders.

Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth submitted the request for correction to NIST on April 15, 2020, demanding the agency revise their position on the collapse of WTC7. AE 9/11 Truth says they provided a detailed eight point report showing that office fires could not have caused the collapse of the building. However, on August 28, NIST issued its initial decision denying the request for correction that ten 9/11 family members and 88 architects and structural engineers submitted.

Our request described in meticulous detail eight items of information in NISTs Building 7 report that violated the federal Data Quality Act and NISTs Information Quality Standards, AE 9/11 Truth writes. Our goal was to compel NIST to rectify these violations and in so doing reverse its unsupported conclusion that fire was the cause of Building 7s collapse.

AE also noted that NIST failed to meet their obligation by providing a point-by-point response to all relevant arguments contained in the request, as required by the Data Quality Act. The non-profit made up of more than 3,000 architects and engineers stated that NISTs response was a blatant avoidance of the arguments and facts contained in the request designed with the intention of misleading the uninformed reader. AE 9/11 Truth plans to appeal the decision by September 27, 2020.

The 19th anniversary Justice Rising conference will also feature three pioneers of the 9/11 Truth movement, including David Ray Griffin, Niels Harrit, and Steven Jones. All three men have been instrumental in providing clarity on the many questions surrounding the 9/11 attacks. Griffin is an emeritus professor of philosophy of religion and theology at Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University. He has published fourteen books which deal specifically with 9/11, including The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11, published in 2004.

Niels Harrit served as associate professor of chemistry at the University of Copenhagen from 1971 to 2009, and is the author of more than 60 published peer-reviewed papers. Since 2007 he has been actively involved in the global movement for 9/11 truth and is the lead author of a scientific paper, published in April 2009, describing the findings of active thermitic material in the dust from the collapses of World Trade Center Buildings 1, 2 and 7. It is this presence of thermitic dust which has lead researchers to conclude that explosive charges were placed throughout the buildings to assist in their controlled demolition

Steven Jones is a former professor of physics at Brigham Young University. Jones was the initiator of research for the peer-reviewed paper, Active Thermitic Material Observed in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe, published in the Open Chemical Physics Journal. Steven is also the author of the influential 2005 paper, Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Collapse?

One of the most profound aspects of the Justice Rising conference will be a discussion with Dr. Leroy Hulsey, former professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks who led a multi-year engineering study evaluating whether fire caused the collapse of WTC7 on September 11, 2001. Hulseys study is the subject of an upcoming documentary called SEVEN, directed by Dylan Avery, the director behind the infamous 9/11 documentary, Loose Change.

Dr. Hulseys conclusions that fire could not have caused the collapse of World Trade Center 7 should have sent shockwaves through the American political scene, but a lack of reporting on the topic ensured that only those in the 9/11 Truth movement understood the implications. Hulsey has previously given presentations detailing how his team eliminated fire as the cause of the collapse of the 47-story building. Hulsey explained that NISTs report on the collapse found fires on floors 7 through 9, 11 through 14, 19, 22, 29, and 30. However, there is no evidence of fire below floor 7, Hulsey said.

The 9/11 Truth community has long pointed to the unique nature of the collapse of the WTC towers. Never before have fires alone brought down steel skyscrapers. For many in the movement, Dr. Hulseys studies are welcomed but also met with skepticism. This is because immediately following 9/11, activists and researchers have been pointing out the numerous reports and descriptions of explosions taking place at the base of the Twin Towers. Now, some 9/11 Truthers wonder if Hulseys study will make a difference when the public has largely been indoctrinated to accept the U.S. governments version of events.

Fourteen years ago, AE 9/11 Truth produced the article, 118 Witnesses: The Firefighters Testimony to Explosions in the Twin Towers, a review of interviews conducted with 503 members of the New York Fire Department (FDNY) in the weeks and months after 9/11. The review revealed that 118 firefighters described witnessing what they interpreted to be explosions.

More recently, AE has released a report which examined more than 70 hours of 9/11 news coverage. The report, How 36 Reporters Brought Us the Twin Towers Explosive Demolition on 9/11, sheds light on how the destruction of the Twin Towers was initially being reported. According to AE 9/11 Truth, the review of the news coverage reveals that the hypothesis of explosions bringing down the Twin Towers was not only prevalent among reporters covering the events in New York City on 9/11 but was, in fact, the dominant hypothesis.

The 36 reporters who brought us the Twin Towers explosive demolition on 9/11 include, by network, ABCs George Stephanopoulos and Cynthia McFadden; CBSs Harold Dow, Tom Flynn, Mika Brzezinski, and Carol Marin (appearing on WCBS); NBCs Pat Dawson and Anne Thompson; CNNs Aaron Brown, Rose Arce, Patty Sabga, and Alan Dodds Frank; Fox News David Lee Miller and Rick Leventhal; MSNBCs Ashleigh Banfield and Rick Sanchez; CNBCs John Bussey, Ron Insana, and Bob Pisani; WABCs N.J. Burkett, Michelle Charlesworth, Nina Pineda, Cheryl Fiandaca, and Joe Torres; WCBSs John Slattery, Marcella Palmer, Vince DeMentri, and Marcia Kramer; WNBCs Walter Perez; New York 1s Kristen Shaughnessy, Andrew Siff, John Schiumo, and Andrew Kirtzman; USA Todays Jack Kelley; and two unidentified reporters (1 and 2) who attended a press conference with NYC Mayor Giuliani and New York Governor Pataki.

The Truth Remains Buried

While AE 9/11 Truth remains committed to exposing the flaws in NISTs fire/ thermal expansion theory, other family members and journalists are dedicated to uncovering the truth about the funding of the attacks and the many data that remain classified.

For several years, family members were fighting to secure the release of the now-declassified 28-pages of the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001. Although the final report amounts to over 800 pages, the 28 pages were classified by former President George W. Bush shortly after the report was released in 2002. The papers detail the story of Saudi nationals suspected of being Saudi intelligence agents involved in the terror attacks. In July 2016, after nearly 15 years of secrecy and resistance from the Bush and Obama administrations, the report was released to the public and the family members of the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks.

The release of the 28 pages in conjunction with the passage of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorisms Act (JASTA) ensured the 9/11 victims will have a day in court. As Dan Christensen of the Florida Bulldog recently noted, the last, best chance to obtain actual answers in our lifetime is likely the immense lawsuit brought by thousands of 9/11 victims and families thats now inching through U.S. District Court in New York City.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has become the focus of the 9/11 victims families lawsuit for knowingly providing material support and resources to the al Qaeda terrorist organization and facilitating the September 11th attacks in 2001. The Obama administration fought the passing of the bill, eventually vetoing the legislation before Congress voted to override the former President. While Donald Trump paid lip service to finding out what was in the secret papers, he has since become one of the most vocal supporters of the Saudi Kingdom, including supporting an unprecedented weapons deal which fuel the human rights violations in Yemen.

The Trump Administration  through the Department of Justice and FBI  has continued the requirements for secrecy in the courtroom. The government continues to resist producing thousands of more detailed records, claiming that such material concerning apparent Saudi involvement prior to 9/11 is a state secret, the Bulldog reports. In April, Attorney General William Barr and then-Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell swore public declarations that their personal assertions of the state secrets privilege were necessary to protect the national security interests of the United States.

The 9/11 families have attempted to push back on the governments state secrets claims, but have faced difficulty due to the already secretive nature of the court room proceedings. For example, the governments reasoning for state secrets arguments are not even available to the attorneys representing the families. Christensen notes that only last week the U.S. government filed a classified declaration from Michael H. Glasheen, acting deputy director, operations branch, counterterrorism division of the FBI. However, the declaration is only able to be seen by the judge, with the plaintiffs and the public left in the dark completely.

Interestingly, Christensen notes that the secret assertions are often classified pursuant to Presidential Executive Order 13526, signed by former President Obama on Dec. 29, 2009. The order essentially states that the U.S. government believes that national security is more important than the free flow of information.

After nearly two decades, it should be perfectly clear to Americans  and those around the world affected by American foreign policy  that the U.S. government has no interest in getting to the bottom of the 9/11 false flag. Whatever potential remains for the truth to be set free will largely be determined by the activists, journalists, and researchers who make up the 9/11 Truth movement.

Will the truth die on the vine, like so many other efforts to awaken the masses? Or will the people of the world finally wake up to the lies that surround the official version of the attacks of September 11, 2001?
By Trend

A dust storm in Ankara's Polatl district began earlier Saturday and has gained strength during the day, disrupting daily life in the capital, Trend reports citing Daily Sabah.

Huge dust clouds formed over the district due to the storm. It destroyed the tents set up in rural areas where agricultural workers stay. It also caused traffic disruptions as the dust storm restricted visibility.

Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) and firefighters mobilized and took precautions against possible adversities.

Ankara Governor Vasip Sahin told Anadolu Agency (AA) that there has been no loss of life or injuries among initial reports.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Donny van de Beek has already whet the appetite of Manchester United fans, who have been left in awe of his skilful footwork during his first outing for the club.

The Dutchman pulled on the United shirt for the first time on Saturday, for a pre-season friendly clash against Aston Villa.

United hastily arranged the friendly, given their Premier League season officially starts a week later, following Europa League commitments at the end of the recently postponed campaign.

Scroll down for video

In his first Man United performance, Donny van de Beek picked up the ball under a heavy press

Dropping his shoulder, the Dutchman quickly shirked both players with a roulette turn

Van de Beek slid his foot over the ball and broke free into empty space to attack the Villa end

And Van de Beek seized his opportunity to shine, putting in a solid show and capturing the imagination with a sublime piece of skill.

Receiving the ball in the final third under the heavy press of two Villa players, Van de Beek manipulated his body so as to pivot on the ball and break away into free space by performing a roulette turn.

The trick has long since been associated with Real Madrid legend Zinedine Zidane, who frequently performed the turn in midfield so as to break between the lines of opposition.

Footage later emerged of Van de Beek's piece of genius, after the match was later aired on the TV channels of both Villa and United.

Van de Beek made his first appearance for United after arriving from Ajax in a 40million deal

Fans were quick to marvel at the Dutchman's debut, with one writing on Twitter: 'He's quality, bossing the midfield alongside Mctominay.'

Another fan simply added: 'Ole's skillful reds,' while a third wrote: 'I can't wait to watch you more. Donny van de Beek is a baller.'

United went on to lose the match, courtesy of a strike from Villa new boy Ollie Watkins who recently signed from Brentford.

Some United fans clearly did not take too kindly to the defeat, despite the match being a preparatory warm-up before starting the campaign against Crystal Palace next weekend.

One supporter, with the username Rron_ldn, wrote on social media: 'Our beloved club is in the mud.'
The COVID-19 pandemic took away her familys livelihood and now 48-year-old Veeramma fears she will lose her roof in the wake of the Supreme Court ordering the removal of 48,000 slum dwellings along railway tracks in Delhi. My husband was born here. My son was born here. My in-laws breathed their last in this house. This is all we have," said Veeramma as she sat on crushed stones outside her home at a slum cluster alongside a railway track near Jal Vihar in Lajpat Nagar.

The 48-year-old, who works as a domestic help, said her employers havent called her back to work yet. My husband cannot move. My son is a daily wager, he doesnt have much work, too. We dont have enough ration to feed the family for another week," said Veeramma looking at her two-year-old granddaughter, a third generation to be born in the slum cluster.

We dont have the money for my granddaughters milk. Even if we beg, we wont get anything. The times were never so bad," she said. The Supreme Court had on August 31 ordered the removal of 48,000 slum dwellings along railway tracks in Delhi within three months. As per rough estimates, there are around 2,40,000 people living in slums in Naraina Vihar, Azadpur, Vihar, Shakur Basti, Mayapuri, Sriniwaspuri, Anand Parbat and Okhla among others.

The Northern Railways had submitted a report to the apex court which said that mushrooming of slums along railway tracks is acting as hindrance towards keeping them clean. Panchavarna, 55, said her family had moved to Delhi from Chennai. We know the land belongs to the government, but where will we go? Who will take our responsibility?" she asked.

Elumalai, 35, reminded the governments promise of jahan jhuggi wahin makan" made before the elections. We do not say we wont accept the courts order. This land belongs to the railways and they will take it one day, but where will we go? No one cares for us," Elumalai, whose father came to Delhi from Chennai in 1978, said.

Interestingly, each household in the slum has got electricity connection, Aadhaar card, voter id, and ration card. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had built community toilets for the slum dwellers last year, so that no one defecates in the open or on the tracks, said 45-year-old Shankar Sarangam, a driver who did not get a salary for three months during the COVID-19-induced lockdown. The salary has been reduced by half. I have a family to feed. We were thankful to god that we have a roof over our head," he said.

Now the jhuggi will be gone, too. The railways should have at least considered the timing of the move. The impact of the pandemic will linger on for another three years," Sarangam said. In another slum along the railway tracks in Sriniwaspuri, Ramnadhar Mandal, 40, asks, Why do politicians ask for votes if they cannot rehabilitate us? Where do we go to the footpath?" Mandal, who hails from Bihars Katihar district, has two baby girls who are learning to walk.

Think of these children. We will have to spend nights in the open, in rains and winters," he said, clasping his hands together, as if making a request to the government. Gunodhar Mandal, 60, who came to Delhi from West Bengals Malda district 25 years ago is not very hopeful of a proper rehabilitation. I am afraid we will be asked to leave the city and go back to the village. We have nothing left there," he said.

The matter has taken a political tone with the Aam Aadmi Party targeting the Bharatiya Janata Party for eviction notices being issued by the railways. AAP spokesperson and MLA Raghav Chadha on Friday tore eviction notices sent to the residents and said no one could raze their shanties till Kejriwal is alive". The Delhi BJP has alleged that despite being in power for over five years, the AAP has done little to rehabilitate people living in slums in the city.

The Arvind Kejriwal government says the railways cannot demolish the slum clusters along the train tracks without providing alternative accommodation to its inhabitants in accordance with the provisions of Delhi Slum and JJ Rehabilitation and Relocation Policy, 2015. On its part, Railways said it was working in line with the orders of the Supreme Court, but refused to elaborate further on the issue.

In a letter to the railways on Thursday, the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), headed by Chief Minister Kejriwal, said that according to the 2015 policy, the rehabilitation work has to be undertaken by the agency which owns the encroached land. However, DUSIB also said it can undertake rehabilitation work but the railways will have to pay for the cost of land and construction as well as relocation charges ranging from Rs 7.55 Lakh to Rs 11.30 Lakh per flat.

The agency also provided a list of over 29,000 completed housing units and another 16,600 under construction ones available with the Delhi government. These houses were constructed in different parts of the city including Narela, Bawana, Baprola, Sultanpuri and other places under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) between 2007 and 2019. The DUSIB has said the 29,257 completed flats will be ready to move in by March-April 2021, while the under construction 16600 flats at Tikri and Pooth Khurd will be ready by December 2021.
Senator Bernie Sanders is privately expressing concerns about Joe Biden's presidential campaign, according to three people with knowledge of the conversations, urging Biden's team to intensify its focus on pocketbook issues and appeals to liberal voters.

Sanders, the runner-up to Biden in the Democratic primary, has told associates that Biden is at serious risk of coming up short in the November election if he continues his vaguer, more centrist approach, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive talks.

The senator has identified several specific changes he'd like to see, saying Biden should talk more about health care and about his economic plans, and should campaign more with figures popular among young liberals, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Asked for comment, Sanders's team provided a statement from Faiz Shakir, the senator's former campaign manager in the presidential race, saying that Sanders is "working as hard as he can" to get Biden elected but has advised some strategic adjustments.

"Senator Sanders is confident that Joe Biden is in a very strong position to win this election, but nevertheless feels there are areas the campaign can continue to improve upon," Shakir said. "He has been in direct contact with the Biden team and has urged them to put more emphasis on how they will raise wages, create millions of good paying jobs, lower the cost of prescription drugs and expand health care coverage."

Shakir said Sanders "also thinks that a stronger outreach to young people, the Latino community and the progressive movement will be of real help to the campaign."

The Biden campaign declined to comment.

Sanders led a surging liberal faction during the Democratic primaries and scored early successes in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada before ultimately falling short. His critique of Biden's approach reflects his status as a longtime stalwart of the party's left and a self-described democratic socialist.

But it is rare for such a prominent party figure to repeatedly voice private criticisms of the party's nominee and acknowledge them publicly, especially in the campaign's final stretch. Sanders's decision to do so suggests the ongoing frustration among liberals, who urgently want Biden to defeat President Donald Trump but are upset that he has taken a relatively centrist path.

Biden is determined not to play into attacks from Trump seeking to cast him as a radical or a socialist. The nominee has distanced himself from elements in his party calling for defunding the police, implementing a single-payer health plan and banning hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Sanders supports the latter two policies.

Still, Sanders has worked hard to publicly support Biden, and Democrats are eager to avoid the divide between the senator and Hillary Clinton that hurt the party in 2016. On Saturday, Sanders is slated to host a virtual town hall that is expected to express support for Biden.

But Sanders contends Democrats have the best chance of winning if they stress economic populism, those close to him said, rather than if they embrace a sole strategy of attacking Trump and avoiding hot-button issues.

Until now, there had been few outward signs of discord between Biden and Sanders. Shortly after the senator ended his campaign in April, he promptly endorsed Biden, offering an unequivocal stamp of approval.

Associates of both men say they personally like each other, having been Senate colleagues. After Biden emerged as the presumptive nominee, the two formed a series of task forces, made up of allies of both men, that crafted policy recommendations on health-care, climate change and other topics.

In some ways, Biden has moved closer to Sanders's brand of populism as left-leaning activism has surged inside and outside the Democratic Party. He has talked of a Franklin D. Roosevelt-style presidency if he wins and urged sweeping change to combat the novel coronavirus, racism and other issues.

But Sanders has come to worry about the Biden campaign's prospects, even as the Democratic nominee leads Trump in the national polls, associates said. Surveys in some potentially pivotal states show a closer race between Biden and Trump, stoking nervousness among Democrats still traumatized by Clinton's 2016 defeat.

The people familiar with Sanders's private conversations said he has a expressed a sentiment that the liberal, millennial slice of the party has not received the attention it merits. As a candidate, Sanders drew big crowds of hundreds - sometimes thousands - of young, enthusiastic people with left-leaning views.

Another Sanders concern, according to one of the people, is that the Biden campaign has kept its distance from some of the marquee surrogates who campaigned for Sanders and helped him attract a large following. Ocasio-Cortez, for example, has not campaigned closely with Biden.

As a candidate, Sanders frequently emphasized his economic plans, which were geared toward curtailing wealthy and powerful interests and championing working-class people. Biden has recently been touting his "Build Back Better" plan, which calls for immense new investments in American jobs and industry.

And in questioning Biden's outreach to Latino voters, among whom Sanders showed strength in the Democratic primary, the senator is touching on a topic that is increasingly on the minds of Democratic leaders.

Polls have shown Biden leading Trump among Latinos, but not as widely as many Democrats hoped. As a result, fretful discussions are underway in the party about Biden's standing with Latino voters in battleground states such as Florida, Arizona, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, where Latinos could play a pivotal role in the outcome.

WASHINGTON POST
PARIS (Reuters) - Chinese renewable energy group Envision is looking to build a battery factory in France to supply the growing electric vehicle market, French newspaper Journal du Dimanche (JDD) said on Sunday.

The company, which has battery production plants in Japan, the United States, Britain and in China, has identified around a dozen potential locations in France for the future factory, the JDD said, citing unnamed sources.

The newspaper quoted Sylvie Ouziel, an international director at Envision, as saying the group planned to invest hundreds of million of euros in a new plant that was expected to open in late 2023 and eventually create around a thousand jobs.

She said Britain's exit from the European Union had changed the landscape and that an extra plant was needed to supply countries including France and Spain, although she did not specify France as the planned location for the new factory.

Envision did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Chinese group entered the electric vehicle battery market by acquiring AESC from Japanese car maker Nissan Motor Co <7201.T> two years ago.

The European Union has been encouraging local companies to develop capacity in a sector dominated by Chinese production.

In France, energy major Total <TOTF.PA> and automaker Peugeot <PEUP.PAA> are planning to develop an electric vehicle battery production site through a joint venture that also aims to build a plant in Germany.

(This story refiles to fix typo on director's name in third paragraph)

(Reporting by Gus Trompiz)
Parliaments most extraordinary session will start on Monday, with a slew of health protocols in place amid a raging coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, and with several potential flashpoints between the government and the Opposition.

The Centre has listed 38 bills  including 11 ordinances  for passage in the curtailed session during which opposition parties have demanded a debate on the India-China border conflict, an economic slowdown that caused a GDP contraction of 23.9% in the quarter ended June, job losses, delay in Goods and Services Tax (GST) payments to the states, and management of the pandemic.

Amid severe restrictions put in place and a logistical overhaul in the functioning of both Houses of Parliament, the stage is also set for the first direct political confrontation between the National Democratic Alliance government and the opposition parties in six months, after the budget session ended abruptly on March 23 because of the spread of Covid-19.

The virus continues to pose a threat to the session. At least five lawmakers may have tested positive in the last two days during the pre-session screening using the reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test, considered the most accurate for diagnosis of the coronavirus disease, and many senior MPs, cutting across political lines, have decided against attending the proceedings.

The session will be held in two shifts  Rajya Sabha in the morning and Lok Sabha in the afternoon  with members of both House spread across the two chambers and galleries. On the opening day, however, the Lok Sabha will be held in the morning shift, and the Rajya Sabha in the afternoon.

In recent months, several issues have rocked the countrys polity. The ongoing India-China border conflict, the economic slump, massive job losses and the plight of migrant workers who fled the cities for the countryside, and allegations of a pro-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bias in Facebooks Indian management team, have triggered political protests and attacks on the government.

Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan will place a statement on the Covid-19 situation in Rajya Sabha, which may elect a deputy chairman on Monday. NDAs Harivansh, who belongs to the Janata Dal (United), is pitted against opposition candidate Manoj Jha of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in the election to the post. In light of this, the BJP has issued a whip in the Upper House.

Sparks may still fly on the first day of the session, which ends on October 1. The government will bring a motion in both Houses to approve its decision to scrap Question Hour and private members bills during the session. The move has already sparked protests by the Opposition that may spill over in both Houses as well.

The government will introduce the Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, to replace related ordinances. The Congress, the Left, and some other parties, are vehemently opposed to the ordinances.

Major farmers groups have also vowed to resist the Narendra Modi governments agenda to free up the countrys antiquated agriculture sector with liberalising ordinances, calling for coordinated protests on Monday, when the government will table them in Lok Sabha for passage as Acts.

Opposition parties, including the Congress, have lent support to the farmers groups, saying they planned to stall the ordinances in Parliament by attempting to have them sent to parliamentary select committees.

There are no ifs and buts. We are 100% opposed to the three farm-related ordinances and the banking ordinance. Our chief ministers have written letters to the PM expressing their concern. We are absolutely clear that these ordinances are not in favour of Indian farmers, the Congress chief whip for the Rajya Sabha, Jairam Ramesh, said on Sunday.

Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla held two meetings with leaders of different political parties on Sunday to lay the ground for the session. While the political leaders appreciated the elaborate preparations made for the session, Opposition members also placed before Naidu and BIrla their demands for a debate on key issues.

The Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha will take up a record number of 20 and 16 obituary referencesincluding the ones on former President Pranab Mukherjee and former rural development minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh before kickstarting their legislative agenda.

A heavy legislative agenda awaits the first day of the session. While the Lok Sabha is set to pass the National Commission for Homoeopathy Bill and The National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Bill without much discussion on Monday, a total of seven other bills will be introduced in the Lower House.

In the Rajya Sabha, four bills will be introduced and two  The Aircraft (Amendment) Bill and The Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda Bill  will be passed.

Parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi said the government was ready for a debate on all issues which will be decided in the business advisory committee meetings this week. When asked if the government is ready for a discussion on the military standoff between India and China at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Ladakh sector, Joshi said it will be decided while keeping in mind national security and the countrys strategic interests.

Former parliamentary affairs secretary Afzal Amanullah said:The authorities have taken humongous efforts to arrange this session which will be historic in many ways given the fact that Indian Parliament has dared to meet amid Covid. But it is up to the political parties to make it an effective one. Already, the scrapping of Question Hour has dampened the mood.

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A federal Liberal senator is calling for regulators to review a foreign takeover offer for ASX-listed Cromwell Property Group, arguing the bid contravenes new rules brought in by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg to safeguard Australian assets during the coronavirus pandemic.

Queensland Senator Paul Scarr said he would raise his concerns about the offer from Singapore's ARA for the Brisbane-headquartered Cromwell with his colleagues in Parliament, as well as with the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB).

The Therapeutic Goods Administration building in Symondston, ACT is owned by Cromwell.

"It's opportunistic," Mr Scarr said. "I think the regulators need to consider it, I think FIRB needs to consider it. I was surprised they (ARA) had in principle agreement from FIRB."

"I applaud the actions the Treasurer took back in March in terms of decreasing the threshold for consideration down to zero, but its a question of making sure those actions are appropriately reflected in terms of individual transactions."
At a time when the oil and gas industry is facing economic uncertainty as part of the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic and the decline in global prices as a result of an oversupply, the eastern Mediterranean region is marred by a frantic struggle over natural gas resources.

Eastern Mediterranean countries have rushed to demarcate their maritime borders and exclusive economic zones in a bid to facilitate the gas exploration process.

The United States Geological Survey estimated the natural gas reserve in the Mediterranean in 2017 at 340-360 trillion cubic feet with a financial value ranging between $700 billion and $3 trillion.

In January 2019, Egypt, Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority established the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum in an attempt to create a regional gas market, reduce infrastructure costs and offer competitive prices.

While eastern Mediterranean countries have ambitious projects to gain a foothold in the European market with natural gas exports, the European Union (EU) is seeking alternatives to its dependency on Russian gas, as Russia is the third-largest oil producer in the world.

One of these projects sought by the EU consists of establishing a direct marine pipeline between Egypt and Cyprus to transport natural gas from the Aphrodite gas field in Cyprus, which contains approximately 129 billion cubic meters of gas, to liquefaction plants in Egypt and then re-export it to the European market.

There are two natural gas liquefaction plants in Egypt: The first is the EDCO plant owned by the Egyptian Liquefied Natural Gas Company, and includes two liquefaction units. The second is in Damietta that belongs to the Spanish-Italian Union Fenosa Company and includes one liquefaction unit. These units liquefy natural gas so that it can be loaded onto ships and exported instead of being pumped into pipes.

Egypt and Cyprus signed an agreement in September 2018 to establish the marine pipeline project.

In this context, an Egyptian government official told Al-Mal economic newspaper Aug. 31 that intensive discussions are currently taking place between the two countries in order to complete the project as scheduled. The Cyprus gas is expected to arrive in Egypt in 2024-25.

The official said that the Egyptian-Cypriot gas pipeline will contribute to supporting growth and offsetting the economic repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic, hence the need to accelerate the implementation of the new project.

On Aug. 5, Egyptian Petroleum Minister Tarek El-Molla discussed via video conference with Cypriot Minister of Energy Natasa Pilides the establishment of a direct sea pipeline between the two countries. According to a statement by the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum, the two ministers confirmed the ongoing coordination between the officials of the two countries to follow up on the measures needed to start implementing the project.

Gamal al-Qalyubi, a professor of petroleum and energy engineering at the American University of Cairo, told Al-Monitor that Egypt has all the capabilities and infrastructure needed to complete the project, whose cost is estimated at $1.3 billion, and bring it to fruition.

He said that Egypt is outperforming its eastern Mediterranean neighbors in developing deep-water energy projects.

Qalyubi noted that the Egyptian Zohr gas field  considered the largest gas field in the Mediterranean and discovered in 2015 with reserves estimated at 30 trillion cubic feet  gave Cyprus confidence that Egypt would have the ability to support its fields productivity.

Maher Aziz, a member of the World Energy Council, told Al-Monitor that the pipeline between Egypt and Cyprus is another reason for Egypt to be a focal point for energy exchange and trade in the region. Aziz noted that Egypt is seeking to become one of the leading gas exporters to Europe.

The course of talks between Egypt and Cyprus is positive, but it remains a political development in itself, according to Charles Ellinas, CEO of the Cyprus Natural Hydrocarbons Company and energy expert at the Atlantic Council research center.

In order for such a pipeline to be built, there first must be a valid commercial agreement to sell the Aphrodite gas.  This would require Chevron, Shell and Delek [the companies licensed to exploit the field] to find buyers for this gas in Egypt, Ellinas told Al-Monitor by email.

Zenonas Tziarras, a researcher focusing on the geopolitics of the eastern Mediterranean at the PRIO Cyprus Center, told Al-Monitor by email that the initial plan was for Egypt to receive Cypriot gas by 2022. However, he said, this goal seems somewhat ambitious at this stage given how the coronavirus pandemic has led to a slowdown in energy markets around the world, and given the important hydrocarbon discoveries in Egypt, which culminated in Egypts announcement that it would achieve self-sufficiency in natural gas by the end of 2018. Cypriot gas may not be as important to Egypt as it was before, he said.

Tziarras noted that it is unclear whether the Egyptian liquefied natural gas stations would have sufficient capacity to absorb Cypriot gas given the abundance of Egyptian gas. He said that there are also pending negotiations between Israel and Cyprus on the Aphrodite gas field that must be resolved before Cyprus can liquefy the gas without any problems.

Meanwhile, Cyprus and Israel have been for several years locked in a dispute over gas reserves that extend to the two countries maritime borders.

These four experts Al-Monitor spoke with believe that the project of transporting the Aphrodite field gas via a pipeline from Cyprus to Egypt faces two other challenges, one of which is financial, related to the development of the field itself, and the other is political, related to Turkey.

Ellinas believes that with current low global gas prices  hovering around $4/mmBtu in Asia  the Aphrodite field does not look commercially viable for energy companies operating there.

Energy companies will only invest in Aphrodite when gas sales and high profitability are guaranteed and when prices go higher than $7/mmBtu.  But with the current challenges, conditions do not allow for the development of Aphrodite despite the fact that the Cypriot and Egyptian governments are boosting the project. This will require a fair amount of time and a significant market improvement, and this is somewhat unlikely in the foreseeable future, he added.

Another challenge facing the Egyptian Cypriot pipeline, Aziz said, concerns Turkey, which argues that proceeds from sales of Cypriot gas should benefit all citizens of Cyprus, including Turkish Cypriots.

The island of Cyprus is divided into two halves. The Greek Cypriot government controls the southern part, which is equivalent to two-thirds of the islands area. This part enjoys international recognition and is a member of the European Union. The northern Turkish Cyprus has been subject to Turkish control since 1974 and only Turkey recognizes it. Ankara maintains 30,000 soldiers there with a buffer zone separating the two halves.

Turkey will certainly try to undermine the project and this could inflame the already existing tensions in the region, Tziarras concluded.
Lambert here: Trust the science! Except when its bought and paid for, of course.

By Tom Perrett, a researcher and contributor at DeSmogBlog. He has a long standing interest in environmentalism and political ecology, having undertaken a research project on degrowth for the Schumacher Institute. Originally published at DeSmogBlog.

In 1996, Richard Fink, an executive at Koch Industries and a top advisor to Charles Koch, outlined a three-tiered strategy for getting the petrochemical industrialists free-market ideas out into the world: through academia, think tanks, and activists organizations. Fink described the first tier of this structure of social change strategy as investment in intellectual raw materials and the exploration and production of abstract concepts and theories that academia would develop.

Nearly two and a half decades later, Koch influence in the academic sphere is far ranging. Koch money funds individual courses, professorships, fellowships, and even energy research and policy programs, like the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and the Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University. These centers represent significant investments in the intellectual raw materials of free-market advocacy.

According to Samantha Parsons of UnKoch My Campus, a group working to remove the Koch influence in higher education, there are at least 40 centers at prominent American colleges and universities that are funded directly by the Koch donor network. Three of the most prominent examples are described below.

George Mason University: The Epicenter of Koch Academic Influence

Billionaire Charles Koch has focused more resources on George Mason University (GMU) than any other school, and the relationship goes back decades. As far back as 1990, entities controlled by Charles and David Koch were given posts on a committee to choose candidates for a professorial position. An analysis of tax records by the Associated Press discovered that between 2011 and 2014, the Charles Koch Foundation gave $48 million to GMU, and then a subsequent $10 million donation in 2016 to rename their law school after conservative Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia.

According to Parsons of UnKoch My Campus, an economics professor had used a textbook called Global Warming and other Eco Myths, telling students that if they wanted to debate climate change, they should leave and not come back.

Another GMU professor, Walter Williams, stated in 2014 that it would take idiocy to believe that man made climate change could overpower the forces of nature, according to a Greenpeace report. Williams also mentored Nancy Pfotenhauer, a former lobbyist for Koch Industries who served as the first president for the Koch-funded group Americans For Prosperity. Williams has written for Fox Business, denouncing wild predictions about climate doom and asserting that after investing in fighting climate change, well be much poorer and less free. And in an article for the Deseret News, he wrote that man-made global warming, for many, is an Earth-worshipping religion.

Thats just in the economics department. George Mason University also hosts the Mercatus Center, a conservative public policy think tank, which has routinely opposed attempts to control greenhouse gas emissions and was established by Charles Koch and Richard Fink. The Institute of Humane Studies, once described by Mother Jones as a haven for climate change deniers, is also a fixture of GMU. It is chaired by Charles Koch.

Utah State University: Blurring Private Enterprise With Public Education

In May 2017, the Charles Koch Foundation announced plans to donate $25 million to Utah State University. The primary purpose of this donation was to establish the Center for Growth and Opportunity, whose faculty have supported the privatization of public lands and environmental deregulation. Researchers at UnKoch My Campus and the Center for Biological Diversity discovered that the Center for Growth and Opportunity would have the veto authority over the hiring of six new faculty members.

The influence of Koch funding at Utah State is clear. Strata Policy, a Koch-funded think tank, has published research that overlaps with those of academics at Utah State, and the center and Strata share some personnel. Stratas own press releases have acknowledged the symbiotic connection between the two institutions.

A few examples illustrate the symbiosis; none better than that of Randy Simmons.

Simmons is a faculty member at Utah State University, the executive director of the universitys Institute for Political Economy (IPE), and also the president of Strata. Simmons publicly denies Koch involvement in the affairs of Utah State, but IPE, the free-market center housed at the university, is intimately connected with Strata. For example, the professors who wrote a 2015 Strata report opposing renewable energy in Kansas were the same voices behind a 2016 report opposing renewable energy policy in Pennsylvania.

The 2016 Pennsylvania report, co-authored by Simmons, argued that Renewable Portfolio Standards in Pennsylvania were counterproductive and contradictory and that states adopting these standards for minimum levels of renewable power saw a 14 percent drop in electricity sales. Strata and IPE have collaborated extensively since, as in 2017, they launched a failed attempt to revoke North Carolinas renewable energy policy. This example indicates the reach of Koch funding on a state level, and in important debates about the future of environmental policy. It suggests academia can provide a veneer of expertise that allows the vested interests of industrialists and fossil fuel magnates to masquerade as evidence-based conclusions, in line with Finks social change strategy.

In another instance in 2015, Strata won a contract to promote the Transfer of Public lands Act, an attempt to privatize Utahs public land. This bill was originally co-sponsored by then-Representative David Butterfield, who was also on the board of Strata.

Dr. Michael Giberson, currently Associate Professor in the area of Energy, Commerce and Business at Texas Tech University, has collaborated extensively with Stata. He authored a 2019 study entitled, The Consumers Interest in Reforming West Virginias Power Industry, which advocated for the deregulation of West Virginias power system. Before working at Texas Tech, Giberson was employed at GMUs Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science.

The Institute for Energy Research (IER) commissioned a 2013 study Giberson co-authored, Assessing Wind Power Cost Estimates, in which he denounced clean energy and alternatives to fossil fuels as costly and unworkable, claiming that subsidizing wind power shifts costs onto the taxpayer, paying for turbines outside the states where they live. Giberson asserted that the low prices of renewable energy mean that smaller providers are unable to turn a profit, meaning that only those providers who qualify for subsidies are viable. IER, which puts out reports and analysis critiquing renewable energy and emissions reductions, is a nonprofit whose predecessor organization had direct ties to Charles Koch. Today the group has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding from Koch family foundations.

George Washington University and the Regulatory Studies Center

Another organization with significant Koch ties is George Washington University and its Regulatory Studies Center (RSC). Despite claiming to be an unbiased and objective analyst of regulatory policy, an evaluation of the centers public output reveals almost unanimous support of deregulation. For example, between 2013 and 2018, 96 percent of public comments submitted to government agencies by RSC writers recommended less regulation than currently existed, according to an analysis by consumer advocacy nonprofit Public Citizen and UnKoch My Campus. Additionally, 75 percent of public comments submitted by the RSC in this period were written by authors with past or present connections to Koch foundations, including director Susan Dudley.

Aside from Koch foundations, GWUs Regulatory Studies Center has accepted funds from oil companies, lawyers, and anti-regulatory strategists to advocate for limited government. Susan Dudley is a self-proclaimed free market environmentalist, having argued that smog should be valued, as it could blot out the sun and mitigate the effects of skin cancer.

RSC authors with past or present Koch ties have been affiliated with at least 28 Koch-funded organizations, including the Mercatus Center at GMU. Both the Charles Koch Foundation and the libertarian Searle Freedom Trust Foundation, as well as the Exxon Mobil Foundation, have each donated over $1 million to the RSC. This led Taylor Lincoln, author of a Public Citizen report which accused the center of right-wing bias and the deliberate promotion of a deregulatory agenda, to describe the RSC as the Fox News of the regulatory policy world, except it still clings to the fiction that it is fair and balanced.

This level of Koch funding in academia and think tanks has broader implications for policy implementation, as state governments routinely rely on the state university systems to provide independent analyses of issues before the legislature and agencies, and advocacy groups use academic findings to bolster lobbying and public campaigns.

And as Fink laid out nearly 25 years ago, these investments in academia are the foundation for society-wide structural change.
Kangana Ranaut, the popular actress is all set to meet the Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, today (September 13, 2020). Reportedly, the meeting will be held at 4.30 PM today, in Raj Bhavan. Even though nothing much has been revealed about the meeting, the sources suggest that Kangana Ranaut might brief her issues with Shiv Sena, to the Maharashtra governor.

Recently, it was reported that Bhagat Singh Koshyari is upset with the way the Maharashtra government dealt with Kangana Ranaut. However, the governor slammed the rumors while addressing the media on Friday (September 11, 2020), and stated that the reports are baseless. "Who said I'm upset? I don't interfere in these things", stated the governor.

As reported earlier, Kangana Ranaut has been in loggerheads with Shiv Sena, after she compared the present Mumbai with the Kashmir occupied by Pakistan. Later, the BMC demolished her recently renovated office building in Bandra, Mumbai citing illegal construction. Later, Kangana took to her official Twitter page and lashed out against the Maharashtra government, alleging that she is being targetted because of her issues with Shiv Sena.

Also Read:

As Kangana Ranaut's Mom Condemns Maharashtra Government, Actress Says She's Scared Of Her Anger

Sona Mohapatra Blasts Kangana For Calling Rhea 'Small Time Druggie'; Says It's 'Deeply Disturbing'
Compulsory mask-wearing, entry to only those who test negative and carrying out countrys parliamentary proceedings in two shifts will be among the focal points of this years Monsoon session which begins on Monday.

This is the first time a parliamentary session is taking place amid a viral disease outbreak. Monsoon session in Parliament is usually conducted around mid-July. This years monsoon session got deferred after Covid-19 cases in India showed an upward trend since March, forcing authorities to strictly observe safety norms such as social distancing and avoidance of large public gathering.

Just a day before the parliamentary session is expected to begin, Indias Covid-19 tally on Sunday breached 47 lakh mark after 94,372 people across the country tested positive for the viral contagion in the last 24 hours.

Here is all you need to know about this years Parliament monsoon session:

 The session will start from Monday, September 14 and is expected to conclude on Thursday, October 1. All the days, including weekend days  Saturdays and Sundays  will be working days for member of parliaments.

 A total of 18 sittings spread over a period of 18 days will mark this monsoon session.

 Total of 47 items  including 45 bills and two financial items  have been identified for being taken up during the monsoon session.

 This will be first-of-its-kind monsoon session will see Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha sitting in two different shifts. Keeping Covid-19 safety protocols in consideration, special seating arrangements have been made for MPs in adherence to social distancing guidelines.

 This years session will be marked by unprecedented logistics and infrastructure arrangements, including ultraviolet germicidal irradiation in air-conditioning systems to kill or inactivate microorganisms, 10 display screens for live proceedings, earmarked seats for top leaders and special communication cables linking both Houses.

 For marking MPs attendance, a mobile app will be in place for registering presence. The seats in both the houses will be separated with poly-carbon sheets.

 Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will be adjourned for an hour after obituary references to former president Pranab Mukherjee and other members of the parliament who have passed away during the interregnum.

 Senior Opposition leaders like Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh will be giving this monsoon session a miss due to medical reasons. While Gandhi has left for abroad for a routine medical check up, 87 year old Manmohan Singh has been strictly advised by his doctors to not leave his house.

 The Opposition will push for debate on economy, the India-China border conflict and Covid-19 management, to corner the government.
Have we, as a society, lost all sense of right and wrong? This thought has been troubling me for the last three months.

We are going through a variety of crises. Chinas Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) has encroached into Indian territory. Indian soldiers fought back and 20 were killed. A virus that originated in China has devastated the world, and India is among the top two nations when it comes to the number of infections, and the number is only rising. Not since the Spanish Flu have we seen such a destructive epidemic.

This galloping disaster has had a direct impact on the economy. India was already in an economic tail-spin, but Covid-19 has pushed it down further and faster. The unemployment rate has reached catastrophic levels. In such a situation, one would have thought that there would be serious introspection and debate on how to pull the country and its people out of the quagmire. But this does not seem to be the case.

Instead, there is an unhealthy preoccupation with the death of a young, promising actor Sushant Singh Rajput and whether or not his girlfriend, Rhea Chakraborty had any role in his suicide. She has now been arrested on charges of drug peddling. The Maharashtra Police was already investigating the case when the Bihar Police sent in its team. The matter has now become one between Bihar and Maharashtra. Politics has entered the picture and the three top investigative agencies have been playing an opaque role in the case.

Into this toxic mix comes actress Kangana Ranaut with her comparison of Maharashtra with Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). This has sent the Shiv Sena, which considers itself the champion of Maharashtra and the Marathi manoos, into a fit of rage. Himachal Pradesh chief minister (Kanganas home state) then entered this high-voltage drama. He asked New Delhi to provide safety and protection to her. Now, the actress has high-level security. She has now taken to attacking Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray directly. The PoK discourse has also broadened to include all sorts of allusions from Babars army to the Ram mandir.

This is the first time a film star has dared to challenge the Thackeray family. Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray spent more than four decades building the Sena. Now, his son Uddhav heads the organisation. It will be interesting to see how the Sena deals with this problem. It is worth noting here that, in the past, the Shiv sainiks were infamous for their vengeful politics.

It is appalling that the death of a talented young actor, Rajput, has taken such an ugly turn and that politicians and governments have jumped into the fray. There are elections in Bihar and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seems to have decided to make Rajputs death an electoral plank. Posters have been printed saying Na bhoolenge, na bhoolne denge (We will not forget or let it be forgotten). The real issue should have been the performance of the coalition government in Bihar, but it is not.

The issue has moved beyond Bihar now. Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary, has given the episode a new twist. He said that Chakraborty is being targeted because she is a Bengali Brahmin woman and that her father, a retired Army officer, also has the right to demand justice. He said that the issue is justice for Rajput, not justice for Bihar. Will this matter also affect elections in West Bengal?

Indias Constitution-makers imagined that India would be a group of territories with diverse languages, but common values of dignity, inclusiveness and humanity. Indian federalism was meant to be liberal with the state and central governments working together in the public interest.

I still think that deep down, all that is good and noble is still there in this country. And it is regrettable that people are being misled by these despicable charades, manufactured issues and unscrupulous politics. I am saddened by the death of Rajput. But it is even more hurtful that vested interests and politicians should seek to cash in on this unfortunate incident for petty gains.

The monsoon session of Parliament begins Parliament. It is expected that in this brief session without Question Hour, real issues will be replaced by misguided and inflammatory debates which cater to noisy TV channels. This should not happen at any cost for Indian democracy depends on the thorough, proper functioning of Parliament.

Let us hope better sense prevails and Parliament does its job which is to provide the right direction to the country.

A statement made by BR Ambedkar keeps popping into my mind. However good a Constitution may be, if those who are implementing it are not good, it will prove to be bad. However bad a Constitution may be, if those implementing it are good, it will prove to be good. Pay heed.

Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan

The views expressed are personal
Doc Martin star Martin Clunes and his wife Philippa at the ITV Gala in London in 2015

Worrying news from down on the farm run by Doc Martin star Martin Clunes in deepest Dorset.

Martin  who last week revealed that the popular comedy-drama was coming to an end after 16 years on our screens  had a real emergency to deal with, after his wife Philippa was injured in a riding accident.

Equestrian friends tell me that Philippa, who co-directs Doc Martin, had to be taken to hospital but thankfully she is now recovering. Martin and Philippas daughter Emily told me over the phone: Mum is at home now and is doing OK.

The family have stables and paddocks on the farm and a show-jumping field.

Philippas medical history is so colourful that it could make for its own episode of the ITV hit. Earlier this year she was struck down with coronavirus symptoms and was locked away for a bit, according to Martin, while in 2013 he used knowledge picked up from the show to stop a nonsensical operation to remove his wifes appendix.

I have learned about certain conditions and procedures, he revealed at the time. Philippa had an infection in her gall bladder and the surgeon planned to take out her appendix.

'There was no infection in her appendix and instinct told me that it would be the wrong thing to do. So I took her home and she was treated there. Hospital staff handed me her medical notes to look at  I do wonder whether there wasnt some confusion between me and Doc Martin.

The couple, who have been married for 23 years, live a rural existence on their farm in Beaminster. A spokesman for Doc Martin said of the decision to end the show: It was made months ago.

Mr Clunes and Philippa pictured watching the racing as they attend the Hennessy Gold Cup race meeting at Newbury Racecourse in England in November 2014

Tough guy actor Ray Winstone is as Cockney as the Bow Bells, so I was surprised to discover he wants to abandon Blighty and retire abroad. So where would the man best known for his gangster roles prefer? Sicily, home of the Mafia, of course.

Ray, 63, below reveals: The people in Sicily seem to be more earthy. For me, Sicily is so many things, but its the people that are at the heart of what always brings me back.

London gangster moves to the birthplace of the mob... Is that a retirement plan or the plot of your next movie, Ray?
By PTI

AGARTALA: A Tripura journalists' body on Sunday took umbrage over Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb's recent comment to "not forgive" newspapers creating confusion" about the COVID-19 situation in the state, giving the BJP leader "three days" to take back his remark.

Deb's media advisor Sanjoy Kumar Mishra, however, said his comments were taken out of context and distorted.

The CM, while laying the foundation stone for the first special economic zone at Sabroom in South Tripura district on Friday, had said, "Some newspapers are trying to confuse people, getting over excited. History will not forgive them, people of Tripura will not forgive them and I, Biplab Deb, will not forgive them."

"I do whatever I say, history is testimony to that."

The speech, which went viral on media, quickly drew the ire of scribes, who held a meeting on Sunday under the aegis of Tripura Assembly of Journalists and decried Deb's comments.

"We condemn the undemocratic and unconstitutional comments from the chief minister. We hope he will withdraw his remark within the next three days," Chairperson Subal Kumar Dey said.

Dey also claimed that journalists are facing threats and being assaulted in different parts of Tripura following Deb's statement.

"Two journalists have been assaulted in the last 24 hours. We are deeply anxious and have decided to approach Governor R K Bais, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the Editors Guild of India," he said.

Dey, who is also the president of Agartala Press Club, alleged that the ruling BJP is issuing regular threats to media organisations.

"The state is trying to enslave media persons.

State government orders are issued to choke journalists' voices," he said.

Mishra, in defence of the chief minister, said the Tripura government is committed to the freedom of the press.

"We have always tried to help the media, but a few local newspapers are trying to work with some agenda and that's not right," he said.

Meanwhile, police said a scribe associated with a local daily was attacked by a group of people after midnight.

The journalist had criticised Deb in a social media post for his comments.
Faiz Masood, a business management graduate belonging to a wealthy family from Bengaluru, has been missing for nearly seven years. He was suspected to have joined the Islamic State and now has been killed in Syria, reports Indian Express, citing sources.

Among the Bengaluru youths who travelled to Syria in 2013 and 2014 to join ISIS, is Abdur Rahman, an opthalmologist, who confirmed the death of Masood. Rahman was arrested by NIA in connection with an Islamic State Khorasan Province case.

Probes have revealed that Masood was a key contact in Syria for those from Bengaluru who wanted to join ISIS in Syria and Iraq, said the report. Masood is learnt to have left behind his parents, wife and two young children to join the terror outfit.

NIA, other central and state agencies who questioned Rahman and a fellow doctor, also from Bengaluru have uncovered that the two of them had met Faiz Masood at Atme, a Syrian border town when they crossed over from a Turkey refugee camp towards the end of 2013.

Masood was reportedly killed in an attack on a camp. Both Rahman and the other fellow doctor were 22-year-old medical students at the time. The two returned to India within a few days of making it to Syria seeking financial help from their parents and went on to become doctors, said the report.

Another person, a 24-year-old aeronautical engineer told investigators that he had sought help from Masood to join ISIS. He later suffered an injury to his arm and returned to India soon after. He, however, stayed in Syria for much longer than the two doctors, revealed the report.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-14 05:28:15|Editor: huaxia

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BEIRUT, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Lebanese army announced on Sunday that three soldiers were killed and one was seriously injured during a raid for wanted terrorists in Beddawi, a town about 5 km north of Lebanese city of Tripoli, the National News Agency reported.

Security forces are currently pursuing the shooters to arrest them.

Lebanon's state security forces have arrested earlier this month members of a terrorist cell linked to the Islamic State. Enditem
Some 500 customers could be in danger of losing service when the Henry County Public Service Authority resumes disconnections for past-due accounts on Monday, the county announced in a release.

Officials say the $200,000 from the CARES Act that the county set aside to assist residential customers with those bills isn't being used. As of last Tuesday, only three of those 500 had taken advantage. Some 11 more have tapped the funds to assist with past-due bills through American Electric, the release said.

Once verified, residential customers can have up to 50% of their outstanding balances paid. Those customers then would be put on payment plans for the remaining balance.

All a residential customer has to do is reach out to Social Services and follow a very easy process to verify eligibility," PSA General Manager Tim Hall said in the release. "It is hard to understand why more residents havent taken advantage of this simple task to help get their bills paid.

Residential customers who have past-due bills should contact the Henry-Martinsville Department of Social Services at 276-656-4300 or, for questions, call 276-634-2500 and press 1 for billing.

Martinsville First joins Ohio bank

Martinsville First Savings Bank will be affiliated with First Mutual Holding Co. of OHIO, pending approval of regulatory agencies and of voting members of Martinsville First, the banks announced in a release.

This affiliation will enable Martinsville First to offer its customers a wider range of financial products and services, including small business loans, mobile banking, an enhanced suite of residential and commercial lending options and all technological and operational benefits, the release said.

Martinsville First will retain its local board of directors, management team and employees. Officials of FMHC, which has affiliated banks in Ohio and Kentucky, liked that Martinsville First's position between Roanoke and Greensboro-High Point, N.C., afforded an expansion opportunity.

This strategic partnership will expand our resources to better serve the individuals and businesses in our market area, Roger P. Hornsby, president & CEO of Martinsville First, said in the release. This affiliation provides a way to ensure we continue to prosper. ... We are committed to continue supporting our vibrant local community in Martinsville and Henry County, Virginia ,as we have done for almost 100 years.

PHCC board meetings

The Patrick Henry Community College Board will meet via Zoom at noon on Sept. 21. This is a public meeting, but the board will not receive public comment. Information for joining the Zoom session will be posted at www.patrickhenry.edu. This will be preceded at 11:30 a.m. by a public meeting of the board's Budget & Finance and Facilities committees. Those can be attended via Zoom as well.

Road projects

The city of Martinsville began installation of a new water main, starting at the intersection of Cherokee Court and Cherokee Trail and ending at the intersection of Cherokee Trail and Root Trail. Traffic signs will be in place along the route, and residents in the area should expect some traffic delays. For further information, call Director of Water Resources Mike Kahle at 276-403-5157.

Spot paving is underway at various locations on Route 57. Flagging operations will be in place. This project is expected to be completed by Nov. 20.

HCPSA will be installing new water line and service along Dale Avenue that can require periodic road closures. Detours will be in place during daytime hours only. The work is expected to be completed in early September.

Installation continues for two emergency pipe replacements on U.S. 220 Business, at three hundredths of a mile north Speedway Road and on U.S. 58/220 at Greensboro Road and William F. Stone Highway. Drivers can expect lane closures at both locations. The completion date is scheduled for August.

Work continues in the turn lane for U.S. 220 South/U.S. 58 East Bypass began work, and drivers may experience brief periods of flagging on Route 877 to unload equipment and materials. A temporary right lane will be in place during the working hours of 7 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Estimated completion is August.

Work is underway on U.S. 220 East to include trench widening and the addition of rumble strips and guardrails from Dyer Street to the Franklin County Line. Work is scheduled to be completed by Oct. 23.

Beginning Sept. 8 Pond Road in Patrick County will be closed between Raven Rock Road and Squirrel Spur Road for pipe replacement. Detours and directional signs will be in place. Weather permitting, the road will reopen Friday.

Pleasant View Drive in Patrick County has reopened to traffic, but drivers should be cautious of rough roads until the asphalt is replaced. This is between Pole Bridge Road and Egg Farm Road, where a pipe was replaced.

Paving is underway on both lanes of Route 661 between mile markers 5 and 10 in Patrick County. There will be lanes closed and flag operations in the work zone. The expected completion is Nov. 20.
The five policemen are facing charges of beating the victim in a manner that led to his death

Related Egyptian prosecution investigates death of young man after family accuse police

An Egyptian prosecutors office has ordered the detention of four policemen suspected of causing the death of a young man in a working-class Giza district two weeks ago.

Another police officer accused in the same case has been released on EGP 5,000 (around $300) bail.

The five policemen are facing charges of beating the victim in a manner that led to his death.

The prosecution said in a statement last Tuesday that it had been notified by police that a young man, known as Islam Al-Australi, was killed and others were wounded in a fight that broke out in Al-Mounib district in southern Giza on 4 September.

The police said that the fight erupted when two parties, one group of four people, and one group of two, engaged in a brawl using stones and bladed weapons, which led to the mans death.

The deceaseds relatives, on the other hand, said that he was killed after he was arrested by police over the fight.

The prosecution said that it had seized footage from CCTV cameras installed at some shops overlooking the crime scene.

Tuesdays statement added that several areas of the victims body bore bruises, and that the body will undergo an autopsy.

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The eighth in the High Desert Field Guides series carries a title linking geology to art  Abiquiu: The Geologic History of OKeeffe Country.

The invitation to geology is through Georgia OKeeffe, perhaps the most famous female painter of the 20th century. Many of OKeeffes stunning paintings in northern New Mexico were of the rock formations in the Abiquiu region of Rio Arriba County. The region includes Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch, where the artist had homes/studios.

The guide is not centrally about art or OKeeffe; its about the regions changing landscape over 300 million years of geologic time. The region  in particular the iconic Cerro Pedernal butte  is at the juncture of the Rio Grande Rift, the Colorado Plateau and the Jemez Mountains volcanic field, geologist Kirt Kempter writes in the guides helpful explanatory text.

The older rocks of Abiquiu tell the story of past landscapes and environments very different from today, including subtropical oceans, vast sand dunes, and Mississippian-scale rivers, Kempter explained.

The younger rocks tell of the tearing of New Mexicos crust to form the Rio Grande Rift.

The guides visual centerpiece is a roadside geologic map produced by Dick Huelster, who collaborated with Kempter on the guide. The map and text are aimed at travelers, hikers and armchair geologists. Kempter said travelers could make a single-day trip from as far away as Albuquerque to view the diverse rock formations of this region.

Overlaid on the map is a red line representing a 25-mile section of U.S. Route 84 from the turnoff to Medanales and continuing northwest to Echo Amphitheater.

Along that highway section the maps text block has 21 geologic and non-geologic points of interest at designated mile markers. Among them are the archaeological site of the ancestral pueblo village of Poshuouinge, 1300-1450, with a view of the Rio Chama valley; after crossing a bridge over the Rio Chama, one sees Cerrito Blanco hilltop to the north, exposing the 25 million-year-old white Abiquiu Formation on the west and a younger pinkish-orange Tesuque Formation to the east. U.S. 84s junction with New Mexico State Road 96 allows broad views of Piedra Lumbre valley and to the south Cerro Pedernal, which OKeeffe adoringly painted and which has eight layers of rock strata capped by 8 million-year-old lava flows. Near Ghost Ranch was the 1947 discovery of a dinosaur quarry containing hundreds of Coelophysis skeletons. The Coelophysis was an early dinosaur in North America.

I felt Georgia (OKeeffe) was, in a way, a student of geology. Most of her (New Mexico) paintings are about erosion of rock, which is a huge process of geology, Kempter said in a phone interview.

Besides his passion for geology, Kempter said he has a love of the landscape aesthetic, the beauty and the story.

Though he accepts UNM Press marketing the region OKeeffe Country, he believes one should also understand the Native perspective. It could also be called Tewa Country, given the early puebloan presence in the Rio Chama valley, Kempter said.

In 1966 Alianza Federal de Mercedes staged a dramatic takeover of Echo Amphitheater. The takeover drew attention to the allegation that the U.S. Forest Service-managed amphitheater is actually part of a land grant given Hispanic families under terms of the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo with Mexico.

The High Desert Field Guide, the third one Kempter and Huelster collaborated on, is foldable, waterproof and tear-resistant. The earlier guides were about Valles Caldera National Preserve (2009) in the Jemez, and Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument (2007) near Cochiti Pueblo.

Kempter has in the works a guide to the geology of the Tularosa Basin.

Books of the week reviews

Online

Kirt Kempter said he plans to host a one- to two-hour virtual geology of Abiquiu class on Zoom near the end of September. Those interested in signing up for the virtual event should email kempter@newmexico.com.
Binky Felstead has revealed she is engaged to beau Max Darnton after a 19 month romance.

The Made In Chelsea star, 30, revealed the good news via Instagram on Sunday as she shared a picture of her kissing the businessman, 31, while holding up her hand to show off the sparkling diamond ring.

Gushing about the proposal, which took place on Friday after he asked her daughter India, three, for permission to pop the question, she wrote: 'The easiest "Yes" EVER!

Binky Felstead is ENGAGED! Made In Chelsea star revealed on Sunday that beau Max Darnton had proposed to her on Friday after a 19 month romance

'On Friday morning, on their way to the duck pond, Max asked India for her permission to ask her mummy to marry him.

'I love you Max- you bring out the best in me. Im so lucky (sic).'

In the sweet snap, Binky passionately kissed her beau after she had accepted his proposal, which took place in a picturesque field at the Long Man of Wilmington.

Sparkler: Binky also shared a closer look at her stunning diamond engagement ring

Sweet: In her post, Binky gushed that it was 'the easiest "Yes" EVER' and revealed Max had asked her daughter India for permission to propose

'He was open from the beginning': The Mummy Tribe founder admitted she was more selective about who she chose to date due to being a mother to daughter India, three

Smitten: Binky opened up about the romantic proposal at the duck pond on Instagram

Binky's celebrity pals took to her comments to share their congratulations and well wishes after seeing the news.

Billie Faiers wrote: 'Awww congratulations darling sooo happy for you.'

While fellow Made In Chelsea star Millie Mackintosh shared an array of heart emojis, and Rosie Fortescue wrote: 'I love you both more than words.'

Former TOWIE star Jess Wright wrote: 'Aww congratulations darling this is amazing news.'

Delighted: Binky's celebrity pals took to her comments to share their congratulations and well wishes after seeing the news

Rosie took to Instagram to share a glimpse at Binky's engagement party, where she wore a stylish white and blue Ava Lagoon dress from Neve and Noor.

In one snap Binky happily showed off her engagement ring as she enjoyed a celebratory drink with her friends.

Ollie Locke also shared a grab from the moment Binky video called him to reveal she was engaged, and he gushed that he was 'so happy' for the pair and said they have to start planning the 'wedding of the century' together.

Supportive: Rosie Fortescue took to Instagram to share a glimpse at Binky's engagement party, where she wore a stylish white and blue Ava Lagoon dress from Neve and Noor

Engagement party: Binky looked delighted as she arrived at a pub to see friends

So happy: Ollie Locke also shared a grab from the moment Binky video called him to reveal she was engaged, and said they have to start planning the 'wedding of the century' together

Last month, Binky admitted she wouldn't be with Max if 'marriage wasn't in the plan', but insisted she didn't 'mind' when the couple decide to tie the knot.

The media personality, who shares daughter India with ex Josh Patterson, discussed her romance in an interview with Hello!.

The TV star said: 'I've always wanted to get married, but I never minded when. I've never been one of those girls who have their picture perfect wedding in their head and know what ring they want, but it would be nice to have that one day.'

Romance: Last month, Binky admitted she wouldn't be with Max if 'marriage wasn't in the plan', but insisted she didn't 'mind' when the couple decide to tie the knot (pictured earlier this year)

Gushing: On knowing he was 'The One' shortly after they embarked on a romance, the mother-of-one said: 'I knew he was special soon after I met him

The pair have been going strong ever since meeting at separate parties at private members' club Soho Farmhouse in January 2019.

On knowing he was 'The One' shortly after they embarked on a romance, the mother-of-one said: 'I knew he was special soon after I met him. We just got on really well and we laughed the whole time.'

The brunette previously spent lockdown in the countryside with her daughter and partner, who is managing director at a global executive search and consulting firm.

Romance: The pair have been going strong ever since meeting at separate parties at private members' club Soho Farmhouse in January 2019

The reality star recently admitted their relationship is so serious that she and Max have already discussed having children in the not too distant future.

She told MailOnline in an interview earlier this year: 'I think you always want what you are one of. I am one of three, so I've always had three in my head  girl, boy, girl.'

Asked whether she could see this happening with Max, Binky replied: 'I wouldnt be mentioning it [my relationship with Max] if I didn't think it had any legs. He is really great. I am very happy.'
AUSTIN  The State Board of Education has given initial approval to an updated sex education curriculum for the first time in more than two decades, expanding lessons on contraception but leaving out references to LGBTQ youths and removing suggested language emphasizing the importance of teaching about consent.

Under the new standards, middle and high schoolers would be taught about birth control methods beyond abstinence, though the latter concept still is the preferred approach.

Currently, state guidelines dictate only high schools teach about contraception in health courses, which are optional.

The preliminary changes approved last week largely disappointed activists who spent months urging the Republican-controlled board to embrace education about LGBTQ issues and consensual sexual activity.

The board now is accepting public comment on the changes and is scheduled to take a final vote at a mid-November meeting.

Imagine the tragic message state board members have sent by refusing to acknowledge that LGBT students even exist in our classrooms, Carisa Lopez, political director for the left-leaning Texas Freedom Network, said after the board approved the changes Friday. The board had a chance to stand with young people who are looking to feel safe and respected in their schools. A majority of board members chose to abandon them and stand with the bullies instead.

NEW 2019 LAW: Groping is now a jailable offense in Texas

The board last revisited state health education standards in 1997.

Texas public schools are not required to offer sex education, but if they do, teachers must stress the benefits of abstinence.

More than eight in 10 Texas school districts teach abstinence only or have no sex education at all, according to a 2017 report from the Texas Freedom Network.

That report, however, found nearly 17 percent of schools teach more than abstinence, including eight of the states 10 largest school districts.

The board also voted against expanding the curriculum to define and describe matters of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Those decisions  the most controversial of the week  generally were split along party lines and prompted passionate and, at times, emotional debate from members.

The board is made up of 10 Republicans and five Democrats, though Friendswoods Matt Robinson, a Republican, voted with Democrats in favor of LGBTQ education.

DIRTY SKITTLES, BROKEN BUTTERFINGERS: How abstinence is taught in Texas schools

Two proposals, each from Democrat Ruben Cortez of Brownsville, would have instructed middle and high school teachers to define and differentiate between sexual orientation and gender identity, and explain the importance of treating all people with dignity and respect regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Both were struck down.

Some board members argued it would be inappropriate to mandate such education across all Texas school districts, and that instead such decisions should be left to local school health advisory councils.

If Austin ISD wants to take up these issues, more power to them, said Marty Rowley, R-Amarillo. But that doesnt mean that Borden ISD or Amarillo ISD or Canyon ISD or any other ISD that I represent in the Panhandle in West Texas wants to be mandated to teach this.

Some Republicans also argued that respect for individuals regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity is included in broader educational standards that instruct against all forms of bullying.

Marisa Perez-Diaz, D-Converse, twice attempted to include language defining consent in the curriculum, both of which were rejected.

A first suggestion would define consent as a concept that encompasses clear, voluntary refusal or agreement to participate in each physical act between individuals, while a second would identify what qualifies as clear and legal consent to physical activity.

Opponents said the definition wasnt necessary because consent otherwise was covered as a legal term elsewhere in the standards, and students are also taught to respect boundaries and say no to unwanted contact.

The board will take a final vote on the proposed changes in November.
Dhaka, Sep 13 (UNI) Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has alleged that the government had been providing wrong information about COVID-19 cases and fatalities.

"How many people are dying of COVID-19 and what information is being given about it? Many people are dying after getting infected with the virus. A report says that about 82,000 people have been left out in government data on corona infected patients," said BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.

He said, This means the government is unable to take proper decisions to contain the virus. It also has failed to ensure necessary medicine and other facilities at hospitals for treatment, and work

out health safety rules to control the virus. So, people are dying on the streets, on the verandahs of hospitals or in ambulances without any treatment."

The BNP leader made the remarks while distributing relief materials among the victims of riverbank erosion in Dohar-Nawabganj arranged by the partys Dhaka district unit. He also distributed relief materials among the flood victims of Ekuria and Sholla areas.

Rizvi alleged that the people infected with coronavirus in rural and remote areas were facing difficulties in receiving treatment for lack of proper arrangement in this regard.

Had there been a pro-people government, it would have forced to ensure treatment for people thinking about peoples voting power. But they (current govt) dont need votes and elections as they dont care about people, he observed.

The BNP leader alleged that the government has resorted to extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and other repressive and suppressive acts to retain power and perpetuate it

by eliminating its political opponents and dissidents.

"Retired army major Sinha was killed by a police station OC, but theres no justice and the rule of law a UNO was hacked in the head, left in critical condition. The incidents of murder and enforced disappearance are now all around since it is a government programme," Rizvi added.

UNI MAZ GK 0945
Delhi on Sunday recorded 4,235 fresh cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), taking the cumulative tally past 218,000. The death toll in the national capital due to the viral disease climbed to 4,744 after 29 new fatalities were recorded in the last 24 hours.

Here is all you need to know about Covid-19 outbreak in Delhi on Sunday:

 There are 28,812 active Covid-19 cases in Delhi, a significant rise from last months figure of around 10,000. Out of these 15,946 patients are being treated in home isolation.

 In the last five days, Delhi has recorded more than 4,000 cases every day, sparking concerns of the resurgence of the viral contagion and a second wave.

 Authorities carried out more than 56,000 tests on Sunday, out of which 10,116 are Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR), Cartridge-based Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (CBNAAT) and TruNat tests and 46,540 are rapid antigen tests.

 Delhi has conducted 21,39,432 Covid-19 tests so far.

 Delhis positivity rate was logged at 7.48 per cent on Sunday, while the overall positivity rate is at 10.20 per cent.

 Out of the 218,304 Covid-19 cases reported in Delhi so far, 184,748 have either recovered, been discharged or migrated, according to the health bulletin released by the authorities.

 The case fatality rate in the national capital has been recorded at 2.17 per cent.

 The death rate in Delhi, based on the statistics shared by authorities in the last 10 days, is at 0.68 per cent.

 Delhi has 1,488 containment zones as of Sunday.

 Delhi had recorded its biggest single-day jump of 4,321 fresh Covid-19 cases on Saturday.
His timing was fitting What is disturbing is not that the Premier said Its not a matter of human rights, its about human life, he has, after all, signed Victoria up to the Belt and Road Initiative. Its that he felt he could say it. That the public are willing to forgo a centuries-old tradition of hard fought-for freedom in the name of the modern shibboleth safety. It is fitting that this was said on the anniversary of 9/11  the event that has ironically done the most to undermine the Western tradition of civil liberty.

Robert Bostock, Kooyong Lives mean little if our rights are torpedoed I think Daniel Andrews has lost the plot. Human lives mean little if human rights are torpedoed and basic liberties such as freedom of movement have been curtailed.

Julian Burnside is right to be worried about CCTV cameras, and possibly drones, as instruments of surveillance. George Orwells nightmare world of 1984 is now here, and all Victorians are right to feel alarmed and angry. They are tired of curfews and continued lockdowns affecting their lives, imposed by a government concerned only with statistics.

Helen Scheller, Benalla Cant the critics see whats happening elsewhere? Note to armchair experts and political opportunists: given the circumstances, I care more about my life and the lives of others than I care about perceived breaches of human rights and civil liberties. Can they not see what is happening in England, France and Spain?

Geoff McNamara, Newry

The finishing line is in sight I am disheartened but hopeful. Infection numbers are steadily decreasing and the finishing line is in sight. Yet some Victorians are still intent to have restrictions lifted only for us all to fall before the race is run. The selfish few, voicing and acting out their discontent about transient restrictions of rights and liberties, should take a step back and let the majority of Victorians finish and win the race that we commenced. Only then can we all truly celebrate lives spared and lives well lived with the accompanied resumption of all our rights and liberties.

Edward Combes, Wheelers Hill THE FORUM Its hard, but it can be done

David Crowe writes a good article about the need for a national contact tracing system for COVID-19 (Colac teaches Andrews a lesson, Comment, 11/9). This will be no small task and the longer the existing systems remain in place the harder it will be to make the change. The Australian Red Cross Blood Service showed you can do it, when it moved from six state and two territory blood bank systems to a national system for blood donation, testing and processing in 1996. The change to one national system, including a new national computer system, took 10 years to achieve and was only possible with incredible staff commitment, bureaucrat support and teamwork across the nation. Without a consistent approach to COVID tracing and vaccination, how can we ever expect the state borders be relaxed? And our political leaders have no hope of achieving a national system while they engage in that national pastime of throwing brickbats at each other.Dr Robert Hetzel, CEO Australian Red Cross Blood Service 1996-2009, Moonee Ponds So many ways to use them

Ive learnt lots about mask wearing by observation. You cant spread COVID while huffing and puffing out running, carrying your takeaway coffee, talking on the phone or talking to other people. Also masks are apparently totally effective if just worn covering only the mouth or on the chin or throat or, in one case, on the forehead. Does it work if I just keep it in my pocket?

Robin Anderson, Mentone Its hard to be hopeful WWFs Living Planet Report 2020 is grim reading (Wake-up call: Wildlife in decline, The Age, 11/9), and given the recent debacle in the NSW Parliament over koala habitat, its hard to be hopeful.

The dire decline in wildlife populations, particularly in Australia, is why Graeme Samuels review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act is so critically important. The biodiversity modelling described in the WWF report has shown that we can halt and reverse the loss of nature, but it will require change in the way we produce and consume food, and in how we manage and conserve nature. Sussan Ley should call a national summit to discuss how the reports recommendations can be implemented.

Ray Peck, Hawthorn Careful what you wish for Opposition Leader Michael OBrien has belatedly outlined what he would do as a road out of lockdown.

As soon as this week he would introduce stage three restrictions. So he is in basic agreement with the Premier with a minor difference over timing  albeit without the health advice that the Premier is privy to. Mr OBrien is also calling for a royal commission into the response to the COVID crisis, a worthy call perhaps. But he might need to be wary of what he wishes for, as any such commission would surely look into the disaster in aged care  a Commonwealth responsibility. His federal colleagues in Canberra may well be discomforted by any findings in that area.

Graeme Gardner, Reservoir Harsh measures are needed Barbara Burns (Letters, 12/9) claims that Daniel Andrews and his advisers have lost perspective on the pandemic out of fear of making another mistake.

Has she studied the devastating results in other countries caused by opening too soon? Does she really want us to risk another wave? Laypeople have suddenly become experts in epidemiology. I prefer to put my trust in a decent, hard-working, committed Labor Premier and his medical and scientific team.

Your correspondent claims the virus can be defeated with a more reasonable set of rules. This virus is not reasonable. It requires harsh measures in order to defeat it. Surely we Victorians can suffer some further inconvenience for a while longer?

Gloria Meltzer, Chewton Lessons for the PM Sean Kelly (PM loses playing second grade, Comment, 12/9) exposes the extent to which Scott Morrisons politicised commentary on the states responses to the pandemic has rendered him largely impotent. In an inversion of the normal way federalism operates in Australia, a prime minister lacking in gravitas and nuanced intellect has been outperformed by a group of state premiers who, irrespective of their political allegiances, have dealt with an extraordinary war-like workload.

Of course, they have stumbled at times and overplayed their parochialism; but, overall, their balance of authority, local knowledge and empathy for their citizens has impressed. Will a post-COVID Australian federation perhaps reflect better the crucial value of devolution to the states in areas of service delivery, with the Canberra federal government playing a crucial non-politically partisan co-ordination role? Put bluntly, prime ministers may have to become more humble and of practical use.

Jon McMillan, Mount Eliza Three cheers for our hub As a couple in their 80s and 90s we would like to give three cheers for the residents in our little hub of Vermont South. We have had various offers of help and delicious roast dinners have arrived at our door. On our daily walks, we participate in mutual nods ,waves and smiles under the masks.

Most other hubs would have the same experiences. We would like to hear more of them rather than of the publicity-seeking naysayers.

Margaret and Stuart Gordon-Addison, Vermont South Its a win-win If the extant modelling of COVID-19 is too harsh, as suggested by critics, doesnt that mean we will reach the targets earlier and get out of this sooner? If on the other hand it proves correct, we will be grateful for averting a third wave. We cant lose.

Louise Kloot, Doncaster The old boys are nervous

The increasing activist role taken by industry superannuation funds, as seen for example in recent moves to push for the removal of Rio Tinto executives over the Juukan Gorge debacle, may go some way to explaining why Liberal parliamentarians are looking to reduce money held within industry superannuation funds by whatever means possible. As industry funds have grown, they have become significant shareholders in Australias largest public companies and, as such, have found themselves in a position where they can exercise influence when it comes to issues of corporate governance. This would concern many at the top end of town who would like nothing more than to keep the old boys club going when it comes to management of these public companies. Hence government policies such as allowing early release of superannuation balances and moves to again defer or cancel the legislated rise in the superannuation guarantee.

Garry Meller, Bentleigh An uplifting read

How uplifting to read of farmers getting together to sell from the farm gate (Old gates open new doors to farmers, The Age, 12/9) as their response to COVID-19, enabling them to reap the full cost of their produce rather than the prices offered to them by price-cutting retail outlets. This is another example of the creative ways that small businesses are adapting to a very different economic climate. Its up to us to ensure that as we emerge from the pandemic, we support these local initiatives, building hope and community as we go. Its a far cry from Maggie Thatchers view that there is no such thing as society. Josh Frydenberg, take note.

Prue Gill, Carlton North Self-serving demands So Greg Hunt thinks that the Victorian public will support pressure by Scott Morrison on Daniel Andrews to move quickly from lockdown and lift curfew.

Many might agree, but I believe that the majority of Victorians, although weary of the current constraints, are made of sufficiently stern stuff to see this fight to the finish. Gratuitous demands from Canberra are obviously self-serving, politically charged and therefore unwelcome. The curfew is, after all, the least punitive of our restrictions and is almost certainly short term. The police find it helpful and if it assists them I remain unperturbed by a minor and temporary breach of our rights. To those who complain of past errors in judgment  we know that quarantine management and private aged care have been badly handled by both governments, but that was yesterday and this challenge wont be won by looking backwards. A flexible Andrews can make the right decisions.

The victory cant be won by pussyfooting.

Noel North, Malvern East Covering the bases I had a letter sent to me on 23/6 from Finland, arriving in Australia on 12/7. It reached my nearest towns post office on 14/8 and my mailbox (20 kilometres out of town) on 28/8.

To be on safe side I included a Christmas card in my answering letter.

Anja Toikka, Callignee The fuss seems overblown Many are expressing alarm at a restriction of human rights in relation to the COVID-19 city curfew.

Human rights are fundamentally personal or autonomous rights, but they need to be balanced at certain times with community rights. We saw this with the introduction of seatbelts, and speed and alcohol restrictions in the road traffic epidemic. Quarantine is a human right violation that is accepted to protect the community, and the curfew is a quarantine measure imposed in a serious crisis. Given that no pubs, bars, cafes and restaurants are open (and this is reluctantly accepted) and there is no evidence of harm from this measure, the fuss over human rights seems overblown.

Rodney Syme, Yandoit Hills

AND ANOTHER THING A question for Santa Does Santa have a COVID-safe work plan in the workshop and are there any confirmed cases at the North Pole?

Greg Lee, Red Hill Credit: Life in lockdown

I could barely stay awake until the old curfew start time.

Bryan Fraser, St Kilda Im not sure that human rights are any advantage to the newly departed.

Les Aisen, Elsternwick Speaking with my friend from San Francisco about our lockdown situation, her immediate response was: God, I wish we had that here.

Marie Teagie, Ocean Grove To those would-be crusaders protesting about the use of CCTV, get over it. The proposed measures cause no physical harm and are in the best interest of everyone.

Neville Wilson, Rosanna Politics

A leader who places more importance on protecting my health than they do on protecting their political career gets my vote.

Phil Alexander, Eltham How good is not having to make a decision, yet constantly being able to criticise those who do.

Ian Maddison, Parkdale Ross Beale and Ellen Ryan (Letters, 12/9), Im with you. More people need to walk in the Premiers shoes before they criticise, thank you.

Pauline Driscoll, Burwood Furthermore The very noticeable increase in maskless people (with and without the pretend coffee cup) on the walk along the Yarra between Victoria Street and Bridge Road on Sunday is a sure sign that Daniel Andrews needs to hold the line on restrictions.

Bruce McQualter, Richmond
Warning: disturbing footage.

Washington: US President Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Sunday (Monday AEST) denounced the shooting of two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and called for the gunman, who remains at large, to face harsh punishment.

The LA County Sheriff's Department said on Saturday night that the two deputies "were ambushed as they sat in their patrol vehicle" in the Los Angeles neighbourhood of Compton and were shot multiple times, leaving them in critical condition.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, shows Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva taking questions at a late-night news conference about the condition of two Sheriff's deputies in Compton, California. Credit:AP

The department later released a video that appeared to show a suspect walking up to a parked police car, pointing a gun at the passenger side window and then running away.
By Express News Service

PATNA: Veteran socialist and former Union Minister for Rural Development Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh breathed his last on Sunday morning at Delhi AIIMS where he was admitted for last many days after developing chest pain.

Couple of months ago, on June 17, he was infected with the COVID-19.

Singh, 74-years-old, had served in the cabinet headed by former PM Manmohan Singh.

A native of Bihar's Vaishali district, he had recently resigned from the RJD after being disgruntled with party's functioning and a decision of inducting a leader against his will.

In his resignation letter to jailed RJD chief Lalu Prasad, Singh wrote that he stayed with Lalu for 32 years,but not now now forgive me.

Reacting to the news of his death, the RJD chief tweeted in Hindi that: "Dear Raghuvansh babu, what have you done?

"I told you day before yesterday you're not leaving anywhere but you've gone too far

"I'm speechless, emotion less, I have no words, we will miss you."

  !    ?



                 



:        Lalu Prasad Yadav (@laluprasadrjd) September 13, 2020

A staunch supporter of Lalu Prasad who, nonetheless, is never shy of speaking his mind, Singh is one of the founding members of the RJD.

10 days before testing positive, on June 7, the Bihar leader had said that central government is planning for election and not fighting against COVID-19 pandemic.

A five-term MP from Vaishali, the veteran leader lost the seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and failed to wrest it back five years later.

Recently, he had written six letters, three to Bihar CM Nitish Kumar demanding development work to be done at Vaishali and an ordinace to an amendement in MNREGA law.

He had also expressed his displesures on declining trend of moral in politics.

(With online desk inputs)
To celebrate Te Wiki o te Reo Maori this year, we'll be doing a special midday mix of te reo tunes on Monday as our way of participating in this year's 'Maori Language Moment'. Plus look out for a daily 'kupu o te ra' - 'word of the day' video on George socials & on air!

The Maori Language Commission has redesigned Maori Language Week so that this year, whether we are in lockdown or not: New Zealanders can come together to celebrate te reo Maori.

The Commission wants to get 1 million people speaking, singing and celebrating te reo at the same time in an unprecedented Maori Language Moment for Maori Language Week 2020.

You can sign up here.

To safeguard te reo we want 1 million Maori language speakers by 2040 but we want to start in 2020: even if only for a moment, said Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Maori chair Professor Rawinia Higgins.

COVID-19 wont stop us coming together to celebrate te reo: it just means we will come together in different ways.

Our Maori Language Moment will take place at 12pm on Monday the 14th September 2020. This marks the day and the hour in 1972 when a group of Maori language champions presented a petition on the steps of parliament calling for te reo to be taught in our schools. They had gathered the signatures of 30,000 New Zealanders. We will always remember those who championed te reo when it was socially and politically unacceptable to do so. We want people to sign up for the Maori Language Moment so in years to come, just as people look back at the Maori Language Petition now: people can look back and see who joined the Maori Language Moment in 2020.

Te reo Maori is the language of New Zealand. But it still needs New Zealanders to keep it safe.

What you do for your Maori Language Moment: is up to you. It could be as easy as playing a Maori language song, pausing to do the daily quiz in te reo, starting lunch with a karakia or media outlets beginning their 12pm news bulletin with a Maori greeting. Its an open invitation to celebrate te reo for a moment, a week, a month or even the whole year round How you do it is up to you: but sign up so that we know how many are joining us.

We know New Zealanders see te reo as part of their identity as a New Zealander. Te reo is New Zealands language.
With many Opposition top guns missing, the Monsoon Session of Parliament which begins on Monday should weigh heavily in the governments favour. While the Oppositions numerical strength in the Rajya Sabha has dipped significantly after the last round of elections in June (the Congress is now down to just 40 MPs in the Upper House from 46 in May), most senior leaders would be giving the Session a miss for health reasons.

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Boursa Kuwait said that it will list its shares on the Premier Market following the Capital Markets Authoritys approval, with trading of the companys shares starting during the opening session on September 14 under the ticker symbol BOURSA.



The company will be classified under the Financial Services sector, bringing the total number of companies on the exchange to 174, while the number of listed companies in the Premier Market rises to 20 companies.



The companys paid-up capital amounts to approximately KD20.1 million ($65.5 million), which are divided into approximately 201 million shares. Furthermore, around 50% of the companys shares, or what amounts to around 100 million shares, were offered to Kuwaiti citizens in an initial public offering process that concluded in December 2019, seeing an oversubscription rate of 850%.



Boursa Kuwait saw a net profit of KD5.63 million for first half of 2020 while the companys total assets came in at approximately KD41.7 million. Total operating expenses were KD3.12 million while total operating revenue came in at KD6.77 million.



Boursa Kuwait Chairman Hamad Mishari Al-Humaidhi said: Boursa Kuwaits listing today marks a historic milestone for the company as it enters the next phase in its growth and development. We are proud of our journey, which has cemented us as the crown jewel of the Kuwaiti capital market and is indeed the model of a Kuwaiti success story, which in turn will contribute to the elevation of the country regionally and internationally.



I would like to take this opportunity to commend Boursa Kuwaits Board of Directors and Executive Management, with their solid structure consistent with the nature and activities of the company, and their efforts to develop a liquid, reliable and sound capital market that services all relevant asset classes, focusing on the interests of both issuers and investors through excellence in everything it does.





Bader Nasser Al-Kharafi, in his capacity as both a representative of the consortium awarded the 44% stake in the company and as Chairman of the Executive Committee at Boursa Kuwait, said: We are proud of the consecutive string of achievements for Boursa Kuwait, which is undoubtedly a role model for companies that want to undergo privatization and list on the exchange.



The listing of Boursa Kuwait represents a breakthrough in the transformation of the Kuwaiti capital market into a dynamic and diversified investment ecosystem that thrives on international best practices and looks to increase the contribution of the private sector towards the growth and development of the national economy.



We were guided by our belief in the private sector and its ability to develop a reliable and sound capital market with ever increasing liquidity levels, which constituted an incentive to develop Boursa Kuwait into a pioneering regional company that adheres to the best-in-class international standards and practices.



Today we celebrate the success of the company and its leading role in the Kuwaiti financial scene over the past few years, moving forward to introduce innovative products and services aimed at encouraging even more companies  specifically substantial ones like family companies, companies in the oil sector as well as foreign companies  to list on the exchange, Al-Kharafi added.  TradeArabia News Service
3 Christian men facing combined 35 years in prison flee Iran

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Three Iranian Christian converts, who were facing a combined 35 years in prison because of their faith, have fled the country after a court rejected their appeal, according to a Christian persecution watchdog group.

The three converts, identified as Kvian Fallah-Mohammadi, Hadi Asgari and Amin Afshar-Naderi, were charged due to their connection to a December 2014 Christmas celebration and were facing a combined 35 years in prison, according to the U.S.-based International Christian Concern.

The three men fled the Islamic country just weeks after two other Christians  a pastor and his wife  were forced to flee after their appeals rejected, ICC reported, noting that the flight of five Christians from within a space of a few weeks is noteworthy, especially as their cases were some of the most publicized among Irans persecuted Christian community.

These five cases were all interconnected and trace back to the same Christmas celebration in 2014.

There is a sense that Iran wants to force Christians out of the country, but leaving is an incredibly painful and difficult process, ICC said. The church is at an important crossroad, even as persecution in Iran increases.

Last month, the Iranian human rights monitoring watchdog organization Article 18 reported that Pastor Victor Bet-Tamraz and his wife, Shamiram Isavi, fled Iran instead of turning themselves in to face a combined 15 years in prison.

Their appeals of prison sentences, related to their involvement in a house church and evangelism, were also denied.

The couples daughter, Dabrina Bet Tamraz, who met with President Donald Trump last year to advocate for her family members, confirmed that her parents had departed Iran. While she could not disclose their location, she assured Article 18 that they are safe and well.

Dabrina Bet Tamraz, who left Iran in the early 2010s, said her parents, who are in their mid-60s, plan to continue fighting their legal battle against Iranian authorities. Her parents, she added, are determined to return to their home country should the Iranian court overturn their sentences.

The charges brought against the couple have been condemned by human rights activists, as well as Vice President Mike Pence.

The couples son, Ramiel, was released from prison earlier this year after being sentenced to four months for participating in house churches.

In 2009, Iranian authorities shut down Pastor Victor Bet-Tamrazs church. But instead of fleeing the country, he continued to share the Good News, Pence said during a speech at the U.S. State Departments 2019 Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom. Pastor Bet Tamraz and his family are an inspiration to freedom-loving people the world over.

In Iran, it is illegal for Christians to share the Gospel with Muslims. Open Doors USA, a global persecution watchdog organization, ranks Iran on its annual World Watch List as the ninth-worst county when it comes to Christian persecution.

That ranking comes as several house churches were raided during the World Watch List reporting period  Nov. 1, 2018, to Oct. 31, 2019. During that period, Open Doors reports that at least 169 Christians were arrested in Iran.
Former Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum has told of the shame he felt after being found 'inebriated' in a South Beach hotel room in March, along with a male escort who overdosed on crystal meth.

Gillum opened up in his first television interview since he was was pictured unconscious and naked together with photos that depicted a slew of drugs, both prescription and illegal, found inside a swanky $220-per-night hotel room.

The 41-year-old father-of-three entered a rehab facility to deal with alcohol abuse shortly after the incident and revealed to Tamron Hall that he has 'cried every day' since his sudden fall from grace.

Former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum has spoken in a TV interview to address an incident in which he was found unconscious in a hotel

Gillum told Tamron Hall, pictured, that he was shown to be 'at his most vulnerable state' at the time of the incident

Paramedics were called to the four-star Mondrian South Beach hotel which costs $220 a night

Hall asked Gillum why he was in the hotel room in the first place.

'I would say the reason why I went to that room was probably no different than how anybody might communicate with someone that they are in a friendship relationship whatever with. I understand very well what people assume about that.'

In a tearful interview to be shown in full on Monday morning, Gillum spoke candidly about the incident which saw a photo revealed of him in a compromising position.

'When that photo came out, I didn't recognize the person on the floor,' he said.

'That was not anything more than a person being at their most vulnerable state, unconscious, having given no consent, and someone decided to use a moment where I was literally lying in my own vomit.'

Gillum told Hall that part of his recovery process has been to get over the shame that he felt

Fire rescue crews and police officers responded to the Mondrian South Beach hotel in Miami Beach for a suspected drug overdose.

When officers arrived, Gillum was so intoxicated he could not communicate, police said.

Cops found a substance in the room that appeared to by crystal methamphetamine, but Gillum was not charged with a crime.

A third man who was present, Aldo Mejias, 56, told officers that Gillum and Travis Dyson had been 'under the influence of an unknown substance', according to a police report obtained by DailyMail.com.

Dyson - DailyMail.com revealed - worked as a gay porn actor and advertised himself as a male escort.

Dyson describes himself as a trauma certified ER nurse on social media, where he posts photos of himself working out in the gym, partying at gay nightspots and lounging on luxury yachts

Police arrived to find paramedics performing first aid on Dyson in the wake of 'a suspected drug overdose' and preparing to take him to the hospital

The report also noted that Gillum, a former Tallahassee mayor and regular CNN contributor, was seen vomiting in the bathroom and required a welfare check to see if he was okay.

Since the incident, Gillum apologized to supporters in an 11-minute Instagram video in July where he explained that he had been fighting depression for years which only worsened after narrowly losing his 2018 race to Governor Ron DeSantis.

He told Hall that he remains hopeful of redeeming himself.

'I'm still here by the grace of God. So much of my recovery has been about trying to get over shame. Shame is not that I did that, but I am bad.'

Plastic baggies of suspected crystal meth (pictured), empty beer bottles and prescription pills are seen scattered among trash and soiled bedding in shocking images

Exclusive images show the slew of drugs, both prescription and illegal, found inside the swank $220-per-night hotel room, including three bags of what police believe was crystal meth

Dozens of white pills can be seen scattered on the floor and bedside table alongside empty containers of citalopram, an anti-anxiety medication, and gabapentin, which helps combat seizures and nerve pain, as well as an empty Corona beer bottle

Photos of the incident in question showed dozens of white pills scattered on the floor and bedside table alongside empty containers of citalopram, an anti-anxiety medication, and gabapentin, which helps combat seizures and nerve pain.

A small bottle of an injectable medicine containing alprostadil, typically used to treat erectile dysfunction was also found at the scene.

Beer bottles and sheets covered in bodily fluids could also been in the photos, obtained from police under Freedom of Information law.

Gillum left the hotel after rescue workers confirmed that he had stable medical signs.

Earlier this year, Gillum told how his wife, R. Jai Howard, had stood by him in the months following.

Gillum had remained silent since a March incident involving a man who reportedly overdosed in a South Beach hotel room. He finally spoke out on his Instagram page in July, pictured

Gillum, who is married with three young children, denied using any drugs but admitted to having 'too much to drink' (pictured with his wife R. Jai Howard)

'She knows what I am and knows what I am not. She chooses to love me anyhow,' he said in a video message to supporters.

'I totally underestimated the impact that losing the race for governor had on my life, and on the way that those impacts started to show up in every aspect of my life,' Gillum said.

'It was a constant reminder of failure and my own personal failures It was a reminder that I had let so many people down.

'All of that was all of a sudden gone, and caused me to think about my own purpose, and my own value and what I could contribute if anything,' he said. 'I didn't want to face any of those things so I numbed. I tried to suppress. I tried to ignore.'

Gillum went traveling, made public appearances and sat for TV interviews, posting on Instagram and Facebook 'as if I was living my best life.'

He expressed remorse for what he did and acknowledged that his feelings of guilt were normal.

'It is normal to feel guilty for the harm you have caused someone. That's how you know you're human. That's how you know you're not a sociopath.'

But he said the public shame that he also felt hit him in a 'completely different' way that 'cuts you.'

'My stuff had to be public and cause great embarrassment and rumors, some false, some true, the shame that I felt from all of that... was tearing me up,' Gillum said. 'I needed real help to try to unpack that.'

Gillum revealed that his father also suffered from alcoholism and died from complications related to 'that deadly addiction.'

Andrew Gillum, the former Democratic candidate for Florida governor, was named in a police report saying he was 'inebriated' and initially unresponsive in a hotel room in March this year

'I went away to rehab to focus on my issues with alcoholism, having grown up in a household where my father battled addiction to alcohol, and later died from that addiction,' Gillum said in the July video. 'I knew well the toll it took on my father's dreams and ambitions.'

In the video, he urged others struggling with alcoholism or depression to seek help. He explained that he turned to therapy address his problems.

'All of us are struggling and trying and clawing at trying to be something else when we really ought to be trying to be at home in ourselves. That is the journey I am on right now ... not having to be one thing in one place and one thing somewhere else,' he said.

'With a lot of encouragement from family and the people who love and care about me, I also got into therapy, where I could start to talk through what was going on with me,' Gillum said.

'I knew if I had not dealt first with issues and addiction and the numbing that I chose with alcohol, there was no way I could start to pull back the layers and talk about what was truly happening underneath.'

'This is a tough moment not to be out in the world and contributing... although I can't be what I would love to be for you and for myself and for my community at this time,' Gillum said. 'I hope you know that I couldn't be those things because I couldn't be what I needed to be for me first.'
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 22:05:49|Editor: huaxia

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ISLAMABAD, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Pakistani military said on Sunday that security forces have killed a terrorist commander along with three other terrorists in the Waziristan area of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

An army statement said that "in a major breakthrough, terrorist commander Ihsan Ullah alias Ihsan Sanray along with three other terrorists (were) killed during an intelligence based operation today (Sunday) in Ghariom, Shaktu near the inter district boundary of North and South Waziristan" tribal districts.

The terrorist commander was the mastermind of numerous terrorist attacks, and more recently, he was involved in planning and execution of terrorist attacks in Shaktu area which led to the killing of several soldiers and officers, the statement from the army's media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations said.

Earlier on Saturday, the Pakistani military said one soldier was killed in a roadside bomb attack near a check post in North Waziristan.

The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had claimed responsibility for the attack on the check post.

The Pakistani military had conducted a series of operations against terrorist groups, including the TTP, in North Waziristan. Although the area has mostly been pacified, remnants of the terrorist groups still manage to launch attacks on the security forces. Enditem
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 13

By Elnur Baghishov  Trend:

As many as 2,089 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, 128 more people have died from the coronavirus over the past day.

Sadat Lari added that the condition of 3,791 people is critical.

The official said that Iran's Tehran, Mazandaran, Gilan, Qom, Isfahan, Razavi Khorasan, East Azerbaijan, Kerman, North Khorasan, Semnan, Yazd, Zanjan, and Qazvin provinces are considered 'red' zones.

So far, more than 3.55 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 402,000 people have been infected, and 23,157 people have already died. Meanwhile, over 346,200 have reportedly recovered from the disease.

The country continues to apply strict measures to contain further spread. Reportedly, the disease was brought to Iran by a businessman from Iran's Qom city, who went on a business trip to China, despite official warnings. The man died later from the disease.

The Islamic Republic only announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on Feb. 19.

The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11 declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019.
Bengaluru, Sep 13 : Karanataka's Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah on Sunday asserted that linking politicians to a case based on a photo with the accused was an unhealthy trend.

Speaking to reporters after releasing a booklet 'Farmers Security, Country's Security' authored by Justice Nagmohan Das, he added that there was no way to know the history of everyone participating in random ceremonies.

"Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa has to realise that he cannot cover up his government's failures behind this (drug mafia). He will have to answer for the failures as the opposition party will surely make him answer during the forthcoming Legislature session that will commence from September 21," the former Karnataka Chief Minister said.

He assured that the opposition party would fully cooperate to make the state free of drugs. "Drugs are a big menace, we all know it. It needs to be dealt with an iron hand. That being said, the opposition cannot allow the ruling party to hide behind this," he added.

Responding to a question, Siddaramaiah contended that the Congress party will not protect anyone who has violated the law or indulged in anti-national activities.

"What is happening in the case of our MLA (former minister B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan) is that he has become a favorite punching bag for the BJP. That cannot be allowed," he said.
Donald Trump

Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the El Paso County Coliseum on February 11, 2019 in El Paso, Texas. Getty/Joe Raedle

While former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign has been inundated with donations in recent months, reports indicate that President Donald Trump's campaign is fearing a shortage of funds as November 3 draws closer. And these comparative fortunes are already having an effect, it seems  at least on the peace of mind of Trump supporters.

The Washington Post reported Friday Trump's campaign has been pulling television advertising in recent weeks, and it's making supporters nervous:

Post reporters Michael Scherer and Josh Dawsey explain:

Republican officials have been inundated with calls from worried activists and donors who complain about constant Biden ads in their local media markets, with very few paid Trump responses, according to people familiar with the conversations. Some Republicans close to Trump have been baffled at the decision to sharply curb advertising and have told the president he should change course.

By reducing its television advertising, Scherer and Dawsey note, Trump's campaign is "ceding to Democratic nominee Joe Biden a huge advantage in key states and sparking disagreements over strategy within the president's senior team."

The Post journalists point out that Biden's campaign has gone from being "lean" earlier this year to being "flush with cash"  and more cash means more to spend on ads. One of the Republicans who is worried about Biden's cash advantage, according to Scherer and Dawsey, is Republican National Committee Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel  whose uncle is Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah. McDaniel, they report, "recently told the president she was concerned his ads were not on television in states such as Michigan and Florida, where Biden was blanketing the airwaves."

The Trump campaign's decision to buy less television advertising, the Post reporters note, was made by Bill Stepien  who replaced Brad Parscale as Trump's campaign manager in July. Stepien, Scherer and Dawsey report, "has described facing difficult choices, as he tries to save considerable money for the final 30 days before the November 3 election. The moves have resulted in an enormous short-term advertising benefit for Biden, who maintains a polling lead in most of the battleground states. Between August 10 and September 7, Biden's campaign spent about $90 million on television ads  more than four times the $18 million spent by the Trump campaign, according to tracking by a Democratic firm."

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A GOP strategist, interviewed on condition of anonymity, told the Post, "There is actually a lot of frustration out there with the Trump campaign being dark, especially in places like Arizona and North Carolina. Those two places have big Senate races."

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Fly Zipline Medical Drones have made timely and critical deliveries in blood and medical supplies to residents hit by flood disasters in the Northern region.

In some years past, the narrative was very disturbing since more lives were lost as a result of such natural disasters.

According to Zipline, it has also delivered a total of 122,000 units of medical commodities, including blood to over 1,000 health facilities across all four distribution centres in the country using the technology.

The company has also delivered blood samples, sanitisers and PPE to testing centres as well as some health centres in the country during the COVID-19 lockdown period.

The General Manager of Fly Zipline, Daniel Marfo made this known at the commissioning of the Vobsi centre, which is the fourth and largest distribution centre located at Kukua near Walewale in the North East Region on Saturday.

According to him, the centre will supply medical packages to health facilities in five regions in the Northern sector.

Several other communities such as Sakogu and Fumbisi who during the rainy season have no access to medicines because of the state of their roads for the first time in years have access to the blood and medical products. As at 12 pm on Saturday, the Vobsi centre had already sent 40 packages cut off by the floods.

Movement has been curtailed in parts of the region due to floods caused by weeks of torrential rains coupled with the spillage of the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso. Gbintiri and Zorko health centres are just two examples of communities which without the services of the Zipline would not have access to medical supplies as they have been cut off.

Ghana adopted the medical drone technology to enable the country to expand healthcare access to millions at no capital cost to the state according to Fly Zipline. As a matter of clarity, the Ministry of Health engaged a fund-raising company to raise funds for the payment of the service.

Commissioning the facility, the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia referred to the technology as Fly-To-Save-A-Life Project.

According to him, this is just a testament of the desire by the ruling government not to leave anyone behind in the provision of basic healthcare needs of the people.

The Vice President recalled how the service made things easier for one Dr. Issabella Amese, the medical superintendent at the Baptist Medical Center at Nalerigu who urgently needed four (4) units of O frozen fresh plasma (FFP) at midnight to save the life of a woman who was in critical condition, and how Zipline intervened just on time.

Stories such as this motivate us to continue to provide leadership for our people and investment in their lives so that we do not lose valuable lives as a result of non-availability of critical medical commodities, the Vice President said.

He said the emerging success stories from the technology defeats prior misconceptions by opponents who criticized the technology during its introduction that the drones will take naked pictures of people in the bathrooms in the rural areas.

Today, the many success stories on the ground have proven us right. Good governance and bold decisions such as this are what moves countries forward, he said.

The four Zipline distribution centres can serve up to 2000 health centres operating at full capacity according to the management. The four centres include Vobsi in Walewale in the North East Region, Omenako in the Eastern Region, Mampong in the Ashanti Region and Sefwi-Wiawso in the Western Region.

Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia said, in line with the many successes that are coming forth from the beneficiary communities, and our obligation to ensure that national resources and critical services are fairly distributed to all people living in Ghana, we may soon consider the need to expand this service by Zipline to all parts of the country.
When the time finally arrived in 1960 to begin integrating Houston ISD schools, a landmark victory for the citys Black residents after years of stalling by white segregationists, Burnett and Helene Ross wanted their two young daughters at the front of the line.

At the time, the Rosses already were known as trailblazers. He started the citys first ambulance service for Black residents. She served as Wheatley High Schools first female drum major. Together, they owned a prominent family mortuary.

Now, another breakthrough called.

So, 60 years ago this September, with the images of enraged crowds attempting to circle the Little Rock Nine still lingering in the ether, the Rosses crossed Interstate 59 with their daughters, Burnell and Susan, and dropped them off for first grade at the previously all-white Betsy Ross Elementary School.

My goodness, that made a statement in the community, Burnell Loche, now 66 and married, recalled recently.

The Rosses decision six decades ago, rendered in the face of strong resistance from segregationists at the highest levels of HISD, continues to reverberate through generations of women in the family, a living legacy to the impact of integration in the district.

To their descendants, the choice laid the foundation for a family ethos toward education and integration, even as the city continues to grapple with segregation in schools and communities.

During the past 60 years, members of the Ross family not only attended HISDs first desegregated schools, but also some of the districts most racially, ethnically and socioeconomically integrated campuses: DeBakey High School for Health Professionals, Wharton K-8 Dual Language Academy, Heights High School.

Their experiences in those campuses opened previously unseen worlds for them, while also reaffirming their commitment to the Fifth Ward community, they said. To this day, the family stands as a pillar of northeast Houston, best known as the owners and operators of the 82-year-old Ross Mortuary off Lyons Avenue.

My grandmother and grandfather looked beyond that time period, said Edwina Loche Barrett, the daughter of Burnell Loche. They had to be a part of the movement. They knew that there was light at the end of the tunnel. And I would love to refer to myself and my children as that light.

A quiet transition

When the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark, unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954, finding that policies segregating schoolchildren by race violated the U.S. Constitution, the ruling faced massive resistance in Houston.

Over the next six years, several of HISDs segregationist school board members and community leaders fought to delay changes in the district, which then served about 175,000 students. Their tactics ensured that more than 35,000 Black children remained in overcrowded and under-resourced schools, separated from their white peers.

The breakthrough finally came in the summer of 1960, when a federal judge ordered the nations largest still-segregated district to begin admitting Black first-graders into schools designated for white children.

HISDs school board set strict standards that limited integration that year. The families of about two dozen Black children applied, with 12 receiving admission to four previously all-white schools.

While Burnett and Helene Ross let other Black leaders in Houston fight the most vocal and public battles over race, the couple readily prepared to participate in school integration. Their two adopted daughters, separated by three months in age, joined two other Black children enrolling at Ross Elementary.

Unlike other southern cities, such as Little Rock, Houston saw no violence or mass in-person opposition to Black students entering desegregated campuses.

This is a real achievement, then-superintendent John McFarland told the Houston Post in September 1960. I dont think anybody in the nation expected us to desegregate this school system without incident  including ourselves.

Burnell Loche recalled an uneventful elementary school experience for her and Susan, who died last year at the age of 65.

That changed at Patrick Henry Middle School, where white children threw rocks at the familys car upon their arrival in the early days. Determined to show his quiet mettle, Burnett Ross continued to drive his daughters to campus, armed with a never-used pistol hidden from sight.

The overt animosity gave way to a cold antipathy, leaving the Ross children isolated from their peers at times. Supported by knowing teachers and administrators, the sisters dutifully matriculated to Waltrip High School, where they graduated in 1972. At each school, they never encountered more than a few fellow Black students.

After that first couple of days (in middle school), everything went smooth the rest of the years, Burnell Loche said. Nothing I can remember ever disturbed us with anything else. We participated as much as we could and did the work.

A family legacy

The sisters ultimately joined the family business after graduating high school, though Susan Ross-Mathis later became a surgical nurse and spent about 15 years at The Womans Hospital of Texas.

When the time came for Burnell Loche and her husband, Edward, to choose schools for their two children, the couple encouraged their kids to seek opportunities inside and outside of their community.

Loche Barrett, the couples oldest daughter, spent her elementary and middle school years at the historically Black, private Our Mother of Mercy Catholic School. With dreams of becoming a pediatrician, she transferred across the city to the High School for Health Professionals, one of Houstons most diverse campuses.

I admit it was a bit of a shell shock, because I never really had experience with other ethnic groups, but it allowed me to be proud of who I was while also learning about other cultures and becoming more accepting, Loche Barrett said.

After teaching kindergarten and second grade in Galena Park ISD for six years, Loche Barrett joined the family business 12 years ago. As she sorted through potential HISD schools for her children, she recalled her own experiences in the district.

She zeroed in on HISDs Wharton K-8 Dual Language Academy, where historically about 65 percent of students are Hispanic, 15 percent are white and 10 percent are Black. Her oldest daughter, 16-year-old Eryn, attended the campus for elementary school and now speaks fluent Spanish, while her youngest daughter, 9-year-old Parker, is in third grade there.

To see the different races, it kind of brought me out into the world a bit, said Eryn, who also attended HISDs Hogg Middle School and Heights High School. I just met a whole bunch of people who I thought were just like me, but with a different skin color.

Like many Black families in HISD, the Rosses descendants had to travel to attend deeply integrated schools, an issue that still bedevils the district. While thousands of Black and Hispanic children regularly transfer to campuses in Houstons wealthier and whiter neighborhoods  Bellaire, Midtown, Montrose, River Oaks  the reverse almost never occurs.

In the familys native northeast Houston, nearly all students attending neighborhood schools are Black or Hispanic, a re-segregation brought on by white flight, a lack of resources and numerous other factors. Ross Elementary School, which only took white students prior to Burnell and Susan Ross arrival, reported zero white children enrolled in 2019-2020.

HISD officials are taking modest steps to encourage deeper integration, including the redistribution of magnet programs that served as the cornerstone of the districts original desegregation plan. Still, the city remains far from fulfilling the ideal put into motion 60 years ago by Burnett and Helene Ross, who since have died.

Its enriched our lives, Burnell Loche said. And we need to keep an attention to it. We really do.

jacob.carpenter@chron.com
(Newser)  Delphine Boel knows her father is the former king of Belgium. Now that the courts have found that to be true, she's waiting for the next rulingon whether Boel will become Princess of Belgium and Her Royal Highness. Albert II does not approve, per the Guardian. "As far as the title is concerned, it is not a prerogative of the court but a prerogative of the executive power, in our opinion," Albert's representative said. The former king denied paternity for years, until a DNA test confirmed it. Boel, 52, was born during her mother's extramarital affair with Albert in the 1960s and '70s, before he became king. Baroness Sybille de Selys Longchamps revealed the affair in 2013, on the day Albert relinquished the crown for what he said were health reasons.

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"Delphine's position isn't that she wants or doesn't want to be princess," her lawyer said, per the BBC. "She doesn't want to be a cut-price child, she wants to have exactly the same privileges, titles and capacities as her brothers and her sister." Albert has three other children; Philippe succeeded him as king, a job that's mostly ceremonial in the constitutional monachy. A court victory might mean that Boel's two children are entitled to royal titles. The legal battle to prove paternity took Boel seven years. "Her life has been a long nightmare because of this quest for identity," her lawyer has said. The ruling on titles is due Oct. 29. (The reigning king has apologized for past abuses by Belgium.)
Jose Mourinho branded his players 'lazy' and blamed their abject opening weekend defeat to Everton on a lack of intensity.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin's soaring 55th minute header was enough to give Carlo Ancelotti's side their first win away to a top six club since December 2013, ending a run of 40 matches.

Everton, for whom new signing James Rodriguez excelled, dominated throughout but Mourinho claimed Tottenham's disjointed preparations attributed to a wretched performance.

Jose Mourinho was disappointed with Tottenham's uninspiring opening day performance

Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored the winner as Everton beat Spurs 1-0 in their first league game

Mourinho said: 'That is a consequence of bad fitness, bad pre-season.

'Some players didn't even have a pre-season. Some players had a wrong state of mind. I did not like my team today.

'We did not have the physical condition, we had no intensity. Harry Kane has trained with us once. Moussa Sissoko just twice. For different reasons, players have not been able to train.

The Portuguese manager said his side's 'lazy press' allowed the Toffees to be comfortable

'We had cases of positive coronavirus tests, we had other players who had to quarantine, other players away with the national team.'

He added: 'I would say it was lazy pressure and when you have lazy pressure you don't press, you let opponents build from the back.'

Ancelotti, by contrast, was thrilled saying: 'Our target is to fight to reach the European positions and we have started well.

'The problem we had last season was that we were up and down.'

Mourinho suggested some of his players were not fully fit following a shorter pre-season

Mourinho will have been concerned by the players' seeming lack of fitness as they get set to play three more games in the next nine days, starting with a Europa League qualifier against Lokomotiv Plovdiv on Thursday.

When asked how Mourinho can help his players bounce back from the defeat, the 57-year-old replied: 'Being honest with them, telling them things I cannot say to you but I can say to them. On Thursday we have a knockout game so there is not much time to cry or to complain.'

After an uninspiring first half, Mourinho substituted Dele Alli for Sissoko in a bid to combat the Toffees' new-look midfield of Allan, Abdoulaye Doucoure and James Rodriguez, a change Mourinho confirmed was tactical.
President Donald Trump has said he will 'negotiate' a third term in the White House because he's 'entitled' to it.

Trump shared his intent to run for president again in 2024 during a campaign event in Minten, Nevada, on Saturday night.

'52 days from now we're going to win Nevada, and we're gonna win four more years in the White House,' he told a crowd of hundreds of supporters, most of them not wearing masks or socially distancing.

'And then after that, we'll negotiate, right? Because we're probably  based on the way we were treated  we are probably entitled to another four after that.'

Trump has repeatedly suggested that he wants to serve more than two terms in office, alarming critics who believe he isn't joking about wanting to violate constitutional boundaries.

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President Donald Trump said he will 'negotiate' a third term in the White House because he's 'entitled' to it during a campaign event in Minden, Nevada, on Saturday night

He made similar comments at a rally in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, last month, saying: 'We are going to win four more years, and then after that, we'll go for another four years because they spied on my campaign. We should get a redo of four years.'

But in the past Trump has also claimed that he's only joking about trying to serve more than two terms.

In November 2018, the president was forced to confirm that he wouldn't push for an additional four years after he was recorded praising Chinese President Xi Jinping for abolishing term limits.

'He's now president for life,' Trump said at a fundraiser. 'And look, he was able to do that. I think it's great. Maybe we'll have to give that a shot someday.'

In the wake of that clip surfacing, Trump told Fox News' Chris Wallace that he would not seek a constitutional amendment to allow him a third term.

'I think the eight-year limit is a good thing, not a bad thing,' he told Wallace.

Since then Trump has repeatedly backtracked on those comments, charging that he deserves more time in office because of 'mistreatment' he's endured during his first term.

America's unofficial two-term limit was established under Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, but was breached by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was elected four times in 1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944.

Congress ratified the 22nd Amendment officially limiting presidents to two terms in 1951.

Supporters listen as Trump speaks at a rally in Minden, Nevada, on Saturday night

The rally on Saturday drew hundreds of people - violating Nevada's coronavirus restrictions

Trump spent the majority of Saturday night's campaign event - which violated Nevada's coronavirus regulations - attacking his Democratic rival Joe Biden.

'[Biden] is the worst candidate in the history of presidential politics. He doesn't know he is alive,' Trump told the crowd at the Minden-Tahoe airport as smoke from wildfires one state over filled the air.

The crowd was riled up, repeatedly yelling 'four more years' and 'we love Trump.' They waved signs that said 'peaceful protesters' - which is what the president has started calling his rallies.

Trump complained that Biden will get a favorable comparison to Winston Churchill, the legendary British prime minister who lead the United Kingdom through World War II. Trump reveres Churchill and often compares himself to the political icon.

'We have a debate coming up in three weeks and here's the problem. Winston Churchill was a great debater,' Trump said.

He said if Biden makes it to the debate and 'if he gets off the stage they're going to say it's the single greatest debate they've ever seen. Winston Churchill was nothing compared to Sleepy Joe.'

He repeated several of his previous insults of Biden. In addition to the 'Sleepy Joe,' he complained Biden is still in his basement, and railed against Biden's son Hunter.

'Joe is shot, let's face it,' Trump said.

'Using him is just an excuse to get the super libs in there,' he said.

Trump railed repeatedly against Democratic rival Joe Biden at his rally, saying: 'He is the worst candidate in the history of presidential politics. He doesn't know he is alive'

He also attacked Biden's ability to keep the United States' safe. Biden has over 40 years of government service.

'Biden's plan is to appease domestic terrorists,' Trump said. 'He'll never be able to protect your family, your loved ones, your community.'

He also argued a Biden presidency would ruin the economy. The president has made a strong economy a key to his re-election and it's one area where voters give him high marks.

'I think 1929 would look like good times,' Trump said.

He also tied Biden to one of his major pet peeves - windmills.

'Did you ever seen a windmill when it's shot - like Joe?' Trump asked. 'It just starts to rust. And no one wants to take them down because it's a lot of money to take them down.'

Trump railed against environmentalists who want to use wind energy, warning people they won't be able to watch TV at night because the wind's not blowing.

He complained windmills will kill bald eagles, saying: 'You want to see a bird cemetery? Walk under a windmill sometime.'

The president also attacked his former Democratic rivals in addition to his 2020 opponent - bringing up Hillary Clinton's emails, which was a popular line for him on the 2016 campaign trail, and complaining about President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Continuing the crackdown on the Sandalwood drug racket, the Central Crime Branch (CCB) police on Saturday arrested Vaibhav Jain, who was named as accused No. 5 in the FIR filed at Cottonpet police station, on charges of peddling.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Sandeep Patil, said Vaibhav Jain, who runs a jewellery business, is a resident of Vyalikaval. On Friday, his friends Pratik Shetty and Aditya Agarwal were arrested for supplying drugs to actors and celebrities.

A senior police officer said,  Jain was nabbed from his house.
Yogasana, pranayama, meditation and intake of chyawanprash are among some of the suggestions given by the Union health ministry in its new management protocol for patients who have recovered from COVID-19.

IMAGE: COVID-19 patient Renu Arora interacts with her family members via a robot as she celebrates her birthday with health workers inside a COVID-19 dedicated ward, at Yatharta Hospital in Greater Noida. Photograph: Arun Sharma/PTI Photo

Calling for a holistic approach for follow up care and well-being of all post-COVID recovered patients, the health ministry said such patients must continue COVID appropriate behaviour by use of mask, hand and respiratory hygiene, physical distancing.

The protocol provides an approach for managing patients who have recovered from COVID-19 for care at home.

However, the procedure is not meant to be seen as preventive or as a curative therapy.

The recovery period is likely to be longer for patients who suffered from more severe form of the disease and those with pre-existing illness, it said.

At individual level, the protocol suggested drinking adequate amount of warm water (if not contra-indicated), taking immunity promoting AYUSH medicine prescribed by a qualified practitioner of AYUSH and if health permits then regular household work to be done.

It advised people to resume professional work in a graded manner.

Daily practice of yogasana, pranayama and meditation, as much as health permits or as prescribed, breathing exercises as prescribed by treating physician and daily morning or evening walk at a comfortable pace as tolerated were among other measures.

The protocol also called for self-health monitoring at home of temperature, blood pressure, blood sugar (especially, if diabetic), pulse oximetry etc (if medically advised).

"If there is persistent dry cough/sore throat, do saline gargles and take steam inhalation. The addition of herbs/spices for gargling/steam inhalation. Cough medications, should be taken on advice of medical doctor or qualified practitioner of Ayush. Look for early warning signs like high grade fever, breathlessness, unexplained chest pain, new onset of confusion, focal weakness," it said.

At the level of community, the ministry said recovered individuals should share their positive experiences with friends and relatives using social media, community leaders, opinion leaders, religious leaders for creating awareness, dispelling myths and stigma.

"Take support of community based self-help groups, civil society organizations, and qualified professionals for recovery and rehabilitation process (medical, social, occupational, livelihood). Seek psycho-social support from peers, community health workers, counsellor. If required seek mental health support service," the protocol said.

The ministry also advised recovered patients to participate in group sessions of yoga, meditation etc. while taking all due precautions like physical distancing.

In healthcare facility setting, the ministry advised the first follow-up visit (physical/telephonic) should be within seven days after discharge, preferably at the hospital where he/she underwent treatment.

"Subsequent treatment/follow up visits may be with the nearest qualified allopathic/AYUSH practitioner/medical facility of other systems of medicine.

"Poly-therapy is to be avoided due to potential for unknown drug-drug interaction, which may lead to Serious Adverse Events or Adverse Effects," it said.

The use of chyawanprash in the morning with luke warm water/milk is highly recommended.

Immunity promoting AYUSH medicine like mulethi powder, ayush kwath, Samshamani vati and Ashwagandha powder have also been recommended by the health ministry in its protocol.
Renowned actor Prakash Raj took to his Twitter handle to poke fun at Kangana Ranaut for using 'Rani Laxmi Bai' references in her speeches lately. Raj shared a meme on his timeline that said, 'If one film makes Kangana think that she is 'Rani Laxmi Bai' then Deepika Padukone is Padmavati, Hrithik Roshan is Akbar, Aamir Khan is freedom fighter Mangal Pandey, Ajay Devgn is Bhagat Singh, and so on.

Indian Badminton player Jwala Gutta was quick to respond to Prakash Raj's status and wrote, 'True' while many fans came in support of Kangana and wrote, "She played so many roles in her career but she identifies the most with the queen of Jhansi. That is how we see her. She is a fearless warrior like Laxmibai. BTW it's very cheap of a veteran actor like you to mock a young actress by sharing memes. Sorry, you lost many admirers!"

Kangana made her directorial debut with 'Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi', a reference of which she uses on her social media and video messages to fight against nepotism, Bollywood mafia, drug cartel of Bollywood, etc.

Kangana to meet Maharashtra Governor

The war between the actor and the political party escalated after Shiv Sena-led BMC partially demolished Kangana Ranaut's office at Bandra in an unnaturally hurried pace even as the actor was not in Mumbai and was, in fact, on her way to the city.

'Raut begged to Sonia & Pawar to make Uddhav CM,' says Athawale; reveals Kangana's words

Kangana is also scheduled to meet Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari at 4.30 PM on Sunday to discuss the escalated situation before she leaves Mumbai on September 14. The Governor had previously taken exception to the BMC's action and summoned CM Thackeray's principal advisor in order to send a report to the Centre.

Shiv Sena on Sunday in its mouthpiece Saamana has once again justified BMC's action on Kangana's office and said that it is shameful of BJP to support 'the actor' who compared Mumbai to 'Pakistan.' Sena's reiteration comes even after the Bombay High Court criticised the BMC's action.

Karni Sena bosses visit Kangana Ranaut before her meet with Governor amid war with Uddhav
In this Tuesday, Sept 8, 2020 file photo, ultra-Orthodox Jews keep social distancing and wear face masks during a morning prayer next to their houses as synagogues are limited to twenty people following the government's measures to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, in Bnei Brak, Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced a national furor over his handling of the coronavirus, but that anger is boiling over among the ultra-Orthodox, or Haredim, who have used their political muscle to fend off what they see as discriminatory restrictions. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday announced a new countrywide lockdown will be imposed amid a stubborn surge in coronavirus cases, with schools and parts of the economy expected to shut down in a bid to bring down infection rates.

Beginning Friday, the start of the Jewish High Holiday season, schools, restaurants, malls and hotels will shut down, among other businesses, and Israelis will face restrictions on movement and on gatherings.

"Our goal is to stop the increase (in cases) and lower morbidity," Netanyahu said in a nationally broadcast statement. "I know that these steps come at a difficult price for all of us. This is not the holiday we are used to."

The tightening of measures marks the second time Israel is being plunged into a lockdown, after a lengthy shutdown in the spring. That lockdown is credited with having brought down what were much lower infection numbers, but it wreaked havoc on the country's economy, sending unemployment skyrocketing.

The lockdown will remain in place for at least three weeks, at which point officials may relax measures if numbers are seen declining. Israelis typically hold large family gatherings and pack synagogues during the important fast of Yom Kippur later this month, settings that officials feared could trigger new outbreaks.

An Israeli protester holds a sign after chaining himself during a demonstration against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside the Prime Minister's residence in Jerusalem, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020. Hebrew reads: "Full closure" (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

A sticking point in government deliberations over the lockdown was what prayers would look like during the holidays. While the details on prayer during the lockdown were not nailed down in the government decision, what were expected to be strict limits on the faithful. That prompted Israeli Housing Minister Yaakov Litzman, who represents ultra-Orthodox Jews, to resign from the government earlier Sunday.

Israel has had more than 150,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and more than 1,100 deaths. Given its population of 9 million, the country now has one of the world's worst outbreaks. It is now seeing more than 4,000 daily cases of the virus.

Israel earned praise for its initial handling of the coronavirus outbreak, moving quickly to seal the country's borders and appearing to bring infections under control. It has since been criticized for opening businesses and schools too quickly and allowing the virus to spread unchecked.

In this July 16, 2020 file photo, ultra-Orthodox Jewish men pray in divided sections which allow a maximum of twenty worshipers in line with government measures to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, in Jerusalem's Old City. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced a national furor over his handling of the coronavirus, but that anger is boiling over among the ultra-Orthodox, or Haredim, who have used their political muscle to fend off what they see as discriminatory restrictions. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)

Much of that criticism has been aimed at Netanyahu, who has faced a public outcry over his handling of the crisis and has seen thousands of protesters descend on his Jerusalem residence every week. While lauded for his decisive response following the spring outbreak, Netanyahu appeared distracted by politics and personal matters, including his trial for corruption allegations, as infections rose over the summer.

Netanyahu has also been lambasted for seeming to cave to pressure from various interest groups, including most recently his ultra-Orthodox governing partners, who appeared to have convinced him to relax a pinpointed, city-based lockdown plan that would have mostly affected ultra-Orthodox and Arab communities.

At the press conference Sunday announcing the lockdown, Netanyahu defended his response, saying Israel's economy had emerged from the first lockdown in a better state than many other developed nations and that while cases were high, the country's coronavirus mortality numbers were lower than other countries with similar outbreaks.

In this Feb. 23, 2020 file photo, Israeli Health Minister Yaakov Litzman arrives for a situation assessment meeting regarding the Coronavirus, in Tel Aviv, Israel. Housing Minister Yaakov Litzman, who served as health minister during the initial outbreak of the virus, resigned Sunday, Sept 13, 2020, in protest over the government's plan to impose a nationwide lockdown this week ahead of the Jewish New Year due to rising coronavirus cases. (Jack Guez/Pool via AP, File)

The country's power-sharing government, made up of two rival parties who joined forces in a stated aim to combat the virus, has also been chided for the new outbreak. The government has been accused of mismanagement, failing to properly address both the health and economic crises wrought by the virus and leading the country to its second lockdown.

Some government ministers meanwhile have pointed fingers at what they've called an undisciplined public, who they have accused of violating restrictions against public gatherings and mask wearing.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

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Interior Design area of the Restoration Hardware store in the Meatpacking District of New York. Source: RH

How can you pinpoint compelling investing opportunities in the current environment? Stocks tumbled for the week in a tech-led selloff after reaching record highs. However, even after the pullback, the S&P 500 has still surged almost 15% on a one-year basis. That means there's still room to fall. Indeed as IHT Wealth Management's Yussef Gheriani told CNBC's Trading Nation recently: "There's just a lot of uncertainty out there both between Covid, the stimulus packages, the election itself and there's also still significant trade uncertainty between us and China." In short, it's best to pick your stocks wisely in case further volatility lies ahead. One way to go about this is to follow the latest stock recommendations from analysts with a proven track record of success. TipRanks analyst forecasting service attempts to pinpoint Wall Street's best-performing analysts. These are the analysts with the highest success rate and average return measured on a one-year basis  factoring in the number of ratings made by each analyst. Here are the best-performing analysts' six favorite stocks right now:

Facebook

RBC Capital's Mark Mahaney believes the market may be underappreciating the level of product development at FB. He has just carried out a deep-dive into three of Facebook's most interesting product initiatives. For instance, Facebook Marketplace has over 1B monthly active users (MAUs), making it larger than Alibaba, and ~2x eBay & ~12x Craigslist. He sees Marketplace generating up to $2.8B in '24 Revenue, based on a 'light' 5% Take Rate on $54B of GMV (gross merchandise value). As for Facebook Shops, Mahaney is now anticipating $4.9-8.0B in incremental 2025 Revenue driven by more 'transactionable' ad units. "We believe FB still needs to get much closer to a "One Click" shopping experience, but we view Social Commerce as one of the most powerful trends on the Internet today and FB as arguably the best way to play it" the analyst wrote. And with Instagram Reels representing a 'reasonably competitive' answer to the incredibly popular TikTok, the analyst now has even "greater conviction in our above-Street '21 ests. (6% Revenue & 13% EPS)." The five-star analyst reiterated a FB buy rating and $320 stock price forecast on September 9.

RH

Five-star Wells Fargo analyst Zachary Fadem reiterated his bullish call on RH after the Restoration Hardware parent reported a stellar earnings beat. RH has successfully transformed itself from a sleepy mall-based retailer to an innovative, multi-channel luxury brand says Fadem, with experience-focused design galleries, a member-based revenue model and emerging hospitality offering. "Despite elevated expectations, RH's Q2 update impressed across the board with sharp demand improvement, a 29% EBIT beat and a surprisingly bullish 2H outlook comprised of ~18% sales growth and ~22% EBIT margins" the analyst exclaimed on September 9. Post-print, he boosted his stock price forecast from $365 to $400- noting that 20% EBIT margins in FY20 exceeded even the most bullish of buyside expectations. Even with considerable coronavirus-challenges (re-opening, supply chain constraints, restaurant closings, etc.), Fadem believes the power of RH's model shined through in Q2. And looking forward he sees continued momentum from robust home reinvestment and strong second home demand. Ultimately Fadem believes that the RH story continues to impress, writing "RH's potential remains early innings, with upside to consensus estimates." A Top 30 analyst, Fadem boasts a 79% success rate and 28.8% average return per rating.

Activision Blizzard

This week gaming giant Activision Blizzard scored the thumbs up from top Needham analyst Laura Martin. "We believe that COVID-19 lock-downs have accelerated several media trends, and ATVI is among the biggest beneficiaries" she cheered on September 9. For example, Activision's installed base of players grew by 30% y/y and play times rose 70% y/y in 2Q20. That's down to hit content titles (ie, Call of Duty play times rose 8x y/y in 2Q20) and superior execution coupled with more hours spent at home by ATVI's core demographic. As a result, Martin reiterated her buy rating on the stock and $102 stock price forecast. She also boosted her FY20 Non-GAAP revenue forecast 2% to $7.76B (up 22% y/y), and Non-GAAP EPS estimates 5% to $3.21 (up 43% y/y). Crucially, Martin is confident that post-pandemic engagement levels will remain elevated compared to January 2020 (ie, pre-coronavirus) levels. "Structurally, video game upside is being driven by mobile games (which attracts new gamers), genre expansion (50% of ATVI's users are now women), and esports which drives higher engagement and spending from existing players" she explained. Thanks to a strong 19.9% average return per rating, Martin is ranked as a Top 100 analyst on TipRanks.

Uber

At an investor conference this week Uber CFO Nelson Chai updated the Street on gross booking trends for August, indicating gross booking volumes were down less than -10% y/y in the month, from -12% in July and -36% y/y in 2Q. Mobility/ ridehailing trends are tracking generally in line with Street estimates, while food delivery demand remained robust and is tracking ahead of forecasts, five-star Stifel Nicolaus analyst Scott Devitt. Devitt reiterated his Uber buy rating on September 8 and bumped up his price target from $40 to $41. His 3Q total gross booking estimate is now -12% from -16% y/y previously. He continues to believe Uber is addressing significant transportation and food delivery market opportunities globally, and highlights Uber's growth opportunity, scale, and market-leadership in most regions, with an opportunity to consolidate some international markets. "For a longer-term horizon, we continue to recommend Uber shares as a recovery-scenario investment idea with a stay-at-home floor in food delivery" Devitt told investors, adding "Over an 18 to 24 month period we see a 50%+ return potential in shares." With a 71% success rate and 26.5% average return per rating, Devitt is currently one of the Top 20 analysts tracked by TipRanks.

Lovesac

US furniture retailer Lovesac, which specializes in a patented modular furniture system called Sactionals, has just reported Q2 results showing strong underlying momentum. Oppenheimer's Brian Nagel came away from his initial review of Lovesac's results and management commentary upbeat and with incremental conviction in his positive call on the shares. "In our view that LOVE is set to emerge from COVID-19 headwinds an even stronger, better positioned, up and coming brand" Nagel commented on September 9. He has a buy rating on LOVE with a $30 stock price forecast. In Q2, adjusted EBITDA expanded to $2.2M from a loss of $3.3M last year. LOVE easily topped a Street forecast for a loss of $4.4M, upon total company sales growth of 29%, including an increase in internet revenue of nearly 390%. "We view LOVE as representing one of the most exciting up-and-coming brands and operators to emerge in the consumer sector in a long while" applauded the analyst. He believes the company's unique and patent-protected Sactionals and sacs are positioned well to continue to capture market share within a 'large, fragmented, and somewhat tired' home furnishings sector. A Top 20 analyst, Nagel is currently tracking a 76% success rate and 23.5% average return per rating.

Global Blood Therapeutics
Digital health services, which surged during the COVID-19 outbreak as a placeholder to help patients while doctors offices were shuttered and prevented health systems from being overwhelmed, have long been seen as critical in addressing shortages in rural health services.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, virtual health got scarce attention or appreciation. Yet as the world continues to battle the virus  and digital health enjoys its best year as a sector, with companies scaling to meet spiking demand  a debate is emerging over whether the trend is sustainable.

Mega-deals like Teladocs (TDOC) $18.5 billion acquisition of Livongo have punctuated a trend of major money flowing into the sector. According to a report from Silicon Valley Bank and EY, health tech deals increased by 18% in the first half of 2020, compared to 2019. And the trend isnt slowing down, with American Well recently going public, and MDLive reportedly pursuing the same for early 2021.

Still, big questions remain about whether telehealth and other digital platforms are here to stay. As life slowly returns to normal, its possible that in-person visits may stage a comeback.

At least a few big employers seem to think the trend is permanent, according to an annual survey by Business Group on Health (BGH). A whopping 80% of those surveyed believe virtual health will play a significant role in how care is delivered in the future  a sharp increase from 64% last year and 52% in 2018. And over half (52%) expect more virtual care options next year, including for mental health, according to the survey.

Virtual care is here to stay. While employers have been implementing more virtual solutions in recent years, the pandemic caused the pace to accelerate at an astronomical rate. And virtual care is now garnering growing interest and receptivity from both employees and providers who increasingly see its benefit, said Ellen Kelsay,president and CEO of BGH.

Keeping the money spigot open

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Confirmed coronavirus cases. (David Foster/Yahoo Finance)

But some in the industry itself arent so sure. The Kaiser Family Foundation, which has been tracking the telemedicine trend, has observed that many regulatory and practice changes to utilization and reimbursement are temporary. With hopes riding high on a vaccine that could reset public life next year, the gradual lifting of social distancing restrictions may make the boom untenable, the study suggested.

Overall, it is unclear whether we will continue to see high rates of telehealth utilization once the pandemic is over, the Kaiser studys authors wrote.

Many of the policies enacted for private insurance plans have sunset dates, though several have extended the policies, some through the end of 2020 or until the public emergency is over, it added.

Teladoc CEO Jason Gorevic recently told Yahoo Finance he believes better reimbursement is likely to continue, and demand for the technology has become mainstream.

I think all signs indicate that reimbursement is here to stay, and specific to government-based Medicare reimbursement, he said. Were seeing the COVID relief package with waivers through the end of 2021.

However, Dr. Stephen Klasko, CEO of Jefferson Health, believes there isnt enough momentum to sustain the telehealth wave  at least not without significant changes to reimbursements.

Insurers are currently willing to pay $1,500 in for emergency visits and $49 for telehealth, Klasko said, highlighting the misalignment of incentives for payors and providers.

Its why when offices had to close in areas where the virus transmission spiked, doctors faced a sudden erosion of their annual revenues  with reports of at least a 40% drop in visit volumes.

Though insurers and the government increased reimbursement to match, or come close to, in-person visits, the lower volume of patients impacted doctors bottom lines  especially those who were not prepared to immediately jump into virtual visits and remote monitoring of their patients.

And Klasko believes there will be an immediate return to in-person visits when the pandemic is over a trend already occurring as the gradual end of restrictions in many areas allow offices to reopen. Though not at the rate most experts would like, since preventative care is being ignored.

On January 1, prior to the pandemic hitting the U.S., Aetna (CVS) changed reimbursement in all 50 states to reflect equivalent pay for in-person or virtual visits. The caveat was that providers in-network would benefit, while out-of-network doctors would see a different reimbursement rate.

If other insurers follow Aetnas lead, that creates another layer of concern about whether virtual visits will add to the overall spend in health care through redundant visits, or whether it will help avoid costly emergency visits.

Many health experts believe focusing on value-based care  where doctors are paid to care for a patient overall, rather than per visit or service rendered  is the key to avoiding that problem.

Insurers have long pushed the idea of value-based reimbursements because it ensures more control over expenses, rather than having to review and approve or deny each claim, item by item. Humana (HUM) also backs the idea in principle.

The beauty of this model is that it makes how you're accessing health services whether in person or through telehealth  irrelevant because payment is not based on the volume or the service but instead on the overall health outcomes, spokesperson Kate Marx recently told Yahoo Finance.

Dr Greg Gulbransen takes part in a telemedicine call with a patient while maintaining visits with both his regular patients and those confirmed to have the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at his pediatric practice in Oyster Bay, New York, U.S., April 13, 2020. Picture taken April 13, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

How doctors see it

Dr. Wyatt Decker, CEO of OptumHealth, the provider arm of United Health Group (UNH), believes the landscape will be forever...changed by outcome-based payments, which he believes will make provides and patients more comfortable.

And while telehealth usage has waned compared to the sudden spike over late spring and early summer when the pandemic surged throughout the U.S., Decker told Yahoo Finance there is room to keep the momentum going.

As we get more scientific data around the value virtual care provides, that should guide the level of reimbursement, Decker said.

However, virtual health may be at a crossroads, according to Aledade chief administrative officer Sean Cavanaugh, warning that the industry should not become another piston in the fee-for-service engine.

The former deputy administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) told Yahoo Finance that an area where telehealth can be beneficial in a post-pandemic world is transition care. When a patient is discharged from a hospital, they can be monitored remotely instead of in person.

SIOUX FALLS, SD- OCTOBER 17: Hannah Schulte, RN has a quiet moment after a patient had passed away on October 17, 2019. As hospitals and physicians continue to disappear from rural America there is an attempt to fill the void: a telemedicine center run by Avera Health that provides remote emergency care for more than 175 understaffed hospitals across thirty states. (Photo by Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Different trends for different technologies

Meanwhile, technology is helping the industry adapt to changes in demand. The need to monitor chronic or vulnerable patients from a distance provides a perfect use case for remote monitoring, communication and wearable devices. For instance K Health, a service co-branded by insurer Anthem (ANTM), allows unlimited chat messages with a primary care doctor.

It has also increased sales for traditional medical device companies like Abbott, and interest in smaller players like Current Health and Tomorrow Health, which are focused on remote monitoring devices.

Abbott saw interest spike in its remote glucose monitoring devices at hospitals to allow diabetic patients to be monitored without excess interactions with nurses. Similarly, devices like heart rate monitors, blood pressure cuffs and weighing scales are also picking up.

Separately, mental health providers like Hazel Health  which recently got backing from Centene (CNC)  has seen a spike in usage as well. Meanwhile, as the focus on diversity grows, so too do companies like Hoy Health, which has focused on multi-lingual patients. Both provide services to the uninsured populations, with varying levels of out-of-pocket costs.

How usage trends behave for the remainder of the year, and into next year, will determine how overall health spend in the U.S. is impacted. Kaisers analysis found that telemedicine could impact other areas of health spending and outcomes.

On one hand, if providers are reimbursed at lower rates, telehealth could offer savings. On the other hand, there may be concerns that these services could be additive (increasing health utilization overall) rather than just replacing in-person visits, the study said.

Another important question for researchers and policymakers to continue monitoring is whether telehealth services are providing care that can truly replace in-person visits, it added.

Yet its clear that digital health has at least something to offer, even if demand tapers off.

Im bullish because people are coming to us, payors, vendors, doctors that tells you the supply side is looking. They think theres a business there. The demand side we experienced through [COVID-19], Privia Health CEO Shawn Morris told Yahoo Finance.

More from Anjalee:

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By PTI

MAHRAJGANJ: A Nepalese national was arrested from Indo-Nepal border in Maharjganj district of Uttar Pradesh after he was found in possession of 6.1 kg charas with a market value of Rs 2.17 crore, police said on Sunday.

The arrest was made in Shyamkot area of border town Sonauli on Sunday morning, said Sonauli police station in-charge Ashutosh Singh.

Accused Som Bahadur Nepali was on his way to Delhi from Nepal when he was arrested during a routine checking of the bus, he said.

Police have decided to take help of their Nepalese counterpart to trace his links with other smugglers in Nepal and India, Singh added.

He has been booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, he added.
Benghazi:

A fighter jet from Marshal Khalifa Haftars forces was shot down over Libyas Benghazi on Sunday as it carried out raids on jihadist positions, a military source said.

The MiG-23 went down after being targeted by extremist militias, said a commanding officer with Haftars forces.

The pilot ejected himself and survived unharmed, he said.

A source at the Benghazi airbase told the LANA news agency loyal to the parliament in Libyas east backed by Haftar that a heat-seeking missile had hit the plane.

Haftar has managed to retake a large part of the eastern coastal city of Benghazi from jihadists since it came under their control in 2014.

But violent clashes have been ongoing for several weeks between his forces and jihadists surrounded in their last bastions, especially in the area of Qanfuda southwest of the city.

These jihadist groups include the Revolutionary Shura Council of Benghazi, an alliance of Islamist militias that includes the Al-Qaeda-linked Ansar Al-Sharia.

Benghazi was the cradle of the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

Libya has since fallen into chaos, with a UN-backed unity government failing to assert its authority over the country.

The parliament based in the eastern city of Tobruk has refused to recognise the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord.

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The PlayStation 5s price and release date could finally be revealed in the coming days.

Sony will hold a final showcase event on 16 September, where it will show off new updates, it has announced.

It did not say that the event would necessarily include details on the console itself. But with no other updates yet to come, and Microsoft having revealed just about everything about its Xbox Series X and S, it will be remarkable if Sony continues to stay quiet on the details of its console.

All Sony said about the event is that it will weigh in at around 40 minutes, and feature updates on the latest titles from Worldwide Studios and our world-class development partners.

It will be streamed live on Twitch and YouTube on Wednesday, beginning at 1pm pacific time or 9pm in the UK.

Sony indicated that this would be the last of these showcase events before the console launches. It only said  as it has throughout  that the release date would be this holiday.

But if it is the case then it will have no further opportunities to publicly reveal a price or release date for its console, after having waited for Microsoft to go first and finally unveil its new Xboxes.

Numerous rumours have suggested that both companies were waiting for the other to blink first and reveal details of their pricing, amid uncertainty about how much this generation of consoles should cost.

Microsoft said that its Xbox Series X will cost $499, and that it will also release a smaller, less powerful Xbox Series S for $299. Both consoles will be available on 10 November.

That has left PlayStation fans pleading with Sony for more information about the upcoming console.

Sony has revealed no details about pricing, and only its vague holiday release date. Despite that, the PS5 pre-order process has already begun, with Sony opening up the process only to specific and selected people.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 11:18:48|Editor: huaxia

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SANTIAGO, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Dream, a new book presented by Chilean economist Osvaldo Rosales and virtually launched Thursday, focuses on China's economic and cultural history, providing an in-depth understanding while seeking to demolish some stereotypes about the nation.

The work, which examines "how China sees itself and how we Westerners make mistakes when interpreting it"-- according to the author -- is being co-published by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

"China made a triple transition in the most populous economy on the planet. From a closed economy to an open one, from a planned one to a market one, and from a rural society to an urban society," said Rosales, former director of ECLAC's International Trade and Integration Division.

In his book, Rosales, a specialist in international relations as well as in Chinese culture and politics, urges readers to understand the "Chinese dream," which guides the political and economic decisions of the nation.

This work "emphasizes the need to achieve a more balanced, more inclusive development, more respectful of the environment," said ECLAC's Executive Secretary Alicia Barcena during the virtual meeting.

Constanza Jorquera, an academic at the School of Political Science at the Diego Portales University in Chile, described the work as "a Latin American vision regarding how to conceive of China and relate to it," noting that Latin America must reevaluate how it views the country.

Those who attended the launch agreed that the author's work presents a refined diagnosis of the Chinese experience, with a vast historical perspective that culminates in a substantive contribution to knowledge.

Jointly organized by the Permanent Forum of Foreign Policy, the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, the Institute of International Studies at the University of Chile, and the ECLAC, the launch attracted hundreds of online guests.

The book was previously presented in Argentina and Uruguay in March. Enditem
Congress should act now to create a commission that can resolve vote-count disputes. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

President Trumps claim that only a rigged election will yield a Democratic victory poses the risk of a constitutional crisis far beyond anything Americans witnessed in Bush vs. Gore, when the Supreme Court precipitously intervened to award the 2000 election to George W. Bush. Two decades later, the best way to confront the looming crisis is to enlist the Supreme Court in a very different fashion  by creating a special commission, headed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., to oversee the disposition of any disputed state election results.

To understand why such a commission is needed, begin with the Founders elaborate rules for verifying and officially determining who will be president and vice president.

After a presidential election, when Congress reconvenes early in January, the nations 435 representatives and 100 senators are required to meet in the House chamber in a special joint session. The Constitution designates the sitting vice president to preside over the proceedings  in 2021, Mike Pence will be in the chair.

The process is rarely dramatic. The Constitution instructs the vice president to open all the certificates  the reports of the electoral college vote counts  submitted by the states. Beginning with Alabama and ending with Wyoming, each result is announced and the joint session is asked to approve it (the House members vote on the presidential certificates; the Senate votes on the vice presidential counts).

However, there is an exception to the general rule. Precedents established by Thomas Jefferson in 1800 would permit Pence to invalidate a particular states electoral returns on the grounds that the underlying vote-count was generated in an illegitimate fashion  that it was rigged.

Pence could refuse to allow the House or Senate to consider a state certificate that he found fraudulent and eliminate its electoral votes from the overall tally. That would reduce the number of electoral college votes required for a majority. If Pence used his prerogative in a partisan manner  for example, invalidating close results that favor Biden, but accepting those that favor Trump  he could mathematically upend the overall election.

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If that seemed likely to happen, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could play some legal and political hardball of her own. She could refuse to hand over the gavel to the vice president when Pence arrived in the House chamber to call the special January joint session into existence. That would make it impossible for Biden or Trump to claim the authority to be sworn in as president, and according to the Presidential Succession Act of 1947  spearheaded by President Truman  it is the speaker who is third in line if neither the president nor the vice president can serve. Pelosi could forestall a handoff of the presidency to Trump by becoming acting president herself.

Either of these courses of action  Pence interfering with the election results, Pelosi refusing to allow Pence to call the joint session  would provoke political chaos, street demonstrations and even violence as the nation approached noon on the 20th day of January  the moment when the Constitution explicitly states that term of the current President and Vice-President shall end.

Given this grim prospect, the vice president and the speaker should publicly pledge that they will not engage in such partisan warfare. But Congress would be wise to act now to prevent the passions of January from spinning out of control.

The disputed presidential election of 1876 serves as a crucial precedent. It pitted Democrat Samuel Tilden against Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and involved contested election returns from several southern states. Rather than relying on the usual joint session, Congress delegated the job of resolving the controversies to a special commission  five Supreme Court justices, five senators and five House members. Tilden, a statesman, accepted their decision (with the justices playing the decisive role) to grant the presidency to Hayes.

For the 2020 election. Congress should immediately create a commission similar to the Tilden-Hayes panel. In this case, the right makeup would be five Supreme Court justices  two liberals and two conservatives, with Roberts as chairman. If the commission began monitoring the electoral process now, it could make fact-sensitive judgments on the accuracy of state vote counts come January. Pelosi and Pence should make clear their intention to abide by the decisions reached by the commission.

During the last few months, the Roberts court has frequently demonstrated a capacity to transcend the partisan divide and issue opinions that gained the broad support of a strong majority of justices. There is good reason to believe that a Roberts-led commission, backed by career professionals in the Department of Justice, would act with the same sense of responsibility in resolving a contested election.

Given the 2020 elections high stakes, the probable increase in mail-in balloting amid the coronavirus pandemic, and the presidents claims about rigged results, the creation of a Roberts commission is the best way to assure that the United States can avoid electoral chaos that could be devastating to our democracy.

Bruce Ackerman, a professor of law and political science at Yale, served as a representative of Al Gore in Florida during the 2000 election crisis. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) is the first vice chair of the Progressive Caucus in Congress.




Victoria's State of Emergency and State of Disaster have been extended for another four weeks as Premier Daniel Andrews announces a further $3billion in grants to support businesses which have been crippled by his lockdown.

The embattled state recorded a further 41 COVID-19 cases on Sunday and seven new fatalities, taking the death toll to 723 for the length of the pandemic.

In spite of the clear trend downwards, Mr Andrews has refused to let up on the draconian measures, which include a nightly curfew and strict gathering restrictions.

Minister for Health Jenny Mikakos said the extension of the State of Emergency, which will now last until at least October 11, was crucial for the implementation of necessary COVID-safe guidelines.

Police officers patrol the Shrine of Remembrance during an anti-lockdown rally on September 12

Mr Andrews (pictured at a press conference on September 11) has extended the State of Emergency and State of Disaster for a month

'The State of Emergency ensures we have all the tools we need to fight this virus  keeping all of us safe,' she said.

Meanwhile Minister for Police and Emergency Services Lisa Neville said it wasn't an easy decision to make.

'Extending a State of Disaster is never a decision we make lightly  and it won't be in place a moment longer than it needs to be,' she said on Sunday.

'We are at a critical point right now. And we have to do everything we can to hold onto the gains we've made, which means giving Victoria Police everything they need to enforce the Chief Health Officer's directions as we keep driving down cases.'

The financial rescue package will inject up to $1.1billion into small and medium sized businesses that are most affected by coronavirus restrictions.

Singage is seen in a window of a closed pub in Melbourne on Thursday, September 10

Food Delivery riders sit in a deserted alley waiting for pickup orders during curfew on September 10. Curfew will be extended until 9pm

A further $251million will be dedicated solely to support bars, restaurants, pubs, clubs and hotels which have been decimated during the two lockdowns.

The Licenced Venue Fund will provide grants of up to $30,000 to venues, while the government has also waived liquor license fees for 2021.

'For our state to recover, we need our businesses to recover too. As we take our first safe and steady steps towards COVID Normal, this support will help make sure we get through this together,' Mr Andrews said.

'We'll continue meeting with and listening to businesses, so we can do everything we can to support them and their workers.'

From Monday, the city of Melbourne will move from the strict Stage Four lockdown into the first step of the roadmap toward reopening.

People wearing face masks exercise in Williamstown in Melbourne. Melburnians wil be able to exercise for two hours each day under new, eased restrictions

A construction worker is seen holding a traffic control sign during COVID-19 lockdown in Melbourne

While modest, the changes will allow for more time outdoors and social interactions.

Mr Andrews said if numbers were kept low the state could open with 'real confidence' and keep them low.

'You can open up and stay open,' he said. 'That is what we want and that is what we will deliver.

'That is what we will deliver in regional Victoria and right across metropolitan Melbourne, not bouncing in and out of lockdowns, but making sure that everything that Victorians have given counts for something and delivers us, as I said, a summer that will be like no other.'

People living alone or single parents will be able to invite one other person into their homes.

Mr Andrews said if numbers were kept low the state could open with 'real confidence' and keep them low. Pictured: A face-mask-clad man crosses a deserted street in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda on September 10

A general view from the entrance of an empty Chintatown on little Bourke Street during curfew on September 10. Playgrounds and outdoor fitness equipment will reopen, and Melbourne's 8pm lockdown has been pushed back to 9pm

What is the difference between a 'State of Emergency' and a 'State of Disaster'? State of Emergency A State of Emergency can be declared when there is a serious risk to public health. It first came into effect in Victoria on March 16 to give Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton wide-ranging powers to enforce new coronavirus restrictions. Professor Sutton had the authority to direct health officials to detain people, force entire suburbs and regions into lockdown or search premises without a warrant if he felt it was necessary to protect the health of the public. The State of Emergency initially allowed the government to enforce social distancing and mandatory quarantine. State of Disaster While the State of Emergency grants powers to Professor Sutton, a State of Disaster grants additional powers to police and enforcement agencies. The State of Disaster came into effect on August 2nd and has faced several one month extensions since then. To declare a State of Disaster, the premier must be concerned that an emergency 'constitutes or is likely to constitute a significant and widespread danger to life or property in Victoria'. A pandemic, plague or epidemic falls into this bracket. The State of Disaster allows the enforcement of curfews and restrictions of movement within a city. Advertisement

Mr Andrews said he would allow 'social bubbles' even when exercising outdoors, which will now be extended to up to two hours per day - which can be split over two sessions.

Playgrounds and outdoor fitness equipment will reopen, and Melbourne's 8pm lockdown has been pushed back to 9pm.

Regional Victoria will also enjoy the loosening of several restrictions after successfully stemming the spread of the virus.

Up to five people from two separate households will be able to gather in public places, while outdoor pools and playgrounds will also open.

Closed businesses line a street in once bustling Melbourne amid draconian lockdown orders

A man is detained by police during an anti-lockdown rally on September 12

Religious services will be able to go ahead with up to five people.

'What we've seen in regional Victoria should give hope to all Victorians. If we all play our part, we can drive numbers down and get through this together,' Mr Andrews said.

'I'm so proud of Victorians for the way we are all working together to beat this virus  it means we can take our first safe and steady steps towards a COVID Normal tonight.'

Victorians living in regional communities have also been given hope that these restrictions could be further lifted in a matter of days.

Police question people attending a protest against lockdown regulations in Melbourne
The Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu has thrown a challenge to chiefs and traditional authorities as custodians of the land, not to trade their hard-won, preserved heritage for politics as the electioneering season heats up.

According to the Asantehene, it was hard time chiefs are dedicated to their heritage and further took their rightful place in the nation-building.

Otumfuo Osei Tutu, who was speaking at the commissioning of the refurbished offices of the National House of Chiefs in Kumasi, said chiefs must not renege on their responsibility of providing wise counsel to politicians to build a stronger nation.

He said it was disheartening that chiefs were gradually being relegated to the background in national discourse despite being major stakeholders.

"Why should the National House of Chiefs be relegated to the background in their duties as pacemakers and yet, Civil Society Organisations will be calling on politicians to allow peace to prevail when the National House of Chiefs exists", he asked.

"Nananom, it is because maybe we are reneging on our duties. As fathers of this nation, chieftaincy has been in existence before politics and that makes you fathers, so why are you not recognized as such?. Some of us go to politicians begging them to do certain things for us instead of them coming to us for advice" Otumfuo lamented.

He advised them to let the politicians rather approach them for advice and direction, saying that, if they continued to go to the politicians for whatever benefits, they would be selling their heritage to them at the expense of their people.

He said the relevance of the chieftaincy institution, in general, would be judged by how chiefs conducted themselves for the benefit of their people and the country as a whole.

Otumfuo Osei Tutu commended the House of Chiefs for the initiative to renovate the office building, which had not seen any renovation for many years.

Mr. Kofi Dzamesi, the Minister for Religious and Chieftaincy Affairs applauded the leadership of the House for elevating the office to a befitting status of the revered chieftaincy institution.

He said the government had released an amount of GHC 3.5 million as a refund for the cost of the renovation of the building and would continue to support the chiefs to effectively play their roles in national development.

The Minister disclosed that an additional GHC 800,000.00 had been released to fund the construction of accommodation for members of the House at Asenua in the Kwabre East Municipality to address the accommodation challenges of Chiefs, whenever, they attended meetings.

Togbe Afede XIV, President of the NHC said though the idea to renovate the building started before he assumed office in 2016, his administration took the decision a step further by mobilising resources from corporate Ghana.

He said apart from the renovation of the office building, they had also digitized their documentations, which he said, had resulted in the quick adjudication of disputes.

GNA
Rick Perry came to Washington looking for a deal, and less than two months into his tenure as energy secretary, he found a hot prospect. It was April 19, 2017, and Perry, the former Texas governor and failed presidential candidate, was sitting in his office on Independence Avenue with two influential Ukrainians. He said, Look, Im a new guy, Im a deal-maker, Im a Texan, recalls one of them, Yuriy Vitrenko, then Ukraines chief energy negotiator. Were ready to do deals, he remembers Perry saying.

The deals they discussed that day became central to Ukraines complex relationship with the Trump administration, a relationship that culminated in December with the House vote to impeach President Donald Trump. Perry was a leading figure in the impeachment inquiry last fall. He was among the officials, known as the three amigos, who ran a shadow foreign policy in Ukraine on Trumps behalf. Their aim, according to the findings of the impeachment inquiry in the House, was to embarrass Trumps main political rival, Joe Biden.

Alongside this political mission, Perry and his staff at the Energy Department worked to advance energy deals that were potentially worth billions of dollars to Perrys friends and political donors, a six-month investigation by reporters from Time, WNYC and ProPublica shows. Two of these deals seemed set to benefit Energy Transfer, the Dallas-based company on whose board Perry served immediately before and after his stint in Washington. The biggest was worth an estimated $20 billion, according to U.S. and Ukrainian energy executives involved in negotiating them.

If this long-discussed deal succeeds, Perry himself could stand to benefit: In March, three months after leaving government, he owned Energy Transfer shares currently worth around $800,000, according to his most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Perry appears to have stayed on the right side of the law in pursuing the Ukraine ventures. Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, or SDNY, questioned at least four people about the deals over the past year, according to five people who are familiar with the conversations and discussed them with our reporting team on the condition of anonymity. As far back as last year, they were already interested in events that had taken place in Ukraine around Rick Perry, including allegations that Perry was trying to get deals for his buddies, says one of the people who spoke to the Manhattan prosecutors. Perry is not a target of their investigation, according to two sources familiar with the probes.

But two ethics experts say Perrys efforts were violations of federal regulations. Administration officials are not allowed to participate in matters directly relating to companies on whose board they have recently served. Other experts say Perry and his aides may have broken a federal rule that prohibits officials from advocating for companies that have not been vetted by the Commerce Department. Even if it skirts the criminal statute, its still unethical, says Richard Painter, the top ethics lawyer in the White House of President George W. Bush, with whom we shared our findings.

Through a spokesman, Perry said he never connected or facilitated discussions between Energy Transfer and Ukraines state energy firm in one of the deals we uncovered. The spokesman declined to comment on the other ventures Perry advanced while in government, including the $20 billion deal, or on the federal probe. In response to written questions for this article, Energy Transfer said, We are not aware of any contact between Secretary Perry and Ukrainian officials on Energy Transfers behalf.

Our investigation shows how the hunt for energy profits in Ukraine mixed money and politics at the highest levels of the Trump administration. Perry, in and out of office, advanced the business interests of his friends and political allies. The Ukrainians, in turn, sought to exploit Perrys agenda to advance their national interests.

Now the success of Perrys deals may depend on the outcome of the November elections, according to Ukrainian officials involved in the negotiations. That means the presidential race will not only set the conduct of American foreign policy. It could also reshape billions of dollars worth of business deals whose fate is closely tied to who is in power.

This account is based on interviews with more than two dozen current and former government officials and energy executives in the U.S. and Ukraine. Our reporting team has pursued leads and sources in Miami, Houston, New York, Kiev and Washington., and reviewed hundreds of pages of legal documents, lobbying records, corporate emails and internal government communications. Many of the details the team uncovered have not previously been reported, and together they reveal another side of the events that set the stage for the impeachment of the U.S. president.

Desperate for help

The Ukrainians were never naive in their overtures to the Trump team. They realized that Trump was a businessman. We studied his psychological profile, says Konstantin Eliseev, who advised Ukraines president on foreign policy when Trump took office in 2017. Their strategy, says Vitrenko, was to lure or to seduce the Trump administration by offering deals to its officials. It was typical for Ukrainian politicians, says the energy negotiator. They thought that if they could, to some extent, corrupt the U.S. government, or get them interested commercially or personally, it would help.

The Ukrainians desperately needed that help. Since 2014, they have been at war with Russia, and their country relies on U.S. support for its very survival. The first offer they dangled in that April 2017 meeting with Perry was indeed seductive: They were looking for a Western partner to take a 49 percent stake in the countrys gas pipeline network.

Its a classic cash cow, says Oleksandr Kharchenko, one of the Ukrainian energy experts involved in trying to sell a stake in the company. Its annual profits, he says, are close to $2 billion.

The Ukrainians apparently got Perrys attention. From the outset, Perrys focus on Ukraine had puzzled his colleagues in government, who say he took a personal interest in the countrys affairs. Those affairs would normally fall under the purview of the State Department, not the Energy Department. But at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, officials felt that Perrys office had taken the lead on Ukraine policy.

Secretary Perrys staff was very aggressive in terms of promoting an agenda and excluding embassy personnel from meetings without giving explanations, David Holmes, a senior embassy official, said in a deposition to Congress during the impeachment inquiry last year.

Some of the voices driving that agenda were not members of the Energy Department but private businessmen, usually from Texas. The most visible was Michael Bleyzer, an old friend and political donor of Perrys. Known for his long mane of silver hair and a passion for scuba diving, Bleyzer was born in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and had immigrated to the U.S. in 1978.

As Bleyzer explained in a series of emails and phone interviews, he shares an interest in photography with Perry, and they have taken trips together to shoot pictures in Colorado and Israel. He considers me to be Mr. Ukraine, says Bleyzer. Whenever he had questions about Ukraine, he would turn to me.

So did the Energy Department. In July 2017, three months after Perrys first Ukraine meeting, his staff invited Bleyzer to discuss Ukraine policy at their office in Washington, according to their internal emails. (The emails were released in February in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from American Oversight, a good governance watchdog.)

Over the following year, Bleyzer became a steady presence at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, often requesting meetings with U.S. Ambassador Marie Masha Yovanovitch. Bleyzer came to the embassy once a month, says a person familiar with the meetings.

The embassy staff were deeply concerned about the dual role Bleyzer appeared to be playing, both as a private businessman in search of oil and gas deals in Ukraine, and as an informal adviser to Perry. We always tried to convince Masha not to take the meeting, says a person familiar with these visits. But she said: I cant. Hes Perrys buddy. (Yovanovitch declined to comment for this article.)

Reliable moneymaker

Bleyzer also had contacts at Energy Transfer, the company where Perry used to be a director. Its CEO, Kelcy Warren, gave $6 million to super PACs behind Perrys 2016 presidential race. In mid-June 2018, Bleyzer organized a trip to Kiev for one of the companys executives. I brought Energy Transfer to Ukraine, Bleyzer says of that trip.

Their interest, he says, had to do with Ukraines gas pipeline network, which the country had opened to foreign investment. It was the same deal the Ukrainians had pitched in Perrys office a year earlier, in April 2017. Bleyzer told me, when he came to visit me, that this [company] was blessed by Perry, says one of the Ukrainian executives he met with. The company was called Energy Transfer. (Bleyzer denies saying this and says he never discussed Energy Transfer with Perry.)

The two sides did not make an obvious match. Energy Transfer has never done a major deal outside of North America. But the investment in Ukraine was enticing. The countrys pipeline system is a reliable moneymaker, says Sergey Makogon, the head of the company that operates it. Russia pays more than $1 billion a year to send its gas through Ukraines pipelines to Europe.

If Energy Transfer invested in that pipeline system, it could get a share of those profits. Vitrenko, who later led the negotiations with Energy Transfer, says they discussed an American investment of as much as $3 billion.

During his time in the Trump administration, Perry had no formal ties to Energy Transfer. He sold his shares in the company after Trump nominated him to his cabinet and stepped down from its board. At his confirmation hearing before the Senate in January 2017, Perry said under oath that he had no conflicts of interest in leading the U.S. Energy Department. But during his tenure, the Energy Department worked to advance a deal between Ukraine and Energy Transfer, according to three Ukrainian negotiators involved.

They support this deal 100 percent, says Kharchenko, one of the Ukrainian negotiators. The Energy Department says it did not encourage or advance these talks. The company says it never got enough information from the Ukrainians to determine the value of a potential investment.

But the pipeline system was hardly the biggest project Ukraine had to offer the Americans. Far more valuable was the prospect of selling American gas in Europe. At the end of 2015, while Perry was serving on the companys board, Energy Transfer received a federal permit to build a gas export terminal in Lake Charles, La. A few months later, the company signed a deal with Shell, the Dutch energy giant, to jointly develop the terminal at an estimated cost of about $11 billion.

This new export venture had left one big question unanswered: Where would Energy Transfer ship its gas? The global market for liquefied natural gas, or LNG, has plenty of suppliers, with shipments pouring out of Qatar, Australia and other major exporters. To make this project succeed, Energy Transfer needed a major buyer for its gas, ideally a buyer that would commit to a long-term supply deal. By 2019, an opportunity like that had emerged in Ukraine.

Freedom gas

Perry wasnt coy about his agenda in Ukraine. When he first visited Kiev in November 2018, he told a gathering of businessmen about a complex way to get American gas to Europe. It would involve shipping the gas to Poland on giant tankers, then stashing it underground in Ukraine before selling it back, westward, into the European Union.

The potential for Ukraine is stunning, Perry told the business roundtable. Soon after, officials at the Energy Department began to coin new terms for American LNG, calling it freedom gas and molecules of freedom as they sought to market it around the world.

Perry ultimately went straight to the top in Ukraine with his energy evangelism  and his favored disciples. In May 2019, Trump sent him to Kyiv to attend the inauguration of Ukraines new president, Volodymyr Zelensky. During a meeting that day, Perry did something his handlers at the U.S. Embassy did not expect, despite their extensive planning for the talks.

Perry handed a piece of paper to Zelensky and urged him to have a look. As he did so, Perry explained that the note contained a list of names of people he trusts, according to Holmes, the U.S. diplomat, who was the official note taker at the event.

Among the names on the list was Bleyzer, Perrys old friend from Houston. The following month, June 2019, Bleyzer finally got the deal he wanted in Ukraine. In an auction of licenses to drill for oil and gas, the choicest license went to Bleyzers company, which got the rights to develop some of Ukraines biggest oil and gas fields over the next 50 years. The deal was first reported by the Associated Press in November. It is potentially worth billions of dollars.

There was another name on Perrys list, and it surprised the Ukrainians: Robert Bensh. A little-known oil and gas executive from Texas, Bensh had known Perry for only a few months by that point. Starting in the early 2000s, Bensh spent over a decade as one of the few American investors in Ukraines oil and gas sector. His contacts in Kievincluded close associates of Ukraines corrupt former President Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted in a revolution in 2014.

After that revolution, Benshs business in Ukraine dried up, and he had returned to Houston. I wanted nothing to do with Ukraine, Bensh told our reporting team in a series of interviews.

The Ukrainians soon understood at least one of the reasons for his return: Bensh was tied to Perrys dream of exporting American gas to Ukraine. Along with a group of investors from Louisiana, Bensh was promoting a company called Louisiana Natural Gas Exports better known among its founders as LNGE. Established in June 2018, the company had no deals or assets to its name. The man listed as its cofounder and director, Marsden Miller, is related to Bensh by marriage.

In 1987, a jury in Louisiana found Miller guilty of corruption; his sentence was later overturned, and the government dropped the case against him after the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the relevant statute in an unrelated case. LNGE owns no gas fields, no pipelines, no tankers and no export terminal. But its executives had connections in Ukraine and at the Energy Department. On July 10, 2019, those connections began to bear fruit.

Turning point

That date marked a turning point in Ukraines relations with the Trump administration.That afternoon in the White House, two officials from Kiev were pressured to open investigations into Trumps political rivals. National Security Adviser John Bolton memorably called the days events a drug deal.

But the Ukrainians had another date with the Trump administration that evening. After the unsettling interaction at the White House, the two had a dinner meeting in a restaurant near the White House with two top Perry aides. Also there: Robert Bensh. As he sat down at the table, Oleksandr Danyliuk, then the national security adviser to Ukraines president, remembers wondering why Bensh would be invited to a private dinner with senior government officials. Smells like trouble, Danyliuk remembers thinking.

The deal Bensh and his partners had in mind was very similar to the one Perry had raised during his first trip to Kiev eight months earlier. To them, at least, it seemed like a win all around. Shipping U.S. gas via Poland to Ukraine and then reselling it in the European Union would make money for LNGE, Bensh explains. It could also make a lot of money for an American company like Energy Transfer that was looking for long-term buyers of gas from its export terminal.

To be able to build their terminals, they have to get orders, says Bensh. And of course the deal would also fit with Perrys agenda of selling American freedom gas to the world.

But from Ukraines point of view, the plan had some critical flaws. One was the cost of transport: shipping American gas to Europe is expensive. And if Ukrainians agreed to buy that gas, they might get stuck paying a premium for many years to come. While prior governments in Kiev had espoused the idea, the new administration there was skeptical. It looks like it would be a big disaster, says Danyliuk, the national security adviser.

In any case, during that dinner near the White House, he was too preoccupied with the days drug deal to talk about any gas deals. Bensh could see it was the wrong time to push.

But Perry continued to promote his vision for American natural gas exports. That same month, July 2019, he was among the U.S. officials urging Trump to hold a phone call with Ukraines new president. The only reason I made the call was because Rick asked me to, the president later told a group of Republican lawmakers, according to a report in Axios that cited three of them. Something about an LNG plant, Trump reportedly added.

When the call took place on July 25, 2019, Trump urged the Ukrainian president to open investigations against the Biden family, famously asking Zelensky to do us a favor. A rough transcript of the call would become Exhibit A of the impeachment inquiry.

The rough transcript makes no mention of Perrys gas agenda, but in the wake of the presidential shakedown, Perry pressed ahead. For much of that summer, his staff had been preparing to sign an international energy agreement during a summit in Warsaw. The aim of the summit, which began at the end of August 2019, was to pave the way for U.S. companies to ship gas to Ukraine via Poland.

LNGE was angling to become one of those U.S. companies, and Perrys team had invited the companys chief executive to attend. The company had even written up a preliminary offer to Naftogaz, Ukraines state energy firm.

Perry and his staff were urging Ukraine to sign it, according to three energy executives close to the ongoing negotiations. They basically said: If you want us as friends, youve got to do this, one of them recalled.

But the Ukrainians had bigger worries at the time. A few days before the summit, Politico had broken the news that the Trump administration had frozen a package of military aid to Ukraine later revealed to be worth $400 million. The Kiev delegation was desperate to get the freeze lifted. The biggest priority for me was the military aid, says Danyliuk.

So he left it to Naftogaz, the state energy company, to consider the offer of a deal with LNGE. We looked them up, says Andrew Favorov, the Naftogaz executive who vetted the potential partner. A Google search led them to the past legal woes of Miller, LNGEs co-founder and director. That was a red flag for the Ukrainians. Moreover, says Favorov, The company has no real assets. So Naftogaz advised its government not to pursue a gas deal with the Louisiana company.

Soon the deal faced another problem. Three weeks after the Warsaw summit, news broke that a whistle-blower had raised the alarm over Trumps pressure campaign in Ukraine, and the White House released the rough transcript of Trumps phone call with Zelensky. Amid all the public attention, the discussions of a U.S.-Ukraine gas deal went quiet, according to energy executives involved on both sides.

New life

With the impeachment investigation gaining steam, and his name emerging as a central player in the Ukraine saga, Perry announced in October that he would resign from the Energy Department at the end of the year.

The deal that Perry and his allies pursued for three years while he was in Washington didnt die when he stepped down and returned to Texas. After Trumps acquittal in the Senate on Feb. 5, Perrys allies inside and outside of government revived the massive U.S. gas-export deal he had been advancing, and pushed forward. In early March, representatives of LNGE met with Perrys successor as energy secretary, Dan Brouillette, a veteran of Louisiana politics.

He told us they were still 100 percent behind the deal, says one of the LNGE representatives who was at that meeting. The Energy Department denies it supported the deal. The meeting with LNGE was purely introductory and informational, says Shaylyn Hynes, a spokesperson for the department.

After that meeting, things in Ukraine began to move fast. On March 11, the Zelensky government issued a decree appointing Bensh to the board of Naftogaz. Two days later, Ukraines deputy energy minister announced that Ukraine had agreed to a major LNG deal with the Americans. The U.S. partner on the deal: Louisiana Natural Gas Exports. The details were not disclosed..

In the U.S., critics pointed out that the Energy Departments apparent support for the deal appears to have violated federal rules that bar U.S. officials from advocating for U.S. companies that have not been vetted by the Commerce Department. LNGE never went through that vetting process, according to its executives.

The vetting process is there to identify conflicts of interest, previous improper dealings, anything that might reflect poorly on the U.S. government as a whole, says Theo LeCompte, who was a deputy chief of staff at the Commerce Department during former President Barack Obamas second term. Brouillettes office confirmed that LNGE had not been vetted and denied that the department had advocated for the company.

On the Ukrainian side, things were even more curious: Ukraine had not invited any competition for the deal. But even with the U.S. Energy Departments apparent blessing, the deal still wasnt a lock. Naftogaz executives were refusing to partner with the Louisiana company. As an alternative partner on the Ukrainian side, Kyivs Energy Ministry proposed an obscure state entity called MGU, which holds the shares of Ukraines gas pipeline system.

But executives at that company also began to raise alarms, most notably the chairman of its supervisory board, Walter Boltz, a stately Austrian brought in to help clean up the notoriously troubled Ukrainian gas industry. Nobody wanted to tell the Americans, OK, this is a silly idea, stop it, says Boltz of the Louisiana deal. You need to keep your friends happy.

By the end of May, the Energy Ministry had fired the skeptic Boltz and announced another preliminary agreement with the Louisiana company. In a 20-page document, known as a memorandum of intent, the two sides spelled out the rough terms of the deal.

Ukraine would agree to take shipments of gas from Louisiana for the next 20 years, according to a copy obtained by our reporting team. The volumes involved were substantial, amounting to 5.5 billion cubic meters per year, more than the annual gas consumption of Slovakia, an EU member that borders Ukraine. Executives at the Louisiana company say they projected the total sales from the deal to be around $20 billion, or roughly $1 billion per year over two decades.

Still, the agreement left one crucial question unanswered: Where was the Louisiana company going to get all that gas? In June, LNGE turned to Energy Transfer. By that point, Perry had reclaimed his seat on the board of Energy Transfer and acquired its stock.

Once the Louisiana executives had their preliminary deal with Ukraine, they went to Energy Transfer in search of a gas terminal, says Miller, the co-founder of LNGE. In a statement, Energy Transfer played down these discussions, saying they amounted to one introductory conference call that did not go any further.

Miller insists they did not talk about a partnership in Ukraine at the time. Other executives at LNGE say it was just one step toward completing the $20 billion deal. First we had to finalize the deal in Ukraine, one of them says. Then we get the gas.

Cold shoulder

At this final stage in the negotiations, the deal ran into major trouble. The Ukrainians began to stall. According to one official involved in Ukraines deliberations, the reason for the delay was in large part political. By then, the COVID-19 pandemic was raging, and Trumps approval ratings had gone into sharp decline amid his chaotic handling of the outbreak. His chances of winning re-election began to look less and less likely.

For the Ukrainians, that changed the political equation behind the deal. If Biden is elected, Id say Bidens (team) would be pretty curious, to say the least, about how the deal with LNGE came together, says the official involved in Ukraines deliberations. In terms of relationships, that would be very damaging, adds the official. Given the latest [poll] numbers, thats simply a stupid thing to do, he says.

Perrys allies found themselves getting the cold shoulder. Six months after the Zelensky government named Bensh to the board of Naftogaz, he has yet to officially take up that post. Bleyzer, Perrys friend from Texas, hasnt fared much better. Soon after he won the licenses to develop oil and gas fields in Ukraine in June 2019, Naftogaz challenged the awarding of those licenses in court.

Ukraines government, which owns 100 percent of Naftogaz, has declined to interfere in the litigation, which has prevented Bleyzers oil and gas projects from getting off the ground.

As for Energy Transfer, during the heat of the impeachment investigation in October 2019, the Ukrainian Parliament decided that selling the countrys gas pipelines wasnt such a great idea, and it voted to ban foreign ownership of those pipelines.

The global collapse in gas prices during the COVID-19 pandemic, meanwhile, hit Energy Transfer hard. Its plans to build an LNG-export terminal in Louisiana took a blow at the end of March 2020, when Shell, its 50-50 partner in the project, decided to pull out, citing adverse market conditions.

Some of the executives in Louisiana are furious over the foot-dragging in Kyiv, and they put the blame on Naftogaz.

In emails obtained by our reporting team, Miller, the director and co-founder of the Louisiana company, lashed out at Naftogaz for telling the government in Kyiv about Millers overturned conviction on corruption charges. This is the guy who went to the U.S. Attorney for the SDNY? Miller wrote indignantly to his colleagues, referring to Andriy Kobolyev, the Naftogaz CEO.

Indeed, the U.S. attorneys office for New Yorks Southern District had contacted Kobolyev in the fall of 2019, and he says he agreed to speak to its investigators. Those investigators have since questioned at least three other people about Perrys efforts to secure gas deals in Ukraine, according to the people familiar with what they told the investigators.

But earlier this year, prosecutors dropped that line of questioning, according to two people familiar with the questions they have posed since April. Noah Bookbinder, a former anti-corruption prosecutor with whom we shared our findings, says U.S. laws make prosecuting conflicts of interest difficult.

Criminal conflicts of interest are not charged all that frequently, because they can be hard to prove, he says. Its got a relatively modest sentence. So often prosecutors will look at that and say, Its a lot of hard work to prove that, and its not the biggest offense. So were not going to take the time to go down that path.

Two years ago, some Democrats called for tighter restrictions on potential conflicts of interest They have pointed to Perrys relationship with Energy Transfer to justify new legislation.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren introduced a bill in 2018, known as the Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act, that would ban corporations from hiring or paying former heads of agencies they have lobbied. In a letter to Perry and Energy Transfer last January, Warren urged Perry to resign from Energy Transfers board. This is exactly the kind of unethical, revolving-door corruption that has made Americans cynical and distrustful of the federal government, Warren wrote.

In a curt reply, the company told Warren it was fully aware of our legal and ethical standards related to Secretary Perry rejoining our board.

Wait for November

So is the $20 billion deal dead? Not necessarily. Should Trump win another term, some Ukrainians assume Perrys deal might come back to life.

Wait three months, and then see what happens, says the official involved in the deliberations in Kiev. This is obvious political stuff. You dont have to be a genius to understand this logic.

But for all the Ukrainian efforts to seduce the Americans, some at least are disappointed with the entire process. They had hoped, on some level, that the U.S. agenda was still driven by a shared set of goals and values, like strengthening alliances and pushing back against the influence of Russia.

But over time, says Vitrenko, the energy negotiator, it became clear that the overarching aims were simpler and, to the Ukrainians, more familiar. It was about making deals, he says. And making money.

Doris Burke, ProPublica, Barbara Maddux, Time, and Katherine Sullivan, WNYC, contributed to this report.
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(Natural News) In societies living under the Rule of Law, sworn Law Enforcement (LE) officers have always been considered fully justified in applying lethal force against violent mobs during arson riots, such as those which have been occurring with regularity in American cities during the terrible summer of 2020. This was the intent and meaning of police officials publicly Reading the Riot Act, announcing over a loudspeaker that a violent mob had been declared to be an unlawful assembly, that is to say, a riot. Rioters who lingered on the street after that final warning could be engaged by LE at any level up to and including the use of deadly force, with no further announcement.

(Article by Matt Bracken republished from AmericanPartisan.org)

This was, in prior more civilized times, a basic understanding of all citizens living under the Rule of Law. This is why a police officers standard-issue pump shotgun was traditionally referred to as a riot gun long before the development of modern less-than-lethal munitions. This is also why arson riots were uncommon and short-lived. Everyone understood the ground rules. There was no right to burn, loot or murder.

Thomas Sowell put it this way: If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism. Note that he did not say the government or the police department. He said YOU.

ABR, my own acronym for the current working coalition of Antifa, BLM and the Revolutionary Communist Party of the U.S., are now routinely using Molotov cocktails (gasoline bombs) and other incendiary/explosive devices as offensive weapons in both an anti-personnel and anti-property (arson) role. As far as the BATFE is concerned, a Molotov cocktail is an illegal explosive device, and so are powerful high-altitude fireworks, when they are deployed at ground level as anti-personnel and anti-property explosive/incendiary grenades.

ABR deliberately uses the anonymity of their black-clad and face-masked mobs to conceal the identity of their individual bomb throwers, in exactly the same way that 19th Century Ku Klux Klan night riders carrying torches on arson missions concealed their identities with white robes and hoods. There is no moral or ethical requirement for either police or ordinary citizens protecting their communities from violent mobs to identify and ferret out the individual bomb throwers, when the rest of the mob is intentionally surrounding them in order to shield them from that identification. Because of the deliberately created synergy of bomb throwers utilizing the anonymity of the mob, the entire ABR mob becomes a legitimate target for police arrest or armed community self-defense.

Furthermore, at this writing in September of 2020, there is no moral or ethical requirement for a law-abiding American citizen to wait for a lit Molotov cocktail or any other incendiary or explosive device to crash through the window of their home or business, while ABR mobs are rampaging through the streets conducting arson attacks. Once the fires begin, morally and ethically, the same Rules for the Use of Force (RUF) should apply that would attach to a lynch mob, or to Ku Klux Klan night riders on their way to burn homes or businesses. Both KKK night riders bearing torches in olden times, and violent mobs of ABR terrorists with Molotov cocktails and other incendiary devices today, can and should be engaged by armed citizens with any necessary level of force required to halt their terroristic depredations.

In numerous recent cases, law enforcement under Leftist political control has repeatedly abdicated its traditional and expected role in breaking up violent riots and preventing arson and other terror attacks. Week by week, the level of ABR violence has been steadily escalating, and its logical to assume that it will only worsen as the hotly-contested presidential election draws near.

So let me be very clear: if Democrat Party governors, mayors and DAs have hamstrung their police for political reasons, and wont allow them to protect the lives and property of their local citizens using all required force, abandoning their primary mission in order to bow to the ABR mob, then it is time for their undefended citizens to apply the clear intent of the Second Amendment. There should be deep regret about the abandonment of the Rule of Law by the Democrat Party political ruling class, but there should be no moral quibbles or hesitation by American citizens concerning the legitimacy of armed community self defense, in the absence of expected law enforcement protection.

Therefore, it is my carefully considered opinion that black-clad and masked ABR mobs, rampaging and terrorizing innocent citizens under the cover of darkness in the style of the KKK of old, may morally and ethically be taken under preemptive fire by armed citizens at any level necessary to drive them out of their peaceful neighborhoods and away from their businesses, before the terrorists can reach their targets and throw their Molotov cocktails and other explosive and incendiary devices.

As an historical note, it should be understood that the National Rifle Association was founded after the last American Civil War by former Union Army officers, (and Republicans at that), in order to empower freed African-American former slaves to defend themselves with firearms against KKK night raids. In the 19th Century, the Democrat Party, then allied with the Klan, (as the Democrats of today are aligned with Antifa and BLM), had favored strict gun control, in the form of narrowly written laws restricting the legal ownership of firearms by free black citizens.

The more things changethe more they stay the same.

A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.

Read more at: AmericanPartisan.org
But many say that at the heart of the outpouring is a deeper frustration with the pace of change.

The last government tried to end the war and it didnt work, said Eliana Garzon, 31, whose brother-in-law, Javier Ordonez, was the man killed by police.

This is a country that is fed up, she went on. His death was the perfect excuse to head to the streets.

The attacks in the countryside are widely considered to be an ugly byproduct of the peace deal. After the accord, thousands of fighters laid down their arms and agreed to testify before a tribunal in exchange for government aid.

But as the FARC pulled out of vast swaths of the country, other groups  some old, some new  moved in.

Now, these groups are fighting over territory in an effort to control not only the countrys longtime scourge  the coca crop used to make cocaine often sent to customers in the United States  but also drug routes, illegal mining and human trafficking. They are also fighting over who can extort from everyday people.

Many of the same communities that suffered during the war between the FARC and the government are caught in the conflict, with criminal groups using killings as a preferred method of terror.

And in the last month the pace of the killings has accelerated, with a massacre taking place on average every two days, according to the human rights group Indepaz, which tracks the killings.
Hanoi, Sep 13 : The 53rd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers' Meeting has concluded, with the ministers reaffirming multilateral cooperation and collective collaboration in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, The announcement was made by Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh said on Saturday, Xinhuaa news agency.

During the meetings, the Ministers continued to affirm their strong determination and commitment to fully and effectively implement the cooperation goals and priorities, Minh said, noting that they agreed to continue their efforts to promptly implement the master plan in the realization of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025.

Meanwhile, the ASEAN countries and their partners also reaffirmed their commitments to support multilateral cooperation while continuing to promote effective cooperation in response to emerging challenges, including the fight against the pandemic and full recovery, he told a press briefing.

Regarding the bloc's response to the ongoing health crisis, the Ministers emphasized the importance of maintaining solidarity, unity, and the overall approach of the ASEAN Community in controlling infection and mitigating the impacts of the pandemic while effectively implementing the region's key initiatives on pandemic response, Minh said.

The bloc agreed to soon establish a centre on public health emergencies and emerging diseases with the support of its partners as well as create and operate the regional reserve of medical supplies for public health emergencies, he said, adding that the ministers welcomed the initial contributions by the member countries and partners to the Covid-19 ASEAN Response Fund.

The Secretary-General of ASEAN Lim Jock Hoi, who attended the briefing virtually, also highlighted efforts of the member countries in response to the pandemic, including the ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework to be submitted to the 37th ASEAN Summit set in November.

The 53rd ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting (AFMM) and related meetings were held from Wednesday to Saturday via video conference under the chairmanship of Vietnam.
New Delhi: India on Sunday breached the tally of 47 lakh COVID-19 cases and the daily cured cases exceeded 70,000, now the Centre is emphasising on the importance of post-COVID care with hospitals setting up telephonic or physical consultation.

In a press release the Union Health Ministry said that an integrated holistic approach is required for the well-being of patients who have recovered enough from COVID for care at home.

Daily practice of Yogasana, Pranayama and Meditation, as much as health permits or as prescribed. Breathing exercises as prescribed by treating physician. Daily morning or evening walk at a comfortable pace as tolerated, said the ministry.

The ministry stated that India continues to report high numbers of recoveries with 78,399 registered recoveries in last 24 hours.

Live TV

The total number of recoveries has touched 37,02,595 taking the recovery rate to 77.88 per cent. Health experts have observed that post-COVID-19 infection, a full recovery can be quite a challenge.

The recovered patients complained of general fatigue and were not able to return to an absolutely normal level of well-being even after a long time since sustaining the infection. The same was seen in the SARS virus which affected Hong Kong and other countries.

"Post-COVID care is coming up across India. Recovered patients with their negative RTPCR test result are suffering from severe to mild weakness, skin rashes, headache, diarrhoea, mild pain in the abdomen which persist for long. Some patients also notice low-grade fever," said Professor and Head of Urology and Renal Transplant Department, Safdarjung hospital Dr Anup Kumar to PTI.

In addition, Dr Kumar stated, "It has been decided that these patients after recovery should daily visit the post-COVID-care clinic and physicians will look after their complaints there. If symptoms are bothersome, an RT-PCR might be conducted again to see if the patient has actually recovered or not. Proper counselling is also crucial."

Notably, it is the heart, lungs, kidneys and brain that are affected the most by this virus any early signs and symptoms like early fatigue, breathlessness, pain in the calf muscles, cramps should be reported to the doctor immediately.
Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, Vice Presidential Candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) says the partys rescue mission is the will of God to save the nation from mismanagement.



We will do the will of God to save this country, she said, adding that an NDC administration will provide the light that will illuminate the path of Ghanaians and the nation.



Addressing the congregation at the Assemblies of God-Ghana at Anaji in Sekondi, at the start of her campaign tour of the Western region, Prof. Opoku-Agyemang, urged Ghanaians to be steadfast in the Lord to grant Ghana quality change in governance.



Prof Opoku-Agyemang, who graced the churchs thanksgiving service as part of their ordination event, urged the religious community to pray for the nation for sustained peace and development, which would be pursued vigorously by the next NDC administration.



Archbishop Prince Hampel, Chairman of Living Faith Theological Seminary, who chaired the thanksgiving service, commended Prof Opoku-Agyemang for her God-fearing and peace-loving attributes and prayed for victory for her and her party in the upcoming election.



Earlier, the running mate arrived in the Western regional capital of Sekondi-Takoradi to a rousing welcome by hundreds of residents of the city who lined the streets to meet her.



They defied a morning downpour, cheered, waved, and chanted change as the Running Mates convoy rolled into the twin-city to begin her four-day tour of the region.



Addressing the crowds from the roof of her vehicle at Shama Junction, Prof. Opoku-Agyemang thanked the people for the welcome and assured them of quality change that would enhance a lot of Ghanaians.

Source: GNA









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Protesters hold slogans against the release of U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton during a rally in Quezon city, Philippines on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. The Philippine president recently pardoned Pemberton in a surprise move that will free him from imprisonment in the 2014 killing of a transgender Filipino woman that sparked anger in the former American colony. Read more

MANILA - A U.S. Marine convicted of killing Filipino transgender woman Jennifer Laude was released on Sunday after being granted a pardon by President Rodrigo Duterte and deported from the country.

Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton, who served little more than half of a 10-year sentence for homicide, flew back to the United States on a military aircraft at 9:14 a.m. The deportation was arranged by the U.S. Embassy, according to the Immigration Bureau.

Pemberton's lawyer Rowena Flores said he "spent much time contemplating the many errors in his ways" and extended his sympathies to the Laude family. "He wishes he had the words to express the depth of his sorrow and regret," she said, adding that the U.S. government paid for the return trip.

Pemberton's pardon and release was met with outrage from Laude's family, human rights advocates, and the LGBTQ community.

Julita Laude, Jennifer's mother, said in a statement that she felt double-crossed as Duterte had verbally promised her family Pemberton would not walk free under his term. She added they had even received financial support from him.

"Ten years in prison is all we are asking ... Ten years!" she said. "It's a short time to pay in jail for the life of my daughter."

The Philippines' Immigration Bureau said Pemberton is officially blacklisted and cannot return to the country.

The 2014 killing of Laude drew widespread attention, particularly on the long-standing alliance between the Philippines and its former colonizer, the United States.

Laude's supporters have also pointed out that Pemberton enjoyed special treatment during his confinement and then with his early release.

While other convicts languished in the country's notoriously overcrowded prisons, Pemberton spent his sentence in a cell in the Philippine military headquarters. The arrangement was made possible by the Visiting Forces Agreement, a bilateral accord that governs procedures involving U.S. military personnel in the Philippines.

Pemberton met Laude at a bar in Olongapo City, north of Manila, in October 2014 after the Marines arrived for joint military exercises. She was later found dead in a motel room, her head over the toilet. Local media reported that Pemberton, then 19, admitted to choking Laude, 26, after discovering she was transgender. He claimed he acted in self-defense, but a police investigation identified his actions as a hate crime. He was charged with murder and convicted of homicide in 2015.

In the past month, Pemberton's camp sought his early release by citing his good conduct in detention - a move that was set to be contested by the Laude family and the Philippine Department of Justice. But in a surprise decision, Duterte granted Pemberton absolute pardon on Monday - superseding any court decision.

Various organizations gathered on Friday to condemn the pardon, with protesters chanting "Justice for Jennifer!" and "Pardon for Pemberton, a betrayal to the nation!" Poster illustrations were set up showing Pemberton and Laude, with her head dunked in a toilet.

"I've had a good cry ... but today is for fighting," said Naomi Fontanos, an activist and executive director of Gender and Development Advocates Filipinas. The nonprofit, led by trans women, is abbreviated to "Ganda," a Filipino word that means "beauty" and is incidentally a nickname of Jennifer's.

Duterte's critics see the pardon as bending to U.S. interests, even as the president himself has harshly criticized the country and its leaders. Duterte, who shifted his foreign policy away from the West and toward China, even said he would terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement - though that plan was suspended in June.

Fontanos slammed Duterte's previous anti-American rhetoric as "all for show" and "a ruse."

"We'll continue our fight. The road will be long, we know it," she said. "I hope this will be a wakeup call for how treacherous this president is."

Duterte's own Cabinet officials and even outgoing U.S. Ambassador Sung Kim were reportedly surprised by the pardon. Foreign Secretary Teddy Locsin Jr. told the local press that the United States did not request it.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, a former lawyer of the Laude family, said on Thursday that the decision was made for a "higher national interest."

But political analyst Aries Arugay said he does not put it past the president - known for his mercurial temper - to have had a "knee-jerk reaction." If the pardon was meant to be strategic, he added, it was "crude and unsophisticated."

Arugay pointed out that some U.S. politicians, particularly those critical of the Philippine government's bloody drug war, would want to distance themselves from cases involving human rights abuse - including the Laude killing and Pemberton's release.

"From the point of view of a supposed foreign policy of a small sovereign nation, it's a total mess," said Arugay, also noting Duterte's previous admonitions against the United States.

"If Democrats get the White House in November, then our human rights record will be this government's reckoning."

At the Friday rally, the Laude family lawyer Virginia Suarez backed calls for the termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement and other military deals between the Philippines and United States. She said there was another struggle at stake - "not just for human rights, but for our democracy."

As long as there are security agreements - which ironically make us insecure ... there will be more Pembertons and more Jennifers, said Suarez.
If youre really interested in advocacy, the key is talking to people who either dont agree with you or who havent made up their minds. Talking to your fellow travelers on the left or right does nothing to change anyones view. As someone on the left, its essential that I get before audiences of people on the right. Ill never forget going to an anti-death penalty conference in Atlanta where I was a speaker. I agreed with everyone who spoke before me, and everyone in the audience agreed with me. It was affirming but useless. To really change minds, I had to get into conservative churches and schools (which I did). In fact, that need to find the right audience is one reason I write for this newspaper; along with being a part of a community I love, I realize that the readership of the Waco Tribune-Herald largely disagrees with me politically but is willing to consider other views. It is an audience where perhaps I can change some minds rather than just get fist bumps from people who already agree with me.
If you've grown to adulthood with the idea that there are only two sexes, you may have to be re-educated to disabuse yourself of the notion that men are males and women are females. In an era that some refer to as a cultural revolution, all the precepts that formed the building blocks of our education and our innate intelligence are being transmogrified into a bizarre and confusing set of guidelines that astonish and baffle even the most aesthetically sophisticated among us.

I'm referring to a new and insidious form of indoctrination that seeks to force a perverse type of "gender" identification into the minds of those unwilling to sacrifice common sense for irrational dogma. Recently, I read about a philosophy professor who had just returned from a sabbatical at Ohio's Shawnee State University. Dr. Nicholas Meriwether began taking questions from students during his first day back in the classroom. A male student raised his hand and was acknowledged by the professor with the words, "Yes, sir?" After the class ended, the student approached him and explained that he, the student, who considers himself a woman, directed the prof to refer to him with feminine pronouns from that time on.

Taken aback by this sudden assault on his sensibilities, Dr. Meriwether responded the way most rational human beings would: he said, "I'm not sure I can do that." According to the prof, the student began showing signs of agitation, pacing in circles around him, raising his voice, and using profane language toward the man who was refusing to relinquish a lifetime of experience in sex classification in order to satisfy the whims of an abusively aggressive and possibly mentally disturbed young man. After realizing that the professor would not submit to his irrational demands, the impudent tyrant-in-training said he would see to it that the professor lost his job.

During a saner time in our history, such threats would be dismissed as merely the histrionic rantings of a spoiled child. Sadly, we no longer live in such a time. Instead, our institutions of learning have been commandeered by the most radical elements of left-wing ideology, turning them into social engineering laboratories. They believe we need to be retrofitted with a new understanding of the human species. Hence, if a person is equipped with testicles and a penis, that's no reason for you to think he's a male. In addition, if a thick growth of hair sprouts from the face of such a being, you have no right to assume he possesses one X and one Y chromosome. Moreover, if you hear a deep bass tone emanating from the throat of such individual, you are to disregard a lifetime of logic and wait until you're told what it is you're looking at and listening to.

Therefore, if you're approached by a bipedal entity, dressed in jeans and a cardigan, who claims to be a four-legged wildebeest, think twice before contradicting. If I appear to be showing disrespect for these people, it's no worse than what they do when someone disagrees with their foggy interpretations of the human condition.

In Dr. Meriwether's case, a letter of discipline was put in his file, indicating that he had treated the student "differently" by not referring to him as "Miss" and "she." Holy moly, Batman, this is a script only Rod Serling could have written! The fact is the professor didn't treat the student differently; he was treated the same as others. It is the student who wanted to be treated differently from what the rest of humanity gets.

That's because, in left-wing orthodoxy, 99.99% of the population should kowtow to the other 0.01 percent. Otherwise, everyone will be vilified as some sort of "phobe" or "ist" in an attempt to frighten people into shutting down their natural ability to distinguish one sex from another. Imagine how endangered you'd be if you were in NYC and didn't genuflect to Mayor de Blasio's 31 genders mandate. If you made the mistake of confusing a "gender fluid" person with a "gender bender," it might cost you a fine of $250,000. Even Rod Serling wouldn't be creative enough to come up with such a terrifying script.
It took almost 23 years for the British to put in place the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in 1860 after Thomas Macaulay submitted the first draft. Independent India adopted the penal code, steeped in Victorian morality, with all its colonial trappings. The first consolidated code on criminal procedure came in 1852, and it underwent revisions during British Rule. Independent India passed its own Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) first in 1955 and then revised it in 1973. A consolidated Indian Evidence Act also had its origins in a law passed in 1872.

Now, the Union government has embarked on an exercise to review the criminal law codes -- the IPC, CrPC and the Evidence Act  to align them with Constitutional principles and to shed their paternalistic notions. While some changes have been made to the IPC over a period of time and the CrPC was adopted with major changes in the 1970s, it was felt that there is a need for sweeping changes in them to reflect the changing times. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) formed a five-man (yes, all men, all from Northern India) Committee for Reforms in Criminal Laws headed by National Law University-Delhi (NLUD) Vice Chancellor Ranbir Singh in May this year. NLUD Registrar G S Bajpai (Convenor), lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani, former NLU-Jabalpur Vice Chancellor Balraj Chauhan and former judicial officer G P Thareja are the other members.

While the Terms of Reference given to the committee is not available, the panels website highlights that its mandate is to recommend reforms in the criminal laws of the country in a principled, effective and efficient manner, which ensures the safety and security of the individual, the community and the nation; and which prioritises the constitutional values of justice, dignity and the inherent worth of the individual. It identifies among its guiding principles the primacy of the Constitution, fair and time bound investigation and trial, revisit the relationship between State and individual, and to balance the rights of the victims vis-a-vis the accused.

The need for the reform in criminal laws stems from the fact that the existing laws reflect the socio-political beliefs and legal discourse of a bygone era, raising concerns about its contemporary relevance. It is gravely unfortunate that these outdated principles have been replicated even in several subsequent special legislations that have been modelled on these statutes, Singh writes.

While the panel has started online consultations with experts in July, it has come into criticism as a section of jurists, lawyers and academicians, including former Supreme Court Justices Aftab Alam, Madan Lokur, Kurien Joseph and Gopal Gowda, have found fault with the constitution of the panel itself as well as the plan it has formulated. They shot off two letters to Singh in July -- the first signed by 69 people, and the second by 123. Several questions have been raised by the critics, who allege that a mystery shrouds the entire exercise. They say that the Terms of Reference of the panel is not in the public domain and ask whether the panel will prepare its report in consultation with the MHA or it has the mandate to do so independently.

One of the fundamental questions raised by the critics is the absence of women, Dalits and minorities, or even representation from other parts of India, in the panel. They have also questioned the six-month deadline to complete the work at a time the country is in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and public consultations are hampered.

The panel convenor counters that social diversity is not an issue as long as the committee is open to all inputs. Bajpai says, not a single Law Commission or Committee can claim to be completely representative of all social diversity in our society at large. Moreover, no single gender, community, profession, or person can claim ownership as to the issues on which the criticism is being based unfairly. It is highly impetuous to offer critique on the committees substantive work without waiting for a preliminary report to emerge. On the deadline, Bajpai says the MHA is considering extending its term.

The second letter sent to the committee by eminent jurists and others argued that, given this committees wide remit and given that the final product of this committees efforts is set to reconfigure fundamentally the relationship between citizens, and between citizens and the State, it is of utmost importance that the composition of the committee reflects at least some of Indias rich diversity...In the 21st century, how can a committee that is set to rewrite criminal law not have a woman?...Is the Dalit community represented on the committee?...One cannot think of rewriting criminal law without ensuring that the life experiences of the Muslim community are adequately represented

As criticism mounted, the committee also increased the online consultation period for each segment on substantive law, criminal procedure law and law of evidence by two weeks. While two rounds of online consultation of substantive law and criminal procedure law have been completed, the panel expects consultations on law of evidence to be done by October 10.

Besides its regional consultations and open consultations, the panel has so far sought specific responses from experts on 218 issues regarding the IPC, CrPC and Evidence Act. The last round of questionnaires for the Evidence Act is expected to be released this week. The panel has been given a huge task, little time and a team bereft of any diversity on an issue of crucial importance to every citizen of India, especially in the light of how police forces have been behaving lately in different parts of the country. Should we even expect that it will be able to do justice to the job?
School is going great, right? Just another year. Same old same old. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Lets face it: We could use a dose of the usual right now  activities that seem normal, that make us feel normal, or at least more normal.

As we sigh through the school week, lets look to next weekend, when Peddlers Village and Rancocas Woods are making traditional DIY scarecrows. Elsewhere on the calendar, Diggerland  a delight on cooler days  moves to its weekends-only fall schedule, Sister Cities Park gets back to business with a hip-hop performance and class for kids, and the Brandywine invites us all to take a Revolutionary hike.

Hiking Through History

Anytime, free, download at brandywine.org/conservancy/greenway or pick up at the main entrance of the Brandywine River Museum of Art, (all ages)

The Brandywine Conservancy has made hiking (and biking and road-tripping) an historical experience with its new, easy-to-follow map of sites tracing the 1777 Philadelphia Campaign. The map highlights battle-significant farmlands, homes, trails, encampments, and meadows  including the newly acquired Birmingham Hill  in Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Its a way for Revolutionary War fans to nerd out, while the rest of us bliss out to the scenery.

Peddlers Village Scarecrow-Making Workshop

10 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1 p.m., 2:30 p.m., and 4 p.m. Saturday and Sept. 26, $35, reservations required at peddlersvillage.com, (ages 3 and up; kids under 13 must be accompanied by an adult)

Crafting scarecrows at Peddlers Village goes so far back that signing up for the activity on the villages website requires answering how many years youve been doing it, from never to 30-plus. As with everything else this year, the tradition will take place a bit differently: Participants will need to wear masks and keep at safe distances as they check in at the red barn field and get to stuffing hay into pants at tables of six.

DIY Scarecrows at N.J.'s Rancocas Woods and Shops

10 a.m.2 p.m. Saturday, $25, reservation details on the Rancocas Woods Facebook page @rancocaswoodseventsandshops (ages 3 and up)

Mount Laurels Rancocas Woods and Shops hosts its very first scarecrow-making fest. The crafty co-ops ready-to-roll setups include t-shaped wooden frames, burlap bags for heads, and used clothes (or, you can BYO flannel shirts, overalls, straw hats, etc.). You can make scarecrows there or to take supplies home to make a mess all over the kitchen. Meet behind the Hot Dog Shack in the picnic area.

Diggerland

11 a.m.6 p.m. Saturday & Sunday through November, $40, reservations required at diggerlandusa.com (for riders 36 inches and taller)

Heaven for kids whod ogle an active construction site all day if they could, this West Berlin, Camden County, theme park is all about heavy equipment to ride and play around in. Mini excavators let kids dig for treasure, drop duck decoys into water, and knock down pins. Bigger rides take families off-road, into dump trucks, and 130 feet into the air. Theres a new water park, too  the Water Main  while temperatures still allow. Masks and social distancing required throughout. Starting Sept. 26 (through Nov. 14), Diggerland hosts a fall festival with carnival games, ax throwing, pumpkin launching, a corn maze, hayrides, bonfires, and smores.

Hip Hop Fundamentals for Kids

Noon1 p.m. Saturday, free, details at centercityphila.org/parks/events (ages 5 and up)

Its been a minute  six months, actually  since Phillys Hip Hop Fundamentals has given a real, live, in-person performance. Group leader Mark Wong and his mini breakers are revved up and ready to pop, lock, and freeze during their old-school break-dancing demo at Sister Cities Park as part of Parkway Pals. Beginner to advanced dancers all welcome to join in, keeping a six-foot social distance. Masks required for everyone over age 2.
In 1973, Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries brought the U.S. economy to its knees. Now, the cartel created 60 years ago is more likely to do Washington's bidding.

Since Saudi Arabia and other Arab OPEC members imposed their famous oil embargo as retribution for U.S. support for Israel during the Yom Kippur War, shifts in global politics and a surge in America's oil production have tamed the group.

OPEC's most hawkish members, Iran and Venezuela, have been sidelined by U.S. sanctions while its kingpin, Saudi Arabia, has shown it would rather appease Washington than risk losing U.S. support, current and former OPEC officials say.

While OPEC as a bloc resisted U.S. pressure to lower oil prices for decades, notably in 2011 during the uprising against Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, its record over the past three years has largely been one of capitulation, these officials say.

Founded in Baghdad on Sept. 14, 1960 to counter the power of seven U.S. and British oil companies, OPEC has repeatedly yielded to pressure from Washington to pump more oil since U.S. President Donald Trump took office at the start of 2017.

Trump has regularly called for lower gasoline prices to help U.S. consumers.

And when prices got too low for U.S. drilling companies to make money this year, OPEC hashed out a deal to bring them back up slightly, in an agreement spurred on by Washington's threat to reduce its military backing for Riyadh, sources have told Reuters.

"Trump orders from Saudi Arabia what he needs for the oil price - and he is served," Chakib Khelil, who was Algeria's oil minister for a decade and OPEC's president in 2001 and 2008, told Reuters. "So indeed OPEC has changed."

The Saudi Energy Ministry declined to comment.

The White House declined to comment.

Reuters spoke to eight current and former OPEC officials, representing over a third of the group's output, as well as analysts, traders and investors to ask how U.S. sanctions on Iran and Venezuela had affected Saudi Arabia's influence within OPEC, and whether that had changed the dynamic with Washington.

An OPEC official at the group's Vienna headquarters declined to comment, saying Reuters should ask member states. Oil and other government officials in Iran and Venezuela did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

U.S. OUTPUT SOARS

Saudi Arabia has been the leading OPEC producer for decades, giving it the biggest sway over policy, but the sidelining of Iran and Venezuela has only increased its influence.

Iran's share of OPEC output has nearly halved to 7.5% since 2010 while Venezuela's has collapsed to 2.3% from almost 10%, according to Reuters calculations based on OPEC data. Saudi Arabia's share, meanwhile, has risen 7 percentage points to 35%.

Iran and Venezuela, which founded OPEC along with Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, had routinely opposed any moves to bring oil prices down in the face of U.S. pressure.

The increased dominance of Saudi Arabia within OPEC has also come at a time of higher U.S. oil and gas production, which has turned the United States into the world's biggest petroleum producer and slashed its dependence on foreign fuel.

U.S. production more than doubled in a decade to reach over 12 million barrels a day in 2019, according to the Energy Information Administration, as improved drilling technology made previously untapped basins accessible.

OPEC figures show the U.S. share of the global oil market has doubled since 2010, while OPEC's has fallen.

OPEC teamed up with Russia and nine other oil producers in 2016 to form a group known as OPEC+ to boost their collective leverage but a senior Trump administration official said even the new group's influence had waned as U.S. output soared.

'OPEC IS AT IT AGAIN'

Trump has engaged more actively with OPEC than his predecessors, often taking to Twitter to comment on production decisions and oil price moves.

Trump has also developed a close relationship with Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, or "MbS", who relies on the United States for weapons and protection against regional rivals such as Iran.

"There has never been a U.S. administration more involved in international oil policy and OPEC than the Trump presidency," said Gary Ross, founder of Black Gold Investors and an OPEC expert.

In 2018, as oil prices spiked over $70 a barrel, a level Washington viewed as too high for U.S. consumers, Trump fired a barrage of tweets at the cartel.

"Oil prices are too high, OPEC is at it again. Not good!" he tweeted on June 13, 2018, nine days ahead of an OPEC meeting. As OPEC gathered in Austria on June 22, Trump wrote: "Hope OPEC will increase output substantially. Need to keep prices down!"

Later that day, OPEC agreed to raise its output by a million barrels a day.

Two OPEC officials, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue, said a Trump intervention on oil prices effectively nudges the organisation to discuss, or even adjust, its production policy.

And Trump's Twitter feed has become a source of anxiety.

"I hope no tweet will follow," one top OPEC official told Reuters on April 9, 2019 after oil prices hit $71 a barrel, a five-month high at the time.

Oil market watchers including OPEC officials say the irony is that the price rises in 2018 and 2019 were both due mainly to Washington's sanctions on Iran and Venezuela  policies that slashed some 3 million barrels off daily oil production.

GREAT FOR THE INDUSTRY!

Earlier this year, Trump wanted something new from OPEC: a production cut, to help U.S. oil companies make money.

Oil prices had tanked because of a supply glut caused by a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia at the same time as a collapse in demand due to worldwide coronavirus lockdowns.

"Just spoke to my friend MBS (Crown Prince) of Saudi Arabia, who spoke with President Putin of Russia, & I expect & hope that they will be cutting back approximately 10 Million Barrels, and maybe substantially more which, if it happens, will be GREAT for the oil & gas industry!" Trump tweeted on April 2.

On April 12, OPEC+ agreed to a record cut in production equivalent to a 10th of global output.

Reuters reported on April 30 that Trump had presented bin Salman with an ultimatum: cut production or risk a withdrawal of U.S. troops from the kingdom.

Asked about the ultimatum at the time, Trump said: "I didn't have to tell him." He said he had spoken to MbS by phone and they were able to reach a deal on production cuts.

Saudi Arabia's government media office did not respond to a request for comment on the April report.

"In sum, OPEC does not make decisions anymore on what is best for its members economically, as it is supposed to according to its statutes," Algeria's Khelil said.

'GIFT TO TRUMP'

In 2011, when Libyan output was hit by the uprising against Gaddafi, Saudi Arabia tried to convince OPEC to lift production to lower prices. But Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Venezuela all resisted.

"Previously, you had a bloc which could become quite vocal and actually upend meetings," said Samuel Ciszuk, who founded consultancy ELS Analysis and used to work for the Swedish Energy Agency.

"Now, Iran and Venezuela still have votes but they are sidelined and have such desperate economic and marketing situations that other countries are more careful about lining up politically with them," he said.

Iran's former OPEC governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili told Reuters in 2018, when OPEC+ had just raised output following pressure from Trump, that both OPEC and the broader group had begun acting against the interests of their smaller members.

"They gave an oil price gift to Trump while inflicting revenue loss on all OPEC members," he said.

While there is no suggestion OPEC is about to suffer an exodus of smaller members as a result of the shifting dynamic - and there have been new entrants - some countries have left.

Qatar quit in 2019, partly due to a political row with Riyadh. Another small producer, Ecuador, left this year and Indonesia departed in 2016. Both said they did not want to be constrained by OPEC production quotas.

Others that may be unhappy with OPEC's trajectory, however, plan to remain so they can still have a say.

As one source familiar with Iran's oil policy put it: "It's important to be a member of OPEC or OPEC+ so that you can maximize your interests."

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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Hedge funds have been caught out by Royal Mail's share price rally after the company surprised the market with its performance during the pandemic.

Short-sellers were forced to slash bets against the company's share price after the postal service revealed robust parcel deliveries. The shares have also been buoyed by speculation of a break-up.

Royal Mail shares surged 25 per cent on Tuesday when it said it had delivered 177million more parcels in the UK in the five months to the end of August than in the same period last year  a rise of 34 per cent.

Caught out: Short-sellers were forced to slash bets against the company's share price after the postal service revealed robust parcel deliveries

That was driven by a surge in online shopping during lockdown when many British stores were shut. Letter volumes were down as expected with many offices shut.

Royal Mail's rally has squeezed out hedge funds betting against its share price using 'short' contracts  where they borrow shares, sell them, buy them back at a lower price, before returning them to the lender and pocketing a profit.

However, if the share price starts rising they stand to make a loss. And, following the rally, short positions on Royal Mail's shares have dropped from 7.5 per cent of the total number of shares to 4.2 per cent, according to disclosures of major short positions by the Financial Conduct Authority.

US investment giant BlackRock and Swiss hedge fund Pictet Asset Management were among those winding up their short contracts.

But the share price surge will have pleased Daniel Kretinsky, the billionaire known as the 'Czech Sphinx' for his inscrutability.

He has built up a 13 per cent stake in Royal Mail and is now its largest shareholder. Kretinsky has yet to reveal his plans, but analysts believe he may push for Royal Mail to split off GLS, its profitable overseas parcel business.

Royal Mail also hinted it could stop letter deliveries on Saturdays and said it would meet customers and other stakeholders in the coming weeks to discuss plans.

Ofcom is currently reviewing the 'user needs' of Royal Mail. The regulator's report is due to be published in the autumn.
Congress has strongly condemned the threat to several political leaders including Congress party and termed it a cowardly act of frustrated cadres of Pakistan-sponsored terrorists.

Reacting to Hizbuls letter, Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma said that such cowardly acts would not deter the Congress cadres committed to defeating the designs of terrorists and their mentors in Pakistan.

However, Sharma said that the top leadership of the Congress party and party cadres are carrying on the political activities against militants at a great risk to their lives. He said the present dispensation under the command of ruling BJP has either withdrawn or downgraded the security cover of most of the party leaders.

Sharma hoped the security agencies would take due cognizance of the situation and do the needful required in such matters to ensure proper security cover to all those who are vulnerable to terrorist threats.
US president Donald Trump and wife Melania Trump arrive at a 19th anniversary observance of the September 11 terror attacks, at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Friday. Photo: Gene J. Puskar/AP

Pushing for new roads to re-election, Donald Trump is going on the offensive this weekend in Nevada - which hasn't supported a Republican presidential candidate since 2004.

The US president is confronting local authorities by holding public events yesterday and today after state officials blocked his initial plans for rallies in Reno and Las Vegas because they would have violated coronavirus health guidelines.

It's the kind of political fight that Trump's team relishes, and underscores the growing importance of Nevada in his quest for 270 electoral votes as the race against Democrat Joe Biden looks tight in a number of pivotal states.

Trump narrowly lost Nevada in 2016 to Hillary Clinton, and the state has trended further toward the Democrats in the past decade. But Donald Trump's campaign has invested heavily in the state, relying on its ground game to turn out voters. Democrats, by contrast, have largely relied on virtual campaign efforts during the pandemic, save for the casino workers' Culinary Union, which has sent workers door to door.

"The Democrats are scared. They know President Trump has the momentum," said the state GOP chairman Michael McDonald.

Bill Stepien, Trump's campaign manager, told reporters in recent days that he was encouraged by where things stood in Nevada. But there has been a scarcity of public polling in the state. Nationally, polls show Joe Biden maintaining a lead over Donald Trump, though recent polls in many of the battleground states suggest a much tighter race. Both candidates have spent about $4.5m in Nevada.

The Trump team originally planned rallies at airport hangars in Reno and Las Vegas, but those plans were scuttled by state officials due to concerns the campaign would not abide by Covid restrictions. State Republicans blamed Democratic governor Steve Sisolak for trying to hurt the US president's re-election chances. Sisolak has limited in-person gatherings indoors and outdoors to 50 people since May, a recommendation based on White House reopening guidelines.

Instead, President Trump scheduled an event in Minden, about 72km south of Reno, for last night. He plans to host a "Latinos for Trump" roundtable this morning in Las Vegas, followed by an evening rally at a manufacturing facility in neighbouring Henderson.

He then plans to visit California for a close-up view of damage wrought by the largest fires in the state's history

Privately, the Trump campaign welcomed the fight, believing it highlighted a re-election theme: Trump's insistence that the nation has turned the corner on the pandemic, while Democrats, including Joe Biden and governors, are hurting the nation's economy and psyche with stringent restrictions. The pandemic, which has killed more than 190,000 Americans, still claims 1,000 lives a day. "The fact that Donald Trump is even considering holding these unsafe events in the midst of a global pandemic is just the latest example of his poor judgment and complete disregard for Nevadans' public health and safety," said Madison Mundy of the state Democratic Party. Some Democrats fear a possible Trump momentum gain in Nevada, with the US president showing increasing support from Latinos and non-college education white voters, two important constituencies in the state.

The tightening race in a number of the most contested states has led to a renewed effort by Donald Trump to expand his electoral map. The campaign has lavished attention on three Great Lakes states that flipped his way narrowly in 2016. Polls earlier this summer suggested Trump may be in trouble, but a handful in both Pennsylvania and Wisconsin following the nominating conventions showed a close race.

Polling in North Carolina and Florida also shows a competitive race, and there is increasing concern within the Trump campaign about Arizona. Once considered fairly safely in Trump's column, Arizona has been ravaged by the coronavirus and the Trump team has grown worried about a slip in support among the state's older residents.

The US president on Monday planned to return to Arizona, which he has visited multiple times since he resumed travelling during the pandemic. If Arizona slips away, Trump campaign officials privately acknowledge that it would complicate his path to 270 electoral votes. If he loses Arizona, then winning Wisconsin - the most likely Midwest state for Trump to retain - would not be enough even if he keeps Florida and North Carolina. It would require him to win somewhere else, which has led to a renewed focus on Minnesota, New Hampshire and the at-large congressional districts in Nebraska and Maine.

Nevada has become a particular focus, in part because Las Vegas is an appetising location for Trump to raise money. He scheduled at least one high-dollar fundraiser there over the weekend - as well as one in Washington before he flies west - as he looks to assuage growing concerns that he could fall short of cash. Couples were asked for $150,000 for the Las Vegas fundraiser. The Republican National Committee said $18m was expected to be raised over the weekend.

Nevada's financial health is dependent on the national economy doing well as the state draws so much revenue from tourism. When the pandemic hit, Nevada's casinos and all gambling shuttered for about 11 weeks.
Thousands of opposition supporters in Ivory Coast gathered Saturday in the city of Yamoussoukro to support Henri Konan Bedie becoming their candidate for the presidential election.Bedies PDCI-RDA political party celebrated the 86-year-old former president with hopes he will unseat President Alassane Ouattara, who has sparked controversy by standing for a third term.He and Pascal Affi NGuessan of the Ivorian Popular Front Party pose the strongest threat to Ouattara, and have called on the president to withdraw his candidacy.

My main ambition for Ivory Coast is to achieve national reconciliation, announced Bedie, who was president from 1993 to 1999 before being ousted in a coup.Bedie, a former ally of Ouattara, also promised to reform police in the West African nation of 26 million people.

Bedie also promised that he would back the unconditional return of all exiles and the release of all political and military prisoners from the post-election crisis a decade ago that left some 3,000 people dead after then-President Laurent Gbagbo refused to acknowledge his defeat in a run-off.

Ouattara has been in power since 2010 and earlier this year promised not to run again.However, the ruling party nominated him after its previous nominee, Prime Minister Amadou Coulibaly, died in July from a heart attack.Ouattara has argued that because changes were made to the constitution in 2016, the two-term limit does not apply to his previous terms.

His decision has revived political tensions in the West African nation.Presidential candidate of the Republican Union for Democracy Party (URD) Danielle Boni Claverie also spoke at the rally, and accused the opposition of political repression."President Henri Konan Bedie, we are tired, tired of the lies that put us in danger," she said.

(Image Credit: AP)
Kenosha County officials will consider an action plan this week to help the community recover from the riots that followed the Aug. 23 shooting of Jacob Blake by a Kenosha police officer  and to make sure it doesnt happen again.

The draft of a Resolution Addressing the Recent Civil Unrest and Charting a Path Forward, will first be discussed by members of the countys Executive Committee at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Kenosha County Job Center, 8600 Sheridan Road.

It is also on the agenda for the Kenosha County Board of Supervisors at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the same location.

By way of the resolution, officials reaffirm that systemic racism constitutes a crisis that negatively impacts all of the Kenosha community. It acknowledges many people have been injured, both physically and emotionally, and two people were killed during the riots.

It encourages efforts to include voices which have been historically unrepresented or underrepresented on Kenosha County appointed boards, commissions and committees to ensure these bodies are reflective of the Kenosha County community.

Many of the other goals in the resolution are related to helping those in the Downtown and Uptown areas who suffered substantial damage, estimated in the $50 million range, to their businesses, homes and property as a result of the civil unrest.

The Kenosha County Board of Supervisors is resolved to never let this happen again, the resolution reads.

The resolution calls for the County Board to:

Ask that State and Federal Government funds be made immediately available for the rehabilitation of the damaged and destroyed properties.

Call on the State of Wisconsin to guarantee that it will site a new Department of Corrections Probation and Parole office in the same location as the one destroyed during the riots.

Request Kenosha County Emergency Management conduct a full debriefing and make recommendations as to what, if any, steps can and should be taken to prepare for any future similar events.

Seek any available State, Federal or any other funding method of funds to facilitate the acquisition of body cameras.

Work with the State to assist in the rebuilding of the Uptown and Downtown areas.

Encourages all business owners impacted by the civil unrest to rebuild and remain in the Uptown and Downtown areas.

Call on the State and Federal Government to ensure that the costs to repair damage to County property not covered by insurance be covered by State and Federal funds.

It also directs the County Board Chairman, County Executive and other representatives of Kenosha County to meet with Governor Tony Evers, Congressman Bryan Steil, Senator Tammy Baldwin, and Senator Ron Johnson to request State and Federal funding to resolve the financial issues faced by the City and County of Kenosha.

Additionally, on behalf of the people of the City and County of Kenosha, the resolution offers a heartfelt thanks to: members of the National Guard, State Patrol, U.S. Marshalls, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; first responders, firefighters, and law enforcement personnel who responded to Kenosha; and to the countless individuals who volunteered their time, talents, and resources, including the donation of food and supplies, to the cleaning and beautification of the Downtown and Uptown areas in the wake of the civil unrest.

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This is part 1 of Yahoo Finances Illegal Tender podcast about the for-profit prison industry. Listen to the series here.

Mass incarceration in the U.S. grew over decades as more politicians with tough-on-crime stances became elected to office and laws changed surrounding sentencing.

In that environment, the private prison industry became a place to generate a lot of revenue.

A lot of these criminal laws were changed with the political support of individuals who supported the private prison corporation because they saw a business opportunity, Amy Fettig, executive director at The Sentencing Project, told Yahoo Finances Illegal Tender podcast. They saw the incarceration, the denial of freedom of our fellow Americans, people in our community as a business opportunity.

A boy carries cash to visit his mother at California Institute for Women state prison in Chino, California May 5, 2012. (REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson)

The U.S. has the most private prisons in the world. According to The Sentencing Project, there were over 128,000 people incarcerated in private prisons in 2016, which accounted for roughly 8.5% of the prison population. In 2017, the private prison industry generated an estimated $3.9 billion in revenue.

The for-profit prison industry is a multi-billion dollar corporate effort to run private prisons not only in the United States, but throughout the world, Brandon Buskey, deputy director of Smart Litigation at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), told Yahoo Finance. And it depends for its survival on our dependence on mass incarceration.

The U.S. prison population boomed in the 1990s and continued to increase in the 21st century. (Source: U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics/Wikipedia)

This is part 1 of Yahoo Finances Illegal Tender podcast about the for-profit prison industry. Listen to the series here.

A bag of chips is going to cost you a lot of money

Private prisons have been around since the 1800s and accelerated after the Civil War.

They truly began to pick up steam in the 1980s on the business model of Corporate Corrections of America, now known as CoreCivic (CXW), gained traction.

Very quickly after the formation of private prisons in the 1980s, we also saw the dramatic expansion of the War on Drugs, mandatory minimums, and so, the private prison industry has essentially grown up with the trend in mass incarceration in our country over the past several generations, Buskey explained.

Story continues

Signage is seen outside the Otay Mesa Detention Center, an ICE federal detention center privately owned and operated by prison contractor CoreCivic, amid the coronavirus in San Diego, April 11, 2020. REUTERS/Bing Guan

In 1971, President Richard Nixon declared a War on Drugs, and rates of incarceration in America increased for the next 40 years.

What we saw with the War on Drugs is that resources that could have gone into community treatment, which is far more effective and far cheaper, were diverted into building prisons and warehousing more and more people, Fettig said. Private prison corporations benefited from that, as did all the collateral industries that make money off of our collateral state, from the phone companies, to the companies that sell commissary.

She added that a bag of chips in prison, which is highly prized because the food is so terrible and nobody has access, a bag of chips is going to cost you a lot of money and somebody makes money off of that. It's a corporation.

The private prison business plan

So how exactly do these private prisons make a profit?

The argument for many in support of for-profit prisons is that they are cost effective, at least in comparison to federal prisons. The average annual cost of incarceration for those federally imprisoned was $36,299.25 in 2017, which comes out to $99.45 per day, a 4.6% increase from 2016, according to the Federal Register.

But according to Lauren-Brooke Eisen, who directs the Justice Program at NYU School of Laws Brennan Center for Justice, its very difficult to compare public and private prisons in terms of cost savings.

It's difficult to vet whether that claim is actually true and the way costs are calculated on a public budgeting document and for a private company vary widely and are not easily comparable, Eisen said.

Buskey explained how the business plan of a for-profit prison actually works.

Imprisoned firefighters line up for dinner at the Rim Fire camp near Buck Meadows, California, August 26, 2013. REUTERS/Max Whittaker

The prison will approach a state or locality and say, We will take over the operation of a prison in exchange for you keeping the prison at certain levels of occupancy, he said. And in the course of doing that, the private prison, the private company, then takes over all operations from the state.

The appeal for government officials is that instead of the state having to spend money on its own corrections officers, on its own medical care, the private prison now will take all that over, Buskey said. And in using these occupancy rates, what the prison is doing is saying, "You have to still pay us an overhead for the number of people who are housed here, but in the course of that, you'll still see savings because we can operate the prison more efficiently."

The number of people imprisoned at for-profit facilities has increased by 39.3% since 2000, according to The Sentencing Project, while the overall prison population in that time has increased by just 7.8%. The population of private prisons has more than doubled in six states during that time: Arizona (479%), Indiana (310%), Ohio (277%), Florida (199%), Tennessee (117%), and Georgia (110%).

Often the private prison trying to incentivize the state to sign the contract will offer a kickback to the state and say, "If you extend the contract by five years or 10 years, we will pay you, say, 10 million, $30 million for the privilege of signing that contract," knowing that the private prisons stands to gain tens of hundreds of millions of dollars through operating the prison for the state, Buskey said.

New Mexico and Montana have the highest shares of for-profit prisons. (Map: The Sentencing Project)

New Mexico and Montana have the highest share of private prisons in the U.S., followed by Oklahoma, Tennessee, New Mexico, and Hawaii.

These are often states that have attempted to address budget concerns by increasing privatization, Buskey said. It's a common model that we've seen throughout criminal justice reform where the pitch by often conservative lawmakers is to save money and operate the system more efficiently. And that is a recipe for inviting private prisons to come in with an appeal that they can run the prisons for far less money and save the state thereby a number of millions of dollars in doing so.

Harder to dismantle mass incarceration with private prison industry

Ultimately, since private prisons are inherently built for maximizing profit, incarcerated individuals are often charged high fees for basic services like making a phone call and necessities like tampons.

The industry has been criticized truly for as long as it's existed, and the reason for that is because some argue private prisons create perverse incentives that drive overcrowding by cutting costs and reducing the quality of life for the incarcerated individuals in those facilities or that private prisons earn more revenue when incarcerated individuals serve longer sentences, Eisen said.

A man makes a phone call from his cell at the Orange County jail in Santa Ana, California. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

In order for these companies to make money, she added, they are incentivized to cut costs and find efficiencies. And the industry looks for efficiencies that government officials who are tremendously hamstrung by stringent procurement laws and union contracts can't take advantage of.

Fettig noted the privatization of medical care in these facilities has created major problems.

That didn't used to be an issue in this country, she said. The state used to run medical care in prisons and jails and counties did as well. But now, it's a privatized business that makes money off of the fact that we have a mass incarceration system that doesn't treat people in the community, that doesn't provide a social safety net in the community.

At the end of the day, we would have mass incarceration with or without the private prison industry, Eisen said. But something that's really important to note is that the industry does make it harder to dismantle mass incarceration.

Adriana is a reporter and editor covering politics and health care policy for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @adrianambells.

This is part 1 of Yahoo Finances Illegal Tender podcast about the for-profit prison industry. Listen on Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts

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BLACKSBURG Darla Bray and her husband had way too much stuff in 2016. They wanted to let it go. But if they knew their possessions would be used and appreciated, it would be easier.

Thats when Bray learned of the Buy Nothing Project, a worldwide network of small community gift economies offering members a way to give, receive, share and lend possessions, occasionally even their skills. Luckily, a group existed in Floyd County, where the Brays were living at the time. Through the groups Facebook page, Bray connected with dozens of people who wanted the items the Brays no longer needed.

We were downsizing before we moved to Blacksburg, Bray said. So I contacted Katie Ann Hunter, the administrator of the Floyd Buy Nothing group, and became a member. It was a wonderful experience. My husband and I met people outside our usual circles and saw parts of the county wed never seen when we helped them move the stuff.

When the Brays arrived in Blacksburg, they still had too much stuff. Darla looked for a Buy Nothing group and discovered there was none. One that had existed in the south end of the town was now inactive.

So I started my own Buy Nothing group, she said. The regional administrator asked me to admin for the whole town. Sure, why not? So I started in 2017 with 33 members. Now we have 558. People really began joining this year. We had almost 300 membership requests in August alone. I think theyve been clearing out their closets during the pandemic.

As a local administrator for the global all-volunteer project, Bray fields questions and monitors the groups Facebook page, occasionally guiding back those who veer beyond the movements guidelines. Only members, who live inside the map of the extended Blacksburg community, can ask for items, but they can request for others who live outside, as Diane Gabriel did when she successfully solicited a kitchen table and a puppet for her Christiansburg-based daughter who runs a daycare center.

Buying, selling, bartering and trading arent allowed. All gifts must be given without expectation of any reward other than the joy of giving. As a gift economy, the group doesnt allow posts asking for or offering money, jobs or plugs for businesses. Requests for alcohol, tobacco, drugs, firearms and political materials are also not allowed.

But that leaves plenty of room for creative offers and requests. In a group that sprouted up after Buy Nothings founding in Bainbridge, Washington, in 2013, a Washington state woman asked to borrow a dress for her courthouse wedding. Instead, she got a whole wedding. The Kirkland Buy Nothing group came up with not just a dress, but flowers, a photographer, an Italian buffet, a DJ and a venue  all donated free of charge.

The Blacksburg group has rallied around a family who came to the area with nothing, Bray said. Members donated furniture, household goods, just about everything needed to set up housekeeping after the request came in.

Having this group helps me feel more connected to my community, tuned in to the generous capacity of normal people and amazed at the abundance we oftentimes experience as crushing over-consumption, said member Jocelyn Hildebrand. I feel safer going into parenting knowing it doesnt have to break the bank. Folks are always having babies, so there will always be childrens care items coming through the group.

Jennifer Jen has been a member of BNB almost from its inception. A recent widow, she offers cuttings from the herbs her husband planted as a way of sharing his love, she said.

I love how the group bridges my two passions of conserving resources and building community, Jen said. COVID life has made us feel greatly isolated. We do not live in a neighborhood, and being part of a gifting group has made us feel a stronger connection to our community even when we dont see the giver or receiver. I have gifted vases, toys, masks, sheets, bags, shoes, books, clothes, art kits and have received plants, tea, spa set, tool box, cat scratch spray, bead supplies, homemade cupcakes and decorative masks from other parts of the world that we added to my late husbands collection  that especially warmed my heart.

In a recent week, local Buy Nothing offerings ranged from golden slippers to turkey sausages, desks to charcoal toothpaste, wood scraps to a box of pregnancy tests. One member offered rhubarb bars fresh from the oven to recipients who could show up within the hour. In these times of COVID-19, pickup is contactless and donors and recipients are asked to disinfect items.

At the close of 2019, the Buy Nothing Project had at least 1.2 million participants in at least 25 countries, led by more than 6,000 volunteers. As a completely grass-roots, all-volunteer project with no funding and no marketing, the movement spreads mainly through word of mouth.

Groups, which are all run by unpaid volunteer administrators, generally cap out between 1,000 and 2,000 members. When membership rises above that, the community sprouts  sort of like taking a starter cutting from a plant. This means dividing a neighborhood group into smaller segments, so that some hyper-local communities in dense cities may only be a few blocks in size.

Participating in a Buy Nothing Project group allows individuals and communities to reduce their own dependence on single-use materials by extending the life of existing items through gifting and sharing between group members. The larger goal is to connect people with one another, make them sugar-borrowing neighbors, tech-age style.

This is definitely the time for the Buy Nothing Project  it is a way we can be human with each other, Bray said. People need that  to see and help each other, online at least. This counteracts the unkindness, the ranting and insults, on social media. People are so helpful to each other in the Buy Nothing Project. If someone wants something, they try to provide it.

To join, an individual be at least 21 and live within an existing Buy Nothing community or be willing to start a new Buy Nothing group. Four Buy Nothing groups currently exist in the New River Valley: Blacksburg, Floyd, Riner and Radford. All can be accessed through Facebook or through the Buy Nothing Project at facebook.com/BuyNothingProject/.
More people are leaving the US state of California than arriving as it reels from devastating wildfires, power outages and the burgeoning cost of living.

The Golden State dream may be fading as the idyllic oceanfront state sees warming temperatures, burning blazes, challenges in controlling the coronavirus pandemic, and sky-high real estate prices.

The most recent high-profile couple to relocate to the west coast in hopes of capturing the American Dream are the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Harry and Meghan purchased a sprawling nine-bedroom and 16-bathroom mansion in upscale Santa Barbara, known as 'The Chateau' for 11.45million ($14.65million) on June 18.

It makes them neighbours with celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Ellen Degeneres. But fed-up residents are abandoning the state - known for its blazing sunshine and Hollywood attractions - in droves.

Between 2007 and 2016, some 5 million residents moved to California and 6 million people moved out to other states, according to US network KSBW.

A poll conducted late 2019 by the University of California at Berkeley found more than half of California voters have given 'serious' or 'some' consideration to leaving due to the high cost of housing, heavy taxation, or political culture.

The Duke and Duchess appeared to offer their largest glimpse into their opulent new home yet as they appeared in a video call for the Queen's Commonwealth Trust last month (pictured)

Harry and Meghan purchased a sprawling nine-bedroom and 16-bathroom mansion in upscale Santa Barbara, known as 'The Chateau' for 11.45million ($14.65million) on June 18.

More people are leaving California than arriving, driven out by worsening wildfires, power outages, and the skyrocketing cost of living. Cars drive along the Golden Gate Bride under a haze of orange smoke in San Francisco on September 9

According to Census data in 2018 more than 86,000 people left California for Texas, nearly 70,000 left for Arizona and about 55,000 left for Washington, according to NBC.

Monica Gupta Mehta and her husband said that this years furious fires that darkened the skies over their Palo Alto home made them consider moving their family elsewhere.

'For the first time in 20-something years, the thought crossed our minds: Do we really want to live here?' Mehta said to the Washington Post.

'Yesterday felt so apocalyptic. People are really starting to reconsider whether California has enough to offer them,' Mehta added.

People making $55,000 or less a year were mostly moving out of California between 2007 and 2016 while people making more than $200,000 a year moved in, according to the US Census Bureau.

California's 40 million residents are only seeing the state's issues exacerbated in the pandemic as the Golden State now has more cases of COVID-19 than any other state.

President Donald Trump has blasted California, where he lost by 30 percentage points, as an example of Democrat-sparked urban unrest.

He has repeatedly slammed the state for its immigration policy in creating the first 'sanctuary state' for undocumented immigrants, poor forest management that leads to wildfires, and handling of the pandemic.

Harry and Meghan's new home (pictured) makes them neighbours with celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Ellen Degeneres.

Wildfires in California have worsened over the past years, fueled by the warming planet and more severe weather conditions. Vehicles that were destroyed by the Bear fire, part of the North Complex fires, in Berry Creek, California above on Saturday

Los Angeles County firefighters, using only hand tools, keep fire from jumping a fire break at the Bobcat Fire in the Angeles National Forest on Friday in Monrovia

An aerial view shows a long line of cars at a COVID-19 testing site at Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles, California in mid-July

This satellite image taken Saturday shows smoke from Oregon and California wildfires moving west, south and east

But its liberal policies are a reason so many people flock to the state as marijuana is legal, a measure to restore affirmative action in college admissions is on the November ballot, and the legislature just created a committee to study the cost of reparations to racial and ethnic groups the state has historically mistreated.

Today a slew of more than two dozen wildfires are burning, scorching through millions of acres, in the worst inferno in history.

The flames have ripped through a record 3.1million acres of land, more than 3,000 homes and killed at least 22 people.

The fires are sparked by the states extreme weather with soaking wet seasons followed by sharp, dry heat and high wind. Wine Country has burned for four years straight.

'Hopefully, this is a wake-up call,' Anne-Marie Bonneau, who two decades ago left her home in Ontario, Canada, for the Bay Area, said to the Post.

'What is it going to take for this country to do something about the climate crisis? Millions of people are affected by this,' she added.

She believes whats happening in California is a warning of whats to come for the rest of the country.

'As always, Californias sort of on the leading edge. Were always ahead of everybody,' she said.

The coronavirus pandemic is another threat the state is still battling as the virus has infected more than 750,000 and killed more than 14,000 of the state

Kim Cobb, a climate scientist, says despite warning of the dangers of a warming planet for years, even she is shocked by the Wests wildfires this summer.

'The science couldnt be any clearer on this point. The links between warming temperatures and these wildfires are clear. This is going to get a lot worse. . . . I know that challenges the imagination,' Cobb said.

The coronavirus pandemic is another threat the state is still battling as the virus has infected more than 750,000 and killed more than 14,000 of the state.

Latinos account for 61 percent of coronavirus cases, which is a disproportionately high infection rate as they make up just 35 percent of the overall state population.

Many are 'essential workers' serving food, picking crops and working jobs where they need to commute.

Disparities in income are extreme in California, which houses millionaires in Silicon Valley and Hollywood, while the rest of the state is increasingly a service economy.

Median income in the state is $75,277 and the median home price in San Francisco is $1.3million  nearly twice that of Los Angeles.

Three years ago, state lawmakers approved the nations second-highest gasoline tax, adding more than 47 cents to the price of a gallon, forcing service workers to move farther inland and into fire country, leaving them paying more income on fuel to commute to work.

Disparities in income are extreme in California, which houses millionaires in Silicon Valley and Hollywood, while the rest of the state is increasingly a service economy. Median income in the state is $75,277 and the median home price in San Francisco is $1.3million  nearly twice that of Los Angeles. Beverly Hills mansions above

Long commutes and high real estate that force people to live away from work also undermines the states goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2045  a necessary measure to alleviate extreme weather.

San Francisco is seeing a slew of tech workers flee thanks to the ability to work remotely amid the pandemic.

'The tech workers werent necessarily attached to the city, they came here because there was opportunity,' Peter Alvaro, a professor of computer science at the University of California at Santa Cruz, said.

'I hope the city can regrow some of the unique character that was lost in the last boom. The fact that young, wealthy adults are fleeing is good for the culture,' he added.

Last month Gary Cook and his wife packed their three rescue cats into a rented SUV and drove from Napa to Idaho, to build a new life after 18 years in Wine Country.

Some people say they left the state for its liberal politics. Gov. Gavin Newsom above during a tour of the North Complex Fire in Butte County on Friday

Cook says it wasnt the fires that drove them out but the high cost of living, high taxes, power outages and politics. He said that as a conservative, he felt he no longer had a voice in California politically.

'There were significant changes going on that changed our outlook on the whole California dream,' Cook said.

Scott Fuller, who runs a real estate relocation business, says his business is booming as locals flee for a new life elsewhere.

His company called Leaving the Bay Area and Leaving SoCal helps people move away, sell their homes, and find others.

He says that Nevada, Arizona, Texas and Idaho are the top four states his clients are buying in.

He adds many tech workers are trying out smaller industry markets like Denver, Austin, Phoenix, and Seattle.

While a slew of people are fleeing California, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have recently moved in

'For a lot of people, [Californias] losing its luster. For the average person who maybe came out here for the weather, I think theyre saying the trade-off is just not worth it any longer,' Fuller said to the Post.

While a slew of people are fleeing California, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have recently moved in.

The couple moved into their $14.65million mansion in Santa Barbara in July.

They purchased the property, known as 'The Chateau' for $14.65million on June 18, making them neighbors with celebrities Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres.
By Ari Altstedter and P R Sanjai

Big Tech is clamoring for a bigger piece of Indias booming internet space, but that increasingly seems to mean going through the countrys richest man, Mukesh Ambani. Ambanis Reliance Industries Ltd is said to be offering to sell a stake of about $20 billion in its retail business to Amazon.com Inc, Bloomberg News reported this week. If Ambani succeeds in pulling off such a deal, it would mark another victory for the billionaire, who in recent months has secured $20 billion of investment in his digital unit from marquee names including Facebook Inc and Google Inc.

The mere possibility of an Amazon investment reveals not only Ambanis market clout, but also how Indias business climate is changing as Prime Minister Narendra Modi cranks up nationalist rhetoric while the nation hurtles toward the first annual economic contraction in 40 years. Having seen multiple regulatory roadblocks thrown in their way, a tie-up with a powerful Indian ally has never looked more crucial for the worlds biggest internet companies. And no business person carries more heft in India -- known for its complicated bureaucracy and red tape -- than Ambani.

Better to Cooperate

I suspect the government somewhere is signalling that its better for multinational companies to come in with some Indian partner, said Arun Kumar, an economist and the Malcolm Adiseshiah Chair at the Institute of Social Sciences. So Amazon might decide its better to cooperate with Reliance than compete against it.

Also read  Mukesh Ambanis $2 chutzpah unlocks another fortune

The 63-year-old Indian tycoon has identified technology and retail as future growth areas in a pivot away from the energy businesses he inherited from his father who died in 2002. Retail is the next frontier for Ambani, whose ambitions include creating a home-grown e-commerce giant like Chinas Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

Silicon Valleys ambitions in the country represent a threat to Ambanis ability to achieve such dominance in his home market, but winning their cooperation, with all the know-how and global reach it brings, could help him achieve it faster. That aligns with the emphasis Modi has been placing on developing Indias local economy.

Lifes Mantra

In one 33-minute address to the nation recently, Modi used the word self-reliance 17 times. The corona crisis has taught us the value of local manufacturing, local markets and local supply chains, Modi went on to say. Local is not only our need it is also our responsibility. Time has taught us that we will simply have to make local our lifes mantra.

Even so, India is increasingly important to Silicon Valley because its a one billion-plus person market thats still largely untapped. China is dominated by homegrown e-commerce players and largely shuts out global tech companies, while established markets in the West offer limited growth opportunities.

Also read  Reliance offers Amazon $20 billion stake in retail arm

Though Amazon is already Indias largest e-commerce player, its ability to compete with domestic firms was hamstrung by an abrupt rule change in 2018 that limited foreign players to operating as e-Bay style marketplaces, rather than selling their own stock.

Entering E-Commerce

Not long after, Ambani announced that his own sprawling conglomerate, Reliance Industries, would make an entry into e-commerce, leveraging its control of both Indias largest mobile carrier and biggest network of brick-and-mortar stores.

In response, Amazon tried to bolster its presence on the ground with an investment in Indias second biggest physical retailer, cash-strapped Future Group. But the rules restricting foreign ownership in that sector meant its investment was too little to halt Future Groups slide into financial distress.

Last month, it was Ambani who was waiting to snap up the majority of the companys operations for $3.4 billion. Faced with a regulatory disadvantage and a competitor only seeming to grow stronger, its not hard to see why Amazon might be tempted to make a peace offering now.

Reliance has brick and mortar, logistics, warehousing, and now online build out with its recent deals, said Chakri Lokapriya, chief investment officer at TCG Asset Management in Mumbai. It will take years of operational infrastructure for Amazon or other multinational companies to recreate that, and hence Reliance Industries is the preferred partner choice for their entry into India.

Regulatory Limbo

Facebook may have made a similar calculation. Its plans to turn its wildly popular WhatsApp messaging platform into a nationwide payments system have been stuck in Indian regulatory limbo for more than two years now.

Meanwhile, Reliance is pushing ahead with its own payment system, with its almost 400 million mobile subscribers as a built-in user base. But since their deal, Facebook and Reliance have announced that WhatsApp will at least be the main platform for Ambanis online grocery store, his flagship e-commerce offering, ensuring the social networking giant has a toehold in the Indian e-commerce market it covets.

Also read  Silver Lake to invest Rs 7,500 crore in Reliance Retail for 1.75% stake

Google, meanwhile, has announced plans to roll out a low-cost phone with Ambani which will run on its Android operating system. Previously Ambani had been selling his own low cost phones, which ran on a different operating system. Google, like Facebook, may have decided it was better to work with Ambani than against him. Amazon may wind up doing the same.

Business in India is taking the monopolistic approach, said Mathew Antony, managing partner of Aditya Consulting, a boutique legal advisory firm in Mumbai. It is increasingly becoming evident with the Facebook and similar investment deals that the large foreign business investments into the country is by default having a first right of refusal at the Reliance doors.
Luxury watch maker Officine Panerai-Firenze SA is famed for its big and bulky World War II-era wrist pieces. But its best sellers are now becoming smaller and smaller, largely due to the might of Chinese buyers.

Though its original military watches had dials stretching 60 millimeters, the Swiss brand now sells models as small as 38 millimeters in China, due to the local preference for more discreet products.

The watchmakers pivot is an example of how luxury good makers are retooling themselves to suit Chinese tastes. This process is being accelerated by the Asian nations rebound as the rest of the world still reels from the economic devastation of the coronavirus pandemic.

China, for the first time in the history of the brand, will become our No.1 country this year," said Jean-Marc Pontroue, chief executive officer of Panerai, a unit of Swiss luxury group Richemont SA. Now that we have a clear view of how big China is for the brand, how much even bigger it could be in the future, we know where to focus our investments."

China, where the novel pathogen first emerged, has become a lifeline for the luxury industry amid Covid-19. Driven by pent-up desire to spend after months of social distancing and unable to travel overseas, Chinese consumers are splurging at home. Luxury demand on the mainland may surge 10% this year, even as it plunges 45% globally, Boston Consulting Group estimated in June.

Adjust Strategies

Thats pushing global brands to adjust their long-standing practices, strategies and brand identities to cater to Chinese customers.

Louis Vitton held its latest mens show first in Shanghai in August. The annual international watch fair for Richemont brands -- an elite industry event hosted usually in Geneva -- was brought for the first time to Shanghai this week. In April, the Geneva fair was replaced by an online version.

Brands such as Louis Vuitton, Givenchy and Chloe have also started using live-streaming to push products in China -- a popular style of social commerce where an influencer speaks live, promoting and trying out items.

All major brands saw soaring sales in the past few months, said Jason Yu, managing director at Kantar Worldpanel Greater China.

LVMHs China sales last quarter rose more than 65% from a year ago while the overall revenue for the wine-to-watches luxury group dropped 38%. Estee Lauder Cos Inc.s sales in mainland China jumped 60% while Kering SA saw over 40% rise in sales after a hit in the first quarter.

I believe the China market is big enough to justify any product adaptation," Yu said. A one-size-fits-all approach is less likely to succeed."

Beef Up Presence

Beyond shrinking its watch dials, Panerai plans to add eight new stores by March to beef up its presence beyond the megacities of Beijing and Shanghai. It currently has 57 stores in China, accounting for about 40% of its global network.

Itll open two stores in Hainan in the next two months after its first pop-up store achieved exceptional" success, Pontroue said. China recently expanded its tax-free rules in the island of Hainan.

Opened in June, the foot traffic at Hainans pop-up store is almost double of the pre-Covid level seen in its flagship Hong Kong store -- the companys largest boutique by space. Hainan is making up about 30%-50% of Panerais lost Hong Kong sales, he said.

Chinas billion-plus and increasingly affluent buyers also make a fertile testing ground for the company to test new products.

Its a very good laboratory to test new ideas," Pontroue said. Having China as our prime target is also a very good parameter to see if the new concept is a potential success or not."

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Submitted by Damon Moreau

Calgary brewery Common Crown Brewing Co. has won the title of Brewer of the Year at the Canadian Brewing Awards.

Damon Moreau, co-founder and general manager, said he and the team are still processing their win.

"We were completely astounded. I think we're all still in shock, to be completely honest with you," he said on Sunday. "[It was] incredible. There was a lot of high fives."

It was a strong showing for Alberta, which took home 39 awards at the ceremony, with Calgary's Cabin Brewing and Edmonton's Bent Stick Brewing among those represented.

The annual award ceremony awards gold, silver and bronze winners in 55 categories through a blindly judged tasting process.

Common Crown took home three golds at the ceremony, which was held virtually Saturday evening, in the following categories:

North American style wheat beer: Ploughman Wheat Ale.

Scotch ale: Andys Wee Heavy.

Brown ale: Coppersmith Brown Ale.

The brewery was founded nearly four years ago by Moreau, his twin brother Andrew, and business partner Bob Robertshaw.

Moreau was a passionate homebrewer and was looking to get out of the industry he was in.

"It was around about the time that the laws are changed to enable [craft] breweries to open up in Alberta. So we thought, 'oh, well, let's take a stab at that,'" he said.

The brewery aims to be environmentally conscious, working with a company called Agro Systems to ensure its spent grain is used for feed for cattle, pigs, and sheep.

Moreau said 2020 has been a roller-coaster ride for Common Crown, from pivoting into home deliveries within 24 hours of their northeast Calgary taproom being forced to shut down in March due to the pandemic, to Saturday's big win.

But they won't be resting on their laurels  Moreau said they have always have new beers in the works, from barrel-aged brews to seasonal products.

Best beer of the year went to a gluten-free beer, Glutenberg Red from Montreal's Brasseurs Sans Gluten.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, September 13, 2020 12:25 495 e22cd4161040e111d73a5626c4481df8 1 City COVID-19,PSBB,emergency-brake,rem-darurat,anies-baswedan,Jakarta-administration,large-scale-social-restrictions,Airlangga-Hartarto,ridwan-kamil,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,COVID-19-Jakarta,coronavirus,lockdown,Jokowi Free

Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan has said that the central government supports his decision to reimpose full large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) in the capital, despite several Cabinet members criticizing the move in the past few days.

The government is supportive, Anies said on Saturday following a meeting with the National Economic Recovery and COVID-19 Response Team on Saturday night, as quoted by kompas.com. The central government understands that there has been a significant spike [in COVID-19 cases] in September.

Anies said that the full details regarding the reimposed PSBB would be announced in a press conference on Sunday.

We will announce it in the form of a regulation with detailed articles so that there wont be differing interpretations, he said.

West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil played down reports of disagreements between the Jakarta administration, the central government and neighboring provinces.

Just finished a meeting between the governors of Jakarta, West Java and Banten regarding the technical [details] of Jakartas PSBB and Greater Jakartas strategy, Ridwan tweeted on Saturday night. There is no difference of agreement. There are no pro-economy or pro-health factions. They both complement and strengthen each other.

Baru selesai rakor para menteri dgn Gub DKI, Jabar, Banten terkait Teknis PSBB DKI & stategi Jabodetabek. Tidak ada persilangan pendapat. Tidak ada kubu ekonomi vs kesehatan. Semuanya saling melengkapi dan menguatkan. Resminya diumumkan besok detailnya ol Satgas Pusat & Gub DKI.  ridwan kamil (@ridwankamil) September 12, 2020

Anies had announced the return to full PSBB on Wednesday, citing an increasing number of daily new COVID-19 cases and a decreasing number of available hospital beds.

Following the announcement, several government officials expressed their concerns. Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang said he was worried about the PSBBs potential effects on the improving trend of industrial performance, while Trade Minister Agus Suparmanto warned about the risks of disruptions in the distribution channel if PSBB measures were reimposed.

Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto, who also heads the National Economic Recovery and COVID-19 Response Team, said that the announcement had caused the stock market to dip, while President Joko Jokowi Widodo said that the plan should be "well and cautiously calculated. (kmt)
John 'BIG Kash' Lavulo (pictured) escaped a shooting on July 8, with a fellow rapper since charged with intent to murder over the attack

A Sydney rapper has revealed his feud with a fellow rapper charged with his attempted murder was about music and began on Instagram.

John 'Big Kash' Lavulo was shot in the arm as he drove his Mercedes Benz sedan out of his apartment block at Warwick Farm, in Sydney's west, on August 8.

The prominent rapper was shot multiple times and says his girlfriend - who was in the front passenger's seat - could have been killed if not for his forearm getting in the way of a bullet.

Police last week arrested fellow rapper Thomas 'Masi Rooc' Vandermade, 29, after a month long manhunt.

He was charged with shooting with intent to murder, discharge firearm with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and not disclosing the identity of a driver or passenger.

Lavulo, 33, told Daily Mail Australia he had never actually met Vandermade despite police saying the pair had been 'taunting' each other on social media 'for some time'.

Police last week arrested fellow rapper Thomas 'Masi Rooc' Vandermade (pictured), 29, and he was charged with intent to murder over the shooting

The prominent rapper was shot multiple times and says his girlfriend Amelia (right) - who was sitting next to him - could have been killed if not for his forearm getting in the way of a bullet

'I don't really know him at all, he knew my brother - that's how I first heard of him,' he said.

'This beef was not gang related. He was glorifying jail to kids in his songs and I didn't like it so I started trolling him on Instagram.'

NSW Police Detective Superintendent Robert Critchlow said the investigation was an 'interesting' one because of the social media feuding.

He said as part of the case against Vandermade, police would rely on evidence that indicated the shooting was a 'targeted' attempt at an assassination.

'The investigations into this case have been interesting because it shows us the motives really sit around rap groups and those that see themselves as rappers,' Det Supt Critchlow said.

'There's been some public taunting which has been going on for some time utilising social media and other outlets and its resulted, we will allege, in this shooting.

'It is really unacceptable that people can't sort their differences out without using firearms.

'What we will allege is that this is an attempt at an assassination. It wasn't just a drive-by shooting. There was a clear attempt to kill this person.'

Lavulo was shot in both the shoulder and forearm.

He says if his forearm had not have still been on the wheel, the bullet could have hit his girlfriend Amelia in the head as she ducked down in the seat next to him.

Despite the alleged best efforts of the shooters to block him in, Lavulo managed to escape in his car and drive himself to a nearby hospital.

He has undergone multiple surgeries since that attack and was at one point told by doctors his arm may be amputated, but is now well on his way back to 100 per cent.

Amelia however remains spooked from the shooting, with the couple keeping a low profile.

'We're just slowly readjusting, she is still a bit jumpy,' Lavulo said.

'She has just been laying low, only going out to shop or whatever, but she should not have been brought into it.'

The ex-bikie turned rapper, 'BIG Kash' was shot multiple times as he sat in his white Mercedes outside his apartment block at Warwick Farm, in Sydney's west. His girlfriend was in the passenger's seat and narrowly escaped injury

In the aftermath of Vendermade's arrest at his Blacktown apartment block last week, Lavulo was accused of dobbing him in to police.

He launched a scathing attack on people who claimed as much on social media and is adamant it is not in his nature to be a 'rat'.

When asked how he reacted to those claims, Lavulo said: 'I burned'.

'It goes against who I am. The truth will come out when the brief of evidence ends up in court, that will show I didn't speak to police.'

There has been speculation online that Vendermade's latest song, released under his moniker Masi Rooc, made reference to the shooting.

'When the call goes out for the war just know that I always follow through,' he sings.

A few lines later the lyrics say 'talk s**t get sent' and are followed by him mimicking a gun sound.

The shooting has helped boost Big Kash's brand and social media following, with the rapper saying he had received an influx of support in the weeks since being shot.

Lavulo somehow managed to escape the attacker as he fired shots into his car and drove to a nearby hospital, pulling up on the footpath outside (pictured)

NSW Police rushed to the Warwick Farm scene and then on to Liverpool Hospital where they assessed the bloodstained white Mercedes being driven by the rapper

He later shared a photo on Instagram of him in bed at Liverpool Hospital where he underwent surgery for a gunshot wound to his arm.

'I've been getting love from all over the world, I've had a lot more people get into my music and so its put me in a good position,' he said.

'They (the attacker) have helped me out.'

BIG Kash and his girlfriend had spent the night at dinner with criminal turned rapper Caleb 'Hoodrich Hefner' Valeri and embattled former prison officer Melissa Goodwin.

Afterwards they returned home to pick up some alcohol, before leaving to see more friends.

It was as they left the unit complex that the attack happened.

Officers arrived at the scene on Lachlan Street before moving to Liverpool Hospital, where BIG Kash's bloodstained white Mercedes was parked on a footpath outside.

In the hours after his narrow escape the rapper shared a photo of himself in hospital on Instagram to let his 38,000 followers know he was doing okay.

BIG Kash and his girlfriend had spent the night at dinner with criminal turned rapper Caleb 'Hoodrich Hefner' Valeri (left) and embattled former prison officer Melissa Goodwin (right)

Like BIG Kash, Valeri is a former bikie turned rapper (left). He filmed some of the footage used in his rap videos while in prison (right)

Laying on a bed cabled to a machine, he can be seen smiling for the camera as his blood soaked hand makes a rude gesture in front of his eyes.

Lavulo made a splash in the rap scene under his moniker BIG Kash and the notorious mixtape 'K.O.A' (Kash On Delivery), released in 2016.

He says his move into music came after becoming disillusioned with the bikie game.

'I got to a certain point where I felt I was throwing my life away,' Lavulo said.

'An old Hells Angels mate of mine Tyrone Slemnik was gunned down and you look at things different.

'When lives are getting lost, it's a different story to what it's made out to be.'
Jane Greer could have been the biggest film noir femme fatale of her generation -- if she hadn't met Howard Hughes. The tycoon and movie mogul had spotted a teenage Greer in a magazine and decided to put the aspiring actor under a "personal contract" because those are easier to lug around L.A. than a casting couch. When Greer signed her so-called studio contract, Hughes immediately let her know that he didn't want her to ever get married. Or ever act, for that matter, as the asshole aviator didn't cast her in a single movie or even let her do a screen test.

But you don't trap a future femme fatale and except her not to strike back. The feisty Greer quickly sussed Hughes out, whom she called "like a child" in his pursuit of women. First, she defied him by marrying middle-aged crooner Rudy Vallee, then she sued Hughes for breach of contract. To avoid a drawn-out scandal, the jealous and embittered billionaire had no choice but to let Greer buy out her contract -- for the lump sum of $7,572. That was a steep amount for someone who had been technically unemployed for her short adult life. So Hughes allowed her to pay him back in installments of $25 a week, keeping his financial hooks in her for six grueling years.
Mumbai, Sep 13 : Actress Kangana Ranaut has tweeted a cryptic post amidst her war with Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government.

"In this chaos there are potent pauses that engulf me. Where am I? I don't recognise. What life threw at me so far I could barely catch up with but it's asking for more, I give every ounce of me still it needs more and suddenly chaos engulfs me again," Kangana tweeted on Sunday.

She also posted her photo that shows her lost in her thoughts with a pen in her mouth.

The tension between the actress and the state government began after she compared Mumbai with Pakistan occupied Kashmir and called the city's police force a "sham".

Kangana arrived in Mumbai on September 9 with the Y-plus security provided to her by the Central government.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
The first thing Stephanie McGill-Lynch did when she returned home after her teenage son died from a self- inflicted gunshot wound was throw the bottle of Prozac he had been prescribed against the wall.

Jake was just 14 when he took his own life in the family home in 2013. The highly intelligent teen from Clondalkin has been missed by his mother every moment of every day since.

"I talk to him. He walks the Earth with me. If I could just see him for one second," she trails off, her eyes filling with tears.

"The world lost out. I'll never make peace with it. I see him everywhere but it's never enough. I clean his room twice a day and I talk to him. I see him everywhere.

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"When a butterfly goes by, I know that's a little hello from heaven from Jake."

Stephanie wants to make one thing very clear. She is not against the use of anti-depressants. "I am absolutely not. I am not saying they do not have their place and that they cannot help people," she tells the Sunday Independent from her Dublin home.

"My problem is the lack of informed consent. Adults can make their own decisions. But for children, whose brains are still forming, hormones are all over the place... I don't think anti-depressants are the answer. They were not for my son."

Jake was a happy child. But he found the transition from primary to secondary school challenging and began to suffer from anxiety.

He was diagnosed with mild Asperger's syndrome at age 12 after a school counsellor sent him to see a psychologist at Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), at Cherry Orchard in Dublin.

"He did have some anxiety and was uncomfortable in his new surroundings when he went into secondary school. He was never a worry to us. As he got a little older, he was a typical teenage boy. He was hormonal, didn't like his parents sometimes, had some problems with his skin.

"He had his friends and he loved his X-Box. He was never bullied or anything like that."

But Jake's anxiety worsened when he entered third year, as the Junior Cert began to loom.

He had an IQ of 139 and had been a straight-A student in first and second year. But the prospect of his first significant State exam was stressing him. Just before his mocks, he saw a psychiatrist at CAMHS and was prescribed Fluoxetine, known as Prozac.

An inquest into his death in 2015 heard that CAMHS consultant child psychiatrist Dr Maria Migone prescribed the drug to help with Jake's anxiety. At CAMHS, he was accompanied by his father, John Lynch.

Dr Migone told the inquest that she would have discussed some side-effects with Jake's father and that the parents should have felt free to call her with any questions, having read the patient information leaflet.

Dr Migone also said that it was her understanding that Jake's mother was in favour of the medication. Stephanie insists she and her husband were not informed that potential side-effects of Prozac include an increase in suicide ideation.

Immediately after he started taking the medication, Stephanie noticed a change in her youngest son. "He walked out half-way through his first [mocks] exam, which was unheard of for Jake.

"Physically he wasn't well, he had diarrhoea and his sleeping routine became disturbed. I just thought it was the exams, but now I think it was because he was reacting to the drugs.

"That first week, the night before his science exam, he had his first meltdown. He cried for three hours. I almost took him to A&E but they would have thought I was a neurotic mother, that he was just worried about his exams," explains Stephanie.

The next morning, Jake's form had improved and his exam went well. He continued taking Prozac, in liquid form, over the following weeks. But Stephanie noticed Jake's moods weren't great and he was quieter than usual. But there seemed no major cause for concern.

Then on March 19, 46 days after he began taking the medication, the unspeakable happened. When he got home from school, he sat in the kitchen doing his homework, drinking a cappuccino and eating bourbon creams, as was his daily routine.

"But he didn't complete his homework, he was restless, agitated," recalls his mother.

"That should have been a red flag. There are lots of things afterwards I wish I had noticed."

Jake and his mother were members of a gun club in Tallaght, Bohernabreena.

The teen had never enjoyed conventional sports, so his parents were pleased when he took an interest in shooting about a year before his death.

It was a sport that Stephanie had become involved with through her own father.

Mother and son went regularly to the gun club. Stephanie had obtained a rifle and licence and Jake had applied for his provisional gun licence at the time of his death.

He was permitted under law to fire the weapon at the shooting range. As required by law, the rifle was kept in a safe in the family home.

After dinner, Jake went up to his room to play his X-Box. At around 9pm, he asked his parents if he could practise "stances" with the .22 rifle. This was not an unusual request, as practice is necessary. "I got the gun from the safe and gave it to him," says Stephanie, before adding quietly: "Sometimes I do think, I basically killed my son."

The teen was in charge of minding the ammunition and bolt for the rifle, so as to teach him a sense of responsibility.

Usually when Jake was given the rifle, his parents would take the ammunition out of his possession, as for safety reasons the two are never supposed to be kept together.

"On that night, I had a lapse," says his mother slowly, shaking her head. "I forgot to take the ammunition from him. But I did not have a depressed child in the house. I did not have a suicidal child. I did not have a child with any history of self-harm.

"We were not on high alert that he was in any way suicidal.

"If we had been worried that way about him, there would not have even been a gun in the house, let alone give one to him.

"He was simply on some medication to get himself through the Junior Cert."

Every night at 10pm, Jake's parents would call him down for toast and tea before bed.

But on this night, when there was no response. Stephanie and her husband instinctively knew something was wrong and ran upstairs together.

The horror of what awaited in her son's bedroom is forever etched on her memory.

"There he was, lying on the floor, with the gun on top of him. I can still see it. It's very hard to see Jake's face but I can always still see his feet. The flashbacks don't go away."

John, a paramedic, tried everything to save his youngest son's life while a panicked Stephanie rang an ambulance.

Within minutes, John's emergency services colleagues were in the house.

He was rushed to Tallaght hospital. At 4am, the life-support machine was turned off.

The only thing Stephanie is thankful for that fateful night is that their other son, then 22-year-old Ryan, was not home.

Stephanie has come to the unwavering belief that her son's actions were as a result of an adverse reaction to Prozac.

This view was not shared by Dr Migone. She told the inquest that new findings showed that children on the autistic spectrum were at increased risk of suicide.

But probably the most striking evidence during Jake's inquest was his own words.

In an email to an American pen-pal, Amber, the day before he died, he wrote: "I feel drugged out of my mind and I'm trying to suppress all the bad feelings."

Her son's words, which Stephanie sees as a cry for help, have caused her many a sleepless night. "Flashbacks from my child's death keep me awake a night. I hope it keeps others awake, too."

Coroner Dr Brian Farrell opted to return an open verdict, rather than death by suicide. When contacted about Jake's case, the HSE said it could not comment on individual cases.

The walls of the family home are adorned with photos of a smiling Jake and his ashes take pride of place in the sitting room.

Recently, Stephanie and John found an old video camera while clearing out their home.

With trepidation, Stephanie sat down to watch it. It contained recordings of Jake's eighth and ninth birthday parties, one in France and the other in Legoland, England. It showed her happy little boy, having the time of his life. "I wish I could explain what it felt like to watch it.

"For 15 minutes, I was back there and I forgot what world I was living in. To see how happy Jake was, how wonderful a life he had. Our Jake was just so loving, so kind, so pure. He was just our Jake. And he always will be."

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article please contact Samaritans helpline 116 123 or Aware helpline 1800 80 48 48 or Pieta House on 1800 247 247.
The prime minister will inaugurate the Durgapur-Banka section of the Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur pipeline project and two LPG bottling plants

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate an LPG pipeline project and bottling plants in Bihar on Sunday as the government pushes its development agenda in the poll-bound state.

The projects include the Durgapur-Banka section of the Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur pipeline project and two LPG bottling plants, an official statement said.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will also be present on the occasion.

The 193-km long Durgapur-Banka pipeline section, built by state-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC), is a part of the Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur Pipeline Augmentation Project, for which the foundation stone was laid by the Prime Minister on 17 February, 2019.

Durgapur-Banka section is the extension of the existing 679-km long Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur LPG pipeline to the new LPG bottling plant at Banka in Bihar.

The pipeline of 14-inch diameter passes through West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar.

While LPG is presently injected into the pipeline at IOC's Paradip and Haldia refineries, the completion of the whole project would enable the facility to be also available from the Paradip import terminal and Barauni refinery.

IOC's LPG bottling Plant at Banka will help meet cooking gas demand of Bihar.

The bottling plant has been built at an investment of around Rs 131.75 crore to serve the districts of Bhagalpur, Banka, Jamui, Araria, Kishanganj, and Katihar in Bihar, along with the districts of Godda, Deoghar, Dumka, Sahibganj, and Pakur in Jharkhand, the statement said.

With the LPG storage capacity of 1,800 tonnes and bottling capacity of 40,000 cylinders per day, this plant would generate direct and indirect employment opportunities in Bihar.

Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd's (HPCL) 1,20,000 tonnes per annum LPG bottling plant at Harsidhi in East Champaran district has been built at a cost of Rs 136.4 crore.

This plant has been constructed on 29 acres of land and its foundation stone was laid by the Prime Minister on 10 April, 2018.

The bottling plant will cater to the LPG requirement of East Champaran, West Champaran, Muzaffarpur, Siwan, Gopalganj and Sitamarhi districts in Bihar, it added.
Grisly video captured the moment an unknown gunman shot dead a 17-year-old boy who attempted to flee during a gun battle.

The New York Police Department on Sunday released surveillance footage of the shooting that killed Kether Werts on Thursday.

The incident happened just before 5pm outside 1705 Hoe Avenue in the Crotona neighborhood of the Bronx.

Footage shows two men wearing black hoodies and white face masks engaging with a group of teenagers across the street.

It's unclear what is said, but one of the teenagers crosses the street to approach the men.

Then, the group of teenagers begin to desperately flee the area at the apparent start of gunfire.

A few of the boys manage to escape, but Werts appears to get caught in between two vehicles as one gunman follows him. The teenager trips to the ground and attempts to crawl away.

Surveillance footage released by the New York Police Department shows a shooting that took place in the Bronx on Thursday

Two men, wearing black hoodies and white face masks (right), were seen talking to a group of teenagers when shots were fired

The gunman stands over Werts, aims his gun and shoots the teenager at point blank range.

Additional footage shows a man, thought by authorities to be an accomplice, walking down Southern Boulevard shortly after the shooting. The man is dressed in a black hoodie, white face mask and sneakers.

Meanwhile, Werts was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital and pronounced dead.

He sustained gunshot wounds to his head and feet, New York Post reports.

Authorities has asked that anyone with information about the shooting to contact NYPD Crime Stopper at 800-577-TIPS.

One gunman shot dead Kether Werts (pictured) as he attempted to crawl away after tripping

Additional footage shared by the NYPD appeared to show an accomplice in the shooting on Thursday

New York City experienced a concerning uptick in gun violence this summer that may continue into fall.

According to the NYPD CompStat, there have been 52 shooting victims this year across all five boroughs as of September 6.

There's been a 134 per cent increase compared to the same time last year, which amassed to 22 shooting victims.

In regards to shooting incidents, there have been 51 such episodes, compared to 19 recorded last year. That'a a 168.4 per cent increase.

At least 15 Bronx residents have become gun violence victims in 2020 after only four in 2019.

This comes after a number of shootings incidents and related deaths happened in the Big Apple over Labor Day Weekend.

At least 10 people were shot, including a 62-year-old Bronx resident who was killed while walking his dogs outside his home. Another instance saw a six-year-old boy, his mother and three others struck at a pre-dawn Caribbean J'Ouvert celebration.

All five of those victims were hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.
The morning after the world learned that a closely watched clinical trial of a coronavirus vaccine had been halted last week over safety concerns, the companys chief executive disclosed that a person given the vaccine had experienced serious neurological symptoms.

But the remarks were not public. Instead, the chief executive, Pascal Soriot of AstraZeneca, spoke at a closed meeting organized by J.P. Morgan, the investment bank.

AstraZeneca said Saturday that an outside panel had cleared its trial in Britain to begin again, but the company still has not given any details about the patients medical condition, nor has it released a transcript of Soriots remarks to investors, which were reported by the news outlet STAT and later confirmed by an analyst for J.P. Morgan.

Another front-runner in the vaccine race, Pfizer, made a similarly terse announcement Saturday: The company is proposing to expand its clinical trial to include thousands more participants, but it gave few other details about its plan, including how it would determine the effectiveness of the vaccine in its larger study.

It is standard for drug companies to withhold details of clinical trials until after they are completed, tenaciously guarding their intellectual property and competitive edge. But these are extraordinary times, and now there is a growing outcry among independent scientists and public health experts who are pushing the companies to be far more open with the public in the midst of a pandemic that has killed more than 193,000 people in the United States.

These experts say American taxpayers are entitled to know more since the federal government has committed billions of dollars to vaccine research and to buying the vaccines once they are approved. And greater transparency could also help bolster faltering public confidence in vaccines at a time when a growing number of Americans fear President Donald Trump will pressure federal regulators to approve a vaccine before it is proved safe and effective.

Trust is in short supply, said Dr. Harlan Krumholz, a cardiologist and health care researcher at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, who has spent years prodding companies and academic researchers to share more trial data with outside scientists. And the more that they can share, the better off we are.

Last week, nine pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca and Pfizer, pledged to stand with science and rigorously vet any vaccine for the coronavirus  an unusual pact among competitors. But the researchers said that missing from the joint statement was a promise to share more critical details about their research with the public and the scientific community.

None of the three companies with coronavirus vaccines in advanced clinical trials in the United States have made public the protocols and statistical analysis plans for those trials  the detailed road maps that could help the independent scientists better understand how the trials were designed and hold the companies accountable if they were to deviate from their plans. In some cases, crucial details about how the trials have been set up  such as at what points an independent board can review early study results or under what conditions a trial could be stopped early  have not been made public.

Weve never had such an important clinical trial  or series of clinical trials  in recent history, said Dr. Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California, and a longtime expert on clinical trials. Everything should be transparent.

Public confidence in the drug companies findings and federal regulators rigor will be critical in persuading Americans to get vaccinated. A growing number of people are skeptical. A poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation last week found that nearly two-thirds of Americans  62%  are worried that the Food and Drug Administration will rush to approve a coronavirus vaccine without making sure it is safe and effective, under political pressure from Trump.

Pharmaceutical companies are counting on their vaccine research to help them rebuild reputations that have been tarnished by soaring drug prices and the industrys role in fueling the opioid epidemic.

In an effort to restore public trust, senior regulators at the FDA took the highly unusual step of promising in a USA Today op-ed piece Thursday to uphold the scientific integrity of the process of evaluating treatments and vaccines and to maintain the agencys independence.

Representatives for the three companies with vaccine candidates in large, advanced trials in the United States  Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca  said they had released many details about the trials.

Pfizer said in a statement that the novelty of the virus and the fast-moving nature of the coronavirus crisis had meant that the protocol had to be flexible to enable us to enhance the evaluation of the potential vaccines safety and efficacy. The company said it would publish the full protocol from the trial as part of its submission to a medical journal that will include results, enrollment criteria and final number of participants enrolled.

On Saturday, Pfizer said it would ask the FDA for permission to expand its trial to 44,000 participants, from its initial target of 30,000. But the announcement raised new questions about how the company would be able to know the results by its goal of the end of October with so many new participants. A Pfizer spokeswoman, Amy Rose, said, We are not going to speak to timing or specifics of any interim analyses.

AstraZeneca did not initially report that a participants illness had halted its clinical trials around the world. The studies were paused Sept. 6 but not reported until the news was broken by STAT on Tuesday. The company still has not disclosed the patients illness that led to the pause, even though it has discussed the medical condition of another participant who developed multiple sclerosis in July, which led to another brief halt of the trial. That illness was determined to be unrelated to the vaccine.

The company said that Soriots appearance at the J.P. Morgan meeting was part of a long-planned event and that he largely discussed the companys business outlook, with a few questions about the trial. The New York Times has reported that the patient developed symptoms consistent with transverse myelitis, or inflammation of the spinal cord.

A spokeswoman for AstraZeneca, Michele Meixell, said that while trial sponsors were required to notify the doctors operating clinical trial sites if an unexplained event occurred, it is not common practice for those pauses to be communicated beyond the clinical community involved in a trial  including the media  in order to protect the privacy of individual participants and maintain the integrity of the trial.

There is precedent for greater transparency. The large Recovery trial being run by the University of Oxford in Britain  which helped determine that the steroid dexamethasone reduces deaths in patients with COVID-19  has published its trial protocol and statistical analysis plans.

While the broad outlines of the vaccine trial designs have been made available  including on a federal clinical trial registry  crucial details remain a mystery.

For example, Pfizers chief executive has said the company could apply to the FDA for emergency authorization of its vaccine as early as October. But the company has not said how many times  and at what point in the trial  it will allow an independent review board to examine its study data to evaluate whether the evidence of safety and efficacy is strong enough that it can stop the trial early and apply for an emergency approval from federal regulators.

And none of the companies have published the criteria they will use to determine when these outside boards would advise stopping the trial, which could happen if the vaccine showed overwhelming efficacy, if it showed that it did not protect against COVID-19 or if it was linked to serious safety issues.

These so-called interim analyses are the subject of intense interest because they are the only way that late-stage trials could be halted early.

Company executives have provided some trial details when they have spoken on discussion panels, at investor conferences or in news releases. But researchers looking for clues have had to comb through transcripts, videos and articles posted online rather than examine documents that the companies provided.

The lack of transparency is unacceptable, several researchers said, given that the federal government has billion-dollar deals with each of the companies.

Look, we paid for it, said Saad Omer, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health. So its reasonable to ask for it.

A federal clinical trial registry details the number of trial participants, who should be included and excluded from the study, and the main outcomes. But it only skims the surface, Krumholz said. The protocols are much more detailed.

Peter Doshi, who is on the faculty at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy in Baltimore and is an editor with The BMJ, a medical journal, said he recently requested the protocols from Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca. None of the companies shared them, he said.

I imagine most of the public would like to believe scientists are all sharing their data, that this process is open to scrutiny among the scientific community, said Doshi, who has helped pressure drugmakers to share trial records with researchers. Just not true.

Doshi said the protocols could help researchers answer important questions about the studies and possibly to critique them. For example, can the trials determine whether the vaccine can prevent COVID-19 and complications in high-risk groups like older adults? When the researchers test for the coronavirus, how do they account for false results?

Other independent scientists said they were eager to examine the trials statistical analysis plans, which would guide them in analyzing the results.

Frankly, I would love to know what theyre planning to do and how theyre planning to do it, said Dr. Judith Feinberg, vice chairwoman for research in medicine at West Virginia University in Morgantown.

By making these documents public, outside experts said they would be able to hold the companies accountable if they changed the way they analyzed the results.

Theres no downside to sharing the documents, said Dr. Paul Offit, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia who serves on the FDA advisory committee that will review coronavirus vaccines. People are skittish about these vaccines. I think it helps to be transparent.

Omer said he was in favor of the companies releasing the protocols and analysis plans, but he said he also worried that, in the wrong hands, the technical documents could be misinterpreted.

You cannot kid around with this kind of stuff, he said. In the long run, however, he said it was to the companies advantage to allow qualified researchers to evaluate the plans.

If independent researchers agreed the trials were set up properly  and Omer said he expected that would be the case  that could help enhance their credibility. They can say, Hold your horses. No need to jump up and down.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Halle Berry has been left speechless after Netflix paid $20m (15m) for the rights to her directorial debut.

The Oscar winning actor has stepped behind the camera for Bruised, a gritty drama in which she plays a boxer.

Ahead of its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Bruised was purchased by Netflix in a deal reported to be worth just under $20m.

I am speechless, Berry tweeted in response to the deal. Thank you @netflix for believing in my vision, cannot wait for yall to finally see Bruised.

In the film, Berry plays a washed-up MMA fighter named Jackie Justice, who is determined to win back her title as well as the young son she abandoned years prior.

Berry broke two ribs while preparing for the role, but fought through the pain in order to maintain the movies start date for filming.

She also revealed that she had to wait for several months while the film was due to star Blake Lively and be directed by Nick Cassavetes, and was only able to take the reins of the movie when both left the project.

Im tortured, because now I cant let it go, Berry told Variety of the waiting period. Ive been thinking of how I can reimagine it for someone like me, a Black woman in middle age  not starting life  whos looking for a last chance, not another chance. Im stuck on it.

Halle Berry on the red carpet in 2019, and in her new film 'Bruised' (Kevin Winter/Getty Images/Sierra/Affinity)

Berry recently revealed that her Oscar win in 2002, in which she became the first and so far only black actor to win the Best Actress Oscar, was one of her biggest heartbreaks.

Bruised is expected to be released on Netflix in 2021.


Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (R) meets with the visiting Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense General Wei Fenghe (L) in Manila on the afternoon of September 11, 2020. (mod.gov.cn)

MANILA, Philippines Sept. 12 -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte met with the visiting Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense General Wei Fenghe in Manila on the afternoon of September 11, 2020.

Duterte said that the delegation is the first high-level one to visit the Philippines since the COVID-19 pandemic, showing that China attaches great importance to the China-Philippine relations. Under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, China has overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Philippine side hereby expresses congratulations on it, he stated.

After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese government and military provided a large amount of selfless assistance to the Philippines, and the Philippines side is sincerely grateful for that, he added.

Maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea is in the common interests of all countries in the region. It is hoped that all parties will resolve their conflicts and differences through friendly consultations on the basis of respect for international law, and jointly achieve long-term peace and stability in the South China Sea, Duterte expressed.

General Wei Fenghe said that China and Philippine enjoy a long-established friendship, and the relations between the two countries continue to make new progress under the joint guidance of President Xi Jinping and His Excellency the President Duterte. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the two countries support each other, which reflect the good-neighborly and friendly relations of mutual assistance.

The Chinese military is willing to develop closer and more pragmatic cooperation with the Philippine military, said Wei. Maintaining the stability of the South China Sea is the shared responsibility of the two countries. It is necessary to persist in resolving issues within the region through consultations, strengthen communication and coordination, so as to properly manage differences, and jointly maintain peace and tranquility in the South China Sea, Wei added.

On Friday morning, General Wei Henghe also held talks with Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana. They exchanged views on the international and regional situations, the relations between the two countries and the two militaries, the South China Sea issue, etc.



Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe (1st R) holds official talks with Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana (1st L) in Manila, the Philippines, Sept. 11, 2020.(mod.gov.cn)
Seoul, Sep 13 : The US Department of Justice has filed a criminal complaint against a North Korean man suspected of killing Pyongyang leader Kim Jong-un's half brother on charges of violating sanctions placed on the communist regime.

The Department on Friday announced the complaint charging Ri Jong-chol and two others with "conspiracy to violate North Korean Sanctions Regulations and bank fraud, and conspiracy to launder funds", the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency reported on Saturday.

Ri is suspected of murdering Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of the North Korean leader, in 2017 in Malaysia.

Ri was taken into custody but was later released due to lack of evidence.

The FBI's Minneapolis field office is investigating the case, the Department added.

Kim Jong-nam was killed in the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia in February 2017, when two women smeared his face with the VX nerve agent.

Kim Jong-nam was Kim Jong-il's eldest son, and for a while it appeared he was being groomed to succeed him.

But he fell from favour in the early 2000s.
The Pioneer Woman star Ree Drummond and Ladd Drummond have been married since 1996. Heres what Ree said about Ladds unusual proposal.

Ree and Ladd Drummonds first meeting

Ree Drummond on the Today show | Tyler Essary/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Ree and Ladd first met at a bar in Oklahoma. In her book, Black Heels to Tractor Wheels, Ree says she spotted him almost right away as she was drinking chardonnay with her friends. She was so smitten when she saw Ladd that she described her legs as feeling like overcooked noodles. One of the first things she noticed was his silvery, gray hair and big hands. Heres how she described that day:

Thats when I saw himthe cowboyacross the room. He was tall, strong, and mysterious, sipping bottled beer and wearing jeans and, I noticed, cowboy boots. And his hair. The stallions hair was very short and silvery graymuch too gray for how young his face said he was, but just gray enough to send me through the roof with all sorts of fantasies of Cary Grant in North by Northwest. Gracious, but he was a vision, this Marlboro Manesque, rugged character across the room. After a few minutes of staring, I inhaled deeply, then stood up. I needed to see his hands They were big and strong. Bingo. Ree Drummond, Black Heels to Tractor Wheels

How Ladd Drummond proposed to Ree Drummond

Ree and Ladd Drummond | Monica Schipper/Getty Images for The Pioneer Woman Magazine

In her book, Ree tells the story of her passionate romance with Ladd. Although the couples relationship was hot and heavy, Ladds proposal was quite laid back. He asked for The Accidental Country Girls hand in marriage in such a low-key way, she almost missed it. Ree says he simply said, You wanna get married? and then pulled out a diamond ring from his pocket.

His face wore a sweet, sweet smile, wrote Ree. I stood there completely frozen. Umwhat? I asked. I could formulate no words but these. He didnt respond immediately. Instead he took my left hand in his, opened up my fingers, and placed a diamond ring onto my palm, which was, by now, beginning to sweat.

Ree says she was stunned by the proposal. She was taken by surprise, so she didnt answer Ladd right away. However, after a few minutes, she got her bearings and decided to accept.

How Ree and Ladd Drummond keep their love alive

Ree and Ladd do what they can to nurture their marriage. Ree says one marriage tip she tries to follow is refraining from going to bed angry. Heres what she told Parade magazine:

Ladd and I try not to go to bed with a disagreement still pending. I always make a joke that if our feet touch before we go to sleep, then everythings fine. We have the same primary love language, which is quality time, and we do our best to have that time as much as we can at the end of the day. We try not to let that fall by the wayside because we do our best when were together. Ree Drummond, Parade magazine

Follow Sheiresa Ngo on Twitter.
Amid tussle with Shiv Sena, Kangana Ranaut meets Maharashtra Governor

India

oi-Deepika S

Mumbai, Sep 13: Amid tussle with the ruling party Shiv Sena, Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut met Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari on Sunday.

Ranaut is locked in a public spat with the Shiv Sena, which heads the ruling coalition in the state, after her statement comparing Mumbai to "Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir" irked the party.

The meeting comes days after Ranaut's Mumbai office was partially demolished by civic officials, in a move she alleged was revenge for her comments criticising the state's handling of the Sushant Singh Rajput case and comparing Mumbai to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Talking to reporters after the meeting that took place at the Raj Bhavan, the actor said, "I met the governor. He heard me as a daughter. I came to meet him as a citizen. I have nothing to do with politics."

"I told him about the injustice meted out to me and what happened was improper. It was indecent behaviour," she said.

The trouble between the Sena and Kangana started after the actor recently said she feared the Mumbai police more than the "movie mafia" and likened the Maharashtra capital to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Kangana Ranaut to meet Maharashtra Governor tomorrow

The 33-year-old actor, who returned to Mumbai on Wednesday from her home state Himachal Pradesh the same day as her house was partially demolished by the civic body, had alleged that the Maharashtra government was targeting her because of her clash with the Sena.

On Friday, the "Queen" actor had urged Congress president Sonia Gandhi to intervene and stop the "harassment of women". In a tweet, she had asked Gandhi if she was not anguished by the treatment given by the Maharashtra government, in which the Congress is also a part.
The 2020 Trump campaign ratcheted up its rhetoric on Saturday in a fundraising text, warning people that Antifa, the loose collection of far-left anti-fascist demonstrators who have physically confronted police and Trump supporters this summer, will attack your homes" if Joe Biden is elected.

There has been no reported evidence Antifa, which does not have any sort of central organisation, is planning to launch any sort of attack on American homes if voters hand an election night victory to the Democratic nominee.

The Trump campaign did not provide any evidence either, but that did not stop it from firing off the following text message:

"ANTIFA ALERT: They'll attack your homes if Joe's elected. Pres Trump needs you to become a Diamond Club Member. Your name is MISSING. Donate."

US intelligence and Homeland Security Department officials have warned that white supremacists are the biggest domestic terrorism threat in the country, a message that has largely fallen on deaf ears at the top of the Trump administration, several outlets have reported recently.

As protests have erupted following the deaths or near-deaths in police custody of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor of Louisville, Ahmaud Arbery in Atlanta, and Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Donald Trump has seized on the violent confrontations and riotous behaviour perpetrated by so-called Antifa elements as a rallying cry for his law and order presidency.

Ninety-three per cent of the protests for racial justice this summer have been non-violent, according to a report released earlier this month by the nonprofit Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

Mr Biden has publicly condemned Antifa and political violence across the board, stating on multiple occasions that violent outbursts undermine to the vast majority of protesters messages of racial equality and law enforcement reform.

Mr Trump, who recent polling shows is losing in virtually every key swing state for the 2020 election, has made anti-Antifa fear-mongering a lynchpin of his campaign message.

In a Fox News interview on Saturday, the president cheered the US Marshals for shooting and killing a far-left activist who was suspected of shooting a Trump protester at a clash between Antifa and Trump supporters in Portland, Oregon, late last month.

This guy was a violent criminal, and the US Marshals killed him. And I'll tell you something -- that's the way it has to be. There has to be retribution, Mr Trump said.

Law enforcement is trained to avoid extrajudicial violence when possible to detain a suspect.
Drastic restructuring key to survival of ailing airline



The Moon Jae-in administration has decided to provide the ailing Asiana Airlines with a relief fund, following the collapse of a takeover deal between HDC Hyundai Development Company and the air carrier. The government and the state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB), the main creditor of Asiana, concurred on the need to offer financial aid worth 2.4 trillion won ($2 billion) to the company.



KDB and other creditors had been engaged in deal negotiations with HDC since last November, but the deal fell through as HDC finally gave up its takeover bid when Asiana couldn't fulfill its requests for further due diligence. The rupture of the deal will likely bring far-flung impact as Asiana is the nation's second-largest air carrier with up to 9,000 employees. The Moon administration has been wary of possible mass layoffs amid the lingering COVID-19 pandemic.



It has been a global trend to provide financial assistance for air carriers which have been suffering acute setbacks since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. But as the relief fund comes from the state coffer, it is necessary to guarantee the revitalization of the ailing company beyond just prolonging its survival. Asiana Airlines should take drastic self-rescue measures before receiving large-scale state assistance.



The finance ministry and the creditors have expressed hope to put the airliner up for sale again after normalizing its management through the rescue package. However, it is premature to expect a fast recovery of the airliner as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown no signs of slowing down. In addition, the nation's air flight market has seen tougher competition with many low-cost carriers (LCCs).



Once the firm gets the relief fund, it needs to maintain the number of its employees over the 90 percent level from the current state for the six months to come. It also should carry out several requirements to prevent possible mismanagement by its executives and employees, including a wage freeze and the prohibition of assistance for subsidiaries.



The ministry and KDB have already offered 3.3 trillion won of liquidity to the firm since last year to facilitate the M&A deal. The creditors should take the lead in restructuring the company including the replacement of its current executives.



COVID-19 has been taking its toll on air carriers. With little sign of recovery in the near future, there is growing anticipation over mass layoffs in the industry. For instance, Eastar Jet already decided to lay off 605 employees. Once Asiana Airlines is put under creditors' control, its affiliates  Air Busan and Air Seoul  will also face difficulties.



It is time to put those airline companies under crisis-management mode. This is necessary to prepare them for the post-pandemic era by helping them stand on their own. First normalize Asiana and then find an investor to take it over.


New Delhi: As the number of coronavirus cases continues to increase in the national capital, the Delhi government has asked all nursing homes and private hospitals having bed strength of 50 beds or more to reserve at least 80 per cent of their total ICU bed strength. Delhi reported 4,321 new COVID cases and 28 deaths recorded on Saturday alone.

It was for the fourth day in a row that over 4,000 fresh cases were recorded in Delhi. Meanwhile, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has also directed health authorities to increase the number of ICU beds in hospitals.

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said,"Yesterday, we instructed 33 private hospitals to reserve 80 per cent of their ICU beds for coronavirus patients. This has been done since issues were being faced with regards to ICU beds in some private hospitals. I also held a video conference over this and an order has been issued in this regard.''

Jain said the national capital has ramped up testing, which is why an increase in cases is being observed and stressed that it will help in containing and isolating cases of the infection. On Saturday, over 60,000 COVID-19 tests were conducted.

Live TV

Jain informed that in the national capital the positivity rate is 7.19 per cent while the death rate in the last 10 days has been 0.68 per cent. The overall death rate is 2.23 per cent.

Active cases have risen to 28,059, in the national capital of which 15,371 are in home isolation while 6,294 are admitted to hospitals. As per the Delhi Corona app, 730 of 1,212 ventilator beds are currently occupied.
Bahrain has become the second Gulf nation to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel, joining the United Arab Emirates in normalizing ties with the Jewish state and reshaping politics in the Middle East.

Bahraini officials said the agreement will help promote peace in the region, a position that is not shared by its neighbor Iran. The government in Tehran, which supports the island nations majority Shiite population, warned the deal will further destabilize the region.

This is a historic breakthrough to further peace in the Middle East, said a joint statement on Friday between the US, Bahrain and Israel. Opening direct dialogue and ties between these two dynamic societies and advanced economies will continue the positive transformation of the Middle East.

President Donald Trump praised the move by Bahrain, coming days before he was already scheduled to host leaders from Israel and the UAE in Washington for a signing ceremony at the White House. He said the nations leaders had shown vision and courage by reaching the accord and confirmed that Bahrains foreign minister would join the Sept. 15 event.

The move will bolster Trumps claims ahead of the November election to be helping bring peace to the Middle East and seeing success in efforts to extract US forces from the region. It will also come as a welcome development for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose support domestically has taken a hit over corruption charges and his response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Alarm in Iran

The events have been seen with alarm by officials in Iran and the Palestinian territories. Palestinian officials quickly denounced the agreement as a betrayal of their cause and a torpedoing of an Arab-led peace initiative. The Palestinian government recalled their ambassador to Bahrain soon after the announcement.

Irans foreign ministry condemned the agreement.

From now on, the rulers of Bahrain will be complicit in Israels murders as a source of constant threat to the region and the Islamic world, the ministry said in a statement posted on its official Telegram channel. It warned against any insecurity posed by Israel, adding it will hold Bahrain responsible for all consequences.

Ehud Yaari, an overseas fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Bahrain is very sensitive to Iran and has a clear interest in its Shiite population. So one wonders whether the Iranians will find it in their interest to respond by trying to ignite some domestic trouble in Bahrain, he said.

Since taking office, the Trump administration has sought to build a unified coalition in the region against Tehran while pushing an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan that had minimal input by Palestinian leaders, who long ago said Trumps embrace of Israel made the US an unacceptable partner in negotiations.

The announcement of the Bahrain move, on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, follows the arrival of Secretary of State Michael Pompeo in Qatar earlier in the day to jump start talks between Afghanistans government and the Taliban.

The sand was loaded up with blood and now were going to see a lot of that sand is loaded up with peace, Trump said, referring to the Middle East.

Trump will host Netanyahu, Bahrains foreign minister and a representative from the UAE next week for the signing ceremony. Fridays announcement came with praise from Netanyahu and Bahrain King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa for Trumps dedication to peace in the region and the pragmatic and unique approach he has taken to bringing the nations together.

In a statement released by his office, Netanyahu said this is a new era of peace that will lead to very large investments in the Israeli economy.

In a phone interview with the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television channel, Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al-Zayani dismissed Irans criticism of the deal as expected and accused its neighbor across the Gulf of trying to destabilize the region.

Peace is a strategic choice for the Muslim community, he said, adding that Bahrain had chosen to make the deal based on its own higher security interests and that its support for the Palestinians and a two-state solution remained steadfast.

Speculation over whether Bahrain could be next to establish ties with Israel had been building in recent weeks, with White House officials repeatedly signaling other countries could follow the UAE.

Saudi Signal

While Bahrain is a tiny island with the smallest economy among the six Gulf Cooperation Council members, its decision to formalize relations with Israel is certain to prompt debate over whether its larger neighbor and ally Saudi Arabia -- to which its connected by a causeway -- may have tacitly approved the deal.

Ayham Kamel, head of Middle East and North Africa at Eurasia Group, which advises clients on political risk, said Bahrains decision is implicitly a signal from Riyadh that it has granted its blessing to the normalization of relations with Israel. Saudi Arabia is unable and unwilling to join normalization without concessions to the Palestinians but is at the same time seeking a new regional order.

The Trump administration has compared the agreements with Israel to the historic Camp David accords in 1978, when Egypt formally recognized Israel, and Jordans decision to establish ties with the Jewish state during the Clinton administration in the 1990s.

In a nod to that past, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi welcomed the deal, saying on Twitter that he values this important step toward establishing stability and peace in the Middle East.
LeJeune Chavez paints with beads.

The Santo Domingo Pueblo (Kewa) artist combines beads, stones and silver to create miniature tapestries of needlework in glass.

Chavez is one of 450 artists who juried into the Santa Fe Indian Market-turned-virtual because of the pandemic at swaia.org.

In her work, hundreds of tiny beads may circle a turquoise stone in a rainbow of colors atop silver overlay. Thousands may transform into a traditional thunderbird necklace or hundreds into a buckskin cuff. Others flit into the wings of a dragonfly. Chavez dips her needle and thread into the beads; her husband Joe performs the silver work.

Chavez used the isolated time in quarantine to experiment with designs she had never attempted before.

It was always in my mind to make (a thunderbird) with beadwork, she said. I thought, this is the time Im going to do it. I used those tiny beads, size 13 to 15. The bigger the number, the smaller the beads.

Santo Domingo artists created traditional thunderbird necklaces from old battery casings and record albums during the Depression. Chavez strung hers using the traditional primary color palette with glass beads as small as a grain of kosher salt.

That kind of invention is nothing new to her.

She began working with beads as early as 7 years old.

I remember making some little bracelets out of cotton twine and those big beads, she said. I put them in a shoebox and went around to my neighbors and tried to sell them.

She continued that marketing when she attended a California boarding school. She sold pieces to the staff, as well as the school museum.

I used to sell my parents work under the portal at the Palace of the Governors, she said.

After high school, Chavez got a job working for the phone company in Santa Fe. Then it was time to commit.

I just decided to quit my job and do beadwork for a living, she said. That was 30 years ago.

Her husband left his job as a contractor to do silver work. It was Chavez who came up with the idea of combining the two art forms.

Thats a little secret recipe, she said.

She calls a pendant featuring a turquoise stone orbited by beads atop a silver overlay bezel Beads on Silver.

I like to call these our signature pieces because nobodys doing that kind of work, she said.

A beaded turquoise necklace pairs Chavezs intricate patterns with a single Kingman turquoise stone.

My husband does the stone cutting, so I get dibs on the stones, she said with a laugh. The piece also includes a single nugget of jet and a removable loop so that it can be used as a pendant. She also incorporated gold Swarovski crystal beads.

I dont draw out my designs, Chavez said. I see it in my mind and its like painting with beads.

Chavez juried into Indian Market about 30 years ago; it comprises about half her income.

I was a little bit shocked at first, she said of the pandemic closing, the way everybody was.

But since were both self-employed artists, we were able to fall into our routine. It was kind of our therapy.

I miss the visitors who come to Santa Fe, she continued. I miss the holding, touching and feeling our jewelry. But for now, its the way we have to go.

Online

To view beaded work by LeJeune Chavez, visit swaia.org
More than 300 people and 100 vehicles paraded through Katy, Fulshear, Richmond and Simonton on Saturday, Sept. 12, in support of President Donald Trump.

The vehicles varied in size, from two-door sedans to Hemtt M978 military tankers, but they were all festooned in pro-Trump flags and signs.

MORE FROM CLAIRE GOODMAN: Its up to us to make sure theyre never forgotten: Katy remembers victims of 9/11

The parade route traversed from Bass Pro Shops in Katy, past City Hall and the Katy Police Department, down the Grand Parkway and across FM 1093 before its final destination at Anthonies Grill in Simonton.

Before the parade began, supporters gathered in the Bass Pro Shops parking lot to listen to speakers Duane Gaither, the event organizer, and Larry Estes, pastor at West Oaks Fellowship Church. Private planes flew over the event in solidarity.

While the crowd was in fervent support of Trump, Gaithers message was one of unity, calling together both political parties to honor America and the right to vote.

For todays parade we are celebrating our freedom. Were celebrating the fact that we have a say in our government. Were celebrating the fact that we are free, said Gaither. I dont care if youre a Biden fanatic or if youre Trumps No. 1 fan. Thats not what Im about today. Today is about America.

On ExpressNews.com: Trump played down the pandemic, but voters may have figured that out already

Gaither also called for Americans of both parties to vote.

Dont be intimidated out of participating by one side or the other, no matter what your beliefs. If you have something you believe in, and you want to support Biden, then get out there and support him. If you want to support President Trump, then get out there and support him. Be a part of the process, he said.

In his invocation, Estes issued harsher words about the state of America. He asked God to forgive America for greed, allowing children to receive a public education and for turning away from the belief that marriage exists only between a man and woman.

(Trump) seems to be a God-fearing man, Estes said. May our country be exalted, may our president be exalted, and we are standing here because we need him to be our president once again.

MASS MAILING: AG Ken Paxton seeks quick appeal on mail-in ballots as applications set to go out

Johnny Nimmons is a staunch supporter of Trump. He attended the parade in his M1079 tanker, which he purchased at a military auction.

I only have one thing to say, and thats that Im here in support of my president, Nimmons said as he lined his vehicle up for the parade.

As the parade wound its way through Fort Bend County, multiple cars joined in support.

(Many people) did not know about the parade and just joined in along the way, Gaither said.

Reflecting on the experience, Gaither lamented the schism between political parties and social divides.

MORNING REPORT: Get the top stories on HoustonChronicle.com sent directly to your inbox

My personal feeling is that this is probably one of the more important elections in my lifetime, and Im 62 years old. I see a great division in the United States right now that I dont like very much, and that I never really saw before, Gaither said.

Gaither acknowledged that the death of George Floyd has made him more acutely aware of racial divides in the nation.

Ten years ago, even right here in the deep south, I would have told you that I dont believe racism exists. Today, its obvious, he said.

Gaither reiterated his hopes that the parade will inspire voters of both political parties to vote in the November election.

We need to unite ourselves, and we need to put our partisan politics aside and understand that the election  the vote  is a process. Its a political process that gives us our voice in government. And it gives us our right to express and keep our freedom. Thats the important part.

claire.goodman@chron.com
A MAN has admitted sexually assaulting a schoolgirl who was waiting for a bus at a bus stop in the city.

The 46-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded guilty to a single charge under the provisions of the Criminal Law (Rape) Act relating to an incident which happened on October 25, 2019.

Before the man entered his guilty plea, Inspector Andrew Lacey said it would be alleged the man approached the 13-year-old and took her right hand before trying to kiss her without her consent.

He said the injured party leaned back and that the culprit then kissed her on the chest before fleeing.

The inspector told Judge Larkin the defendant made full admissions following his arrest and that the Director of Public Prosecutions had consented to summary disposal of the case.

After formally accepting jurisdiction, the judge adjourned the matter to facilitate the preparation of a Probation Report.

Gardai will also canvass the schoolgirl and her family in relation to a victim impact statement.

The defendant, who has also pleaded guilty to separate assault charges, was remanded in continuing custody.
Undated handout photo issued by the World Wildlife Fund UK (WWF) of a Arctic Skua chick, on Orkney. Global wildlife populations have declined by more than two thirds in less than 50 years, a new report has warned. PA Photo. Issue date: Thursday September 10, 2020. Conservation charity WWF said nature was in "freefall" due to human activity, mainly intensive agriculture and the destruction of habitat such as forests to produce food, as it published its latest Living Planet Report. See PA story ENVIRONMENT Wildlife. Photo credit should read: RSPB/PA Wire NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder. Image title: ENVIRONMENT Wildlife 07063275

No progress" has been made to prevent the extinction of threatened species in the UK, a leading conservation charity has warned.

The Royal Society for the Protection Birds (RSPB) has described the recent decline in the population of rare birds as catastrophic and has urged the Government to take immediate action.

Government analysis of its progress under international goals, agreed in 2010 to reverse declines in nature by this year, shows it is meeting or exceeding five out of 20 targets to help wildlife and habitats.

But an assessment by the RSPB suggests the UK is doing worse than the official analysis, and is making no progress or is going in the wrong direction in six areas.

Two-fifths of species have been in decline since 1970, the RSPB said.

The charity's chief executive Beccy Speight said: "The UK is not alone in failing to meet the ambitious targets set out 10 years ago, but it is now time that the high ambitions set by successive governments becomes action at home as well as leading the international effort.

"Every country in the UK must create legally binding targets to restore nature, invest in nature and green jobs, and support farmers to produce healthy food that's good for people, climate and wildlife.

Breeding waders such as redshanks, lapwings and dunlins in particular have seen their numbers decimated over the past 35 years.

A study from the charity found that the population of redshanks declined by 53 per cent between 1985 and 2011 and have estimated this figure to have now risen even higher.

The charity said that without government intervention it wont be terribly long before we lose these birds permanently.

Kate Jennings, head of site conservation policy at the RSPB, told the Telegraph: If the next decade is like the last one, Id be surprised if we have any left at the end of it.

There is a massive gap between the Governments rhetoric and the reality of whats actually happening.

Over 2.9 billion a year for the next decade on environmental land management and 615 million annually for restoring and creating habitats is needed to combat this problem, the charity estimated.
Angry EU rounds on Johnson's claim of Brexit blockade The Irish border is once again the crux of a Brexit showdown

The European Union on Sunday rejected an incendiary claim by Prime Minister Boris Johnson that the bloc is plotting to destabilise the UK as another week of Brexit high drama beckoned, headlined by a stormy parliamentary debate in London.

The war of words escalated over a new British government bill that London admits is in violation of its EU divorce treaty -- legislation that has sparked a furious response from former prime ministers Tony Blair and John Major, as well as sitting MPs.

Johnson's claim that the 27-nation EU is plotting to choke off food supplies via crippling new trade barriers between Britain and Northern Ireland is "spin and not the truth," Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney told BBC television.

"There is no blockade proposed," he added, calling it "inflammatory language coming from Number 10 (Downing Street)."

Charles Michel, who heads the EU Council of government chiefs, said Britain's "international credibility" was at stake as both sides battle to unwind nearly 50 years of economic integration, following a deeply divisive referendum in the UK.

EU trade negotiator Michel Barnier insisted that a Northern Irish protocol in the EU treaty "is not a threat to the integrity of the UK", as claimed by Johnson in Saturday's Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Major and Blair, who led Britain through Northern Ireland's historic peace talks in the 1990s, wrote in the Sunday Times that the government's actions were "shaming itself and embarrassing our nation".

Backed by the EU, Ireland stresses the provisions for Northern Ireland were agreed by both sides to ensure fair competition after Brexit, and to comply with a 1998 peace pact that ended three decades of unrest in the province.

Johnson had accused the EU of threatening to tear the UK apart by imposing a food "blockade" between Britain and Northern Ireland, which is meant to enjoy a special status with the EU after Brexit.

Story continues

Johnson said the EU's stance justified his government's introduction of the new legislation to regulate the UK's internal market and maintain access to Northern Ireland, after a post-Brexit transition period expires at the end of this year.

- Twitter spat -

The food dispute centres on the EU's reluctance to grant Britain "third country" status, which acknowledges that nations meet basic requirements to export their foodstuffs to Europe.

The EU is worried that post-Brexit Britain could undercut its own food standards, as well as rules on state aid for companies, and infiltrate its single market via Northern Ireland.

After the latest round of trade talks last week in London, Barnier had said "many uncertainties" remained about Britain's food export regime after January 1, and "more clarity" was needed for the UK to enjoy third-country listing.

Barnier is due to meet again this week with his British counterpart David Frost in Brussels, days after the EU threatened Britain with legal action unless it withdraws its unilateral changes by the end of September.

Frost on Sunday replied to Barnier with a lengthy thread on Twitter that took details of their closed-door disagreements public.

Frost said Britain's food rules would stay exactly the same on January 1, but that Barnier's team had stated "to us explicitly in these talks that if we are not listed we will not be able to move food to Northern Ireland".

- Resignation talk -

EU diplomats, and Johnson's many critics in Britain, suspect that the government is using the new legislation to jettison the entire framework of negotiations after failing to realise the treaty's full implications.

The bill will come up for its first debate in the House of Commons on Monday, and mutinous MPs are demanding its withdrawal and pressing for Justice Secretary Robert Buckland to resign.

"If I see the rule of law being broken in a way I find unacceptable then of course I will go," Buckland told the BBC.

"I don't believe we're going to get to that stage," he added, reiterating Johnson's view that the new bill is an "insurance policy" in the event of a Brexit "no deal" this year.

jit/tgb
VANCOUVEROne of the three humpback whales entangled in fishing gear off the coast of British Columbia is now free, although the two other animals have not been located.

Rescue teams were able to confirm late Thursday using drones that the humpback named Checkmate was free of fishing gear, said Paul Cottrell, the Pacific marine mammals co-ordinator for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

We are over the moon. When we were able to get the drone out there and confirm that  we were so happy, he said Friday.

These animals are very acrobatic and aerial too. So, it might have dislodged while breaching or doing some aerial activities.

The whale had a trap and line running through its mouth and rescuers had found that someone had cut off the buoy making it difficult to spot the animal.

The gear was wrapped close to Checkmates body, Cottrell said.

Rescuers believe the whale got entangled when it was foraging.

It is likely that a line went through the humpbacks mouth and baleen, which is the filter it uses to get food, he said. It is also possible that the line did not have any knots, which made it easier to slip off, he added.

Thats always a danger if it gets caught up in the baleen that the animal cant feed. Thats usually a death sentence.

Martin Haulena, head veterinarian at the Ocean Wise Marine Mammal Centre and the Vancouver Aquarium, said this whale was lucky to get free of the entanglement.

Its not something that happens with every case. Thats for sure.

Rescuers have yet to locate and confirm the condition of the two other whales that are also entangled in fishing gear.

Cottrell said rescuers were able to get about 60 metres of fishing line off one of the whales named X-ray but havent been able to locate it to check on its welfare for about a month. It was last seen travelling north along the east coast of Vancouver Island.

A yet-to-be-named whale, which has a fishing net over its head and was last seen on the central coast about a month ago hasnt been located either.

There may be another humpback that is entangled in fishing gear, although it is yet to be confirmed. Marine mammal specialists along with whale rescue groups are out looking for it, he said.

While looking for the entangled whales, Cottrell said he saw several other humpbacks, which is good news.

The downside is that we have a lot of fishing gear and, you know, traps and things in the water and any vertical or horizontal line in the water is a potential entanglement.

The department is working with industry and academics to improve the way fishers use gear. Hopefully there will be fewer lines in the water over the next few years, he said.

Its really important to minimize those entanglements.
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The Agency for the Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BP2MI) has thwarted an illegal dispatch of potential Indonesian migrant workers to Cambodia.

The operation was carried out following a report from one of the workers on Tuesday to the agencys crisis center, BP2MI head Benny Rhamdani said. The worker reported that they would be sent to Cambodia from Kualanamu International Airport in Medan, North Sumatra.

One worker reported to the BP2MI and explained about the illegal departure, Benny said on Friday as quoted by kompas.com.

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COMPTON, CaliforniaOfficials say two Los Angeles County sheriffs deputies were shot Saturday without provocation while sitting in their patrol car at a Metro rail station in what appeared to be an ambush.

The sheriffs department said a 24-year-old male deputy and a 31-year-old female deputy were shot in the head and had multiple gunshot wounds. They are in critical condition and have undergone surgery.

The gunman walked up on the deputies and opened fire without warning or provocation, the sheriffs department said in a Twitter post that included video showing a person open fire through the passenger-side window of the patrol car.

The incident happened around 7 p.m. a short distance from the Compton sheriffs station. The suspect is still at large.

Sheriff Villanueva Discusses Ambush Shooting of Two Deputies in Compton. To watch the full press conference, please visit https://t.co/fOaVP5wTUe pic.twitter.com/7gXlbLQpAK  LA County Sheriffs (@LASDHQ) September 13, 2020

Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, who is the chair of public safety for California state, told a press conference, This was an unprovoked, cowardly act. The individual will be caught and justice will prevail. Our society must not tolerate such acts of violence.

Tonight, we must as a community must condemn the actions of the perpetrators, but most importantly, we must all come together, pray together for these officers because they are heroes, he added.
Lindy Rama-Ellis (formerly Klim) went from an Olympian's ex-wife to Australia's hottest 'intimate wellness' expert overnight, following the launch of her vagina mask brand Fig Femme in July.

Touted as the 'ultimate pampering product', the masks claim to reduce vulva 'wrinkles', produce 'better textures' and even soothe ailments such as itchiness and acne.

While Lindy has urged fans to take 'vaginal hydration' seriously, Australian sexologist Dr Nikki Goldstein thinks otherwise.

'Consult a doctor, not a beauty brand:' Leading sexologist Dr Nikki Goldstein (pictured) has slammed Lindy Klim's new vagina mask range Fig Femme - which claims to 'improve the appearance of genitals' and treat itchiness

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Nikki argued that gynaecological problems and concerns should always be dealt with by medically-trained professionals, not 'intimate wellness' companies.

'If there is something that doesn't feel or seem right, it's a doctor that needs to be consulted, not a beauty brand,' she said.

Nikki also suggested that 'intimate' beauty products are problematic because they suggest that there is something inherently wrong with a natural-looking vagina.

Doctor knows best: Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Nikki said that gynaecological problems should always be dealt with by medically-trained professionals - not wellness brands. Pictured: Lindy Klim

'Women need to be educated on how to keep their vulvas healthy, not given another so called wellness product,' she said.

'Whilst I encourage more open and positive talk about women's sexuality and their bodies, I am concerned that vulva masks might make many women feel more self conscious about this part of their bodies, [and making women believe] there is now something they need to do to improve it,' she warned.

'It's ok to have blemishes on your vulva. We should be getting to the point of embracing our vulvas just the way they are and focusing on keeping them healthy, not 'improving' their appearance,' she added.

Controversial: Lindy went from an Olympian's ex-wife to Australia's hottest vaginal wellness expert overnight, following the launch of her vagina mask brand Fig Femme in July

However, a Fig Femme spokesperson has rejected Nikki's assertions, telling Daily Mail Australia that the vulva masks are meant to 'empower' women.

'The purpose of our masks is to nourish, soothe and aid post-pregnancy recovery, whilst also encouraging an open and honest self-care routine that helps facilitate self-confidence and aid a sense of empowerment for women over their own body,' they said.

'Many women do experience irritation and blemishes down there due to waxing, laser hair removal, exercise and everyday life. Our masks help soothe, restore and protect the skin.'

'It's ok to have blemishes on your vulva': Nikki also suggested that 'intimate' beauty products are problematic because they suggest that there is something inherently wrong with a natural-looking vagina

Despite this, Nikki believes that Lindy's yet another example of a beauty brand profiting from women's insecurities.

FigFemme's spokesperson rejected Nikki's suggestion that the masks are a way to profit from female insecurities.

'We are proud of our progressive product and we take pride in encouraging an open and honest dialogue, promoting female self-confidence, breaking down the typical taboo connotations associated with the notion of vulva shame and any female insecurities,' the spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.

'At FIG Femme, we are not recreating the wheel, there are already female intimate products out there but they seem to be hidden at the back of bathroom cabinets or the bottom of the shopping basket.'

'We wanted to create a range of products that women could feel confident to purchase - because why shouldnt they?' they added.

'A sense of empowerment for women over their own body': However, a Fig Femme spokesperson has rejected Nikki's assertions, telling Daily Mail Australia that the vulva masks are meant to 'empower' women. Pictured: Lindy Klim
Overnight reports from Jacksonville police:

 A 16-year-old girl was arrested on a possession of drug paraphernalia charge at 10:33 a.m. Saturday in the 200 block of East Dunlap Street.

 A political sign was removed from a yard in the 100 block of Sandusky Street between 10 p.m Friday and 6 a.m. Saturday.

 Karley R. Piper, 19, of Winchester was cited on charges of driving while license is suspended and operating an uninsured motor vehicle after being stopped at 10:14 p.m. Friday at East College and Lurton avenues.

 Kelly Newingham, 22, of 109 Jones St., Woodson, was given a verbal warning for disobeying a stop sign after being stopped at 10:47 p.m. Friday in the 300 block of South Main Street, but was then arrested on a charge of possession of a controlled substance.

 Charlie A. Treadway, 28, of Jacksonville and Michelle L. Prather, 37, of Jacksonville were cited on disorderly conduct charges after police said they were fighting in the middle of Dunlap Court near West College Avenue at 11:52 p.m. Friday.

 A Donald Trump 2020 sign was stolen between 11:30 a.m. Friday and 12:33 a.m. Saturday from the 1000 block of Sherwood Lane.

 A pickup truck drove through a yard in the first block of Southvale Drive about 2:20 a.m. Saturday, causing damage.
Acting Rector of the school Sivanheuang Phengkhammay said it has 39 classrooms from the kindergarten to high school level, with 75 teachers educating 1,056 students.

Envoy of the Vietnamese Embassy in Laos, Trinh Thi Tam, congratulated the schools staff on fulfilling their tasks and contributing to creating a prestigious facility.

She asked the school to continue improving teaching and study quality and pay due regard to infrastructure as well as food safety and hygiene amid COVID-19.

She also presented certificates of merit and gifts to students winning academic excellence awards at the municipal level.
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A group of Black Lives Matter protesters blockaded the George Washington Bridge into Manhattan on Saturday night, closing off traffic for around 20 minutes before marching to a police precinct and clashing with the NYPD.

Hawk Newsome, leader of the Greater New York chapter of BLM, said three people had been arrested following a violent confrontation outside an upper Manhattan police precinct.

He tweeted: 'Say Less. Work More. THEY NEVER SHUT DOWN THE GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE BEFORE.

'We did that for our Sisters and Brothers who had their lives stolen by AmeriKKKa.'

The New York Post said six people had been detained.

A group of around 100 protesters blockaded the George Washington Bridge in New York

Newsome tweeted on Saturday night his delight at having blocked the bridge

The BLM group were called to the streets by Hawk Newsome, leader of the local chapter

The group, waving flags and chanting, marched onto the bridge on Saturday night

Newsome had announced the demonstration on Thursday, tweeting: 'Roll with us Saturday as we Shut S*** Down. @blmgreaterny @Boogie Down Bronx.'

Around 100 people heeded his call, gathering in the Bronx and marching to Washington Heights before moving on to the bridge.

Both lanes of the upper level were blocked by flag-waving protesters, who marched on to the bridge at 7.30pm and remained there for up to 20 minutes.

The group, trailed by Port Authority Police, then moved on to the 34th Precinct, having met up with another group of demonstrators.

Four blocks up from the bridge, on West 183rd Street and Broadway, they were met at the precinct by a line of police.

BLM activists on Saturday stopped traffic between New Jersey and Manhattan

The activists were followed by Port Authority Police as they left the bridge

The group then marched from the bridge four blocks into upper Manhattan

Black Lives Matter managed to rally 100 people to blockade the bridge

After their rally, the police then moved to forcefully clear the area, some using batons on the protesters.

One protester was seen being pushed to the ground by a white-shirted officer.

The group dispersed by 10pm. Police reported no injuries.

'Look how much power we had. We sat on the bridge for 20 minutes. We shut the whole city down,' one protester told the Post.

'Then we came down here and police started beating the s*** out of us.'

The group then marched through the streets of upper Manhattan

Police wearing face shields and helmets forced back the protesters from the precinct
National Conference president Farooq Abdullah will attend the monsoon session of Parliament starting Monday, more than a year after the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 was abrogated on August 5, 2019, and local leaders were put into pre-emptive detention.

Yes, I am going to attend Parliament. Though they have kept no provisions to ask questions but we will have to sit four hours daily, Abdullah told HT. Nevertheless, I will raise our issues there, he added.

Abdullah is likely to command considerable attention this session in the backdrop of allegations that some leaders in Jammu and Kashmir were kept under illegal detention after J&Ks status was changed.

During the debate on revocation of Article 370 last year, several opposition leaders had demanded that Abdullah, a seasoned parliamentarian, be allowed to attend Parliament. Abdullah had told the media in an emotional interview in Srinagar that he had to break the door of his house to come out of detention and had rejected Union home minister Amit Shahs claim that he was free to move.

Also Read: Congress says PM should discuss LAC issue in monsoon session

The monsoon session will be held between September 14 and October 1 amid the coronavirus pandemic. The last parliamentary session was cut short on March 25 following the viral outbreak. The government has decided to do away with the Question Hour and instead only written replies will be given.

Also Read: Govt decides against holding all-party meet ahead of session

Abdullahs presence is also likely to bring focus back to Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Muftis continued detention. While most of the mainstream political leaders from Jammu and Kashmir have been released, including Farooq and his son Omar Abdullah, on March 13 and March 24, 2020, Mufti continues to be held under the Public Safety Act (PSA).

In an interview with HT last month, Farooq and Omar Abdullah said that they will contest the constitutional changes related to J&K, pushed through by the Centre last year, both politically and legally.
George Biedenkapp didnt think much at first of the loud popping noises that woke him up in the middle of the night. He chalked them up to a rumbling car.

But then he heard more pops, followed by what sounded like firecrackers outside of his New Brunswick home. Pop, pop, pop, pop, Biedenkapp said. And then five, ten, fifteen minutes at most, later I heard the police cruisers, my whole house was lit up with police lights.

The gunfire down the block from Biedenkapps home left two people dead and six more injured at an apparent house party around 1 a.m. Sunday. Details on the shooting remain scarce and the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office said the investigation is ongoing. No arrest have been announced.

I came outside, and then I saw the carnage," Biedenkapp said. Police cars, ambulances all over the place."

Dozens of numbered crime scene markers were placed on the street and sidewalk around the Delafield Street house, off of Easton Avenue. A special operations truck was parked at the end of the block as crime scene investigators came in and out of the home.

I saw six stretchers with people on them, and one looked really bad, they were doing CPR on the way to the ambulance, Biedenkapp said.

Although authorities said no Rutgers University students were involved in the shooting, the area near campus is known for student housing and the parties that go along with it.

We usually hear a lot of noises, so we just went to bed and didnt think anything of it, said Jordyn Pagnozzi, a Rutgers sophomore who lives a few houses away.

She said she and her roommate, Hana Mahood, heard at least 10 shots, calling them loud and really close.

Neither of the girls, nor their roommates, went outside to see what was happening at the time, but the group sat on their front porch watching the investigation Sunday morning.

Its very scary, my mom is freaking out right now, Mahood said. It feels very surreal when you hear about it, but when it happens at your feet...

This weekend was the first in the past month or so that the neighborhood didnt have a heavy police presence, Biedenkapp said, guessing that police had been on the look out for parties.

But then this weekend, nothing, Biedenkapp said.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Detective Erika DiMarcello of the New Brunswick Police Department at 732-745-5200, or Detective Julissa Alvarado of the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office at 732-745-3948.

11 Two dead, six others injured in shooting

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.
Tense calm prevailed over the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh for the fourth night on Saturday. Officials told News18 that though troops continued to hold their respective positions, there has been no incident anywhere along the Line of Actual Control since External Affairs Minister S Jaishanker met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. Saturday night was the fourth straight night when at North Bank of Pangong Tso, between Finger 3 and Finger 4, 1,500-2,000 troops from each side held onto their positions overnight.

The situation is status quo. Local commanders have been talking and ensured that things do not escalate," an officer in the security establishment told CNN-News18.

Officials said the status quo is expected to continue till the corps commander-level talks scheduled this week. Sources said the China study group could meet in Delhi on Sunday to finalise modalities of corps commander level talks.

Since the meeting between S Jaishankar and Wang Yi, Brigadier-level talks have happened near Pangong but as per officials, have not led to any breakthrough. The Chinese are only talking in tactical terms. They talk about how many men deployed on our side and where all but give no indication of disengagement or withdrawal from their end," a senior government official told News18.

The expectations from the corps commander-level talks are not very high on the Indian side. Ground assessment is that China is preparing for the long haul and India is also fast equipping for a hot winter.

News18 saw special equipment and tents being sent to LAC to help forces sustain the sub-zero temperatures which might go upto -50 degree Celsius in November-December. The tents made with special fabric can accommodate 8-10 soldiers and have a heating apparatus, Bukhari, to keep soldiers warm. The Bukhari runs on kerosene so efforts are also on to transport as much fuel and other essentials in the next one month before Zojila and Rohtang passes are shut due to snowfall. Government has also procured special shoes and clothing to protect soldiers from frost bites, hypothermia and high-altitude pulmonary oedema. The kind of clothing and equipment being provided to forces is of the same level as soldiers deployed in Siachen use.
Canadas Labour Minister Filomena Tassi says the federal government is considering establishing a universal basic income as a way to help people impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

As the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) ends in September and merges with a revamped employment insurance benefit program, anti-poverty activists have called on the Liberals to establish a basic income program after seeing how effective it can be for citizens who have lost their jobs.

This is a progressive policy, said Tassi, Liberal MP for Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas. Everything is on the table for us as we move forward. We are taking a look at the impact COVID has had on Canadians and really working on how to come up with solutions to getting Canadians working and providing them with the supports they need during this very challenging time.

In late August, the CERB was extended to the end of September, as part of a $37-billion plan for workers impacted by the pandemic. A new benefit that pays $400 a week for up to 26 weeks will replace CERB for those ineligible for employment insurance.

CERB was announced in March to provide applicants with $2,000 a month over a four-month span.

Anyone eligible for employment insurance will get the same minimum $400 for at least 26 weeks and will need to have worked 120 hours to qualify, far below current employment insurance requirements.

Tassi said three other benefits were announced in August, including a Canadian recovery benefit, sickness benefit and a caregiver benefit that provides up to $500 weekly for up to two weeks for those who dont have paid sick leave, become sick or must self-isolate due to issues related to COVID-19.

Most of the employment insurance changes and the three new benefits will start Sept. 27 and remain for one year. The expected cost is about $7 billion for the planned modifications to the employment insurance program and $22 billion for the new benefit programs.

Tassi said at its height CERB assisted eight million Canadians. There are currently about four million people still receiving the benefit, with about three million expected to transition to employment insurance and one million to the other benefits.

Hamilton East-Stoney Creek Liberal MP Bob Bratina said recently that transitioning CERB into a revamped employment insurance program could provide a stepping stone to a universal basic income program.

Meanwhile, Tassi in a virtual announcement Sept. 10 said the government will provide $2.5 million to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety over a two-year period.

She said a majority of Canadian employers stated in a survey they will require new or upgraded health and safety policies to accommodate their employees when they return to work.

Restarting (the economy) largely depends on the success of safe workplaces, Tassi said. We want to ensure that workers have the ability to go back to work in a safe environment.

The Hamilton-based organization, established in 1978, provides vital information to Canadians about training, education, management systems and guidelines for health, safety and wellness programs.

Anne Tennier, president and chief executive officer for the organization, said the funding will allow staff to develop and produce its workplace information in alternative modes for employers and workers, including creating online courses, design fact sheets, craft resource guidelines and posters, produce podcast and videos and develop an app.

Employers must have a clearly documented and well-executive plan for a safe transition for both work and extended absences from the workplaces (by employees), said Tennier.
OTTAWA - Aline Chretien may have been the most influential political figure Canadians never knew.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 13/9/2020 (495 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA - Aline Chretien may have been the most influential political figure Canadians never knew.

She was often seen at political events  a petite, elegant figure standing demurely at the side of her gregarious husband, former prime minister Jean Chretien  but was seldom heard. At least not publicly.

Aline Chretien, wife of Prime Minister Jean Chretien, pauses for a moment as she is questioned about the past ten years as she makes her way to listen to Question Period on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2003. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

Behind the scenes though, she was Chretien's confidante and most trusted adviser, his "Rock of Gibraltar," as he always called her.

Aline Chretien died surrounded by family Saturday morning at her home in Shawinigan, Que., a family spokesman said Sunday. She was 84. A cause of death was not specified.

"Prime Minister Chretien, I think, would be the first to say that without her he never would have been prime minister," says long-time Chretien aide Eddie Goldenberg.

"She knew very well that she had not been elected herself so she didn't try to take the limelight. She felt that would be the wrong thing to do. She felt her role was to be supportive and ... to be very candid with advice and she could do that best in private."

Aline was instrumental in all Chretien's seminal political decisions: to stay in the federal arena despite appeals in the 1960s to run for a seat in Quebec's National Assembly; to quit politics in 1986 after losing the Liberal leadership to John Turner; to return to the fray in 1990; and to go for a third consecutive mandate in 2000.

She even arguably saved Chretien's life on Nov. 5, 1995, when a jackknife-wielding, mentally unstable intruder broke into the prime minister's official residence in the middle of the night. After encountering him in the hall outside their bedroom, Aline Chretien slammed and locked the door before calling the RCMP guardhouse and waking her husband, who then famously armed himself with a soapstone carving of a loon.

It was Aline who advised Chretien to recruit academic and future Liberal leader Stephane Dion to his cabinet after Canada's near-death experience in the 1995 referendum on Quebec independence.

And throughout his 40 years in federal politics, it was Aline who warned him when she thought he was too loud or too aggressive or embarking on what she considered the wrong course of action.

"Those of us who worked for prime minister Chretien knew sometimes, if there was a problem, that she was, (as) I called it, the last court of appeal," recalls Goldenberg.

"We could call her and say, 'I'd like it if you could talk to your husband about something because he's not listening to anybody else.' And he sure listened to her  always."

Aline Chaine and Chretien grew up in blue-collar families, just a few blocks apart in the Quebec pulp-and-paper town of Shawinigan. But their love affair began with a chance encounter on a bus when Aline Chaine was 16, two years younger than her eventual husband.

Chretien credits Aline with restraining some of his more boisterous youthful impulses and instilling him with self-discipline.

Aline had dreamed of studying languages at university but went instead to secretarial school at 16 so she could help support the Chaine family.

She adopted a similar support role once married to Chretien, staying home to raise daughter France and sons Hubert and Michel. During Jean Chretien's early years in federal politics, she stayed in Shawinigan, where she was his eyes and ears in the riding.

But she never stopped her education. She became quadralingual, learning as an adult to speak English, Italian and Spanish in addition to French. She became an accomplished pianist, studying with the Royal Conservatory of Music.

And she did eventually make it to university in 2010  as the first chancellor of Laurentian University in Sudbury.

In her autobiography, former U.S. first lady Hillary Clinton described Aline as "intelligent, sharply observant and elegant."

But despite travelling the world with her husband and rubbing shoulders with some of the planet's most powerful leaders, Aline always maintained close contact with family and lifelong friends in Shawinigan. The couple kept a home at nearby Lac des Piles, where Aline spent her final days.

In a rare interview with Maclean's magazine in 1994, Aline described herself as "Madame Tout le Monde"  Mrs. Everybody.

She recounted calling her husband in a fury in 1973 when the federal Liberal government of the day was debating a cut in family allowances.

"I said Jean, if you touch that, youll be in trouble. This is the only money some women in Shawinigan have got for themselves. You can have, as I did, a Madame Tout le Monde point of view when you are at home, listening to the radio with your kids."

Peter Donolo, who was communications director for Chretien when he was Opposition leader and during his first term as prime minister, says Aline had refined taste in art and music but was totally unpretentious and never forgot her roots and, thus, kept her husband "grounded."

"She was never impressed by wealth or power," Donolo says. " She could see through phonies in like a nanosecond."

The first time he met Aline, Donolo says, she asked him about his young family and then advised him: "Remember, it's very important that you not ignore your family while you're working in politics because, after everything is done, all you have left is your family."

She was, Donolo says, the love and "mainstay" of Chretien's life for almost 70 years.

"I can't think of a stronger bond between husband and wife that's lasted this long and is as intimate and close."

Aline and Jean Chretien marked their 63rd wedding anniversary on Sept. 10, just days before she died.

Family spokesman Bruce Hartley said only a private ceremony is being planned for now because of restrictions associated with COVID-19, with a public memorial planned for sometime in the future.

Condolences were flowing to the Chretien family on Sunday, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau describing her as "a strong mother, and a devoted wife for over 60 years, who tirelessly supported one of Canada's longest serving prime ministers during some of the country's most pivotal moments.

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"We owe a great debt to Aline, who faithfully served Quebecers and all Canadians, championed multiculturalism and bilingualism, and helped bring us closer together," Trudeau said. "Authentic and honest, she taught us the importance of persevering, even when things get tough."

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole and Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet also offered their condolences to Jean Chretien and the rest of the Chretien family, as did former prime minister Brian Mulroney and his wife Mila.

"Aline Chretien was a formidable contributor to Canada in a long lifetime of service," the Mulroneys said in a statement

"She was a wise counsel and able defender of her family and of the former prime minister. An elegant, eloquent, and loyal friend to many, she was also a highly trusted advisor, inside politics and beyond."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2020.

With files from Lee Berthiaume
Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut met Maharashtra Governor BS Koshyari on Sunday amid the ongoing tussle between her and the Shiv Sena, which went a notch higher after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) razed the allegedly illegal portion of her Mumbai office on September 9.

BMCs demolition drive was later stayed by Bombay High Court.

A short while ago I met His Excellency the Governor of Maharashtra Shri Bhagat Singh Koshyari Ji. I explained my point of view to him and also requested that justice be given to me it will restore faith of common citizen and particularly daughters in the system. pic.twitter.com/oCNByhvNOT  Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) September 13, 2020

Also Read | Kangana Ranaut meets Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, says he listened to her like his own daughter

Here is what transpired in the 45-minute meeting

* Kangana said she apprised the Governor about the situation  how she has been subjected to injustice by the government

* Kangana said to the governor that she is being harassed for raising her voice. She doesnt feel safe.

* I am no politician. I have no connection with politics. I presented my thoughts as a commoner, Kangana said after the meeting. Her comments come amid speculations that the actor might join politics.

* I hope justice will be given to me. That will restore the faith in system, Kangana said.

* I started from scratch in this city. The city has given me so much. Suddenly, I am being subjected to such treatment, the actor said.

* Kangana also thanked the Governor for listening to her as a daughter, the actor said.

Kangana was accompanied by her sister Rangoli Chandel as she went to meet the governor. Before meeting the governor, the actor met Karni Sena leaders who visited her residence on Sunday.

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday addressed a press conference where he said the Maharashtra government will brave all political storms, without naming Kangana or mentioning the issue. Earlier, the Maha Vikas Aghadi government distanced itself from BMCs action regarding Kanganas office.
Sunday, September 13, 2020

The media is covering Bob Woodward's new book as a major scandal and as a big bombshell. Admittedly, it is disturbing to find out that President Trump clearly knew how dangerous the coronavirus was back in January, but chose to downplay it. It is also outrageously stupid for him to conduct 18 interviews with Bob Woodward during an election year. He clearly has no idea what a book by Bob Woodward is.

This being said, it will have close to zero impact on the election. It is obviously not good news for Trump and it will probably make him lose a day and a news cycle. But I doubt it will have much influence beyond that. Donald Trump's approval ratings have been remarkably stable somewhere between 42% and 44% throughout his term and despite all scandals. I doubt this one would move the needle.

If I imagined a focus group with swing voters, I highly doubt they would have even heard about Woodward's book, let alone be influenced by it. Who cares about who knew what and when? I would assume that swing voters care about the fact that the number of new infections is now going down (rapidly) and how to get the country's economy back on its feet.
The lengthy saga of ex-Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn takes a new turn next week when the auto titan-turned-fugitive's former assistant Greg Kelly goes on trial in Tokyo.

Ghosn's arrest in the Japanese capital in November 2018 on allegations of financial misconduct made headlines worldwide and kicked off an astonishing fall from grace for the businessman, once hailed as a corporate saviour for rescuing Nissan from the brink of bankruptcy.

But Kelly was also detained that day, having been effectively lured back to Japan from the United States on the premise of an urgent meeting.

And with Ghosn in Lebanon as an international fugitive after he made an audacious escape while out on bail in Tokyo last year, Kelly is now the only person expected to face trial any time soon in connection with the case.

Read: Nissan's Carlos Ghosn gone, American Kelly faces Japan trial alone

The American lawyer appears in court from Tuesday facing a single charge: of conspiring to under-report tens of million of dollars in pay that Ghosn was allegedly promised after his retirement.

Kelly, who will turn 64 on the day the trial opens, denies any wrongdoing. He faces up to 10 years in jail if convicted.

The trial, expected to last around 10 months, centres around one question, fraught with complex technicalities: did Kelly and Nissan between 2010 and 2018 illegally conceal payments of around 9.2 billion yen ($87 million at today's rates) promised to Ghosn on retirement?

Nissan, which will be on trial alongside Kelly, says yes, and plans to plead guilty, multiple sources told AFP.

But Kelly has insisted on his innocence since day one.

"I didn't do anything wrong," he told AFP in an interview in early September.

"Carlos Ghosn never got paid anything and he wasn't promised anything," he insisted.

Nissan and Japanese prosecutors disagree, arguing they have evidence that these future payments were pledged to Ghosn, and therefore should have been disclosed in the firm's financial filings as required by Japanese law.

Prosecutors have amassed a vast amount of documents, only a small portion of which the defence have been given so far, according to Kelly's lawyers.

Despite that, his team decided to agree to move to trial, arguing they had "no choice", with Kelly prevented from leaving the country and separated from his family while he waits for his case to go to court.

Kelly's legal team say they are confident he can be acquitted, despite the track record of Japan's prosecutors, who win over 99 percent of the criminal cases they bring to court.

But they argue they have been put at a strong disadvantage by the court's refusal to allow overseas witnesses to testify by videoconference.

The defence say some witnesses who could help acquit Kelly fear being detained if they testify in person in Japan.

"There is no trust in the Japanese judiciary system among foreign witnesses," Kelly's US lawyer James Wareham told AFP.

"They are afraid, they are not going to come to Japan."

Despite the obstacles, Kelly's Japanese lawyer Yoichi Kitamura said he is "confident we can win the case".

Nissan has been tight-lipped about the trial, with a spokeswoman saying only "we do not comment on pending litigation".

The company appears uncomfortable to finally have arrived at the court date, with a source close to the firm's leadership saying there was concern about negative media attention.

One of the trial's key witnesses will be Hari Nada, Kelly's former colleague, who obtained whistleblower status from prosecutors in exchange for his cooperation.

Former CEO Hiroto Saikawa, who was forced out over financial improprieties discovered by an internal investigation in the wake of the Ghosn scandal, will also give testimony.

The fact that he was able to resign without facing prosecution has been cited by Ghosn as evidence of what he claims is a biased justice system.

The former auto chief has defended his decision to flee Japan by claiming he would not have received a fair trial.
As wildfires ravage the American West Coast, with more than four million acres burned and at least 33 people dead, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., slammed President Donald Trump for his comments redirecting blame for the wildfires away from climate change.

"We know that climate change is making fires start easier, spread faster and intensify. And it is maddening right now that when we have this cosmic challenge to our communities, with the entire West Coast of the United States on fire, to have a president to deny that ... these are climate fires," Inslee told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on Sunday.

Inslee and Merkley appeared together on ABC's "This Week," a day after Trump told supporters at a campaign rally in Las Vegas that the wildfires raging across the West Coast were "about forest management." The president's comments Saturday came after criticism that the White House failed to meaningfully mention the wildfires for weeks.

"I spoke to the folks in Oregon, Washington. They're really having -- they've never had anything like this. But, you know, it is about forest management. Please remember the words, very simple, 'forest management,'" the president said.

PHOTO: Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Sen. Jeff Merkley questions witnesses during a hearing about U.S.-Russia relations in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill, Dec. 03, 2019, in Washington. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

"The president has said it's all about raking the forest. It's just a -- a big and devastating lie," Merkley said after being questioned by Stephanopoulos on whether forest management was contributing to the fires. "The Cascade snowpacks have gotten smaller. Our forests have gotten drier. Our ocean has gotten warmer and more acidic. And this has been happening steadily over the last several decades."

While Inslee maintained that climate change was most responsible for the wildfires, he acknowledged that "there are places where it makes sense that we thin our timber. And we are doing that. Of course, the Trump administration doesn't want to help us actually finance that. They just want an excuse."

Story continues

As wildfires continue to spread, state officials have also had to respond to rumors spreading on social media, including that antifascist activists started the blazes. When pressed by Stephanopoulos about what people can do to confront the disinformation, Inslee replied, "vote."

MORE: Oregon replaces state fire marshal; wildfire death toll grows to 22 on West Coast

"Get out there and vote against any politician like Donald Trump who has downplayed climate change, just like he's downplayed COVID," the Washington Democrat said.

"Most of the scientists thought maybe we had a few more years to deal with this. But it's today. The orange skies over California is something that we thought Hollywood just would portray in some apocalypse movie. But it's today," he added.

Gov. Jay Inslee says it's "maddening" that Trump is denying climate change: "The only moisture in eastern Washington was the tears of people who have lost their homes ... and now we have a blow torch over our states in the West, which is climate change." https://t.co/mH26J2IKhr pic.twitter.com/d3dPmimmVr  This Week (@ThisWeekABC) September 13, 2020

With deaths from the wildfires rising, Portland, Seattle and San Francisco among the worst cities for air quality anywhere in the world.

The fires have scorched more than double Oregon's yearly average amount of acres in the past week, with over 10% of the state living in evacuation zones. A top state official said in a press conference Friday that Oregon was preparing for a "mass casualty incident."

"We have thousands of people who have lost their homes. I could never have envisioned this -- the east winds came over the top of the mountain, proceeded to turn the fires into blow torches that went down and just incinerated a series of small towns," Merkley said. "You have community after community with fairgrounds full of people, of refugees from the fires."

PHOTO: Washington Gov. Jay Inslee talks to reporters, Sept. 9, 2020, following a tour to survey wildfire damage in Bonney Lake, Wash., south of Seattle. (Ted S. Warren/AP)

In Washington, wildfires have burned on both sides of the Cascade mountains, consuming more than 675,000 acres of land as of Sunday morning, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center.

Inslee warned that the entire country should view the blazes as a warning of what could come if climate change is not addressed.

MORE: 19 dead as West Coast wildfires rage and cause world's worst air quality

"If this is not a signal to the United States, I don't know what it will take. Because, as (California) Gov. (Gavin) Newsom suggested, it may not be fires in the Midwest. It's floods in Hamburg, which washed away Hamburg, Iowa. It's the rising seas that are drowning Miami Beach. It's the hurricanes on the East Coast," the governor told Stephanopoulos.

"We need to act, and we need to act now. And these people whose homes were destroyed, that I've seen, with their tears, in the last few days, they deserve action against climate change," he added.

Inslee, Merkley criticize Trump for suggesting forest management to blame for wildfires originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Kangana Ranaut met Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Sunday evening, days after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) partly demolished her Bandra office. The Manikarnika actor was accompanied by her sister Rangoli Chandel.

Kangana was snapped leaving her residence with Rangoli. While she was seen in a beige sari with a pearl necklace, Rangoli was in a blue attire. Kangana waved to the paparazzi as she left for Raj Bhavan.

WATCH | Kangana Ranaut meets Governor amid tussle with Maharashtra govt

Kangana Ranaut waves to paparazzi while leaving for Raj Bhavan. (Varinder Chawla)

Kangana Ranaut was accompanied by sister Rangoli Chandel. (Varinder Chawla)

A group of people were seen protesting against Kangana Ranaut outside her residence. (Varinder Chawla)

The actors car was seen arriving at the governors residence after some time. Her visit comes amid friction between the actor and the Shiv Sena.

Maharashtra: Actor #KanganaRanaut arrives at Raj Bhavan, in Mumbai, to meet Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. pic.twitter.com/kwYPgD6pTl  ANI (@ANI) September 13, 2020

Talking to ANI after the meeting, Kangana said, I met Governor Koshyari and told him about unjust treatment Ive received. I hope justice will be given to me so that the faith of all citizens including young girls, is restored in the system. I am fortunate that the Governor listened to me like a daughter.

#WATCH I met Governor Koshyari & told him about unjust treatment I've received. I hope justice will be given to me so that the faith of all citizens including young girls, is restored in the system. I am fortunate that the Governor listened to me like a daughter: Kangana Ranaut pic.twitter.com/aZRohVVUhi  ANI (@ANI) September 13, 2020

Kanganhas been engaged in a bitter war of words with Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut after her remarks that she feels unsafe in Mumbai and has no trust in the Mumbai Police after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Besides this, Kanganas office in Pali Hill, Bandra was partially demolished on Wednesday by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for alleged illegal constructions. The actor also allegedly received threats about her return to Mumbai, following which she was provided Y plus security.

Also read: Tahira Kashyap turns a tree for kids Virajveer and Varushka, Sameera Reddy and Yami Gautam are left in awe

Post the demolition, Kangana had also written to Sonia Gandhi on Twitter. She had written, Dear respected honourable @INCIndia president Sonia Gandhi ji being a woman arnt you anguished by the treatment I am given by your government in Maharashtra? Can you not request your Government to uphold the principles of the Constitution given to us by Dr. Ambedkar?

You have grown up in the west and lived here in India. You may be aware of the struggles of women. History will judge your silence and indifference when your own Government is harassing women and ensuring a total mockery of law and order. I hope you will intervene @INCIndia  Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) September 11, 2020

You have grown up in the west and lived here in India. You may be aware of the struggles of women. History will judge your silence and indifference when your own Government is harassing women and ensuring a total mockery of law and order. I hope you will intervene, she added.

(With ANI inputs)

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On 15th Sept 2009, 720,000 pupils enrolled in Kindergarten One (KG 1) in Ghana, to commence their basic education journey. Tomorrow, by the grace of God, this batch will be writing their BECE. Sadly, only 531,705 will be writing. Where are the remaining 136,000 pupils, constituting about 24%? Poverty and teenage pregnancy are the two leading causes of school dropouts in Ghana.

Increases in Economic Growth and Development Indicators have scarcely manifested in the socio-economic lives of the poor in our society, as close to 6.8 million (about 20%) Ghanaians continue to live on less than GHC 6/day. (GSS, 2017). As a country, we haven't done enough to curb or cushion girls against the ramifications of teenage pregnancy. While the neglect by some families continue to predispose girls to the delinquencies in our society, our laws focus on punishing perpetrators of teenage pregnancy, without any restitution for victims through social welfare support.

In addition, the absence of public Early Childhood Educational facilities in communities, hamper efforts by pregnant girls to re-enter school to continue their education after childbirth. Presently, there are only 6,060 public creches and nurseries, feeding over 15,000 public primary schools. Where creches and nurseries are absent, teenage girls struggle to find caregivers to take care of their babies, thereby making it difficult to re-enroll to complete basic school.

The draft early Childhood Policy of the Ministry of Education has been discussed for far too long. It is time we expedite action and roll-out an aggressive plan to build creches and nurseries in every pubic basic school; we need to focus on a shared economic prosperity agenda that improves the socio-economic lives of the poor. It is time to develop a social welfare system that supports girls who are defiled into pregnancy, in line with the Domestic Violence Law; and finally, it is time for families to take responsibility for the moral development of their children.

As we approach this years BECE, let us renew our resolve to ensure all children (especially girls) who enroll in basic school, complete the full course of basic education. Let us pride ourselves in the number of children who complete, rather than who enroll in school.

We wish all BECE candidates the very best of luck!

Kofi Asare

Executive Director
On the signboard of our local church, all reference to Sunday Service and accompanying Bible texts have vanished. In their place we read the homily: Fewer Faces and Open Spaces, attributed not to the minister Gordon K. Brownmiller, but to British Columbias Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry, whose gospel has become definitive. Indeed, Bonnie Henry has become a hero of the people, a font of daily information and a source of comfort, delivered in the dulcet tones of motherly consolation. She is probably the most revered political figure in the province. She is lauded for having the wellbeing of its citizens at heart and does everything she can to soothe anxiety and discomfort, issuing instructions dedicated to public safety, including reminders to wear masks and maintain social distancing. She has become an epidemiological saint and Bonniolatry is all the rage.

And yet, as a high-ranking member of the government, Bonnie had no objection to the massive BLM demonstrations in our two major cities, Vancouver and Kelowna, leading to the predictable surge in Coronavirus cases, which she then disingenuously attributed to people gathering in bars. The glaring discrepancy did not register among her admiring votaries. For Bonnie Henry is an apostle of the Lord and must have her reasons too abstruse for ordinary citizens to apprehend -- unless we accept the official canard that racism is a bigger virus than COVID and that something called cultural health -- as the Democrats, following in the footsteps of the American Public Health Association, righteously assert -- is far more important than the lives of individual people. In any event, for the people of this province, whatever Bonnie says, goes. She is the voice of God. And what a sweet, assuaging voice it is.

In this theological frame of reference, the virus naturally represents the wrath of the Lord against the denizens of Sodom and Gomorrah -- that is, Vancouver and Kelowna -- who were at one time indifferent to the gifts of authority and went about their sinful daily lives without a thought for higher things. Some complained about extortionate taxes. Some resented escalating prices. Many drove their vehicles with unprecedented recklessness, a notorious feature of the region, dramatically raising insurance rates. A few were known to go whoring after strange gods and even to vote Conservative. The Lord sent a plague to educate us and dispatched his prophet Bonnie Henry to steer us lovingly back to sacerdotal health, requiring us only to self-isolate, don masks and stay six feet away from one another. Covidianity has now become the new communion.

Of course, from the Covidian perspective, contrary evidence must be discounted as schismatic. Some fringe dissidents claimed that self-isolating led to depression, economic collapse, loneliness and suicide, and did little to nothing to stop the spread of the disease. Some fumed that the lockdown mandate was anti-Charter and an infringement upon our civil rights. A few heretics even claimed that masks were effectively useless, the weave far too large to prevent passage of nano-viral particles -- like building a chain-link fence to prevent the egress and ingress of flies.

Some even went so far as to claim that masks caused mask mouth and led to the ingestion of one's own CO2, resulting in oxidative stress and immune depletion. These blasphemers were vigorously denounced for spreading propaganda against the faith. The fact that over 500 German scientists, representing an organization called The Extra-Parliamentary Inquiry Committee, referred to the COVID panic as a fake story all over the world is dismissed as a right-wing conspiracy -- despite their having made a full report accessible to the public. RFK Jr. addressing assemblies of 1.5 million Germans on Big Government and Big Pharma exploitation of pandemic panic obviously never happened since this was not covered by the mainstream media. As for the extensive list of eminent COVID whistleblowers, asserting that the global response to the disease has been blown out of proportion by orders of magnitude, these individuals are indisputably charlatans.

And there is more. City News reports that a group of 18 prominent health experts in Canada, including two previous chief public health officers, has been calling since early July for an end to attempts to eliminate the coronavirus. Its a fools errand, says Dr. Neil Rau, an infectious disease specialist with the University of Toronto. Were not going to win with that strategy. The physicians argue that business closures, mandatory masks, and complete border closures are doing more harm than good. City News plainly must be a fascist news service. Similarly, Common Law Assembly officials for two communities on Vancouver Island have passed a Public Safety Bylaw prohibiting COVID restrictions such as distancing, masking, quarantines and vaccinations as unlawful, unwarranted and medically unsound. Thankfully, these officials are being threatened with arrest. After all, the Babylon Bee has got it right:

So, its business as usual. Self-isolating is good. Social distancing is good. Staying in your bubble is good. Wearing a mask is good -- indeed, according to Canadas Chief Health Officer Theresa Tam, wearing a mask during sex is especially good. Mingling shoulder to shoulder with vast multitudes at demonstrations and horking viral spittle into one anothers faces is also good. For contradictions are of no account. They may not even be contradictions but tests of our faith in adverse circumstances, like Job on the dunghill scratching his sores with potsherds.

For the word has come down, Bonnie Henry has tableted the Internet, along with her fellow prophets like infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci et al. -- for Bonnie is only one of a tribe of the ethereally beatified. As for Fewer Faces and Open Spaces morphing into More Faces and Crowded Spaces, this too is not a contradiction but an inscrutable revaluation of values whose fundamental meaning and purpose is known only to the Lord and His devoted servants. Yet, despite everything, the Lord has been gracious, as this graphic parchment for New York City reveals:

Still, we are told that the virus will always be with us, albeit in dormant form. We carry the seeds of our distemper within us lest we offer further provocation. Considered from the non-Covidian perspective, it is almost as if people are now idolatrously worshipping COVID, interpreting the plague as a mark of the Lords interest in them. The mask will be a communal sign, identifying believers to one another while differentiating them from the unhouseled and heretic rabble. Like the mark of Cain, it confers an aura of special dispensation, an imprint of favor and distinction upon negligible lives. Herd immunity yields to herd mentality, a subtle transition of which the masked are unaware, for they are now among the elect and wear the mask like a badge of predestination.

Some of us have not been converted to the new faith. Chastened and obedient Covidians, however, will continue to follow the commandments that the prophets of the Lord convey to them. They will remain thankful for their daily bulletins and act appropriately, ensuring they do not provoke divine rage for their trespasses. They are fortunate to have Anthony Fauci and Theresa Tam looking after their best interests. And they are grateful to have the Blessed Bonnie among them.

David Solways latest book is Notes from a Derelict Culture, Black House, London, 2019.
South Korean band BTS sent congratulatory message to the finalist of the ninth edition of K-Pop India Contest 2020 which was streamed live on the YouTube channel of the Korean Cultural Centre India.

In their very first message for Indian fans, BTS mentioned that, ''we are pleased and proud that this K-Pop event is taking place during such difficult times. We are grateful that many people in India have shown such great interest and passion about K-Pop.''

BTS also introduced their recent single, Dynamite and said, ''We will be coming to India with music and a cool stage that will move and comfort you during these tough times.''

Ambassador Shin Bong-kil, Embassy of Republic of Korea to India said, "We thank Indian K-pop fans for their enthusiastic response to the difficult situation with Covid-19."

Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, Government of the Republic of Korea, Park Yang-woo said that India and Korea are old friends. I will be cheering for the thirty-six finalists as a person who loves Indian culture.

This year the K-Pop India Contest took place via online platforms due to the Covid-19 situation and saw an impressive 1,348 participants from across the country in the preliminary round. The 458 selected winners from the preliminary round then competed in the regional round comprising of 18 cities for the finals.

Unlike every year only solo entries were allowed in both vocal and dance categories. 36 finalists took part in the grand finale from the 18 cities. Four final winners will be invited to Korea for shooting a music video, cultural experience and exchange programs.

Kim Kum-pyoung, Director of Korean Cultural Centre India said, magnificent opening act of India Hallyu (Korean wave) is opening through online meeting between BTS and Indian Hallyu fans.


The police are on a wild hunt for armed men who attacked and shot Andrew Ntul Mensah, known in Kumawood as Scorpion in the Kwadaso Municipality.

It would be recalled that Scorpion, sustained gunshot wounds during the attack in his house, and is currently receiving medical care at a health facility.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Kwasi Yeboah, Suntreso District Commander, told the Ghana News Agency that the police had not yet arrested anybody involved in the act.

He said the police had visited the crime scene and investigations were ongoing.

Mensah and his family were attacked in their house on Thursday dawn by unknown persons who fired warning shots indiscriminately and robbed the residents at gunpoint.

He was hit by a bullet in his thigh and left chest.

An eye witness told the GNA that the robbers entered the house through a window and attacked the victims.

He said when Scorpion who heard the unusual noise in the house decided to open his door to see what was going on, but he was met with a bullet and fell in a pool of blood.

The police patrol team, which had received a distress call, went to the scene but the robbers had already left the place.

---GNA
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: While Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad (ABAP), the apex body of 13 orders of Sanatan dharma, on Friday backed Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut, in her face-off with the Maharashtra government, the seer of Ayodhya and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) also extended support to her sending out a clear message to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackrey.

Even the Naga seers of Hanuman Garhi temple in Ayodhya have also extended support to Ranaut.

Mahant Kanahiya Das, head of the Ayodhya Sant Samaj, accused the Maharashtra government of patronising the anti-social elements and dared Maharashtra CM

Uddhav Thackrey against coming to Ayodhya.

"Now, Uddhav Thackeray is no more welcome in Ayodhya. Why is the Shiv Sena attacking Ranaut? Everyone can understand. It is not a mystery. The Shiv Sena is

not the same what it used to be under Balasaheb Thackeray, founder of the party," said Kanahiya Das.

Notably, Thackeray has paid three quick visits to the temple town during the last couple of years. He had come to Ayodhya on November 24, 2018, followed by June 16 last year and again in March, this year, after taking over as Maharashtra Chief Minister.

Reacting to BMC action against the actress, ABAP chief Mahant Narendra Giri described Kangana as a brave daughter of the nation "who has busted the racket involving Bollywood and the drug Mafia."

"The action by BMC against Kangana smacks of vendetta. They want to suppress the fearless voice of the actress against nepotism and domination of a particular community in Bollywood, besides the nexus existing between the film industry and the drug Mafia. The Mafia and state government are both in fear of getting caught," said Giri.

"Even the Bombay High Court has given relief to the actress by granting a stay on the demolition operations," he maintained.

ABAP chief also commented on the law and order situation of Maharashtra while referring to the case of mob lynching of two seers in Palghar accusing the Maharashtra government of inaction.

"The Akhada Parishad has demanded a CBI inquiry in the Palghar case but the state government has failed to act," he added. Giri further said in this battle of Ranaut, all seers and countrymen were with her.

Similarly, Raju Das, priest of the revered Hanuman Garhi temple, questioned the BMC's demolition drive against Ranaut's office. "Uddhav Thackeray and Shiv Sena are no more welcome in Ayodhya. Now, the Maharashtra CM will face stiff opposition from seers of Ayodhya if he ever comes here," warned Das.

"They did not waste time in demolishing Kangana's office but what about their sincerity when it comes to taking action against the killers of two seers in Palghar," said Das.

The Naga sadhus and the Akhil Bhartiya Akhada Parishad (ABAP) have been demanding a CBI probe into the Palghar killings.

However, speaking out in favour of the actress, VHP regional spokesman Sharad Sharma said that the Maharashtra government was acting with malafide motive against Ranaut. "It was not expected from Shiv Sena to attack a woman and demolish her office without any reason," said Sharma.

He added that clearly Shiv Sena was deliberately targeting the actress because of her support to nationalist forces. "She is being targeted for raising her voice against drug mafia of Mumbai," added Sharma.
The difference between the amount of business transactions liable for Vat and the actual amount of Vat collected in Ireland annually could be as high as 1.68bn, according to the European Commission.

The latest annual estimate of the Vat gap in EU member states  which measures the effectiveness of Vat enforcement and compliance measures  has calculated that 10.6% of potential Vat revenue in 2018 was not collected by the tax authorities in Ireland.

The Vat gap provides an estimate of revenue losses due to fraud and evasion, tax avoidance, bankruptcies, financial insolvencies as well as miscalculations.

A new report by the European Commission shows that Irelands Vat gap has been falling continuously since 2015 when it stood at 12.6%.

The actual value of the Vat gap has been increasing since 2016 due to increased Vat revenues but remains below the 2015 level of 1.71bn.

Irelands top Vat rate of 23% is one of the highest among the 27 EU member states.

In response to previous EU estimates on Irelands Vat gap, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe claimed it was estimated on the basis of limited data and making a number of assumptions.

Mr Donohoe said Revenue also had concerns about the robustness of the methodology used to calculate Irelands figure and the accuracy of the results.

However, the European Commission said its estimates for Ireland had been revised due to an improved methodology for inputting missing and confidential values.

Overall, it is estimated that EU member states lost an estimated 140bn in Vat revenues in 2018, representing 11% of total revenue loss across the EU.

The Vat gap ranged from 1% in Sweden to 33.8% in Romania.

While the European Commission said the figure was extremely high, it claimed the Vat gap had improved marginally in recent years.

However, it warned that provisional figures for 2020 were forecasting a reversal of this trend with the potential loss of 164bn in Vat revenue due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on European economies.
By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state on Saturday witnessed widespread protests by various opposition parties demanding the resignation of Minister KT Jaleel who was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with its wide-ranging probe into various aspects of the UAE Consulate-linked gold smuggling case.In the state capital, the busy stretch in front of the Secretariat turned into a battle zone with youth activists of the UDF and BJP engaged in violent clashes with the police. Police used water cannon, burst tear gas shells and also resorted to lathicharge to disperse protestors belonging to the Youth Congress, Yuva Morcha, ABVP, Youth League and the Mahila Congress. Two Youth Congress workers were injured in clash with the police.

Violence erupted during protests in Kozhikode as well. Youth Congress, BJP and Muslim Youth League workers were among the protesters. Police first used water cannon and later lathi-charged Youth Congress workers who marched to the district collectorate. A worker of the youth outfit suffered injuries allegedly when police lobbed a grenade to disperse the protesters.

Police using water cannon to disperse Youth Congress workers who staged protest in front of the Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday, demanding the resgination of Higher Education Minister KT Jaleel

In Alappuzha, a march taken out by KSU to the collectorate turned violent after a woman leader was arrested without the presence of women police personnel. Yuva Morcha staged a road blockade at district court road for half an hour. BJP workers in Kollam were engaged in a prolonged clash with the police after they were prevented from entering the taluk office premises. Police used water cannon thrice to disperse the protesters who quickly re-assembled. A march taken out by the Congress to the house of Minister Mercykutty Amma was stopped by police leading to clashes.

Yuva Morcha activists took out a march to the office of the City Police Commissioner in Thrissur. Police used water cannon when the activists tried to break the barricades. BJP spokesperson B Gopalakrishnan suffered minor injury in the eye following the use of water cannon. Police also used water cannon against Youth Congress workers who marched to the collectorate.

Kottayam town witnessed violence when police prevented BJP workers attempt to block the traffic along MC Road at Gandhi Square. ABVP activists clashed with police during a march taken out to the district collectorate. A protest march taken out by Youth Congress workers in Pathanamthitta turned violent with police resorting to mild lathicharge to disperse protesters. Protests in other districts such as Ernakulam, Palakkad, Malappuram and Kannur remained relatively peaceful.
The welcomed on Saturday the US-brokered establishment of diplomatic relations between and on the heels of an analogous Israel-UAE agreement, stressing its continuous commitment to promote the UN-championed two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

On Friday, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of officially agreed to recognise the State of in a trilateral phone conversation with US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"The EU welcomes the announced establishment of diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of and Israel," the statement, released by the European Council, read.

Brussels acknowledged the role of the United States in facilitating this and a similar landmark agreement between and the United Arab Emirates, describing it as a "positive contribution to peace and stability in the Middle East."

"The EU recalls its Declaration of 15 August 2020 and its longstanding position that a comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict requires a regional inclusive approach and engagement with both parties. In this regard, the EU remains firm in its commitment to a negotiated and viable two-state solution built upon the internationally agreed parameters," the statement added.

The reasserted its readiness to support Israel and in their efforts to resume "meaningful negotiations on all final status issues."

Bahrain became the fourth Arab country to recognise Israel. The first two were Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.

On August 13, Israel and the United Arab Emirates agreed to normalise ties, which among other things entailed Israel giving up its annexation plans in the West Bank. The two countries are planning to sign a variety of agreements for cooperation in investments, tourism, security and other areas in the coming weeks. The US expects other countries of the region to follow the lead.

has called on fellow Arab nations to reconsider recognising Israel, which, in turn, has not recognised the Palestinian state.

The United Nations stands by the so-called two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which means a peaceful coexistence of two sovereign states within mutually acceptable borders.

(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.)
Bayern Munich midfielder Thiago Alcantara (EPA)

Bayern Munichs former president, Uli Hoeness, claims that Manchester United have probably agreed personal terms with Thiago Alcantara, as the Champions League winners future remains in limbo.

Thiago had all but agreed a new deal with the German champions before suddenly deciding to leave, much to the dismay of the clubs hierarchy.

Bayern have remained firm in their 28m evaluation of the Spain international, who has just one-year remaining on his contract, with Liverpool considered clear favourites for his signature. However, Hoeness said Bayern are still yet to receive any official offers, and believes clubs are waiting until the twilight hours of the window in order to negotiate a cut-price deal.

Both Liverpool and Manchester United did not come to us with an offer for Thiago, he said. They are bluffing and waiting until the last week of the window to make a cheap offer. Bayern must decide whether they want to play this game or stand their ground and keep him.

Meanwhile, United have been offered Real Madrid full-back Sergio Reguilon for around 27m, according to Fabrizio Romano.

Real Madrid are willing to offload the full-back, who impressed on loan at Sevilla last season, but reports in Spain claim they want to include a buy-back clause in any deal.

Gareth Bale could emerge as a shock target for Manchester United if they fail in their pursuit of Jadon Sancho this summer, according to the Daily Express.

Madrid are reportedly willing to significantly contribute towards Bales exorbitant wages in order to get him out of the club.

However, United are steadily making ground in their pursuit of Sancho, having overcome an impasse in negotiations with the England international. United are still yet to meet Dortmunds 108m valuation, though.

United are also interested in reinforcing their central defence, and the Daily Express claim Monacos Benoit Badiashile is a target for the club. The 19-year-old has attracted interest from across Europe, but United will not exceed a 23m fee for the French youth international.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Sunday addressed a virtual press conference where he said that India cannot tolerate the encroachment of its territory by China in Ladakh.

Ramesh also sought transparency into how the PM-CARES fund is being regulated. He claimed that several Chinese companies have donated to the relief fund, there is alleged oversight and it needs to come under the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

How can Chinese companies donate to the PM-CARES fund when they are encroaching territories in Ladakh and altering status quo at the LAC? asked Ramesh.

The Congress leader said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has weakened the country by his statement where he said that there has been no encroachment at the LAC. He also demanded that there should be a debate on the issue of standoff at the China border.

Ramesh referred to the 1962 war between India and China and said at that point of time Parliament was in session and then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had attended those sessions.

He said, During the 1962 war, the parliament was in session and then PM was in the Lok Sabha and listened to the criticisms of his policies made by senior parliamentarians including those made by former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Rameshs press conference focussed on the new ordinances brought in the farming sector, banking sector and the LAC issue. He demanded that the PM address these issues in the monsoon session of the parliament.
We are preparing in advance, closing down, so we can get out ahead of the virus, said Netanyahu, who was due to leave the country shortly after the news conference for a peace summit with Arab leaders and President Trump in Washington. Details about how the new restrictions will affect places of worship have yet to be approved, but he warned: It will be a different kind of holiday this year. We will not be able to celebrate like we usually do with our families.
When Chris Biondello heard his girlfriends voice on the phone, it sounded raspy. She said she had a bloody nose, and she hadnt eaten in several hours.

She, along with 1,300 inmates, had recently been moved from their Wilsonville prison, Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, to the Deer Ridge Correctional Institution in Madras. In the past week, inmates from four different Oregon prisons have been evacuated and shuttled to other facilities to escape wildfires that were threatening their buildings.

Since then, dozens of prisoners and their family members have reported evacuees have been subjected to a range of unlivable conditions  from not receiving medications and being placed in facilities with even worse air quality than the ones they evacuated, to going up to 24 hours without food. The conditions led some to protest overnight Friday at Deer Ridge.

Biondello said his girlfriend told him on a brief phone call that they are still not receiving meals or anything to drink on a regular schedule, and that conditions are even smokier there than in the building they evacuated.

I feel helpless, he said. I cant even do anything for her.

The Oregon Department of Corrections did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the reported conditions across its facilities.

Earlier Saturday, Jennifer Black, a spokesperson for the corrections system, addressed the protests and conditions at the Deer Ridge minimum-security facility where the protest broke out.

During an emergency, operations do not run as smoothly as normal, Black said. She said a crisis team arrived and the protests ended without any use of force.

Black said inmates did have access to food and medications, but not on their normal schedule. She said the department was figuring out a solution to the smoky conditions and working on setting up phones in the building so male inmates could make calls.

"We are improving every day and having additional employees go to (the prison), Black said.

The complaints about unsafe conditions arent limited to Deer Ridge.

Inmates from three different prisons  Mill Creek, Santiam and Oregon State Correctional Institutions  were transferred to the Oregon State Penitentiary earlier this week due to fire threats. Mill Creek and Santiam inmates have since returned to their home facilities, according to the Department of Corrections. Inmates from different facilities are being housed in close proximity to each other, potentially exposing them to the coronavirus.

Tara Herivel, a public defender, said she and other attorneys have received dozens of calls from inmates and families in the last few days with stories similar to Biondellos.

Herivel leads a team of attorneys who are currently bringing 180 cases against the Oregon Department of Corrections for failure to protect inmates from COVID-19. She sent multiple emails this week to the Oregon Department of Justice, calling on it to take immediate action to protect prisoners and to prevent the spread of the virus in unsafe conditions.

Herivel said inmates and family members have also reported that guards are not wearing masks. Herivel noted that many inmates at medium and minimum security prisons are medically vulnerable or elderly, and are at higher risks for serious health effects if they contract COVID-19.

Andrew Hallman, an assistant attorney general, responded to Herivel in an email she provided to The Oregonian/OregonLive, saying inmates and staff were following COVID-19 protocols, including screening, maintaining social distancing as possible, and wearing masks. He also told her that while the space was not as clean as anyone would have liked, it was not completely unprepared for inmates.

In response to an email from Herivel the previous day, Hallman said the situation in the prisons was not currently part of the pending litigation, and that the Department of Justice was not in charge of emergency planning for the prisons.

But Herivel contends the current prison conditions are within the context of the inmates' COVID-19 claims.

These are all constitutional claims against the Department of Corrections for failure to protect inmates from COVID, she said. Inadequate treatment, inadequate medical care  all conditions of confinement claims. Were more likely to have some kind of super-spreader event," she said.

Hallman did not immediately respond to request for comment about his statements.

Deer Ridge

On Thursday, the Department of Corrections announced that Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, the states womens prison in Wilsonville, would be evacuated, and inmates would be transferred to Deer Ridge Correctional Institution in Madras.

Coffee Creek is also the intake facility for prisoners across the state before they are placed at another facility. It is also a hub for incarcerated COVID-19 patients around the state.

The men typically housed in Deer Ridges medium security facility were moved to a previously vacant minimum security on the campus to accommodate the incoming women inmates.

Almost immediately, family members of the male inmates began reporting concerns  inability to contact their relatives, poor living conditions and a lack of ventilation. Inmates led a protest Friday night and Saturday morning to decry the conditions.

Wendy Holdeman said her fiance called her and told her that the conditions in the building where male inmates had been moved were inhumane.

Several prisoners are not getting their medications, the whole building is full of smoke, theyre sleeping on the ground, Holdeman said.

Virginia Andalon, a family member of an inmate at Deer Ridge, said the unlivable conditions led many to protest. Her relative is part of Deer Ridges firefighting crew, which fights fires and then returns to the prison at night.

The few inmates that are a part of this program have been working long hours out in the smoke, she told The Oregonian/OregonLive in an email. Once they return back to their housing units they are subjected to the facility having heavy smoke as well. Many are experiencing breathing issues and are not receiving any medical care.

Leslie Kasziewicz said her partner, Eric Webb, told her that he was already worried about what he perceived as lax COVID-19 precautions. She said he told her guards dont wear masks, and that they once had their laundry facility shut down for four days.

And right now, all the people who were quarantined are shoved into the facility that was not quarantined, she said.

Inmates from the womens prison also reported troubling conditions as they were being transported from Coffee Creek to Deer Ridge.

Herivel, who has spoken with about 10 inmates and some family members since the evacuations began on Sept. 9, said inmates told her they were loaded onto school buses around 11 p.m. and zip-tied to another inmate by their wrists. She said they were allowed to bring one bag with only a change of clothes, towel, address book and shower shoes. They were not allowed to bring other belongings or commissary items.

Herivel said some inmates told her they arrived at Deer Ridge around 4 a.m. and sat on the bus in the parking lot for two or three hours. During that time, the inmates did not have access to a bathroom, and were instructed to urinate in cups. Herivel said inmates told her that several people who were menstruating did not have access to menstrual products, and bled through their clothes. She said inmates told her they were instructed to get rid of tampons and urine by throwing them out the window of the bus.

She said some inmates reported not receiving food for nearly a full day.

Kate Edwards, another attorney representing several Coffee Creek inmates, said one of her clients told her that the women serving life sentences, many of whom are elderly and medically vulnerable, were transported to Deer Ridge in cage vans. She said several of them became car sick and asked for bags to throw up in, and were told to throw up in their socks. Many also urinated and were forced to sit in their own urine for several hours.

She also said one woman had a 7-minute seizure, as a result of not getting her medication.

Vanessa Martinez, the daughter of a Coffee Creek inmate, told The Oregonian/OregonLive that in addition to the infrequent meals, many women had to wait hours to get blankets for sleeping, and many didnt get their medications, clean clothes or other necessities.

Today the ladies had to refuse to bunk up unless they were given food, showers and clean clothes, Martinez said in an email. My mother says its scary, but thats the only way they are being fed.

Martinez said her mother told her that five minutes after they made the demands, they were given lunch and allowed showers.

Oregon State Penitentiary

Herivel said in addition to the risk of COVID-19, the mixing of minimum and maximum-security inmates placed some people at increased risk of physical harm.

Mill Creek and Santiam are minimum security prisons, and Oregon State Correctional Institution is medium security. The state penitentiary is a maximum security facility. The department of corrections transferred 1,450 inmates to the penitentiary, which was already at its maximum population of 2,000, Herivel said.

There was no consideration of who should not be placed together, Herivel said.

She said one client inside Oregon State Penitentiary reported multiple fights at the prison, including at least one stabbing.

Lynn James-Jackson said her husband Tacuma Jackson, an inmate at Oregon State Penitentiary, told her that a fight broke out on Wednesday, and someone got stabbed.

The Department of Corrections did not immediately respond to confirm or deny the fights.

James-Jackson said between the smoke and soot from fires and the pepper spray used to break up the fight, her husband couldnt breathe. He told her that he was told to go outside, instead of being offered medical assistance.

The next day, he told her his chest and throat were hurting, and he still hadnt received medical care.

She hasnt heard from him since. When she called the prison to check on him, she said employees told her he wasnt in the infirmary, but did not tell her where he is or how hes doing.

Between the smoke, the fires, COVID, she said. I just hope he makes it out of there."

Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com; @JRamakrishnanOR

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The Oscars race began in earnest on the final night of the Venice Film Festival, where Cate Blanchetts jury awarded the Golden Lion to Chloe Zhaos moving and inventive tribute to Americas itinerant elderly, Nomadland. Asian-American Zhao, whose last film The Rider was a more modest festival breakthrough in 2017, is the first woman of colour to win the Lion  an honour that is second only to the Palme dOr in Cannes  since the Indian director Mira Nair won with Monsoon Wedding in 2001. Cate Blanchett walks along the red carpet during the closing ceremonies for the 77th Venice International Film Festival. Credit:Piergiorgio Pirrone/LaPresse via AP Nomadland features Frances McDormand as Fern, a woman in her 60s forced from her home when the local mill shuts down and the town around it is wiped from the map. With no money, she takes a campervan on the road and joins a floating community played by a mix of actors and real-life van-dwellers. Prevented by the COVID-19 pandemic from coming to Venice, Zhao and McDormand thanked the jury in a video clip showing them sitting in Ferns van. Thank you for letting us attend the festival in this weird, weird way, said McDormand. See you down the road.

Writer-director Chloe Zhao. Credit:Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP Given that Nomadland had already earned a suite of five-star reviews, its success was much more widely expected than last years American winner, Joker. Audiences also loved the film unreservedly, giving it the most rousing applause of any at a festival that was comparatively muted by compulsory wearing of masks and the reduced numbers in theatres where only every second seat was occupied. There was also universal acclaim for the smooth operation of the anti-COVID measures at the first major film event to go ahead since the pandemic struck, especially given that the festival has a long-standing reputation for chaotic disorganisation. As one local journalist observed, flood-prone Venice knows how to rise to the occasion in a crisis. Vanessa Kirby  lately Princess Margaret in The Crown  was another popular choice as winner of the Volpi Cup for best actress in Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczos English-language Pieces of a Woman, about a couple whose baby dies a few minutes after birth. In a selection where eight of the 18 competing films were directed by women, the jury had so many extraordinary performances to choose from, Blanchett said. Pickings in the masculine category were clearly fewer; the cup for best actor went to Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino, who plays the adult protagonist in the bland story of a childhood friendship across the political divide, Padrenostro. Frances McDormand in a scene from the film Nomadland. Credit:Searchlight Pictures via AP In an emotional speech, Kirby paid tribute to the anonymous woman who let her watch her deliver her child, which she said made it possible to play the role, and to another woman who had lost a baby in a similar way and was an adviser throughout the film shoot. She also said how overwhelmed she was to be receiving a prize from a long-standing acting idol. You are one of my biggest inspirations, she told Cate Blanchett. So thank you so much.
The hearing on the lawsuit against US President Donald Trump's order banning entry of temporary workers into the country has concluded. The US Chamber of Commerce had filed the lawsuit with support from tech firms such as Facebook, Apple and Microsoft. On June 22, Trump signed an order restricting the entry of H-1B and L-1 visa holders, who are employed in large numbers by these US firms.

While the lawsuit was initially filed in July by the US Chamber of Commerce and other trade organisations like the National Association of Manufacturers and National Retail Federation, it was later supported by the US tech giants.

The arguments were heard by Judge Jeffrey White in the San Francisco Federal court. Judgement for the case is awaited.

What transpired?

Plaintiffs, here the business organisations, want to declare June 22 proclamation unlawful. In his executive order, Trump said the ban is to address growing unemployment in the US due to COVID-19. Currently, the unemployment rate in the US is about 8.4 percent, down from 14.7 percent in April when the pandemic hit. Over 30 million people lost jobs in the first few months of the pandemic.

The proclamation was an attempt to address these job losses. He had banned, H-1B, L-1, J-1 and H-2B visa holders from entering the country till the year-end.

During the argument, Paul Hughes, who argued for the plaintiffs side, pointed out that there is no finding that these people entering the US will harm the employment prospects of Americans. When a visa category is linked to the ban, Hughes said there has to be a finding that these categories impact unemployment.

While H-2B visa is for temporary non-agriculture workers, others such as H-1B, L-1 and J-1 are highly skilled immigrant visas. According to an analysis by the National Foundation for American Policy, an immigration think tank, occupations in the tech sector that largely employs H-1B visa holders are not impacted due to COVID-19. The number of L-1 visa holders is low compared to that of H-1B. Hughes had also argued that these proclamations are impacting small businesses that depend on these workers.

After taking note of arguments from both the sides, the judge White is expected to pronounce the judgement in the coming days. The date, however, is not clear.

Judgement is important

There is a lot riding on this judgement for H-1B visa holders who were disappointed by the recent verdict in the first lawsuit. The first lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia representing close to 171 H-1B visa holders and their dependents.

Judge Amit P Mehta, in his judgement, had rejected the argument of the visa holders that the US President overrode his authority while banning their entry. Mehta, in a detailed 85-page ruling, rejected the plaintiffs statutory and constitutional challenges to the proclamations and said that the exceptions do not override the provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

He further added that when there are provisions for non-US citizens to travel to the US (relaxations were announced for entry of H-1B workers last month), the argument that these proclamations add burdensome conditions to their entry is not a valid objection.

While these relaxations quoted by Judge Mehta does help a portion, this leaves the majority of them out. With the likelihood of the ban extending further, especially when a lot depends on the outcome of the elections, these visa holders are looking for relief that would get them back to the US.
- Although cut into pieces, a technical team at the university had said it will put them together

- Mafishi was stolen from a fridge at the university where it was kept

- An investigation had been instituted to establish where it could be before it was found in the man's house

- Student at the university where the fish lived said they will preserve or embalm it

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The carcass of the Copperbelt University (CBU) iconic fish has been found in Wusakile Township at a house of an employee of the institution.

This virtually dashes the wish of CBU students to have the fish named Mafishi, preserved or embalmed, however, all hope is not lost though.

The iconic fish died on Monday, September 7. Photo: CBU.

Source: UGC

A report by Daily Zambia showed there were efforts to put Mafishi together again despite having been cut into small pieces by the man.

The CBU vice-chancellor Naison Ngoma said in on Thursday, September 10, that Mafishi, although cut into pieces, a technical team at the university had said it will be able to put them together.

Our investigations have yielded some new findings. We have managed to locate Mafishi, it has been found at some house in Wusakile, cut in pieces, the professor at the institution said.

A technical team at the university said it will be able to put the pieces together. Photo: CBU.

Source: UGC

The man was arrested following the discovery.

The iconic fish which died on Monday, September 7, had gone missing and students were worried their hero may have been stolen and eaten.

Ngoma had confirmed the disappearance of Mafishi from a fridge at the university where it was kept and an investigation had been instituted to establish where it could be.

Copperbelt University Students Union president Lawrence Kasonde said the students had been trying to retrieve Mafishi from where it was kept by security officers but to no avail.

We are really worried because we do not know the whereabouts of the fish. Our wish was for Mafishi to be embalmed, but we are not getting much help," Kasonde said.

Zambia President Edgar Lungu on September 8 joined students of the university in mourning the death of the nicknamed good luck fish.

Students from the institution of higher learning lit candles and marched mourning the fish which lived in a pond within the institution.

Mafishi was part of the CBU community for a long time. I'm glad you received a befitting send-off. We'll all miss you, Lungu wrote on Facebook while quoting Mahatma Gandhi,

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated," he added.

For almost 20 years, students at the campus believed that the fish would bring them good luck in their exams and they would pay homage to it before entering the exam room.

Kasonde told the BBC that the fish's death was under investigation.

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Source: YEN.com.gh
A Hong Kong police officer has been suspended from duty after he was arrested and charged with assaulting his girlfriend during an argument.

The officer, 28, from Hong Kong Island regional headquarters was alleged to have assaulted his 29-year-old girlfriend in a flat on Hiu Kwong Street in Sau Mau Ping on the morning of August 18.

A police spokesman said the pair had argued over relationship issues and the woman had been left with arm injuries after a tussle. She was later treated at United Christian Hospital in Kwun Tong.

Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.

The officer was arrested in Sau Mau Ping last Monday and later charged with one count of common assault.

The spokesman said he had been suspended, adding police attached the utmost importance to the integrity of officers. The force would absolutely not tolerate any illegal act from any personnel, he added.

This article Hong Kong police officer suspended after being charged with assaulting girlfriend during argument first appeared on South China Morning Post

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On September 12, Saudi Arabian-led coalition fighter jets launched an attack on the barracks and military sites of the Iran-backed armed Houthi movement in Yemen's capital Sanaa, according to a Saudi-run Al-Arabiya report. At least four Houthi drones at Al-Delmi air base north of Sanaa were destroyed. However, the coalition did not immediately issue a statement about the airstrikes on two sites in Sanaa. Meanwhile, Houthis claimed that the fighter jets attacked its key bases in the Saudi capital Riyadh with ballistic missiles. Earlier, the Yemeni army had shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle in Al Hudaydah province, saying, the drone was sent by the Houthi rebels to forces in Ad Durayhimi district, armys al-Amalika Brigade revealed in a statement.

Having accused the Houthis of disruption peace efforts with military operations, the Saudi-led military coalition has launched devastating air campaigns against the Houthi territorial claims ever since the escalation of the crisis in 2015. Last month, at least eleven Yemeni government troops, including a senior officer, were killed in the northeast and east of the capital Sanaa after a rebel missile attack was launched in the region. State media reported that the commander of the army's 122 Brigade and 8 soldiers were killed in Al-Jawf province in an attempt to claim their strategic positions. In the recent airstrikes, the coalition confirmed that the fighter jets entered Riyadh, where they intercepted and destroyed ballistic missiles and explosive drones, it, however, did not officially confirm the ballistic missile attack on the capital.

Read: PM Modi Discuss Bilateral Ties And Coronavirus Challenges With Saudi Arabia's King Salman

Read: Saudi Court Overturns Death Sentence Of Jamal Khashoggi's Killers; Fiancee Calls It Farce

Meanwhile, Houthi-run Saba news agency reported 11 air raids launched by the Saudi-led coalition in the Yemeni capital Sanaa to dismantle the positions of the Houthi rebel forces. Of the total 11 raids, five airstrikes launched a deadly attack on the Sanaa airport, while the rest hit northern and central parts of the city, an armed forces official informed the Sana agency on condition of anonymity. No casualties have been officially identified yet.

According to the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya media network, a formation of fighter jets launched missiles, destroying the al-Delmi airbase north of Sanaa completely. Last month, a Saudi-led coalition allied with Yemens government foiled two major attacks after an explosives-laden boat by Iran backed rebels was intercepted in the international shipping lanes in the Red Sea. The blast from the remotely controlled boat had killed 8 civilians, AP news agency sources confirmed in a report.

[Office of the Iranian Presidency, President Hassan Rouhani, center, heads a cabinet meeting in Tehran, Iran]

Coalition spokesman Col. Turki al-Malki said in a statement that Houthi attempted a terrorist attack that threatens commercial shipping routes in the vital Bab al-Mandeb strait, used for oil shipments from the Gulf to Europe, as well as goods from Asia to Europe.

Saudi and UAE military ships targeted

Later, the coalition intercepted the explosives carrying drone at Abha international airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia. Armed forces personnel told the sources of state-run Al Arabia news agency that the blast resonated at the coastal city of Midi, and at least five coalition vessels were completely destroyed. Yemeni security forces told the agency sources on condition of anonymity as they were prohibited to speak with the media, that Houthis have targeted Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates partnered military ships, however, the explosives were retrieved by the coalition troops.

Read: United Nations Urges US To Ban Surveillance Equipment Exports To Saudi Arabia

Read: US Judge: Saudi Royals Must Answer Questions In 9/11 Lawsuit
Jeffersonville, Indiana: The murder trial of a southern Indiana man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend and eating parts of her body began with a prosecutor warning jurors that they'll see photos of the 2014 crime scene worse than anything you would see in a horror movie.

Clark County Prosecutor Jeremy Mull said during his opening remarks in Joseph Oberhansleys trial that Tammy Jo Blanton, 46, met a fate thats very difficult to describe at the hands of the Jeffersonville man, who is charged with murder, rape, abuse of a corpse and burglary.

Joseph Oberhansley, who is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend and eating parts of her body. Credit:AP

Mull warned the jurors, who were drawn from Allen County in north-eastern Indiana because of the intense media coverage the case has received in the south of the state, that the evidence they would see will include gruesome photos.

Defense attorney Bart Betteau asked jurors to be wary of emotional evidence that wasnt relevant to the facts in September 11, 2014, killing.
By PTI

RAIPUR: Maoists are facing a crisis, specially disruption of supplies, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and also suffered "huge causalities" during an encounter with security forces in Sukma district in March, an official said citing Naxal documents seized by Chhattisgarh Police.

Cashing-in on the situation, security forces have stepped up anti-Naxal operations in strongholds of ultras in the state's Bastar division, Inspector General of Police (Bastar range) Sundarraj P said Sunday.

These documents, including some letters written by cadres, were recovered by a joint team of security forces following an exchange of fire with Naxals in a forest near Entapad village of Sukma on September 8, he said.

The gunfight lasted for about half-an-hour after which Naxals escaped into the dense forest leaving behind their bags, documents and other camping material, he said.

"An analysis of the recovered documents has revealed that Maoists have been experiencing tremendous hardships during the COVID-19 pandemic following the lockdown imposed in March this year," the official said.

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They have been facing an acute shortage of provisions and their supply networks have been chocked due to round-the- clock checking by security forces along the inter-state and inter-district borders, and regular patrolling, he said.

Arrangements of medicines and ration has been the main concern for rebels during this period, he said.

"We were well aware of the situation and now the documents have confirmed that Maoists are in deep crisis during the ongoing phase," the official said.

He further said that translation of a letter, written in local Gondi dialect by a subordinate to a senior cadre of south Bastar division, disclosed that Maoists lost their 23 cadres during the encounter at Minpa in Sukma district on March 21 this year.

During the gun battle, 17 personnel of the District Reserve Guard and the Special Task Force were killed.

The official said Maoists had then issued a press release, admitting death of only three operatives of its People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) battalion no.01, headed by Naxal commander Hidma.

"However, we had intelligence inputs that more than 25 Maoists were killed in that encounter," he said.

In order to keep up the morale of their lower-rung cadres, Maoists normally do not disclose details about the huge casualties they suffer during face-off with security forces, he said.

"We are closely monitoring the situation and carrying out operations in Maoists' strongholds in the interiors of Bastar division," the official added.

ALSO WATCH:
Boris Johnson looks set to withdraw from significant European human rights laws in a move which could make it easier to deport migrants and more difficult to sue British soldiers.

Ministers are considering opt-outs from the Human Rights Act (HRA) in areas the Government believes European judges have 'overreached,' according to the Sunday Telegraph.

The legislation was signed into British law in November 1998 to incorporate rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights.

An opt-out could prevent a significant number of migrants and asylum seekers from using the legislation to avoid deportation from the UK.

The move could also protect British soldiers from claims against their overseas activities, it was reported.

It is understood details of a formal review will be announced in the coming weeks.

Boris Johnson looks set to opt out of major European human rights laws which could make it easier to deport migrants and more difficult to sue British soldiers

An opt-out could prevent a number of migrants and asylum seekers from using the legislation to avoid deportation from the UK. Pictured: Migrants in Dover on Friday

The Tory manifesto pledged to 'update' the HRA after Brexit, but the move is contentious with Brussels and negotiators have expressed concern over the UK's commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights.

It comes amid a growing crisis over the number of migrants making treacherous journeys across the English Channel from northern France.

The situation intensified on Friday as the number of people arriving in the UK in small vessels since the start of the year passed 6,000.

More than 200 men, women and children are thought to have reached British soil from France aboard more than 20 inflatable boats and dinghies on September 11.

It comes amid a growing crisis over the number of migrants making treacherous journeys across the English Channel from northern France. Pictured: Arrivals on Friday

Around 6,050 migrants have made the illegal crossing this year  compared with 1,850 in the whole of 2019

It means around 6,050 have made the illegal crossing this year  compared with 1,850 in the whole of 2019.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland, who is under pressure to explain how Government plans to override elements of the Brexit deal are consistent with obligations under international law, will face questioning from the media today.

His Labour shadow, Lord Falconer, said: 'A future where [the] UK breaks its international law obligations, and opts out of Human Rights protections is a very bad future.'

Potential opt-outs from the HRA are currently being examined by Number 10, the Ministry of Justice, the Home office and the Ministry of Defence.

'Marine A' Alexander Blackman freed from jail for shooting dead a Taliban fighter in Afghanistan Former Royal Marine Alexander Blackman  known as Marine A  was released from prison in 2017 after Daily Mail readers helped to overturn his conviction for murdering a wounded Afghan insurgent. Sgt Blackman was sentenced to life in prison in 2013 for murder after he shot dead a wounded Taliban fighter in Afghanistan. He became the first British serviceman convicted of murder on a foreign battlefield since the Second World War. Pictured: Former Royal Marine Sergeant Alexander Blackman Sgt Blackman had been charge of a small band of Marines who manned an outpost in Helmand Province dubbed 'the most dangerous square mile on earth' because of constant Taliban attacks. He spent 1,277 days behind bars for the shooting. Top brass left him to rot in jail, but an investigation by the Mail revealed vital evidence had been 'deliberately withheld' from his trial. In 2017, Sgt Blackman's murder conviction was downgraded to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility. The High Court judges ruled that combat stress had clouded his judgement, leading him to snap following months of brutal fighting against the Taliban insurgency. Advertisement

One proposed way to limit the legislation is to amend the Act, or stop it from impacting newer laws such as the Overseas Operations Bill.

The Bill, which will be brought before the Commons next week, would change the HRA to include a 'duty to consider derogation' from the European Convention on Human Rights.

Mr Johnson's potential opt outs could tee up a fresh clash with Brussels, after tensions grew in recent days when the PM unveiled plans to tear up parts of his original Brexit divorce deal.

The Prime Minister is facing mounting criticism over the legislation overriding his deal, as leaders from across the political spectrum attacked the threat to break international law.

Senior Conservatives are not backing down on their rebellion against the Prime Minister's plans despite his warning that Brussels could 'carve up our country' without his new Bill.

Former PMs Sir John Major and Tony Blair have united to urge MPs to reject the legislation, saying it imperils the Irish peace process, trade negotiations and the UK's integrity.

Sir Keir Starmer accused Mr Johnson of having 'reigniting old rows' by working to flout his own Withdrawal Agreement, but pledged Labour support if he addresses 'substantial' concerns.

Tory rebels suggested their numbers were growing and opinions were only hardened by Mr Johnson's increased rhetoric that the EU could impose a trade border in the Irish Sea.

Sir John and Mr Blair, the former Conservative and Labour leaders, united to condemn Mr Johnson's controversial UK Internal Market Bill in an article for the Sunday Times.

'We both opposed Brexit. We both accept it is now happening. But this way of negotiating, with reason cast aside in pursuit of ideology and cavalier bombast posing as serious diplomacy, is irresponsible, wrong in principle and dangerous in practice,' they said.

'It raises questions that go far beyond the impact on Ireland, the peace process and negotiations for a trade deal - crucial though they are. It questions the very integrity of our nation.'

Sir Keir called on Mr Johnson to throw out clauses that could breach international law and those that lead the devolved administrations to warn of a 'power grab' to get Labour support.

'If the Government fixes the substantial cross-party concerns that have been raised about the Internal Market Bill, then we are prepared to back it,' Sir Keir said today.

'But if they do not, and the talk collapse, then it is their failure and incompetence that will have let the British people down.'

Despite Mr Johnson's attempts to drum up support, Tory chairman of the Commons defence committee Tobias Ellwood said on Saturday that he could not support the legislation without it being changed.

'Already this Bill is damaging brand UK, diminishing our role-model status as defender of global standards. As we go to the wire, let's see more British statecraft - less Nixonian Madman Theory,' he tweeted.

Commons justice committee chairman Sir Bob Neill, who has tabled an amendment which he said would impose a 'parliamentary lock' on any changes to the Withdrawal Agreement, said he still contends it contains 'objectionable' elements.

Damian Green, who was Theresa May's deputy when she was prime minister and is backing the amendment, was also understood to not have been won over by Mr Johnson's argument.

Sir Keir Starmer has accused Mr Johnson of having 'reigniting old rows' by working to flout his own Withdrawal Agreement, but pledged Labour support if he addresses 'substantial' concerns

Sir Roger Gale also remained a vehement critic, telling Times Radio: 'If anybody is responsible, if it happens, for bringing the union down, it will be (chief aide Dominic) Cummings and Mr Johnson.'

The EU has given Mr Johnson until the end of the month to withdraw his proposals to override elements of the Withdrawal Agreement, with the bloc threatening legal action if he does not comply.

Brussels has also made clear that the future of trade talks are at risk of collapse if Mr Johnson does not perform a U-turn - but Michael Gove has vowed the Government will not be changing course.

This week, the European Union also hinted it could ban UK food exports to the bloc if the two sides fail to agree a trade deal by the end of the year.

Michel Barnier said there were still 'many uncertainties' on the UK's post-Brexit standards regime and that 'more clarity is needed' in order for Brussels to agree to allow British exports of food and livestock to continue.

Trade talks between the UK and Brussels remain ongoing ahead of the end of the transition period in December.
Shares of Oracle jumped 4.3% Monday after it confirmed that ByteDance has selected it as a partner to help it save its U.S. TikTok business.

Trading in shares of Oracle were halted Monday morning pending news of the deal. The stock resumed trading after Oracle confirmed late in the morning that it struck a deal with TikTok owner ByteDance to become its trusted technology provider.

A person familiar with the discussions told CNBC on Sunday that ByteDance picked Oracle to be the U.S. partner of the popular social video app. Oracle also will take a significant stake in the business, the person said. Earlier Sunday, Microsoft said ByteDance had chosen not to sell it TikTok's U.S. assets.

Citing concerns that Americans' personal data would be shared with the Chinese government, the White House had imposed a Sept. 20 deadline for ByteDance to announce a plan for a sale of TikTok in the U.S. or be banned by Sept. 29. The deal would have to be done by Nov. 12. TikTok has said the Chinese government doesn't have access to user data.

"ByteDance let us know today they would not be selling TikTok's US operations to Microsoft," Microsoft said in a blog post. "We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok's users, while protecting national security interests. To do this, we would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combatting disinformation, and we made these principles clear in our August statement. We look forward to seeing how the service evolves in these important areas."
An ambitious eight-year-old has managed to read his height in book in under a year.

Twelve months ago, Elijah Fyrne, from Cheltenham, set himself the challenge of reading his height - 4ft 6 inches- in books before he turned nine on September 17.

The passionate bookworm has now read 84 books in a year with almost a week to spare before his birthday deadline.

His mother Michelle shared how proud she was of her son, who she said struggled to sit still and was not an natural reader before he gave the challenge a go.

Elijah Fyrne, eight, from Cheltenham set him the challenge of reading his height - 4ft 6 - in books before he turned nine on September 17

Michelle said: 'I'm really proud of Elijah, he wasn't a natural or particularly early reader and he struggles to sit still so this is an incredible achievement for him.'

By reading 84 books in less than a year, Elijah read roughly one book every 4 days.

Out of the 84 books he went through since September 2019, Elijah found he best enjoyed The Beast of Buckingham Palace, by comedy star and Britain's Got Talent judge David Walliams.

The Beast of Buckingham Palace, Walliams' most recent foray into children's book is a fantasy adventure set in 2120 and tells the story of young Prince Alfred, who's never left the Palace.

Proud Elijah next to the books he read in just under a year. Elijah is now a literature-enthusiast who loves the books of author and Britain's Got Talent host David Walliams

Walliams' other books have also proved a hit with Elijah, who considers the Britain's Got Talent judge one of his favourite authors.

Now the youngster is Elijah is reading Diary of Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, by author and cartoonist Jeff Kinney.

The best-seller series, first published in 2009, tells the story of Greg Heffley, an indoor-type whose mother insists should spend the summer outdoors.

The novel follows Greg 's and his family's summer as dark secrets are revealed.

Meanwhile the ambitious Elijah has set himself an even bigger target for next year and is now planning on reading enough books as reached his ceilling.
(Reuters) - Iran said on Saturday that Bahrain's move to normalize relations with Israel meant it would be complicit in Israeli policies which threatened regional security, Iranian state TV reported.

Bahrain's agreement, which was announced by U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday, was partly forged because of shared wariness of Iran.

Iran's foreign ministry said that it would hold the governments of Bahrain and its allies responsible for any insecurity caused by Israel in the Gulf region.

Palestinians fear the moves by Bahrain and its fellow Gulf Arab state, the United Arab Emirates, will weaken a longstanding pan-Arab position that calls for Israeli withdrawal from occupied territory and acceptance of Palestinian statehood in return for normal relations with Arab countries.

Bahrain has become the fourth Arab country to reach an agreement with Israel, which exchanged embassies with Egypt and Jordan decades ago.

The UAE agreed to normalize ties with Israel a month ago under a U.S.-brokered deal due to be signed on Tuesday at a ceremony hosted by Trump, who is seeking re-election on Nov. 3.

"Bahrain's shameful move sacrifices the Palestinian cause and decades of struggle ... at the expense of the U.S. election," Iranian TV quoted a foreign ministry statement as saying.

Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy's regional headquarters. Saudi Arabia sent troops to the small island state in 2011 to help quell a largely Shi'ite Muslim uprising against the Sunni-dominated leadership.

Predominantly Shi'ite Iran and largely Sunni Saudi Arabia are bitter regional rivals.

(Editing by Alexander Smith)
13.09.2020 LISTEN

THE CHAIRPERSON

JUDICIAL COMMITTEE

TEACHER TRAINEES' ASSOCIATION OF GHANA (TTAG) ACCRA.

Dear Sir,

PETITION TO INVESTIGATE ALLEGED MISSING WHOPPING AMOUNT AS TTAG DUES AND MISAPPROPRIATION OF FUNDS.

Introduction:

The Petitioners are Immediate Past National officers of the 2017/2018 TTAG year. They are Mr. Agboni, Nicholas Kelvin (Former National General Secretary) and Mr. Ekow Paintsil Djan (Former Dep. National Secretary).

This petition has become necessary for the Association to, as a matter of urgency, investigate an alleged TTAG dues which was not accounted for in accordance with the financial statement presented to the 23rd Delegates' Congress held at Ada College of Education, Ada Foah by the Former National Financial Secretary, Mr. Rudolf Kporgbe Enam and also misappropriation of funds during our tenure of office.

Statement of allegations

In our (Petitioners) first and only meeting with the Management and Staff of the Students' Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) on Monday, 19th February, 2018, we were informed by the Chief Executive Officer of SLTF, Mr. Nana Kwaku Agyei Yeboah that allowances were to paid to forty-six thousand (46,000) trainee teachers throughout the 2017/2018 academic year. By this number, the expected amount of TTAG dues was GH 1,288,000.00 In an address delivered by Mr. Kofi Abew Nkrumah, the Principal Operations Manager (Head of Operations) at SLTF during the opening ceremony of the 23rd Delegates' Congress of the Association indicated that an amount of GH 78.1 million has been paid to forty seven thousand, eight hundred and seventy-three (47,873) trainee teachers as allowances throughout the academic year by the Government of the Republic of Ghana. By this number the expected amount of TTAG dues is GH 1,340,444. 00 The National Financial Secretary, Mr Rudolf Kporgbe Enam presented a Financial Statement of the Association to Delegates' Congress. In the statement, Mr. Kporgbe indicated that a total amount of GH 1,203,972.00 as TTAG dues was paid by the SLTF throughout the academic year. By this amount, a total number of Forty-two thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine (42,999) trainee teachers received allowances. It must also be noted that the Finance Minister of the Republic of Ghana, Mr Kenneth Ofori-Atta presented the 2018 Mid-year review budget statement to the Parliament of Ghana on Thursday, 19th July, 2018. In the statement, the Finance Minister indicated that an amount of GH 177,511,600.00 has been allocated for the payment of 49,032 trainee teachers' allowances. He further stated that GH 78,451, 200.00 was released for ONLY second semester. [See page 37, item 169 of the Mid-year review budget statement, 2018]. The expected TTAG dues, therefore, is GH 1,372, 896.00 The Petitioners in consultation with Student Representative Councils (SRCs) of forty-one (41) public Colleges of Education observed that the total number of students who were eligible to receive allowances were forty-six thousand, four hundred and twenty-five (46, 425). It should be noted that five more colleges were later added to benefit from the allowances. These Colleges were St. Vincent, Methodist, Bia Lamplighter, McCoy and SDA Colleges of Education. The above listed Colleges were not part of the 41 Colleges we consulted. The figures put across by the Government of Ghana, the Student Loan Trust Fund and the Financial Secretary of TTAG have witnessed great contradictions to each other. Considering the difference of figures put up by the Finance Minister and the Financial controllers of TTAG i.e. GH 1,372, 896.00 and GH 1,203,972.00 respectively, the alleged TTAG dues that was not accounted for is GH 168, 924.00 Considering the difference of figures put up by the Finance Minister and the Student Loan Trust Fund i.e. GH 1,372, 896.00 and GH 1,340,444. 00 respectively, an amount of GH 32, 452 did not find its way into the account of the Association. We herein call on the Committee to swiftly investigate to retrieve the alleged missing TTAG dues of the Association. The Petitioners also write to request for payment receipts made by SLTF to TTAG as well as Bank statements of the Association's account. The Committee is herein notified that the Immediate Past President Mr. Jonathan Apam, the Immediate Past Coordinator Mr. Emmanuel Kwabena Asiedu and the Immediate Past Financial Secretary Mr. Rudolf Kporgbe Enam opened a new account with now defunct UniBank without the knowledge of other national officers and the entire National Executive Council which is against section 51 (1) of the Public Financial Management Act, Act 921 and the Constitution of the Association. The new account created at now defunct UniBank was presented to the SLTF for the payment of the TTAG dues without the knowledge of other national officers and the entire National Executive Council. Our checks reveal that TTAG dues were paid into the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), Kaneshie Branch for four months. The last time monies were withdrawn from the account was on 30th August, 2018. Our checks also reveal that Mr. Jonathan Apam single-handedly wrote to the Student Loan Trust Fund to change the Association's account from ADB to now defunct UniBank on 28th May, 2018. The SRCs in the Colleges of Education have received just three out of seven months of their component of the TTAG dues with arrears. The various sectors of TTAG have received five out of seven months of their component of the TTAG dues with arrears. The other national officers, apart from the signatories to the Association's bank account do not know the whereabouts of the remaining components for both Local TTAG and Sectors of TTAG It must be put on record that National officers, apart from Jonathan Apam, Rudolf Kporgbe Enam and Emmanuel Kwabena Asiedu, do not know the exact amount received from SLTF as TTAG dues, the amount paid into the defunct account at UniBank and how it was disbursed to the Local TTAG and the Sectors of TTAG It must also be noted that some SRC Presidents of their various Colleges of Education received their local components /Mechanization of the dues through their personal bank accounts. Some items were purchased without due consultation with and subsequent approval by the entire National Executive Council of the Association. This act is against the Procurement Act, Act 914. We call for the investigation of all procurement breaches. An amount of GH 36,500.00 was allocated for a trip to the Republic of China by the Immediate Past President and the Immediate Past National Administrator, Mr. Jonathan Apam and Larry Kofi Agbador respectively. It is on record that Mr. Apam was not part of the said trip. The said amount is too huge for a single person's trip to China and must therefore be reviewed. The Audit Committee Chaired by Mr. Yassir Mohammed presented an audit report to Congress. We commend their good work and call on the Judicial Committee to consider the Audit Committee's report especially points (1), (3), (4), (6), (8) and other points the Judicial Committee finds it necessary. The amount GH 18, 200.00 spent on fuel for the TTAG car is too huge. The car is used as a private car and not commercial. It moves only when the need arises. This, we have realized, is misappropriation of funds. The Immediate Past Financial Secretary claims an amount of GH 39,747.00 was spent on repairs and maintenance of the car. We see this amount to be too huge, as such, investigations should be conducted to see the nitty-gritty of this unnecessary spending. We pray the Committee to publishe its findings. The Committee is herein prayed to forward all findings to the Special Prosecutor, the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) and the Police for subsequent prosecution of persons found culpable.

Conclusion:

We herein call on the Judicial Committee of the Association and the entire National Executive Council to assist in investigation to unearth the truth and retrieve all unaccounted for monies and subsequent prosecution of persons found culpable. Our evidences are intact and we are ready to assist to ensure that there is justice. We would like to reiterate that we trust in the competence, credibility, fairness and the good work of the members of the Judicial Committee of our noble Association (TTAG) hence ask for a proper work by the Committee.

Attached to this petition are references and evidences.

References:

2018 Mid-year review budget Financial Statement of the Immediate past Financial Secretary Audio Recordings Audit Committee Report, 2018

We count on you for a good work. Thank you.

Yours faithfully,



AGBONI NICHOLAS KELVIN



IMMEDIATE PAST GENERAL SEC.



(1st PETITIONER)



0545238073/0200842402 EKOW PAINTSIL DJAN



IMMEDIATE PAST DEP. SEC



(2nd PETITIONER)



0241466848/ 0209510444

ISSUED: WEDNESDAY, 20TH MARCH, 2019.

Cc: The CEO, Students' Loan Trust Fund

The President, Teacher Trainees' Association of Ghana
Forget the flute of chilled Moet & Chandon before takeoff, mid-flight gin and tonics and a roaming dessert trolley after dinner. Flying business class isnt what it used to be.

Efforts to minimize human interaction and reduce the risk of infection are taking the shine off the most expensive seats onboard commercial aircraft. Gone are the multi-course banquets and warm personal service, once the hallmarks of carriers like Singapore Airlines Ltd. and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. These days, whats left of premium-grade travel is functional, hygienic and closer to cattle class -- only with more legroom.

The limitations are one more headache for an industry grappling with a near-total collapse in demand and follow years of luxury oneupmanship among carriers in a contest for the most profitable passengers.

Suddenly, its harder to tell airlines apart when youre up the pointy end. Thats making it tougher to win top-paying customers, and risks pushing some to the back of the plane.

Feels Like Economy

Theres nobody to help you with your bag, youre not escorted to your seat, and theres definitely no pre-flight champagne," said Sandra Lim, who flew business class to Singapore from Los Angeles with Singapore Air late last month. It feels like its reverted back to economy class."

Crew wore face masks and eye shields, and avoided contact and shared touch points where possible, Lim said. While passengers could ask for a drink, they werent freely offered, and there were no menus. Meals came with everything on one tray, just like in economy, rather than in separate courses.

When you strip away the food and service, its just a mode of transport to get from point A to B," said Lim, a 38-year-old food and beverage consultant.

Some overseas routes have resumed, but traffic worldwide has barely started to creep back. International passenger demand was down 92% in July. The planes that were flying were typically about half full, according to the International Air Transport Association.

Structural Change

Its also not clear to what extent the premium market, which IATA says generated 30% of airlines international revenues in 2019, can recover. Many grounded business travelers have become accustomed to video conferencing rather than making visits in person, and a global recession threatens corporate budgets.

IAG SA, owner of British Airways and Iberia, said in July that leisure demand will recover before corporate travel, and this structural change" in the market will lead to new cabin layouts. On a conference call, IAG Chief Financial Officer Stephen Gunning said British Airways retired its Boeing Co. 747s early partly because they had so many premium seats.

Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Paul Scurrah said at a conference this month that business travel would rebound slower than the overall market as some companies maintain work-from-home policies. Qantas Airways Ltd. CEO Alan Joyce was optimistic that demand would fully recover, but not until 2023 or 2024.

Low-cost airlines such as Ryanair Holdings Plc and EasyJet Plc, largely catering to short-haul leisure travelers, are likely to bounce back faster than airlines with a bigger international focus, UBS Group AG analysts led by Jarrod Castle said in an Aug. 21 report.

Paying Up?

The appeal of a larger, more comfortable seat that extends fully flat may be enough to keep business class passengers coming back, said Volodymyr Bilotkach, a lecturer in air-transport management at the Singapore Institute of Technology. But it might be different for those in premium economy.

On the airlines where I have experienced it, this product was more economy than premium to begin with," said Bilotkach. I dont know if passengers would be willing to pay that price differential now."

Yet airlines somehow need to keep filling premium seats, or get rid of them. According to Bilotkach, a single business class seat that lies flat needs to generate at least four times the profit of an economy seat to justify all the space it takes up in the plane.

Some airlines will use the pandemic to permanently downgrade their offerings in premium cabins to save money, said Jeremy Clark, who runs Malaysia-based JC Consulting, which advises carriers on catering and service. That means many airline-dependent suppliers will shut, limiting the scope for on-board dining and service to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels when travel recovers, he said.

That said, there will still be airlines that recognize the value good food and service bring to their brand in return for the relatively small cost of providing it," said Clark. Were human beings. We like to be spoiled."

While Covid-19 has reduced the frequency of service onboard, when safe, airlines will return to a fuller culinary service with premium cabins leading the way, according to David Loft, chief commercial officer of Emirates unit dnata catering.

Safety Show

Until then, business- and first-class passengers should expect scaled-back service and more modest meals, said Michelin-starred chef Vineet Bhatia, who has worked with British Airways and Qatar Airways for almost two decades.

He said travelers neednt worry about the risk of infection from the food or even a tipple -- having a scotch in a plane with 40% alcohol is safer than having a glass of tap water" -- but they want to see some Covid-19 precautions.

The safety aspect has to be very visual, said Bhatia. The passenger wants to see crew maintaining distance, greeting him fully covered, giving him his meal in a wrapped up box and leave. That looks like science fiction, but thats how it is."

Even that wasnt quite enough for Graziela Guludjian, who took a 12 1/2 hour flight to Barcelona from Singapore in business class last month. The Singapore Air crew gave her a bag with a facemask, hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes.

I didnt feel comfortable," said Guludjian, who was moving back to Spain with her husband and three children. I didnt want to fly, but I had no option. I dont want to travel any time soon."





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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Husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, in custody since 2016 on sedition charges, says her trial has been postponed.

Iran has postponed a new trial due to start on Sunday of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman arrested in Tehran for sedition, her husband said.

Yes, todays hearing was postponed, Richard Ratcliffe told AFP news agency in London on Sunday. Her Iranian lawyer was told the case was not happening today, he said.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 41, has spent more than four years in jail or under house arrest since being arrested in the Iranian capital in April 2016 while on a visit to see relatives with her young daughter.

She was sentenced to five years in jail after being convicted of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government. Her family and the Thomson Reuters Foundation where she worked deny the charge.

Iranian state televisions website Iribnews on Tuesday said she and her lawyer were summoned by an Iranian Revolutionary Court and notified of a new indictment, without giving further details or a trial date.

Al Jazeeras Assed Baig, reporting from Tehran, said Zaghari-Ratcliffes case had been escalated to a dispute between the Iranian and the British governments.

Back in 2019, the British government changed her status and gave her diplomatic protection, which changed the status of her case from a consular matter to a dispute between the two countries, he said.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe last week said she was due to appear in court on Sunday, and that it was increasingly clear she was being held as a hostage.

Her British MP Tulip Siddiq also relayed the news of Sundays postponement of the trial.

She is relieved, frustrated, stressed and angry. Once again shes being treated like a bargaining chip, Siddiq said on Twitter.
More than 600 projects with a total investment of 600 billion yuan (about 87.7 billion U.S. dollars) were signed Saturday during the online World Manufacturing Convention held in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province.

China's domestic market has huge growth potential and the development of the country's manufacturing industry will bring the world greater investment opportunities and broader investment prospects under the new economic development pattern of "dual circulation," said Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen at the opening ceremony of the convention's Jianghuai Online Economic Forum.

Xu Lijin, chairman of Efort Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd., who took part in the online deals signing, said he has full confidence in the future as China's economy is resilient and dynamic.

The World Manufacturing Convention was held online for the first time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It focused on promoting high-quality growth of manufacturing and digital economy as well as on guiding the digital eocnomy to deeply integrate with the real economy.

Zhang Xi, vice governor of Anhui Province, said 1,073 projects with a total investment of 962.2 billion yuan were signed during the World Manufacturing Convention in 2018 and 2019.

By the end of August, 1,008 projects had finished company registrations and 880 projects had started construction, Zhang said.
Avocados, tomatoes, cars, computers and oil head north while gasoline, auto parts, computer chips, natural gas and corn head south.

Thats the basic rhythm of trade along the U.S./Mexico border, where the two nations exchanged $41 billion worth of goods in June  roughly $1.4 billion per day, or nearly $1 million per minute.

Shutdowns related to the coronavirus pandemic have not stopped cross-border trade, but they have slowed it. The $243 billion in trade between the two nations during the first six months of the year marked a 21 percent drop from the nearly $309 billion one year prior, according to Miami trade data firm World City.

Once the pandemic ends, however, international trade experts expect a quick recovery, spurred by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Known as USMCA, the three-way trade deal was drafted as an update to the 26-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement. The pact, signed by all three nations in November 2018, quietly went into effect July 1.

Border: Energy exports help Laredo to become top U.S. trade hub

More Information U.S. Top 10 Trading Partners in 2019 Mexico made history when it finished 2019 as the top trading partner for the United States. A trade war and shutdowns related to the coronavirus pandemic sent China falling from first place down to third place. See More Collapse

Taking effect as the United States and Mexico struggle to contain the spread of the highly contagious and deadly virus, USMCA is expected to speed the post-COVID recovery, especially in Texas, a border state World City figures show accounted for nearly two-thirds of U.S. trade with Mexico through June.

Although the deal largely kept NAFTA intact, USMCA has some important updates that are expected to add jobs and keep more money in the region. Automobiles must now have 75 percent of their components made in either the United States, Canada or Mexico to be tariff-free. Thats an increase from the 62.5 percent under NAFTA.

USMCA also added provisions for intellectual property, cross-border data transfers and digital commerce, which did not exist when NAFTA was enacted in January 1994 but have since become economic drivers.

Were not talking about a small market here, said Alicia Kerber-Palma, Mexicos consul general in Houston. On the contrary, this deal represents over $1.5 billion of daily trade between the U.S. and Mexico, that benefits 500 million consumers in all three countries. Were talking about almost 19 percent of the worlds gross domestic product.

Tex-Mex trade

Mexico ended last year as the No. 1 trading partner for the United States for the first time ever, a position it reached thanks in large part to the U.S.-China trade war. And of the $615 billion of trade between the two nations last year, more than $14.1 billion went through the Port of Houston, making Mexico the Bayou Citys top trading partner in 2019, World City trade figures show.

The pandemic has temporarily slowed the ports energy-heavy trade with Mexico, but commercial ties with Houston and Texas run deeper than just shipments of crude oil, gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

Mexican firms such as state-run oil company Pemex, cement giant Cemex, airline Aeromexico, bread maker Bimbo and dairy bottler Lala employ thousands of people in the Houston area while numerous Texas companies in the energy, medical and manufacturing sectors have a presence in Mexico.

We all consider USMCA to be critical to the state and region as we move out of recession, said Laura Murillo, president of the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

COVID has caused what most trade experts view as a temporary dip in cross-border commerce, but some Houston companies are seeking to turn the pandemic into a business opportunity.

Headquartered in Cypress, Petra Oil makes motor oil and numerous other products used by auto dealerships and oil change shops. The privately held companys president, Arnold Gacita, saw COVID taking its toll on sales and responded by launching four new products over the last four months  face masks, liquid hand sanitizer, gel hand sanitizer and a sprayable disinfectant.

Gacita said USMCA makes shipments to Canada and Mexico tariff-free and usually with less customs paperwork than other destinations.

A lot of companies import products from Mexico, Gacita said. Were one of the few exporting constantly to Mexico.

Keep on Trucking: 18-wheelers haul LNG exports into Mexico

However, it may take some time before other manufacturers feel the full economic benefits of USMCA.

Pandemic shutdown orders disrupted manufacturing operations around the world, forcing some companies to rethink supply chains and what nations their parts come from.

Tony Garza, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico-turned-trade expert with international law firm White & Case, said the issue played out in a dramatic fashion in North America.

As Mexico shut down its factories amid the pandemic, U.S. companies suddenly couldnt get the parts necessary to continue their production, he said. Eventually, U.S. companies pushed Mexico and succeeded in getting factories added to the countrys list of essential businesses that could reopen. However, this episode and similar experiences globally will reshape how companies think about their supply chains and resilience.

Laredo rises

Post-COVID, one of the biggest beneficiaries of USMCA is expected to be Laredo. Already a busy trade hub with Mexico, the trade war with China allowed the border city to become the nations top port in March 2019. Pandemic-related shutdowns in China allowed Laredo to reclaim that status again in February, according to figures from World City.

Trucking and warehouses employ nearly one-in-three people, who are regarded as essential workers during the pandemic. Nowhere is that more apparent than Laredos booming cold storage industry, which was already thriving before USMCA but has seen increased activity with more people staying home.

Avocados, tomatoes, strawberries and other produce are trucked in from Mexico and housed in cold storage warehouses before getting shipped on I-35 to San Antonio, Austin and beyond, or across U.S. Highway 59 to Houston and points east.

Supporting that trade, there are 25 cold storage facilities with 1.1 million square feet of space operating in Laredo while warehouses with another 500,000 square feet are expected to be added over the next year, figures from the Laredo Economic Development Corp. show. After the pandemic ends, USMCA is expected to bring investment beyond the cold storage sector, Laredo Economic Development Director Teclo Garcia said.

Tesla is coming to Austin, but 25 percent of their parts are made in Mexico, Garcia said. We can play a part in that. Austin is right up the street on I-35. We want to take advantage of that regional economy.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, is pushing for the trade deal to be supported by two projects  the Ports-to-Plains Corridor from Laredo to Denver and a second international rail bridge to Mexico in Laredo.

Trade: Border wait times swell amid shuffle to handle migrant crisis

Tony Payan, a U.S-Mexico relations expert with Rice Universitys Baker Institute, said the Trump administrations push to update NAFTA created two-and-a-half years of uncertainty among investors, which resulted in some projects being put on hold.

Nobody was celebrating with champagne after the deal was signed, Payan said. From the Yukon to the Yucatan, alls you heard were sighs of relief.

And then, the pandemic happened. COVID and USMCA could potentially incentivize U.S. manufacturers operating in China to open backup plants or move their operations south of the border, but Payan said that depends on an unpredictable wild card  Mexicos president, Andres Manuel Lopez-Obrador.

Known as AMLO, Mexicos left-of-center nationalist president has a knack for making foreign investors nervous by favoring government-funded projects over the private sector, Payan said.

Even after USMCA, which raised the minimum wage for autoworkers in Mexico, the cheapest labor out of the three nations is still in Mexico, Payan said. But AMLO is hostile to private investment.  Hes deeply distrusting of the private sector.

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Mexico and Canada also eased their rules about taxing individual packages coming from the United States, meaning U.S. e-commerce providers do not have to pay as high pay taxes on products shipped to customers in those nations.

The trade deal also strengthened intellectual property and privacy laws that protect the online trade of music, electronic books and other products. And as smart phone use and video streaming services continue grow in Mexico, more communications networks will need to be built, including some that cross the border.

Duncan Wood, director of the Wilson Centers Mexico Institute said USMCA enacted privacy laws and the movement of data in a way that lays the groundwork for a 21st century economy.

For companies like Google, data is critically important, Wood said. And if data is the new oil, we need to have rules to govern its trade and movements across borders. Businesses need and want certainty.

sergio.chapa@chron.com

http://twitter.com/SergioChapa
Abu Dhabi has launched a comprehensive five-year strategy for people of determination aiming to create an integrated and enabling environment for them with the participation of over 28 local and federal government entities.



Launched by the Department of Community Development (DCD) in Abu Dhabi, the strategy for People of Determination 2020-2024 is in line with DCDs vision to provide every member of society with a good quality of life, reported Emirates News Agency WAM.



Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and Chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Council, said: "Todays launch of the Comprehensive Strategy for People of Determination re-affirms our commitment to inclusion, equality and empowerment for all members of UAE society, upholding everyones right to participate fully and with dignity in our community."



Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice Chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Council, said: "Abu Dhabis Comprehensive Strategy for People of Determination is an essential step towards further integration and empowerment of this vital community group, to unleash their full potential as key players in our nations development and future achievements."



The strategy addresses People of Determinations needs at all stages of life, including health, rehabilitation, education, employment, social care and social security, as well as social engagement, sports, culture and tourism.



The strategy also focuses also on creating an accessible and enabling environment across buildings, facilities, transportation, housing and other services. Overall, the strategy addresses key enablers including quality of services and financial sustainability to support the People of Determination and their families within an integrated framework that enables their social participation.



The People of Determination strategy has adopted key principles that are consistent with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which follows practices that support People of Determinations rights as well as the communitys perspective on disabilities. This is an indicator that challenges for People of Determination exist not within themselves, but are a result of the surrounding environment, societal behaviours and current systems.



In addition, the strategy emphasises the importance of sharing the responsibility of integrating People of Determination within all policies, programmes and services provided by authorities across the emirate of Abu Dhabi. The importance of the role of People of People of Determination is emphasised in the execution of and roll-out of the strategies, for which they will be take up leadership roles.



The strategy will be implemented by six working teams, including: -Health and rehabilitation team led by the Department of Health; -Education team led by the Department of Education and Knowledge; -Employment team led by the Human Resources Authority; -Social Care team led by Zayed Higher Organization for People of Determination; -Accessibility team led by the Department of Municipalities and Transport; -Enablers team led by the Department of Community Development.



Each team will include the relevant local and federal governmental entities, as well as representatives from the private sector, and the social sector, including People of Determination associations in Abu Dhabi, in order to involve People of Determination and their families in the process.



As the lead team, the Department of Community Development will provide the necessary support to the participating teams to ensure that coordination and communication is maintained. DCD will also oversee and regulate overall performance and execution in order to achieve the strategys goals.



The Comprehensive Strategy for People of Determination is in line with the 2030 plan for the social sector, which involves three major components: -To provide all members of the community with a good standard of living and housing in the emirate of Abu Dhabi; -Build cohesive family units as an essential part of a tolerant and inclusive community that enables all community members, in order to create a happy and secure environment; -Create an active and responsible community by motivating individuals to participate in helping in the community, and to stay active and health conscious.


An African serval cat named Spartacus has been found safe and sound after escaping from his home and spending days in the New Hampshire wild.

The cat was 'was trapped near its home and is in good health,' Merrimack police posted on Facebook on Friday.

The animal has been returned to its owner, Dean King, who said that Spartacus had run away on Wednesday after getting spooked by the family dog.

Dean and Lisa King's exotic African serval pet Spartacus stands up to look at a coffeemaker in his home in Merrimack, New Hampshire

THere was so much interest in Spartacus that the family have now set up his own Instagram

King adopted Spartacus from a Florida zoo four years ago. Photos show the long, lean cat, tawny in color with dark spots and lengthy ears rounded at the top.

Dean and Lisa King thanked everyone for searching for their lost cat with whom they have now been reunited

One photo of Spartacus with his paws up on the kitchen counter, eyeing a coffee maker, has gone viral on social media.

The family owns the cat legally and has a permit from the state's department of fish and game, police said.

Spartacus lives indoors, spending the days in an enclosure and roaming the family house at night.

Merrimack's animal control officer, Haylie Gulino, said the search was tricky because she had never seen a case like this before and she along with her fellow officers were not sure what to look for.

'They had no idea; I had to show them a picture of what they normally look like,' Gulino said. 'So, like I said, this was uncharted territory. It was out of the norm for most people here.'

The 40-pound cat has been found safe and sound after escaping from his home on Wednesday and spending several days in the New Hampshire wild. He is pictured here on Saturday

Wife, Lisa King, posted a video of Spartacus perched in his enclosure on Saturday and thanked people for their support.

'Dean and I want to thank everyone for you help and support. Spartacus is home safe and warm. personally can't express my gratitude enough! I have a bond with this cat and he is my person,' she wrote in the Facebook post.

Merrimack is located along the river of the same name, around 12 miles north of the Massachusetts state line and features woods and conservation areas - including the aptly named Wildcat Falls Conservation Area.

Spartacus lives indoors, spending the days in an enclosure and roaming the family house at night where he likes to perch himself on top of the pool table
Facebook announced on Saturday, Sept. 12 that it would start its purging or removal of fake news related to the cause of the ongoing Oregon wildfire. Those posts or news articles referring to extremists groups like the controversial Antifa as the cause of the fire will all be removed from the platform to curb false claims. Here is why.

Facebook starts its purging again!

Starting Saturday, all fake posts and news articles referring to the Oregon wildfire cause will be removed from the platform for good.

The Verge reported Facebook's policy communications director Andy Stone posted via his Twitter account that these posts will no longer be allowed on social media.

This decision occured in order to follow with the protocol of Facebook into "removing content that could lead to imminent harm."

"We are removing false claims that the wildfires in Oregon were started by certain groups," Facebook spokesman Andy Stone tweeted Saturday. "This is based on confirmation from law enforcement that these rumors are forcing local fire and police agencies to divert resources from fighting the fires and protecting the public."

As explained by Stone, local police authorities were being asked with rumors due to the spread of these fake news all over the Internet.

Antifa started the Oregon fire?

One thing that was common on these false claims is the suggestion that politically motivated arsonists such as the Antifa group were the ones behind the said incident.

Rumor even spread out that local police arrested six members from the left-wing group as suspects behind the fire. However, this was purely false, according to the police.

"Rumors spread just like wildfire, and now our 9-1-1 dispatchers and professional staff are being overrun with requests for information and inquiries on an UNTRUE rumor that 6 Antifa members have been arrested for setting fires," the Douglas County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. "THIS IS NOT TRUE! Unfortunately, people are spreading this rumor, and it is causing problems."

The Medford Police Department also flagged a specific post saying that they arrested five arsonists connected with the far-right Proud Boys.

The FBI's Portland division already released a statement saying that all the extremist groups mentioned were investigated but turned out to be all false. No members of any of these groups were arrested nor possible suspects on the said arson crime.

Reports that extremists are setting wildfires in Oregon are untrue. Help us stop the spread of misinformation by only sharing information from trusted, official sources. pic.twitter.com/ENc4c3kjep  FBI Portland (@FBIPortland) September 11, 2020

ALSO READ: Google Search Blocks Autocomplete Functions Before Election Day 2020 to Prevent Misinformation

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Jamie Pancho

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 15:01:52|Editor: huaxia

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Lao trainees visit the CREC-2 rail-welding yard in Vientiane, Laos, Sept. 11, 2020. Some 70 Lao trainees to join the China-Laos railway's future operation visited the China Railway No.2 Engineering Group (CREC-2) rail-welding yard in the Lao capital Vientiane on Friday. The Lao trainees also took a ride on the engineering train running on the ready railway section near Lao capital. (Photo by Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua)
The party's statement on Sunday also added that the Centre must 'desist from criminalising peaceful political protests'

New Delhi: The CPM on Sunday criticised the Centre over the reference to its leader Sitaram Yechury and some civil society members in a supplementary chargesheet filed by the Delhi Police which cites statements from some accused to say that they mobilised anti-CAA protestors.

"The CPM condemns this obnoxious action by the Delhi Police to further the narrative of its political masters and urges the government to desist from such acts of criminalising peaceful political protests," the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Politburo said in a statement.

The reaction came a day after it was reported that the names of CPM general secretary Yechury, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav, economist Jayati Ghosh and Delhi University professor Apoorvanand figure in the supplementary charge sheet in the February riots cases, allegedly for "provoking and mobilising" anti-CAA protesters.

The statement by the Politburo on Sunday said it was "shocked by the brazenness with which the Delhi Police, acting under Home Minister Amit Shah, has tried to implicate prominent political leadership, academics, cultural personalities and activists in connection with the horrific communal violence in North East Delhi in February."

"No condemnation is strong enough for this act of crude partisanship and vengeance, the statement added.

It also alleged that it was clear "the BJP-RSS has gone about portraying Delhi riots being a deep-rooted conspiracy by anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protesters."

"This is in line with the growing pattern of the most blatant abuse of the Police and other central agencies like CBI, NIA, ED to frame prominent opponents and demonise them," the statement said.

The pattern includes slapping of provisions of draconian NSA, UAPA and Sedition Act to harass and incarcerate those who vigorously oppose such blatant misuse of powers by the government contrary to that as ordained by the Constitution, it said.

The CPM also demanded unconditional release of political prisoners who are incarcerating in cases under trumped up charges.

The Politburo asked its units all over the country and appeals to all the parties, organisations and individuals who are committed to democracy and values of the Constitution, to protest this dastardly attack on democracy, the statement said.

Delhi Police sources had on Saturday downplayed the entire matter, saying one of accused had disclosed these names in their disclosure statement.

The Delhi Police has not filed a chargesheet "against" them, the sources had said.

"The disclosure statement has been truthfully recorded as narrated by the accused person. A person is not arraigned as an accused only on the basis of disclosure statement," a police PRO had said.
Many years ago, when I was a cub police reporter, I arrived at a scene where a young man had jumped off a bridge onto train tracks below. As the police climbed down to see if he was still alive, I dutifully followed, notebook in hand.

It was only a flash, a momentary glimpse spotted in the swing of a cops torchlight, but to this day I remember every gruesome detail in high definition  and it haunts me. I wish I could unsee that image but I cant. And that is the problem; you cant turn back time in your brain, you cant make a memory you no longer want just go away and you cant comprehend the damaging and enduring consequences of witnessing such a sight before you actually do. I can assure you, no movie special effect can prepare you for such a reality.

A visitor to an Apple store wears a T-shirt promoting TikTok in Beijing. Credit:AP

This week, thousands of young people watched a video which, I am sure, will haunt their fragile psyches  to what extent will only be determined over time. The clip, showing a 33-year-old American man taking his life, first appeared on Facebook in August but quickly made its way to other social media sites such as TikTok. In this latter case, the graphic imagery was often obscenely hidden in cute kitten or puppy videos as lures to children before it was revealed.

Considering the demographic of TikTok users, it is hard not to be repulsed by such actions and their intentions. Roy Morgan data shows more than 1.6 million Australians visit the TikTok website or use its app in an average week, and more than a fifth of those are Generation Alpha, those born between 2010 to now. Thats a hell of a lot of kids under the age of 10 exposed to such horror.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has not backed John Barilaro as Deputy Premier, refusing to mention him by name and insisting the leadership of the Nationals had nothing to do with her.

Ms Berejiklian said the leadership of the Liberals' Coalition partner was a matter for the Nationals and her only focus was to deliver "strong and stable government".

Premier Gladys Berejiklian speaks on Sunday. Credit:Jacky Ghossein

"As Premier, my responsibility is to work with the leader of the Nationals and the Deputy Premier and that's what I will always do but it is not for me to decide who that person is," she said.

Senior Liberal ministers have vowed they will not give the Nationals any concessions in cabinet over the divisive koala planning policy if Mr Barilaro remains their leader.
Eskom is planning for electricity generation shortages of no less than 1,000MW every week over the next three months.

This is according to a report in Rapport.

The newspaper also stated that Eskom is pushing ahead to increase electricity tariffs by 15% in 2021.

This follows a recent High Court case which determined that the energy regulator had made mistakes in its revenue and RCA decisions over the last few years.

The substituted decision made by the court addressed an incorrectly deducted amount of R69 billion from the multi-year price determination (MYPD) which determines Eskoms electricity prices.

These tariff hikes come as South Africa heads for its worst year of load-shedding yet.

While managing to keep the lights on during South Africas initial lockdown period, increased economic activity has driven up energy demand.

Repeated generation unit breakdowns over the last few weeks has subsequently necessitated load-shedding on a regular basis.

Rapport also provided a breakdown which showed that Eskom has planned for regular electricity shortages up to the start of December.

This will result in Stage 1 to Stage 3 load-shedding being implemented every week until the holiday period at the end of the year.

Online portal

The news follows Eskom recently launching an online portal which gives users the ability to view its power system status and other related data.

This followed requests from OUTA to Eskom to make its system performance information publicly available in a user-friendly format.

Among the information available is the projected hourly average demand over the next three months, which is shown in the graph below.
Mumbai, Sep 13 : Actor Tanuj Virwani has been shuttling between Mumbai and Dubai for multiple projects.

The actor is currently in Mumbai shooting for "Cartel", a crime action thriller, where he will be essaying the part of a don. He has simultaneously been dubbing for 'Kamathipura", a web show, based on the dark underbelly of Mumbai.

He will soon be flying to Dubai to shoot for two web shows, "7th Sense" where he will be sharing screen space with R Madhavan and Ronit Roy, and "Line Of Fire" which stars Jimmy Sheirgill.

Upon his return to India, he will begin the patchwork left for "Inside Edge 3" where he will be seen revisiting his character from the earlier seasons.

"I'm not the one to complain about a hectic schedule. I'm happy to be working. I feel blessed that a lot of work is flowing in and I'm receiving so much love from my audience," said Tanuj.

He was recently seen in a cameo appearance in "Masaba Masaba".
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 15:49:55|Editor: huaxia

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KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Five police officers and four militants were killed after Taliban militants attacked security checkpoints in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province early Sunday, the provincial police spokesman confirmed.

"The clashes occurred in Shinwari locality on outskirts of provincial capital Kunduz city. The security forces launched a search operation in the area after the fighting," spokesman Esmatullah Khan told Xinhua.

Among the killed policemen was a senior provincial police officer Abdul Wahid, the spokesman added.

The province has been the scene of heavy clashes in recent years.

Violence still lingers in the war-torn country at the time as peace talks between an Afghan government delegation and Taliban representatives was underway in Doha, capital of Gulf state of Qatar. Enditem
New Delhi: Parliament's 18-day Monsoon session is scheduled to begin from Monday (September 14, 2020) and will be the first Parliament sitting since the outbreak of COVID-19.

The fourth session of 17th Lok Sabha and 252nd session of Rajya Sabha will begin on September 14 and subject to exigencies of Government Business, may conclude on October 1.

The session will provide a total of 18 sittings spread over a period of 18 days which will also include Saturdays and Sundays.

Notably, a total of 47 items have been identified to be taken up during the Monsoon Session which includes 45 bills and 2 financial items.

Discussed issues relating to Legislative Business & other matters to be taken up in #MonsoonSession with Party Leaders. All leaders extended their support for smooth functioning of House, with all health and security protocols, for peoples welfare & securing national interest. pic.twitter.com/D9kr0fV5Mw  Lok Sabha Speaker (@loksabhaspeaker) September 13, 2020

The total eleven Bills replacing the ordinance are:

(i) The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020.

(ii) The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Prices Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020.

(iii) The Homoeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Bill, 2020.

(iv) The Indian Medicine Central Council (Amendment) Bill, 2020.

(v) The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020.

(vi) The Insolvency & Bankruptcy (Second) Amendment Bill, 2020.

(vii) The Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2020.

(viii) The Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) Bill, 2020.

(ix)The Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Bill, 2020.

(x) The Salary and Allowances of Ministers (Amendment) Bill, 2020.

(xi) The Salary, Allowances and Pension of Members of Parliament (Amendment) Bill, 2020.



Further, there are some important pending legislations in the Houses required to be considered and passed during the Session. They include:

(i) The Pesticides Management Bill, 2020.

(ii) The National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (NCIM) Bill, 2019 as passed by Rajya Sabha.

(iii) The National Commission for Homoeopathy (NCH) Bill, 2019 as passed by Rajya Sabha.

(iv) The Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda Bill, 2020 as passed by Lok Sabha.

(v) The Aircraft (Amendment) Bill, 2020 as passed by Lok Sabha.

(vi) The Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2020.

(vii) The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020 as passed by Lok Sabha.

(viii) The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2020 as passed by Lok Sabha.

(ix) The Rashtriya Raksha University Bill, 2020.

(x) The National Forensic Science University Bill, 2020.

(xi) The Indian Institutes of Information Technology Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020 as passed by Lok Sabha (xii)The Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment), Bill, 2019 as passed by Lok Sabha.

(xiii) The Dam Safety Bill, 2019 as passed by Lok Sabha.

(xiv)The Major Port Authorities Bill 2020.

(xv) The Code On Social Security and Welfare, 2019.

(xvi) The Occupational Safety, Health And Working Conditions Code, 2019.

(xvii) The Industrial Relations Code Bill, 2019.

Some other new bills are also likely to be introduced, considered and passed during this session. They include:

(i) The Bilateral Netting of Financial Contracts Bill, 2020.

(ii) The Factoring Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2020.

(iii) The Pension Fund Regulatory And Development Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2020.

(iv) The National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Bill, 2020.

(v) The Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill, 2020.

(vi) The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2020.

(vii) The Foreign Contribution (Regulation)Amendment Bill, 2020.

(viii) The Representation of People (Amendment) Bill, 2020.

(ix) The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation (Amendment) Bill, 2020.

(x) The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill, 2020.

(xi) The Multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2020.

(xii) The Jammu and Kashmir Official Language, Bill, 2020.

Few bills for withdrawal during the session are:

(i) The Allied and Healthcare Professions Bill, 2018.

(ii) The Mines (Amendment) Bill, 2011.

(iii) The Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill, 2011.

(iv) The Building and Other Construction Workers Related Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2013.

(v) The Employment Exchanges (Compulsory Notification of Vacancies) Amendment Bill, 2013.

Since this is the first Parliament session being held amid the coronavirus pandemic, all safety measures have been taken to conduct the session as per guidelines issued for COVID-19.

There will be a four-hour session for each House each day (9 am to 1 pm for Rajya Sabha and 3 pm to 7 pm for Lok Sabha, but on September 14, the Lok Sabha will meet in the morning session).

The session will see other measures like seating MPs in a staggered way in chambers of both Houses, as well as galleries to maintain physical distancing norms, the introduction of mobile app for registering of MPs attendance and seats separated with poly-carbon sheets in the House.

The Zero Hour will be there and the un-starred questions will be laid on the table
Japan should not seek pre-emptive strike capability



Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has issued a statement proposing that Japan develop the capability to stage pre-emptive strikes on enemy bases. On Friday, he stressed the need for such a capacity to defend his country against any imminent enemy attacks. As for the reasons for the first-strike capacity, Abe cited North Korea's growing missile and nuclear threats and China's stepped-up military activity in the East and South China Seas.



Yet we cannot help but express concern about the controversial militaristic proposal. It is apparently aimed at making Japan a "normal country" capable of waging war against others. Such a plan runs counter to Japan's postwar pacifist constitution that renounces the use of force to resolve international disputes.



It is inappropriate for Abe, who will step down this week for health reasons, to call for a major defense policy change. He is certainly trying to leave his legacy to the next government which is highly likely to be led by his close ally, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga. Abe also suggested the new administration should devise a revised defense policy by the end of the year. It is wrong for the outgoing leader to set the timetable.



Abe seems to reveal his intention to pull the strings to make his successor continue his nationalist policies. He has failed to amend the war-renouncing Article 9 of the constitution. He may believe that Japan can neutralize the article by acquiring the pre-emptive strike ability. If adopted, this ability can allow the country to strike land targets in North Korea, China and other Asian countries even before Japan is attacked first.



The envisaged policy shift could mark an abrupt reversal of Tokyo's exclusively defense-oriented policy under its U.S.-imposed constitution which limits the use of force to self-defense. It could not only prompt a military build-up in Japan, but also an arms race in Northeast Asia. Furthermore, it could revive Japan's militarism and escalate tension in the region.



Abe tried to calm those concerns by saying the discussions on his proposal are in line with the constitution and in compliance with international law. He also said that his country's defense-oriented policy would not change at all. He made the case for greater deterrence on the part of Japan, noting that the ability to intercept missiles after they are launched may not be enough. But what he said could be seen as nothing but his nationalist ambition of reviving the "glorious past of Imperial Japan."



Abe's push for first-strike capability has gained momentum after his government gave up a plan to deploy two Aegis Ashore land-based missile interceptors because of technical reasons. But it appears not easy to acquire the capacity because it requires a huge budget to purchase long-range weapons such as U.S.-made Tomahawk missiles and other high-tech military equipment. Besides, Komeito, a dovish coalition partner of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), is strongly against any offensive military expansion.



There is no doubt that Abe's proposal will have a negative effect on the peace-making process on the Korean Peninsula. A strong backlash is expected from South and North Korea. Tokyo has tried to boost its military strength by taking advantage of Pyongyang's development of ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads. But Japan should not seek the pre-emptive strike capacity if it really wants to maintain peace and stability in the region.


Published on 2020/09/13 | Source

An artist's impression of Hyundai's future lineup of electric cars under the Ioniq brand /Courtesy of Hyundai Motor

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Hyundai has made its debut at the IFA tech expo in Berlin this year just as the event is being severely reduced amid the coronavirus epidemic.

This year's IFA is held from Sept. 3 to 9, partly online and in limited circumstances offline.

Hyundai only takes part on the online platform.

At a press conference streamed on YouTube on Sept. 4, Hyundai explained how it hopes to expand into smart mobility and laid out its eco-friendly strategies.

They include electric car brand Ioniq.
- The deceased's eldest son Sospeter Kinyanjui Thairu is the prime suspect in the murder and was on the run before surrendering to police officers on Saturday, September 12

- The woman and his children were accused of giving inconsistent accounts on how the man met his death in his car outside his home

- Despite being found dead in his car, bloodstains, which someone had attempted to clean, were found in one of the bedrooms of his home

- After surrendering to the police, murder weapons and other exhibits were found in the eldest son's hideout

A woman and her three children are in police custody after her husband and father of her children was found dead in his car parked outside the gate to their home.

Charles Thairu Kinyanjui was brutally murdered in Barnabas area, Nakuru on September 8, and his remains were found in a pool of blood in his car.

READ ALSO: Jeff Koinange mourns loss of elder brother in heartwrenching post

DCI headquarters in Nairobi. DCI detectives arrested a nuclear family for the death of their husband and father. Photo: DCI.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Jeff Koinange thrills Rwandans by anchoring news in country's national broadcaster

However, according to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), there were bloodstains in one of the bedrooms in his home which someone had attempted to clean.

The deceased's 28-year-old son, Sospeter Kinyanjui Thairu, who is also the prime suspect in the murder, surrendered himself to police officers on Saturday, September 12, after being on the run from the day his father died.

READ ALSO: 7 Photos of Oscar Sudi's KSh 100 million palatial Kapseret house officially opened by William Ruto

"Sospeter Kinyanjui Thairu who is the deceased's eldest son & who has been on the run since the heinous act yesterday surrendered himself to detectives, with several exhibits being recovered from his hideout," the statement from DCI read.

The 48-year-old wife, son and daughter aged 23 and 24 respectively were arrested over inconsistencies surrounding the death of their head of the family.

It is alleged they found the 59-year-old man unconscious and rushed him to the hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival and the trio was apprehended for interrogations with the eldest son disappearing.

READ ALSO: Kiambu: Pomp, colour as man,80, marries his 65-year-old lover in grand wedding

Sleuths proceeded to dimu Ndege area within Bahati sub-county in Nakuru where the suspect disposed the murder weapons and burned his bloodstained clothes, right after he surrendered to the police.

"Several exhibits were recovered including two metal rods, a bloodstained iron file, remains of burnt clothes, several syringes and a cash savings tin," the statement said.

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Married women should not seek advise from single ladies -Christine Odhiambo on marrying a conductor. On TUKO TV.

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Applications to the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection for access to the Redundancy Payment Scheme have hit 668, its highest level since monthly records became available in January 2016.

The Redundancy Payment Scheme is there to ensure employees receive their statutory redundancy entitlement when they lose their jobs if their employer cannot pay them due to financial difficulties or insolvency.

Redundancy payments are paid from the Social Insurance Fund and are based on the employee's length of reckonable service and reckonable weekly remuneration, subject to a ceiling of 600 per week.

The statutory redundancy payment is two weeks per year of service, plus one additional week's pay.

Statistics released by the department last week showed the number had more than doubled in August to 668. In the same month last year, only 118 applied for the scheme.

In 2019, in a year when the labour force in Ireland was considered to have reached practically full employment, 2,446 claims under the redundancy payments scheme were received.

The cost of redundancy payments from the Social Insurance Fund for 2019 was approximately 26.8m.

From January 2020 to the end of August 2020, 2,161 claims had been received under the scheme, compared with 1,586 for the same period last year.

Expenditure to the end of August 2020 on the scheme was approximately 14.4m.

Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a considerable increase in the number of collective redundancy notifications sent to the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection.

Employers proposing a collective redundancy are legally obliged to notify the minister, currently Heather Humphreys.

Employers proposed 7,649 redundancies between March and July 22 this year, according to departmental figures.

This is more than three times the 2,493 notifications passed on for the same months last year.

A spokesman for the department said it is anticipated that there may be an increase in the number of redundancy payments from the Social Insurance Fund processed this year.

It based this on an increase in the number of collective redundancies notified to the minister over the past number of months.

However, the spokesman added that it would not be possible to confirm if the actual number of redundancies would correlate to the number notified to the minister.
By David Shepardson and Tracy Rucinski

WASHINGTON/CHICAGO Sept 12 (Reuters) - Two senior Boeing Co executives who oversaw the development of the 737 MAX defended the company's decisions on a key cockpit system later tied to two fatal crashes, according to testimony before congressional investigators seen by Reuters.

Michael Teal, then 737 MAX chief product engineer, and Keith Leverkuhn, who was vice president and general manager of the 737 MAX program, were questioned separately by investigators for the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in May.

"I don't consider the development of the airplane to be a failure," Leverkuhn told investigators for the House panel that is to release a final report next week on its investigation into the development of the plane, grounded since March 2019 after two crashes killed 346 people.

Leverkuhn defended the decision to tie a new safety system on the MAX, called MCAS, to a single sensor that has been implicated in both fatal crashes. Boeing has since agreed to use data from two separate sensors when the plane returns to service, which could come as early as this year.

"I think based upon our understanding and our assumptions of flight crew actions, that it wasn't a mistake," Leverkuhn said.

Later in his testimony, Leverkuhn added, "Clearly what was in error was our assumptions regarding the human machine interaction. Because the process relied on the industry standard of pilot reaction to a particular failure. And what was clear post accidents was that assumption was incorrect."

Congressional investigators also questioned testimony that Boeing had never conducted an internal financial analysis to determine the impact of whether the Federal Aviation Administration would require more expensive simulator training.

Teal said that if the 737 MAX design warranted simulator training, Boeing would have created it, while acknowledging that customers may have been disappointed.

Story continues

"Would airlines have been pleased with that, of course they would not have," he said, noting that Boeing had signaled all along that simulator training would not be necessary.

Last year, Boeing confirmed it had agreed to pay Southwest Airlines Co a $1 million per MAX rebate if the training were required.

In January, Boeing reversed course and said it would recommend simulator training for all pilots before the MAX returns to service.

Teal, now the 777X chief project engineer, said the planemaker has since revised some pilot assumptions in the aftermath of the 737 MAX crashes. "It's a learning that we are now putting forth on the new aircraft," he said.

Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Wall Street Journal, which reported on the transcripts earlier, said Leverkuhn retired earlier this year as he had long planned, citing a Boeing spokesman. (Reporting by David Shepardson and Tracy Rucinski; Editing by William Mallard)
Son of 9/11 victim urges Trump to declassify remaining documents

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As a federal judge has ruled that families of 9/11 victims can depose Saudi Arabian officials in a lawsuit against that country, Brett Eagleson, whose father was killed in the terrorist attacks, is urging President Trump to share with them the files that remain classified but could point to a possible Saudi link.

Speaking on Fox News, Eagleson thanked President Trump for having him at the White House last year. Youre the first president thats ever done that, by the way, he said, after expressing hope that Trump would watch the news clip.

I shook your hand and looked you in the eye  We told you everything that we were going through and you said to us, Mr. President, Keep going. Hitem hard; Im behind you, Eagleson continued.

We did just what you said.  We are David and we have Goliath on the ropes, he added, referring to the decision by a federal magistrate in New York.

The order was filed last month but unsealed Thursday, a day before the 19th anniversary of the attacks, according to ABC News, which quoted the plaintiffs attorney, James Kreindler, as saying, This is the most important thing to happen other than JASTA (Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act) being passed letting us sue Saudi Arabia. We now get a chance to move up the totem pole of Saudi officials. We can begin unraveling the entire plot of Saudi officials working with al-Qaeda to commit mass murder."

Referring to Trump, Eagleson added, We need your help one last time.  Declassify these remaining documents, and I promise you, youll be a hero not only to the 9/11 families but to all of America for exposing the swamp for what it is.

He further explained that former Presidents Bush and Obama gave us no help.

They actually hindered us, he said, pointing out that Obama vetoed JASTA.

Eagleson said Trump is our last hope.

Make the Saudis see the light, he said, adding that since Saudi Arabia wants to have good relations with the United States they must let this be a turning point in relations.

Recently, 3,361 survivors of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and families of those who died wrote to Attorney General William Barr, urging that the remaining files be declassified so that it could be disclosed whether Saudi Arabian officials had a role in the 9/11 attacks.

We recently learned that the FBI has turned over an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 pages of U.S. government documents to the defense attorneys representing the 9/11 terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay, the letter reads. One of these terrorists is the architect of the 9/11 plot, Khalid Sheikh Mohamed. These same documents, however, were intentionally withheld by the DOJ and FBI from thousands of 9/11 families for use in our federal lawsuit against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia regarding its complicity in the attacks.








Abimael Guzman was captured on September 12, 1992, marking the defeat of Shining Path the most bloodthirsty and cruel terrorist group the South American country has ever seen.



National Police Special Intelligence Group (GEIN) found the place where he and other Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso or SL) leaders were hiding, by following SL Coordinator Luis Arana Sotil, after he met Carlos Inchaustegui, one of the house's guards.









The dwelling in Lima's Surquillo district and its inhabitants Inchaustegui and Maritza Garrido-Lecca were surveilled for months by police officers dressed as street vendors and sweepers.





The quantity of food purchased by the couple, the clothes in extra-large sizes, the medicine used to treat psoriasis (ailment Guzman was diagnosed with) and SL-related notes found in the garbage caught the attention of the police.









On September 11, the day before Guzman's capture, officers saw the silhouette of a fat bearded man inside the house. He was lighting a candle during one of the blackouts common in the city at that time.









The police raided the house the next day at 8:40 PM (local time). Two undercover agents disguised as boyfriend and girlfriend got inside the place as soon as Maritza Garrido-Lecca opened the door to say goodbye to their guests.









Guzman was on the second floor, along with SL second in command Elena Iparraguirre also known as Comrade Miriam Laura Zambrano and Maria Pantoja.





"There he was. The man was sitting and waiting for us. He knew he had lost," affirmed Luis Flores Soli, one of GEIN members who participated in the successful capture.









The Inca nation's dark 1980-2000 terrorism episode is estimated to have claimed over 69,000 lives, according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)





Much of said fatalities are attributed to Shining Path, responsible for brutal terror attacks such as the Tarata Bombing, as well as massive assassinations in rural Peru.





(END) RMB/MVB





Today, September 12, Peruvians commemorate 28 years of the capture of the most wanted terrorist in Peru, Abimael Guzman , leader of the once-deadly Maoist-inspired terrorist organization Shining Path.Published: 9/12/2020
Heavy overnight rainfall triggered landslides in many places across Uttarakhand on Sunday affecting Char Dham yatra and blocking over 62 roads in the state, officials said.

Officials from the State Emergency Operations Centre said that till Sunday evening, 62 roads were blocked across the state including national and state highways and other motorable roads. Most of the roads blocked were link roads connecting villages.

On Saturday, a stretch of a link road leading to Yamunotri shrine washed away due to heavy rain after which around 30 pilgrims were safely rescued by district administrations. Officials from the district control room said that yatra is likely to remain affected over the next ten days.

The India Meteorological Department has predicted that light to moderate rainfall or thundershowers are likely to occur at many places in Dehradun, Pauri and Nainital districts and at few places in Tehri, Udham Singh Nagar, Almora and Pithoragarh districts on Monday. It further predicted that lightning is likely to occur at isolated places in Uttarakhand.

According to the MeT department, Uttarakhand has already received 907.2 mm of rainfall from June to September 9 compared to 1063.3 mm (the normal range) for these months. Bageshwar district has received the maximum rainfall with a 157% departure from normal rainfall limit and Champawat has received the least rainfall with a negative 50% departure. The state is in an overall 15% rainfall deficit.
WATERLOO REGION  Overdue bills, a rise in bankruptcies and a lengthy disconnection ban could mean increased electricity and natural gas rates for customers down the road.

The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) is allowing rate-regulated electricity and natural gas utilities to record all costs associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in a new deferral account.

A deferral account allows utilities to track costs so that they can later apply to the OEB for approval to recover them through rates, said board spokesperson Mary Ellen Beninger. This includes costs associated with the extension of the winter disconnection ban to July 31.

She said the regulator is currently consulting with stakeholders on the rules that will apply to this new deferral account, while also compiling information about the financial impact of COVID-19 to ensure there is no impact on reliability or continued service.

Every year, utilities are barred from disconnecting residential services in the winter between Nov. 15 and April 30.

This year, the OEB extended the length of the residential disconnect moratorium by three months to July 31st and added small commercial businesses to the list. Some electricity distributors are choosing to maintain a voluntary moratorium on disconnection for nonpayment, said Beninger.

But with thousands of families living month-to-month on government assistance during the pandemic, utilities are facing an unprecedented dilemma as the regulator urges them to find solutions for customers.

From a financial perspective we have been and continue to try and work with our customers on payment arrangements, said Barbara Shortreed, vice president of customer care and communication with Cambridges Energy+ Inc.

She said money owed by customers ultimately becomes a bad debt that costs all customers. For that reason, she said it is important for the utility to maintain its collection procedures in the interest of fairness and consistency.

Any overall increase in operating expenses can have an impact on future rates, she said.

The province has announced $9 million for the COVID-19 Energy Assistance Program to help residents struggling with payments, and an additional $8 million for the COVID-19 Energy Assistance Program for Small Business.

A Low-Income Energy Assistance Program is also available to customers who have fallen behind on their bills and face disconnection.

Residents can also reach out to their utility directly to ask to set up a personalized payment plan.

Helping customers pay their bills in turn helps manage utilities losses as well, said Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines spokesperson Natasha Demetriades.

The government is keeping a close eye on the financial stability of Ontarios energy system and will ensure that customers continue to receive the safe and reliable energy they expect.

At Waterloo North Hydro, the first disconnection of 2020 didnt take place until the week of Aug. 24 after the three month extension. Crews now have just over two months before the next moratorium begins on Nov. 15 to meet the backlog.

We will have more details in the coming months on the financial outcomes from COVID-19 and changed business processes, said spokesperson Jeff Quint.

Quint said he expects to see an increase in the number of customers unable to pay their bills and bankruptcies in the coming months.

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13.09.2020 LISTEN

The police have its code of ethics and professional standards of operation within which police officers operate but when breached by its personnel, the Ghana Police Service is compelled to take some punitive action.

It is against this background that the Director of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service, Superintendent Sheila Abayie-Buckman, has justified the dismissal of some 28 officers between the period of January and August this year.

She emphasized that the action was meant to maintain discipline within the police service.

The Inspector-General of Police Mr. James Oppong Boanuh will do whatever it takes for police officers in Ghana to conduct ourselves as professionally as we ought to, she said to Citi News.

In January 2020, Mr. Oppong-Boanuh assured that no police officer would be shielded for any acts of misconduct.

He said crime had become more sophisticated and the police needed the cooperation of all citizens to ensure crime was brought to the barest minimum.

The Supt. Abayie-Buckman added that the action will also assure upstanding offices that their deeds do not go unnoticed.

When the few bad nuts are dealt with, the majority who are professional are motivated and encouraged to continue their good work, she stated.

The officers were found guilty of being drunk on duty, insubordination, being absent without permission among others.

She added that Ghana is ranked high among the nations of peacekeeping missions.

Among the committee of nations of police officers on various peacekeeping missions, the Ghana police is regarded very high and our professional conduct contributes to it

---CitiNewsRoom
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 05:17:14|Editor: huaxia

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LOS ANGELES, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Southern California remained shrouded in smoke on Saturday as two forest fires continued to burn with little containment.

A smoke advisory is in effect Saturday in most of Los Angeles County and parts of Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties due to the Bobcat Fire burning in the Angeles National Forest which had scorched 29,245 acres (118.4 square kilometers) with only 6 percent containment.

In the San Bernardino Mountains, the 14,043 acre (58.9 square kilometers) El Dorado Fire which occurred on Sept. 5 was contained by 39 percent Saturday noon.

A map updated by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) showed air quality in the region during this weekend is expected to range from moderate to unhealthy for sensitive groups, such as children, elderly, and people with respiratory or heart disease.

In some areas near the wildfire scenes, the air quality is forecast as "unhealthy" level.

"Breathing in smoke can aggravate lung disease, cause asthma attacks, cause acute bronchitis, and increase the risk of respiratory infections," the National Weather Service warned on its official website.

The SCAQMD issued a smoke advisory every day since the El Dorado and Bobcat fires erupted last weekend and brought ash, dust and debris across the region. Additionally, smoke from wildfires in Northern and Central California is making its way south.

Meanwhile, evacuation warnings remained in the cities of Duarte, Bradbury, Monrovia, Arcadia, Sierra Madre, Pasadena and Altadena, which stand along the foothill of Santa Ana Mountain where the Angeles National Forest is located.

These cities have hundreds of thousands of residents, with a high percentage being Chinese Americans. Enditem
Flags, honking cars and a multitude of President Donald Trump signs marked the scene in downtown Laredo on Saturday as a caravan of the presidents supporters paraded from the riverbanks of the city and around downtown.

Vehicles carrying Trump signs were still being seen around the city after the event as well. According to the organizer of the event, about 4,000 vehicles formed part of the event.

We had a great, peaceful event with over 4,000 vehicles participating and over 7,000 people participating in the event, event organizer and National Border Council president Hector Garza said. We opened up the event by honoring God in prayer and honoring the U.S. flag with the Pledge of Allegiance. The Laredo Trump Train expanded for over 15 miles along IH-35, Bob Bullock Loop and Del Mar.

Bill Young, the Webb County republican chairman, said it was one of the biggest political events he has ever witnessed and that it exceeded his expectations.

It was amazing, Young said. We are going to turn Webb County red as we are going to win Webb County.

According to Garza, the numbers increased throughout the morning and the turnout exceeded their expectations. He said it shows that the silent majority is silent no more in the Gateway City as people showed their support by buying all the Trump merchandise available at the local Republican offices for the parade.

The people who participated in the event both from Laredo and from out of town were vocal and enthusiastic with their support.

Attending the Trump parade was awesome because many Laredoans were able to display their support for the president during these tough times, a lot of us conservatives who believe in God, country and family, Steve Moreno said.

Moreno said his support for the president goes beyond Trumps persona and that he always tries to accomplish everything that he does but also because he stands for things that he believes in as well.

Many of us support the same values of being pro-life, supporting the police, gun rights, law and order, legal immigration, tax breaks, strong military, small businesses, voter ID, working class, prosperity for all minorities, small government, free speech, conservativism, the Constitution, capitalism, patriotism and justice for all, Moreno said. That's why we want to express love for those things.

Others said they support the president because he cares for them.

READ MORE: Laredo National Border Patrol Council leader endorses Trump in Yuma

The fact that we have the richest president ever elected care about people down on the border in comparison to anybody else elected is why Trump is the best candidate for all, Ricardo Suarez said. Finally, we have someone that listens to the issues down here and not just takes our votes for granted.

Local Border Patrol officer Oscar Vela Jr. was also on hand to show his support.

It was an amazing experience, Vela Jr. said. We took over Laredo today. Glad to see so many people who love our country and our current president. I support President Trump because he is pro law enforcement.

According to Young, there were even people who were not part of the parade honking in support of them, which shows how the president does have a sizable amount of support in the Webb County area despite leaning Democratic for decades.

This is the biggest thing I have ever seen in Laredo, and I am 69, Young said. In 2016, we put out about just $200 of signs and thats it. However, this year we have put up $7,000 of signs, and the thing that has surprised me is that south Laredo is really coming for signs. They are the ones picking up most of the signs and posting them, which I never thought it would happen as this has never happened for us.

According to Young, various people from outside Laredo came to show support for the Trump Train including candidates such as Kevin P. Yearly who is running for re-election as judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and Sandra Whitten who is running against Henry Cuellar.

Also held Saturday in Laredo was an Honoring Veterans and Families event hosted by the No Border Wall Coalition and the Veterans United to Stop the Wall where they touched up the Defund the Wall mural. Some at the mural event said they believe many of the people who went to the Trump Train event were from outside the city.

Clearly, these people were not all Laredoans as many people came from outside the city and became the true invaders in our city which they want to destroy by militarizing our border, Rio Grande International Study Center executive director Tricia Cortez said.

However, Garza said such rumors were wrong and that most of the people at the event were from the Gateway City.

Over 95% of the participants were from Laredo, Garza said. The Laredo Trump Train did not reach out to any outside organizations to participate in this event. The Laredo Trump Train event invitation was only posted in Laredo.

Although the Trump Train crossed path with the other event, there were no incidents. Garza said he is proud that nothing happened despite rumors online of confrontations.

We would like to thank the people of Laredo for participating and further thank city staff that assisted in planning this great and peaceful event, Garza said. In speaking with the Laredo Police Department and the city manager, not one violent incident, vehicle accident or any other incident resulted from this event.

READ MORE: Trump train roars into Laredo

Although there were no incidents, others from the community also expressed negative views about the Trump Train as they believe it was not necessary, but they said the participants had every right to host the event just like democrats can do the same for their candidates.

I believe the First Amendment of the United States Constitution grants them the right, retired Laredo College and Texas A&M International University professor Carlos Valle Jr., PhD., said. I really do not understand how any Mexican American from Laredo would support a border wall. Trump is an overt racist. He even referred to an Indiana-born federal judge as a Mexican because of the jurists last name  The wall is an affront to human dignity and a diplomatic insult. It will be a physical monument to racist folly, easily defeated and ineffective.

Plans are already underway for another event after Saturdays large turnout.

There are many more events that the Laredo Trump Train will be hosting in Laredo, Garza said. We will be coordinating with city officials to ensure a fun and safe event.

Young said what matters most is that people go out to vote and voice their beliefs through the ballot.

I just want everybody to go out and vote as I dont care if they are democrats, republicans or independents or what as they should all just go and vote, Young said. Laredo needs to be seen that they go out and vote because thats how we are judged when we go to Washington and Austin as they check how much people do go out and vote. We always have about 30 percent of people that do vote, and we need more people to vote in Laredo.

jorge.vela@lmtonline.com
Here is something you are unlikely to hear on today's broadcast bulletins. Of all the countries fighting coronavirus, Britain  despite its chaotic response and high death count  has done more than any other to meet the challenge of the pandemic.

This is not my opinion but that of Tyler Cowen, an economist at George Mason University in Virginia, told to Bloomberg.

The UK has several factors working in its favour. Its liberal market economy may lack the discipline of co-ordinated market economies such as Germany but it is less constrained and more resilient.

Meeting the challenge: The two most effective treatments for Covid-19, which have brought down death rates and eased the damage to patients, are products of UK scientists

Early in the pandemic, Britain was less prepared than Germany. But once the private sector and universities were let loose, F1 engineers were building ventilators and University College London had come up with a lighter, less intrusive and more sensitive ventilator design.

Something else has gone largely unnoticed. The two most effective treatments for Covid-19, which have brought down death rates and eased the damage to patients, are products of UK scientists. It was British researchers who discovered that the most effective drug treatment was dexamethasone, a widely used steroid, which is low cost and widely available.

Moreover, scientists at the University of Southampton and their commercial spinout Synairgen found that their inhaled antiviral drug SNG001 significantly reduced the odds of patients hospitalised with Covid-19 coming down with respiratory disease. The first patient studies showed a remarkable 79 per cent effectiveness.

The vaccine picture also tilts in favour of the Anglo-Saxon liberal market model. Of the 34 vaccines identified by the WHO as being research tested and trialled, the vast majority (around 30) are emerging from the UK, US and other free-wheeling nations.

Only four so far can be attributed to the more static EU model. The Oxford Jenner vaccine, adopted by AstraZeneca (AZ), has led for much of this year. It was set back last week by an apparent adverse reaction in one UK female patient.

In keeping with principles of good research, AZ instantly paused its work before now restarting global trials.

The interruption was in line with a pledge made by big pharma companies to maintain the highest standards in the rush to finish line. AZ's vaccine progress and GlaxoSmithKline's adjuvant technology, expected to result in a vaccine in 2021, is a tribute to Britain's world-leading pharma and university labs.

So much world-leading science has found a home in the UK which hosts four out of the world's top 20 research universities. All of those  Oxford, Cambridge, UCL and Imperial (as well as Southampton)  have devoted enormous resources to Covid-19. With the assistance of extra R&D funding, they effectively have become the Bletchley Park in the war against pandemic.

What is impressive about the hunt for a vaccine is the speed. Cautious voices warn of a potential bad outcome as when a vaccine was rushed for H5N1 avian flu in 2003. Big pharma is determined not to abuse gateways offered by regulators to bring effective treatments to fruition.
Conroe Mayor Toby Powell, a life-long resident whose legacy of service helped shape the community, died late Saturday after a battle with cancer. He was 79.

Mayor Pro Tem Duke Coon said he was heartbroken over Powells passing.

Our city has been so blessed to have Mayor Powell, Coon said. I admire him and will miss him as a leader and as a friend.

Born in the Montgomery County Hospital on First Street in the 1940 to Lewis H. Powell Sr. and Mildred Taylor Powell, Powell grew up in Conroe and attended Sam Houston Elementary School and Travis Junior High and graduated from Conroe High School in 1959.

Powells passion for Conroe was shaped by his youth, as he called it an idyllic place to grow up.

In a 2017 Courier article, Powell recalled watching movies at the Crighton Theatre and the Liberty Theatre, which showed Westerns across the street. You could sell five soda bottles to a store or service station for 2 cents apiece. Then youd have 10 cents to go to a picture show and a penny left over for a piece of gum, he said.

He also had fond memories of the drug stores on the square, such as Carters, Capitol, Brownlee and others.

From sixth grade through college, he worked at Palmer Shell Station which was owned by his family. It was run by C.C. Palmer and he received $3 a day for 12 hours washing cars and pumping gas.

In high school, he also frequently worked at the Hi-Y Drive In which was along South Frazier near Foster Drive. He was there working along with his brother Joe Tom on Aug. 18, 1955 when Cut and Shoot boxer Roy Harris fought Floyd Patterson. The fight was shown on closed circuit at the drive-in, the first time anything like that had happened in Conroe.

Powell attended Sam Houston State University and as a young man worked for builder Ernest Butler. His boss then set Powell up with an architect who taught him how to design homes. He worked in Houston for two years and then came back to work for developer Bill Newton, who also was mayor of Conroe.

He helped develop the subdivisions of Woods Way, Wroxton Estates and others. At the time, he said there was only 10 to 12 builders in the whole county.

In his progression of involvement with the community, he became involved with the City Planning Commission. He headed up the commission from 1974-76.

In 1976, he ran for his first Conroe council seat against Sav-Way owner Wallace Lampton. While Powell lost the bid, we won a council seat the next year and served a two-year term on the council.

Powell served on the council in 1977 and 1978 and again in 2008-12. He has served as mayor pro tem from 2010-12.

He was elected as Conroes mayor in 2016. His term expires in November.

Being the mayor at this time is a blessing, he said in a previous article. This job is bigger than me but with the guidance of our Lord and Savior, I can make the right decisions.

As mayor accomplished several goals including establishing a homestead tax exemption for residents, lowered the tax rate his first year, led the city through several disasters including Hurricane Harvey and the Memorial and Tax Day floods. He was leading the city through the COVID-19 pandemic. During his term the city built miles of new road and made water and sewer improvements.

Powell was facing Councilman Jody Czajkoski at the polls Nov. 3 and Powells name will still appear on the ballot. If Powell where to win, the city would have to hold a special election to fill the position.

Additionally, Powell served as a director on the Conroe Industrial Development Corp. since 2008 and served as a director on the Houston Galveston Area Council from 2008 through 2010. He has also served for four years as director and vice chairman of the Lone Star Family Health Clinic and was the founder of the Conroe Christmas Celebration.

Powell was a member of Mims Baptist Church and was a lifetime member of the Montgomery County Fair Association.

He is survived by his wife of 22 years, Vanessa Powell, and their three children.

Funeral arrangements have not yet been released.

cdominguez@hcnonline.com

shernandez@hcnonline.com
Months ago we detailed an incredibly scary and Orwellian tool in the local police arsenal known as a "geofence warrant". As described at the time its essentially a virtual dragnet over crime scenes where police request to sweep up Google location data drawn from users GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular connections from everyone who happened to be near a crime scene. From this blanket of surveillance law enforcement then try to figure out which phones may be tied to suspects or possible witnesses.

Already this type of blanket surveillance warrant, which works as a kind of 'guilt by proximity at the time a crime occurred, has been used by police to arrest what turned out to be innocent bystanders who were suddenly surprised to find themselves prime suspects. Its perhaps been used only dozens of times in some states, but will likely only increase alongside similar "pre-crime" algorithm technologies. In one instance earlier this year, a Gainesville, Florida man was caught up in a legal nightmare because he merely rode his bicycle unbeknownst near a home burglary at around the same time it happened.

And it was in 2018 that for the first time a man had been falsely accused and arrested based on a controversial geofence warrant for the crime of murder.
By Deborah Bloom and Adrees Latif

PORTLAND, Ore., Sept 13 (Reuters) - Crews were to resume searching for the dead on Sunday among blackened ruins left by massive wildfires raging in three western U.S. states, where millions of acres have burned in weeks and "mass fatality" incidents are feared in Oregon.

A blitz of wildfires across Oregon, California and Washington have destroyed thousands of homes and a half dozen small towns this summer, scorching a landscape the size of New Jersey and killing at least 26 people since early August.

After four days of brutally hot, windy weather, the weekend brought calmer winds blowing inland from the Pacific Ocean, and cooler, moister conditions that helped crews make headway against blazes that had burned unchecked earlier in the week.

In Oregon, Governor Kate Brown called the perilous blazes a "once-in-a-generation event", and the director of Oregon's office of emergency management, Andrew Phelps, said authorities were bracing for the possibility of "mass fatality" incidents.

"There are going to be a number of fatalities, folks that just couldn't get warning in time and couldn't evacuate their homes and get to safety," Phelps told MSNBC on Friday.

At least six people have been killed this week in Oregon, according to state officials. Brown has said that dozens of people remained missing across three counties.

27 fires were still raging across 1.47 million acres in Oregon and Washington on Saturday, the Bureau of Land Management said on Twitter.

In southern Oregon, an apocalyptic scene of charred residential subdivisions and trailer parks stretched for miles along Highway 99 south of Medford through the neighboring communities of Phoenix and Talent.

TRUMP TO VISIT CALIFORNIA

In California, tens of thousands of firefighters were battling 28 major wildfires as of Saturday afternoon, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Improving weather conditions had helped them gain a measure of containment over most of the blazes.

Story continues

The White House said Trump, a Republican, will meet with federal and California officials on Monday. The president has said that western governors bear some of the blame for intense fire seasons in recent years, accusing them of poor forest management.

Trump's Democratic opponent in the November election, Joe Biden, on Saturday linked the conflagrations to climate change, echoing comments made a day earlier by California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Thick smoke and ash from the fires has darkened the sky over the Pacific Northwest since Labor Day, creating some of the world's worst air-quality levels and driving residents indoors.

More than 4,000 homes and other structures have been incinerated in California alone over the past three weeks.

In Portland, where more than 100 days of political protests have turned increasingly tense in recent weeks, the Multnomah County Sheriff chastised residents for setting up their own checkpoints to stop cars after conspiracy theories spread on social media that members of Black Lives Matter or Antifa were lighting fires. Local officials have called those assertions groundless.

Facebook said on Saturday it was now removing false claims that the wildfires in Oregon were started by certain groups.

"This is based on confirmation from law enforcement that these rumors are forcing local fire and police agencies to divert resources from fighting the fires and protecting the public," a Facebook spokesman said. (porting by Deborah Bloom in Portland, Ore.; Additional reporting by Carlos Barria, Adrees Latif, Dan Whitcomb, Jonathan Allen, Jeff Mason, Gabriella Borter and Aishwarya Nair; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
Sept. 17 is Constitution Day. A day to value our Constitution  and celebrate being an American.

These are challenging times in our nation; our very form of government is being threatened on many levels, one of the most destructive being the unlimited influence of concentrated money in our elections.

Although Americans cherish our Constitution, it has required amending numerous times. Now is one of those times. Over 80% of Americans of all political affiliations support a return to reasonable regulation of election financing. This cross-partisan support defies the terrible divisiveness we see around us. But due to Citizens United and other Supreme Court decisions, it will take a constitutional amendment to accomplish this.

Amendments are not easy, but they are possible. The 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments corrected the notorious Dred Scott Supreme Court decision that locked slavery and oppression into constitutional law. The 17th Amendment, in response to a corrupt, appointed U.S. Senate, created the popular election of senators; the 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote. Unfortunately, most women of color had to wait nearly five decades to actually exercise that right. The 24th Amendment abolished the poll tax, and the 26th Amendment, in 1971, lowered the voting age to 18. All these amendments were citizen-driven and overturned misguided Supreme Court decisions.

The new amendment will need to:

 Allow Congress to regulate and set reasonable limits on the raising and spending of money to influence elections

 Distinguish between natural persons and corporations or other artificial entities, for the purposes of such regulations

 Establish that such regulations do not abridge First Amendment free speech rights

The great news is that the amendment movement is farther along than many realize. House Joint Resolution 2, with cross-partisan sponsorship, along with House Joint Resolution 48 and Senate Joint Resolution 51, all have wide support. All five of our New Mexico congresspersons currently sponsor/cosponsor these bills. Twenty states, including New Mexico, have passed resolutions calling on Congress to pass an amendment. But there is more work to be done.

Citizen Leaders at American Promise (www.americanpromise.net), a national cross-partisan nonprofit with a local chapter, is working diligently. One important initiative is the American Promise Candidate and Elected Official Pledge. Signers at all levels pledge to use their office to advance a campaign finance reform amendment. Current signers include numerous New Mexico elected officials and candidates, including, locally, Santa Fe County Commissioner Anna Hansen, Los Alamos County Councilor Pete Sheehey, state Senate candidate Harold Pope Jr., Santa Fe County Clerk candidate Katharine Clark and Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber.

The list is growing. Call or email your officials and candidates, (and) ask them to sign the pledge, take a stand on reforming our democratic process and return our beautiful state and country to We The People.

In these dark times, we all need hope for a brighter and more unified future for our country. The good news is that most Americans  across all parties  support this kind of reform. People are tired of Big Money controlling our government, preventing meaningful legislation from being enacted on issues they care about  racial justice, climate change, immigration, gun violence, human rights, health care, jobs, the economy and more. Americans want our representative government back!

What better way to celebrate Constitution Day than to join other volunteers in working toward an amendment whose time has come? We welcome you. Contact ishwarisollohub12@gmail.com.

Ishwari Sollohub lives in Santa Fe.
New Mexico Officer Shot During Traffic Stop: State Police

A New Mexico State Police officer was shot at Saturday during a traffic stop, said officials on Sunday.

The officer was shot after pulling over a driver on Interstate 40 near Laguna, New Mexico, at around 9:30 a.m., police said in a statement. The suspect was identified as 40-year-old Robert Benjamin Nelson of Scottsdale, Arizona.

As the officer made her initial approach to the vehicle, Nelson appeared to fire multiple rounds at her head, police wrote. After being struck, the officer was able to recover and return fire at the suspect.

Nelson then fled the scene and continued on I-40 as the injured officer engaged in a pursuit. Nelson then stopped on I-40 near milepost 135 and exited his vehicle.

Officers in Laguna arrived to assist the state trooper. Nelson was subsequently taken into custody without further incident, according to police.

The state police officer-involved sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to an area hospital where she was treated and released. Nelson was booked into the Cibola County Detention Center, police said.

Nelson was charged with felony attempted murder, felony aggravated battery on an officer, felony shooting from a vehicle, and resisting an officer, according to the department.

The state police officer involved is also commissioned as a Federal Task Force Officer so the FBI is involved in the investigation, and Nelson could face federal charges, said the statement.

The officers name and condition were not released to the public, New Mexico State Police said.

According to the FBIs data on Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted, around 2,116 officers were shot at in 2018, and about 6.1 percent of those officers were injured. In 2018, 106 officers were killed in the line of duty, according to data from the FBI.
The Armenian foreign minister stressed on the importance of respecting state sovereignty and working towards peace and stability in the East Mediterranean and North Africa

Egypts Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and his Armenian counterpart Zohrab Mnatsakanyan held talks in Cairo on Sunday aiming at converging viewpoints between the two countries to bolster bilateral relations and regional and international developments of common interest.

In a joint press conference following the talks, Shoukry said there is a strong political will to boost cooperation in various economic and political fields, adding that the discussions tackled the volume of trade exchange between the two countries.

Mnatsakanyan said the relations between his country and Egypt and the Arab world is one based on friendship, as a part of the Middle East.

He delivered an invitation from the Armenian president to President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to visit Armenia soon, praising Egypts role in supporting a free trade agreement between the two states and the European Union.

The Armenian foreign minister also stressed on the importance of respecting the sovereignty of states and working towards peace and stability in the East Mediterranean and North Africa, describing it as the same aim for peace sought in South Caucasus region.

He also affirmed his countrys support to Cyprus and Greece for investments in economic zones amid an ongoing rift with Turkey.

Tensions in the region have escalated in the past months over Ankara's military intervention in war-torn Libya, its violation of Iraq's sovereignty, as well as Ankara's hunt for gas in the eastern Mediterranean in violation of the territorial waters of Greece and Cyprus, two close allies of Egypt.

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Time was, jewellery was something you either inherited or were given as a gift, usually by a Significant Other to mark an Important Occasion.

Only the odd wealthy diva  one thinks of Elizabeth Taylor, maybe the Queen, Liberace for sure  had the funds and the chutzpah to buy their own baubles.

The rest of us had to make do with what granny left behind  or someone else's choice, which, however heartfelt, might not always match what we would have chosen.

Not any more, it seems. One of the biggest trends in jewellery shopping recently has been the rise of so-called self-gifting.

And for some reason  probably to do with the relentless grimness of everything  lockdown has been a real driver of sales.

Jewellery used to be something you either inherited or were given as a gift, usually by a Significant Other to mark an Important Occasion, says SARAH VINE

According to the fashion search engine Lyst, online searches for necklaces and rings have increased by 178 per cent in the past year.

Meanwhile, Monica Vinader, whose pretty trinkets and mementos are popular with women of all ages, reports that there's been a year-on-year increase in self-purchasing of 190 per cent.

Self-gifting doesn't just apply to jewellery; women are making all sorts of 'treat' purchases, from cashmere to handbags.

But jewellery is the stand-out trend, from homespun Etsy to a spot of colourful Roxanne Assoulin on Net-a-Porter.

These are less colossal 'investment' buys, more a little bit of affordable luxury to chase away the blues: gemstones, raffia, beads and crystals instead of carats and precious metals.

They are the modern working woman's equivalent of the 'lipstick effect'  a way to scratch that little itch for a bit of sparkle in the otherwise grey, relentless landscape of day-to-day life.

'It's been such a rough year that there's a real desire to treat ourselves,' says Monica Vinader. 'When you walk by a mirror or hop on a video call and see that little sparkle of jewellery, it makes you feel good.'

And it's never been easier to find that special piece.

The hypnotic power of Instagram and other social media  increasingly video app TikTok  means savvy British brands such as Otiumberg, Cotton & Gems and Astley Clarke are able to 'reach out' to women in directly appealing ways.

A couple of glasses of wine and a quick scroll through your chosen 'influencers' can so easily result in a pretty little parcel dropping through the letterbox a couple of days later, complete with flowery blurb about this or that gemstone or personalisation.

And the rise of 'vermeil' gold jewellery (a fancy word for gold-plated silver) means such trinkets feel special without costing the earth  maybe the same amount as a facial or a massage, or a nice dinner out with friends.

Only the odd wealthy diva  one thinks of Elizabeth Taylor (pictured), maybe the Queen, Liberace for sure  had the funds and the chutzpah to buy their own baubles

And while a new dress or a handbag may have been popular in the past, lockdown has rendered such things rather less appealing, given the lack of opportunity to show them off.

Jewellery, on the other hand, is satisfyingly Zoom-friendly. A quirky pair of earrings or a cocktail ring can have real impact  and the best thing is, you know they are going to fit.

So no anxiety-ridden episodes in front of the bedroom mirror, none of the stress of not measuring up to the demands of fashion.

Jewellery also has meaning in a way other purchases don't. A pair of shoes can make you feel a million dollars  but if you have nowhere to go and there's no one to see you in them, the point is rather lost.

But a necklace or bracelet can be a constant companion, a talisman of happiness regardless of whether you're in your dressing gown or a ballgown.

Although I've never been much of a jewellery person, even I have found myself succumbing to the lure of a little sparkle.

For weeks I have been flirting with the idea of spending 145 on a little locket bracelet from Astley Clarke, with my initials engraved on the outside and pictures of my teenagers within.

It's not the kind of thing anyone else would buy for me.

But I know it would give me enormous pleasure to wear it on my wrist, a constant reminder of two of the things I hold most dear in my life, and very possibly my greatest achievements.

My girlfriends are the same. One, the author Imogen Edwards-Jones, who recently wrote a book about a pair of Russian princesses who dabbled in the occult (The Witches Of St Petersburg), has a necklace that says 'witch', a present to herself to celebrate publication.

Me, I've been toying with the idea of getting one that simply says 'Karen', as an ironic statement in response to the sexist, anti-middle-aged-white-woman meme that has been doing the rounds on the internet.

Another girlfriend regularly appears with new sparkles from her favourite jewellery brand, Butler & Wilson.

When I saw her for supper the other night, she was sporting a magnificent dragon brooch  both a nod to her Welsh roots and a reward for landing a new contract at work.

And that's the thing about self-gifting. Whereas in the past women may have felt they needed someone else's approval to treat themselves, now they have the confidence  and, perhaps more importantly, the money  to do it without such concern.

Buying your own jewellery is no longer the preserve of the privileged few but an expression of self-love and independence that all women can enjoy.

For we no longer need permission to label our achievements in metal, no longer need to be shy about asking.

We are marking our empowerment on our own terms.

It may be true that diamonds are a girl's best friend. But sometimes cubic zirconias will do just as well  and can be just as, if not more, meaningful.

FIND THAT SPECIAL TREAT

d
She welcomed her fifth child with husband David Tennant in October last year.

And Georgia Tennant shared a candid post about feeding her eleven-month-old child, and posted a snap via Instagram on Saturday to celebrate Breastfeeding Awareness Month.

The actress, 35, could be seen sat in a stairwell as she held her little one close to her and breastfed, while clothes and toys were strewn across the floor around her.

'I hope this makes anyone struggling feel better': David Tennant's wife Georgia shared a candid post about breastfeeding her daughter Birdie via Instagram on Saturday

Georgia blonde locks covered her face as she sat on a makeshift chair that appeared to be in her wardrobe in a white shirt and shorts.

Georgia wrote in the caption: 'Just realized I missed #breastfeedingawarenessmonth (too busy actually doing it) and hate to think Id missed an opportunity to post a photo with my t**s out.

'So here is what my 'breast feeding journey' looks like currently. I hope this makes anyone struggling feel better but most importantly I hope it makes @mariekondo move in with me for a weekend (might need longer)'

Honest: The actress was sat in a stairwell as she held her little one close to be fed while clothes and toys strewn across the floor which she claimed was her 'breastfeeding journey'

Romance: David met Georgia when she had a guest role in the 2008 Doctor Who episode The Doctor's Daughter, and they wed in 2011 (pictured together last week)

Last month, Georgia shared a rare glimpse of their daughter Birdie, 10 months, in a sweet family video shared via Instagram.

In the video the actress filmed her little girl as she excitedly walked towards a toy teapot that had been placed on the floor.

Birdie looked sweet in a light pink and white shirt and matching shorts, and she was seen slowly making her way to the toy by herself.

Adorable: Last month, Georgia shared a rare glimpse of their daughter Birdie, 10 months, in a sweet family video shared via Instagram

Joking about her daughter's fascination with the toy, Georgia wrote in the caption: 'Still lured by the call of tea.'

Georgia confirmed the arrival of her fifth child last year with a hilarious Instagram post, as she compared the birth to that of David's Good Omens co-star Michael Sheen's daughter Lyra.

She became pregnant for the first time as a teenager after a fleeting relationship with a university student, which resulted in the birth to Ty at 17. He was later adopted by David in 2012.

Tea time: In the video the actress filmed her 10-month-old as she excitedly walked towards a toy tea pot that had been placed on the floor

Cute: Birdie looked sweet in a light pink and white shirt and matching shorts, and she was seen slowly making her way to the toy by herself

Ty revealed the name of his youngest sibling during an appearance on Lorraine in March, excitedly telling the host he wanted to give a shout-out to his family.

He said: 'Hi mum, I love you mummy. Hi dad, Wilfred, Olive, Doris, Birdie I love you all. Sorry, I've always wanted to do that,' which led Lorraine to agree that he 'had all the family covered.'

During the interview, Ty also spoke of the moment he met his adopted dad on the set of Doctor Who when he was just five years old.

Announcement: Georgia confirmed the arrival of her fifth child in October with an Instagram post comparing the birth to that of David's Good Omens co-star Michael Sheen's daughter Lyra

Family ties: David and Georgia have five children called Ty, 18, Olive, nine, Wilfred, seven, Doris, five, and also a child named Birdie who was born in October

The budding actor spoke of his close bond with the sci-fi superstar whom he calls his father, and why he would love to be the third Doctor in the family.

David met Ty's mum when she had a guest role in the 2008 episode The Doctor's Daughter - and it was then when Ty met his TV hero.

'It was great, I was five when I first met my dad, my mum was working on Doctor Who at the time,' Ty said.

'I watched him on TV as the hero, and it was crazy how much your life can change.'
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 20:37:57|Editor: huaxia

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KUWAIT CITY, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait on Sunday reported 553 new COVID-19 cases and two more deaths, raising the tally of infections to 94,764 and the death toll to 560, the Health Ministry said in a statement.

Currently, 9,209 patients are receiving treatment, including 94 in ICU, according to the statement.

The ministry also announced the recovery of 591 more patients, raising the total recoveries in the country to 84,995.

On Aug. 30, the Kuwaiti government lifted a nationwide partial curfew, while activities, including celebrations, parties, weddings, gatherings, banquets and funerals, remain restricted to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

On Aug. 18, Kuwait moved into the fourth phase of its five-phase plan to return to normal life, during which, salons, gyms, barbershops, and spas reopened and restaurants can offer more services.

Kuwait and China have been supporting each other and cooperating closely in combating the COVID-19.

Kuwait donated medical supplies worth 3 million U.S. dollars to China at the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak, while China has been facilitating the procurement of medical supplies by Kuwait.

On April 27, a team of Chinese medical experts visited Kuwait to assist the Gulf country's anti-coronavirus fight, through sharing with Kuwaiti their counterparts experience and expertise in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19. Enditem
ALMATY -- Dozens of activists rallied in Kazakhstan's commercial capital calling for political reforms and to demand they be allowed to form a new political party.



The September 13 rally, organized by the unregistered Democratic Party, also targeted government policies allowing the sale of Kazakh land to foreigners, and with speakers warning of creeping Chinese influence in the country.



Police did not intervene to halt the event, which saw speakers criticizing President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev and calling on him to carry out democratic and economic reforms.



Police and medics were seen patrolling the area and taking people's temperatures as part of anti-COVID-19 measures.



Demonstrators also chanted slogans demanding freedom for a dissident poet, and, in a sign of the ongoing tensions with neighboring China, calling for Beijing's ambassador to leave the country.



The demonstrators also criticized longtime ruler Nursultan Nazarbaev, who stepped down as president in 2019 after nearly 30 years in power in 2019.

Despite formally leaving the presidency, Nazarbaev continues to lead the ruling party and the country's secretive Security Council, and wields wide behind-the-scenes influence.



Founded by former journalist Zhanbolat Mamai, the Democratic Party has been repeatedly thwarted by authorities in its efforts to become a registered party.

The group had sought to organize its first congress in February, an important legal step in the registration process, but then canceled it because of arrests and detentions of party activists.

"Why can't we criticize the authorities?" Mamai told the crowd. "If they do not fulfill the people's demands, let them leave! If they do not listen to people's problems, they are not worthy of being leaders."



The Kazakh economy has been hit hard by the drop in global oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic, which has choked off growth and forced many businesses to be shuttered.



Under growing pressure at home and abroad, Toqaev has called for changes to two important government agencies that play important roles in managing the economy.



And in a speech to a joint session of parliament earlier this month, Toqaev proposed allowing direct elections for local governors starting next year. He called for splitting the federal emergency situations agency away from the Interior Ministry, to allow it a freer hand in responding to the coronavirus pandemic.



Smaller protests were held in the southern city of Shymkent and in the northern city of Aktobe on September 13.
Police in Pakistan have arrested one of two suspects in the rape of woman on the Lahore-Sialkot highway in Punjab province. The two men dragged her and her two children from the car that had broken down, while she waited for help. Since Friday, hundreds of women have held protests in cities across Pakistan, including Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar, after a police official appeared to blame the woman for travelling late at night alone. The incident has renewed calls for legal reform for better protection of women, especially rape survivors, as well as safety in public spaces.

Finally, back in the House

View Full Image The monsoon session of Parliament begins on Monday, the first sitting since covid-19 abruptly adjourned the last session in March

The monsoon session of Parliament begins on Monday, the first sitting since covid-19 abruptly adjourned the last session in March. In a departure from convention, the all-party meet before a parliament session was scrapped, as was the Question Hour, meant for raising of crucial issues. The Zero Hour too has been curtailed, citing covid-19 precautions. On Sunday, the Speaker called a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee to discuss the agenda for the session that ends on 1 October. Over the course of 18 days, bills relating to medicine, disease, agriculture marketing and essential commodities, among others, will be discussed. The opposition wants a discussion on the economy, unemployment, the India-China stand-off, and the handling of the pandemic. This will be the first session when MPs will be socially distanced and work in shifts. Ahead of the session, all MPs were requested to get tested for covid-19.

The risks of going cashless

View Full Image Even childrens pocket money is digital, and three-quarters of Swedes aged 18-34 never or rarely use cash

Swedens known for being cashless: It has less cash in circulation than anywhere in the world, at around 1% of GDP, and 80% of Swedes made payments digitally before the pandemic. Even childrens pocket money is digital, and three-quarters of Swedes aged 18-34 never or rarely use cash. Now, the virus threatens to push notes and coins out of circulation as people try to reduce contact. Going digitals reduces opportun-ity for money laundering and tax evasion. But theres a down-side that has its central bank, Riksbank, worried: If theres no cash at all, what happens if digital networks fail or in a cyber-attack? Riksbank governor Stefan Ingves says lawmakers may need to step in so that if the lights go out we can revert to using physical cash." He says Sweden needs a definition of legal tender suited for the digital age, and legislation that requires banks and businesses to handle some amount of physical cash.

Theres new wealth in town

View Full Image Sector-wise distribution of Indian billionaires with self-made and inherited wealth

Over the last few months, the Ambanis and Adanis have doubled their wealth despite the pandemic but contrary to perception, the same small group isnt getting richer, a Mint analysis shows. The fast growth of healthcare, technology and retail has created a new class of billionaires in India. Self-made billionaires had a combined net worth of $164.4 billion in March, over 50% of the total wealth of Indias 102 billionaires. This indicates entrepreneurship and access to capital is easier for all. In two decades, the clout of the richest billionaires has declined as the number of billionaires has risen. However, even three decades after the economy opened, India has a lower proportion of self-made billionaires (59%) compared to the world (70%), and just 6% are women. For more, read Plain Facts.

Recyclers bet on aircraft parts

View Full Image Going by industry estimates, 2,000 aircraft will be retired or not returned to service worldwide in 2020, up from 680 in 2019

With the aviation industry losing hope of a quick recovery, companies that deal in plane parts and dismantle old aircraft are preparing for a spike in business. Going by industry estimates, 2,000 aircraft will be retired or not returned to service worldwide in 2020, up from 680 in 2019. India grounded over 650 planes in March and not all are back in the air despite eased restrictions. Prolonged parking increases maintenance costs of jets, and older planes are likely to be retired sooner. Many airlines have retired their Boeing 747 fleets ahead of schedule and these will be dismantled for scrap. US commercial aerospace company GA Telesis told Reuters it received calls from five airlines to dismantle planes, while Canadas Aerocycle is bidding for grounded planes to dismantle them for parts. The number of planes dismantled for parts or scrap could double to 1,000 annually till 2023, up from 400-500 a year since 2016.

Bonsai craze fuels plant theft

View Full Image While most nations are reporting a rise in wildlife poaching during the covid-19 pandemic, the Philippines is battling the theft of plants

While most nations are reporting a rise in wildlife poaching during the covid-19 pandemic, the Philippines is battling the theft of plants. Bored, locked-down Filipinos are buying out the stocks in nurseries, and traders are now scouring mountains and forests for more plants, many of them endangered, to meet the demand. The government has increased monitoring of social media and patrolling of protected natural areas. The Philippines has over 260,000 cases and the lockdown that was reimposed last month is slowly being eased. Illegal collectors are benefitting from the higher prices, especially of rare species. Bonsai growing has seen a spike in Manila during the pandemic, and common plants such as caladiums and ferns are selling in legal nurseries for 35% to 40% more than earlier, Bloomberg reports. Carnivorous pitcher plants and bantigue trees, popular in crafting bonsai, are sought after.

Curated by Shalini Umachandran. Have something to share with us? Write to us at businessoflife@livemint.com or tweet to @shalinimb

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Bengaluru, Sep 13 : Even as Karnataka grapples with rising Covid-19 cases, the state government has decided to organise Dassara as a low-key affair. The government, however, has decided to restrict the Jamboo Savari (Elephant Ride) to be well within the Mysuru palace, that too with the participation of only five elephants.

This was decided as elephants are massive creatures, having particularly large lungs, they can expel a relatively large number of bacteria into the surrounding air too.

"If elephants are brought into Mysuru where the highest number of the Covid-19 cases are registered after Bengaluru in the state, there could be a high possibility that these elephants could become Covid-19 carriers into the jungles. Hence, the state decided to cancel the Jamboo Savari, a cynosure of world-famous Mysuru Dasara and restrict it to Mysruru palace premises," a senior bureaucrat told IANS on the condition of anonymity.

According to this officer, an outbreak of Covid-19 showed that this virus can stay in the air for long hours, depending on the environment.

"Exposure risk depends on various factors such as the concentration of virus in the air, how long the person was exposed, the size of the room, and the ventilation system all these matters. It is also true that a prolonged contact is more likely to cause infection, it is possible to become infected after a short exposure," the officer pointed out and added that the Rajasthan government was the first government to test these gentle giants for Covid-19 as early in mid-June itself.

The testing of elephants for tuberculosis or Covid-19, not a new system followed by the zookeepers or circus companies or various governments and it is a common practice followed throughout the world.

Meanwhile, the Mysuru Deputy Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) M.G. Alexander disclosed that the district administration has geared up to face any challenge including conducting Covid-19 tests.

"Such a test will be carried out only if necessary. We have all the wherewithal to carry out such tests," he added.

According to him, the district administration will surely carry out Covid-19 tests on mahouts and they will be given with masks and a pair of gloves also.

He added that elephants -- Abhimanyu, Vikrama, Vijaya, Gopi and Kaveri -- are identified for Dasara celebration.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
C oronavirus can poison the brain by hijacking cells to make copies of itself, a new US study has found.

The research, which has yet to be peer reviewed, found evidence of Covid-19 taking up oxygen and thereby starving neighbouring cells to death in the brain.

Doctors have shown how the virus mainly targets the lungs, but also other organs such as the kidneys, liver and blood cells.

But some patients have also reported neurological symptoms such as headaches, confusion and delirium.

In this new study, co-led by Akiko Iwasaki, immunologist at Yale University, the scientists used small lab-grown brains from human cells known as 'organoids' and mice to study the affect the virus has on the brain.

They discovered "clear evidence" that the organoids took over the machinery of the brains and appeared to poison the environment around it.

The authors wrote in the study: "The hypermetabolic state is unique to the SARS-CoV-2 infected cells and highlights the ability of SARS-CoV-2 to hijack the host neuron machinery to replicate."

Coronavirus infecting a cell - In pictures 1 /9 Coronavirus infecting a cell - In pictures Coronavirus infecting a cell EPA An image captured and color-enhanced at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland, USA and made available by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) shows a colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (red) heavily infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (yellow) EPA The SARS-COV-2 virus begin the infection process of cytoplasm of the cell, inside which is the nucleus, responsible for storing the genetic material of the cell EPA Tthe SARS-COV-2 virus particles after infection and viral replication inside the cell (white circle in the left corner) EPA A series of dark spots, which are viral particles of the SARS-COV-2 virus, trying to infect the cytoplasm of the cell, inside which is the nucleus, responsible for storing the genetic material of the cell EPA An arrow pointing to a novel coronavirus particle attached to cell membranes, displaying its typical glycoprotein spike 'corona' on the viral surface (issued 02 April 2020), seen in an electron microscope image, the first black and white portrait of the SARS-CoV2 virus, which causes the COVID-19 disease EPA An image captured and color-enhanced at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland, USA and made available by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) shows a colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (purple) heavily infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (yellow) EPA

Dr Iwasaki told the New York Times: If the brain does become infected, it could have a lethal consequence."

She added: "Its kind of a silent infection. This virus has a lot of evasion mechanisms.

It comes after experts at the University College Londons Institute of Neurology warned serious and potentially fatal brain conditions linked to coronavirus may be going unnoticed by doctors.

The team of scientists studied 43 patients who developed disorders ranging from psychosis to stroke after contracting Covid-19.

The study, published in the journal Brain, found a worrying rise in acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (Adem), a life-threatening condition, during the first wave of coronavirus in Britain.

Of these, 12, had inflammation of the central nervous system, 10 were treated with delirium or psychosis, eight had strokes and a further eight had peripheral nerve problems, mostly Guillain-Barre which can cause paralysis. Some 1 in 20 cases are fatal, NHS England said.

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Michael Zandi, a senior author on the study and a consultant at the institute urged GPs, physicians and healthcare workers to refer Covid-19 patients with cognitive symptoms, memory loss, fatigue, numbness or weakness to refer cases to neurologists.
Unlike last years sunrise ceremony, members of the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation stood inside the Alamo church Saturday and honored ancestors buried at the iconic mission.

In 2019, the indigenous group was denied entry because ceremonies, meetings and receptions inside the church had been banned because of structural concerns. Instead, the group held its ceremony in front of the Alamo.

This year, the ceremony again was held outside, in Alamo Plaza. But after it was finished, seven members entered the church, using free tickets reserved online by Raymond Hernandez, co-founder of the American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions and cultural preservationist for Tap Pilam.

Were not going to ask to pray, Hernandez, 72, said before he and the others entered the church. Were just going to pray.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio Native American group hosts sunrise ceremony at the Alamo

Once inside, the group, all wearing protective masks, approached a roped-off section of the church, bowed their heads and raised their hands in prayer. Then Isaac Cardenas, who goes by the name of Papa Bear, lifted his staff and sang to their forebears.

We believe that when we sing that song, the ancestors come to hear that, said the 64-year-old spiritual leader, clad in tribal wear, and they are with us.

More than 50 people, including lineal descendants, attended this years Annual Sunrise Ceremony, held by the group from 6:30 to 9 a.m., as part of its Semana de Recuerdos, or Week of Remembrance.

Calvin Baez was among those who gathered outside the San Antonio Visitors Center before the ceremony at Alamo Plaza.

Its good for me to experience this and live this, not only for me, but my family, friends and everyone here, Baez, 22, said as he stood beside his mother, Allison Baez. Its part of who I am.

At 8 a.m., law enforcement officers removed metal rails from the entrance to the plaza. As the sun rose above the Alamo, the tribal council led the participants to the plaza.

The scent of burning herbs drifted in the air as two members waved sticks of smoldering sage, their thick smoke wafting over members of the crowd to cleanse away negative energy.

Participants gathered in a circle near an overhead banner that read, History Happens Here and listened to speakers who talked about their ongoing push for lineal descendants to be included in decisions concerning human remains at the Alamo.

The ceremony ended with more than 20 members taking part in a spirit run from the Alamo to Missions Concepcion, San Jose, San Juan and Espada. Organizers said participants could run, walk or drive to each mission along the 12-mile route, where they would pray and receive blessings.

On ExpressNews.com: Descendants honor San Antonio ancestors where remains were found at downtown construction site

Ramon Vasquez, executive director of American Indians in Texas and spokesman for Tap Pilam, said the ceremony was in commemoration of the first reburial of their ancestors inside the chapel in 1995.

Its our Day of the Dead, he said, where we pay tribute to all of the buried people at the missions.

Tap Pilam has a federal lawsuit pending against the Texas General Land Office and the Alamo Trust Inc., seeking to have its voice heard in decisions regarding what happens to human remains found on the Alamo grounds. At present, the lineal descendants of the indigenous people who lived in and around the mission arent included in those discussions because theyre not a federally recognized tribe.

Vasquez said the local descendants have to fight and push against injustice and denial of access to their fallen, the families that came before them.

My fear is that if we dont fight, they will push us all the way back to the Rio Grande, he said. That seems to be the intention. If they can do it with our history, they will do it with our people.

Vincent T. Davis is a reporter in the Greater San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Vincent, become a subscriber. vtdavis@express-news.net | Twitter: @vincentdavis
The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the September 19 governorship election in Edo State, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, has challenged Governor Godwin Obaseki to show evidence that he was qualified to be admitted to the University of Ibadan in 1976.

Mr Ize-Iyamu threw the challenge during the governorship debate Sunday night.

The debate was organised by Channels Television and moderated by its political correspondent, Seun Okinbaloye.

APC had in June disqualified Mr Obaseki from contesting its primaries over allegations that he had problematic academic certificates.

We are not doubting you going to the university. That is not the issue. The issue is (that) you failed by your own records. You failed school cert. You had three credits, no English, no Maths, even to enter A level would have been difficult, Mr Ize-Iyamu said.

And if you got the A Level, where is the result? That is a moral question. A lot of people are looking up to you as a governor and as a leader. The question is that you failed your level and that is why you were disqualified (by APC) and your disqualification arose from information from the PDP, your party now. Because the PDP when I was contesting against you (in 2016) said you have no results. Why have you not answered the question. Where is your result?

Asked to comment on his days as a student of the University of Benin where he allegedly poured acid on a fellow student and also expelled, Mr Ize-Iyamu said the allegation was not true.

He said, I graduated from the University of Benin. I was very active in the students union and my records are clear. People have alleged that I did that but I think they should go to the university authorities and find out exactly what was the offence.

If you do something very criminal, the university cannot even handle it. And I am proud that throughout my stay, I was not engaged in any criminal matter.

Speaking on the certificate controversy, Mr Obaseki, apparently referring to his predecessor and former APC national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, wondered why somebody who had no certificate would comment on such matters.

He said, It is very ironic that someone who has no certificate can stand up and comment on someone whose certificate was issued by the premier university in Nigeria. That is a very sad situation that we have found ourselves in as a country.

The governor explained that he was admitted to the University of Ibadan at the time there was no JAMB, adding that the authorities of the institution had since come out to confirm his graduation.

In 1976 when I gained admission into the University of Ibadan, there was no JAMB. You could either go into the university through prelim or through Direct Entry in your advanced level examination, he said.

I finished my O Level and my Advanced Level and it was As. So, I gained admission into the University of Ibadan.

I dont know what has happened but for the University of Ibadan, the standard is still very high and they have come out to say that I graduate from that university. How else do you want to make that clear?

It is very sad that in a country like Nigeria, some people who do not have the qualifications have the effrontery to challenge the qualifications of those who went to proper schools. It is sad.
The mother of a 27-year-old Waco woman who died after she was involved in a car crash while suffering a heart attack is suing the city of Waco and a former police officer who the mother alleges recklessly stopped her from performing potentially life-saving measures on her daughter.

Debra Haynes Smith, the mother of Samarian M. Long, is seeking unspecified damages in her wrongful death lawsuit, filed recently in Wacos 170th State District Court. The suit names as defendants the city of Waco and former Waco police Officer Paul Scrivner.

The suit, filed on Smiths behalf by Houston attorney Henry Curtis Jr., alleges Long died as a result of Scrivners negligence after the November 2017 crash.

Scrivner had been with the department six years when he resigned in August last year after his drunken driving arrest the month before. Scrivner said Thursday he was unaware of the lawsuit and declined comment.

Waco City Attorney Jennifer Richie said the city was served with the lawsuit Wednesday.

We are looking into it and we will defend it, Richie said.
 Flash

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Saturday a new package of economic measures aimed to alleviate society's strain from the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, reforms to keep Greece firmly on the growth trajectory, as well as fresh defense expenditure to further boost the country's deterrent ability.



Outlining his government's economic policy for the next 12 months, during a key policy speech at the Thessaloniki Helexpo Forum, in the city port of Thessaloniki in northern Greece, he announced a series of immediate tax cuts, benefits, reductions in social security contributions and programs to boost liquidity and investments in order to ease burdens from employees, pensioners, the unemployed and businesses.

For example, the state will provide subsidies for six months for 100,000 new positions, abolish a special property tax for the inhabitants of the 26 smallest islands, and extend until April 2021 the suspension of tax and social insurance obligations to professions hit by the pandemic.

In addition, the Greek government will continue reforms to support employment and growth by further reducing bureaucracy and improving the function of public sector services, and by introducing new rules for debt settlement to the state and banking sector, Mitsotakis said.

"Nothing in the world is the same as yesterday," he told a small audience symbolically comprising 50 representatives of all walks of life, during his address which was broadcast on Greek national broadcaster ERT.

"However, the crisis cannot become an alibi for stalling the implementation of great changes... Our program of actions has an underlying motto: confidence faced with the challenges ahead, confidence in defense, in healthcare and in the economy," he said.

Regarding the battle against the pandemic, Mitsotakis promised more ICUs beds and hirings of thousands more doctors and nurses.

Amidst tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea lately over maritime borders and the exploitation of energy reserves, the Greek leader spoke extensively also about the new 18 Rafale military aircraft, four Navy helicopters, four frigates and other armaments Greece is purchasing as well as a plan of staff reinforcement with 15,000 men and women for five years in order to strengthen its national defense.

Mitsotakis accused Ankara of "undermining peace throughout the Mediterranean," adding that "It threatens the borders of Europe and undermines security in a crucial crossroad of three continents."

The new weapons procurement program comes amid heightened tensions with Turkey over resources in the eastern Mediterranean. Its announcement dominated almost half of Mitsotakis' speech here.

"After the end of the current health adventure and tensions with Turkey, spring for the economy and our society may arrive sooner than expected," the Greek leader added.

Tensions have flared up between Turkey and Greece over energy explorations in the Eastern Mediterranean waters in recent weeks. They have overlapping maritime claims in the region.
The beginning of the school year when you got to show off your new duds, new cars, new looks!

Sports! Playing, cheering, watching high school athletics.

The arts: Dramatic arts, musical groups and shows, graphic arts groups, debate, etc.

The prom! No dancing the night away or punch bowl antics.

The daily interactions. Just being with the group, hanging with friends and classmates.

Access to college recruiters and advisors  its harder to line up higher education.

Walking onstage to get a diploma while all the family is watching with everyone elses family.

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THE High Court ruling handed down by Justice Clement Phiri on September 2, which rescinded a search-and-seizure warrant issued against Econet Wireless Zimbabwe (Econet) gives a glimmer of hope for Zimbabweans to believe in the judicial systems capacity and willingness to protect citizens rights to privacy, observers have said.





Justice Phiri declared the search-and-seizure warrant issued by Harare provincial magistrate Richard Ramaboa unlawful and ordered Zimbabwe Republic Police commissioner general Godwin Matanga and investigating officer Mkhululi Nyoni to pay the costs, after Econet had contested the warrant in court.





The latest judgement backed an earlier provisional order granted by Justice Edith Mushore on July 22 to stay the execution of the warrant, pending a determination of its lawfulness by the High Court.





This was after Nyoni, a detective inspector in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department Asset Forfeiture Unit, had on July 17 obtained a search-and-seizure warrant from Ramaboa to search Econet premises and customer data base as part of alleged money laundering charges laid against Zimbabwes leading mobile network service provider.





Econet denies the charges.





The warrant empowered Nyoni to get a list of all subscribers or customers both registered and unregistered in the Econet database with full subscriber details for the period January 2, 2020 to June 30, 2020 as well as a summary of transient e-money or airtime credit service posted on the platform through airtime loans during the same period.





But it should come as a relief to most Zimbabweans, even those who brook no favours towards Econet, to note that both justices Phiri and Mushore concurred with Econets argument that the search warrant was too wide, speculative and liable to abuse by law enforcement agents.





For instance, had Nyoni been given the go-ahead to access Econets entire subscriber database, it would have gravely compromised the privacy of over 11 million people, who did not break the law.





Section 57 of the new Zimbabwe constitution guarantees the right to individual privacy and provides that every person has the right not to have their person, home, premises or property searched, unless there are valid and reasonable grounds to do so.





The right to privacy is an inalienable right, which cannot and should not be tampered with.





Though it is admitted that all rights are subject to limitations, that should only be so in exceptional circumstances, said Tichaona Nyamucherera, a legal practitioner with Lawman Chimuriwo Attorneys.





What we saw happening with the warrant of execution granted on the 17th of July 2020 against Econet was an acute abridge of the right to privacy.





The lack of particularity was malicious and would have opened the proverbial Pandoras box, he said, adding that this would have further obliterated the fabric of trust that underlines and gives life to the relationship between Econet, and other mobile service providers, with their clients.





Nyamucherera also noted that in the wrong hands, the fishing expeditions would have further endangered the general populace.





The honourable judge Phiris stance in stopping the execution of the warrant is fundamental to the development of our jurisprudence.





He played the commendable role expected of our courts in protecting entities such as Econet which, axiomatically, have a persistent interface with the majority of our population.





It was exciting to behold, and presented a welcome journey in fortifying constitutionalism.





Other legal experts described privacy as a fundamental human right that is central to the protection of human dignity and forms the basis of any democratic society.





They said it also supports and reinforces other rights, such as freedom of expression, information and association.





The right to privacy embodies the presumption that individuals should have an area of autonomous development, interaction, and liberty, a private sphere with or without interaction with others, free from arbitrary state intervention and from excessive unsolicited intervention by other uninvited individuals.





They said activities that restrict the right to privacy, such as surveillance and censorship, can only be justified when they are prescribed by law, necessary to achieve a legitimate aim and proportionate to the aim pursued.





In addition, they said Econet had an obligation, in terms of the law, to keep the private and confidential information of its customers, and such information should be protected from arbitrary search-and-seizure warrants.





All telecommunication companies in Zimbabwe are required by law to keep a database of all subscribers including customers names, identification numbers, addresses and their cellphone numbers.





And Nyoni sought to go through all the names in Econets database, although he did not specify any crime that had been committed by all or any of the subscribers.





Thank God we still have impartial and credible judges such as Mushore and Phiri, who saw the flaw in Nyonis thinking.





We all shudder to think what would have happened had the judges given in and issued the search-and-seizure warrant, which criminalises the whole nation and invades the right to privacy and dignity of the entire country, without a valid reason, said an attorney, who preferred anonymity.





It must also be noted that the two judges were correct in quashing the warrant as this would have made Zimbabwe and Econet vulnerable to lawsuits from both local and international organisations and business entities that are Econets customers, for breach of privacy.




Naomi Osaka is known for her direct, funny and straight from the heart statements. Even after an exhausting battle in the US Open womens singles final with Victoria Azarenka, she did not lose her humorous side. Osaka, after her fighting 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 win against the Belarusian, joked that she did not want to play more finals with Azarenka.

Osaka and Azarenka were supposed to play the Western & Southern Open final two weeks ago before the Japanese pulled out with hamstring injury. As fate would have it, the moment was recreated on an even bigger stage as both the ladies made it to the final at Flushing Meadows. The battle between Osaka and Azarenka was expected to be tough and it did not disappoint.

Azarenka started the match on a high tearing down on Osaka, who just failed to find any kind of rhythm. However, midway through the second set, she raised her level to start marching foward. Even as Azarenka kept fighting back, including a break back in the decider, Osaka maintained her level and claimed her second US Open trophy and a third Grand Slam title.

During the presentation, Azarenka congratulated Osaka on the victory and said, I hope we can meet in some more finals again."

And so, when Osaka got to the mic, she congratulated Azarenka as well but joked that she did not want to play more finals with her. Actually dont want to play you in any more finals. I didnt really enjoy that. It was a really tough match for me," she said.

US Open, Naomi Osaka vs Victoria Azarenka: REPORT | HIGHLIGHTS

However, she then said how inspiring it was to play against Azarenka at the Arthur Ashe Stadium. Its really inspiring for me because I used to watch you play here when I was younger. So just to have the opportunity to play you is really great and I learned a lot, so thank you."

There was another moment of humour from Osaka when she was asked why, after the win and net exchange with Azarenka, she went back to the court and lay down with her back to the court.

I always see everyone collapse after match point, but I always think you may injure yourself, so I wanted to do it safely."@naomiosaka I #USOpen pic.twitter.com/prSzxFkMTn  US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 12, 2020

I always see everyone collapse after match point, but I always think you may injure yourself, so I wanted to do it safely," she said.
Congress MLC B K Hariprasad has said that some tall leaders of the BJP were not stepping out of their houses without consuming opium.

Speaking to reporters here on Sunday, Hariprasad said that both state and central governments were targeting celebrities in order to hide their failure in tackling Covid-19 pandemic.

We know of certain tall leaders of BJP who never stepped out without consuming drugs. But, I dont want to name them, Hariprasad said.

He said that it was wrong to target people of particular religion in the drug scandal. Stern action should be initiated against persons of any religion or party if they have committed an illegal act. But, now only women are being blamed. Arent any men involved in drug scandal? he sought to know.

Meanwhile, speaking to reporters in Chitradurga, Deputy Chief Minister Govind Karjol said that the investigation into the drug racket was on the right track and no information regarding the probe was being leaked. He said that the leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah had been making baseless allegations against the government in this regard.

Congress leader questioned

The Central Crime Branch, Hubballi has questioned Hubballi-Dharwad Mahanagara Congress unit general secretary Girish Gaddigeappagouda over his alleged connection with Sandalwood actor Ragini Dwivedi.

An officer who wished not to be named said prima -facie there appeared to be no wrong doing. We have asked him to submit certain documents related to income tax and property, the officer said.
Forget trends, clothes should make us feel good about ourselves, says Erica

Thats right, says fashion stylist Erica Davies, whose common sense (and sometimes surprising) advice will have you rethinking  and re-enjoying  the way you look and dress

For nearly 20 years, as the fashion editor on some of Britains biggest newspapers and magazines, I helped perpetuate the myth of rights and wrongs, of what we should and shouldnt be wearing. Then one day I put something on and suddenly felt constrained and uncomfortable. Instead of making me feel happy, this outfit did the opposite.

And in that moment, I realised something: the rules Id been telling people to follow were wrong. Instead, the clothes we choose, rather than being the latest fashion, should make us feel good about ourselves. They shouldnt hide us away or make us feel less than we really are.

It was this epiphany that led me to leave my office job and create a style website called The Edited. Its based on my philosophy that in order to feel happy in clothes, we need to feel happy with who we are beneath them. Ive learnt its possible to create a personal style that not only suits you but opens up a whole world of confidence and possibilities.

So what is personal style?

Its a funny thing, style. You can feel perfectly fine in the outfits you put together for years without giving anything a second thought. Then, one day, you wake up and find youve completely lost your confidence. Out of everything Im messaged about online, it is requests for advice from women who feel they have lost their way with fashion that make up the majority. Theres a whole host of reasons for this  everything from gaining or losing weight to having a change of career.

First, we need to establish the difference between style and taste. Taste is the pieces you select, while style is the way you put your taste together. A person with their own sense of style has a strong look that may not necessarily adhere to convention in the same way as taste. One persons style might have its foundation in a cultural dress code, but with a twist that makes it uniquely theirs. Style is individuality, about being able to put pieces together in a way that suits the wearers personality, so they look happy wearing them. When your wardrobe is a collection of all your favourite things, it will make a statement about who you are.

When mixing prints, pick ones that share a predominant colour, says Erica

How to feel good in clothes

This is all about how you feel when you look at yourself in the mirror. During my teen years, I always worried that boys wouldnt like me if I didnt wear clothes that showed off my shape, but, deep down, that thought made me feel uncomfortable. How many times have you heard comments such as, You cant wear that or That doesnt suit you or even Youre the wrong shape for that? The resulting upset and embarrassment can stay with us into adulthood.

There are probably dozens of rules you have processed from childhood that have formed your own sense of self and the pieces youre allowed to wear, even decades later. From blonde women cant wear yellow, to stripes make you look wide and tall women shouldnt wear heels  weve grown up hearing them and learn to accept them.

Let me stress the point: body image has such a huge impact on the clothes we wear that we can only get to a happy place when we resolve those issues. A little while ago I wrote an Instagram caption while on holiday about wearing my first bikini in nine years (the first time since having my eldest child).

Stripes and v-necks are great for playing with proportions

I had wavered about putting it on that morning, but then just thought, Sod it! As I typed away, the words flowed because I suddenly felt free. The shame of not looking like the models look disappeared, because Id said it out loud. It was one of my most liked social media posts to date. Sharing those feelings of vulnerability struck a chord and to this day I receive messages from women telling me theyve just worn a bikini for the first time in years.

Of course, it takes time to learn to care less about the opinions of strangers, and strength to accept yourself as you are right now, rather than thinking your life will become something complete and wonderful once youve lost a bit of weight, or gained a few pounds, or found a partner or a new job. It really wont  but finding a style that makes you feel genuinely comfortable and happy, as the person you are right now, definitely will.

So forget all the rules you were taught. We only get one body and one life  lets stop living it apologising for who we are. Once we start to like ourselves, we can get a clearer vision of who it is we want to be. And creating your individual style starts right there.

Why leopard is a neutral

Its a print with a history. Its divisive. Its beloved. Its gone from being the choice of a certain type of woman (please note, the italics represent an eye-roll!) to a fashion classic. Technically, leopard is a catch-all term thats used for all big-cat prints, including cheetah, ocelot and jaguar. Big cat energy, if you will. But since J Crews former creative director Jenna Lyons announced that, As far as Im concerned, leopard is a neutral, the print has been accepted in an entirely new and totally versatile way.

Generally, a traditional leopard print consists of three colours: black, camel and either a lighter cream or darker brown. To uncomplicate dressing with leopard, think about it as just one of these colours. Take a leopard blouse, if you pick black as your main colour: pair it with anything you would wear with black, in whatever texture fabric youd like  whether that be black leather trousers, a velvet skirt or a cotton knit. If you want to consider it as part of the brown or camel family, leopard prints look beautiful with sparklier versions of themselves  think gold, bronze, copper. Theyre part of the same colour family, so all the shades harmonise.

Remember, denim has the effect of muting louder, more statement pieces, so they dont feel too much worn during the day. But you can also push the envelope a little. Try pairing a leopard-print blouse with lilac and red, blush pink or bright orange. Leopard works with all of those shades. Its really not as scary as you might think. Honestly. And once you have considered the options of stepping away from the comfort colours, you might be ready for mixing with other prints  and for myriad other outfit possibilities.

THE STYLE TRICKS YOU NEED TO KNOW

 You are your own fashion authority. You can appreciate the ideas of others, but your gut instinct is all you need.

 Sizes really dont matter, but if you want an outfit to have power, you need to understand proportions (see right).

 Want to try print or colour but not sure where to start? Imagine your outfits component in terms of three. Take a key piece  such as a pink and orange skirt with a hint of white  and dissect the three main colours. Mix in a print in the predominant colour (pink) and pick out plain pieces in the accent colours (orange and white).

 Try new ways of wearing things. My happy hem is between a midi and maxi, so to get more use out of my knee-length pieces I wear them with trousers. Would you wear that long silk dress more if you teamed it with jeans?

 If you feel excited when you put something on thats how you know it works for you.

My 4 non-rules

1 Take a pragmatic look at yourself in your underwear and try to take the emotion out of getting dressed. Regard yourself as a stylist would: without criticism  just assess which clothes will work.

2 Think about the pieces that make you feel like you. If youre a skirt + T-shirt + flat shoe wearer, try elevating your fabric choices and re-create that particular equation with a textured black below-the-knee skirt (perhaps leather), worn with a smarter silk-mix T-shirt, underneath a printed or contrast-coloured jacket and a pair of black patent flats.

3 Focus on small changes at first. It may be that you just want to wear black, and thats fine  you could always add a bold lipstick or a statement shoe to lift it.

4 Your body is an incredible thing  never feel you have to hide it away

Forget colour, think shades

Its a fashion fact that some colours will suit you more than others. There are lots of companies that offer to find your colours, but I have a simpler strategy  and it doesnt cost a thing: if you hold an item up to your face  in a room with lots of light  and it suits you, your eyes will sparkle and your skin will glow.

Ditch anything that makes you look tired, as its wrong for you. And think about colours as tones: dont dismiss an entire colour just because one shade doesnt suit you. For example, while hot pink might drain you, blush might make you pop; black may wash you out, but navy make you feel a million dollars.

If youre shopping online look at the darkest and lightest shades within your iris. They are shades that will always look fantastic on you. Looking at the veins in your wrist can also help  yes, really! If you see blue, then youre more likely to suit cooler colours, while if you see greenish veins, warmer shades will work better

Proportions are key

By understanding the power of proportions, you can create a killer outfit that works best for you, which will make shopping and dressing easier. Sizes and numbers dont really matter, but if you want an outfit to have balance and power, proportions definitely do. So with a Breton top, the eye will follow its stripes width-wise, making you look wider, whereas in a V-neck top and a longer-line coat, their shapes and cuts will draw the eye down, creating a lengthening visual.

You also need to consider balance. So match the hemline of your dress to the hemline of your coat. Looser tops work best with slim trousers. If youre self-conscious about your boobs, choose a pocket-free shirt. You can wear a poloneck, but layer a V-neck over it, as the two necklines will confuse the eye and make it hard to focus entirely on your chest.

FIND YOUR OUTFIT SUPERHEROES

These are the pieces that always give me a style boost

From top left: How do I like my Tee? thick cotton, stripes and long sleeves. A girls best friend? boyfriend khaki chinos. You cant beat the extra legroom wide-legged trousers provide. Always spot on: a leopard midi skirt. Is it a shirt, is it a jacket? Its a shaket! I like mine army style. Chunky lace-up black ankle boots are perfect mixers

This is an edited extract from Leopard is a Neutral: A Really Useful Style Guide by Erica Davies, which will be published by Yellow Kite on 17 September, price 16.99. To order a copy for 11.99 until 20 September go to whsmith.co.uk and enter the code YOULEOPARD at checkout. Book number: 9781529333718. Terms and conditions: whsmith.co.uk/terms.
Senior Conservatives were not backing down on their rebellion against the Prime Ministers plans despite his warning that Brussels could carve up our country without his new Bill.

Former prime ministers John Major and Tony Blair united to urge MPs to reject the legislation, saying it imperils the Irish peace process, trade negotiations and the UKs integrity.

UK Labour leader Keir Starmer accused Mr Johnson of having reigniting old rows by working to flout his own Withdrawal Agreement, but pledged Labour support if he addresses substantial concerns.

Tory rebels suggested their numbers were growing and opinions were only hardened by Mr Johnsons increased rhetoric that the EU could impose a trade border in the Irish Sea.

Lets make the EU take their threats off the table.



And lets get this Bill through, back up our negotiators, and protect our country 

https://t.co/7AXOO361js Advertisement  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) September 12, 2020

Mr Major and Mr Blair, the former Conservative and Labour leaders, united to condemn Mr Johnsons controversial UK Internal Market Bill in an article for the Sunday Times.

We both opposed Brexit. We both accept it is now happening. But this way of negotiating, with reason cast aside in pursuit of ideology and cavalier bombast posing as serious diplomacy, is irresponsible, wrong in principle and dangerous in practice, they said.

It raises questions that go far beyond the impact on Ireland, the peace process and negotiations for a trade deal  crucial though they are. It questions the very integrity of our nation.

Mr Starmer called on Mr Johnson to throw out clauses that could breach international law and those that lead the devolved administrations to warn of a power grab to get Labour support.

If the Government fixes the substantial cross-party concerns that have been raised about the Internal Market Bill, then we are prepared to back it, he wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.

But if they do not, and the talk collapse, then it is their failure and incompetence that will have let the British people down.

Human Rights

The newspaper also reported that ministers are considering opt-outs from the Human Rights Act, and that a formal review could be announced in the coming weeks.

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The Tory manifesto pledged to update the Act after Brexit, but the move is contentious with Brussels and negotiators have expressed concern over the UKs commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland, who is under pressure to explain how the UK government plans to override elements of the Brexit deal are consistent with obligations under international law, will face questioning from the media on Sunday.

His Labour shadow, Charlie Falconer, said: A future where (the) UK breaks its international law obligations, and opts out of Human Rights protections is a very bad future.

Unamended I cannot support this Bill.



Lets secure Brexit-but remember what we stand for.

Already this Bill is damaging brand UK, diminishing our role-model status as defender of global standards. As we go to the wire lets see more British statecraft-less Nixonian Madman Theory pic.twitter.com/pD5Sl55cC6  Tobias Ellwood MP (@Tobias_Ellwood) September 12, 2020

Despite Mr Johnsons attempts to drum up support, Tory chairman of the Commons defence committee Tobias Ellwood said on Saturday that he could not support the legislation without it being changed.

Already this Bill is damaging brand UK, diminishing our role-model status as defender of global standards. As we go to the wire, lets see more British statecraft  less Nixonian Madman Theory, he tweeted.

Commons justice committee chairman Bob Neill, who has tabled an amendment which he said would impose a parliamentary lock on any changes to the Withdrawal Agreement, said he still contends it contains objectionable elements.

Damian Green, who was Theresa Mays deputy when she was prime minister and is backing the amendment, was also understood to not have been won over by Mr Johnsons argument.

Roger Gale also remained a vehement critic, telling Times Radio: If anybody is responsible, if it happens, for bringing the union down, it will be (chief aide Dominic) Cummings and Mr Johnson.
A day ahead of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), three medical college aspirants in Tamil Nadu committed suicide on Saturday fearing failure.

Madurai-based Jyothi Sridurga, daughter of policeman Murugasundaram, hanged herself at her residence on Saturday.

As to the reason for taking the extreme step, Sridurga said in a note that she had prepared well for the exam but was scared of the result.

She requested not to blame anyone and conveyed her apologies to her parents for her decision.

The day's second suicide happened in Dharmapuri where a boy named Aditya snuffed out his own life. In Namakkal district, another boy named Motilal hanged himself to death.

With this, the total number of suicides of medical college aspirants in Tamil Nadu went up to four during the last few days.

On Wednesday, Vignesh, an aspiring medical student, had committed suicide over NEET fears.

Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam in a tweet expressed his pain at the students' suicides.

He said the students should develop will power to face challenges. Panneerselvam also said the parents should also extend support to their children.

DMK President M.K. Stalin said in a tweet that the NEET has a destabilising effect on the students as can be seen from the death of Anitha (first student who committed suicide due to NEET) to Sridurga.

Stalin said he was shocked to know that Sridurga had committed suicide due to fear of NEET and added that the medical college entrance test is not at all an exam and suicide is not the solution.

PMK Founder S. Ramadoss urged the Central government to cancel the exam in Tamil Nadu.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 15:53:50|Editor: huaxia

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SANAA, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi militia said on Sunday that the Saudi-led coalition in the country launched airstrikes on its military positions in Sanaa for the second straight day.

The militia's al-Masirah TV reported about 14 airstrikes at dawn on Sunday on several military sites in and around the Yemeni capital.

Meanwhile, the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV said the coalition "destroyed four explosive drones in the Houthi-controlled al-Daylami Air Base and targeted other Houthi military positions in Sanaa."

A day earlier, the coalition said it targeted depots of missiles and drones in eastern Sanaa.

The airstrikes came after the Houthi militia has intensified cross-border drone attacks on Saudi cities over the past days. All Houthi attacks had been intercepted, according to the coalition statements.

Yemen has been mired in civil war since late 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized control of much of the country's north and forced the internationally-recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of Sanaa.

The Saudi-led coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict in March 2015 to support Hadi's government. Enditem
Cain Parkin and Ashlyn Trickett are praying this lockdown drives down case numbers and puts an end to the worst effects of the pandemic-induced recession.

The couple owns popular Moonee Ponds wine bar and bottle shop Suburban Cellar Door. Before the lockdown, the business derived about 80 per cent of its revenue from people drinking and grazing on nibbles inside. Now, it is keeping afloat by offering alcohol deliveries.

Cain Parkin and Ashlynn Trickett own Suburban Cellar Door in Moonee Ponds. Credit:Luis Ascui

If rent reductions don't continue beyond the next couple of months, the couple will need to consider the viability of the business, Mr Parkin said.

Cash grants from the local council have helped, and Mr Parkin said additional state government grants announced on Sunday and a potential waiver of its $900 liquor licence would help it weather the storm.
By Riley Vetterkind, The Wisconsin State Journal

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily suspended the mailing of absentee ballots for the Nov. 3 election as the court weighs whether to order the Green Party presidential ticket be added to the ballot.

The order from the conservative-backed majority on the state Supreme Court, coming a week before the state-imposed Sept. 17 deadline to send out requested absentee ballots to registered voters, is in a case brought by Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins.

Some clerks, including those in Dane County, have already printed or sent out ballots as they handle an unprecedented number of requests this year due to COVID-19.

Hawkins, a Syracuse resident who has run for different offices 24 times and never won, wants the court to place him on the ballot after his request was rejected by the Wisconsin Elections Commission. He and running mate Angela Walker were kept off the ballot due to a complaint alleging Walker listed an incorrect address on thousands of her nominating signatures, bringing her number of valid signatures below the required threshold to secure a spot on the ballot.

Rapper Kanye West is also attempting to be placed on the presidential ballot in a separate lawsuit after being denied ballot access because he turned in his nominating signatures moments too late.

The court, in a 4-3 decision with all liberal-backed justices dissenting, said clerks should hold off on sending out any absentee ballots until it issues a further order in the case. The court also asked the Wisconsin Elections Commission to provide it information within a matter of hours Thursday detailing whether any ballots have been mailed out to voters and if so, to whom and when.

In response, Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe said despite its best efforts, it was only able to gather information from 63 of 72 counties and 25 of 1,850 municipalities. Many municipal clerks work part-time.

The Elections Commission filing showed at least 2.3 million ballots have already been printed by local elections officials across the state. Municipal clerks have so far reported that as many as 378,482 ballots may have already been sent. The number is likely higher given the number of clerks who didnt respond.

Some county clerks who responded complained to the commission about the tardiness of the Hawkins lawsuit and the potential costs and time involved in making last-minute changes to ballots, which would require the printing of new ballots and other complications. Bayfield County Clerk Scott Fibert questioned whether parties asking for ballot changes should be the ones to pay for reprinting.

I find it unfair that county clerks were/are put in this position of trying to make decisions when the courts are not acting expeditiously, wrote Chippewa County Clerk Jaclyn Sadler. This should not be happening the week before ballots are to be mailed out.

While the Elections Commission is provided with updates, Wisconsins decentralized elections system means detailed information about ballot requests and mailings resides with municipal clerks.

Ballots printed in Dane County

As of Thursday, the Elections Commission logged nearly 1 million absentee ballot requests on file. The court order has already caused a stir among local elections officials.

Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell said a potential Supreme Court order adding names to the November ballot would create virtually insurmountable challenges. McDonell said municipal clerks in Dane County have 150,000 absentee requests on file as of Thursday and are working on delivering them to municipal clerks.

McDonell said if the Supreme Court were to change the ballot at this point, Dane County would have to redesign the ballot, including in Spanish, load new information onto voting machine thumb drives, test the ballots, print 500,000 new ballots, package, sort and deliver them. Municipal clerks would then need to print labels, sort the requests by ballot type, stuff the envelopes and mail them.

If the Supreme Court orders new names to be placed on the ballot, he said there is no way local clerks would be able to mail out absentee ballots by the Sept. 17 deadline or the Sept. 19 federal deadline for military and overseas voters.

This is potentially a huge disaster, McDonell said. Just the delay of a decision is deeply irresponsible and jeopardizes the integrity of our election.

Elections Commission spokesman Reid Magney said about 313,000 absentee ballot labels have already been created, representing about a third of the total requests on file. Wolfe said many jurisdictions were planning to send out ballots this weekend, and that some smaller, hand-count jurisdictions may already have sent out ballots.

Once ballots go out, to change the ballot would be incredibly, incredibly challenging to manage that process, she said.

If the ballot were to be changed, elections officials would likely need to develop an A/B balloting system for voters who have already received a ballot, something that hasnt been done before on a statewide basis. Such a system would mean voters who already received the original style ballot would receive a new "B" ballot they would be instructed to return. Clerks would be provided information on which ballot to count. The states voter registration system ensures only one ballot from each voter is counted.

Candidates kept off ballot

The Elections Commission opted to keep West off the ballot because he turned his signatures in after the deadline, and the commission deadlocked twice on whether to include Hawkins on the ballot, meaning hell be kept off unless the decision is overturned by a court.

In mid-August, a Democratic attorney from Madison filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Elections Commission on behalf of a Madison voter asking for Hawkins and Walker to be kept off the ballot because they list Walkers incorrect home address on thousands of nominating signatures. Candidates are required to list their current address on nominating petitions.

Elections Commission guidance states that if any information is incorrect, their signatures must be rejected. Wisconsin requires presidential candidates to get at least 2,000 valid signatures from Wisconsin electors. Hawkins and Walker submitted 3,737, but the complaint alleged 2,046 of them appeared on petitions that didnt list Walkers current address, bringing them below the necessary signature threshold.

West filed a lawsuit in Brown County Circuit Court challenging the Elections Commission decision to keep him off the ballot. West is running as a member of the Birthday Party with vice presidential candidate Michelle Tidball.

Three Democrats and two Republicans on the Elections Commission decided Wests campaign filed its nomination papers too late. Employee testimony and video from a reporter suggested a campaign representative showed up at the elections building just after the 5 p.m. deadline on Aug. 4. The campaign said it had until 59 seconds after 5 p.m. to file.

NBC reports a judge upheld the commissions decision on West Friday. The Green Bay Press Gazette reports the hip-hop stars nomination papers were submitted 14 seconds past the deadline.

A Brown County judge said he expected to rule within days on the Hawkins matter.

Placing new names on the November ballot might not only create delays in sending out this years unprecedented volume of requested ballots. It could also influence the outcome of the presidential election in November because vote margins in Wisconsin tend to be very close.

In 2016, for example, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein won 31,006 votes, more than President Donald Trumps less than 23,000 margin of victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin.

There is some evidence Republican operatives in Wisconsin and nationally may be assisting West in getting on the ballot. In Wisconsin, attorney Lane Ruhland, who has worked for a number of influential Wisconsin Republicans, including the Trump campaign, was seen dropping off signatures for West.
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A violent clash between anti-lockdown demonstrators and police has culminated in more than 70 arrests as hundreds stormed Melbourne's CBD chanting 'freedom' in protest of Dan Andrews' lockdown measures.

Up to 250 residents amassed at Queen Victoria Market on Sunday for a second day of riots as tensions escalate over the city's tough stage four restrictions, which prohibit Melburnians from leaving home for non-essential reasons.

Protesters chanting 'Freedom' and 'Power to the people' were outnumbered by officers, with some demonstrators throwing fruit at police after raiding market stalls.

Victoria Police arrested 74 people and issued at least 176 infringement notices for breaching the Chief Health Officer directions.

A 44-year-old Burwood East man, believed to be a primary agitator for these protests, remains in police custody and is expected to be charged with incitement. His home will be subject to a search warrant.

Victoria Police arrested 74 people and issued at least 176 infringement notices for breaching the Chief Health Officer directions at a protest in Melbourne' CBD on Sunday. A woman is pictured being detained by police

Protesters were outnumbered by a sea of police officers who flooded the scene to break-up the demonstration

A woman wearing a 'freedom keeper' shirt was handcuffed and escorted away by officers as tensions spill over the Victorian Premier's coronavirus restrictions

Protesters marched through the CBD, some without masks, as fed-up citizens demand stage four restrictions be eased

A man appeared to be in pain as officers restrained his arms as he laid on the cement

Another person was arrested for assault police.

Police said many protestors were aggressive and threatened violence towards officers, however no members of the force were injured.

'It was extremely disappointing to see people not just protesting, but putting the lives of other Victorians at risk despite all the warnings,' a Victoria Police spokesperson said.

'Our investigations into this protest will continue, and we expect to issue further fines once the identity of individuals has been confirmed.'

Victoria police warned that anyone caught breaching COVID-19 directives will be punished.

A heavy police presence was seen at the Queen Victoria Market on Sunday as protesters organised a 'freedom walk' against coronavirus restrictions

A protester waves a red ensign flag at officers as police swarmed Melbourne's CBD where up to 250 people amassed at the Queen Victoria Markets

A man smiled as several gloved and masked police arrested him during the second day of protests in Victoria's capital city

'While it remains unlawful for Victorians to leave home to protest, you can expect that Victoria Police will hold people to account,' he said.

'We again urge people not to leave home to protest'

Footage of violent scuffles and officers on horseback moving through a group inside the market has been posted online.

'There were a few tense moments when protesters started grabbing fruit and throwing it at police,' photographer Erik Anderson said from the scene.

Protesters yelled 'this is not a police state' and 'you've got to be on the right side of history'.

Huge crowds of protesters were filmed marching down empty streets in Melbourne, calling for Daniel Andrews to ease the city's draconian lockdown restrictions.

One man was spotted kicking a police horse as officers attempted to calm crowds hurling abuse at them as they rode through the markets.

'There were a few tense moments when protesters started grabbing fruit and throwing it at police,' photographer Erik Anderson said from the scene

About 150 people gathered at the protest on Sunday, including a man in a Make America Great Again cap (left)

Footage of violent scuffles and officers on horseback moving through a group inside the market has been posted online

Protesters are seen during an anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne, Sunday, September 13

Melbourne remains in a Stage Four lockdown, meaning residents cannot leave their houses without a valid reason, and restrictions are in place to limit movement more than 5km from a person's home.

The restrictions remain in place, and both a State of Emergency and State of Disaster, have been extended a further four weeks despite the embattled state only recording 41 new cases and seven deaths on Sunday.

The latest figures released on Sunday morning take the state's death toll to 723 and the national count to 810 since the start of the pandemic in late January.

Leading up to the demonstration, organisers used encrypted phone apps to communicate, in an attempt to avoid police finding out the location of the planned rally, Herald Sun reported.

In messages sent to participants, organisers encouraged people to 'be agile, like water' and stick together throughout the course of the day.

'Be ready to swarm the location to assemble. Once we have assembled, we are all safe,' one of the organisers said.

Police put a mask on a protester (left) during an anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne while other officers arrest another woman (right)

Footage of violent scuffles and officers on horseback moving through a group inside the market has been posted online

About 150 protesters chanting 'Freedom' and 'Power to the people' were outnumbered by officers at Queen Victoria Market on Sunday

Protesters clash with Police at the Queen Victoria Market on September 13 during an organised rally

A woman is detained by police on the ground at a protest about lockdown in Victoria

'Conducting these protests is dependent on having sufficiently large numbers to outnumber any police presence at a location of assembly.

'Best way to achieve this is to ensure you have talked to everyone you know that might be interested in attending, and attempt to just bring at least one other person with you.'

Tensions between police and protesters escalated 11.45am on Sunday when about 50 people were cornered by police on Peel Street.

Riot police had to separate the crowd and Peel Street remains blocked off to the public.

Pictures taken at the scene show officers shepherding protesters through the streets and arresting people who do not comply with orders.

Tensions between police and protesters escalated 11.45am on Sunday when about 50 people were cornered by police on Peel Street

Pictures taken at the scene show officers shepherding protesters through the streets and arresting people who do not comply with orders

'Life is beautiful... It's the system that is ugly,' one sign at the protest on Sunday read

Pictures taken at the scene show officers shepherding protesters through the streets and arresting people who do not comply with orders

One man wearing a red and black bandanna told police he had lost faith in authorities throughout the pandemic.

He told police he felt unsafe in their presence, and that contributed to his decision to attend the illegal protest.

'Dude I'm scared. I don't even know how I'm going to pay this fine,' he said.

'Heartless soulless people. We've all lost faith.'

The second protest for the weekend comes hours after a woman shared footage of police dragging her from her car.

Natalie Bonett, 29, said she was making her way through the COVID blockade in Wallan, 60km north of Melbourne, on Saturday when she was stopped by police.

At least 100 police officers, including those from Public Order Response unit, have the group surrounded and several people have already been arrested

A woman hangs out of a car window near police wearing masks during the anti-lockdown protest

Protesters have been clashing with police on Sunday and several people have been arrested

Protesters have clashed with police during a 'freedom walk' on Sunday to protest Victoria's strict lockdown

They informed her it was against the law to have her phone attached to a car charger which was mounted onto her windshield.

Following a brief and tense exchange, video shows the officer reach in drag the masked woman from her car as her passenger tried to pull her back in.

Ms Bonett, a lash technician in Melbourne, screamed and pulled away from the officer in the footage, demanding he stop touching her and get out of her car.

A passenger in the car attempted to hold her back, trying to tell the officer she's 'got anxiety' while Ms Bonett became increasingly distressed.

'What the f**k are you doing, what the f**k, get off me,' she shouted at the officer.

Moments earlier, the cop had given her an opportunity to state her name, and asked her several times to get out of the car.

'No, I don't feel safe. You're armed,' she responded.

Pictured: : A man is detained by members of Victoria Police at the Queen Victoria Market

Police are seen at the Shrine of Remembrance before a planned anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne, Saturday. The protest continued on Sunday

Ms Bonett claimed officers called for backup when she wouldn't leave her car and that a total of four police officers eventually arrested her

Police move protesters on during an anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne, Sunday, September 13

Mounted police used their horses to break through heavy congestion, moving people along in the process

Police previously vowed to issue more $1,652 fines ahead of Sunday's protest.

'Police had significant prevention activity in the lead up to and duration of today's which included visiting 90 persons of interest to urge them not to attend,' a police statement on Saturday said.

'Our investigations into this protest will continue, and we expect to issue further fines once the identity of individuals has been confirmed.'

'Anyone thinking of attending a protest can expect the same swift and firm response from police as has occurred today and at previous protests that were in breach of Chief Health Officer restrictions.'

Officers on horseback and in riot gear marched through the city during Saturday's protests.

Demonstrators were taken away in handcuffs as police tried to avoid a repeat of last week's protest that saw violent clashes leading to 17 arrests.

Police arrest a protester during an anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne, Sunday, September 13

Confronting footage shows the moment a young woman was dragged from her car screaming while she attempted to pass through a coronavirus checkpoint in Melbourne

On Sunday, hundreds of people took to the streets again, chanting 'freedom' and demanding draconian lockdown restrictions be eased

One man was arrested on Saturday after holding an anti-lockdown sign and calling out to police outside the Shrine of Remembrance.

The man told News Corp he wasn't a conspiracy theorist but was anti-government and nodded when asked if it was 'worth the fine'.

Another mask-wearer was seen being spoken to by an officer while holding a sign that read: 'I am just exercising... my human rights'.

One elderly woman had her details taken by police after she held up a sign with the message: 'open our churches'.

One woman was dramatically restrained on the ground by multiple officers at the Observatory Gate because she wouldn't give her ID, the Herald Sun reported.

She was shoved into the back of a police car while screaming to be let go.

'They've arrested me because I won't say my name. I've been in Melbourne all my life, I just want to go for a walk,' the woman said.

Protesters squared up against police as the demonstration became 'aggressive and violent', with one man raising his hands as officers approached

A man raises his hands above his head as he is surrounded by four mounted officers, two on bikes and one on foot

A man wears a face shield with Mr Andrews' head on the back while speaking to police at the march

On Sunday, hundreds of people took to the streets again, chanting 'freedom' and demanding draconian lockdown restrictions be eased

Meanwhile a man with a picture of Premier Daniel Andrews stuck to the back of his face shield paraded through the protest while another had a mask saying 'sack Daniel Andrews'.

The 'Freedom Walk' is believed to be the doing of sacked Clive Palmer political candidate and conspiracy theorist Tony Pecora, 43.

Mr Pecora was arrested by police after allegedly planning the event and charged with two counts of incitement.

The 43-year-old allegedly created the event on social media under the alias Arkwell Tripellego.

He believes the deadly coronavirus was 'genetically engineered by world banks to kill off weak humans'.

He then quoted Midnight Oil, allegedly telling police if someone contracted coronavirus at one of his events 'it would be better to die on your feet than live on your knees'.

One man was arrested after calling out to police and showing them an anti-government sign on Saturday morning

Pictured: Protesters at the rally on Saturday

Members of the mounted police unit are out in full force in Victoria on Sunday. Pictured on Saturday

A demonstrator is taken away from the illegal rally by police in handcuffs on Sunday

On Sunday, Mr Andrews announced an extension of the State of Emergency and State of Disaster in Victoria.

Minister for Health Jenny Mikakos said the extension of the State of Emergency, which will now last until at least October 11, was crucial for the implementation of necessary COVID-safe guidelines.

'The State of Emergency ensures we have all the tools we need to fight this virus  keeping all of us safe,' she said.

Meanwhile Minister for Police and Emergency Services Lisa Neville said it wasn't an easy decision to make.

'Extending a State of Disaster is never a decision we make lightly  and it won't be in place a moment longer than it needs to be,' she said on Sunday.

'We are at a critical point right now. And we have to do everything we can to hold onto the gains we've made, which means giving Victoria Police everything they need to enforce the Chief Health Officer's directions as we keep driving down cases.'

The financial rescue package will inject up to $1.1billion into small and medium sized businesses that are most affected by coronavirus restrictions.

A further $251million will be dedicated solely to support bars, restaurants, pubs, clubs and hotels which have been decimated during the two lockdowns.

Tensions between police and protesters escalated about 11.45am on Sunday when about 50 people were cornered by police on Peel Street

Mr Andrews (pictured at a press conference on September 11) has extended the State of Emergency and State of Disaster for a month

Singage is seen in a window of a closed pub in Melbourne on Thursday, September 10

The Licenced Venue Fund will provide grants of up to $30,000 to venues, while the government has also waived liquor license fees for 2021.

'For our state to recover, we need our businesses to recover too. As we take our first safe and steady steps towards COVID Normal, this support will help make sure we get through this together,' Mr Andrews said.

'We'll continue meeting with and listening to businesses, so we can do everything we can to support them and their workers.'

From Monday, the city of Melbourne will move from the strict Stage Four lockdown into the first step of the roadmap toward reopening.

While modest, the changes will allow for more time outdoors and social interactions.

Mr Andrews said if numbers were kept low the state could open with 'real confidence' and keep them low.

'You can open up and stay open,' he said. 'That is what we want and that is what we will deliver.

'That is what we will deliver in regional Victoria and right across metropolitan Melbourne, not bouncing in and out of lockdowns, but making sure that everything that Victorians have given counts for something and delivers us, as I said, a summer that will be like no other.'

A heavy police presence was visible at Queen Victoria Markets during the protest on Sunday

Another mask-wearer was seen being spoken to by an officer while holding a sign that read: 'I am just exercising...my human rights'

What is the difference between a 'State of Emergency' and a 'State of Disaster'? State of Emergency A State of Emergency can be declared when there is a serious risk to public health. It first came into effect in Victoria on March 16 to give Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton wide-ranging powers to enforce new coronavirus restrictions. Professor Sutton had the authority to direct health officials to detain people, force entire suburbs and regions into lockdown or search premises without a warrant if he felt it was necessary to protect the health of the public. The State of Emergency initially allowed the government to enforce social distancing and mandatory quarantine. State of Disaster While the State of Emergency grants powers to Professor Sutton, a State of Disaster grants additional powers to police and enforcement agencies. The State of Disaster came into effect on August 2nd and has faced several one month extensions since then. To declare a State of Disaster, the premier must be concerned that an emergency 'constitutes or is likely to constitute a significant and widespread danger to life or property in Victoria'. A pandemic, plague or epidemic falls into this bracket. The State of Disaster allows the enforcement of curfews and restrictions of movement within a city. Advertisement

People wearing face masks exercise in Williamstown in Melbourne. Melburnians wil be able to exercise for two hours each day under new, eased restrictions

People living alone or single parents will be able to invite one other person into their homes.

Mr Andrews said he would allow 'social bubbles' even when exercising outdoors, which will now be extended to up to two hours per day - which can be split over two sessions.

Playgrounds and outdoor fitness equipment will reopen, and Melbourne's 8pm lockdown has been pushed back to 9pm.

Regional Victoria will also enjoy the loosening of several restrictions after successfully stemming the spread of the virus.

Up to five people from two separate households will be able to gather in public places, while outdoor pools and playgrounds will also open.

Religious services will be able to go ahead with up to five people.
Tel Aviv, Sep 14 : Supermodel Bar Refaeli has been sentenced to nine months of community service by an Israeli court in a tax evasion case. Her mother and agent Zipi Refaeli has been given a 16-month prison term.

Refaeli, 35, and her mother had been convicted in July on charges of tax evasion on income worth $10 million.

The sentences were made official on Sunday by a court here, reports nydailynews.com. According to the website, Bar and Zippi had in June negotiated a plea that required them to pay a $1.5 million fine, plus the taxes they owe.

The model and her mother were photographed at the courthouse wearing masks amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Accompanying them were Bar's father, Rafi, and their lawyers.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Louis DeJoy

U.S. Postal Service Postmaster General Louis DeJoy arrives at the Rayburn House Office Building for a hearing before House Oversight and Reform Committee on August 24, 2020 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The committee is holding a hearing on "Protecting the Timely Delivery of Mail, Medicine, and Mail-in Ballots." Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Pool

A federal judge late Saturday ordered the U.S. Postal Service to immediately stop sending mailers containing false voting information to Colorado residents, saying he is "deeply troubled" by the decision to distribute the misleading postcards to households across the nation.

"As a result of false information contained in the notice, some Colorado voters may not vote because they erroneously believe that: (1) they must request a ballot at least 15 days before the election; (2) they must mail their ballot at least seven days prior to the election; or (3) they may not vote if they lose their ballot," wrote U.S. District Court Judge William Martinez in a 10-page ruling (pdf) granting Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold's request for a temporary restraining order.

"In reality, Colorado voters do not need to request a ballot at any time. Voters who receive a ballot do not need to mail the ballot back at least seven days before the election; they may alternatively deposit that ballot at a drop-box or may choose to vote in person up to and including on Election Day," Martinez continued, describing some of the information on the mailer "patently false."

"The notice, if distributed, will sow confusion amongst voters by delivering a contradictory message," the judge said.

The ruling came hours after Griswold sued Postmaster General Louis DeJoya Republican megadonor to President Donald Trumpand other top USPS officials over the mailers, which have already arrived at households in Colorado and other states just weeks ahead of the November election.

While acknowledging the postcards "may have started off as a well-intentioned effort" to inform voters ahead of the election, Griswold tweeted late Friday that "confusing voters about mail ballots in the middle of a pandemic is unacceptable."

Story continues

As Common Dreams reported Saturday, election officials in California, Washington state, and Maryland have also publicly raised alarm about the postcards, which contain both broad advice on how to vote by mail as well as specific timelines that could mislead residents of states with different rules.

In an emailed statement Saturday as at least five additional states considered suing over the postcards, the USPS said the mailers are intended to provide "general, all-purpose guidance on the use of the mail, and not guidance on state election rules."

"The mail-piecewhich has already been delivered to most households and will reach every American residential mailing and P.O. Box address in the coming weekcontains a single set of simple recommendations for voters throughout the nation, regardless of where they live and where they vote," the Postal Service said. "At the same time, we are aware that each state has its own specific rules, deadlines and requirements, and the mail-piece acknowledges that fact."

Griswold said Saturday that she urged the Postal Service not to send out the mailers in Colorado due to the misleading information, but her request was denied.

"As the chief election official of the state of Colorado, it's my job to try to stop misinformation and any unnecessary election confusion," said Griswold. "The importance of this election, combined with the fact it is being held amidst a national pandemic, further heightens the need to provide correct voting information to Coloradans."

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NEW DELHI  The president of India recently received a letter from a young man in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. It included graphic details of how the writer said he had been abused by police in his village.

Vara Prasad, 22, said he was seeking the permission of President Ram Nath Kovind to join the Naxalites,an outlawed Maoist insurgent group fighting a guerrilla war against Indian security forces.

"The law-and-order system has failed me," Prasad, a "Dalit" from the lowest rung of India's caste hierarchy, said in the letter, dated Aug. 11 to Kovind  who is also a Dalit. "I want to look elsewhere to preserve my dignity."

India's caste system  and the violence perpetrated against those at the bottom of the rigid, hereditary social stratification  stood yet again at center stage.

Prasad lives on the banks of a deltaic stream of the Godavari, India's second longest river. The riverbed is a reservoir for rampant illegal sand mining, controlled by powerful local business and political cliques.

"There was a death in our village that day," Prasad told NBC News by telephone, referring to July 19, the day before he was beaten by the police.

"We were making funeral arrangements when a truck belonging to a local politician fetching sand from the riverbed passed by. I asked them to wait awhile while we moved the body. They wouldn't listen, and there was an altercation."

In the ensuing melee, Prasad said, blows were exchanged and, by his account he was hit first. He also admitted damaging the windshield of the truck.

"They wouldn't listen and words came to blows," he said. "The driver slapped my face and I damaged his windscreen."

"The next day, I was taken to the police station," he said. "The officers thrashed me and used the vilest expletives. They called in a barber and had him shave the top of my head and shave off my mustache. It was so humiliating. I wrote the president to grab attention."

Story continues

Local police acknowledge the incident took place. In a two-page document, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News, Shemushi Bajpai, the district's superintendent of police, said a departmental investigation established that Prasad had been the victim of "inhuman acts towards an accused person," and the officer involved had been arrested.

Prasad contends he was victimized for being a Dalit.

The police filed a case against the officer in question under what is commonly known as the Atrocities Act, which specifically targets crimes based on the victim's caste. It was an internal, departmental investigation.

Dalit is a word that can mean oppressed, broken or crushed and refers to those formerly known by the dehumanizing term "untouchables." Over the years, the community has chosen the term Dalit for itself, eschewing the official moniker of Scheduled Castes. There are 200 million Dalits in India out of a population of 1.3 billion.

Image: Indian policemen beat a lower caste Dalit protestor during a nationwide strike in Ahmadabad, India. (Ajit Solanki / AP file)

The Hindu caste system, in which identity and status are ascribed at birth, dates to an ancient Sanskrit text called the "Manusmriti" (The laws of Manu), and uses a doctrine of purity and pollution to classify people into four varnas or castes.

At the top are the Brahmins (priests), followed by Kshatriyas (soldiers/administrators) and Vaishyas (merchants), with Shudras (servants/laborers) at the bottom. Dalits are beyond the scope of this system, which considers them "untouchables."

Untouchability was abolished legally in 1950, when India became a republic. In reality, it remains embedded in India's psyche.

Caste hatred at work

Beyond prejudice, Dalit activists see a more sinister agenda, tied to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's vision for a Hindu nation.

The BJP  or the Indian people's party  leads the alliance heading the central government. In its second consecutive term in power, it's known for its robust assertion of nationalism.

A party spokesman denied the BJP's Hindu nationalism had contributed to the increasing number of attacks on Dalits.

"Ours is an inclusive nationalism," Sudesh Verma, a national spokesperson for the party, said by telephone. "We believe all Indians are Hindu by ancestry."

India, however, has a significant population of minorities, including about 194 million Muslims, which equates to 14.9 percent of the population. This is the second largest Muslim population of any country in the world after Indonesia, according to a Pew Research Center document released in 2019. There are also about 28 million Christians, and 20 million Sikhs.

Activists point to a spate of mob lynchings over beef, for instance, in which people have been attacked and often killed on mere suspicion.

Hindus venerate the cow, and its slaughter is illegal in most states.

Courtesy of Thenmozhi Soundararajan and #DalitWomenFight

The lynchings are carried out by vigilante groups; the victims are mostly Dalits and Muslims. Many of these events are filmed and circulated widely on social media.

The president's office said it forwarded Prasad's letter to local government officials, asking them to investigate.

While the police officers involved have been suspended and a departmental inquiry ordered, Prasad says the policemen were following orders. He hopes the president's directives will lead to action against the dominant-caste villagers  those, he said, who instigated the police brutality.

The note circulated by the police confirms Prasad's accusation, and names Kavala Krishna Murthy, a local man of the dominant Kapu  a land owning caste,  along with five unnamed persons  as the accused. The note says the complaint is under investigation. Murthy could not be reached for comment.

"This is caste hatred at work," Prasad said.

Litany of violence

Prasad's experience at the police station is just the most recent in a long list of cases in which Dalits have faced violence in India.

India has a special statute to deal with crimes against Dalits. Parliament passed the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in 1989. Its existence is an acknowledgment that Dalits suffer disproportionate violence and hatred, and the law targets crimes against the group. It also allows for speedy trials, special courts and strict punishment. Prasad's case has been registered under this act.

But less than half the cases go to court and the conviction rate has been as low as 15 percent, according to government data. A 2017 Home Ministry document said, "despite the deterrent provisions made in the act, increasing atrocities ... have been a cause of concern for government."

The National Crime Records Bureau publishes an annual "Crime in India" report. In its 2018 report, it lists 42,793 cases  meaning a Dalit was a target of crime, on average, every 15 minutes. The number of cases has increased 66 percent over the last decade.

Image: Police try to stop dalit community members during a protest (Ajay Verma / Reuters)

S.R. Darapuri, who uses initials instead of a last name like many Indians, is a retired police officer, a member of the Indian Police Service. He is also a Dalit and has spent his retirement campaigning for Dalit and minority rights.

"I know the force well, and caste prejudice is rife among all ranks," he said by telephone.

Beyond police violence, inter-caste violence is also widespread. The triggers can be acts as innocuous as entering a temple or falling in love.

In September 2018, Pranay Kumar, 25, was hacked to death in broad daylight in the town of Miryalaguda in Telangana state. His wife, Amruta, accused her father of hiring hitmen to kill Pranay because he was a Dalit. The father, Maruti Rao, was charged and died by suicide while the case was still being heard.

His funeral was broadcast live on local TV and he was celebrated for his "fatherly love." Amruta was trolled as an uncaring daughter, and vilified on social media.

"We saw the casteist face of the media and the public," Kumars father, Balaswamy, who goes by one name, said by phone. "We don't want revenge. We want this story known so that there can be an end to such casteist and so-called 'honor killings'."

India's history as a republic is littered with even more macabre incidents. There have been massacres of Dalits in states as far apart as Tamil Nadu and Bihar, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. There has been retaliatory violence, as well.

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In 2016, in Una, a town in Gujarat state, seven members of a family were tied to an automobile and publicly flogged, stripped and marched naked in the town. They were skinning a cow, which they had bought after it was dead. They were accused of having slaughtered it.

In another incident in Jharkhand state, in 2018, a BJP minister gave flowers to six men accused of lynching to celebrate their release on bail. There has been criticism from Dalit and minority activists, the political opposition and media commentators that the ruling party has never clearly condemned these incidents.

In March 2018, the Supreme Court diluted some provisions of the Atrocities Act. It restricted police powers, and introduced "safeguards" to protect people accused under the law. The judgment even hinted that some Dalits might have been using the act as a weapon for blackmail and harassment.

India's Dalits erupted in protest.

A national strike was announced for April 2, 2018, and thousands joined across the country. They blocked railroads and highways. There were clashes with the police in several states and many incidents of violence and arson. Fourteen people died and several hundred were injured, according to Jignesh Mevani, 38, an independent legislator in the state of Gujarat, and a firebrand Dalit youth leader.

It was the first time that Dalit protesters ensured a nationwide lockdown, Mevani said. And this, without the backing of any major political party.

Image: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks to the media in New Delhi, India. (Altaf Hussain / Reuters)

The protests galvanized the government. It filed a review petition and also went further. Hurriedly drafted amendments to the act, nullifying the judgment, were rushed through parliament. Eventually, the Supreme Court recalled its own judgment in October 2019.

This was no small victory for the Dalit movement.

The BJP parlayed its response to engineer an increase in its Dalit vote share in the 2019 elections.

"Educated Dalits are no longer meek," Mevani says. "They are organizing and demanding their due. This is resented by the non-Dalit castes, exposing them to more violence, but we are not giving up".

Still, the road ahead for activists like him is filled with peril, according to Darapuri, the retired police officer.

"The present dispensation operates at two levels  at the political level it uses rhetoric to woo the Dalit vote, to great success," he says. "But on the streets the vigilantes now feel emboldened and are more aggressive. They feel protected."

The caste system also dogs Indian communities as they migrate and settle abroad.

A recent survey among Dalits living in the USA claims that 25 percent of the respondents reported facing verbal or physical assault, and 60 percent experiencing caste-based derogatory jokes.

There have also been lawsuits filed in California against large IT companies alleging caste discrimination against Dalit employees, by their managers from other Hindu castes.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.
RTHK: Ex-British PMs slam plan to breach international law

Former British prime ministers Tony Blair and John Major said on Sunday that the UK must drop a "shocking" plan to pass legislation that breaks its divorce treaty with the European Union, in a breach of international law.

The British government said explicitly last week that it plans to break international law by breaching parts of the Withdrawal Agreement treaty that it signed in January, when it formally left the EU.

"What is being proposed now is shocking," Major and Blair, who were adversaries in the 1990s as Conservative and Labour leaders, wrote in a joint letter published by the Sunday Times newspaper.

"How can it be compatible with the codes of conduct that bind ministers, law officers and civil servants deliberately to break treaty obligations?"

Theresa May, the predecessor of current Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has also questioned whether international partners would be able to trust Britain in future.

Johnson's Internal Market Bill is aimed at ensuring Britain's four constituent nations can trade freely with one another after leaving the EU, but the government says that requires overriding part of the withdrawal treaty it signed with Brussels.

British ministers say the bill is a "safety net" in the event there is no trade deal reached with the bloc, but top EU officials say it undermines both the withdrawal treaty and trust in future talks.

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said on Sunday that the Withdrawal Agreement on Northern Ireland "is not a threat to the integrity of the UK", and had been agreed by the two sides to protect peace on the island of Ireland.

"We could not have been clearer about the consequences of Brexit," Barnier said on Twitter.

His British counterpart David Frost responded by saying London had to reserve powers in the new bill in order to keep the peace in Ireland.

Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party, described the legislation as wrong on Sunday.

"We have broken the trust of our international partners," Starmer wrote in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper, adding that his party would oppose the bill in parliament unless changes were made.

European lawmakers have warned they would not approve any new trade deal unless the withdrawal agreement was fully implemented, while there is also talk of possible legal action.

"The reputation of the UK ... as a trusted negotiating partner on important issues like this is being damaged in a very serious way," Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney told the BBC on Sunday. (Reuters)

This story has been published on: 2020-09-13. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
In order to express his support to actor Kangana Ranaut, a Surat-based textile businessman has manufactured a Manikarnika styled saree with the actors portrait imprinted on it.

Rajat Dawar who owns shops in the Universal textile market in Gujarats Surat has come up with this saree and said that what happened with the actor is something that cannot be accepted.

Speaking to ANI, he said, She wanted to raise her voice to support something but her voice was suppressed and her office was demolished. So we wanted to support her and came up with this idea to manufacture the saree with I support Kangana written on it.

He further said, We launched this saree yesterday and have already received multiple orders. The price range starts from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 depending upon the fabric on which it has been made.

On being asked about the permission to imprint Kanganas portrait on the fabric, Rajat added, We have not made this saree to promote our brand in any way, but only with the motive to support her in her fight.

Ranaut has been involved in a bitter war of words with Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut after her remarks that she feels unsafe in Mumbai and has no trust in the Mumbai Police after the death of the actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

Besides this, Kanganas office in Pali Hill, Bandra was partially demolished on Wednesday by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

Moreover, the actor allegedly received threats following which she was provided Y plus security. On September 9, she arrived in Mumbai amid tight security. (ANI)
New Delhi: Greenko Energy Holdings aims to invest around $1 billion in a new battery storage business that also includes a plan to produce lithium-ion batteries in India for power grid-scale applications and electric vehicles (EV), said a person aware of the development.

The fresh capital for renewables 3.0 investment will be deployed by the Hyderabad-based company to acquire and develop lithium-ion battery technology, and for its manufacturing and application playbook. This comes against the backdrop of the single-largest foreign clean energy investment announcement in India made by Japans ORIX Corp. for $980 million in Greenko for a 17% stake.

Sovereign funds GIC Holdings Pte. Ltd and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA)-backed Greenkos pivot towards battery storage comes amid India readying its proposed 18,000-crore production-linked incentive package for battery storage manufacturing, Mint had reported earlier. India also plans to issue tenders for setting up Tesla-style gigafactories for cell and battery manufacturing.

As China dominates the lithium-ion cell manufacturing, India wants to avoid a repeat of events with solar equipment manufacturing where China leveraged its first-mover advantage to capture the market. The value chain comprises processing of raw materials and manufacturing of separators, cathodes, electrolytes, anodes, cells, and battery storage packs.

This assumes importance given Indias ambitious clean energy targets and the intermittent nature of electricity from clean energy sources. In such a situation, large grid-scale battery storages can help maintain spinning reserves to support round-the-clock demand for electricity.

Greenko has made the transition into a clean technology and solutions platform from pure play energy supply through planned investments in global battery and deep tech companies with intellectual property and indigenization of technology and manufacturing of Li-on batteries for grid and mobility needs of India," said the person cited above requesting anonymity.

Greenko is reportedly in talks with Japans NEC Corporation to acquire Massachusetts-headquartered NEC Energy Solutions, which holds the intellectual property rights for megawatt-scale lithium-ion batteries. Queries emailed to a Greenko spokesperson on Sunday morning remained unanswered.

India plans to impose tariffs on imports of lithium-ion cells for as long as a decade and offer incentives to manufacturers such as 100% tax deduction on capex in the first year of operation under Section 35 AD, concessional financing options by giving companies deemed infrastructure status and waiver of minimum alternative tax.

Globally, lithium-ion cell manufacturing is dominated by China, followed by the US, Thailand, Germany, and Sweden. Tensions along the India-China border have prompted India to expedite domestic manufacturing. India does not have enough lithium reserves and is thus trying to secure supplies. Meanwhile, Chinese state firms have procured lithium mine concessions in Bolivia, Argentina and Chile, which form the so-called lithium triangle.

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Love Island's Kim Hartnett and her boyfriend Matt Whyatt recently confirmed their relationship.

And on Sunday, the 25-year-old blonde bombshell left little to the imagination as she flaunted her pert derriere in her latest Instagram photo.

In the photo, Kim is seen on all fours as she shared a kiss with her tattooed beau while they made the most of the sunshine tanning.

Bottoms up! Love Island Australia star Kim Hartnett flaunted her derriere as she shared a kiss with boyfriend Matt Whyatt (both pictured) on Sunday

Kim showed off her incredible figure in a black G-string bikini.

She had her long locks tied back in a bun behind her head while her fringe fell on her face.

Meanwhile, BMX rider Matt, 28, revealed his extensive tattoo collection opting to go shirtless while wearing black shorts.

They're smitten! Kim recently shared a vlog titled 'New Boyfriend' to YouTube , which captured the couple's recent romantic trip to Magnetic Island

Kim recently shared a vlog titled 'New Boyfriend' to YouTube, which captured the couple's romantic trip to Magnetic Island.

The blonde beauty also told Daily Mail Australia that her relationship with the hunky beau is 'stronger than ever now'.

Kim continued: 'We make each other laugh from the minute we wake up to when we go to bed. Everything just works.'

Seal it with a kiss! The blonde beauty also told Daily Mail Australia that her relationship with the hunky BMX rider, 28, is 'stronger than ever now'

She admitted things were a little tense after Matt's season of Bachelor In Paradise aired as he was accused of dating multiple women in a short space of time since ending his relationship with co-star Renee Barrett.

'Things were a little more tense, but there was nothing said that Matt hadn't already told me prior to the show. He's been super honest, so I was never in the dark about anything,' Kim said, adding: 'We're definitely stronger than ever now.'

'It's so easy, we hardly have any fights. We're super supportive of each other's goals,' she boasted of their relationship.
The cityscape resembles the surface of a distant planet, populated by a masked alien culture. The air, choked with blown ash, is difficult to breathe.

There is the Golden Gate Bridge, looming in the distance through a drift-smoke haze, and the Salesforce Tower, which against the blood-orange sky appears as a colossal spaceship in a doomsday film.

San Francisco, and much of California, has never been like this.

California has become a warming, burning, epidemic-challenged and expensive state, with many who live in sophisticated cities, idyllic oceanfront towns and windblown mountain communities thinking hard about the viability of a place many have called home forever. For the first time in a decade, more people left California last year for other states than arrived.

Monica Gupta Mehta and her husband, an entrepreneur, have been through tech busts and booms, earthquakes, wildfire seasons and power outages. But it was not until the skies darkened and cast an unsettling orange light on their Palo Alto home earlier this week that they ever considered moving their family of five somewhere else.

"For the first time in 20-something years, the thought crossed our minds: Do we really want to live here?" said Mehta, who is starting an education tech company.

It would be difficult to leave. They love the area's abundant nature and are tied to Silicon Valley by work and a network of extended family members, who followed them west from Pittsburgh. But Mehta says it is something she would consider if her family is in regular danger.

"Yesterday felt so apocalyptic," Mehta said. "People are really starting to reconsider whether California has enough to offer them."

This is the latest iteration of the California Dream, a Gold Rush-era slogan meant to capture the hopeful migration of an old nation to a new, rich West. For generations, the tacit agreement for California residents resembled a kind of too-good-to-be-true deal. Live in the lovely if often drought-plagued Sierra, or beneath the beachfront Pacific Coast cliffs, and work in an economy constantly reinventing itself, from Hollywood to the farms of the San Joaquin to Silicon Valley.

But for many of California's 40 million residents, the California Dream has become the California Compromise, one increasingly challenging to justify, with a rapidly changing climate, a thumb-on-the-scales economy, high taxes and a pandemic that has killed more here than in any other state.

During the course of his term, President Donald Trump has singled out California, a state he lost by 30 percentage points, as an example of Democrat-caused urban unrest, irresponsible immigration policy and poor forest management, even though nearly 60 percent of the state's forests are managed by the federal government. Several are burning today, with millions of acres already scorched.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has responded specifically in some cases, but in others, he has invoked the California Dream, an adjective attached to no other state. In his January 2019 inaugural address, Newsom warned that "there is nothing inevitable about" that dream.

"And now more than ever, it is up to us to defend it," he said.

As the state's climate has shifted to one of extremes, soaking wet seasons followed suddenly by sharp, dry heat and wind, no region has been safe from fire. This year - even before peak fire season has gotten underway - widespread fires have forced evacuations, from San Jose in Silicon Valley to the distant hamlet of Big Creek along the western slopes of the Sierra.

More than two dozen major fires are burning around the state and have consumed a record 3.1 million acres of land, more than 3,000 homes and at least 10 lives. Los Angeles has reported the worst air quality in three decades as a result of fires surrounding that city, already notorious for orange air and seasonal dry cough.

Wine Country is burning for the third year straight, with a number of vineyards lost. Homes have been destroyed far to the south in San Diego County, and more than 200 campers had to be airlifted to safety amid the Creek Fire, still burning hot and fast between Fresno and Mammoth Lakes.

The mountains behind Santa Barbara County, which gave way after being burned bare by the Thomas Fire three years ago, have turned a worrisome gray-brown tinder in recent weeks.

Those slopes, prepared by one of the state's largest fires in history at the time, slid during rain-saturated mudslides in January 2018. Twenty people were killed in the wealthy enclave of Montecito, sweeping some from inside their foothill homes all the way to the sea.

The mandatory evacuation orders issued then included the home recently bought by Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, newcomers to Santa Barbara's shifting climate.

"Hopefully, this is a wake-up call," said Anne-Marie Bonneau, who two decades ago left her home in Ontario, Canada, for the Bay Area but misses the clean air and less-fractious political environment beyond the northern border. "What is it going to take for this country to do something about the climate crisis? Millions of people are affected by this."

She sees what is happening in California as just the beginning of what is to come across the continent.

"As always, California's sort of on the leading edge," she said. "We're always ahead of everybody."

Kim Cobb is among the climate scientists who, for years, have warned that the consequences of a warming planet will grow more intense, more deadly and more costly over time. But even she has been startled by the scenes unfolding across the West as wildfires rage this summer.

"It's an entirely different thing to look at this footage and hear the sobbing voices of people who have lost loved ones and property and livelihoods," said Cobb, a professor at Georgia Tech's School of Earth and Atmospheric Science. "It's shocking for us emotionally, as well as for any global citizen who is watching this."

She is also adamant that on our current trajectory, the worst lies ahead.

"The science couldn't be any clearer on this point. The links between warming temperatures and these wildfires are clear," Cobb said. "This is going to get a lot worse. . . . I know that challenges the imagination."

The fire fallout and the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed 14,000 people in California, have provided a kind of CT-scan view of the state and its many inequities.

Accounting for 61% of cases, Latinos comprise the vast majority of the coronavirus victims, an infection rate disproportionately high given that they make up just 35% of the overall state population. Many are the "essential workers" serving food, picking crops and living lives that are not privileged enough to take refuge in the safety of telecommuting.

During the summer, the novel coronavirus and wildfires have revealed much for Californians: who stays safe from fire and disease, who keeps their jobs, who waits at home for a shrinking benefits check, and who has a soft-landing evacuation site or a hard shelter bed.

This is the debit side of the California Compromise. It is an economy, the world's fifth largest, that is built by government policy and private enterprise to favor the skilled in Silicon Valley, Hollywood and the wealthy everywhere else. The rest of California is increasingly a service economy that pays a far larger share of its income in taxes and on housing and food.

Median income in the state is $75,277. The median home price in San Francisco is $1.3 million, nearly twice that of Los Angeles. The state government is doing next to nothing to close the gap.

Three years ago, state lawmakers approved the nation's second-highest gasoline tax, adding more than 47 cents to the price of a gallon. With home prices skyrocketing along the coast, service workers in particular are moving farther inland from their jobs and into fire country, meaning they are paying far more as a share of their income on fuel just to stay employed.

The taxes raise more than $5 billion in annual revenue for roads and transportation projects. But the sometimes hours-long commutes, with affordable housing so far from job centers, also undermine the state's goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2045, an achievement that could alleviate some of the extreme weather.

A poll conducted late last year by the University of California at Berkeley found that more than half of California voters had given "serious" or "some" consideration to leaving the state because of the high cost of housing, heavy taxation or its political culture.

The draw for some, and the magnet that keeps many here, is the state's breathtaking physical beauty, family history and a liberal political culture appealing to supporters, many of whom in the north are inheritors of a counterculture ethos.

Through legislation or direct action at the ballot box, California voters established the country's first "sanctuary state" for undocumented immigrants, built from the ground a vibrant justice-reform movement, and committed to some of the boldest environmental protection goals in the country.

In addition, a measure to restore affirmative action to college admission decisions, banned since 1996, is on the November ballot. The legislature just created a committee to study the cost of reparations to racial and ethnic groups the state has historically mistreated. Marijuana is legal. So are hallucinogenic mushrooms in Oakland.

The political gulf once ran between north and south in California, a Bay Area vs. Los Angeles standoff for power and resources. Now the delineation is east and west, including between liberal San Francisco and towns such as Oroville, now threatened by fire.

Sarah and Joey Wilson, a therapist and the owner of a gold mining supply shop, respectively, live 15 minutes from Oroville in Kelly Ridge and are experienced evacuees. But what most bothers them, beyond the frequent fires, is encroachment by the government on their outdoor lifestyles.

Lakes that Joey used to fish are now off-limits. State-erected gates now block public roads he used to drive to access recreational land. And regulations have limited some kinds of gold prospecting, the hobby that supports his business.

"That's actually probably made us want to move more than something like this," Sarah Wilson, 45, said of the close-by wildfire flames.

The loyalty to liberal politics serves as an anchor for many of the state's urban - and most-entrenched - residents. But it has only light, if any, appeal to newcomers or those here specifically for work.

Peter Alvaro has lived in his rent-controlled apartment in the heart of San Francisco since 1999, when he moved from New Jersey for a taste of the city's famed counterculture.

He knows the fires will only get worse, as they have steadily in the past three years. But Alvaro feels his identity is tied up in the city and in the surrounding nature. He loves raising his two daughters here, going to the beach three times a week and watching the city constantly change around him.

Many of the people leaving San Francisco are tech workers, newly freed from the city they helped make so expensive by the ability to work remotely during the coronavirus outbreak.

"The tech workers weren't necessarily attached to the city, they came here because there was opportunity," said Alvaro, a professor of computer science at the University of California at Santa Cruz. "I hope the city can regrow some of the unique character that was lost in the last boom. The fact that young, wealthy adults are fleeing is good for the culture."

Just after the first fires started last month, Gary Cook and his wife packed their three rescue cats into a rented SUV and drove from Napa to their new home in Idaho. After 18 years in Wine Country, Cook and his wife felt California was not right for them anymore.

It was not the fires, which Cook said were not an issue for him, but the area's cost of living, high taxes, power outages and political climate. Cook, who recently retired, felt that as a conservative, he no longer had a voice politically in California.

"There were significant changes going on that changed our outlook on the whole California dream," Cook said.

He said he will miss Napa's famed restaurant scene. Idaho is laid back, and the people are more aligned with his views, but it is more of a steak-and-potatoes kind of place, he says.

Business is booming for Scott Fuller, who runs a real estate relocation business. Called Leaving the Bay Area and Leaving SoCal, the company helps people ready to move away from the state's two largest metro areas sell their homes and find others.

Nevada, Arizona, Texas and Idaho are the top four states his clients are buying in, and many tech workers are trying out smaller industry hubs such as Denver, Austin, Phoenix and Seattle.

Since the pandemic began, he also has been helping people move to less-populated areas within the state such as Placerville or Lake Tahoe. But that trend could reverse quickly because of the record wildfire season, which has been burning around those regions.

"For a lot of people, [California's] losing its luster," Fuller said. "For the average person who maybe came out here for the weather, I think they're saying the trade off is just not worth it any longer."

It has been hard to locate a place on the map, outside the city centers, where a fire has not cropped up in the past month. Some are burning deep in wilderness, a possible long-term benefit for the health of the forests struggling now for the same scant water supply, and others along costal stretches that have never seen fire in modern history.

Others are haunting the dry foothills where fire - and death - have been commonplace in recent years.

Just a few miles north of Oroville lies the Sierra foothill town of Paradise, having burned to the ground in just hours on November 8, 2018, in a wind-whipped tragedy of historically deadly proportions.

Eighty-five people died, many simply overwhelmed by the sprinting flames as they tried to flee in cars and on foot. The Bear Fire is at Paradise's door again, with much less there to burn as the city slowly rebuilds.

Now a thick layer of black and white ash covers the streets, sidewalks and shops of Oroville, a city of 15,000 people that swelled by 25 percent virtually overnight with evacuees from the fire in Paradise, also known as the Camp Fire. The fire followed a near-disaster by a year when the Oroville Dam spillways almost failed with the flooding of the Feather River, threatening to inundate the city.

It is difficult today to find an Oroville resident who did not know someone who perished or lost a home in the Camp Fire. Now, amid a pandemic, the fast-moving Bear Fire is forcing new evacuations as it burns northeast of town.

The fire already has wiped out the small town of Berry Creek, which sits just north of Lake Oroville. Just outside of Oroville, police cars block entry to the roads that lead to the lake, which this time of year would normally be abuzz with Jet Skis and motorboats.

But few residents of Oroville, a conservative, roll-with-the-punches kind of frontier place, are discouraged enough to leave California.

More than natural disasters, many residents say it is the liberal overreach of the Democrat-dominated government of their state that has them frustrated. In 2016, Trump won Butte County in a state where he was trounced almost everywhere else.

"California is always going to be California," said Judy McClure, 69, a retired school librarian.

Rather than leave, she said, she would like to see the government loosen regulations and allow more aggressive forest management to prevent bigger fires.

"There's too much government," she said.

WASHINGTON POST
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

Tesuque-based cookbook author Cheryl Alters Jamison remembers the very first Santa Fe Wine and Chile Fiesta in 1991. It was in the parking lot behind what was then Sanbusco Center. I loved it from the beginning. I remember they rented stoves to have in the parking lot, she reminisced.

Like many of 2020s festivals and markets, this years SFWC Fiesta ran the risk of being cancelled, another casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic. How could the bustling restaurant dinners, wine seminars, food demonstrations and foodie schmoozing possibly comply with social distancing and health mandates?

Enter the era of the Zoom wine tasting. After attending an online tasting organized by Spottswoode Winery in Napa Valley, Wine and Chile Fiesta executive director Greg OByrne saw that, with a few creative tweaks, he could shift the festival to a largely virtual format. With a combination of Zoom events, and outdoor patio wine luncheons and dinners, the Santa Fe Wine and Chile Fiesta will celebrate its 30th year from Sept. 23-27.

Participants can register for a host of events featuring more than two dozen winemakers, from a virtual live auction to virtual cooking demonstrations and wine tastings. For the tastings, attendees will pick up a three-bottle kit in advance from the Inn at Loretto starting Friday, Sept. 18 (or arrange with organizers for shipping). Since that amount of wine exceeds the smaller pours of an in-person tasting, festival organizers are encouraging participants to make an evening of it, inviting a few friends over for a socially distant dinner to go along with their wine tasting and Q&A.

OByrne says this years virtual format for tastings has some unexpected upsides.

The lineup of wineries and wines we have participating in the virtual wine tastings is better than any live set of seminars weve had in the past, he explained.

Many esteemed panelists who would otherwise not have been able to attend a weeklong festival were able to commit to online presentations. Hes particularly excited about The Wines of Friuli with Bobby Stuckey, a Colorado-based sommelier and restaurant owner. After 20 years of asking, this is the first time he can come, OByrne said.

Attendees of Stuckeys seminar can do their homework by ordering a newly published book on wines and food from the Friuli region of Italy, co-written with Lachlan Patterson, chef and co-owner of the Boulder restaurant Frasca, and lay in a supply of prosciutto and Italian cheeses to taste alongside the wines.

Other notable participants include Heitz Cellar CEO and wine expert Carlton McCoy, one of a very few Black Master Sommeliers, who will present an hourlong tasting of a suite of Heitzs celebrated Napa Valley wines.

Its a real score for us to have an hour of his time, OByrne said.

The number of chef demonstrations has been scaled down, but they, too, will go live on Zoom via the Santa Fe School of Cooking. Chefs Sllin Cruz of Geronimo and Martin Rios of Restaurant Martin will prepare several of their favorite dishes, while Jamison will be demonstrating a technique for smoking bragging rights brisket, a recipe from her latest cookbook, Texas Q.

Jamison says there are some silver linings to viewing a cooking demonstration from your couch.

Doing this with the cooking school has been a real pleasure. Theyre really set up with a professional operation and setting in terms of having the proper lighting and multiple cameras. It allows the viewers to be really immersed in it. Youre getting to see probably more than you would if you were sitting there, she said.

The festival also offers several opportunities to support the struggling restaurant industry, with winery-partnered luncheons and dinners offered every day of the festival at such venues as Izanami, La Fonda, Inn of the Anasazi, and 315 Restaurant and Wine Bar.

Its been such a difficult year for restaurants, OByrne said. If you live in Albuquerque, you can come up for a couple of nights, get a hotel room, go to some lunches and dinners, and do tastings in your room.

Jamison says that even though this years Wine and Chile Fiesta is worlds removed from its humble beginnings in that Sanbusco parking lot  or the elegance of its usual Grand Tasting at the Santa Fe Opera  the homegrown event still retains its signature Santa Fe flair.

It has a character to it, she said. To me, it showcases the true spirit of Santa Fe, whereas a lot of food events today can be interchangeable.

For information on this years Santa Fe Wine and Chile Fiesta, go to santafewineandchile.org.
Six months into the coronavirus pandemic, restrictions on dining have left restaurants and taverns across the nation struggling to stay afloat. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has blamed President Trump for a bungled pandemic response that has left at least 190,000 dead and millions unemployed. But in Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state Trump carried by just 44,000 votes in 2016, a debate is raging over whether the Republicans in Washington or the Democrats in Harrisburg bear more responsibility for the industrys economic pain.
File image of the Delhi Legislative Assembly (Image: Twitter/@DelhiAssembly)

The one-day session of Delhi Assembly on September 14 is likely to be stormy as the BJP has decided to "vociferously" raise the issue of removal of 48,000 slum-dwellings along the railway tracks in the national capital following a Supreme Court order.

The ruling AAP and the opposition BJP have been attacking one another over the issue.

On August 31, the top court ordered that the slums along the tracks be removed within three months and said there should be no political interference in executing the plan.

The BJP has demanded that the slum dwellers be rehabilitated in the vacant flats of the Delhi government before the order is implemented. The Delhi government has asked the Railways to not demolish the slums without providing alternative accommodation to the inhabitants. The Northern Railways had submitted a report to the apex court which said that mushrooming of slums along railway tracks is acting as hindrance towards keeping them clean.

BJP leader and Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said his party will "vociferously" raise the issue and demand the AAP government to rehabilitate the slum dwellers in the "50,000 vacant flats built under the JNNURM".

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

BJP legislators have also said the assembly session should be extended to five days to enable MLAs to raise issues of public interest. Issues like inflated power bills and poor water supply arrangements and the sorry state of roads will also be raised, Bidhuri asserted.

Various safety measures have been put in place for the one-day session, including setting up of a COVID-19 testing facility at the assembly for the assembly staff and legislators before the session. Three persons have tested positive for the virus there.

Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel said Sunday that 94 individuals, including 29 MLAs, were tested (RT-PCR) on Friday and no person was found positive for the COVID-19.

"In addition, 214 rapid antigen tests were also conducted at the assembly, where three individuals were found corona positive," he said in a statement.

According to the list of business, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia will table papers, including a report of Delhi Technological University for 2018-19. Power Minister Satyendar Jain will table the annual report of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission for 2017-18.

Sisodia will also introduce The Delhi Goods & Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2020 in the House.

The MLAs will be allowed to raise matters under Rule 280, but there will be no Question Hour, officials said.

The session will begin at 2 pm.
SABINE PASS  While the most devastating impacts of Hurricane Laura just glanced Southeast Texas, the sudden storm surge damaged vegetation and displaced sand on an-already eroding McFaddin Beach.

Researchers from Lamar University began a year-long analysis last week of how extensive the damage is, and where the most vulnerable areas of the beach are, using a state-of-the-art drone to survey the area.

We have satellite data, airplane data and drone data as sources, but the drone performs at higher resolution of imagery, because of its proximity to the ground and better control over flight, said Jim Jordan, chairman and professor in LUs Department of Earth Space Sciences. Our coverage area is smaller but with greater detail.

That detail is key in identifying which areas of the beach are most vulnerable and should take priority for rehabilitation.

The beach was decimated when Hurricane Ike came ashore in 2008 and has not been fully restored since. Without restoration, more erosion is likely to occur  and faster.

The Texas General Land Office oversaw a three-mile beach and dune restoration pilot project in 2017 along Jefferson Countys 20 miles of coast.

Early surveys show that the pilot project held up well, but a clay berm that was set back more than 200 meters from the beach experienced pressure from Laura, including several breaches.

The full extent of the damage will not be clear until the full analysis is done.

The Texas Point Sabine Pass buoy operated by the National Weather Service registered two major flooding occurrences in Jefferson County the night Hurricane Laura made landfall in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, at high tide.

The NWS buoy showed a slightly more than 4-foot storm surge close to midnight on Aug. 26 followed by a second, larger major flooding event of 4.72 feet around 1 a.m. on Aug. 27, according to a buoy reading provided by the National Weather Service.

Texas largest contiguous coastal marsh is located behind 20 miles of beachfront in Jefferson County and parts of Chambers County. The coastal marsh totals approximately 140,000 acres and includes the McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the J.D. Murphree Wildlife Management Area, managed by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

The erosion from Laura and other storms adds urgency to the need to restore and maintain beaches, LU Geospatial Center Director Reda Amer said, adding that coastal erosion is occurring at an increasing rate even without major surge events.

About 64% of Texas coasts are eroding, with some at a rate as high as 6 feet in some places, Amer said. The shore line is here. If the erosion continues, this shoreline will move towards the land.

Amer said the analysis done by LU will be given to federal and local decision makers to help inform restoration efforts.

So we can take action, or give the information to the decision makers so that they can take action to use the engineering models that already exist to resist the erosion so we can minimize the land loss, he said.

Locally, one of those decision makers is Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick, who granted LU permission to fly drones over the stretch of beach to survey the damage.

The goal of restoring our coastal marsh ecosystem has been a unifying cause for Texas and Washington natural resource leaders, Branick said in a statement. One of the things weve learned over the years is that planning precedes funding, and Lamar Universitys data gathering, such as the drone overflight of Hurricane Laura impacts, plus their leadership in convening regional flood control strategy meetings is forging needed consensus on next steps.

Erosion contributes to more than just land loss, with ecosystems that are vital to the health safety and economy of the coast being threatened with every inch lost.

LU aquatic and microbial ecology Professor Matthew Hoch is part of the team monitoring the health and impacts on the beach.

Marsh health, Hoch said, is a vital means to reduce tropical storm and hurricane storm surge that can threaten lives, homes, industry, ports and national defense assets in Jefferson County including Port Arthur and Beaumont.

The Chenier Plain marsh complex which includes Salt Bayou Watershed is a state and nationally treasured resource, which so many in our SETX communities enjoy personally and benefit from in less obvious ways, such as coastal community infrastructure protection, Hoch said. Restoration efforts to return to an ecologically and functionally resilient beachfront are critical to dune ecosystem wildlife and the inshore marshes.

Multiple factors, including rising sea levels and subsidence of coastal land are made worse when hurricane force winds rip vegetation from the ground and expose sandy areas, making them more prone to quick erosion, Amer said during Fridays drone flight.

Berms like the one that mostly held up during Laura are one solution that could hold back some of that erosion  and with the frequency and intensity of storms increasing yearly, those solutions are needed now more than ever.

With more storms coming, we will have more damage and more erosion on our beaches, Amer said. That is why if we work faster in building this berm, because it takes time  it will protect us from future storms.

isaac.windes@hearstnp.com

twitter.com/isaacdwindes
Justice Secretary Robert Buckland defended the UK governments plan to break international law by re-writing the Brexit deal, but warned he could quit over the issue if it isnt adequately resolved by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. If I see the rule of law being broken in a way I find unacceptable, then of course I will go, Buckland said on BBC TV on Sunday, when asked if he would resign if Britain acted on its plan to unilaterally override the legally binding Brexit divorce treaty. We are not at that stage. Buckland said he expects ...

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A transgender woman who describes herself as a Satanic anarchist has won the Republican Party nomination for sheriff in a New Hampshire county after running on a platform of F*** the police.

I cant imagine theyre happy about this, Aria DiMezzo told Inside Sources when asked about the reaction from Republicans.

DiMezzo captured the GOP nomination for Cheshire County sheriff on Tuesday night after she ran unopposed in the party primary.

She won despite the fact that she received no support from the county or state GOP.

Aria DiMezzo, a transgender woman who describes herself as an anarchist and a high priestess of the Reformed Satanic Church, won the Republican nomination for sheriff of Cheshire County, New Hampshire, on Tuesday

DiMezzo won after running on a platform that backs decriminalizing drugs, sex work, and illegal immigration

Her campaign slogan was 'F*** the police'. The local Republican Party said that her positions are not in line with the official platform

DiMezzo will have an even more formidable task as she will face off against a four-term incumbent, the Democrat Eli Rivera.

The head of the Cheshire County Republican Party, Marylin Huston, misgendered DiMezzo by referring to her as he when she offered congratulations.

He did very well with the primary and that was wonderful, Huston said.

DiMezzo is a member of a group of Libertarian activists known as the Free Keene group.

During the recent GOP primary for governor, the group backed Rich Paul, who legally changed his name to Nobody.

Nobody lost the primary on Tuesday to the Republican incumbent, Governor Chris Sununu.

Last year, Nobody lost his bid to become mayor of Keene.

DiMezzo is the host of an internet radio show in which she is known as She-Male.

Initially, Free Keene began as an offshoot of the Free State Project of Libertarians, but the Free State Project has since distanced itself from Free Keene.

According to Huston, DiMezzo ran as a Republican because she was unable to get onto the Libertarian Partys ballot.

She signed up to run as a Republican two days before the deadline after it was learned that Earl Nelson, a longtime GOP candidate, was not running.

Sheriff Eli Rivera, a four-term incumbent and Democrat, is heavily favored to win re-election

DiMezzo said she regretted that the party has not supported her candidacy.

Theyre clearly not on my side, DiMezzo said.

In the town of Rindge, Nelson received more than 200 write-in votes on Tuesday.

Local Republicans on social media expressed their concerns about DiMezzos gender, religious beliefs, and political positions.

People of Rindge did a phenomenal job. Very well done, DiMezzo said.

Huston denies there was a coordinated effort to keep DiMezzo from winning the nomination.

I guess thats just part of the whole political scene, Huston said.

Huston denies that the GOP is shunning DiMezzo, though she did voice concerns over her political positions.

If you look at their social media and their political statements they really do not fall in line with the Republican message, Huston said.

DiMezzo favors ending prosecution of drug crimes, sex work, illegal immigration, and other victimless crimes.

DiMezzo posted an image of a ballot which showed that she ran unopposed in Tuesday's GOP primary

She said she is more liberal in many ways when compared to her Democratic opponent, Rivera.

Im more liberal than he is, DiMezzo said.

Theres tons of things people get fined for, arrested for, that dont actually have any victims.

DiMezzo also identifies as a high priestess of the Reformed Satanic Church, which describes itself as an organization dedicated to the sovereignty of the individual, and to the principle of non-aggression.

Unlike the Church of Satan, the Reformed Satanic Church doesnt define itself as a religion.

We are an anti-religion, the organizations website claims.

Religion is authoritarian; we reject all proclaimed authority as arbitrary and, at best, backed by threats of force and violence.

Whether one chooses to abide the edicts of this authority are ones own decision, but that choice is critically a given persons to make; usurpation of that sacred choice creates obedience inspired by fear, not respect.

The church adds: Lucifer is not our god nor our king. Lucifer is our example.

As he refused to obey the arbitrary edicts of an authority, so shall we.

Morality is determined by conscience, not by hierarchical ranking of a decree.
Our colleagues from RTL 5minutes took a closer look at the differences in education between Luxembourg and some of Europe's leading countries.

While Luxembourg always seems to scare away from every new edition of the international PISA tests, countries like Finland have managed to excel over the course of recent years and through the implementation of numerous educational reforms.

The Finnish system is in fact quite simplistic and based on a small number of premises: free education and school material, a manageable schedule, fewer exams, and less homework. On average, a Finnish teacher only conducts four hours of class a day, which is far below the average European average.

The Luxembourgish struggle

Finnish pupils have systematically come out on top of the PISA results in science, mathematics, and reading for little over a decade now. Proof enough that the Finnish approach is the right path forward?

Luxembourg rarely performs well on the other hand and even finished below the OECD average in 2018. The report even went as far as to declare a "systematic lack of basic maths and reading skills:"

Claude Sevenig, a representative of the ministry of education and in charge on international relations, underlined in that regard in Luxembourg, a majority of pupils (83%) have to learn mathematics and other sciences in a language different from their native one, a problem for both Luxembourgish and foreign children. She acknowledged that in a way, the national education system prioritised languages over sciences, but explained that many adaptations had already been initiated over recent years.



According to the representative, the ministry's new approach will be more "individualised and humane" in nature, and take inspiration from the successful Scandinavian and Nordic models.

The Finnish approach

The Nordic nation is known to have a more digestible school schedule, but how far do Luxembourg and Finland differ?

In 2019, the Grand Duchy reported 810 hours of class in primary education, and 739 in secondary education. Finland on the other hand ended the same academic year with 677 and 592 hours respectively. The difference becomes even more noticeable, given that in Luxembourg the average amount of homework also exceeds that of Finland.

This factor could be related to a more elevated drop-out rate in secondary education in the Grand Duchy, which is currently set around 20%. Only Colombia and Mexico had higher tallies.

Un graphique extrait de l'etude de l'OCDE intitulee "Regards sur l'education 2019" /  OCDE

Sevenig emphasised in that regard that the report numbers would not accurately reflect the actual rate, which she declared to be below the EU average of 10%: "Naturally, we would like for our tally to be at 0%, but so far, we have channelled many efforts to facilitate a return to school for former drop-outs."

When it comes to the lighter schedule, Sevenig acknowledged that the ministry would thus far not consider adapting its current model, despite numerous studies showing how difficult it can be for a child to stay focused for such prolonged periods of time.

Costly studies in the Grand Duchy

Another major difference between Luxembourg and Finland lies in the costs of basic education. According to the recent OECD report, the Grand Duchy is in fact the most expensive country. In 2016, the average annual costs for a pupil in primary education amounted to $49,000 and $20,495 in secondary education.

According to Sevenig, it is noteworthy that these elevated rates are among other things linked to the higher salaries of Luxembourgish teachers, which she declared a positive take-away.

The final aspect worth looking at is the higher success rate in final exams.

Confronted with the above statistics, Sevenig reiterated her disbelief in the accuracy of the report, noting that the country's success rate was currently set at 83%.

What is the final take away? Is the OECD report to be trusted, or is the Luxembourgish system better than it is given credit for?
Early this morning there was a gunfight in downtown Minneapolis near Target Field. It was partially captured by an Uber drivers dash cam. According to Downtown Minneapolis Crime Watch shots were exchanged by multiple combatants. Here is the video:

The passenger seems weirdly insouciant. Maybe that is what happens if you spend time in Minneapolis.

Based on the dispatch audio, it sounded like it was a mutual combatant situation with two shooters and possibly two shoot victims, possibly others were involved in an altercation.

One of the participants called 911 about an hour later from north Minneapolis to report his handgun missing after after a scuffle at Pizza Luce.  One suspect was reported with a 12 ga. shotgun during the incident, it was unclear if officers found that person. One person was reported to be shot in the leg.

Then there is this:

One person was found at the scene with a gunshot wound and another showed up at the hospital a short time later. Neither of the victims were cooperative with police.

Gang members, presumably. The leadership of the City of Minneapolis is utterly incapable of dealing with the citys decline.
FILE PHOTO: Visitors walk past a screen with the logo of Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo at the Atlapa Convention Center in Panama City

By Andrea Shalal and Cassandra Garrison

WASHINGTON/BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's nominee on Saturday won election as president of the Inter-American Development Bank, the region's main economic development lender, making him the first U.S. citizen to lead the institution in its 61-year history.

Mauricio Claver-Carone, Trump's senior Latin America adviser, told the bank's governors before voting began that he would be "a passionate advocate" for the bank, its staff and the region. He will take office on Oct. 1 and has pledged to serve only one five-year term.

Trump's decision to nominate a U.S. candidate to head the bank broke with a tradition for the president to come from the region and sparked criticism from some Latin American countries, development groups and the European Union.

But Claver-Carone won the backing of a majority of countries in the region.

Thirty of the Bank's 48 governors voted for Claver-Carone, including 23 from the region, amounting to 66.8% of the vote, a spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council said. Three sources familiar with the vote said 16 countries abstained.

Argentina, Mexico, Chile and Costa Rica - concerned about the precedent of the move - initially sought to delay the vote but failed to win sufficient backing to do so.

The IDB vote turned into a geopolitical battle between the Trump administration, which is keen to gain leverage in resource-rich Latin America and counter the rise of China, and some in the region who wanted to retain control of the top job.

Some countries also were concerned about electing Claver-Carone, a Trump loyalist, should Trump lose the Nov. 3 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden, whose campaign also criticized the nomination of the Cuba hawk.

Argentina's foreign ministry thanked Chile, Mexico, Peru and Trinidad and Tobago and European Union countries for backing its decision to abstain from the vote, noting that the abstentions accounted for just over 31% of the votes cast.

Chile reiterated discontent over the timing of the election, saying in a statement that a delay could have brought forward other candidates "who might have been able to convene, encourage dialogue and build consensus."

Story continues

Costa Rica said it decided to vote in favor of Claver-Carone after he committed to some proposals by former Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla, whom the country had planned to nominate for the job. Chinchilla dropped her bid to lead the IDB earlier in the month.

Carone said he would work with member countries to "strengthen the bank, respond to the needs of the region and create opportunities for shared prosperity and economic growth."

Claver-Carone is a key architect of the U.S. "America Rising" program, or "America Crece" aimed at accelerating private investment in the region. The Trump administration is also pushing U.S. companies to relocate manufacturing facilities from China to the Western Hemisphere.

The IDB has been led by Latin Americans, with an American in the No. 2 job, since the institution's inception in 1959. Critics say electing Claver-Carone to head the bank and his pledge to appoint a Latin American as executive vice president sets a precedent that could harm Washington in the end by loosening its hold on the bank's No. 2 post.

Senator Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the vote raised questions about Latin Americans "charting their own future" and signaled it could have consequences for U.S. funding of the institution.

"...We need to review whether this is the best use of resources to assist the people of those countries, Leahy said in a statement to Reuters.

(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison and Andrea Shalal; additional reporting by Alvaro Murillo; in San Jose; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Cynthia Osterman and Chizu Nomiyama)
President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during a press conference in the James S. Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington on Aug. 31, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

New York Professor Reassigned After Telling Students Not to Vote for Trump During Lecture

A professor at Suffolk County Community College, New York, has been reassigned after she allegedly urged her students to vote against President Donald Trump in a recording that caused outrage on social media.

The 45-second selfie-video was posted on Facebook by Anthony Salvatore, who identifies himself as the father of a student at Suffolk County Community College. By the time of this publication, the video has generated some 1,400 comments and 3,400 shares.

for four years, cause thats what people say, Give him a chance, give him a chance. Well hes had four freaking years of a chance and hes done a crap job, the professor can be heard saying in the video, which was allegedly taken by Salvatores daughter during an online humanities class. Hes really ruining our country.

@SUNYSuffolk college instructor trying her best DURING CLASS to indoctrinate students to turn against POTUS & remove him from office. This is wrong on many levels & gives our teachers a very bad name. Our classrooms should be a place for free thinking not indoctrination! pic.twitter.com/JbxDH3QPXZ  Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) September 11, 2020

She moves on to say Trump is taking away peoples rights and turning the country into a dictatorship.

Many of you this may be the first time that youre voting. Im sorry its such a contentious situation that youre being thrusted into, she continues. If any of you do still think Trump is a good person, I beg you to not only go into your hearts center and think about this a little more, pull up all the stuff that hes been doing to our country, taking away so many of our rights, hes trying to turn this into more a dictatorship type of situation.

This is complete [explicit] and not what we are paying to send our kids to school for, Salvatore wrote, adding that the professor has no business telling these kids who to vote for.

The professors remarks also came into attention of Rep. Lee Zeldin, whose congressional district includes the eastern Suffolk County.

College instructor trying her best DURING CLASS to indoctrinate students to turn against POTUS & remove him from office, the Republican congressman wrote on Twitter. This is wrong on many levels & gives our teachers a very bad name. Our classrooms should be a place for free thinking not indoctrination!

Suffolk County Community College is aware of a video posted to Facebook allegedly containing 45 seconds of audio from a 1 hour and 15 minute online class, reads a statement from a college spokesperson. Pending an investigation of the content and context of that video, we have reassigned the faculty member involved in the video. Suffolk County Community College encourages any open and diverse discussion and exchange of ideas. The College does not, however, condone electioneering by faculty in the classroom.
She may have been enjoying a day off from work, but Famke Janssen still nailed a business chic look on Sunday.

The 55-year-old actress was spotted strutting through the Big Apple in a striped mini dress and sophisticated black jacket.

Famke certainly got heads turning as she showcased her legs and fabulous fashion sense during a solo stroll.

Outfit of the day! Famke Janssen was spotted strutting through the Big Apple in a striped mini dress and sophisticated black jacket on Sunday

The star strode comfortably about in a pair of polished maroon ballet flats with her hair styled into loose waves.

She injected another sophisticated flair to her ensemble with a simple taupe clutch adorned with a fringe zipper.

Famke took precautions against coronavirus with a black face mask, which also paired well with her business-y outfit.

The Love & Sex actress has been spotted putting out quite the stylish display during her frequent outings in the Big Apple this past summer.

Hitting her stride: The star strode comfortably about in a pair of polished maroon ballet flats with her hair styled into loose waves

Lovely: Janssen, 55, displayed her chic fashion sense in a white blouse and brown suede skirt as she headed out for a stroll in New York in August

Back in August, the actress was spotted in a brown velvet mini skirt and a white embroidered blouse.

Sporting a protective face mask, Famke still looked effortlessly stylish as she headed out for the day.

The former X-Men star opted for the white blouse with floral embroidery, along with a brown skirt with a sewn-on bird patch.

Stylish: The actress opted for the chic ensemble along with a floral printed face mask as she shielded herself from the sun with a parasol

Famke seemed to be embracing the summer weather with a matching blue floral face mask as she brandished a parasol to shield herself from the sun.

The former model portrayed Bond girl Xenia Onatopp in 1995 in Pierce Brosnan's first James Bond film GoldenEye.

She later played superhero Dr. Jean Grey in the 2000 film X-Men and reprised her role in the 2003 sequel X2.

Famke returned as Jean and her darker personality Phoenix in the 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand.

She was shown briefly in the 2013 film The Wolverine as a hallucination experienced by Wolverine, played by Hugh Jackman, 51.

Famke also reprised the role for a brief cameo in the the 2014 movie X-Men: Days Of Future Past.

Looking good: Famke finished her look with burgundy suede pumps as she headed into the city for the day

The original X-Men stars in June participated in a virtual reunion via Zoom including Famke, Hugh, Sir Patrick Stewart and Halle Berry to celebrate the film's 20th anniversary while also promoting Global Citizen's Global Goal: Unite For Our Future.

Ryan Reynolds, 43, crashed the Zoom call and invited franchise stars James McAvoy, Sophie Turner and Liev Schreiber.

Famke starred in the mystery crime drama movie The Postcard Killings also starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, 54, and English actress Cush Jumbo, 34.

The film based on the 2010 novel The Postcard Killers was released in March.
Asylum seekers protest against the new camp at Kara Tepe on Lesbos island, Greece, 12 September 2020. (ANSA)

Pope Francis addressed the numerous popular manifestations of protest throughout the world in remarks spoken after the Angelus on Sunday.

Pope Francis turned his thoughts to those protesting in numerous demonstrations throughout the world. He made these remarks after concluding the recitation of the Angelus with the faithful gathered on Sunday in St Peter's Square.

He said these protests express the growing disappointment people have regarding certain critical political and social situations.

To demonstrators

His words to the demonstrators was that of urging that they present their demands peacefully, without succumbing to the temptation of aggression and violence.

To leaders

Turning his attention to those with responsibilities toward the public and to those in government, Pope Francis appealed that they listen to the voice of their citizens and welcome their just aspirations assuring complete respect for human rights and civil liberties.

To ecclesial communities

He also had a word for the ecclesial communities in areas experiencing such protests. He invited these communities, to do everything possible in favour of dialogue, and in favour of reconciliation, under the direction of their pastors.
12.09.2020 LISTEN

The notion that swing voters would be key to who becomes president of Ghana in the December 7, 2020 elections is not only wrong but absolute nonsense. Ben Ephson, who many in Ghana regard as renowned pollster (but this writer see him as an average pollster whose prediction are not always accurate) prediction that swing voters would decide the December 7 elections is ridiculous, if one goes by the previous elections, especially when NDC and the NPP both have VP picks on the ticket who are potential candidates on the ticket for 2024. Pundits who tout the notion of swing voters advantage (Bren Ephson) clearly believe in it, so do the journalists (Evans Mensah et al) who report on it. Many were clamouring for more colourful candidates than the more laid back and unsung VP pick of the NDC, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyeman. As a matter of fact, Joy News Political Editor Evans Mensah (who this writer greatly admires for his brilliant journalistic inquisition) has done a detailed analysis of the advantages and dis-advantages that Naana Jane brings to the NDC ticket and must be congratulated for his work. Evans in one of his programs acknowledge that John Mahamas VP pick of Naana Jane is strategic, in part, to garner votes in Central and the two Western Regions, the core Fante and sub tribes, which can swing behind Naana Jane (tribe loyalty). The first thing Professor Naana Jane did after her nomination, as exactly predicted by Evans Mensah, is to take nomination as VP candidate home to Central Region and the 2 Western Regions to seek the blessings of the traditional rulers and her tribesmen and women. Naana Janes humility in front of her people was humbling.

The selection of Naana Jane as the VP pick for the opposition National Democratic Party has radically changed the electoral arithmetic. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyeman PhD, brings to the ticket a coalition of groups. NPP VP Muhammudu Bawumia PhD, is also gradually building up his coalition among various segments of the population. One interesting issue that NPP would have to deal with for 2024 is who they would elect as their candidate, taking into consideration what was done to late Aliu Mahama after eight years as John Kufuors vice president. This would be analysed in the coming years by this writer and other commentators.

Unlike the New Patriotic Party, whose vote can always be predicted based on who is at the head of their ticket, National Democratic Convention electoral success have always been based on a coalition of voters who have delivered victories time and time again.

NPPs path to victory on the other hand is not by racing to this illusive centre  (floating or swing voters) but by mobilising more voters based on the personality of their parliamentary candidates, hometown or area loyalty which largely is influence by money and vote buying and of the promise of access to loans etc. As evidence from elsewhere shows, mobilisation is important to winning elections including flipping few floating voters in some swing seats.

In the 2016 elections, despite being tagged as a party that had lost its way and was very corrupt, NDC would have narrowed the votes cast to had push the elections into the second round, which although they would have lost anyway; but not by the huge margin that they suffered . And the reason is simple to explain, example is when Victoria Hammer was recorded boasting of earning a million dollars before exiting from politics and other graft that were widely reported and were capitalised on craftly by the then opposition NPP under the leadership of the current POG Akuffu Addo.

NPP leadership and their planted CSOs including Let My Vote Count, a riffraff of NPP activists , including semi-literate serial callers, foot soldiers and vigilante groups, who pushed the party to the centre, thus by so doing, identifying popular progressive ideas such as free SHS, one village one dam and one district one factory to run on. These popular policies proved difficult for the NDC to counteract the attacks and thus NPP were able to galvanised their base and in the event, used the VP pick, Muhammadu Bawumia PhD, an academic cum banker, as someone who can restore the confidence of investors and creditors in the economy.

Then candidate Akufo Addo, the oldest man to stand as a presidential candidate in any election in Africa, was also projected as someone who is well marketed and a defender of Human Rights. He went on to win the elections based on the combination of factors described above and, including the marketing of Muhammadu Bawumia as a safe pair of economic hands. Those dynamics would not count or come into play in the December 7, 2020 elections, nor the insults/tribal connotations and swing voters hypothesis as is being projected by some pollsters is not only plain stupid but ludicrous and absurd.

Imani Africa, Joy News File, Alhaji & Alhaji and others analyses of the two parties manifestoes and the policies that they intend to pursue when voted into government (December 7, 2020) perhaps may influence a sizeable number of voters, especially the professional and middle class to vote.

This brings us to the groups that makes up the coalition of voters that may decide which of the two parties, NPP and NDC, form the next government in December 2020. The first group to openly come forward to support the selection of Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang are the professional classes. The University Lecturers Association of Ghana has called on other professional associations to support and vote for her as well as National Union of Ghana Students, also come out openly to pledge support for Naana Jane.

The second group of the coalition is the VP picks influence in bringing in other votes. In the 2016 elections, the NPP cleverly capitalised on Bawumias grasped of the economic indicators, Ken Ofori Attas prudent economic management, Allan Kyeremantens management of trade, in effect its the economy, stupid and the current President Akufu Addos popularity that won the New Patriotic Party the 2016 elections, and what a result! The margin of NDCs defeat was huge.

Like the 2016 elections which NPP fought on the economic management and corruption, NDC is fighting the 2020 elections on corruption, infrastructure development and incompetence. Again, like in 2015 when Nana Akufu Addo had over 90% of the delegates vote to win the NPP nomination, NDC in 2019, John Mahama also had 90% of NDC delegates votes to win the NDC nomination, and this is what makes the December 7 2020 elections more competitive as both candidates, the former president and the current president have 4 years of ruling the country, to run on.

The group of the coalition, which most commentators havent commented on often in this cycle of campaign, is the voters in the vice-presidential home region. Unlike the first and second groups of the coalition where the VP picks influence cut across the country as a positive add on of the ticket, this 3rd group of voters, majority members of the party within their home region or state.

Few myths of politics in Ghana since 1979, starting with PFP and PNP, then fast forward to 2000 elections, remain deeply entrenched and blindly accepted (North/South joint ticket) as that of the electoral power of the vice-presidential nomination.

The assumption is vice presidential candidates add votes in their home region and among tribal group, thus the reactional behind Naana Janes nomination is in addition to her home and tribal group, her pick would also put uncompetitive regions into play (the three Bono Regions, the five Northern Regions and of course the Greater Accra Region), and the professional groups, which is the professional and middle class, including the various student groups many associate themselves to belong to professional group. How true this is would be tested in the December 7, 2020 elections.

Many commentators and analysts, including this writer, have applauded John Mahama of using the above key voting block strategy to nominate his vice-presidential candidate, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyeman, who many hopes in addition to her home region/professional-middle class group, would also play the gender card by brining in women voters. Many in the NPP have been coming Professor Naana Janes time as Education Minister to a far inferior Education Minister. The current education minister who can not show any tangible achievement has been bragging of an achievement that cannot be quantify by the educational professional group, including the University Lecturers Association, The Public University Group and of course the various associations.

Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyeman nomination as vice-presidential pick for the NDC has put the NPP on the back foot. They wrongly thought NPP would nominate someone who could not match up to their running mate Muhammudu Bawumia PhD, who would be tagged as corrupt etc, and thus NPP has been dazed by Naana Janes nomination which they have no match on their ticket. Instead they have turned to discredited and corrupt parliamentarians, community college lecturers with limited academic achievements, semi-literate fools, including illiterate serial callers and paid media personalities to rather insult Naana Jane and peddle false statements that have no merit in scholarship. Naana Janes nomination has indeed lightened up the December 7, 2020 elections campaign.

In conclusion, there is no strong thesis to support vice-presidential advantage in all the group coalition discussed above. Indeed, many analysts, including this writer have argued that in 2000, 2008, 2012 and 2016 elections were all won by the popularity of the presidential candidates and the clamour for change, which the candidates tapped into to their advantage.

Peter N Jeffrey
Prime Minister Scott Morrison will push harder for a national definition of a coronavirus hotspot when leaders meet this week, in a bid to pressure states and territories to open their borders in time for Christmas.

Queensland is no closer to deciding whether it will sign up to a national agreement, with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk saying she would like to see other states trial a hotspot definition before opening Queensland up to any risk.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will push state and territory leaders, including premiers Annastacia Palaszczuk and Gladys Berejiklian, to relax border restrictions for Christmas. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer/Alex Ellinghausen/Brook Mitchell

Earlier this month, the federal government set out a plan under which states would reopen without first seeing new, locally acquired cases fall to zero.

Instead, suburbs or postcodes that constituted hotspots would be locked down, so entire states would not be affected by restrictions.
On September 12, Iran sentenced a former high-ranking judicial official Akbar Tabari on graft charges to 31 years in prison. After an investigation co ducted for more than a year, Tabari was found guilty of corruption and bribery. The Iranian official is known to have served as the executive deputy of two consecutive heads of the judiciary according to a local state-run Iran agency report. A wide-ranging investigation and trials found Tabaris links with several dozens of individual involved in corruption schemes. The case had opened in June alongside 21 defendants and the Tehran Criminal Court ordered ruled Tabari to pay more than 430 billion rials ($ 1.65 million) and all his property to be seized in the Islamic Republics one of heaviest sentences.

Akbar Tabaris case sheds light on Khameneis corruption#Iranhttps://t.co/mc6jgY1yZn  People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) June 19, 2020

As per the local report, the incoming chief justice Ebrahim Raeesi pronounced the arrest of Tabari in July 2019, months after his appointment by Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who has formerly dismissed Ayatollah Sadegh Amoli Larijani. Iran's judiciary for a decade, Sadegh Amoli Larijani held a significant position in Irans legal system that led the dissenters, political opponents crackdown across the nation. However, Larijani, 58, was accused by Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, Irans former judiciary head of misconduct, corruption, inefficiency and attempts to control the state media and silence the journalists. Larijani was appointed by Khamenei as Expediency Council Chief.

A separate report by Irans Al-Monitor had confirmed, Citing the Reformist Emtedad that hard-liner Modarresi Yazdi was undergoing training to be appointed as the new judiciary chief, who would be replaced by Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as Larijani was accused of corruption. Further, the Trump administration had sanctioned the 56-year-old cleric.

During the first session of Akbar Tabaris case in #Iran, it was revealed that at least 8 of around 20 suspects in the case already left the country after Tabari's arrest. https://t.co/K3MRlZXimS  Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) June 9, 2020

Read: Iran To Compensate Ukrainian Plane Crash Victims, Hold Reparation Discussion On October 18

Read: Iran Says Bahrain Now Partner To 'crimes' Of Israel After US-brokered Deal

Systematic and institutional corruption

Tabaris case, which began in June 2020, highlighted the systematic and institutional corruption in Irans clerical regime. Akbar Tabari served under Larijani between 2009 to 2019, who was also believed to be the next Islamic Republic Supreme Leader. Akbar Tabari was arrested on July 16, 2019, on charges of money laundering and leading a network to receive bribes for influencing legal cases and judicial procedures. At a press conference in 2019, the spokesman of the Islamic Republic Judiciary, Gholam Hossein Esmaili, had told the state-run media that Tabari "exerting influence on some legal cases" and "having unlawful and unethical relationships" related to several other corruption lawsuits. Tabari, known as the judiciary's strongman in the shadows, was detained for bribery of more than $5 million, while he was director of finance under the direct control of Supreme Leader Khamenei, according to agency reports.

Read: Iran Hangs 27-year-old Wrestler Navid Afkari Despite Trump's Appeal, Sparks Global Outrage

Read: Iran Says It Chased Out Three US Aircraft Over ADIZ Violation During Naval Exercises

(Image Credit: People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran)
Each business has a unique ability to collaborate with one another and assist other professionals and businesses in our community, empowering us all to grow.

1 Degree Collaboration, a Lawton, Oklahoma based Small Business Incubator Partnership, is preparing to celebrate their grand opening next month.

Founder and CEO, Meegan Kriley-Mackay is passionate about assisting veterans and veteran military spouses. As a military spouse herself, she has a unique understanding of the challenges our heroes face when transitioning from the military to civilian life as business owners. Kriley-Mackay saw a need in the Lawton community to build a collaborative resource to help these vetrepreneurs build their dreams and grow their ideas into successful businesses.

1 Degree Collaboration is located at 1001-1011 SW B Avenue in Lawton, Oklahoma. Renovations on the building began in March, when the building was purchased amidst the COVID Crisis, and within a matter of months, all office spaces within the building were occupied. The 9550 square foot building is composed of 12 office spaces, some which are small offices designed specifically for start-up businesses and three classrooms for community and small business use. The business partners located within the building include Barbara Clark Realty, High Tech Office Systems, LightAlive Marketing, Winter Photography & Design, Triune Light LLC, Veterans Solutions 4 Life, Coffee with Kathy, WorkLifeWork, Skills for L.I.F.E. Foundation, and Artes pro Vita Academy.

We are so excited to fill the building with these incredible businesses so quickly, stated Kriley-Mackay. Each business has a unique ability to collaborate with one another and assist other professionals and businesses in our community, empowering us all to grow.

The grand opening will be a Red Ribbon Cutting and Open House, for all community members and will take place on October 22, 2020 at 5pm.

About 1 Degree Collaboration

1 Degree Collaboration is a Lawton, Oklahoma based Small Business Incubator Partnership which caters to Vetrepreneurs and other startup businesses. The goal of the collaboration is to help individuals and businesses with their business needs from business planning to marketing, sales to operations, through knowledge, tools, resources, and networks. Learn more at https://1degreecollab.com/.
New Delhi:

Cracking down on people drinking liquor in public places, the Excise Department of Delhi government has arrested 1,250 violators in over last three months as part of its ongoing campaign.

The department also impounded several cars in which violators were found to be consuming alcohol in public places. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had launched the campaign on November 7, saying consumption of alcohol in the open, particularly near liquor vends and in vehicles, was not merely a safety hazard but a major problem for women security.

Also Read: Video: Villagers in Tamil Nadu's Palamedu conduct symbolic Jallikattu event defying SC's order

"Excise department has arrested 1,250 violators for consuming liquor in public places. Besides, we have also impounded several vehicles, most of them cars, in which people were drinking alcohol," said a senior government official.

However, the exact numbers of such vehicles is yet to be ascertained. Intensifying the drive across the capital, Sisodia, who also heads the Excise Department, recently gave powers to sub-divisional magistrates and tehsildars to take action against violators besides forming ten additional teams.

"We have increased the teams which visit liquor shops and catch those found drinking in the open. "Apart from that, the department has also ordered allliquor shops to install CCTV cameras to keep a tab on people,"the official said.

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The University of Wisconsin System is paying its former president his full monthly salary to perform a list of tasks, including making recommendations on the selection process for high-profile leadership searches.

Former System President Ray Cross resigned June 30, but stayed on as a consultant through Sept. 30 to help interim System President Tommy Thompson transition into the role.

UW Board of Regents President Drew Petersen agreed to pay Cross his full monthly salary, $43,750, in July, August and September. The payments come at a time when the System plans to lay off an untold number of its administrative employees and campuses have furloughed thousands of workers.

The agreement notes that Cross must take one furlough day for each month of the contract, just as his UW System administration colleagues are doing through the end of June 2021. System spokesman Mark Pitsch said the three furlough days will be deducted from the $131,250 contract, reducing Cross total pay by about $6,000.

The contract was released to the Wisconsin State Journal under the states public records law. A separate request made in early August for invoices, calendars or written correspondence indicating the number of hours Cross has worked has not yet been fulfilled, though Pitsch said Cross is working full-time, which is why hes receiving his full-time pay.

Neither Cross nor Petersen responded to the newspapers interview request. Pitsch answered questions on their behalf by email.

Cross contract calls for him to develop recommendations related to the selection process for System president, chancellors, vice chancellors and UW System senior leadership positions. A search for Cross successor collapsed in June after the lone finalist withdrew, citing process issues.

Petersen spearheaded board policy changes to leadership searches a few years ago, which led to a cap on the number of people who can serve on a chancellor search committee. Though the new changes made no similar restriction for presidential search committees, Petersen appointed a small group last fall to identify the next System president, a move that broke tradition because no faculty nor staff members were included on the committee. Public opposition to the search process mounted for months and concluded in the failed search over the summer.

Asked what aspects of the search process Petersen sees needing revision, Pitsch said Petersen is seeking Cross advice on this topic in general.

Cross contract also requires him to work with Wisconsins higher education community to create pathways for people to earn college degrees and develop a plan to increase diversity of students and employees of color.

Though not outlined in the contract, Cross has focused his time on researching and developing COVID-19 testing proposals, Pitsch said. He has also provided general guidance on numerous topics and been consistently present in leadership meetings related to COVID-19 planning.

It was truly extraordinary by all accounts of those who worked with him daily in the Operation Center at Van Hise Hall, Pitsch said.

Exit packages

Payouts to departing university leaders have long attracted scrutiny.

Most recently, the System agreed to pay former UW-Whitewater Chancellor Beverly Kopper at her chancellors salary over an eight-month period last year about $162,000  as she prepared to return to a full teaching schedule last fall at a reduced salary that was still 50% more than what the department chairwoman earned. Just before classes started, Kopper was granted a paid medical leave. She retired in January 2020.

State Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, one of the Systems most vocal critics, called Koppers exit package a taxpayer-funded scam.

A more typical exit package, according to higher education experts, is what Cross predecessor, Kevin Reilly, received after stepping down as System president in 2013. He earned $104,000 annually, about a quarter of his annual presidents salary, teaching part-time at UW-Madison for several years. The salary reflected the average pay of professors in the two departments in which he taught.

George Mason University professor Judith Wilde, who has written extensively about college leaders and the platinum parachutes they receive after leaving the job, reviewed Cross contract at the request of the State Journal. She said she was not going to complain about this one in light of what some other universities have arranged for outgoing leaders in recent years.

She pointed to Auburn University and Michigan State University, both of which provided former presidents who left mid-contract with millions of dollars more than what their initial agreements stipulated.

Given that kind of context, when you look at what former President Cross is getting, it is really quite reasonable, she said. Hes getting three months at his former salary to complete three deliverables. He has to actually do something and present it in writing.

Photos: Remembering the UW-Madison Sterling Hall bombing 50 years ago
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 17:54:58|Editor: huaxia

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RAMALLAH, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinians on Sunday vowed a long-term popular resistance against the U.S.-sponsored normalization between Israel and Arab states.

The vow was made in the first press statement issued after midnight by the Unified National Command of Popular Resistance, which was formed after a meeting between the secretary generals of several Palestinian factions including the Islamic Hamas movement, ruler of the Gaza Strip, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement.

The new Command called on the Palestinian people to consider the upcoming Sept. 15 a day of widespread rejection of the "shameful normalization."

Bahrain is scheduled to sign a U.S.-brokered normalization agreement with Israel on Sept. 15 in Washington, during which a similar deal between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel will also be inked.

The statement said the comprehensive popular struggle will continue until the Palestinian independence is achieved, calling on Palestinian, Muslim and Arab diaspora to demonstrate on Sept. 15 in front of the embassies of the United States, Israel, the UAE and Bahrain to denounce the normalization agreements.

Bahrain is the second Gulf Arab state that has announced normalization with Israel in less than a month after the UAE did so on Aug. 13. Egypt and Jordan signed their peace treaties with Israel in 1979 and in 1994 respectively. Enditem
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(Photo : How to be Safe When Going on a Date )

Online dating sites today have tens, perhaps hundreds of millions of users. While many platforms are working on improving their safety features, the sheer multitude of users ups the risk of meeting someone with less than stellar intentions.

Staying safe on a date begins with a Google search before meeting someone in person for the first time. https://unmask.com provides a wealth of information, all of which is publicly accessible. You need an idea of what kind of person you're meeting. If you can, search for pictures of your date and see what you can unearth beyond their social media.

While this is the best tip, it won't hurt to take the rest into account too.

Let Someone Know Where You Are

It will help if someone knows where you are in case things don't go as planned. Tell a friend or relative where you're going, with whom, and when you'll be home. Give them your date's name and number. Get in touch with them if something changes. A bit of paranoia is a healthy thing. Think about it: if no one knows where you are, they'll never find out if something goes wrong.

Video Chat Before Going Out

Daters today can choose from Skype, Google Hangouts, FaceTime, and many other video chat options. You need to see what your date looks like before you actually meet face to face. This reduces the risk of falling prey to a catfisher.

Use Google Voice

If your country supports Google Voice, it's a good idea to use one such number instead of your own. This will bring your safety a step further. The Google Voice app lets you check messages, calls, and voicemail without revealing your real number. You should keep your personal number safe and give it only to people you trust. The app also lets you block numbers.

Use Public Transport or Drive

Carpooling may be convenient and environmentally friendly, but it's best to forgo its benefits on the first date. If you agree to carpool, your date will know where you live right from the start. That might not be the information you want to give out since they'll then have more control over what you do and where you go. For the first date, choose a place that's accessible by public transport or drive yourself. If you take your own vehicle, you'll avoid awkward or dangerous situations as you will be the only one deciding where you go.

Chat by Phone Before Meeting

This traditional alternative to video chatting is a good way to reach out to someone before meeting them in person. Hearing someone's voice allows you to notice verbal cues that you can't pick up on with texting or instant messaging. It also helps get an impression of the person before meeting them.

Choose a Public Place for the First few Dates

There will be plenty of occasions to go on more private dates once you two hit it off and trust each other. In the beginning, however, isolated spots are best avoided. Meet in places where there are lots of people around, like a cafe, movie theater, or restaurant.

Run a Background Check

To follow up on our first point: while it's helpful, a simple Google search might miss important information like a criminal record. Background search services can pull up this info for you among other facts. Search sex offender registries as well. You absolutely need to know if the person you're planning to meet has a criminal record and cancel well in advance if that's the case.

Don't be Tempted to Overshare

If you're on the socially awkward side, you probably tend to talk about yourself when you first meet someone. We want to avoid awkward silence and we don't know what to talk about, so we start giving out personal information. It's very easy to overshare.

Here is yet another reason to do a search on your date: you might learn about things you have in common, like shared hobbies or other interests, and talk about that. Just don't give yourself away. While it's your right to search people you're meeting, they might not feel comfortable knowing that you did.

What information is off limits on a first date? That would be your birthday, where your family lives, and locations you normally visit. Save this info for when you know your date better.

Be Careful With the Booze

Another consequence of social anxiety is "overindulging" in alcohol on dates. Don't drink more than you can carry because your date might not be as well-meant as all that. You just don't know. Moreover, never leave drinks unattended. GHB is a colorless, odorless date rape drug that can cause severe disorientation. Unfortunately, these drugs - another one being Rohypnol - are still a thing.

If you want to be 100% safe, don't accept a drink unless you watched the bartender prepare it or opened it yourself. You could just not drink on the first date.

In sum, a background check is the single most effective safety measure when going on a date, but the rest are worth taking. You can have fun without compromising safety.

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The key to a more settled Sino-Indian relationship is a greater acceptance by both countries of multipolarity and mutuality, building on a larger foundation of global rebalancing, says external affairs minister S Jaishankar.

IMAGE: External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar meets with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Moscow, September 10, 2020. Photograph: China Daily/Reuters

In his recently-released book The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World, he also says that India is not the only country focused on coming to terms with China as the entire world is doing so, each nation refashioning its terms of engagement in its own way.

The external affairs minister, however, had written this book before the military standoff in eastern Ladakh began in early May.

"If there is a common approach, it is of them simultaneously strengthening capacities internally, assessing the external landscape and seeking understandings with China. In this overall exercise, India will occupy a special place by virtue of its size, location, potential, history and culture," Jaishankar writes.

He says this book, published by HarperCollins India, was developed in the course of the last two years through a series of events and lectures given at think tanks, conferences or business forums form its core.

According to Jaishankar, much has changed, mostly to India's disadvantage, since November 1950, when Sardar Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru had a famous exchange of views on how to approach China.

"The key issues - realism versus optimism and bilateralism versus globalism - remain as relevant today as then. Striking a judicious balance is not necessarily easier with the passage of time. But the past also tells us that there is always room for strategy and vision if we are to go beyond politics and constraints. More than on any other relationship in the world today, the long view must prevail," he writes.

He is of the view that the India-China relationship will always take into account the larger context as they establish an equilibrium.

"World events determine not just China's overall attitude but its specific demeanour towards India. Currently, this context is dominated by global frictions and systemic differences. It is, therefore, necessary for India to continuously monitor this larger picture as it calibrates its China relationship," the former diplomat suggests.

He believes China's powerful rise is among the multiple factors that have led to a more uncertain world.

"As the politics of this era evolves, neither country has an interest in allowing the other to become a card against them. Making sure of that will depend on their own policies. One concern is that unlike on the rest of world, India's rise has been partly lost on a China that has been growing five times faster," he says.

"It is up to India to ensure that its enhanced standing is given due weight," he adds.

Jaishankar also says that the future of the Indo-Pacific lies in a complex range of forces interacting on a continuous basis.

"For India, it will be an important element of its relationship with China and its partnership with the West. New possibilities could be opened up with Russia, whose maritime interests may grow with the viability of Arctic commerce. The importance of the Indo-Pacific to ties with Japan, ASEAN and Australia clearly cannot be underestimated," he writes.

On life after COVID-19, he says India too will be shaped by the broad trends in the global environment that the coronavirus will intensify.

"But more than that, it needs to take into account the more direct consequences of the pandemic. Its destructive impact naturally demands a strategy of national revival. And that, in turn, warrants a fundamental rethink about our growth model," Jaishankar says.
She's the former reality star-turned-influencer known for her jaw-dropping curves.

And on Sunday, Love Island's Shelby Bilby garnered attention with her latest photo shared to Instagram.

Soaking up the sun on a Gold Coast beach, the 26-year-old flaunted her ample cleavage, toned tummy and lean legs in a tiny pink bikini.

Sizzling hot! Former Love Island star Shelby Bilby, 26, flaunted her curves in a tiny pink bikini, as she soaked up the sun on a Gold Coast beach, in an Instagram photo on Sunday (pictured)

Shelby added a matching pink jacket to the swimwear ensemble, and ran one manicured hand through her wavy blonde tresses.

She tilted her head, drawing attention to a glamorous beauty look, including bold brows, false lashes, contoured cheekbones and a pink colour on her plump pout.

'Soaking up that Vitamin D,' Shelby captioned the post.

Instagram sensation: Shelby's Instagram page is littered with pictures in scantily clad attire

The glamazon's Instagram page is littered with sizzling pictures in scantily clad attire.

But Shelby has admitted her racy photos often create problems with Instagram's strict censorship policies.

In October last year, she revealed one of her photos had been removed by the social media app for being in breach of their nudity rules.

Challenges: But the Queenslander has admitted her racy photos often create problems with Instagram's strict censorship policies

Nudity rules: In October last year, Shelby revealed one of her photos had been removed by the social media app for being in breach of their nudity rules

'Take #2 cause apparently me holding my boobs is "sexual activity" yet there is 7192929293 accounts way worse than mine,' Shelby captioned a photo of herself covering her naked breasts with her arms.

She added: 'What's wrong with a woman being confident in her own body? Stop being a prude and block yourself hun... Whyyyy you be like this @instagram? #Haters #JogOn.'

Shelby rose to fame as an intruder on the 2018 season of Love Island Australia, and has since become a social media influencer.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is calling on her Queensland counterpart Annastacia Palaszczuk to have compassion as the border closure continues to cause distress for people on both sides.

NSW recorded nine cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm on Saturday. Four of the cases were in returned overseas travellers, and of the five cases of community transmission, four were linked to known clusters. The source of the last case remains under investigation.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian called on the Queensland premier to reopen the border and prevent further heartache. Credit:Jacky Ghossein

In NSW, cases of community transmission have been in the single digits since September 2.

With local transmission low, Ms Berejiklian said on Sunday it made no sense for the Queensland border to remain closed.
September 13 is the main voting day at the so-called local "elections" on the occupied peninsula.

Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has called on the international community to expand sanctions against the Russian Federation over new "elections" in Russia-occupied Crimea.

The ministry announced this in an official statement on the polls illegally held by the Russian Federation on September 13 in the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.

"Ukraine's MFA condemns the so called 'elections' conducted by Russian [occupying administrations] in the temporarily occupied Crimea," the ministry said on Twitter on September 13. "They are illegitimate and their results are null and void. We call on [the] int'l community to condemn Russia's illegal actions. All those involved will face legal responsibility."

Read alsoU.S. slaps sanctions on MP Andriy Derkach

"We call on foreign states and international organizations to condemn the illegal actions of the Russian Federation and to clearly declare non-recognition of the results of the so-called 'elections' in the temporarily occupied territories of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, as well as to increase political and diplomatic pressure on the Russian Federation, including by expanding sanctions," the ministry said in the official statement in Ukrainian, which was posted on its website on September 13.

September 13 is the main voting day at the so-called "elections" of the "governor of Sevastopol" and "by-elections" of members of the so-called "State Council of the Republic of Crimea" and "Simferopol Local Council."

Read alsoMedvedchuk travels to occupied Crimea, accompanied by three Ukrainian policemen  media

European sanctions against Russia
Manders We will not be silenced statement:

More than 440 concerned citizens have supported the statement issued by well-known bureaucrat-turned-human rights activist Harsh Mander We will not be silenced which said that the communal riots in Delhi in February 2020 have not been caused by any conspiracy, as alleged by the Delhi Police, but by hate speech and provocative statements made by a number of political leaders of the ruling party.Circulated by the Forum for Constitutional Rights and Democratic Freedoms (FCRDF), a civil society network formed in August 2020, during a meeting presided over by Mander, where he read out his statement, it has been endorsed, among others, by several Armed Forces veterans; the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) representing peoples organizations of the poor and disadvantaged; the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), made up of former civil servants; civil society organisations and concerned citizens; abd the Indian Cultural Forum, involved with cultural issues.Individual signatories include Admiral (retd) L Ramdas, former Chief of Naval Staff; Aruna Roy, former advisor to Congress president Sonia Gandhi during the UPA-1 government between 2004-09 and currently with MKSS; ex-Indian Foreign Service bureaucrat Deb Mukharji, IFS, who served as High Commissioner in Bangladesh; well-known linguist and tribal rights academic Dr Ganesh Devy; and Githa Hariharan, writer, Indian Cultural Forum.Releasing Manders statement, FCRDF said, We stand with Harsh Mander, Prof Apoorvanand and their fellow activists. Neither their voices nor ours will be silenced as we speak for truth and freedom. FCRDF added, Manders last paragraph, particularly bears repetition:The Delhi Police believes that there was a conspiracy behind the communal violence in Delhi during the third week of February.We agree.But the actual conspiracy was a very different one from the one which Delhi Police is propagating.The truth is that not just the Delhi 2020 carnage; no major episode of communal violence is spontaneous: it is always planned, organized and facilitated.Such violence requires first the systematic creation of hatred. In Delhi we saw the build-up during the Delhi elections of a climate of hatred spawned by hate speech by senior leaders targeting the protestors against CAA-NRC-NPR. This was led from the front by the union home minister, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and several other cabinet and BJP party leaders. The outcome was the spread of unprecedented levels of toxic communal venom, unmatched in any previous election in Delhi.But beyond the manufacture of hatred and the organization of the violence, the critical factor in any riot conspiracy is the role of the state, and particularly the police. No riot can go on for more than a few hours except if the government wishes for it to do so.There is massive evidence of the complicit partisan role of the police in the Delhi violence. I have spent a lot of time with the victim survivors of the Delhi carnage. I have heard hundreds of testimonies from them about the role of the police enabling, encouraging and actually indulging in hate violence.The video of policemen tormenting four young men lying on the ground, among who Faizan subsequently died, is telling. The police while beating the men prone on the ground are taunting them by asking them to sing the national anthem; it was clear that they are punishing them for the protests, in which the national anthem had become an iconic symbol of the protests, of resistance, of unity and of solidarity.This was the conspiracy behind the Delhi communal violence. It was a bid by the Indian state, aided by the Delhi police, to punish and crush the largest non-violent protests that independent India has seen.The police story is quite the opposite. According to them, it was the anti-CAA-NRC-NPR protests which were the conspiracy, and that the non-violence of the protests was only a facade.In pursuit of this story, every day the Special Branch of the Delhi Police, which normally investigates grave crimes like terror, is busy for the past months summoning mostly young people, and sometimes seniors, grilling them, intimidating them, and sometimes  as Umar Khalid has testified  forcing them create false evidence.Large numbers of young people are today languishing in prison for months without bail in the name of this so-called conspiracy.
Ten local lifestyle and news websites are urging the competition regulator to break an impasse with tech giants Google and Facebook they fear will send smaller publishers broke. The group, which includes executives from youth website Junkee Media, lifestyle sites Broadsheet Media, Concrete Playground and Urban List, have come together for the first time in an attempt to raise awareness of their concerns about a new regulatory code devised by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and supported by the Morrison government. Small digital websites are asking the ACCC to make sure they don't end up in a situation where Google and Facebook would leave the market altogether. Credit:iStock In a letter to be sent to the ACCC this week, the group expresses further concerns. "We believe it is important for measures to be introduced to bring the Australian media industry to a more even playing field, however we are concerned that the current proposal has potential to just further entrench the large traditional media companies and accidentally destroy media diversity in the process," the letter reads. The code is designed to force the digital giants to pay companies that produce public interest journalism for content that appears in search results and in the Facebook newsfeed. Under the code, companies will have three months to strike agreement about payment for the use of articles. If the tech giants and media companies cannot agree, an arbitrator will make the final decision. The code also includes other rules around notice of algorithm changes and use of consumer data.

While traditional media companies like Nine and News Corp have largely welcomed the draft version of the code, which could be legislated by the end of the year, it has been rejected by Google and Facebook. Facebook told its users two weeks ago that it would pull news articles from its main website and Instagram in Australia to avoid being penalised. Google has separately said the proposed rules would "dramatically worsen" the experience for its local users and lead to privacy risks, claims which have been disputed by the ACCC and Morrison government. Privately, senior figures in the company have said the rules could threaten the existence of Google search in Australia. Most of the small publishers who will speak to the ACCC this week will not be eligible for payments under the code. Facebook's threat would mean that their articles would also not appear in the newsfeed or on Instagram. This is because the code includes anti-discriminations rules, which prevent the tech giants from treating publishers that are eligible and ineligible to be paid differently. They first raised their concerns last week. "Banning news content would have an outsized effect on smaller, digital publishers like us, who have for years been courted by Facebook as trusted partners to share news and information to our

audiences on their platform," the group says. "It would also be yet another blow to important local industries like hospitality, tourism, the arts and cultural institutions that support many small businesses who have already been heavily impacted by Covid-19 and rely on us to help reach consumers." In other markets where regulators have attempted to crack down on Google and Facebook, the tech giants' retaliation caused large falls in traffic, particularly for small publications. A 2017 study by the Stanford Graduate School of Business found that after Google News shut down in Spain, consumption of news for users fell by 20 per cent. The decrease was particularly bad for small news outlets.
Sen. Teresa Ruiz wore a mask at Thursdays hearing in Trenton, but her fury came through loud and clear.

She was alarmed that at last count, 230,000 poor kids in New Jersey lacked the computers and internet connection they need to get an education during this pandemic, damning them to fall even further behind their wealthier peers. Six months after the virus shut down the schools, the digital divide remains a chasm, and an army of New Jersey children are stuck on the wrong side.

We are ultimately engaging in the process of filtering kids towards failure, said Ruiz, a Democrat from Newark and chair of the Education Committee. It should be our responsibility to ensure that kids have what they need to learnIve been expressing frustration about this since March.

No one, including the Department of Education, knows exactly how many kids remain without connection. The 230,000 was based on income data and surveys of parents during the pandemic, but no one considers that reliable. Its an estimate, says Mike Yaple, a spokesman for the department of Education.

That, too, drives Ruiz to distraction. How can we solve a problem if we cant measure it?

We estimated 230,000 based on numbers of free and reduced lunch, she says. But I really have no idea how many it is, and thats the point. Ive told them this 100 times.

Educators across the state are scrambling to find answers, and some districts are scrambling better than others. Money is not the core problem, they say, thanks to federal aid.

But many homes in New Jerseys poor cities lack internet connections, even hot spots. And with schools across the country fiercely competing for computer hardware, supply lines are strained to the snapping point.

Paterson ordered nearly 14,000 Chromebooks in June, but the deal fell through in August when a firm involved in the deal was sanctioned by the U.S. government as part of its confrontation with China. The district managed to find a substitute just before classes began.

My technology folks worked extremely hard and went after every company possible, says Superintendent Eileen Shafer. We had to take about 6,000 older devices and refurbish them as well. Everyone has a device now.

But in Irvington, bordering Newark, the 1,000 Chromebooks the district ordered in February has still not arrived. Im turning over every possible stone, says Superintendent April Vauss. But were still waiting. Were up against immense demand around the country.

Securing internet connections is an even bigger challenge, many districts say. In New Jerseys older cities, many apartments buildings are still not wired, and up to a third of all homes do not have internet connections. Also, given the high poverty, and the surge in job losses, many families who have internet service are struggling to pay the monthly bill. In effect, free public education in New Jersey isnt quite so free anymore.

This is now an essential resource that the state has to guarantee as part of its Constitutional obligation to prove every kid with a thorough and efficient education, says David Sciarra, head of the Education Law Center, which advocates for poor students.

You cant just pass the buck to local districts and let them figure it out, or leave it to philanthropy, or let it depend on whether a family can afford to pay their cable bill. This is essential and the state has to make sure its available to every child in every district.

That phrase in the state Constitution -- thorough and efficient -- is the club that Sciarra has used to beat the state over the head for the last 20 years in court, wining nearly every time. His signal to Gov. Phil Murphy is not a subtle one.

Sciarra wants the state to establish a database showing where kids lack access to virtual instruction, down to the school. He wants the state to coordinate purchases of hardware to gain bargaining power and ensure supply lines. He wants the state Board of Public Utilities to press for concessions from internet providers to ensure low-cost access.

To Sciarra, Murphy is punting this problem to local districts in the same way President Trump punted the virus problem to states. Its the same passing the buck, Sciarra says. The state is saying to local district, You figure this out.

I spoke to the senior team at the Department of Education, now led by Kevin Dehmer, who became interim commissioner in July after Commissioner Lamont Repollet stepped down to become president of Kean University.

They know they have a problem and are working non-stop to fix it, sending waves of federal money to districts to help them cope. But they are stuck in a familiar box: While the Constitution pins responsibility on the state government to provide a good education to each child, the bodies are in the local districts. Most observers say the department itself is so depleted that it lacks the capacity to effectively respond. It can set rules, and review compliance, but it has no reserve army to send to the districts and answer a crisis of this magnitude.

Its always been low-functioning, Sciarra says of the Department of Education. Thats been true in my 20 years of experience, and its worse now. In some sense, the years of neglect have come home to roost at the very worst time.

School has opened in most districts, so kids without connections are falling behind. In the end, its up to Murphy to limit the damage.

More: Tom Moran columns

Tom Moran may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.
People will have to reduce social contacts at all levels during the Governments medium-term plan for living with Covid-19, the Taoiseach said (Julien Behal/PA)

People will have to reduce social contacts at all levels during the Governments medium-term plan for living with Covid-19, the Taoiseach said.

Gardai have stepped up policing in a bid to drive down infection rates in Dublin.

Micheal Martin again said his main aim was to keep schools and colleges open and this would take precedence over the reopening of pubs or staging sporting events.

He confirmed that Ireland should not attempt to bring about herd immunity to coronavirus and expressed concern about Saturdays Dublin demonstration against the restrictions.

Expand Close Micheal Martin again said his main aim was to keep schools and colleges open and this would take precedence over the reopening of pubs or staging sporting events (Niall Carson/PA). / Facebook

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Whatsapp Micheal Martin again said his main aim was to keep schools and colleges open and this would take precedence over the reopening of pubs or staging sporting events (Niall Carson/PA).

He told RTEs The Week in Politics: If you look at the plan, the key ingredient across all levels will be the reduction of social contacts, even in the home, because that is where prevalence of the disease is most dangerous.

Gardai have increased high visibility patrols in Dublin to support the public health response to reducing the number of Covid-19 cases in the capital.

The heightened policing will see patrols on foot, in car and on bike throughout the county to support the public health guidelines, particularly in relation to social distancing and gathering in large groups.

Deputy commissioner John Twomey said: As the acting chief medical officer has said, in Dublin we are now entering a critical phase.

As a result, we will have a high visibility presence throughout Dublin to support the public health guidelines and regulations.

It is vital that people living in, working in and visiting Dublin limit their social interactions, maintain social distancing, wear face masks in shops and on public transport, and not gather in groups larger than outlined in the public health advice.

We know the considerable sacrifices people have made during the last six months, but individually and collectively we must continue to do all we can to protect our families, friends and neighbours.

Irelands Covid-19 blueprint for the longer-term response to the infection will be launched on Tuesday and the Cabinet will meet to sign off the measures.

Mr Martin said the Government would act decisively and it had learned from localised restrictions in the midlands.

Meanwhile, publicans have warned any further delay to reopening pubs which do not serve food later this month will completely destroy trust in the Government.

They are due to welcome customers again on September 21 after six months shuttered.

Public health body NPHET which advises the Government has called for the continued closure of non-food pubs in Dublin amid increased infection levels in the capital.

A decision on the issue is expected to be made by ministers during their Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

They feel like the ground keeps shifting around them Donall O'Keeffe

Donall OKeeffe, chief executive of the Licensed Vintners Association (LVA), said: It would fly in the face of the commitments made by Government last week, shatter the value of that Cabinet announcement and would raise the question as to what basis the Government is making its decisions.

He warned it would also have the immediate impact of driving many businesses into immediate mortgage default.

The mixed messages coming from NPHET and the Government is really adding to the uncertainty facing the publicans, their staff, suppliers and all the families involved.

They feel like the ground keeps shifting around them.

This is not the way a crisis should be managed.

He said the non food pubs had played no role in the increased infection levels in Dublin, having been shut by order of the Government for more than six months.

A further person has died with Covid-19, the National Public Health Emergency Team said.

As of midnight on Saturday, the health service has been notified of 255 more confirmed cases of the disease.
Scientists have completed the largest search to date for signs of life outside of our solar system.

Using a radio telescope in Australia, scientists studied around 10.3 million stars. They did not find life - not yet, at least.

Researchers were looking for so-called technosignatures - communications signals that may come from alien beings.

Using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope in Western Australia, scientists searched for sound waves in the star system of Vela. The findings were published recently in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia.

Chenoa Tremblay is an astrophysicist with Australias national science agency. Tremblay noted that the findings were not surprising.

The search for life outside of our solar system is a big challenge, Tremblay added. We dont know when, how, where or what type of signal we may receive to get an indication that we are not alone in the galaxy.

The search was 100 times deeper and broader than ever before, noted astrophysicist Steven Tingay of Curtin University in Australia. Still, it involved few stars in the universe.

Ten million stars does seem like a lot. However, our best evaluation is that there are around 100 billion stars (in the Milky Way galaxy). So we have only looked at about 0.001% of our galaxy, Tremblay said. Pretend the oceans contained only 30 fish and we tried to look for them by testing an area the size of a backyard swimming pool. The chances of finding one of those fish would have been small.

Another kind of telescope, the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), promises to help search for technosignatures soon.

What is important is ... always going deeper and further, Tingay said. There is always that chance that the next observation will be the one that turns up something, even if you expect nothing. Science can be surprising, so the important thing is to keep looking.

I'm John Russell.



Will Dunham reported on this story for Reuters. John Russell adapted it for Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

alien -- n. from somewhere other than the planet Earth

indication  n. something (such as a sign or signal) that points out or shows something

galaxy  n. astronomy any one of the very large groups of stars that make up the universe

evaluation  n. to judge the value or condition of (someone or something) in a careful and thoughtful way




Angelina Jolie surprised two young best friends from London, when she made an "extremely generous" donation to their lemonade stand raising funds for war-torn Yemen.

"Thank you for what you and your friends are doing to help children in Yemen," the Hollywood star wrote in a signed note to Ayaan Moosa and Mikaeel Ishaaq, both six. "I'm sorry I'm not able to buy a lemonade from you, but I'd still like to make a donation to your stand."

angelina jolie 2020 kids children (Matt Sayles / Invision/AP)

Helped by their parents, the pair set up their sweet-hearted and sour-tasting venture on the street where they live in east London around a month ago. Together they serve freshly-squeezed lemonade for 2 ($3) to passers-by.

"They have nothing, like, the things you need to survive. They have no water, food, oil. And we have all of those things and that's why we help them," Moosa told NBC News about Yemen, the Arab worlds poorest nation, which has been convulsed by civil war since 2014.

That is when the Iranian-backed Houthis took control of the countrys north, including the capital of Sanaa. The Saudi-led military coalition intervened against the Houthis the following year, conducting relentless airstrikes and a blockade of Yemen.

More than 100,000 people have died since then and millions more are suffering from food and medical shortages in what the United Nations has called the world's largest humanitarian crisis. Past attempts at ending the conflict have stalled.

Jolie was appointed a U.N. Special Envoy in 2012, focusing on global crises that result in mass population displacements. The actress has visited multiple refugee camps across the Middle East and has often used her fame to cast a spotlight on humanitarian issues.

A spokesperson for Jolie could not be reached for comment about the donation.

While the boys admitted they had not heard of the "Tomb Raider" and "Maleficent" star, they said their fathers had.

"When our dads were telling us about her, they said she was really pretty, really good actress, really nice person, and then we knew who she was," Moosa said.

Story continues

The paper note from the Academy Award winner which was posted to their home, is now printed, framed and stands proudly at the front of their stall. The family did not disclose how much the star donated or how she gave them the money, but said it was a substantial amount.

"This is beyond our wildest dreams," Moosa's mother Adeela said.

"To get the recognition of somebody who genuinely cares, that really meant a lot to us," added his father Shakil, 37.

They said the lemonade stand idea was born over the summer after the parents showed the boys videos of Yemen, to teach them about charity, compassion and educate them on how fortunate they are.

"It's really helped them understand and appreciate what they have," Adeela said.

Ishaaq and Moosa said they used a secret recipe for their drink.

Although they have not spoken directly to Jolie, they did record a thank you message to her on Instagram, inviting her to stop-by for a fresh glass of lemonade next time she's in London.

This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com.
A state commission will resume discussions over whether to ban or restrict firearms in the Michigan Capitol building this week, months after Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and other prominent elected officials raised safety concerns with the current policy.

The Michigan State Capitol Commission will be considering a report compiled by John Truscott, the commissions co-chair, and Commissioner William Kandler on what implementing a firearms ban at the Capitol would entail at its next meeting, scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday.
The Dublin Can Be Heaven group incorporates businesses in the Grafton Street area and is starting the scheme this week.

Group spokesperson Kim Condon, who runs Lafford Jewellers, said they will be giving customers vouchers for an hour of free parking.

The move follows negotiations with multi-storey car parks in the city centre and the ongoing downward spiral in footfall numbers since the Covid-19 crisis took hold in March.

Compared to this time last year, trade has tumbled downwards by 60 per cent in some areas due to international tourists staying away and office workers being based at home.

The problem is that people are being told not to use public transport and people are still nervous about coming into the city.

The numbers vary across the city, with parts of the north Dublin back to normal while Baggot Street in the south city is at just 20 per cent of where trade should be.

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Dublin City Council has provided tables and chair space with extended footpaths outside city centre restaurants and cafes to encourage activity.

Pedestrianisation

The Council has also trialled the pedestrianisation of a number of streets in the Grafton Street area over four weekends, with an online survey carried out by the council finding that over 90 per cent of 1,456 respondents felt this significantly improved their experience of the streets.

However, retailers in the Dublin Can Be Heaven group said many of their members found that shoppers with cars avoided the city during this time.

Mary Whelan, who runs Eirlooms in the south of the city, said: The problem is that people are being told not to use public transport and people are still nervous about coming into the city.

So we figure that if they feel safe enough to drive then the next biggest problem is the cost of parking. So we are tackling that with this campaign.

According to a survey which 45 retailers responded to, eight thought pedestrianisation improved their takings while 13 said it lessened their takings and 26 said it made no difference.

Graeme McQueen, Dublin Chamber spokesman, said that businesses need all the help they can get.

"Businesses in the city centre really need the help. Numbers are still down on where they would have been pre-Covid.

"The big challenge is particularly through the week. Mid-week is really, really quiet between Monday and Thursday. This allows people to have the confidence to go back into the city centre. Get families back in, get people back in shopping - that's going to help the businesses, that's going to save jobs and livelihoods."
She never fails to put on a stylish display during glamorous night's out.

And Maura Higgins certainly danced the night away as she enjoyed a boozy evening with TOWIE star Jess Wright on Saturday.

The Love Island star, 29, took to Instagram Stories to share a series of sultry videos from her wild night out as she partied with her reality TV pals at MNKY in London's Mayfair.

Party girl: Maura Higgins, 29, danced the night away as she enjoyed a wild night out with TOWIE star Jess Wright at MNKY in London's Mayfair on Saturday

In her fun videos Maura posed with Jess as they enjoyed a fun-filled evening together, with the Essex beauty putting on a leggy display in a white satin mini dress.

As ever Maura ensured that all eyes were on her by donning skintight black and gold printed co-ords to perfectly accentuate her physique.

The ensemble also featured a scooped neckline and a white and black belt strap while Maura added height to her frame with a pair of black heels.

Pals: The Love Island star shared a glimpse of the fun-filled evening on her Instagram Stories as she posed with the reality TV star

Fun: Jess was clad in a white satin mini dress as she danced around with Maura in her videos

Maura carried a black handbag with her for the outing while she added to her look with a pair of gold earrings.

The TV star completed her look for the evening by styling her brunette locks into a chic up-do, as she was seen arriving at the London hot spot with her pals.

Maura's outing comes shortly after her ex Curtis enjoyed a night out with his former Love Island flame Amy Hart, 28.

Confident: As ever Maura ensured that all eyes were on her by donning skintight black and gold printed co-ords to perfectly accentuate her physique

Outfit: The former Love Island star made a stylish arrival to the venue in the form-fitting look

Looking good: The two-piece also featured a scooped neckline and a white and black belt strap while Maura added height to her frame with a pair of black heels

Wow; Maura carried a black handbag with her for the outing while she added to her look with a pair of gold earrings

The blonde beauty cosied up to Curtis, 24, in a sweet snap captioned: 'Nostalgia babes x', five months after his split from Maura.

Curtis also posted a snap of the pair, captioned: 'Good to see you x @amyhartxo.'

In the wake of the reunion Amy has now re-followed her ex Curtis on Instagram.

Curtis, a professional ballroom dancer with a talent for tango, left Amy devastated after he started to chase after single Islander Jourdan Riane while Amy was away in Casa Amor.

Gorgeous: Maura's standout ensemble highlighted every inch of her toned physique as she headed out for the evening

Confident: She opted for a dramatic bronze smoky eye and her glossy brunette tresses pulled back into a low bun to allow her outfit to take centre stage

Former air-stewardess Amy then told producers she wanted to leave the summer series, after her 'half-boyfriend' split with her and began to chase after Islander Maura.

Maura split from the professional dancer in March just eight months after leaving the Love Island villa when speculation surfaced that he was getting overly friendly with dancer Amber Pierson, 21.

Amber and Curtis have since confirmed their romance when they were seen passionately kissing earlier this month.

Speaking to The Sun's Fabulous, she said: 'Everything happens for a reason and, to be honest, I wish him all the best.

'I'm in a good place now. Its not nice to see, but Im fine. Its kind of a kick in the teeth that Ive been cheated on by my last two boyfriends, but I will be stronger for this.'

Jaw-dropping: As she headed out with her male pal Maura certainly turned heads as she headed into the HSE club

Funky: Maura completed her edgy ensemble with chunky gold hoop earrings and plenty of rings

Beautiful: The daring paisley-printed look certainly commanded attention as Maura headed out for the evening

Confident: Maura rose to prominence when she appeared on Love Island in 2019

The Irish beauty explained that their relationship began to crumble hours after her first performance on Dancing on Ice when Curtis was pictured in a clinch with a girl at a New Years party.

Reflecting on that time, she wished she had tackled the allegations head-on but was so focused on her first skate that she 'didn't want to make it an issue'.

She added: 'I tried to brush it aside and maybe it was the worst thing that I could have done. If I hadnt, I probably wouldnt have performed my first live show as well as I did but, looking back, in my gut I knew that there was something.'

Maura's comments come after Curtis was pictured putting on a very cosy display with Amber, who he previously denied cheating on Maura with, earlier this month.

Former flames: Maura's outing comes as her ex Curtis recently enjoyed a night out with his former Love Island flame Amy Hart, 28

Exit: Amy told producers she wanted to leave the August series, after her 'half-boyfriend' split with her and began to chase after Islander Maura (pictured August 2019)

The Love Island star and dancer walked arm-in-arm and stopped to share a kiss as the enjoyed an evening stroll.

After the images were revealed, a source close to Curtis' ex told MailOnline that it was a 'massive kick in the teeth'.

At the time of their split, friends of the former couple insisted that Curtis did not cheat on Maura with Amber.
As of this past week, the COVID-19 pandemic has stretched on for six months in Iowa, infecting thousands and upending everyday life for many across the state.

One family has lived and breathed every moment.

Neil and Jeanne Bennett of Iowa City were among the first positive COVID-19 cases reported in Iowa in early March. The couple, with more than a dozen others, were infected with the virus after traveling to Egypt, just a week before the first instance of community spread was reported and the pandemic had taken hold of the state.

Seventy-four-year-old Neil Bennett became the states first critical care case, testing Iowa City doctors who were caring for patients infected with the virus for the first time.

In those first few months, his family went through hell, said Jeanne. Neil went on to spend five months in hospitals and rehabilitation facilities across Eastern Iowa, recovering from the virus.

Like so many, I have lived and breathed COVID-19 since early March. You cant escape it, said Gwen Bennett, their daughter.

Here is a timeline of events:

March 2

No cases are yet reported in Iowa. The first COVID-19 death in the United States was reported only three days earlier in Washington state.

When the Bennett family arrived in the Chicago OHare airport at the end of their journey, they felt an extreme tiredness that didnt seem like typical jet lag. The feeling persisted for the next few days.

Neil and Jeanne Bennett had traveled with Gwen Bennett and her husband, Tom Rogers, who live in Barrington, Ill., a Chicago suburb.

March 7

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports there are more than 400 confirmed cases in the United States. Its just days until President Donald Trump declares a national emergency.

The Bennetts said they received a call from the Iowa Department of Public Health on March 7 that a couple fellow travelers had reported symptoms of COVID-19 and that they needed to be tested.

Public health officials came to the Bennett home and swabbed them on their front porch. The results came back in a day or so.

And sure enough, we had the coronavirus, Jeanne recalled.

Neil and Jeanne have been traveling around the world for years through the Friends Club, a Hills Bank and Trust program for customers aged 50 and older.

When they departed in late February, they werent concerned about the virus over the course of the trip because there were only a few reported cases in Egypt at the time.

They could have been exposed at a number of places, said their daughter Gwen, 54. There were large crowds at many stops during the trip and they were in close contact with individuals outside their travel group during a four-day cruise down the Nile River.

We were all diligent with hand sanitizer and washing our hands, but we were in close quarters with strangers, touching the same utensils at the breakfast buffet and so forth, Gwen Bennett said.

March 8

Gov. Kim Reynolds announces at an evening news conference that public health officials have confirmed Iowas first three cases of the novel coronavirus in three Johnson County residents.

Jeanne and Neil say they werent cognizant of the governors announcement when they reflect back six months. That Sunday evening news conference marked a major event for many Iowans as the moment the pandemic had reached their lives, but those days were full of a different kind of urgency for the Bennetts.

Things quickly were taking a turn for the worst in their illnesses. Neils symptoms worsened until March 10, when Jeanne found him collapsed in their home and couldnt get him up. She called 911, and he was taken to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

That was the last time I saw him, Jeanne said.

Neil was admitted into the hospitals intensive care unit. UIHC physicians and other providers had been preparing since late winter to respond to the infectious disease emergency that was unfolding.

Hospital officials knew, once the virus hit Iowa, that UIHCs role was is to provide the best critical care that we could to the people of Iowa, said Dr. Nick Mohr, professor of emergency medicine, anesthesia critical care and epidemiology.

We didnt know when that was going to happen, said Mohr, who cared for Neil while he was in the ICU. ... We didnt know if this was going to be the first of the wave that hit New York that was going to outstrip the capabilities of the health system in Iowa, or whether this would be something that would look different from that. But we knew that we had the first patient and it was time to get started.

The morning after his arrival at UIHC, Neil was placed on a ventilator.

March 11

The UIHC confirms it had admitted the first COVID-19 patient, a resident of Johnson County.

Hills Bank also confirmed to The Gazette the group of Johnson County residents who tested positive were on the same trip to Egypt that was sponsored by their program, the Friends Club.

Fourteen out of the group of 26 Friend Club travelers ultimately tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Bennett family.

Gwen Bennett and Rogers tested positive for the virus the next day, March 12. She felt very ill, but Rogers saw no symptoms. She said she was told she was the first woman in Lake County, Ill., to be infected with the virus.

We all had some consciousness of the unknowns, Gwen Bennett said. They didnt know how to test us, they didnt know how to treat us.

Now, its a strange badge of honor because thank the Lord we survived.

At the time, she was not focused on herself because I was just so concerned about dad.

There were days I didnt watch the news because I didnt want to know how many people had died, she said. I just wanted to care about dad.

Gwen left Illinois to quarantine with her mother in Iowa City, but neither could visit Neil while he was in the hospital. Their only connection were the daily phone calls with his doctors, who painted a grim picture of his condition.

April-July

COVID-19 cases in Iowa continue to rise, prompting Gov. Reynolds to extend her public health emergency proclamation in an effort to mitigate the spread.

Neil has no memory of his first two months in the hospital.

In determining the best care plan, Mohr and others helping COVID-19 patients relied on conversations with colleagues nationwide and on reports published from areas where the pandemic already had taken hold, including China, Italy and parts of New York state.

Its not uncommon to be looking at the medical literature to get answers for how we can provide better care, Mohr said. What is uncommon was that things were changing very fast.

During Neils first weeks in the hospital, Mohr said the main priority was to improve his lung function.

According to his doctors, Neil was their first patient to use hydroxychloroquine and Remdesivir as a potential treatment option.

Mohr said UIHC received an emergency-use authorization from the company that produces Remdesivir, as it was an experimental drug and not federally approved as a treatment for COVID-19.

It was something that we thought seemed like a reasonable option, and he was sick enough that we didnt think that we had a lot of other treatment options, Mohr said.

Before he was weaned off the ventilator, Neil required a significant amount of rehabilitation, which Mohr said is common.

Neil was transferred from UIHC to Select Specialty Hospital in Davenport, an acute long-term care facility on April 22. Gwen and Jeanne drove ahead of the ambulance transporting him, then watched from the parking lot as he was moved inside.

That was the only time we laid eyes on him since March, Gwen recalled. He was still on the ventilator, but he was strong enough to raise a hand to wave. Then from that point on, we were looking at him through a window.

He was weaned off the ventilator on May 21. He was transferred to UnityPoint Health-St. Lukes Hospital in-patient rehabilitation on June 2, and on July 2, was moved again, this time to St. Lukes Transitional Care Center in Cedar Rapids.

Aug. 7

Positive cases among Iowans once again are on the rise, reaching seven-day positivity rates not seen since April. Reynolds orders bars to close in six counties where the outbreak is the worst, including Johnson County.

Its also the day Neil Bennett returned home, nearly five months after his wife found him collapsed in their home.

But Neil still faces a long road to recovery. He uses a walker and has therapy three days a week, as he lost virtually all the strength in my body, my legs and arms.

They say that for every day you are hospitalized, it takes three days to recapture lost strength, he said. I was hospitalized for five months. So under that rule of thumb, Im looking at 15 months to recapture normal body strength.

As the Iowa City couple watches new cases in their community spike once again, Neil and Jeanne Bennett say they are angry about the lack of stricter mandates to stop the spread of the virus.

It makes me furious when I see these other states have it under control, and (Iowa) doesnt, Jeanne said.

But in the months since the virus struck their lives  and likely for many months to come  Neil has focused his thoughts on recovery. The Bennetts hope to travel the world again one day.

I havent had the chance to sit down to truly reflect on the impact and what it really meant to be one of the first cases, Neil said. Ive been so focused on trying to establish some form of normalcy going forward.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 20:18:22|Editor: huaxia

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South Sudan's transitional cabinet ministers take an oath of office at the State House in Juba, capital of South Sudan, on March 16, 2020. (Xinhua/Daniel Majak)

Political commentator James Okuk said that notable achievement in South Sudan's peace process was the formation of the government of national unity in February, but warned that the country's path to peace remained bumpy and long.

JUBA, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- After five years of brutal civil war, several South Sudanese parties signed a revitalized peace agreement in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on September 12, 2018, following ten months of intense negotiations.

Two years on, the peace deal is yet to produce tangible results as political crisis and violence, food insecurity and economic meltdown continue to ravage the world's youngest nation.

"I was happy when the peace deal was signed in September 2018 because I thought it was the end of the suffering," said Majok Yen, who has lived in the UN Protection of Civilians (POC) site in Juba since 2013.

The initialization of the peace agreement provided renewed hope for a return to peace and stability in the east African country.

"I feel our leaders have let us down because for over two years, we are still suffering and people continue to die," he added.

"We have been crying for peace to come to our country, but I'm disappointed that two years since the signing of the peace agreement, nothing much has changed in South Sudan and the people continue to suffer," Nelson Sworo, a Juba resident told a local radio station on Saturday morning.

"I blame our leaders for the current problems because they only care about their own interests but not the common citizens," he added.

According to a recent report by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), sporadic violence has killed over 600 civilians in the past six months of 2020.

Half of the country's population of an estimated 12 million people are food insecure, and over four million have been displaced both internally and externally.

"It is unacceptable for South Sudanese to continue bearing the burden and consequences of this conflict including impunity, rape, severe hunger, displacement and almost complete lack of services," the Women Monthly Forum, a pressure group that brings together over 40 South Sudanese peace advocates, said in a joint communique on Friday.

The campaigners said that since the signing of the peace deal in 2018, nothing much has changed in South Sudan because violence, economic hardship and human rights abuses have continued unabated.

The group is particularly concerned about the recent escalation in fighting between government troops and forces of holdout rebel group, the National Salvation Front of Thomas Cirilo Swaka in Central Eqautoria state and upsurge in inter-communal violence in several parts of the country.

"We note with concern that security is not only the absence of conflict but the guarantee of freedom of movement, access to resources, food, water, shelter and education, and more importantly a general sense of safety," said the group.

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in July 2011, but barely two years later, the young nation descended into civil war in December 2013.

A peace deal signed in August 2015 failed to contain the violence after it collapsed following renewed violence in the capital Juba in July 2016.

The 2018 revitalized peace agreement was signed by South Sudan's President Salva Kiir, former rebel leader Riek Machar and several armed groups with the aim of ending the devastating civil strife.

But political commentator James Okuk opined that the peace deal has not yielded many benefits for the people of South Sudan since key provisions had not been implemented.

"The revitalization of the peace agreement has not progressed as expected and the two years have been wasted just talking on chapter one," Okuk said.

Okuk, who is also a senior research fellow at the Center for Strategic Policy Studies, a Juba-based think tank, expressed concern that the revitalized peace deal may not be fully implemented within the 36-month timeframe because the parties have wasted 24-months without achieving much.

"Until now, the parties are still arguing on petty issues yet time is running out and we are remaining with one year to implement the peace agreement," said Okuk.

He said that notable achievement in South Sudan's peace process was the formation of the government of national unity in February, but he warned that the country's path to peace remained bumpy and long.

"The parties are not really working in harmony to stabilize the country, so it is better the push comes from the people and the international community," said Okuk.

He said that the peace agreement should be amended to allow South Sudan to go ahead with elections even though most parts of the pact remain unimplemented.

"The agreement should be amended so that we go for elections right away and the rest of the provisions that are not moving should be brushed aside so that we move on," said Okuk.

"Otherwise if we stick to the content of the agreement, the remaining time is not enough to implement everything in it," he added.
Local Penelec crews are assisting with massive clean up and power restoration work following damage from Hurricane Laura. This scene took place in Texas.
MUMBAI: Amid tiff with Shiv Sena led Maharashtra government over her controversial 'PoK' remark, Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut met Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at Raj Bhavan on Sunday (September 13). The actress arrived at Raj Bhavan at around 4:30 pm today.

The actress, after meeting Governor Koshyari, told media that she apprised him of the situation about her faceoff with Shiv Sena, Maharashtra government and BMC. She further stated that she hopes that she would get justice on the matter. "I am honoured that Governor Koshyari met me. I talked about how I have been treated in Mumbai which has given me so much. I hope I get justice," she said.

According to reports, her meeting with Maharashtra Governor comes a day before she leaves Mumbai, i.e. on September 14.

Kangana has been locked in a bitter war of words with Shiv Sena and Maharashtra government after she drew a comparison of Mumbai to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. In a video message that she shared on social media, the actress stated that she feels unsafe in Mumbai and has no trust in the Mumbai Police. Following her statement, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut used a derogatory term for Kangana, Maharashtra minister Anil Deshmukh stated that she has no right to stay in Mumbai and shouldn't return to the city.

On September 9, before her arrival to Mumbai Kangana's office in Pali Hill, Bandra was partially demolished by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The development took place hours after the Centre provided her with Y-plus security following threats received by the actress.
According to the agenda published on the official Waze On website, Waze CEO Noam Bardin will hold the opening keynote, while Hila Roth, Head of Waze Communities, will then take the stage to discuss the community power thats making the app so great.Waze is entirely powered by users across the world, as their reports help the app determine a faster route to a defined destination by avoiding major slowdowns like traffic jams, accidents, and construction zones.One of the most important moments of the event concerns the new features coming to Waze and Waze CarPool, with Nathanaelle Klein and Dafi Zakai, Waze Product Managers, to provide us with an early look at whats to come to the mobile app in the coming updates.While the Waze team has tried to remain completely tight-lipped on these new capabilities, its likely that the two officials will announce support for the CarPlay dashboard, a feature that Apple has officially unlocked earlier this year with the release of iOS 13.4.Google Maps has recently been updated with CarPlay dashboard support as well.Erin Clift, Chief Marketing Officer, Waze, will also show up on stage to discuss the Waze partner ecosystem, according to the agenda.The live breakout sessions will include additional details on the Waze communities, and this time the two hosts will be Daliah Dombrowski and Dana Pienica, Waze Communities Team Managers.So when exactly can we expect these new features to go live in Waze? Undoubtedly, its a little bit too early to determine an ETA, but the CarPlay dashboard support should enter the beta program rather sooner than later. Most likely, this feature should be here by the end of the year.
Imperial Valley News Center

Proclamation on Minority Enterprise Development Week, 2020

Washington, DC - Each day, more than one million minority-owned employers in the United States contribute to the economic vitality of our Nation. These incredible enterprises uplift their surrounding communities and help fuel the futures, livelihoods, and dreams of Americans throughout the country. During Minority Enterprise Development Week, we celebrate the contributions of our great minority-owned businesses and reaffirm our commitment to supporting their continued growth, development, and success.

Since my first day in office, I have been committed to fostering an environment where all businesses, including minority-owned businesses, can thrive. The historic 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provided for the biggest tax cuts and reforms in American history, benefitting all Americans. This legislation also created Opportunity Zones, a landmark program that encourages investment in distressed communities and creates jobs for those who are most in need of opportunities for economic empowerment. My Administration has also cut burdensome regulations at an unprecedented rate, loosening Government restraints on growth and allowing minority-owned businesses to thrive. To reinforce our commitment to these critical enterprises, in April of this year, the Department of Commerce, through the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), announced the creation of the Minority Business Enterprise Inner City Innovation HUBs, which will award $2.8 million over 2 years to support minority-owned businesses. Through this initiative, we are helping to fund and sustain minority-owned startups, including those that support digital innovation, machine learning and artificial intelligence, and technology transfer.

My Administration has also been relentlessly committed to helping minority-owned businesses recover from the economic hardships brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. As part of the historic Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which I signed into law in March of this year, the Federal Government has allocated $10 million in supplemental funding to MBDA Business Centers and minority chambers of commerce to provide training and advising services for minority business enterprises, empowering them to be leaders in our economic recovery. In addition, the nearly 9,000 Opportunity Zones created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act have produced $75 billion in investment for countless minority neighborhoods throughout the United States. My Administration understands that supporting minority businesses promotes a strong national economy, and we will do everything in our power to assist minority-owned businesses as our Nation continues our economic resurgence.

This week and every week, we celebrate the vast contributions minority-owned businesses make to our great country. As President, I will always proudly stand by minority entrepreneurs and their businesses. My Administration will continue to promote their interests and decrease regulatory burdens to help them unleash their full potential.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim September 13 through September 19, 2020, as Minority Enterprise Development Week. I call upon the people of the United States to observe this week with programs, ceremonies, and activities to recognize the many contributions of American minority business enterprises.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this eleventh day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-fifth.

DONALD J. TRUMP
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-14 06:15:14|Editor: huaxia

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JERUSALEM, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli delegation headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departed on Sunday night to Washington to sign normalization deals with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain.

The delegation includes also the chief of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency Yossi Cohen and National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat.

"Tonight, I'm embarking on a historic mission on behalf of the citizens of Israel," Netanyahu told a press conference earlier on Sunday evening, saying the agreements will bring "peace and billions of dollars into the (Israeli) economy."

Cohen said before boarding the plane that Israel is working to achieve peace deals with "more countries."

The ceremonies are scheduled to be held on Tuesday in the White House, attended by U.S. President Donald Trump, UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed, and Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani. Enditem
Hundreds of aged-care homes across south-east Queensland are about to enter their fourth week of lockdown following a COVID-19 outbreak last month in a youth detention centre.

A total of 48 cases have now been linked to the cluster at the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre and a prison training academy, however no new cases were detected on Sunday.

Aged-care homes remain locked down in some areas of Queensland.

All cases linked to that cluster were among close or household contacts of other cases, and there has been no widespread community transmission.

A Queensland Health spokeswoman said there was no set target for how many consecutive days of zero cases the state would have to record before restrictions could start to ease, but Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young has indicated restrictions may lift soon.
The states former top fire official was under investigation for misleading Oregon State Police leaders about whether he had authorization to enter a high-risk wildfire zone one night last week to search for human remains, according to a source familiar the situation.

Jim Walker resigned Saturday as state fire marshal -- a day after he was placed on paid leave by Oregon State Police Superintendent Travis Hampton.

Walker told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Sunday that he entered the Beachie Creek wildfire area east of Salem on Thursday on behalf of a state employee who was concerned about five people. It turned out that one of the people was the employees relative, George Atiyeh, 72.

Atiyeh, the environmentalist credited with saving the pristine Opal Creek landscape from logging, has gone missing since the Beachie Creek fire roared down the Little North Fork of the Santiam River and burned his house to the ground.

No one has seen Atiyeh since before the fire, according to friends and relatives. Walker said he was able to confirm that the four other people that the employee was worried about had survived.

Walker said he obtained approval to enter the scene from an incident supervisor.

What is unclear, however, is whether he had authorization from Les Hallman, the incident commander, and whether he was honest with his supervisors when questioned about it, the source told The Oregonian/OregonLive.

State police officials have declined to comment on the situation, saying only that the agency and the Office of the State Fire Marshal regret this distraction.

In a statement Sunday, state police spokesman Capt. Tim Fox said the agency will forward information about the circumstances surrounding Walkers departure to the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training for relevant certification review of his conduct.

Fox on Saturday told the Statesman Journal that the decision to place Walker on paid leave had nothing to do with his handling of the fires.

Fox said the public will not see a change in commitment and expertise in battling Oregons wildfires.

Walkers chief deputy, Mariana Ruiz-Temple, was appointed fire marshal on Saturday.

Sources familiar with the situation said Hampton had concerns about Walkers leadership even before the Beachie Creek incident. Earlier in the week, Walker had been directed to take command of the states fire response instead of delegating those duties to Ruiz-Temple.

We had a statewide conflagration and Jim would disappear into fire camps and leave the work" for Ruiz-Temple, the source said.

But it was his actions Thursday that appear to have led to his resignation.

State police leadership believed Walker had misused his authority to gain access to the fire scene on a personal mission for another employee, the source said.

Walker did not consult with the superintendent, the deputy superintendent or Hallman before heading into the high-risk area at night, the source said, adding that the decision to enter the fire scene put Walker out of cell range to his bosses as Oregon faced dire wildfire threats.

Whats more, the source said, Walker lacked the skill and training to identify and investigate human remains at what amounts to a crime scene.

Walker said Sunday that he had received permission from a lower level manager to enter area and that he believed the incident commander had been notified.

He said he did not intend to disturb the scene.

I didnt do anything criminal, Walker said. I want people to know that. I truly feel like I did the right thing. If it was presented to me again, I would do the same thing.

However, he said, he understood that he had lost the confidence of Hampton and Deputy Superintendent Terri Davie.

I resigned because I am an at-will employee, he said. I could see the writing on the wall.

Walker, who was paid an annual salary of $218,000, defended his leadership, saying he put his heart and soul into this.

OSP leadership, I think, would have felt more comfortable if I was back at my office helping them to work through all of these incidents and I had chosen to spend my time with boots on the ground, he said.

Wildfires have scorched more than 1 million acres throughout the state, spanning from the southern border to the coast and Clackamas County. That figure is about twice the yearly average over the past 10 years.

Across the state so far, authorities have confirmed that 10 people have died, at least a dozen are unaccounted for and hundreds are reeling from lost homes due to the record-breaking wildfires that continue to burn.

The fire marshals office is tasked with protecting people, property and the environment from fire and other hazards. Walker had served as fire marshal since 2014.

-- Noelle Crombie; ncrombie@oregonian.com; 503-276-7184; @noellecrombie

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Retired Navy officer, Madan Sharma who was assaulted allegedly by Shiv Sena workers demanded the resignation of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday. Speaking to reporters, Sharma said that he was injured and stressed, what happened was saddening. He said that hed like to tell Uddhav Thackeray that if he couldnt look after law and order then he should resign and let people decide who should look after it.

He said that the entire organisation of the chief minister and its workers should apologise for the act and should ensure that it will not happen to anyone. Madan Sharma said to media that all workers and organisations of Uddhav Thackeray ji should seek apology from the entire nation and ensure that such an incident does not take place again with anyone else.

Meanwhile, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to the former officer and wished him a speedy recovery. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted that he spoke to the retired naval officer, Madan Sharma who was attacked by hooligans in Mumbai and enquired about his health. He said that such attacks on ex-Servicemen were completely unacceptable and deplorable. He wished Madan Sharma a speedy recovery.

Also read: Union Minister Amit Shah admitted to AIIMS for complete medical checkup

Also read: With spike of over 94k cases, Indias Covid-19 count crosses 47L mark

Earlier in the day, BJP leaders, and daughter of Madan Sharma staged a protest outside the office of Additional Commissioner of Police demanding the accused to be booked under non-bailable offences.

Shiv Sena leader Kamlesh Kadam and five others were arrested by the Mumbai police overnight after an FIR was registered in connection with alleged assault of retired Navy officer in Mumbai.

Also read: AstraZenecas Covid-19 vaccine phase 3 trials resume after halt over safety concerns
By AFP

MINSK: Belarus moved police vans and barbed wire into the centre of the capital Minsk on Sunday ahead of a new mass demonstration called for the eve of crunch talks between President Alexander Lukashenko and his main ally, Russia's Vladimir Putin.

Belarusians have been demonstrating against the disputed re-election of Lukashenko for a month, with more than 100,000 people flooding the streets of Minsk for four straight weekends.

Amid an ongoing crackdown on opposition leaders, masked security forces in police vans and military vehicles could be seen preparing in the centre of Minsk ahead of the latest gathering which has been called the "March of Heroes."

ALSO READ: Belarus opposition leader Maria Kolesnikova 'tears passport to pieces' to avoid expulsion

On its websites and social media channels, the opposition has announced the slogan "We won't let him sell the country" ahead of Lukashenko's first face-to-face meeting with Putin since protests began, which is set to take place on Monday.

Analysts say Putin may seek to exploit Lukashenko's political vulnerability to wring concessions from him, but any agreements compromising Belarus's sovereignty and independence are likely to enrage Belarusian protesters further.

Over the last week, Lukashenko's security forces have stepped up arrests of opposition figures who are still in Belarus.

After a massive protest last Sunday, Maria Kolesnikova, one of three prominent women opposition figures, was jailed after she resisted expulsion and tore up her passport.

More than 600 people were detained last Sunday in one of the largest waves of arrests since the early days of the demonstrations.

Seeking to intimidate protesters further, men in civilian clothes with batons chased and beat up demonstrators as crowds gradually dispersed last Sunday.

Masked riot police on Saturday violently detained several dozen women demonstrators and threw them into vans during a smaller protest in Minsk.

- 'Heroic people' -

Presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who the protest movement says won the vote on August 9 but was forced out of the country, paid tribute to all those who planned to take to the streets for Sunday's demonstration, which is set to begin at 1100 GMT.

"Over the past month we have become a truly heroic people," Tikhanovskaya, a political unknown until the election, said in a video address.

"We are continuing our fight for freedom," said the 38-year-old former stay-at-home mother, who has fled into exile in neighbouring EU member Lithuania.

Tikhanovskaya contested the election after her blogger husband was jailed and barred from running along with several other prominent Lukashenko critics.

ALSO READ | 'Telegram revolution': How a social media app helped drive protests in Belarus post presidential polls

The unprecedented protests broke out after Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet state for 26 years, claimed re-election with 80 percent.

Lukashenko has refused to step down and has turned to Russia for support to remain in power.

On Friday, the United States said it would impose new sanctions on Belarusian figures within days and warned Moscow that continuing to back the strongman would only alienate Belarusians.

Speaking to reporters, US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun asked how Moscow could "back such a regime and such violence against peaceful citizens."

"If the Kremlin continues down this path, it risks turning the Belarusian people, who have no grievance with Russia, against Moscow," he said.

Historically Russians and Belarusians have enjoyed good relations and the opposition says the protests are not aimed at Russia.

Putin and Lukashenko are set to meet in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Monday, with the Kremlin saying the talks will cover integration plans as well as key trade and energy projects.

Putin has been keen to unify Russia and Belarus, and Moscow has accompanied its offers of military and economic aid with calls for tighter integration.

Lukashenko has in the past ruled out outright unification with Russia but his options are now limited, analysts say.

His security forces have detained thousands of protesters, many of whom have accused police of beatings and torture.

Several people have died in the crackdown.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Friday he was "deeply concerned" over the use of force against peaceful protesters and "the detention of people exercising their legitimate democratic rights."

The European Union said Saturday that it deplored "the increasingly open disregard for the rule of law in Belarus" and reiterated its determination to impose sanctions.

It said it was "ready to take further restrictive measures as necessary."
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-14 04:51:50|Editor: huaxia

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TRIPOLI, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- The eastern-based government of Libya, headed by Abdullah Al-Thani, on Sunday presented its resignation to the House of Representatives following three days of protests in several eastern cities.

The resignation was presented during an urgent meeting between the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aguila Saleh, and Al-Thani, where they discussed the demands of the protesters, according to a statement issued by the House of Representatives.

Protests broke out in a number of cities in eastern Libya against lack of basic services, mainly electricity, healthcare and funds in local banks.

Amid insecurity and escalating violence, Libya remains politically divided between eastern and western governments, both competing for dominance.

Al-Thani's eastern-based government is not internationally recognized, unlike the Tripoli-based UN-backed Government of National Accord. Enditem
Opposition June 5 Movement accuses the military government of desire to monopolise and confiscate power after coup.

Malis popular opposition movement has rejected a charter for a transition government backed by the ruling army officers who overthrew President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in a coup last month.

The military government backed a charter for an 18-month transition government on Saturday, after a three-day forum with political parties and civil society representatives.

The charter also proposed the transition be led by either a military or civilian leader, which leaves open the possibility that military officers who seized power could remain at the helm for another 18 months until elections are organised.

But the June 5 Movement (M5-RFP), which took part in the talks, rejected the road map in a statement on Sunday, and accused the military government of a desire to monopolise and confiscate power.

It also said discussions had taken place against a backdrop of intimidation, anti-democratic and unfair practices worthy of another era.

The final document read at the closing ceremony was not consistent with the deliberations of the various groups, including the majority choice of a transition led by a civilian, the M5-RFP said.

A committee chosen by the military government, which was overseeing the talks, adopted the final version of the charter by acclamation on Saturday.

Some seats in the 121-person legislature foreseen in the charter are reserved for members of the M5-RFP.

190820111338087

Civilian leader

The M5-RFP is a loose coalition of opposition groups, religious leaders, and civil figures who organised a months-long wave of protests against Keita, which led up to his removal and arrest in a coup on August 18.

Regional and international powers, fearful that political instability will undermine a years-long fight against armed groups across West Africas Sahel region, have pushed for a swift transition back to civilian rule.

The 15-nation West African regional bloc  the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)  has warned the military government must designate a civilian leader to head a one-year transition period by Tuesday or else the country could face further sanctions.

ECOWAS has already stopped financial transfers into the country and has closed its borders with Mali.

Malis military government leader, Colonel Assimi Goita, said he hoped for the support of the international community after the military leaders agreed to reduce the transition period to 18 months after initially proposing three years.
Shiv Sena in its mouthpiece Saamana on Sunday attacked Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) leaders from Maharashtra for backing "outsiders" trying to vilify the image of Mumbai, and asked the people of the state to unite against the forces.

The editorial also questioned why the film industry was silent and Bollywood stars including Akshay Kumar did not come forward to condemn Kangana Ranaut for her statements.

"Once again the efforts to vilify the image Maharashtra's capital Mumbai has begun. These attempts are made by the 'outsiders'. But, as per tradition, the moles inside our own house are to make them stronger. In the intervening period, Mumbai was called Pakistan. BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) was referred to as 'Babar' after the Municipal Corporation took action on the illegal construction of an actress (Kangana Ranaut) who insulted Mumbai," the editorial said.

"The Maharashtra unit of BJP is standing behind the people who first compared Mumbai to Pakistan, and then to Babur, and we have to call this unfortunate," it said.

Sena said BJP is doing this under its national policy to influence the votes in the upcoming Bihar elections, but accused the local party leaders of failing to feel offended by the insult of their home state.

"It is strange that the main opposition party in Maharashtra is standing behind those who are comparing Mumbai to Pakistan and BMC to Babur's army. But they have to win the Bihar election by supporting Sushant and Kangana. This is an attempt to gain the upper class Rajput, Kshatriya votes of Bihar. It is okay if Maharashtra is insulted for that. It will not suit those who call this policy 'national'. When Maharashtra is insulted Not a single Union minister from Maharashtra sitting in Delhi felt offended," it said.

Sena added that 'Thackeray' and 'Pawar' are two brands of self-respect in Maharashtra and BJP wants to destroy these brands and capture Mumbai.

It further questioned the people of Maharashtra and the film industry for not coming forward to condemn the actions of actor Kangana Ranaut.

"An actress sits in Mumbai and speaks in a taunting manner to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. She talks of challenging him and there is no response by the people of Maharashtra, what kind of one-sided independence is this? ...

"It not all, then at least half of the Hindi film industry should have come forward to protest against the humiliation of Mumbai. It should have been said that Kangana's opinion is not the opinion of the entire film industry. At least the big actors like Akshay Kumar should have come forward. Mumbai has also proved them a lot," it said.

-ANI

Also Read: After attack, ex-navy officer Madan Sharma takes 'resign' jibe at Maharashtra CM
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 13)  US Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton convicted for the controversial 2014 murder of Filipino transgender woman Jennifer Laude is now a free man after almost six years in jail.

Pemberton was released from prison and subsequently deported on Sunday morning, the Bureau of Immigration said. He left the country at 9:14 a.m. aboard a military plane bound for the United States.

In an interview with CNN Philippines, Immigration spokesperson Dana Sandoval said Pemberton was accompanied by members of the US military and representatives of the US embassy while heading to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, where he boarded the flight.

Sandoval, however, stressed authorities cannot disclose the exact location of the soldiers destination for security reasons.

Pemberton left his solitary confinement in Camp Aguinaldo after only serving five years and 10 months in detention.

This comes six days after President Rodrigo Duterte surprised the nation by granting him absolute pardon in the midst of appeals filed by the Laude family and even the Philippines' own Justice Department to block his early release on the basis of good conduct.

The absolute pardon grants the "total extinction" of Pemberton's criminal liability, restoring his civil and political rights and remits all penalties imposed on the American serviceman.

Difficult to lift Pemberton blacklist

Pemberton is also blacklisted following the deportation order, the Justice Department earlier said.

Sandoval noted the US marines camp has not mentioned any request to appeal the lifting of his inclusion in the blacklist. She argued it may be difficult to remove the ban.

For the lifting of the blacklist, there's a prescriptive period for that, before that it can even be considered by Immigration, Sandoval said in an interview with Newsroom Weekend.

If i'm not mistaken, it has to be at least ten years after the implementation, and for it to be lifted, kailangang wala na yung grounds and reason kung bakit naging undesirable yung alien na ito. And yung reason for his undesireability is actually the incident that happened na napatay po niya yung isa nating kababayan. That's why, sa tingin po natin, napakahirap po na maalis ito, she explained.

[Translation: If i'm not mistaken, it has to be at least ten years after the implementation, and for it to be lifted, there should be no more grounds and reasons for him to became an undesirable alien. And the reason for his undesirability is actually the incident that happened that he killed our countryman. Thats why we think, its difficult to lift it.]

Acceptance

With Pemberton now walking free, the family of Laude has no other choice but to accept Dutertes decision for the pardon.

Kahit na tanggap na nila na paalis na talaga si Pemberton, malaya na pero ang hindi pa rin nawawala ay yung kanilang pakiramdam na very frustrated at yung feeling na na-betray sila, the familys legal counsel Atty. Virginia Suarez told CNN Philippines.

[Translation: Even though they have accepted that Pemberton is now leaving and is now free, they still feel very frustrated, they still feel betrayed (by the government).]

Injustice

The chief executives move to grant Pemberton absolute pardon was met with outrage by members of the LGBTQIA+ community, who condemned another injustice done to their trans sister. Several opposition lawmakers called the move "shameless" and a "betrayal of public trust."

The issue also revived complaints that American servicemen get special treatment in the former US colony, and renewed calls from left-wing activists to put an end to US military presence in the country.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra defended Duterte, saying that while his department questions the four years' worth of good conduct time allowance credited to Pemberton, he sees nothing "really very objectionable" with the pardon, since it is an exclusive prerogative of the President.

A local court granted Pemberton early release on Sept. 1, extending to him a privilege given to detainees who exhibit exemplary behavior in prison. The court said Pembertons accumulated jail time already exceeded 10 years due to his good behavior  an issue contested by human rights groups and several officials, including Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque who previously served as private counsel for the Laude family.

Lessons learned

The Defense Department meanwhile vowed that stricter guidelines will be crafted and implemented in the conduct of joint military exercises with the United States in the future.

Guevarra likewise said that the Pemberton-Laude case though attended with intense conflict has provided valuable insights and lessons to ponder on regarding the future of the Visiting Forces Agreement, the administration of criminal justice, and the exercise of the president's constitutional powers.

The Jennifer Laude case

In October 2014, Laude was found dead in an Olongapo City motel room after a night out with then 19-year-old Pemberton, who confessed to killing her after finding out she had male genitalia. The 26-year-old transgender woman was found alone in the motel bathroom with her neck blackened with strangulation marks and head rammed into a toilet.

The Court of Appeals initially sentenced Pemberton up to 12 years of imprisonment, but this was later reduced to a maximum of 10 years. In line with the Visiting Forces Agreement with the US, Pemberton was detained in Camp Aguinaldo, the headquarters of the Armed Forces in Quezon City, instead of the New Bilibid Prison.

CNN Philippines' Anjo Alimario contributed to this report.
Chennai, Sep 13 : Three young students of Bachelor of Fisheries Science (BFSc) at the Mangalore Fisheries College saw some shrimp farmers in Andhra Pradesh owing Audis and BMWs during their internship.

This made A.H. Kaushik, V.S. Karthik Gowda, and S.V. Sachin then resolve to turn into entrepreneurs.

Passing out in 2019 and after a decent initial business success, the three 23-year-old fisheries graduates decided to travel in largely uncharted waters - seed production of Asian sea bass.

"Shrimp farming is a mature industry in India. We decided on sea bass when the industry itself is in a nascent stage," Kaushik, Managing Partner, of their start-up Canares Aquaculture LLP, told IANS.

On Sunday, the ICAR-Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture (CIBA) announced the signing of an MoU with the start-up at Karnataka's Kumta for transfer of sea bass seed production technology.

"This is the first attempt in the country in setting up a sea bass hatchery in private sector on a start-up mode," ICAR-CIBA Director K.K. Vijayan told IANS.

"This assumes significance as Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) to boost fish production, sustainable growth of fisheries sector and doubling farmers' income," he added.

He said the sea bass is a most sought-after fish, but producing young ones is difficult.

"Unlike many others, the boys did not wait for any government subsidy and decided to jump in immediately. We gave them 45-day old sea bass larvae which they grew for some days and sold for a good profit," Vijayan said.

According to him, the ICAR-CIBA charged Rs 5 lakh for transfer of technology and 10 per cent royalty on the net profit of the company.

Kaushik said: "Soon after passing out, we started a small sea bass nursery - KKS Aquaculture at Kundapura near Mangaluru - and got about 35,000 sea bass larvae and sold about 27,000 after rearing them for some time." It was then the three youths got in touch with industrialist H.S. Gajanan who had earlier bought a defunct shrimp hatchery's land and building.

"We had discussions with him. He and his wife became our angel investors. The shrimp hatchery building which he had bought earlier is now the sea bass hatchery," Kaushik said.

With 80 tanks, he said their yearly capacity will be three million sea bass fries and two million fingerlings.

Canares Aquaculture will get the sea bass eggs or fries and brooder from the ICAR-CIBA, rear it in its tanks for about two-and-half months and then sell it to the farmers, said Kaushik.

"By that time, the weight of each small fish will be 10-12 grams and size will be 3-4 inches. A 10-gram fish will fetch Rs 40-45," Kaushik said.

According to him, the ICAR-CIBA will also provide the necessary knowhow, and technology in sea bass breeding.

Vijayan said there is good demand for its quality seeds among aqua-farmers across the country.

Presence of a well-established value chain for sea bass is very evident from spawn to harvest size, where huge demand exists among the farmers for the range of hatchery and farm-produced seeds.

In sea bass value chain, on tier wise rearing mode for fry, fingerlings, advanced fingerlings and sub-adults, a net profit of Rs 1-1.50, Rs 10-15, Rs 30-50 and Rs 140-190, can be made, respectively, Vijayan said.

A grown-up sea bass above one kg size fetches a market price in the range of Rs 450-750, again with smart profits for the sea bass farmer.

Emphasising the need for boosting the production of quality seeds of Asian sea bass, Vijayan said that it is equally important to use indigenous technologies in both hatchery reared seeds and formulated feeds for development of scientific sea bass farming in the country.
Jalandhar:

With the Congress announcing the list of candidates for the assembly elections in Punjab next month, the party is facing revolt over ticket distribution as some of the leaders contemplating to contest the polls independently.



The partys third list which included the announcement of candidates contesting from Jalandhar west, Jalandhar north, Aadampur and Shahkot has exposed the disagreement over ticket distribution with some of the leaders opposing the authorised candidates, while some announcing to stand in the polls independently.



Congress has fielded Councillor Sushil Rinku from Jalandhar west who is facing opposition from former city mayor Surinder Mahe, as the latter opting to stand in the Assembly polls on his own.

Also read | Video: Beginning of a new inning, every Punjabi must win, says Navjot Singh Sidhu after joining Congress



Mahe said that he formulating a strategy to contest from the Jalandhar west seat independently and if the party does not take any decision over this issue, he will announce his decision soon.



In Aadampur former Jalandhar MP Mohinder Singh Kepi has been given the ticket by the Congress, whereas a local party leader has started protesting against the decision while terming Kepi as Anit-Dalit and an outsider.



Jagdish Jassal said that, Kepis policies are anti-Dalit and he did not take any steps for the Viyana and Talhan issues. He is an outsider and no such candidate will be tolerated in the area.



Jassal warned that if the party does not change the candidate from Aadampur, he will soon announce his action against the decision.



For Shahkot, Congress decided to field-in Hardev Singh Sharowalia for the Assembly elections instead of its local leader Navjot Dahiya, also the partys state general secretary.



Dahiya fought the last Assembly polls with a ticket from PPP and was willing to contest fro Congress this time after PPPs merger with the party.



Even though Dahiya has not made any remarks over this decision, sources close to him say that he has worked a lot in the past five years but was still not given the ticket and may make an explosive announcement in one or two days.



Similarly, state vice president Avtaar Henry was stated to the contender for the ticket from Jalandhar north Assembly constituency, but was overlooked by the party as it chose Tejinder Singh Bittu after Henrys name was removed from the electoral roll.



After Bittu was opted by the party to contest from the constituency, the partys former MLA Rajkumar Gupta came out in the open to protest the move following which the ticket was given to him.



Sources say that even this decision can changed by Congress and Henrys son Baba Henry may be the final candidate to fight from Jalandhar north.



Assembly elections in Punjab will be held on February 4.

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Con la finalidad de verificar el acatamiento de la inmovilizacion social obligatoria dispuesta por el Gobierno, en el marco de la lucha contra el #COVID?19, el ministro del Interior, #CesarGentille, supervisa diversos puntos de control en Lima y Callao. #NoSeamosComplices pic.twitter.com/IZXf6kzoFz
New Delhi:

Siachen braveheart Lance Naik Hanamanthappa Koppad, who survived miraculously for six days under a huge ice-and-snow debris after an avalanche hit his post before losing life to multiple organ failure, was on Sunday awarded the Sena Medal.

The doughty soldier's wife Mahadevi Ashok Bilebal received the medal from Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat at Army Day parade. A resident of village Betadur in Dharwad district of Karnataka, the Madras regiment soldier was pulled out alive from under 30 ft of ice-and-snow debris where he lay buried for six days on the unforgiving Siachen glacier.

Dubbed as the 'miracle man', the soldier had managed to stay alive for six days in minus 45 degrees Celsius temperature, buried under ice and snow after an avalanche struck his post on February 3.

10 Army personnel, including Koppad, were were buried alive on February 3 in an avalanche in Siachen, the world's highest battlefield. In a miraculous turn of events, Koppad was found alive buried under snow in critical condition after six days of rescue efforts.

The Lance Naik was flown to Delhi's Army Referral and Research Hospital for treatment where he died on February 11 due to multiple organ failure, after waging a grim battle for life for nine days.

Among others, his death was deeply condoled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while the whole nation paid glowing tributes to the 33-year-old soldier. He had served for 10 years in difficult and challenging areas out of his 13 years of service. He had also served in the north-east in 2010-2012 where he participated in operations against NDFB and ULFA.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
In a fresh trouble for Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, Himachal Pradesh BJP leaders on Saturday (September 12) filed a complaint against Raut for allegedly using obscene and derogatory words against actress Kangana Ranaut.

The BJP leaders sought registration of an FIR under Sections 294 and 509 of the IPC and said that the language used by Raut was unconstitutional and abusive. They claimed that Raut not only abused and insulted Kangana, but also but also disrespected the law of the land.

Sanjay Raut, out of rage, not only abused and insulted Kangana Ranaut but showed scant regard to the law of the country and blew it in the air by disgracing and demeaning the law as he is invincible and protected from all the illegalities and offences, the complaint read.

Earlier, Raut had said that he would apologise for her derogatory remark about Kangana, only if Kangana apologises to the people of Maharashtra.

"If that girl (Kangana) will apologise to Maharashtra then I will think about apologising. She has called Mumbai mini Pakistan. Does she have the courage to say the same about Ahmedabad?" he had said.

Notably, the war of words between Kangana and Raut started after the former's remarks that she feels unsafe in Mumbai and has no trust in the Mumbai Police after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

The Ministry of Home Affairs approved Y-plus security to Kangana after she received threats for comparing Mumbai with Pakistan occupied Kashmir.

Kangana has been targeting several big Bollywood celebrities for fanning nepotism and recently in the drug conspiracy related to Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput case.
(Natural News) According to two election officials in the state of New York, some non-citizens and illegal immigrants get registered to vote  because of automatic voter registration systems. The fact that no tools exist to counter-check if registered voters are indeed eligible to cast their ballot further exacerbates the problem, they added.

The issue was brought up during a discussion about mail-in voting organized by House Administration Committee ranking member and Illinois Rep. Rodney Davis. NY Rep. Lee Zeldin, State Board of Elections co-executive director Todd Valentine and Suffolk County elections commissioner Nick LaLota were among the discussions attendees.

New York is among the states that allow undocumented immigrants to apply for drivers licenses, according to a post by the National Council of State Legislatures. LaLota explained that when illegal immigrants apply for a drivers license, the state automatically registers them as a voter  unless they check a small box stating otherwise. This results in a large amount of non-citizens being included in the voter rolls.

Valentine seconded the election commissioners explanation by saying that anyone who comes in and checks the not a citizen box will not be directed to the voter registration application. However, if a voter chooses that citizen option  they will be directed to register as a voter. The New York Department of Motor Vehicles indicated in its website that all applications coursed through it are sent to the county or city Board of Elections to be reviewed.

Non-citizens and illegal immigrants on the official voter rolls give rise to potential irregularities

Validating voter applications is a different story. Valentine said some states have asked the federal government for a list of citizens to help locate ineligible voters, but they were turned down. LaLota also mentioned that his ability to find and remove non-citizens from voter rolls on the county level was constrained, adding that he had no tools to do so.

The current system relies on the honesty of non-citizens and illegal immigrants to indicate that they arent U.S. citizens during the voter registration process, according to Valentine. He expressed that it was very difficult to validate the process in any matter, given that it operates on an honesty-based system. (Related: Thanks to Democrat vote fraud and election tampering, trust in our entire system is collapsing  which is what they want.)

Meanwhile, Rep. Zeldin said that he was aware of non-citizens in Suffolk County who voted in previous elections. He then asked if there were measures to prevent similar situations from occurring in the future, to which LaLota answered: We dont have the proper amount of rules and laws and regulations to fetter out that sort of nefarious activity.

Irregularities such as non-citizens and illegal immigrants being listed on voter rolls in New York, a Democratic state, threaten the integrity of the upcoming November elections. The state of Colorado, however, is tackling the issue in a different manner.

Initiative 76 ensured that only U.S. citizens can vote in Colorado elections by amending the text of Article VII, Section 1 of the State Constitution. The amendment aimed to change the Every citizen of the United States text in the section to Only a citizen of the United States

Furthermore, the amendment bans 17-year-olds from voting as it restricts the minimum age of voting to 18. Before, 17-year-olds were permitted to vote in the state as long as they will turn 18 by the general election.

The initiative gathered more than 200,000 signatures from supporters in Dec. 2019 with more than 130,000 considered valid by the State Secretarys office  beyond the 124,632 threshold required for it to be included in the ballot. Coloradans will then vote for the amendment during the Nov. 3 general elections.

Learn more about potential fraud and irregularities as the November election approaches at VoteFraud.news.

Sources include:

JustTheNews.com

NCSL.org

DMV.NY.gov

Ballotpedia.org

CPR.org
A French government officials attempts to ban an essay entitled I Hate Men over its incitement to hatred on the grounds of gender have backfired, sending sales of the feminist pamphlet skyrocketing.  Irish Times
By Alex Lawler

LONDON (Reuters) - In 1973, Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries brought the U.S. economy to its knees. Now, the cartel created 60 years ago is more likely to do Washington's bidding.

Since Saudi Arabia and other Arab OPEC members imposed their famous oil embargo as retribution for U.S. support for Israel during the Yom Kippur War, shifts in global politics and a surge in America's oil production have tamed the group.

OPEC's most hawkish members, Iran and Venezuela, have been sidelined by U.S. sanctions while its kingpin, Saudi Arabia, has shown it would rather appease Washington than risk losing U.S. support, current and former OPEC officials say.

While OPEC as a bloc resisted U.S. pressure to lower oil prices for decades, notably in 2011 during the uprising against Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, its record over the past three years has largely been one of capitulation, these officials say.

Founded in Baghdad on Sept. 14, 1960 to counter the power of seven U.S. and British oil companies, OPEC has repeatedly yielded to pressure from Washington to pump more oil since U.S. President Donald Trump took office at the start of 2017.

Trump has regularly called for lower gasoline prices to help U.S. consumers.

And when prices got too low for U.S. drilling companies to make money this year, OPEC hashed out a deal to bring them back up slightly, in an agreement spurred on by Washington's threat to reduce its military backing for Riyadh, sources have told Reuters. https://reut.rs/3m4gBSr

"Trump orders from Saudi Arabia what he needs for the oil price - and he is served," Chakib Khelil, who was Algeria's oil minister for a decade and OPEC's president in 2001 and 2008, told Reuters. "So indeed OPEC has changed."

The Saudi Energy Ministry declined to comment.

The White House declined to comment.

Reuters spoke to eight current and former OPEC officials, representing over a third of the group's output, as well as analysts, traders and investors to ask how U.S. sanctions on Iran and Venezuela had affected Saudi Arabia's influence within OPEC, and whether that had changed the dynamic with Washington.

Story continues

An OPEC official at the group's Vienna headquarters declined to comment, saying Reuters should ask member states. Oil and other government officials in Iran and Venezuela did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

U.S. OUTPUT SOARS

Saudi Arabia has been the leading OPEC producer for decades, giving it the biggest sway over policy, but the sidelining of Iran and Venezuela has only increased its influence.

Iran's share of OPEC output has nearly halved to 7.5% since 2010 while Venezuela's has collapsed to 2.3% from almost 10%, according to Reuters calculations based on OPEC data. Saudi Arabia's share, meanwhile, has risen 7 percentage points to 35%.

Iran and Venezuela, which founded OPEC along with Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, had routinely opposed any moves to bring oil prices down in the face of U.S. pressure.

The increased dominance of Saudi Arabia within OPEC has also come at a time of higher U.S. oil and gas production, which has turned the United States into the world's biggest petroleum producer and slashed its dependence on foreign fuel.

U.S. production more than doubled in a decade to reach over 12 million barrels a day in 2019, according to the Energy Information Administration, as improved drilling technology made previously untapped basins accessible.

OPEC figures show the U.S. share of the global oil market has doubled since 2010, while OPEC's has fallen.

OPEC teamed up with Russia and nine other oil producers in 2016 to form a group known as OPEC+ to boost their collective leverage but a senior Trump administration official said even the new group's influence had waned as U.S. output soared.

'OPEC IS AT IT AGAIN'

Trump has engaged more actively with OPEC than his predecessors, often taking to Twitter to comment on production decisions and oil price moves.

Trump has also developed a close relationship with Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, or "MbS", who relies on the United States for weapons and protection against regional rivals such as Iran.

"There has never been a U.S. administration more involved in international oil policy and OPEC than the Trump presidency," said Gary Ross, founder of Black Gold Investors and an OPEC expert.

In 2018, as oil prices spiked over $70 a barrel, a level Washington viewed as too high for U.S. consumers, Trump fired a barrage of tweets at the cartel.

"Oil prices are too high, OPEC is at it again. Not good!" he tweeted on June 13, 2018, nine days ahead of an OPEC meeting. As OPEC gathered in Austria on June 22, Trump wrote: "Hope OPEC will increase output substantially. Need to keep prices down!"

Later that day, OPEC agreed to raise its output by a million barrels a day.

Two OPEC officials, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue, said a Trump intervention on oil prices effectively nudges the organisation to discuss, or even adjust, its production policy.

And Trump's Twitter feed has become a source of anxiety.

"I hope no tweet will follow," one top OPEC official told Reuters on April 9, 2019 after oil prices hit $71 a barrel, a five-month high at the time.

Oil market watchers including OPEC officials say the irony is that the price rises in 2018 and 2019 were both due mainly to Washington's sanctions on Iran and Venezuela  policies that slashed some 3 million barrels off daily oil production.

GREAT FOR THE INDUSTRY!

Earlier this year, Trump wanted something new from OPEC: a production cut, to help U.S. oil companies make money.

Oil prices had tanked because of a supply glut caused by a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia at the same time as a collapse in demand due to worldwide coronavirus lockdowns.

"Just spoke to my friend MBS (Crown Prince) of Saudi Arabia, who spoke with President Putin of Russia, & I expect & hope that they will be cutting back approximately 10 Million Barrels, and maybe substantially more which, if it happens, will be GREAT for the oil & gas industry!" Trump tweeted on April 2.

On April 12, OPEC+ agreed to a record cut in production equivalent to a 10th of global output.

Reuters reported on April 30 that Trump had presented bin Salman with an ultimatum: cut production or risk a withdrawal of U.S. troops from the kingdom.

Asked about the ultimatum at the time, Trump said: "I didn't have to tell him." He said he had spoken to MbS by phone and they were able to reach a deal on production cuts.

Saudi Arabia's government media office did not respond to a request for comment on the April report.

"In sum, OPEC does not make decisions anymore on what is best for its members economically, as it is supposed to according to its statutes," Algeria's Khelil said.

'GIFT TO TRUMP'

In 2011, when Libyan output was hit by the uprising against Gaddafi, Saudi Arabia tried to convince OPEC to lift production to lower prices. But Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Venezuela all resisted.

"Previously, you had a bloc which could become quite vocal and actually upend meetings," said Samuel Ciszuk, who founded consultancy ELS Analysis and used to work for the Swedish Energy Agency.

"Now, Iran and Venezuela still have votes but they are sidelined and have such desperate economic and marketing situations that other countries are more careful about lining up politically with them," he said.

Iran's former OPEC governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili told Reuters in 2018, when OPEC+ had just raised output following pressure from Trump, that both OPEC and the broader group had begun acting against the interests of their smaller members.

"They gave an oil price gift to Trump while inflicting revenue loss on all OPEC members," he said.

While there is no suggestion OPEC is about to suffer an exodus of smaller members as a result of the shifting dynamic - and there have been new entrants - some countries have left.

Qatar quit in 2019, partly due to a political row with Riyadh. Another small producer, Ecuador, left this year and Indonesia departed in 2016. Both said they did not want to be constrained by OPEC production quotas.

Others that may be unhappy with OPEC's trajectory, however, plan to remain so they can still have a say.

As one source familiar with Iran's oil policy put it: "It's important to be a member of OPEC or OPEC+ so that you can maximize your interests."

(Additional reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov, Bozorgmehr Sharafedin and Marianna Parraga; Editing by Richard Valdmanis and David Clarke)
Nadda, who was accompanied by party colleagues like Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, national general secretary and state in-charge Bhupendra Yadav and state president Sanjay Jaiswal, called on Kumar at his official residence 1, Anney Marg.

New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday held a crucial meeting with Bharatiya Janata Party president Jagat Prakash Nadda on seat-sharing among the National Democratic Alliance partners for the assembly elections in the state.

The Janata Dal-United national president, who was accompanied by key party aide Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan, accorded a warm welcome to Nadda, who hails from Himachal Pradesh but was born and brought up in Patna.

At the meeting which lasted for more than half an hour, the leaders of the two parties are understood to have discussed the key issue of seat-sharing among alliance partners in the NDA, which also includes Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party.

The BJP leadership is also understood to have assured Kumar that it will intervene and iron out the differences that have of late cropped up between the JD-U and the LJP on account of the belligerent stance adopted by the latter's young president Chirag Paswan.

The schedule for assembly elections in the state is likely to be announced shortly.

The Election Commission has indicated that it would like to conclude the exercise before end of term of the present house on November 29.

On the previous evening at a press conference in Patna, BJP's election in-charge for Bihar assembly Devendra Fadnavis had sought to make light of the acrimony between JD-U and LJP and remarked 'nobody is going to leave the NDA, though many may join us'.

The former Maharashtra Chief Minister had also attributed the sharp differences that have emerged between the two parties to 'diverse ideologies a reason why we all are separate political parties, though united in purpose'.

Nadda, who arrived here on the previous evening on a two-day tour of Bihar, began his day by offering prayers at the famous Patan Devi temple in the old city, after which the Bihar capital is named.

After the meeting with the chief minister, his itineraryincludes launch of 'Atmanirbhar Bihar Abhiyan' at the party's state headquarters followed by a visit to Muzaffarpur district where he will interact with women farmers and litchi cultivators at the village named after the legendary 'Kisan Chachi', whose efforts at promoting entrepreneurship among rural women have earned her a Padma award.

Nadda is thereafter scheduled to visit Darbhanga, and interact with farmers involved in fisheries and production of makhana (fox nuts), both of which are found in abundance in the Mithila region of north Bihar.
The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has assured partners that the state government remains resolute in its commitment to ensure quality service delivery at the primary health care level .

The governor also pledged his administrations commitment to constantly fulfill its financial commitments to the sector

Mr El-Rufai said that despite the fiscal challenges imposed by COVID-19, Kaduna State has raised health spending from 16.1 per cent to 18 per cent in the revised 2020 budget.

Governor El-Rufai, who was speaking in Kaduna at the 2020 Mid-Year PHC and routine immunisation programme review meeting, extended his appreciation to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Dangote Foundation and the other MoU partners for the support they have provided to help the state improve health outcomes for its citizens.

He assured the partners that the increased allocation to the health sector reflected the priority accorded it and underscores the importance this administration places on health which is a one critical measure of human capital development.

The governor disclosed that the state made significant progress in the implementation of agreed milestones in the February  September 2020 period under review, while also acknowledging that there are a few challenges that need to be addressed to achieve the agreed milestones in full.

Mr El-Rufai pledged that the state will continue to prioritise budgetary allocations and releases for health while continuing to explore other funding sources to accelerate recovery of the Health System but most significantly, the PHC system.

He also said that the agreed 5% annual increase in budget release from the current rate will be maintained and that monthly overheads to ward PHCs are maintained for effective service provision.

Mr El-Rufai disclosed that the state is fulfilling commitments made as part of the declarations in Seattle, United States of America,including reviews of PHC performance at State Executive Council meetings.

He informed the partners that the state has fully implemented Primary Health Care Under One Roof (PHCUOR) with the transfer of the Tuberculosis and Malaria programmes to the Primary Health Care Board,

On immunisation, he assured partners that the state government will sustain the significant gains made in polio eradication and will continue to improve the quality of immunisation and provision of funds for supplemental immunisation activities

The governor expressed profound appreciations to the Aliko Dangote Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF, the UK Department for International Development and the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria for their support.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The COVID-19 pandemic took away her family's livelihood and now 48-year-old Veeramma fears she will lose her roof in the wake of the Supreme Court ordering the removal of 48,000 slum dwellings along railway tracks in Delhi.

"My husband was born here. My son was born here. My in-laws breathed their last in this house. This is all we have," said Veeramma as she sat on crushed stones outside her home at a slum cluster alongside a railway track near Jal Vihar in Lajpat Nagar.

The 48-year-old, who works as a domestic help, said her employers haven't called her back to work yet.

"My husband cannot move. My son is a daily wager, he doesn't have much work, too. We don't have enough ration to feed the family for another week," said Veeramma looking at her two-year-old granddaughter, a third generation to be born in the slum cluster.

"We don't have the money for my granddaughter's milk. Even if we beg, we won't get anything. The times were never so bad," she said.

The Supreme Court had on August 31 ordered the removal of 48,000 slum dwellings along railway tracks in Delhi within three months.

As per rough estimates, there are around 2,40,000 people living in slums in Naraina Vihar, Azadpur, Vihar, Shakur Basti, Mayapuri, Sriniwaspuri, Anand Parbat and Okhla among others.

The Northern Railways had submitted a report to the apex court which said that mushrooming of slums along railway tracks is acting as hindrance towards keeping them clean.

Panchavarna, 55, said her family had moved to Delhi from Chennai.

"We know the land belongs to the government, but where will we go? Who will take our responsibility?" she asked.

Elumalai, 35, reminded the government's promise of "jahan jhuggi wahin makan" made before the elections.

"We do not say we won't accept the court's order. This land belongs to the railways and they will take it one day, but where will we go? No one cares for us," Elumalai, whose father came to Delhi from Chennai in 1978, said.

Interestingly, each household in the slum has got electricity connection, Aadhaar card, voter id, and ration card.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had built community toilets for the slum dwellers last year, so that no one defecates in the open or on the tracks, said 45-year-old Shankar Sarangam, a driver who did not get a salary for three months during the COVID-19-induced lockdown.

"The salary has been reduced by half. I have a family to feed. We were thankful to god that we have a roof over our head," he said.

"Now the jhuggi will be gone, too. The railways should have at least considered the timing of the move. The impact of the pandemic will linger on for another three years," Sarangam said.

In another slum along the railway tracks in Sriniwaspuri, Ramnadhar Mandal, 40, asks, "Why do politicians ask for votes if they cannot rehabilitate us?" "Where do we go to the footpath?" Mandal, who hails from Bihar's Katihar district, has two baby girls who are learning to walk.

"Think of these children. We will have to spend nights in the open, in rains and winters," he said, clasping his hands together, as if making a request to the government.

Gunodhar Mandal, 60, who came to Delhi from West Bengal's Malda district 25 years ago is not very hopeful of a "proper rehabilitation".

"I am afraid we will be asked to leave the city and go back to the village. We have nothing left there," he said.

The matter has taken a political tone with the Aam Aadmi Party targeting the Bharatiya Janata Party for eviction notices being issued by the railways.

AAP spokesperson and MLA Raghav Chadha on Friday tore eviction notices sent to the residents and said no one could raze their shanties "till Kejriwal is alive".

The Delhi BJP has alleged that despite being in power for over five years, the AAP has done little to rehabilitate people living in slums in the city.

The Arvind Kejriwal government says the railways cannot demolish the slum clusters along the train tracks without providing alternative accommodation to its inhabitants in accordance with the provisions of Delhi Slum and JJ Rehabilitation and Relocation Policy, 2015.

On its part, Railways said it was working in line with the orders of the Supreme Court, but refused to elaborate further on the issue.

In a letter to the railways on Thursday, the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), headed by Chief Minister Kejriwal, said that according to the 2015 policy, the rehabilitation work has to be undertaken by the agency which owns the encroached land.

However, DUSIB also said it can undertake rehabilitation work but the railways will have to pay for the cost of land and construction as well as relocation charges ranging from Rs 7.55 Lakh to Rs 11.30 Lakh per flat.

The agency also provided a list of over 29,000 completed housing units and another 16,600 under construction ones available with the Delhi government.

These houses were constructed in different parts of the city including Narela, Bawana, Baprola, Sultanpuri and other places under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) between 2007 and 2019.

The DUSIB has said the 29,257 completed flats will be ready to move in by March-April 2021, while the under construction 16600 flats at Tikri and Pooth Khurd will be ready by December 2021.
The hustle and bustle of ministry can be overwhelming for clergy families at times.

Tending to sick parishioners, taking late night phone calls, preparing sermons and leading church meetings consumes most of a pastor's time and leaves little room for much else. It's what makes being a pastor different from an ordinary job with standard 9-to-5 work hours.

There's also the emotional burden that comes with helping people trek through grief, spiritual anxiety and other difficulties.

Now, a North Charleston couple is enjoying what life is like after decades of answering God's call to serve congregations across the country.

Sort of.

Retired Pastor Jim Pierce, 76, still gets requests to preach and play music for the church he and his wife attend. But for the most part, he and his wife, Linda, 73, are spending their golden years doing what they enjoy most: collecting trains and needlepoint.

These are different hobbies from those of their retired friends who engage in more widely practiced activities, such as reading books, said Linda Pierce. The two, finding joy in their crafts after years of serving others, offer a glimpse into how couples can work together to accomplish neat projects.

"It's a creative outlet," said Jim Pierce. "Without an outlet for creativity, life could get boring."

The Pierces' life together has been anything but mundane. Their 54-year-union has produced two children and numerous trips to countries in North America, Europe and elsewhere.

But travel was limited to ministry-related endeavors for much of their marriage. After graduating seminary in the early 1970s, Jim began what would become a more than 30-year career in leading congregations in Minnesota, New Jersey and North Carolina.

Also an organist, Jim has played music for churches.

He retired in 2006 when the couple moved to North Charleston and began attending a Lutheran church in Summerville.

That's when he delved into a childhood pastime of collecting trains. His passion is evident almost as soon as one enters the couple's home, where a dining room was transformed into a hub for small transit stations.

Fourteen years of work has resulted into a miniature network of stations made from cardboard, plastic and other items, and containing about six small locomotive trains. The depot, made from scratch, ranges from widely known stops in large metropolitan areas, such as Grand Central Terminal in New York, to smaller stations, such as one that mirrors the rural area where Jim first served as pastor.

For Linda, needlepoint has been a constant practice for 40 years.

Her earlier works include embroidery worked over canvasses that made up a Christmas village.

In recent years, she's created items mirroring historic Charleston buildings, such as those at Rainbow Row, Hampton Plantation, First (Scots) Presbyterian and Central Fire Station, which is Linda's favorite because of the features of the building and the stitching and trim the project required.

"Just the complexity of the thing," she said.

The fruits of her labor are shown throughout the couple's home. Needlepoint buildings are used as door stops, door hangers and wall art in their home.

Her current project will be of a building in Quebec, Canada. She said the projects are inspired by the places she's traveled with her husband.

The most challenging part is getting the needlepoint projects to look as identical to the pictures as possible, she said.

Jim's retirement has enabled him to help. The needlepoint process begins when Jim takes a photo of a structure, after which he lays a grid over the paper and then creates graph paper. Linda selects the yarn and does the stitching, which can take four months.

The two know the importance of having a hobby while engaging in critical work. They know some pastors who, at 74, are still working full time.

"You get burned out," Jim said.

Religious leaders are known to creatively use their hobbies and other life happenings as metaphoric illustrations to teach themselves and other spiritual lessons.

But the clergy couple makes no attempt to use their favorite pastimes to teach any divine revelation. They simply enjoy having the free time to do what they love.
LAS VEGAS (AP)  In open defiance of state regulations and his own administrations pandemic health guidelines, President Donald Trump on Sunday hosted his first indoor rally since June, telling a packed, nearly mask-less Nevada crowd that the nation was making the last turn in defeating the virus.

Eager to project a sense of normalcy in imagery, Trump soaked up the raucous cheers inside a warehouse. Relatively few in the crowd wore masks, with one clear exception: Those in the stands directly behind Trump, whose images would end up on TV, were mandated to wear face coverings.

Not since a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that was blamed for a surge of coronavirus infections has he gathered supporters indoors. There was no early mention from the president that the pandemic had killed nearly 200,000 Americans and was still claiming 1,000 lives a day.

We are not shutting the country again. A shutdown would destroy the lives and dreams of millions Americans, said Trump, before using his inflammatory moniker for the coronavirus. We will very easy defeat the China virus.

The rally in Tulsa, which was his first in three months after the coronavirus reached American shores, was a disaster for the campaign, a debacle that featured a sea of empty seats and a rise in COVID-19 cases, including on his own staff. One prominent Trump supporter at the rally, businessman and former presidential candidate Herman Cain, died of COVID-19 weeks later, though it was not clear if he contracted the virus in Tulsa.

Recognizing that many supporters were uncomfortable to gather in a large group indoors, where the virus spreads more easily, the Trump campaign shifted to holding smaller, outdoor rallies, usually at airplane hangers. But those rallies have grown in size in recent weeks, with little social distancing and few masks.

And on Sunday, they returned indoors, in part as a nod to the Las Vegas-area heat. Temperature checks were given to all upon entrance at the industrial site in Henderson and while masks were encouraged, few wore them.

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Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, has limited in-person gatherings indoors and outdoors to 50 people since May, a recommendation based on White House reopening guidelines. In a statement released just before the rally began, Sisolak said Trump was taking reckless and selfish actions that are putting countless lives in danger here in Nevada.

To put it bluntly: he didnt have the guts to make tough choices, Sisolak said of Trumps handling of the virus. He left that to governors and the states. Now hes decided he doesnt have to respect our States laws. As usual, he doesnt believe the rules apply to him.

The city of Henderson informed Xtreme Manufacturing on Sunday that the event as planned was in direct violation of the governors COVID-19 emergency directives and that penalties would follow. The Trump campaign pushed back against the restrictions with the president saying he would support those in attendance if the governor came after you."

If you can join tens of thousands of people protesting in the streets, gamble in a casino, or burn down small businesses in riots, you can gather peacefully under the 1st Amendment to hear from the President of the United States, campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said.

To this point, the campaign has not been played out as a choice election between Trump and his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, but rather a referendum on the presidents handling of the coronavirus. By wide margins, Americans have disapproved of Trumps leadership, as the United States has suffered more deaths than any other nation.

Therefore, the presidents campaign believes it needs to change the subject and project the sense, despite evidence otherwise, that the pandemic was winding down and that a vaccine was on the horizon. Part of the plan: create images of normalcy, like the packed White House lawn for Trumps convention speech, though it was unclear if viewers were reassured or frightened.

In a rambling, hourlong speech, Trump mused on mandatory prison sentences for flag burning, praised various UFC fighters in attendance and appeared to endorse extradjudicial killings for those who target police officers. And Trump unleashed a series of attacks on Biden, labeling him a him a tired career politician and declaring him unfit to be president.

But, Trump ruminated, while complaining about the medias coverage: Maybe hell win because they dont like me, they dont like my personality.

The crowd answered with a deafening We love you chant.

The rally came the night before Trump was to travel to California to receive a briefing on the devastating wildfires racing through the region. He has largely been silent on the blazes that have claimed dozens of lives in Oregon and California.

Earlier Sunday, Trump aimed for further inroads with Latinos who could prove vital in closely contested states that could determine the White House race, promoting economic gains they made before the coronavirus pandemic.

Though Trump has made scores of inflammatory and derogatory comments about Latinos, his campaign is growing confident that he has won some support that could help in Florida, Arizona and Nevada, his target this weekend,

Winning support from Latinos has been an uphill climb for Trump, whose hard-line immigration policies and sometimes virulent depiction of immigrants have alienated many Hispanics.

In the first moments of his 2016 campaign, he declared that many Mexican immigrants were rapists. He has drawn criticism for his tepid response to a hurricane that ravaged Puerto Rico, his polices to separate children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border and his efforts to dismantle an Obama-era program that allows young immigrants living in the country illegally who were brought here as children to remain in the U.S.

They understand the situation at the southern border. They want people to come in, and so do I, but they want them to do it legally, Trump told a small group of supporters in Las Vegas. While Joe Biden has failed, I have delivered for Latinos.

There is increasing concern about Democrats that their nominee, the former vice president, has not done enough to court Latino voters. His running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, did little to sway Floridas booming and politically influential Latino population during a stop there this past week. Biden has not set foot in Arizona or Nevada during the general election campaign, which he has mainly conducted virtually because of the coronavirus.

Trump tailored his pitch to Latinos on Sunday, noting their low unemployment rate before COVID-19 reached American shores and affirming his anti-abortion stance. He again hammered home his recent push on law and order, saying that recent violence in American cities endangered Latinos. He was set to hold a similar event in Arizona on Monday.

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Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire

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APs Advance Voting guide brings you the facts about voting early, by mail or absentee from each state: https://interactives.ap.org/advance-voting-2020/
A short drive from Chattanooga along I-24 W to exit 72 (South Pittsburg) towards Bridgeport, Alabama leads a traveler to Russell Cave National Monument on the left.

It is an archeological site with one of the most complete records of prehistoric culture of a group of people in the Southeast.

The monuments location in northeastern Alabama is closest to the former railroad town of Bridgeport.

The National Geographical Society donated 310 acres to the American people which encompasses the area of the cave. The Society had previously purchased the site in 1956 from Oscar Ridley. With said donation the monument is now administered and maintained by the National Park Service.

The original owner of the property was Major James Dorian who was the brother-in-law of Colonel Thomas Russell who was a veteran of the American Revolutionary War from North Carolina and for whom the cave is named.

Starting in 1953, the Chattanooga chapter of the Tennessee Archaeological Society first recognized Russell Cave as an archaeological site.

The National Geographical Society, as well as the Smithsonian Institute, conducted additional excavations along with the National Park Service.

After the property had been donated to the United States government in 1961, President John F. Kennedy proclaimed Russell Cave a National Monument on May 11 of that year.

The excavation work is ongoing and to date the teams have dug down more than 30 feet into the cave floor.

Using carbon-14 testing to determine the ages of ancient campfire residue found, the teams have been able to surmise the age of the artifacts as being about 6500 years ago. However the ages of human remains also found suggest a much older date of occupation of possibly 10,000 years.

The cave is believed to have primarily been used as a seasonal winter shelter based on the ability of the settlers to rely on the surrounding forest to grow produce and to hunt for game and fish in surrounding water sources of the Tennessee River.

Russell Cave is the third-longest mapped cave in the State of Alabama and is ranked 90th on the United States Long Cave list and 314 on the World Long Cave List.

Russell Cave continues to be an extremely important archaeological research site but has also become a popular tourist destination.

The visitor center, which was dedicated in 1967, contains museum exhibits and documentary films about the lifestyles of prehistoric peoples. It was named after Gilbert H. Grosvenor who was the editor of the National Geographic Society Magazine from 1903 to 1954 and president of the National Geographical Society from 1920-1954.

Recreational caving is no longer available but tours led by Park Rangers are free and there are two walking trails.

Russell Cave is one of the most extensive cave systems in Alabama with more than seven miles of mapped passageways. It also contains five separate entrances into the cave.

A rare specimen of a scorpion that has not been found anywhere else in the world has been found in the cave and is protected.

Each year during the first weekend in May the Russell Cave National Monument has hosted a Native American Festival. The event includes Indian performances and the reenactment of a Cherokee encampment is conducted. A variety of demonstrations are held in wood carving, and pottery hand building.

Easily located at 3729 County Road 98 outside Bridgeport, the cave site is open year around and admission is free to enter the park or tour the cave.

A call to the monument office at (256)-495-2672 will connect you with courteous staff members who can provide you with up-to-date information about the site.

If you want to make it an all day trip you can also continue up 98 until you see a sign on the right that will direct you to the abandoned railroad depot in the former mining town of Orme, Tennessee that is in Marion County, Tennessee.

* * *

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
Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut, who is locked in a bitter battle with the ruling Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, on Sunday met state Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari here and told him about the "injustice" done to her.

The meeting came days after the Shiv Sena-ruled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) demolished alleged illegal alterations at Kangana's bungalow at Pali Hill in suburban Bandra.

Talking to reporters after the meeting that took place at the Raj Bhavan, the actor said, "I met the governor. He heard me as a daughter. I came to meet him as a citizen. I have nothing to do with politics."

"I told him about the injustice meted out to me and what happened was improper. It was indecent behaviour," she said.

The trouble between the Sena and Kangana started after the actor recently said she feared the Mumbai police more than the "movie mafia" and likened the Maharashtra capital to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The 33-year-old actor, who returned to Mumbai on Wednesday from her home state Himachal Pradesh the same day as her house was partially demolished by the civic body, had alleged that the Maharashtra government was targeting her because of her clash with the Sena.

On Friday, the "Queen" actor had urged Congress president Sonia Gandhi to intervene and stop the "harassment of women". In a tweet, she had asked Gandhi if she was not anguished by the treatment given by the Maharashtra government, in which the Congress is also a part.

Also read:Kangana Ranaut to make this 'symbolic' gesture in fight with CM Uddhav Thackeray
Migrant workers seen at work in the Queens Road area. (PHOTO: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore)

SINGAPORE  The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed the detection of another 49 cases of COVID-19 infection as of noon on Sunday (13 September), taking Singapores total case count to 57,406.

There is one community case, who is a Work Pass holder, and eight imported cases, all off whom have been placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arriving in Singapore.

Among the cases, 47 are asymptomatic, the MOH said, and were detected from proactive screening and surveillance, while two were symptomatic.

The sole community case  57520, a 42-year-old male Indian national  is currently unlinked. The case was detected as a result of the MOHs Rostered Routine Testing of workers in the construction, marine and process sectors who are living outside the dormitories, even though he is asymptomatic.

Among the eight imported cases, one (Case 57513) is a Singaporean and another (Case 57542) is a Singapore permanent resident who returned to Singapore from India on 5 September and 10 September.

Another four (Cases 57497, 57525, 57526 and 57527) are work permit holders currently employed in Singapore who arrived from the Philippines on 30 August. The remaining cases  Case 57533, a one-year-old Indian boy; and Case 57537, a six-year-old American girl  are dependants pass holders who arrived from India and the US on 30 August.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has decreased, the MOH said, from an average of two cases per day in the week before, to an average of one per day in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased, from an average of two cases per day in the week before, to an average of one per day in the past week.

Cases in dormitories

Among the 40 cases residing in dormitories, 31 had been identified earlier as contacts of previous cases, and had already been quarantined to prevent further transmission, the health ministry said. They were tested during quarantine to determine their status. The remaining nine cases were detected through surveillance testing, such as our biweekly Rostered Routine Testing of workers living in dormitories.

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Besides the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, the ministry also conducted serological tests to determine if some of the cases are current or past infections. The serological test results for 14 cases have come back positive so far, which indicate likely past infection.

Some 99% of total cases have recovered

With 65 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Saturday, 56,764 cases  or 98.9 per cent of the total  have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 60 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while none is in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

A total of 555 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.

Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore

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Bass Oil Limited's (ASX:BAS) price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 30.3x might make it look like a strong sell right now compared to the market in Australia, where around half of the companies have P/E ratios below 19x and even P/E's below 10x are quite common. However, the P/E might be quite high for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

The earnings growth achieved at Bass Oil over the last year would be more than acceptable for most companies. It might be that many expect the respectable earnings performance to beat most other companies over the coming period, which has increased investors willingness to pay up for the stock. If not, then existing shareholders may be a little nervous about the viability of the share price.

View our latest analysis for Bass Oil

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Want the full picture on earnings, revenue and cash flow for the company? Then our free report on Bass Oil will help you shine a light on its historical performance.

How Is Bass Oil's Growth Trending?

The only time you'd be truly comfortable seeing a P/E as steep as Bass Oil's is when the company's growth is on track to outshine the market decidedly.

If we review the last year of earnings growth, the company posted a terrific increase of 20%. Still, EPS has barely risen at all from three years ago in total, which is not ideal. Therefore, it's fair to say that earnings growth has been inconsistent recently for the company.

This is in contrast to the rest of the market, which is expected to grow by 21% over the next year, materially higher than the company's recent medium-term annualised growth rates.

With this information, we find it concerning that Bass Oil is trading at a P/E higher than the market. It seems most investors are ignoring the fairly limited recent growth rates and are hoping for a turnaround in the company's business prospects. Only the boldest would assume these prices are sustainable as a continuation of recent earnings trends is likely to weigh heavily on the share price eventually.

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The Key Takeaway

Using the price-to-earnings ratio alone to determine if you should sell your stock isn't sensible, however it can be a practical guide to the company's future prospects.

Our examination of Bass Oil revealed its three-year earnings trends aren't impacting its high P/E anywhere near as much as we would have predicted, given they look worse than current market expectations. Right now we are increasingly uncomfortable with the high P/E as this earnings performance isn't likely to support such positive sentiment for long. If recent medium-term earnings trends continue, it will place shareholders' investments at significant risk and potential investors in danger of paying an excessive premium.

Before you take the next step, you should know about the 5 warning signs for Bass Oil (2 are potentially serious!) that we have uncovered.

If these risks are making you reconsider your opinion on Bass Oil, explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there.

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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Fifty truckloads of military gears and logistic supplies for the U.S.-led coalition entered Syria from Iraq on Saturday, a war monitor reported.

The convoy entered through the al-Walid crossing and headed to the bases of the U.S.-led coalition in the countryside of the northeastern province of Hasakah, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The UK-based watchdog group said the shipment is the latest to reach the U.S. bases in Hasakah. On Aug. 29, 50 truckloads of military gears already reached these bases.

The U.S. maintains several bases in the areas controlled by the U.S.-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The Syrian government has repeatedly condemned the presence of U.S. forces in Syria as illegitimate.
She recently described lockdown as a 'blessing' as she continues to enjoy some downtime with her family.

And Rachel Riley appeared in great spirits as she shopped at American Vintage with her husband Pasha Kovalev and their baby daughter Maven, eight months, in Notting Hill on Friday.

The Countdown whizz, 34, looked radiant as she slipped into a grey playsuit and carried her little girl in an animal print sling during her outing.

Family fun: Rachel Riley appeared in great spirits as she shopped at American Vintage with her husband Pasha Kovalev and their baby daughter Maven, eight months, in Notting Hill on Friday

Showcasing her lean legs, the mathematician's ensemble featured wide-leg shorts and a V-shaped neckline.

The blonde opted for comfort when it came to her footwear as she wore her favourite bedazzled trainers.

With her tresses pulled back into a bun, the TV star displayed her naturally clear complexion by going make-up free.

Glowing: The Countdown whizz, 34, looked radiant as she slipped into a grey playsuit and carried her little girl in an animal print sling during her outing

Better safe than sorry: Showcasing her lean legs, the mathematician's ensemble featured wide-leg shorts and a V-shaped neckline while she wore a protective face mask

The former Strictly professional, 40, looked equally casual in a denim shirt and navy shorts.

Rachel and her little family have been spending the lockdown with her Russian mother-in-law Galina, whose month-long visit to the UK was extended amid the pandemic.

The couple, who became first-time parents to Maven in December, have been enjoyed extended time off at home amid the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking on Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Lucy Horobin, the blonde recently admitted the countrywide lockdown has been something of a blessing for the family as they have been given 'enforced maternity and paternity leave'.

The Oxford University alum said: 'Well we're quite fortunate in a way, I was supposed to be back at work, Pasha was supposed to be on tour, and it's kind of enforced maternity and paternity leave we didn't have before so we're loving it.

'She's just over five months, I've left her in bed in kind of the same sleeping position as Pash, if you hear crying it could be either one of them I have no idea.'
Chris Evans is trending on Twitter after unintentionally shared a nude photo of himself while uploading a video on social media.

On Saturday, Evans took to his Instagram stories to share a screen recording of his family playing a game of "Heads Up" without a trim. But at the end of the video, the camera roll appeared on the screen allegedly included a black and white photo of a man's private part, according to Page Six.

The gallery also has a meme of Evan's face with a caption. It is unclear if the camera roll belongs to Evans, yet everyone is waiting for the actor to address it publicly.

Although the 'Captain America' star quickly deleted the video, fans were able to capture screenshots and brought them over to Twitter, which was why Evans is on the top of the trending page. Evans' leaked photos unsurprisingly spawned the jokes and memes immediately, as per the IBT.

A fan @itsjustanx wrote, "Chris Evans did nothing wrong. He just saw Marvel stans and asked for content. It's our fault for being not specific."

Meanwhile, YouTube star Manny Mua said, "Chris Evans leaking his nudes is the highlight of my Saturday."

On the other hand, some of Evans' fans came to his defense and took the chance to share some of the actor's wholesome photos and messages.

Another fan @blisfulfiction, tweeted, "a friendly reminder that Chris Evans is one of the sweetest men who (very publicly) suffer from crippling anxiety, and you should block & report anybody who is sharing that nude picture because this angel deserves nothing but love."

The other fan gave a reminder on Twitter that Evan suffered from anxiety and said that the actor doesn't deserve the negativity happening over the accident of leaking the personal photos. Along with several others, the fan encouraged social media people to share Evan's picture with his dog, Dodger.

In an episode of The Hollywood Reporter's "Awards Chatter" podcast, Evans, 39, shared that he almost passed on his 'Captain America' role due to anxiety, IBT reported. The actor said that it was the best decision he made, and he owed that to Marvel chief Kevin Feige for becoming persistent and helped Evans avoid making a huge mistake.

Chris was recently linked to the 'Baby Driver' actress Lily James after the two were spotted together twice in London in July. Back in 2016, Evans sparked a relationship with former SNL actress Jenny Slate.

In 2017, slate and Evans took a break before reuniting later in the year, but sadly, they broke up in March 2018 for good.

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PM Rajapaksa will be the hardest-hit by the amendment, while his brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa will gain full legal immunity as President

Colombo: The Sri Lankan government's proposed 20th Constitution Amendment has faced internal resistance from within a faction of the ruling SLPP parliamentary group itself, ahead of its inclusion in Parliament's order paper, the party members said on Sunday.

The government on September 2 gazetted the 20th Constitution Amendment draft, the new proposed legislation that would replace the 19th Amendment introduced in 2015 that curtailed the powers of the President and strengthened the role of Parliament.

The 19A was seen as the most progressive pro-democracy reformist move since Sri Lanka came to be governed under the all-powerful executive presidency in 1978. It depoliticised the government administration by ensuring the independence of key pillars such as the judiciary, public service and elections.

The 20th Amendment proposes to restore full legal immunity to the President, removing the provisions made in the 19A to take legal action against the President.

The office of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in a statement on Saturday night said that a nine-member ministerial committee has been appointed to review the 20A in its present form and, if needed, a fresh gazette will be issued.

Ever since the government gazetted the 20A, some of the ruling SLPP's own parliamentarians and the party's allies have been publicly expressing unhappiness over its certain provisions, the party members said.

If the 20A is implemented in its present form, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will be the hardest-hit as his current powers as the premier would be diminished with his younger brother and the President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, assuming full executive power, they said.

Moreover, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is also a two-time president, will not be able to contest for the presidential election again as the two term bar has been retained in the 20A draft, the party members said.

The draft legislation was to be placed in Parliament's order book this week for debate and adaptation. However, it faced internal resistance from within a faction of the SLPP parliamentary group. And now, with Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is also the leader of the Sri Lanka People's Party (SLPP), appointing a committee, this process could be delayed, they said.

The committee is expected to submit its report by September 15.

The 20A has proposed several changes which include the replacement of the vital Constitutional Council (CC) with a new body called the Parliamentary council.

"The PC will consist only of members of parliament with no place for civil society representatives," according to local media reports.

Also, three independent commissions, which include the Election Commission, will be abolished.

According to 20A, the chairpersons and members of the commissions shall be appointed by the president. In making such appointments, the president shall seek the observations of the Parliamentary Council (PC).

Earlier under the 19A, all these appointments were the responsibility of the CC.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa outlined his commitment to abolish the 19th Amendment during his ceremonial address to Parliament last month.

The 19A Amendment adopted in 2015 by the then reformist government was subject to much criticism by the powerful Rajapaksa clan as it prevented dual citizens from contesting elections. At the time, two of the Rajapaksa family members, including the current president, were dual citizens of the US and Sri Lanka.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa had to renounce his US citizenship to contest the presidential election in November last.

His younger brother and SLPP founder and its National Organiser, Basil Rajapaksa, is a dual citizen of the US and Sri Lanka. There are five of them already in the government.

During the August 5 general election, the SLPP sought two thirds parliamentary mandate or 150 seats in the 225-member assembly to effect constitutional changes, the foremost of them was the move to abolish the 19A.

The SLPP and allies won 150 seats and have a two-third majority to effect the constitutional change they desire.

While Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected as the Sri Lankan President in November last year, his eldest brother Mahinda Rajapaksa won the general election and assumed charge as Prime Minister on August 9.

Significantly, under the 20A draft, there is no provision on the Right to Information Commission, which was established by the 19A, while two important commissions -- Audit Service Commission and National Procurement Commission -- established by the 19A have been abolished.

Under the 20A draft, no fundamental rights petition can be filed against the president.

Article 35 in it says while any person holds office as president, no proceedings shall be instituted or continued against him in any court or tribunal in respect of anything done or omitted to be done by him either in his official or private capacity, according to the draft of 20A.

Also, the president is empowered to dissolve Parliament at his will after one year of a new Parliament is elected, which means the president can remove the prime minister and his cabinet at his will even though a Parliament will be elected for a five-year term.

The 20A draft provisions also do away with the limitation on the number of cabinet ministers.

The 19A limitations on the number of the cabinet (30) and deputy ministers (45) have been dropped. The president is empowered to appoint any number of ministers, according to the draft.
Animals that must be hit hard! he said. Later Sunday morning, Trump tweeted of the officers: If they die, fast trial death penalty for the killer. Only way to stop this! At a roundtable in Nevada, the president spoke of stiffer penalties for violence, saying that if a suspect is apprehended, we are going to get much faster with our courts and we have to get much tougher with our sentencing.
By Jeffrey Reidy

Recently, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf mentioned cannabis legalization as part of his fall agenda, sparking a storm of less-than-informed opposition. I applaud the governors reassertion of his previous challenge. Last September, he had pledged his full support for cannabis legalization after Lt. Gov. John Fettermans listening tour on marijuana.

Though Fetterman has not been shy about his feelings about cannabis legalization, even before he won his bid in 2018, Wolf has been mostly silent since last September. Fetterman reminds our legislature daily on social media, with days since the listening tour posts. The tours results concluded that better than 60% of Pennsylvanians support cannabis legalization statewide.

Why does Pennsylvanias uninformed Republican Caucus continue to obstruct, refusing even to discuss any of the smart cannabis reform legislation waiting in Harrisburg? Detractors cited health concerns and increased use among teens. Republican House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff of Centre County said that the governors idea was utterly irresponsible. Rep. Doyle Heffley of Carbon County added, Now he wants to create a whole other level of issues, referring to Wolfs legalization demand. The dissent and unsubstantiated fears are standard operating procedure for our opposition.

A quick polling of Lehigh Valley state-level politicians suggests unanimous support among Democrats. Valley Republicans in Harrisburg stand in opposition. Advocates faced similar numbers in Pennsylvania when medical marijuana legislation was drafted. Eventually, sick patients and children pulled enough heartstrings to get support to pass the law. Today our states program is among the countrys fastest-growing, boasting more than 300,000 patients, with sales of over $385 million before June. Imagine if all cannabis-smoking Pennsylvanians had the opportunity to purchase a legal product? At 20% national rate of usage, there would be more than 2.5 million adults seeking legal cannabis.

What about the detractors? Independent studies have shown no increase in use in states that have legalized cannabis. With regards to health risks, if there are any long-term risks, users would already have experienced them, as cannabis has been around for centuries.

Recent polling suggests that 20-25% of Americans consume cannabis weekly. In fact, cannabis legalization would better protect the consumer, who currently purchases an untested product off the street, without any guarantees. Legal cannabis is regulated and tested, and is properly labeled.

I would remind legislators that alcohol is far more dangerous than cannabis, yet many Americans end their day with a libation. It would seem hypocritical to condemn the idea of cannabis legalization, which has not been attributed as the cause of a single death in the U.S., while alcohol accounts for 10,000 traffic fatalities annually.

Could cannabis legalization fix the budgetary gaps in Pennsylvania? I have my doubts, and I hold my breath when Wolf suggests that, it might be one way to plug a hole in the budget. Auditor General Eugene DePasquale estimated that adult-use sales could top $580 million of annual sales. Those numbers would certainly pay some bills, but I am reluctant to buy into the idea, as I do not want adult-use sales of cannabis to go the way of our medical marijuana program in Pennsylvania, with an over-priced product, unaffordable to many. The problem with strapping the budget on the back of cannabis is that overpriced legal product cannot compete with street product at half the price. Therein lies the downfall of a few states that have legalized the adult use of cannabis.

Thirty-three states, including Pennsylvania, offer legal medical cannabis. Eleven 11 states have also legalized it for adult recreational use. Colorado has been exemplary, netting profits that now cover 3% of the states annual budget, affording free college tuition and infrastructure improvements. Colorado reported over $1 billion in annual sales in 2019.

Pennsylvania legislators should be more concerned about the inevitable legalization of cannabis in New Jersey, as voters are expected to ratify legalization on the November ballot. Pennsylvania border towns will either have to turn a blind eye or bolster their police forces in an effort to enforce contradictory laws. I warned Easton Mayor Sal Panto and City Council about that two years ago, when they considered passing citywide decriminalization. Sixteen other communities across the state have decriminalized simple possession.

Whos irresponsible now? Now is the time to discuss to cannabis legalization!

Jeffrey Riedy is the executive director of Lehigh Valley NORML, an affiliate chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Riedy lobbies in Harrisburg for legislation promoting smart cannabis reform. Lehigh Valley NORML can be found on Facebook.
As the coronavirus disease continues to wreak havoc across the world, pharmaceutical companies are racing against time to develop a vaccine. AstraZeneca, one of the frontrunners in this endeavour, received a setback when the trial of its vaccine candidate was paused.

The trials have now been resumed and the world is waiting with baited breath to how the vaccines will be delivered to them.

Meanwhile, in China vaccine trials, experts are trying to develop a nasal spray where the volunteers will not receive painful injection.

Here are the latest development in Covid-19 vaccine trials:

*Pharma giant AstraZeneca resumed British clinical trials of its Covid-19 vaccine after getting the green light from the countrys safety watchdogs. An independent committee was drafted in to review safety, in what the company and the World Health Organisation (WHO) described as a routine step.

*In India, Serum Institute of India (SII) said it will resume the trials in the country once the drug regulator, Drugs Controller General of India, gives it requisite permission.

*Iran on Saturday said that it will soon begin human trials for anti-coronavirus vaccine after the stage of animal trials has passed. We hope these activities will bear the desired result in order to provide better preventive services for the people, news agency ANI cited Jalil Koohpayehzadeh, dean of Iran University of Medical Sciences and a member of Tehran anti-coronavirus committee, as saying.

*Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE proposed to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to expand their Phase 3 pivotal Covid-19 vaccine trial to about 44,000 participants. The proposed expansion would allow the companies to enroll people as young as 16 and people with chronic, stable HIV, hepatitis C and hepatitis B, as per the statement.

*In first so far, China began testing a nasal spray vaccine for the coronavirus as against to the injection currently in development by other pharmaceutical companies. It approved Phase 1 human testing for the nasal spray vaccine this week. It is being co-developed by researchers at Xiamen University and Hong Kong University, as well as by vaccine maker Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise Co.

*The governor of Brazils Sao Paulo state said on Wednesday that Phase 3 clinical trials of a potential Covid-19 vaccine developed by Chinas Sinovac Biotech Ltd have shown promising results and it may be available to Brazilians as early as December.

(With inputs from agencies)
LA Megachurch Defies Judges Order Banning Indoor Services; Pastor: Not What Our Founders Said

Officials in Los Angeles County convinced a judge to shut down indoor services at a popular Christian megachurch after failing in four previous attempts in court.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff granted a preliminary injunction on Sept. 10 that prevents Grace Community Church of the Valley from conducting, participating in, or attending any indoor worship services.

The order also bans outdoor worship unless restrictions are followed.

While the court is mindful that there is no substitute for indoor worship in the spiritual refuge of a sanctuary, the court cannot ignore the County Health Order does not dictate a ban on worship  [but] provides any worship must take place other than indoors.

The court finds the balance of harms tips in favor of the County. The potential consequences of community spread of COVID-19 and concomitant risk of death to members of the communityassociated and unassociated with the Churchoutweighs the harm that flows from the restriction on indoor worship caused by the County Health Order.

The churchs pastor, John MacArthur, ridiculed the court order as an inexplicable ruling, in a statement issued by the Thomas More Society, which is representing the church in court.

1/100th of 1% of Californians with a virus apparently wins over the U.S. Constitution and religious freedom for all? That is not what our founders said. Nor is that what God says, who gave us our rights that our governmentincluding the judicial branchis supposed to protect. The scale should always tip in favor of liberty, especially for churches.

MacArthur reportedly ignored the injunction on Sept. 13 and went ahead with indoor services.

He read aloud a long list of requirements, occasionally drawing laughter from parishioners at rules about parking, restroom protocols and social distancing, the news website Patch reports. Following all the rules would completely shut the church down, he said.

Lawyers for the church and MacArthur vow to appeal the ruling.

Although this is a temporary setback, we will continue to fight for Pastor MacArthur and Grace Community Churchs constitutionally protected right to hold church, Jenna Ellis, special counsel to the Thomas More Society, said in the statement.

Church is essential, and no government agent has the runaway, unlimited power to force churches to close indefinitely. The Countys argument was basically because we can, which is the very definition of tyranny. Without limiting governments power in favor of freedom and protected rights, we have no liberty.

We will fight for religious freedom, as our founders did when they wrote the First Amendment.

The Office of County Counsel for Los Angeles didnt immediately respond to requests by The Epoch Times for comment.

On Aug. 28, the county notified the church it planned to evict the congregation from a parking lot it has been using for 45 years, The Epoch Times previously reported. The house of worship was given just 30 days to vacate the property. Church leaders claim the eviction is retaliatory and in response to its insistence that its members First Amendment religious rights be respected.

California began ordering businesses to close six months ago because of the pandemic.

On March 19, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, ordered almost all establishments, including churches, to shut down. On June 18, Los Angeles houses of worship were allowed to conduct reduced-capacity indoor operations. Reported cases of the CCP virus began to increase and in July, most indoor activities were again banned.

Places of worship in California are now restricted to a maximum of 25 percent of building capacity or 100 attendees indoors, whichever is lower; singing and chanting are forbidden.

The church suspended in-person services on March 12, before the county or state issued stay-at-home orders banning large gatherings. Services were conducted online.

But after not holding in-person services for 19 weeks, church elders voted July 23 to reopen the church for such services. Indoor services began July 26 and were followed by a cease-and-desist letter from the county on July 29.
A staff member places a coronavirus vaccine candidate from Sinovac Biotech at its booth for display during the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services, following the COVID-19 outbreak, in Beijing, China Sept.5. Reuters-Yonhap



By Bahk Eun-ji



The global competition to develop a COVID-19 vaccine has been intensifying as it is considered to be the only fundamental solution to ending the pandemic. As some research institutes and multinational pharmaceutical and bio companies have recently entered Phase 3 clinical trials, expectations for the possibility of an early supply are also growing.



According to the Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker of the New York Times, Modena, Pfizer in the United States; AstraZeneca and Oxford University in the United Kingdom; BioNTech in Germany; CanSino Biologics, Sinovac Biotech, Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, and Sinopharm Group in China; Gamaleya Research Institute in Russia; and Murdoch Children's Research Center in Australia are in the third phase of clinical trials.



Among them, AstraZeneca said Sept. 9 that it had paused global trials, including a large late-stage one, of its experimental coronavirus vaccine because of an unexplained illness in a study participant. The company's vaccine development has been widely seen as one of the leading global candidates against the virus.



AstraZeneca and Oxford University have been conducting their Phase 3 clinical trial for vaccine candidate AZD1222 in numerous countries including the U.S, U.K., Brazil and South Africa.



Oxford University said in its initial clinical trial published in July that 1,077 adults were given the vaccine candidate, which resulted in an increase in protective neutralizing antibodies and immune T cells in the bodies of all participants. Antibodies and T cells are known to play a role in destroying viruses.



However, the suspension of the trial dims prospects for a potential year-end rollout its lead developer had signaled earlier.



Pharmaceutical and bio companies in the U.S. are also speeding up their competition to develop vaccines. In July, Moderna published the results of clinical first-phase trials of the vaccine candidate mRNA-1273 in the New England Journal of Medicine. Moderna explained that antibodies were formed by all 45 participants in the Phase 1 clinical trial. Pfizer also announced that it succeeded in inducing immune responses, including the formation of neutralizing antibodies, in its second clinical trial of 60 subjects with Germany's BioNTech.



China and Russia are also pursuing the U.S. and the U.K. companies by developing their own vaccines.



Chinese companies have also joined the third phase of clinical trials, taking advantage of their strength in early vaccine research. CanSino Biologics announced that the vaccine candidate Ad5-nCoV jointly developed by a research institute at the Academy of Military Science (AMS) caused a high level of immune response in their clinical trials.



CanSino Biologics was approved by the country's Central Military Commission last month and has been used for military purposes. In addition, Sinovac Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine candidate was authorized for emergency use in China under a program to immunize high-risk populations. China National Biotec, a unit of state-owned Sinopharm Group also received emergency use authorization for a coronavirus vaccine last month.



Russia is also confident of the success of its vaccine development. Russia will begin clinical Phase 3 testing of the vaccine Sputnik V, which is under development at the Gamaleya Institute of Epidemiology And Microbiology as early as September.






With universities and colleges in desperate need of funds far in excess of the $14 billion in federal stimulus money allotted by the CARES Act, Covid-19 may well be what some have called an extinction-level event for higher education. Schools often run deficits in normal times; in 2019, nearly 1,000 private colleges were already borderline insolvent. Covid will cause many to shutter for good. It is accounting, not epidemiology, that drives university administrators to push for a rapid return to business as usual, effectively demanding that faculty and staff sacrifice their lives for the financial health of their employer.  The New Republic
PHOENIX, Ore.  Betty Stevens stumbled down the street that had until a few hours ago seemed so familiar, her feet crunching through ash and debris as she entered the smoking remains of her neighborhood. There were melted street signs. Trees burned down to stumps. Power lines across the road. And everywhere she turned, choking, acrid smoke.

Sobbing behind the face mask she normally wears for her job as a hospital respiratory therapist helping coronavirus patients, Stevens, 31, video recorded herself earlier this week as she stumbled through the neighborhood, raw emotion in her voice, sometimes unable to form words, moaning in obvious pain.

"I think everything's gone," she says as the rising sun illuminates the destruction. "This doesnt do justice to how terrifying and horrific this is, seeing how devastated everything is. Our homes are gone. Our homes are completely gone."

The Almeda fire is one of more than 2,000 wildfires that have burned through the western United States in the past weeks, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes from Colorado to California and Oregon, and enveloping millions in choking, toxic smoke considered hazardous to breathe.

Betty Stevens, her husband, Fred Andrews, and their daughter Eleanor visit a friend's house in Medford, Ore., several days after losing their home in the Almeda wildfire.

In Oregon, the fires have blazed through more than 1 million acres, and the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning Sunday, warning that winds of 40 mph could likely contribute to a significant spread" of fires in southern Oregon.

Wildfire conditions appeared to improve across northwest Oregon, however, as winds stayed mild and smoke cooled temperatures. Evacuation levels were reduced from Scotts Mills to the Portland Metro Area, and with rain in the forecast, there was hope the worst is behind the state even as the death count reached 10

In the Almeda, before the fire stopped burning, intense winds fanning the flames made the fire skip around, burning some neighborhoods to the ground and leaving other properties across the street untouched. Many of the destroyed homes were mobile homes or trailers housing some of the area's poorest residents. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated in the initial fire as authorities feared it would burn into Medford, one of the state's most populous cities with roughly 83,000 people.

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"It is apocalyptic, Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon said Sunday on the ABC program This Week. I drove 600 miles up and down the state, and I never escaped the smoke. We have thousands of people who have lost their homes."

Experts say helping people left homeless by the fires will be complicated by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and dramatic rise in unemployment. Four people are confirmed dead.

Emily Carlson, left, Hannah Wagman and Vivienne Harris, with family dog, Rexton, wait in a parking lot in South Medford, Ore. for a police escort into the Almeda fire, Sept. 12, 2020. While they knew their home was destroyed by fire, they were hopeful of getting into a business that they all worked at that reportedly survived in hopes of retrieving belongings there.

A family loses everything . Diapers. Clothes. Food. Their home.

For families who have lived through the historic natural disaster, it has been a week of widespread loss.

For 15 agonizing hours last week, Stevens and her husband, Fred Andrews, had worried about the fate of their townhome in this suburb of Medford, Oregon, as the ferocious wind-driven Almeda wildfire raced toward their community.

At first, they figured the evacuation was just a precaution. Andrews assumed they'd be out for a few hours at most, and then they could return. That night, he fell asleep listening to the crackle of police radios on his iPhone, exhausted from trying to make sense of what he was hearing about a fire that was supposedly two towns away. While he slept, Stevens picked up an extra shift at the Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center, helping patients and filling in for colleagues who couldnt get past roadblocks.

She got home just after 2 a.m., but was too anxious to sleep. Almost everything they owned was in that 1,600-square-foot blue-gray townhome and its garage, from their new SUV to baby Eleanor's birth certificate issued 23 months ago. Diapers. Clothes. Food. It was the first place they'd ever owned, a real home for their little family.

For hours, she worried about its fate, and what had happened to the neighbors who'd become friends, who'd brought over cookies and welcome gifts in the 11 months the family lived in the 18-unit complex. So she slid into her Birkenstock sandals, drove to the Home Depot near her home and started walking toward fire.

Not knowing was absolutely tearing me up, says Stevens a few days later, reflecting on her dangerous decision to walk alone, in the middle of the night, into a disaster zone. It wasnt just my life. It was everyone elses I was carrying. This was so devastating because I knew these people. It wasnt just a neighborhood. It was a community. And I realized I had the responsibility to tell 17 other families they didnt have a home, either."

Cause of fire remains unknown

Authorities say at least 600 homes were damaged or destroyed as the fire rampaged through Ashland, Talent and Phoenix before firefighters stopped it close to the Medford city limits. Although the main fire started around 11 a.m., on Tuesday near an Ashland skate park and began racing north, several other smaller fires broke out as the winds threw embers into neighborhoods and along Highway 99.

Police arrested a man they said started a fire around 5 p.m., about half a mile from Stevens' home, as the main fire approached. At least four people are confirmed dead, and the cause of the first fire remains under investigation.

Rick Almand, left, and his ex-wife Carol Barton walk past the remains of stairways in an apartment complex in Talent, Ore. Sept. 12, 2020 where Almand lived before the Almeda Fire destroyed it. Almand defied police orders to leave the area the day of the fire to rescue his cat, Roo, moments before flames engulfed the complex. Both survived.

Medford-area evacuee Steven Ward, 29, left one of the area's homeless encampments just two days before the fire broke out and burned through the area.

"We had some friends at the camp who had to jump into the creek to escape," Ward says. "Its a story worthy of Hollywood what they went through.

Over the weekend, Ward was living in a broken-down RV parked at a local Walmart. Dozens of homeless evacuees had set up tents or parked campers at the store.

Everybody has lost something," says Ward.

Ron Haynes, center, is surrounded by volunteers offering supplies at a makeshift donation center set up in a Walmart parking lot in South Medford, Ore. Sept. 12, 2020. Haynes does not know if his home survived. His wife had a stroke earlier this year and is suffering from lung cancer as well. She cant be out in this smoke, said Haynes as he gathered up supplies. The pair had been staying in a motel the last few days.

A community faces its greatest loss

The skies were still clogged with smoke Saturday and Sunday. Firefighters were patrolling the burn area and members of the Oregon National Guard were enforcing a closure order as police cruised the empty streets for possible looters.

Saturday morning, Scott Coash kept a wary eye out for trespassers as he and his wife, Cindy, walked into their undamaged but largely deserted neighborhood a few blocks from where Stevens' home used to stand. Carrying a cooler of sandwiches and water in one hand, a gun on one hip and a bottle of hand sanitizer on the other, Coash counted himself lucky -- the flames were diverted by a hill across the street from their home, and the fire burned away despite winds throwing burning embers into his yard.

Charred vehicles sit inside a burned auto-repair shop outside Medford, Ore., following the passage of the Almeda fire.

Approaching their home, Coash, 64, set down the cooler, unholstered his 9 mm Glock and chambered a round, the unmistakable "click-clack" echoing through the empty streets as he pulled out his keys and opened the door. Coash didn't want Cindy, 62, entering the house until he'd had a chance to make sure no one was lurking inside. Like many people forced to leave their homes during a wildfire, Coash was worried looters would sneak in the way they have in other areas, including after 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California.

This is our Katrina. This is our Paradise. You see it on TV but you can never understand unless you go through it," said Coash, a boiler plant operator at a local university. "You dont understand the full effect until you walk through it, smell it, see it.

Scott Coash, left, carries a cooler, hand sanitizer and a handgun as he walks into his evacuated neighborhood with his wife Cindy and their dog Bella, near Medford, Oregon, following the passage of the Almeda fire.

Stevens was struggling to understand the devastation. She found herself trying to help other fire victims with belongings she no longer owns. At one point, she offered up a portable air conditioner before realizing she didn't have it anymore.

"We woke up that morning wondering how we were going to survive," her husband says.

Andrews says he hasn't watched the video his wife took of their home. "I was basically not allowing myself to feel anything."

Harlan Brooks, left, recovers the remains of a vintage sewing machine Sept. 12, 2020, that belonged to his partner Katie Fawkes, right, from the rubble of the home they shared in Talent, Ore. The sewing machine belonged to FawkesO great grandmother who used it to make a living after she immigrated to the United States around the turn of the century. Their neighborhood was destroyed by the Almeda Fire earlier this week.

Hospital staff devastated by fire

Fire victim Noemi Alvarez, 42, was working as a housekeeper at the hospital as the flames consumed the three-bedroom home of 15 years she had shared with her husband, Jesus, and their five children.

"I couldn't think straight, calling my family constantly," she says. "I was so worried. It was a hard day."

Jesus and the kids fled to his brother's house. Alvarez joined them after her shift. They prayed and offered thanks.

The family worries a different wildfire burning a few miles away might race toward them if the weather changes.

"Sometimes I think it's just a dream," says Jesus Alvarez, 46, who was home the day of the fire because he had badly cut his hand the week before while working as a carpenter. "We lost a lot of things. But we will stay together. We are together. That makes the family strong."

Intensive Care Unit housekeeper Noemi Alvarez, right, gives ICU nurse Clarissa Carson a hug as her husband Jesus Alvarez, left, and daughter Islady Alvarez look on Sept. 12, 2020. Staff at the hospital where Alvarez works donated supplies and gift cards to her family after their home was destroyed by the Almeda Fire earlier this week.

Sheri Croy, who also works for the Asante health care system, fled the fire with her family. After stuffing their new puppy, a second dog and a bearded dragon lizard named Mushu into their car, Croy told her husband she wanted a few minutes to gather documents and mementoes.

"He looked outside at this black wall coming toward us and he's like, 'there's no time,'" says Croy. "There was definitely crying and screaming from me in the car."

The fire took a particular toll on workers at Asante, the region's largest employer, with at least 80 workers losing their homes in a single day. Now, the health care system's managers have set up food banks, laundry services and clothing drives to help its displaced employees, many of whom continued going to work because patients still need care. It has also launched a donation campaign to aid community members. The Red Cross is helping coordinate donations that will directly help other fire victims.

Josue Alvarez, 8, carries a large package of paper towels donated to his family by staff at the Medford, Ore., hospital where his mother Noemi Alvarez works. The community has come together to help the family this week after their home was lost to the Almeda Fire.

Family refuses to leave Oregon, looks to rebuild

In the first few hours after they learned their house had been destroyed, Stevens and Andrews contemplated leaving Jackson County entirely, maybe back to Portland or even to New York. Maybe this was a sign to give up, give in, head out.

Andrews had spent the day on the phone, dealing with the mortgage and the car loan and their insurance. Like many who lost their homes, Andrews and Stevens don't yet know whether insurance would cover rebuilding, or what federal aid might be available. A relative established an online donation fund and friends quickly chipped in $700.

Exhausted, Stevens collapsed into bed. She woke up a few hours later to discover people had poured in more than $20,000 toward the fund. It's now over $25,000.

The display of support has convinced the family to stay and rebuild.

"We needed to see that we mattered to this community, and they've shown us that," Stevens says. "It would be wrong to take their kindness and leave. We need to stay and pay it forward. These are people who are so-called to action - they've dropped everything and ransacked their own homes to help us. And not just us. All the others. I have never been part of a community so willing to help. I don't think we could live anywhere else."

A firefighter takes a picture of a relative's destroyed home near Medford, Ore., following the passage of the Almeda fire.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Oregon wildfires: Near Medford fire, families, workers lose everything
To counter China's growing presence in the Indian Ocean, the US has signed a framework for defence cooperation with the Maldives to deepen engagement in support of maintaining peace and security in the region. The framework for defence and security relationship was signed in Philadelphia on September 10 between Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia Reed Werner and Maldivian Minister of Defence Mariya Didi.

'A free and open Indo-Pacific'

"The framework sets forth both countries' intent to deepen engagement and cooperation in support of maintaining peace and security in the Indian Ocean, and marks an important step forward in the defence partnership, the Pentagon said. Werner and Didi also discussed US support for the island nation in its response to COVID-19 and areas for future cooperation, and agreed to work toward scheduling the first Defense and Security Dialogue, the Pentagon said.

"Both sides reiterated their commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific that promotes the security and prosperity of all nations in the region," the Pentagon said.

During discussions after signing the agreement, Mariya said the framework will strengthen defence and security cooperation between the two countries, Maldivian portal Sun Online reported. Mariya said that the Maldivian government sees the framework as an important milestone in defence and security cooperation between the Maldives and the US.

China's trying to expand its influence

She emphasised on the importance of bilateral dialogue and engagement, against a backdrop of growing transnational threats such as piracy, violent extremism, terrorism, and illicit trade, which she said remained relevant, even amidst the Coronavirus pandemic.

READ | US CDC report claims children with no symptoms can spread coronavirus

The Central Indo-Pacific includes the numerous seas and straits connecting the Indian and Pacific oceans. The resource-rich Indo-Pacific region is where China has been trying to spread its influence. China is eyeing to expand its influence in the Indian Ocean region. China has already taken control of Pakistan's strategic Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea.

READ | US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expresses concern over Hong Kong activists' arrest

China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and with Japan in the East China Sea. Both the areas are said to be rich in minerals, oil and other natural resources. Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have overlapping claims in the waterway.

READ | India announces USD 500 million assistance for mega infra project in Maldives

READ | Former Maldives President Mohamed Waheed signs book of condolences for Pranab Mukherjee

(With PTI inputs)
It would be a great challenge for the tourism industry if it does not adapt to the new normal, the way to cope with long-term effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The second wave of the coronavirus, just like a double blow, is leaving Vietnams tourism industry with a deep crisis.

Statistics obtained from some tourism authorities, as of August 17, around 90-95% of travel firms in HCMC had stopped operation while the number of re-opening hotels was dwindling quickly. In Khanh Hoa Province, hotels room occupancy dropped from 20% in July to only 2% in August. In Hanoi alone, 28,000 people working in the tourism sector lost their job.

We are walking a tightrope, said Vu The Binh, vice chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association when discussing about the volatile business environment amid the pandemic.

What Binh thought was shared by many other businesspeople. To survive the hard times when the current fast-changing business environment poses huge risks, business bosses and authorities have to undertake radical reforms. As long as it remains indifferent from the new normal which the entire society is adapting to, effectively coping with the pandemic will continue to be a hard task, or even infeasible.

The first thing to tackle relates to the management of destinations and the control over the number of tourists. Following the imposition of social-distancing measures, Vietnamese started traveling again in mid-May. Since mid-June when tourism service providers like carriers, hotels and travel firms offered the unprecedented promotions, the tourism sector saw a spike in tourist turnout.

A series of destinations were replete with tourists again. However, overloading came as an inevitable consequence and together with it were complaints from customers about service quality. Whats more, when the second attack of the coronavirus took place, tour operators had to deal with cancellations and delays while the transportation of tourists out of pandemic-affected regions was a hard nut to crack.

Tourists on their tours were not the reason behind the return of Covid-19. However, the more people gathered, the higher the risk of the coronavirus became. The crisis is therefore hard to defuse, leading to a bigger fallout.

According to Hoang Nhan Chinh, head of the secretariat of the Vietnam Tourism Advisory Board, luring as many tourists as possible to tourist spots should not be a priority for promoting the tourism sector after the pandemic. Travel firms and tourism destination management should take into account the imposition of a cap on the number of incoming tourists.

Interrupted cash flow after a long time of hiatus forced travel firms to offer programs to lure as many tourists as possible, said Chinh. That is understandable. Yet the bigger the crowds to destinations are, the higher the risks they may take. Business may stop at any time because of an incident.

The authorities should be in charge of controlling the number of tourists. Managers must figure out a safe accommodating capacity of a place to formulate appropriate policies. For those which can receive more visitors, free entrance and service discount should be applied. Otherwise, for venues which have already been too crowded, fee increase or visitor restriction should be the choice.

The authorities concerned should work with travel firms on these policies, Chinh said, adding that an effective control will help prevent tourist spots from overloading and ensuring the safety of tourists.

Furthermore, the new normal consists of Covid-19 infection control measures like wearing face masks, using hand sanitizer, imposing social distancing measures, etc. These rules must be imposed strictly at tourist sites. In fact, before the arrival of second wave of the deathly virus, safety measures had been neglected at some destinations. On the part of tourists, a lot of them traveled to more places comfortably and ignore the fact that the pandemic still existed.



Pham Ha, CEO of Luxury Travel Group, said the new normal means health checksuch as taking body temperature, wearing face masks and carrying out disinfectionor health declaration before flights are taken for granted.

Changes in how stimulation is conducted should also be taken into account. Although the first stimulus program after social distancing helped the aviation and tourism industries draw a significant number of tourists, the market began to derail. Plenty of tour operators provided deep discounts instead of focusing on the safety of tourists by improving quality services and offering new experiences.

Management authorities have aggravated the issue. They laid emphasis on price discounts considering them a key factor which was able to attract customers post-Covid-19. The truth is, however, despite the sharp rise in number of tourists after more than two months in which stimulus programs were run, business results were low or even negative.

This time we must be extremely prudent, said Dang Manh Phuoc, director of Outbox Consulting Services and Destinations Management Co.

What Phuoc meant is the next stimulus program will not be effective if travel firms are all in a race for discount. Instead, tour companies must build their plans in accordance with support policies from the State. In other words, the State ought to allocate its budget or develop policies on tourism promotion, helping travel firms address their crisis.

In this case, the management of destinations will play a leading role, and policymakers have to understand thoroughly the profile of the local tourism value chain to come up with appropriate policies. For example, the discounting policy will not be effective in localities without attractive destinations, Phuoc said.

SGT
The British government on Wednesday introduced new legislation to rewrite the Brexit withdrawal treaty causing deep alarm among former PMs and PM Boris Johnson's own MPs.

European Council chief Charles Michel warned Britain Sunday its international credibility is at stake, saying it must fulfil its responsibility to implement the Brexit withdrawal agreement.

Michel made the comment on Twitter after speaking by telephone with Irish prime minister Micheal Martin, as London prepares legislation that could upend a hard-won compromise over the EU member's border with British Northern Ireland.

It is "time for UK Government to take its responsibilities. International credibility of UK signature at stake," Michel wrote.

"Withdrawal Agreement to be fully implemented, ensure peace & stability in Ireland & preserve the integrity of Single Market," he added.

The British government on Wednesday introduced new legislation to rewrite the Brexit withdrawal treaty -- a bill that is causing deep alarm among former prime ministers and Prime Minister Boris Johnson's own MPs.

Under the EU withdrawal treaty, Northern Ireland will enjoy a special status to ensure no return of a border with EU member Ireland, in line with the 1998 peace pact that ended three decades of bloodshed.

But Johnson on Saturday accused the EU of threatening to tear the UK apart by imposing a food "blockade" between Britain and Northern Ireland.

EU negotiator Michel Barnier Sunday said that the protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland "is not a threat to the integrity of the UK.

"We agreed this delicate compromise" with Johnson and the British government "in order to protect peace & stability on the island of Ireland", he said on Twitter.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her boyfriend Riley Roberts have been spotted out and about in the trendy Meatpacking district of New York City, dining at a popular pizzeria before strolling the High Line.

The 30-year-old Bronx-based Congresswoman was sleek in black jeans, a black $450 Maje bomber jacket and black Spiderman face mask, $113 Birkenstock sandals and red leather Tefla tote, which retails for $257.

Her boyfriend of four years, a web designer, was coordinating with his girlfriend in a striking red jacket, a red face mask, with trendy Allbirds, popular among tech execs, which retail for $95.

The two are famously low-key, with few even knowing she was in a relationship when she was elected in 2018.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her boyfriend Riley Roberts visited the Meatpacking district of New York City

The 30-year-old Congresswoman and her boyfriend were spotted in a CVS in the city

AOC, as she is known, wore a sleek $450 Maje black bomber jacket for the outing

The pair then went to Sephora, with AOC - famed for her red lipstick - picking up some essentials

Roberts was inside the store with his politician girlfriend as she browsed the aisles

Roberts, originally from Arizona, was present at her swearing-in ceremony in January 2019, and has made occasional, infrequent appearances on her social media.

They live in the Bronx with their French Bulldog, Deco.

Roberts is head of marketing at HomeBinder.com, which helps people manage the maintenance on their homes.

He also works as a consultant to help tech startups grow revenue using marketing and development.

On Thursday the duo made the most of a committee work day - a day when there were no votes scheduled in the House - to enjoy her hometown.

They were spotted running errands in CVS and makeup store Sephora before sitting outdoors at Italian eatery Serafina - famed for its pizzas, and popular with tourists and celebrities alike.

Ocasio-Cortez and Roberts then headed to popular Italian restaurant Serafina, which has branches across the city

AOC and Roberts sat outside, with other diners oblivious to their presence

The Congresswoman was elegant in her white $113 Birkenstocks

Roberts was comfortable in his Allbirds - extremely popular among tech executives

After their lunch, the duo strolled through the Meatpacking district in lower Manhattan

The Meatpacking district was popularized by Sex And The City, when the character Samantha moved in

AOC sported a funky Spiderman face mask with her all black ensemble and white shoes

The pair have been together for four years, but try to keep their relationship low-profile

Roberts, who like AOC was wearing a face mask for the majority of the time, took advantage of the hand sanitizer

Pizzas at the see-and-be-seen restaurant range from $16 for a simple margarita, to $29 for a black truffle pizza.

The pair then strolled along the High Line - one of New York's most popular tourist sites.

The landscaped walkway, filled with sculptures and flanked by murals, is currently open from noon until 8pm, with a free timed-entry reservation system.

The site is operating on a reduced operating schedule, with fewer amenities, and limited capacity in order to allow for social distancing.

AOC and Roberts then stepped up onto the High Line

The High Line was closed during the pandemic, but has recently reopened

The Congresswoman kept her face mask on on the High Line

AOC and Roberts descended the steps at the end of the High Line

The duo took in the sculpture and murals that line the High Line
The former Commons speaker John Bercow has made more than 500,000 since leaving his Parliamentary position, it has been revealed.

In the first year of trading Mr Bercow's company, called Fedhead Limited, made 547,664, Companies House records show.

The company owed 181,171, including tax and social security of 157,647, with 367,714 in shareholders' funds.

Mr Bercow, who left his role as speaker in October, owns 76 per cent of the company and his wife Sally owns the rest.

Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow walks over Westminster Bridge from a session in the gym this on his last day as Speaker of the House of Commons, after 10 years in the chair

Since leaving his high-profile political role the former Buckingham MP reportedly earned more than 60,000 for his election night punditry on Sky News.

Just days later he appeared on Italian TV on the late-night chat show Che Tempo Che Fa.

He has also signed up with JLA Speaker Bureau whose top-tier speakers can often earn 25,000. Former Labour spin-doctor Alastair Campbell and Ed Balls are also clients.

In his synopsis on the website it says: 'John Bercow served as the 157th Speaker of the House of Commons, with a mission to strengthen the backbenches.

'He was re-elected three times. He also built a reputation as a reformer  requiring Ministers to make 685 statements on pressing issues, replacing the shooting range with a nursery (and dispensing with Mr Speaker's silk stockings).

During the decade was speaker John Bercow earned 150k-a-year

'After stepping down from Westminster John shares his insights on the future of our politics and the lessons learned about driving change.

'He is also a seasoned raconteur with countless stories from the corridors of power and an eye out for anyone "chuntering from a sedentary position."

Before the pandemic struck Mr Bercow gave the key note speech at a lettings agency conference in November last year.

During the decade was speaker Mr Bercow earned 150k-a-year. He was dogged by allegations he bullied and humiliated staff.

Mr Bercow has always denied the bullying claims.
The state has faced these data problems as infections surged in the summer and schools and colleges began to reopen for the fall. Changes in the states figures have been large enough to affect national trends, and have sown confusion and distrust at a time when the state says it needs public support to avoid another surge.

If everyone was counted in a timely way, then maybe people would be more careful, and maybe people would understand that this is real, said Debra Zukonik of Rockwall County, where the deaths of her brother and a friend did not appear to be reflected in state and local figures for weeks afterward.

Cases and deaths peaked over the summer in Texas and have been trending downward since then, according to a New York Times database that uses both state and county figures. But the virus is still spreading rapidly in many areas of the state, with an average of more than 3,500 new cases a day in September.

Public health officials and researchers place the blame for the states data problems on Texas antiquated data systems and a reliance on faxed test results, which limit the states ability to track every infection and death in many of its 254 counties. They also say that the vast states decentralized structure  with many local governments, some of them tiny, running their own public health operations  is ill-suited to coping with the crush of Covid-19.

Its a colossal undertaking, and because its happening in real time, there will inevitably be situations where we have to update or correct something, said Chris Van Deusen, spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services.
The National Party has lost any right to claim that it represents the bush because long ago it decided to favour certain sectional interests which just happen to have business operations in the regions (''Policy quarrel adds to long history of nature squabbles'', September 12-13). In particular, time and time again, the Nationals have supported big mining and developer interests over those of others living in the regions, particularly farmers. In Gloucester, where I live, opinion polls showed there was overwhelming opposition to AGLs coal seam gas plans and the Rocky Hill coal mine, and yet the Nationals chose to support both projects. In Narrabri, where farmers and others oppose the Santos plan to sink thousands of gas wells, not one word has been spoken by the Nationals against the plan. The same goes for the plan to destroy the farmland of the Bylong Valley and the farms near the Vickery mine extension. The list goes on.

The Nationals opposition to the koala SEPP is all about protecting the interests of property developers. It has absolutely nothing to do with supporting the ordinary farmer. So, John Barilaro, take whatever position you want on any issue, but please do not pretend that you and your party are standing up for anyone other than big-monied commercial interests. John Watts, Gloucester

Illustration: Andrew Dyson Credit:

I have lived in Nationals' electorates almost all my life and I am sick of the likes of Barilaro pretending to represent anyone except big agribusiness and coal. Where was Barilaro when his electorate caught fire? Where are the Nationals protecting water supplies from coal mines? Where is the management of underground water so towns that rely on it dont run dry? Where is the management of resources that ensure rivers flow and water is not stolen? There is nothing; Pitt Street farmers and rent-seeking developers are more their style. Even in my fathers day, the old Country Party blokes mostly visited the Mercedes and houndstooth mob, not the fellows with a mixed farm. Jock Webb, Narromine

I don't recall the Nationals supporting farmers whose farms were destroyed by mining and fracking, whose access to clean water was denied by water thieves and mining and fracking operations, whose health and childrens
Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie is outsourcing her deciding vote on new laws to allow mobile phones to be confiscated from people in immigration detention to a public opinion poll on her website.

The crossbench MP, who sided with the Morrison government in December to overturn a law that allowed sick refugees to be transported to Australia for treatment on the advice of doctors, announced on social media that she wants the views of constituents to help decide her stance.

Senator Jacqui Lambie pictured earlier this month. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The proposed changes to the Migration Act would allow Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge to declare certain items, including mobile phones and SIM cards, prohibited and grant Australian Border Force officials additional powers to search detainees.

Senator Lambie said on her Facebook page that she would have the casting vote and told her supporters, "I want you to help decide what to do with it."
Entrepreneur Jun Li reads three books per day. How does he do it?

"When you read enough books, you already have a knowledge structure in your mind," said Li, founder of blockchain company Ontology. "You understand different parts of philosophy, management and business. So, when I read a new book, I can link all the knowledge together, and understand the highlights from the book faster and faster."

This even goes for sophisticated philosophy books, Li said. "If you have a very clear structure in the history, and which idea came from which school of thought, you can figure out what a certain book is talking about and what the differences are quicker."

Recently, Li has been reading a lot about society and knowledge  books on how to organize teams, how incentives affect different kinds of cooperation and collaboration, as well as the organization of people, including books about politics and more.

"Ecosystem mechanisms, incentive mechanisms, organization mechanisms are very helpful in building out the blockchain ecosystem," he said.

Related: How Reading Books Helps Your Brain Recharge

Exercise's key role

Other than reading, Li manages to find time for swimming and running in his spare time. "I run almost every day," he said. "In the morning I run on my treadmill. I swim, too."

A lot of people ask Li why he doesn't run outside. He does it to save time, he said. "While running, I have an iPad or an article in front of me, so I don't miss anything within the organization or on the news."

Exercise and improving oneself are both keys to being a leader, said Li.

Staying fit helps him think more clearly and better manage his 150-person team, which builds many facets of blockchain infrastructure and applications.

"It's not only building the infrastructure," he said. "You need a real application, and you need to build a growing, community-driven ecosystem. You also need to support enterprises converting a service into a decentralized service."

Ontology is also building decentralized identity and data exchanges on top of the infrastructure level.

Related: How Consistent Exercise Makes You More Productive

A focus on delegation

Blockchain platforms entail many things, which requires a large team. Li's management style focuses on delegating to others and trusting his team to get things done. When needed, he supports his team and provides them with direction.

"I give some suggestions, such as new product ideas."

Sharing knowledge with the whole team is a key part of the building process at Ontology. "Every person, no matter if theyre on the product team, technology team or business development team, has access to the same information to be able to make the decisions by themselves and use their own approach," said Li.

Ontology practices a scrum management style of strategy, which embraces iterative and incremental development practices. "We are building applications step by step," he said. "We're not setting a long term target. Our strategy is very short term, with maybe two weeks' vision at a time, step by step."

The company provides training once or twice per year. "But, normally every week, we discuss the product and business  those meetings are a kind of training. Everyone will share information, their ideas, and their concept for different problems." It challenges the team and helps them learn from each other.

Giving employees space

Li focuses on building a healthy culture. "We give people more space to do things by their own ways or own approach and to have some creative judgments," he said. "Once the direction has been agreed upon, you'll have very good management to meet milestones and have good results in the implementation or the execution phase."

While there is a time to open ones mind and experiment, the balance between freedom and direction is also important. "People still need support to ensure they are doing the correct work to ensure good results."

Li personally focuses mostly on product and application, ensuring the company is building real-world applications that provide value to users. He also focuses on strategy and the correct direction, not only for Ontology, but also for the entire blockchain industry.

Currently, Ontology's infrastructure level strategy is quite clear, focusing on building a blockchain infrastructure. "But, at the application level, you still need a lot of exploration of more directions. So, you need to learn more and have access to more information."

Related: How Small Business Owners Can Build a Strong Corporate Culture

Finding the killer app

Li says a primary challenge for the blockchain industry is figuring out which direction it will take and which application will prove to be the killer app. "We need to do more trial runs and to be very clear to figure out which direction will have the most potential to become a large scale application."

Along the way, blockchain companies might implement different management styles to meet various goals. Staying focused and achieving one's objectives sometimes comes down to a healthy lifestyle, says Li.

"At the end of the day, leadership is important in running an organization that builds upon decentralized innovations," he said. "Leaders and their workers need to elevate themselves by maintaining a fit lifestyle, learning a lot from books and reading, and maximizing one's time, such as by consuming information while on a fitness routine. These lifestyle philosophies can influence vision and perspective in running an organization."

Related:

How Fighting A War Against A Virus Is Helping Create A New Role In The C-Suite

Building a New Habit Starts with These 5 Steps

How Ontology Founder Jun Li Improves His Team Every Day



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BARAMULLA: The Jammu and Kashmir Police and Army on Sunday (September 13) arrested two people and recovered a consignment of arms and ammunition at Mendhar in Poonch district.

According to ANI, the forces recovered three Chinese Chinese pistols, six magazines, 70 pistol rounds, 11 hand grenades and other material related to IEDs.

The development comes a day after forces arrested a terrorist and two terrorist and two Over Ground Workers (OGWs) in Dangarpura area of Baramulla, Jammu and Kashmir. One Chinese pistol with a magazine, 12 rounds of 9 mm pistol and one Chinese grenade from their possession.

On September 11, two terrorists affiliated with Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) were arrested by the security forces in Baramulla district.
This article will reflect on the compensation paid to Paul Szurek who has served as CEO of CoreSite Realty Corporation (NYSE:COR) since 2016. This analysis will also evaluate the appropriateness of CEO compensation when taking into account the funds from operations and shareholder returns of the company.

View our latest analysis for CoreSite Realty

Comparing CoreSite Realty Corporation's CEO Compensation With the industry

Our data indicates that CoreSite Realty Corporation has a market capitalization of US$5.7b, and total annual CEO compensation was reported as US$5.4m for the year to December 2019. We note that's a small decrease of 5.6% on last year. While this analysis focuses on total compensation, it's worth acknowledging that the salary portion is lower, valued at US$650k.

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$6.3m. From this we gather that Paul Szurek is paid around the median for CEOs in the industry. Moreover, Paul Szurek also holds US$24m worth of CoreSite Realty 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$650k US$633k 12% Other US$4.7m US$5.1m 88% Total Compensation US$5.4m US$5.7m 100%

On an industry level, roughly 15% of total compensation represents salary and 85% is other remuneration. CoreSite Realty sets aside a smaller share of compensation for salary, in comparison to the overall industry. If non-salary compensation dominates total pay, it's an indicator that the executive's salary is tied to company performance.

CoreSite Realty Corporation's Growth

CoreSite Realty Corporation has seen its funds from operations (FFO) increase by 8.0% per year over the past three years. It achieved revenue growth of 5.1% over the last year.

We would argue that the improvement in revenue is good, but isn't particularly impressive, but the modest improvement in FFO is good. Considering these factors we'd say performance has been pretty decent, though not amazing. 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 CoreSite Realty Corporation Been A Good Investment?

CoreSite Realty Corporation has served shareholders reasonably well, with a total return of 18% over three years. But they probably don't want to see the CEO paid more than is normal for companies around the same size.

In Summary...

As we touched on above, CoreSite Realty Corporation is currently paying a compensation that's close to the median pay for CEOs of companies belonging to the same industry and with similar market capitalizations. But the company has failed to produce substantial growth in either FFO or total shareholder return. Considering the steady performance, it's tough to call out CEO compensation as too high, but shareholders might want to see more robust growth metrics before agreeing to a future raise.

It is always advisable to analyse CEO pay, along with performing a thorough analysis of the company's key performance areas. We identified 2 warning signs for CoreSite Realty (1 is a bit concerning!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

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.
The ministry of culture is planning a massive overhaul into its usual functioning and plans to introduce a host of digital initiatives including a web-series on Indias struggle for independence and virtual tours of important monuments, officials told Hindustan Times.

We are trying to ensure that all information can be made available online, Union minister for culture Prahlad Patel told Hindustan Times. We are working on many initiatives and hope they will help the people, he added.

The Ministry reached out to the National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC), the governments body that looks after film financing, production and distribution, three weeks ago about the web-series. It is likely to be 20 episodes long and may even air on platforms such as SonyLIV, Netflix and Amazon Prime.

The NDFC has to tell us the framework within which the web series can be done, what kind of budget is needed, how many directors etc, said an official on condition of anonymity. We have reminded them again.

A second official said that the ministry may reach out to platforms such as SonyLIV and Zee5, and perhaps even Netflix and Amazon Prime, to stream the series online so that it can gain as wide an audience as possible. The series is likely to go on air before August 15 next year.

The ministry is also planning virtual tours of monuments that will require a 360-degree videography of the monuments and compile these online.

We are assessing the costs of the same, said the first official. But it will be a major change as more people who are unable to travel will be able to learn about monuments that are far away while experiencing the feel of being in them.

The move becomes especially crucial in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis as limits on travel and the fear of contracting the virus continue to curtail Tourism.

We are working on the project and will launch a pilot soon, but this is time intensive work, said the first official.

The virtual tour will allow viewers to see monuments at different times of the day, including at night, to experience the feel of being in a place. The virtual tour may also be followed by a quiz for students viewing the tours, to help augment learning.

With the help of the states and officials in the districts, the ministry has also begun a cultural mapping of districts. The cultural mapping includes a detailed knowledge of the dance forms, paintings, food and festivals of the districts. This, say officials, will help create a compendium of knowledge at the national level and is a continuous process that has been going on for some time now.

It will capture the tangible and the intangible heritage of any given place and help create a complete documentation of Indias heritage, said the second official.

The information will simultaneously be uploaded on e-heritagepedia, a Wikipedia-like website, where information about any and all aspects of Indian culture will be made available. From the Paranthewali Gali, to the food habits of Hampi, it will have all the information, said the first official.

Simultaneously, the ministry is also developing e-artistpedia, which will contain information of all Indian artists and an e-market place, where indigenous art and goods can be purchased.

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'The data also highlights mobile traffic on roads fell by 50pc in March 2020 and remains 30pc-35pc below normal.' (stock photo)

Mobile phone traffic at commercial centres and business districts across Ireland is down 66pc due to Covid-19 and people working from home, according to research from Vodafone Ireland.

The telecommunications firm, which is a subsidiary of the UK-headquartered Vodafone Group, reported the figures as it called for the modernisation of policy and the regulatory framework across Ireland and Europe.

Vodafone Ireland's latest research showed the reduction in mobile usage across some of the country's leading business locations, with activity reduced by 60pc in the Dublin Docklands area during the height of the pandemic.

The data also highlights mobile traffic on roads fell by 50pc in March 2020 and remains 30pc-35pc below normal.

Since March 2020, there has been growth in speech traffic volumes of 50pc during weekdays and an increase of over 70pc on weekends. Vodafone found that non-smartphones recorded an 80pc rise in speech traffic volumes, with the company saying this indicated older people were more reliant on mobile networks during the lockdown.

Liam O'Brien, director of strategy and external affairs at Vodafone, said the latest figures show that if working from home continues into the long term, high speed, affordable broadband connectivity in rural areas will be crucial for economic recovery.

"As our latest data indicates, there is a need to quickly accelerate access to high-quality, affordable broadband outside of urban centres as more and more people are no longer commuting to commercial areas but are migrating to rural areas and adopting smart working," he said. "In a short space of time, we have graduated from a society that no longer needs to co-exist in city centres and travel long distances to engage in economic activity, instead favouring a greater balance between our urban and rural economies.

"We need to re-think how our network infrastructure is used and developed to effectively manage and encourage this transformation and ensure it is sustainable."

O'Brien said Ireland had one of the most dispersed rural populations in Europe, with the uptake of high-speed fibre to the home broadband one of the lowest.

At the same time, O'Brien said broadband prices in Ireland are among the highest in Europe and almost double that of the UK. With an average price of over 40 a month for a fixed-line broadband package, he said Ireland was one of the most expensive out of the 45 European countries and territories included in a recent study.

"We are calling for a modernisation of policy and regulatory framework, both in Europe and Ireland to boost connectivity for consumers and business, underpinning the recovery of the economy and society in the post-Covid era," he said.

"Government needs to work with industry to support investment in critical digital infrastructure, which will embed longer-term societal resilience. The deployment of digital infrastructure will play a significant role in creating employment, reopening economic sectors, and we look forward to partnering with policymakers in this regard."
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 21:55:06|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- After a China-Europe cargo train left east China's Jinhua city for Baku in Azerbaijan on Thursday, an inbound train carrying 50 containers of polyethylene arrived in the coastal city of Xiamen the next day.

With the new Jinhua-Baku route, the number of China-Europe (Central Asia) freight train routes starting in Jinhua city, Zhejiang Province, has increased to 12. The train from Russia's Tobolsk was the first return train fully loaded with bonded cargo to Xiamen, Fujian Province.

As the coronavirus pandemic severely hits international transport, the China-Europe freight trains play a pivotal role in land transport among countries, as shown by the rising number of trains, opening of new routes, and the volume of goods.

The China-Europe freight trains, first launched in 2011 in the southwestern Chinese metropolis of Chongqing, are running more frequently than ever this year ensuring trade and transport of epidemic prevention materials in both directions. They have been an important part of the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China in 2013.

By the end of July, the China-Europe cargo train service had delivered 39,000 tonnes of goods for epidemic prevention, providing strong support to international COVID-19 control efforts, data from the China State Railway Group Co. Ltd. showed.

The number of China-Europe freight trains hit a record high of 1,247 in August, up 62 percent year on year, transporting 113,000 TEUs of goods, an increase of 66 percent.

Outbound trains carry goods like daily necessities, equipment, medical supplies and vehicles while inbound trains transport milk powder, wine and automobile parts among other products.

By Aug. 20, Xi'an, a major city on the Silk Road Economic Belt, had launched 2,305 freight trains this year, transporting a total of 1.79 million tonnes of goods, 1.9 times and 1.8 times the number and volume respectively of the same period last year.

Xi'an, the provincial capital of Shaanxi Province, has 15 international trunk freight train lines, covering 45 countries and regions in central Asia, western Asia and Europe.

During the epidemic, the China-Europe freight train service showed how it could promote win-win situation that would be mutually beneficial. It also highlighted the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits embodied by the Belt and Road Initiative, said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian on Thursday.

The China-Europe freight train has not only delivered to European countries anti-epidemic materials and daily necessities that are in short supply, but also shipped a large number of quality foreign products to China.

"This is conducive to the resumption of production and the rapid economic restart of countries along the Belt and Road, providing a strong impetus to the stability of global industrial and supply chains, and bringing new opportunities for the recovery and development of the global economy," Zhao said.

A number of Chinese provinces and regions have reported growth in foreign trade with Belt and Road countries.

The China-Europe trains have accelerated the city's opening up, said Li Mingyuan, mayor of Xi'an. In the first half of this year, Xi'an's foreign trade grew 2.9 percent to reach 166.15 billion yuan (about 24.3 billion U.S. dollars).

In the first seven months, central China's Henan Province saw its trade with Belt and Road countries increase by 28.8 percent year on year to reach 76 billion yuan. Trade between the eastern province of Shandong and countries along the Belt and Road hit 346.3 billion yuan, up 5.5 percent year on year, accounting for 30.4 percent of the province's total foreign trade.

"Good connectivity is a hugely important factor facilitating growth in international trade. We believe that much of China's experience in terms of improving connectivity can be replicated elsewhere, to the benefit of trade, companies and local economies," said Jens Eskelund, vice chairman of European Chamber of Commerce in China and managing director of Maersk China Limited.

According to China's Ministry of Commerce, from January to July, the non-financial direct investment of Chinese companies in countries along the Belt and Road reached 10.27 billion U.S. dollars, up 28.9 percent year on year. Enditem
WASHINGTON  When young adults starting a career in journalism or public service ask me if they should set up a Twitter account and join the fray, they all get the same answer.

Dont do it. Create an account so you can monitor whats going on in the Twitterverse, but dont dive in.

The time you put into Twitter is time you never will get back. When you die, your last thought could be regret for how much time you spent on Twitter.

For every quality moment you have on Twitter, there will be hundreds of feces emojis, f-bombs and annoying GIFs (snarky video snippets.)

I block people who use crude language on my Twitter feed, not because I would never use such language, but because so many people throw up four-letter words that I want to keep my Twitter feed from looking like  and Im guessing here  a mens bathroom wall at a highway rest stop.

As in life and with Twitter, we are all sinners. I use Twitter to see what D.C. swells have to say and grab quotes for stories. Twitter also is a handy vehicle for shameless self-promotion. I plan on tweeting this column. Ill get a thrill if the post goes viral.

Ive gotten to know and like people whom I have never met on Twitter, which is nice. When I log on, I can see what my competition is doing and read what the president is thinking. Some tweeps (Twitter users) are wickedly funny.

President Donald Trump has turned Twitter into a viral bully pulpit as he has used the platform to torch meddlesome members of his own administration, scoff at former appointees, and, notoriously, to brand opponents with nicknames like Sleepy Joe Biden.

For observers, it can be uncomfortable to watch, but for Trump, Twitter is free money. In 2016, The Street reported, the tracking firm mediaQuant found Trump teased $402 million worth of free media on Twitter, far more than Hillary Clintons $166 million.

As Nov. 3 draws near, the platform seems edgier than ever in a nation already on edge because of the coronavirus and its damage to the U.S. economy.

Bots (automated accounts usually with an agenda) and trolls (obsessed cyber-stalkers) swamp The Swamp. Theres less Dr. Jekyll and more Mr. Hyde.

The more overboard the tweet the more it is rewarded with retweets and likes and punished by social media mobs armed with an arsenal of hashtags, boycott threats and bile.

I share the belief that Twitter is more likely to curb conservative speech.

Twitter has tagged Trump tweets with absurd safety warnings. In June, for example, Twitter hid a Trump tweet behind a warning that the post violated rules against abusive behavior, specifically, the presence of a threat of harm against an identifiable group.

What did Trump say that was so wrong? There will never be an Autonomous Zone in Washington, D.C., as long as Im your President. If they try they will be met with serious force! Clearly not a threat but a political statement.

When Trump tweeted a CNN parody, Twitter labeled it manipulated media before removing it.

But when a pro-Biden group manipulated a Trump ad of a Pennsylvania mother displaying cards that explained why she would vote for Trump  pro-Biden Republicans made it appear she would vote for Biden  Twitter kept the altered pro-Biden ad up for weeks without a disclaimer.

I dont mind the double standard nearly as much as the lack of standards displayed by so many users. Too much flame, too little light.

As Nov. 3 approaches, Ive determined to spend less time on Twitter in order to shut out the noise. Because the real warning should be: Twitter can be hazardous to your mental health.

Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter.

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ROTTERDAM  The superintendent of Mohonasen schools is defending his decision to move forward with school reopening - despite knowing that an administrator had COVID-19 and was exposed to other administrators the week before in-person classes started.

District Superintendent Shannon Shine sent a lengthy letter to the school community Friday, which was posted to the district website, saying that an administrator who had attended a lunch with 13 other administrators on Sept. 3 had developed a fever later that day, and reported to Shine that he had tested positive for COVID-19 the following morning.

However, Shine decided to move forward with reopening schools on Sept. 9, and did not tell the Schenectady County health department about the situation - despite the fact that the infected administrator had attended a gathering with other administrators where they removed their masks to eat, and on the same day he fell ill.

Other districts in upstate New York learned of COVID-19 cases as schools opened this past week, such as two elementary students at suburban Rush-Henrietta schools near Rochester, or a person who was inside a Amherst middle school outside Buffalo who tested positive. Two positive household members also had ties to Queensbury elementary, that Warren County school district said Thursday. But in all those cases, the people had either almost no contact with others, or were in masked, socially distant situations and not deemed enough of a concern to move a school or the entire districts' students to remote learning.

In Mohonasen's case, the possible exposure to most administrators who run day-to-day operations caused the entire suburban district, which borders Schenectady and Albany counties, to switch to remote learning after only one day of in-person schooling had begun Thursday.

"If youve engaged in any type of media in the last 24 hours, you know that the eyes of the Capital Region and NYS are upon us," Shine wrote to the community. He continued, "Ive been fielding hundreds of questions and realize that there are some misperceptions and rumors out in the community."

The Mohonasen superintendent did not tell the Schenectady County Department of Health about the sick administrator, leaving it to the responsibility of Otsego County, where the infected administrator lives. After the infected administrator expressed concerns to Shine that no one from the school district was being contacted for tracing by Otsego County, Shine told the infected administrator to report the infection to Schenectady County Sept. 9, one day before in-person school started. Shine noted that the teacher's union also called him to express concerns. "Apparently there had been no communication between the two DOHs," Shine wrote.

Shine told the Times Union in an email Sunday he had assumed there would be communication between the two county health departments, which is why he did not notify Schenectady himself.

Once Schenectady County knew of the positive test, they immediately issued quarantine orders for all administrators who had been in contact with their ill colleague at the Sept. 3 lunch.

But Shine still resisted the quarantine orders, saying the administrators' meeting was in "a double classroom sized room so is quite large (30-feet x 60-feet), easily allowing for full social distancing for a group of 14 individuals," Shine wrote in his letter to the community.

"I found it hard to understand why, seven days later, all participants in the meeting on September 3rd, none of whom are symptomatic, and all of whom except one were fully socially distanced at the time, would have to quarantine at this point," Shine wrote.

He continued, "I then questioned if our administrators subsequently tested negative for COVID-19, if they could come back to work and then we could reopen prior to the end of the 14 day quarantine period of September 4th through September 17th. The answer was no."

In Shine's follow up with the Times Union, he said he pushed back against quarantine orders because he didn't understand "why the DOH would quarantine people who are 10 or 20 feet away from an infected individual."

Keith Brown, interim public health director for Schenectady County, said such challenges to quarantine orders are an ongoing struggle for his staff.

"The reason that the 14 day quarantine exists is that it's at the outer edge of when people could potentially develop symptoms," he said. "This also happens regularly where someone finds out theyve had an exposure, they run and get tested, and if they get tested too soon after the exposure, the test will likely be negative because the body hasnt had time to show the things the test is looking for."

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

The abrupt quarantine of Mohonasen's administrators comes less than a month after a similar situation at Ballston Spa schools. Forty-two administrators, teachers and staff were placed under quarantine at the end of August after coming in contact with a COVID-19 case at an Aug. 17 training lunch.

Brown stressed that, despite allegations Shine made in his letter that he is waiting for clearance from the Schenectady health department to reopen schools on Friday, Sept. 18, the health department did not close down the schools in the first place and would not have a say in the schools reopening.

"The metrics for closure are provided by the state, so there are certain thresholds where districts and buildings will have to close, but thats issued by the state," he said.

New York is requiring school districts report COVID-19 cases into an online dashboard, but there was no data in the dashboard as of Sunday. Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said there was training needed to ensure data is being entered correctly, but the site will be live this coming week.

In his Friday letter, Shine said having most administrators under quarantine would likely "cripple reopening," which is why he abruptly shifted the schools to remote learning.

"It readily became apparent as we discussed the logistical details that our administrators are vital to the safe and successful reopening of Mohonasen," he wrote. "We were also concerned that as teachers and staff realized that full contact tracing was not yet complete that they might not feel safe to return to work on Friday, which might result in insurmountable staffing issues the next day."

Brown said that to date, there is no reason to believe that anybody else  including students  were placed at any risk. However, if one of the quarantined individuals ultimately tests positive for COVID-19, the health department will have to go through another investigation.

Lauren Stanforth contributed to this report.
SANFORD, MI  Less than a year ago, Tonia Uphold and her fiance Howard Brackett bought and moved into their first home. It was a single-story house with a brown, brick facade near Sanford Lake, just northwest of Midland.

We were going to fix it up," said the 41-year-old Midland County woman. "We were just excited to have a house by the lake. Like, thats everyones dream.

But in May, five months after the first-time homeowners moved in, dam failures and catastrophic flooding changed everything.

The lake is gone. That used to be our view every day," she said.

In addition to losing Sanford lake, Uphold, Brackett, and Upholds 19-year-old daughter, Emily Lilly, lost their home near Water Road, a pet cat, and almost everything they owned. They stayed with friends at first, then at a hotel with help from the American Red Cross, and now, the family of three lives in a donated camper behind what remains of their home, the home theyre working tirelessly to rebuild.

Everything was just gone. Everything was destroyed, Uphold said, her voice breaking. I cannot talk about this without crying, so I apologize.

Uphold and her family were among the approximately 11,000 Midland County residents who were forced to evacuate, 10,000 of whom were located in the city of Midland. When they returned, there was about 4 to 4.5 feet of floodwater throughout their single-story home. Everything was muddy and wet, dressers were tipped over, water poured out of drawers, appliances were ruined, precious family heirlooms lost.

We were able to save a little bit, but not much," Uphold said.

Some mementos from her daughters high school graduation and letters from her dad survived on a high shelf and, somehow, so did Upholds snow globe collection.

We bought this house on a land contract in December, so wed only lived here five months, she said. We had just gotten everything that we needed for the home, I mean, we had just settled in and then the floodwaters came and said, Ha ha now youve got to start over. You have to laugh about it because, if not, its going to drive me crazy.

Four months later, the floodwaters have long ago receded and their neighborhood looks almost as it did before, but for the vast green space where the lake once was. Uphold and her fiance are trudging through the arduous process of rebuilding their home and their lives. The foundation and cement walls are still sound. Uphold said they had homeowners insurance when they bought the home but received notice early this year that they no longer had coverage so theyre relying on their own sweat equity, grants and Bracketts experience working for a contractor rebuilding homes to make it livable again. Brackett and Uphold, a nanny, are both out of work and this project is now their full-time job. They hope to be able to move back in by December.

There is no normalcy, nothings normal," Uphold said. Were just working ourselves into the ground. This is seriously a priority, this is our home, we have to get it back."

The Edenville and Sanford dam failures and flooding in May displaced thousands of people and destroyed homes and infrastructure. It also inspired the Sanford Strong hashtag, a sentiment that can still be found on signs throughout town, and an outpouring of community support. A local Christian rock band, One True King, even wrote a song called Dam Strong to help with fundraising efforts. Proceeds from the songs $5 downloads support rebuilding efforts, primarily in the Sanford area.

There is no question that people are still feeling the impacts of the flood and the dam failures," said Midland County Administrator/Controller Bridgette M. Gransden. And I think theyre going to be feeling it for a while, whether its individual property owners or businesses or even local governments.

Gransden said the village of Sanford sustained severe property damage and, throughout the county, about 2,500 homes, businesses and nonprofits were affected by the disaster.

The beautiful thing that Im seeing is the number of people that continue to pull together and help, Gransden said. The Sanford Strong movement is certainly very powerful and folks are continuing to volunteer. We have a lot of nonprofits that have been, and churches, that are still donating time and materials and food and we have a long-term disaster recovery group here in the community that is continuing to work on housing and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) applications for folks who still need help with that.

As of Sept. 10, FEMA had approved $21.9 million in recovery funds for residents of the five counties included in the disaster declaration and 3,685 FEMA registrations, the deadline for which has been extended from Sept. 8 to Sept. 30, at the states request, said Nate Custer, media relations specialist for the agency. In addition, the Small Business Administration has approved 410 low-interest, disaster recovery loans to individuals and businesses, he said.

Heres the data by county, as of Sept. 10:

Midland County: 1,825 FEMA registrations approved, $15,699,748.98 FEMA dollars approved

Gladwin County: 923 FEMA registrations approved, $3,915,712.64 FEMA dollars approved

Saginaw County: 593 FEMA registrations approved, $1,564,959.07 FEMA dollars approved

Arenac County: 235 FEMA registrations approved, $532,101.82 FEMA dollars approved

Iosco County: 89 FEMA registrations approved, $208,861.80 FEMA dollars approved

Theres also philanthropic support. Midland Area Community Foundation has raised a little more than $1.7 million for Midland Countys flood relief fund, said President and CEO Sharon Mortensen.

To date, these funds have helped with cleanup and debris management as well as hiring disaster case managers, a construction manager and a case manager to help with immediate housing needs, Mortensen said. We have been touched by the outpouring of response to help those impacted by the dam failure and resulting flooding.

In the months since the flood, Uphold and her family have benefited from that generosity and goodwill.

The love and support of this community is just by far the greatest thing," she said.

Rebuilding their home isnt the only challenge Uphold and Brackett now face. Theres also the emotional work of processing the trauma theyve endured. Uphold and Brackett still have a hard time sleeping at night and the sound of rainfall triggers their anxiety. They also lost the lake they love, the lake that served as a backdrop for many of Bracketts childhood and family memories.

Its just heartbreaking," Brackett said of the strange new landscape and what was lost. I cant believe its gone."

While the Sanford area may have been hit hardest, it wasnt the only one.

Shalana Spellman, 41, was living in a townhouse in Saginaw Township with five of her children when the disaster happened. A licensed practical nurse, Spellman works nights for a home health care service.

It was a Monday in May and Spellman was asleep between shifts when a police officer knocked on her door and told her there was a flash flood warning, she and her family needed to evacuate within the hour. They packed their medications and enough clothing for a day or two, thinking they would be able to return home soon. Spellman had no idea she and her children would be homeless and living with her boyfriend and family members for the next four months. Hers was one of about 10 families living in townhouses near the intersection of Center Road and Michigan Avenue that were displaced by the flood.

Were moving back home today, as we speak, so were still affected and its been long, really long, Spellman said on Sept. 3. They had to gut out the entire first floor and it took four months, almost. Weve been displaced since May 11.

Floodwaters filled her basement and the first floor of her two-story townhouse. They lost many of their belongings, including some that cant be replaced.

We lost a lot of sentimental pieces, things that belonged to my father and my grandparents, who passed on, that we cant get back, she said.

Although Spellman is in the process of moving back into her home, the kitchen is still incomplete, she doesnt have counter tops yet, and her family is eating takeout for three meals a day. Its inconvenient and costly, but with the new school year starting virtually, Spellman needed to get her children back home and into their own space as soon as possible.

When asked how shes handling moving, working, parenting and remote learning amid a pandemic, Spellman replied, Im extremely overwhelmed and fatigued, but its a humbling experience. Things can always be replaced. No one got hurt, no one lost their life.

Likewise, Uphold in Sanford said she counts her family among the lucky ones because everyone is safe, they have a place to live, and they have a home to rebuild.

And although the topography has changed, the lake is gone, she still finds beauty there.

Ill say one thing that the flood didnt take away from us and its the sunsets out here. We still have beautiful sunsets, and I love that, she said.

Read more on MLive:

FEMA assistance deadline moved to end of September for mid-Michigan flood victims

How a spring rainstorm became a 500-year flood event in mid-Michigan

Michigan Senate sends $2.9B unemployment, $6M flood relief bill to Whitmers desk

Michigan plans to issue emergency order for repairs resulting from Edenville dam failure

Timeline: The Edenville Dam saga, before, during and after the break

Federal official tours flood-damaged town in Midland County, talks long-term recovery help

Collaboration in action: Community initiatives, disaster relief continue to help Midland area rebuild
The opening of the areas first Noodles & Co. restaurant, and plans for a Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant and for a new craft soda business are some highlights of this weeks local business news.

Look for a Chipotle restaurant to be built between the Olive Garden restaurant and the new four-unit building at 9417 Hwy. 16 in Onalaska, where the areas first Noodles restaurant will open Wednesday.

The city of Onalaska has received an application for a building permit for the planned Chipotle restaurant at 9415 Hwy. 16. The city already has issued a site plan permit for the restaurant, which will have a drive-thru.

At this time, we have no details that we can share regarding a location in Onalaska, but please check back in the coming months as were always looking to bring our real food to new communities, Erin Wolford, Chipotle senior director of external communications, told me last week when I asked about the timetable for the Chipotle project.

Chipotle is headquartered in Newport Beach, Calif., and as of June 30 had more than 2,650 restaurants in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. The company says it offers a focused menu of burritos, tacos, burrito bowls and salads made from fresh, high-quality raw ingredients. For more information, visit www.chipotle.com.

The Noodles restaurant will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week, once it makes its debut Wednesday in the new four-unit building where Shopko Optical and an AT&T store already have opened. A tenant hasnt been announced for the buildings fourth space.

For now, the restaurants inside dining area will be closed to on-premise eating as a coronavirus precaution, said Aaron Kurt, Noodles area manager. But customers can eat on the outdoor patio or take their food home. Food can be ordered on a Noodles app, online, by telephone or in person inside the restaurant. And it can be picked up inside the restaurant or at the pick-up window on the buildings north side. Third-party delivery service will be available after the first week.

We require employees and guests to wear masks in the restaurant, Kurt said. The restaurant also has taken other coronavirus precautions such as installation of plexiglass shields and enhanced cleaning procedures.

Parking for the restaurant, which will offer a variety of noodles dishes, salads and soups, is available in front of and in back of the building.

For more information, call 608-579-5777 or visit the restaurants website at https://locations.noodles.com/wi/onalaska/9417-state-road-16.html.

The La Crosse Common Council has been asked to change the zoning of the former A-1 Glass Co. location at 1605 Rose St. to facilitate the growth of 608 Brewing Co. at 83 Copeland Ave. and Tree Huggers Co-op at 312 S. Fourth St., and to establish a new craft soda business thats temporarily being referred to as 608 Craft Soda Co.

Local entrepreneur and restaurateur Ryan Johnson and his RRJ Holdings, LLC, corporation have applied to change the Rose Street propertys zoning from commercial to planned development district  general. The councils Judiciary and Administration Committee will hold a public hearing on the request at 6 p.m. Sept. 29.

A Tree Huggers expansion plan summary filed with the petition includes retail space for CBD products, an indoor industrial hemp growing space and possible extraction and product lines.

According to a letter from Johnson to the council, establishing a brewhouse at the Rose Street location would allow 608 Brewing to continue operating at 83 Copeland Ave. while meeting increased demand for its products, and the building also would be the future home of 608 Craft Soda Co. (an official name is yet to be announced, he wrote.) In the letter, Johnson said he and 608 Brewing co-owner Phil Humphrey have been working on a partnership to create craft soda in La Crosse.

A-1 Glass Co. moved to 1236 Clinton St. in April.

Associated Banks branch office at 127 Sand Lake Road in the Center 90 shopping center in Onalaska and its nearby drive-thru at 317 Sand Lake Road both will close by mid-December, as those operations consolidate to the banks branch office at 201 Marcou Road in Onalaska, company spokeswoman Jennifer Kaminski said last week.

The bank announced Sept. 4 that it would close 14 branch locations  including Sand Lake Road in Onalaska  in Wisconsin in order to optimize its branch operations. But it wasnt immediately clear whether both the branch office and the drive-thru would close.

The bank said the growing use of digital banking, transaction trends and proximity to other Associated Bank locations were factors in its decision.

Reconnected Farms LLC near Spring Grove, Minn., has built a small indoor mushroom farm that will allow it to greatly expand mushroom production, grow mushrooms year-round and add customers such as food stores and restaurants. It began selling mushrooms at some area farmers markets this year.

Tanner Sanness of La Crosse, who owns the business with his parents Kaare and Karen Sanness, said plans are to grow oyster, lions mane, chestnut and shiitake mushrooms. It has been selling its products at the Cameron Park Farmers Market in La Crosse on Fridays, and at the La Crescent Farmers Market on Tuesdays and farmers markets in Spring Grove and Decorah, Iowa, on Wednesdays. At farmers markets, it sells mushrooms, honey and Dried Artist conk mushrooms from local artist Michelle Larsen, Sanness said.

We (also) have been selling our mushrooms at the Free Range Exchange in Hokah and the Bluff Country Co-op in Winona, Sanness said. And we have tentative plans to sell to Woodmans in Onalaska, the Peoples Food Co-op and the Oneota co-op in Decorah. We hope to be supplying the last three by the end of September. Sanness also hopes to sell to additional customers.

Reconnected Farms also has plans to produce pasture-raised beef, pork and turkey. For more information, call 563-217-0897 or visit Facebook. The website www.reconnectedfarms.com has not yet been completed.

Steve Cahalan can be reached at stevecahalan.reporter@gmail.com or 608-791-8470.

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Greek government calls the departure of the Oruc Reis from disputed waters after weeks of tension a positive step.

A Turkish seismic survey vessel, whose research in a disputed area of the eastern Mediterranean has been at the heart of a weeks-long standoff between Ankara and Athens, has returned to waters near southern Turkey  a move Greece said was a positive first step in easing tensions over offshore natural resources.

But Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar played down the significance of the move, saying the ship had returned to shore as part of scheduled plans and insisted it did not mean Ankara was giving up our rights there.

There will be planned movements backwards and forwards, Akar told state news agency Anadolu in Antalya, southern Turkey, on Sunday.

Neighbours and NATO allies Turkey and Greece have overlapping claims to continental shelves and rights to potential energy resources in the eastern Mediterranean. Tensions flared last month after Ankara sent Oruc Reis to map out possible oil and gas drilling prospects in waters claimed by Greece, Cyprus and Turkey.

Turkeys navy had issued an advisory earlier this month saying the vessel would continue operations in the area until September 12. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had said it would continue exploratory operations for longer but no extension to the advisory was issued as of noon.





Refinitiv ship tracking data showed Oruc Reis, along with two accompanying naval vessels, returned to a location just off the coast of Antalya.

The move was welcomed by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Sunday.

The return of Oruc Reis is a positive first step, I hope there will be continuity. We want to talk with Turkey but in a climate without provocations, he told reporters in Thessaloniki.

Ankara faces potential sanctions from the European Union, which fully supports member states Greece and Cyprus, over the dispute. But many states, including Germany, want to defuse the stand-off through dialogue.

A sanctions list exists as an option [against Turkey]. Our desire is not to see it implemented but it will be done if we see that the other side is not returning to the path of logic, Mitsotakis said.

Military build-up

The dispute over potential oil and gas reserves triggered a military build-up in the eastern Mediterranean, with Turkey and Greece both dispatching warships to the area and conducting military exercises to assert their claims.

Turkey has repeatedly said it is open to solving issues with Greece through dialogue but publicly rejected any conditions, including Oruc Reis halting operations, before negotiations.

If there are those who set preconditions for Turkey, we have preconditions too and these preconditions need to be met, Cavusoglu said during a news conference on Saturday, without elaborating.

Earlier in September, Mitsotakis said his country would only start talks with Turkey to resolve conflicting claims once Turkish provocations ceased.





Akar said Turkey supports peace and dialogue if our wishes and demands are fulfilled.

Turkey rejects EU criticism and says the bloc should remain impartial in the dispute, arguing the waters where exploratory natural gas drilling was being conducted were part of its Turkish continental shelf.

Turkey says it has a legitimate claim over the area in the eastern Mediterranean. There is no agreement between Greece and Turkey delimiting their continental shelves, while Turkey disputes any claims by Cyprus, with which it has no diplomatic relations.

Cyprus was split in a Turkish invasion in 1974 triggered by a brief Greek-inspired coup. Its internationally recognised Greek Cypriot government represents the whole island in the European Union, though its authority is effectively contained to the southern part. North Cyprus is an unrecognised Turkish Cypriot state recognised only by Ankara.

James Ker-Lindsay, a professor at the London School of Economics, said at the heart of the dispute is a 1924 maritime accord agreement between Turkey and Greece that is now outdated. He said Turkey is claiming one tiny Greek island is cutting off its access to vast gas resources.

Its an incredibly complex problem. A hundred years ago the two sorted out their borders but times have changed. International law was in a very different place, you couldnt explore deep waters. But with technology weve now been able to, he told Al Jazeera.

Pompeo in Cyprus





Amid the tension, Mitsotakis on Saturday announced a robust arms purchase programme and an overhaul of the countrys military.

In a keynote address in Thessaloniki, he said Greece would acquire 18 French-made Rafale warplanes, four multipurpose frigates, and four navy helicopters, while also recruiting 15,000 new troops and pouring resources into the national arms industry and cyberattack defence. New anti-tank weapons, navy torpedoes and air force missiles will also be secured, he added.

Mitsotakis is believed to have hammered out the programme after talks with French President Emmanuel Macron during a southern European leaders summit in Corsica this week. France has strongly backed Greece in its burgeoning showdown with Turkey, as well as Cyprus.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday took aim at Macron following French criticism of Turkish maritime activities in the eastern Mediterranean, as tensions between the NATO allies continue to escalate.

You will have many more problems with me, Erdogan said in a televised speech in Istanbul. Dont mess with the Turkish people. Dont mess with Turkey.

Separately on Saturday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for a diplomatic solution to the dispute between Greece and Turkey, saying continuing military tensions between the NATO allies only serve the alliances enemies.

Increased military tensions help no one but adversaries who would like to see division in transatlantic unity, Pompeo said after talks in Nicosia with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 15:46:51|Editor: huaxia

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ISLAMABAD, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani army said on Sunday that one civilian was killed and four others were injured in Indian forces' indiscriminate firing along the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed Kashmir region.

An army statement said the Indian troops committed "unprovoked ceasefire violations along the LoC, targeting civil population with automatics and mortars in Hotspring and Rakhchikri sectors."

A girl was killed while four civilians including a 75-year-old woman and two young boys sustained injuries, according to the statement.

The Pakistan army responded effectively, targeting those posts which initiated fire, the statement said.

Pakistan and India had declared ceasefire along the LoC, the de facto border between both countries in the disputed Kashmir region. However, both sides routinely exchange fire and accuse each other of ceasefire violations.

Tension has been heightened after India lifted the special status for the Indian-controlled Kashmir in August 2019. Pakistan downgraded its diplomatic relations, suspended trade relations and train service with India in response. Enditem
A group of researchers from Charite - Universitatsmedizin Berlin have been able to show that maternal psychological wellbeing during pregnancy has a positive effect on newborn infants. Increased telomere length suggests a reduced rate of cell aging, which could have an effect on children's future health. Results from this study have been published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

A variety of pregnancy-related factors can have an impact on child development. Until now, researchers had primarily focused on the negative effects of stress, excess weight and poor nutrition - and how these might affect, say, placental function, premature birth and children's general health. At the cellular level, various pregnancy-related factors can have a direct impact on 'telomeres', cellular structures which protect the ends of chromosomes during cell division and can be lengthened by the enzyme telomerase. Telomere length is a molecular biology marker of cell aging which is linked to life expectancy and a range of age-related disorders. Although the effects of maternal stress have been widely studied, data on protective maternal factors and their positive effects on child development remain limited.

A group of researchers led by Prof. Dr. Sonja Entringer of Charite's Institute of Medical Psychology have been able to show that the mother's ability to cope with stress during pregnancy - her 'psychological resilience' - is linked to telomere length. The more positive a mother's attitude during pregnancy, the longer the children's telomeres.

Positive maternal psychological characteristics are biologically embedded and have a protective effect on the fetus." Prof. Dr. Sonja Entringer, Charite's Institute of Medical Psychology

In an earlier study, the researchers examined the way in which maternal stress during pregnancy affects telomere length in their offspring. The current study, which saw Prof. Entringer's team work with a team of researchers led by Nobel Laureate Elizabeth Blackburn of the University of California and colleagues in Finland, had access to a large study population comprising 650 mother and child pairs. Telomere length was determined at birth, using cells from cord blood. Positive attitude in the face of stress was determined using a 'resilience index', which also took into account the pregnant women's psychological wellbeing and perceived social support.

"This study underlines the importance of maternal psychological wellbeing during pregnancy in terms of the developmental programming of lifelong health and disease, and the significance of improved psychosocial support measures during pregnancy," explains Prof. Entringer, who is also an Associate Professor at the University of California. Prof. Entringer was awarded a European Research Council 'Starting Grant' in 2016, which enabled her to set up and develop her own research group. The researchers are currently conducting more detailed investigations into the molecular mechanisms underlying the biological embedding of psychosocial effects in the cells of unborn children. As a next step, they are planning to conduct an interventional study on stress reduction in the day-to-day lives of pregnant women.
CBS Evening News Lawrence Brooks

Lawrence Brooks, the oldest living World War II veteran in America, turned 111 on Saturday.

According to CBS News and CNN, Lawrence rang in his milestone birthday with a socially-distanced celebration over the weekend outside the National WWII Museum, located in New Orleans near Brooks' home.

The museum's vocal trio, The Victory Belle, performed a rendition of "Happy Birthday" as the Aeroshell Aerobatic Team and the Big Easy Wing flew over the sky, CNN reported.

Brooks stood on his front porch and tipped his hat back as the planes flew above him. He also danced a two-step as The Victory Belles performed, according to NOLA.com.

During the ceremony and subsequent car parade, Brooks, wearing a New Orleans face mask, smiled and waved to the crowd, saying, God bless all of you. Every one of you."

According to CBS News, when Brooks was asked what his secret is for living long, he said "it's simple. Serve God and be nice to people."

RELATED: 104-Year-Old Marine Veteran Asks for Valentines Day Cards  and Receives Over 70,000

Happy 111th birthday to Lawrence Brooks!



His secret to longevity? "Serve God and be nice to people." pic.twitter.com/bwVZilDqz6  Norah O'Donnell  (@NorahODonnell) September 11, 2020

Prior to the celebration, the museum said on its website that well-wishers could send birthday cards to the museum, which would be delivered to Brooks' house.

In total, the museum received almost 10,000 birthday cards from all 50 states

According to the museum, Brooks served in the predominately African-American 91st Engineer Battalion, stationed in New Guinea and then the Philippines during WWII. He was a support worker for officers in his battalion, performing any task asked of him.

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Brooks eventually attained the rank of Private 1st Class.

In May, Brooks spoke to the National Geographic about his time in the war. I had some good times and I had some bad times. I just tried to put all the good ones and the bad ones together and tried to forget about all of them."

Brooks has five children, five stepchildren, 12 grandchildren, and 23 great-grandchildren. His wife Leona did in 2005 during Hurricane Katrina.
The Ministry of Defence on Saturday said majority of the attacks were reported in provinces of Kunduz, Helmand, Balkh, Jawzjan, Faryab, Ghor, Badghis, Herat, Ghazni and Uruzgan, reports TOLO news.

Kabul, Sep 13 (IANS) Taliban attacks were reported across 18 provinces in Afghanistan as face-to-face talks between representatives of the militant group and the Kabul government started in Doha in an effort to resolve the decades-old conflict in the war-torn country.

"Over the past 24 hours, the Taliban group launched attacks on Afghan security and defence forces in 18 provinces. But the forces repelled the attacks and inflicted heavy casualties on the group," said Ministry spokesman Rohullah Ahmadza.

Meanwhile, the Taliban in a statement said that as part of a goodwill gesture, the group on Saturday released 22 Afghan soldiers in Helmand province.

The intra-Afghan talks opened in Doha on Saturday at a ceremony attended by senior officials from different countries, including US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, reports Xinhua news agency.

The ceremony was inaugurated by Abdullah Abdullah, Chairman of Afghanistan's High Council for National Reconciliation.

A 21-member Afghan team, headed by former intelligence chief Mohammed Masoom Stanekzai, is meeting the Taliban delegation to find a negotiated solution to Afghanistan's prolonged war.

The talks were part of the historic agreement signed between the US and the Taliban on February 29 also in the Qatari capital.

They were to be held 10 days after the deal was signed but it kept getting delayed over the prisoner release issue between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

The government claimed that it has freed all the 5,000 Taliban inmates, while the militant group has also completed the release of 1,000 government prisoners.

--IANS

ksk/
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday mourned the loss of former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, who died at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi. He was 74.

Raghuvansh Prasad Singh is no more among us. His demise has left a void in the political sphere of Bihar as well as the country, PM Modi tweeted.

Singh, who had resigned from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Thursday, was undergoing treatment at AIIMS for more than a week after developing post-Covid-10 complications. He was critically ill and was put on a ventilator late on Friday.

The former Union minister for rural development had resigned from the RJD, apparently peeved over his marginalisation in the party in the last few years.

President Ram Nath Kovind also extended his condolences to the late leaders family and followers.

The passing away of Raghuvansh Prasad Singh is tragic. An outstanding leader rooted to the ground, he was a true stalwart with a phenomenal understanding of rural India. Condolences to his family & followers, said the President.

Former chief minister of Bihar Lalu Prasad Yadav also reacted to the tragedy.

Dear Raghuvansh Babu! What did you do? I told you the day before yesterday, you are not going anywhere. But you went so far. I am speechless. I am sad. Will miss you very much, said Yadav.
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

AMMAN, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Jordan's Capital Bank has begun due diligence on buying Lebanese Bank Audi's > Iraq and Jordan units in an acquisition that will help the Jordanian bank to diversify and expand domestically and regionally, its chairman said.

Capital Bank said on Sunday in a bourse disclosure that both sides signed a letter of intent to acquire assets and liabilities of Lebanon's major lender Audi Bank and that it obtained initial approval from both monetary authorities.

"We have begun the process of due diligence and it will take some time, then we come up with an offer. We are agreed on the basic principles," Bassem Al Salem, chairman of Capital Bank, told Reuters.

Al Salem said he expected a binding offer by end of October "subject to the results of the due diligence".

Capital Bank, a major Jordanian corporate bank with $3.5 billion in assets by end of June, would be able to diversify into retail banking through acquiring Audi's Jordan operations with its 15 local branches.

The acquisition of Audi's unit Iraq would allow Capital Bank to expand in a niche corporate market banking scene where Capital Bank already has a presence through a 62% shareholding in National Bank of Iraq, a retail bank with over $533 million in assets.

"We applied to get both their operations since we are interested in both markets to expand," Al Salem added.

Some Lebanese lenders are trying to divest non-core assets to fulfill a requirement from Lebanons central bank to increase their equity.

First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) FAB.AD plans to restart talks to buy the Egyptian business of Lebanon's Bank Audi AUDI.BY, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Emirates NBD, Dubais largest lender, is currently in talks to buy the Egyptian unit of Lebanons Blom Bank.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi, Editing by William Maclean)
Ex-Oxy Rep Takes Tullow Director Role

This article was first published on Rigzone here

Tullow Oil plc (LON: TLW) has announced the appointment of Mitch Ingram as an independent non-executive director of Tullow with immediate effect.

Ingram, who Tullow confirmed will stand for election at its 2020 annual general meeting in April 2021, has previously worked for several oil and gas companies.

The newly appointed director has held senior positions at Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY), where he began his career and spent 22 years, BG Group and most recently Anadarko, where he was a member of the groups executive committee. Ingram holds a BSc in Engineering Technology from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.

I am delighted to welcome Mitch to the board of Tullow, Dorothy Thompson, the chair of Tullow Oil plc, said in a company statement.

He will bring significant commercial, technical and operational insight to our discussions, as well as experience of Tullows assets in Ghana from his time at Anadarko. I am certain that his extensive industry experience and expertise will be of material assistance across all of Tullows activities, Thompson added in the statement.

In April this year, Tullow announced the appointment of Rahul Dhir as the chief executive officer, and an executive director, of the company. Dhir, who took up his appointment on July 1, previously worked as the CEO of Delonex Energy, an Africa-focused oil and gas company which he founded in 2013. Prior to establishing Delonex, Dhir served as the managing director and CEO of Cairn India from its IPO in 2006 until 2012.

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In December last year, Tullow announced a series of board changes, including the resignation of Paul McDade, the companys previous CEO, and Angus McCoss, the companys previous exploration director. Tullow also revealed in December that Thompson had been appointed executive chair on a temporary basis and that Mark MacFarlane, the Executive Vice-President, East Africa and Non-Operated at Tullow, had been appointed chief operating officer in a non-board role.

Story continues

Tullow is an independent oil and gas company focused on Africa and South America. Based in London, UK, the company has interests in over 70 exploration and production licenses across 14 countries, according to its website.

In Tullows 2020 first half results statement, the business posted revenues of $731 million, a gross profit of $164 million and a loss after tax of $1.3 billion. The loss after tax was driven by exploration write-offs and impairments totaling $1.4 billion pre-tax, Tullow noted in the statement.

To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com

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Pogacar took victory and bonus seconds on the line just ahead of fellow Slovenian Roglic, cutting his deficit to 40 seconds as the general classification received another shake up at the end of the 174.5km stage from Lyon.

Bernal began the day third, 59 seconds down, but cracked early on the 17km climb to the summit finish and surrendered more than seven minutes to tumble out of contention.

That the Colombian was dropped at a time when Roglics Jumbo-Visma team-mate Wout van Aert  a man who has won two sprints in this Tour so far  was setting the pace on the front suggested his problems ran deeper than mere fatigue.

The 23-year-olds collapse means the Ineos Grenadiers, formerly Team Sky, are out of contention going into the final week of race they have won in seven of the past eight years.

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Now it appears to be a battle of two Slovenians, and two close friends who may find those bonds tested over the next week.

It was a really difficult stage and in the end I was waiting for the sprint so Im happy to win again, said UAE Team Emirates Pogacar, who doubled up on his stage nine success.

I dont know what happened (to Bernal) but Jumbo did a really high pace and some riders paid for it.

As many fell victim to the Grand Colombier, there was another opportunity for the  Slovenians as @tamaupogi won ahead of @rogla in the last kilometre!



 @Tamaupogi senvole au Grand Colombier ! Dans un dernier kilometre decisif, il devance @rogla sur la ligne !#TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/Jxp5jtJlk1  Tour de France (@LeTour) September 13, 2020

With the race heading into a rest day on Monday before the final battle for yellow, the 21-year-old Pogacar added: For the moment (Roglic) looks unstoppable but today Bernal cracked, one day maybe I can crack, or Roglic.

You never know in a three-week stage race so there are still opportunities.

Van Aert ate into half the mountain before pulling over, dropping back to follow Bernal over the line some seven minutes and 20 seconds down.

Adam Yates tried an ambitious attack seven kilometres from the summit but it did not last long before the Mitchelton-Scott rider dropped back in, and at the end of the day he found himself moving up in the general classification as others dropped away.

Rigoberto Uran now moves up to third, a minute and 34 seconds down from Roglic, while Yates sits fifth, two minutes and three seconds from the yellow jersey he held for four days last week.

#TdF2020@AdamYates7 holds on for 8th on the stage and moves up to 5th overall.  pic.twitter.com/TmocgvrtGI  Team BikeExchange (@GreenEDGEteam) September 13, 2020

I wanted to try something just before the rest day, Yates said. Ive been getting better day by day. I didnt want it to come down the last kilometre or two because on previous days Ive waited and suffered to hold the wheel.

I went and tried to get over the steep bit to the flatter section for a rest, but Jumbo werent happy with me trying something so reeled me back.

But overall the sensations were good. Its a rest day and then hopefully some good stages in the Alps.
Asus, the Taiwan-based computer and networking giant, recently launched the worlds first Wi-Fi 6E gaming router to grant access to new and potentially game-changing 6GHz spectrum.

Called as ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000, this is a high-end, tri-band gaming router, which means it also broadcasts a 2.4GHz network and 5GHz network for older devices.

Asus claims that The ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 is the first of its kind in the world to transmit wireless signals on the untapped 6GHz Wi-Fi spectrum, allowing it to deliver the fastest and lowest-latency signals around.

For those unaware, Wi-Fi 6 is a brand-new, faster version of the newest generation of wireless tech, 802.11ax that was introduced in 2019. It is an evolution of the popular 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) standard that is currently used by todays routers and client devices to connect to one another and to the Internet.

Earlier this year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted rules that make 1,200 megahertz of spectrum in the 6 GHz band (5.9257.125 GHz) available for unlicensed use. This new technology, dubbed Wi-Fi 6E, adds support for the 6GHz spectrum that should provide better performance with compatible devices as the 6GHz spectrum is less congested.

Asus is an established leader in the networking market and was the first to launch a Wi-Fi 6 router. Now Asus is delivering the wider bandwidth and increased 160 MHz channels of Wi-Fi 6E with ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000, the worlds first Wi-Fi 6E router, the company said in its press release announcing the product.

The Wi-Fi 6 protocol already allowed compatible devices and routers to deliver more equitable and lower-latency access to existing bandwidth on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. Wi-Fi 6E takes those same benefits and applies them to the much less crowded 6 GHz band, making much more room for compatible devices to connect and enjoy high performance.

With a tri-band design and 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6E connectivity, ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 supports speeds of up to 11,000 Mbps and features WAN aggregation for WAN speeds of up to 2 gigabits per second.

With 44 Wi-Fi 6 and a 2.5 gigabit-per-second LAN port, both wired and wireless networks can achieve speeds of more than 1 gigabit per second, bringing true multi-gigabit performance to life.

The new router is powered by a quad-core 1.8 GHz 64-bit CPU with 1 gigabyte of RAM, so it can handle heavy traffic in Wi-Fi 6E networks. It also uses the latest 6 GHz power amplifier to improve both the signal coverage and quality.

Wi-Fi 6E technology takes advantage of the newly available radio spectrum in the 6 GHz band, which has three-times more bandwidth than the 5 GHz band. It also adds seven extra 160 MHz channels to the current Wi-Fi 6 standard, provides lower latency, and will be dedicated to Wi-Fi 6E devices for maintaining high speeds that will not be affected by legacy devices.

The biggest advantage of support for Wi-Fi 6E is that it allows devices use a large section of relatively untapped bandwidth in the 6 GHz band. With 1,200 MHz, it is more than twice as wide as the 5 GHz band, which allows for a larger number of wider channels that can pass traffic quicker and more efficiently.

However, there is one drawback. To take advantage of all this newfound bandwidth, you will need a client device with a compatible Wi-Fi 6E radio to tap into the 6GHz airspace, as older adapters arent ready for this spectrum. Neither of them are expected to be available until the end of this year.

While there is no word on pricing and availability, the ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 is expected to be available in some markets in December 2020, says Asus.
Millions of college students are returning to campus, and administrators and professors are eager to spread their teachings to these impressionable youths. Unfortunately, modern education comes with a heavy dose of "woke" politics that students of all political stripes simply cannot escape at their colleges and universities.

There is another word for it: propaganda.

In today's day and age, more and more left-wing administrators and professors see higher education as an opportunity to steer students to a "woke" brand of politics. These pupils, many raised with participation trophystyle parenting, too often fall victim to their top-down indoctrination. According to a 2016 study, liberal professors outnumber conservatives 12 to one. More recent research reveals that nearly 50 percent of professors are registered Democrats, while fewer than six percent are registered Republicans.

The left is not shy about imposing its worldview on others, to devastating effect. Based on 2020 research, more than 47 percent of college students report changing their political leanings, with over 30 percent claiming to become "more liberal." Indeed, many students  liberal and conservative  feel pressured to align their political views with those of their professors, if for no other reason than to pass the class. Even conservative writer Ben Shapiro commented that while pursuing his law degree at Harvard, he wrote what the professorial class wanted to read, never expressing his true feelings.

Making matters worse, administrators are even more liberal than faculty members, with two thirds identifying as liberal and 40 percent of them describing themselves as "far-left." It is all too common for administrators to enable and embolden professors seeking to indoctrinate their students. Many administrations peddle left-wing jargon like "emotional trauma" and "institutional change," offering farcical solutions like "trauma-sensitive yoga" to the "problem" that is free speech.

Colleges and universities are shirking their responsibility to American society. In the process, they are not only failing to prepare students for the real world, but setting them back. Some of them have likely been seen in the streets of Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, and other violence-wracked cities.

The cold, hard truth is that colleges and universities are broken. Higher education has become a cesspool of blasphemy, groupthink, and obfuscation. Academic institutions have essentially become cults, financially exploiting their students while doing everything in their power to cover up their flaws. In the process, those who dare to dissent are often marginalized, while critical thought is undermined if not prohibited.

What can be done? First and foremost, the federal government needs to completely defund private colleges and universities, allowing them to stand on their own merits. Every year, billions of taxpayer dollars help fund higher education, propping up private colleges and universities that no longer carry out their mission statements in good faith. American taxpayers are funding the woke indoctrination of college students.

Consider Harvard and one of its affiliated nonprofits, the President and Fellows of Harvard College. According to its IRS Form 990 for tax year 2017, the most recent year available on the charity tracker Guidestar, this non-profit reported net assets of nearly $45.5 billion.

If these assets yielded an eight percent annual return  the long-term average return of the S&P 500  that's more than $3.6 billion per year. The interest alone is several billion dollars more than the full cost of tuition for all 23,000 Harvard College undergraduates, without touching the $45-billion principal.

Harvard may be an outlier in size, but it makes the point. This needs to stop. Whether academic institutions decide to be "woke" or not, the duty should not fall on taxpayers to subsidize private colleges. If a private college or university cannot survive without government assistance, then it should fail.

We need to rethink higher education, applying free-market principles to empower winners and expose losers. Those institutions that successfully educate students will survive, and many will even thrive. But those that scrap education in favor of Left-wing propaganda will ultimately fail, as they should.

The silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic is that we can re-evaluate our institutions of higher education. Now is the time to push back against the left's indoctrination camps, also known as "campus." In the words of President Trump: "Our children must be educated, not indoctrinated." The longer we wait, the more ground we and our children will continue to lose.

Autry Pruitt is the CEO of New Journey, a political action committee dedicated to changing minds and exposing the lies of the Democratic Party.
Second-year Vista Grande Elementary Principal Christine Prescott says shes excited about the start of school and so are the schools teachers  in spite of the new challenges.

Rio Rancho Public Schools 11 elementary buildings and the new Shining Stars Preschool open the classrooms for the first time since March on Monday morning.

Despite the pandemic, Prescott said, only one teacher retired, and attendance has only slightly decreased, from 670 in the 2019-20 school year to 658 expected Monday. That number included three transfers from Albuquerque Public Schools.

Prescott showed this Observer reporter numerous changes at the school, all to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, including:

 hallways split in half, with one direction of travel on each half;

 separate doors for each grade to get to the playground for recess, with half of the students on the playground and the other half on the playing field north of the school;

 drinking fountains no longer is use, but with a faucet to allow water bottles to be filled;

 hand sanitizer at every entrance; and

 desks in the classroom socially distanced, at least 6 feet apart.

The RRPS Board of Education, mandated to follow state guidelines, set the start date six days later than the original date of Sept. 8, giving the districts facilities department time to install barriers between seats in the cafeteria. The supplies were in Thursday, but the barriers had yet to be built, Prescott said.

She was also happy to report the schools music teacher had made each student his/her own instrument, again coming up with new ways to teach in this new normal.

All of our teachers are ready, Prescott said.

Two of them  second-grade teachers Sonja Bachahui and Leah Lichtenfeld, who swap virtual and hybrid teaching daily  were proud of the way their classroom was set up. Both came from other states: Bachahui, in her seventh year at Vista Grande, was an educator in North Carolina, while Lichtenfeld, starting her fourth year at VG El, came from Nevada.

This is the best school Ive ever worked at, Bachahui beamed. Second grades the best grade.

Were happy to be here, Lichtenfeld agreed.
As the threat of further lockdown measures looms restricting how people move while Covid-19 grows in communities, experts caution that there are other more effective ways to tackle the virus

"Lockdowns in general are not effective," Kingston Mills, a professor of experimental immunology at Trinity College, warns.

"They are only effective as a short-term measure to stop health systems from getting overwhelmed. They are only a short-term measure in terms of reducing the spread of the virus, but if the virus is still in the community it will not prevent the spread once the so-called lockdown is opened up. It is a crude weapon for containing the spread of the virus.

"A far more effective way of doing it is effective tracing and testing of people who are infected. A big issue we have right now is that the test system is not up to scratch and people are not going to tests."

International evidence enforces the point, showing that rapid tracing and locating of Covid-19 cases helps limit spread in the community. The problem is that intensive testing is expensive and time-consuming, and a more targeted approach is needed.

This has also proved challenging and health officials have had to react to where cases are in recent days.

Meat factories were an area of huge concern earlier in the pandemic, yet routine testing set up for the sector was abandoned last week so that resources could be allocated elsewhere when capacity was pushed to its limit. There was a surge in GP referrals for tests, especially in Dublin, as the number of suspected cases soared in line with the number of confirmed cases.

The HSE received 21,000 referrals for tests on Monday and Tuesday last week - not including requests from hospitals - just shy of the 28,000 requests sent across the previous seven days.

There are concerns demand will increase as people move about more freely when they are used to having children back in school, routines become normalised and, eventually, the pubs reopen. This will create further demand.

To cope with the recent surge in demand, the HSE has had to take steps. A pop-up testing centre was set up in Limerick where people could seek a test without making an appointment; this will be replicated elsewhere when needed. Elsewhere, the HSE is seeking to hire more than 700 new community swabbers to help support testing regimes. It is targeting students and people working part-time. There is no experience required for the roles.

Prof Mills cautions that not every 'Joe Soap' can be used to carry out the tests, and says there is more that people can do. Earlier this month, almost 25pc of people did not show up after being referred for a test.

"Some people don't have symptoms so they don't think they need the test. The problem there is people without symptoms can still transmit the virus and spread it. They don't know they are infected, go about their business as normal and pass it on.

"The fact people aren't getting tested is a big issue and risks greater community spread. Community spread is the big issue right now.

"We cannot go out and test everybody in the community, it has to be much more targeted than that. It has to be testing of everybody who is in direct contact with a known case, not just some of them."

He said such an approach would also help prevent us from replicating what was currently happening abroad.

He added that what happened in France last week, where there were fears of a second wave, was worrying as typically Ireland and the UK have been about two weeks behind some international patterns. On March 31, France recorded 7,578 new cases. This remained the highest daily total until this month. Already, on four days in September, March figures were surpassed.

"Spain and France are the countries with the biggest issues in Europe and they are ahead of us in terms of the resurgence of cases.

"Current projections show the UK is going towards where France is in about two weeks' time, in terms of total number of cases.

"I do think while we don't have a huge number of deaths happening right now or massive numbers in hospital, if the trend continues the way we were and the more we have in hospital, the more people we will have in ICU and more will die.

"We were doing much better than the UK but are on a par with them now, so clearly what we are doing now is not effective in stopping the resurgence that's happening."
Pemberton met Laude at a bar in Olongapo City, north of Manila, in October 2014 after the Marines arrived for joint military exercises. She was later found dead in a motel room, her head over the toilet. Local media reported that Pemberton, then 19, admitted to choking Laude, 26, after discovering she was transgender. He claimed he acted in self-defense, but police determined his actions were a hate crime. He was charged with murder and convicted of homicide in 2015.
UPDATE: Schools in at least 6 N.J. districts announce schedule changes over student, staff COVID-19 cases

Find all of the most important pandemic education news on Educating N.J., a special resource guide created for parents, students and educators.

A school district in Sussex County that reopened with a hybrid of in-person and remote classes is temporarily switching to virtual instruction after a student tested positive for the coronavirus, officials said.

In a letter to parents, Frankford Township Superintendent Braden Hirsch said he received a phone call on Friday informing him that a student has COVID-19.

New Jerseys guidelines state if one or two students or teachers are diagnosed with the virus in the same classroom, everyone he or she came in close contact with at the school should quarantine for 14 days. However, Hirsch said the district, which has one pre-kindergarten through eighth grade school with an enrollment of about 500, would move to remote learning for for two weeks out of an abundance of caution.

I know this creates a hardship for many families. However, I think is it the safest decision at this time, Hirsch said.

Hirsch did not say what grade the student was in, but said contact tracers with the county health department will reach out to parents if their child could have been exposed. He did not immediately respond Sunday to a request for comment.

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Since inviting students back into classrooms this month, several schools that reopened under hybrid plans have switched partially or fully to remote learning after reports of positive tests.

Officials announced a switch to remote learning for two weeks after a freshman at the Middlesex County Vocational and Technical Schools East Brunswick campus tested positive for the coronavirus. And Chatham High School also switched to remote instruction because a student tested positive, possibly after attending a weekend gathering.

School schedules have also been changes in Little Silver and Howell due to positive tests.

In Elizabeth, a high school was closed for a day for cleaning after a teacher tested positive for the coronavirus. While Elizabeth student are all remote, teachers have been coming to their classrooms to provide the virtual instruction.

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Avalon Zoppo may be reached at azoppo2@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AvalonZoppo.
The airport in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, once hard hit during the COVID-19 epidemic, saw its numbers of domestic passenger flights as well as passengers return to the levels a year ago on Friday, the airport operator said Saturday.



The Wuhan Tianhe International Airport handled 64,700 passengers and 500 domestic passenger flights Friday, also the highest daily levels since the airport resumed domestic passenger services since April 8, said the Hubei Airports Group.

Qu Xiaoni of the Hubei Airports Group said the Wuhan Tianhe airport will push the resumption of regular international passenger flights between Wuhan and destinations like Seoul, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Jakarta.

Meanwhile, the airport has resumed and newly opened nine regular international cargo routes since April 8. It will also soon open cargo services from Wuhan to Amsterdam via London as well as to Dhaka and Delhi.
The Nebra sky disk has been hailed as the oldest known representation of the cosmos. Uncovered by looters in 1999 and then recovered in a sting by archaeologists and law enforcement a few years later, the ancient bronze artifact, inlaid with gold decorations of the night sky, has provoked heated debates.

Now, a pair of German archaeologists are calling into question the age and origin of the disk, adding another chapter to the complex saga of the enchanting object.

The disk is currently judged to be about 3,600 years old, dating it to the Bronze Age. The looters who initially uncovered it said it was buried on a hilltop near the town of Nebra in Germany, next to weapons from the same era.

Rupert Gebhard, director of the Bavarian State Archaeological Collection in Munich, and Rudiger Krause, a professor of early European history at Goethe University Frankfurt, now propose that the disk is a product of the Iron Age, which would make it about 1,000 years younger.
Everything you need to know about skiing the Northeast this winter

Whether you want to stay close to home or head north, here's everything you need to know about skiing or snowboarding in the Northeast and New York this season.
The Haryana government on Friday formed a three-member committee to hold talks with farmers protesting against Centres ordinances leaving government under immense pressure to mend their equation with the cultivators. The committee will comprise of Hisar MP Brijendra Singh, Bhiwani-Mahendragarh MP Dharambir Singh and Kurukshetra MP Naib Saini, who will hold talks with the farmers to resolve their issues, reported NDTV.

Haryana BJP chief OP Dhankar, a top regional leader who had earlier been the president of the partys farmers body, formed the panel and scheduled three meetings with the farmers bodies to mitigate their anger against the government after the clash in Kurukshetra on Thursday. Two of the meetings will reportedly be held on Saturday, September 13, in Rohtak and Karnal and the third will be on Sunday, September 14, in Panchkula.

Farmers have been protesting across Punjab and Haryana against Centres three ordinances - Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 - that seek to provide provide barrier-free trade for farmers produce outside notified farm mandis. The ordinances, brought by the government on June 5, also seek to empower farmers to enter into agreements with private players in the market prior to the production for sale of agri-produce.

The negotiations have been opened by the BJP-Jannayak Janata Party government in the state after the farmers bodies clashed with police in Pipli area of Haryanas Kurukshetra district on Thursday which led to lathicharge by the police. Few leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also disapproved of the polices action against the farmers and tweeted on the same.

The district police on Friday registered cases against 300 farmers, including Bharatiya Kisan Union chief Gurnam Singh Chaduni, for damaging public property and violating restrictions on assembly during the clash that left many injured including farmers. Chaduni, however, threatened to intensify the protests if the demands were not met. If the farmers demands are not met by September 14, there would be protests at all district headquarters, and on September 20, all roads in the state will be blocked," he said.

The Congress came in support of the farmers on Saturday and hit out at the Centre over the ordinances, alleging that they would subjugate the farmers at the altar of a handful of crony capitalists" and were a death knell" for agriculture. Previous state finance minister and senior BJP leader, Captain Abhimanyu, was also critical of the polices move. Former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda visited farmers in the village on Friday.
Passengers on board commercial flights will be allowed to do photography inside the flight, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) clarified on Sunday adding that the prohibition is only for recording equipment which compromises air safety, creates chaos and violates norms.

It is clarified that a bonafide passenger travelling in an aircraft engaged in scheduled air transport services may do still and video photography from inside such an aircraft while in flight, take off and landing... however, this permission does not include use of recording equipment which imperils or compromises air safety; violates prevalent norms; creates chaos or disruption during operation of flight or expressly prohibited by crew, the clarification said.

The clarification comes a day after the aviation regulator issued an order for commercial flights stating that violations of in-flight norms, including photography, will invite a suspension of that scheduled route for two weeks.

ALSO READ | DGCA warns airlines over violations of in-flight norms after Kangana row

The suspension would stay in place till the airline completes taking action against those violating these norms.

In case of any violation of Rule 13 of Aircraft Rules 1937 on any passenger aircraft, the schedule of flight for that particular route shall be suspended for two weeks from the next day, the DGCA statement read. The rule cited by DGCA, deals with conditions of photography and videography on board commercial passenger flights.

The aviation regulator added that despite these regulations, airlines have often failed to follow rules primarily due to lack of diligence on their part. Needless to say that such deviations result in compromise in maintaining the highest standard of safety and therefore is not to be allowed, the statement said.

The order came in the aftermath of an incident involving mediapersons filming on board an Indigo flight in which actor Kangana Ranaut was travelling from Chandigarh to Mumbai on Wednesday. A video of mediapersons recording inside the flight and creating a ruckus went viral on social media.

The DGCA had on Friday asked IndiGo to take appropriate action after the regulator found alleged violation of safety and social distancing protocols by the media on the airlines Chandigarh-Mumbai flight.

We have seen some videos wherein mediapersons are standing too close to each other on board the 6E264 flight on Wednesday. It seems to be a violation of safety and social distancing protocols, a DGCA official said.

The aviation regulator cited multiple issues with the incident, prominent among them were related to photography on board in violation of Aircraft rules 13, visible violation of Covid-19 protocols and alleged unruly behaviour by a few passengers on board the flight.

The aviation regulator is also planning to take action against the media persons on board the IndiGo for violating in-flight norms following a probe on the incident, officials aware of the development said.

Action may be initiated against those persons found in violation of the guidelines, DGCA said.
In an article in The Sunday Times, John Major and Tony Blair, who played a crucial role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland, warned that the Internal Market Bill imperils that peace

London: Two former British prime ministers who played crucial roles in bringing peace to Northern Ireland joined forces Sunday to urge lawmakers to reject government plans to override the Brexit deal with the European Union, arguing that it imperils that peace and damages the UK's reputation.

In an article in The Sunday Times, John Major and Tony Blair slammed the current British government for "shaming" the country with legislation that, in places, goes against the very deal it signed to allow for the UK smooth departure from the EU earlier this year.

Major, a Conservative prime minister from 1990 to 1997, and Blair, his Labour successor for a decade, said Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Internal Market Bill "questions the very integrity" of the UK.

"This government's action is shaming itself and embarrassing our nation," they said.

The planned legislation, which will be debated by British lawmakers this week, has led to a furious outcry within the EU as it would diminish the bloc's previously agreed oversight of trade between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland if a UK-EU trade agreement isn't secured.

The British government has admitted that the legislation would break international law, but argues that it's an insurance policy for that potential 'no-deal' scenario. Johnson has said the legislation is needed to end EU threats to impose a "blockade" in the Irish Sea that the prime minister asserted could "carve up our country."

Britain's Justice Secretary Robert Buckland told the BBC on Sunday that the legislation was a "break the glass in emergency provision," if needed, and that he would resign if he believed the rule of law was broken in an "unacceptable" way. "I don't believe we're going to get to that stage," he said.

EU leaders have furiously rejected Johnson's charge that the bloc is planning a major disruption to normal trade between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney told the BBC that the "kind of inflammatory language" coming from the British government was "spin and not the truth."

Still, with the British government showing no sign of changing course, there are real concerns that the talks on a future trade deal between the UK and the EU could collapse within weeks. If that happens, tariffs and other impediments to trade will be imposed by both sides at the start of 2021.

The UK left the EU on 31 January, but it is in a transition period that effectively sees it benefit from the bloc's tariff-free trade until the end of the year while a future relationship is negotiated. Even before the latest standoff, discussions between the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, and his UK counterpart, David Frost, had made very little progress.

One major element of the Brexit withdrawal agreement is the section related to ensuring an open border on the island of Ireland to protect the peace process in Northern Ireland.

The issue proved thorny during the more than two years of discussions it took to get a Brexit deal done, as the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland is the only land link between the UK and the EU.

The EU wanted assurances the border would not be used as a back route for unlicensed goods arriving in Ireland from the rest of the UK  England, Scotland and Wales. As a result, the two sides agreed there would be some kind of regulatory border between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland.

Major and Blair, who both vociferously opposed Brexit, said the planned legislation puts the 1998 Good Friday agreement that ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland at risk.

The pair said the bill "negates the predictability, political stability and legal clarity that are integral to the delicate balance between the north and south of Ireland that is at the core of the peace process."

It's unclear whether the planned legislation will get through the British Parliament, with a number of Johnson's fellow Conservatives uneasy at the prospect of the government breaching international law.

Tobias Ellwood is one lawmaker who has said he could not accept the legislation, arguing that the bill diminishes "our role-model status as defender of global standards."
Although it may still be six weeks away, experts and officials have begun to sound the death knell for Halloween as we know it.

With the most practical known defences against the coronavirus currently proliferating across the world being to keep a distance from others and wash your hands, it will come as little surprise to many that experts and officials have reached this conclusion.

But others have argued, somewhat less seriously, that wearing masked costumes and guising - an outdoor activity - fits neatly into the restrictions.

After months of global seclusion and a re-learning of interpersonal norms, the idea of trick or treating in its traditional form will seem concerning to many.

Many older people have concerns about returning to any form of normality, which includes answering the door to trick or treaters this Halloween, said Age UK director Caroline Abrahams.

We hope everybody follows the government guidelines and is aware of local restrictions," Ms Abrahams told the East Anglia Daily Times this week.

"If visiting doorsteps, be sure to step back after knocking, so you are around two metres away from the person when they answer the door and make sure everybody handwashes before and after eating and handling treats.

But she added that it was more important than ever to be vigilant to the fact that many older people are feeling lonely, saying: For some a friendly visit from their neighbours or family members may be a welcome treat this Halloween, just be sure to check what the person is comfortable with when calling round.

And with UK governments having implemented new rule of six lockdown rules in response to rapidly rising cases of Covid-19 and increased hospitalisations, Halloween parties exceeding the tight limitations will now be in breach of the law.

Planned events in Paisley and Fife have reportedly already been cancelled, with others expected to follow suit, however some parents on social media have expressed an intention to celebrate the holiday at home with their children, dressing up and carving pumpkins.

As a debate over this years celebrations raged on Mumsnet, one contributor wrote: Halloween will be different, thats for sure. Maybe it could be more like a scarecrow festival, the house decorations could be admired from afar.

Retailers will be hoping the event goes ahead in some form, with UK consumers typically spending around 400m each of the past few years.

Outwith the UK, prospects look similarly gloomy for the holiday.

Authorities in California became the first to attempt an outright ban on trick-or-treating, with the Los Angeless public health director Dr Barbara Ferrer, saying: Its just not sensible in a pandemic.

However, public backlash forced them into a climbdown. Los Angeles county is now merely recommending against trick-or-treating this year.

"Even a pandemic can't cancel Halloween," county supervisor Janice Hahn told The Los Angeles Times.

But large-scale events have already been called off in several states and cities, including Salem - famed for its gruesome witch trials.

One Twitter user responded: So weird to cancel Halloween, the only holiday everyone wears a mask."

However, with proper face masks serving only to reduce, not erase, the likelihood of transmission, scientists have warned the most effective way to cut the spread of the pandemic is to reduce the number of contacts between people.
Gardai in Dublin are appealing for witnesses following a hit-and-run collision yesterday evening.

A young boy received serious injuries when he was hit by a car on Fortunestown Lane in Tallaght, Dublin 24.

The car failed to remain at the scene. The incident occurred at around 8.30pm.

Gardai and emergency services attended the scene and the child was taken to Children's Health Ireland at Crumlin.

It is believed that his injuries are not life-threatening.

Gardai are appealing to anyone who may have information in relation to this incident to come forward.

Anyone who was in the vicinity of Fortunestown Lane between 8pm and 9pm on Saturday evening should make contact.

Gardai are particularly appealing to any road users who may have camera (dash-cam) footage, and who were driving in the Fortunestown Lane, Tallaght area yesterday evening, to make it available to them.

Anyone with any information should contact Tallaght Garda Station on 01 666 6000, the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111 or any Garda station.
Michael Bloomberg, who spent $1 billion of his own money on a failed 2020 presidential bid, will inject at least $100 million to help Democrat Joe Biden's campaign against President Donald Trump in Florida.

The billionaire's decision comes at a critical moment in the final 51 days of the race, with polls showing a close race in the battleground state and no financial advantage for the sitting president.

Trump's initial financial supremacy over former Vice President Biden has evaporated after the Republican's campaign spent freely and Democratic fundraising surged once the party's divisive primary ended.

"Mike Bloomberg is committed to helping defeat Trump, and that is going to happen in the battleground states," said Bloomberg adviser Kevin Sheekey, who added that the spending "will mean Democrats and the Biden campaign can invest even more heavily in other key states like Pennsylvania, which will be critical to a Biden victory."

Even before Bloomberg's spending, both campaigns were expecting Florida to be the most expensive state in which to campaign. It will be the biggest prize among competitive states on Election Day, offering 29 of the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win.

Voting by mail in the state starts on Sept. 24, and Biden is planning his first in-person visit to Florida of the general election season on Tuesday.

Trump won the state by 113,000 votes in his victorious 2016 election, or 1.2 percentage points. He has since adopted the state as his residence and visits regularly.

Recent polls have shown Biden with a very slim margin there, gaining ground with older voters but trailing previous Democrats' performance with Latinos. People over 65 years old make up one in five of the state's voters and Latinos make up one in four.

Trump's re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee on Wednesday said they raised a combined $210 million in August, falling far short of Biden's record-breaking haul of $364.5 million for the month that included both party's televised conventions.

The strong fundraising may have allowed Biden to completely erase a long deficit in fundraising against Trump. Before the August fundraising tally, the Trump campaign reported having $300 million in cash on hand, compared with Biden's $294 million. Neither campaign has reported a more recent figure.

The Republican president, who trails Biden in national opinion polls before the Nov. 3 election, told reporters last week that he would spend his own money if needed.

"I thought Mini Mike was through with Democrat politics," Trump said on Twitter on Sunday. "Save NYC instead."

Democrats had worried that Bloomberg's promised help for the party might not come through after he abandoned his own presidential primary campaign. Some were angered by Bloomberg's getting a prime-time speaking slot at the Democratic convention in August.

A Bloomberg aide said the money would be used to help bring people to the polls who support Biden and communicating with Latino voters, in particular.

"This will force Republicans and the Trump campaign to shift even more of their limited resources to Florida," the aide said.

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I got infected with a serious life-threatening virus while working in the present Covid ICU ward of KEM Hospital in Mumbai. This was long ago in 1984. It was then the male surgical ward no. 5. During this pandemic, the same ward has been converted into the Covid ICU. The potentially fatal virus that infected me then was Hepatitis B.

Again, in 1995, I was exposed to another serious and dangerous virus while working as a junior surgeon in Sion Hospital, another major public hospital in Mumbai. Did I become HIV positive?

A few days ago, I performed a major surgery on an infant which lasted more than 10 hours. It was an operation to create an oesophagus for an infant, who was born without one. A couple of days later, my assistant surgeon, who had worked in Covid ward a week earlier, developed fever and sore throat. He was at high risk for contracting Covid and as we had come in close contact for a prolonged period during the surgery, I got swabbed too. Thankfully, the result was negative.

This piece is a relook at my viral encounters with these potentially fatal viruses, the health issues they raised, how society and authorities reacted, the current status of these viruses on this planet and what inferences we can draw from the past for the future of Covid.

In 1984, when I came down with Hepatitis B, quite like the Covid virus, most of us, were blissfully ignorant about the microbe. This may seem surprising because the Hepatitis B virus had been detected years earlier. But back then, communication happened at a snails pace. No internet, no social media, no email, no mobiles and no 24x7 international TV. Currently, there is an infodemic running parallel with the Covid pandemic. But when I got infected with Hep B, I had to go to the College Medical library and browse through latest journals to understand more about this virus and the symptoms it causes. Unlike the Covid virus, which is an RNA virus, the Hepatitis B is a DNA virus and is transmitted via contact with infected body fluids.

I was then, a young, overworked resident doctor (as resident doctors in public hospitals still are) and we had to operate day and night on surgical conditions and emergencies of all kinds. Accidental needle or cautery pricks and the occasional cut while performing surgeries were not uncommon. In the emergency ward, when a gasping trauma patient would be wheeled in, I remember taking an IV line or intubating him without wearing gloves (often because the right size was unavailable). During one such life-saving procedure, the potentially fatal Hepatitis B virus carried by the patient had entered my body via a small cut on palm. I had remained fully healthy and unaware of this for six weeks (the incubation period) and then developed severe Hepatitis and jaundice. For the first week, my jaundice was dismissed as the commoner Hepatitis A, but someone suggested that we should test for this new virus. My HBsAg antigen test came positive. I was feeling sick and tired and had lost my appetite. My library reading informed me that there was no cure or medication for this virus and that it could be fatal. If you survived, you had a much higher risk of developing liver cancer. It was also called the surgeons jaundice. I was down for two months and had lost a lot of weight. The authorities refused my sick leave as they had no such disease in their list of occupational hazards. It was only after I wrote a couple of articles in the newspapers about this new virus that my leave was sanctioned.

Today, 30 years later, Hepatitis B is the most common serious liver infection in the world. Two billion people (or 1 in 3) have been infected and more than 292 million people are living with a chronic Hepatitis B infection. Like Covid, there is a simple test to diagnose a hepatitis B infection. Most importantly there is a safe vaccine to prevent hepatitis B. The vaccine gives adequate immunity in 90-95% of cases. Yet, each year up to 1 million people die from Hepatitis B. As of today there is no definite cure. I hope the Covid scenario after a few decades is not the same as Hepatitis B. Vaccines may become available, but will they reach everyone? Will they be as effective as the Hepatitis B one. Generally, the efficacy of the respiratory virus vaccines is not as good. Influenza vaccines prevent the illness in 40-60% cases only.

Ten years after my encounter with the Hepatitis B virus, another serious viral danger came my way  the HIV. The world HIV pandemic raged in the 1990s. By then, I was a junior consultant surgeon and India had entered the era of desktops, internet and email. So this time around, when the virus threatened me, many of us were adequately aware of not just its existence but also its mode of spread. One novelty about this virus, unlike those in the past and Covid, was the amount of stigma attached to it. AIDS, the disease caused by HIV, was known to be associated with promiscuity, homosexuality, drug use and prostitutes.

I had operated on a middle aged man, who later turned out to be HIV positive. All of us who participated in the operation were at risk. I was tense and got my blood test done. I knew that there was no cure for HIV, and in those days if you got AIDS, death was certain within one year. It was a huge relief when my test came negative.

During this evolving HIV pandemic, I recall attending a meeting in the Sion Hospital auditorium to discuss the situation. The auditorium was packed with hospital doctors. Among the various issues discussed, an important ethical question arose  should we do the HIV test on all patients before they are taken up for surgery? The test was expensive. Should the hospital pay for all these tests or should the patients be charged? It did not take much time to reach a consensus that the test be mandatory for all surgical patients. Doctors lives were at risk and must be protected. Just as the meeting was about to end, I remember standing up and posing a corollary tricky question  going by the same yardstick, I asked, shouldnt all doctors operating or doing procedures on patients, also be required to get their HIV testing done ? There was pandemonium and loud disagreement. And as I recall, this particular matter was deferred for further discussion. There is still no consensus on it.

As regards AIDS, till today, we do not have a vaccine against the virus, nor do we have a cure. Only life-prolonging medications are available which have essentially made HIV into a chronic disease. Although new infections have decreased, 1.7m people were newly infected in 2018, and worldwide 32m people have died of AIDS.

The examples show that scientific cures and effective vaccines can take a long time. The stories of these two viruses also tell us that we have to live with viruses for many years. Viruses will come and stay. And humanity will have to learn to live and adapt to their peculiar ways. As health care workers, we have to learn and adapt even faster.

In our hospital we have commenced doing routine surgeries, albeit with enhanced precautions and protection. Although it is still not the time to lower ones guard, the fear about the virus is decreasing. The other day, I was pleasantly surprised to gather that the staff nurse assisting me in the operating room had been admitted with Covid in May and had now resumed full duties. The casual banter in the OT lounge during tea and lunch breaks is about Covid antibody levels. One staff nurse was lamenting that though she was antibody positive (meaning she has some immunity against the virus) her levels were not as high as her colleagues!

And as we come to terms with this pandemic, we cannot forget the lessons the past viruses have taught us. Ultimately, the pandemic may subside, but it will not end. If Hepatitis B and HIV taught us to change our behaviours as individuals, the Covid pandemic has emphasized the need to change our behaviour as a society. We cannot afford to neglect public health any longer.

(Dr Santosh Karmarkar is a consultant pediatric surgeon and pediatric urologist, Lilavati Hospital & Research Centre)
By PTI

NEW YORK: A Black study group that focussed on race drew Shyamala Gopalan, mother of Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris, and her husband Donald Harris together when they arrived at the University of California at Berkeley, a media report said.

A report in The New York Times said that at an off-campus space at the University of California at Berkeley in the fall of 1962, Harris, then a Jamaican Ph.D. student, addressed a small crowd, drawing parallels between his native country and the US.

He spoke about observing British colonial power in Jamaica, the way a small number of whites had cultivated a "native Black elite" in order to mask extreme social inequality.

Gopalan, who was sitting in the audience, found Harris' ideas "so compelling" that she came up to him after the speech and introduced herself.

"She was a tiny Indian scientist wearing a sari and sandals - the only other foreign student to show up for a talk on race in America."

Donald Harris recalled in The New York Times report that Gopalan was "a standout in appearance relative to everybody else in the group of both men and women." Gopalan, raised in India, wanted to hear more of Harris' ideas.

"This was all very interesting to me, and, I daresay, a bit charming," Donald Harris, now 82 and an emeritus professor of economics at Stanford, recalled in written answers to questions.

"At a subsequent meeting, we talked again, and at the one after that. The rest is now history."

The NYT report quotes their contemporaries as saying that "As a couple, Don Harris and Shyamala Gopalan Harris stood out, with their upper-crust accents and air of intellectual confidence."

Anne Williams, 76, said she found Donald Harris "reserved and academic in his presentation," difficult to get to know.

Gopalan was "warm" and "charming."

Indian-born economist Baron Meghnad Desai described Gopalan as a passionate debater, "fiery and radical but not Marxist in any sense."

Her husband, he recalled, "did take a serious interest in radical political economy, but he was a calm and patient arguer."

"There was no doubt about that, they were very much together, very much in love," he said.

The NYT report said that Gopalan, the oldest child in a high-achieving Tamil Brahmin family, wanted to be a biochemist but at Lady Irwin College, she was forced to settle for a degree in home science.

Her brother Gopalan Balachandran said that his father and he used to tease Shyamala Gopalan about her studying home science.

"We would say, 'What do you study in home science? Do they teach you to set up plates for dinner?' She used to get angry and laugh.

She would say, 'You don't know what I'm studying.'"

At Berkeley, Gopalan became part of a Black intellectual study group that met off-campus.

"She was part of the real brotherhood and sisterhood, there was never an issue," said Aubrey LaBrie, who went on to teach courses on Black nationalism at San Francisco State University.

"She was just accepted as part of the group." When Harris arrived on campus in 1961, he too fell in with the study group right away, the report said.

He described the study group as an oasis, his introduction "to the realities of African-American life in its truest and rawest form, its richness and complexity, wealth and poverty, hope and despair."

The NYT report added that it was in this group in 1962 that Harris met his future wife.

"We talked then, continued to talk at a subsequent meeting, and at another, and another," he said.

The following year they were married.

Gopalan, who had expected to return to India from Berkeley, had later told a local newspaper, "I never came to stay. It's the old story: I fell in love with a guy, we got married, pretty soon kids came."

The NYT report adds that the Harrises' marriage would fray as Harris took short-term teaching positions at two different universities in Illinois.

As he won a tenure-track position at the University of Wisconsin, Gopalan settled, instead, with her children in Oakland and West Berkeley.

Gopalan, a research scientist who published influential work on the role of hormones in breast cancer, filed for divorce in 1972.

"She was quite unhappy about the separation but she had already got used to that and she didn't want to talk to Don after that," said Balachandran, her brother.

"When you love somebody, then love turns into very hard bitterness, you don't even want to talk to them."

Kamala Harris, 55, has written about her parents splitting up in her 2018 memoir 'The Truths We Hold'.

Harris wrote, "I knew they loved each other very much, but it seemed like they had become like oil and water." She wrote that "had they been a little older, a little more emotionally mature, maybe the marriage could have survived. But they were so young. My father was my mother's first boyfriend." Kamala Harris is a Senator from California.

She is the first-ever black, African American and a person of Indian descent to be nominated as a vice-presidential nominee by a major political party in the United States.
Indore: Madhya Pradesh Congress president and former chief minister Kamal Nath on Sunday said his government had waived off loans of 26 lakh farmers and challenged the current BJP dispensation in the state to prove his claim wrong. He was addressing a public meeting in favour of Congress candidate Premchand Guddu from Sanver in Indore district.

Bypolls are needed in 27 Assembly seats in the state, though no date has been announced for them as yet. My government waived off the loans of 26 Lakh farmers of the state. I openly challenge (MP Chief Minister) Shivraj Singh Chouhan and (Congressman-turned-BJP Rajya Sabha MP) Jyotiraditya Scindia to refute this claim," he said.

Hitting out at Scindia, Nath said the former used to praise the farm loan waiver scheme when he was with the Congress but was now criticising it. Scindias defection to the BJP and the resignation of 22 of his loyalist MLAs brought down the Nath government in March.

Accusing Chouhan of making fake announcements as CM, Nath claimed he never did so while he occupied the top post. I want to ask the public what sin did my government commit by waiving off farm loans, bringing in investment and taking on the mafia?" Nath asked.

He said the Chouhan government in the state was harassing and suppressing Congress workers and warned officials not to roam with BJP badges in their pockets". Accusing the BJP of throttling democracy while bringing down his government, Nath said the architect of the Constitution Babasaheb Ambedkar might never have imagined that such politics of bargaining" would take place in the country.

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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
LONG POINT, N.B. - Police in New Brunswick are searching for two people who are believed to have been in a truck that went off a ferry into the water of Belleisle Bay.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 13/9/2020 (494 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LONG POINT, N.B. - Police in New Brunswick are searching for two people who are believed to have been in a truck that went off a ferry into the water of Belleisle Bay.

The RCMP says it was notified of the incident just before 1:50 a.m. local time today.

RCMP spokeswoman Jullie Rogers-Marsh says police believe two people were inside the vehicle when it went into the water.

She says RCMP dive teams are involved in the search, alongside the coast guard and the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre.

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Hampton Fire Rescue Chief Roger Breau says six members of the department were involved in the initial search, but have since left the scene.

Police say they are still investigating why the vehicle went off the ferry.

Rogers-Marsh says the focus Sunday afternoon, however, was on finding the occupants of the truck.

The ferry runs between Rte. 124 and Rte. 850 on Belleisle Bay, about 115 kilometres southeast of Fredericton.

The province says on its website that the one-kilometre crossing takes approximately seven minutes. The 24-hour ferry has a maximum capacity of 15 vehicles.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2020.
Homeless students may need to use free Wi-Fi at McDonalds to do schoolwork, while others might have social anxiety and not want to see themselves during a virtual lesson.

Whatever the reason, many students could be uncomfortable with webcams as part of their remote learning, and education leaders are left to solve a problem that didnt exist before novel coronavirus.

Students across Michigan are using platforms like Google Meet or Zoom to interact through a webcam with their teacher and classmates during this unique school year.

This approach to learning may be keeping kids safe from getting COVID-19, but it doesnt come without its own set of new concerns, including privacy, equity and bullying, some educators and parents say.

Keeping students engaged and ensuring participation during remote learning, while not adding stress, is a difficult balance to find, Kalamazoo Public Schools Superintendent Rita Raichoudhuri said. In Kalamazoo, students wont be penalized if they must keep their webcam off during class but using the webcam is highly encouraged, she said.

Teachers should encourage participation and get feedback from students in a variety of ways, including through audio, the chatroom and thumbs up buttons, Raichoudhuri said. The Kalamazoo superintendent also encourages students to use the blurring feature in Google Meet to blur whats behind them or set up a tri-fold board to hide their background, if they are uncomfortable.

Tandy Moore, a Kalamazoo school board member and district parent, advocates against webcam use on behalf of her own children, she said.

While children may benefit from the learning style that allows them to have live online interactions with their teacher and classmates, requiring the use of a webcam can cause more harm, Moore said. Punishing students who dont want to turn on their camera is inequitable and would force students to expose their home environments to their classmates, she said.

There are many, many reasons why a webcam is not appropriate for every child, Moore said.

Moore, whose four children are learning remotely from home, has struggled with internet connection issues that make talking over video nearly impossible.

Moore watched her sons excitement for the first day of school slowly disappear when he couldnt connect to his virtual classroom because of those internet problems, she said. Using audio only makes it possible to attend classes virtually with slower internet speeds, she said.

Other issues like social anxiety or embarrassment about ones home environment can cause undue stress for students who are learning during a pandemic, Moore said.

Youre bringing your classroom into your home, Moore said. There may just be internal anxiety about Whats around me? What kind of house do I live in? Whats my family like? and not want people to see that.

Another concern is the ability for children to screenshot or record their classmates on the video and possibly later bully them about their home environment or appearance, Moore said.

Students will find things to pick on each other about, Moore said. They will find ways to single a kid out and make fun of them.

Some kids may not have a home and are connecting to class using Wi-Fi at a fast food restaurant or other public space, Moore said. Using a webcam means students would be forced to disclose that to their classmates.

Child psychology researchers dont know yet what the effects of this school year will be on children, said Erika Bocknek, a Wayne State University associate professor of educational psychology.

Were building the boat as we sail it, Bocknek said.

Unlike in a traditional classroom, children are viewing themselves and staring at the faces of their classmates, which can make them self-conscious about their own appearance, said Bocknek, who teaches courses on child psychology.

We dont have good data on this yet, but a lot of people are in fact speculating that there may be impacts on self-esteem, on a positive sense of identity, Bocknek said.

Increased screen time during virtual school is another unknown for researchers, Bocknek said. But experts know this school year may exacerbate already existing mental and behavioral issues, she said.

I think we are going to have some positive and negative lessons learned from this time period, Bocknek said. "We really dont know yet for sure what the impacts are going to be. However, we hypothesize that there are children with different learning styles who might really benefit from being able to turn the camera off and focus on listening auditorily to the lesson.

Learning in a virtual setting can be exhausting for children, Bocknek said. Brains rely on nonverbal communication like facial expressions to communicate and the two-dimensional atmosphere of a video call exhausts the brain, she said.

Turning off the camera allows the child to absorb information auditorily without the strain of trying to read facial expressions on a computer, Bocknek said. Children using their own webcam are also watching themselves in addition to scanning others' faces, which is not something people normally do in conversation, she said.

Ultimately, parents need flexibility to make the best decisions they can for their children, Bocknek said.

Recorded lessons, done without the use of a webcam, was the best choice for Sarah Davis' four school-aged children, she said.

Because trying to juggle (live online) classes at different times for four kids is impossible, said Davis, a Kalamazoo mother of five.

Her four school-aged children get distracted by the activity on each others computers, and the fifth child -- a 3-year-old -- could at any time come into view of the webcam and disrupt the virtual classroom, Davis said.

Davis said she also worries about messes or other activity in the background of the webcam and doesnt have enough space in the house for all four children to not disrupt each other.

Davis has two children diagnosed with ADHD and a child on the autism spectrum. Its especially challenging for her children to focus on all of the movement and noise from live classes, she said.

I dont work. I do not know how anybody who also works is doing any of this," Davis said.

An important thing to consider regarding webcams, though, is teachers' need to see students' faces to assess how learning is going, Bocknek said.

Teachers need to teach to faces, Bocknek said. "So, I think there is a psychological risk of no cameras being on and the mental health of the person who is now for hours trying to deliver lessons, check for understanding and to ensure that theres full participation.

What really is ideal is individual children and families are given some flexibility around whether or not cameras are on, but that teachers and school systems come up with creative ways to provide opportunities for engagement and participation.

To help you navigate this complicated fall, were pleased to offer you a simpler way to get all of your education news: Our new Michigan Schools: Education in the COVID Era newsletter delivered right to your inbox. To receive this newsletter, simply click here to sign up.

Also on MLive:

Coronavirus cases at Grand Valley State surpass all other universities in Michigan

Internet issues impact remote learning in some Washtenaw County school districts

Grand Rapids schools ramp up mental health services during online-only start to school year
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This CoolSocial report was updated on 2022-01-01, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.
The biannual talks between Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) director-general Major General M Shafeenul Islam and Border Security Force (BSF) head Rakesh Asthana will begin on Sunday in BGBs Pilkhana headquarters in Dhaka. The meeting will last for six days and end on September 18.

This is the 50th such meeting between the director-general of the border forces of both nations. The discussions will deal with issues like cross-border trafficking of drugs and individuals, trans-border crimes, activities of Indian insurgent groups in Bangladesh and smuggling of fake currency notes.

BSF delegation will also raise the issue of cross-border infiltration strongly with its Bangladesh counterpart.

The Border Guard Bangladesh is expected to raise the issue of the rising number of deaths at the Indo-Bangla border. BGB has raised concern regarding the death of unarmed individuals and said that Bangladesh has laid high importance to violence on borders, according to news agency PTI.

BGBs operations director Lieutenant Colonel Fayzur Rahman while speaking to the Daily Star, a Dhaka-based English daily, said that Bangladesh would primarily focus on the border killings during the meeting.

He further added, The entry of waste from India through Akhaura-Agartala ICP [check post] will also get priority in the talks as we have been trying hard to stop the inflow of such waste, while speaking to the Daily Star.

BSF sector commanders, personnel from the Narcotics Control Bureau and representatives of the External Affairs Ministry will also join BSF DG Rakesh Asthana in Dhaka.

The biannual meet has been held since 1975 in order to discuss the management of the 4,096 km long borders. These talks are once held in Bangladesh and once in Delhi.
New Delhi: Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan on Sunday (September 13, 2020) claimed that India shall have a vaccine ready by March 2021. He even offered to take the first shot himself for receiving COVID-19 vaccine if people have any 'trust deficit'.

"To allay fears regarding the safety aspect of the vaccines, Harsh Vardhan said he will be happy to take the first dosage of vaccine if some people have a trust deficit," read the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's statement.

Vardhan while interacting with his social media followers using his Sunday 'Samvad' platform also informed that while no date has been fixed for the vaccine launch, it may be ready by the first quarter of 2021.

Grateful to thousands of you who wrote to me for #SundaySamvaad ! Great to have started a 2-way communication with social media friends. Learning a lot from the conversations. Hope we can keep up & further strengthen the dialoguehttps://t.co/su977Pnzxk  Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) September 13, 2020

He stated that the Government is taking full precautions in conducting the human trials of the vaccine and the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 under the Chairmanship of VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog is drawing up a detailed strategy on how to immunize majority of the population.

Issues like vaccine security, cost, equity, cold-chain requirements, production timelines etc, are also been discussed intensely, he added.

He assured the vaccine will be first made available to those who need it the most, irrespective of their paying capacity.

Further, he said that the Government is considering emergency authorization of COVID-19 vaccination especially in the case of senior citizens & people working in high-risk settings. This shall be done after a consensus has been reached, he said.

Elaborating on the vaccine candidates and their development in India, he said that Department of Bio-Technology (DBT), as well as Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), have been pro-active in responding to the emerging situation to support the advancement of vaccine candidates.

Notably, India is actively partnering with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and trials at different phases are ongoing with respect to several vaccines in Indian laboratories (private or public) and hospitals.

The Minister also opined that a safe and effective vaccine will help in establishing immunity to COVID-19 at a much faster pace as compared to the natural infection.

"It is hoped that a consensus will emerge in next few months over the desired level of protective herd immunity in any community," he said.

Harsh Vardhan also highlighted how the pandemic became a turning point for Indian manufacturing.

"From the time when there were no indigenous manufacturers of PPEs with requisite standards, now there are nearly 110 indigenous manufacturers of PPE with requisite standards. The country is in a position to not only meet its own demands but also export to help out fellow nations, Vardhan said.

In order to make the healthcare cost reasonable and affordable for the common man, Harsh Vardhan expressed that the Government has directed all States and UTs to fix a reasonable price for COVID-19 treatment in private hospitals.

"Free coverage up to Rs 5 lakhs for COVID patients for those who are eligible under the Ayushman Bharat PMJAY package was announced."

He added that the Central Government has also asked States/UTs to proactively engage with the private sector health providers and consider pooling in public and private healthcare facilities, as this will help in providing prompt, good quality and reasonable health care to Covid-19 patients.

He has himself appealed to the private hospitals to refrain from overcharging COVID patients, he said.

The Minister highlighted that several measures have been taken to ensure accessibility and affordability of all drugs and other therapeutics to all citizens, irrespective of their paying capacities.

"The Government has taken cognizance of reports of alleged black marketing of drugs like Remdesivir and has asked Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) to take suitable action against the same along with their State Counterparts."

The Union Health Minister said that the Centre is seized of the evolving nature of the infection and emerging evidence of the systemic health complications in those who have been infected.

"AIIMS and other research institutions have been asked to undertake research to study the long-term impact of COVID. ICMR is establishing a National Clinical Registry on COVID that will provide insights into the clinical course of COVID-19 disease, its spectrum and outcome of patients. Expert group consultations are already going on to review the emerging evidence and generate our own data on organ system-specific (respiratory system, renal system, cardiovascular and gastro-intestinal) sequelae of COVID."

He also said, NDHM is one of the most ambitious missions of the Government of India and is set to catapult India as a global leader in the field of digital health. However, there are vested interests that do not want India to succeed and are spearheading a disinformation campaign against NDHM.

Allaying fears, he clarified that it is an utter lie that those who do not become part of this system shall not be allowed to access the hospitals.

Those persons or institutions who are not a part of this system shall continue to enjoy access to the healthcare system in exactly the same manner as they are doing now. Participation in the digital health ecosystem shall be totally optional and shall never be made mandatory for individuals, said Harsh Vardhan.
Farmers in Haryana and Punjab have been protesting against three ordinances passed by the Centre. The protests began on Thursday when the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) staged a rally and blocked National Highway 44 near Kurukshetra. The farmers were charged by the Haryana Police for not following Covid-19 prohibitory orders and damage of property.

Farmers expressed their outrage over the passage of these ordinances by the Centre which they called anti-farmer. They believe that the ordinances will lead to destruction of the peasants and will expose them to the whims of the market forces, said BKU leader Gurnam Singh, as quoted by news agency PTI.

What are the three ordinances that have been passed by the Centre?

The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 are the three ordinances that the Centre had passed during the lockdown period.

Haryana farmers protest against three agriculture ordinances

The farmers are more concerned with the first one - The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020. The ordinance seeks to provide for barrier-free trade of farmers produce outside the markets notified under the various state agricultural produce market laws (state APMC Acts). The Ordinance will prevail over state APMC Acts.

Farmers fear that this ordinance will end the Mandi system of selling of agricultural products and will lead to sale of their products below the Minimum Support Price or the MSP.

SAD appeals to Centre not to enact laws on farm ordinances till redressal of farmers fears

The ordinance states that farmers are allowed to trade products outside,  the physical premises of market yards run by market committees formed under the state APMC Acts and such trade can be conducted in any place of production, collection, and aggregation of farmers produce including: (i) farm gates, (ii) factory premises, (iii) warehouses, (iv) silos, and (v) cold storages.

Congress supports farmers in their demands

According to PTI, former Haryana chief minister and Congress leader Bhupender Singh Hooda said in a statement, These ordinances are against the interests of farmers. If the government wants to implement them, then it should ensure that no purchases are made below MSP.

Three-member panel meets Haryana farmers to hear grievances

BJPs Haryana unit chief Om Prakash Dhankar, Bhiwani-Mahendergarh MP Dharambir Singh, Kurukshetra MP Nayab Singh Saini and Hisar MP Brijendra Singh met the farmers on Saturday and claimed that farmers were being misled about the ordinances. They also said that the Centre aims to bring structural reforms and allow the farmers better access to a larger market.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Sunday while addressing a virtual press conference said that they will support the farmers demands. He said that the ordinances passed by the government will adversely affect the farmers as well as the foodgrain procurement processes.

He also highlighted that the ordinances will disrupt the agrarian foundation that has been laid carefully in the past 50 years.

The central government seeks to bring this ordinances in order to bring structural reforms to the agricultural sector.

Farmers still feel that MPs should raise these issues in the Parliaments monsoon session beginning Monday and clear any confusion regarding these ordinances.
'The Sunday Independent reported in April that at least 2,000 forestry jobs were under direct threat because of a licensing and appeals logjam that threatened to bring the entire sector to a halt.' (stock photo)

Pallet producers have warned junior agriculture minister Pippa Hackett that a looming shortage of Irish wood could lead to chaos and shortages for exporters here.

The warning comes as concern grows in the forestry sector over an inability to supply customers with timber because of hold ups in the planning have caused a major backlog in felling license applications.

The alert from the pallet sector was contained in a detailed submission to Hackett from Timcon, the UK-based industry body that represents the major manufacturers in the sector both in Ireland and the UK.

More than 8,000 Irish exporters use pallets for their goods and the combined turnover of Irish pallet manufacturers is approximately 130m.

"Ultimately, we feel that there is a real risk that there will be supply shortages in the latter part of this year and most definitely Q1 2021, which will be to nobody's benefit," wrote Timcon president John Dye, adding that the organisation was "fully supportive" of draft emergency legislation to try and solve the issue.

He demanded that the legislation be implemented "urgently to ensure that work can commence immediately to reduce the massive backlog of applications".

The Sunday Independent reported in April that at least 2,000 forestry jobs were under direct threat because of a licensing and appeals logjam that threatened to bring the entire sector to a halt.

"This is one major issue that businesses, who are already working hard to recover from the recent Covid-19 lockdowns need to be concerned about," wrote Dye in his letter to Hackett.

At the start of the pandemic, the wooden packaging industry in the UK had been classified as "essential" to that country's supply chain "ensuring the likes of food, drinks, medicines etc continued to be shipped to the likes of supermarkets to ensure that members of the public were not subject to shortages".

Dye warned Hackett that around 90pc of the world's goods are moved on wooden packing materials, "which means that any disruption to the supplies will have an almost immediate effect on a country's economy if goods cannot be exported".

"In the case of Ireland this would be most unwelcome as it is home to 10 of the world's top 10 pharmaceutical companies and 14 of the top 15 medical technology companies," he said, adding that the country was a major exporter of foodstuffs too.

"All of these products were moved on pallets," he said. Timcon's UK members were already starting to report lead times for pallet timber as stretching out to six to 10 weeks.

This meant that businesses that were "trying to make up their losses during the Covid lockdown are again looking at potential difficulties and if there was to be a further disruption to sawn supplies due to the lack of logs, this would cause chaos".
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Berlin  Sun, September 13, 2020 09:02 495 e22cd4161040e111d73a5626c447b081 2 Art & Culture Museum,Germany,Aborigin,Australia Free

A German museum said Friday it would return the ancestral remains of indigenous Aboriginals to Australia, as European institutions face growing calls for a critical re-evaluation of their collections.

The Ethnological Museum in Berlin said it would hand back the mummified bodies of two children as well as human bones in a wooden coffin as part of commitments over the handling of human remains.

It follows the return last week of the mummified heads of two face-tattooed Maori men to New Zealand from the same museum.

The Aboriginal artifacts had been in the museum's holdings since 1880, around the time when remains of Australia's indigenous population were sometimes removed and taken to universities and collections in Australia and around the world.

The Berlin institution's action follows a growing trend as museums in Europe and the United States are confronted with the ethical issues of keeping and displaying items that were plundered or removed without permission.

Calls to repatriate the Elgin Marbles from the British Museum to Greece and the Nefertiti Bust from Berlin's Neues Museum to Egypt have grown in recent years.

In February, the Australian government requested the repatriation of the remains from Berlin.

"The return of these ancestral remains is a solemn obligation. We are pleased to be able to take this step toward righting the historical injustice that brought them to Berlin," said Lars-Christian Koch, the museum's director, in a statement.

Since 2011, Australia has followed a policy that supports indigenous people in recovering and returning their ancestral remains from abroad.

In April 2019, Germany handed over the remains of an Aboriginal king that had been in a Munich museum since 1889.

The indigenous Aboriginal population, who have lived in Australia for 50,000 years, were dispossessed of their lands by the arrival of settlers two centuries ago.

Topics : Museum Germany Aborigin Australia
Some wearing gas masks and eye goggles, 20 residents confronted Huntsville city officials during a public meeting last month and expressed displeasure with the police departments handling of protests in early June.

Their overarching message was this: Hear our concerns and hold the police accountable.

Indeed, that massive responsibility seems to be falling into the laps of a 10-member advisory council that was originally meant to serve as liaisons between the police department and the community. But this all-volunteer group with elevated expectations has a full workload: More than 750 online comments are being reviewed over how the police handled the protests that some say was overly and unnecessarily aggressive.

The problem with the expectations, experts say, is that the advisory group does not have the authority to implement much change.

I dont think its reasonable for them to do this to begin with, said Ava Caldwell, a Huntsville woman who questioned whether the group  known as the Huntsville Police Citizens Advisory Council (HPCAC, for short)  can truly represent an irate community because they have no power to hold the police department accountable.

The advisory council will report its findings about the protests to the Huntsville City Council.

RELATED: Huntsville police council hires Birmingham lawyers to assist in review

Advisory council members, Caldwell accurately notes, are selected by members of the city council, Mayor Tommy Battle and Police Chief Mark McMurray, and she worries that they are perceived as nothing more than a public relations arm of the police department.

I dont think its appropriate to put this level of responsibility on citizens who are volunteers and have jobs, she said.

A six-hour drive to the south in Mobile, a group of six residents gathered for the first time at Government Plaza and introduced themselves as members of the newly reformed Police Citizens Community Relations Advisory Council. The group was re-established to strengthen community and police relations following the strife that has arisen in American cities after George Floyd was killed by a white police officer on Memorial Day in Minneapolis.

The groups initial meetings are to figure out what its mission is all about. The citys police chief is asking members to learn what policing entails and has invited them on ride arounds with police officers. But a few of the citizens showing up to the groups initial meetings are already expressing concerns over a lack of community participation.

Members of the Mobile Police Citizens Community Relations Advisory Council meet for the first time since being assembled by the Mobile City Council on Wednesday, September 2, 2020, at Government Plaza in Mobile, Ala. (John Sharp/jsharp@al.com).

Right now, we have to find a mechanism in which way we want to connect with the community, said committee member Raoul Richardson, who expressed concerns that he felt some members on the Mobile City Council do not want to see this (advisory) council succeed.

He added, But I can promise you, we are not discouraged or dismayed. We are unified. Trust and believe, we will get this done.

Emerging idea

In other cities around Alabama  Birmingham, Decatur, Montgomery, and Madison, to name a few  efforts are underway to reassemble or revitalize groups commonly called police-citizens advisory committees.

Birminghams five-member Public Safety Task Force, formed by Mayor Randall Woodfin in July, is currently reviewing ways public safety can be improved in the states largest city.

The idea behind the advisory groups is that police should serve the public, and police will enjoy more favorable public opinions if they take citizen concerns into account while in the process of doing their jobs.

The present-day committees arose from a recommendation that first surfaced in 1968, within a report produced by the 11-member Kerner Commission that was formed by President Lyndon Johnson to investigate the causes of race riots the previous year. Police executives and officers resisted the early calls for the advisory panels.

The recent push for cities to form citizens advisory groups came after President Barack Obamas task force on 21st Century policing  formed in 2015 following the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri  recommended that community members help revise and advise police on crime prevention strategies and help them adopt new technologies and innovations.

Natalie Todak, assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said the surge in forming new or restarting existing advisory councils consistently reemerges as solution during times of crisis policing, such as during the aftermath of the Floyd tragedy.

The ACLU of Alabama argues that the groups represent a reactive measure to police violence.

Community review boards may provide an avenue for community input and communication to decision makers, but there are significant limitations to the power and scope of review boards that prevent true accountability, said Dillon Nettles, policy analyst with the ACLU. He said there is little evidence to suggest they prevent harm or change in the way police function in the communities they serve.

They also tend to legitimize the view that police violence is an unusual occurrence rather than routine and characteristic of the culture and climate of policing in the U.S., Nettles added. So while these cities move forward with forming these community review boards, we encourage them to not stop there but to be willing to fundamentally change the role of police in our society through reforms that actually put the power of the investment of resources back into the hands of citizens and their communities.

In Alabama, following the Floyd tragedy, the re-emergence of the citizens review committees is also raising questions as to their oversight authority and responsibilities. For instance, in Montgomery, where talks about forming a police citizens advisory council date back 44 years, questions have surfaced over whether the volunteer group should be granted subpoena powers.

Alabamas cities are not the only ones experiencing growing pains as advisory panels spring up from the post-Floyd activism. In Tallahassee, Florida, residents are clamoring for a review board to be granted more authority over recommending changes to the police departments policies and procedures. In Oklahoma City, a dormant police citizens advisory group is also trying to be repurposed after sparsely attended meeting plagued it since the groups formation in 2005.

Greg Weaver, an associate professor in the Criminal Justice Department at Auburn University and a former probation officer within the Florida Department of Corrections, said there is no one-size-fits-all approach toward how the advisory committees are handled in one city versus another. None of them are the same, he said.

In the last few years, there has been renewed interest into the committees, Weaver added. The dynamics in various cities differs. That has to be taken into account. What is the history? There are varying levels of trust between a community and its policy agency.

Todak said there are examples of successful models and points to Spokane, Washington, where the office of Police Ombudsman was created in 2013, to provide civilian oversight. The ombudsman, in turn, is overseen by a five-person commission and that group has been involved in a lot of decision making, Todak said.

But I think in a lot of places, (citizen advisory councils) are either so heavily resisted that they serve more as a symbolic role and are not given real responsibility, she said. In other cases, they might not exist at all.

Growing pains

In two of Alabamas largest cities  Huntsville and Mobile  lethargy plagued past iterations of their citizen review groups.

Huntsville formed its citizen advisory council a decade ago in response to community concerns about a lack of diversity on the police force and how officers were treating Black residents. The group was formed shortly after an 80-year-old Black man sued the city, alleging he was beaten by police during a traffic stop.

At the time, then-City Councilman Richard Showers proposed creating a review board that would investigate complaints and actions taken by police officers. Instead, the city implemented the advisory council. According to the city ordinance forming the group, the advisory council should address community concerns with the police chief, mayor or city council.

David Little, who has served on the advisory council since its formation in 2010, credited the group for working with police to improve training, recruiting and diversity among its ranks. The council has worked with the department to body cameras and Tasers, he said.

But the Huntsville group  like the Mobile group and many others formed in cities around the U.S.  generally has no authority or review powers over the police department.

This image shows one line of scores of Huntsville Police Department officers who a short while later moved in behind a wall of tear gas and scattered peaceful protesters from the city's Courthouse Square on June 3, 2020. It was the second use of tear gas in Huntsville in three days. Rubber bullets were believed fired at a group that fled into Big Spring Park. (Ian Hoppe | IHoppe@al.com)

Over the years, the HPCAC became less visible and held fewer meetings. Members said that poor attendance was to blame, and sometimes only council members showed up.

The same problems surfaced in Mobile, where an advisory council was formed in 2016 following the death of Michael Moore, a Black teenager who was fatally shot by a white police officer during a traffic stop. The group in Mobile rarely met and crumbled over disagreements among city council members over how much individual members of the advisory group should participate in police-related training exercises.

It is a dispute that still exists. Fred Richardson, a Black councilman who chairs the councils public safety committee, said the focus in 2016 was placed on requiring individual advisory council members to participate in police training and to have ride alongs with police officers.

There was nothing in there on how often they should meet with the citizens and that is where the source of the complaint is, said Richardson.

Mobile City Councilman Fred Richardson speaks during a Dec. 11, 2019, news conference in Mobile, Ala. (John Sharp/jsharp@al.com).

The Mobile committee was reassembled this summer and currently has six members. The 2016 ordinance allows for up to eight members, but so far Mayor Sandy Stimpson and Councilman Joel Daves have not made their appointments.

Daves, who doesnt oppose the council and its duties in helping build stronger relationships between police and the communities they serve, said he does not plan to appoint someone to the newly-formed group until he receives assurances the parameters listed in the original ordinance are followed. He said the group that was formed in 2016 consisted of members who never completed the training that he said was required of them.

I felt, maybe betrayed is too strong of a word, but you have this ordinance and if you serve on this committee, you have to do this, said Daves. People were serving on the committee who did not meet those obligations and they had no intention of meeting the obligations and (city) council members never required them. If you have an ordinance, you cannot pick and choose which provisions you will comply with and those that you will comply with.

He added, How can I go to someone and ask them to serve on a committee and to undergo the training when no one else will do it? If the ordinance is to be amended, how can I ask someone else to do (be a member) when I do not know what to tell them what their mission will be? I am in a wait and see mode.

Differing approaches

Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed listens to a community member voice his concerns at a public meeting outside E.D. Nixon Elementary School on Monday, June 1, 2020. (Photo by Giana Han)

Montgomery city officials are also in a wait and see status as council members place their current focus on trying to adopt a fiscal year 2020-2021 budget before October 1, when the citys fiscal year is set to begin. But once a budget is adopted  likely next week  the focus will shift toward the creation of a police citizens advisory group.

If such a group is established in Montgomery, it will be a first for the Capitol City and it would also end a 44-year journey that began when current Mayor Steve Reeds father, Joe Reed, was a member of the city council.

Hes mentioned to me that he tried, during his 24 years (on the council) to get it approved, said the younger Reed, who was elected as the citys first Black mayor last year. We think we are at a different point in time in this city. We are certainly at a different point in time as a nation when it comes to improving the relationship between the police and the community.

Reed is pitching his plan to create a 13-member citizens review board that would be more powerful than the advisory councils in Huntsville and Mobile. The Montgomery panel would make recommendations on police policy, community relations and discipline.

The board would also have something that is rare but is essential to Reed: Subpoena powers.

That part was very key to this, said Reed. What we benchmarked across the country (is that the subpoena powers) are present in the most successful and influential review boards.

Reed said he hopes the Montgomery city councils public safety committee will review his proposal  which he discussed before the full council on September 3  within the next 30 days. He said his goal is to have the board established and its members appointed and holding meetings before the end of the year.

The goal is that the citizens review board will bring about more transparency between police and community interactions and that the community has a great sense of confidence that a bad cop is no different than a bad taxi driver or anything else and they will be disciplined proportionately to the crime, if you will, and to the wrongdoing they commit, said Reed. This will bring about a greater sense of trust between our residents in Montgomery and those men and women who protect and serve the city.

Montgomery City Council President Charles Jinright said his concern is whether the review board has legal authority to do some of the things that Reed is proposing. Jinright said the issue needs to be studied further, and only after the citys budget  which has been reduced by around $17 million from last years spending plan  is adopted.

Jinright said Reeds proposal will be considered in early October. The council president also said he has some initial concerns about granting the appointed council subpoena powers.

We are going to look at it thoroughly, he said.

Mobile Police Chief Lawrence Battiste speaks to protesters in Mardi Gras Park after the conclusion of a standoff on a nearby I-10 on-ramp on May 31, 2020.

In Mobile, neither Councilman Richardson nor Mobile Police Chief Lawrence Battiste believe that granting their advisory group subpoena powers was the right thing to do. Richardson, for one, said he doubts the city council has the political will to do so. Battiste said that granting those powers to a volunteer group of citizens would be detrimental to police officer morale.

Battiste said a healthier approach is having the advisory councils bridge the gap between the community and law enforcement, which he calls daunting work.

To some extent, Battiste is attempting to handle much of that work himself  hes established in-person meetings with Mobiles Hispanic and Asian communities in a general outreach measure to assure them that police are not trying to take on the responsibilities of Homeland Security.

We talk to them about what we can and should do, said Battiste, who was heralded by local officials for his handling in squelching a potential civil unrest during Mobiles post-Floyd protests. But the law is clear, if youre victim of a crime, we dont start a naturalization file on you to get you deported. We have to take the report and treat you like a victim. We want to make sure we are addressing the victims of the crime. We have to educate that community. They are afraid.

Battiste attended Thursdays meeting of the Mobile citizens advisory council and encouraged members to participate in a ride along with a police officer to better understand the different nature of policing in the precincts scattered throughout the city.

Committee members seemed to be responsive toward Battistes request, which is different than the scenario that played out four years ago.

They know the community perspective, said Battiste, who declined that committee members would be indoctrinated by a law enforcement officer during training. But if you ask them to be a bridge between law enforcement and the community, how can they not know what we do and how we do it and be effective in their approach in bridging that gap? Its like getting one side of the story.

In some cities, where there are no official citizens advisory councils, residents who undergo police academy training can become valuable advisers for law enforcement.

In Auburn, for example, the alumni of the Citizens Police Academy program offer their perspective on law enforcement and their viewpoint is especially valuable since they have spent time with our various public safety agencies to understand the operation and to be more informed of the issues facing our community, said Auburn City Manager James Buston.

Smaller cities

Protesters gathered at the corner of Wall Triana and U.S. 72 in Madison, Alabama on June 7, 2020, near where Dana Fletcher was shot and killed by police in October 2019. About 150 protesters turned out for the event. (Anna Claire Vollers | avollers@AL.com)

The creation of citizens advisory councils is not limited to just the big cities. In Decatur and Madison, plans are underway for the creation of similar groups.

Madison Police Chief Dave Jernigan announced in late June that the police department would form a group. In an interview with AL.com this week, he said that he hopes to have the council in place by January. Details of the council  which will be formed by city ordinance  havent yet been work out.

Jernigan said he hopes Madisons advisory council will be like neighboring Huntsvilles group, with members selected by each of the seven council members, Mayor Paul Finely and the police chief.

The priority is for the advisory council to learn about the police department, Jernigan said, then members would meet with the public in their districts. He said there are no plans for the advisory council to have any formal authority over the police department or to be tasked with reviewing complaints.

Its a collective organized voice from the different districts, he said. We look at it as another line of communicate with the public.

Decatur Police Chief Nate Allen announced in June that the department had worked with the local chapter of the NAACP to form their citizens advisory board. The board, which was formed with 11 members appointed by the police chief, is already meeting to learn about the police department. Allen described the groups members as diverse collaboration of ethnicities, ages, income levels and roles in the community. The groups goal, he said is to foster the relationship between the police department and the public and to improve transparency.

Often times, I think we hear from people who have a title and we often dont hear from people who are common everyday folks, said Allen. Their primary function is to keep me apprised of whats going on the street level. What the community thinks and what kind of experiences they are going through when it comes to dealing with police.

He said the advisory board represented an acknowledgment that the department can better serve the community.

There is no perfect system, he said. We always can do better  and thats on both sides: the community side and the police side.

Jernigan said the decision to call for the formation of a group in Madison this summer was proactive.

I would rather be on the front end of molding something instead of being told you have to do something, he said.

Todak, the UAB professor, said community leaders in cities of all different sizes need to have the formation of a citizen advisory council on their radars.

People want them, she said. If something bad happens, you dont want to be the agency without a body-worn camera program right now or all of these things that someone can point to and say, we are taking citizens input into consideration. If an agency is lucky enough not to have a high-profile or controversial encounter that puts the spotlight on them, then they might want to plan. This is a recommendation for professionalizing your police department and taking the steps to improve police-community relations in your jurisdictions.

She added, I would think police agencies would want to put them in place where the off-chance something horrible happens.
Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said no date for launching the Covid-19 vaccine has been fixed yet. It may be ready by the first quarter of next year, the minister said as he addressed the first episode of his Sunday Samvaad  a social media interaction programme.

Grateful to thousands of you who wrote to me for #SundaySamvaad !



Great to have started a 2-way communication with social media friends. Learning a lot from the conversations.



Hope we can keep up & further strengthen the dialoguehttps://t.co/su977Pnzxk  Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) September 13, 2020

His comments come a day after pharma giant Astrazeneca announced the resumption of its Covid-19 vaccine trial after it got a go-ahead from British regulators. Its India partner Serum Institute of India has paused the trials after it was issued a show-cause notice by the Drug Controller of India, following the red flags raised in the UK.

Also Read | Serum Institute to resume Covid-19 vaccine trial after DGCI gives nod

The minister assured the government is taking full precautions in conducting the human trials of the vaccine. Issues like vaccine security, cost, equity, cold-chain requirements, production timelines, etc., are also being discussed intensely, he said.

The vaccine, once ready, will be made available to those who need it the most. But the minister said he will be happy to receive the first dose of the vaccine.

In his one-hour interaction, the minister discussed several issues related to Covid-19 as he replied to several questions posed by social media users.

On which trial is most promising: Several vaccine trials are going on in India. At present, we cant predict which one will emerge as the most effective. But by the first quarter of 2021, we will definitely know the results, the minister said.

On availability: A vaccine expert group has been set up, which is overseeing the entire process. While the trial results get assessed, the manufacturers will be advised to begin mass-production so that no time is wasted, the minister said.

On first dose: Work has already started on prioritising vulnerable groups who will be administered the vaccine first. But if I need to take the vaccine to test the efficacy of it, I will happily take the first dose, the minister said.

On Covid-19 vaccine price: It is premature to comment on the price of the vaccine which is still under trial. But the government of India will assure that the vaccine will be made available to those who need it the most, irrespective of their paying capacity, Harsh Vardhan said.

On emergency authorisation of Covid-19 vaccine: The government is thinking about this. If there is consensus, we may grant emergency authorisation of the vaccine for senior citizens, frontline workers. Normally, the third trial takes about six to nine months. But if the government decides, this period can be cut short by giving an emergency authorisation. Any emergency authorisation is always done by adopting reinforced safeguard so that people dont worry about the safety. A high-level group has been formed to monitor the pace of the vaccine development under the direct guidance of PM Modi. There will be no shortcut on safety. Emergency authorisation will be given only if it meets the standards.

On what could have been done better: We have put in our heart and soul. We have done our best. Now as I look back and think of the events that unfolded after I held the fist meeting on Covid-19 on January 8, it is difficult for me to think what could have been done better, Vardhan said.
British Airways boss Alex Cruz is facing a showdown with MPs this week over its plans to axe 13,000 jobs and slash pay as it battles for survival.

The Spaniard will go head-to-head with Huw Merriman, who chairs the Commons transport committee and has called for BA to be stripped of lucrative landing slots at Heathrow.

MPs have branded Britain's flag carrier a 'national disgrace', accusing it of using the pandemic to 'cut jobs and weaken terms and conditions'.

Bullish: British Airways boss Alex Cruz is expected to launch a full defence of the cost-cutting plans before the Commons transport committee

But Cruz is expected to launch a full defence of the cost-cutting plans before the committee. He will also defend its dominant position at Heathrow. The 54-year-old is likely to tell MPs that taking any of its lucrative landing slots away would cost more British jobs and they would be snapped up by foreign airlines.

Merriman has sided with Unite to fight the BA cuts. As well as criticising the plans to lay off staff, the unlikely allies blasted BA's plans to 'fire and rehire' its remaining 30,000 workers on lower pay and perks.

BA bosses are angry that they are being singled out for criticism, when every other major airline is also shedding jobs and cutting pay.
Editors note: this story has been updated with the latest information from state police, including to reflect the ages of those involved in the crash.

A 10-year-old girl died and several people, including the girls 9-year-old sister, were injured in an overnight three-car crash on State Road near Route 88 in Westport, Massachusetts, authorities said Sunday.

The Westport Police Department received several 911 calls at about 2:14 a.m. Sunday following the crash, which involved several children in three vehicles, Westport police said in a news release Sunday.

The fatal crash occurred when an SUV crashed into the rear of a vehicle that had just stopped in the left travel lane after making minor contact with another car. A Subaru WRX driven by a 29-year-old woman made minor contact with the rear of a Toyota Tundra driven by a 43-year-old woman. Both women were from New Bedford and the parties in both vehicles had been driving back to the city from a party, police said.

After stopping and assessing damage and agreeing to continue driving, a Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by a 29-year-old Fall River man crashed into the Subaru, where the two young girls were seated in the rear, police said.

State police in a news release said the most seriously injured included a 10-year-old girl and her 9-year-old sister, who were both rushed to the hospital. The 10-year-old was pronounced dead at St. Annes Hospital in Fall River early Sunday morning; the 9-year-old remains in serious condition at Hasbro Childrens Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island.

In total, first responders transported seven people to Charlton, St. Annes, St. Lukes and Hasbro hospitals for a range of injuries. Police did not identify the sisters and did not release the names of those involved in the crash.

The Westport, Dartmouth and Fall River Fire departments responded. The crash remains under investigation by Westport Police, Massachusetts State Police Detectives and the Massachusetts State Police Reconstruction Unit.
The Delhi government on Sunday allowed gyms and yoga centres, which have stayed shut for more than five months under the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), to reopen.

Delhi chief secretary Vijay Dev issued the order Sunday night. The trial period of weekly markets has also been extended to September 30. All these activities, including opening of gyms, are not allowed in containment zones, the order said. Delhi had 1,488 containment zones as on Sunday.

There are over 6,000 gyms and fitness centres across the national Capital employing over 100,000 people.

The Central government under its unlock-3 guidelines issued on July 29 had allowed gymnasiums and yoga centres to open across the country from August 5. But the Delhi disaster management authority (DDMA) headed by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal did not allow resumption of these services owing to the rising Covid-19 cases in the city.

On August 6, the Delhi government had sent a file to open hotels, weekly markets, gyms and yoga centres in the city to L-G office. Following this, the DDMA on August 19 had allowed opening of hotels and weekly markets, but gyms and yoga centres continued to be prohibited.

Sundays order stated that gyms and yoga centres will be allowed to operate with immediate effect only if they strictly follow the standard operating procedures (SOP) laid down by the Union ministry of health and family welfare.

In case of any violation, owner and manger of the premises shall be liable for persecution under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, besides sealing of such premises forthwith, the order, seen by HT, read.

It also directed all district disaster management authorities to ensure that gyms and yoga centres comply strictly the SOPs to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

The SOPs for gyms issued by the Centre on August 3 restricted yoga and workout sessions to only such activities that do not require trainers to touch members and not more than 10 persons per 1,000 sq feet space.

Facilities like sauna, shower, body massage and spas will also not be available until further orders. All other social distancing and preventive measures, like hand hygiene and thermal screening at the entrance, are to be strictly followed by members and gym/yoga organisers.

Under the SOPs issued for gyms and yoga centres by the Union health ministry, face masks will be mandatory at all times within centre premises. Gyms and yoga institutes must ensure a minimum distance of 6 feet between individuals and plan floor area based on 4 metre square per person. They should try and utilise outdoor space by relocating or offering online training classes wherever possible.

Gym owners will have to ensure specific entry and exit pathways by floor and/or wall markings and precautionary instructions on posters will have to be placed within closed spaces

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The Lagos State Government, on Sunday, provided more information on the reopening of schools in the state for the 2020/2021 academic session.

According to a statement released by Kayode Abayomi, the spokesperson of the Lagos State Ministry of Education, the state is adopting a phased reopening of public schools, to enable them meet COVID-19 social distance rules and safety protocols and will help us watch the behaviour of the pandemic as we gradually open up our schools.

Students in JS3 and SS2 in public schools are to resume classes from Monday, September 21, while students in other classes are to continue taking lessons online and other distance learning platforms.

The resumption will permit the present JS 3 students who are already in an exit class to revise and get adequately prepared for their forthcoming Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) organized by the Lagos State Examination Board and scheduled between Tuesday, 6th and Monday, 12th of October, 2020.

The resumption will also afford the present SS 2 students an opportunity to prepare effectively for their transition to SS 3. The scheduled dates and venues for Entrance Examination into Lagos State Model Colleges will soon be announced by the State Examination Board, the statement reads.

Mr Abayomi said announcements for opening the other classes will occur as soon as the ministry is certain of their safety.

In the meantime, the unopened classes in public schools will continue their lessons on our various distance learning platforms (Online platform, radio, television and WhatsApp) while the next phase for physical resumption will be announced in due course, he said.

Pre-primary classes in both public and private schools are to remain closed until further announcements are made, the ministry said.

Resumption of Private Schools

According to the state government, private primary and secondary schools in Lagos State are permitted to resume from Monday, September 21.

Owners of private schools across the state are encouraged to put the safety of their students first and adopt the approach of the state government by opening in phases.

Mr Abayomi added that phased opening include strategies for staggered resumption in the mornings, classes on alternate days during the week and teaching through various distance learning methods.

Schools must also comply with safety protocols and hygiene guidelines as instructed by the State Government through the Office of Education Quality Assurance (OEQA). The Office of Education Quality Assurance will continue to monitor and evaluate Schools preparedness, he said.

The management of schools are urged to put the safety of children, teachers and parents and the community first.
A senior Australian government minister on Sunday warned foreign working in the country they might come under the scrutiny of federal agencies if they provide a "slanted view" of Australian affairs.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton made the comments during a television interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corp., referring to reporting to a particular community.

While he didn't mention China, Dutton's comments come after the evacuation from last week of Australian Bill Birtles and Mike Smith, who sheltered in Australian diplomatic compounds after being questioned by police.

Australian Cheng Lei, who works as a business anchor for CGTN, China's English-language state broadcaster, earlier was taken into custody.

If people are here as journalists and they're reporting fairly on the news, then that's fine, Dutton told ABC TV's Insiders program. He said reporters shouldn't provide a slanted view to a particular community.

Dutton wouldn't confirm reports four Chinese journalists were questioned by Australia's national security agency ASIO in June, but said there had been ASIO activity.

Where ASIO has sufficient grounds for the execution of a search warrant or for activities otherwise, then they'll undertake that activity, he said.

If people are masquerading as journalists or business leaders or whoever they might be and there's evidence that they are acting in a contrary nature to Australian law, then ASIO and the Australian Federal Police and other agencies will act.

He said there is no evidence that action by Australian agencies had put Australian journalists in at risk. Asked about Cheng Lei, he said we want to work very closely with the Chinese in relation to that matter and we'll continue to do that.

Beijing accused of an interference in China's internal affairs and judicial sovereignty for providing diplomatic protection to Birtles, who reports for the ABC, and Smith, who works for the Australian Financial Review.

Australia's actions in organizing the two journos to hide in the embassy completely exceeds the scope of consular protection and in fact is interference in a Chinese legal case, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
China's latest efforts to deepen reform on its business system will contribute to the building of a high-standard market system and further stimulate entrepreneurship, the country's top market watchdog said.



The State Council, China's cabinet, has released a circular which listed business system reforms in four areas, introducing multiple measures to improve business environment and invigorate the market.

Tang Jun, deputy chief of the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), said the new business system reform is a major policy move and is expected to herald breakthroughs in broader reforms that streamline administrative approvals, delegate power to lower levels and improve regulations and services.

Previous reform efforts have yielded tangible results, contributing to the rise in market players and ease of doing business. The country now has 132 million registered market entities, and it takes no more than five working days to open a business.

The ease of starting a business is an important gauge of business environment and plays an important role in spurring entrepreneurship and market vitality, Tang said.

According to the circular, China will push for adopting fully online procedures for starting a business in order to further reduce the time required for setting up an enterprise to no more than four working days.

Another highlight of the business system reform will be about the production license system. Efforts will focus on delegating power in a bid to boost efficiency, enhancing supervision, and improving government services in this area, said Sun Huichuan, an official with the SMAR in charge of quality oversight.
Travel restrictions have eviscerated the tourism-reliant economy, while Thais have founded themselves stuck due to quarantine requirements in other countries (Twitter@KenyaShipper)

Bangkok: With millions around the world stuck at home due to the pandemic, "plane cafes" in Thailand are offering customers the chance to pretend they are in the sky -- and the idea seems to have taken off.

On board a retired commercial airplane in the coastal city of Pattaya, coffee drinkers make themselves comfy on first-class-style seats and pose for photos by the overhead lockers.

Boarding passes in hand, some "passengers" even opt for a tour of the cockpit.

"With this cafe I can sit in first class and also mess around in the cockpit pretending to be the captain of the plane," 26-year-old Thipsuda Faksaithong told AFP.

"It's a lot of fun."

Chalisa Chuensranoi, 25, said her visit was as good as any trip she had taken before the pandemic, which shuttered Thailand's borders in March.

"Sitting right here in the first-class section... really gives me the feeling of actually being on a plane, cruising through the air," she said.

In another cafe at the headquarters of national carrier Thai Airways in Bangkok, hungry diners appear even to have missed plane food as they gobble up spaghetti carbonara and Thai-style beef served on plastic trays by cabin crew.

But for Intrawut Simapichet, 38, who came to the cafe with his wife and baby, the experience is about more than a meal.

"Normally I'm a person who travels very often, and when we are forced to stay at home... it's kind of depressing," he said as fellow passengers posed with luggage by a fake airplane door.

"(The cafe) relieves what's missing."

Thailand was the first country outside China to detect a coronavirus case, but it has since registered a low toll, with about 3,400 infections and 58 deaths.

Travel restrictions have nevertheless eviscerated the tourism-reliant economy, while Thais have founded themselves stuck due to quarantine requirements in other countries.

The government is currently mulling travel bubbles with select countries that also have low tolls.
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President Donald Trump called the man who opened fire on two Los Angeles deputies an 'animal' who needed to be 'hit hard' as the FBI was called in to help investigate the Saturday shooting.

Two Los Angeles sheriff's deputies were shot in an ambush at a train station by a male suspect who then fled the scene, local outlets report.

The two deputies, a male and female officer with the Transit Services Bureau, were shot at the Metro Blue Line station at Willowbrook Avenue and Oak Street in Compton.

A male suspect got off a bus at the station and shot the deputies before fleeing the scene, KTTV reports.

President Trump said that 'animals' must be 'hit hard' after the Los Angeles sheriff's department released video of the gunman who opened fire on two deputies

Video released by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department shows the moment that male suspect opened fire on two deputies at a Compton bus station

After shooting multiple rounds at the deputies, the male ran away

Video released by the sheriff's department shows the suspect walking up to the car and immediately opening fire before running off.

'The gunman walked up on the deputies and opened fire without warning or provocation,' the department said in a post.

Both deputies sustained multiple gunshot wounds and are in critical condition, according to the department's Twitter account.

They have had surgery and Sheriff Alex Villanueva is at the hospital now. One has been described as a married 31-year-old mother of a six-year-old boy. The other deputy is a 24-year-old male.

During the press conference, Sheriff Villanueva said that the two deputies initiated radio contact after they were shot. They were transported with the assistance of other deputies,' he shared.

During the press conference, Sheriff Villanueva said that the two deputies initiated radio contact after they were shot

The two deputies, a male and female officer with the Transit Services Bureau, have undergone surgery

The FBI has shared that they are now assisting in the search for the gunman

'Moments ago, 2 of our Sheriff Deputies were shot in Compton and were transported to a local hospital,' the department said in a Saturday night Twitter post.

'They are both still fighting for their lives, so please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. We will update this thread with information as it becomes available.'

The FBI has shared that they are now assisting in the search for the gunman.

'FBI Los Angeles has offered resources and stands ready to assist in response to reports of an attack on @lasdhq deputies tonight,' FBI Los Angeles said on Twitter.
One of the enduring mysteries of the criminal trial of Eddie Obeid, his son Moses, and Obeid snr's former ministerial colleague Ian Macdonald is the identity behind a Twitter account used to harass journalists, make scathing comments about the Crown's case and question the credibility of prosecution witnesses.

According to legal experts, the anonymous tweeter may be committing a criminal offence.

There are about 20 regular attendees at the trial in Supreme Court 9D in Sydney's Law Courts complex, including court staff, legal teams for the prosecution and defence, several journalists and, up until recently, the three accused. Since late August, Eddie Obeid has been appearing remotely.

The anonymous Twitter account that is used to harass journalists and ridicule the Crown case again Ian Macdonald, Eddie and Moses Obeid. Credit:Twitter

The anonymous tweeter purports to record what is occurring inside the courtroom.
Joe Biden is passing up a chance to make fighting climate change the centerpiece of his campaign, environmentalists say, at time when wildfires have incinerated an unprecedented 3 million-plus acres in California, a record hurricane season is battering the Southeast and one of the worst windstorms ever to hit Iowa caused $4 billion in damage.

The reason he hasnt, they say, is political.

Elevating climate change into a top priority doesnt help the Democratic presidential nominee in states that are competitive in the November election  and those dont include California or Oregon, a state where 40,000 people were under evacuation orders Friday because of wildfires. In some swing states, including Pennsylvania, where support for fracking is solid because thousands of jobs depend on it, going too green could damage Bidens slim lead.

It might be that he thinks potential swing voters might not want to see them come out too strong on climate change, said Sean Hecht, co-executive director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA.

Its a bit puzzling because Biden has put together a plan that has a lot of good things in it, and a lot of good people worked on it, Hecht said. But it has not been a major kind of general campaign issue. It is surprising, because it is an issue that is attractive to a lot of young people.

Stevie OHanlon, a spokesman for the Sunrise Movement, a youth-run environmental organization with 460 chapters nationwide, called it a missed opportunity for the Biden campaign. Young people are fed up with politics as usual and fed up with a lack of action on climate. Theyre looking for the Democratic Party and Joe Biden to take the lead on this.

While climate change is a huge issue to Californians who are experiencing its effects with every breath, it isnt a top issue to most Americans. It was No. 11 when Pew Research asked Americans in August which topics would be very important when they cast their ballots. At the top was the economy, followed by health care, Supreme Court appointments and the coronavirus pandemic.

The environment is a local issue. Its always going to be a secondary issue, said Dan Lee, a professor of political science at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

National candidates, Lee said, figure that while wildfires may be top of mind in California, theyre not in Iowa. Same goes for Californians and their concern, or lack thereof, for freak events in Iowa, where more than 8,000 homes were damaged and crops were leveled when a derecho  a line of fast-moving windstorms  ripped through the state in August.

Environmentalists counter that such events can no longer be considered one-offs  or, as Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday in an angry denunciation of ideological BS that denies the reality of climate change, California is America, fast-forward.

Natural disasters tend to be local, but were seeing them pop up everywhere, said Michael Gerrard, founder of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, where he is a law professor.

These events are forgotten if you have a one-week attention span. Weve forgotten about the (derecho) in Iowa, Gerrard said. Maybe in two weeks, people outside of California will forget about the wildfires.

Thats why some environmentalists are frustrated with Biden: They think he could drive home the point and gain more support.

Trump didnt forget about what happened in Iowa. He visited the state, where he holds a slim lead, days after the disaster.

But the president, who famously called climate change a hoax, hadnt mentioned the California wildfires in public for more than three weeks until Saturday night, when he told a campaign rally in Minden, Nev., that its about forest management. It was a briefer version of a riff he embarked on during an Aug. 20 campaign appearance in Pennsylvania in which he said the state needed to do more to clear forest debris and fallen trees. He plans to visit Sacramento on Monday to be briefed on the wildfires.

Its hard to talk about something that you dont believe in despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary, said Lauren French, a spokeswoman for the environmental group Climate One.

Lee, the University of Nevada political scientist, said Republicans dont think climate change is an issue for them. They see it (bringing) more environmental regulations that will slow economic growth.

On Saturday, Biden mentioned the role that climate change has played in the wildfires that are tearing up the West.

The science is clear, and deadly signs like these are unmistakable  climate change poses an imminent, existential threat to our way of life, Biden said in a statement. We absolutely must act now to avoid a future defined by an unending barrage of tragedies like the one American families are enduring across the West today.

Environmentalists wish he would do more of that. French and others say Biden does have a strong environmental plan that has widespread  if cautious  support across the Democratic Party.

A lot of that fear about talking about climate change is based on conventional wisdom, French said. Its time to change that conventional wisdom.

Much of the support for Bidens plan came this summer after a unity committee made up of his and Sen. Bernie Sanders supporters found common policy ground on a variety of issues, including the environment. The disparate group included mainstream liberals such as former Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Sunrise Movement leader Varshini Prakash and Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb, a moderate who represents a Rust Belt region of western Pennsylvania.

Environmentalists and policy leaders say much of the climate plan, which Biden embraced and incorporated into his own proposals, could draw wide support if he pushed it harder  even in battleground states. Among its planks:

 A call for U.S. to be fully powered by renewable energy by 2035, which is 15 years sooner than Biden suggested during the primaries. Unlike Sanders, however, Biden hasnt disavowed fracking, a natural gas-extraction process that is anathema to environmentalists because it releases large amounts of greenhouse gases and can contaminate groundwater. I am not banning fracking, Biden said at a campaign stop in Pittsburgh this month.

 A plan to spend nearly $2 trillion over four years on increasing renewable power and creating incentives to build more energy-efficient buildings, homes and cars. Biden predicts this would create 10 million jobs in the clean energy sector, triple the current total.

 A focus on environmental justice  Biden is promising to crack down on industries whose pollution disproportionately affects communities of color.

You can frame a lot of environmental policy as health policy, said Hecht, the climate change institute director at UCLA. If you frame it that way, you can attract more voters.

Despite this summers high-profile disasters, some environmentalists remain skeptical that the issue will hold the publics attention for long. Four years ago, moderators at the four presidential and vice presidential debates did not ask one question about climate change.

Mindful of that history, nearly six dozen Democratic House members, led by Orange County Rep. Mike Levin, asked the Commission on Presidential Debates this month to break precedent and publicly call on the moderators to include climate change in the topics that will be addressed during the three presidential debates, the first of which is scheduled for Sept. 29.

Newsom also wants more frank conversation about climate change.

As he stood amid the smoke of the North Complex fires in Butte County, which killed at least 12 people when they exploded out of a partial containment zone last week, Newsom said Friday: The debate is over around climate change. Just come to the state of California. ... This is a climate damn emergency. This is real. It is happening in unprecedented ways, year in, year out.

He added, What were experiencing here is coming to (communities) all across the United States of America.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli
Florida Man Beats, Spits on Elderly Man After Victim Asks Him to Social Distance: Police

A maskless Florida man punched a 70-year-old man at a convenience store after he was asked to socially distance himself from the man, officials said, adding that the suspect spat on the victim as well.

The victim, who wasnt identified, asked Rovester Ingram to step away from him while they were inside a Citgo gas station on Sept. 10, according to the Winter Park Police. Ingram wasnt wearing a mask.

Police said Ingram followed the suspect outside and began punching him in the face. The victim went back to the gas station to get away but Ingram followed him inside and again attacked him, authorities said.

Ingram shoved the victim to the ground, grabbed his hair, pulled him outside, and continued to beat the man, authorities said.

The victim was on his stomach as Ingram repeatedly punched him on his back, then spat on him and kicked him in the head before walking away, police said.

The brutal attack was captured on surveillance cameras, which was published by Fox35 in Orlando.

Ingram was later arrested at his home without incident, officials said.

Ingram now faces aggravated battery on a person over the age of 65 and kidnapping, police said.
Korean activists hold #BoycottMulan banner during a press conference to boycott Disney's film "Mulan" in front of Disney Korea in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, July 1. Boycotts against the live-action remake film spreads online in Korea once again ahead of its release in cinemas on Thursday after the film's final credits thanked government entities in Xinjiang, which is accused of human rights abuses against ethnic minorities. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk



By Park Ji-won



Boycotts against Disney's live-action remake film "Mulan" are spreading online in Korea once again before its release on Thursday after the film's final credits expressed gratitude to government entities in Xinjiang, China, which is accused of human rights abuses against ethnic minorities.



The Declaration of Global Citizen in Korea, an NGO working for solidarity with Hong Kong citizens, launched an online boycott campaign last Friday, urging social media users to share images calling for the boycott of the Disney film to raise awareness.



On the NGO's website, it said the film overlooked the violence in Xinjiang, where the film was shot, by thanking it, claiming that the Chinese government has been suspected of forcibly detaining as many as a million Uighur people, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority in the region, in prison camps in recent years. It cited the final credits of the film which thank local government entities and a local publicity department of China for being cooperative with the filming.



It also criticized the company for defending the film's starring actress Liu Yifei who made comments supporting the Hong Kong police's crackdown against pro-democracy protesters in August last year, in the midst of the protests and the crackdown. Donnie Yen, also a star of the film, supported the Xi Jinping government over related matters.






Jerusalem, Sep 13 : Middle Eastern countries have differed on the US-brokered normalization agreement between Israel and Bahrain, which came less than a month after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel reached a similar deal.

A joint statement issued on Friday by US President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa hailed the Bahrain-Israel agreement as "a historic breakthrough", reports Xinhua news agency Bahrain, the second Gulf Arab country to normalize ties with Israel after the UAE announced a similar deal on August 13, is scheduled to sign the peace agreement with Israel on September 15 at a ceremony at the White House, during which the UAE-Israel deal will also be inked.

On Saturday, senior Bahraini officials welcomed the normalization with Israel as a contributor to regional security and stability.

The country's Parliament, the National Assembly, also called for achieving a "just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution" to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

However, the Bahrain-Israel deal has enraged the Palestinian Authority, which strongly condemned it, while blasting the US for pressuring Arab countries into normalizing ties with Israel.

Shortly after the announcement of the Bahrain-Israel deal, the Palestinian leadership issued a statement condemning the Bahraini move as "a betrayal of Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Palestinian cause".

Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad al-Maliki said that he would recall the Ambassador to Bahrain for consultations on how it would take "necessary steps" to respond to the move.

In separate statements, the Islamic Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad slammed deal as "a clear aggression against our people" and "a blatant coup against all Arab, national and Islamic constants of Palestine".

Iran, Israel and the US' top rival in the region, on Saturday vehemently condemned Bahrain for taking the step, adding that it was a "fundamental mistake" to "seek shelter" in Israel instead of "gaining legitimacy from its people".

The Iranian Foreign Ministry said that the US presidential election due in November is one of the reasons for Bahrain to "sacrifice the cause of honourable Palestine", warning that Tehran will hold Manama accountable for all the consequences of any action leading to Israel to "create insecurity in the Gulf region".

Turkey also expressed strong condemnation and concern about the development which "violates the Arab Peace Initiative and the commitments made by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation".

The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs called Bahrain's move as "a heavy blow to the efforts to defend the Palestinian cause", which will deepen Israel's "illegal acts" in Palestine and encourage Israel to continue to occupy the Palestinian lands.

It stressed that the only way to establish peace and stability in the Middle East is to resolve the Palestinian issue fairly and comprehensively within the framework of international law and UN resolutions.

On the other side, Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a peace deal with Israel in 1979, and the UAE both welcomed the Bahrain-Israel peace deal.

In a statement, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said that he valued this important step toward establishing stability and peace in the Middle East, in a way that achieves "a just and permanent settlement of the Palestinian issue".

The UAE congratulated Bahrain and said that it hoped the agreement will have "a positive impact on the regional and international peace and cooperation atmosphere".

But Jordan, the second Arab country to sign a peace deal with Israel in 1994, sounded a more cautious note.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said that ending the Israeli occupation and resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on the two-state solution play the key role in realizing peace in the Middle East.

Safadi called for stopping all Israeli measures that undermine the two-state solution, and for creating an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, in line with the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative and the international resolutions.

"The effect of such deals relies on Israel's actions," he added.
Many languages give gender to their nouns, but not English, though that was not always the case. Until about the 1200s, English had masculine and feminine nouns, the way French, Spanish, Italian, and German still do.

We still have some holdovers, however, at least two of them related to hair coloring. But, as in so many things English, were not really sure how to use them.

Hair the color of corn silk is blond, the masculine form, though if that hair is on a woman, she is a blonde.

Garners Modern American Usage says blond is preferred in all senses as an adjective in American English; the Oxford English Dictionary says in Britain the form blonde is now preferred in all senses.

The Associated Press Stylebook exhorts: Use blond as a noun for males and as an adjective for all applications: She has blond hair. Use blonde as a noun for females. But thats a distinction seemingly honored more in the breach: Much of the time, we use the feminine blonde as both a noun and an adjective, regardless of the sex of the person.

Garners warns of the inherent sexism in the distinction, saying when we see a reference to a blonde (or a blond) we almost always assume its a woman. To avoid appearing sexist, its best to refrain altogether from using this word as a noun. In fact, some readers will find even the adjective to be sexist when it modifies woman and not hair.

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That may be going a bit far, especially considering the same is true of someone with dark hair, a brunette.

As blonde is to blond, so is brunette to brunet. But youd be hard-pressed to find any male referred to as a brunet, or any usage of brunet as an adjective.

In reality, brunette serves as both masculine and feminine, noun and adjective. Websters New World College Dictionary does not mention sex at all in its brunet entry, which just says, having black or dark-brown hair, often along with dark eyes and a dark complexion. Merriam-Webster makes the distinction almost as an afterthought in its brunet entry: a person having brown or black hair and often a relatively dark complexionspelled brunet when used of a boy or man and usually brunette when used of a girl or woman.

When those young blond/es and brunet/tes go to dances, they run into another formerly gendered noun: chaperon.

Thats not a typo. The OED says that English writers often erroneously spell it chaperone, apparently under the supposition that it requires a feminine termination.

That chaperon is now all but universally spelled chaperone gets Garners goat.

Chaperone is a variant form apparently misspelled as a result of the (correct) long -o- in the final syllable, Garners says. In 2003, alas, the lexicographers at Merriam-Webster reversed the positions of chaperon and chaperone, for the first time giving the variant primacy in their W11. The editors of The New Oxford American Dictionary followed suit. And so what had once been a misspelling was then upgraded to a secondary variant that now bids fair to become the established norm.

But Garners is not letting go. Chaperone instead of chaperon is listed at Stage 4 of the five-stage Language-Change Index, meaning all but die-hard snoots accept it.

On this, it appears, Garners is its own snoot.

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Merrill Perlman managed copy desks across the newsroom at the New York Times, where she worked for twenty-five years. Follow her on Twitter at @meperl.
Newbridge woman Nicola Brennan has just taken up a challenging new role, in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, with her appointment as Irish ambassador to Ethiopia, with responsibility for South Sudan and Djibouti.

Highly experienced from a long career working overseas and with the Department of Foreign Affairs, Nicola will lead a team in Irelands biggest African embassy to build trade ties in the region as well as work on development cooperation and security issues.

It is a prospect that she relishes, and she says that she and her family are incredibly excited about the four-year posting which will see them living and working in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

Nicola is the daughter of Margaret and the late Denis Brennan from Great Connell, and a former past pupil of St Conleths and the Holy Family Secondary School. After studying Economics and Business Studies at Trinity College, Dublin, she undertook a Higher Diploma in Education with the intention of becoming a teacher.

Yet after graduating she went to Indonesia with the charity Voluntary Service Overseas  a decision which completely changed her career path. She spent seven years in Indonesia, working in the field in Jakarta and Papua New Guinea.

Interested in pursuing a career in international development, she then completed a masters degree in development administration and management at the University of Manchester, before joining the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1996.

Postings followed at the Irish embassies in South Africa and Uganda, where Nicola worked as a development specialist; after which she spent a period back home as a senior adviser on Irelands international response to the HIV and AIDS epidemic. At that time the Irish Government took a very key position internationally on the AIDS pandemic, and we were recognised as quite a leader in that field, even though we are quite a small country, she said.

A 15-month posting as the deputy head of mission at the Irish embassy in Zambia followed in 2010.

Most recently Nicola has served as the Department of Foreign Affairs director of international development policy in the development cooperation and Africa Division. In this role, she lead the Irish governments new policy on international development, called A Better World, which outlines what this country commits to do on international development across the world.

She was appointed as ambassador to Ethiopia last December, although her start in the job has been delayed several months by the coronavirus pandemic.

My work has largely to date, in the Department, been focused on international development, and our focus is largely on sub-Saharan Africa, she said. The timing was perfect for us as a family. We were aiming to go overseas this summer, so once the available positions were circulated at the end of last year, I put myself forward.

If you had asked me four to five years ago, when you become an ambassador, where do you want to go?, I would have said Ethiopia over Paris, or even New York.

Nicolas husband and son have accompanied her on her new posting, and the family finally flew out to Ethiopia on August 26.

She is married to Professor Ruairi Brugha, a public health specialist with the Royal College of Surgeons who has been prominent in recent months as an expert commentator on the Covid-19 pandemic. He will continue his research work into international health issues in Africa from Ethiopia.

The couple have a nine-year-old son, Louis, who will attend an international school in Addis Ababa.

The family already has some close connections with Ethiopia and have visited a number of times previously. They have also been learning the local language, Amharic. Well continue that and hopefully establish some good friendships with Ethiopians while were there, she said.

New role

A huge task awaits Nicola in her new role, where she will be responsible for Irelands relationship with Ethiopia, South Sudan and Djibouti, on political, economic and consular levels, and also in terms of international development and cooperation.

Irelands appointment to a seat on the UN Security Council, which starts next January for a two-year period, will also have a huge influence on her new role.

Sixty percent of the agenda of the security council relates to African issues on peace and security.

You would be looking at the different political positions and the issues arising, and reporting back to headquarters [in Ireland] so they are informed, they have the analysis and the knowledge to assist Irelands engagement in the various debates of the security council.

Assisting Irish businesses who are interested in investing in Ethiopia will also form part of her role  even though there are not huge business links between the two countries at the moment  along with offering consular assistance to Irish citizens in the region, should they need it.

Development work

Perhaps the biggest part of her job will be working on Irelands development cooperation role in Ethiopia, where the Irish governments annual investment in development is up to 40 million per year.

We work in terms of focusing on the reduction of poverty, ensuring good access to healthcare, to education, rural development and supporting the Ethiopian government and the region on issues relating to peace and stability, she said. We are bringing Irelands experience to bear on those types of situations, be it our road to agricultural development, being a country where we produce more than we can eat; to the Northern Ireland peace process and how it took place, and what Ethiopia could learn from that; to our healthcare. There is a relationship already established between the HSE and the Ministry of Health in Ethiopia.

We have a very strong focus on womens empowerment and gender equality, and we are working to really position ourselves more on having greater influence in that space in Ethiopia. Its really important for young girls, getting access to education and opportunities; and for women to be able to reach their potential, to be able to be productive members of society where often they are constrained by social norms.

Covid-19 challenges

Taking up an ambassadorship in the middle of a global pandemic brings its own challenges. The focus of the pandemic in Ethiopia is in the capital Addis Ababa. It is a large, densely populated city, which has nevertheless never shut down completely to international travel, as Ethiopian Airlines has played a key strategic role in bringing PPE supplies from China onto the continent.

Restrictive measures are in place, similar to Ireland. Many of the staff at the Irish embassy are working from home which is a real challenge as the internet wouldnt be as consistent there as it is in Ireland.

The pandemic has hit Ethopian society hard in the pocket in that it, like other African societies, is very dependent on remittances back home from family members who have gone abroad to find work. The diaspora in Europe and the USA has suffered along with the wider community as economies have shut down  with the result that less money is funnelling its way back to Ethiopia, which poses economic challenges to the government there.

Six Irish people work at the embassy in Addis Ababa, along with up to 30 local staff and a similar number of support staff.

Theyre really excellent. Within that team we have lots of opportunity for discussion and engagement.

However, what Nicola laughingly calls the Ferrero Rocher aspect of an ambassadors job  that of networking and hosting lunches and receptions to promote Ireland both to locals and to other international embassy staff  has been seriously curtailed by Covid-19 restrictions. Relationships will have to be built by other means in the coming months and years.

Nights of Irish music, stories, food and craic in Addis Ababa may be a pipe dream for the time being, but finding new ways of extending the hand of Irish friendship across Africa, even if it cant be in person right now, is a challenge to which the Kildare woman will no doubt rise.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-14 05:11:09|Editor: huaxia

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BUENOS AIRES, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Argentina's Navy seized more than 4 tons of marijuana in the northern province of Misiones, near the border with Paraguay, valued at over 4 million U.S. dollars, the Ministry of Security said on Sunday.

During the operation carried out by members of the Argentine Naval Prefecture at km 1,732 of the Parana River, near Mbopicua Port, about 1,085 km north of the capital Buenos Aires, authorities also arrested four people, the ministry said in a statement.

"A ground patrol observed a truck speed away from the coast along a road closed to vehicular traffic. Upon noticing the presence of personnel from a federal force, it tried to escape," said the ministry.

Security personnel also seized more than 3.4 million pesos in cash (about 45,000 U.S. dollars), eleven cellphones, a computer and other items of interest to the investigation. Enditem
A Nigerian national, Sylvester Owen, has been arrested in India for attempting to smuggle 1,980kg of ecstasy pills into the country through an international courier.

According to a report published by the Indian Express, Mr Owen, 41, was arrested on Thursday by a joint operation by customs officials and police.

The security forces intercepted the illicit drugs which were concealed inside an electric massager that came on a DHL Express cargo flight from Brussels, at the Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru, in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.

The Customs Joint Commissioner, J. D Chetan, said the suspect who resided in Mumbai, until he moved to Bengaluru last month, was apprehended by the operatives after he showed proof of ownership to the parcel containing the illicit drugs.

The official said, after removing the contents, we repacked it and made a DHL agent call Owen on Thursday morning to say that the parcel would be delivered shortly. Owen asked the agent to come near a bakery at Hommadevanahalli in Horamavu.

A DHL van, with a driver and two customs officials masquerading as cargo centre employees, headed to the location, with officials following close behind.

When one of our staffers handed over the parcel, Owen showed his identity proof with a passport. After confirming his identity, we nabbed him in the middle of the road.

He is well-built and resisted, but was overpowered and taken to the customs office.

According to the reports, the police and customs officials also recovered about 200g of cannabis from his house.

It said the accused had set up a small business in Mumbai, selling African hair, that acted as a front for his illegal activity.

We expect crucial information from him to nab bigger fish, the official added.
Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE have proposed to the authorities to expand their Phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trial to about 44,000 participants while increasing the diversity of the trial population. The initial target figure for the trial of the covid vaccine that both the companies are jointly developing was up to 30,000 participants, which the companies said they expect to reach by next week.

If the study is successful, the companies could submit the vaccine for regulatory approval as early as October, Pfizer said.

"As stated previously, based on current infection rates, the companies continue to expect that a conclusive readout on efficacy is likely by the end of October," the companies added in the joint statement on Saturday.

"The proposed expansion would allow the companies to further increase trial population diversity, and include adolescents as young as 16 years of age and people with chronic, stable HIV (human immunodeficiency viruses), Hepatitis C, or Hepatitis B infection, as well as provide additional safety and efficacy data," Pfizer said in a statement.

The vaccine candidate utilizes chemical messenger RNA to mimic the surface of the coronavirus and teach the immune system to recognize and neutralize it. Although the technology has been around for years, there has never been an approved messenger RNA (mRNA)vaccine.

Oxford University announced on Saturday it was resuming a trial for a coronavirus vaccine it is developing with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, a move that comes days after the study was suspended following a reported side-effect in a U.K. patient.

In a statement, the university confirmed the restart across all of its U.K. clinical trial sites after regulators gave the go-ahead following the pause on Sunday.

The independent review process has concluded and following the recommendations of both the independent safety review committee and the U.K. regulator, the MHRA, the trials will recommence in the U.K.," it said. (With Agency Inputs)

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For a reliably refined flavour of France, Tom heads to a favourite haunt

Familiarity doesnt always breed contempt. In fact, when it comes to my favourite restaurants, the opposite is invariably true. Sometimes, I know exactly what I want to eat, and exactly where to eat it. Where consistency trumps novelty, and the experience is all.

Grouse is served English style at Le Colombier. Cooked rare, the sweet flesh is served with clear gravy and bread sauce. Sometimes, even the French concede that British can be best

A few years back, when those cravings had a Gallic accent, it was always Racine or La Brasserie. Both, sadly, have gone the way of all flesh. But Le Colombier, which seems to have been a Chelsea staple since Granny Takes a Trip (although it really only opened in 1998), effortlessly plugs that gap.

Fish soup is not so much salty old sea dog as elegant boulevardier

On a hot, late August afternoon, the outdoor tables are booked. They always are, for those linen and Tods-clad regulars, old Chelsea to their core, treat this place like their local canteen. But inside, a cool breeze flutters through the open windows, into a room daubed in Provencal blue. Service is mainly young, slick and very French, but with rather more charm than disdain. Theres chilled house rose, and good bread, and a half dozen crevettes sitting on ice, bracingly fresh and dunked into homemade mayonnaise.

More expertly sourced fish with the vintage sardines, La Quiberonnaise, served in their bright yellow tin with a fistful of chopped shallot and a good squeeze of lemon. They were canned last year and allowed to age slightly, giving the expertly deboned and beheaded beauties an exquisitely subtle depth.

Fish soup has a suitably rusty hue, and with its hint, rather than blast, of piscine bosk, its not so much swaggering, salty old sea dog as elegant boulevardier with a deep, dark past. Snails arrive out of the shell, the sauce delivering a creamy jolt of garlic and Pernod-laced delight.

Roast grouse a lAnglaise may not strike one as part of the French culinary canon. But its every bit the equal of its brethren at Wiltons or Rules. Cooked rare, the sweet flesh is served with clear gravy and bread sauce. Sometimes, even the French concede that British can be best.

In fact, the only bum note of the entire lunch is a tomato salad, served as cold as the mortuary slab. A tiny quibble. Because Le Colombier not only cooks up peerlessly consistent French brasserie food. But does so with the broadest of smiles.

Le Colombier, about 40 a head, 145 Dovehouse Street, Chelsea Square, London SW3; 020 7351 1155

Drinks: Ollys favourite light whites

With the last few summery rays lifting our spirits, light white wines are divinely elegant with deft levels of alcohol allowing for longer sessions of splendour. Some wines with alcohol manipulated downward can be so brutally bitter or sickly sweet that youre better off making a spritzer. Thankfully there are lots of decent options coming in below 12.5% alcohol that deliver gorgeous character without monstrous manufacturing.

Ponte de Lima Loureiro Vinho Verde 2019 (11.5%), 7.50, The Wine Society. Light and spritzy, this piercing Portuguese wine is spot on with oily fish or for a zesty aperitif.

Gaillac Perle Evocation 2019 (12%), 8.99, Majestic. Fresh, easy and breezy, light whites like this dont come much finer and at such a friendly price.

Famoso Rubicone 2019 (12%), 8, Marks & Spencer. A tangerine dream of a wine! Fragrant, light, exotic and vivid with flavour as well as finesse.

The Doctors Sauvignon Blanc 2019 (9.5%), 8.99, Waitrose. Clever stuff from New Zealand, naturally lower in alcohol without losing out on flavour. A proper zinger.
The mayor of Los Angeles has delivered a scathing attack on Donald Trump - accusing him of having his head stuck in the sand over climate change, as wildfires tear through the American West.

Ahead of a visit to California by the president on Monday, where he is to be briefed on the fires that have killed at least people and forced thousands to evacuate, Eric Garcetti said he doubted Mr Trump would do much to help the situation.

Hes going to come out here and probably tell us 'Im going to send you rakes instead of more help, he said on CNN, on Sunday morning. We need actual help, not based on our party affiliation.

At a rally in Nevada on Saturday night, the president repeated his claim that the fires were caused by poor forest management, and did not mention climate change. He has previously said the issue was a lack of raking of forests.

Tonight our hearts are with all of the communities in the west battling devastating wildfires, he said.

Theyve never had anything like this, but you know it is about forest management. Please remember the words. Very simple: forest management.

Mr Garcetti said the president was playing politics, and ignoring the opinions of the vast majority of experts who have pointed to the role of climate change in both the frequency of wildfires, but also their intensity.

I listened to fire professionals, not the president of the United States or a politician, when it comes to actually what causes these fires. It's been very clear that years of drought that we're seeing - whether it's too much water and too much rain in parts of our country right now, or too little - this is climate change, he said.

This is an administration that's put its head in the sandTalk to a firefighter if you think that climate change isn't real.

Mr Garcetti, who is a Democrat, said it appeared the Trump administration represented the last vestiges of the Flat Earth Society of this generation.

He added: We need real action. We need to actually reduce the carbon emissions.

Jeff Merkley, a Democratic senator from Oregon, which has perhaps been hardest hit by the fires, also denounced the presidents claim over poor forest management, as a devastating lie.

The president has said it's all about raking the forest. It's just a  a big and devastating lie, he told ABC News.

The Cascade snowpacks have gotten smaller. Our forests have gotten drier. Our ocean has gotten warmer and more acidic. And this has been happening steadily over the last several decades.

On Saturday, Mr Trumps rival in the November election, Joe Biden, also attacked the president.

The science is clear, and deadly signs like these are unmistakable  climate change poses an imminent, existential threat to our way of life, he said in a statement.

President Trump can try to deny that reality, but the facts are undeniable. We absolutely must act now to avoid a future defined by an unending barrage of tragedies like the one American families are enduring across the West today.
A man is currently in critical condition in hospital

A man is currently in critical condition in hospital after a crash between a lorry and a cyclist in Co Down on Sunday.

Police have appealed for information after the crash on the Annalong Road, Ballymartin shortly before 1.30pm.

PSNI Inspector MacDonald said: "It was reported that a cyclist and a lorry were involved in a collision. One man has been taken to hospital and his condition is described as critical.

The Annalong Road is closed between the School Road and the Valley Road and motorists are advised to avoid the area and seek alternative main routes for their journey.

I am appealing to anyone who witnessed the collision or who has dashcam footage available, to contact police on 101 quoting reference number 955 13/09/20.
A Nepalese national was arrested from Indo-Nepal border in Maharjganj district of Uttar Pradesh after he was found in possession of 6.1 kg charas with a market value of Rs 2.17 crore, police said on Sunday.

"The arrest was made in Shyamkot area of border town Sonauli on Sunday morning", said Sonauli police station in-charge Ashutosh Singh.

Accused Som Bahadur Nepali was on his way to Delhi from Nepal when he was arrested during a routine checking of the bus, he said.

Police have decided to take help of their Nepalese counterpart to trace his links with other smugglers in Nepal and India, Singh added. He has been booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, he added.
Sheriff's deputies cleared out a protest encampment in downtown L.A.'s Grand Park, across from City Hall, early Sunday. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles County sheriffs deputies shut down a months-old protest encampment in downtown L.A.'s Grand Park early Sunday in a move that activists criticized as retaliation for recent protests of a deputy-involved shooting.

The encampment first appeared in Grand Park across from City Hall in June amid protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. It was cleared out around 3 a.m. after deputies declared an unlawful assembly in the area, the Sheriffs Department said in a statement.

Authorities said the action was taken because of deteriorating conditions in the park. They denied it was connected to the shooting of two deputies in Compton late Saturday or recent demonstrations against the department in South L.A. after deputies shot and killed bicyclist Dijon Kizzee. On Friday, deputies in riot gear surrounded a peaceful news conference held by some of the same demonstrators.

Protests near the South L.A. sheriffs station over Kizzees killing have drawn hundreds of demonstrators, including those affiliated with Black Unity L.A., the protest group that had also been running the encampment.

In its statement, the Sheriffs Department alleged that illegal narcotic activity, vandalism and graffiti had become an issue near the encampment. About 25 protesters and 11 homeless people were in the encampment when it was cleared. One person was arrested for trespassing, the Sheriff's Department said. The park will be closed for an undetermined period of time.

Several activists remained in the area for several hours to protest the dismantling of the encampment. Sean Beckner-Carmitchel, 34, an activist who sometimes livestreams from protest scenes, said deputies blocked him and another reporter at a barricade from getting close enough to film the eviction of the protest site. He stayed near Spring and 1st streets for several hours until, he claims, LAPD officers began chasing him without warning and tackled him to the ground.

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They started grabbing me by the shoulder and sort of violently dragging me across the street  at which point the pain became extreme, said Beckner-Carmitchel, who told officers that he had a torso injury from an earlier protest.

Beckner-Carmitchel lost consciousness and was later hospitalized. Officer Mike Lopez, an LAPD spokesman, said two protesters were arrested for failing to disperse but could not confirm details of Beckner-Carmitchel's injuries.

For months, the group had been occupying a fenced-off section of Grand Park, hosting movie nights, training seminars for medical aid during protests and other educational events.

The groups demands included an end to the practice of qualified immunity for police, which shields officers from civil liability for some of their actions; eliminating the L.A. Unified School Districts campus police; increasing deescalation training for law enforcement; and opening all police discipline records to the public.

In August, organizers with the group said about 30 people were directly involved with the site, with about 15 spending their nights there. The encampment had its own kitchen and a donated library, as well as lounges erected inside the area it had fortified with barricades and wooden palettes. Members could often be seen giving food to nearby homeless people and had also organized visits to skid row to provide services.

The area surrounding the encampment, however, had become increasingly filled with homeless men and women over the summer, and had begun drawing the ire of community leaders. The downtown L.A. Neighborhood Council expressed frustration with the encampment, and some local residents grew worried after Los Angeles police responded to a reported sexual assault in a public restroom near Spring Street earlier this summer.

Around the same time, signs warning that the encampment was illegal were posted near Grand Park at the direction of the Sheriffs Department.

By late Sunday morning, the park had been fenced off completely. With the exception of a few collapsed tents and remaining garbage, most signs of the encampment had been taken away.

Roxanne McQueen, a Black Unity L.A. activist who has been there for months, said she awoke around 3 a.m. to someone shaking her tent and looked out to find at least 20 deputies in riot gear standing near the entrance to the park.

She said the protesters were given 15 minutes to gather all their belongings before deputies moved in. McQueen said deputies seized anything left behind, which included stores of water and food that Black Unity has shared with nearby homeless men and women in the past, as well as the community library. A Sheriff's Department spokeswoman did not respond to questions about what was done with belongings or perishables left in the park.

For protesters who had been living in the park since its establishment, the rushed eviction meant they lost virtually all that they owned.

"We have people who have nothing now because theyve taken it all, either thrown it away or confiscated it," said a Black Unity L.A. member who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals from police. "It makes no sense to give people 15 minutes to pack up their lifes belongings, and if they dont, then youre going to arrest them. That just seems cruel.

Roxanne Allen, 29, scoffed at allegations of drug use or poor conditions. She said the encampment had been a positive place that fell victim to "retaliation" from the Sheriff's Department's over the protests following Kizzee's death.

It was supposed to be a centralized kind of point for everyone to come together and give back to our own community and be there for our own community," Allen said. "It was retaliation."
UKs Brexit preparation minister Michael Gove has defended the Johnson government's plan to overrule parts of the withdrawal agreement as a bid to protect the country's "integrity".

As per BBC reports, Gove said that the United Kingdom was being "generous" with the European Union over the Brexit negotiations. His statements come days after the 27-nation bloc threatened to take legal action against the UK over a new Brexit bill and reminded the London officials of their obligations to Northern Ireland.

Read: Boris Johnson Defends Brexit Change To Avoid UK 'carve-up'

Bill to protect the 'integrity'

According to reports, the bill will be debated in the House of Commons for the first time on September 14. The new bill suggests no new checks on goods moving from Northern Ireland to Great Britain. It also gives UK ministers the power to modify rules relating to the movement of goods that will come into force from January.

Earlier this week, European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic met with Michael Gove in a last moment meeting following the UK's announcement of the new Brexit bill. Both of the officials head a joint committee with the aim of sorting out post-Brexit rules for Northern Ireland. It is the only part of the United Kingdom to share a border with an EU member, Ireland.

Read: Germany Says UK, Not EU, To Face 'significant' Consequences Of No-deal Brexit

Sefcovic is reported to have told Gove that the EU would consider going to court unless the new measures were withdrawn "by the end of the month". The new Brexit bill has complicated the process with the EU claiming a breach of trust on the part of the UK. The post-Brexit trade talks between the UK and the European Union have descended into war-of-words after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hinted at a willful violation of the withdrawal agreement.

Earlier, British PM had said that a no-deal exit would be a good outcome for the UK, triggering strong reactions from the 27-member bloc. The UK government tabled a controversial new bill that will override parts of the divorce deal struck with the EU ahead of Brexit. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that a no-deal exit would undermine trust and break international law.

Read: UK-Japan Sign First historic Independent Post-Brexit Trade Agreement

Also Read: Scholz: No Deal Brexit Will Affect UK More Than EU
Rieli Franciscato was struck by an arrow in the forest near the Uru Eu Wau Wau reservation in Rondonia (REUTERS)

A leading expert on isolated Amazon tribes in Brazil has been killed by an arrow which hit him as he approached an indigenous group, according to friends and a police witness.

Rieli Franciscato, who was 56 years old, was an official for the Brazilian governments indigenous affairs agency Funai, where he had worked to set up reservations to protect tribes in the country.

Mr Franciscato was hit by an arrow above the heart on Wednesday in the forest near the Uru Eu Wau Wau reservation in the western state of Rondonia as he moved towards a previously uncontacted indigenous group.

He cried out, pulled the arrow from his chest, ran 50 metres and collapsed, lifeless," a policeman who accompanied the expedition said in an audio clip posted on social media.

The Kaninde Ethno-Environmental Defence Association, which Mr Franciscato helped set up in the 1980s, said the group had no ability to distinguish between a friend or a foe from the outside world.

Gabriel Uchida, a photojournalist in the region, told AFP news agency that the tribe was a peaceful group when they were last seen in June.

This time, there were only five armed men, a war group. That means something must have happened for them to seek 'revenge', Mr Uchida said.

Indigenous people in Brazil have recently faced increasing threat from invasions by illegal land grabbers, loggers and gold miners, who have been emboldened by far-right president Jair Bolsonaros attempts to reduce the size of indigenous reservations in the Amazon.

We are feeling bewildered by so many deaths in this Brazil that no longer respects indigenous rights, Ivaneide Cardozo, a co-founder of the Kaninde association, said in a statement.

Sydney Possuelo, a former head of Funai, said Mr Bolsonaro had defunded the agency and left it without the staff needed for security at its isolated posts.

Rieli was a calm, methodical, soft-spoken man who knew the dangers very well, but he was alone and so he went to ask the police to accompany him, Mr Possuelo said, adding that the presence of police could have triggered the attack.

Story continues

The Brazilian presidency did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

Additional reporting by Reuters

Read more

Brazil sends thousands of troops to protect Amazon rainforest amid concerns about surge in deforestation
CLAIM: Why such an invasive test for COVID-19 if it is so easily transmitted through droplets? A mouth swab would suffice if this was as deadly as they claim it to be. Someone is lying again.
Russia and Turkey concluded the Sochi agreement in the Russian city of Sochi near the Black Sea in September 2018. One of the most important clauses was the establishment of a demilitarized zone in the Idlib governorate in northwestern Syria to stop the clashes between the Syrian regime forces and the opposition factions.

However, this agreement did not hold for long. A military escalation at the end of April 2019 saw Syrian regime forces  backed by Russian air cover  launch an attack on northwestern Syria. The regime managed to advance to Maarat al-Numan in southern Idlib province, a clear breach of Article 2 of the Sochi agreement, which stipulates, The Russian Federation will take all necessary measures to ensure that military operations and attacks on Idlib will be avoided and that the existing status quo will be maintained.

The escalation caused the displacement of more than 400,000 people between April and October 2019. By March 2020, these numbers had increased to more than 1.3 million.

On March 3, Ankara and Moscow agreed to a cease-fire in northwestern Syria, and the two sides began conducting joint patrols March 15. The Russian-Turkish patrols are conducted on the M4 highway that connects the city of Aleppo in northern Syria to Latakia, which is located on the Syrian coast in the west. This highway is of high priority for the Syrian regime and its allies, as it is a vital route between two major cities controlled by the regime.

Firas Faham, a researcher at the Jusoor Center for Studies and Development, an independent institution based in Istanbul focusing on Syrian political and social affairs, told Al-Monitor, The joint patrols stopped the military escalation that mainly targeted residential areas with airstrikes and exacerbated the humanitarian situation by causing large waves of violence and displacement toward the Turkish border. The patrols led to a gradual decrease in violence.

Naji Mustafa, spokesperson for the opposition-affiliated National Liberation Front, told Al-Monitor, We have witnessed violations committed by the Syrian regime forces since the start of the cease-fire agreement. [President Bashar] al-Assads militias and the Russian forces failed to respect the cease-fire, and the violations were accompanied by attempts to advance on several axes, such as trying to advance on the axis of Haddadah in Jabal al-Akrad, and the villages of Deir Sunbul, Benin, Horsh Benin, Fatira and Fleifel.

Mustafa noted, The cease-fire decreased the frequency of bombing and the bombing stopped targeting civilians, save for the violations committed by sectarian gangs and militias. The only benefit was the reduction in the suffering of our people because Assad decreased his targeting of hospitals, markets and villages.

However, as attacks and shelling have continued, the joint patrols have drawn criticism from various residents and groups in the region.

Adnan al-Imam, a media activist working in the city of Idlib and its countryside, is closely following the events in this area. He told Al-Monitor, I see a wide rejection of the joint patrols in the liberated areas, especially in the areas of Jabal al-Zawiya, Jabal al-Arbaeen and Jabal Shahshabo, among others. The M4 road witnessed several protests against these patrols.

Some residents protested the Russian-Turkish patrols, which they believe did not stop the regimes attacks, and the sporadic ones  including bombings  by unknown groups repeatedly targeted the patrols. As a result, the joint patrols stopped at the end of March only to resume on July 22. But during this interim period, the area also witnessed a sit-in organized by a group of youths on the M4 highway in the eastern Idlib regions, forcing the Russian units to withdraw toward the Tarnaba area in southeast Idlib.

The joint patrols faced many challenges, the last of which took place Aug. 25, when a Russian convoy was damaged in an explosion that left two Russian servicemen injured. On Aug. 18, a joint patrol was also attacked by an unknown group.

On the ground, the balance of power appears to be tilted toward the regime. The Jusoor Center published a map of the distribution of power in January 2019, showing that the Syrian regime controls 60.3% of Syria. In the latest update of this map published in May, the Syrian regime controlled 63.38% of the territory after taking complete control of the northern Hama countryside and several areas of the southern Idlib countryside, including Maarat al-Numan.

This is evidence that the agreements and patrols did not prevent the Syrian regime from advancing in northwestern Syria. It may mean that the regime itself was not the main target of the patrols  rather they were to prevent any clashes between Turkish and Russian troops.

Faham said, We can say that the joint patrols are a preliminary step to de-escalate and avoid direct clashes between the Turkish army, which has extensively spread in northwestern Syria, and the Russian-backed forces. However, the joint patrols up until now are subject to obstacles, including being targeted by armed groups.

After the Aug. 18 attack on the patrol, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Russia suspended joint patrols with Turkish forces on the M4 highway due to armed provocations. But the patrols resumed Aug. 25, only to be targeted once again.

Mustafa said, We always notice that Russia invokes arguments and lies, using propaganda and misleading information whereby the revolutionary factions are provoking patrols. The Syrian regime often launches airstrikes on areas close to the M4 highway. This is why the Russian side is trying to bypass the agreement despite the Turkish and revolutionary factions commitment to it. We only respond to violations, and we are entitled to do so.

So far, there is no consistency in the performance of the joint patrols, the last of which took place Aug. 25, and most people are not completely confident about the security situation.

Most people wish that the regime forces would withdraw from the areas they recently entered and that the displaced would return to their homes. If this happens, patrols would be OK, but if the patrols continue and the regime takes control of new areas, people will lose their confidence in Turkey, which always promises that the regime forces would not advance to new areas and that the displaced would return to their homes, Imam said.

Meanwhile, thousands of displaced in northwest Syria  who were forced to leave their homes in areas that the regime took control of in the past years, such as Homs, eastern Ghouta and some areas of Rif Dimashq  are now living under the grip of radical factions, namely Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which restricts freedoms in the areas under its control. Most recently, on Aug. 17, HTS arrested the director of the Midwifery Institute in Idlib, Mustafa al-Jazi. The arrest came after Jazis institute organized an exhibition for the drawings of a student, where she depicts the situation in Idlib and the struggle of Syrian women and civilians in conflict areas. These messages may have angered HTS, which adopts more radical ideas. Jazi was released Aug. 22.
By Trend

The greatest potential for Turkmenistan lies in its natural gas resources, a representative of the Heritage Foundation told Trend.

The representative pointed out that in order to improve its economy, Turkmenistan should start by opening its economy to foreign investment and diversify its energy exports.

The source added that President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has encouraged foreign investment in the energy sector.

Furthermore, Turkmenistan needs to work with Azerbaijan, the EU and the US on a Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline, which envisages transportation of Turkmen gas to Europe through Azerbaijan.

Recently, Turkmenistan has declared its readiness to supply Europe with an annual volume of up to 40 billion cubic meters of gas.

Earlier, the Turkmenistan's president said that fuel and energy sector of Turkmenistan should attract foreign investment. He also noted that the main goal of Turkmenistan's energy policy is the effective use of natural resources for sustainable growth, expansion of export opportunities and improvement of the welfare of the country's population.

In the first four months of 2020, the volume of investments into fuel and energy complex of Turkmenistan amounted to more than 3.73 billion Turkmen manat (over $1 billion), which is 1.3 billion manat (more than $371 million) more than during the same period of last year.

In total, from 2016 up until May 2020, about 40 billion manat ($11.4 billion) were allocated to strengthening the material and technical base of countrys oil and gas industry.

Heritage Foundation is the US strategic research institute, which is engaged in a wide range of international policy research. Its mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government and individual freedom.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Tens of thousands of Belarusians marched through the streets of the capital, Minsk, on September 13. It was the 36th consecutive day of rallies against authoritarian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka since he claimed victory in a disputed election on August 9. There was a heavy police presence at the event, and hundreds of protesters were detained.
President Trump claimed at a Saturday campaign rally that Democrats are "trying to rig" the upcoming presidential election, warning supporters that 80 million "unsolicited" ballots would be sent to voters across the country. Mr. Trump did not provide any evidence to support that claim.

"They'll send 80 million ballots to people  they have no idea where they're going," Mr. Trump said during his 94-minute speech. "Actually, they probably do have a pretty good idea where they're going, and that's our problem. They send 80 million ballots out, where are they going? Who do they send them to? Are they sending them to certain areas, and not other areas? Are they sending them to Democrat areas?"

The rally was initially scheduled to be held in Reno, but the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority rejected it because the 5,000-plus expected visitors would violate the state's and local county's directives on public gatherings due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr. Trump lashed out at the state's governor over the decision, alleging the rejection happened because he's a Republican. "We call this a protest, because if you call it a protest you're allowed to have one," Mr. Trump claimed.

"The governor tried to stop us, and he couldn't, but think of this  he's in control of millions of votes," Mr. Trump said. He added "so if I'm up millions of votes, he can rig the election."

Governor Steve Sisolak said Thursday that he had nothing to do with canceling the event, adding that the state's ban on gatherings of more than 50 people had in place for months, according to CBS affiliate KTVN-TV.

Mr. Trump also briefly mentioned the wildfires raging across the West Coast, telling the audience that the key to fighting fires is "forest management."

"It is about forest management. Please remember the words, very simple  forest management," he said.

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There have not been any social distancing or mask requirements at Mr. Trump's recent campaign rallies, despite the dangers presented by the pandemic. According to revelations from journalists Bob Woodward's new book that were released early, Mr. Trump admitted the severity of the coronavirus to Woodward in February even as he held indoor campaign rallies and repeatedly compared the virus to the flu.

Supporters listen to US President Donald Trump speak during a campaign rally at the Minden-Tahoe airport in Minden, Nevada, on September 12, 2020. / Credit: Brendan Smialowski/ AFP via Getty

Mr. Trump said Saturday that the U.S. is "developing a vaccine in record time" for the virus, and falsely claimed the U.S. has seen "by far the fastest recovery of any Western nation."

"We're rounding the turn, and it's happening," he said. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease doctor, disagreed with that statement on Friday. "Instead of rounding the corner, the U.S. may be facing new perils," Fauci told MSNBC.

Mr. Trump on Saturday also frequently attacked Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, calling him a "pathetic human being" and accused him of being controlled by the "radical" wing of the Democratic party.

A new poll by The New York Times/Siena College found that likely voters in Nevada support Biden over Mr. Trump by 46% to 42%. A poll by the University of Nevada Las Vegas Lee Business School released earlier this month found that 44% of likely voters support Biden, compared to 39% for Mr. Trump.

Grace Segers and Fin Gomez contributed to this report.

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West Coast has some of worst air quality in the world amid wildfires

Iran executes 27-year-old wrestling star Navid Afkari

2 California sheriff's deputies shot in apparent ambush
SHOWS: BIRKENFELD, GERMANY (SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2020) (EYESPRINT - EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NO USE AFTER SEPTEMBER 13, 2021)

1. MOUNTAIN BIKE COURSE

2. VARIOUS OF RAMPS

3. RIDERS OVERLOOKING COURSE

4. RIDERS DOING BACKFLIPS

5. RIDER LANDING A TRICK

6. HELMET CAM VIEW OF TRICK BEING LANDED

7. VARIOUS TRICKS BEING LANDED

8. GERMAN RIDER, NICO SCHOLZE RIDING PAST

9. VARIOUS OF SCHOLZE LANDING FIRST-EVER CORDOVA FLIP ON A DOWNHILL BIKE THEN CELEBRATING (CONTAINS A PROFANE WORD)

10. (SOUNDBITE) (English) MOUNTAIN BIKER, NICO SCHOLZE, SAYING:

"Actually, I landed my first ever cordova backflip on the downhill bike. I've done it before on the small bike, but I think it's like a world's first on the downhill bike, which is insane. I'm really pumped to get it done, because it took me like ages now, but I did it, finally."

11. ITALIAN RIDER, DIEGO CAVERSAZI RIDING OFF

12. VARIOUS OF CAVERSAZI LANDING THE FIRST-EVER BACKFLIP BARSPIN TO CLIFFHANGER ON A HARDTAIL BIKE

13. CAVERSAZI AND ANOTHER MAN HUGGING

14. (SOUNDBITE) (English) MOUNTAIN BIKER, DIEGO CAVERSAZI, SAYING:

"This week at the Audi Nines presented by Falken, I landed a flip bar to cliffhanger. I had this trick in my mind since 2016 from Crankworx Les Gets when I tried first time, but I never had another chance to try and today was the right moment, and luckily I landed. I'm happy."

15. RIDER PERFORMING TRICK THROUGHOUT THE COURSE

STORY: The Audi Nines Mountainbike 2020 event came to an end on Sunday (September 13) after a memorable week which saw two first-ever tricks being landed.

With some of the world's best mountain bikers competing for the first time since quarantine and with all present at the course in Birkenfeld, Germany having tested negative for coronavirus beforehand, German Nico Scholze and Italian Diego Caversazi stole the show with some never seen before stunts.

Scholze, who said it has taken him 'ages' to land, planted the first-ever cordova flip on a downhill bike and Caversazi successfully negotiated a backflip barspin to cliffhanger on a hardtail bike, a trick he first tried in 2016.

(Production: Stefan Haskins)
She received backlash last week for sharing a throwback picture with her ex-boyfriend, Mark Wright.

And Lauren Goodger may have landed herself in hot water once again as she shared another image from the past, this time with her ex-lover Jake McLean as she pined for her 'slimmer' figure.

The TOWIE star, 33, declared 'I was so skinny' as she shared some old photos with her social media followers on Saturday.

Those were the days: Lauren Goodger shared a throwback image cuddled up to her ex-lover Jake McLean as she weighed in on her smaller frame

In the first photo shared to her Instagram story, Lauren posted a saucy throwback picture of her in black lingerie.

The reality star set pulses racing in the sizzling push-up bra, matching briefs and sky-high black stilettos.

Lauren was bronzed to perfection and she put her ample assets on full display in the revealing image.

Enviable curves: In the first photo shared to her Instagram story, the former TOWIE star, 33, posted a saucy throwback picture in black lingerie

Beach babe: Lauren also posed up a storm in bikini pictures re-uploaded from her holiday to Dubai last year

The television personality also posed up a storm in bikini pictures re-uploaded from her holiday to Dubai last year.

She displayed her sensational figure in a neon pink and lace cut-out bikini as she sashayed out of the sea and played with her water-drenched tresses.

Lauren then posted a throwback picture cuddled up to Jake as he wrapped his arm around her waist and planted a kiss on her cheek.

Bond girl: She displayed her sensational figure in a neon pink and lace cut-out bikini as she sashayed out of the sea and played with her water-drenched tresses

The reality star dated Jake for four years between 2012 and 2016.

Jake was jailed for three-and-a-half years when he was 18 after conning his way into a mother's house two days before Christmas in 2006, overpowering her before a masked gang ran in and raided the family home.

Lauren's jailbird ex was part of vicious criminal gang and it is believed he only served half of his sentence, he is since said to have fathered a child with another woman.

The brunette beauty was seen wearing a black top and she styled her hair in a half-up half-down 'do, as she captioned the image: 'I was so skinny.'

It comes after the Essex starlet received criticism for sharing a throwback picture with her ex-boyfriend Mark last week, after some fans thought it was disrespectful, given he is now married to Michelle Keegan.

Childhood sweethearts Lauren and Mark, became engaged on the reality show, after both starring since its inauguration in 2010, and they were a couple for 11 years before suffering an extremely acrimonious break-up in 2012.

Despite leaving on bad terms, Lauren shared a slew of throwback snaps- including a red carpet picture with Mark- to celebrate the 10 year anniversary special of TOWIE.

The reality star took to Instagram to thank the famous show for providing her with meaningful 'memories' and insisted she's 'proud' of all her castmates.

Cause a stir: Lauren received criticism for sharing a throwback picture last week with her ex-beau after some fans thought it was disrespectful given he is now married (pictured 2011)

Lauren wrote in the accompanying caption: '10 years ago changed my life we created a show called "the only way is Essex" I was 22 when I first started filming and what an amazing journey this has been !!

'I put my life on national television and we won a BAFTA - not a lot people can say that! You've seen me laugh, cry, engaged, break ups and make ups ! I've grown up on the screens and it was all real!

'Congratulations to all the OGs @towie these images are from google thank you for memories and well to all my costars im proud of you all and always will be.' (sic)

Following their split, Mark went on to tie the knot in a lavish ceremony with Michelle, 33, in May 2015.

Lauren previously branded their marriage 'weird' and claimed they don't speak to each other.

Speaking to Heat Magazine, she said: 'I saw them both in the gym. They don't talk it's really weird. I was like 'F**king hell, we weren't like that'. It's like they don't know each other. I can't go into that though. I'm just so glad that ain't me'.
BJP confident of blunting Opposition attack in Parliament

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Sep 13: Ahead of Parliament's monsoon session, the ruling BJP-led NDA is confident of blunting the opposition's expected attack on the government over issues like the border row with China and the Centre's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, and it believes that a division among its rivals is likely to be visible during debates.

BJP sources pointed out as to how Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's aggression against the Modi government over the tense border situation has found "little" support from other opposition parties.

Deep cleaning, regular sanitisation: Special NDMC team to keep Parliament clean

"The way the government has strongly defended the country's interests at the border is there for all to see. We are sure that the Congress will be isolated during any debate over the issue," a party leader said, claiming that even most non-NDA parties have backed the Modi dispensation over the issue.

The uneasiness in the Congress, a BJP leader claimed referring to the group of 23 Congress leaders who have sought organisational overhaul, can come to fore in Parliament.

Opposition parties, including the Congress, Trinamool Congress and the DMK, are planning a joint offensive against the government to corner it in Parliament on issues of national security like the border situation with China, handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, economy and GST compensation to states.

The BJP will also be armed with its own set of charges against the opposition, especially the Congress, as the top party brass, including its president J P Nadda, has pursued the issue of alleged donations to foundations linked to the Gandhi family from the Chinese government.

While opposition parties are likely to highlight the continuing surge in Covid-19 cases in India to aim at the government, the ruling party leaders believe that the country's low fatality rate coupled with its relatively fewer cases per million population compared to other seriously-hit countries are points in their favour.

Congress to formulate its strategy for monsoon session of Parliament today

A BJP leader noted that some of the worst hit states, like Maharashtra, are ruled by its rivals.

The National Democratic Alliance will also depend on the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package of Rs 1.70 lakh crore, which was announced by the government to help the more vulnerable sections of society to dean with financial impact of the nationwide lockdown, and Prime Minister Narenda Modi's announcement of free ration to over 80 crore people till November to highlight its "pro-people" sensibilities.

The 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' (self-reliant India) agenda is also likely to be a handy issue for the BJP to highlight the government's nationalist credentials.

The session begins from September 14 and will continue for 18 straight days till October 1.

The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in several changes, including no Question Hour, staggered seating arrangements and curtailment of hours allotted to daily businesses of both the Houses.

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Story first published: Sunday, September 13, 2020, 6:39 [IST]
Here are some of the top photos of the week, as selected by the Associated Press.
If you spoke with any of the thousands of Honduran asylum seekers who passed through Tucson last year, you heard common reasons for their flight to the United States: violence, poverty, extortion.

If you listened carefully, you might also have heard an unfamiliar phrase: JOH. In Spanish its pronounced, more or less, Ho, and refers to a mans initials.

The man is Juan Orlando Hernandez, the president of Honduras.

What Hondurans long suspected and Americans later found out was that the president of Honduras, who has functional control of all branches of government, is also deeply implicated in drug trafficking to the United States.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan revealed that in court filings against the presidents brother, Tony Hernandez, in August 2019, and witnesses testified to it in Tony Hernandezs October 2019 trial. The presidents brother was found guilty of four crimes, including conspiring to import about 220 tons of cocaine to the United States.

Honduras had plenty of problems before Hernandez first took power in 2014, of course. But some Honduran migrants say the destruction of social protections that drove them out occurred under his watch, even as the Obama administration aided him and Trump tightened the American embrace.
The deputies were sitting in their patrol car when a person approached and opened fire through the passenger window.

Two Los Angeles County sheriffs deputies were injured when an unidentified gunman fired multiple shots on their patrol car in an apparent ambush, authorities have said.

The incident took place on Saturday night when the officers  a 31-year-old woman and a 24-year-old man  boarded their car near a metro rail station in the city about 7pm (02:00 GMT).

A video posted to the sheriff departments Twitter account showed a figure approach the vehicle and open fire through the passenger side window of the car and run away.

The deputies, who had graduated from the academy 14-months earlier, were able to radio for help. Both underwent surgery on Saturday.

Sheriff Villanueva Discusses Ambush Shooting of Two Deputies in Compton. To watch the full press conference, please visit https://t.co/fOaVP5wTUe pic.twitter.com/7gXlbLQpAK  LA County Sheriffs (@LASDHQ) September 13, 2020

President Donald Trump, who has run a campaign increasingly reliant on a law and order message amid continuing racial justice protests, retweeted a video of the incident, writing: Animals that must be hit hard!

Meanwhile, Democratic challenger Joe Biden tweeted this cold-blooded shooting is unconscionable and the perpetrator must be brought to justice.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva, whose department has been criticised during recent protests over racial injustice, expressed frustration over anti-police sentiment as he urged people to pray for the officers at a late-night news conference.

This cold-blooded shooting is unconscionable and the perpetrator must be brought to justice. Violence of any kind is wrong; those who commit it should be caught and punished. Jill and I are keeping the deputies and their loved ones in our hearts and praying for a full recovery. https://t.co/330QfeIUGg  Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 13, 2020

It p**ses me off, he said. It dismays me at the same time.

Authorities were continued to search the area for the gunman on Sunday.

We have a very, very generic description, Captain Kent Wegener said of the suspect at a news conference.

Protesters gather outside emergency room

A small group of protesters gathered outside the emergency room where the deputies were being treated.

In a tweet, the sheriffs department said members of the group blocked the entrance and the exit and chanted we hope they die.

If they die, fast trial death penalty for the killer. Only way to stop this! https://t.co/K3sKh28GjX  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 13, 2020

At least one man was taken into custody at the protest, and a woman, later identified by the LAist news site as reporter Jose Huang, was arrested and later released.

I have seen @LASDHQ tweets and have thoughts and videos to share soon after a little rest, she wrote on Twitter.
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Washington  Sun, September 13, 2020 17:04 495 e22cd4161040e111d73a5626c4493a38 2 Art & Culture statue,Charlottesville,Racism Free

The US city of Charlottesville on Saturday dismantled a statue of a Confederate soldier just blocks from the site of a deadly white supremacist rally in 2017 -- Virginia's latest move to strip away tributes to the pro-slavery Civil War south.

The "At Ready" statue, which depicts a Confederate soldier holding his rifle, was erected in front of the Albemarle County courthouse in Charlottesville in 1909 -- 44 years after the US Civil War ended.

Albemarle is the first Virginia locality to use a process for removing Civil War statues that Governor Ralph Northam signed into law this year.

A crowd gathered to watch the statue's removal, dancing to music broadcast by a local radio station. People stood behind metal barricades and cheered as workers unscrewed plaques from the statue's stone plinth, and then attached straps to the statue and hoisted it away with a crane.

Just a few blocks away stands a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, the site of a much darker moment in Charlottesville's recent history.

A group of self-avowed neo-Nazis and white supremacists had gathered around the statue in August 2017 to protest its planned removal.

The demonstration turned deadly when one man drove his car into a group of anti-racism counter-protesters, killing a woman and injuring dozens.

Shock over the Charlottesville incident was exacerbated when President Donald Trump equivocated afterward, saying there were "very fine people on both sides" of the protests and declining to condemn outright the white supremacists.

Northam in June ordered the removal of the Lee statue, but work has been blocked by a court challenge.

But Confederate statues have been falling across the United States since May, either by city order or torn down by protesters, in the wake of anti-racism demonstrations sparked by the death of African-American man George Floyd's killing by white police officers in Minneapolis.

Topics : statue Charlottesville Racism
Princess Anne has spoken about her decision not to give her children HRH (His/Her Royal Highness) titles in a rare interview.

The Princess Royal, the second of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philips four children, shares two children with her ex-husband Mark Phillips: 42-year-old Peter and 38-year-old Zara.

When Princess Anne married Phillips in 1973, he declined the offer of an earldom, with their children subsequently not being given HRH titles.

In a new interview with Vanity Fair magazine conducted in the lead-up to Princess Annes 70th birthday this August, the royal explained that she believes not giving Peter and Zara titles was probably the right thing to do.

I think it was probably easier for them, and I think most people would argue that there are downsides to having titles, she said.

A month before Princess Annes interview with royal expert Katie Nicholl took place for Vanity Fair, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced their intention to give up their HRH titles as part of their decision to step down from their senior positions within the royal family.

Although Meghan and Prince Harry still retain their HRH titles, they are not going to use them in any capacity going forward.

Coincidentally, the day on which Princess Anne and Ms Nicholl conducted their interview at St Jamess Palace was the same day it was announced her son Peter was divorcing his wife Autumn after 12 years of marriage.

Princess Anne did not address the divorce in the interview, but did speak about spending time with her four granddaughters: Peters daughters, nine-year-old Savannah and eight-year-old Isla, and Zaras daughters, six-year-old Mia and one-year-old Lena.

16 pictures of the royal family when they were children Show all 16 1 /16 16 pictures of the royal family when they were children 16 pictures of the royal family when they were children Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex A two-year-old Prince Harry holds the hand of his mother, Princess Diana, at Aberdeen Airport. (1986) Photo by Carraro/REX 16 pictures of the royal family when they were children Prince William, Duke of Cambridge Aged two years old, Prince William is photographed outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital, London, following the birth of his younger brother Prince Harry. (1984) Photo by Mauro Carraro/REX 16 pictures of the royal family when they were children Prince George Prince George arrives for his first day of school at Thomas's London Day School in Battersea. (2017) AFP/Getty Images 16 pictures of the royal family when they were children Princess Charlotte Princess Charlotte waves on the steps of St George's Chapel, Windsor, as she arrives at the wedding of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank. (2018) Photo by Steve Parsons - WPA Pool/Getty Images 16 pictures of the royal family when they were children Prince Louis A newborn Prince Louis is pictured outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital, London. (23 April 2018) Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images 16 pictures of the royal family when they were children Queen Elizabeth II A portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, then Princess Elizabeth, aged three or four years old. (circa 1929-1930) Photo by Universal History Archive/REX 16 pictures of the royal family when they were children Princess Margaret and Queen Elizabeth II Princess Margaret is pictured alongside her elder sister Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II. Princess Elizabeth carries a purse embroidered with the letter "E" and a crown. (circa 1933) Photo by Richard Gardner/REX 16 pictures of the royal family when they were children Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip is pictured in Corfu, Greece, at the age of 14 months. (1922) Photo by REX 16 pictures of the royal family when they were children Prince Charles, Prince of Wales Prince Charles waves after his parents Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh as they drive a procession of welcome following their return from Canada (1951) AFP/Getty Images 16 pictures of the royal family when they were children Prince Andrew, Duke of York A six-year-old Prince Andrew looks out from a window at Buckingham Palace. (1966) Photo by McCabe/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images 16 pictures of the royal family when they were children Princess Anne, Princess Royal An official portrait is taken of Princess Anne, a day before her fourth birthday. (1954) STF/AFP/Getty Images 16 pictures of the royal family when they were children Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex A four-year-old Prince Edward turns in his seat as he attends the annual Royal Windsor Horse Show. (1968) Photo by P. Felix/Daily Express/Getty Images 16 pictures of the royal family when they were children Princess Beatrice A two-year-old Princess Beatrice sits underneath a presentation table at the Royal Berkshire Polo Club, holding a fluffy toy. (1991) Bill Cross/Daily Mail/REX 16 pictures of the royal family when they were children Princess Eugenie A young Princess Eugenie holds her mother, the Duchess of York's hand as she leaves Upton House School Windsor on her elder sister's first day of school. (1991) Photo by Mike Forster/ANL/REX 16 pictures of the royal family when they were children Camilla Parker Bowles, Duchess of Cornwall A four-year-old Camilla Parker Bowles, later the Duchess of Cornwall, is pictured with her two-year-old sister Annabel. (1952) Photo by Ann Cleaver/REX 16 pictures of the royal family when they were children Zara Phillips Zara Phillips, daughter of Princess Anne, attends the Royal Windsor Horse Show aged two. Zara went on to become an equestrian and Olympian. (1983) Photo by Paul Massey/Mail On Sunday/REX

The Princess Royal added that her lack of affinity for digital devices puts her in the real dinosaur range.

I find it difficult to understand why anybody gets sucked into screens and devices, the 69-year-old stated.

Lifes too short, frankly. Theres more entertaining things to be done.

On the topic of fashion, Princess Anne stated that she very seldom purchases clothing that isnt made in the UK.

Admitting that she is particularly fond of Harris Tweed, the UK Fashion and Textile Association president said: It went through a phase when it was very fashionable.

For me the point about it is that it looks exactly the same at the end of the day as it did at the beginning. Brilliant.
A grief-stricken family has shared a heartbreaking photo showing an elderly widower sitting alone and away from loved ones at his wife's funeral during lockdown in Melbourne.

Clare Ross disappeared from her home in Ferntree Gully in the city's south-east on August 30 before her body was found in a nearby quarry 24 hours later, three days before what would have been her 79th birthday.

Her devastated family have opened up to Daily Mail Australia about their heartbreak to raise awareness about suicide - and called for Victoria's strict rules on funerals to be overhauled in line with the rest of Australia.

Only 10 mourners could attend Ms Ross' funeral on Friday under Melbourne's Stage Four lockdown.

It meant none of her 12 grandchildren or four great-grandchildren could say goodbye.

David Ross (pictured) was forced to sit on his own and socially distance from loved ones as he mourned the loss of his wife of 60 years Clare at her funeral in Melbourne on Friday

Her son Danny later uploaded the gut-wrenching photo of his father David, 82, sitting on his own on a church pew, unable to be comforted by loved ones as he mourned the loss of his wife of 60 years.

'I felt today's service being inside the church seemed cold and lonely,' Mr Ross captioned the photo on Facebook, which has since gone viral online.

'Whoever decided that only 10 people can attend a funeral in a 800 square metre church needs their heads read. Look at that picture and tell me it's right.'

'The most stupid thing is more than 100 people can shop in a supermarket at any one time.'

Ms Ross' tragic death has left the family reeling. They said they had no idea of her dark thoughts.

'It wasn't in her DNA, she was very old school and kept her feelings to herself but always warned us six kids against suicide, which was against her religion,' her son Danny told Daily Mail Australia.

'She was last person on earth I would think would take their own life. If I had any idea, we would have kept closer tabs on her. Everyone is devastated.'

Clare Ross took her own life, days before she was due to celebrate her 79th birthday

'She had a few niggling illnesses here and there and self-diagnosed herself with dementia.

'But as soon as COVID hit, that's when she started to go downhill. She was paranoid about it and tested negative four times.'

Ms Ross and her husband were hit hard when lockdown confined them to their house earlier this year.

'My mum was a social butterfly before lockdown, always out with her church, her card group or volunteering,' Mr Ross said.

'She and Dad were out every day of the week and were never home. So lockdown has been a battle for them. At one stage, Mum described lockdown as being in prison.'

Danny Ross said his parents David and Clare (pictured together) have battled with being confined to their home during lockdown

Mr Ross' heartbreaking photo of his father at the funeral has gone viral with more than a thousand shares and comments.

In attendance with him were their six children and three of his late wife's siblings.

'Seriously, it was horrible,' her son told Daily Mail Australia.

'For us to not be able to go over and give him a hug while he's crying over the loss of Mum was devastating.

'I didn't want to make it political, but I have not had one negative comment on the post, which tells you something.

'But I don't want sympathy. I want the rules changed.'

Mr Ross has pleaded the Victorian government to increase the number of attendees allowed at funerals.

It comes after Premier Andrews announced on Saturday plans to ease restrictions on pet groomers, who can reopen on September 28.

Mr Ross described the current funeral limit of 10 in Victoria as 'inhumane'.

Clare Ross (pictured with her husband) showed no signs that she wanted to take her own life

Clare leaves behind 12 grandchildren, including James, who's pictured with both of his nannas Audrey (left) and Clare (right)

The limit has increased to 100 in New South Wales, the ACT and Queensland in recent months.

South Australia allows 150 at funerals while up to 250 Tasmanians can attend an indoor funeral, which increases to 500 for outdoors.

The only limit on funerals in Western Australia is the two-square metre per person rule.

'It needs to change but sadly, I don't think it's going to as the Victorian government is hell bent on showing no compassion,' Mr Ross said.

'What they've done is wrong. We want this fixed so no other family goes through what we have.

'What if my parents had 10 kids? Who misses out, my dad?

'They need to change funerals before they look at other services such as pet groomers and hairdressers.

'People aren't stupid, they're going to be respectful, especially at a funeral.'

Clare's tragic death has rocked her close-knit family, which includes six children, 12 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren

Clare Ross (far right) was a social butterfly before lockdown hit earlier this year. She's pictured with with grandsons Robbie and James, granddaughter Charlotte and son Danny (centre)

Mr Ross also wants to open up the discussion about suicide.

Victoria's lockdown has not yet seen a spike in suicides compared to last year, according to new data.

Since the start of this year, 466 people have taken their own lives in Victoria, compared to 468 suicides in the same time frame last year, according to figures recently released by the state coroner.

Mr Ross has questioned the figures.

'After Mum's body was found, the police said to us they've seen more suicides in the last six months than they had in the six years prior,' Mr Ross said.

'There are lots of what ifs and whys, because we'll never get the answers we are looking for. Suicide is a taboo subject and that needs to change.'

As Stage Four lockdown continues for at least another two weeks, Mr Ross urged Melburnians to keep a vigilant on their elderly loved ones, regardless of the distance.

'If your elderly parents are still alive and you're not with them make sure you check in on them even if the rules don't allow it just do it. No amount of fines or laws should deter you from doing it,' he urged.

For confidential support in Australia call LIFELINE: 13 11 14 www.lifeline.org.au.

David (third left) and Clare (second right) Ross went from being never being at home to be holed up there 24-7
It was back in 2016 that Professor Bryce Kelly first discovered that Sydney's air was thick with plumes of methane.

It was not that the leaks themselves were dangerous, what shocked him was the number of them, and the evidence backed growing fears that far from reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the world's increasing enthusiasm for natural gas could prove to be as toxic for climate change as the use of coal.

A natural gas plant in the Cooper Basin. Credit:Brendan Esposito

Kelly, an associate professor at the University of NSW, is one of 100 scientists in 14 locations around the world working on the study that measures for the first time how much methane we are leaking into the atmosphere.

In 2016 he had begun testing measuring methods, tooling around the streets of Sydney testing the air for traces of gas leaks when he came a cross a hotspot near Banksmeadow, thought to be emanating from a high-pressure gas main.
In a development that attracted relatively little international attention, Xi Jinping unveiled the Communist Party of Chinas (CPCs) new policy towards Tibet at a conclave in late August. As my colleague Manoj Kewalramani explained in the Hindustan Times last week, Xis new strategy entails a mix of persuasion, development, connectivity, indoctrination and coercion". Beijing intends to construct an ironclad shield to safeguard stability" against separatists and hostile foreign interests by sinicizing Tibetan Buddhism, stepping up ideological education, manufacturing a favourable historical narrative, strengthening border defence, deepening surveillance and enhancing connectivity to neighbouring Chinese provinces. The new policy continues to betray the CPCs insecurities vis-a-vis Tibet, but it also indicates that Xi believes Beijing occupies the dominating heights of its relationship with Tibet.

He is not wrong in thinking so. Over the past two decades, Beijing has used its growing power to limit the Dalai Lamas global outreach, severely constrain protests in Tibet, and change the demography of the region. Transforming the Tibetan landscape and economy, it has created vested interests in favour of Beijings rule among Tibetans and Han Chinese alike. It has found numerous ways to put pressure on New Delhi to limit formal interactions with the Dharamsala-based Central Tibetan Administration. Even as the PLA has increased transgressions across the length of the India-Tibet border, Beijing has become more forceful in pressing its claims to the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which it claims as South Tibet".

There is one major inescapable event that stands in the way of China having its waythat of identifying the next Dalai Lama once the ageing Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, passes away. Beijings plan to manage this is by invoking the so-called Golden Urn processa bureaucratic device used by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing dynasty to manage the politics of reincarnation in the late-18th century by drawing lots. Just in case the lottery doesnt go the way Beijing wants it to, it has declared that all reincarnations require the approval of the Chinese government. With the Panchen Lama, who by tradition is the preceptor of the Dalai Lama, already under Chinese control, Beijing has decided to wait out the Dalai Lama rather than negotiate with him. If things go by Chinas plan, its problem with the institution of the Dalai Lama will end with Tenzin Gyatsos departure.

Once it has Tibet completely in its bag, there is nothing to stop Beijing from asserting territorial claims all along the Himalayas, from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh. It is in this context that we must see Xis desire to shape a historical narrative that retrospectively legitimises the People Republic of Chinas (PRC) annexation of Tibet. There was a time when Zhou Enlai and even Deng Xiaoping were amenable to a settlement where Beijing would accept Arunachal Pradesh as part of India were New Delhi to surrender claims to Aksai Chin. Now, and presumably in the future, with the balance of power shifting massively in favour of China, Beijing believes it can realize its claims without conceding anything to India, Nepal, Bhutan or Pakistan.

It is for this unsentimental reason that it is in Indias interests to ensure that China does not consolidate its hold over Tibet. To the extent that Beijing is insecure about the loyalties of ethnic Tibetans under its rule and about the external legitimacy of its annexation, it will find it harder to actively pursue territorial ambitions in the Himalayas. Indias interests with regard to Tibet are thus subtler than mere support for Tibetan aspirations for autonomy or freedom from Chinese rule. The Kautilyan logic of the rajamandala, after all, is structural.

There is no doubt that China is in as strong a position in Tibet than it ever was. It does not mean that the future it desires is a foregone conclusion. Beijing still does not control two important factors: how the Tibetan people conduct politics; and the existence of credible, legitimate spiritual and political leadership outside Chinas control. Indias Tibet policy should concern itself with shaping these to our advantage. On the latter, New Delhi should ensure that senior lamas of all sects of Tibetan Buddhism, including the Dalai and Karmapa, remain free to pursue their religion and politics. With India hosting the largest population of ethnic Tibetans outside their homeland, there is no reason why the next incarnation of the Dalai Lama cannot be from, say, Karnataka.

The Indian government must neither accept the legitimacy of the Golden Urn process nor Beijings self-arrogated authority to recognize religious reincarnations. Even if the patron-priest relationship that Chinese emperors had with Tibetan high lamas might sometimes have given them privileges in religious matters, by no stretch of imagination can the atheist leaders of todays PRC claim any.

Indias own policy on Tibet suffered a lack of focus over the past decade because New Delhi did not want to offend Beijing. This led to a degree of incoherence in the way different government departments and political actors approached the matter. There have been periodic, isolated acts of symbolism. However, unless backed by purposeful policy and substantive actions, symbolism alone is dangerous and can be counterproductive. The time has come for India to review its approach towards Tibet.

Nitin Pai is co-founder and director of The Takshashila Institution, an independent centre for research and education in public policy

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Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla has threatened to revive the quota agitation in a months time if the central government did not offer constitutional protection to 5% reservation given to five more backward classes (MBCs) including Gujjars in Rajasthan by including the relevant legislation in the ninth schedule of the constitution.

I urge the government of India to include 5% reservation for Gujjars and four others in the ninth schedule of the constitution. The Rajasthan government has already sent the recommendation. I am hopeful that the prime minister will consider our request and provide justice, said Bainsla.

He said if the demand is not met then the Gujjar reservation agitation will be revived with a protest march towards Delhi in 30 days time.

Member, Gujjar arakshan sangarsh samiti, Vijay Bainsla said the state government had made the recommendation to the Union government last year on February 22a few days after amending the Rajasthan Backward Classes Act, 2017 to extend the quota provided to four backward classes to 5% from 1%-- to place the act in the ninth schedule of the constitution.

The PM and the Union cabinet is requested to kindly put the reservation act in the ninth schedule in the interest of Gujjars of Rajasthan and of India. The trust and faith in leadership should remain intact, Vijay Bainsla said.

He added that a delegation from the community had met central minister Prakash Javadekar in January with the above request and handed over a memorandum along with a copy of the recommendation letter sent by the state government.

Also Read: Sachin Pilot writes to Ashok Gehlot raising Gujjar issues in Rajasthan

In February 2019, the Rajasthan assembly amended the Rajasthan Backward Classes Act, 2017 to extend the reservation given to four more backward classes including the Gujjars to 5%, from the previous 1% provisioned by Vasundhra Raje government of the BJP.

Also Read: At Rajasthan Congress feedback meet, slogans against minister, posters torn

The assembly also passed an administrative resolution to request the centre to include the Gujjar quota law in the ninth schedule of the Constitution that provides a protective umbrella to laws placed in it. However, the Supreme Court had ruled in 2007 that laws placed under the ninth schedule after the Kesavananda Bharati judgement in April 1973 are open to judicial scrutiny.

Bainslas move comes close on the heels of former Rajasthan deputy CM Sachin Pilot shooting off a letter to CM Ashok Gehlot alleging the MBCs were not being provided 5% reservation in several government jobs as against the promise made in the party manifesto.
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Naturists flocked to Paris's film library today wearing nothing but face masks to attend an exhibition celebrating a renowned French comedian.

The group were photographed frolicking down the halls of Cinematheque Francaise in the French capital in a special ticketed event on Sunday.

Members of French group lAssociation des Naturistes de Paris were viewing an exhibition dedicated to actor and comedian Louis de Funes who performed in more than 230 roles across film and stage.

De Funes - widely dubbed France's favourite actor - starred as gendarme Ludovic Cruchot in 1964 French comedy film The Troops of St Tropez.

In the movie, Cruchot - having recently arrived in St Tropez to carry out his duties - tries to stop a group of nude swimmers who continue to evade capture. Eventually, the uptight officer is able to arrest the persistent bunch.

Nudists visiting today's exhibition posed alongside a statue of Cruchot from the film, while others were photographed inspecting the exhibits and skipping down corridors.

Naturists (pictured) flocked to Paris's film library today wearing nothing but face masks to attend an exhibition celebrating a renowned French comedian

The group were photographed frolicking down the halls of Cinematheque Francaise in the French capital in a special ticketed event on Sunday.

Members of French group lAssociation des Naturistes de Paris were viewing an exhibition dedicated to actor and comedian Louis de Funes who performed in more than 230 roles across film and stage

De Funes - widely dubbed France's favourite actor - starred as gendarme Ludovic Cruchot (a model of Cruchot, pictured) in 1964 French comedy film The Troops of St Tropez

In the movie, Cruchot - having recently arrived in St Tropez to carry out his duties - tries to stop a group of nude swimmers who continue to evade capture. Eventually, the uptight officer is able to arrest the persistent bunch. Pictured: Nudists at Paris's film library

Nudists visiting today's exhibition (some pictured) posed alongside a statue of Cruchot from the film, while others were photographed inspecting the exhibits and skipping down corridors
In a new case of SIM card swapping fraud, scammers reportedly duped a Pune-based chartered accountant of Rs 2.2 lakh from her bank account. The phishing fraud is said to have happened on May 28, when the victim, whose name was not revealed in the report, received a call from scammers that pretended to be engaged with her telecom operator. During the conversation, they seemingly convinced her that she was still using a 3G SIM card, which required urgent upgrade to 4G or risked being blocked immediately.

A report by ET Telecom states that after receiving the call, the 39-year-old was duped into believing that the callers were legitimate. The scammers made the victim reveal certain key details about her phone number, following which they reportedly sent a 20-digit code to her phone number and asked her to click on it. Soon after this, the victims original SIM card was automatically deactivated, and the scammers took control of her number on a cloned SIM card that they now possessed, with her number registered on it. They then used it to siphon off funds worth Rs 2.2 lakh from her account.

The report reveals that the victim then received alerts of transactions being made from her bank account, following which she alerted her bank and blocked access to her account  but not before facing a significant loss already. An FIR on the matter was then lodged with the police department at Punes Alankar Police Station. According to the report, the police are still investigating the case of fraud, and the clear suspicion behind this scam is one of SIM card swapping fraud.

SIM swapping frauds are among the most common form of phishing frauds that occur on a regular basis. To stay safe from such incidents, users are requested to not share any sensitive details over phone, unless they specifically opt for phone banking services via authorised contact hotlines of banks. It is always advised that users remain constantly vigilant about sharing any form of technical details about their particulars, and any SIM upgrade activities should only be performed by a user in person by visiting the stores of their telecom operators.
The last several months have been overwhelming, testing our community to the limits of its ability to adapt.

When COVID-19 reached Wisconsin in March, the 2-1-1 resource hotline saw a 40% increase in calls in Racine County compared to this time last year, largely from people needing access to food and trying to stabilize finances.

Statewide, the jump was closer to 60%.

As of April, Wisconsins unemployment rate had more than quadrupled, from 3.1 to 13.6%.

United Way of Racine Countys work in this time has faced a dual challenge as it both responds to an intense increase in needs and the abrupt need to pivot to remote forms of support and communication. This hasnt slowed the nonprofit down; if anything, its only accelerated its efforts.

When COVID-19 reached Wisconsin, United Way immediately adapted by brainstorming new efforts to support its partners and all of Racine County while transitioning to remote services.

In partnership with the Racine Community Foundation, it launched the Community Cares initiative to meet partners financial and supply needs.

Over the course of the last six months, the effort has provided over $150,000 in funding to address the urgent needs of Racine County nonprofits. A supply drive continues to operate at UnitedWayRacine.org/community-cares.

It also increased its funds outside of campaign significantly, acknowledging the needs for income sources that didnt rely on a newly destabilized workforce.

However, United Way knew that short-term funding efforts would not be enough. With no clear end in sight to the new COVID-19 way of life, it needed to rework its entire method of doing business to continue to serve the communitys needs.

Its Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program was the first it relaunched virtually, joining already remote initiatives like the book delivery program Imagination Library, the 24/7 resource hotline 2-1-1, and the versatile prescription discount program FamilyWize. VITA is offering tax preparation and assistance sessions remotely through 2021.

United Way is actively developing additional methods to digitalize its remaining programs. This includes work with Racine Unified School District to provide Google Classroom support to United Way impact partners, ensuring that every organization it works with can support families and students transition to remote learning.

Perhaps its biggest adjustment yet has been the launch of an all-digital campaign. United Ways annual fundraising campaign kicked off on Sept. 5.

In lieu of hosting its in-person Kickoff Celebration and Day of Caring event, its Kickoff is a two-week-long virtual celebration that runs to Sept. 19, sponsored by Aurora Health Care.

Supporters can participate from the comfort of their homes by tuning in to their social media feeds and inboxes to see the stories, impact and partnerships that make United Way so powerful and so essential to Racine County.

Day of Caring has transformed to an entire Season of Caring, to connect any willing volunteers with impact partners that need virtual and socially distanced physical support. In addition, United Way is upgrading its website to host all-digital fundraisers for partner companies.

The need for support this year is bigger than Ive ever seen in my eight years with United Way, said Ali Haigh, United Way of Racine County president and CEO. We have continued to innovate and lead throughout the pandemic, ensuring our partners and neighbors access to critical support services.

We are connecting our partners to new funding opportunities, sharing technology and safe reopening practices, and surveying for local organizational and client needs. We are committed to reviving Racine County, but it takes the entire community to recover from a health and economic crisis like this. We need your donations this year more than ever.

The past several months have been challenging for many of us as we respond to and learn new ways of living within a pandemic, said Lisa Just of Aurora Health Care, United Ways 2020 campaign chair.

To learn more, visit UnitedWayRacine.org.

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Dozens arrested at Melbourne anti-lockdown protest About 250 people attended the illegal protest - the second in as many days in the city - promoted by coronavirus conspiracy groups on social media

Authorities in Melbourne arrested more than 70 people for flouting stay-at-home orders to protest against lockdown restrictions Sunday, with some demonstrators clashing with riot police at a market in the city.

About 250 people attended the illegal protest -- the second in as many days in the city -- promoted by coronavirus conspiracy groups on social media.

The demonstrators ignored official warnings and public health orders to gather at the central Queen Victoria market, calling for an end to a weeks-long lockdown of Australia's second-biggest city.

They were met by a heavy police presence, with scuffles breaking out as the riot squad swept through market's fruit and vegetable aisles.

Police arrested 74 people and fined 176, saying in a statement that "many protestors were aggressive and threatened violence towards officers".

One man believed to be a "primary agitator" is facing charges of incitement while another was charged with assaulting police, according to the statement.

Last weekend, "Freedom Day" events were held across Australia to protest what some labelled the government's "overblown" response to the pandemic, which has killed more than 900,000 people worldwide.

The latest rallies come ahead of the gradual easing of virus restrictions in Melbourne, with daily outdoor exercise increased to two hours and small "social bubbles" allowed for people living alone from Monday.

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews, who has previously branded the protestors "selfish", said Sunday the state could not afford to reopen too quickly.

"No-one is enjoying the reality we face, but none of us have the option of ignoring the reality that we face," he said.

"We cannot open up now and stay open. It would not be safe, it would not be smart."

An overnight curfew, restrictions on visitors to homes and a limit on travelling more than five kilometres (about three miles) are set to remain in place across Melbourne until October 26.

Story continues

Despite Victoria's second wave, Australia has been relatively successful in containing the virus, allowing other regions to roll back restrictions.

The nation has recorded more than 26,600 cases and 810 deaths in a population of 25 million, the vast majority in Melbourne and its surrounds.

hr/rma
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 11:19:40|Editor: huaxia

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WELLINGTON, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand reported two new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, said the Ministry of Health in a statement, with one health worker testing positive.

Of new cases, one was a returnee to New Zealand in managed isolation and the other was a health worker who worked in Auckland's quarantine facility. It is yet unknown whether the health worker was infected from the community or from within the quarantine facility, said the ministry.

According to the ministry, this was the first time a staff member at the Jet Park quarantine facility had tested positive for COVID-19 in five and a half months of operation. The facility was used to manage people in quarantine after they test positive for COVID-19.

There were currently three people in hospital with COVID-19, including two in ICU, said the ministry.

The total number of active cases in New Zealand reached 97, including 39 imported cases in MIQ facilities and 58 community cases, it is said.

The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand was now 1,446, which was the number the country reported to the World Health Organization.

Laboratories across New Zealand processed 7,211 tests, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 864,469.

New Zealand will remain at COVID-19 Alert Level 2 until Wednesday, with extra restrictions in place for its largest city Auckland. A decision will be made by the New Zealand government on Monday on the new Alert Level in the country. Enditem
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- As a show of support for local NYPD officers, a group known as Thank You NYPD has scheduled a visit to the 123rd Precinct on Wednesday.

The group will visit the Tottenville precinct at 2:30 p.m. to hand out meals and address the officers, offering kind words of encouragement.
The Cantrell family: Rachel Cantrell, Seth Smithwick, Gina Cantrell, Rod Cantrell and Jordan Cantrell.

Attila Nemecz

Marketing and Public Relations Coordinator

Beaufort County Community College

5337 U.S. Highway 264 East

Washington, N.C. 27889

Ph : 252-940-6387

: 252-940-6387 Cell : 252-940-8672

: 252-940-8672 attila.nemecz@beaufortccc.edu

The Beaufort County Community College Foundation has dedicated its nursing lecture hall in honor of Rod and Gina Cantrell. The naming acknowledges a new generous donation from the Cantrell family in addition to previous contributions. The Rod and Gina Cantrell Lecture Hall hosts all first-year Associate Degree Nursing students. BCCC will hold a dedication ceremony at a later date.The family had previously created the Rod Cantrell and Family Endowment in 2017 to fund scholarships for students through 2027. Through Edward Jones Investments, Rod has managed the assets of the BCCC Foundation to provide the greatest return on endowments set up by generous donors. This enables the foundation to give the greatest number of scholarships.Cantrell has also sponsored the BCCC Foundation's Legacy Luncheon for the past six years. The luncheon is a time for donors and scholarship recipients to meet.Rod began his career with Edward Jones in 1984, and today he partners with his daughter Jordan to better serve clients. He has been honored with the Edward Jones Managing Partners Award annually for the past 32 years, an honor reserved for the firm's top 400 financial advisors.He attended Bradley University and graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in business. Rod and Gina have been married for more than 31 years and have three children: Seth, Jordan and Rachel. Rod is an avid cyclist, a founding member of the Washington Noon Rotary, and a former deacon and elder at First Presbyterian Church.Never one to shy away from a volunteer opportunity, Rod has often helped at events, donated items for auction and helped to further the mission of the college in many other ways. The BCCC Foundation recognizes these contributions as ones that have a catalytic effect, spreading hope and opportunity well beyond the walls of the college.BCCC updated its naming policy this year to include classrooms and laboratories, whereas previously only buildings were eligible. For questions regarding contributions and naming rights through the BCCC Foundation, contact Serena Sullivan, VP of Institutional Advancement, at serena.sullivan@beaufortccc.edu or 252-940-6326.
A Black-owned South Carolina lender that has worked with underserved minority borrowers for nearly a century is suddenly awash in a pool of patient funding.

"It's not what bankers call 'hot money,'" Optus Bank CEO Dominik "Dom" Mjartan said last week. "It's mission-aligned, sticky capital you can loan out."

Optus has reeled in two high-profile financial partnerships over the past few weeks, starting with PayPal pledging to park $50 million in long-term deposits with the Columbia-based financial institution "to do our part to help close the racial wealth gap, the online payment handler said Aug, 26.

Up next was Bank of America, which has been a significant depositor at Optus for years. The Charlotte-based financial services titan stepped up its involvement last week by announcing that it's now a 5 percent shareholder in the Midlands lender's parent as part of a new $1 billion racial equality commitment. Details about the first $300 million round of funding were released Tuesday.

These initial investments will address access to jobs and support for small businesses by creating more pathways to employment in communities of color and more support for minority entrepreneurs, CEO Brian Moynihan said in a written statement.

Mjartan called the equity purchase "a nice validation" while also stressing that Bank of America's role will be as a passive shareholder in a much smaller rival that's focused "on closing gaps and stepping into gaps."

"It's meaningful for one of the largest banks in the world to basically say, 'We believe in what you guys are doing there,'" he said.

The capital infusion also will enable Optus to put the dry powder from PayPal to work more quickly by providing a larger backstop to write more loans. Nearly 90 percent of the bank's financial transactions go toward minority- or women-owned businesses and low-income communities.

"It gives you freedom to help customers more, to provide longer term fixed-rate loans at lower cost because you now have the liquidity to support those loans and you're not worrying about the deposits leaving when rates change, Mjartan said.

Optus was founded as Victory Savings Bank in 1921 by a group of African American community leaders with the aim of serving business owners and consumers who were shut out of the mainstream financial system. It is among a dwindling number of lenders nationally designated as Black-owned. Just 20 are still in existence.

Mjartan has helped engineer a major turnaround since he was brought on as president and CEO in 2017. At that time, Optus was operating as S.C. Community Bank and had been under regulatory scrutiny as bad loans from the last recession piled up. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. placed it on its watch list more than 12 years ago. The consent order was lifted in 2018, after S.C. Community cleaned up and strengthened its balance sheet.

Around the same time, the bank took a new name, which translates into to choose in Latin.

The single-branch, privately held Optus, which has about 250 shareholders, is now profitable and growing. It earned about $2.5 million on $155 million in loans and other assets for the first six months of this year, according to a recent regulatory filing.

It's of at least passing interest that the top executive of the state's only Black-owned bank isn't African American. Mjartan immigrated to the U.S. from Czechoslovakia at age 16 with $500 in his pocket. The board of Optus's predecessor hired him after a lengthy stint at Southern Bancorp in Arkansas.

As he sees it, one of the biggest challenges for any mission-based community development financier with limited resources is striking the proper balance of profit and purpose, or what he calls "margin and mission."

The recent financial support from PayPal and Bank of America and possibly new backers down the line won't make that tightrope at Optus any less difficult to negotiate.

"We want to make sure we do it in a way to be successful in perpetuity, and that's hard," Mjartan said. "It's not easy if you want to help everyone."
Lebanon has approved a new work contract allowing foreign domestic workers to resign and keep hold of their own passport, but activists say the exploitative "kafala" system remains in place.

The economic crisis-hit Mediterranean country is home to around 250,000 migrants, mostly women from Africa and Asia, who toil away in people's homes as housekeepers, carers or nannies.

They are not protected by the country's labour law, but instead work under a set of laws, policies and customs called kafala, repeatedly slammed by rights groups as allowing a wide range of abuse.

Under kafala, meaning "sponsorship" in Arabic, the employer sponsors the worker's legal immigration status in the country, and the latter cannot resign without their consent or they become undocumented. The law also does not ban withholding a worker's passport.

All this leaves a worker at the employer's mercy.

Lebanon's economic and coronavirus crises have increased the urgency for reform over the past year, with many families now paying their workers in the devaluated local currency, and some not at all.

In recent months, dozens of foreign helpers have been thrown out into the streets without due pay or even their passport, many of them interviewed by AFP.

After the August 4 blast at Beirut's port that devastated swathes of the capital and killed more than 190 people, foreign workers have staged rallies outside their consulates appealing to be sent home.

The labour ministry this month finally published a new and revised work contract for domestic workers, the main legal document governing their stay in Lebanon.

- Private room, holidays -

Outgoing labour minister Lamia Yammine has said the new contract -- to replace a 2009 version -- "abolishes the kafala system".

Campaigners have welcomed the detailed five-page document outlining workers' rights, but say it is only a beginning.

"It is no doubt a much better version than the older one," said Amnesty International researcher Diala Haidar. But "a contract alone doesn't end kafala."

Story continues

Most importantly, the new contract gives the workers the right to resign and change employers, and says they can keep their passport.

If their employer withholds their wages or passport, they can immediately quit without notice.

It finally gives the worker the right to the national minimum wage of 675,000 pounds ($450 before the crisis, less than $100 at the black market rate) -- albeit allowing the substraction of an undetermined amount to cover food, board and clothes.

The new contract states workers must be provided with a private, well-ventilated room with a key, an improvement after many women said they were forced to sleep in the living room or on a balcony.

It limits labour to eight hours a day in a six-day week, and details the right to daily rest, paid holidays and sick leave.

- Ink on paper? -

But activists warn that all these new provisions will amount to nothing without inspections and unless employers violating the agreement are held accountable.

"In the absence of an enforcement mechanism, this contract will remain ink on paper," Haidar said.

The old contract, for example, states the worker must receive their wages at the end of the month, but this had not stopped some from kicking out workers without pay.

"We haven't seen any employers held to account for this breach of the contract," she said.

A Beirut housewife, who employs a Filipina domestic worker, insisted there are two sides to the story.

"The employer needs to keep at least one document as security... I know some employers are bad but also some employees are ungrateful," the 59-year-old said, asking not to be named.

Rights groups have documented manifold abuses over the years, including no day off, locking workers inside the house, and physical or sexual assault.

Activists have reported up to two deaths a week.

They have repeatedly called for an end to kafala, which is common in the Middle East and often compared to modern-day slavery.

Zeina Mezher of the International Labour Organization (ILO) called the new contract "one step in the right direction" towards dismantling kafala.

But it's just "the first step on a road that is still complicated", she said.

She said support was needed to ensure a worker could resign without losing their residency permit.

Activists have also called for parliament to amend the labour law to bring all domestic workers -- Lebanese and foreign -- under its protection, and give them the right to set up unions.

But Banchi Yimer, a former domestic worker and activist, said the new contract was no longer a priority.

"We discussed it when everything was normal, but now everything is upside down," she said.

With an acute economic crisis, and many women stranded without pay, she instead demanded official steps for their repatriation.

"Let the women go home," she said.

ah/hc/pjm
New Delhi, Sep 13 : Minority shareholders with a substantial stake in Texmaco Infrastructure have alleged that the company is being run only for the promoters and being "managed as a proprietary concern".

"We are shareholders since many years and are wondering the way the company is managed. It gives the impression that the company is managed and run not for all stakeholders but ONLY promoters. The following facts establish that the company is managed as a proprietary concern," said Hardik Patel, who owns 1.28 crore shares, in a letter to S.K. Poddar, Chairman, Texmaco Infrastructure and Holding Ltd.

"The Independent Directors have completely become yes men and become like members of family in family type-run companies with complete disregard to duties and responsibility of Independent Directors and (are) completely failing in their duties," Patel said in the letter.

It is alleged that the promoters of Texmaco Infrastructure and Holdings Ltd have diverted its funds to give loan, financial support and to acquire equity investment in listed and unlisted companies which are either associates or related group companies.

The net worth of the company for the last three years and its profit before tax return shows that the promoter and the management is not capable of even delivering returns equal to bank interest, Patel has alleged.

Patel said that most of the investments are in companies where promoters have direct and indirect interest, regardless of whether these investments are for benefit of all shareholders.

"The past record shows that these shares have not been sold and profits are not realised when the prices of the shares have been at a high. Hence, the motive is not to make profit but misuse its net worth for own ends. In fact, it would not be out of context to mention that the investment of the company has depreciated by Rs 66 crore and much more from their peaks," he said.

"We are of strong belief that the Independent Directors have completely failed in their duties to protect our interest. The Independent Directors are required to bring an independent judgement to bear on the Board's deliberations on issues of strategy, performance, risk management efficient use of resources and scrutinise the performance of the Board and the management. They are expected to safeguard the interests of all stakeholders, and particularly the minority shareholders," the letter to Poddar said.

Some of the minority shareholders holding substantial stake in the company have alleged that in spite of the company having huge positive net worth, the return on net worth for last 4 years has been a meagre 2.5 per cent to 4 per cent per annum, which is much lower than the safe return which could have been earned had the same been placed with safe and reputed banks.

It is mainly due to misuse of resources of the company into related parties, and loans and investment to listed and unlisted entities related to promoters. The annual report also reveals that value of investment in promoter related entities have depreciated by Rs 66 crore, the shareholders said.

The minority shareholders are concerned "about the imprudent business sense of the promoters, Independent Directors and management of the company, whereby it borrows from third parties on interest, incurs liability as well as mortgages its assets and the money so borrowed is lent to another group company of promoter".

"Even most valuable assets i.e Kamla Nagar property is mortgaged to secure liability of group company," they said, alleging "gross wilful negligence of their duties and responsibilities by Independent Directors".

The large shareholders say they have written about their concerns to Saroj Poddar as well as all Independent Directors, but "they have opted not to respond".

The large minority shareholders pointed out that they will reach out to other minority shareholders to make them aware about various diversion of fund for personal benefits.
Identified coronavirus cases in Oregon continued a steep month-long decline, according to new state data, although the states latest hotspot in Ontario and other parts of eastern Oregon saw limited progress.

The Oregon Health Authority reported 1,477 new confirmed or presumed infections statewide for the week ending Sept. 6. Thats the fifth consecutive week of declines, representing a 35 decrease from the peak of 2,278 cases reported for the week ending Aug. 2.

The Oregonian/OregonLive for months has been monitoring weekly changes in state coronavirus data, reporting by ZIP code the areas with the greatest weekly changes.

Our analysis has shifted to highlight the areas with the most new cases in relation to the areas population.

Heres a look at those ZIP codes, plus the traditional format including areas with the most new overall cases (at the end of the story). (Click here for an interactive map).

97914 Ontario

This ZIP code recorded new confirmed or presumed infections of 53 per 10,000 people during the week ending Sept. 6, down slightly from the previous week.

The Malheur County ZIP code along the Idaho border added 102 new cases, raising its total to 996.

The eastern Oregon area has two active workplace outbreaks with new cases, according to the Oregon Health Authority. Snake River Correctional Institution added 112 confirmed or presumed infections and the Kraft Heinz Company added one.

The Oregon Health Authority did not disclose any new cases in senior care centers.

97818 Boardman

The ZIP code recorded new confirmed or presumed infections totaling 34 per 10,000 people during the week ending Sept. 6, unchanged from a week earlier.

In all, the Morrow County ZIP code added 14 new confirmed or presumed infections, increasing the cumulative total to 316.

Boardman is 30 minutes west of Umatilla and Hermiston, two other areas that have been hard hit by COVID-19 and where residents often commute to nearby jobs.

The Oregon Health Authority reported new cases at seven Boardman businesses with active outbreaks: Threemile Canyon Farms with five new confirmed or presumed infections; Lamb Weston Boardman Pac Center with three; Independent Transport with three; Boardman Foods with three; and Lamb Weston East, Lamb Weston West and Port of Morrow Warehousing with one each.

97761 Warm Springs

This central Oregon ZIP code recorded new confirmed or presumed infections totaling 33 per 10,000 people during the week ending Sept. 6, more than double from a week earlier.

In total, the Jefferson County ZIP code, which includes the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, added 14 new cases. That increased its total to 277.

The Oregon Health Authority did not report any workplace outbreaks in this ZIP code.

97826 Echo

The ZIP code recorded new confirmed or presumed infections totaling 30 per 10,000 people during the week ending Sept. 6, unchanged from a week earlier.

In all, the Umatilla County ZIP code added just three new confirmed or presumed infections, increasing the cumulative total to 23. The total population of this area, near Hermiston, is barely above 1,000.

The Oregon Health Authority did not report any workplace outbreaks in this ZIP code.

97882 Umatilla

The ZIP code recorded new confirmed or presumed infections totaling 28 per 10,000 people during the week ending Sept. 6, down sharply from the previous week.

In all, the Umatilla County ZIP code added 23 new confirmed or presumed infections, increasing the cumulative total to 409.

The Oregon Health Authority reported 12 new case at the Two Rivers Correctional Institution.

97913 Nyssa

This ZIP code recorded new confirmed or presumed infections totaling 22 per 10,000 people during the week ending Sept. 6, down by nearly half from a week earlier.

In all, the Malheur County ZIP code added 11 new cases, raising its total to 191.

The Oregon Health Authority did not report any new workplace cases in this ZIP code.

97071 Woodburn

This ZIP code recorded new confirmed or presumed infections totaling 20 per 10,000 people during the week ending Sept. 6, a drop of not quite half from the previous week.

In all, the Marion County ZIP code added 58 new cases, increasing its cumulative count to 936.

The Oregon Health Authority reported five new cases at Santos Labor Force and one new case at Ezequiel Labor Contracting.

The state also reported 14 new cases and three deaths linked to French Prairie Nursing and Rehab and one new case linked to Country Meadows.

***

Heres a brief summary of the communities that added the most new cases for the week ending Sept. 6:

97914 Ontario

The Malheur County community added 102 cases, raising its tally to 996. Thats the second most in Oregon and fourth most per capita.

97071 Woodburn

The Marion County community added 58 cases, increasing its total to 936. Thats the third most in Oregon and eighth most per capita.

97305 Salem

The Marion County community added 48 cases, raising its tally to 678. Thats the sixth most in Oregon and 21st most per capita.

97301 Salem

The Marion County community added 43 cases, increasing its total to 662. Thats the seventh most in Oregon and 23rd most per capita.

97838 Hermiston

The Umatilla County community added 39 cases, raising its tally to 1,488. It has the most cases in Oregon and third most per capita.

97233 east Portland/Gresham

The Multnomah County community also added 39 cases, increasing its total to 703. Thats the fifth most in Oregon and 19th most per capita.

97123 Hillsboro

The Washington County community added 33 cases, raising its total to 537. Thats the ninth most in Oregon and 30th most per capita.

97801 Pendleton

The Umatilla County community added 31 cases, increasing its total to 549. Thats the eighth most in Oregon and 11th most per capita.

97501 Medford

The Jackson County community added 30 cases, raising its tally to 323. Thats the 18th most in Oregon and 61st most per capita.

97402 Eugene

The Lane County community added 26 cases, increasing its total to 139. Thats the 66th most in Oregon and 164th most per capita.

-- Brad Schmidt; bschmidt@oregonian.com; 503-294-7628; @_brad_schmidt
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- To wrap up National Black Business Month, several Black-owned business participated in the 2nd annual Park & Pop event in Willowbrook Park on August 31.

The event in Bulls Head featured all Black-owned businesses, specifically focused on beauty and wellness.

Attendees visited the stands while enjoying music by DJ Maestro and snacks.

Mercedes Kelson, owner of Passionate Extensions and founder of Park & Pop, felt that hosting the event this year was particularly important to help business owners during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

While all of the vendors were Black-owned, the majority were also female-run businesses tailored toward womens needs.

This was particularly important to Kelson, who stated that she wanted to give back to women and make women feel beautiful by building their confidence.

Businesses in attendance at the event include: Passionate Extensions, 3Js Creation, Stunning Essentials, Butta Bee Beautiful, The Charm Collection, No Shade by Nevaeh, I Am Beauti, Lash & Dash, Gorjus Nellz, and more.

Margaret Ham and Anastasha Smith introduced their brand "I Am Beauti" at Park & Pop. (Courtesy Amoy Barnes)

Entrepreneurs Margaret Ham and Anastasha Smith unveiled their new brand, I Am Beauti, for the first time at the event.

Ham and Smith started their business while in quarantine. Their products help support healthier, fuller, and long natural hair.

Ham explained that supporting Black-owned businesses is particularly important to her to help boost Black communities.

Black Business Month is important because black peoples dollars dont circulate in the black community like in other cultures and communities," Ham said.

According to the Black Star Project, approximately 2% of Black Americans gross national income is re-circulated into Black communities.

Jada Smallwood, and 18-year-old entrepreneur, makes custom wigs, lip glosses, and lashes.

One of the youngest business owners at the event and a recent graduate of Curtis High School, she taught herself everything she knows by watching videos online.

Im Black, and I enjoy the positivity that supporting other Black businesses brings to the community," Smallwood said. "Its a good thing to start something for yourself. You have to be very positive; you cant really bring negative energy to promoting your business while starting a business, and its a learning experience. So, its a journey for me.
Seoul Metropolitan Government posted a warning for foreign residents against voice phishing. Yonhap



By Kim Se-jeong



Julian, a Mongolian resident of Seoul, received a text message recently asking for his bank account information with the promise that the COVID-19 relief fund would be applied on his behalf and sent to his account.



"I almost sent my bank account number. But I showed it to my Korean friend and decided not to reply. I have other people around me who received similar messages," he said was quoted as saying by Yonhap New Agency.



Julian is among a growing number of foreign residents in Seoul who are targeted by phone phishing scammers, which approach them with the promise of getting the relief fund for them.



"Don't forget that only you can file for the disaster relief fund application for yourself. Also, the city government doesn't send any text messages in regard to the application," the city government said in a warning posted on one of its websites.



Another foreign resident wrote on the city government's website: "I've got a call asking for my bank account number for the same reason. Foreign residents are much more vulnerable to crimes like this and something has to be done."



The Seoul Metropolitan Government is currently receiving applications for the disaster relief fund for foreign residents registered in the city. The relief fund was already offered in May to city residents who were struggling due to the pandemic, but the city skipped foreign residents citing their nationality. However, it reversed its policy after a recommendation by the human rights commission last month.



Foreigners have been under a growing threat of phone fraud.



In December, the Financial Supervisory Service announced among 54,364 bank accounts linked to phone fraud, 2,234, or 4.1 percent, belonged to foreign residents. It added the number of cases where non-Korean residents fall victim to phone fraud was increasing.



"They can become victims easily because of their lack of fluency in Korean and understanding of the local culture," Lee Yoon-ho, a professor of Korea Cyber University, said during an interview with Yonhap. "Someone should tell them that they can be the victim in advance."



According to the city government's department handling foreign residents, it hasn't received any report from victims yet, but said "when you receive a text message asking to click the link, don't click because your phone can be hacked also."



Those who need help should call 112 or 1332 (Financial Supervisory Service).



The relief fund applications will be open until Sept. 25, and the city government estimates almost 197,000 foreign residents would be beneficiaries of the program.


US polls: Donald Trump names PM Modi in speech on Covid, slams Joe Biden

Donald Trump, President of the United States of America, said that his administration's efforts to fight the Covid-19 pandemic were appreciated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Trump was addressing a poll rally in Nevada's Minden. The US is set to go to polls on November 3 in the shadow of the Covid outbreak. America is the worst-hit country by the pandemic so far, with over 63.8 lakh infections and over 1.9 lakh deaths. Trump's challenger, Joe Biden of the Democratic party, has accused the Republican administration of failing to address the outbreak effectively. Trump has blamed US' high tally on mass-scale testing which he says is unrivalled in the world. Watch the full video for more. ...read more
Nearly 9,000 unaccompanied migrant children have been kicked out of the United States without court hearings under the Trump administrations coronavirus restrictions at the border.

A court declaration Friday from US Border Patrol Deputy Chief Raul Ortiz revealed the number, which previously hadnt been released to the public.

Since the Trump administration invoked a public health law to implement new restrictions at the border on March 20, the agency has expelled more than 159,000 people, according to Ortiz. That figure, Ortiz says, included 8,800 children who were traveling alone and 7,600 family members.

How to use pandemic recovery planning as a country-wide stimulus

Indias post-pandemic recovery should rely on green initiatives and sustainable development to create positive, long-term change.

The Border Patrol officials filing, first reported by CBS News, reveals new details about who has been kicked out of the US under the sweeping public health restrictions, which largely bar migrants from entering the country.

The declaration was filed as part of the governments appeal of a recent court ruling over a controversial aspect of the coronavirus restrictions: the increasing use of hotels to detain migrant kids rather than licensed and monitored facilities.

Immigrant and civil rights advocates have warned that the secretive system is putting kids in danger. They have criticized the administration for using public health claims as a pretext to impose harsh immigration restrictions.

Last week, US District Judge Dolly M. Gee ruled that detaining migrant children in hotels wasnt safe and did not adequately account for the vulnerability of unaccompanied minors in detention." She has ordered the government to stop the practice by September 15.

But Ortiz and other US officials argue that doing so will put the public at risk, interfere with efforts by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to contain Covid-19 and increase the likelihood that US Customs and Border Protection agents and others caring for children in custody could contract coronavirus. They are asking Californias 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to block Gees order.

In his declaration on Friday, Ortiz stated that being forced to stop detaining migrant children in hotels would cause three significant problems" for the government: crowding and an increased risk of Covid-19 exposure in Border Patrol facilities, an increased risk of Covid-19 exposure in Health and Human Services and Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities and the straining of an already overburdened system."
Kim Kowalski is not a person to be trifled with, and I say that not just because she is almost always armed. She carries a weapon out of habit. She used to be a city cop.

One of her early assignments was posing as a prostitute. She needed a street name. She chose Kiki. Most of the real streetwalkers were druggies. To fool the would-be clients, the undercover women had to assume a tough veneer. Kim came by that look naturally. She grew up in a working-class family. She went to Roosevelt High School.

Her grandmother, with whom she was close, came from the deep country and remembered fetching water from a stream.

In high school, Kim worked at Libson dress shop.

Even then, as a kid, she spoke her mind.

That dress doesnt look good on you.

Then shed try to help the customer find something else.

She married fellow cop Jeff Kowalski, and she stayed home to raise their two daughters, Madison and Mallory. They are young women now. Neither of them went into police work. Perhaps that is because they saw the dark side of that profession.

In 1987, before the girls were born, before Kim had met Jeff, he was shot by a robbery suspect during a foot chase. The bullet tore into his stomach and damaged several organs, including his pancreas. He was out of work for 18 months. He came back and worked in narcotics and homicide. Ben Thomas, publisher of The Evening Whirl, gave him a nickname  Leadbelly.

Jeff never completely recovered from his wounds. He hung on, barely, to make 20 years. He retired in 2000.

He was diagnosed with inoperable cancer a few years later. The cancer originated in his pancreas. Kim found herself fighting battles on several fronts. She was fighting with workers compensation. She was trying to get the police department to classify Jeffs imminent death as a line-of-duty death. Jeffs doctor wrote a letter stating that the cancer almost certainly had been caused by the damage inflicted by the bullet.

All the while, she was raising her daughters, who were in their early teens, and taking care of her ailing husband.

Shortly before Jeffs death, Backstoppers announced it would adopt the family.

Jeff died knowing his family would be provided for. Kim had taken on the system and prevailed.

I knew Jeff, and through him Kim, and she and I have stayed in touch over the years. A couple of weeks ago, she called and asked if I wanted to attend a police department pension board meeting with her.

It is her new cause. Or at least one of them. She and her friend, Sgt. Ann Dorn, widow of retired Capt. David Dorn, organized a peace march last month. Maybe you saw it. It was covered by this paper and various television stations. Another such march is planned for next Saturday. It is advertised as nonpolitical.

Ann Dorn accompanied Kim to the recent pension board meeting. As we waited for the meeting to start, Kim briefed me on the situation. Members of the pension board are elected by active-duty officers and retirees. Kim believes that widows who are receiving pensions should have the right to vote.

In Kansas City, widows are allowed to vote, she said.

Everythings up to date in Kansas City, I said. And its true. Somehow, that city has surpassed us.

Also, Kim explained, widows in Kansas City are allowed to remarry and keep their pensions. Here in St. Louis, police widows lose their pensions if they remarry, she said. This would affect widowers, too, Kim said, but its mostly widows. The police department is a very patriarchal society, she said.

As if to prove her point, the pension board members ignored the two women once the meeting started. But that was to be expected. Because of the virus, the meeting was supposed to be closed to everybody but board members and staff. Kim and Ann Dorn had requested and received permission to attend, and I was allowed in as Kims guest. The matter of widows was not on the agenda, so it wasnt as if anybody should have expected anything.

Later, I spoke with Mark Lawson, the executive director of the Police Retirement System of St. Louis.

He said the board had not taken a position on widows voting or being allowed to keep their benefits after remarrying. The pension systems in St. Louis and Kansas City are governed by state statute, so the Legislature would have to make the appropriate changes. I asked if he thought the Legislature would object if the board asked it to make the changes that would bring it in line with the policies of the system in Kansas City. He said he didnt know.

Its about blue families, Kim told me. She stressed the last word. Its hard for a wife to have her own career because the husbands are always changing shifts. A spouse has to be flexible. We are all in it together.

One hundred years ago last month, women got the right to vote. Maybe fast-talking, gun-packing Kim Kowalski is the contemporary version of a suffragette. I would not bet against her.

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Screenshot/MSNBC

Faced with a U.S. Treasury Department report linking him to a Russian agent, Rudy Giuliani defended himself Saturday by claiming he had no idea that Ukrainian lawmaker and conspiracy-peddler Andriy Derkach was a foreign operative.

In an interview Saturday on AM Joy, the presidents personal attorney refused to directly answer questions from interviewer Jonathan Capehart about how he could have been in the dark about Derkachs political affiliations.

Youre a former prosecutor from the Southern District of New York, a former mayor of New York City, you have a national security firm, Capehart said. How could you not know that this person you were talking to was a known Russian agent?

Giuliani responded by telling Capehart to calm down, and pivoted to a Trump team talking point about members of special prosecutor Robert Muellers team wiping their cell phones after investigating the presidents ties to Russia.

According to the Treasury Department, Derkach was an active Russian agent for over a decade, maintaining close connections with the Russian Intelligence Services. The Director for the National Counterintelligence and Security Center cited Derkach in August as an example of Russian-backed interference in the 2020 election.

As The Daily Beast previously reported, Derkach met with Giuliani in December of last year to push the conspiracy theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that meddled in the 2016 election. According to the Treasury Department, the two have met at least twice since then, including for an interview for Giuliani's YouTube show about the Bidens.

In his MSNBC interview, Giuliani claimed to have no knowledge of the Treasury Department investigation that sanctioned Derkach on Thursday for attempting to interfere in the upcoming U.S. elections.

I don't know whats in the Treasury Department investigation, nor have I ever seen any evidence that [Derkach] is or is not a Russian agent, Giuliani said. So I dont know anything about that.

Story continues

Giuliani went on to call former associate Lev Parnaswho has implicated the attorney in the efforts to extract information on Trump's rivals out of Ukrainea liar, crook and a thief, and repeated a conspiracy theory about billionaire philanthropist George Soros meddling in Ukraine.

Obviously frustrated with his guest, Capehart at one point told Giuliani he was trying to pull you out of the weeds and out of the conspiracy theories.

I'm trying to understand how someone of your stature and career  what happened to you, Mayor Giuliani? he asked. Why are you out here spreading conspiracy theories and lies and interfering with an American election? What happened to you?

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Universal and MGM have decided to set a new release date for Candyman, a remake of 1992 horror classic, amid uncertainty over reopening of cinema houses in the US.

Universal has delayed Jordan Peele and Nia DaCosta's Candyman till 2021.

The film, a remake of 1992 horror classic, has been directed by DaCosta from a screenplay she wrote with Peele.

Candyman was originally set to hit the theatres on 16 October. However, Universal and MGM have now decided to set a new release date amid uncertainty over reopening of cinema houses in the US.

Check out DaCosta's tweet here

We made CANDYMAN to be seen in theaters. Not just for the spectacle but because the film is about community and stories--how they shape each other, how they shape us. Its about the collective experience of trauma and joy, suffering and triumph, and the stories we tell around it.  Nia DaCosta (@NiaDaCosta) September 12, 2020

We wanted the horror and humanity of CANDYMAN to be experienced in a collective, a community, so were pushing Candyman to next year, to ensure that everyone can see the film, in theaters, and share in that experience.  Nia DaCosta (@NiaDaCosta) September 12, 2020

The two studios plan to announce the new release date in the coming weeks, according to Variety.

The news came hours after Warner Bros. shifted blockbuster release Wonder Woman 1984 to 25 December.

Candyman, which features Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in the lead, has been co-produced by Peele, who won an Oscar for his directorial Get Out.

The original film featured Tony Todd as the hook-wielding supernatural killer who, according to a legend, appears after his name is called five times. It was directed by Bernard Rose from a script by Clive Barker.

The new film has been described as a "spiritual sequel" to the original with the story returning to the same neighbourhood where the legend of Candyman began, a section of Chicago where the Cabrini-Green housing projects once stood.

(With inputs from Press Trust of India)
Alabama residents facing the possibility of Hurricane Sally should make evacuation plans in advance and use public shelters as a last resort due to COVID-19, officials say.

Please make every effort to stay with family, travel further inland or shelter in place if it is safe to do so, the Mobile Public Health Department said in a public health release Saturday.

The department is urging residents to make plans for pets as well, because shelter space for animals will be limited.

Tropical storm Sally is moving toward the Gulf coast and is expected to become a hurricane by the time it arrives Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

The storm, possibly a category 2 hurricane, is expected to hit south Alabama hardest with 8 to 12 inches of rain and a storm surge of 2 to 4 feet and could cause significant flash flooding.

The storms forecast track has shifted to the West, keeping hurricane-force winds and most storm surge outside the area. The City of Gulf Shores is warning residents of the risk of coastal flooding and dangerous rip currents in low-lying areas as Tropical Storm Sally approaches land.

A small shift back to the east cannot be ruled out due to weakening steering currents, the city said in statement Sunday, urging residents in low-lying areas and those who live in mobile homes and RVs to take precaution.

Tropical Storm Warning, Hurricane Watch and Flash Flood Watch advisories were issued for the Coastal Baldwin area around 11 a.m. Sunday by the National Weather Service. Rainfall of 10 to 15 inches along with tropical storm-force gusts of 40-50 mph are predicted beginning Monday morning.

Sally is expected move across Alabama as a tropical depression storm later in the week.

The Mobile Department of Health is urging residents to revisit evacuation plans as the storm moves in, including preparation to get weather alerts on cell phones or radios.

"If you need to evacuate, prepare a go kit with personal items you cannot go without during an emergency. Include items that can help protect you and others from COVID-19, such as hand sanitizer, bar or liquid soap, and two cloth face coverings per person," the department said.

For those who must resort to a public shelter, face coverings will be required but should not be worn by infants under the age of two or anyone having trouble breathing. Residents will be screened for COVID-19 upon arrival.

The department asks that anyone who goes to a shelter and feels sick tell staff immediately.

At all shelters, we have designated areas for those that are exhibiting symptoms or have a fever on arrival. Because of the safety of our citizens we will not turn away anyone if they meet admission criteria for the Medical Needs Shelter. Mass Care Shelters also have areas designated for those that are sick or recovering," said Mark Bryant, department spokesperson.

Health officials are urging residents to practice social distancing by staying 6 feet apart from others not in their household and frequently washing their hands to avoid the spread of COVID-19 during hurricane season.

Gulf Shores is requesting residents keep a current Hurricane/Re-entry pass in their vehicles. It is providing some sand to residents. It can be picked up at the Gulf Shores Sportsplex at 19025 Oak Road West. Residents must bring their own shovels and bags.

Residents are also encouraged to make an emergency plan, pick up yard debris, secure outdoor furniture and keep track of their elevation and how they may be impacted by storm surge.

Local emergency contact information can be found here.
City to seek federal help in boosting APD

 Sept. 2, A1

Most NM voters back police, oppose cuts

 Sept. 10, A1

Bust leads to gun store suspect

 Sept. 10, A1

Keller administration grilled on handling of APD

 Sept. 10, A5

Chief Geier to leave APD

 Sept. 11, A1

These are but a few of the headlines from recent Albuquerque Journal pages. You dont have to look far to find law enforcement in the news.

And theres no question a communitys police chief, and its police department, are among the highest-profile and highest-scrutinized jobs and agencies in local government. But the Albuquerque Police Department has had more than its share of well-deserved controversy over the years  the most recent being questions regarding the fatal shootings of people suffering with behavioral health issues.

The department has been under a Department of Justice settlement agreement since 2014 as civilian and police officials work together to ensure reforms lead to constitutional policing.

And yet, given all this plus a checkered history that includes an evidence-room scandal and social media postings of human waste disposal, and in light of truly horrifying deaths of unarmed Black men and women at the hands of police across the nation, a recent Journal Poll found New Mexicans overwhelmingly support their police officers  74%. And that a large majority oppose cutting funding from those officers departments  61%.

The support is there because most of us realize we count on these men and women in uniform to answer our calls for help  and that the vast majority do their best to answer those calls.

Still, questions arise when 80 people are killed in Albuquerque in 2019 and only 50% of those cases are solved.

Or when rioters follow a Black Lives Matter protest Downtown this summer by lighting fires, smashing windows and throwing bricks at officers and APD arrests few, if any, responsible for the vandalism that occurred in front of them.

And when protesters and counterprotesters clash over the statue of conquistador Don Juan de Onate in Tiguex Park, with plenty of weapons: chains, pickaxes and rifles. But no cops, until someone is shot. APD had been ordered to stay in the nearby Albuquerque Museum because officers mere presence could inflame the crowds. Their distinct absence created a vacuum the so-called New Mexico Civil Guard and armed thugs were ready, willing and able to fill. District Attorney Raul Torrez says APDs response then bungled the investigation.

To be clear: Geier has dedicated decades to public safety, in the Chicago area, Albuquerque and Rio Rancho. He has helped institute policies at APD that have cut auto theft from record highs, focused on gun violence and helped get court-monitored reform efforts on track.

But whether by choice or by orders from the 11th floor, Geier was never the public face of crime-fighting the city needed, especially once Albuquerque was deemed one of the most violent cities in the nation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Just last week, City Councilor Brook Bassan publicly questioned Chief Administrative Officer Sarita Nair on whether the mayors office was overmanaging the police department and whether Mayor Tim Keller and his team were pushing Geier out. Nair sidestepped the queries, criticizing Bassan for churning the rumor mill.

Less than 24 hours later, it was announced Geier was retiring.

As questions swirl about whos really been in charge of the department  Geier, a 20-year-veteran of APD who came out of retirement three years ago to take the helm, or Mayor Tim Kellers progressive administration  lets remember:

 The department issued rosy statistics on crime last summer, then had to take them back and acknowledge that while property crime had decreased, violent crimes including homicide, human trafficking, kidnapping and assault had remained constant and drug offenses, prostitution and animal cruelty were up 9%.

 Geier was mum while $9.7 million in federal grant money for police officers hung in the balance over the citys immigrant-friendly policies. Then-Deputy Chief Harold Medina (now interim chief) didnt hold back, calling it political extortion. The federal grant, approved by the City Council 7-2 Wednesday night, will pay the salaries of 40 new officers for three years. It is the kind of thing a police chief is expected to vocally advocate for.

 A survey of 433 APD officers this summer showed 62% of them did not feel supported by their police chief; even more did not feel supported by their mayor.

 Then APD posted a tweet on its official account, ostensibly by Geier, denouncing the high-profile police shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as senseless. APD later deleted the tweet, with a department spokesman acknowledging it was sent without Geiers approval.

 Other internal strife was revealed when a whistleblower said Geiers chief of staff, John Ross, bypassed city rules to buy a $2,400 Apple laptop computer and $200 Apple TV box that didnt appear to have any work purpose and wrangled himself a significant pay raise without the chiefs approval by lobbying Nair. The department is facing an internal affairs investigation into Ross as well as a special audit for ongoing questionable overtime practices.

The FBI reports Albuquerque has a crime rate about 194% higher than the national average. When the coronavirus hit this spring, Albuquerque stopped dispatching officers to property crime calls, instead asking victims to call and leave a message. None of this is reassuring to locals. None of this looks good in economic development or tourism pitches.

As the Keller administration begins its search for Geiers replacement, career law enforcement candidates should be sure to pin down how much authority they will really have. And the administration should step back and recognize that while it oversees the department, it is the new chief and his or her staff who have the public safety training and experience to lead our law enforcement officers.

The results  or lack thereof  of the last three years prove that, and that Albuquerque needs a crime-fighter who is front and center.

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.
Flight operations under regional connectivity scheme (RCS) will begin from Bihars Darbhanga airport in the first week of November, Union civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Saturday.

The minister who reviewed ongoing work at Darbhanga, Deoghar (Jharkhand) and Patna airports on Saturday said booking for daily flights from Darbhanga to Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru will begin before September 30.

Flight operation will begin in the first week of November, before the auspicious festival of Chhath Puja. This will be a boon for 22 districts of north Bihar, said Puri.

Spicejet will operate flights from Darbhanga to Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai under RCS.

Meanwhile, the number of daily flights from Patna airport will increase from next week. The government was likely to increase the cap on restricting flight operations from existing 60% to 75% of the flights approved in the summer schedule (effective Mar 29) from Patna airport.

The state had pitched for completely removing the restriction on the number of flights being operated from Patna, to which Puri did not agree at this point in time. Airline sources say most of the 32 daily scheduled flights were operating with full passenger load as of now.

The Patna airport, which used to handle an average 54 daily departures during the pre-Covid period, currently handles 32. Raising the cap on flights would mean an increase of five flights, airport officials said.

The flights from Patna were expected to increase on the Delhi and Bengaluru sectors.

The work on construction of a new terminal building at the Patna airport, at a cost of 1216.90 crore was now likely to be complete by March 2023, said senior officials. The earlier deadline was October 2022. Once complete, the terminal building will be able to handle 8 million passengers per annum, with peak hour passenger handling capacity of 3,000 passengers and apron capacity to park 11 aircraft at a time, besides cargo handling capacity of 10,000 metric tonnes annually, said airport director BCH Negi.

The existing domestic terminal building capacity was 0.7 million passengers per annum (MPPA) prior to the extension and modification. In 2019-2020, the airport handled about 4.8 million passengers.

Talking about the Darbhanga airport, Puri said that this would be one more step under the ambitious UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) scheme to provide air connectivity to the interior regions of the country under the motto Sab Uden, Sab Juden.

Meanwhile, the state government has told the Centre about the operational shortcomings at Darbhanga airport.

We have apprised the civil aviation secretary that with the navigational aid currently available at the Darbhanga airport, and the foggy conditions during winters, operation of flights may not be possible between, December and March due to low visibility. The secretary has assured us to look into it, said Sanjay Kumar, principal secretary, cabinet coordination department, Bihar, who also holds the charge of the civil aviation department in the state.

Kumar said the state government had spent 120 crore on acquiring 31 acres of land for the civil enclave at Darbhanga, which will be given to the IAF. The latter will transfer equitable land in lieu of it to the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
Sumi Sukanya dutta By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The government is considering emergency use authorisation of the Covid-19 vaccine especially for senior citizens and people working in high-risk settings, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said in a major disclosure on Sunday.

This shall be done after a consensus has been reached,  said Vardhan, while interacting with his social media followers through Sunday Samvaad.

The statement by the minister indicates that the government is planning to allow vaccination of a section of people even before phase 3 trials of Covid-19 vaccines are completed and their results are analysed for safety and efficacy in a large number of volunteers.

The announcement by a senior functionary in the Narendra Modi government comes after the Trump administration in the US has already declared a similar intent.

Last week, the US Food and Drug Administrations office had however said that drugmakers seeking an emergency authorization for a Covid-19 vaccine will have to meet a higher standard of efficacy than normally would be required for such a clearance.

Back home, senior officials in the Health Ministry, when reached for clarification on the issue said that while the Drug and Cosmetic Acts does provide for such an emergency use authorisationit can be done only by the drug regulator CDSCO after analysing the limited data from early-stage trials.

Also, as of now no vaccine maker or importer has approached the regulator for such an emergency use authorisation in India which was granted in case of some drugs for Covid-19, said a top official.

There are three vaccine candidatestwo of them homegrownunder human trials as of now in the country, which is now seeing over 95,000 Covid-19 cases every day.

The ministers statement on Sunday is especially remarkable as various senior officials including ICMR director Cr Balram Bhargava, who had drawn flak in July for pushing hospitals to fast-track trials of Bharat Biotech vaccine, had later clarified that due scientific and ethical processes will be followed in vaccine development.

The same stand has been repeated by Dr V K Paul, member (health), Niti Aayog who also heads the expert group on Covid-19 vaccine, on several occasions.

During the interaction, the minister meanwhile maintained that while no date has been fixed for the vaccine launch, it may be ready by the first quarter of 2021.

He added that the government is taking full precautions in conducting the human trials of the vaccine, while a detailed strategy on how to immunize the majority of the population is being drawn - that includes vaccine security, cost, equity, cold-chain requirements, and production timelines.

Vardhan also said that the vaccine will be first made available to those who need it the most, irrespective of their paying capacity.

A safe and effective vaccine will help in establishing immunity to Covid-19 at a much faster pace as compared to the natural infection, said the minister, adding that it is hoped that a consensus will emerge in the next few months over the desired level of protective herd immunity in any community.
By PTI

LONDON: Scientific experts have warned of a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic and another complete nation-wide lockdown in the UK unless stricter measures are adhered to amid a rising number of infections in the country over the past week.

Peter Openshaw, a professor of experimental medicine and an expert respiratory medicine at Imperial College London, said the new "rule of six" restrictions on large gatherings which comes in force from Monday is extremely crucial.

"I think everyone is in agreement that we really need to act very quickly now in order to prevent this from growing exponentially and that's the main point, is that we must act fast because it is so much harder to get this sort of thing under control if you delay even a few days," Openshaw told 'Sky News'.

"But if we don't do this [rule of six] now we are going to be right back in hard lockdown in short order, that's the only way we have at the moment for controlling this but there are other things on the horizon. We need to act quickly," he said.

"This isn't a game. We shouldn't be out trying to party as hard as we can in the run up to Monday's lockdown. We should all be thinking about what we can do to slow down the spread," he added.

Sir John Bell, Oxford University's Regius Professor of Medicine and member of the UK's Vaccine Taskforce, welcomed the resumption of the Oxford vaccine trials after a brief pause but warned that a COVID-19 vaccine is unlikely to be ready in time for a second wave.

"We're not going to beat the second wave now," he told 'The Daily Telegraph'.

"We're probably right at the front end of the second wave now, but a vaccine might arrive towards the end of the second wave. We're probably about three to four months ahead of anybody else with a practical vaccine," he said.

From Monday, gatherings of more than six people in England will be subject to a 100 pounds fine, rising up to 3,200 pounds for repeat offences.

The move was announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson last this week amid a spike in the number of coronavirus cases across the country.

Meanwhile, police forces shut down a series of illegal parties overnight on Saturday as people tried to make the most of a final weekend before tougher coronavirus restrictions from Monday.

Greater Manchester Police said it had halted illegal gatherings across the city and fixed penalty notices were issued at each of the incidents, which breached existing bans on groups of more than 30 meeting.

Nottinghamshire Police said it issued a reckless teenager with a 10,000 pounds fine for hosting a house party which saw more than 50 guests gather in breach of existing rules.

As a result of other localised lockdown measures, nearly 8 million people will be subjected to even tougher isolation measures in the West Midlands and Scotland.

From Tuesday, households in Birmingham, Sandwell and Solihull will be banned from mixing after the region reported a surge in coronavirus cases.

In Scotland, Lanarkshire joins areas around Glasgow subject to tougher controls, with the new rules already in force.

UK government figures revealed the number of new infections were 36 per cent higher compared to last weekend.

The rate of the coronavirus recorded through tests conducted largely across care homes on vulnerable age groups had quadrupled since the start of the month and now stands at an estimated 1,100 new cases every day.

"This winter will place unique pressures on the health and care system. COVID-19 will be circulating with seasonal flu and other viruses and transmission may increase," UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in a warning memo to care homes in the country.
The Sri Lankan government's proposed 20th Constitution Amendment has faced internal resistance from within the ruling SLPP parliamentary group members itself, ahead of its inclusion in Parliament's order paper, the party members said on Sunday.

The government on September 2 gazetted the 20th Constitution Amendment draft, the new proposed legislation that would replace the 19th Amendment introduced in 2015 that curtailed the powers of the President and strengthened the role of Parliament.

The 19A was seen as the most progressive pro-democracy reformist move since Sri Lanka came to be governed under the all-powerful executive presidency in 1978. It depoliticised the government administration by ensuring the independence of key pillars such as the judiciary, public service and elections.

The 20th Amendment proposes to restore full legal immunity to the President, removing the provisions made in the 19A to take legal action against the President.

The office of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in a statement on Saturday night said that a nine-member ministerial committee has been appointed to review the 20A in its present form and, if needed, a fresh gazette will be issued.

Ever since the government gazetted the 20A, some of the ruling SLPP's own parliamentarians and the party's allies have been publicly expressing unhappiness over its certain provisions, the party members said.

If the 20A is implemented in its present form, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will be the hardest-hit as his current powers as the premier would be diminished with his younger brother and the President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, assuming full executive power, they said.

Moreover, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is also a two-time president, will not be able to contest for the presidential election again as the two-term bar has been retained in the 20A draft, the party members said.

The draft legislation was to be placed in Parliament's order book this week for debate and adaptation. However, it faced internal resistance from within the SLPP parliamentary group members. And now with Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is also the leader of the Sri Lanka People's Party (SLPP), appointing a committee, this process could now be delayed, they said.

The committee is expected to submit its report by September 15.

The 20A has proposed several changes which include the replacement of the vital Constitutional Council (CC) with a new body called the Parliamentary council.

"The PC will consist only of members of parliament with no place for civil society representatives," according to local media reports.

Also, three independent commissions, which include the Election Commission, will be abolished.

According to 20A, the chairpersons and members of the commissions shall be appointed by the president. In making such appointments, the President shall seek the observations of the Parliamentary Council (PC).

Earlier under the 19A, all these appointments were the responsibility of the CC.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa outlined his commitment to abolish the 19th Amendment during his ceremonial address to Parliament last month.

The 19A Amendment adopted in 2015 by the then reformist government was subject to much criticism by the powerful Rajapaksa clan as it prevented dual citizens from contesting elections. At the time, two of the Rajapaksa family members, including the current president, were dual citizens of the US and Sri Lanka.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa had to renounce his US citizenship to contest the presidential election in November last.

His younger brother and SLPP founder and its National Organiser, Basil Rajapaksa, is a dual citizen of the US and Sri Lanka. There are five of them already in the government.

During the August 5 general election, the SLPP sought two thirds parliamentary mandate or 150 seats in the 225-member assembly to effect constitutional changes, the foremost of them was the move to abolish the 19A.

The SLPP and allies won 150 seats and have a two-thirds majority to affect the constitutional change they desire.

While Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected as the Sri Lankan President in November last year, his eldest brother Mahinda Rajapaksa won the general election and assumed charge as Prime Minister on August 9.

Significantly, under the 20A draft, there is no provision on the Right to Information Commission, which was established by the 19A, while two important commissions -- Audit Service Commission and National Procurement Commission -- established by the 19A have been abolished.

Under the 20A draft, no fundamental rights petition can be filed against the president.

Article 35 in it says while any person holds office as president, no proceedings shall be instituted or continued against him in any court or tribunal in respect of anything done or omitted to be done by him either in his official or private capacity, according to the draft of 20A.

Also, the president is empowered to dissolve Parliament at his will after one year of a new Parliament is elected, which means the president can remove the prime minister and his cabinet at his will even though a Parliament will be elected for a five-year term.

The 20A draft provisions also do away with the limitation on the number of cabinet ministers.

The 19A limitations on the number of the cabinet (30) and deputy ministers (45) have been dropped. The president is empowered to appoint any number of ministers, according to the draft.
While the main focus is on Leaving Cert students this week, theres no forgetting the challenges local schools have faced when reopening their doors with new Covid-19 restrictions.

Lanesboro Community College Deputy Principal, Michael Lyons, has said that, while there were some difficulties, all staff members and students are delighted to be back in action.

Its great to have them back and great to see them again. Theyve grown so much, said Mr Lyons.

Wed be used to not seeing them for three months over the summer, but the school has been closed for six months and we hardly recognise some of them.

The school is doing everything it can to ensure Covid-19 stays out of the facility and to protect its students and staff.

Everyone is working together, theyre wearing masks and theyre social distancing, said Mr Lyons.

We had an induction week before we reopened, where we brought the students in in small groups to show them the one-way system and talk to them about hand hygiene.

The staff have been working and training so theyd all be ready. Weve been using ICT, Office 365 and Teams for remote learning so everyone has been learning all those new skills.

Teachers will not be picking up homework for the forseeable future, so the students have been learning to use Microsoft Lens to take a photo of their homework and upload it so that teachers can view it and leave comments.

Thats been extremely challenging because you have to have the technology and the equipment, Mr Lyons continued.

Weve been trying to get the school to a place where if we have to have blended learning, we could do that. Were preparing for all eventualities.

All of the teachers were in over the summer to prepare their classrooms and a lot of time and effort has gone into this, but were all so happy to be teaching fact to face again.
The latest weapon used by councils to fleece motorists is being rolled out nationwide later this year. Transgress and you will be hit with a fine of up to 130.

Welcome to the road junction yellow box now dubbed by critics as a 'money box'.

Drivers who momentarily stop their car in the criss-cross section of one of these boxes risk being filmed by a camera and automatically issued with a penalty charge notice for committing a 'moving traffic violation'.

Caught on camera: CCTV catches a car stranded on a yellow box in Cardiff

Already being used at key crossroads and T-junctions in London and Cardiff, the Department for Transport has given all local authorities the green light to jump on board this lucrative cash cow.

In London and Cardiff, councils pocketed 60 million from such moving traffic violations last year.

The junctions are a sneaky trap as far as motorists are concerned.

According to motoring association the RAC, eight out of ten drivers struggle to drive smoothly through these boxes  while a third say they have ended up stuck in one due to the vehicle ahead failing to exit quickly.

Hugh Blazon, founding member of action group Alliance of British Drivers, says: 'Handing power to local councils to issue penalties for being stuck in a yellow box junction is idiotic.

Local authorities seem incapable of understanding the needs of motorists and will simply use it as an excuse to grab more money off an easy target.'

The RAC says the changes will roll out countrywide within the next 12 months.

Nicholas Lyes, its head of road policy, says: 'Most motorists think local authorities will rush to install cameras as a way to generate extra revenue. Four out of ten drivers we spoke to fear road layouts and signage will be made deliberately confusing to increase the number of penalties issued.

'Local authorities should consider sending first offenders a warning letter  and to only issue a penalty if they repeat the offence later on.'

The only sure way to avoid a fine is not to stop in a box. However, to confuse matters, you may be able to wait in a box junction if turning right  and unable to make the turn until oncoming traffic clears  because this is not deemed a driving offence. Details are covered in the Highway Code rule 174.

Barrie Segal, who runs the motoring penalty advice website AppealNow, says: 'Yellow box junctions can be hugely confusing  and if someone cuts you up or the road markings are not clear you might be stung with a fine that is wrong and unfair.'

He adds: 'In fact, councils often issue fines for offences when they do not understand the law. All they are really interested in is taking your money.

'If someone cuts across a free space and leaves you stranded in the box  it could even be a fire engine or ambulance  you should consider fighting to overturn the penalty.

And if you cannot see the markings because they are rubbed out  or even if they look to have been put in the wrong place  you could also have grounds for an appeal.'

Fortunately, if you are in the right, the odds should be in your favour. According to research by comparison website Confused, two in five drivers appeal against penalty charge notices.

And of those, about three quarters are successful at throwing out the penalty  or having the fine reduced.

But Segal adds: 'Of course, there are instances when you must pay up  and with yellow box junctions you might not be aware of the rules until it is too late. Before appealing, understand the law.'

Unfortunately, many motorists are not aware that they have stopped in a box until it is too late. But this cannot be used as an excuse to fight a fine.

The only reason you should enter a box is if there is also enough space on the other side of the box to fit your car. If there is no space after the yellow box, you should not move.

Although you could get fined 130 for stopping in a yellow box, you will not receive penalty points on a driving licence as it is deemed a minor infringement.

Figures collected by the RAC after a Freedom of Information request found that in London there were almost half a million yellow box junction fines last year  giving local authorities more than 30million. In addition, there were more than 400,000 fines for either 'no turn' or 'no entry' mistakes.

In Cardiff, there were 24,000 fines for box junctions that raked in more than 800,000  treble the previous year. Also, there were almost 50,000 fines for 'no turns' or 'no entries'.

A spokesman for the Department for Transport says: 'Part of tackling congestion is about ensuring all road users play by the rules and that local authorities are given the powers they need to keep traffic moving. We are determined to ensure these powers are used fairly and proportionately.'

SIX OTHER SNEAKY TRICKS THAT SNARE MOTORISTS Fuel emission Enter a so-called 'ultra low emission zone' in Central London and you may get hit with a 160 penalty (80 if paid in 14 days) if your car breaks emission limits introduced last year  and you have not paid a daily 12.50 charge that allows such cars in this area. To avoid the levy, petrol cars must pass a 'Euro 4' emission test and diesel ones a 'Euro 6' standard. These measure the level of pollutants such as nitrogen oxide that your car emits. Find if your car will pass the gas-guzzling test at the Vehicle Certification Agency website. Spy cameras automatically look up a vehicle by reading the registration plate to see if the car is liable. Toll bridge You no longer have to stop and hand over your money at a toll bridge  but do it online or via phone. Unfortunately this makes it easier to forget paying and getting a penalty. For the Dartford Crossing (either bridge or tunnel) in Essex, it is 2.50 one way or 5 return. Forget and you face a 70 fine  reduced to 35 if paid within 14 days. Cameras read your car registration plate number. Wrong turn Spy cameras being introduced by councils for yellow box junctions will also be used to catch drivers going the wrong way up a one-way street or taking a turn in a direction which a sign says they cannot take  which might include a U-turn. Motorists can get a 130 penalty charge notice that is halved to 65 if paid within 14 days. Bus lane Going into a bus lane  even to avoid an accident  can end up with a penalty charge notice. These can be as high as 160  reduced to 80 if paid within 14 days. Spy cameras are not just put on street corners but also on the back of buses. Congestion charge A charge for driving in Central London was raised to 15 a day in June, with the hours extended to include weekends. Failure to pay can result in a 160 fine, reduced to 80 if paid in 14 days. There is a congestion charge in Durham of 2 a day, where failure to pay gets you a 50 fine. Low speed limit This year, a 20mph speed limit was introduced in Central London copying a similar scheme in Bristol. Breaking the limit can result in a 100 fine and three points on your driving licence.

The nationwide introduction of revenue-generating yellow boxes is the latest financial attack on motorists.

In March, 20mph speed limits were introduced in Central London by Mayor Sadiq Khan following a similar scheme in Bristol. Exceeding this limit can result in a 100 fine and three points on the driving licence.

Then in June, the congestion charge for driving into Central London during the day was raised from 11.50 to 15. The charge already raked in about 160million a year for Transport for London.

There are also fears Chancellor Rishi Sunak will hike fuel duty on a litre of petrol by 5p in the autumn Budget.

Motorists already pay a high fuel duty tax equivalent to 64.55 per cent of the price of petrol and 60.8 per cent for diesel  so 71p of 1.10 litre paid for petrol goes to the taxman.

As far as cash-strapped councils are concerned, the yellow boxes cannot come quickly enough.

It will help them boost the 454million they pocketed last year from parking fines.
Foreign Minister Mohammed Haneef Atmar

Kabul [Afganistan], September 13 (ANI): The Afghan government remains grateful to India's commitment and solidarity with Afghanistan, the country's acting Foreign Minister Mohammed Haneef Atmar.

Taking to Twitter, Atmar appreciated External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for reaffirming India's support for peace and to the people of Afghanistan.

"My sincere appreciation to EAM @DrSJaishankar and @MEAIndia for reaffirming India's support for peace and the free will of the Afghan people. We profoundly remain grateful to India's commitment and solidarity with Afghanistan," Atmar tweeted.

Atmar's appreciation for India comes when the peace talks between the Afghanistan government and the Taliban have opened in Qatar's capital Doha to end the decades of war that has killed ten of thousands.

Jaishankar on Saturday participated during the opening ceremony of Afghan peace negotiations in Doha through video conferencing and reiterated that the peace process should be Afghan-led and ensure the interests of minorities and women.

He said Afghan soil should never be used for carrying out anti-India activities and supported the need for an immediate ceasefire in order to establish long-lasting peace in Afghanistan.

Taking to his Twitter, the External Affairs Minister said, "Addressed the conference on Afghan peace negotiations at Doha today. Conveyed that the peace process must be Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled, respect national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan, promote human rights and democracy, ensure the interest of minorities, women and the vulnerable and effectively address violence across the country." (ANI)


Frontline workers at CHI Health Mercy Hospital who are feeling stressed out from caring for patients with COVID-19 or other illnesses now have an escape.

They can go to the new Mercy Tranquility Room unveiled Thursday on the hospitals ground floor. Employees got their first look during open houses Wednesday and Thursday.

This is really a way to pay them back, said Jennifer Smith, senior human resources business partner. With all the hard work theyve done, we wanted to give back to them.

The room is for staff, physicians, volunteers, anyone who just needs to take some down time, she said.

Users can set the mood by drinking in the nature art donated by local photographer Buck Christensen; dimming the lights and enjoying the candlelight; choosing one of a variety of fragrances for the oil diffuser; starting nature sounds, soft music or their own music connected through Bluetooth; then leaning back in one of the two massage chairs, kneeling on a prayer rug or practicing yoga with the aid of a poster with diagrams of the positions.

Health care workers may experience the loss of a patient, the anxiety of caring for someone with COVID-19 or another serious illness, the burden of having a large patient load and extra tasks added during the pandemic, according to Joanna Smith, director of maternity services.

You have to clean and clean and clean, she said. Something we used to do twice a day were doing all the time.

And the pandemic just goes on and on, Joanna Smith said.

We havent seen the light at the end of the tunnel, she said. Were hoping to, but we havent so far.

The room is designed to decrease stress, replenish energy, fuel productivity, increase focus and retention, enhance creativity and improve decision making, said Joanna Smith, who created the room with input from the hospitals Employee Experience Team.

Theyre the ones that actually suggested the yoga, she said.

Theres also a Gratitude Journal on a little table near the entrance.

We encourage people to write down something theyre thankful for, Joanna Smith said.

The room was made possible by the CHI Health Foundation, Availa Bank and Buck Christensen. The foundation created the Emergency Relief Fund that provided an avenue for donors, community members and staff to support the Mercy team during the pandemic. Some of the funds donated were used to create the Tranquility Room.

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PM dedicates to the nation three key projects related to the Petroleum sector in Bihar

New Delhi, Sun, 13 Sep 2020 NI Wire

The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi dedicated to the nation three key projects related to the Petroleum sector in Bihar today via video conferencing. The projects include the Durgapur-Banka section of the Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur Pipeline Augmentation Project and two LPG Bottling Plants. They have been commissioned by IndianOil and HPCL, PSUs under the aegis of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister said the special package announced for Bihar a few years ago, focused much on the state's infrastructure. He said the special package given for Bihar had 10 big projects related to petroleum and gas worth Rs 21 thousand crore. Among these today it is the seventh project which is being dedicated to the people of Bihar. He also listed the other six projects which had been completed in Bihar earlier. He expressed happiness that he is inaugurating the Durgapur-Banka section (about 200 km) of an important gas pipeline project for which he laid the foundation stone about one and a half years ago. He lauded the hard work of the engineers and laborers and active support of the state government for completing this project on time, in spite of the challenging terrain. He lauded the Chief Minister of Bihar for playing a big role in making Bihar come out of the work culture in which one generation used to start the work and the other generation completed it. He said this new work culture needs to be strengthened and it can take Bihar and East India on the development path.

The Prime Minister quoted from the scriptures   ,     meaning strength is the source of freedom and power of labour is the basis of development of any nation. He said there is neither a shortage of power of labour in eastern India, including Bihar, nor this place lacked natural resources and despite this, Bihar and East India remained behind in terms of development for decades and suffered endless delays due to political, economic reasons and other priorities. He said since road connectivity, rail connectivity, air connectivity, internet connectivity were not a priority earlier, gas based industry and petro-connectivity could not be imagined in Bihar. He said development of gas based industries was a major challenge in Bihar due to it being a landlocked state and thus lacking resources related to petroleum and gas which are otherwise available in the states adjacent to the sea.

The Prime Minister said Gas-based industry and petro-connectivity have a direct impact on people's lives, on their standard of living and also create millions of new employment opportunities. He said today, when CNG & PNG are reaching many cities in Bihar and Eastern India, people here should get these facilities easily. He said the Bhagiratha effort to connect eastern India with Paradip on the eastern seaboard and Kandla on the western seaboard began under the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga Yojana and seven states will be connected through this pipeline, which is about 3000 km long, of which Bihar also has an prominent role. The line from Paradip - Haldia will now be further extended to Patna, Muzaffarpur and the pipeline coming from Kandla which has reached Gorakhpur will also be connected to it. He said when the entire project is ready, it will become one of the longest pipeline projects in the world.

The Prime Minister said due to these gas pipelines, big bottling plants are being installed in Bihar. Of which two new Bottling Plants have been launched today in Banka and Champaran. Both these plants have a capacity to fill more than 125 million cylinders every year. These plants will meet the LPG requirements of Godda, Deoghar, Dumka, Sahibganj, Pakur districts and some areas of Uttar Pradesh in Jharkhand. He said Bihar is creating thousands of new jobs from the laying of this gas pipeline to the new industries based on the energy from the pipeline.

The Prime Minister said the fertilizer factory of Barauni, which was closed in the past, will also start working soon after the construction of this gas pipeline. He said today eight crore poor families of the country have gas connections because of the Ujjwala scheme. This has changed the lives of the poor during the period of corona as it was necessary for them to stay at home and they need not go out to collect wood or other fuel.

The Prime Minister said in this period of Corona, millions of cylinders have been provided free of cost to the beneficiaries of the Ujjwala scheme which has benefited millions of poor families. He lauded the efforts of the petroleum and gas departments and companies, as well as the millions of delivery partners, as they did not let people run out of gas, even during the time of Corona, despite the dangers of infection. He said there was a time when LPG gas connections in Bihar were a sign of affluent people. People had to make recommendations for each gas connection. But now this has changed in Bihar due to the Ujjwala scheme, about 1.25 crore poor families of Bihar have been given free gas connection. The gas connection at home has changed the lives of crores of poor in Bihar.

The Prime Minister praised the youth of Bihar and said Bihar is the powerhouse of the country's talent. He said the strength of Bihar and the imprint of Bihar's labor will be seen in the development of every state. He said in the last 15 years, Bihar has also shown with a right government, right decisions and a clear policy, development happens and reaches every one. There was a thinking, education was not necessary as the youth of Bihar have to work in the fields. Due to this thinking, not much work was done to open large educational institutions in Bihar. The result was that the youth of Bihar were forced to go out to study, to work. Working in the field, farming is very hard work and pride, but do not give other opportunities to the youth, nor make such arrangements, it was not right.

The Prime Minister said today big centers of education are opening in Bihar. Now the number of agricultural colleges, medical colleges, engineering colleges is increasing. Now IIT, IIM and IIIT in the state are helping to make the dreams of the youth of Bihar soar. He lauded the efforts of the Chief Minister of Bihar in tripling the number of polytechnic institutions and opening of two large universities, one IIT, one IIM, one NIFT and one National Law Institute in Bihar.

The Prime Minister said Start up India, Mudra Yojana and many such schemes have provided the necessary amount of self-employment to the youth of Bihar. He said today the availability of electricity in cities and villages of Bihar is more than ever. The modern infrastructure is being built in the power, petroleum and gas sectors, the reforms are being brought in, are making the lives of people easier as well as giving impetus to industries and the economy. He said in this period of Corona, once again the petroleum-related infrastructure works like refinery projects, projects related to Exploration or Production, pipelines, City Gas Distribution projects, many such projects have gained momentum. He said there are more than 8 thousand projects, on which 6 lakh crore rupees will be spent in the coming days.

The Prime Minister said migrant labourers have returned back and new employment opportunities have also been created. Even during such a huge global epidemic the country has not stopped especially Bihar has not stopped. He added the National Infrastructure Pipeline Project worth more than Rs 100 lakh crore is also going to help in increasing economic activity. He urged everyone to to keep working fast to make Bihar, Eastern India an important center of development.

Source: PIB Delhi
Washington: South Africa's teachers were at an all-too-familiar impasse. In July, novel coronavirus cases were on the rise, as was government pressure to reopen schools. Educators concerned about safety pushed back.

As negotiations faltered, the country's largest teachers union threatened to strike unless the start date was delayed.

Teacher Julia Rakow wears a protective face mask as she leads a class in the origins of German poetry at Sophie-Charlotte Gymnasium high school in Berlin, Germany earlier this month. Credit:Getty Images

"The employer is always more powerful," Mugwena Maluleke, the general secretary of the South African Democratic Teachers Union, said. "To balance that inherently unequal relationship, there has to be a strike, to break the deadlock and go back to the table as equal partners."

This time, the strike was averted. The government agreed to delay reopening and to a framework for relocating teachers and students from schools that could not meet precautionary criteria, Maluleke said.
(Natural News) Puyallup Police arrested a man Wednesday after he had allegedly started a fire in the median of State Route (SR) 167 just outside of Tacoma, according to a recent report from KING 5.

The suspect, identified as longtime BLM rioter Jeffrey Acord, claimed he had nothing to do with the fire, which had burned about an acre and a half before responders from Central Pierce Fire & Rescue put it out.

The suspect claimed that he was looking for a camera case that flew out of his backpack while biking the previous day to Bellevue. But a Fife police officer who pulled over after seeing the fire countered this alibi.

The officer explained that the fire had been burning next to a pickup truck in the median. When the officer stopped, the truck drove off. He said he decided to follow the truck as it looked suspicious.

The suspect was then apprehended, at which point he started live-streaming the event on Facebook. It looks like a fire literally just started, he said in the video, which now has over 155,000 views on his profile page.

Before the video cut out, he could be heard explaining that he was just calling in to report the fire and that the police have nothing to work with to implicate him in the fire.

However, he was still arrested on a charge of second-degree reckless burning. Captain Jason Visnaw of the Puyallup Police said that the officers have probable reason to believe he had started the fire.

Trooper Ryan Burke with the Washington State Patrol said on Twitter that the suspect had allegedly set the grass on fire. In Washington, reckless burning charges could lead to jail time and substantial fines.

The suspect was able to post the $1,000 bail the night he was booked. However, he was arrested again that same night after a surveillance video showed him breaking into a gas station not far from the Puyallup jail.

Visnaw expressed his concerns over the deliberate starting of fires. The selfish people who are starting fires on purpose should consider its impact on others and the possible harm and destruction it could bring, he said.

Suspect has prior criminal charges

This isnt the first time that Acord has made headlines. In 2014, Seattle Police arrested him during a protest after officers found weapons, ammunition and explosives in his car and backpack, according to Seattle Times.

He was then charged with possession of a loaded concealed weapon without a permit, as well as concealing a dangerous 7-inch knife and illegal possession of fireworks. His bail was set at $10,000.

He himself had alluded to this incident in his Facebook video, explaining to police that the case was a misunderstanding and that he was crucified for it.

BLM activists had organized the protest he attended in response to the court decision that Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson will not face federal charges for his fatal shooting of an unarmed Black teenager.

In response to circulating rumors online that arsonists are behind some of the major fires creeping through Washington, State Representative Jim Walsh said that officials have good evidence this isnt the case.

Several of the major fires in Washington are human-made but are not the result of arson, he clarified in a statement. However, he admitted that the larger fires burning in neighboring Oregon seem suspicious.

People in Washington are also reporting suspicious behavior on the part of strangers and visitors in their areas, he added. (Related: Seattle police officers subjected to hail of explosives during Antifa, BLM riots.)

Despite this, Walsh said that the states focus on the present is on containing the fires and keeping people safe. There will be time later to investigate the origins of suspicious fires.

Read the latest articles on the ongoing California, Oregon and Washington wildfires at Environ.news.

Sources include:

King5.com

BigLeaguePolitics.com

SeattleTimes.com

ThePostMillennial.com
Although the 2020 election cycle has been dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic and social justice movements, the election will have profound implications for U.S. trade policy and, particularly, for our state.

Texas exports totaled $330 billion in 2019, roughly 20 percent of total U.S. exports, and account for more than 30 percent of the states GDP. Where do the presidential candidates stand on trade? There are some key differences.

Donald Trump ran in 2016 on a populist, anti-globalization platform promising to put America first and get tough on trade partners like China. Since taking office, he has followed through on many of his goals, announcing U.S. withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (proposed but not ratified under the Obama administration), renegotiating NAFTA to produce the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, and engaging China in a trade war, putting tariffs on many of its products.

These policies help some segments of the population, but hurt others. Some manufacturing workers in industries that compete with Chinese imports benefit, as do workers in industries that have chosen to keep production in the U.S. because of new local content requirements in USMCA. But all tariffs create higher prices for consumers, as importers within the U.S. pay tax revenue to the government and must adjust their prices to offset those costs. And many exporters, such as farmers in Midwest states, have been hurt by retaliatory tariffs from China.

Finally, job loss in some sectors of the U.S. economy are driven by larger, long-term structural forces that tariffs cant address, such as automation in manufacturing.

The Trump administration has also rejected multilateral governance of trade, opting to operate outside of the World Trade Organizations dispute settlement mechanism  a court of sorts for resolving trade disputes. In fact, the U.S. has now effectively paralyzed the mechanism by refusing to approve the appointment of new appellate judges. This has undermined the ability of other countries to seek redress for allegations of unfair trading practices.

As for Joe Biden, he comes from a tradition of centrist, pragmatic Democrats who generally embrace free trade. Yet he has also been supportive of labor protections and may seek to do more to compensate those displaced by foreign competition, especially with pressure from the far left of the Democratic Party.

On ExpressNews.com: State admonishes San Antonio judge for violating due process

He has criticized many of Trumps trade policies as erratic, potentially undermining U.S. credibility. He has also argued for a tough stance on China, but in the past supported multilateral initiatives like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would have positioned the U.S. as an alternative trade partner to China for many Asian countries.

Biden has been critical of the Trump administrations negotiations with China, arguing that China has been let off easy. It is likely that a Biden administration would seek to repair many of the frayed relations with traditional U.S. trading partners, while seeking greater multilateral cooperation to push back against Chinas growing economic influence.

Biden would also most likely seek to restore U.S. leadership within international institutions, such as the WTO. As a senator and the vice president, Biden was known for his foreign policy expertise. He views a robust U.S. presence in the world as critical to U.S. power and prosperity, and one way the U.S. has helped maintain a liberal order since 1945 is by wielding its power through institutions. The Obama administration attempted to utilize the dispute settlement mechanism to put pressure on China, filing multiple disputes that resulted in several policy concessions.

The candidates pose a stark contrast on many issues, including their approach to international trade policy. Their only point of agreement would seem to be confronting China, although they differ on the approach. The choice will be an important one for Texas, given the size of its export sector.

Terrence Chapman is an associate professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin.
The $25 million in federal funding announced for an Interstate 20 interchange in Midland County will help leverage hundreds of millions in existing state and local investment for the rebuild of I-20.

That is what Midland-Odessa Transportation Alliance President James Beauchamp said this past week after the United States Department of Transportation awarded $25 million toward an Interstate-20 Energy Sector Safety Project  an overpass at the intersection of Cotton Flat Road and Interstate 20.

The funding is awarded through the U.S. Department of Transportations Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant program.

MOTRAN also reported that the I-20/Cotton Flat interchange was the third project in three years in the Permian Basin that has been awarded such funding -- the first two being an overpass project in Winkler County at the intersection of State Highway 302 and State Highway 115 and an overpass project in Glasscock County at the intersection of State Highway 137 and State Highway 158.

Also, the Texas Transportation Commission approved more than $600 million more funding for improvements in the Unified Transportation Program for the Permian Basin in 2019. That amount included more than $240 million for I-20 improvements.

In April, officials with the Odessa district of the Texas Department of Transportation explained their I-20 projects that cover a decade and require more than $830 million in funding. Project highlights include interstate expansion to three lanes each way, having one-way frontage roads, improving locations for entrance and exit ramps, new interchanges and underpasses converted to overpasses at eight locations.

At that time, funding had reached around $433 million. Odessa District engineer John Speed told the Reporter-Telegram the extra lanes and improved circulation of traffic will be a benefit as volumes at peak locations in Midland reach 70,000 vehicles per day (about a quarter are heavy trucks).

Interstate 20 plays a tremendous role in freight movement in the region for the energy sector and is a critical connection between Midland and Odessa, Beauchamp said.

Beauchamp, like PSP officials last week, thanked elected officials from Midland and Odessa, including state Rep. Tom Craddick, Midland Mayor Patrick Payton, Councilwoman Lori Blong, Councilman Jack Ladd and Midland County Commissioner Robin Donnelly for lending their voices to the effort to contact federal officials about the need in the Permian Basin. Beauchamp also included letters from officials sent directly to Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao.

Inside many of those letters, it was mentioned that Midland-Odessa was the No. 5 top producing MSA for GDP in Texas in 2018 and that Midland, Ector and Reeves counties all rank in the top 25 in Texas for GDP levels.

In fact, Reeves County, which ranks 21st, produced more GDP than Lubbock, it was written in letters to Chao. That means that Reeves County, with a population of less than 16,000 out-produces Lubbock, a county with over 310,000 in population and serves as the seat of one of the top-4 university systems in Texas.

Another reason listed for the need for more funding in letters was that the Permian Basin accounts for 10 percent of Texas economy and 30 percent of all national oil and gas production.

The latest industry projections show growth in the area doubling by 2023 and yielding 60 percent of net global output in this timeframe, it was written. Completion of the projects in TxDOTs applications is clearly critical to ensure Texas can continue to keep up with demand and efficiently provide energy resources to all Americans.
To the Editor:

Re The U.S. Shouldnt Try to Out-China China (Op-Ed, Sept. 3):

I take issue with Jessica Chen Weiss and Ali Wyn when they say Australia, India and Japan dont want to decouple from China to the same extent as the United States. In fact, Japan has already established a government-funded program to subsidize Japanese companies for moving factories from China back to Japan.

India has already taken more restrictive measures in barring Chinese companies and Chinese apps from its market than the United States has done. Australia has joined with Japan and India in a combined effort to reroute supply chains away from excessive dependence on China.

In fact, these countries have already decoupled from China at least as much and perhaps more than the United States.

Clyde Prestowitz

Potomac, Md.

The writer was U.S. trade negotiator in the Reagan administration and is the author of the forthcoming book The World Turned Upside Down: China, America and the Struggle for Global Leadership.
Covid-19 cases continued to spike across Europe, with France reporting more than 10,000 new infections and Austrian leader saying his country is facing a second wave.

Globally, 921,219 people died of the virus from among 28.8 million cases on Sunday.

Rise in daily infections in France, the largest since the end of the countrys lockdown in May, came after Prime Minister Jean Castex ruled out another lockdown.

What we are experiencing at the moment is the beginning of the second wave in Austria, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Sunday. He urged citizens to comply with reinforced rules to keep down new cases and suggesting that companies keep employees working from home.

The UK, which has suffered Europes deadliest outbreak, recorded more than 3,000 new cases for the third day running for the first time since May. The Department for Health and Social Services reported a further 3,330 cases on Sunday, taking the three-day tally above 10,000.

In Lebanon, 90 UN peacekeepers tested positive for the novel coronavirus, a spokesman for the UNIFIL force said on Sunday, the first reported cases of the illness.

Anger, protest in several cities against lockdowns

Anger is growing over continued lockdowns and restrictions over the pandemic.

Authorities in Melbourne, Australia, arrested more than 70 people for flouting stay-at-home orders to protest against lockdown restrictions on Sunday, with some demonstrators clashing with riot police at a market in the city. About 250 people attended the illegal protest - the second in as many days in the city - promoted by coronavirus conspiracy groups on social media.

A prominent Israeli minister resigned on Sunday in protest over an expected government decision to impose another lockdown this week. Housing minister Yaakov Litzman, who was health minister during the initial outbreak of the virus in Israel, criticised the anticipated lockdown measure as extreme.

Some 8,000 people marched against virus restrictions in Munich on Saturday, most of them ignoring a city ordinance requiring the wearing of masks. At least a thousand protested in Hanover, and there was another demonstration in the western city of Wiesbaden.

In the Polish capital Warsaw, several hundred people joined a similar protest.

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Alan McIntosh, a founder of Cairn Homes and Emerald Investments, has sent a letter to the Prime Minister of Barbados in which he advised people not to invest in Barbados.

The investor wrote the letter after Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley appeared in a Business Post article looking to increase economic links between Ireland and her country. She also appeared on Irish radio to talk about a "work from Barbados" scheme.

Copies of the letter were sent to others, including Tanaiste Leo Varadkar.

McIntosh made a $2.5m investment in Barbados three years ago. He ended up in a dispute with one of the shareholders in the project, Peter Ogle, starting legal action in 2018.

In the letter, seen by Ergo, McIntosh wrote that he has been waiting "almost three years" for the matter to be heard.

Of investing in Barbados, McIntosh wrote: "I am an Irish investor who invested in Barbados, and I wish I'd never done so. Unless changes are made to the legal system in Barbados, I would urge no one to invest in Barbados, either commercially or to buy a condo, holiday home or even take a holiday there. Why? The legal system is not fit for foreign investment or even to settle minor disputes in a timely manner."

Later in the letter, he wrote: "I have waited for the court system to allow me due process, and after almost three years have seen no progress in the courts whatsoever.

"My advice to anyone contemplating investing in Barbados is: 'Do not Do It'."

Barbados didn't respond to a request for comment.

Digital Hub firms aim to teach lessons of new world

Two Irish companies based at The Digital Hub in Dublins Liberties are supporting the transition to blended and online learning brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

H2 Learning, set up by former primary school teachers Dr Michael Hallissy and John Hurley in 2002 to integrate ICT into educational practice, has expanded into the American market. It is now delivering workshops to educators in Washington state on how to plan for the transition to a blend of learning between online and classroom.

Meanwhile, The Academy of Code, which specialises in teaching coding to young people, and which has delivered classroom and summer camp coding courses to thousands of students since its launch in 2014, has now launched an entirely online course from the EU, to the US and Qatar.

Scottish-born Jane Fraser made headlines last week for breaking bankings glass ceiling when she was appointed as the next CEO of Citgroup. She takes over next year, making her the first woman to lead a major Wall Street Bank.

The New York Times pondered who could be the next woman in line to take the reins at a large bank. Given an outside chance was Sarah Friar, CEO of social network Nextdoor, who is from Northern Ireland. She previously led the IPO of Jack Dorseys payments company Square and has put in time at Goldman Sachs.
Coronavirus vaccine: The third phase of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine trial has resumed in the UK, days after it was halted over safety concerns.

The third phase of AstraZenecas coronavirus vaccine trial has resumed in the UK, days after it was halted over safety concerns. AstraZeneca said on Saturday that it received confirmation from the United Kingdoms Medicines Health Regulatory Authority that it was safe to resume clinical trials, CNBC reported.

AstraZeneca, a UK-based biopharma giant, had announced on Tuesday that the phase 3 testing of its COVID-19 vaccine being developed by it with Oxford University has been put on hold due to a suspected serious adverse reaction in a participant in the United Kingdom.

The company said that that the standard review process triggered a voluntary pause to all global trials on September 6 so that independent committees and internal regulators could review the safety data.

Also read: CM Khandu, Kiren Rijiju thank Indian Army after return of five missing Arunachal Pradesh men

Also read: Sushant Singh Rajput death case LIVE news updates: West Bengal Congress holds rally in Rhea Chakrabortys support

Clinical trials for the AstraZeneca Oxford coronavirus vaccine, AZD1222, have resumed in the UK following confirmation by the Medicines Health Regulatory Authority (MHRA) that it was safe to do so, Astrazeneca said in a statement. While trials can now resume in the UK, the status of trials elsewhere remains unclear.

The company will continue to work with health authorities across the world and be guided as to when other clinical trials can resume to provide the vaccine broadly, equitably and at no profit during this pandemic, the statement said

The University of Oxford, which developed the vaccine in partnership with AstraZeneca, said on Saturday that some 18,000 people have so far received the vaccination in trials.

In large trials such as this, it is expected that some participants will become unwell and every case must be carefully evaluated to ensure careful assessment of safety, it said in a statement.

Also read: DCGI directs Serum Institute to suspend recruitments in Covid-19 vaccine trial
London: The extradition hearing for Julian Assange will resume at London's Old Bailey on Monday, after a coronavirus scare shut down proceedings last week.

The latest drama in the ongoing saga surrounding the Australian began on Wednesday, when the wife of a barrister representing the US government developed symptoms that were feared to be signs of a COVID-19 infection.

Editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, Kristinn Hrafnsson (right) shows his phone to Julian Assange's lawyer Jennifer Robinson (centre) as Assange's partner Stella Morris looks on outside the Central Criminal Court Old Bailey in London on Tuesday. Credit:AP

James Lewis, the QC representing the US government, did not appear in the courtroom the next morning but instead by video link from his London flat.

Both sides requested a complete halt to the proceedings while tests were carried out.
Emily Ratajkowski love to showcase her incredibly svelte physique on social media.

But the 29-year-old model gave passerbys a glimpse at her taut midriff in a tiny black Eterne tank top, while hanging out in Central Park on Saturday afternoon.

Ratajkowski was joined by her husband Sebastian Bear-McClard and their darling dog Colombo.

Model behavior: Emily Ratajkowski gave passerbys a glimpse at her taut midriff in an Eterne crop top, while hanging out in Central Park on Saturday afternoon

Emily, who was noticeably braless, looked ultra chic in an iridescent burgundy jacket and a pair of matching trousers.

The statement making two piece featured white stitching and silver buttons up the front of the jacket.

The Inamorata CEO looked to be wearing minimal makeup and she had a pair of brown cateye shades over her eyes.

She accessorized her looked with her go-to pair of chunky gold hoop earrings.

In good company: Ratajkowski was joined by her husband Sebastian Bear-McClard and their darling dog Colombo

In order to deter the spread of COVID-19, Emily had on a black cloth mask that she briefly pulled down in order to speak to her husband.

Sebastian opted to go mask-free and he could be seen holding onto Colombo's leash as the curious pup sniffed the green grass.

The film producer looked ultra casual in pair of green shorts and a bright white graphic tee.

Walkin' the dog: On her Instagram Story, Ratajkowski took a short video of herself walking back home with Sebastian and Colombo

Keeping it simple: Only Emily's grey slide sandals and Colombo's behind were visible in the brief clip

On her Instagram Story, Ratajkowski took a short video of herself walking back home with Sebastian and Colombo.

Only Emily's grey slide sandals and Colombo's behind were visible in the brief clip. 'Really feeling these slides,' she captioned.

Emily and Sebastian, who wed in 2018, returned to NYC in late June after hunkering down at their Los Angeles home for a few months.

NYC is home: Emily and Sebastian, who wed in 2018, returned to NYC in late June after hunkering down at their Los Angeles home for a few months; Emily and Sebastian pictured in June

They caught a flight out of JFK in April, shortly after the CDC issued an advisory, asking 'residents of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut to refrain from non-essential domestic travel for 14 days effective immediately.'

However, in late June as COVID-19 cases spiked dramatically in California, Emily and Sebastian crossed back to New York.

Despite COVID-19 still running rampant, Ratajkowski has been providing fashion inspiration during her frequent outings in the city.

Street style: Despite COVID-19 still running rampant, Ratajkowski has been providing fashion inspiration during her frequent outings; Emily pictured on September 11

Runway ready: On Friday, the Blurred Lines video vixen looked runway ready in black leather coat that she layered over a neon green sweatshirt and a pair of black hot pants

On Friday, the Blurred Lines video vixen looked runway ready in black leather coat that she layered over a neon green sweatshirt and a pair of black hot pants.

As for shoes, Emily trekked down the city sidewalk in a pair of cozy Ugg boots.

She could be seen texting on her cellphone, before removing her sunglasses to reveal her stunning brown eyes.

The Vogue star recently launched her brand Inamorata's Silky Summer collection, which includes a slew of effortless pieces in various vintage inspired patterns.

Big reveal: She could be seen texting on her cellphone, before removing her sunglasses to reveal her stunning brown eyes.

Proving to be her own best advertisement, Emily has graced Instagram in many of the stunning separates.

'ALL NEW @inamoratawoman. Silky dresses and tops that you will be living in,' she wrote, while unveiling the collection on September 2.

Emily launched Inamorata in 2017 in collaboration with her best friend and fashion world vet Kat Mendenhall.

The official Inamorata website describes the brand, which features swimwear, lingerie, and ready to wear pieces, as 'a collection rife with easy, body-conscious essentials for the unexpected nature of the city.'
The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) is being held on Sunday across the country amid stringent checks and protocols in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. Over 15 lakh candidates have registered for the undergraduate exam.

The NEET exam is being held days after the JEE (Main) was held across the country.

Follow NEET 2020 exam live updates

The National Testing Agency (NTA), the body organising the exam has put in place a raft of measures such as increasing the number of exam centres and reducing number of students in a room in view of the Covid-19.

Originally scheduled for May 3, has been deferred twice due to Covid-19 first it was postponed to July 26 and then to September 13.

In Siliguri, which has 25 exam centres for NEET. One of the exam centres, Siliguri Institute of Technology(SIT) took all the precautionary measures as per the NTA directions.

Speaking to ANI, Director of SIT Dr Pradosh Kumar Adhvaryyu said, There are 25 centres in Siliguri and in our institute, 1,500 students will appear in the examination.

As per the NTAs directions, we will be conducting the examination here. We have arranged the facilities like thermal screening, sanitisation. We have also taken care of social distancing norm and have arranged the seats of two candidates 6 feet apart, said the director.

Adhvaryyu further said, For the students with symptoms, we have isolation unit where they can write their test. The invigilators in the isolation unit will be wearing PPE kits. We will not allow the guardians to enter the campus.

The situation will be monitored by NTA, he added.

Adhvaryyu said, The relaxation of lockdown will help the students coming from different parts of the states to reach the exam centres.

He also suggested that the students shall abide by all the norms guided by NTA during the examination.

To facilitate the free movement of students appearing for NEET exam, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had on Friday announced that there will be no curfew in the state.

The candidates arrived at examination centres ahead of the NEET exam amid the coronavirus pandemic. While some of them were seen doing last minute revision.

A candidate at Vidya Mandir in Mylapore, Chennai said, NEET is just an exam. There is nothing to fear. If not cleared this time, we can reappear next year.

Another candidate at an examination centre in Siliguri, West Bengal said, Its a test of 1.5 years of my hard work. Were taking all precautions including wearing masks and frequently sanitizing hands.

West Bengal government has ordered to resume metro services today for NEET 2020 examination aspirants & their parents. Following this, social distancing norms being followed and sanitisation being done at metro stations in Kolkata.

In Odisha the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has made arrangements, including free accommodation and transportation, in the state capital to help students and their parents amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to an official release, the civic body has made facilities ready at hostels of five engineering colleges in different parts of the city where students and their parents, who are coming from other districts or far off places for the exam, can stay.

Over 15,000 students will be appearing the annual medical entrance examination at 31 centres in Bhubaneswar, the release stated.

The East Coast Railway started four special trains on Saturday and Sunday for the candidates appearing in National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) to be held on September 13, it said.

These trains are being run in four routes-Bhadrak-Bhubaneswar, Keonjhargarh-Bhubaneswar, Rayagada-Sambalpur, and Khariar Road-Sambalpur. Students will board these trains to reach their destination for the exams and will return their homes by the same train after their examination is over.
This year's much anticipated Ghana Teacher Licensure Exams (GTLE) which was initially scheduled for later this month of September has been postponed to 1st and 2nd October.

This was announced by the National Teachers Council in a press statement released on Friday 11th September, 2020.

According to the Council, the examination had to be rescheduled due to the change in date for the end of semester examination for continuing students of various colleges of education across the country.

The Council uses the colleges as centres for the GTLE so their postponement affected the initial date, It said.

President Akufo-Addo on Sunday, August 16, 2020, directed continuing students of the University of Cape Coast, (UCC), University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHASS), technical universities, and some other colleges of education to return to school on August 24, 2020, to complete the academic year.

NTC in March 2020 postponed the Teacher Licensure Examinations for March 2020 in accordance with the President's directive for suspension of all mass gatherings following the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID19) in the country.

The licensure examination is conducted by the NTC to ensure that there is an improvement in teaching.

The first examination came off from September 10-12, 2018 and it covered essential teaching skills, numeracy (basic calculation), and literacy (verbal aptitude and essay writing).

The examination applies to all teachers who hold the Diploma in Basic Education (DBE), Bachelor of Education (B.Ed), or a post-graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) who want to be employed by the Ghana Education Service.

The examination has been criticized by some persons including former President John Dramani Mahama who has argued that an improvement in the quality of teaching and examinations at the Colleges of Education is more important than the licensure examination.

He has thus promised to scrap the examination if voted into power in December 2020.

Find the statement from the National Teachers Council below;

---CitiNewsRoom
Meghalaya Power Minister James K Sangmas convoy on Sunday met with a minor accident after a car in his convoy hit a truck in Assams Nagaon district on his return journey to Shillong.

The minister escaped unhurt while four of his security personnel were injured in the accident that took place at 4:30 am. The accident occurred when a car in his convoy hit a stationary truck in front of a petrol depot on National Highway 36.

Four injured police officials were immediately sent to Civil Hospital, Nagaon for medical assistance and Honble Minister has been escorted to his official residence in Shillong," Meghalaya police said in a statement.

At present, both the damaged vehicles have been taken to Nonoi Out-post for observation for legal procedures and police officials of the state are coordinating with the counterparts of Assam for necessary action," it said.

James, who is the elder brother of Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma tested positive for the novel coronavirus in during Rapid Antigen Test at Imphal airport on Saturday. While returning from Delhi, the minister went to

Manipur on Saturday to attend a function of his party, the National Peoples Party, when he tested positive for Covid-19.

Police said the minister has reached home safely and is now under home quarantine. We have collected his samples for RT-PCR test to ascertain his COVID-19 status," Meghalaya Health Services director Aman War said.

With inputs from PTI.
Actress Sunny Leone, who is currently in Los Angels with her family due to the coronavirus pandemic, reflected on her Bollywood career of eight years. She had made her debut with Jism 2 in 2012. Sunny said that her journey was amazing but very very difficult" at the same time.

Talking to Hindustan Times, she said, I am so thankful for everything that has happened, and people here have been so inviting, caring and accepting. I dont come from a typical journey, its been very, very difficult than almost everybody in Bollywood. It was tough, a lot of crazy things happened, and there is a lot more good than bad.

She also said that even though the Hindi film industry is amazing, it took people time to fully accept her. My journey is so different from everybody out there, and I was fortunate that people accepted me. It took a while for people to do that, but even when I first got here, there was a vast majority of people who accepted me, and that is why I survived," she said. She added that it is her fans who kept her alive in Bollywood, and kept everything going. She added that she wouldnt be in Bollywood without her fans.

Sunny will be next seen in Rangeela, a Malayam film, which will mark her Mollywood debut. Directed by Santhosh Nair, the film also stars Salim Kumar, Johny Antony, Sujith Raj Kochukunju, Krrish Menon, Major Ravi, Jacob Gregory and Ramesh Pisharody in pivotal roles.
I will have to remove the mask of Chief Minister to respond to politics. I dont speak, it does not mean I don't have answers

Maharashtra chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday assured that he would fight with Coronavirus infection as well as all political storms in the state. While addressing the people through social media, Thackeray announced to start a campaign My Family, My Responsibility from September 15.

Meanwhile, calling CMs address a big disappointment, the BJP said people were expecting him to explain the government's roadmap to tackle rising number of cases and deaths due to Covid-19. Despite the worsening situation in the state, the CM was seen only praising himself, the opposition party said.

Thackeray has been facing flak from detractors on both political and coronavirus fronts. He said a conspiracy is afoot to malign Maharashtra. Whatever political storms come, I will face... I will fight coronavirus too, said the chief minister.

A day after Covid-19 infection cases in Maharashtra crossed the 10-lakh mark, Thackeray said his government has done effective work to tackle the pandemic.

Speaking in the backdrop of political criticism over demolition of actress Kangana Ranauts bungalow in Mumbai and the way his government handled the Sushant Singh Rajput death case, Thackeray assured people that he would fight the political crisis too. I will have to remove the mask of Chief Minister to respond to politics. I dont speak, it does not mean I don't have answers, Thackeray said.

Speaking on the state governments Mission Begin Again campaign during the pandemic, Thackeray said his administration effectively tackled the Covid-19 situation, cyclones and floods and will also deal with the political storm with peoples support.

The chief minister said his government was doing its best to deal with all challenges. We should share our responsibilities to make the my family, my responsibility campaign (against coronavirus) which begins on September 15 a success. This war can be won only with peoples wholehearted support, he said.

It is not feasible for the government to undertake checkup of each and every one of the 12 crore populace of the state, he said.

Reacting to the speech of the chief minister, the former cabinet minister and BJP leader Ashish Shelar said that Mr Thackeray has only praised himself during his speech.

The people of Maharashtra wanted to know how the infection would be reduced? Death rate is yet to be declined. Jumbo facility for the Covid-19 is not sufficient to avail the services to the people. The beds are not available in private and government hospitals for the common man. The supply of medicines and injections are also insufficient.
This is about love story starting with a tragedy and ending happily by taking the long way home, in style  feline style, that is.

Harley is a brown tabby kitty who lived with his owner, Susan Klein, in their Garnet Valley home.

Klein formerly worked at the Eagle Point refinery.

They had a lot of cats over there, she said. Harley was in a litter of four kittens. My friend and I rescued the kittens.

Her friend took two of them and Klein took Harley and his brother, Seven.

His brother was much more timid, Klein said. Harley was the more outgoing one. When I had them as kittens, Seven would always hide behind or under Harley.

Three years ago, her job was transferred to Texas and she had to move.

It was literally the week I was moving, Klein said. The cats were in the garage. Somebody inadvertently opened the garage door and Harley zoomed out into the world.

Having only a week, she looked for him incessantly, but then she had to go.

Throughout the years when her job would bring her back to Pennsylvania, Klein would return to her former home.

Every time I came back, I would go over to my next door neighbors house, I would call for him and drive around, Klein said. I finally came to the resolution, Well, this isnt going to be.'

Having recently moved into her Aston neighborhood, Krystal Subers noticed a brown kitty a few months ago.

I would feed him, she said. I didnt get too close to him in the beginning. Then, we would get more consistent with feeding him at a certain time. He started to gain trust with us. We became really bonded. Hes such a vocal cat. Hes so cute.

Involved in cat rescue herself, Subers said she had started working to get him into foster care but wanted to scan him to see if he was microchipped first.

When she did, she said, A chip number came up.

The microchip company called his owner.

Klein was astounded.

I was like, Holy moly,' she said. I couldnt believe it. Are you sure its my cat?'

It was. It was her Harley.

There was only one glitch  the 1,500 miles between them.

The first step was catching him. On Wednesday night, Subers set up a trap and he went in it. On Thursday, she took him to Forgotten Cats, a spay/neuter facility and adoption organization in Delaware, to get his shots and to get checked out.

There, he got more loving.

Hes a super sweet boy, Olivia Westley, development director of Forgotten Cats, said. When I put my hands in the cage, he just rubbed up against my arm and fell on his face.

Westley said Harley was in really good shape and hes being held at Forgotten Cats until Monday, when he starts the trek home to Magnolia, Texas, about 40 miles outside Houston.

There, Klein has been prepping her home for his return.

Ive got his room set up to let him have his own room for a while, she said, adding that she still has his bed from when they were in Garnet Valley.

Part of the kerfuffle was how to get him home.

Klein said the airlines werent flying animals right now because of the pandemic, so she found My Pet Cab, a pet transportation service.

Hes coming by a 45-feet RV, Klein said. They are picking him up in this massive, air-conditioned, fully loaded RV. Hes going to travel like a rock star.

And those he met along the way will never forget him.

Westley explained how momentous this occasion is for her and the others at Forgotten Cats.

This reuniting of cats is very, very few, she said, adding that less than 3 percent of cats found are ever reclaimed.

Were really happy for him, she said. Its really awesome. I see a lot of sad things in our line of work. Its really awesome when something like this comes through our doors because it lifts everybodys spirits. Faith is restored.

Subers acknowledged the moment was bittersweet.

In all the years Ive been doing rescue, Ive never had a situation like this, she said. Its really awesome and its really shocking because a lot of times with what Ive seen and dealt with, a lot of times, people dont want their cats back.

She will miss her furry friend, as will her whole family.

He was a sweetheart, Subers said. He would rub up against me, my husband, my daughter. We had the food set up in the back. He would get the wet food and the dry food. He devoured the wet food every night. Thats been our routine for months. Every night, wed go out there and see him. Hed make our night. We miss him.

But, it was the right thing to get him off the street, she said.

Klein is enormously thankful to all of those who helped secure Harleys safe return home.

I cannot say enough, she said. They have certainly gone out of their way with this whole process  Im so blessed. It has absolutely taken a village to get this cat back. You hear all the nasty stories about people. This is one of those feel good things. I hope someday, I can pay it forward.
We're constantly told that shops in these tricky times can only succeed by selling online. But there's one notable exception that insists on the in-store experience.

Primark  known by many as Primani because of its ability to ape designer trends at cheap prices  has long delighted its fans with cut-price loungewear, lingerie staples and Harry-Potter-themed onesies. The only snag is that customers can't have the products delivered, and must visit the store instead.

This quirk meant lockdown was very far from wizard for Primark. But this week's trading update from parent company Associated British Foods showed the chain hasn't lost its shine.

Sweet success: Home baking is helping ABF's Silver Spoon sugar brand

Ever since shoppers have been allowed to return they've put more into the 'average basket'  probably because once you've queued for an hour to get into the shop, you aren't going to restrict yourself to a six pack of tights and a 99p mascara.

And, as the name suggests, Associated British Foods is about far more than discount clothing. The company also owns iconic brands such as Twinings Tea, Ovaltine, Kingsmill bread and Silver Spoon sugar.

Where Primark suffered when we all stayed home, the rest of the business thrived on a new world of comfort eating and competitive baking, and a rise in the EU sugar price.

As we emerge, blinking, from what pessimists are already calling Lockdown I, AB Foods is in a reasonable, albeit unexpected position. While earnings per share are significantly below last year thanks to lockdown, better-thanexpected performance from the grocery and sugar businesses has helped sweeten the pill.

For the full year, which finished yesterday, analysts are pencilling in over 100million more profit from the food business than the same time in 2019, compensating somewhat for store closures.

AB Foods shares rose initially after analysts digested the company's trading update this week.

The figures were better than indications given earlier in the summer, which encouraged many brokers to upgrade their stances on the stock.

However, shares have since fallen as investors mull the possible impact of a 'second wave' of coronavirus on non-essential retailers, as well as general winter and Christmas pessimism after Boris Johnson's Rule of Six briefing on Wednesday.

There may be fewer Christmas parties to buy sparkly dresses for this winter, but there's still time for fast-moving Primark to move its focus to snuggly loungewear and work from home staples, while the trends driving out-performance in the grocery arena look set to continue.

AB Foods' statement on Brexit was also reassuring. Longstanding finance director John Bason said all the company's businesses were prepared in the event of No Deal.

He also informed the market that the company has now developed a 'flexible set of responses' for further Covid-19 restrictions and are 'ready to deploy these as required'.

Primark fans are no doubt hoping this is a long-awaited e-commerce strategy. But, given Bason's previous comments on the costs of online selling, a winter of queuing in the sleet and snow to buy Slytherin onesies looks more likely.

Midas Verdict: In the 1990s, Primark rose from AB Foods' Cinderella retail business to become the company's profitable postergirl.

Now that nobody can go to the ball she's been eclipsed by the less glamorous food businesses. As we make our way towards the much-vaunted 'new normal', the hope is that both can thrive.

As a well-managed business with plenty of cash and a track record of predicting consumer demand, super affordable Primark is more likely than most to keep its customers in a recession, while the groceries business should benefit from a stay-at-home winter.

Closing at 19.39 on Friday, AB Foods shares trade on almost 17 forward earnings, with a dividend yield of 2.4 per cent.

Positive news in early November could push them higher. They might be less affordable than a Harry Potter cushion but they're still worth queuing up for.

Traded on: Main market Ticker: ABF Contact: abf.co.uk or 020 7399 6500
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NHS Nightingale Hospitals's Covid wards are said to be reopening 'within weeks'

The UK needs to act fast to stop coronavirus cases growing out of control as a 'trickle' of cases can turn into a 'cascade', warns an academic who advises the Government.

Peter Openshaw, professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London, said that if people do not abide by the Government's 'rule of six' then the country faces going back into 'hard lockdown'.

His comments come as NHS Nightingale hospitals are reportedly on 'Covid standby' as coronavirus cases soar across Britain.

Boris Johnson's draconian new 'rule of six' is due to come into force in England on Monday as part of stricter social distancing measures amid fears of a second wave.

Prof Openshaw, who is a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG), added that the UK needs to act fast with even a delay of a few days being potentially 'dangerous'.

Peter Openshaw (above), who is a member of Government advisory board NERVTAG, said if people do not abide by Government's 'rule of six' then the country risks a 'hard lockdown'

Peter Openshaw, professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London, said 'vulnerable pockets' could lead to 'hospital admissions and deaths'. Above, NHS Nightingale Hospital at the Excel Centre in London

NERVTAG advises the Government on the threat posed by new and emerging viruses.

Speaking on Sky's Ridge On Sunday, Prof Openshaw said: 'We know that these are very vulnerable pockets. It's not just in the younger people, it's starting to appear in people more vulnerable and that inevitably is going to be followed by hospital admissions and deaths so we need to act quickly.

'And this isn't a game. We shouldn't be out trying to party as hard as we can in the run up to Monday's lockdown.

'We should all be really thinking about what we can do now to slow down the spread.'

It comes as Britain recorded 3,497 new daily cases of coronavirus yesterday, marking the highest Saturday rise since May.

Nine more deaths were also recorded in the previous 24 hours, bringing the total number of people who died within 28 days of a positive test for coronavirus to 41,623. The total number of confirmed cases stands at 365,174.

Speaking about the rise in cases, Prof Openshaw said: 'I think everyone is in agreement that we really need to act very quickly now in order to prevent this from growing exponentially.

'I think that's the main point is that we must act fast because it's so much harder to get this sort of thing under control if you delay.

'Even a few days is potentially going to be quite dangerous now at this particular moment.'

NHS Nightingale Hospitals's coronavirus wards (pictured, London ExCel) could reopen 'within weeks' in preparation for a second wave as coronavirus cases continue to rise across the UK

An NHS England spokesperson reportedly said that Nightingale Hospitals 'are on Covid standby'. Above, Matt Hancock opens the London ExCel temporarily facility on April 3

A key SAGE adviser also warned yesterday that England could lose control of coronavirus amid 'worrying' signs of Covid among middle-aged people, with infections in the over-50s soaring by 92 per cent in a week.

Professor Sir Mark Walport warned the public that England is on the brink of 'losing control' of the viral outbreak as he urged people to cut off contact with friends and family.

When Sophy Ridge asked Prof Openshaw if he believed Sir Mark is correct, he said: 'Well yes I think that is right.'

This comes as the NHS Nightingale Hospitals's coronavirus wards are reportedly set to reopen 'within weeks' with the infection rate rising across Britain.

Doctors have allegedly been told unofficially that emergency measures will be needed from October 2.

Nightingale Hospitals are being readied for a second wave as Covid cases continue to rise across the UK, the Mirror reported.

The temporary hospitals were built to help the NHS handle the first wave of coronavirus and some are currently aiding the health service by conducting cancer screenings and routine ultrasound tests.

An NHS England spokesperson told the Mirror that Nightingale Hospitals 'are on Covid standby' in preparations for a potential second wave.

Britain has recorded 3,497 new cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, marking the highest Saturday rise since May, as SAGE warns that England is now on the brink of 'losing control' of a new Covid outbreak

Britain recorded 3,497 new daily cases of coronavirus on Saturday and also recorded nine new deaths from the previous 24 hours. The total number of confirmed cases stands at 365,174

Boris Johnson's new 'rule of six' will be launched in England on Monday amid fears the reproduction 'R' rate could be as high as 1.7.

According to Government advisers, the last time R number was above one was in early March.

WHERE ARE THE NHS NIGHTINGALE HOSPITALS? Birmingham: An NHS Nightingale Hospital was built at the National Exhibition Centre.

Bristol: A temporarily facility was built at the Exhibition and Conference Centre on UWE Bristol's Frenchay campus.

London: ExCeL London was the first temporary hospital to be announced amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Manchester: NHS Nightingale Hospital North West was built at the Central Convention Complex.

Exeter: It was set to be built in Westpoint Arena but was moved to Sowton Industrial Estate.

Washington: NHS Nightingale Hospital North East was built in Washington, Tyne and Wear, at the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Advanced Manufacturing.

Harrogate: NHS Nightingale Hospital Yorkshire and the Humber was launched at Harrogate Convention Centre. Advertisement

As the reproduction rate rises, the number of people one infected person could pass the virus onto increases dramatically. Currently those with Covid are infecting an average of nearly two others.

One health consultant told the Sunday Mirror: 'Plans are in place for Covid wards to be reopened to cope with a fast-rising rate of infections.

'More people are going back to work, schools are open and more people are socialising in spite of the new restrictions. We have to be ready.'

But despite the surge in cases, the overall prevalence of the virus is still much lower than it was in March - about 3,000 people were estimated to be getting infected every day this week compared to 100,000 a day six months ago.

Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove has told people he hopes 'we can have a proper Christmas' as new social distancing regulations could see Halloween trick-or-treating and bonfire night celebrations cancelled.

Experts who have been swabbing tens of thousands of people in England found 13 people per 10,000 were infected between August 22 and September 7, compared to four per 10,000 between July 24 and August 11.

Weekly cases in men aged 60 to 69 rose from 221 to 352 in the past week, an increase of 60 per cent, while among women in the same age group there was a 72 per cent jump from 219 to 376.

Officials said that while the rise in cases was apparent in younger age groups, it was likely to move on to older people, which would be followed by an increase in hospitalisations.

A Department of Health report marked 'official sensitive' said the rate of Covid recorded through satellite tests, which are used in care homes, had quadrupled since the start of the month, the Sunday Times reported.

The letter, which was sent out on Friday, urges care home bosses to 'take the necessary action to prevent and limit outbreaks.

Boris Johnson's 'rule of six' will start in England on Monday amid fears the reproduction 'R' rate could be as high as 1.7. Pictured: Nightingale Hospital at ExCel centre in London

It is the workforce that are currently most affected, but the letter says that 'clearly' there is a risk that the virus will spread to residents and in some cases already has.

The newspaper said that Health Secretary Matt Hancock was given an emergency update on Wednesday saying that outbreaks had been detected in 43 care homes.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman said: 'Throughout our coronavirus response we have been doing everything we can to ensure all staff and residents in care homes are protected.'

But officials have been pointing the finger at people aged between 17 and 29 for the spike in coronavirus cases as they flock to pubs, bars and restaurants and sometimes fail to abide by social distancing measures.

It has also been suggested a 'rapid acceleration' in coronavirus cases could be linked to the hugely popular Eat Out to Help Out scheme, an Oxford University researcher has said.

And up to 4.5million people deemed at risk of serious illness from Covid will be asked to stay home or given tailored advice on protecting themselves if cases rise to dangerous levels, according to The Sunday Telegraph.

The group, who were reportedly identified using a new 'risk model' based on factors including underlying health conditions, age and weight, will receive letters containing specific advice.

The plan is initially due to operate in areas with severe levels of infection, but officials are prepared to roll it out nationwide if required, a source told the newspaper.

SAGE adviser warned that England could lose control of Covid amid 'worrying' signs among middle-aged people. Pictured: medical staff in the 'clap for carers' outside the ExCel London

UK's national statistician Professor Sir Ian Diamond, has urged people to be 'unbelievably vigilant about social distancing' to prevent a second Covid wave. Pictured, ExCel centre in London becomes a temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is believed to be considering introducing a 10pm or 11pm curfew on restaurants, bars and pubs if local measures are unable to bring the spread of the virus under control.

The move stems from a concern that adherence to social distancing measures diminishes the more people consume alcohol.

The UK's national statistician, Professor Sir Ian Diamond, has urged people to be 'unbelievably vigilant about social distancing' to prevent a second Covid wave.

The public has been warned against having a 'party weekend' ahead of rule changes on Monday, when social gatherings in England will be limited to groups of six people both indoors and outdoors.

But the new social distancing regulations have causes growing discontent as Boris Johnson is still urging people to return to the office and go back to work.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that the alleged spike in coronavirus infections justifies the Government's 'arbitrary' new 'rule of six', warning people 'the pandemic is not over'.
A group of 19 African American families have bought a 97-acre tract of land in rural Georgia which they plan to use to create a city that will serve as a safe space for black families.

The planned black cooperative town, which will be known as Freedom, is slated to be built on land purchases in August that sits just east of Macon, Georgia in Wilkinson County.

It is the brainchild of real estate agent Ashley Scott and her friend, Renee Walters, an investor and entrepreneur. The two women are holding fundraisers to help pay for the initiative and describe themselves as a 'a black-owned, woman-owned, family-owned, veteran-managed, limited liability company'.

We figured we could try to fix a broken system or we could start fresh. This is how we build our new Black Wall Streets. We can do this. We can have Wakanda. We just have to build it for ourselves,' Scott said. Wakanda is the fictional African city of the Black Panther comic book series.

White people who are 'pro-black people' can also apply to live there. Scott told CNN: 'I'm hoping that it will be a thriving safe haven for people of color, for black families in particular.

'It's impossible to have anything exclusively black because our families are integrated. We are an integrated, tolerant and diverse community even as Black people, so we don't intend for it to be exclusively Black, but we do intend for it to be pro Black in every way.

'So much land was stolen from black people. So much land was stolen from indigenous peoples. So, to be able to come back and reclaim this land from whoever may have had it, because we don't know the story and that's the reality.

'We don't know so many of our stories, but we can make a new story and that's what we hope to do here.'

A group of 19 black families purchased 97 acres of land in Wilkinson County, Georgia, which they plan to turn into a black-founded city called Freedom

The planned black cooperative town will serve as a 'safe haven' for African Americans, according to the leaders of the project

Renee Walters, an investor and entrepreneur, is one of the two women leading the Freedom Georgia Initiative

The land is located in an unincorporated part of Wilkinson County, Georgia, some 120 miles southeast of Atlanta

Can Freedom become a city? By law in Georgia, a new city must be at least one square mile in size and have a population of 200 people per square mile. At least 60 per cent of the area must be used for residential, industrial, commercial, or government purposes. It would also need to be densely populated; at least 60 percent of the land developed has to be five acres or less in size. And to have at least six council meetings a year. The Georgia General Assembly would then need to approve a city charter. Rusi Patel, legal council with the Georgia Municipal Association, said: 'If it's not viable, they aren't going to pursue it. 'Sometimes folks want new cities because they don't like who is elected currently, and that's not always a great reason, because you can run for office against that person if you don't like who represents you.' Within the first two years of the charters approval, the new city would have to provide at least three municipal services for residents. Patel added: 'A new city basically has two years to get themselves up and running before that law kicks in.' Advertisement

The two women were moved by the unrest that was triggered by the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

After the February 23 fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery came to light, Scott and Walters felt the need to search for a new community that they could start on their own.

Scott and Walters now plan to develop the land in stages.

Initially, there are plans to clear the land, farm it, and create a man-made lake for sustainable fishing.

The work is necessary before submitting a request for a city charter.

Watching our people protesting in the streets, while it is important, and I want people to stay out in the streets, bringing attention to the injustices of black people, Scott said.

We needed to create a space and a place where we could be a village, again, a tribe, again. We wanted to create this safe space where we can address our own issues and concerns.

Scott and Walters began to gauge interest among their friends and relatives in joining the effort to start a black city.

We both have black husbands. We both have black sons, Walters said.

And I was starting to get overwhelmed and have a sense of anxiety when my husband will leave the house to go to work. So, it was like, OK, what can we do?

And once I saw the post of Toomsboro going viral, about a town being on sale, I was like, Oh, this is perfect.

Building a new city can take decades, but the planners are hoping to work on an accelerated pace.

We thought it would be a five to ten-year process, but with the outpouring of support that we've gotten we can make this happen much faster, she says.

As soon as we can acquire the land, the people, the bodies we are going to be pushing this.

Walters (left) and her friend, Ashley Scott (right), came up with the idea amid the racial turmoil gripping the nation following the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery

The history of black cooperatives Historians note that there is precedent for the creation of all-black cities. In 1738 38 slaves formed Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose. In 1899, African Americans founded Hobson City, Alabama, after they were kicked out of neighboring towns. Former slaves who were freed after the Civil War founded Mound Bayou in the Mississippi Delta. In 1921 a race riot decimated the economic and cultural mecca known as Black Wall Street in Tulsa. Professor Jessica Gordon Nembhard said: 'We have a very long history of doing cooperative economics, economic cooperation, creating our own communal towns. 'More recently, we've been establishing community land trust, which actually give official land ownership to the community. 'Almost every society that had enslavement also had marooned societies. 'They set up their own communities ... and start to farm it together, create a town, run the town, work collectively as much as possible and basically have a secluded space that was totally community controlled, and a way to be away from slavery .' Advertisement

Scott and Walters created the Freedom Georgia Initiative after Walters saw an ad offering the sale of the entire town of Toomsboro - with its 30 properties - for $1.7million. Thats when she phoned Scott.

She said, Ashley, did you see the article about Toomsboro for sale? For the price of a small condo, we could buy a whole town for $1.7 million, Scott said.

It is one of the few places where you can buy a whole town with every kind of building including a historic inn, a syrup mill, an opera house, a school house, a railroad depot, a cotton warehouse, a restaurant, a barbershop, a water wheel, a grist mill, a work shop, a filling station, and several houses, the ad read.

But upon closer investigation, it became apparent that the town was not for sale.

So Scott used her skills in real estate to look for land in the area.

Thats when she found an empty plot just outside Toomsboro in unincorporated Wilkinson County.

It was just such a beautiful piece of land. It was affordable, and it just made sense that we could create something that would be amazing for our families, said Scott.

Scott told WGXA-TV that 19 families is just not enough.

The goal is to eventually expand to 200 families. The initiatives founders say they are not interested in restricting the town to just African Americans.

We want especially our black families to come to be pioneers with us, says Scott.

At the end of the day we aren't about doing reverse racism or reverse redlining, says Scott.

We just want to have a space, a place where black people and pro-black people can live and breath without the injustices we are facing in our current cities and societies.
If the Gandhi trio stirred themselves into action as a serious opposition, is there a possibility that they would end up in jail? If they were spared despite this affront, it would imply that the Modi outfit has come to the conclusion that the Gandhis are now totally harmless.

Requirements of the media in this regard are helpful to the Narendra Modi establishment in a peculiar way. It keeps the Gandhis in frequent focus with the express purpose of sustaining the delusion that they are still the rallying point for a national opposition. This salience given to the Gandhis keeps them in the public eye and thereby a massive roadblock in the way of any opposition unity, particularly since the Gandhis and their limping cohorts constantly "emote" an urge to "revive". They know that such a revival is impossible but the belief serves a purpose indicated above: it obstructs opposition unity. The media is content with the simplicity of the tweedledum versus tweedledee narrative. After all, coalitions and regional diversities are complexities impossible to contain in soundbytes.

In recent times, a story that has wafted out of the Gandhi enclosure is one of differences between them. Sonia Gandhi, with reliable retainers like Ahmad Patel is averse to rocking any boat. Status quo, uncomfortable though it be, is about the best she sees for the brood in the given circumstances. Her listless politics is also a function of her indifferent health.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's status quoism derives from her personal anxieties, family problems and an inability to cope with responsibilities. Ask Kishori Lal Sharma, appointed years ago to nurse the 'family burroughs' of Rae Bareli and Amethi and he will guardedly spill the beans. The poor fellow's Stan Hardy (as in Laurel and Hardy) moustache greyed waiting for Priyanka to address the 'Congress volunteers'. But Priyanka, like Godot, never showed up.

Rahul Gandhi, meanwhile, is being more assertive about beliefs he has long held and which approximate to the line Rajiv Gandhi enunciated at the 1985 Congress Centenary in Mumbai chastising the 'power brokers'. Is Rahul Gandhi looking for that kind of a platform? In 1969, when his grandmother, Indira Gandhi, split the Congress away from the 'power brokers', the regional satraps, the capitalists, eventually joined up with the Socialists and the RSS in the Bihar movement of 1974 under the leadership of arch Gandhian, Jayaprakash Narayan.

The 1969 split had a Left-Right dimension to it because it was in the context of the Cold War. In the post Cold War world 'Inequality' has emerged as the principal affliction of democracies where people's demands are dismissed as 'populism'. Crony capitalism thrives but no political party is allowed to find its feet if it intends to harness the discontent of the people who have borne the brunt of, say, the extended lockdown in India. There is a huge Left-of-Centre space for the opposition to occupy. It does not have to be terribly ideological. All it has to do is to make available to the people social benefits such as health, education, housing etcetera. Surely Rahul is aware of this opening, even though Sonia Gandhi is averse to any politics that would incur the wrath of the state.

Politics these days is at a standstill because of the lockdown, of course, but also because of what I call the 'Eulalie' syndrome. This light hearted diversion comes from Wodehouse. The resourceful Jeeves has come to the assistance of his master, Bertie Wooster, at a particularly challenging moment. Spode, the Earl of Sidwik, has become a permanent social menace in a country house which is Bertie's favourite haunt. How to cut down Spode's bombast? That is Bertie's challenge. Jeeves provides the panacea. Bertie has to sneak upto Spode and whisper, "I know all about Eulalie." Bertie follows Jeeves' advice. The result is electric. Spode becomes white as a sheet and collapses in the chair like a deflated balloon. It turns out that before Spode began to float in London's high society, he owned a store called Eulalie which sold lingerie known for its bras with bold designs. Eulalie, then is harmless blackmail. But the blackmail which has become the staple in contemporary politics is brutal.

A whisper on the National Herald case or Robert Vadra's land deals and Sonia Gandhi will begin to resemble Spode after the latter heard the threat made to him, "I know all about Eulalie." After the BJP's stunning victory in UP in 2017, the opposition, armed with data on electoral fraud, sought Sonia Gandhi's permission to hold a press conference. She refused to get involved in "controversies".

Take a look at Lucknow. Jockeying has begun for the 10 Rajya Sabha seats from UP. Conventional wisdom concedes eight to the BJP and one to the SP. One would have expected the opposition to jointly keep the BJP out of the solitary remaining seat. But individual party leaders are in an almighty state of funk just in case the Enforcement Directorate comes knocking at their door.

Even though the opposition has a comfortable majority in the Upper House, the BJP rammed through nearly a hundred Bills without any vote. A petrified Akhilesh Yadav is hiding behind columns to avoid political leaders who are pressing him to approach the Supreme Court. What if Yogi Adityanath sets the dogs on him? In uniformed cities like New Delhi these examples of the ruling party's impunity, away from the media's critical glare, enhance an impression of the BJP's invincibility. Forgotten are dismal economic figures and the simple catalogue that the party is not in power in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Odisha, West Bengal, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Delhi. Just as your eye settles on these facts, India Today thrusts before you its poll results: Modi's approval ratings are 78 per cent. Like the Priest in Kurosawa's Rashomon, you walk away nodding your head, "What is the truth?" (Saeed Naqvi is a senior commentator on political and diplomatic issues. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached on saeednaqvi@hotmail.com)
UK LGBT activists threaten to burn down church, attack pastor over Facebook post Labour Party Councillor Stephen Hick demands pastor be deported for saying Pride cancellation is 'wonderful news'

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A councillor in Cornwall is calling for the deportation of an Australian pastor who welcomed the cancellation of the local LGBT Pride event.

Stephen Hick, Newquay Town Councillor and Cornwall Pride leader, said in a letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel that Pastor Josh Williamson was a "hate preacher" and should be deported back to his native Australia.

Pastor Williamson, of Newquay Baptist Church, angered the LGBT community when he wrote on Facebook that the cancellation of this year's LGBT Pride event was "wonderful news."

In the ensuing backlash, LGBT activists threatened violence against the pastor and his wife, and called for the church to be burned down.

When Cornwall police spoke to Williamson, they warned him to restrict his views to a "safe environment" and refrain from offending the LGBT community in the future, according to Christian Concern which is assisting him.

In his letter to Patel, Hick wrote: "Josh Williamson's ministry has caused harm to members of the community of Newquay and the wider LGBTQ+ community across Cornwall.

"I believe his continued presence, preaching the hate that he does, presents a continuing harm to the same communities.

"I am unaware of the previous ministry of this particular church, but a foreign preacher travelling to the UK to promote and potentially act upon extremist views should be treated with the utmost seriousness."

Hick has also called on businesses in the Newquay area to refuse services to the pastor and the church.

Writing in the Newquay Voice, Hick said: "I call on every individual and business within Newquay to deny him and his church the ability to spread their odious message. Do not interact with them, do not allow them to use your premises, do not accept their message."

Responding to the call, the pastor said Hick's comments were "textbook bullying."

"I am not sure how Mr. Hick is going to identify those connected with our church, perhaps he'll want us to wear a yellow cross on our shirts?" he said.

Christian Concern called the councillor's words "chilling."

"We are continuing to support Josh and his church and call on Mr Hick to retract these vindictive comments," it said.

"Jesus taught us to love even those who hate us. ... Pray for Josh and pray for Stephen Hick."

Originally published at Christian Today
Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot shared photos of them undergoing a coronavirus nose swab test as they resumed filming for Red Notice

Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds has resumed shooting for action heist thriller Red Notice, co-starring Gal Gadot and Dwayne Johnson.

The streamer Netflix had paused the film's shoot in March in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

(Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak)

The film was being shot across the world since February and had moved to Atlanta in early March.

In a post on Instagram, Reynolds shared photos of him undergoing a coronavirus nose swab test on Saturday.

"Back to work on Red Notice. The COVID Test is quick and easy. The doctor places the swab up your nose, just deep enough to tickle your childhood memories and then its over," the actor wrote.

On Thursday, Gadot had shared similar photos on social media as she went back for the film's shoot.

"Getting ready to head back to the Red Notice set but prep looks a little different no... #staysafe" she posted on Instagram.

Red Notice is being directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber. The film is expected to release in 2021
Vietnam recorded five further fresh cases of COVID-19, all imported, taking the national count to 1,063, the Ministry of Health reported on September 13.

The newly-detected patients entered Cam Ranh Airport in Nha Trang City from Russia on flight VN5062 on September 10 and were immediately quarantined after their entry into the country.

Illustrative photo

The Nha Trang Pasteur Institute said on September 13 that their test results were positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Currently, the patients are put into isolation to undergo treatment at a general hospital in Phu Yen province.

With the new infections, the nations total COVID-19 cases rose to 1,063, of which 691 are locally transmitted cases, and 372 cases are imported and placed into isolation immediately upon arrival.

The same day, an additional eight COVID-19 patients were given the all-clear after testing negative for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, bring the overall number of people who have now beaten the virus to 918.

The total figure for cases related to the outbreak in the central city of Da Nang since the resurgence of the virus in late July remains at 551.

There are 36,290 people who had close contact with COVID-19 patients or entered Vietnam from pandemic-hit regions are being quarantined nationwide, including 504 at hospitals, and the remainder at concentrated quarantine establishments and at home.

Among the active patients in treatment, 16 tested negative for coronavirus SAR-CoV-2 once, 17 twice and 21 three times.

The country has so far registered 35 fatalities relating to COVID-19, mostly of them were elderly people with serious underlying diseases.

Meanwhile, the HCM City Center for Disease Control (CDC) on September 13 reported that the city has recorded no more COVID-19 patients within the community for 42 days in a row.

According to the CDC in the southern metropolis, as many as 77 local coronavirus patients have been fully recovered from the disease, while 18 people are in the health monitoring period after discharge and 54 ended the medical observation period.

There are currently 863 people in quarantine at concentrated isolation sites, and 238 people put into isolation at home or places of residence.

Elsewhere, the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam has sent an urgent document to the Ministry of Transport asking it to remove seat spacing on flights departing from central Da Nang city as from 14:00 September 13.



VOV
The National Hurricane Center continued to track a hurricane, a tropical storm, two depressions and three tropical waves on Sunday.

Two of the storms, Hurricane Paulette and Tropical Storm Sally, are threatening land, and both could become strong hurricanes.

Paulette was a Category 1 hurricane with 85 mph winds on Sunday afternoon but could be a Category 2 storm when it passes near or over Bermuda on Monday morning. It could get even stronger after that.

As of 4 p.m. CDT Sunday, Hurricane Paulette was located 155 miles southeast of Bermuda and was moving northwest at 14 mph.

Hurricane Paulette will move very close to or over Bermuda on Monday.

A hurricane warning continued for Bermuda, which could see a dangerous storm surge and 3 to 6 inches of rain as well as damaging winds.

Next is Tropical Storm Sally, which was stronger on Sunday and will threaten the northern Gulf Coast as a hurricane by late Monday or early Tuesday.

Sally could bring significant flooding to parts of the Gulf Coast through midweek as well as storm surge, damaging winds and tornadoes.

As of 4 p.m. CDT Sunday, Tropical Storm Sally was located about 215 miles east-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, or 165 miles south of Panama City, and was moving west-northwest at 9 mph.

Tropical Storm Sally got stronger on Sunday as it headed northwest in the Gulf of Mexico. Landfall is expected late Monday or early Tuesday, likely in Louisiana.

Sally had winds of 60 mph. It was expected to become a hurricane on Monday.

Landfall, likely in southeastern Louisiana, is expected late Monday or early Tuesday.

A hurricane warning is in effect from Morgan City, La., to Ocean Springs, Miss, as well as Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas including metro New Orleans.

A hurricane watch is in effect from east of Ocean Springs, Miss., to the Alabama/Florida border.

Sally is forecast to slow down as it nears the coast, exacerbating the effects from flooding rain and storm surge along the northern Gulf Coast.

A storm surge warning is in effect from Port Fourchon, La., to the Mississippi-Alabama border. A watch continues from the Mississippi/Alabama border to the Alabama/Florida border.

The hurricane center said 7 to 11 feet of storm surge will be possible from the mouth of the Mississippi River to Ocean Springs, Miss.

Other areas along the coast could see 1 to 7 feet of surge.

Inland flooding is also a big concern, with significant flooding possible. The hurricane center said 8 to 16 inches of rain with isolated totals of 24 inches possible over parts of the central Gulf Coast through midweek, which is an increase from earlier today.

OTHER STORMS

In addition to Paulette and Sally theres Tropical Depression Rene, which had 30 mph winds on Sunday and was expected to become a remnant low on Monday.

Rene was in the central Atlantic and not expected to affect land.

Next is Tropical Depression 20 farther to the east.

TD 20 is expected to strengthen into Tropical Storm Teddy by tonight and then a hurricane -- and possibly a powerful one.

It was 1,600 miles east of the Lesser Antilles and was expected to turn more to the northwest and not affect land at least through this week.

There are also three other tropical waves being watched, and one is in the Gulf.

That wave has only a 20 percent chance of becoming a tropical depression in the next five days as it moves southwestward and away from the U.S.

Another tropical wave is just west of the Cabo Verde Islands as of Sunday. It could become a tropical short-lived tropical depression early this week as it tracks to the north-northwest. However it will also move into a less favorable area for development by Tuesday so additional development isnt expected.

Another tropical wave is expected to move off the west coast of Africa in the next few days and has a 30 percent chance of becoming a tropical depression in five days as it tracks westward.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs through Nov. 30.
Mizoram's lone legislator



Budhha Dhan Chakma has tested positive for COVID-19, official sources said on Sunday.

He was among the 35 people who were diagnosed with infection in the last 24 hours, they said.

Chakma, 47, is the only legislator in to have tested positive for COVID-19.

"I am very surprised that I have tested positive for COVID-19. But I am asymptomatic and doing very well. Luckily, all my other family members have tested negative," he told PTI.

He said he will be shifted to Zoram Medical College (ZMC) for treatment.

"I have asked the health department to shift me to ZMC as being a COVID-19 patient it is not safe to be at home. I hope I will be shifted to the medical college in the evening," he said.

A former Congress member, Chakma was the Minister of State for Sericulture and Fisheries in the previous Lal Thanhawla government.

In October 2017, he resigned as the minister and also from the party in protest against the denial of medical seats to four Chakma students who had qualified in the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET).

Later, he joined the and won the Tuichawng seat in the November 2018 assembly elections.

has so far reported 1,414 cases of COVID-19.

There are 591 active cases in the state at present, while 823 people have recovered.

has not reported any COVID-19 death.

(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.)
It was the first post I read on Monday when I logged onto Facebook. If youve never had the Supreme Court decide if you have the same rights as others, you have privilege.

Ive read a great deal about privilege, particularly white privilege, but had never seen the subject addressed with such clarity and succinctness. I immediately began reviewing some of the most significant Supreme Court decisions in American history  decisions that we applaud as well as those we deplore.

The Supreme Courts 1857 decision in the Dred Scott case would have had no impact on me as a white American, had I been living at that time. Dred Scott, born into slavery, was taken by his owner to Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory, where slavery was illegal. He filed a lawsuit in the St. Louis Circuit Court in 1846. Scott demanded his freedom based on two Missouri statutes: a person of any race could sue for false imprisonment; and a slave taken to a free state or territory became free and couldnt be re-enslaved. Lower court rejections compelled Scott to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The high court ruled against Scott by a 7-2 vote. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Roger Taney stated that Scott had no right to sue for his freedom since blacks werent citizens of the United States. Indeed, a perpetual and impassable barrier existed to separate the white race and the one which they had reduced to slavery. Slaves remained slaves, even when their owners took them into states and territories that had outlawed slavery.

The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was sponsored by radical Republicans Sen. Charles Sumner and Rep. Benjamin Butler. It was passed by Congress and signed into law by President U.S. Grant. The measure outlawed racial discrimination in public accommodations and public transportation. The Supreme Court in 1883 ruled 8-1 that sections of the act were unconstitutional. The federal government, the court decided, lacked the authority to forbid racial discrimination practiced by private individuals.

The Supreme Court yet again reduced the rights of black Americans with its 1896 ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson. Louisiana, a former Confederate state, in 1890 implemented a law that required equal but separate accommodations for black and white train passengers. Homer Plessy. in the language of that era, was an octoroon, which meant that he was one-eighth black. Plessy deliberately violated this law for the purpose of having it declared unconstitutional when his case went to court. He lost the case, however, and his conviction was upheld by the Louisiana Supreme Court.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Plessys case but also ruled against him. Racial segregation in the United States now had judicial legitimacy. The sole dissenting vote on the Supreme Court was cast by John Marshall Harlan, who argued that Our constitution is color-blind. He predicted that one day the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling would be regarded as pernicious as the Dred Scott decision. Harlan had also cast the sole dissenting vote in 1883 when the Supreme Court struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875.

These three decisions attacked the rights of black Americans. A landmark 1954 decision, however, expanded their rights. In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the court unanimously ruled that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of separate but equal has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal, the court stated in handing down its ruling.

The Supreme Court in 1973 ruled in Roe v. Wade that women possess the right to reproductive freedom of choice. In the 2015 case of Obergefell v. Hodges, the Court decided that same-gender couples have the right to marry.

But have I as a white, straight, native-born American, ever had my rights determined by a Supreme Court decision? Yes, in 2015 when the Court upheld Obamacare, which at that time provided me with health insurance. And make no mistake  access to quality healthcare is indeed a right for all Americans.

John J. Dunphy is an author, the Godfrey 15th Precinct Democratic Committeeperson and recording secretary for the Godfrey Democrats.
A trio of humpback whales  usually bound for Antarctica this time of year  took a wrong turn, heading up a crocodile-infested north Australian river with scientists hoping Saturday they will all return to the sea safely.

Two of the creatures, first seen in the East Alligator River in Kakadu National Park earlier this week, are already believed to have gone back to the sea, Parks Australia said.

But authorities were still monitoring at least one whale, spotted about 20 kilometres (12.4 miles) up the river on Saturday, Kakadu National Park manager of country and culture section Feach Moyle told AFP.

The most likely explanation is that they were heading back down south and took a wrong turn," Moyle said.

Its a bit difficult to tell if theres one or two there," he added, with the rivers muddy colour making identification hard.

Although whales are sometimes seen off the Northern Territory coast, it is believed to be the first time one has been spotted in the tropical rivers of the huge world heritage-listed nature reserve, he said.

Park authorities have set up a partial exclusion zone to protect unwitting boaters and any remaining whales, which can grow up to 16 metres long and weigh 30 tonnes.

The last thing we want is a collision between a boat and whale in waters where crocodiles are prevalent and visibility underwater is zero," Parks Australia said.

There were also concerns about boats forcing the creatures further up the river.

Although in prime croc country, the saltwater reptiles did not pose a major threat to humpbacks due to their size, Moyle said.

Even a big croc is not going to tangle with them."

The bigger issue was if a whale became stranded, with a dangerous rescue in remote country making it hard to reach before the animal became croc bait", he said.

What we want to happen is, we get up in the helicopter tomorrow and then we see them waving goodbye."
Writer-director Francis Lee on the set of "Ammonite." (Agatha A. Nitecka / Neon)

After a number of pandemic-related delays, the period romance Ammonite has been uncovered at last. Written and directed by Francis Lee, the film is set in 1840s Dorset, England. There the paleontologist Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) spends her time mostly alone by the seaside looking for fossils. After Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan) is unceremoniously left behind by her husband to convalesce in Annings care, the two women find themselves drawing closer, both brightened by the relationship.

The film brings together three celebrated artists. Lee, an actor turned filmmaker, won numerous prizes for his 2017 debut feature Gods Own Country, a queer romance set on a sheep farm. Winslet, along with her best actress Oscar win for The Reader, has six other Academy Award nominations. Ronan is a four-time Oscar nominee.

Ammonite was selected to be part of the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year and also the Telluride Film Festival in the fall, both of which were subsequently canceled. The film finally had its world premiere on Friday night as part of the Toronto International Film Festival. Earlier in the week Lee spoke on the phone from his home in Yorkshire, England, about the film.

Kate Winslet as Mary Anning in 'Ammonite." (Neon)







There's been such anticipation since a first image of Kate and Saoirse together was released over a year ago. Has that put any added pressure on you in finishing the movie?

Francis Lee: This is only my second film. And I'm very lucky because I live very remotely, on the side of a hill in the middle of nowhere, in a wooden hut that has no cell reception. I don't go to film parties or anything like that, because obviously I live very far away from anything. And so I am quite protected from any kind of noise around the film, but I've been really excited and thrilled that people are really looking forward to seeing it. And I'm nervous obviously, but I'm more excited. I want to share the film with people.





As you were talking about God's Own Country it often came up that it was based on your life. What was the inspiration for the story of Ammonite?

Story continues

Lee: Well, the thing with Gods Own Country is that it's not autobiographical in any way, shape or form, apart from the landscape where I grew up and where I live. With Gods Own Country I was exploring this idea of relationships and what it feels like to fall in love and what have you and Ammonite is a very personal film in terms of the emotional scope of it and those characters. So again I am exploring this idea of relationships and what have you. It's just that they're in the 19th century.





Did you do research into paleontology and the women of that era? How did you come to have the real-life figures of Mary Anning and Charlotte Murchison be part of the movie?

Lee: This is quite a long answer. So I was looking for a birthday present for my then-boyfriend and he really liked polished stones and fossils, and every time I looked for a fossil this woman's name kept coming up, Mary Anning. And so I started to read about her and I was instantly drawn to her because she was a working-class woman, born into a life of poverty in a very strict, patriarchal, class-ridden society where she rose to being the leading paleontologist of her generation, but totally unrecognized because of her gender and because of her class. And as a working-class queer filmmaker, I'm very obsessed by class and this idea of patriarchy and gender.

And at the same time, I read some research about female-and-female relationships of the 19th century, which are really quite well-documented through letters to each other, these really wonderful, passionate, loving letters that women would write that kind of illustrated these deep, emotional, passionate relationships. And I knew I never wanted to write a bio-pic about Mary Anning because there's virtually nothing written about her by contemporaries. Again, because she was this working-class woman. And so I wanted to use her story to inspire this love story and to be able to elevate her and to be able to give her a relationship with somebody I felt would be worthy of her. And, in this very patriarchal society, that didn't feel [like it should] be with a man, because men owned women and women were subject to men. I wanted to elevate this idea of who Mary Anning is. And so that's where all these things collided. And it's quite well-documented that Mary had friendships with women but there's no documentation that she ever had a relationship with a man. And so I just took that and interpreted it, to develop this vision of the Mary as I saw her.

Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan in "Ammonite." (TIFF)







What about casting Kate and Saoirse? Was it difficult to get two of the most highly regarded actresses of our day?

Lee: The short answer is that I never write with an actor in mind because I think it would be too devastating to then send it to that actor and that actor not be available or not want to do it. So I kind of try and keep an open mind. When I was thinking about, first of all, the role of Mary I knew I wanted to cast a British actor and I knew I wanted this actor to be in her 40s. And I'd always been drawn to Kate because there's such an honesty and truthfulness about her performances. And so very simply I sent her the script. Kate is wonderful at reading things. She read it the same day and the message came back on the same day she wanted to do it. So that was great. With Saoirse, I'd always been drawn to Saoirses work because she's so vibrant onscreen and again has such an honesty and a truth. I sent it to Saoirse and again, Saoirse read it and came back and wanted to do it.

And it was important to me because I like to work in a particular way with actors, which is quite a lot of character work before we start shooting and develop these characters from scratch. And both Kate and Saoirse were really open to really doing all that work. And part of that is to do the physical work of the character because I don't like any stunt doubles or hand doubles or anything. I like authenticity. So Kate went on those beaches on the South coast of England for weeks and weeks and weeks and got cold and wet and learnt and became incredibly proficient at fossil hunting and knowledgeable. And Saoirse had to learn how to play the piano and learn how to do needlepoint and all these things. Both of them totally threw themselves into it physically, which was just wonderful. And I think really adds an extra level of truth to the performances.





They make for such a great pairing onscreen. They each have this way of seeming both bottled-up and passionate at the same time.

That's so lovely to hear. Thank you. I agree. I think they complement each other perfectly. What was so great about working with them is that I like emotion that's very internalized rather than front-footed and it was great to see them both work in that sphere of internalized emotion and holding on to so much.









I certainly don't want to spoil anything, but I think the ending of the movie is something youre going to get a lot of questions about. A whole rush of emotions plays across Kates face and its hard to read exactly. What did you like about an ambiguous ending?

Lee: I guess I wanted an ending that could be interpreted as hopeful. I don't know how much at first I can say. I guess what I like about stories is when you see a movie, I really like it when it feels like it's a snapshot of somebody's life, that you're dropped in to somebody's life at a certain point, not at the beginning, not at the end, but just at a certain point. And you go on this journey for however long that period of time is, and then you leave. And I guess I liked that idea that it felt like we were going through this immersive emotional story with these characters and that at the end, we were going to leave them, but these characters were going to carry on with their lives. And they were going to determine for themselves in a sense how that was going to play out.





With God's Own Country, you went through endless comparisons to Brokeback Mountain and with Ammonite people have been talking about the movie with regards to Portrait of a Lady on Fire or even already comparing it to The World To Come, which just premiered at Venice. How do you feel about that?

Lee: I think it's a really super-interesting question. I don't see queer films as a genre and in no other way do films get compared in this way. Working Girl and An Officer and A Gentlemen are never compared. And I think that it is somewhat difficult that as filmmakers, particularly those three films you just mentioned, each of those filmmakers, including myself, all made our films without any knowledge of the other making their films. And so I think that it only happens in queer cinema where films are compared like this.

And sometimes it feels like we're only allowed one film. I remembered in 2017 when God's Own Country came out, there was for the first time that I could remember, quite a few queer films, which I thought was a fantastic celebration. There was [A] Fantastic Woman. There was Moonlight. There was "God's Own Country, there was Beach Rats, there was Call Me By Your Name and others. And for the first time, I think audiences had a real choice of the queer movie they wanted to see or they liked, or they wanted to go to or they could like all of them. And I think comparing them so directly is difficult.

To me it feels regressive. And I'm confused why you're only allowed to like one. Why can't you like them all? And as I say, in heterosexual cinema, how many films will be made this year that are contemporary heterosexual romances or thrillers or horror, and those films won't be compared like that. I don't think queer cinema is a genre. I think it's more expansive than that. I think they fall into other categories  love stories, thrillers, romcoms, horror. It's a mystery to me.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

On the surface, the city of Santa Fe and the United World College in Montezuma just outside Las Vegas, N.M., have little in common.

But both have found the same contact-tracing app out of Carnegie Mellon University that aims to make tracking COVID carriers significantly easier than the states cumbersome calling method.

As a matter of fact, the city recently started a full informational blitz to encourage city and county residents  and even visitors  to download and use the app, said Rich Brown, director of the citys Office of Economic Development. Signs written in English and Spanish urging people to download the app have been placed around town.

Likewise, with the blessing of the school administration, students at UWC have been encouraged to use the app since returning to the school last month, said Naomi Swinton, dean of students.

The NOVID app (available for free on Google Play and the App Store) will anonymously detect when users are within contact distance via a combination of ultrasound, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technologies, according to NOVID.org.

These interactions help build an anonymous network of connections, helping track cases as they are self-reported.

What makes NOVID different is adding ultrasound interaction to the Bluetooth and GPS technology, which cannot account for such things as walls and floors; thus, they can falsely record interactions.

In a systematic study, we found that we avoid falsely recording interactions with 99.6% accuracy, according to the website.

Further, the app allows organizations or institutions to create communities, or virtual groups of NOVID users, revealing prior unattainable community trends about the spread.

Santa Fe is in the process of working with NOVID developers to create such a dashboard for the city and county, Brown said, which will help officials track spreading trends.

Were creating a dashboard with the county and Department of Health to see a macro view of where concentrations are happening, he said. Were working through a legal agreement with NOVID creators now.

UWC already has gotten about half of its 190 students and 90 employees engaged in NOVID, said Alex Bavalsky, a second-year student who was part of a research group that helped recommend NOVID.

The goal, he said, is to get everyone within the school community to use it, thus helping create a firm bubble where the tracing can be very effective.

Bavalsky said hes reached out to Las Vegas city officials to encourage residents there, as well as New Mexico Highlands University and Luna Community College students, to use the app.

Although the city of Las Vegas has not adopted any formal plan like Santa Fe has, said city manager Bill Taylor, it has sent a letter to the governors office recommending the state consider adopting NOVID.

Meanwhile, Brown said the saturation goal for Santa Fe is to reach about 5% usage by the Thanksgiving holiday.

We dont have a hard timeline, but we have a soft timeline, he said. We would love to get that 5% by Thanksgiving. That would be great, keeping in mind thats one of those gathering points. Thanksgiving is when everybody comes together eating, congregating. We just passed Labor Day, and now were heading into winter cold and flu season.

It would be great to surpass 5% but, realistically, thats a long shot, Brown said.

Were targeting about 5% of the city and county, he said. That would allow us to build the viral aspect of it. It gives us enough of a glimpse to see where the movement is. If we get to 10%, thats a fantastic number. But if we can get to 5%, we can see where it starts to accelerate and give us an early warning system.

That would generate enough data that the city could also approach the governors office seeking statewide participation.

NOVID information is going out in water bills, and there is information about it on the citys website and Facebook page. Bilingual yard signs have been posted in many city parks, as well, Brown said, particularly in the southwestern part of the city, where more than half of the local cases have been found.
Zhong Nanshan, 84, is the director of the National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease at the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University.

In his 60-year career of being a doctor and teacher, he has perfectly explained the original aspiration and mission of medical practitioners with his professionalism, courage and generous spirit.

Zhong Nanshan. Photo by The Beijing News

His career exactly echoes what he remarked at a recent meeting to commend role models in the country's fight against the COVID-19 epidemic: To protect people's lives and health is the original aspiration and mission of medical practitioners.

In early 2003, China was hit by the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic, and the situation was extremely severe.

Facing such an unprecedented virus, Zhong denied the viewpoint that the epidemic was caused by typical chlamydia with his professionalism and rich experience, thus offering a solid basis for making a timely treatment plan.

Zhong Nanshan takes a nap on a dining car of a high-speed train to Wuhan, former epicenter of the COVID-19 epidemic, Jan. 18. Photo by Su Yueming (From http://www.ccdi.gov.cn/)

He made such judgment because he had checked the oral cavity of every patient. He was once asked by a friend if he was afraid of misjudgment, as any error would reduce his reputation as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He simply replied that science is fact-oriented and scientists shall not dodge problems for the sake of keeping out of disputes, otherwise, the patients would suffer.

When the country was combating the SARS epidemic, Zhong and his team worked around the clock and finally achieved a set of effective treatment methods, making prominent contribution to lowering mortality and improving recovery rate.

Though Zhong is very honorable, he always says he's just a doctor. However, this extraordinary doctor, in both the responses to SARS and COVID-19, has always acted practically and realistically, conveying confidence and sense of security to the public with his professionalism and responsibility.

In 2003, he volunteered to receive the most critical SARS patients, and 17 years later, he once again stressed that doctors shall be the first to rush to the frontline in combating COVID-19. He always carries on his shoulders the responsibility of a doctor.

A wall painting exhibition is held in Qingdao, east China's Shandong province, to commend frontline medical workers in COVID-19 response, May 5. A large portrait of Zhong Nanshan, which is 5 meters in height and 3 meters in width, attracts a large number of visitors. Photo by Huang Jiexian/People's Daily Online

A photo of Zhong taken on Jan. 18 this year went viral on Chinese social media, in which Zhong was taking a nap, frowning, on a dining car of a high-speed train to Wuhan, former epicenter of the COVID-19 epidemic. What was in front of him was a pile of documents that he had just read through. Reminding the public to not to go to Wuhan, he was rushing to the city to save lives.

Two days later, Zhong, the head of a high-level expert team organized by China's top national health body, warned the public that the virus was transmissible among humans. Ever since, he has led his team to race against time, advancing clinical treatment and scientific research simultaneously.

During the period of COVID-19 control, he and his team initiated 41 COVID-19 clinical trial projects, and published over 50 articles on renowned international academic journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine. Besides, they led the making of three COVID-19 guidance projects, and finished two relevant books.

Paper-cutting artist Zhao Lanfang from north China's Shanxi province showcases a Zhong Nanshan-themed work, April 3. Photo by Xing Lanfu/People's Daily Online

Zhong has not only rendered meritorious service to his country, but also made positive contribution to the global anti-epidemic efforts. He joined 32 international teleconferences, and had in-depth communication with medical experts from 13 countries and deputies from 158 foreign missions in China.

Zhong is more than a doctor. Every time when public health emergencies happened, he showcased not only his sense of responsibility as an academician, but also the courage of a warrior. He was always on the frontline fearlessly.

Today, he still makes ward rounds on Wednesday morning and receives outpatients on every Thursday afternoon. According to his colleagues, he always warms the echometer in winter before putting it on the patients, and help them lay down and get up for examination. No matter how old the patients are or what diseases they suffer, Zhong treats them equally.

"I don't feel tired as long as I'm saving people," he always says.

Recently, Zhong has been selected as a member of a panel appointed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to review the COVID-19 response. He will offer assistance and positive contribution to the work of the panel with his professionalism and experience.
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.




Louis Zbinden Jr., a longtime San Antonio pastor who dedicated his life to helping others often forgotten by the rest of society, has died.

Zbinden led First Presbyterian Church in San Antonio for more than three decades, championing efforts to improve the lives of people experiencing homelessness by helping to create Christian Assistance Ministry and SAMMinistries, two nonprofits that serve as a safety net for the citys families.

Among loved ones and friends, he is remembered as a man whod open his own home to anyone in need  someone who would give of himself, beyond what anybody else could imagine.

He died at his home Friday of medical complications at age 84. He was surrounded by his family while the song Battle Hymn of the Republic played in the background. One of his daughters said he died just as the song reached the chorus: Glory, glory, hallelujah.

He was just a larger-than-life kind of man, said his daughter Katie Farrimond, 54. Professionally, he was the kind of man who challenged obstacles. He was the kind of man who said, Well, why cant we do that?  which is how he got so much done. He wouldnt take no for an answer.

Zbinden was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tenn. He met his wife, Katherine Shoaf  who goes by Kip  while attending Southwestern University in Memphis. They didnt date in college but ran into each other at a wedding after graduation. They hit it off.

Louis Henderson Zbinden Jr. Born: Feb. 11, 1936, Chattanooga, Tenn. Died: Sept. 11, 2020, San Antonio Survived by: Wife Katherine "Kip" Shoaf Zbinden; son Louis Henderson Zbinden III; daughters Anne Zbinden, Katie Zbinden Farrimond and Betsy Zbinden Baker; grandchildren Louis Zbinden IV, Pearse Zbinden, Mollie Farrimond, Hunter Farrimond, Abbie Farrimond, Owen Baker and Elizabeth Baker; and brother Mark Zbinden. Service: Arrangements are being made with Porter Loring Mortuary. For more information, visit PorterLoring.com. See More Collapse

At some point while they were dating, Zbinden injured his knee. No one is quite sure how it unfolded, but while she was visiting him in the hospital as he recovered from knee surgery, Zbinden proposed.

Its the strangest thing  neither one of them remembers how it came about, Farrimond said. But she walked in not engaged and walked out engaged.

The couple celebrated 61 years of marriage Aug. 14.

Early in his career, Zbinden served in Presbyterian churches in Virginia and North Carolina, until he became senior pastor of San Antonios First Presbyterian Church in 1971.

Fred Middleton, 82, met the pastor when he first arrived in Texas. Zbinden was 34 at the time and had pork chop sideburns and a double-knit suit that left him sweltering in the summer heat.

When Middleton first saw him, he thought, Well, that must be a preacher.

That was roughly 50 years ago. The two quickly became friends, frequently escaping to Middletons ranch an hour southwest of San Antonio to go bass fishing.

Middleton said his friend was gentle and generous  to a fault almost. Zbinden gave so much of his life to the church, and he touched thousands of lives. Middleton just tried to be there to support him, giving him a chance to get away on the lake.

He was a real person  he didnt put himself on a pedestal, Middleton said. Others might have, but he didnt like it up there.

Zbinden had four children. When they were growing up, their lives revolved around the church. At night, Zbinden would work at the dining table to finish writing his sermons.

That was one of Louis Zbinden IIIs favorite memories of his father.

I would be sitting in there watching him do that and draw on a piece of paper and pretend like I was writing a sermon, too, the 56-year-old said.

His father worked at church almost every day of the year, except when the pastor would take his family for a four-week-long trip to Port Aransas during his sabbatical. Theyd spend hours on the beach each day, reading and splashing in the surf. Even the parents would play duck-duck-goose and fly kites.

It was his only vacation of the year, said his youngest daughter, Betsy Baker, 46. That was a really special time for our family.

Zbindens service to the community didnt stop when he left the church building. His children said he often invited people into their home  sometimes to stay for days.

Theyd call the church in the middle of the night, and obviously he took the phone call, Farrimond said. He would go pick them up in the middle of the night; and the next morning, wed have a stranger in our house.

Farrimond said her father and mother grew up in tight-knit communities where there were no strangers. So when someone in San Antonio lost their home or couldnt afford rent, one of the Zbinden children would clear out their bedroom for the new guest.

The Zbindens had been opening their home to strangers for years by the time Farrimond said her father was approached in 1981 by a man living on San Antonios downtown streets. The man asked for money. Zbinden didnt give him any.

The next morning, the man was dead on the church property, Farrimond recalled. At that point, he said, This is wrong, we have to do something.

Thats how San Antonio Metropolitan Ministry  now known as SAMMinistries  was formed. The first shelter was launched in the basement of Zbindens churchs youth building, initially drawing the ire of downtown business owners who grumbled about the crowds of people whod line up each evening for a hot meal and a bed to sleep in, said Anne Zbinden, his oldest daughter.

He was very persuasive in saying, This is the right thing to do, said Anne Zbinden, 59. You may not be comfortable with it, but this is the right thing for you to do.

Marina Starleaf Riker is an investigative reporter for the San Antonio Express-News with extensive experience covering affordable housing, inequality and disaster recovery. To read more from Marina, become a subscriber. marina.riker@express-news.net | Twitter: @MarinaStarleaf
In the wake of BMC functionaries demolishing Kangana Ranauts Mumbai office, a few of the Karni Sena officials met the actress today at her residence. The organisation has extended its support to Kangana and have been escorting her around the city after the demolition drive that took place on September 9.

It must be recollected that Kangana and Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut were involved in a war of words with the actress alleging that Raut threatened her after she compared Mumbai to Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).



This led to the Karni Sena members staging a protest against Sanjay Raut for his remarks on Kangana. The members of the outfit also burnt the effigy of Raut demanded an apology. They believed that the kind of language the Shiv Sena leader used for the actress was insulting to the womenkind.



In the meantime, the Queen actress is also meeting with the Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, today (September 13, 2020) at 4.30 pm in Raj Bhavan. Although not is known about the meeting the sources suggest that Kangana might brief the governor about her beef with Shiv Sena.

ALSO READ: Kangana Ranaut To Meet Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari Today

ALSO READ: As Kangana Ranaut's Mom Condemns Maharashtra Government, Actress Says She's Scared Of Her Anger
She and her family announced this week that their landmark reality series Keeping Up With The Kardashians would come to an end in 2021 after 20 seasons on E!

And Kourtney Kardashian appeared to nod at the series' impending end in her Instagram caption on Saturday.

'she has exited the building,' the 41-year-old KUWTK star wrote along with a slew of stunning self-portraits.

Dropping hints: Kourtney Kardashian appeared to allude to Keeping Up With The Kardashian's impending end in her Instagram caption on Saturday

Kourtney put her toned midriff on display in a silk crop top and a pair of white drawstring trousers.

Her lengthy raven hair was tightly slicked back and styled into a chic braid.

The POOSH founder accentuated her high cheekbones with a generous amount of highlighter and a few swipes of warm toned bronzer.

Her brows looked perfectly sculpted and she dusted a light amount of brown eyeshadow on her lids.

So long: 'she has exited the building' wrote the 41-year-old KUWTK star, who included a slew of stunning self-portraits

Monochromatic: Kourtney put her toned midriff on display in a silk crop top and a pair of white drawstring trousers

To complete the ethereal makeup look, Kourtney applied a nude lipstick to her plump pout.

Kardashian accessorized her ensemble with a beige designer bag and a pair of nude kitten heels.

For both snapshots, she posed with her body facing forward and her head turned to the side.

Slick: Her lengthy raven hair was tightly slicked back and styled into a chic braid

All in the details: Kardashian accessorized her ensemble with a beige designer bag and a pair of nude kitten heels

Kourtney included a stop-motion style video of her strutting down her home's hallway in her fashion forward fit and a pair of dark tinted sunglasses.

Kourtney is no stranger to providing fashion inspiration for her 101million Instagram followers.

On Friday, she uploaded a pair of stylish throwback photos taken during her trip to Wyoming in June with ex Scott Disick and their three children.

Strut: Kourtney included a stop-motion style video of her strutting down her home's hallway in her fashion forward fit and a pair of dark tinted sunglasses

Kardashian sported a gogo inspired outfit complete with a sleeveless mock neck dress and a pair of matching knee high boots.

She posed in front of multiple stacks of hay as the ranch's picturesque hills rested behind her.

Like in Saturday's Instagram photos, Kourtney went for a slicked back look that showed off her enviable facial features.

Kardashian has been spending a ton of her time with Disick, after the 37-year-old Talentless founder split from his girlfriend of three-years Sofia Richie, 22, in May.

Throwback: On Friday, she uploaded a pair of stylish throwback photos taken during her trip to Wyoming in June with ex Scott Disick and their three children

Gogo girl: Kardashian sported a gogo inspired outfit complete with a sleeveless mock neck dress and a pair of matching knee high boots

Scott and Kourtney, who split in 2015 after nine years together, share sons Mason, ten, and Reign, five, and daughter Penelope, eight.

Despite all their bonding time, sources close to the former pair refuted all claims that they planned to rekindle their romance to TMZ.

Kourtney Kardashian recently opened up about what dating is like in her family on the latest episode of Kate Hudson's podcast, Sibling Revelry.

Family first: Scott and Kourtney, who split in 2015 after nine years together, share sons Mason, ten, and Reign, five, and daughter Penelope, eight

When asked "who gives the best relationship advice," the eldest of the Kardashian-Jenner children immediately selected sister Khloe, 36.

'Khloe's is harsh, harsh advice,' explained Kourtney to Kate, 41, and her co-host Oliver Hudson, during an interview at Kate's home, pre-pandemic.

She added that she just 'wouldn't go to Kim [Kardashian-West] for relationship advice.'

Opening up: Kourtney Kardashian recently opened up about what dating is like in her family on the latest episode of Kate Hudson's podcast, Sibling Revelry
Drivers who kill while driving dangerously will face life in jail under sentencing guidelines set to be announced by the Justice Secretary.

In plans originally announced back in December 2017, the Government is introducing tougher jail times for anyone convicted of causing death by dangerous driving - which can include motorists who are racing, speeding, using their phone or who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Violet-Grace Youens, four, was left in the road after being struck at 83mph by convicted burglar Aidan McAteer, 23, in a stolen Ford Fiesta. Her mother Rebecca has welcomed the announcement after saying her life was 'ruined,' by the tragedy.

He was jailed for nine years and four months after admitting her death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury to Violet Grace's grandmother, Angela French, 58.

McAteer had run two red lights before the March 2017 crash and stepped over Violet-Grace's prone body as he fled the scene in St Helens, Merseyside.

He then went on the run to Amsterdam but was shopped by his own mother.

Violet-Grace Youens, four, died after being mown down by a speeding driver in a 2017 crash in St Helens

Yesterday Justice Secretary Robert Buckland announced 'Violet-Grace's law' was being introduced, meaning motorists who cause death by speeding, racing or using a mobile phone could face life terms from next year.

There will also be tougher penalties for those who kill under the influence of drink or drugs.

On Sunday night Violet-Grace's father, Glenn, 33, said the legislation was his daughter's 'legacy'.

She was left in the road after being struck at 83mph by convicted burglar Aidan McAteer (pictured), 23, in a stolen Ford Fiesta

Mr Youens, a specialist interior finisher, said: 'The system is supposed to be on the side of victims, not criminals, now hopefully this new law will help families feel like they have justice.

'It won't make a difference to us, but Violet saved two lives through organ donation and now maybe countless more will be saved if a life sentence acts as a deterrent to anyone thinking of getting behind the wheel and driving recklessly or under the influence of drink.

'Violet has done more in her four years and five months than most people achieve in a lifetime, that will be her legacy.'

Her mother, Rebecca, 33, a paediatric nurse, added: 'Our lives have been ruined, we struggle to get out of bed some mornings and we will never be the same again. Violet was our first born, she was our world.

On Sunday night Violet-Grace's father, Glenn (pictured with his wife Rebecca), 33, said the new legislation was his daughter's 'legacy'.

'We were told not to expect McAteer to get double figures [in jail] and he could be out after serving half his nine years next year. It is insulting to Violet to think four years is all her life was worth.

'We are just glad that these changes are finally coming in because we don't want any other family to feel this pain, heartbreak and injustice.'

The couple, who also have a five-year-old son, said it was vital that judges hand down life terms once they are given the powers to do so.

The new law is included as part of major sentencing reforms to be unveiled in a white paper this week.

The Tories have promised for months to introduce tougher sentences for killer drivers.

McAteer had run two red lights before the March 2017 crash and stepped over Violet-Grace's prone body as he fled the scene (pictured)

It follows growing concern from families and campaigners, as well as some judges, that the current 14- year maximum fails to reflect the severity of the crime.

The Daily Mail has campaigned for tougher action against people using mobiles at the wheel.

Four years ago ministers announced the number of points on a licence for drivers caught on their phones would rise from three to six. Under the new rules, offenders who cause loss of life by careless driving while under the influence of drink or drugs could also face life in prison.

Additionally, a new offence of causing serious injury by careless driving will be created. It seeks to ensure that careless drivers who ruin lives and leave their victims with long-term injuries are punished appropriately.

Mr Buckland said: 'This government has been clear that punishments must fit the crime but too often families tell us this isn't the case with killer drivers.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland announced 'Violet-Grace's law' was being introduced, meaning motorists who cause death by speeding, racing or using a mobile phone could face life terms from next year

'So, today I am announcing that we will bring forward legislation early next year to introduce life sentences for dangerous drivers who kill on our roads, and ensure they feel the full force of the law.

'But this is only one part of our plan to crack down on crime and restore confidence in the justice system and I will set out further measures this week.'

The proposals won overwhelming support from victims, bereaved families and safety campaigners in a consultation which received over 9,000 responses.

Some 70 per cent of those who took part thought that the maximum penalty for death by dangerous driving should be life.

The majority also agreed that the maximum penalty for causing death by careless driving while under the influence of drink and drugs should also be life.

In 2019, 174 people were sentenced for causing death by dangerous driving with a further 19 convicted of causing death by careless driving while under the influence of drink or drugs.
Incensed Rio Tinto shareholders and Indigenous leaders are demanding an independent review into all of the miner's agreements with traditional landowners across its Australian operations after the destruction of ancient rock shelters triggered an executive purge.

The miner's board on Friday bowed to intense investor pressure and removed chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques and two deputies, iron ore boss Chris Salisbury and head of corporate affairs Simone Niven, for the blasting of the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge heritage site.

HESTA chief executive Debby Blakey says the removal of three Rio Tinto executives must not distract from the need for an external review.

The chief executive of $52 billion super fund HESTA, Debby Blakey, said she welcomed the removal of the three executives. But she said an independent review was still necessary and has been seeking support from other major global investors for it. "The board has yet to adequately demonstrate to investors that they have appropriate governance and oversight arrangements in place to manage this risk," Ms Blakey said.

The 11th largest pension fund in the world, the California State Teachers' Retirement System, said it would publicly support the independent review.
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Linkedin Inforial (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta, Indonesia  Sun, September 13, 2020 22:01 495 e22cd4161040e111d73a5626c449624a 4 Inforial Free

The government is appealing to education stakeholders to work hand in hand in providing access to reading materials to support the national literacy movement.

"Let's pull together our vision and plan joint movements to provide reading materials to students. Lets work together to improve literacy in schools and society in general, so that they can access learning resources, understand and digest learning materials, make good use of it to increasetheir literacy skills for the sake of a better future, said Jumeri, the Education and Culture Ministrys director general for early childhood, basic and secondary education when opening a webinar on the School Literacy Movement.

The event was part of the 2020 International Literacy Day commemoration, which fell on Sept. 8.

In the midst of various government policies to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, a lack of access to reading materials is seen as a barrier to national literacy.

While forcing a shift to remote learning, this pandemic is the right moment to revive a love for reading as a means of acquiring knowledge.

The reading campaign is felt to be even more urgent considering that Indonesia's illiteracy rate, which is reportedly 36.8 percent, is at an alarming level.

The reading frequency of the Indonesian people is said to be between three and four times a week with a reading time of only 30-50 minutes.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), literacy is the main determinant of a persons well-being, and lower literacy levels increase the risk to health problems.

The distance learning regime has been in place for more than six months. Students and teachers have been forced to adapt to unprecedented conditions in the history of human life.

The efforts made by the Ministry of Education and Culture as the national education authority to deal with the problems caused by the pandemic include remote learning programs through the TVRI television channel and RRI radio to reach students in the outermost, underdeveloped and frontier regions, known as the 3T areas.

Simplified school curricula have been introduced to provide guidance for teachers in delivering more substantive materials to students. Providing internet quota assistance to students, teachers and lecturers as well as more flexibility in the disbursement of the governments school funds (BOS) are among the pandemic response measures.

However, one obstacle that calls for serious attention is the provision of reading material for students, both in printed and in digital form.

Books are one of the core tools for learning, especially in areas where there is no electricity and internet access.

To deal with the problem of reading material procurement, in addition to efforts through BOS funds, improving library services and providing digital libraries on the Ministry of Education and Culture's website, the government encourages agencies, institutions and organizations engaged in providing reading materials to be more active in disseminating both printed and digital reading materials.

A nonprofit organization that focuses on child literacy, Room to Read Indonesia, has pledged its commitment to support distance learning activities during the pandemic through the introduction of LiteracyCloud.org, a platform that provides quality digital books for children.

Let's Read Indonesia Foundation is also looking to help the literacy movement by cooperating with local communities to build an unprecedented digital library of local language children's books while cultivating a sustainable network of book authors, illustrators and translators who are committed to creating meaningful reading opportunities.

The Indonesian Literacy Association saw the importance of public or community interaction in distance learning by way of providing reading facilities.

The literacy movement must be seen as an effort to encourage all elements of society, especially school children, to gain access, decipher, manage and make use sources of knowledge  for better livelihoods.
President Trump received another Nobel Peace Prize nod after securing a historic deal between two European nations.

According to The Hill, a member of the Swedish Parliament nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The governments of Kosovo and Serbia, who were part of the deal, we're also nominated with Trump.

The nomination is for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, and the deal is on the Serbia-Kosovo economic and trade deal.

Swedish Parliament member Magnus Jacobsson took his announcement to Twitter. In a tweet, he posted a copy of the letter supporting Trump.

Jacobsson said the three for their "joint work for peace and economic development."

The deal was made to normalize economic relations between the two nations, said Fox News. It also formalized the agreement that Kosovo will recognize Israel, and Serbia will move its embassy to Jerusalem. Kosovo and Serbia were former rivals.

Jacobsson added that trade and communications are "important building blocks for peace."

Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti was also "extremely grateful" for the Peace Prize nod. He took his glee to both Facebook and Twitter, reported Newsweek.

The former president of the United Nations General Assembly, Vuk Jeremic, dismissed the deal as simply a "photo opportunity." Jeremic is also the former Serbian foreign minister.

This nomination is already the second one Trump received for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.

On Wednesday, he also received a nod from Norwegian Christian Tybring-Gjedde. He said Trump had "done more trying to create peace between nations" than other nominees.

Trump was lauded for taking part in peace talks between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

There were 318 candidates for the prize for 2020. The winner for the 2021 prize will not be announced until October of next year.

Trump Ends Decades-Long Talks

Kosovo split from Serbia in 2008, noted New York Post

It chose to break off after war was waged by then Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic. The war killed 10,000 Muslim ethnic Albanians.

In an appearance in the Oval Office, Trump said, "It took decades because you didn't have anybody trying to get it done."

"There was a lot of fighting, and now there's a lot of love," he added.

He was with Hoti and Serbia President Aleksandar Vucic in the appearance.

Serbia still does not recognize Kosovo as broken off, but it allows economic cooperation.

People from the two countries are still free to move across borders. The same goes for goods.

Vucic praised Trump for his involvement in the deal. He said the U.S. president did a "great job" amid the talks.

Kosovo's Hoti also hailed Trump's efforts as a "commitment to peace."

The Israel-UAE deal that Trump brokered was also decades in the making. It was the first normalization of relations between the two countries in a long time.

That agreement, also known as the Abraham Accords, will be signed at the White House next Tuesday. Delegates will come from Israel and the UAE for the affair.

In a tweet, Trump said, "More Islamic and Arab nations will follow soon!"

With the deal, it is seen that the future of the two nations will see more tourism and investments.

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A nursing student, a politician and a group of volunteers spent their summer making and delivering over 65,000 masks.

In addition to masks, Robin Thomson Carrillo Ortiz, founder of Operation Bandana New Mexico, helped accumulate donations for Navajo chapters. Donations included food, clothing, shoes, personal protective equipment, feminine products, she said.

Everywhere we went, I felt like we should be dropping off the whole truck, and I felt apologetic. It was a real eye-opener for me, Ortiz said.

With help from Sandoval County Treasurer Laura M. Montoya, Operation Bandana NM was able to coordinate with Navajo chapters to compile requests of what was needed.

Volunteers would make, deliver masks or donate supplies. Montoya was among the people delivering masks and fabric, she said.

I would go meet different friends I have in the Navajo Nation. I would meet them literally on the side of the road in some places, put the masks on top of the hood of the vehicle and give them the masks, Montoya said.

She spoke with Navajo Nation leaders to see what they needed, and then coordinated with others, including Ortiz, to get supplies delivered.

I saw a lot of the beauty in the people during some of the worst times that we had to go through together, Montoya said.

Operation Bandana started in March after Ortiz heard of a hospital in Indiana requesting the public to make or donate PPE for employees.

I was rather appalled by that, and thought, Well, gosh, I have sewn for 30 years; I can do that. So I got online and looked at a pattern and sat down at my dining room table to sew a few cloth masks, totally naive as to what I was walking into, she said.

Soon, Ortiz was running an organization of about 500 volunteers and coordinating with the New Mexico National Guard and Air National Guard to get supplies and masks to the Navajo Nation.

I met Laura while I was desperately searching for fabric. I am a quilter and quilters hoard fabric like dragons hoard gold, but the stash we thought would never end ended very quickly. So then I needed fabric and Laura was giving out fabric, Ortiz said.

About a week after receiving donations from Montoya, Ortiz needed more fabric.

So (Montoya) brought more fabric and  she was heading out to some native communities, on the Navajo Nation, and made the comment about needing to take them water because they didnt have any running water, and I am not native to New Mexico. I am a military brat who has moved all over the place but never near native communities, Ortiz said. And I said, What do you mean they dont have running water? and (Montoya) said, One-third of the Navajo Nation doesnt have running water. That was news to me.

Ortiz ran to her pantry to grab what water she had and continued to collect donations for Montoya to deliver.

In the early weeks of the pandemic, Ortiz had limited access to fabric.

So the next thing I knew, I had been working with the governors office to gain access to some of the fabric stores, she said.

Ortiz was able to gain access to a small fabric store and get about 200 yards of cloth, which would make 800 to 1,200 masks, she said.

So let me put this in perspective for you: It is Wednesday (Sept. 2) and we have already given out over 600 masks this week, Ortiz said.

She received a request from the governors office for 2,000 masks for the National Guard, she said.

I said, I would love to sew for the National Guard. Lets put them on the list of people requesting masks. Lets start sewing for them; I just have one little problem. She goes, You need fabric,' Ortiz said.

Operation Bandana became a vendor of the state, which means the state would pay for cloth.

Soon, Operation Bandana would request the National Guards help and use their tractor trucks. Tractor trucks can haul 19,000-34,000 pounds of cargo, according to the U.S. Armys website.

They made dozens of trips, filling the trucks with supplies till they could not fit anything else, Ortiz said.

Through Facebook and other social media, the operation collaborated with other organizations to gather donations and resources.

Ortiz said the experience has reminded her why she wanted to go back to school at age 47 to become a nurse. She is enrolled in the dual program with Santa Fe Community College and the University of New Mexico for nursing.

One of the reasons I went back to school was because I got tired of watching on the news and seeing hurricanes, earthquakes and floods and all of these disasters, and I wanted to run into the chaos. And having no skills to offer, I would just be more of a liability than an asset. And so, I said, OK, that is it; I am going to go back to school and get those skills,' she said.

Ortiz would like to become a community health nurse.

The state is contracting Operation Bandana to make 100,000 masks for the New Mexico Public Education Department, so the tailors can be paid, she said.

The operation has begun turning masks over to the department and is making over 5,000 a week, Ortiz said.

About 45 people are making masks for the department, and Ortiz is looking for more tailors. Visit operationbandananm.com to get involved.
Published on 2020/09/13 | Source

Seoul's Han River Park in Yeouido is bustling with people on Sept. 4.

Young people are flocking to the river banks in Seoul to drink and socialize after a fresh lockdown of bars and restaurants.

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At midnight on Sept. 4, the banks of the Dorim stream in Gwanak in southern Seoul were still thronging with people, around 250 people of whom were sitting on benches and steps of a 300-m stretch, drinking and chatting into the night.

Many had ordered pizza and other food to share with their friends. One man in his 30s who lives in Bongcheon-dong said, "We brought a bottle of soju from a shop and came out here because the restaurant where we had dinner closed at 9 p.m".

Another man who was part of a group of three approached three women who were sitting nearby and asked them to join them for a drink. The women obliged and moved over.

Around 40 people were queueing outside a convenience store at the Han River Park in Jamwon to buy snacks and drinks. The riverside park was teeming with night owls, some couples enjoying a movie on their laptops.

Over the weekend long lines stretched in front of a public toilet on the park in Yeouido. Other parts of the park were filled with people drinking alcohol. One 50-year-old resident who came out for a jog said, "This place wasn't this crowded even at the height of summer".

People line up in front of a convenience store in the Han River Park in Jamwon, Seoul on Sept. 4.

Others headed to budget hotels and motels to have a drink with their friends. One 29-year-old office worker rented a hotel room in Seodaeum in northwestern Seoul last week to have a drink with four coworkers. They went home at around 2 a.m. and none of them slept at the hotel. "I feel safer drinking in the hotel room, since I don't have to come into contact with strangers", he said.

Most large rooms in hotels and motels in Seoul were fully booked over the weekend. One staffer at a motel in Sincheon said, "Office workers who finished work came between 8 and 9 p.m. and left around 10 to 11 p.m".

But the chances of contracting coronavirus increase sharply where people gather. Lee Jae-gap at Hallym University Medical Center said, "Chances of contracting the virus are lower in outdoor places, but it's still dangerous to come into contact with strangers".
Libya's parliament convened an emergency meeting on Saturday, September 12 to address a rare wave of protests on the eastern side of the nation fueled by the worsening living conditions in the war-torn region. As per reports, the protests taking place in the east, which is controlled by the UN-back government are similar to the ones taking place on the western side, which is controlled the Haftar forces.

Read: Rights Group: Libya Militias Used Machine Guns On Protesters

Rare protest in east Libya

As per reports, due to the areas crippling electricity shortages, hundreds of Libyan youth have taken to the streets of Benghazi and other eastern cities. Protestors have reportedly set piles of tires ablaze and have also begun blocking traffic while chanting lyrics from popular songs that speak out against government corruption in the country.

The demonstrations in Benghazi, and the other eastern cities, are reported to mirror the protests in the Libyan capital of Tripoli and other western cities -- one major difference being the protests in the eastern side do not appear to be centrally organised as is the case for the western side. Moreover, the protests in the east were soon forcibly dispersed by authorities.

Read: UN: Libya At 'turning Point', COVID Heading 'out Of Control'

According to reports, during the emergency meeting, the House of Representatives attempted to deflect the blame for the poor living conditions on Tripoli-based Central bank and alleged that it had purposefully neglected the east. In an effort to placate the protestors the House of Representatives promised to investigate suspected corruption and expedite municipal elections.

Libya has been in the midst of a violent civil war since 2014 and as a result, has been essentially bifurcated into two autonomous regions, military commander Khalifa Hifter who is the commander-in-chief of the Libyan National Army rules the east and south backed by the United Arab Emirates, while an UN-supported government based in Tripoli controls the west.

Read: Libya Peace-building Efforts Remains A Serious Concern Amid New Political Crisis

Read: UN Expresses Concern Over Libya As Prime Minister Sarraj Sacks Interior Minister Bashaga
13.09.2020 LISTEN

East Legon residents have been hit by the shocking news of the cold blood murder of a top law lecturer at the University of Ghana, Professor Emmanuel Yaw Benneh.

According to reports, his body was found in his Adjiringanor residence in Accra on Saturday morning.

Other reports suggest he was murdered at his East Legon residence.

The University of Ghana Students Union confirmed his passing in a tweet.

It is with a heavy heart, that we inform you about the demise of one of our lecturers, Prof. Emmanuel Y. Benneh.

A call to the dean confirmed the news, but we are yet to have details on the occurrence of his unfortunate demise.

---Daily Guide
Meghalaya power minister James K Sangma sustained minor injuries in a road accident in Assams Nagaon district on the early hours of Sunday while on his way to Shillong from Imphal in Manipur. Four persons in the pilot car leading the ministers vehicle also suffered injuries in the accident.

Earlier, James, the elder brother of Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma had tested positive for Covid-19 when he and Conrad, who had reached there on Saturday from Delhi, underwent a rapid antigen test at the Imphal airport.

While James decided to return to Shillong after the positive result, Conrad and his OSD-cum-press secretary, Saidul Khan, who tested negative, decided to stay back and return on Monday.

The pilot car of the Meghalaya minister hit a stationary truck at Nonoi on the early hours of Sunday. The pilot vehicle overturned and four persons in the vehicle sustained injuries. The ministers car, which was following the pilot car, hit it moments after. None of the injured persons were critical and they continued their journey to Shillong, Nagaon superintendent of police, Gaurav Abhijit Dilip, said.

CM Sangmas press secretary Saidul Khan told HT from Imphal that the minister sustained minor injuries as a result of his car hitting the pilot car. His condition is stated to be stable.

The brothers had gone to Imphal to inaugurate the new building of the Manipur state unit of the National Peoples Party (NPP) headed by Conrad as its National President, followed by intense discussions with local leaders on strengthening the state unit in Manipur.

(With inputs from Utpal Parashar in Guwahati)
NEW MEXICO

Governor aims for 5% reduction in annual state spending

SANTA FE  The administration of New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is directing executive agencies to reduce annual spending obligations by 5% to help ease an anticipated budget deficit for the coming fiscal year.

Agency budget proposal were due Sept. 1 in an annual rite that provides time for legislators to outline a balanced budget before they reconvene in January.

A memo to state agencies obtained by The Associated Press calls for a 5% reduction in general fund spending levels for the fiscal year starting on July 1, 2021, compared with current-year obligations. That is in line with recommendation from the Legislature's budget and accountability office.

Some exceptions apply. The administration says it will consider additional funding to services such as Medicaid health insurance that may experience population increases and may support permanent programs that lack a permanent source of revenue.

Finance officials are suggesting that state agencies delete staff positions that have been vacant for more than two years.

New Mexico has so far steered away from furloughs that were instituted in the wake of the Great Recession.

In June, state economists warned of a possible $990 million shortfall in general fund revenues for the coming fiscal year, to meet spending annual spending obligations of $7.4 billion.

New Mexico state government has tapped $750 million in federal coronavirus relief funds and is rapidly drawing down financial reserves that stood at $1.5 billion in June.

Grocery stores told to stop taxing food on deliveries

SANTA FE  New Mexico state taxation authorities on Sept. 2 urged grocery stores to stop unnecessarily collecting sales taxes on food that is delivered during the coronavirus pandemic.

New Mexico remains under a stay-at-home order that discourages unnecessary outings and public gatherings. At the same time, online shoppers have discovered gross receipts tax charges on sales of home-delivered groceries that are tax-free when purchased in stores, undercutting the incentive to stay home.

State law provides a tax deduction for sales at a retail food establishment, and a memo from the tax agency outlines exact circumstances for waiving taxes on food.

Taxes are not due when "the customer orders the groceries from the retail food store online and pays the retail food store online with a credit card," the memo states. Taxes still are due on delivery service charges and prepared food from restaurants and stores.

New Mexico lawmakers removed the gross receipts tax from sales of most food items in 2004. Lost revenues to local governments are offset by state replacement payments each year in excess of $100 million.

NAVAJO NATION

Casinos join effort to boost census participation

CHURCH ROCK  Casinos on the Navajo Nation are teaming up with census officials for a series of events they hope will boost participation in the count.

Billions of dollars in federal funding are at stake along with congressional representation, and many Native American communities are historically undercounted.

The Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise will be hosting events in Arizona and New Mexico where people can either drive through or sit with a representative to complete the census questionnaire.

The Navajo Nation has joined a coalition of cities, counties and civil rights groups that are seeking a court order to keep the U.S. Census Bureau from winding down operations.

The coalition is asking a federal judge to make the Census Bureau restore its previous deadline for finishing the once-a-decade head count to the end of October, instead of using a revised schedule to end operations at the end of September.

The Navajo Nation was concerned because the tighter schedule would shorten the time for following up with those households that have yet to respond. Tribal officials say this phase is especially critical for the Navajo Nation and involves census enumerators going door-to-door.

Navajo government programs rely heavily on census data to ensure adequate funding for infrastructure, social services and for determining water rights. As of Sept. 1, tribal officials reported that only 18.4% of households on the Navajo Nation had responded to the census. During the 2010 census, the final response rate was just under 30%.

IDAHO

US gives 1st-ever OK for small commercial nuclear reactor

BOISE  U.S. officials have for the first time approved a design for a small commercial nuclear reactor, and a Utah energy cooperative wants to build 12 of them in Idaho.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Aug. 28 approved Portland-based NuScale Power's application for the small modular reactor that Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems plans to build at a U.S. Department of Energy site in eastern Idaho.

The small reactors can produce about 60 megawatts of energy, or enough to power more than 50,000 homes. The proposed project includes 12 small modular reactors. The first would be built in 2029, with the rest in 2030.

NuScale says the reactors have advanced safety features, including self-cooling and automatic shutdown.

The energy cooperative has embarked on a plan called the Carbon Free Power Project that aims to supply carbon-free energy to its nearly 50 members, mostly municipalities, in six Western states. The company plans to buy the reactors from NuScale, then assemble them in Idaho. The company is also looking to bring on other utilities that would use the power generated by the reactors.

The modular reactors are light-water reactors, which are the vast majority of reactors now operating. But modular reactors are designed to use less water than traditional reactors and have a passive safety system so they shut down without human action should something go wrong.

MONTANA

GOP, Trump campaign sue over all-mail voting option

HELENA  President Donald Trump's reelection campaign and the Republican Party sued Montana on Sept. 2 after Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock gave counties the choice to conduct the November election entirely by mail amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The lawsuit alleges Bullock's directive would dilute the integrity of Montana's election system.

The legal challenge is the latest attempt by Trump to block mail-in voting, which he has claimed without proof would lead to widespread fraud. His campaign and the Republican Party also sued last month over a new law in Nevada that will automatically send voters mail-in ballots for November, contending the plan would undermine the election's integrity.

"This template lawsuit appears to be part of a pattern of lawsuits across the country by Republican Party operatives to limit access to voting during the pandemic," Bullock said in a statement.

Bullock isn't running for governor again but is trying to unseat incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Steve Daines.

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel accused Bullock of using the coronavirus as "a power grab to take control of Montana's elections in the name of 'health.'"

Montana allows for voting by mail but only at the request of the voter. Under Bullock's directive, which he issued after a request from county clerks statewide, counties have the option to have voting done entirely by mail for the November election.

Montana's June 2 primary election was held by mail following a similar directive from Bullock, which received support from the Republican leadership of the state Senate and House.
HARARE, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Ten outstanding Information Communication Technology (ICT) students drawn from Zimbabwe's universities on Friday successfully completed this year's edition of Huawei's Seeds for the Future Program.

The 5-day program, which was held online for the first time due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, consisted of live-streamed sessions, compulsory courses, elective courses and access to additional resources for self-learning about the Chinese culture.

The program, which focuses on bridging the gap between the academia and industry, is Huawei's corporate social responsibility initiative under which the global telecoms giant cooperates with local universities in order to enhance technical skills transfer to students.

The Seeds for the Future program is run in partnership with Zimbabwe's ICT Ministry, the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, and TelOne, Zimbabwe's largest telecommunications operator.

In an interview with Xinhua at the graduation ceremony held at TelOne Center for Learning (TCFL) in Harare, TCFL General Manager Sharai Dube praised Huawei's unique approach to corporate social responsibility which focuses on empowering local communities.

"So traditionally corporate social responsibility whereby people are given donations, money donations, they use it today and tomorrow they will still need more," said Dube. "In this case, we see that the students basically are being trained and their skillset basically is being improved so that they can be able to use it in the future for their own betterment."

She said not only participants will benefit, but their respective institutions and the country will benefit as well.

"We might have worked with 10 students but the impact might actually cascade to more than just the 10 students, or the 10 families that are represented here today," she said.

The best performing student, Dumisani Mukuchura, a telecommunications engineering major at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), said the program had been a unique experience.

"This experience has been really amazing because with the pandemic the world is facing, Huawei has managed to make everything accessible online," Mukuchura said.

"They used various examples to teach us about future technologies, and I think that has equipped me and other students that have participated to move forward, to tackle forward everything that has been put in our way and I thank them for that," Mukuchura said.

Douglas Tanyanyiwa, a software engineering student at TCFL, said ICT has fast become indispensable to our daily lives, and its extensive use can solve many challenges facing developing countries.

"I think with ICT we can see from, let me take for example, the global pandemic, it has really shown us how digitalization can improve things within the country," Tanyanyiwa said.

"So you look at the things that we have learnt, like Artificial Intelligence, where you can have the automation of things. So where you would have workers who cannot go to jobs, industry is shutting down, you could employ Artificial Intelligence to do that, and that would resolve some of the things that we would be facing with things like this," he said.

Karen Chieza, an ICT student from Aruppe Jesuit University (AJU), said the program has been a mind opener.

"My favorite part I learnt is about Artificial Intelligence. If we had things like intelligence health here, what happens is that you can consult a doctor, you won't have to move out and spread the virus. So I think applying things like that in Zimbabwe and many other countries would really bridge a gap," she said.

Tawana Gawaza, an ICT student from AJU, said Zimbabwe had a lot to learn from Huawei's developmental experience.

"I think Huawei also showed us, within the time they grew, it was just 30 years, we can do the same and grow at a faster pace," she said.

Huawei has over the years played a significant role in bridging Zimbabwe's ICT gap.

Last year the telecoms giant partnered with the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) to launch the first Huawei Certified Network Graduate (HCNG) program for science, technology and engineering students at Zimbabwean universities and colleges.

The program is geared towards enhancing professional skills among graduates through an industry-based curriculum.

Zimbabwe sees the ICT sector as a key economic enabler that will play an important role in transforming its economy into an upper-middle-income status by 2030.
A Briton has set a new womens world record for rowing solo from the US mainland to Hawaii.

Lia Ditton, 40, described the 86 day, 10 hour, five minute and 56 second voyage from San Francisco to Hawaii as the greatest psychological challenge of my life.

The London-born rower faced illness just before the June 17 start, two capsizes, a shortage of food, and persistent adverse currents and winds to break rower Roz Savages 2008 record of 100 days.

There was a warm welcome as she reached Waikiki Yacht Club on the island of Oahu on September 12 at 6.10am.

Expand Close Lia Ditton arrives at Waikiki Yacht Club, HawaiiLicense: Media UseBy: Credit: Tobias Manuputy / Pasha Hawaii / Facebook

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Whatsapp Lia Ditton arrives at Waikiki Yacht Club, HawaiiLicense: Media UseBy: Credit: Tobias Manuputy / Pasha Hawaii

Her record breaking attempt almost ended just a day after it began as the Continental Shelf left her tackling currents, winds and waves the size of buildings which all thwarted her progress.

She spent her days clawing her way west and away from the California coast to make up miles lost while drifting at night.

She also had to cope with the news in June that fellow rower Angela Madsen, 60, had died during her attempt on the same route after 57 days.

Ms Madsen was a former US Marine who overcame extraordinary adversity to become a Paralympian shot put medallist and a world rowing champion and it was a reminder of how dangerous Ms Dittons own voyage could be.

A rogue wave capsized her 21-foot boat on July 6 and plunged her headfirst into the dark ocean.

She used all her strength to roll the boat back herself and rejected an idea to abandon the vessel.

She had to make a number of maintenance repairs, including changing the oarlock height after the base cracked, and conquered one of her greatest fears by twice leaving the boat to get in the water to remove barnacles.

Despite the hardships, there were also moments of joy, wonder and encounters with nature, as Ms Ditton witnessed spectacular rainbows, nighttime skies, sunsets and sunrises, while sharks, flying fish, yellowfin tuna, seabirds and squid all came close, or onto, her boat at different times.

Weather, navigation and safety officer Larry Rosenfeld said: Lia did an amazing job, this row was so much harder than any of us ever imagined.

She had done 1,000 miles down the California coast in one month and I thought that that would be a much harder row, but this row tested everything that she had right up to the last hour of the row.

Waikiki Yacht Club Commodore Hideki Hayashi described Ms Dittons voyage as a remarkable feat of endurance and determination.

Ms Ditton plans to spend weeks recuperating before travelling home to her base in San Francisco.

Her next target is to try to become the first solo rower to cross the North Pacific, by making the 5,500 miles journey from Japan to San Francisco in spring 2021.
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Linkedin (Inquirer.net/Asia News Network)  Sun, September 13, 2020 14:40 495 e22cd4161040e111d73a5626c448c4a7 2 Entertainment chris-evans,Mark-Ruffalo Free

Chris Evans has been trending on Twitter for accidentally sharing a picture of a penisand fans are trying to make sure it does not get circulated.

The Captain America star shared a video on Instagram Stories of him playing the charades game Heads Up on Sept. 12. However, the video turned out to be a screen recording, and when it ended, it went to the camera roll where an X-rated photo was seen, Just Jared reported.

Another photo visible in the camera roll was a meme of Evans with the statement Guard that p*ssy.

It is unclear whose screen recording the video was and who owns the leaked photo of a penis.

Read also: Chris Evans, Ryan Gosling to star in new spy thriller 'The Gray Man' by Russo brothers

Fans on Twitter have been rallying behind Evans by posting photos of him with his dog to cleanse timelines when his name is searched on the social media platform.

please respect chris evans privacy, he suffers from anxiety and spreading the pictures only make things worse. please delete & dont share! he deserves privacy. it was a mistake. anyways heres a picture of chris evans looking cute with a dog pic.twitter.com/tUjCfG1zU1   (@aotdts) September 13, 2020

Some also posted reminders that Evans suffers from anxiety and encouraged others to respect his privacy.

Evanss Avengers costar Mark Ruffalo also gave him words of comfort in a tweet on Sunday.

Bro, while [President Donald] Trump is in office there is NOTHING you could possibly do to embarrass yourself. See silver lining, he said.

.@ChrisEvans Bro, while Trump is in office there is NOTHING you could possibly do to embarrass yourself. See... silver lining.  Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) September 13, 2020

Evans himself is a staunch critic of Trump. He has yet to make a statement on the matter of the photo.

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This article appeared on the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post
The NC president is likely to be in focus since he was under detention during the last two sessions held after the abrogation of the then-state's special status

New Delhi: Lok Sabha MP and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah has arrived in Delhi to attend the Monsoon Session of Parliament beginning on Monday, his first visit to the National Capital after the abrogation of provisions of Article 370.

The National Conference president, who arrived on Sunday, is likely to be in focus since he was under detention during the last two sessions.

On 5 August last year, a bill for re-organisation of Jammu and Kashmir was tabled in Parliament and the 82-year-old was taken into preventive custody.

The veteran politician from the Kashmir valley is keen to raise the Jammu and Kashmir issue during this session, party leaders said.

The 18-day Monsoon Session, which begins Monday, will last till 1 October. The last session was short-terminated on 25 March, following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-14 01:10:16|Editor: huaxia

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BAGHDAD, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi health ministry on Sunday reported 3,531 new COVID-19, bringing the total nationwide infections to 290,309.

The ministry also reported 73 more deaths, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 8,014 in the country.

It also said that 3,422 more patients recovered in the day, bringing the total number of recoveries to 224,705.

The new cases were recorded after 19,353 testing kits were used across the country during the day, and a total of 1,902,401 tests have been carried out since the outbreak of the disease, according to the statement.

Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker of the Iraqi parliament Hassan al-Kaabi said in a statement that he has recovered from the coronavirus infection, asserting that the next legislative term is crucial to pass important laws, prepare for the upcoming elections, and face the financial challenges.

During the past few days, the Higher Committee for Health and National Safety, headed by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, took several decisions to ease health restrictions, including permitting movement among the country's provinces, reopening the border crossings for commercial movement, restaurants, tourist facilities of the five-star hotels, and lifting the ban on sporting events.

Iraq has taken a series of measures to contain the pandemic since February when the first coronavirus case appeared in the country.

China has been helping Iraq fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

From March 7 to April 26, a Chinese team of seven medical experts spent 50 days in Iraq to help contain the disease, during which they helped build a PCR lab and install an advanced CT scanner in Baghdad.

Since March 7, China has also sent three batches of medical aid to Iraq. Enditem
Last October, standing on the front porch of a small two-story house that had seen better days, I witnessed one of the more unsettling conversations of my adult life.

I had embedded with a team of community organizers in Alamance County, North Carolina, an hours drive west of Raleigh. This was Trump country. The president had won here in 2016 by 13 points. The sheriff was on the record as having accused criminal illegal immigrants of raping our citizens in many, many ways, and the county had inked a $2.3 million contract with ICE to detain migrants whod crossed the border and were living in the state. The local neo-Confederate group had seen a remarkable resurgence in the wake of Trumps election, motivated by the fight over Confederate statues.

The organizer I was tagging along with that day was Sugelema Lynch, a soft-spoken former schoolteacher whose parents had immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico and moved around the West Coast as farmworkers. As an organizer, she engaged local citizens on the issues of undocumented immigration and Medicare for All as part of a larger experiment into whether compassionate face-to-face conversations could break down prejudice.

The husband and wife who lived in the house were our last door for the day. The wife eyed us warily at first, but soon warmed up and came out on the porch. Her husband took notice and joined the conversation. The couple nodded along as Sug (pronounced shug) talked about the greed of big pharmaceutical companies and protecting the vulnerable members of the community, but when it was their turn to talk, their responses sounded as if Tucker Carlson or Sean Hannity had been directly piped into their mouths. The deep state was thwarting President Trump from fulfilling his agenda. Democrats wanted to give illegals free health care while shafting the rest of us. There were a few casual references to liberal billionaire George Soros, the rights go-to conspiracy-theory punching bag, and a jab at Hillary Clinton. When Sug or I asked where theyd gotten a piece of information or gently offered a counterpoint, they were polite but firm, certain in their position.

Story continues

For almost an hour the conversation went on in that fashion, as the last bit of sunlight drained from the sky. The couple thanked us for the visit, and the wife even wrapped Sug in a big hug. As we walked back to the minivan, we were in a bit of a daze. My brain hurts, Sug told me as we pulled away.

I have replayed that conversation in my mind many times. We werent so much speaking past one another as trying to connect across different planes of existence. Weve all had moments like this in the past few years  the uncle at Thanksgiving who sounds like an online comments section in human form. What I didnt fully appreciate was how that exchange in Alamance County would encapsulate the central dynamic of the 2020 presidential election.

The contest between President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden is not a choice between competing policy agendas or rival ideologies. Its a choice between reality and anti-reality. Fact versus fantasy. Amid a pandemic that has killed more Americans than World War I and Vietnam combined, an economic recession that has rivaled the Great Depression, and a reckoning over racism and police violence, Trumps plan for winning re-election is to sell the American people not on a vision for the future but an alternate reality of the present.

In that reality, Trump is the law-and-order president even as he foments violence in the streets of Portland, Oregon, and Washington, D.C.  or, in the case of Kenosha, Wisconsin, defends a 17-year-old vigilante (and Trump supporter) who allegedly shot three people, killing two of them. Trumps handling of the Covid-19 pandemic is a great success story, to quote son-in-law Jared Kushner, no matter that the death toll in the U.S. outpaces most of the developed world. He inherited a stagnant economy (he didnt) and turned it into the greatest economy in the history of the world (it wasnt), only to be sidetracked by a disease he vowed would disappear one day (it hasnt). Most brazen of all, Trump clings to the notion that hes an outsider who will raze the existing political order, despite having stocked his administration with lobbyists, faithfully done the deregulatory bidding of oil and coal companies, and rained money down on defense contractors and billionaires. His signature accomplishments  like slashing corporate tax rates or appointing more than 200 mostly right-wing federal judges to the bench  were made possible by establishment cronies such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. And yet Trump says with a straight face that he has ended the rule of the failed political class. In a lifetime filled with lies and fraud, Trumps 2020 pitch may be his most audacious con yet. Except now, instead of bankrupting his own companies, he could very well bankrupt the country.

The man who stands between us and the triumph of Trump reality is himself a creature of the political class, a six-term senator and three-time presidential contender who has worked in politics his entire adult life. To defeat a sitting president unbound by facts, truth, and reality, Joe Biden is trying to hold together a center that may or may not exist anymore in American political life, and pull the country back from the brink of splitting beyond repair.

On paper, Biden enters the final leg of this endless campaign in possibly the strongest position of any challenger in modern times. His opponent has never once hit the 50-percent mark in Gallups presidential-approval ratings. On Trumps watch, in a matter of months, Covid-19 vaporized the national GDP by a staggering 33 percent and took 20 million jobs with it, erasing all employment growth going back to the 2008 financial crash. The deep-seated animosity so many people  including some Democrats  felt for Hillary Clinton doesnt seem to apply to Biden. The energy among Democrats to defeat Trump is so astronomical that Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, the first woman of color on a major-party presidential ticket, raised $364.5 million in the month of August alone, a new record. The demographics of the country should also play into Bidens hands. The Republican Party has won the popular vote in a presidential election only twice in the past 32 years. Without the Electoral College, the two most destructive presidents in recent history, George W. Bush and Donald Trump, would never have been elected.

But we do have the Electoral College, and it means that Biden cant afford a razor-thin margin of victory in the popular vote and a repeat of 2016 or 2000. In practical terms, the challenge that Biden faces is not only galvanizing his partys most reliable voters in cities like Milwaukee, Detroit, and Philadelphia, but also winning back voters in the suburbs and rural counties where Trump trounced Clinton four years ago.

Bidens pitch to these voters is more about values and patriotism than any specific policy agenda. From the day he entered the race 18 months ago, he has vowed to restore the soul of our nation and bring decency back to the presidency. His campaign has unveiled ambitious proposals on clean energy, green jobs, affordable housing, and closing the racial wealth gap, but he doesnt often mention these in his speeches. At its core, the animating message of Bidens candidacy  a return to a kinder, calmer, and more peaceful era  is itself a kind of magical thinking, a nostalgic kumbaya to a bygone era.

In the face of Trumps strategy of activating his most loyal voters, Biden is appealing to a much larger audience and trying to give the impression of a big-tent Democratic Party that welcomes disillusioned Trump voters and independents into the fold. At the Democratic National Convention, an anti-union, anti-abortion former Republican governor in John Kasich spoke alongside a Democratic socialist and liberal celebrity in Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Bidens standing in Florida, arguably the most important state in the entire race, illustrates both the promise and pitfalls of this approach. Steve Schale, a strategist who works for Democrats in the state (including a pro-Biden super PAC), says Biden is seeing stronger support from college-educated white voters and even non-college-educated women than Clinton did, while his backing among Floridas Hispanics has lagged. Winning Florida, Schale explains, will come down to places like Pasco County, an exurban swath of land north of Tampa thats home to more than half a million people and hasnt gone for a Democratic presidential contender since Al Gore in 2000. Biden almost certainly wont win Pasco; its a matter of narrowing the margin of defeat. Barack Obama lost Pasco by 8,000 votes in 2008 and 14,000 in 2012; Clinton lost by 52,000. In a place like Pasco, do we get back to what Obama did? No, Schale says. But if we get back three or four percentage points, thats a big deal.

The same story can be told of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, where Trumps lopsided victories in exurban and rural counties in 2016 overwhelmed the turnout for Clinton in the cities and suburbs. In Wisconsin, the once-reliable Republican suburbs outside Milwaukee have drifted leftward and away from Trump, says Charles Franklin, a pollster at Marquette University. Thats partly due to Trumps extremism, but also the result of renewed on-the-ground organizing by the Democratic Party. The challenge for Trump, meanwhile, is re-creating the off-the-charts support he received in the northern and western parts of Wisconsin  which delivered him huge margins in 2016 but moved toward the Democrats in the 2018 gubernatorial race  without conceding too much ground in the suburban counties.

The risk Biden faces with his big-tent approach is that he turns off progressives, young people, and African Americans, who want more than lip service to big structural change and feel-good appeals to restoring the soul of a country that never did well by them in the first place. This summer, I caught up with Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher, who worked on Obamas two campaigns. On the one hand, Belcher says, a dramatic swing toward Biden in the suburbs could portend a realignment of the two major political parties, an exodus of moderate voters from the GOP in the way white voters in the South fled the Democrats in the 1970s and 1980s. But he voiced concern about whether Biden had done enough to galvanize that diverse, multigenerational, cross-class coalition that put Obama in the White House.

If you look at Biden right now, he is still off of Obamas mark with voters under 35 and still off of Obamas mark with both Latino and African American voters, Belcher says. It cant be about just voting against Trump. It has to be about giving them something to vote for.

Karen Finney, a Democratic consultant who worked on the Clinton campaign in 2016, tells me that Bidens choice of Harris as his running mate will help mobilize those faithful Democratic voters. But that cant be where Bidens outreach to his core supporters ends, she says, and he cant assume those core supporters will turn out en masse. The biggest lesson for me [from 2016] is you cant take anything for granted, and all the traditional models we thought we knew are out the window, especially with Covid, Finney says.

At least for now, though, Democrats appear more united behind their presidential candidate than four years ago, and more energized to vote Trump out of office. Franklin, the Wisconsin pollster, notes that fewer voters in his state say they wont vote for either candidate than did at this point in 2016, and that Sen. Bernie Sanders supporters quickly got behind Biden in a way that didnt happen for Clinton.

In Pennsylvania, the Democratic Party stands its best chance in a decade to regain control of both chambers of the state Legislature, which has activists and donors energized in a way that should lift Bidens candidacy, says Joe Corrigan, a Democratic consultant in Philadelphia. The real theme here is that Democrats are coming out in a way that we havent done in the past as a party, he says. It doesnt matter if the person is a good Democrat or a middling Democrat. Theyre not being fooled by the moderate Republicans anymore. They recognize that every Republican has enabled Donald Trump.

Trumps response has been to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. His campaign and its allies have tried to paint Biden as somehow both a senile tool of the establishment and a radical socialist at the same time. Lately, Trump has tried to spook those coveted suburban voters by calling Biden the most extreme left-wing candidate in history, who wants to abolish the police and even abolish the suburbs. But these attacks rely on an outdated notion of who actually lives in American suburbs, and while post-convention polls have shown a tightening race, theres little evidence so far to suggest Trumps suburban strategy is having any real effect.

The Biden campaign is banking on voters seeing Trumps tactics for what they are  a desperate ploy to distract from the administrations failures. Theyre counting on, in other words, the bare facts of our pandemic moment being too visceral and too frightening to be waved away by Trumps mass delusions. Its very hard to convince people that everythings fine when their kids are at home and theyre not going into the office and everythings been upended by a crisis that Trump has wanted to ignore, says Ben Wikler, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. Its rare to have such a direct link between the everyday experience of Americans and what the American president does.

It will go down as one of the enduring images of the Trump presidency. On the final night of the Republican National Convention, some 1,500 of the mostly maskless MAGA faithful squeezed in together on the South Lawn of the White House. They listened intently as Trump regaled them with the story of how his administration rose to meet the challenge of a grave crisis, marshaling the largest national mobilization since World War II to defeat an invisible enemy, and setting an example for the rest of the world.

Watching that spectacle, I thought of something Rush Limbaugh, long the voice of red America, had said on his show in 2009. Limbaugh explained to his listeners that they and their opponents on the left live in two universes. One, he said, is an entire lie. Everything run, dominated, and controlled by the left here and around the world is a lie. The other universe, the one in which he and his audience lived, is where reality reigns supreme and we deal with it. And seldom do these two universes

ever overlap.

Limbaugh had it backward, of course, but the point still stands. For so many Americans, 2020 has been an annus horribilis for the record books, a nightmare of lockdowns and job losses, evictions and infections, confusion and desperation and death. But at the White House on that final convention night, there was joy and jubilation, a true sense of accomplishment, capped off with a fireworks show worthy of the Fourth of July, as towering bursts of red and gold rained down over the National Mall and the Washington Monument. It was a hell of a show. What a shame the 1,129 Americans who died that day from Covid-19 missed it.

What we can see of Trumps playbook would suggest that if Biden does win, Trump wont go quietly, not if theres any reason, however flimsy, to question the result. Just as Trump is now concocting an alternate reality for his followers about his record as president, theres nothing to stop him from ordering his phalanx of lawyers to file lawsuits challenging the vote count while encouraging his supporters to reject the outcome of the election.

Trumps re-election strategy isnt as audacious as it sounds when you understand that probably one-third of the country already disbelieves what they see and hear unless its coming from Fox News, Ben Shapiro, some other pillar of the right-wing echo chamber, or Trump himself. Remember: A thrice-married, maybe-billionaire from New York City with a long history of bankruptcies and deceptions succeeded at selling himself as the candidate of the Everyman. Trumps party  for hes captured it lock, stock, and barrel  denies the science of climate change and has made the simplest of public-health protections, wearing a mask, into a political statement, preferring to risk infection or death if it means they can own the libs and show solidarity with the president. The running tally of current and former GOP congressional candidates who have endorsed or lent credence to QAnon, the mega-conspiracy theory about a global cabal of child-trafficking elites, is up to 79, according to Alex Kaplan, a researcher at Media Matters for America. At least one of those, Georgias Marjorie Taylor Greene, is expected to win her race.

Trump, then, is the perfect candidate for such a party. Tony Schwartz, who co-wrote Trumps 1987 book, The Art of the Deal, and writes about his relationship with the president in Dealing With the Devil: My Mother, Trump, and Me, says Trump has lived in a bubble for so long that he takes it for granted he can indeed do whatever he wants to do, whenever he wants to do it, with no ultimate consequences. What makes Trump so dangerous, Schwartz tells Rolling Stone, is that he believes his own cons: He has an infinite capacity for self-deception, but also an infinite capacity to deceive.

With millions of Americans planning to vote by mail amid the pandemic, Trump has waged a fact-free assault on mail-in voting, saying it will lead to massive fraud and abuse (there is no data to support this). He floated the idea of postponing the election, which he by law cannot do, and even encouraged his supporters to commit voter fraud by voting twice  once by mail and once in person  to test the system. Its not hard to imagine a scenario in which Trump opens up a sizable lead on election night, but as mailed-in ballots are counted and Trumps lead shrinks in the ensuing days, he incites his supporters into mass unrest, not unlike when he urged them to LIBERATE Democrat-led states that had taken swift action to respond to the coronavirus, encouraging the heavily armed militia-style protests in state capitols.

Trumps attacks on voting represent a dagger at the very heart of democracy, says Steven Levitsky, a political scientist and Harvard professor. When you raise questions about that repeatedly for four years and convince 35, 40, or 45 percent of the population that its rigged, youre doing a hell of a lot of damage.

The first term of Donald Trumps presidency has acted like a stress test on the American body politic, our democratic system pushed to its breaking point. Now, that body politic is on life support. The question on the ballot in 2020 is greater than who will be the next occupant of the White House. Democracy, reality, rule of law, and quite possibly the fate of the planet are at stake. In the long view of history, four years of Trump can be written off as an aberration. Eight years of this president will be a confirmation.

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For example, casting white women named "Karen" as racists not only profiles them on the basis of their age, race and appearance, it ignores Karens of the past who have improved society through their suffering and death.

Since joining NewsBlaze thirteen years ago, Rosenberg has also exposed major food and drug companies whose claims and harmful products have too often been given a pass by mainstream media.

Rosenberg's FDA expose, Born with a Junk Food Deficiency (Penguin Random House 2012), was acclaimed by Vice, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Times of London and many other outlets. Exposing high-level conflicts of interest at regulatory agencies that result in overmedication of children and adults and unsafe food, "Born" was named as part of One Book One Chicago in 2016. Rosenberg won a Northern Illinois Newspaper Association award in 2018 for her work in the Evanston RoundTable.

In addition to regular reporting for NewsBlaze, Rosenberg contributes to British Medical Journal (BMJ), Consumer Reports, Public Citizen, the Annenberg Center for Health Journalism at the University of Southern California at San Francisco and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.

Trained in pharmacology, Rosenberg has successfully given voice to whistleblowers in both the drug and food industries who have sought to expose wrongdoing against workers, patients and the public.

Rosenberg has appeared on CSPAN, National Public Radio and lectured at the medical school and university levels.

Martha Rosenberg has been an important part of the NewsBlaze team since sending her first story to NewsBlaze in December 2006. Her work can be seen on the Martha Rosenberg profile page.

To Connect with Martha Rosenberg, call or email NewsBlaze or connect with her on twitter @MarthRosenberg.

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The first batch of Russia's Covid-19 vaccine 'Sputnik V' is likely to be delivered to all regions of the country by Monday, 14 September, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko told reporters, according to news agency TASS.

"The first batches of the vaccine for testing the supply chain have already been shipped, we are now checking the delivery system so that the staff gets to know it. The first small batches have already been shipped to all regions, the Leningrad region will also receive [the vaccine] among the first ones. In fact, the first samples of the vaccine will be delivered by Monday," Murashko said.

The development comes after a week of Russia releasing the first batch of the Sputnik V vaccine into civil circulation, the Russian Health Ministry informed.

Sputnik V Covid vaccine, which is developed by Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology under the Russian Health Ministry, may be granted permission to release a batch of its vaccine for civilian use, the institutes deputy director for research, associate member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Denis Logunov said earlier, according to a report.

A Phase III trial is a large-scale one involving thousands of people - in Russia, 40,000 - over a longer stretch of time.

RDIF said on Friday that more than one billion people would receive its COVID-19 vaccine "Sputnik-V" in 2020-21, the Interfax news agency reported.

Meanwhile, Russian children have returned to schools after attending classes online since the coronavirus pandemic swept the country in late March.

Moreover, country's sovereign wealth fund CEO on Saturday said he's 'delighted' that AstraZeneca has resumed trials of its Covid-19 vaccines but said the suspension of trials "clearly showed fallacy of their approach".

"Delighted that AstraZeneca has resumed trials. Suspension of trials clearly showed fallacy of the approach, when entire countries exclusively rely on novel and untested platforms when choosing a vaccine for widespread use, including the use of a monkey adenovirus vector or mRNA technology," said Kirill Dmitriev, CEO, Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF).

AstraZeneca has resumed British clinical trials of its Covid-19 vaccine, one of the most advanced in development, after receiving the green light from safety watchdogs, the company said on Saturday.

On August 11, Russia became the first country to license a Covid-19 vaccine, calling it "Sputnik V" in homage to the world's first satellite, launched by the Soviet Union. But western experts have warned against its use until all internationally approved testing and regulatory steps have been taken. The vaccine is undergoing Phase 3 trials.

The vaccine produced an antibody response in all participants in early-stage trials, according to results published by The Lancet medical journal earlier that were hailed by Moscow as an answer to its critics.

The results of the two trials, conducted in June-July this year and involving 76 participants, showed 100% of participants developing antibodies to the new coronavirus and no serious side effects, The Lancet said.

However, a group of international scientists questioned results from the Lancet medical journal, saying some of the findings appeared improbable, reported Bloomberg.

The researchers flagged concerns over seemingly identical levels of antibodies in a number of study participants who were inoculated with the experimental vaccine. This and other patterns in the data present several different points of concern," according to an open letter written by Temple University professor Enrico Bucci and signed by more than a dozen other scientists.

Amid the reports of the potential vaccine, Russia registered 5,449 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, which brings the cumulative total to 1,062,811, the country's coronavirus response centre said on Sunday.

"Over the past 24 hours, Russia has confirmed 5,449 COVID-19 cases in 84 regions, of which 1,238 (23.5 per cent) have been detected actively, with people showing no clinical symptoms," the response centre said in a statement.

With inputs from agencies

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A recent opinion piece by current state Sen. Julie Kushner dramatically missed the mark when it comes to addressing the growing Danbury school system. ( Charter schools are not magic bullet to improving Danbury schools, Aug. 8)

Not only did Kushner attempt to deflect blame for the lack of state education funding that comes back to Danbury each year, she also failed to make a case that the approved Danbury Prospect Charter School would somehow not be part of a solution when it comes to creating more choices, opportunities and space for Danbury students and parents.

We need leaders in Hartford who will fight for what we deserve and not point their finger at others when they fail to deliver for their constituents. That is why I am running for the state Senate, representing Danbury, Bethel, Sherman and New Fairfield. For far too long, our district has not received its fair share of education funding from Hartford. This hurts both our taxpayers, who are forced to pick up the slack when the state does not honor its funding commitments, as well as our students.

For decades now, schools in Greater Danbury have gotten the short end of the stick from the State of Connecticut when it comes to education funding. Looking at the Education Cost Sharing Formula (ECS) used to determine education funding for each school district in the state, the City of Danbury alone has been shorted more than $20 million per year for at least the last five years, according to publicly available data. This is unacceptable and correcting this failure will be one of my first priorities as your state Senator in Hartford.

In 2018, the State Legislature approved a state charter for the Prospect Charter School to open in Danbury. Since then, a significant number of people in the Danbury community have come out to support the option of adding another choice for parents and students. I recently attended a rally for the Prospect School, and it was enlightening to hear from students and educators about how much this new option would benefit the Danbury community.

The facility for the Prospect Charter School is being funded by a generous philanthropic donation of up to $25 million. The state only needs to contribute $1.2 million to open the school. Unfortunately, Kushner has gone to great lengths to block this necessary state funding to allow the school to open. If the Prospect School were to become a reality, the state of Connecticut would pay the per-pupil costs for those students attending the charter school, a tremendous savings to Danbury property taxpayers. A charter school gives parents the freedom to send their children to the school that best meets their needs. The charter school will especially benefit African American and Latino children in our community.

The unacceptable alternative to the Prospect Charter School would be for the City of Danbury to purchase property, design and build another school, likely costing more than $100 million and solely on the back of Danbury taxpayers. This is an easy choice to make. We must get the Prospect Charter School funded now.

Again, just $1.2 million is all that is needed from the state to get this started and Kusher is intentionally blocking this money from the state. Getting our fair share of state education funding for the Greater Danbury area will be a top priority of mine as a member of the state Senate.

Susan Chapman is the Independent and Republican candidate for the state Senate 24th District, representing Danbury, Sherman, New Fairfield and a portion of Bethel. She is a former First Selectman of New Fairfield.
Reports say at least five air attacks hit near Sanaa airport, while others target northern and central parts of city.

The Saudi-led coalition has launched 11 air raids on the positions of Houthi rebels in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, according to the Houthi-run Saba news agency.

Five of Sundays attacks hit the vicinity of the Sanaa airport, while others targeted the northern and central parts of the city, Saba reported, citing a security source.

It was unclear whether there were any casualties.

According to Saudi-owned Al Arabiya media network, the coalition forces attacked Houthi barracks and military sites in Sanaa and destroyed four Houthi drones at al-Delmi airbase north of Sanaa.

There was no immediate official confirmation from the coalition, which had launched air raids on two sites in Sanaa a day earlier.

Houthi claim

The attacks followed a Houthi claim it had hit an important target in the Saudi capital on Thursday, using a ballistic missile and drones.

The coalition did not confirm an attack on Riyadh but said it had intercepted and destroyed ballistic missiles and explosive drones launched towards the kingdom on Thursday.

Bombings in Sanaa city have been relatively rare since September 2019, when Saudi Arabia launched indirect talks with the Iran-aligned Houthi movement, which it has been at war with since 2015.

The conflict has killed 100,000 people and led to what the United Nations describes as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis.

The Houthis took over Sanaa and most other cities in 2014 after removing the Saudi-backed government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The coalition that Saudi Arabia leads intervened in 2015 to try to restore Hadi to power.
Donald Trump likened the abortion policies of his 2020 US election rival Democrat Joe Biden to "baby execution" during a campaign stop in Nevada.

Mr Trump was participating in a roundtable discussion with the "Latinos for Trump Coalition" in Las Vegas when he made the comment.

The president stated  incorrectly  that Mr Biden favoured "after-term abortion, which is basically baby execution."

Mr Biden's voting record has been historically conservative with regard to abortion. Throughout the 1970's and 1980's Mr Biden consistently voted to restrict expansions to Roe V. Wade.

In recent years, Mr Biden appears to have softened somewhat on his stance. He has promised to codify Roe V. Wade into federal law and has spoken out against the Hyde Amendment, though only doing so after being pressured by other Democrats.

The attack from Mr Trump is the latest attempt from the president to paint Mr Biden as extremely far left. Mr Biden's voting record does not support the presidents claims.

During his first term, Mr Trump has introduced policies that make it harder to get an abortion. The president has cut federal funding for organisations that provide abortions or refer patients to abortion clinics.

A poll by Pew Research in August found that some 46 percent of Mr Trumps supporters say abortion is a very important factor in deciding how they will vote in November, compared to 35 percent of Mr Bidens supporters.
Some 1,000 people have gathered on the streets of the French capital for the first Yellow Vest protest since March, before the coronavirus shut down the country. Turnout was lower than hoped, but anger over inequality remains, as do the habitual clashes with the police.

Demonstrators had dusted down the anti-Macron slogans and put on masks. Among the banners' demands: Revolution! Macron the dictator, off to prison! Macron resign! but also "to be able to fill up your fridge".

The Yellow Vests, or gilets jaunes, are still angry over what they see as the president's prioritisation of business and the wealthy over struggling ordinary families.

We've been shelved, smashed, but the anger is there, said Jerome Rodrigues, a key figure in the movement since its inception in the autumn of 2018.

In households, in companies, it may not be yellow, but it's there," he told journalists at the start of Saturday's march. "The people who held France together during the two-month lockdown  the health workers, cashiers, rubbish collectors  those are the Yellow Vests."

Fifty or so nightclub owners, not quite the workers Rodrigues had in mind, joined the rally, furious at still not being able to reopen their businesses since lockdown due to concerns over the spread of Covid-19.

Some are now seriously in debt.

We've been on hold since 13 March, today we're in agony, Morgan Dalle, who runs a discotheque in the Pas-de-Calais region, told Le Monde. While his 10 staff are on furlough, he's had no revenue for the last seven months.

We have no specific financial aid and we're the last sector not to have started working again, he said.

Making a stand

Others had come to show support for a movement they still believe in.

I am here to show solidarity for a pacifist movement with legitimate demands, 60-something Nathalie told RFI. I just want more equality, more justice in the workplace, so that workers aren't just objects you use and then drop once they're no longer useful or profitable.

Some appeared dejected over the low numbers.

"The movement is dead, I'll say that clearly, but we're here because we have nothing to lose, 43-year-old Michael, told AFP at Place de Wagram in northwest Paris.

But 48-year old Stephane has kept the faith. "The movement has been struggling in recent months but it will never die, he said. "As more people are laid off from their jobs, they'll increasingly wake up."

Nearly 200 arrests by 2pm

The demonstrations were authorised in two parts of town, but banned on the Champs-Elysees where many of its select storefronts had been boarded up in anticipation of looting.

We cannot have destruction and chaos on the Champs Elysees, Paris police chief Didier Lallement told BFM television Saturday morning. There's a need for calm on this avenue which is a showcase for our country. So I banned the demonstrations.

The rally began peacefully, but clashes soon broke out at place Wagram and Boulevard Pereire, both in the northwest part of town, as demonstrators tried to move towards the famed avenue.

Protesters set fire to bins and threw projectiles at police. At least one vehicle was set alight. Police used tear gas and grenades to break up the crowds.

Some 193 people had been arrested by around 2:15 pm, largely for carrying objects like screwdrivers, ice axes and knives that "have no place at a demonstration," the police posted on Twitter.

New defence doctrine

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Friday announced slightly tougher rules on how police were to use controversial rubber bullets (LBD) and other crowd-control weapons, the use of which has sometimes led to severe injuries.

Police now use a new defensive grenade known as GMD, said to be less dangerous than the previous one.

And they must ask supervisors for permission to fire the projectiles.

Yellow Vest marches were announced for other major cities in France including Marseille, Toulouse, Lyon and Lille.

The authorities refused to authorise the rally in Toulouse, a former hotspot for the protest movement, citing concerns over the spread of the coronavirus.
London: AstraZeneca has resumed British clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine, one of the most advanced in development, after getting the green light from safety watchdogs, the company said on Saturday.

The late-stage trials of the experimental vaccine, developed with researchers from the University of Oxford, were suspended this week after an illness in a study subject in Britain, casting doubts on an early rollout.

"On 6 September, the standard review process triggered a voluntary pause to vaccination across all global trials to allow review of safety data by independent committees, and international regulators," AstraZeneca said.

It added that safety reviewers had recommended to Britain's Medicines Health Regulatory Authority (MHRA) that it was safe to resume the British trials.
Customers eat at Thai Airways pop-up airplane-themed restaurant at the airlines headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand September 3, 2020. REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa

Thai Airways has opened a restaurant in Bangkok which only serves the airline's in-flight meals.

The Thai Airways fleet has been grounded for months due to the coronavirus pandemic. The commercial travel industry has been devastated.

Now, Thai Airways have transformed their head-office canteen into a plane-themed experience for those missing dining at 36,000 feet.

Chairs have been replaced with airplane seats, and the tables are made from old plane engine parts. Meals cost between $3 and $5.

Cabin crew are also there to welcome customers, who can choose between economy and business class seating options.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Thai Airways has opened a pop-up restaurant in its Bangkok headquarters, so that customers missing the days of in-flight dining can get their fill.

The coronavirus pandemic has decimated commercial air travel, and the Thai Airways fleet has been grounded for months.

Thailand banned all passenger flights on April 4 but Thai Airways, which is 48% government-owned, took the novel step of bringing the in-flight experience on terra firma on September 3.

The airlines has transformed the canteen in its head office into a plane-themed restaurant serving only Thai Airways in-flight meals.

Here's what it's like inside.

On September 3, Thai Airways opened a pop-up restaurant in its headquarters in Bangkok.

Customers walk out of the Thai Airways pop-up plane-themed restaurant at the airlines headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand, on September 3, 2020. REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa

Source: Reuters

The office's usual cafeteria has been transformed. Chairs have been replaced with airplane seats, and tables have been crafted from old plane engine parts.

Customers eat at Thai Airways pop-up airplane-themed restaurant at the airlines headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand September 3, 2020. REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa

"Spare parts from engines, windows and fan blades were used as furniture," said Varangkana Luerojvong, managing director of Thai Airways Catering.

Source: Reuters, Sam Chui

The old menu has been cast aside, and is now exactly the same as onboard Thai Airways flights.

In-flight meals pictured at the Thai Airways pop-up airplane-themed restaurant in Bangkok. REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa

A bakery breakfast is served from 7 a.m. and the airline's main international menu begins at 9 a.m.

Included on that menu are: Caesar Salad, Japanese yakisoba, and shwarma kebabs, according to the travel website Sam Chui.

Story continues

Meals cost between $3 and $5, the site said.

Thai Airways has been offering its leftover in-flight meals as takeout since April, The Guardian previously reported.

Source: Sam Chui

Thai Airways cabin crew, kitted out in their uniforms, are on hand to welcome diners to the experience.

Thai Airways flight attendants say goodbye to a customer at the pop-up airplane-themed restaurant on September 3, 2020. REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa

Source: Reuters

To get in, customers need to book online and download their "special boarding pass" to be scanned on entry.

The "special boarding pass" needed to enter the Thai Airways pop-up airplane-themed restaurant at the airlines headquarters on September 3, 2020. REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa

One retired pilot, Varavut Chevavej, came back to volunteer at the pop-up restaurant.

Chevavej seen in Bangkok, Thailand, on September 3, 2020. REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa

One diner, Kanta Akanitprachai, 50, told Reuters: "I like the in-flight meals on Thai Airways, but we only get to have it when we fly."

"Today we get to have it here, that's good because we want to eat."

Source: Reuters

There is also a choice between economy and business class seating.

Customers at a Thai Airways pop-up airplane-themed restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand September 3, 2020. REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa

Customers at Thai Airways' pop-up appear not to be the only people missing plane food. Indonesia's Garuda and Cathay Pacific are reportedly also offering their leftover in-flight meals as takeout.

An Air Asia in-flight meal. Not related to Thai Airways' pop-up. SOPA Images/Getty

Source: Business Insider

Most of the Thai Airways fleet has been grounded since April as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Idle Thai Airways plane are seen parked on the tarmac of Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand, on May 25, 2020. REUTERS/Jorge Silva

The airline appeared to be close to filing for bankruptcy, but asked the government in May for a $1.8 billion bailout.

A view of economy class on a Thai Airways flight. Hoang Dinh Nam / AFP via Getty Images

Thailand's bankruptcy court is currently considering the restructuring plan proposed by the airline.

The Thai government owns 48% of the airline.

Source: BBC, Reuters

Read the original article on Insider
Oregon's fire marshal has suddenly resigned amid an unprecedented and dangerous number of wildfires scorching through the state.

Marshal Jim Walker on Saturday submitted his resignation to State Police Superintendent Travis Hampton just hours after he was placed on administrative leave.

Oregon authorities had not publicly disclosed why Walker, who has held the position since 2014, was placed on administrative leave.

But a source told Oregon Live that Superintendent Hampton had lost confidence in Walker's ability to manage the wildfires that have inundated the West Coast.

This could be related to a report by Statesman Journal that Walker was reprimanded after he offered to search for an employee's relative affected by the Beachie Creek Fire.

Oregon officials announced on Saturday that Oregon Fire Marshal Jim Walker (left) resigned from his position and the role would be taken over by Chief Deputy Mariana Ruiz-Temple

Walker told the publication that it's difficult for deputies to search for people who have been burnt or killed in the fires - especially when it involves family members or children.

'So what I said is, "Let me go. Let me do this for you,"" he said. 'And so that's what I did.'

On Thursday, Walker traveled to Santiam Canyon to search for the employee's relative and an additional four people in the household.

An initial search with a member of the incident management team didn't find anyone, but they were able to make contact with the unaccounted people after getting phone numbers from a woman with knowledge of the situation.

Each person was alright, except for one person who remained unaccounted for.

'Superintendent Hampton's assessment was I overstepped my role and took this action without authority to do so,' said Walker.

Walker said he believed his search was cleared by the correct person, who was the operations chief of the incident management team for the Beachie Creek Fire.

Flames are seen at the Bobcat Fire in the Angeles National Forest on September 10, 2020 north of Monrovia, California

Walker: 'Superintendent Hampton's assessment was I overstepped my role and took this action without authority to do so.' Pictured: State Police Superintendent Travis Hampton

Walker's resignation letter read: 'Following your conversation with me on Friday, September 11, I understand you have lost faith in my ability to meet leadership expectations in service to OSP.

'My hope was to continue supporting the Oregon Fire Service, even as we face unprecedented challenges. However, as this appears not possible, I am offering my resignation effective today, September 12, 2020.'

A source told Oregon Live that Walker had effectively passed the role's day-to-day duties to his chief deputy, Mariana Ruiz-Temple.

Ruiz-Temples was officially appointed as Oregon's new fire marshal, according to a statement from Oregon State Police.

'Mariana has led with grace, transparency and courage,' said Gov. Kate Brown, per the statement. 'She embodies the experience Oregon needs to face this crisis, in this moment.'

Superintendent Hampton said in a statement that the crisis faced by Oregonians at the moment 'necessitated a leadership change.'

'Mariana is assuming this position as Oregon is in an unprecedented crisis which demands an urgent response,' said Hampton.

'This response and the circumstances necessitated a leadership change. I have the absolute confidence in Mariana to lead OSFM operations through this critical time.

'She it tested, trusted and respected  having the rare combination of technical aptitude in field operations and administration.'

The town of Talent in Southern Oregon suffered severe damage as a result of the Almeda fire which burned through the area earlier this week

In this aerial view from a drone, homes destroyed by wildfires are seen on September 12 in Talen, Oregon

Boats are partially obscured by smoke from a wildfire at a marina on Detroit Lake burned by the Beachie Creek Fire

Linn County Commissioner John Lindsey told Oregon Live that the state has been absent in coordinating a response, but couldn't confirm if the lapse was linked to the leadership shakeup.

Typically when wildfires happen Oregon state officials take daily calls with county commissioners for updates, said Lindsey, but that hasn't happened this time around.

'The one consistent denominator missing was the state,' said Lindsey.

The detrimental wildfires that have taken over the Oregon's southern border have burnt one million acres across that state - about twice the annual average for the past decade.

According to Oregon's fire and hot spot dashboard, there are currently 14 active fires in the state.

Mormon Lake Hotshots firefighter Sara Sweeney uses a drip torch to set a backfire to protect mountain communities from the Bobcat Fire in the Angeles National Forest on Thursday

Six days of ongoing fires have forced thousands of Oregon residents to flee their homes as countless residences and businesses have already been destroyed.

In some parts of Oregon, around one-third of residents remained without power as a result of the wildfires.

Poor air quality has been found in Oregon, and California that materialized in the form of frightening orange skies this week.

At least nine people have died in the wildfires, with three of the deaths attributed to the Almeda Fire, Oregon Public Broadcasting reports.

Four people were confirmed dead on Saturday from the Beachie Creek Fire and one person died in the Holiday Farm Fire.

A 13-year-old boy named Wyatt Toft hid with his pet dog inside a car to escape the inferno, but was among those who died last week.

Wyatt Tofte (pictured) was killed in an Oregon wildfire this week after huddling in a car with his dog to try to escape the flames

Wyatt (pictured in an undated image) died Tuesday in the Santiam Fire in Marion County, along with his 71-year-old grandmother, Peggy Mosso (center). Wyatt's mom Angela Tofte (left) is in critical condition with full body burns

Wyatt's mother is in critical condition with full body burns and his grandmother was killed in the flames.

Hundreds of firefighters battled two large wildfires Friday that threatened to merge near the most populated part of the state, including the suburbs of Portland, causing the city to declare a state of emergency Thursday.

In California at least 20 have died and there has been at least one death reported in Washington state.

Four people have been arrested for arson for deliberately starting blazes along the West Coast while the states are already grappling with dozens of deadly blazes.
President Donald Trump will host his first entirely indoor rally in almost three months on Sunday night and will likely violate Nevadas Covid-19 restrictions in the process. Thousands are expected to attend Trumps campaign rally in Henderson, Nevada on Sunday night, a move that would likely violate the states restrictions on gatherings of 50 people or more. It will mark the presidents first indoor rally since June 20, when Trump held a sparsely attended event in Tulsa, Oklahoma that was engulfed in controversy. That rally preceded a surge in Covid-19 infections in the city and a Tulsa health official later said the rally likely contributed to that trend.

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Henderson has already warned Xtreme Manufacturing, the company hosting the rally, that it will be violating state restrictions on large gatherings if it goes forward with the event. The City of Henderson has issued a compliance letter and verbal warning to the event organizer that the event as planned would be in direct violation of the governors COVID-19 emergency directives. Specifically, gatherings of more than 50 people in a private or public setting is prohibited, City of Henderson spokeswoman Kathleen Richards told CNN in a statement. Large live events must be approved by the Nevada Department of Business and Industry, Division of Industrial Relations and at this time, the City has not been notified that this event has been approved. The City may assess a fine of up to $500 per violation of the governors directives as well as suspend or revoke the business license.

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It doesnt seem the company much cares about the threat of fines though. The owner of the firm, Don Ahern, also owns a hotel in Las Vegas that was fined after holding an Evangelicals for Trump event. Asked to comment, the Trump campaign pushed back against the criticism, saying everyone attending the event will get a temperature check and will be provided with a face mask. If you can join tens of thousands of people protesting in the streets, gamble in a casino, or burn down small businesses in riots, you can gather peacefully under the 1st Amendment to hear from the President of the United States, a Trump campaign official said. The Biden campaign criticized the decision to hold the rally indoors, saying it reflects the same toxic attitude that has crippled Trumps incoherent pandemic response, cost over 193,000 Americans their lives, killed millions of jobs, and needlessly torn the nation apart when we need to come together in this moment of crisis, spokesman Andrew Bates tweeted.

For more of Slates political coverage, subscribe to the Political Gabfest on Apple Podcasts or listen below.
He transformed Britains sense of style, his visionary influence extending not only into our homes but also into our shops and restaurants.

Sir Terence Conran, who has died aged 88, became a byword for good taste  a visionary and business genius in whose emporia, from Habitat to The Conran Shop, Britains middle class first dipped a tentative toe into the heady waters of contemporary design.

The cognoscenti sneered that his designs werent particularly original but Conran knew how to sell an idea and make it affordable.

That perfectionist mission to brighten up drab postwar Britain started at Londons Central School of Art and Design, where he studied textiles. He was so precociously talented as a boy that, according to a family friend, he was given the largest bedroom while his parents slept in one of the two smaller ones

The British had barely slept under a duvet, cooked with a wok or made coffee with an espresso machine before the boy from suburban Surrey opened their eyes.

Objects should be economic, plain, simple and useful, he said, although the expensive fare at stylish Conran London restaurants such as Le Pont de la Tour and Quaglinos could hardly be described thus.

Fittingly, the egotistical bon viveur was as colourful as one of his garish giant pepper grinders. He could be charming but, armed with a fierce temper, could just as easily be tyrannical.

The pleasingly clean lines of his products were hardly mirrored in a messy private life which was anything but aesthetic, including four marriages, innumerable affairs and family upsets.

An exacting workaholic, he was by his own admission a flawed father and husband. It is rumoured that his five children at one stage had to make an appointment to see him. Im not an easy person to be with, he once confessed. Im demanding, Im a perfectionist.

Eye for the ladies: Sir Terence with second wife Shirley in 1955. The pleasingly clean lines of his products were hardly mirrored in a messy private life which was anything but aesthetic, including four marriages, innumerable affairs and family upsets

That perfectionist mission to brighten up drab postwar Britain started at Londons Central School of Art and Design, where he studied textiles.

He was so precociously talented as a boy that, according to a family friend, he was given the largest bedroom while his parents slept in one of the two smaller ones.

His father, a stockbroker and paint salesman, was prone to drinking and violence, particularly after his business failed. Their straitened circumstances didnt stop Sir Terence going to public school (Bryanston) and having a nanny but they did instil his twin obsessions of making money and being frugal. His parsimony was notorious. He would fish vegetables out of the bin and eat them, and insist staff walk upstairs rather than use the lift.

In 1964, he opened the first of what would be 60 Habitat shops, in Chelsea, West London (11 years after his first restaurant, the Soup Kitchen). He was 33 and already on his third marriage, to food writer Caroline Herbert.

His first wife was architect Brenda Davison, whom he married when he was just 19 and she 27.

His second marriage, to writer Shirley Conran (nee Pearce), lasted seven years until she left him after wearying of his infidelity and oppressive, domineering ways. He was an old Victorian, she said. Not even Edwardian.

Shirley, who once said he was such a philanderer that she was mildly amazed he got any work done, claimed his womanising reached the point where she gave an unsuspecting mistress a bar of distinctively scented soap to see if her husband returned home smelling of it.

One of his affairs was with his secretary, while Shirley was pregnant. Sir Terence admitted having after-hours trysts with staff in his shops, while a friend once said he loves pushing secretaries into cupboards.

Incensed by his claim that the most expensive things in my life are my ex-wives, Shirley later accused him of leaving her struggling to bring up their two sons, Sebastian and Jasper, on her own. Jasper, now a successful fashion designer, was only two when they divorced and says his parents never had time for him.

Sir Terence had another three children  Tom, Sophie and Edmund  with third wife Caroline (a lodger in his family home) but she also found him impossible to live with and left him for another man on their 30th wedding anniversary.

Carolines 10.5 million divorce battle was one of the most expensive ever negotiated by a British non-royal. She had held the family together, looking after all five of Sir Terences children, and the judge wasnt impressed by his claim that she had contributed little to his professional success, noting: It can be difficult for a man with a healthy ego who has achieved vertiginous success to look down and discern a contribution other than his own.

He wed interior designer Victoria Davis, more than 20 years younger than him, at a guest-less Chelsea Town Hall ceremony in 2000.

My rather poor temper makes life difficult for people around me, he said.

I suppose my intolerance can seem tyrannical. Family friends said he rarely had any praise for his children and tried to compete with them over who could achieve more success.

He wed interior designer Victoria Davis, more than 20 years younger than him, at a guest-less Chelsea Town Hall ceremony in 2000

Sir Terences business empire would reach its zenith in the 1980s and encompass not only BHS and Mothercare but other High Street brands such as Blazer, Richard Shops and Heals. He employed 33,000 people and had a turnover of 1.5 billion.

When asked why he set himself up as a guru in so many business sectors, he insisted there was no difference between the choices you make about the furniture you buy, the clothes you wear, the flowers you have in your home and the food you put on your plate.

However, he stretched himself too thinly and crashed when the retail boom ended within the decade. In the 1990s he even lost control of Habitat, although he rebounded somewhat by buying back The Conran Shop.

Despite his empire-building, the Cuban cigar-chomping tycoon disliked being regarded as a businessman.

No doubt it stung when design guru Stephen Bayley, with whom Conran set up Londons Design Museum, accused Sir Terence of being too focused on fame and money and possessing the most inflated ego on the planet.

But his criticism was mild compared with that of Sir Roy Strong, the highly refined art historian and curator, who waged a decades-long battle against him.

Their feud started in 1976 when Strong reviewed the Habitat catalogue, saying the model on the cover looked like a 1940s tart and the furniture inside was fit only for a Hendon semi.

Reviewing Conrans authorised biography in 1995, Strong happily pointed out that it portrayed Sir Terence as an abrasive and egotistical monster whose family life was one long tragedy.

Four of his children came to his defence and the author chided Sir Roy for ignoring the positives in the book  that Sir Terence was charming, passionate and little interested in money.

Whatever the truth, Sir Terence appeared to take it on the chin, blaming the lambasting he had received on his previous entirely good-humoured suggestion that Sir Roy be stuffed and exhibited in a case at the V&A. It was certainly a well-crafted rejoinder from the master of design.
By Arshad Mohammed and Daphne Psaledakis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States signaled on Friday that it will soon punish individual Belarusians with sanctions for election fraud and a brutal crackdown on protests as Washington urged Russia to tell Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to step down.

Lukashenko denies rigging the country's Aug. 9 election, which official results said he won by a landslide. He also has refused to talk to the opposition, accusing them of trying to wreck the former Soviet republic squeezed between NATO and Russia.

Speaking to reporters during a conference call, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun said Washington is coordinating sanctions with the European Union but made clear neither would wait for the other to impose penalties.

"We are looking at targeted sanctions aimed at the individuals who are most responsible for ... the violence as well as the theft of the election," Biegun said, adding wider sanctions might be considered later but Washington was loath to do anything that would hurt the broader population.

A senior U.S. State Department official told Reuters on Sept. 1 Washington was weighing sanctions on seven Belarusians.

Biegun said Lukashenko, who has been in power for 26 years and is to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, is increasingly reliant on Moscow to maintain his rule, saying this could turn Belarusian public opinion against Russia.

"It risks turning the Belarusian people, who have no grievance with Russia, against Moscow," he said, adding that he hoped the Kremlin would voice concern about the violence against protesters in Belarus and the abductions of opposition figures.

"A free and fair election will allow Belarusian people to select who will be the next president of Belarus," he said. "Ultimately we hope the message from Moscow to Minsk is that the ruler needs to give way to the will of his people."

(Reporting By Arshad Mohammed and Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio)
An 81-year-old bicyclist died days after he was struck by a car, the Portland Police Bureau reported.

Police investigators said Martin Weiner may not have made a complete stop near Southeast 92nd Avenue and Market Street before he was hit by a car Sept. 3.

A witness told police the car that struck Weiner was not speeding, and the driver had no time to stop.

Weiner was taken to the hospital and died Sept. 6, police said.

-- Tom Hallman Jr; thallman@oregonian.com; 503-221-8224; @thallmanjr

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
The incident occurred on Lough Derg close to the Clare shore at around 4.30pm. The Irish Coast Guard launched a search and rescue operation after receiving a report that a speedboat was in difficulty off Parkers Point south of the Scilly Islands.

Watch officers at the Coast Guards marine rescue sub centre on Valentia Island in Kerry initiated the emergency response and broadcast a message on the marine VHF radio channels requesting any vessels in the area to assist if they were in a position to do so.

Lough Derg RNLI and the Killaloe unit of the Irish Coast Guard were requested to launch their boats and proceed to the area.

Rescue 115

The Shannon-based Coast Guard helicopter, Rescue 115, was diverted from another mission and also asked to assist.

Soon after arriving on scene, the crew of Rescue 115 located the vessel and remained on scene until the RNLI and Coast Guard rescue boats arrived at the location. Conditions on the lake at the time were reported to be choppy resulting in water getting into the boat.

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The Killaloe Coast Guard took the vessel on tow however when some of the people complained of feeling cold, all four were evacuated onto the rescue boat. The speedboats anchor was dropped and left at the scene while the people were taken ashore at Twomilegate where they were met and assessed by National Ambulance Service.

The Killaloe Coast Guard later returned to the vessel with equipment for pumping water from the boat.
Representative image

The first batch of Russia's COVID-19 vaccine 'Sputnik V' is expected to be delivered to all regions of the country by September 14, news agency TASS reported.

"The first batches of the vaccine for testing the supply chain have already been shipped. We are now checking the delivery system so that the staff gets to know it. The first small batches have already been shipped to all regions. The Leningrad region will also receive [the vaccine] among the first ones. In fact, the first samples of the vaccine will be delivered by Monday (September 14)," Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said.

Earlier on September 11, Russia's sovereign wealth fund said more than one billion people would receive its COVID-19 vaccine 'Sputnik-V' in 2020-21, the Interfax news agency reported.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has already signed two deals to export the vaccine abroad. The Brazilian state of Bahia has agreed to conduct Phase III clinical trials of the vaccine.

The Russian health ministry registered the first vaccine against COVID-19, developed by Gamaleya National Research Centre of Epidemiology and Microbiology and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), on August 11.

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

The first batch of the 'Gam-COVID-Vac' (Sputnik V) vaccine for the prevention of the new coronavirus infection has passed the necessary quality tests in the laboratories of Roszdravnadzor (medical device regulator) and has been released into civil circulation, the ministry was quoted as saying in an ANI report.

Meanwhile, Russia reported 5,449 new coronavirus cases on September 13, pushing its national tally to 1,062,811, the fourth largest in the world.

Authorities said 94 people had died in the last 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 18,578, news agency Reuters reported.
It is the clarion cry of many politically active young women: Down with the patriarchy! But for Pauline Harmange, a 25-year-old, bisexual French blogger, the call to arms has had more far-reaching consequences.

Her decision to wade into the gender wars by writing a book entitled I Hate Men has sparked a fierce debate not only about the differences between the sexes but also about freedom of speech.

The book is actually more a tub-thumping pamphlet, in the tradition of Pariss bohemian and outspoken Left Bank, the haunt of great feminist philosophers such as Simone de Beauvoir, Colette and many others.

It is a passionate denunciation of men, of their violence and oppression and entitlement.

Pauline Harmange, a 25-year-old, bisexual French blogger, has waded into the gender wars by writing a book entitled I Hate Men which has sparked a fierce debate not only about the differences between the sexes but also about freedom of speech

It opens with a quote from poet Sylvia Plath: The trouble was, I hated the idea of serving men in any way.

Harmange deplores the role of men in society. I witness every day the immense indifference of men towards women. I witness the sh*t about rape, harassment, feminicides, debates on social media, conversations from men I meet or interact with.

Despite being distributed by a tiny publishing house run by volunteers called Monstrograph, her 96-page essay attracted the attention of a mission manager at Frances Ministry of Women and Mens Equality, named Ralph Zurmely. To him, it was clear. The title of the book, Moi Les Hommes, Je les Deteste, was an obvious incitement to hatred.

You can see his point: if any racial group had been substituted for the word men, there would have been uproar.

Mr Zurmrly said: This book is obviously an ode to misandry [hatred of men]. I would like to remind you that incitement to hatred on the basis of sex is a criminal offence! Consequently, I ask you to immediately remove this book from your catalogue under penalty of criminal prosecution.

He might have expected congratulations for rooting out ugly, divisive hate speech  the kind of thing online social media sites are being urged to stamp out.

She fears and loathes men as a species. She loves individual men. Harmange is happily married to Mathieu, 29, (pictured) who appears in a series of notably unthreatening poses on her Instagram feed. 'I love him very much, she admits

Instead, something else happened. Mr Zurmely found that he had misjudged the public mood. The first edition of I Hate Men has sold out and the book is now being reprinted.

Is it that France had decided it hates men or that it likes freedom of speech more?

On the other side, Harmange is feeling the wrath of many men and women who detest her opinions.

She is accused of vicious prejudice against a group of people who are not commonly considered societys victims  the entire male population.

Harmange, who describes herself on Instagram as the harbinger of the feminist storm, appears a little unsettled by the ferocity of the tempest she has whipped up and has retired to her home in Lille, in northern France.

Her publisher Colline Pierre, told The Mail on Sunday: Pauline is taking a step back at the moment.

There are a lot of issues and offers surrounding her book. And sometimes violent reactions.

A tempest is not a bad thing for sales, of course.

Before Harmange went into hiding, she gave an interview assuring men that their existence was not under threat, merely their entitlement. Eradicating men is not my aim, she said, generously.

Ideally, the book would help bring men down to a normal position alongside the rest of us, and at the same time liberate women from the weight of that all powerful patriarchy.

There is another tantalising aspect to this story of our times.

The first edition of I Hate Men has sold out and the book is now being reprinted. Frances Ministry of Women and Mens Equality, Ralph Zurmely, said: This book is obviously an ode to misandry [hatred of men]. I would like to remind you that incitement to hatred on the basis of sex is a criminal offence!'

The term lived experience these days often prefaces political and social argument.

It has Marxist roots and emphasises the importance of personal knowledge about the world gained through direct, first-hand involvement in everyday events rather than through representations constructed by other people.

In other words, you have the right to talk about sexism or racism or classism or ageism, for example, only if you have experienced it.

Harmange says that working with rape victims has coloured her rhetoric.

The number of cases of domestic violence in France is high. But her own experience contradicts the All Men Are Rapists notion.

This is what she says in her book about men: Even as they dump us, rape us and kill us... boys will be boys. Girls, on the other hand, will become women and learn to cope with being hit, because there is no escaping our narrow view in the crystal ball of patriarchy.

She may hate men, but it is nothing personal, as she coyly adds: Come on, Im going to confess: I detest men. All, really? Yes, all of them. By default, I hold them very low in my estimation. Its funny because I apparently have no legitimacy in detesting men.

And then the knockout admission: I chose to marry one anyway, and to this day, I have to admit that I love him very much.

A scroll through her Instagram page shows something close to domestic bliss. Harmange is happily married to Mathieu, 29, who appears in a series of notably unthreatening poses on her Instagram feed. More often than not, he is asleep.

Indeed, Harmanges Instagram generally is an idyll of contentment, and cats.

Her pictures are of calm sunsets, hot water bottles, knitting, coloured pens, home-baked bread and jam, cakes, yoga mats, and masses of cats. Her fierce rhetoric is matched only by her childlike pleasures.

She is reading Sylvia Plath, but also Harry Potter. She posts a notice that injustice demands revolution but then settles down to making advent calendars and painting her fingernails. A tattoo on her arm reads Myself, a statement of defiance but also the solipsism of being 25 years old.

She has pictures of flowers and wedding dresses. She quotes the French writer Albert Camus, who was not known for his chivalry towards women.

Her husband, when awake, is pictured drinking coffee or curled up in corners  or just curled up with the cat. He does not display a tyrannical bone. Even his tattoos look like William Morris wallpaper.

There is a further plot twist: as well as being devoted to her husband, Harmange is bisexual. She says: This choice is not devoid of all context. As a bisexual woman, who can say what my life would be like today if I hadnt been confronted early on by the homophobia in society and those around me.

For me, the key to understanding Harmange is not merely that she is young, but that she is very French. Her approach to the relationship between men and women is based on philosophy  which is almost more of a national sport across the Channel than rugby.

Harmanges Instagram generally is an idyll of contentment, and cats. She is pulling down the temple of patriarchy to rebuild a new society. At the same time, though, she is cooking brownies for herself and beloved enemy-husband Mathieu

In a sense, she is making the argument of Simone de Beauvoir. Namely, that we are defined by society rather than ourselves. Of course that includes men, but they dont get much sympathy for that.

In truth, De Beauvoir took a slightly more subtle approach. Her concern was that women were defined in relation to men rather than on their own terms.

I believe women of a certain age will understand this. The compliment of being called an honorary man allowed me to become a newspaper editor, although not a member of the Garrick Club.

Harmanges cri de coeur echoes one of the tenets of the original Womens Liberation movement: the fear that men are strong enough to kill you.

She fears and loathes men as a species. She loves individual men.

She does try to address the discrepancy: Although I love my partner and do not consider parting for a second, I continue to think about and claim my fairness to men. In other words, she has mastered the art of reconciling two incompatible truths: the empirical (based on experience) and the emotional. How very French!

France is a country of magnificent contradictions: a place of liberty and revolution that has resorted to heavy-handed state powers; a country that ordered Muslims to remove their hijabs at work and now tells everyone to cover their faces with a mask. Swift to worship women, slow to understand the importance of the #MeToo movement.

For me, the key to understanding Harmange (pictured for an interview with The Guardian) is not merely that she is young, but that she is very French. Her approach to the relationship between men and women is based on philosophy  which is almost more of a national sport across the Channel than rugby

It is the home of the femme fatale and le cinq a sept, that golden happy hour when the British go to get two drinks for the price of one, but when French go to lie down with their loved ones  before going home to their spouses.

Harmange writes of men: So much existential anxieties for which I cannot feel much empathy. All the time they spend whining about their plight as poor persecuted guys, they are cleverly shirking their duty: to be a little less pure products of patriarchy.

She is pulling down the temple of patriarchy to rebuild a new society. At the same time, though, she is cooking brownies for herself and beloved enemy-husband Mathieu.

It is what we call in plodding old Britain having your cake and eating it.

This curious, wholly French row should revive the spirits of a country cast down by Covid and castigating Britain over Brexit.

What better than a young woman blazing rhetoric and yet with a playful demeanour?

Her defence is that hating men is a philosophical construction rather than a hate crime.

Of course, I Hate Men should not be banned. It is not bigotry but a cry against the Establishment by a young woman who is part of a generation who are seeking cultural latitude instead of demanding power. They are much less aggressive than my generation, despite the furious words. They hate men but they love cats.

And Harmange has stumbled upon a greater cause.

Hers may be a generation that is quick to take offence but she has come to represent the fundamental right to give offence.

Freedom of speech is of profound constitutional significance in the land of Voltaire and it is also in peril in this country.

In this light, I am sure Pauline Harmanges sweet-looking husband understands why it is important for me to say that I claim the right to hate men, women or cats, too.
Northside Baptist Pastor Fred Evers dies of cancer

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Fred Evers, the longtime pastor of Northside Baptist Church in Tifton, Georgia, passed away Monday after a months-long battle with esophageal cancer. He was 64.

Evers widow, who was married to him for 45 years, made the announcement of his passing through the churchs social media as well as a webpage that had been chronicling his battle with the disease.

Today has been the most challenging and heartbreaking day of my life. Today at 10:25 AM, I kissed the love of my life, for 45 years, goodbye and walked him to the end of where the LORD would permit me to walk him home. I have discovered there is sacred holiness in walking a child of God home. It is an incredible privilege, and one that is not without heartbreak for those of us who are left behind, Cindy wrote.

I spent last night and this morning holding Fred's hand, reading scripture, and playing praise music. It just seemed a fitting way to walk a child of God home. I will treasure the time I had with him in these last months as precious, because they were every minute! When he left this Earth, his hand went from holding my hand to holding Jesus's hand.

Evers, who is survived by Cindy, his children and grandchildren, was well-known for his 21 years as leader of Northside Baptist Church and his work with the Georgia Baptist Convention.

He served as chairman of the administration committee of the GBC, chairman of the executive committee, president of the preaching conference, chairman of the nominating committee as well as other capacities, The Christian Index reported. He was a board of trustee member for Brewton-Parker College, New Orleans Theological Seminary, and Truett McConnell University.

J. Robert White, who served as Georgia Baptist executive director until 2018, called Evers a great friend and said he demonstrated exemplary leadership in his work with the GBC.

That was very important. I saw Fred lead in a number of ways in the state, including on the executive committee and administration committee. I preached for him a few times at Northside and he became a great friend. You could pick up the phone at any time and he was available to pray for you. He loved his wife, Cindy, very much and was tremendously proud of his children, White told CI.

An obituary also highlighted how Evers was recognized for mentoring and teaching young men called to ministry.

While my heart is shattered into a million pieces, I find my heart is also bursting with gratitude to God for the incredible things he has done for Fred and me. We enjoyed the most blessed life and love. This life is an unspeakable gift, for which I will always be grateful, his widow said.

Please continue to pray for my family and me in the days to come. I know there will be hard days ahead, but I can also tell you from personal experience that God's faithfulness is real and powerful. I will never forget his faithfulness to both Fred and me, especially in the darkest of days. I rest in the truth of scripture that I will one day see him again, and my heart will be overjoyed! she said. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Revelation 21:4.

A funeral service for Evers will be held at Northside Baptist Church at 6 p.m. on Friday Sept. 11.
The Tulane Association of Business Alumni will host its 41st annual forum and first virtual forum titled Waves of Change: Reimagining Business Growth Through a Crisis from 8 a.m. to noon Sept. 17.

A group of industry leaders address the adversities businesses are facing in the wake of the global pandemic and the innovative ways in which they are proving their resiliency.

The forum will take place live on a closed set and be made available online to preregistered participants at www.tulanebusinessforum.com.

Presenters include Meredith S. Grabill, U.S. bankruptcy judge of the Eastern District of Louisiana in New Orleans, and Michael D. Rubenstein, shareholder of Liskow & Lewis in Houston, with tips on what to expect if a business is confronted with bankruptcy; Dr. Kyle Widmer, chief of infectious diseases of the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System in New Orleans, with an update on COVID-19 therapeutic options, research trials and plans moving forward; Joel Wood, senior vice president for government affairs of The Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers in Washington, D.C., with an overview of the effects of COVID on insurance policyholders facing business interruption policies that didnt account for the pandemic, as well as employer-sponsored health insurance coverage due to rising unemployment.

Jim Priestley, group vice president of North America applications sales for Oracle in Burlingame, California, with stories of customers in various stages of cloud transformation prior to and during the pandemic and organizations' ability to adapt, sustain and scale in a post-COVID world; Adam Weissenberg, vice chairman and chief global officer of audit and assurance, Asia Pacific leader of the U.S. global office for Deloitte & Touche LLP in Parsippany, New Jersey, with lessons on relationship building, team motivation and navigating difficult times; John M. Hairston, president and CEO at Hancock Whitney in Gulfport, Mississippi, with an economic update and forecast for Louisiana and U.S. economies.

Quentin L. Messer Jr., president and CEO of the New Orleans Business Alliance, will facilitate a panel discussion of regional maritime experts that will discuss how the pandemic has impacted how, when and why Americans buy consumer goods, and how Louisiana can capitalize on its strengths in maritime, trade and logistics. They will also address New Orleans and the regions current advantages. Panelists will include: Paul G. Aucoin, executive director of the Port of South Louisiana in LaPlace; Brandy D. Christian, president and CEO of the Port of New Orleans and CEO of the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad Corp.; George E. Duffy, president and CEO, of G.Duffy Maritime Services LLC in Destrehan; Sean M. Duffy Sr., executive director of the Big River Coalition in Kenner; and Dr. James A. Richardson, alumni professor of economics and public administration at LSU.

Accountants can earn 4 continuing professional education credits; engineers, 4 professional development hour credits; and attorneys, 2.5 continuing legal education credits by joining the forum.
Hyderabad: Braving the scorching sun, 1.2 lakh students in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana wrote the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). The National Testing Agency (NTA) is conducting the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test - NEET 2020 Image Source: IANS News

Hyderabad: Braving the scorching sun, 1.2 lakh students in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana wrote the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). The National Testing Agency (NTA) is conducting the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test - NEET 2020 Image Source: IANS News

Hyderabad: Braving the scorching sun, 1.2 lakh students in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana wrote the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). The National Testing Agency (NTA) is conducting the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test - NEET 2020 Image Source: IANS News

Hyderabad, Sep 13 : About 50,000 students appeared for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admission into medical courses held on Sunday at 112 centres in Telangana amid special arrangements in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As many as 55,800 students from the state had registered for the NEET. Final figures of the number of candidates who wrote the exam are likely to be announced later.

Though the three hour test began at 2 p.m., the students were allowed into the centre from 11 a.m. At some centres, students had started arriving around 10 a.m.

Barring a few incidents, the exam passed off smoothly. A girl student in Hanamkonda could not write the exam due to alleged negligence by the authorities.

Nikhat Fatima had reached a college as per the details of the centre on her admit card but she was shocked when the officials informed her that this was not her exam centre. The student, who had reached the town from Hyderabad to appear for the test, was seen crying. She, along with her family members, later lodged a complaint with the local police station, seeking action against the officials responsible.

At a few centres, the authorities did not follow the guidelines issued by the National Testing Agency (NTA). Though 12th class exam admit card was listed as the identification proof to be shown along with the NEET admit card, invigilators refused to accept them.

One such incident occurred at an exam centre at Institute of Aeronautical Engineering in Dundigul on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The invigilator sent the student out of the exam hall and insisted that he bring an Aadhaar card.

To ensure social distancing and avoid crowding, the authorities allotted different time slots for the students. The first group was asked to report at 11 a.m. However, there was no strict enforcement of the staggered timings to minimise inconvenience to the candidates.

Social distancing was also ensured in seating of the students in exam halls.

The NEET is conducted for admissions to the undergraduate MBBS/BDS courses, and other undergraduate medical courses in recognised medical/dental colleges in the country.

This year, 15,97,433 candidates from across the country applied for the test which was held at 3,842 test centres.

The NTA took special measures for the conduct of the test in view of the apprehensions voiced by some opposition parties and student groups over holding the exam amid the pandemic.

Staggered timings ensured smooth entry of students into the centres. The candidates were seen heading towards the exam halls in an orderly manner as officials kept making announcements urging them to maintain social distance.

The names of the blocks and room numbers allotted to students were displayed at different points in the premises of another centre at Dundigal to ensure that there was no crowding.

The students were made to pass through a disinfectant tunnel before the staff checked their body temperature with a thermo gun. Wearing of masks was mandatory for students. On reaching the exam hall, they were provided new masks.

Though the guidelines clearly mentioned that the frisking was be done with a metal detector attached to a long rod, students complained the staff bodily touched them.

As part of the safety measures, an isolation room was provided at every centre for those with suspected Covid symptoms. There was no confirmation if any student was found to have Covid-like symptoms.

The NTA also sought a self-declaration that says candidates do not have any symptoms or suffer from Covid or have not been in touch with a Covid-positive person.

The students were advised to carry a transparent water bottle, hand sanitiser, mask and gloves.

However, at many centres, gloves were not provided to students not wearing them.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
US senator Ted Cruz has tweeted a response to criticism from The Daily Shows host Trevor Noah about gender reveal parties, writing that Many liberal males never grow balls".

Mr Cruz had retweeted a post from the conservative news outlet, The Daily Wire, which was reporting on a segment from Noahs show where he was discussing how one of Californias wildfires had supposedly been sparked during a gender reveal party. Noah argued that gender reveal parties are starting to feel very outdated".

Like, given everything were learning about gender, gender reveal parties should only happen when the child is old enough to know their actual gender, Noah said on his show

In response to The Daily Wires post highlighting the segment, Mr Cruz wrote: A fair point. Many liberal males never grow balls.

The senators comments were peculiar given that he has been a vociferous supporter of President Donald Trump who has insulted both Mr Cruzs wife and father on separate occasions.

Ahead of the Utah caucuses during the 2016 presidential campaign trail, when Mr Cruz was competing against Trump for the White House, an anti-Trump super PAC released a Facebook advertisement featuring Mr Trumps wife posting naked for a 2000 GQ magazine cover. The caption on the image read: Meet Melania Trump, your next first lady. Or you could support Taed Cruz on Tuesday.

Responding to the attack Mr Trump tweeted: Be careful, lyin Taed or I will spill the beans on your wife!  thought it was not clear what spill the beans meant.

After Cruz called Trump a coward the then-future president retweeted a supporters message showing side-by-side images of Cruzs wife, Heidi, and Melania Trump. The images caption read: No need to spill the beans, the images are worth a thousand words.

In a separate incident, Mr Trump, without evidence, implied that Mr Cruzs father, Rafael Cruz, was somehow complicit in the assassination of President John F Kennedy.
MONTREALQuebec reported 279 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing the total to 64,986 cases since the pandemic began.

The province said one additional death attributed to the coronavirus was also recorded in the previous 24 hours.

The total number of deaths in Quebec since the start of the pandemic remains at 5,780, however, because health officials said they mistakenly attributed a previous death to the virus.

Quebec Health Minister Christian Dube said in a tweet that increases in COVID-19 cases have been reported across the province, describing the situation as under control, yet concerning.

The latest COVID-19 numbers came as Gatineau Hospital in the provinces Outaouais region had its first full day without intensive care services amid a staffing shortage.

The regional health agency said Saturday that the facilitys intensive care unit would be temporarily closed as of midnight Sunday.

For now, patients requiring intensive care treatments will be transferred to other hospitals in the area. In a statement, the agency said it would do all it could to reopen the intensive care unit in the next days.

Patrick Guay, president of the union representing Outaouais health-care workers, said the suspension reflects widespread problems that have plagued the region over the past few months  and therefore did not come as a surprise.

He said the intensive care unit at Gatineau Hospital only has two nurses at a time to take care of four patients.

If one leaves to go eat, that means it falls on one nurse for four patients. Its unthinkable and unsafe, Guay said in an interview.

He said he believed more hospital units would be forced to close in the coming weeks amid a lack of personnel in the region. In some places, I have 60 to 70 per cent of posts that are vacant, Guay said.

Quebec health authorities said Sunday that 124 people were hospitalized across the province due to COVID-19  one fewer than the previous day.

Of those, 19 people were in intensive care  an increase of three from Saturday.

Quebec said it conducted 21,132 COVID-19 tests on Sept. 11, the last date for which the testing data was available.

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Weeks after recovering from COVID-19, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has been re-admitted to AIIMS Hospital in Delhi. Shah has been admitted for a complete medical checkup ahead of the Monsoon Session of the Parliament, the hospital said on September 13. The Monsoon Session of the Parliament is set to begin from September 14.

"Amit Shah was discharged from AIIMS after post-COVID care on August 30. As per advice given at discharge, he has now been admitted for a complete medical checkup before the parliament session for 1-2 days," AIIMS said in a statement.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan has wished for Shah's full recovery. "Union Home Minister Amit Shah is reportedly unhealthy. I pray to God for his full recovery," he tweeted in Hindi.

The 55-year-old had tested positive for the novel coronavirus infection on August 2 and was admitted to a hospital in Gurugram. He later tested negative for COVID-19 on August 14.

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

Track this LIVE blog for all the latest updates on the coronavirus pandemic

"Today my corona test report has come negative. I thank God and also express my heartfelt gratitude to all those who blessed me and my family by wishing me well during this period. Will stay in home isolation for a few more days on the advice of doctors," Shah had tweeted.

Shah was again hospitalised for post-COVID care on August 17 after he complained of fatigue and body aches. "The union minister has been complaining of fatigue and body aches for the last 3-4 days. He has been admitted to AIIMS for post-COVID care," said the hospital in a press release on August 18. He was discharged after spending 14 days in hospital on August 30.

The Monsoon Session of the Parliament will commence from September 14. The session will be held on a daily basis with no break even on the weekends. On day one (September 14), Lok Sabha will be held from 9 am to 1 pm while Rajya Sabha proceedings will be held from 3 pm to 7 pm.

Also read: Government lists 23 new bills for Parliament's Monsoon session

Meanwhile, total confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infections in India stands at 46,59,984. While 36,24,196 patients have recovered, 77,472 have died. Total reported active cases in the country stand at 9,58,316. Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are the worst-affected.
Shooting Near Rutgers University Kills at Least 2, Injures 6 Others: Officials

At least two people were killed and six were injured near Rutgers University in New Jersey at a party, authorities said.

The Rutgers University Police Department said the shooting occurred off-campus in New Brunswick when at least one suspect opened fire on Delafield Street at around 1:30 a.m. local time.

Those injured were transported to an area hospital and injuries are reported to be serious, Kenneth Cop, the Rutgers police chief, said in a written statement. Information as to the description(s) of the perpetrator(s) is limited at this time and the investigation is active and ongoing.

Two men were killed and six were injured in the incident, which occurred at a party, confirmed Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone and Director Anthony A. Caputo of the New Brunswick Police Department to Tap Into New Brunswick, a local news website. They were pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

A police investigation said that despite the shooting occurring near Rutgers University, the incident had no connection to the school or its students, the website reported.

An investigation is underway, officials added. Authorities asked local people to stay away from the area as police investigate.

A motive for the shooting is not clear.

New Brunswick is a city of about 55,000 in Middlesex County in the New York City metropolitan area. A report from 2015 found that the city is the 25th most dangerous in New Jersey.

Anyone with information can call Detective Erika DiMarcello of the New Brunswick Police Department at (732) 745-5200, or Detective Julissa Alvarado of the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office (732) 745-3848.
When it comes to Covid-19, please remember one thing: it's still early days.

I know that's hard to hear, as you just want your old life back right? You'd like to go on holiday where you like. Have as many friends over to your house as you please. Go into a pub and talk loudly. Not worry about schools or case numbers or possible future lockdowns. You might even be shouting for these things. You might be saying, 'Hardly anybody is dying anymore and anyway we'll have a vaccine soon.' If you're not in a vulnerable group, you might even be thinking it would be no harm if you got infected. You might then be protected.

If you are thinking this way, think again. Listen to someone like Peter Piot. He is a world-famous virologist who did pioneering work on Aids and Ebola. Ironically, earlier this year he became infected with Covid-19. His immune system fought the virus, but then he noticed that symptoms were persisting. He had trouble breathing when he exercised. He felt exhausted. And he couldn't think straight.

He talked about how frustrating it all was and how for a long time all he could do was "be a patient and rest". This went on for two months, and in that time he received many emails from people saying they had the same long-term symptoms.

There are now so many people reporting prolonged symptoms that they have been named 'long-haulers' and the condition they have has been dubbed 'Long Covid'. It is worrying doctors everywhere. They still don't know exactly how common it is, what's causing it, how severe it might get and whether any damage that happens might last for years. Another reason to be very wary of Covid-19. It might mean many people not being able to work, damaging their lives long-term, perhaps giving rise to health consequences for years. We just don't know enough about it.

How many people have Long Covid? A recent report has concluded that up to 60,000 people in the UK may have been suffering from it for more than three months. At least 300,000 people have reported symptoms lasting for more than a month. That's an awful lot of people who are still ill.

In studies on Long Covid elsewhere, a similar picture is emerging. In a German study, 80pc of people had heart abnormalities several months after infection. An Italian study found that 87pc of hospitalised patients had symptoms after two months. A similar trend was observed in a UK study.

In Bergamo, Italy, epicentre of the first worrying European outbreak of Covid-19, doctors are bringing the survivors back six months on. The doctors have said they feel a moral obligation to bring their former patients back in. They are taking their blood, examining their hearts, and scanning their lungs. They are also asking them how they feel. A 54-year-old woman who still can't walk up a flight of stairs without becoming breathless said, "I feel like I'm 80 years old".

The Bergamo study has revealed that 30pc still have lung scarring and breathing problems. Another 30pc have heart abnormalities. But the list of symptoms goes on: short-term memory loss; leg pain; tingling in the extremities; hair loss; depression; and, most of all, severe fatigue.

Bergamo frightened all doctors six months ago with the number of fatalities, but it is now sending another message to the world about Covid-19. Recovery might be incomplete, especially in those who were very sick. The virus is gone, but the pain still lingers.

Overall, half of the people there who had the virus say they are still sick, with various symptoms. One person has said it's a bit like you wake up, throw a set of symptoms in the air, and see which ones land. Those symptoms will be with you all day.

Doctors are still unsure as to what is causing Long Covid. Might the virus still be lingering? What makes this virus somewhat unique is it might start in your lungs but then it can go anywhere in your body, causing damage as it goes. That damage might persist even after the virus is gone. Is it possible that being infected somehow resets your immune system, which continues to cause symptoms? This might resemble an autoimmune disease, where your immune system starts to attack you own body. Some even suggest that the virus damages nerves in the body, leading to the pain, fatigue and brain fog.

Some of these things can happen with other viruses, but some doctors are convinced that they are seeing something new. Previous viruses haven't been reported to have such a profound effect with such a range of symptoms. It is also not clear what course the disease might take when comparing different people. Doctors are currently effectively in the dark when it comes to long-haulers.

However, a lot of research is happening. Long Covid is clearly an important aspect of Covid-19. In July, the UK allocated 8.4m for research into the long-term consequences of Covid-19, but a lot more is needed internationally. And anyone with Covid-19 can turn to support groups, for example Body Politic, which had doubled in size since June, with participants from over 25 countries. Membership goes up in regions or countries where there are spikes in the numbers of those infected. It provides information and support, including 'tips for those who aren't listening'.

Sufferers of Long Covid are reporting that their symptoms are often dismissed by family members and work colleagues. The NHS has a website called 'Your Covid Recovery', and there is also an Irish support group: https://www.internalconnections.ie/covidcasesireland.

There is, however some good news. Many people with Long Covid start to feel better in their fourth or fifth month out. Breathing gradually improves, although there are reports indicating that lung scarring might be permanent.

Recovery can be tentative and is not guaranteed. And as people age, we don't know if symptoms might come back as their hearts and lungs age and have suffered earlier damage. Prevention will as ever be better than cure. This means a vaccine - but, in the meantime, prevention means trying to get the viral numbers right back down. The upward trend in Dublin and Limerick might well lead to more people in hospital and may even lead to more deaths. But it will also give rise to more people with Long Covid.

We must remember, we can't relax the fight against Covid-19. It might be on the back foot when it comes to the death rate, and let's hope that continues to go down. But don't forget about Long Covid, which may well turn out to be one of the more insidious features of the virus.

Luke O'Neill is professor of biochemistry in the school of biochemistry and immunology at Trinity College Dublin
Mumbai :

The Supreme Courts order to ban all liquor shops on national and state highways across the country and licenses of existing shops not be renewed after March 31, has prompted a unique demand for diversion of routes of highways that pass through some towns and villages.

The Supreme Court had on December 15, 2016, ordered a ban on all liquor shops on national as well as state highways across the country and made it clear that licenses of existing shops will not be renewed after March 31 this year.

The offices of the national highway division of state Public Works Department as well as National Highway Authorities of India, have been getting such demands from the villages which are likely to be affected by the court order.

The liquor shops are there since a long time and their business is set with dedicated customers and demand. Suddenly the SC decision has come.

This will not just be revenue loss but a change in local market as not all customers of the shops go on state or national highway and drive recklessly. It is a pressure tactic by the villagers opposing the decision, said a senior PWD officer, who has been dealing with villagers for construction of national and state highways across the state.

Some resolutions have cited excuses like traffic congestion, village safety or some religious fair getting affected. But the real reason is ban on liquor shops, he said.

Before the SC took the decision, rest of the things (like traffic congestions, safety issues) were happening from time to time, still there was no objection. Some of the village representatives admitted privately that liquor shop ban has created pressure on them to come up with the demand for diversion of state/ national highway, the officer said.

Around 15,000 bars and liquor shops in Maharashtra are likely to be closed with the implementation of the SC order.

A delegation of hotel and restaurant operators across the state has also sought intervention of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in the matter.

State PWD minister Chandrakant Patil told that there have been some demands from villagers for diverting the state or national highways.

I have been informed about such demands and I have asked the officers to prepare a proper report of the demands. I am on a state tour and will look into it once I return to Mumbai, Patil said.

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Martin McGuinness's son has rubbished claims by Oscar-winning American actress Jane Fonda that she was in their Derry home 44 years ago when a body was carried in and her husband dipped his fingers in the blood to show his son.

Fonda stunned viewers of RTE's Late Late Show on Friday night with her previously untold story, which she said unfolded in 1976.

But Fiachra McGuinness said her account was "fiction" and different from what had actually happened.

Fonda told host Ryan Tubridy that she and her late husband Tom Hayden, the Irish-American anti-war activist and civil rights campaigner, had actually been looking for Gerry Adams on their visit.

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"But somebody directed us to Martin McGuinness's home. We were sitting in the living room when a body was carried in, bleeding a lot. It was the Troubles and it was sort of shocking," said the 82-year-old star of movies such as Klute and On Golden Pond, who added that the couple's son Troy, who was aged around six or seven, was with them.

"Tom put some of the blood on his fingers and said to Troy, 'Your forefathers, your forebearers, your people'," she explained.

The recording of the down-the-line interview moved on without any elaboration from Fonda or any more questions from Tubridy. There were claims on social media that it had been edited and Fonda's blood-curdling tale came as a shock to most observers in Derry.

In 2017 McGuinness talked publicly about the visit, but there was no mention of any bodies. He said that he had returned from Sunday Mass to find the actress sitting in his kitchen with his wife and eldest child Aine.

The former IRA commander in Derry said he and his family showed the daughter of movie legend Henry Fonda and her family around the Bogside and then made them dinner.

"They stayed with us all day," said McGuinness, who added that Fonda clearly had an interest in the Troubles.

Reports said that McGuinness and Fonda became friends and that several months later she sent a large box of baby clothes on the birth of the former deputy First Minister's third child.

In 1981 Fonda lobbied Margaret Thatcher to end the republican hunger strikes in the Maze by reclassifying all the inmates as political prisoners.

Shortly after the Late Late Show interview was aired, Mr McGuinness's son Fiachra posted a tweet and a photograph taken during Fonda's visit.

His post said: "Jane Fonda telling a different story from the one that actually happened. Here she is happy enough with my father at his home."

Another tweet from him read: "Jane Fonda bringing a fiction movie to the Bogside in Derry."

Fiachra McGuinness also complained that little time had been devoted on the Late Late Show to the visit which Tubridy had heavily promoted.

Commentators have compared Fonda's account of her Bogside trip to claims by former US president Bill Clinton's wife Hillary that she came under sniper fire during a visit to Bosnia in 1996.

She said: "I remember landing under sniper fire. There was no greeting ceremony and we were basically told to run to our cars."

Several news channels in the US later broadcast footage of the First Lady's arrival, showing that there had been no such incident.

Mrs Clinton later admitted that she had made a mistake.
A British parliamentary deputy said on September 13 that the husband of British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been imprisoned in Iran for four years, has told her that his wife's latest trial has been postponed.



Parliamentarian Tulip Siddiq, who represents Zaghari-Ratcliffe's London-area home district of Hampstead and Kilburn, did not offer details of any possible reasons for the delay.

"She is relieved, frustrated, stressed and angry. Once again shes being treated like a bargaining chip," Siddiq tweeted.



She said more information would be available later in the day.



Iran's judiciary, which routinely withholds key information on trials, has not issued a public statement on the charges or issued any news on a postponement.



But they are said to be reviving old charges of propaganda against the regime, possibly in connection with a suggestion three years ago by then-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson that Zaghari-Ratcliffe was "teaching people journalism."



The 41-year-old Zaghari-Ratcliffe -- a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation -- was detained at Tehran airport after a family visit in 2016 and subsequently given a five-year sentence for plotting to overthrow Iran's government.



Amnesty International called the process a deeply unfair trial.



She was temporarily released in March, amid measures to halt the spread of COVID-19, but not allowed to leave the country and reportedly remains at her parents' home under house arrest.



Iran's state television cited an unnamed official as saying she was summoned to a Revolutionary Court in Tehran on September and informed of a new charge against her.



Britain has demanded Zaghari-Ratcliffe's release and that of other dual nationals imprisoned in Iran. Tehran does not recognize dual citizenship.



Britain's Foreign Office has called Iran's action in the case "indefensible and unacceptable."



Thomson Reuters Foundation CEO Antonio Zappulla condemned the new charge, saying it would prolong Zaghari-Ratcliffes "inhumane and unjust ordeal."

'Hostage Diplomacy'



The new indictment against Zaghari-Ratcliffe comes as London and Tehran negotiate the release of hundreds of millions of dollars frozen by Britain.



The payment was made by Tehran more than 40 years ago for Chieftain tanks.



Officials in London and Tehran have denied that Zaghari-Ratcliffe's case is linked to a repayment deal.



However, the British daily The Guardian reported last week that Defense Minister Ben Wallace had acknowledged he was "actively" seeking to repay a debt to Iran to secure the release of Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other Iranian-British detainees.



Britain is believed to owe as much as $530 million to the Iranian government arising from the Chieftain contract.



Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband, Richard Ratcliffe, said in a statement this week that "It has become increasingly clear the past months that Nazanin is a hostage, held as leverage against a UK debt. It is important that the UK government does everything to protect her and others as Irans hostage diplomacy continues to escalate."

With reporting by Reuters
The Finance Ministry on Sunday shared a report on progress made by various schemes under Atmanirbhar Bharat package. The Rs 20 lakh crore Atmanirbhar Bharat package was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this year to help economy in fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

The government said that Rs 25,000 crore has been disbursed to farmers under the Rs 30,000 crore additional emergency working capital funding through National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) as on August 28. The balance amount of Rs 5,000 crore under Special Liquidity Facility (SLF) has been allocated to NABARD by RBI for smaller NBFCs and NBFCs and MFIs. NABARD is finalising operational guidelines to implement it soon, the Ministry of Finance said in an official release.

The ministry further said that the banks have approved purchase of a portfolio of Rs 25,055.5 crore and they are currently in the process of approval for additional Rs 4,367 crore, as of August 20, under the Rs 45,000 crore Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme 2.0 for NBFCs, HFCs and MFIs.

Rs 30,000 crore Special Liquidity Scheme for NBFCs, HFCs, MFIs has also progressed well, the ministry added. As of September 11, thirty seven proposals of an amount of Rs 10,590 crore have been approved. The ministry said that six applications seeking financing of Rs 783.5 crore are under process.

Sharing details about the Rs 3 lakh crore collateral free Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme for businesses including MSMEs, the government said that as on September 10 public sector banks and 23 private sector banks along with NBFCs have sanctioned Rs 1,63,226.49 crore to 42,01,576 borrowers. Rs 1,18,138.64 crore have been disbursed to 25,01,999 borrowers, it added.

On income tax refunds, the ministry said that refunds of more than Rs 1,01,308 crore have been issued to more than 27.55 lakh taxpayers between April 1 and September 8. The refunds of Rs 30,768 crore have been issued in 25,83,507 cases and corporate tax refunds of Rs 70,540 crore have been issued in 1,71,155 cases. "All corporate tax refunds up to Rs 50 crore have been issued in all cases, wherever due. Other Refunds are under process," it said.

Also read: Why Modi govt's Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan would fail
New Delhi, Sep 13 : India's textile industry has urged the government to remove anti-dumping duty on import of viscose staple fibre (VSF) for the sector to achieve global competitiveness, a statement said on Sunday.

The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI), along with other industry bodies, has submitted a joint representation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard, a CITI statement said.

Noting that the Ministry of Textiles has set a target of $350 billion market size for the growth of the Indian textiles and clothing (T&C) industry by 2025, the CITI said that this cannot be achieved until the country shows progress in exports of textile products, especially in the man-made fibre (MMF) sector.

The industry has been facing stagnation since many years, mainly due to the lack of availability of basic raw materials of MMF/filament yarn at internationally competitive prices, as per the industry body.

"Taking a serious view of the high price of VSF in India, the captains of the various segments of VSF value chain, viz the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), the Bhiwandi Powerloom Weavers Federation Ltd (BPWF), the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI), the Clothing Manufacturers Association of India (CMAI), the Federation of Gujarat Weavers' Welfare Association (FGWWA), the Handloom Export Promotion Council (HEPC), the Indian Spinners Association (ISA), the Ichalkaranji Shuttleless Looms Owners Association (ISLOA), the Powerloom Development Export Promotion Council (PDEXCIL) and the Tamil Nadu Federation of Powerloom Associations (TNFPA) have submitted a joint representation to the Prime Minister of India for the removal of anti-dumping duty on import of viscose staple fibre (VSF) to achieve global competitiveness," said the statement.

They have also pleaded to the Ministers of Finance, Commerce and Textiles and their respective Secretaries in this regard.

The textile industry players have stated that cotton fibre, which is the basic raw material for the cotton textile industry, and also the growth engine of the Indian T&C industry is available to the industry at an internationally competitive prices. This has helped the entire cotton value chain to remain globally competitive as it doesn't attract any import duty or anti-dumping duty, said CITI.

The VSF Value Chain stakeholders pointed out that India, despite being the second largest producer of MMF in the world, has only 20 per cent share in total T&C exports while China's share of MMF products stands at 80 per cent.

The Indian textile industry is not in a position to fully capture the market opportunities compared to Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Pakistan, etc, mainly due to the expensive price of VSF which is the second most important basic raw material for the MMF textile value chain, said the industry body.
Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan officially resumed regular flights from Sept. 11, Trend reports citing Kabar.

An agreement on the opening of flights was reached after negotiations between the authorities of the two countries.

Flights on the Tashkent - Almaty - Tashkent route will be carried out on Fridays by the Uzbekistan Airways and Air Astana on a parity basis.

Earlier it was reported that flights between Tashkent and Bishkek are planned to be restored from Sept. 14. For now, the flights will operate once a week.
Ministers have been handed a Brexit lexicon to keep them on message with Boris Johnsons new get-tough tactics with Brussels, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

A confidential crib sheet, marked Official  Sensitive, tells them precisely what words and expressions to use  even telling them to stop saying Brexit because that has now been achieved.

The memo, dated September 8, says the word can now be used only as a historical event that took place on January 31, 2020.

Boris Johnson has banned cabinet ministers from using the word Brexit in anything other than a historical context and has also told his government that they must not refer to EU partners

But it also seeks to contrast Mr Johnsons new tougher approach with predecessor Theresa Mays by ordering Ministers not to repeat her preferred deep and special partnership description of our future relationship with the EU.

Instead, they are told to stress that in future the EU will be one of many partners. Stick to the phrase friendly co-operation between sovereign equals .

The stay on message memo comes as the Prime Minister faces threats of legal action from Brussels and a growing revolt from some senior Tories over controversial legislation which will over-rule parts of his own Brexit deal and flout international law.

In the Commons tomorrow, senior backbencher Sir Bob Neill will lead a bid to amend the Governments new Internal Market Bill and deny Ministers delegated authority to break international law in respect of Northern Ireland.

Bromley MP Sir Bob told The Mail on Sunday that he was not persuaded by Mr Johnsons claim yesterday that his shock new move was prompted by threats from Brussels to carve up our country by insisting on unacceptable trade checks between Britain and Northern Ireland.

The document marked 'Official-Sensitive' also bans ministers from saying 'in spite of Brexit'

There were claims yesterday that the Government was ready to drop the new Bill if the EU agreed to only limited checks.

But in a joint article for The Sunday Times, former Prime Ministers Sir John Major and Tony Blair called on Mr Johnson to drop the Bill now, claiming it risked peace in Northern Ireland by putting the Good Friday Agreement at risk.

They added it would damage trade talks with other nations, warning: Once trust is undermined, distrust becomes prevalent.

The two ex-Premiers said: As the world looks on aghast at the UK  the word of which was once accepted as inviolable  this Governments action is shaming itself and embarrassing our nation.

But earlier, Tory peer David Trimble  who as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party received the Nobel Prize for his part in the peace talks  defended the Governments actions. He told Times Radio: Theres nothing unusual about the Government acting unilaterally and that is what this legislation is.

Lord Trimble added: The EU has had powers to impose really ghastly things on us ever since we joined... We gave the European Union power to legislate over our heads and I think... theyre taking out insurance so theyre able to stop it if ever [EU negotiator] Michel Barnier goes rogue. Tory MP and former Northern Ireland Minister Shailesh Vara also sprang to Mr Johnsons defence, saying: It is the first duty of a government to protect the integrity of the Union and this legislation helps to do that.

The confidential ministerial crib sheet was attached to the Internal Market Bill introduced last week by Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis, who stunned MPs by admitting that part of it would breach international law.

The crib sheet makes no attempt to hide the implications, saying: Do not imply that this is merely clarifying the Northern Ireland Protocol. This is a case where we are disapplying or over-riding the EU law concept of direct effect, required by Article 4 of the Withdrawal Agreement.

In this very limited and specific way we are in contravention of the Withdrawal Agreement.

Sir Bob, whose amendment will impose a parliamentary lock on changes to the Withdrawal Agreement, hit out last night at the memos control-freakish tone. He said: It does seem to suggest an attempt to change the language which is not really compatible with what has been the Governments position up to now. I am not sure good government is really about message control. Its about taking the right decisions. Its the difference between running campaigns and running a government.

Mr Lewis and No 10 were approached for comment but Ministers traditionally decline to comment on leaked documents.
An Indian in the UAE was honoured by the police for returning a bag containing USD 14,000 and gold, a media report said on Saturday.

Retesh James Gupta, who lives in Dubai, was praised by the Dubai Police for his honesty and gave him a certificate of appreciation for being a responsible resident, Gulf News reported.

The bag he returned to the police contained USD 14,000 cash and gold worth 200,000 dirhams (USD 54,452), it said.

Brigadier Yousef Abdullah Salim Al Adidi, Director of Al Qusais Police Station, awarded Gupta at the police station and emphasised the importance of collaboration between the community and police.

It was not immediately known who was the owner of the bag.

Gupta thanked the Dubai Police for awarding him, saying the gesture gave him pride and joy.
Entrepreneurship competition to launch at Glyndwr University with key industry support

This article is old - Published: Sunday, Sep 13th, 2020

A major student entrepreneurship competition which sees Wrexham Glyndwr University partner with leading logistics provider, Farralls Group, is set to launch this autumn.

The competition  The Ambition Vault  will launch in October and run through until February 2021, offering its participants the opportunity to learn from industry experts, receive one-to-one mentoring  and, ultimately, to secure significant financial investment for the winning team to help turn their business ideas into reality.

The competition is being organised by Wrexham Glyndwr Universitys Enhancing Entrepreneurship team alongside Farralls Group.

Megan Breakwell, Entrepreneurship Co-ordinator at Wrexham Glyndwr University, said: This is a major opportunity for Glyndwr students and recent graduates to work with leading local businesses and to develop  and showcase  their entrepreneurship skills.

Our competition will help take them through the entire process, guided along the way by leading industry figures.

From planning through to marketing, pitching, and financing  and, finally, to a pitch to Farralls Group for that all-important investment  our students will be given the help they need to make their ideas succeed.

The Ambition Vault will be open to current Glyndwr undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as graduates who completed their studies at the university within the past two years. All kinds of business ideas are welcome to be put forward to the competition, which launches on Monday, October 19 with a digital session.

Mathew Farrall, Managing Director of Farralls Group said he wanted to back the competition after seeing the need for the kind of support Glyndwr will be providing.

He said: Ive seen friends and colleagues have creative ideas which go to waste due to the right support not being available. Theres a gap between education and industry that I want to help bridge to make sure those innovative ideas dont go to waste.

I am passionate about providing students with opportunities to develop their ideas alongside established businesses. As well as offering students the exciting opportunity to bring an investor on board, this competition also incorporates multiple sessions with industry professionals, making it an experience that cannot be missed.

Charlotte Oram Gettings, Business Development Manager at Wrexham Glyndwr University, said The competition is a fantastic example of how academia can truly collaborate with industry to drive economic growth and instil entrepreneurial spirit within the University, Farralls Group and North Wales region.

Farralls have engaged with a number of the Teams initiatives and this is another progressive way in which we continue to work in partnership to deliver applied education and innovative projects.

Mr Farrall said hed decided to lend his financial support and expertise to Glyndwr after examining both the universitys strong business links across the region  and the quality of its graduates.

He added: We are based in Deeside and our shared business network and the calibre of the students at Wrexham Glyndwr made it the perfect choice.

Any student or recent graduate interested in taking part in The Ambition Vault can do so by emailing enhance@glyndwr.ac.uk for more information.
For book lovers, this fall promises an even deeper bounty than usual as publishers shuffle release dates amid the pandemic. Here's a list of best bets.
The coronavirus health crisis has had an unexpected effect on an event that happens once every 10 years in the United States: the U.S. census.

For example, Betsy Landin was listed by her parents on the 2020 census as living at her familys home in Phoenix, Arizona. But experts say she should have been counted in the city of Tempe where she goes to school.

We really didnt have any instruction or guidance at school about how to fill out the census, Landin said.

The same thing happened to Betzabel Ayala. She was counted in Phoenix because she was living at home after the coronavirus shutdown of colleges around the country.

Where to count students for census

The question of where to count off-campus college students in any census can be difficult. Parents often think their college-age children should be counted with them.



Hundreds of thousands of U.S. college students are being counted for the 2020 census at their parents homes or other places. These students normally live in non-university housing and are supposed to be counted where they go to school.

Ames, Iowa is home to Iowa State University. The city has a population of 67,000 people. Officials are worried that if the 2020 census misses the more than 15,000 students who live off-campus, it could put the citys population count below 50,000.

Undercounting

Some people say the coming undercount could harm college towns across the country. In some places with major universities, students make up as much as three-fourths of the population.

Most people received information from the 2020 census in March. That is also when restrictions in much of the U.S. went into effect to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Many schools switched to online classes, causing many students to leave. The Census Bureau says college students should be counted where they would have been on April 1 if not for the health crisis.

The Census Bureau sought the help of college administrators in getting lists of students who do not live on campus or have left town. But many universities did not want to take part because of privacy concerns. In addition, off-campus students at many schools are not required to provide information about where they live.

A lot of what is provided by the schools is also missing important information, such as birthdates. That is from a report last month by the office inspecting the U.S. Census Bureau.

The undercount problem, however, involves only students living off campus in non-university housing. The Census Bureau uses records supplied by colleges to count students living in dormitories or university apartments.

But, off-campus students make up about 4 million of the 19 million college students in the U.S. That number comes from Dudley Poston, a demographer at Texas A&M University.

State College, Pennsylvania is home to Penn State University. Twenty-five percent of students living in one neighborhood there answered the 2020 census either online, by mail or by phone. Douglas Shontz, a city spokesman, said the current percentage is much lower than the 60 percent who answered the 2010 census.

With less than a month left until the census ends, the city has placed signs all over downtown State College. The city also spent $5,000 mailing out postcard reminders about the census to students who returned for the fall semester to off-campus apartments or fraternity and sorority houses.

We are kind of begging at this point for students to do the right thing, Shontz said.

Steve Patterson is the mayor of Athens, Ohio. He said if Ohio Universitys graduating class of 3,500 students was not counted last spring, the city could lose $49 million in federal funding over 10 years.

Across the country, students answers to census questionnaires will affect how $1.5 trillion in federal money is spent and how many congressional seats each state gets.

Im Mario Ritter, Jr.

Mike Schneider and Anita Snow reported this story for the AP. Mario Ritter Jr. adapted it for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

campus  n. the grounds and buildings of a university or college

dormitory n. a building on a school campus where students can live

demographer n. a person who studies changes in population in human populations

questionnaire n. a document that asks people to provide answers to questions that are used to collect facts and opinions

fraternity n. an organization of male students on a U.S. college campus

sorority n. an organization of female students on a U.S. college campus

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New Delhi, Sep 13 : The man behind the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) who stood by his boss Lalu Prasad Yadav through thick and thin, only to recently quit the RJD in a surprise move - Raghuvansh Prasad Singh died in Delhi's AIIMS battling post-COVID symptoms on Sunday morning.

Singh was suffering from a lung infection and was put on a ventilator two days ago after his health deteriorated. He was admitted in the ICU unit of the hospital a week ago after contracting an infection in his lungs, a post-COVID illness he developed after contracting coronavirus.

Singh's demise comes close on the heels of his unceremonious and some would argue, unexpected exit from RJD, a party he served for the better part of his political life. In his handwritten resignation to Lalu Prasad, he said, "I kept standing behind you for 32 years after the demise of Karpuri Thakur, but not any longer." He was believed to be angry over talks about former MP Rama Singh's entry into the RJD. In what can be seen as a longstanding relationship of camaraderie, Prasad told Singh, "First you get better, then we will sit and talk. You are not going anywhere." The five-term Lok Sabha MP representing Vaishali died at the age of 74, bringing an end to a long era where he espoused the cause of social justice. The man who was once part of Karpuri Thakur's Cabinet later stood by Lalu Prasad, even when the latter was prosecuted for charges of corruption in the fodder scam. He also stood by the Yadav family when Rabri Devi was steering the Bihar government in the absence of her husband.

A well read and well educated man who was known for his simplicity, Singh's socialist bent made him well respected not just in the RJD but by leaders of all political parties riding on the promise of social justice. However, the legacy of this mathematician would be steering the UPA-era flagship scheme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) which is a social security measure that aims to guarantee the 'right to work'.

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 is seen as one of the main reasons apart from UPA's civil nuclear deal with the US that swept the alliance back to power consecutively for a second time in 2009.

However, the Modi era proved to be uncharted political territory for this mass leader who lost both the 2014 and 2019 general elections when the BJP won power at the Centre with a thumping majority. However, his political relevance was intact in Bihar's psyche.

He spoke his mind, did not mince words and had even questioned the government he was a part of. A rarity, Singh's political legacy is so powerful and deep, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose to start Sunday's virtual inauguration of three petro projects for Bihar by paying homage to him, calling him "a person who understood poverty", even before the customary protocols of addressing the Bihar Governor or Chief Minister at the event.

When Modi urged Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to "jointly fulfill" developmental requests made by Singh in his last letter to Nitish, it was a testament to the sway the Rajput leader held in Bihar's polity.
The worst incident was one night riding on the roof of a train.

We were riding the train cars up on top. The train started braking, she recalled. A man near them was sleeping, and then he stood up to see his wife. He fell and got his leg cut off.

Accidental amputations and other serious injuries are not uncommon when migrants ride through Mexico. Neither are robberies or rapes.

On the train and in the shelter, Membreno never left Astrid Estephany alone, taking her to work when he found a day or two of painting or helping with construction.

In the shelter I dont sleep, or I sleep fearfully. I keep her in an embrace, he said in November.

It wasnt just the normal threats to a 13-year-old girl. Other Hondurans were in the shelter, and some were from opposing political factions or affiliated with gangs, Membreno said.

When speaking at the shelter and wanting to say the name of the program, he always lowered his voice and whispered Vida Mejor. The fear was palpable.
An 11-year-old girl was killed and four other villagers critically wounded by Indian troops firing into the Pakistani-administered side of the Kashmir region

An 11-year-old girl was killed and four other villagers critically wounded by Indian troops firing into the Pakistani-administered side of the Kashmir region, Pakistan's military said on Sunday.

The military said the ``unprovoked firing'' by India troops using long-range guns and artillery targeted the Pakistani border villages of Hotspring and Rakhchikri Friday night along the so-called Line of Control that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

The Pakistani military said a 75-year-old woman was among the four civilians wounded. The military said its forces responded by firing at Indian army posts, without elaborating.

Pakistan's foreign office said it summoned India's diplomatic representative to protest the cross-border firing.

In June, Pakistani officials blamed Indian troops for killing four villagers in the Pakistan region of Kashmir. Days later, they said Indian shelling again had killed a 13-year-old-girl and wounded her mother and brother.

The nuclear-armed neighbors each claim the divided Kashmir region in its entirety. Pakistan and India often trade fire in the disputed Himalayan region, with both blaming the other side for initiating the fire.

They have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since independence from British rule in 1947.

Tensions have soared between Pakistan and India since August 2019, when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist-led government revoked Muslim-majority Kashmir's decades-old semi-autonomous status, touching off anger in Indian-controlled Kashmir and in Pakistan.

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WASHINGTON/BUENOS AIRES: U.S. President Donald Trumps nominee on Saturday won election as president of the Inter-American Development Bank, the regions main economic development lender, making him the first U.S. citizen to lead the institution in its 61-year history.

Mauricio Claver-Carone, Trumps senior Latin America adviser, told the banks governors before voting began that he would be a passionate advocate" for the bank, its staff and the region. He will take office on Oct. 1 and has pledged to serve only one five-year term.

Trumps decision to nominate a U.S. candidate to head the bank broke with a tradition for the president to come from the region and sparked criticism from some Latin American countries, development groups and the European Union.

But Claver-Carone won the backing of a majority of countries in the region.

Thirty of the Banks 48 governors voted for Claver-Carone, including 23 from the region, amounting to 66.8% of the vote, a spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council said. Three sources familiar with the vote said 16 countries abstained.

Argentina, Mexico, Chile and Costa Rica - concerned about the precedent of the move - initially sought to delay the vote but failed to win sufficient backing to do so.

The IDB vote turned into a geopolitical battle between the Trump administration, which is keen to gain leverage in resource-rich Latin America and counter the rise of China, and some in the region who wanted to retain control of the top job.

Some countries also were concerned about electing Claver-Carone, a Trump loyalist, should Trump lose the Nov. 3 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden, whose campaign also criticized the nomination of the Cuba hawk.

Argentinas foreign ministry thanked Chile, Mexico, Peru and Trinidad and Tobago and European Union countries for backing its decision to abstain from the vote, noting that the abstentions accounted for just over 31% of the votes cast.

Chile reiterated discontent over the timing of the election, saying in a statement that a delay could have brought forward other candidates who might have been able to convene, encourage dialogue and build consensus."

Costa Rica said it decided to vote in favor of Claver-Carone after he committed to some proposals by former Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla, whom the country had planned to nominate for the job. Chinchilla dropped her bid to lead the IDB earlier in the month.

Carone said he would work with member countries to strengthen the bank, respond to the needs of the region and create opportunities for shared prosperity and economic growth."

Claver-Carone is a key architect of the U.S. America Rising" program, or America Crece" aimed at accelerating private investment in the region. The Trump administration is also pushing U.S. companies to relocate manufacturing facilities from China to the Western Hemisphere.

The IDB has been led by Latin Americans, with an American in the No. 2 job, since the institutions inception in 1959. Critics say electing Claver-Carone to head the bank and his pledge to appoint a Latin American as executive vice president sets a precedent that could harm Washington in the end by loosening its hold on the banks No. 2 post.

Senator Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the vote raised questions about Latin Americans charting their own future" and signaled it could have consequences for U.S. funding of the institution.

We need to review whether this is the best use of resources to assist the people of those countries, Leahy said in a statement to Reuters.

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
Lucknow, Sep 13 : The Yogi Adityanath government will now provide financial assistance to artisans whose products are selected for display and sale on the One District One Product (ODOP) retail stores across the state.

The products selected under the ODOP scheme will be displayed in the ODOP retail stores that are to be opened across the state. The display of these products outside the state will be confined to stores at airports and railway stations.

The project is all set to get cabinet approval in the coming days.

Additional Chief Secretary, MSME, Navneet Sehgal, said, "The state government is planning branding of products on a large scale. The government will provide financial assistance to applicants." The Yogi Adityanath government will provide financial aid of Rs 5 lakh each for operating the ODOP stores at Delhi and Mumbai airports and Rs 2 lakh for stores at railway stations in these two metros.

In UP, the government will provide Rs 40,000 for operating stores in panchayat area, Rs 60,000 in Nagar Palika and Rs 1 lakh in Nagar Nigam limits.

The ODOP stores can operate in shopping malls, cantonment areas, railway stations, airports and other locations but must have an area of 100 square metres.

According to the draft policy, anyone can apply under this scheme. The agreement will be for three years.

The Yogi Adityanath government had launched the ODOP scheme in January 2018.

It has identified 75 indigenous products (one each in all 75 districts of the state) under the scheme.

The long list of these products includes the world-famous carpets of Bhadohi, brassware of Moradabad, locks of Aligarh, famous black pottery of Mirzapur, crockery of Khurja and leather products of Agra and Kanpur among others.

In a bid to give further impetus to ODOP scheme, the Yogi government has also decided to provide financial assistance to artisans willing to participate in trade fairs not only across the country but also at the international level.
Elfi Strauber was 11-years-old when she boarded the USS Henry Gibbins in Naples, Italy. It was the summer of 1944, and she was travelling with her parents and sister, hundreds of wounded soldiers and close to 1,000 other Jewish war refugees. The overcrowded troopship was heading to New York, escorted by a convoy of warships and two transport vessels carrying Nazi prisoners of war  protection against German attack.

About midway through the 20-day journey, word raced among the passengers: A Nazi U-boat had been detected. The ship engines shut down. Parents clasped their hands over their childrens mouths. It was late at night, and Elfi couldnt find her mother during the silent scramble to go on deck in case the ship was torpedoed. They were told to be prepared to jump into lifeboats.

Not in two years of running from the Nazis, not even in an Italian concentration camp, had Elfi been separated from her mother. She wasnt ready to start now. She decided she would refuse to jump into a lifeboat without her.

But before she had to act on the decision, the danger passed. Theyd managed to evade detection. Within minutes, her mother emerged, sheepish. She had accidentally locked herself in a bathroom.

When the ship arrived at a pier on the West Side of Manhattan, Elfi looked on as the adults around her wept with joy, overcome with relief at the lights of the city. They were among 1,000 people whom President Franklin Roosevelt had invited to stay at what would be the only refugee centre in the United States during World War II. Most were Jews who had lived through concentration camps. Theyd lost their homes and loved ones. They were the lucky ones.

After the night on the ship, the refugees were herded by US soldiers into a Quonset hut on the pier where men and women were separated. They were ordered to strip and were sprayed with DDT. Elfi obeyed, mortified, as the soldiers sprayed her hair, and all over her body, down to her toes. None of the refugees set foot in New York City proper.

The next evening, an overnight train took them to Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York, an hour north of Syracuse. Elfi remembers the adults fear and confusion when they arrived Aug. 5, 1944, and from the train saw fences encircling the camp.

All we saw was a barbed-wire fence and American soldiers, said Ben Alalouf, another child refugee who made the journey. Alalouf had been born in a bomb shelter in Yugoslavia in 1941, and although he was just a toddler, he recalls the adults panic. Obviously, everyone thought it was a concentration camp.

This is the overlooked saga of one of the more complex refugee experiences in American history  and it is the single example of the United States sheltering people fleeing the Nazis. The public response to rescuing refugees in 1944 was no less confounding than it is today, 75 years after the end of World War II.

The world is experiencing the biggest refugee crisis since World War II: Nearly 79.5 million people worldwide have been forcibly displaced from their homes, according to the U.N. refugee agency. Meanwhile, anti-immigrant ideology is on the rise, and global anti-Semitism is alarmingly resurgent.

In 1944, Americans were by no means eager to welcome refugees; many actively opposed their arrival. Before the chosen guests arrived in Fort Ontario, nativists were saying it was dangerous for Nazi-controlled peoples in Europe to immigrate.

Also read: The forgotten colonial forces of World War II

Sen. Robert R. Reynolds, D-N.C., introduced a bill in 1939 that called for halting all immigration into the United States for 10 years. Lets save America for Americans, he argued. Our country, our citizens first. In 1941, Reynolds would suggest building a wall around the United States that no refugee could possibly scale or ascend.

For decades, nativists had lobbied Congress to guard against a foreign invasion. In 1924 a national-origins quota limited immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe as well as Africans, Asians and Arabs. By the 1930s, nativists focused on a new slogan: Americas children are Americas problem! Refugee children in Europe are Europes problem!

This was the political landscape when Oswego  a city of just over 18,000 mostly blue-collar factory and mill workers  became home to the shelter. It was supposed to be the first of many temporary relief camps. It turned out to be the only one.

As the refugees settled in, some Oswegans regarded the camp with suspicion. Rumours circulated that the group was living in luxury. After a months quarantine to ensure the refugees werent carrying diseases, Fort Ontario held an open house  partly to introduce the newcomers to the local community and partly to dispel rumours of fancy stoves and lavish accommodations.

The camp was made up of nearly 200 buildings. Army barracks had been converted into two-story dormitories partitioned with slats of paperboard so families could live together, according to Paul Lear, a historian and superintendent of the Fort Ontario State Historic Site. Elfi and her sister shared a room with two cots; their parents were on the other side of the paperboard. Communal bathrooms and showers were down the hall. The arrangement was comfortable, although the thin, uninsulated walls provided no privacy. They would learn soon enough about Oswegos frigid winters.

Frances Enwright, then 17, had lived across the street from the fort her entire life. She was used to waking up to the sound of the morning gun and going to bed with the evening gun. She would often watch the soldiers dress parades through the fences.

Her mother, born in Bari, Italy, told stories about arriving in New York at 18 and being able to get only the worst factory jobs, like cleaning sewing machines. She often spoke to her daughter in Italian.

When the refugees arrived, Frances felt a kinship with them. Her four brothers were in the Army and so was her husband-to-be. I knew my brothers were over there fighting, she said. So that made it all feel closer  they were there protecting the refugees.

She first saw the refugees from her front porch. Townspeople were hovering at the fence, trying to speak to them. With her mothers permission, she and a couple of girlfriends ran across the street.

During that first interaction across the chain-link fence, Frances spoke in English. <em>How are you? How do you like it here? </em>But they didnt understand. Then, she remembered that many refugees had hidden in Italy. So I started speaking Italian, Enwright recalled recently. She is 94 and still lives in Oswego. Oh, my God, their eyes lit up  they were so happy to talk because now I spoke their language!

A flurry of conversations ensued. Her friends, who teased Frances when her mother spoke in Italian, were thrilled to have an interpreter. Frances took a maroon journal for autographs and asked the refugees to sign it. Pages filled up, with most messages in Italian.

Seated at her kitchen table this year, Enwright said she would never forget the sadness in the refugees eyes. Before she came to know a teenager who introduced herself as Eva Lepehne, Enwright didnt believe the stories of persecution shed read in the news. She thought they were propaganda, an exaggeration.

Eva signed Frances book, and they became quick friends. Eva shared snippets of her life. She and her parents had fled from Germany to Northern Italy, where her mother got ill and died; her father was captured and killed by the Nazis. Her grandmother had immigrated to New York before the war. At age 13, Eva had no family left in Europe. She hid in Italy for four years with a young Jewish couple until she applied to board the Henry Gibbins and was somehow picked to come to America. On her own in a new country, Eva told her new American friend about how she passed her days caring for children at the camp.

In 2004, Lepehne, who now lives in Memphis, Tennessee, and has four children, seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild, took her family to Fort Ontario to see her American refuge. Enwright happened to be volunteering as a tour guide at the Safe Haven Museum, part of Fort Ontario that memorializes its time as a refugee shelter. The two women fell into a tearful embrace, delighting in their serendipitous reunion after 59 years. They have since become regular pen pals.

Interacting with the refugees, seeing their gaunt and frightened figures upon arrival and hearing their stories through the fence, many Oswegans had their eyes opened. But elsewhere, few Americans understood how dire the situation in Europe was. A 1944 poll found that less than a quarter of Americans believed that more than 1 million Jews had been killed. By then more than 5 million had been murdered. Whats more, the refugees arrival in the United States was at odds with the countrys immigration policy.

The State Department not only enforced strict immigration limits but also concealed information on the genocide in Europe. According to Rebecca Erbelding, a historian at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and the author of Rescue Board: The Untold Story of Americas Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe, the State Department feared that news of the mass murder of Jews in Europe would undermine its immigration stance.

Her book details how, in 1943, Breckinridge Long, a patrician Missourian (and rumoured anti-Semite) who managed visas for the department, suppressed harrowing information from Europe that described Hitlers plans to exterminate Jews. He later claimed he was looking out for national security. But the Treasury Department blasted the State Department and Long in a January 1944 memo to Roosevelt.

If men of the temperament and philosophy of Long continue in control of immigration administration, the report suggested, we may as well take down that plaque from the Statue of Liberty and black out the lamp beside the golden door.

Within days of receiving the memo, Roosevelt created the War Refugee Board, tasking it to rescue and provide relief for victims of Nazi persecution. Immigration quotas did not change, but the board helped relief agencies provide resources to refugees and supervised projects in Allied countries. The immediate beneficiaries were refugees stranded in newly liberated southern Italy.

In June 1944, Roosevelt approved the plan for the Emergency Refugee Shelter in Fort Ontario. Within weeks, hundreds of refugees were interviewed across Italy, and 1,000 names were selected out of 3,000 applicants. Key requirements included no men of military age (who could otherwise be fighting among the Allies), no one with contagious diseases and no separation of families.

The official count of refugees who arrived in Oswego was 982 since some never showed up at the port. One baby was born during the journey, and he was dubbed International Harry by those on board.

Roosevelts invitation was not open-ended, though. The refugees signed statements agreeing to return to Europe when the war ended. They were in the United States under no official immigration quota, with no legal status. But theyd be safe.

Ruth Gruber, a Jewish American, was assigned by the State Department to help escort the refugees from Naples to New York. She gave them English classes on deck, reassured them of their safety, befriended many of them and became their champion. Her memoir, Haven: The Dramatic Story of 1,000 World War II Refugees and How They Came to America, documents the journey.

Also read: 'We just did our bit:' World War II veterans recall war 75 years later

After the shock of seeing the barbed-wire fence when they arrived at Fort Ontario, the refugees slowly began to feel safe. The younger children took classes set up in the camp; older students, after the months quarantine, were bused to the citys public school.

While nearly a third of the refugees were considered unemployable because of age or health issues, most adults registered to work. Some staffed the fort hospital and kitchens; others served as janitors and teachers, shovelled coal or had office jobs. The government paid those who worked full time $18 a month. Others were permitted to work outside the shelter, usually taking on heavy labour. Everyone had to abide by a curfew, with residents of the camp allowed outside it only with permission.

A group of refugees started The Ontario Chronicle, an English-language newspaper devoted to editorials and news around the camp. Another group set up an internal movie theatre.

As the months dragged on, though, the adults grew restive. They felt plagued by the severe upstate winter and their inability to move freely, imprisoned by the fences and curfews.

There was, however, a hole in the fence. Elfis friends sneaked in and out at night and took the train to New York City. Her mother stealthily travelled one weekend to a nieces wedding in Manhattan.

The children, for the most part, flourished. Although she was only 11 when she arrived, Elfi tagged along with the camp teenagers, especially David Hendell, whom shed met in Rome. She had a crush on the boy, who was four years older. In the summertime, theyd climb rocks overlooking Lake Ontario and jump in the water, where he taught her to swim. She learned to play Spin the Bottle. It was the first time I got kissed, she recalled.

Local children would go to the camp and flip bicycles or sleds over the fence for the children there. I remember playing in the snow, said Alalouf, who arrived in Oswego as a 4-year-old.

One afternoon Ben opened the door of his familys barracks to find two older women on the threshold. I didnt understand. One spoke to me in Italian, recalled Alalouf, who is retired in Naples, Florida, with his wife of 55 years after a career in high school administration. My mom recognized the lady and started speaking in French with her. It was Eleanor Roosevelt. I remember the excitement of my mother; she told me after: The presidents wife! The presidents wife!

Eleanor Roosevelt, who had publicly endorsed legislation to admit refugee children into the country, visited the shelter in September 1944. She was received with great fanfare, inspecting the grounds and meeting refugees to ensure they were being well treated and had medical supplies. The legislation, called the Wagner-Rogers Bill, was never passed.

When the war in Europe ended, a national debate raged over how to handle the millions of displaced people. Returning troops had trouble finding work, and anti-Semitism was rampant.

The Oswego refugees had promised to return to Europe. Yet a vast majority had nothing to return to.

In late 1945, despite most Americans disapproval, President Harry Truman issued a directive requiring that existing immigration quotas be designated for war refugees. He specifically directed that Fort Ontarios guests be given visas.

So in early 1946, groups of the Oswego refugees climbed onto school buses, drove to Niagara Falls and formally registered at the Canadian border. They then returned as official American immigrants, eventually dispersing to 20 states.

After the war, Alaloufs family found a dingy, mouse-filled apartment in Brooklyn, which he remembers happily as home. His fathers first job outside the shelter was selling Nathans Famous hot dogs in Coney Island, and his mother sold artificial flowers near their home. His brother was drafted to fight in Korea in 1951. In fifth grade, Alalouf formally changed his name from Benkl to Ben. When he was in junior high school, he became a shoeshine boy in the subway.

I appreciate everything that I have in my life, said Alalouf, now 79. My parents are the ones who sacrificed. Im living off those sacrifices.

Elfis family moved to Manhattan, and at 18, she married her Oswego sweetheart, David Hendell. Ten years later, after having two children, they divorced. Elfi, known as Elfi Hendell, attended graduate school and has been a psychotherapist for most of her adult life.

As the world has grappled with the coronavirus, she spent four months quarantined alone in her Manhattan apartment, where she has lived for 33 years. This July she finally travelled to Vermont to visit with her daughter, granddaughter and great-grandchildren for a week. Im fairly careful, she said. But I got through World War II, I cant keep worrying about this.

She thinks back occasionally on her life during the war, before she arrived in the United States. She remembers her sister and herself as little girls in Italy fleeing the Nazis, hiding in a convent in Rome under a fake identity, but it feels like someone elses life, like remembering scenes from a movie.
Description

"Winner of the Ecumenical Jury Prize at Berlinale Panorama and Australia's official submission to the 92nd Academy Awards, this story of a Cambodian teenager sold into forced labor on a Thai fishing boat is a passionate testimony against social injustice and a moving coming-of-age tale about a boy whose humanity is put to the test. Spirited 14-year-old Chakra works the rice fields with his family. He yearns for independence and seeks out a local broker who can get him paid work in a Thai factory. Without telling his family, Chakra travels to Bangkok to make his fortune. But when he gets there, he and his new friend Kea realize the broker has lied to them. Along with other Cambodians and Burmese, they are sold to a fishing captain as slaves.



Chakra and Kea are trapped at sea, trawling fish 22 hours a day, surviving on just a handful of cold rice a day. The captain quickly weeds out those weakened by the conditions or trying to escape, and throws them overboard. The trawler sells its catch and restocks its supplies without going to land, making escape impossible. As fellow slaves are tortured and murdered around them, Kea begins to lose his mind. When his only ally is killed, Chakra looks to Rom Ran to understand what it will take to be free. With hope and humanity dwindling, Chakra decides to take control of the trawler."



Plaza Cinema & Media Arts Center
Police in Lam Dong Province, located in Vietnams Central Highlands, have apprehended a man for breaking into a house and stealing over VND1 billion (US$43,100) worth of gold and jewelry from a safe.

Officers in Da Lat City, the provincial capital, confirmed on Sunday they had captured Nguyen Quoc Hung, 29, and handed the suspect to the provincial Department of Police for further investigation.

According to preliminary information, Nguyen Van Nh. and his wife left their house on Hung Vuong Street in Ward 9, Dat Lat City on Thursday evening.

Nh. had locked all doors of the house, but left the front gate open.

The couple returned later that night and discovered that their safe had been forced open, while all doors of the house remained locked.

Such tools as crowbars, scissors, knives, and cutting boards were found in their room.

Nguyen Quoc Hung is held at the police station in Da Lat City, Vietnam in this supplied photo.

They reported losing gold and jewelry worth more than VND1 billion, while documents of their land ownership and savings accounts were not stolen.

Police examined the scene and concluded that the thief had broken into the house via the louver and got out from the window.

They quickly were able to identify Hung as the prime suspect.

Hung was arrested on Friday afternoon when he was selling the jewelry.

This supplied photo shows pieces of jewelry that Nguyen Quoc Hung steals from a house in Da Lat City, Vietnam, September 10, 2020.

The suspect claimed he was scouting the neighborhood on his motorbike on the night of the incident.

He noticed that the gate of Nh.s house was open, and decided to break in for a brief examination.

He left the place and quickly returned on a different motorcycle, burgling the residence and breaking open the safe inside using various tools found in the house.

He succeeded following a 15-minute attempt.

Hung was previously convicted of theft three times and was released from prison in 2018, according to officers.

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Actor Kangana Ranaut on Sunday met Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari and complained to him about the unjust treatment meted to her by the State government. Ranaut, accompanied by her sister Rangoli, spent 20 minutes talking to Koshiyari at Raj Bhavan.

A short while ago, I met His Excellency the Governor of Maharashtra Shri Bhagat Singh Koshyari Ji. I explained my point of view to him and also requested that justice be given to me it will restore faith of common citizen and particularly daughters in the system, tweeted Ranaut, after the meeting.

Ranaut has been in a running battle with the Shiv Sena, which was further aggravated after the Sena ruled BMC partially demolished her Bandra office, citing illegal construction.

Commenting on the meeting, Sena Member of Parliament (MP) Sanjay Raut said, Anyone can meet the Governor. He further said though the party will not speak about her, all her statements will be noted. We will just listen to what she says but will not react to her. We will, however, take note of all her statements, he added.

Earlier this week, it had been reported that Koshyari was unhappy with the demolition drive by BMC on Ranauts bungalow. However, on Friday the Governor had clarified that he never expressed discontent over the civic bodys decision or intervened in the issue.

The Ranaut-Sena verbal spat started when the actor responded to a tweet by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ram Kadam slamming the state government for not offering her protection. In reply, Ranaut said she does not trust Mumbai Police. Reacting to her criticism in the Sena mouthpiece Saamana, Raut asked Ranaut not to return to Mumbai since she had no faith in the Mumbai Police. This provoked Ranaut to compare Mumbai to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), which provoked all-round condemnation of her. The Central government then provided Y+ security cover to Ranaut, which angered the state government further.

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Justin Fairfax formally kicked off his campaign for governor Saturday

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP)  Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax formally kicked off his campaign for governor Saturday, a year after facing two allegations of sexual assault.

Fairfax delivered a campaign speech at the Old Court House in Fairfax in northern Virginia. Three Black Democrats, including Fairfax, are currently vying for the partys 2021 nomination to the governors house. The other names in the mix are Jennifer Carroll Foy, a Black woman serving her second term in the state House, and Jennifer McClellan, a seasoned Black politician serving her first full term in the state Senate.

Virginia Lieutenant Gov. Justin Fairfax speaks to demonstrators in front of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee is pictured on June 4, 2020 in Richmond, Virginia.(Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty Images)

Should either of the candidates win the gubernatorial race in November 2021, they would be the second Black governor in Virginias history and just the third Black person elected governor in U.S. history.

Douglas Wilder, a Democrat, was elected Virginias first Black governor in 1989. Deval Patrick, also a Democrat, was elected as Massachusetts Black governor in 2006.

Democrat David Patterson took over as New York state governor, the first Black person to hold the seat, in 2008 after Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned. P. B. S. Pinchback, a Republican, in the Reconstruction Era was sworn in as the first Black governor in U.S. history to serve about six weeks to finish out impeached Louisiana Gov. Henry Warmoths term.

READ MORE: Jennifer Carroll Foy seeks to make history with run for Virginia governor

Should Foy or McClellan win the Virginia gubernatorial election, they would be the first Black woman to do so in American history.

Jennifer Carroll Foy is pictured in 2017. (Photo by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

In February 2019, Fairfax faced calls for his resignation from fellow Democrats after two women publicly accused him of sexual assault.

Meredith Watson, who attended Duke University with Fairfax, said he raped her in 2000. Vanessa Tyson, a California professor, said Fairfax forced her to perform oral sex when they both attended the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004.

Story continues

Fairfax has denied the allegations and accused the women of being part of a smear campaign to end his political career.

The voters are incredibly smart. They see through this kind of destructive, politically motivated kind of politics. And they are ready to move to higher ground, he told The Associated Press this week.

READ MORE: Virginia state senator becomes second Black woman to declare for governors race

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Debra Katz, Tysons attorney, renewed calls for a public hearing by the General Assembly on the allegations. Democrats have previously rejected those calls.

Jennifer McClellan (Credit: Jennifer McClellan)

Apparently Lt. Governor Fairfax believes that the citizens of the Commonwealth have forgotten about the serious and credible allegations of sexual assault made against him by Dr. Vanessa Tyson and Meredith Watson and about his deplorable treatment of them after they came forward, Katz said in a statement.

Fairfax, the second African American elected to statewide office in Virginia, has repeatedly likened the accusations against him to the lynching of African Americans during the Jim Crow era, and said they are a product of ongoing systemic racism.

On Sunday, Fairfax is scheduled to speak at Fort Monroe in Hampton, where in 1619 the first enslaved Africans in English North America arrived 401 years ago.

Fairfax was elected Virginias lieutenant governor in 2017.

The sexual assault allegations against Fairfax were made soon after Gov. Ralph Northam faced calls for his resignation over the disclosure of a racist photo in his medical school yearbook.

Virginia Lieutenant Gov. Justin Fairfax (D) speaks during a news conference on June 4, 2020 in Richmond, Virginia. (Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty Images)

Northam says he was not in the image, but acknowledged he had worn blackface for a Michael Jackson costume when he took part in a 1984 dance contest in Texas.

 TheGrio staff contributed to this report.

The post Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax joins Black women in governors race appeared first on TheGrio.
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The church had its roots back several decades. Three of its nine founding members were my grandmother and both her first and second husband as she widowed at a young age. Both men did much of the construction of the first wood framed church structure. My grandfather took a whole summer off of work to head up the project. The church, located in a small town in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, still has a thriving congregation today. Its parking lot has lots of cars each Sunday testifying to its effectiveness and fruitfulness.

In the middle of its growth, a number of years ago, the church decided to add on a multi-purpose structure that would be big enough for a small gymnasium and could house church banquets. My grandmother had been remarried for many years by then. My step grandfather had a huge part in both the erection of the second sanctuary and this new addition.

Once the decision was made to put on the addition, fundraising began to raise the monies needed to construct this new building. At first, as is generally the case, typical quiet reminders were given to the parishioners. However as the project progressed, the need was rapidly exceeding the giving, the reminders for the need to give from the pulpit began to be a little more intense.

There was a man in that church who had gone through a lot of suffering in his life. He had been raised in a family of tenant farmers, who never owned a home or a car. The family was given a flat amount of money every week for a salary. Much of what they lived on was extras from the farm. They were given a house to live in that had a cook stove for heat and a hanging pull chain light bulb in some of the rooms. In the wintertime they would wake up with dustings of snow on the top of their bed quilts because the snow had blown through the cracks in the window casings. The first one of the four children up in the morning was responsible to start the kindling fire in the cook stove, which would start to warm the first floor for breakfast.

Due to the harsh living conditions he experienced as a boy, he developed strep throat. Because of financial limitations and limited health care, the strep later developed into rheumatic fever, which damaged his heart, causing him to miss almost a year of school. Fortunately, his teachers sent schoolwork home to help him progress in his learning. Later in life, the rheumatic fever returned, and he had to miss several months of work. His wife had to get a job to support the family. He was a very loving man with a sensitive heart. Having been raised in a family of hard workers, this time period when he was unable to work to support his own family was very traumatic for him.

This man and his family attended the above-mentioned Bradford County Pennsylvania church during this new construction project. Week after week while he was off work, he became more and more saddened that his family could not do more to help with the costs of the addition.

One Sunday morning the pastor of that church decided that he needed to do something to further motivate the church to give. He decided that a little tongue and cheek humor might stir some giving, so with a chuckle in his voice he said, Next Sunday morning we are going to have the deacons stand at the door with their deer rifles and anyone who does not drop an offering for the new building in the basket will not be allowed in! That was all it took for that former tenant farmer, joke or no joke, it struck a deathblow deep in his heart. He decided that his family would no longer be attending that church.

That man was my father. A silly and unwise statement by an elder who should have known better, but didnt, caused the church to lose a family whose ancestors had generational roots within that denomination. We soon after found a church home in a neighboring community of a different denomination and fortunately the fit could have not been more perfect for my father.

Martin Luther, the famous Roman Catholic priest and Doctor of Theology who led the Protestant Reformation from 1517-1648, condemned non scriptural fundraising by the church. The selling of indulgences was featured more predominately than any other offense in the well-known ninety-five theses that he nailed to the door of the church at Wittenberg. Although my fathers story hits close to home, I believe that the church in America, in its attempt to increase peoples giving, has gone way down the slippery slope of manipulative marketing. In my opinion the excessive pressuring and coercion of congregants had become worse following the financial downturns of the COVID pandemic, discrediting the cause of Christ!

Anyone who is involved in regular witnessing to the public around them will tell you that the number one argument against going to church that you will repeatedly hear is All the church wants is your money! As much as we know that is not true and as much as those of us who are mature in our faith have learned the value and fruitfulness of giving and tithing, we must realize that the unbelievers around us do not have the slightest understanding of those concepts!

We must be extremely careful not to turn off people to our churches by our fundraising efforts. I assure you the world is very familiar with hyped up marketing strategies and has no respect for them. We can justify what we do all we want to in the name of Christ, but perhaps we should heed the admonition of the Apostle Paul in Romans 14:13b Allow me to paraphrase it this way; Lets not ever do anything

(financially), that could cause a weaker brother to stumble!
Throughout the 2016 campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump elevated the issue of international trade to a prominence rare in a presidential election. Striking an economic nationalist tone, he slammed the North America Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, and the U.S. trade deficit with the world, especially China.

There was merit  if at times adorned with crude hyperbole  in some of his critiques and hes attempted as president, with mixed success, to correct the imbalances he saw. Hes had wins, but hes also created domestic and international headwinds that Democratic nominee Joe Biden has pledged to address.

Trade is a big deal in Texas. The Lone Star State is easily the top export market in the nation with nearly $330 billion in exports in 2019. And our top export destinations? Mexico and Canada.

This brings us to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada-Agreement, or USMCA, a welcome update to NAFTA. This is easily Trumps greatest accomplishment on trade, but not in the way Trump has described it.

He has called NAFTA the worst trade deal ever signed and hailed USMCA as the most significant, modern, and balanced trade agreement in history.

But NAFTA, on the whole, was modestly beneficial to the economy, boosting GDP by about 0.5 percent, the Congressional Research Service found in 2015. Some research has suggested NAFTA preserved some manufacturing and automotive jobs in North America that otherwise would have flowed to Asia.

And USMCA is not a rewrite of NAFTA, but an update with new rules to govern e-commerce and protect intellectual property. It also boosts rules of origin for manufacturing and includes labor and environmental protections.

Nearly 1 million Texas jobs are dependent upon Texas trade relationship with Mexico, according to Gov. Greg Abbotts office. USMCA continues this crucial relationship.

However, Trumps tariff war with China and the consequences of abandoning the TPP are far less clear.

The TPP, which would have been Obamas and Bidens most notable trade agreement, was never ratified by Congress before Trump took office and ended U.S. participation.

Negotiated for seven years, the TPP was opposed by labor unions and tea party activists. But with a dozen countries representing 40 percent of the worlds economy, it was the largest and most comprehensive trade agreement in history and contained some of the updates and changes later found in the USMCA.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio congressional candidate used faux Border Patrol agent in TV ads

It would have given the U.S. a significant presence in the Pacific region and better positioned, with allies, to limit Chinas expansion and address intellectual property theft and other concerns.

Biden, recognizing the criticisms of TPP, has expressed an interest in reopening negotiations, but would insist on stronger protections for labor and the environment. And he has proposed a $400 billion Buy America plan to shift production back to the United States.

As for China, Trumps flurry of tariffs resulted in the signing of the Phase One trade agreement in which China agreed to increase purchases of U.S. goods, across several sectors, in exchange for a rollback of tariffs.

This was a win, but at what cost? A tariff war between the two nations has led to a rise in family farm bankruptcies, and Oxford Economics and Moodys Analytics have estimated the U.S.-China trade war reduced GDP by 0.3 percent.

And China isnt close to where it should be in making these purchases, a lag generally attributed to the coronavirus-induced global recession.

Biden hasnt said if hed remove the tariffs, but shares Trumps concern about China. He would likely embrace a multilateral approach.

Trump deserves credit for renegotiating NAFTA into the USMCA. But he didnt apply the renegotiating approach to the TPP and his trade agreement with China is problematic, especially hurting farmers.

Given Bidens experience with trade deals as a senator and vice president, his wariness of China, his new emphasis on rules of origin and labor protections, and his instinct for a multilateral approach to creating deals, we believe there are reasons to be optimistic about trade under his leadership.

We give this issue a draw.
Rachael Kelleher & Johnny Serrano

July 19, 2020, in Newtown Square

Johnny picked up a box of bagels for the customers at his familys salon first thing every Thursday and Saturday. Even through his I-hate-mornings fog, he enjoyed chatting with Rachael, who, somehow, always waited on him.

Heres how: It was a conspiracy. Rachael had told her Panera Bread coworkers that Johnny had the best smile and she had a big crush, so throughout fall and early winter 2011, they made sure no one but Rachael rang him up. Then, the bakery ladies began drawing hearts on Johnnys bagel boxes. I was way too shy to do something like that on my own, said Rachael, but she didnt stop the message-laden artwork, and she smiled at Johnny as she handed them to him.

Johnny noticed those hearts, and so did all the other Moxie Blue Salon stylists, whom he calls his sisters. Just as sisters would, they began taking trips across the street to check out the woman who gave Johnny these heart-covered boxes.

In January 2012, after much urging from his salon sisters, Johnny gave himself a pep talk: Youre going in there and youre going to ask her out!

At the register with Rachael, he tried to be cool: Maybe we could go out sometime? Could I have your number?

Of course, Rachael said, handing him a piece of cash register tape with her number on it.

When he left, she and her coworkers celebrated. I was on top of the world! Rachael said.

She and Johnny met for drinks a few days later.

Rachael told him she was born in Rhode Island, but grew up in Medford, N.J. She had recently graduated with a degree in English and a Spanish minor, and was looking for work related to her degree while working the early shift at the bakery.

Johnny was born in California, but his family moved to Marlton when he was 8, and then to Old City when he was 17. He loves his work as a stylist.

They unearthed a shared devotion to family and appreciation of movies and music festivals.

They laughed a lot that night, and by the end of it, Date Two was set. By February, they were exclusive. That November, Johnny moved in with Rachael and her sister, Caitlin. In 2016, the couple moved in with Johnnys parents  Maria and Danny -- for two years to save, and in 2018, bought their South Philadelphia home.

Johnny loves that shes smart, shes funny, and shes quick to call me on my bulls-. She makes sure I stay on the straight and narrow. An example: Johnny used to collect parking tickets, and sometimes forgot about them. He gets home from work late and parks anywhere and everywhere. Rachael wakes him, pre-PPA, to ask where hes parked and if he needs to move his car.

Also, shes fun to dance with and shares his love of dogs, especially their dog, Romeo, a rescued mini-pincer mix.

I love how hes just so easy to talk to, that he immediately made me feel comfortable, and that he made me feel safe, Rachael said. I love how he will do anything for people he loves  his coworker sisters, and my sister, too. He has a great relationship with his parents.

Their families soon embraced each other, Johnny said. Everything felt very meant to be.

How does forever sound?

Johnny and Rachael traveled to Italy in May 2019 for Rachaels brother James wedding.

On the last night of the trip, they were at a bar with her brother Dan and her sister and their significant others. Johnny whispered to Dan  the only one in the know -- What do you think if I propose right now? He could do better than a bar, Dan said. They cooked up a plan.

Why dont we get one last picture together? Dan suggested, and they headed for the beach.

Look at the castle! Look how pretty it is! said Johnny, now 32, to Rachael, now 31. It was after 1 a.m. She was tired and getting annoyed  why was this picture so important? She turned to look to humor him, then turned back to find cell phones pointed at her, and Johnny kneeling on the sand offering a ring.

Of course! said Rachael, suddenly awake and joyful.

They woke up her parents  Jim and Rosemary -- with the news, then called Johnnys parents back home in Philly and his family in California.

I dont even think we got to bed at all that night, Rachael said.

The third plans the charm

Rachael and Johnnys wedding was set for April 11 at the Union Trust. Then came March 2020 and COVID-19. When Johnnys salon shut down and Rachael, now a technical writer for Broadridge Financial Solutions, had to start working from home, they knew the wedding couldnt happen.

Plan B called for a July 19 wedding at the same location. We thought there was no way things could still be this bad in July, Rachael remembered. Change the date cards went out, but then on June 29, Finley Catering called to say the Green Phase was postponed in Philadelphia, and they needed to choose a third date or a new venue.

Not wanting to wait, the couple and their parents called guests to tell them the final plan and also let them know that, while COVID safety procedures would be in place, the couple would absolutely understand if they didnt feel comfortable attending.

Unusual, yet lovely

About half of their guests, plus a pregnant bridesmaid and a groomsman with a newborn, stayed home.

The 80 guests who came to the big tent on the grounds of the Ballroom at Ellis Preserve received hand sanitizer in their welcome bags and masks as wedding favors. Everyone sat in household or COVID-bubble groups, and each group was more than six feet apart.

Rachael walked down the aisle to Ave Maria, performed by Mariachi Pedro.

The couple wed with a self-uniting license and Rachaels brother James performed a personalized ceremony. The first reading came from Bruce Springsteens If I Should Fall Behind, the second from Pablo Nerudas Soneto XVII.

The mariachi band  a nod to Johnnys Mexican heritage  also played during cocktail hour. Drinks and appetizers were butlered by mask-wearing staff while there were sanitizer stations a-plenty. On the advice of the caterer, the couple switched dinner from a choice of meat or fish to a duet of both, reducing the guests' need to talk to staff.

The DJ played Real Love by Clean Bandit & Jess Glynne and Rachael and Johnny put their pre-pandemic dance classes to use with a hustle-like performance that included a lift.

Johnny was happy to be married to Rachael, and so proud of her for all the planning and re-planning. He was also filled with gratitude that they were sharing the day with his mother. Just after Thanksgiving 2019, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her treatment ended in mid-March, and it was not certain she would feel well enough to go to their originally planned April wedding. She felt great by July, but two weeks prior to the wedding, fell and broke a knee and foot, so again, Johnny had been unsure if she could be there.

He and his father carefully picked up Maria from her wheelchair and they swayed for a few beats, then Maria was seated while her mom, also named Maria, danced with her grandson to Vicente Fernandezs El Rey. That is, until Aunt Lilia cut in.

Everyone was so happy just to be out at an event after [staying home] and not seeing people, Rachael said.

It felt completely safe, but Rachael still breathed a little easier when no guest was sick after the two-week mark.

Johnny has been back at work since late June, wearing a mask, goggles, and gloves. Reduced capacity combined with a cut-and-color backlog means too much work to take much time off, but the couple spent three nights in Cape May.

They dream of a trip to Spain in a post-COVID world.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 00:24:48|Editor: huaxia

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Vietnamese delegates attend the 27th meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum (ARF) in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Sept. 12, 2020. The 27th meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum (ARF) agreed Saturday to promote cooperation in order to respond to and mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 epidemic and other contagious diseases. (VNA via Xinhua)

HANOI, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The 27th meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum (ARF) agreed Saturday to promote cooperation in order to respond to and mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 epidemic and other contagious diseases.

The ARF, which comprises 27 participants including the 10 ASEAN members, China, Japan and South Korea, was held via video conference in the framework of the 53rd ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting under the chair of Vietnam.

The meeting approved several documents including the Hanoi Plan of Action II of the ARF, the Chairman's Statement of the 27th ASEAN Regional Forum and a statement regarding cooperation on information and technology security in the international security context, Vietnam News Agency reported.

The attendees also agreed to further strengthen cooperation in priority areas including disaster relief, the fight against terrorism and transnational crime, and cybersecurity, according to the news agency.

The ARF, established in 1994, serves as an important political and security forum in the region. Enditem
Half a million New Zealanders are set to make history tomorrow in the inaugural Maori Language Moment.

Excited by the high interest across the country, organisers are asking Aotearoa to go hard and aim for 1 million.

Join us at 12pm on Monday September 14 to celebrate te reo Maori, says a Maori Language Moment spokesperson.

In 1972, 30,000 signatures were delivered to Parliament calling for te reo Maori to be taught in schools. It was a defining moment in the journey to revitalise our language.

We want to grow one million speakers by 2040, and on Monday, as our language champions did in the past, well start with a defining moment: the Maori Language Moment.

Never before have this many people gathered to celebrate te reo Maori, says Maori Language Commission chief executive Ngahiwi Apanui.

We are making history this Monday. But why stop there? Lets go hard and reach 1 million.

As the great New Zealander Ta Hemi Henare said We have come too far not to go further, we have done too much, not to do more: Tawhiti rawa i to tatou haerenga atu te kore haere tonu."

By 10am on Saturday September 12, the Maori Language Moment's website running tally showed that 519,038 people had signed up already, with two days to go. While most are from New Zealand, thousands are also joining from overseas. From Australia to the United States, Scotland, South Korea, Japan, South Africa, Denmark.

Were absolutely amazed, ecstatic and quote emotional to see more than 500,000 champions of te reo Maori will join us on Monday, says Ngahiwi.

We set a goal of 1 million for our moment because we are aiming to see 1 million speakers of te reo by 2040: its not too late to join us.

The organisers says that no matter where someone is from or how well they can speak, anyone can be one in a million. The Maori Language Moment is an open invitation to all New Zealanders to celebrate what makes Aotearoa unique - te reo Maori.

Ideas of what to do in your Maori Language Moment include playing a Maori language waiata or song, starting your Zoom call with morena, or blessing your food or kai with a karakia.

It doesn't matter if all you can say is kia ora or whether you're fluent, you can be one in a million.

By signing up, youre committing to doing one thing, in that one moment, alongside hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders at 12pm on 14 September.

Ideas for activities to do at home, school or in the workplace with family, friends or work collegues during the Maori Language Moment can be found here

The website sign-up page has struggled to cope with the rate of people signing up, at one stage people were joining and uploading photos and their wai or why theyre joining up every few seconds.

Its an emotional read for us to go through the reasons people are signing up. Maori New Zealanders sharing photos of their children, grandchildren or parents and grandparents. Pakeha people telling us te reo is part of their identity as a New Zealander that theyre proud of. New migrants telling us that te reo is something that makes them feel so grateful to be a new New Zealander and they want to be good Treaty partners," says Ngahiwi.

The country is going through some of our toughest times right now and we are rallying together behind a language that was once banned and shunned.

The week hasnt even begun and we are already feeling so proud of Aotearoa. Kia kaha te reo Maori! Kia kaha Aotearoa!"

Join the Maori Language Moment here https://tuku.reomaori.co.nz/, take part on Monday September 14 and be one in a million.
While kicking back in a beach house might sound dreamy right about now, I have to ask: Why is beach house decor so bad?

As someone who's rented beach houses on sandy shores from New York's Fire Island to the Maine coast, I can conclude that beach house owners tend to go overboard with beach-themed decor. We're talking seashells not only at the seashore, but everywhere in the home, fashioned into soap dishes, wind chimes, "seashell bouquets"you name it and it's been done.

We get itwe're on the beach! But that doesn't mean taste, style, and just plain common sense need to be tossed to the wind. And so, whether you own a beach house, dream of buying one, or just want to revel in what you might find in some unfortunate beach house you rent or enter one day, here's a look at some of the most ridiculous beach decor that really should be jettisoned before someone gets seasick indoors.

1. Groan-inducing signs

Distressed signs with lame sayings are a no-go. Etsy

Must I be reminded to "Wash My Palms" in the bathroom? And I already know that "The Beach Is My Happy Place," because I'm renting here. I'm sure there are some good puns out there, but until I spy something fresh that makes me smile, I'm hiding these signs behind the closet door the minute I arrive.

2. Fake fish and coral

Another pet peeve of mine? Handcrafted "art" and faux sea treasures piled up on the one serviceable side table in the living room. All I'm asking for is a little space to put down my phone and my coffee mug while I'm on vacation.

3. Oars as art

Photo by Go Nautical Collections

Oars aren't only questionable as decor, they're also a downright menace. When oars are displayed precariously, as shown here, they're a recipe for disaster. That is, kids will crash into them, that glass cabinet door will shatter, andoops!here goes your security deposit.

4. Lobster trap furniture

I'm all for repurposing what you own (a steamer trunk as an end table, an old bookshelf turned into a bench), but stinky wooden boxes that are supposed to live under the sea are a hard pass. Talk about nautical nonsense! And these reinvented pieces shortchange your storage, leaving you just the top part since the middle is filled with a messy web of rope.

5. Dopey rope cups and other weird accessories

Save the rope for sailing, please. Etsy

What's up with all the twine-wrapped accessories? Mirrors, frames, chair seats, place mats, and moreI get that rope is sturdy and plentiful at the shore, but it's too chunky to handle and the white shade just gets grimy and turns gray over time. Gross.

6. Creepy crabs

Stained-glass window hangings make no sense because they block the view that you've paid good money to see, and they're liable to break every time you try to air out the kitchen. And when it comes to crabs, please leave them in the steamer. Lobsters, too.

7. Sand collections

How nice that you've combed the beaches in Malaysia, Sanibel Island, and Cape Cod. But must you really bottle and label the sand from each place?

Whether they're souvenirs of your trips or silly bottles you picked up in gift shops, sand vials amount to less-than-exciting beach decorand they clutter up kitchens in loads of coastal rentals.

8. Driftwood mirrors and furniture

Weathered wood in very small doses is acceptable in a shore home (think picture frames or a stylish piece of wall art), but old branches or bark with clinging barnacles don't belong anywhere, much less in designs with an evil octopus peering out from the middle. #Fail.

9. Seashell-encrusted anything

I know that seashells scream "beach," but encrusting them on sconces, place mat borders, wine glass stems, and fork handles is way too much. Let these pretty finds exist in nature. Understand that renters are fine with simple light fixtures and plain plates on which to eat their vacay cooking.

10. Starfish for Christmas

Justno. Don't drag this sea creature into your Yuletide decor, even at the beach. Starfish aren't that festive, and they definitely don't signal the birth of our savior. And frankly, blue decorations at Christmas will never take off no matter how hard you try.

The post 10 Truly Horrifying Beach House Decor Fails To Never Try at Home appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.
Bond fans will have to wait another few months for history to be made. The release of No Time To Die has been postponed to mid-November and whether it comes out even then seems uncertain. The winter release, if it goes ahead, will mark the end of an era - it will be the last film to star Daniel Craig - and the beginning of a new one. Speaking at the film's launch in April, Craig promised it would reflect changing attitudes, recognising Bond as a "flawed" character with "issues... worth exploring and grappling with". "Bond has always adapted for the times... we wouldn't be movie makers or creative people if we didn't have an eye on what was going on in the outside world."

Part of that will be exorcising 007 of his sexism, and giving texture and nuance to the Bond girls - a mammoth task, given their prevalence in even recent iterations of Bond. To this end, it was reported that producers have recruited Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the brilliant writer/creator of Fleabag. Emmy-winner Waller-Bridge has denied that she was brought on in order to make Bond more acceptable to women, but the symbolism of a big-name female writer taking on this most male of franchises has shown that producers take the new mission very seriously indeed.

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And yet Waller-Bridge is not the first woman to leave her mark on a Bond script. That honour goes to a reclusive Irish woman called Johanna Harwood. In his 2014 memoir, Last Man Standing, former Bond Roger Moore wrote, "her involvement has often been overlooked and her pivotal role clouded by the vagaries of film history and the egos of those within". Harwood's work has also been highlighted by the film historian Melanie Williams, but, to most Bond fans, she remains utterly unknown.

Born in 1930, Harwood grew up in Wicklow, the child of Scots-Irish parents who moved there before she was born. She directed plays at school and when she was 15 decided her ambition was to become a film director, after reading about the British director Jill Craigie in a magazine. She recalled thinking: "Oh, there are women who do that?" After school, she applied to the Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinematographiques in Paris where she learned fluent French and was trained in film-making.

She returned to Ireland in the early 1950s and began working as a continuity supervisor - or "script girl" - on local productions that ranged from a film about Ireland's rural electrification programme to The Promise of Barty O'Brien, a propaganda film funded under the Marshall Plan. Her first big break appeared to come in 1951 when she worked on the short film, Return to Glennascaul, which had been written by Hilton Edwards and Micheal Mac Liammoir for a production at the Gate and then adapted for the screen, with Orson Welles starring.

The film was nominated for an Oscar but it was something of a fluke in Ireland (it would be another 20 years before Ryan's Daughter, a comparably sized production, filmed near Dingle) and there was not enough work here to sustain Harwood's ambitions. She moved to London and found a job with the talent agency Famous Artists, where she attempted to move from continuity work into scriptwriting. Realising that her gender would play against her, she attempted to make her name ambiguous. "Nobody called me Johanna in those days," she later said. "I used JM because we were still in the days when women writers didn't necessarily want to be seen as women writers."

When her boss John Shepherd left to work for 20th Century Fox in Paris, he let the office to a friend of his: Harry Saltzman, a Canadian theatre producer who had recently moved into the film industry. Harwood had been under the impression she would be moving to Paris with Shepherd and was unhappy at Saltzman "assuming" she would work for him. But they did a deal: she would stay on as his assistant and he would let her write scripts.

She wrote several films for him, including the kitchen-sink classic A Taste Of Honey. "It's always the same," Harwood would later recall. "The producer needs a cheap screenplay but until they set up the affair, they have no money. So that was why I was so terribly useful to have about because I was unknown and cheap. He wanted the screenplay in a hurry because he had to show it around."

And this was just what happened when Saltzman acquired the rights to Ian Fleming's Bond novels. He sent a telegraph to Harwood in London: 'Have concluded Bond deal with United Artists Productions, starting October 15. Dr No or Thunderball probably first. Returning to Paris July 8, regards, Harry'. Harwood wanted a fairly faithful adaptation of the books, but having secured a huge burst of finance, Saltzman felt a certain degree of reimagining was in order.

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He drafted in writers Richard Maibaum and Wolf Mankowitz, who thought that Bond was the silliest thing they'd ever read. "He was just Fu Manchu with steel hooks," Maibaum later said. "It was 1961 and we felt that audiences just wouldn't stand for that kind of stuff any more." They came up with the idea that the film's villain should be - deep breath - "a hyper-intelligent little marmoset monkey". "We wrote the whole thing, about 40 pages," Maibaum said. "Wolf and I thought it was marvellous and we showed it to Cubby [producer Albert Broccoli] and Harry. Cubby was outraged." Harwood was sent in to write something more faithful to Fleming's book.

Further script rewrites would dog the project however, as others meddled in her work. The film's director, Terence Young, "pretty well copied paragraphs of the book" for his own rewrite, she later said. "There were great big swathes which said 'Bond thought hard about what he was going to do next', things you can't put in a picture at all."

Another new writer, army man Berkley Mather, was brought in to help 'masculinise the dialogue' because, Harwood later recalled, "at some point someone says, 'What's this little girl doing writing tough dialogue?'"

By now Dr No was starting to look "a little chewed around the edges" and, with the clock ticking, Saltzman finally gave Harwood free reign. "It would [have] been nice to go back to the very first script I did," she later recalled. "Of course they were not going to admit that's a good idea - because they've just spent thousands paying all these other people. So I do what I can with all the scripts lying around, pasting and cutting and rewriting. We are running out of time now, more or less."

Just eight days before shooting was due to commence, Harwood and Terence Young submitted their final script. Saltzman was by then convinced the whole thing would be a disaster. He asked Harwood if she wanted her name removed from the film, telling her, "it's not too late!". She declined his offer and the film became a rip-roaring success - it was one of the most popular movies of 1962 in the UK, and in the US, John F Kennedy was among its legion of fans: he requested a private screening at the White House.

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Today, it is regarded as one of the best Bond films ever.

Harwood's contribution was minimised by Young but she later said, "it was largely my script", and film historians have tended to agree with her. "There are different people telling different stories about the development of Bond, and hers sounds more realistic," Melanie Williams said. "They're very grudging about giving her credit for anything. After Bond became very successful, there was a lot of trying to retro-fit the story of their contribution to its creation. People like Young and Maibaum very much want to position it as their invention, so other voices are sidelined because they disrupt that story."

Harwood was again drafted in to work on the script for To Russia With Love, but she was back working with Young, who she said was "a terrible misogynist" who hated working with a female scriptwriter. Eventually she walked out, retaining an adaptation credit on the film. Young would later say: "We gave her script credit, and she became a fairly well-known writer for about one year until they found out she was not really a writer." Ironically, the one scene he was prepared to concede Harwood wrote - the one featuring the stolen Goya painting in Dr No's lair - is one of the most famous Bond scenes of all.

To Russia With Love would be the last Bond film that Harwood would work on. "I enjoyed the film industry in general," she said in an interview with writer Matthew Field in 2012. "When I stopped enjoying it, I left it. I stopped enjoying it halfway through From Russia with Love." In fact, Harwood remained close to Saltzman and may have worked on Goldfinger and The Ipcress File, but, without an onscreen credit, it is hard to be certain.

By the mid-1960s, she had left Bond behind and moved to France, where she'd fallen in love with the French film director and Oscar-winner Rene Clement. She spent the years after her departure from the film world translating articles for the French Reader's Digest. Clement died in 1996 and was buried at Menton in the French Riviera, where he and Harwood had lived.

Now in her 90s, Harwood still lives independently in France. She remains fiercely private and somewhat dismissive of her Bond legacy. When Matthew Field met her in 2012, she said she had not even opened her anniversary copy of Dr No. "Was I pleased with the film?" she said. "No, I wasn't. It was useful for my career. I mean, listen, it's not a terribly good film. It's OK, but it's OK by mistake. I have it on DVD but it's still under cellophane."
Press Release

September 13, 2020 Bong Go emphasizes need to prioritize digitalization of public service delivery; renews call for passage of E-Governance bill Senator and Vice Chair of the Senate Committee on Finance Christopher "Bong" Go emphasized to the country's economic managers the need to prioritize efforts to digitalize the government's financial management operations during a briefing conducted by the Development Budget Coordination Council on Thursday, September 10. Go cited that in the budget message, the President directed the economic managers to speed up the digitalization of the entire financial management operations, such as the E-Gov Pay Facility, to digitalize government collections and disbursements. "We need e-governance to provide our people with the services they need from the comfort of their homes or workplaces. Not only shall it enable our bureaucracy to better transition into the 'new normal' but it will also cut or minimize red tape and corruption," he explained. Go added that this is in line with his proposed bill, Senate Bill No. 1738 or the E-Governance Act of 2020, which mandates the government to establish an integrated, interconnected, and inter-operable information and resource-sharing and communications network. "As we prepare for the 'new normal', the transition to e-governance becomes crucial, particularly the digitalizing of government processes. E-governance will also reduce red tape, eliminate corruption, enhance transparency, provide safe and convenient delivery of services to the people and encourage citizen feedback and participation," said Go in previous statements. Go also said during the hearing that he supports shifting priorities and realigning spending policies to focus on containing the spread and mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic; funding the procurement or production of vaccines; restarting the economy to create jobs and attract investments in line with continuing efforts to alleviate to poverty. "As we move forward, we need to make long-lasting plans not only for our recovery but also for our sustainable future," Go emphasized. Secretary Carlos Dominguez III reported that the Department of Finance is "moving very quickly" to digitalize its processes, pointing out that the department had successfully distributed assistance to 99 per cent of its small business employee-beneficiaries through the Social Security System and Bureau of Internal Revenue. Dominguez also disclosed the DOF had been working with the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation since last October 2019 to ensure their reporting systems produce accurate data in line with efforts for PhilHealth's operations to be digitalized as well. When asked for their proposed budget for 2021, Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado said a total of P21.4 billion had been allocated for next year's Medium-Term Information and Communications Technology Harmonization Initiative (MITHI) expenditures to harmonize the government's information and communication technologies (ICT) resources, programs and projects. To aid in the shift to e-governance, P7.6 billion of the figure will be spent on the ICT requirements for telecommunications infrastructure, including provisions for the Department of Information and Communications Technology's Free Internet Wi-Fi Access Connectivity in Public Places Project, National Government Data Center, National Broadband Plan, and National Government Portal. An additional P9.4 billion was allotted for the government's daily operational ICT expenses (e.g. maintenance), P1.9 billion for ICT support to finance inclusion, and P2.5 billion for other ICT expenses and the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys). When Go inquired about PhilSys, also known as the National Identification System, status, National Economic Development Authority Secretary Karl Chua replied that four of five procurement items were ongoing or completed by the time of his appointment last April. The systems integrator, the last and largest of the five major procurements items, is set to be awarded within the week. He added that the government will use an open source modular identity platform developed in India to configure their systems. The Philippine Statistics Authority, Chua continued, aims to register five million low-income household heads by the end of the year. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a pre-registration scheme, involving house visits, will be implemented to gather the information of nine million households starting October 12. NEDA expects to register a total of 40 million households into the system by 2021 while the remainder will be registered in 2022. The budget for the program amounts to a total of P30 billion, P4.1 billion of which is requested for the following year. Earlier in August, Go issued a reminder to PSA to accelerate and ensure the successful implementation of the national ID system to avert any more fraudulent transactions and misrepresentations in the delivery of essential government services. "The national ID system is long overdue. The ongoing pandemic exposed many gaps in the delivery of various services. The discrepancy in data would have been minimized if we had the national ID system fully functional," he said. Go has repeatedly expressed his confidence in the potential of new technologies and trends in data processing to provide solutions to improve the delivery of public services, enhance administrative governance and reduce corruption and bureaucratic red tape. "As I've said before, we need to carefully balance our economic and health objectives. By ensuring that government services remain operational by maximizing available technologies, we can help Filipinos easily adapt to the new normal, help our economy recover and mitigate the health risks," said Go. Per Go, PhilSys will be an integral component in realizing the full benefits of the digitalization of government processes or e-governance. Last July 27, he filed the E-Governance Act of 2020 which seeks to use ICT as a means to deliver government services and information to the public anytime, anywhere, and on any platform or device. The proposed bill will establish the Integrated Government Network, a digital and electronic platform, that will act as the primary means for sharing and communicating data, information, and resources across all of the government. It will also create various digital portals for the delivery of public services, an internal records management information system, and an information database "We should adopt a more efficient, responsive and modern ways of transacting with our citizens. This will effectively make the government more in tune with the changing times," said Go.
Dateline How Will Candidates Reach Myanmar Voters Amid COVID-19 Restrictions?

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Kyaw Zwa Moe: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy! It is about two months until the November election and campaigning is due to start soon. At the same time, Myanmar is being hit by a second wave of COVID-19. Many cases have been reported in a number of cities including Yangon. So, there will be new challenges this election season. Two candidates, one a member of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and one from the Peoples Party, join me to discuss the unique challenges of this election season and how they might be overcome. The first is Upper House lawmaker Ma Susanna Hla Hla Soe of the NLD, who is running for the post of Karen ethnic affairs minister in the Yangon regional government. The second is general secretary of the Peoples Party Ko Ye Naing Aung, also known as Ko Wa, who is seeking a seat in the Yangon regional parliament representing Kamayut Township. Im The Irrawaddy English editor Kyaw Zwa Moe.

The current challenge is COVID-19. The election campaign starts on Sept. 8. So, Ma Susanna Hla Hla Soe, how do the challenges on the ground compare to the situation back in 2015?

Ma Susanna Hla Hla Soe: Before the start of the election campaign, I introduced myself to party members as a candidate for the seat [representing Karen ethnic people] in Yangon. Party members in Insein and Mingalardon know me, but party members in other townships did not know me as well, so I went to introduce myself. However, I could not go to certain townships because they are on the stay-at-home lists due to the pandemic. I had to cancel my scheduled visits. That is a new problem. If we are to go out on the campaign trail, there are other problems. According to current health guidelines from the government, a maximum of 50 people can gather, and they must stay 6 feet apart while wearing masks and face shields. And our party also requires us to follow those guidelines strictly. Even stricter rules may be put in place if the situation gets worse.

KZM: Ko Wa, what sorts of challenges might lie ahead if the situation gets worse? What plans has your party made to deal with these complications to the campaign?

Ko Wa: The challenge is even greater for new parties like ours. At a time when we need to engage the public as frequently as possible, COVID-19 has kept us apart. This is the first challenge. Because an election is the process of selecting the representatives to whom the sovereignty of the country will be handed over, there must be a minimum norm to ensure that the process is free and fair. Given the restrictions caused by COVID-19, this norm may be compromised currently. But there must be a minimum norm. It is quite difficult for parties to campaign now. A recent report from the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance suggests that the election should be postponed if theres a big increase in COVID-19 cases. My assessment is that the challenge is quite big even now. If the situation gets worse, there will be a question of how to balance public health with the need to ensure a free and fair election that will have an impact on the sovereignty of the country for the next five years and more. I dont want the Union Election Commission (UEC) to make the decision all by itself whether or not to hold the election. Instead it should take steps in coordination with political parties and civil society organizations (CSOs). Initially it said it would not allow the Peoples Alliance for Credible Elections (PACE) to monitor the November vote. Now it has said it would allow it. But, it is still unclear. In a crisis such as the current situation, the UEC should take prompt steps to engage more with political parties and CSOs to find the best possible solution.

KZM: The UEC has attracted considerable criticism. Besides what Ko Wa just pointed out, it has also been criticized for a lack of transparency and a lack of engagement with the media. Ma Susanna Hla Hla Soe, have you noticed shortcomings on the part of the UEC?

SHHS: When I registered to run for Karen ethnic affairs minister, I found there were errors [in voter lists], and I immediately reported the matter to the UEC. Most of the names of Karen voters were spelled wrongly. Karen voters complained that [Burmese honorific] titles such as U and Daw were used for their names. They dont like that. They also complained that [Karen honorifics] like Saw were removed from their names. And some were not included on voter lists at all. I talked to the UEC about it. I also filed a letter of complaint. The UEC in Naypyitaw responded immediately, and asked [the Yangon commission] to fix the errors. I am satisfied with that response. But on the ground, there is no effective method of fixing errors. Election commission officials blamed the computer system for errors in data entry. But those who are computer literate said the process is easier with computers. As to the right to vote for Karen ethnic affairs minister, some requirements have been relaxed. For example, a person can cast a vote for the Karen minister if one of his or her parents is ethnically Karen. But that information did not reach the people on the ground. This is a serious problem. How much can I travel [under COVID-19 restrictions] and explain this to the voters? It is important that this information reaches the public. I have also complained about it to the UEC in Naypyitaw, and they said they would provide instructions [to the Yangon election commission]. There were also other errors, like the names of the parents of the voters being the same. As you know, Facebook users have been critical about the failures. The UEC needs to improve its performance.

KZM: Ko Ye Naing Aung, the Peoples Party was also born out of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, and founded by activists like you and Ko Ko Gyi. But Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD have enormous influence. So let me ask candidly, how difficult is it for the party to compete with the NLD in a democratic election?

KW: At the national level, the NLD has continuously been at the forefront of the democracy movement. And because Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is regarded as the leader of the democracy movement, some believe that the NLD is the only party that is a force for democracy. Such a notion can adversely shape the future of our country. I am not asking the voters to support and vote for us. But the problem is that not many people know the countrys history well and are able to identify those who have actively participated in the democracy movement.

KZM: Back in 2015, the election was more black and white. It was a rivalry between the NLD and the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) formed by ex-leaders of the military. But there are more colors in the November election. But we are still in the transition process. The military still holds 25 percent of seats in the Parliament, and it has a certain degree of power. The NLD has called for voting for its party so that it can form a government. Only when it can form a government will it be able to continue the transition. What is your view on it, Ma Susanna Hla Hla Soe?

SHHS: The NLD has always said that it will be able to form the government only when it wins the majority. In a multiparty democracy, parties have the right to participate in the election. The NLD must try to secure an electoral victory. And new parties will also try. And the people will decide.

KZM: Many have argued that the NLD does not give enough attention to ethnic issues and improving its relations with ethnic parties. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of the NLD have said that their party is a Union party. Ma Susanna Hla Hla Soe, you are an ethnic Karen woman but joined the NLD. To what extent are those criticisms accurate?

SHHS: It is difficult to answer that in black and white. We look at the policies of the party. Ethnic issues and peace top the election manifesto of our party. Still, the party sticks to a federal, democratic Union. As an ethnic person, I am satisfied with that approach. The party has a policy of giving priority to ethnic people in selecting candidates [for election]. That much is true. Ko Wa, you said the NLD does not bother to maintain friendly ties with ethnic parties. But I think that is a personality problem, rather than a policy problem. Ethnic issues are still the top priority of the NLD.

KZM: Your rival for the Karen ethnic affairs minister post, Daw Naw Ohn Hla, is an activist who has continuously taken an active part in the democracy movement and was imprisoned a number of times. How do you feel about competing with her?

SHHS: Politics is politics. You have to finish it once you have made the decision to get into it. Yes, we two have close ties, like sisters. We have known each other for many years. She supports me, and I also support her. This is democracy.

KZM: But for voters, it is difficult for them to choose between you and her.

SHHS: Karen ethnic people will have to decide. Who do they prefer? It is up to them. What I can say is I will campaign honestly and fairly, and it is Karen people who will make the decision.

KZM: How is the situation in Kamayut now, Ko Wa?

KW: We are a new political party. The NLD is the ruling party and led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and therefore enjoys strong popular support. So we assume that our main rival will be the NLD. On the surface, it will be quite a tough task to compete with the NLD. But since 1988 when I was still a student at the Government Technical Institute, I have continuously engaged in what I believe. And I have stood by my beliefs. I have proven my genuine desire to serve the country. Despite the fact that our party is a new party, it was formed by democracy activists like me. It has proven its genuine desire to serve the country. The decision is up to the people. If we can convince people that we are committed to the interests of Kamayut and the whole country, we will get the results we are looking for. This is what I believe, and I am committed to running as a candidate based on that belief.

KZM: If you won the election, do you have any new ideas that are different from those of the current officeholder?

KW: Kamayut has played an important role in the history of our country. Yangon University turned out people like [independence hero] General Aung San and [Myanmars first prime minister] U Nu and was also the place where the independence struggle originated. It was also the birthplace of student movements that led to the pro-democracy uprising in 1988. And universities are concentrated in Kamayut. If I were elected to represent Kamayut, there is a need to maintain and promote the things I have mentioned that are values of our country. Personally, I think they are in relative obscurity today. There is a need to polish that legacy. At the same time, there is a need to work for development. Hledan [in Kamayut] is a busy place teeming with people and vehicles. A large number of middle-class families and tenants reside there. But there is limited public space, and little green space there. There is a need to expand public space and brighten green spaces. For example, we should establish a public space like a bike paththough this needs discussion from all perspectivesin Hledan. And we should adopt more effective methods to promote the historical places that I have mentioned so that they receive both national and international attention. In short, we need to put Kamayut on the worlds map. The bike path established by Yangon Heritage Trust in Pansodan Street, though it is a short one, received a lot of attention. What is important is we must have commitment.

KZM: As far as I can see, ethnic affairs ministers also have to take responsibility for things other than those involving the ethnic people they represent. Ma Susanna Hla Hla Soe, what notable things would you like to accomplish if you were elected to the post?

SHHS: After I decided to stand for the election, I made an online survey on ethnic Karen people in Yangon. The results were interesting not only for Yangon, but also for the whole country. According to the survey results, there are difficulties in learning the Karen language. The government provides teaching, but on the ground, learning is a little difficult. Thats partly because Karen language teachers are scarce.

KZM: What is the population of Karen people in Yangon Region?

SHHS: There are some 270,000 Karen people in Yangon. And there are many Karen migrants, especially those from Ayeyarwady Region. They lamented the lack of job opportunities [in the survey]. And there are large numbers of Karen farmers in Hmawbi, Taikkyi and Hlegu. They reported the loss of farmland. Based on that survey, I will meet their needs. I have also carried out a second survey. We will assess the results of the two surveys with the assistance of technicians and adopt a strategy. And we will adopt and implement plans. I will help them do what they want to do, not what I want to do. Another interesting thing is that the respondents mentioned self-determination. This is what Karen people have demandedalong with equality for a long time. The respondents also asked to have their names spelt correctly on voter lists.

KZM: How difficult is it to achieve equality and autonomy of national races in their respective states during the tenure of the NLD? The 2008 Constitution is still in force. There are visible and invisible obstacles. What are the obstacles to achieving goals like equality and autonomy?

SHHS: What are the obstacles? We are moving towards federalism. We will be able to overcome the challenges when we achieve genuine federalism. For this, all of us must work together. It is impossible for the Karen alone to achieve this goal. What all our national races including Bamar need is a federal democratic Union. The 2008 Constitution that hinders the realization of that goal must be amended.

KZM: These are also reiterated in the latest election manifesto of the NLD. It highlights issues like internal peace, moving forward to a federal democratic Union and national reconciliation. Looking at the most important issue of the role of the Tatmadaw [Myanmars military], we can see its role is different from the one stated in the 2015 election manifesto. In terms of defense and security, [according to the NLD manifesto] the main duty of the Tatmadaw is to defend the citizens, to be a reliable army for the public and to stand with the policy of the government elected by the people in accordance with democratic norms. It is carefully phrased as to stand with the policy of the government. Critics say the government and Tatmadaw have been two separate entities during the past four years. Some even say it is as if there are two governments in Myanmar. Are these obstacles for the issues you just outlined?

SHHS: Based on my parliamentary experience in the past five years, it is very difficult to achieve these goals. Even when a bill was debated, their opinions were completely divided, for instance. One side voted unanimously for a bill while the other side voted unanimously against it.

KZM: Do you mean the opposition between Tatmadaw representatives and those of the NLD and democratic parties?

SHHS: Mostly their opinions were in opposition, although they sometimes agreed. This was an obstacle. I think the objectives stated in the [NLD] election manifesto are bold decisions and reflect the desires of the people. People want to see a modern and professional army. Only when the Tatmadaw has become a modern and professional army will we be able to overcome the obstacles.

KZM: Will there be brighter prospects for a federal Union and equality between 2020 and 2025 after democratic forces win the election, or will the stalemate continue? There are stalemates in politics as there are in chess. Then there is no forward movement.

SHHS: In my opinion, the stalemate will not persist in the long run because the public is very enthusiastic about (overcoming the challenges). Nothing can be prevented from happening when the public is behind it. We have seen this in our political experience. This must be realized. At the same time, it is important to move toward that trend delicately.

KZM: Establishing a federal democratic Union concerns the entire country, and requires collective effort. The 2008 Constitution is an obstacle to this, although some parties and organizations support and defend it. What is your view on the period beyond 2020?

KW: In my opinion, we can say in principle that all of us, including even the Tatmadaw, agree to establish a federal Union in principle, as [the military] signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement. However, the practical issue is that the 25 percent [allocation of Parliament to] the Tatmadaw is against international democratic norms. In terms of democratic norms, the Tatmadaw must completely withdraw from politics. It must perform its duty under the civilian government elected by the people. This is what should be. However, how shall we move from our current position to where we should be? That is a serious challenge for us.

KZM: What is the method for accomplishing that?

KW: Yes, method. In trying to amend the 2008 Constitution, we support every effort to amend it. However, the practical issue is that it cannot be amended without the support of the Tatmadaw. How shall we overcome that? That is a major challenge. One of the ways to change the situation, which we have not taken into consideration at present, is to pressure the Tatmadaw to accept [constitutional reform] through a public movement and the force of the people. This has not been taken into consideration seriously. Currently, we are attempting to persuade the Tatmadaw to take steps toward democracy through negotiations. This has not worked so far. And if it doesnt, what shall we do? Basically, it is difficult to say for sure that the Constitution could be amended between 2020 and 2025. Pragmatically speaking, it is very difficult. However, we cannot stop just because it is difficult. What we need to do during the period is to strengthen democratic institutions and democratic forces. As the strengthening of democratic forces and institutions is the most important, we desperately need cooperation and coordination among those institutions. This cannot be done by an individual or an organization alone. We need to understand this clearly. The most discouraging fact about the NLD from my perspective is its attitude that they dont need allies. It is completely the opposite of what our country needs. This is most discouraging and worrisome. We are the people who joined hands with the NLD for more than 30 years during the pro-democracy movement. Why cant the NLD cooperate with its own allies? We are neither demanding offices nor privileges. We are requesting the NLD to cooperate and coordinate together for our country. I would like to say seriously that it is very important to cooperate and negotiate together for the future of our country.

KZM: Thanks for your contributions.

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McLaren is giving rich enthusiasts and affluent investors a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own one of its most valuable tangible assets: its headquarters. Before you launch a GoFundMe campaign, keep in mind the next owner will be obligated to lease the property back to the carmaker for an undermined amount of time.

Hit hard by the on-going coronavirus pandemic, McLaren commissioned Canadian real estate firm Colliers to sell its headquarters for 200 million, a sum that represents approximately $256 million at the current conversion rate. It's interesting to note the facility is worth about 13 times as much as a 1994 F1 LM-Specification. Located in Woking, which is about an hour from London, the property includes the McLaren Technology Center, the McLaren Production Center (where road cars are manufactured), and the McLaren Thought Leadership Center. There is also a small man-made lake, parking lots, several picturesque acres of grass, and thousands of trees.

McLaren isn't moving. It will remain in Woking, but it will lease its headquarters from the person or company that purchases it. Details about the transaction, like how long the firm will lease the property for and how much it will spend per month, haven't been made public, unsurprisingly. However, it's reasonable to assume there will be a clause stipulating the next owner can't kick McLaren out to plant alfalfa or to open a Texas-style ranch.

Executives are analyzing other ways to make money, reduce expenses, or both in the coming months. McLaren cut 1,200 jobs in May 2020, and it announced it sold only 307 cars between February and May, down from 953 the previous year. It secured a $185 million boost from the oil-rich National Bank of Bahrain, yet unverified rumors claim it's considering selling a relatively small stake in its Formula One team in order to free additional cash.

Sale-and-leaseback deals aren't what we'd call common in the automotive industry, but McLaren's move isn't unprecedented. In 2012, PSA Peugeot-Citroen sold its historic headquarters on Avenue de la Grande Armee in the heart of Paris for about $327 million to raise cash; it still leases the building in 2020. And, in January 2004, troubled British carmaker MG Rover sold most of its Longbridge, England, site to a property developer with plans to rent it. It signed a 35-year contract, and optimistically added a renewal clause, but it shut down in April 2005.
The grandson of U.S. President Warren G. Harding and his lover, Nan Britton, went to court in an effort to get the Republicans remains exhumed from the presidential memorial where they have lain since 1927.

James Blaesing told an Ohio court that he is seeking Hardings disinterment as a way "to establish with scientific certainty" that he is the 29th presidents blood relation.

The dispute looms as benefactors prepare to mark the centennial of Harding's 1920 election with site upgrades and a new presidential center in Marion, the Ohio city near which he was born in 1865. Blaesing says he deserves to "have his story, his mothers story and his grandmothers story included within the hallowed halls and museums in this town."

A branch of the Harding family has pushed back against the suit filed in May - not because they dispute Blaesing's ancestry, but because they dont.

They argue they already have accepted as fact DNA evidence that Blaesings mother, Elizabeth Ann Blaesing, was the daughter of Harding and Britton and that she is set to be acknowledged in the museum. Harding had no other children.

"Sadly, widespread, public recognition and acceptance by the descendants, historians, and biographers (and Mr. Blaesing himself) that Mr. Blaesing is President Hardings grandson is not enough for him," relatives said in a court filing. They called the lawsuit a ploy for attention.

In 2015, a match between James Blaesings DNA and that of two Harding descendants prompted AncestryDNA, a DNA-testing division of Ancestry.com, to declare his link to the president official.

At the time, Blaesing told The Associated Press he was delighted. Five years later, he tells the AP his mothers legacy as the daughter of a U.S. president is shaping up to be little more than a footnote in the new museum. He has not been approached to provide details of her life or even a photograph for the coming display, he said.

"I did the test and we brought it to the public in 2015. Its now 2020 and no one has asked me one thing," he said in a telephone interview. "Im not a part of anything. Nothing. My brothers, myself, no one. Were invisible. Theyre treating us just like they treated my grandmother."

Blaesing said he is hopeful that a match directly to the presidents own DNA would change that.

Ironically, it was a pair of Hardings known relatives - grandnephew Peter Harding and grandniece Abigail Harding - who first reached out to the Blaesing family in 2011 to end speculation about Harding having a child out of wedlock.

Before that, "doubt and mystery shrouded the paternal lineage of Elizabeth Blaesing for almost 100 years," family members, not including Peter and Abigail Harding, explained to the court.

According to court filings, Peter Hardings interest was sparked by reading "The Presidents Daughter," Brittons 1927 book, "and concluding that the man described in its pages resembled the author of love letters written to Ms. Carrie Phillips." The Library of Congress opened those letters between Harding and Phillips, another lover, to the public in 2014.

Ohio History Connection, which manages the Harding home and memorial, takes no position on the family dispute. Spokesperson Emmy Beach said the nonprofit accepts the 2015 DNA results "as fact" and plans a section of the new museum "on Hardings relationship with Nan Britton and their daughter, Elizabeth Ann Blaesing."

However, Ohio History Connection has told the court it must consider a host of issues before disrupting the Harding Memorials sealed sarcophagus.

The crypt also holds the remains of first lady Florence Kling Harding in another sarcophagus, and the nonprofit argues her relatives deserve a say. Further, to protect the site, the nonprofit said it will have to employ experts to assure the president's body could be disinterred and reinterred without damaging the tomb, a striking white marble temple encircled with Doric columns.

The openings of the renovated historic sites in Marion and of the Warren G. Harding Presidential Center have been indefinitely delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Beach said. She said the disinterment request has not affected the timetable.
This is part of Six Months In, a Slate series reflecting on half a year of coronavirus lockdown in America.

At first, some believed the numbers of Americans dead of the coronavirus might stay in the five figures. Then, as the toll climbed into six, some grieved, some grew numb, some made comparisons to the numbers lost in wars, some threw up every possible defense to deny that these numbers mattered. How is it that so many deaths194,000 in the U.S. as of this weekends official countcan feel so intangible, so hard for so many people to fathom?

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Jacqueline Wernimont, a historian who writes about quantification and commemoration, has been watching this unfold and feeling no small sense of deja vu. Wernimonts book, Numbered Lives: Life and Death in Quantum Media, is a history of the way we came to quantify mass deathand how those numbers have, too often, blunted the pain of those deaths. We spoke recently about the blurry historical line between bills of mortality in plague times and COVID dashboards, and why numbers can make some people feel, and others stop feeling. Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

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Rebecca Onion: In your book, you point to the bills of mortality, which publicized the numbers of dead during 17th century plague epidemics in London, as a first instance of media that people in the middle of an outbreak could use to keep up with death counts. What were the bills of mortality, for the unfamiliar?

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Jacqueline Wernimont: The bills were publications, but also internal government documents. They were often published as broadsideslonger pieces of paper that could be nailed to poles or put in taverns or, say, at the entrance of London Bridge. They were sold as a single sheet for about 2 pence in the market and were compiled by what was known as the Worshipful Company of Parish Clerks, an incorporated group that had a royal warrant to gather information about people who had died and to publish and sell it.

The practice of gathering deaths and birth information had been going on for a long time, back to the medieval period, but around this time the tradition shifted. The company had permission to build an industry around itto sell anyone who could afford it the 2-pence information about mortality counts. Then they were also sending information to officials who would have pushed it up the chain eventually to the monarch and his or her advisers.

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The idea was that there was valuable information to be gathered from counting, and not just the people who died in an epidemic, because these bills of mortality were also published during non-epidemic times. The British crown needed to understand what forces it could marshal or muster at any given point if it were to go to war. And London was exploding as a city. Britain was undertaking enormous expansion in its own territories in addition to colonial exploits; there was a sense that in order to have a well-regulated public sphere, you needed to understand its size, its scope.

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The parish clerks subcontractedto use todays termswith what were called searching women. These were wards of the parishusually widowed or, for some other reason, in need of church helpand they were paid to go out in the streets and assess, during plague times, the number of deaths and the causes of death. Theyd bring little slips of paper back to the parish clerks, who would sit at their desks, compile it in a form, and send it to their brothers who were printing it but also send it up the royal information circuit.

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"Were really bad, as a country, at understanding and parsing numerical information."  Jacqueline Wernimont

How did regular people who were reading these bills of mortality process these numbers? Did they see these numbers as infallibleas true? Did people know that the bills only counted the deaths of freemenadult, white, male, Anglican subjects?

People definitely used the bills to inform their own movements. There wasnt a theory of infection then the way we know it today, of course. Instead, people were thinking, Theres a bad miasma in the air right now. They were using the numbers to know which parish had a certain number of deaths, which had seen an increase in deaths. They were using that information to construct a sort of geography of death: Can I go here and get my food? Can I go see this tailor down in Whitehall because the cases are relatively low?

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And then the wealthy of London were using it as a marker of whether they should flee. Oh, its over there in that quarter of the city, we dont feel particularly at risk; oh no, its coming closer, retreat to the country. And people who were part of the parish but fled to the country were asked to send back money to the parish to support the people who couldnt leave. They were supposed to send back money in proportion to the cases reported on the bills of mortality. That didnt necessarily always happen, but that was another thing that was tied to the numbers.

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We have a significant body of archival documents that attest to people feeling that the numbers could not possibly be accurate. Its got to be an overcount, how could we possibly know, blah blah blah. The sense that the numbers might not be super reliable often got leveraged for political ends. People were arguing in the government, We need to open up the businesses; we need to open the theaters; we need to open the manufacturing spaces. People pointed at the searching women: These numbers are off because these women are drunk and unreliable. A definite sense of contestation.

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Whats it been like for you, someone who studies the history of death counts, to see our current battle over death data unfold?

Its been a really strange experience. When I was writing the book, I had to do a lot of work to make the 17th century feel relevant to the 21st century. And when I taught this kind of material in my classrooms, there used to be a big historical chasmstudents had never experienced this kind of mass casualty event. That has changed entirely.

And then its been really surreal to see the same fights over the data play out right in real time. Like, Oh, we cant possibly capture the data or Deaths are overcounted. The kinds of battles that Ive seen play out in every one of these epidemics Ive studied are playing out right now. In some respects, we seem to have learned nothing.

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I think in other respects, obviously, we have a much better medical understanding of how the disease is communicated. And our level of numeracy is higher than it was in the 17th centurybut I dont want to overstate that, because numeracy in the U.S. is actually at the bottom of the international rankings among comparable countries. Were really bad, as a country, at understanding and parsing numerical information.

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Looking at it from a media history perspective, what modes of presentation of the death counts have seemed innovative to you during this pandemic?

I get the official CDC reports every week as they come out. Those have a very different visual and aesthetic feel than something like the Johns Hopkins site. Ive been really interested to see that site change. It got started up by a faculty member and a grad studentand bless them for doing that, right? They were bootstrapping it rapidly, trying to get that information out. Then it became the thing that people looked at to make decisions. All of my college deans were saying, This is what were using to make our decision about whether were closing campus. And I thought, Im glad you have a source of information, but are these the right sources of information?

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Whats been frustrating to me is the hobbling of the CDC and their role in effective disease surveillance. Instead, everyone has a dashboard; newspapers are sending out their own teams to do data collection. Im glad there are multiple efforts, but in a world where weve got non-experts collecting data, there are always going to be questions.

Part of what drives the use of certain data tools is their aesthetic appeal. Ive been screencapping the Johns Hopkins site since before the outbreak was announced in the United States. It was initially centered only on China, and the size of the dots they used to show numbers of infections has had to radically shift. Really early on, they had these huge red dots on China and it looked very frightening, but it looked like COVID was nowhere else, right? But in fact, we had cases globallywe just didnt know it yet. A dashboard can provide kind of a misinterpretation of whats going on, on the groundnot out of any malicious intent, but simply out of a lack of complete information.

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Then it shifted to a map that defaulted to being centered on the United States, and then you began to get dots at the level of counties, then things like recovery rates and death to mortality ratios got added. Additional information came online; the resource wasnt stable. What the resource was doing at the beginning and what its doing now are very different things. And I dont know that we have the numeracy or media literacy to understand those shifts as a country, and that worries me.

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A lot of COVID denier-speak around death numbers is cloaked in what feels like false numeracy. People will knowingly say, Well, its not as bad as the number of people killed from car crashes.

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Yes, Ive seen dashboards that do a comparison with the 191819 flubut using the full 24-month death count numbers for the flu! So of course the COVID deaths look small. Those numbers are incommensurate.

This is a rapidly evolving situation , and the information is going to be changing. We need to understand how its changing so that we can assess it. Theres not a gotcha moment here; these people are dead. Theyre dead dead, not coming back.

"At some point between 100,000 and 50 million, people lose the ability to discriminate between the really big numbers."  Jacqueline Wernimont

In a thread you wrote in July about peoples reactions to death, you had a tweet I liked, about feelings: Numbers are affective.  They make people feel things, and for some people, thats resistance, while for others, its despair. When those feelings are intense, peoples need to function can kick in, resulting in desensitization.

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That really resonated with me, because I feel like a lot of people who are very upset about COVID deaths will say, How can you look at projections that predict 220,000 dead before the election and not be completely outraged? But youre pointing out that people have different emotional responses to death counts.

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As the numbers have gotten bigger, Ive seen this happenpeoples threshold for dealing with trauma runs up against a kind of natural defense, to be able to keep functioning. Sometimes when people look at big death counts, like for the 191819 flu, 50 million confirmed deaths globallythats a really hard number to wrap your head around.

One of the things I argue in my book is that mortality counts take something so awful like seeing your hometown streets littered with dead bodies and they wrap it up in a number that feels a little more reassuring and carefully contained. At some point between 100,000 and 50 million, I think people lose the ability to discriminate between the really big numbers, but they also start to shut down emotionally.

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Im interested in the metaphor of the COVID dashboard, in that sense. It seems to promise a sense of control: Youre in the drivers seat.

Yes, for sure. This is part of what my creative work is aboutfinding ways to get people to have a different sense of mortality numbers, such that they can feel the impact of it, however awful it is. The artistic representations of death counts that take the numbers out of two dimensions and render them embodied in some way are the ones that seem to break through. In an academic context we would call the idea behind this embodied cognitionthings you come to know in a different way, just from your body moving through space. That is what we mean when we talk about muscle memory.

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Think about the Vietnam memorialthe scale and scope of that, the way if you stand in front of it to see an individuals name, you cant see the whole thing. Or the military graveyards where you just see row upon row of white crosses. The shoes activists put on the White House lawn to represent the kids killed by gun violence since Sandy Hook. At Holocaust memorials, how you move through buildings that are literally covered floor to ceiling with the names of people.

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In this pandemic, a similar idea was behind the New York Times choice, when wed passed 100,000 deaths, to run a front page full of names of people whod died.

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With one detail from each obituary, which Ill never forget.

Yes. Ive done an exhibit on the 191819 flu, where individuals were part of a braided cord, suspended from a ceiling in a geographic space. So you could walk through the dead, see how they were spatially clustered (like they were in the state of Arizona), but you could also sit and untangle a single corda lifefrom each 12-ply braid.

Ive also done a lot of sonificationmaking statistics into sound. I did this with the 191819 flu and with the history of eugenic sterilization in the United States. There is something about making it into a musical score, where then it takes days to play; you cant hear it all at once. Thats the thing about numbersyou can look at it on a screen, or on a page. You see it all at once. Maybe it makes you feel sick, maybe it doesnt, but you can walk away. Theres something about having to sit with time-based or spatial media that can help convey the sense of scale very differently. Its not nearly as easy to walk away from.
By Azernews





By Akbar Mammadov

The process to illegaly settle Lebanese-Armenian in Azerbaijans occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region has started.

On September 11, the head of the so-called regime set up in Nagorno-Karabakh shared a video post on his Facebook page about settlement of Lebanese Armenians in Azerbaijan's internationally-recognized territory after the deadly explosion in Beirut last month.

The leader of the separatists said the first Lebanese-Armenian families are already being approved in Nagorno-Karabakh and reaffirmed that the so-called regime is interested in preserving the Lebanese-Armenian colony.

The separatist leader had voiced his readiness to receive Armenians, during the phone conversation with the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I who is based in Lebanons capital-Beirut after the explosion in that city. He offered the settling of 150 Lebanese-Armenian families in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Armenian military-political leadership seizes every opportunity to illegally settle Armenians in Azerbaijans occupied territories in a bid to artificially change the demographics of the region and saw the recent deadly blast in Beirut as another opportunity to illegally settle Armenians in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and the adjacent seven regions.

The illegal settlement of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh is part of Armenias annexation policy under the guise of repatriation and humanitarian assistance.

It should be noted that on August 15, Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry shared a satellite image of a new illegal settlement in Azerbaijans occupied Kalbajar region. In a press release issued jointly with Azerbaijans satellite operator Azercosmos, the ministry said that the monitoring carried out via the Azersky satellite has revealed that a residential complex, which began to be built in Kalbajar in late 2019, now consists of 15 houses.

The speed and the continuation of construction work make clear that this settlement will be further expanded. Thus, if in January 2020, 6 houses were completed, in March - 10 houses, in April - 14 houses, and in August this figure reached 15, the ministry said.

The ministry said that the settlement was part of an artificial settlement policy of Armenia, adding that new settlements were constructed in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, including the residential complex "Aracamux" in Jabrayil and "Ariavan" in Lachin region, as well as in Zangilan and Khanlig village of Gubadli region.

This illegal activity is aimed at continuing and strengthening the occupation of the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions of Azerbaijan, the annexation of our territories and the prevention of the return of Azerbaijani IDPs to their homes and properties, the statement reads.

It should be noted that 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.
The family of late Moshood Abiola, presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, have dissociated themselves from the fundamental human rights suit challenging the police detention of two sons of the deceased.

Recall that two sons of the late presidential candidate, Kassim and Aliyu, were arrested and detained over a robbery incident that took place at their fathers residence on September 2.

They claimed they were unlawfully arrested and detained at the Special Anti-Robbery Squad in Ikeja, sequel to a complaint that was lodged by their step-mum, Adebisi Abiola, after the robbery incident.

On Friday, the duo approached a Lagos State High Court sitting in the Ikeja Judicial Division for the enforcement of their fundamental rights.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that they applied for the enforcement of their rights to personal liberty, dignity of person, right to private and family life, as well as right to freedom of movement, citing the Lagos State Commissioner of Police as the sole respondent in the suit filed through their lawyer and human rights activist, Mike Ozekhome.

Specifically, they prayed the court to declare that the arrest without warrant and subsequent and continuous dehumanization and detention of the Applicants since the 2nd September, 2020, by operatives of the Respondent on the alleged Complaint of one Mrs Adebisi Abiola, is illegal, unlawful, wrongful and constitutes a blatant violation of the Applicants fundamental rights as enshrined in Section 35 (1) (4) & (6), 37, 41 (1), 44 (1) and 46(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as altered, Sections 2, 3(1) (2), 17(1) (2), 18 (1) (2) (3), 19, 21 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law, Lagos State, 2015, and Articles 5, 6 & 14 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights Ratification and Enforcement Act Cap A9, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

A declaration that the arrest and subsequent dehumanization and the continuous detention of the Applicants since the 2nd September, 2020, by operatives of the Respondent on the alleged Petition/Complaint of one Mrs Adebisi Abiola, without granting them administrative bail within 24 hours of their arrest, are illegal, wrongful, unlawful and constitutes a blatant violation of fundamental rights as enshrined in Section 35 (1) (4) & (6), 37, 41 (1), 44 (1) and 46(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as altered, Sections 2, 3(1) (2), 17(1) (2), 18 (1) (2) (3), 19, 21 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law, Lagos State, 2015, and Articles 5, 6 & 14 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights Ratification and Enforcement Act Cap A9, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

A declaration that the Applicants are entitled to public apology and adequate compensation from the Respondent as provided for by section 35(6) and 46(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as altered, Sections 2, 3(1) (2), 17(1) (2), 18 (1) (2) (3), 19, 21 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law, Lagos State, 2015, for the blatant violation of the Applicants fundamental rights without following the due process of law.

An order of perpetual injunction restraining the Respondent whether by itself, its agents, employees, operatives, detectives, investigating officer(s), or by whatever name called, from further inviting, arresting or detaining the Applicant on the facts of an alleged Petition/Complaint made by one Mrs Adebisi Abiola, in relation to a purported or alleged robbery incident to which they know absolutely nothing about.

They also sought an order of the court, directing the Respondent and his operatives and agents to release forthwith the Applicants from the detention of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, detention center of the Respondent.

Aside from demanding an apology, the applicants equally asked for an order to compel the respondent to pay them N100 million as exemplary damages for the wanton and grave violation of their fundamental rights.

Abiolas widow reacts

Reacting through a statement issued by Debo Adeleke, the familys lawyer, Abiolas widow, Adebisi, said the arrest of her stepsons was a result of their unruly acts during police interrogation.

Narrating the chain of events, Mr Adeleke stated that the hoodlums broke into Mrs Adebisis lodge and carted away valuables running into millions of naira.

She and her daughter were subsequently locked up in her room with a threat by the armed robbers that the two will be eliminated if they raise an alarm.

Mrs. Abiola was eventually freed by other members of the family who had apparently called the police upon which she and her daughter and other members of the family were interviewed by the police led by the indefatigable and dutiful Lagos State Commissioner of Police in person of Mr. Hakeem Odumosu.

According to the press release, while the policemen were interviewing the family members, Messrs Kassim and Aliu Ablola conducted themselves in a very rude, ungentlemanly, provocative, embarrassing and suspicious manner and all efforts by other members of the family to make them act in a responsible manner failed.

The police subsequently arrested Mr. Kassim Abiola, Mr. Aliu Abiola and seven others for further questioning, regarding the investigation of the robbery incident, which the police suspected to have been carried out through the active connivance of a member of the family or staff considering the ease with which such an ugly armed robbery incident was carried out.

Mr Adeleke denied insinuations that the Abiolas widow was instrumental to the arrest of Kassim and Aliu Abiola simply because they are her stepsons.

The family lawyer noted that he was directed by Mrs Abiola to liaise with the Nigeria police in order to facilitate the release of her two stepsons and personal staff.

Consequent upon the above, Barrister Debo Adeleke discussed with the Lagos State Commissioner of Police who understandably consented to release them and efforts to release and admit the three men into an administrative bail were concluded on Friday 11th September, 2020.

The suit

Mr Adeleke further said it came as a surprise when a lawyer from the law firm of Mike Ozekhome, in company of a woman, stormed the Lagos State police command and informed the police of the suit filed in court for the enforcement of the fundamental rights of Messrs. Kassim and Aliu Abiola, while he was making final efforts to perfect their bail.

Consequent upon the above, the police could not go ahead with the planned release of the three men as earlier scheduled for Friday, 11 September, 2020. This unfortunate turn of events angered Chief Mrs. Adebisi Abiola and other members of the family and they were thoroughly embarrassed.

Now that Mr. Kassim and Ali Abiolas fundamental rights suits have been adjourned till the 15 October, 2020, a period of over 30 days (from now), all efforts by the family, especially Chief Mrs Adebisi Abiola and the family lawyer in company of the Abiola family secretary have been thwarted.

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He, however, assured that the concerned persons will continue to seek for the release of the duo from the police by admitting them to administrative bail pending investigation.
At a time when ruling Shiv Sena in Maharashtra is facing criticism for the assault on a retired Navy officer by its workers, its alliance partner Congress on Sunday alleged an ex-serviceman from Jalgaon was fighting for justice since 2016 when he was "attacked" on the orders of then BJP MLA who went to become an MP. The retired Navy officer, Madan Sharma (62), was attacked in suburban Kandivali on Friday for allegedly forwarding a cartoon lampooning Maharashtra Chief Minister and Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on social media.

State Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant alleged ex-serviceman Sonu Mahajan from Jalgaon has been fighting for justice since 2016 when he was "attacked on the orders of then BJP MLA Unmesh Patil who went to become an MP". " The Devendra Fadnavis government did not file an FIR despite the CM also being the home minister at the time. An FIR was filed on the orders of the High Court in 2019 but even then the government did not take action against Patil," Sawantclaimed.

He asked if Defence Minister Rajnath Singh would step in to ensure Mahajan gets justice. In a video posted by Sawant, a man identifies himself as former BSF (Border Security Force) jawan Sonu Mahajan.

Sawant added a case was filed against the men who attacked retired Navy officer Madan Sharma in Mumbai on Friday and they were arrested. He said the Congress would pursue the Sonu Mahajancase to ensure he gets justice.

Meanwhile, Kandivali (East) MLA Atul Bhatkhalkar ofBJP slammed Sena leader Sanjay Raut, who he said claimed that"Sharma had worked in Merchant Navy and not in the Indian Navy". He said Sharma had retired as chief engineer from the navy and posted the latter's ex-serviceman identity card on Twitter.
By Panos Kotzathanasis | Published on 2020/09/12

Probably one of the most confusing, chaotic, and genre-bending film we have seen during the latest years, "Fallen" is a movie that tries to be original by following very few "rules" of genre cinema and including as many different elements as possible, both in context and in style.

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The story begins with famous sci-fi writer Baek Jo-kyeong, who is being interviewed on her work, before the session inevitably turns towards a revenge sex tape of her circulating on the internet. The next scene finds her in a part at a bar, where her producer tries to convince her to apologize publicly to get the ordeal over with, critics who gossip on both her work and the video, and a fan girl who seems to somewhat hit on her. The next scene, however, finds Jo-kyeong waking up in an abandoned warehouse, having her hands tied, and a tattoo spelling " fallen " in her back. Soon, she also realizes that the oil drums around her house people from the bar, who proceed on offering her advice about how to acknowledge and cope with her past, including her serial-killer mother.

If that part was not confusing, the next one takes place in a secret meeting in an industrial-type of room, where a number of high-level diplomats, agents and lawyers are determining the fate of a serial killer. The accused however, is soon revealed to be from the future and has actually travelled from 2059 through a sinkhole in Seoul, and mentions that it is a kind of cyborg that has downloaded its personality on an individual in vegetative state, as have done a number of other of its comrades. The killer wants Jo-kyeong dead because she carries an anti-body that makes its people go blind and in exchange for her death, it is willing to give humanity a genetic editing hack, the cure for six deadly illnesses and $65 billion worth of renewable energy sources per year. Before a decision is made however, a young man supposedly working for the UN murders the accused and tries to renegotiate the deal, while a lawyer and a representative of the Korean government also play key roles in the proceedings. If all those were not confusing, during these proceedings, Jo-kyeong tries to face her past, her present and her future that actually materialize in front of her, while at some point, a high-heels, leotard-wearing dancer appears in front of her and offers a kind of a show.

Apart from the overall sense of confusion, disorientation and surrealism that dominate the narrative, another element that becomes quite obvious from the beginning is the overall pretentiousness that characterizes the film. From the various sets by Lee Jung-sub-I, who implement a minimalistic approach to point toward the sci-fi premises on the film and a more maximalist regarding the present (the bar scene is a distinct sample) to the various protagonists, all of which are incredibly good-looking (and occasionally quite sexy) everything seems to point towards this direction. This approach probably finds its apogee in the dancing scene, which actually seems to serve little purpose apart from stressing the overall approach the narrative takes. At the same time though, the images offered by DP Park Mi-nu are quite beautiful on occasion, particularly in the latest part where elements of action also come to the fore as much as during a number of outside night shots.

Furthermore, the movie also resembles much a stage play, with the council of agents and the discussions Jo-kyeong has in the warehouse pointing in that direction. This aspect is also the one that features the main comments of the film, which includes the way society treats women, particularly when they are victimized, the way show business and the government works, and where technology could lead us in the future, with the name of Elon Musk actually being referenced repeatedly.

Most of these comments however, are either on-the-nose or lost inside the overall confusion the narrative offers, which is also intensified by the frequently abrupt editing by the director and the DP, the fact that present, past and future are mixed, and the pastiche of genres and references that dominate the narrative. In that regard, "Saw" and a number of Japanese movie adaptations of sci-fi manga ("Parasyte" came to mind) seem to have inspired the director, adding to the collection of elements that characterize the movie.

In that setting, the acting aspect is actually pushed to the background, with the overwhelming number of actors also stressing the fact. However, Yang Ji as Jo-kyeong is quite good in presenting her discomfort, disorientation, and resolve.

"Fallen" is definitely confusing and could, actually, be characterized as nonsensical. However, it is definitely original, visually impressive and one of the most interesting films of the year.

Review by Panos Kotzathanasis

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"Fallen" is directed by Lee Jung-sub-I, and features Yang Ji, Jang Tae-young, Han Sung-min, Lee Ji-yong, Hwang Se-on, Yoon Ha-bin. Release date in Korea: Coming Soon.
US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster paid a visit to the Chhatarpur Temple in the national capital on Sunday. The envoy posted photographs of his visit in his Twitter account and said it was great to visit the temple, which is dedicated to Goddess Katyayani, the sixth form of Goddess Durga.

US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster paid a visit to the Chhatarpur Temple in the national capital on Sunday. The envoy posted photographs of his visit in his Twitter account and said it was great to visit the temple, which is dedicated to Goddess Katyayani, the sixth form of Goddess Durga.

Great to visit the Chhatarpur Mandir in south Delhi. This is one of the largest temple complexes in the country and is dedicated to Goddess Katyayani, Juster wrote. Also known as Shree Adya Katyayani Shaktipeeth Mandir, the Chhatarpur Temple is situated in Chhattarpur area in south Delhi.

Great to visit the Chhatarpur Mandir in south Delhi. This is one of the largest temple complexes in the country and is dedicated to Goddess Katyayani. #IncredibleIndia pic.twitter.com/AYs6m89zpD  Ken Juster (@USAmbIndia) September 13, 2020

Also Read: Discharged 2,454 Coronavirus patients after treating them successfully: ITBP

It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the national capital. The entire complex of the temple is spread over a wide area of around 70 acres. The temple was established in 1974. (ANI)

Also Read: Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu takes Covid-19 test before Monsoon session
New Delhi, Sep 13 : Farmers in Haryana and Punjab are up in arms against the ordinances on agriculture promulgated by the Narendra Modi government and likely to be introduced in Parliament's Monsoon Session commencing on Monday.

The Congress has announced that it will oppose the "anti-farmer" ordinances in the Parliament, while the BJP is seeking discussions with farmers in Haryana.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, who hails from Haryana, said: "These black laws are a conspiracy to ring a death knell for agriculture and millions of farmers, agricultural labourers and commission agents. This is a well-calculated evil design to mortgage the agriculture and farming to crony capitalists." Farmers and commission agents' associations extended support to the protests against three Ordinances -- the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance.

Protesters said that the Ordinances were not only against the interest of the farmers but were also against the Constitution.

The Congress said that abolishing the system of grain and vegetable markets run by the Agricultural Produce Market Committee will totally destroy the agriculture produce procurement system.

In such a scenario, the farmers will neither get the Minimum Support Price (MSP) nor the price of their crop as per market price, it said.

The party has termed the three ordinances a "direct attack on the federal structure of the country", saying agriculture and agricultural produce markets come under the purview of the states, as per the Constitution, "but, the Modi government didn't consider it worthwhile to take the state governments in confidence on this issue".

"Protection and incentivising agriculture has been naturally the subject under the domain of the states, but, they were not consulted at all. On the contrary, market fees and rural development fund levied for the development of villages and agriculture was done away unilaterally, which is flagrant transgression of constitutional provisions," the party said.

Haryana's ruling BJP has formed a three-member committee, comprising Hisar MP Brijendra Singh, Bhiwani-Mahendragarh MP Dharambir Singh and Kurukshetra MP Nayab Singh, to hold talks with agitating farmers.
With the election looming, President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden are competing for the title of Americas manufacturing savior.

Both emphasize the failure of the U.S. economy to generate the factory jobs they see as key to a robust middle class. Both see international trade and investment as a problem. Each professes the evils of offshoring, the bitter fruit of unfair trade practices, and the decay implicit in the U.S. trade deficit.

Yet Trump and Biden offer very different cures. These differences have far-reaching consequences for U.S. workers and exporters, and U.S. relations with its trading partners.

Running for office as an economic nationalist, Trump denigrated the World Trade Organization while blaming U.S. job losses on bad trade agreements. Once in office, import tariffs and quotas became his weapons. He raised tariffs on solar panels and washing machines, steel and aluminum, and on more than two-thirds of goods from China.

Trump has pressed for unilateral concessions from trading partners that levy tariffs higher than those levied by the United States, most notably by threatening to impose 25 percent tariffs on autos if the European Union did not quickly negotiate a bilateral trade deal. The trade deals he has completed, such as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, offer little new access to foreign markets for U.S. exporters. Overall, his policies use the U.S. market as a tool to constrain rather than promote global commerce.

Trumps tariffs have also failed to create jobs. Manufacturing employment slowly climbed out of the Great Recession but was hit with U.S. tariffs and foreign retaliation; the creation of factory jobs flatlined after 2018. Companies faced higher costs on imported parts and components central to American manufacturing. A recent analysis of the 2018-19 tariff hikes finds tariffs paid by manufacturers totaled about $1,600 per worker per year.

Trumps trade policies also reduced incomes of farmers and fishers as country after country has retaliated against the U.S. with tariffs of their own.

While not embracing a rollback in Trumps tariffs, Biden blames job losses not on foreign capitals or Geneva, but on decisions by U.S. corporations. The Biden teams policy tools are targeted corporate tax hikes and subsidies for U.S. investment. To reduce incentives to produce overseas, incentives Biden believes were heightened by Trumps 2017 tax plan  he promises a 21 percent minimum tax on foreign corporations earnings.

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Unlike Trumps focus on tariffs, Bidens approach recognizes the creation of complex global supply chains, largely orchestrated by multinational firms, played an essential role in the rapid loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs since 2000. Multinational firms operating in China, for example, provide 60 percent  or more  of the manufactured goods sent to the U.S. Bidens intent to tax profits that U.S. corporations earn abroad may give American blue-collar workers a taste of the economic bounty generated by globalization.

However, such policies alone are unlikely to offer much relief. Imported parts allow U.S.-based firms to compete with foreign rivals, here and abroad. In fact, foreign affiliates of U.S. multinationals sell only 12 percent of their goods and services back to the U.S. This means Bidens offshoring surcharge is unlikely to raise much revenue and will do little to encourage U.S. firms to source from U.S. producers.

To restore U.S manufacturing jobs, we need to ask why production costs are higher here than abroad. We need to rebalance the costs and benefits to favor the U.S.

To successfully manufacture in the U.S. and pay American wages, employers use advanced capital equipment. We need to lower the cost of creating such factories while ensuring American workers are ready for the demands.

Bidens plan begins this rebalancing by proposing a 10 percent investment tax credit for companies that create new jobs in the U.S. Importantly, it links these proposals to workforce development, infrastructure renewal and improvements in health care.

There is no simple way to restore U.S. manufacturing jobs. To compete in the global market, U.S. producers must remain competitive. They need overseas markets open to U.S. exporters. Bullying our trading partners and raising costs for U.S. producers with import tariffs have failed. Its time to put away the big stick and invest in America.

Mary E. Lovely is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute and a professor of economics at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.
EAGLE  The city of Eagle has declared itself a Second Amendment sanctuary city, making it the second Treasure Valley city to do so, after Star passed a similar resolution in July.

The City Council voted unanimously for the measure, igniting a round of applause from residents attending Tuesdays meeting.

The sanctuary status is largely symbolic. In its resolution, Eagle declared that it would opposed the enactment of legislation that would infringe upon the rights of people to keep and bear arms.

But Idahos Legislature has rarely pushed for measures to increase gun control  and, in fact, in recent years has passed measures that would reduce restrictions. In 2019, for example, the Legislature lowered the age at which one could carry a concealed weapon to 18 from 21.

That could change, argued Eagle resident Brian Almon. A former Washington resident, he watched with frustration as the state passed legislation that increased gun control.

The time to make a statement about where we stand is now, not when things have changed and the laws are infringing upon those rights, he said at Tuesdays meeting.

The sanctuary city movement gained popularity among liberal cities, which used them to restrict the use of city police officers in enforcing federal immigration laws.

More recently, as a movement to defund the police has surged throughout the country and armed groups have showed up to counter Black Lives Matter rallies, the Second Amendment Sanctuary City movement has become a way for more conservative cities to reaffirm their support of gun rights and the police.

Eagles resolution outlines the citys support for the Eagle Police Department and its discretion to not enforce against any citizen any unconstitutional laws.

The Eagle City Council passed a resolution declaring Eagle as a Second Amendment sanctuary city, meaning that the city would not enforce any gun control legislation passed by the Legislature or Congress. City of Eagle

Not everyone at the council meeting backed the measure.

Polarizing issues have no place in local government resolutions, Rob Van Arnem told the council. He worried that if the city did not enforce gun control measures implemented by the state, were they to pass, Eagle could be subject to a lawsuit that the citizens of Eagle would pay for.

Jim Rewald, a former law enforcement officer now living in Eagle, endorsed the measure.

This helps protect the citizens of Eagle. Not just protect them physically, but protect their constitutional rights.

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A health staff tests human samples for the novel coronavirus in Ho Chi Minh City, April 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran.

Three Vietnamese citizens quarantined on return from Russia have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, raising the country's active cases to 107.

Patients numbered 1061, 1062 and 1063, aged between 23 and 26, had returned on Vietnam Airlines repatriation flight VN5062, landing September 10 at the Cam Ranh International Airport in the central province of Khanh Hoa. They were taken on arrival to quarantine facilities in neighboring Phu Yen Province.

Tests done at the Nha Trang Pasteur Institute confirmed that the two men and a woman were positive for the coronavirus. They are being treated at the Phu Yen General Hospital.

Russia is the worlds fourth biggest Covid-19 hotspot after the U.S., India and Brazil with over 1 million infection cases and 5,400 reported deaths. Since April, Vietnam has organized many special flights to bring home Vietnamese citizens stranded in the country.

On Sunday, eight Covid-19 patients in Da Nang and Quang Nam, major Covid-19 hotspots, were discharged.

With the three latest additions, Vietnams Covid-19 count has gone up to 1,063, with 918 recoveries and 35 deaths. The country has gone 11 days without domestic infections.

Among the 107 active cases, 16 have tested negative for the virus once, 17 twice and 21, at least three times. Three are in critical condition and one is deemed at high risk of death.

More than 36,000 people are in quarantine nationwide  500 at hospitals, over 17,000 at centralized facilities and the remaining at home.

The Covid-19 pandemic has infected more than 28 million people and the death toll has crossed 924,000.
Two-time Oscar winner Brad Pitt's girlfriend Nicole 'Nico Mary' Poturalski sported a $95 WRSTBHVR royal blue 'Corby' hoodie and matching Prada purse while revealing her 'favorite Sunday activities' in Germany.

'Long walks, nice talks, good food!' the 27-year-old A Management Model - who boasts 208K Instagram followers - wrote on Sunday.

'Art Week in Berlin got me ready to explore some exhibitions!'

Peek-a-boo! Two-time Oscar winner Brad Pitt's girlfriend Nicole 'Nico Mary' Poturalski sported a $95 WRSTBHVR royal blue 'Corby' hoodie and matching Prada purse while revealing her 'favorite Sunday activities' in Germany

Nicole Instastoried sugary waffles smothered in a certain sweetened hazelnut cocoa spread with the caption: 'My two weak points when it comes to food - Nutella and [mayonnaise].'

Poturalski then rocked out to John Paul Young's 1977 disco song Love Is in the Air while strolling with her seven-year-old son Emil from her open eight-year marriage to restaurateur Roland Mary.

The Polish-born beauty reportedly met the Oklahoma-born 56-year-old at the 68-year-old father-of-five's restaurant Borchardt where Pitt's Chateau Miraval 2019 Rose Provence is sold.

Nicole and Brad were first spotted publicly canoodling on November 24 when they attended Kanye West's oratorio Nebuchadnezzar together at the Hollywood Bowl.

The 27-year-old A Management Model wrote on Sunday: 'Long walks, nice talks, good food!' Art Week in Berlin got me ready to explore some exhibitions!'

'Brunch time! My two weak points when it comes to food - Nutella and [mayonnaise]': Nicole Instastoried sugary waffles smothered in a certain sweetened hazelnut cocoa spread

First glimpse of her child: Poturalski then rocked out to John Paul Young's 1977 disco song Love Is in the Air while strolling with her seven-year-old son from her open eight-year marriage to restaurateur Roland Mary

Her hubbie: The Polish-born beauty reportedly met the Oklahoma-born 56-year-old at the 68-year-old father-of-five's (pictured in 2009) restaurant Borchardt where Pitt's Chateau Miraval 2019 Rose Provence is sold

'Brad thinks Nicole is beautiful and kind,' a source told Us Weekly last Wednesday.

'He has absolutely no plans nor any desire to ever get married again. Brad doesn't want a girlfriend that he's with every day.'

Much ado was made of how the Ad Astra action star jetted Poturalski to his French home Chateau Miraval on August 23, which would've marked his sixth wedding anniversary to Angelina Jolie had they not split.

Hot date: Nicole and Brad were first spotted publicly canoodling on November 24 when they attended Kanye West's oratorio Nebuchadnezzar together at the Hollywood Bowl

Burn! Much ado was made of how the Ad Astra action star jetted Poturalski to his French home Chateau Miraval on August 23, which would've marked his sixth wedding anniversary to Angelina Jolie had they not split (2008 stock shot)

Finalized their divorce in 2019: Pitt and the 45-year-old Oscar winner (R, pictured in 2014) will next face off in court in October to battle for custody of their five underage children

Pitt and the 45-year-old Oscar winner still co-own the 35-room estate and 1,200-acre winery in the South of France, which they bought together for $60M in 2012 before tying the knot there in 2014.

Brad and Angelina - who finalized their divorce in 2019 - will next face off in court in October to battle for custody of their underage children Pax, 16; Zahara, 15; Shiloh, 14; and twins Knox and Vivienne, 12.

The Once Upon a Time in Hollywood actor currently fronts the FW/20 'Tailoring Legends' campaign for Italian menswear couture house, Brioni.
Connie and Jack Winn knew they bought a fixer-upper when they moved into their home in Walden in 2015. But the never-ending repairs were made worse after the couple was taken advantage of by a roofing company that did sub-par work before disappearing altogether.

The Winns moved their lake-front home to be closer to their kids. They chose the house in Walden to be close to Lake Conroe and a golf course. During their 51 years of marriage they have faced serious medical issues, stretches of unemployment, tight finances while raising two kids, and more. They were looking forward to settling down in comfort. But the issues started immediately.

Leaks and worries

Before they were in the home for a year they knew something was wrong with the roof. Water would pour from the light fixtures in the ceiling and their attic had numerous leaks. In 2017, their house flooded during Hurricane Harvey and they lost almost everything. Their insurance denied them multiple times when they tried to get repairs to the roof covered.

It was around this time in 2017 that they noticed Jack was falling a lot, so they decided to talk to their doctor. In May of 2018, Jack was diagnosed with ALS, a degenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that causes loss of muscle control. At the time he was given an estimated 15 months to live.

Jack, a U.S. Army veteran, is now wheelchair-bound and Connie is his full-time caretaker. This is not their first time facing medical issues. Jack is a throat cancer survivor and had to have shoulder surgery a few years ago, while Connie has Crohns disease, which can leave her bedridden. Theyve always taken care of each other.

After Harvey, Connie called a company that she had been referred to and they told her they could do it all: siding, roofing, drywall, electrical. What she got was sub-par work, over 40 leaks in her roof, and a contractor who stopped answering her calls.

In Texas, the roofing industry is largely unregulated and requires no state certification. Following big storms that cause a lot of roof damage, its easy for shady companies to come in, promise quick work, and leave after doing bad work with cheap materials.

Storm chasers

Post-Harvey, finding available contractors was already a difficult task. Finding a reputable one was made harder by the surge of storm chasers, shady companies that arrive after a big storm then disappear when clients get suspicious of unfinished or badly done work.

At that time, you had to take whoever you could get because there was no workers, Connie said. We had to go with what I could afford.

Before HB2021 was passed last year, it was easy for a contractor to tell a client they would cover the deductible  which was and is an illegal practice  with little chance of being penalized.

Contractors who tell a client they dont have to pay their deductible are getting their clients to commit insurance fraud. This practice was illegal before HB2021, but the bill gave a stricter penalty for contractors who were found to have buried the unpaid deductible. In an unregulated industry, practices like this go largely unchecked.

Finding help

As Jacks condition got worse, the list of things they had to worry about before they could worry about a roof continued to grow. One of Connies neighbors decided to help and told their story to Chris Fahey, project manager with Texas Engineered Roofing, who decided he wanted to help. He talked to his boss and company president Brad Briggs about the possibility of getting the couple a free roof.

When I looked at the roof I was disgusted. You could tell that there was a lot of horrible labor that was produced by fly-by-night contractors or storm chasers, or people that just didnt care about the actual outcome of the work they did, Fahey said.

What Fahey saw included improper materials, methods, and general work. Different types of shingles overlapped, with plenty of hail damage and improperly installed gutters.

While certification by the state is not a requirement for roofers in Texas, voluntary licensing through the Roofing Contractors Association of Texas can help give customers peace of mind.

The voluntary licensing program from RCAT requires several hours of training a year to maintain, includes background checks on roofing companies to make sure they have legitimate addresses and contact information, and offers a level of protection to the consumer. Briggs company maintains an RCAT licensing.

When meeting a prospective client, Briggs hands them a packet with information that includes what the voluntary licensing means, the company mission, insurance information, and a rundown of HB2021, among other things.

Roof and a blessing

Fahey worked with the Winns insurance on an inspection of the roof and the insurance company sent an offer. The Winns insurance will be covering around $8,000 for the new roof. To make up the difference, Fahey got the materials and labor offered for free or at a greatly reduced price. The Winns wont be paying anything for the new roof as a local donor has offered to reimburse their deductible.

I want them to be able to enjoy the rest of their life in a beautiful home, in a safe home, where they can enjoy their kids and enjoy their freedom, Fahey said.

The Winns have always managed to take care of themselves, even when times were tough. They dont often ask for help. But being able to accept this roof, Connie said, is a blessing.

Were blessed to know people like Chris and his company, theyve gone through a lot of work to get this done, she said. I know that theres a lot of people out there that need a lot more help, there really is, and for us to get assistance its just unbelievable.

Connie is not often a woman lost for words, except when facing the unexpected generosity of her community.

I still dont know what to say, she said.

jamie.swinnerton@chron.com
The Harness Horse Association of Central New York (HHACNY), the Gaming Commission-recognized representative horsemens association at Vernon Downs Racetrack, together will the management of Vernon Downs, have announced that the last live race card for 2020 will be conducted on Saturday, September 26.

HHACNY President Rick Papa stated, While the viral pandemic that afflicted the nation was raging, we were quite fortunate to have been able to commence the 2020 race season, albeit later than we desired. Still, from the very moment the Governor announced the lifting of the moratorium on live racing, both the horsemen and management worked extremely hard to start the meet. Then, without the benefit of any revenue from the still-shuttered video lottery terminal parlour (racino), we were able to offer competitive, full-card harness racing without interruption.

President Papa continued, Though the 2020 meet was scheduled to continue through November 7, it is only in just the last few days that the racino was given permission to reopen. Rather than subject the horsemen to a debilitated purse structure through the fall portion of the meet, it was jointly decided to cease racing at the end of September. This timed closure will ensure that by the anticipated opening of the 2021 season, the horsemens account will be fully replenished, such that owners, trainers and drivers will race for competitive purses. On behalf of the horsemen, I thank everyone involved including track management for its input into this important decision.

Vernon Downs President, Jeff Gural stated, I want to thank the HHACNY for working with us this season, as obviously the pandemic has been devastating to the industry. I think we succeeded in providing an opportunity for our horsemen to get their horses raced the last few months, including the all-important NY Sire Stakes Program. Despite the pandemic, horses need to be fed and cared for and with no income coming in it was a major hardship. Lets hope we can reopen on time in the spring and the pandemic will be a distant unpleasant memory.

Subject to New York State Gaming Commission approval, the 2021 race meet is scheduled to start in mid-April.

(HHACNY/Vernon Downs)
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Now that the new Netflix movie Cuties is available for viewing, we know that it is far worse than we imagined. Yet there are movie critics and movie stars who are celebrating this trash rather than denouncing it. What has happened to our culture? Have we lost all vestige of a conscience?

In the words of Kyle Hooten on Twitter, Cuties just released and it's WAY worse than anybody expected. Netflix just published soft-core child pornography, and they'll probably get away with it.

Jason Howertons tweet was even more emphatic: Im dead serious, people should go to prison for this. Lawfully defines as pedophilia and look at the media ratings. All of you are going to hell. #Cuties.

As my wife Nancy asked when I sent her some links, How can this even be legal???? How indeed.

Before the movie came out, but based on initial reports, I asked, At what point does this stop? At what point does our society say, Enough is enough when it comes to the assault on our children? At what point do we stand up as a nation and put a stop to this attack on innocence?

Now that the movie is out, with a sickening segment posted for viewing on social media (viewer discretion advised), we must say, Enough! as loudly and clearly as we can.

A good place to start would be canceling Netflix subscriptions. As Robby Starbuck tweeted, The 11 year old girls who were sexually exploited filming Cuties shot those scenes in front of a director, a DP, a gaffer, their parents, a choreographer, a MUA, a hair person, a camera assistant, a wardrobe person, extras and more. Not one adult protected them. #CancelNetflix.

Yes, these are young girls dancing sexually in the presence of adults (no doubt to be viewed online with glee by sexual perverts). Young girls who could be your daughters or granddaughters. Young girls being exploited for profit. And Netflix distributes this without consequences? Enough!

Yet, despite this outrage, one which is uniting social liberals with social conservatives, the movie has its admirers.

In the words of actress Tessa Thompson, #CUTIES is a beautiful film. It gutted me at @sundancefest. It introduces a fresh voice at the helm. Shes a French Senegalese Black woman mining her experiences. The film comments on the hyper-sexualization of preadolescent girls. Disappointed to see the current discourse.
3 min read . Updated: 13 Sep 2020, 11:11 AM IST

Asa Fitch,Stu Woo, The Wall Street Journal

Most people dont go a day without handling an Nvidia or Arm-based product, even if they dont know it
The Election commission of Indias (ECI) silence on conducting the biennial elections for nine legislative council seats in Bihar has baffled leaders cutting across the party lines.

The eight seats have been lying vacant in the upper house since May 24 even though the state legislative council has completed all formalities for elections and intimated vacancies to the ECI in advance, officials said. Another seat fell vacant after the demise of a BJP legislator in May.

Why is the ECI deferring the elections for the legislative council, which is conducted with a limited number of electors, even as it has given its go-ahead for the assembly polls to be conducted on a large scale during coronavirus pandemic? asked a former JD(U) legislator, seeking his re-election to the council.

The elections are due in four graduate constituencies of Patna, Tirhut, Darbhanga and Kosi and four teachers constituencies of Patna, Tirhut, Saran and Darbhanga after the elected representatives completed their six-year tenure on May 24. The local bodies constituency of Darbhanga fell vacant after the death of BJP MLC Sunil Kumar Singh in May due to Covid-19.

Also read: PM Modi pats Bihar CM, inaugurates petroleum projects

Constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap said that any seat to be filled up through election in the legislative council should not be left vacant for more than six months. I hope the ECI must have kept the constitutional obligations on the issue in mind and fill up the vacancies on election-based seats within the set time frame, said Kashyap.

State Congress chief Madan Mohan Jha said, The legislative council polls could be the testing ground for the ECI to assess the states preparedness for assembly elections as the latter required the mobilisation of resources on a large scale. He added that fewer electors cast their votes in the legislative council constituencies as compared to at least 3 to 3.50 lakh voters of any assembly seat.

BJP leader Nawal Kishore Yadav, who is looking to contest from Patnas teachers constituency, also expressed dismay over the deferment of the polls in the name of Covid-19 pandemic.

Acting chairman of the legislative council Awadhesh Narayan Singh said that the council had notified the vacancies and urged the ECI to elect the leaders before the expiry of tenures of elected leaders. Currently, as many as 21 seats in the legislative council are lying vacant in the house of 75 members. Apart from the elected representatives, the state government is yet to nominate leaders on 12 seats.

Building construction minister Ashok Choudhary, information and public relations department minister Neeraj Kumar, Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) chief Madan Mohan Jha, Dilip Kumar Chaudhary (of JDU), NK Yadav, among others have ceased to be the members of legislative council on the expiry of their tenure and are seeking re-election.
The Union health ministry issued a set of fresh protocols on Sunday, saying that patients who recovered from acute Covid-19 may continue to have symptoms like fatigue, body ache, cough, sore throat and difficulty in breathing.

The country registered another huge spike of 94,372 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, that pushed the overall tally to above 47.5 lakhs. It is the fourth consecutive day when new Covid-19 cases hovered around 95,000. With 1,114 new fatalities, the death toll has risen to 78,586.

Of the new infections in the last 24 hours, Maharashtra alone had more than 22,000 cases, followed by Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka with over 9,000 cases each. Maharashtra also had the maximum number of 391 deaths, followed by Karnataka and Tamil Nadu with 94 and 76 fatalities respectively.

There has also been a steep rise in recoveries, with the recovery rate going up to 77.88 per cent.

With the surge in coronavirus cases, the health ministry suggested yoga, pranayama and walks in its post-Covid management protocol. It made it clear the recovery period may be longer for those suffering from severe symptoms and those with any pre-existing health conditions. It strongly advised physical exercise and taking immunity boosting medicines after recovery.
China proposed the Global Initiative on Data Security and three principles that should be followed in global digital governance, namely upholding multilateralism, balancing security and development, and ensuring fairness and justice, at the International Seminar on Global Digital Governance held on Sept. 9 in Beijing.

By doing so, it has provided solutions to global issues and shown its sense of responsibility as a major country, which accord with the common expectations from the international community.

We underscore that all parties should step up dialogue and cooperation on the basis of mutual respect, and join hands to forge a community with a shared future in cyberspace featuring peace, security, openness, cooperation and order, said the initiative.

We call on all States to support this initiative, and confirm the aforementioned commitments through bilateral, regional and international agreements, the initiative continued.

It is a major issue faced by the international community to discuss ways to manage data security risks and promote global governance in the digital domain.

According to the latest statistics, the number of mobile Internet users has reached 3.5 billion around the world, and the digital economy now takes up more than 15 percent of the global GDP.

The explosive growth and aggregation of data, a key element of digital technology, like the discovery of oil, is providing a new source of energy for economic growth and industrial transformation.

At the same time, risks of data security concerning national security, public interests, and personal rights, challenges brought about to the governance capacity of national governments by the frequent and massive cross-border data flow, as well as the compliance costs for global businesses pushed up by the divergence of data laws and regulations in different countries have all led to new requirements for global digital governance.

In the age of economic globalization driven by information technology, the endogenous driving forces for the development of digital technology come from open cooperation.

It suits the trend of times to uphold multilateralism, and develop a set of international rules on data security that reflect the will and respect the interests of all countries through broad-based participation.

Pursuing extensive consultation and joint contribution for shared benefits is the right way forward for addressing the deficit in global digital governance.

Photo shows an engineer demonstrates the application of big data in a company at a big data industrial park in Changzhou, east Chinas Jiangsu province, on May 18, when the industrial park opens. (Photo by Chen Wei/Peoples Daily Online)

Protection of digital security should be based on facts and the law and never go against fairness and justice.

However, U.S. authorities have recently brazenly stirred up an adverse current against the trend of the times and launched the so-called Clean Network initiative, attempting to repeat the country's hegemonic strategy on global Internet platforms.

In the name of clean network and under the guise of safeguarding security, the U.S. has been actually clearing away and preying on leading enterprises of other countries.

Beijing new technology application center of online games opens at Yicheng Times Plaza in Beijing Economic and Technological Development Area on June 4. The first batch of more than 10 cloud gaming content production and launching platforms joined the center on that day. (Photo by He Luqi/Peoples Daily Online)

By acting in total disregard of international fairness and justice, deliberately setting up digital barriers, and splitting global cyberspace, the U.S. has seriously disturbed and encumbered global digital cooperation and development and aroused public indignation, exposing to the world its greed and hegemonic mentality.

The Internet Society (ISOC) has recently announced a statement, expressing deep concerns over Washingtons Clean Network program and policies the U.S. considers rolling out that would fracture the Internet into pieces.

The Internet is a global network of networks, where networks interconnect on a voluntary basis with no central authority. It is this architecture that has made the Internet so successful. Todays announcement of the U.S. Clean Network program challenges this architecture at its very core, said the ISOC in its statement.

If this approach were to spread further, the ability of the Internet to bring the broader benefits of collaboration, global reach, and economic growth will be significantly threatened, the ISOC pointed out.

Photo shows a staff member of a community care center for the elderly checks statistical results based on big data, which help provide better services for senior citizens living at their homes and the center. Located in Jingkou neighborhood, Shapingba district, southwest Chinas Chongqing municipality, the care center provides senior citizens with services like cleaning, providing meals, medical services, taking baths, shopping, rehabilitation nursing, and spiritual comfort. (Photo by Sun Kaifang/Peoples Daily Online)

Countries have the right to protect data security according to law and protecting data security is essential for the sound growth of digital economy. Therefore, China put forward a concrete initiative for the world, and made the following suggestions:

States should handle data security in a comprehensive, objective and evidence-based manner, and maintain an open, secure and stable supply chain of global ICT products and services.

States should stand against ICT activities that impair or steal important data of other States critical infrastructure, or use the data to conduct activities that undermine other States national security and public interests.

States should take actions to prevent and put an end to activities that jeopardize personal information through the use of ICTs, and oppose mass surveillance against other States and unauthorized collection of personal information of other States with ICTs as a tool.

States should encourage companies to abide by laws and regulations of the State where they operate. States should not request domestic companies to store data generated and obtained overseas in their own territory.

States should respect the sovereignty, jurisdiction and governance of data of other States, and shall not obtain data located in other States through companies or individuals without other States permission.

Photo shows a cartoon picture featuring a community with a shared future in cyberspace. (Photo by Liu Daowei/Peoples Daily Online)

Should States need to obtain overseas data out of law enforcement requirement such as combating crimes, they should do it through judicial assistance or other relevant multilateral and bilateral agreements. Any bilateral data access agreement between two States should not infringe upon the judicial sovereignty and data security of a third State.

ICT products and services providers should not install backdoors in their products and services to illegally obtain users data, control or manipulate users systems and devices.

ICT companies should not seek illegitimate interests by taking advantage of users dependence on their products, nor force users to upgrade their systems and devices. Products providers should make a commitment to notifying their cooperation partners and users of serious vulnerabilities in their products in a timely fashion and offering remedies.

Cyberspace is a common space of mankind. The future of cyberspace should be in the hands of all nations. Seizing digital opportunities for cooperation and development is a choice that conforms to the common interests of various countries in the world.

All stakeholders in digital development, including national governments and enterprises around the world, ought to make concerted efforts to jointly shoulder global responsibilities for the digital age, promote global digital governance, build a community with a share future in cyberspace, and facilitate win-win cooperation and common development.

(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by Peoples Daily to express its views on foreign policy.)
13.09.2020 LISTEN

By now, if you are a Muslim you would have known without any shadow of doubt or equivocation the differences between Islam and Christianity, who Mohammed was, his immoral life while on earth, what the Quran says, the Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ and Judgment Day. We want you to be frank with yourself if you are a Muslim reading this book. In your heart and conscience, do you have peace? I am not talking of happiness here neither do I mean fleeting moments of titillation you get from your wealth, flashy and expensive automobiles (even private jet), chain of girl friends, boyfriends, harem or your political status. I mean the real genuine peace of God that is not from the earth but from heaven. It is a Divine Peace which comes from Above. It makes you spiritually comfortable, the rivers of joy from the bottom of your heart which cannot be disturbed by circumstances and situations.

Friend, I don't know where you are reading this, perhaps at the airport lobby, inside an aircraft, in your hotel room, in your study, in a library, in your local mosque or in one of the many thousands of places people are likely to find themselves ; if you a Muslim and follower of Mr. Muhammad Abdallah, you should meditate on the basic fundamental questions I have raised in my series in this column for the past eight weeks on Islam and its prophets, on Allah and the Quran. Every word, Quranic Quotations, Hadiths and words of Muhammad and many other revelation in this column for eight weeks, are they really true? Have I embellished all or some of the facts presented from the Quran in this column? Did I quote correctly from all my sources? If I-Moshood- a former Muslim now a born again Christian has stated the facts as really and truly as they are, will it not be sheer foolish pride, stubbornness of heart and flagrant disobedience to the True Lord God Almighty who had already revealed Himself to all souls in His only begotten Son, our Lord, Master and Savior Jesus Christ if you reject Jesus Christ?

Ask yourself as a Muslim reading our series on Islam in this column so far; how did these column articles get to my hands? Does it appear the True Lord God Almighty Himself has been listening to my heart and has therefore arranged situations and circumstances to bring these column articles to me? Do I witness any tug of war; hindrances, obstacles, distractions and before I could come across this columnist and finally able to finish his series on Islam for the past eight weeks? 'What is the meaning of Life? Why did God create me? Why am] here? What can give you real joy? If God Almighty created you to come to this earth to be born and go to school, get married, enjoy, chase women, run after men, be leered at because of your beauty as a lady, acquire material possessions and worldly pursuits, then die and that ends it, does life then make sense? With global events at dizzying speed today, the future uncertain, famine, earth quake, flood, fire, pestilence, the threat of nuclear holocaust, wars and threats to the ecosystem, do you think the human race will continue like this? How will the end be, for after all, the world cannot continue forever, because whatever has a beginning must have an end? What is your greatest fear now? If you die now are you confident you will make it to heaven? Do you ever ponder about your future and what awaits you in the afterlife? If you die right now, because death is inevitable and no one knows when it will occur, are you confident you will make it to heaven? What solid assurances do you have that you will make it to paradise? There must be a solid ground and an anchor for your confidence my friend. In your heart of heart, do you really believe that Mr. Mohammad Abdallah was and is a true messenger of the True Lord God Almighty? The Lord God Almighty has given each and every one of us a brain and a mind. We are enjoined to scrutinize everything and weigh them carefully to see whether those things we have been taught are indeed true. The fight for ones soul is personal. Every human soul will appear individually before the Judgment Seat of the True Lord God Almighty to give account of his or her life. On that Day, relatives, friends, colleagues, acquaintance and all forms of relationship will be nowhere to be found but you and you alone by yourself. The father cannot help the son; parents will answer for their ways of lives; mothers will be unable to help their daughters and the ground will indeed be leveled. All traditions, customs and traditions will be unhelpful. You will appear and I will appear and indeed, every human being that has been born and will ever be born, and every soul that has ever walked and will ever walk on this heart will appear individually before the Great Judge. That Great Judge is Lord Jesus Christ!

What will you say to our Lord, Master and Savior Jesus Christ Who will sit on that Judgment Seat to listen to your stewardship? Mr. Mohammad Abdallah never said he is the way, the truth and the life. To be candid and charitable to this dead man whom you Muslims venerate and apotheosized, he never said he was and is the savior. As a matter of fact, he warned all those following him to look and search for the true way so you cant blame Mr. Muhammad Abdallah on the Day of Judgment. Again, you cant blame Satan either, because the devil never forced you to worship him. His demons can distract you, lie to you, intimidate and beguile you but they didnt take your will power from you. The decision to believe or disbelieve is ultimately yours. Again, you cant claim not to have heard the Good News about our Lord, Master and Savior Jesus Christ while here on earth. You have no hiding place and so it boils down to one final conclusion; you could give your life to our Lord, Master and Savior Jesus Christ here on earth and take Him as your Personal Lord and Savior but you did not want to. On this note and this note alone you will be judged. If you eventually find yourself in hell, you have no one to blame but you.

A Christian sister in Australia went to a nearby university to listen to a popular atheist who is respected and admired by the academic community for his anti-God bashing and rhetoric on campus. As usual, the auditorium was full to capacity as Mr. Atheist mounted the stage and began his diatribes against his Maker. He ranted and ranted to the applause of his audience as he shook his fists at the Sovereign Lord of the heavens and the earth and all that are in them. When all the applause and commotion died down, the poor and illiterate woman from the countryside raised her hand to be noticed and all eyes looked at her direction. The woman said she has never been to the four walls of a university. She is a poor homemaker but a devout born-again Christian. She said she has taken Jesus Christ as her Lord, Master and Savior and believes He would come back one day to take her to a place called heaven. She then turned to the atheist professor and told him, Mr. Professor, you are a very learned and wise man. Perhaps, as you have said to the riotous applause of your students, God does not exist, there is no place like paradise and after death it is all over. Granted that all these things are true according to you but on my part, I do not believe you. If however after I die, I discover that you are right and Jesus Christ is wrong, I will still not suffer any punishment because there is no where it is written I will be punished or go to hell for believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, as a born-again Christian, I have nothing to lose. But on the other hand, suppose after death, you and I discover that Jesus Christ is indeed right and you are after all wrong, what will you do? A pin-drop silence enveloped the auditorium and all the students kept quiet. The same analogy and practical wisdom of that poor Australian woman is what I want to apply to you, if you are a Muslim reading this column; suppose you find out eventually that my Lord, Master and Savior Jesus Christ is the Only Way, the Only Truth and the Only Life on Judgment Day, what will you do? But on the other hand, when I die, I discover assumingly that Jesus Christ is not the Only Way, the Only Truth and the Only Life, I have nothing to lose. As a matter of fact, my risk is zero, because there is no eternal punishment for believing in Jesus Christ as Lord, Master and Savior. But for you the Muslim; worshiper of the demon-god Allah and follower of the false prophet, Mr. Muhammad Abdallah, your risk is 100 percent. Reflect on this sober reality and truth!

You can change your life and future right now. Pray this prayer right now: Jesus Christ, I am sorry for keeping you out of my life until now. I confess all my sins and kneel down before you right now as a sinner. I have been involved in false worship. I believe that You are the Son of the Living God. I confess with my mouth that you came to this earth and lived a sinless life. Then You died on the Cross for my sins and three days later, You came back to life. By Your Death on the Cross, You took all my sins away and through Your Resurrection, I am made righteous. Please Jesus accept me as Your Son and makes me whole; include me in the family of the True Lord God Almighty and write my name in Your Book of Life. Thank You Jesus for forgiving my sins and washing me clean with Your Precious Blood in Jesus Mighty Name I pray, Amen. Look for the Holy Bible and read Romans 10:9-10 for your true affirmation as a new creature in Christ Jesus. Friend, it is done! This is the requirement that God Almighty demands from you and I and all souls on earth for salvation, according to Romans 10: 9-10 thus: That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

No amount of self-righteousness can deliver us from sin and Satan and endear us to the True Lord God Almighty. Yes, you are now a new creation, a brand new soul before God Almighty. Congratulations and welcome to the Family of the True Lord God Almighty. TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK

Dr Moshood Ademola Fayemiwo is the Spiritual Head & Founder, The Jesus Christ Solution Center, based in Cameron, TX USA. Call him at this number: 254-605-4035. You can send him email at [email protected] . You can also visit our websites at: - https://tocu.education/ and https://tocu.online/
Victorian Parliament will meet this week, with the Health Department deeming it was safe to do so following a security guard who worked at parliament testing positive.

On Sunday, Parliaments presiding officers announced the building was being cleaned after a guard who worked there last week tested positive. The worker stayed home on the day they started to feel unwell, they said.

In an updated statement on Monday night, the presiding officers Colin Brooks MP and Nazih Elasmar MP said the Legislative Assembly would sit from Thursday and the Legislative Council would sit from Tuesday.

"Deep cleaning has been undertaken at Parliament House over the past two days, as happens at any workplace after a positive test for COVID-19," they said.

"If contact tracing uncovers any additional information that warrants a different decision, further advice will be provided.

"The health and safety measures implemented during recent sitting weeks will continue to be followed. This includes wearing of masks, physical distancing and ongoing high-level cleaning.

"We are grateful to everyone who has devoted considerable effort to assisting Parliament continue its important work."
Albuquerque police said Saturday that two more arrests have been made in a quadruple shooting that left one man dead and three injured earlier this year.

The arrests of Austin Crespin, 25, and Agatha Faith Frost, 39, brings to seven the number of people arrested in the case, according to the Albuquerque Police Department. The two were booked into jail Friday.

Jeffrey Baca, 38, was killed in the March shooting.

Crespin is facing an open count of murder, conspiracy to commit a violent felony, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, harboring and aiding a felon, conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary, conspiracy to commit armed robbery and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, APD said.

Frost is charged with harboring and aiding a felon.

On March 14, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, officers responded to a shooting at a home in the 600 block of Arno SE, near Broadway and Coal. Officers entering the scene found Baca dead and a woman and two teenage girls with gunshot wounds. Officers found bullet casings, alcohol containers and drug paraphernalia. Police were told by the 911 caller that the shooters were his sisters boyfriend, Anthony Lopez, and several of his friends.

Witnesses told police Lopez had left the home after an argument and returned hours later with several others and told everyone to get down before opening fire, according to a previous news report.

According to the APD news release issued Saturday, Crespin drove the vehicle to and from the shooting and provided the guns. Detectives said Frost and Crespin drove to Las Vegas, Nevada, with their children and others involved in the shooting.

APD said Lopez, 19, and Nathaniel Hernandez, 18, were arrested shortly after the shooting and charged with an open count of murder, aggravated burglary with a deadly weapon and three counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

Also arrested in the case were Rudy Orozco, Nathan Peco and Alex Vallejos.
Ogun State Police Command has cautioned the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) against the planned protest they intend carrying out as a result of the increment in prices of fuel, electricity tariff.

The issued warning was contained in a press statement given by the Police Public Relations Officer (PRO), DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi.

He said the planned protest is scheduled to be executed on September 14, Monday.

The police got information about planned protest by students that wants to disrupt public peace, we are however, imploring them to have a reconsider to their plan or risk consequences that follows.

The statement read also that some group of persons claiming to be executives of NANS, spearheaded by one Kappo Olawale, in a letter directed to the command, gave the Federal Government five days chance to quickly reverse hike in price of fuel or they will unleash chaos in Ogun and its residents.

They are also planning to close down highways like the LagosIbadan expressway as they intend circulating violence round the state.

The police affirmed that planned protests as against the stipulated fuel price by the government is not in any form welcomed.

No group or individual will be allowed to put in harms way the lives of residents to any forms of protest or whatsoever.

Police operatives will be stationed at strategic positions ready to cease and prosecute any individual that tries to threaten or wants to disturb the public.

The people should disregard them and go about their daily normal activities. The law is not on their side, that is why we will be on red alert to thwart any efforts by these set of individuals, statement further read.
Bexar County, Texas, has over 40,000 people who have survived COVID-19 infections -- but only a few hundred of those patients have donated plasma, according to health officials.

Now authorities are looking to entice those patients with some cash.

Justin Rodriguez, the Precinct 2 county commissioner, said the county has secured $150,000 from the federal government to fund a new stipend system to encourage residents to make plasma donations.

MORE: NIH panel members speak out about 'insufficient data' on plasma treatments

"Itll be somewhere between $50 and $100 per donation," Rodriguez told reporters.

PHOTO: Analilia Ryan, center, has her temperature tested in order to screen for possible coronavirus cases while trying to enter the Haven for Hope campus in San Antonio, Texas, March 18, 2020. (Matthew Busch for The Washington Post via Getty Images, FILE)

The county, which includes San Antonio, has had nearly 49,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 992 related deaths, according to its health department. The plasma has been used in treatment for COVID-19 patients but it is not a cure for the virus.

PHOTO: Jacqueline Dunlap prepares whole blood samples for placement into a centrifuge to separate plasma for antibody testing at the Bloodworks Northwest Laboratory during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Renton, Washington, Sept. 9, 2020. (Lindsey Wasson/Reuters)

Rodriguez said the stipend program is still being worked out, but plans are to roll it out by the end of the month. He added that patients who hold onto their proof of donations could get back pay.

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 US and Worldwide: Coronavirus map

Texas county will offer cash incentive to increase COVID-19 plasma donations originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
WASHINGTON - University of Washington ecologist Christopher Schell is studying how coronavirus shutdowns have affected wildlife in Seattle and other cities. But when planning fieldwork, he also thinks about how hes perceived in neighbourhoods where he installs wildlife cameras.

I wear the nerdiest glasses I have and often a jacket that has my college logo, so that people dont mistake me for what they think is a thug or hooligan, said Schell, who is African American.

The recent episode of a white woman calling the police on a Black birder in New Yorks Central Park shocked many people. But for Black environmental scientists, worrying about whether they are likely to be harassed or asked to justify their presence while doing fieldwork is a familiar concern.

Tanisha Williams, a botanist at Bucknell University, knows exactly which plants shes looking for. But after being questioned by strangers in public parks, Williams, who is Black, has started carrying her field guides with her.

Ive been quizzed by random strangers, she said. Now I bring my wildflower books and botanical field guides, trying to look like a scientist. Its for other people. I wouldnt otherwise lug these books.

Overt harassment and subtle intimidation during fieldwork compound the discrimination that Black scientists and those from other underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds already feel in academic settings.

Now researchers in the environmental sciences are increasingly raising issues of discrimination and marginalization in the wake of a national reckoning on race. They are also pointing out how a lack of diversity among scientists can lead to flawed or incomplete research.

A National Science Foundation survey found that in 2016, scholars who identified as Black or African American were awarded just 6% of all doctorates in life sciences, and less than 3% of doctorates in physical and Earth sciences. Students who identified as Hispanic or Latino were awarded less than 8% of doctorates in life sciences and about 5% of doctorates in physical and Earth sciences. According to the most recent census, Black people make up 13.4% of the population, and Latinos 18.5%.

The issue is not lack of interest on the part of students from the underrepresented groups, said the University of Washingtons Scott Freeman, who studies educational pipelines to degrees in science, technology, engineering or math. But many of those students come from families with fewer financial resources and face gaps in access to secondary education that is geared toward the sciences or college preparation. Those factors can influence how well they perform in freshman general chemistry  considered a gateway course for pursuing these so-called STEM majors.

Its possible to decrease the impact of these disadvantages by adjusting teaching styles, such as replacing traditional large lectures with hands-on learning, according to Freemans research. And students from underrepresented backgrounds who overcome initial obstacles are  hyper persistent  in their studies, continuing at higher rates in STEM fields compared with their white peers, he found.

Addressing these gaps has taken on new urgency as the U.S. confronts systemic racism in the wake of nationwide protests after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police.

At a meeting this summer of the Society for Conservation Biology North America, one panel was devoted to why conservation science needs to prioritize racial and social justice. Hundreds of scientists have joined a wider discussion among academics about racism, posting their personal experiences of discrimination under the Twitter hashtag #BlackintheIvory, referring to the ivory tower.

But environmental scientists must confront discrimination not just in the halls of academia but in the field as well.

Carnivore ecologist Rae Wynn-Grant, a fellow at the National Geographic Society, said she has to put her feelings aside when her fieldwork takes her to places where she encounters racist symbols. While driving in rural Maryland to study bears, Wynn-Grant, who is Black, passed several Confederate flags and a cloth doll of a lynched man hanging from a tree.

This is the extra labour Black people have to do in order to participate in something theyre interested in, she said.

Many researchers say that exposing middle school and high school students to scientists from diverse backgrounds is essential to combating systemic racism.

Growing up, the only Black botanist Id heard of was George Washington Carver, said Williams, the scientist at Bucknell, who helped organize a Twitter campaign to highlight the achievements of Black botanists.

Itumeleng Moroenyane, a doctoral student at the National Institute of Scientific Research in Quebec, grew up in post-apartheid South Africa and said he was the only Black botany student in his universitys graduating class. Moroenyane now makes it a priority to mentor younger Black scholars.

Corina Newsome said her passion for biology started during a high school internship at the Philadelphia Zoo, where a zookeeper who mentored her was the first Black scientist she had met.

Now an ornithologist at Georgia Southern University, Newsome, who is Black, said institutions can promote diversity by helping students find mentors and offering paid internships. To enter wildlife studies, you are often expected to do a lot of free labour and free internships early in your career, she said. This automatically excludes many people.

Empowering ecologists and other researchers from diverse backgrounds can improve the research itself, scientists say.

Deja Perkins, a Black conservation biologist at North Carolina State University, has studied gaps in how community-science bird-watching projects are conducted in wealthy and poor communities.

Its a problem if data from poor neighbourhoods isnt collected, and that shapes wildlife management plans, she said.

The University of Washingtons Schell noted that Black scientists have led the field of urban ecology to examine crucial questions about how redlining  racial discrimination in mortgage-lending practices  has shaped urban landscapes, influencing which neighbourhoods have more or less green space and biodiversity.

Who you are affects the questions you ask and the type of data thats being collected, Schell said. We cannot understand how our natural world interacts with our cities without understanding the problems and legacy of racism.

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Follow Larson at www.twitter.com/larsonchristina.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
On 11 September it was reported that a man in his 80s was released on parole from Kumamoto Prison after serving a life sentence of 61 years.

His identity and the nature of his crime were not reported, likely to aid his reentry into society, but his release marks the end of the longest imprisonment on record in the country.

After having been locked up since 1959, the inmate was able to demonstrate a willingness to reform and no risk of re-offending. He also had to secure a place to stay upon his release for the parole to be granted.

Life sentences in Japan, where theyare known as aindefinite prison sentences,a have been gradually becoming longer in Japan in step with its overall aging society. Since 2009, the average period of life sentences in Japan has surpassed 30 years and continues to rise.

This presents the mounting challenge of introducing aged convicts back into society. aSome of the elderly lifers are model prisoners,a one prison official told NHK, abut finding a host facility for these parolees is a major challenge.a

Itas a serious problem that requires the teamwork of governments, prisons, and local community groups to tackle. However, while this unique story helps to bring light to the issue, many comments were understandably caught up wondering what it must be like re-emerging to society after such a long time.
In July, Sen. Sherrod Brown spearheaded a letter with a dozen of his Democratic U.S. Senate colleagues demanding the top 15 grocery chains reinstate premium pay - essentially an indefinite $2 increase in wages - for their employees and that they further implement safety protocols to take all steps needed to minimize the risk of exposure to COVID-19 for both employees and customers.

Kroger, the nations largest grocer and headquartered in Cincinnati, was among the companies that received this letter from our states Democratic senator. I can personally attest to Krogers commitment to our state and all it does for its employees  efforts that have only intensified amid COVID-19. Kroger was one of the first companies to offer Hero Pay to all of its associates  an extra $2 an hour - followed by bonuses and increased safety measures, such as the installation of protective barriers at cash registers, free COVID testing for employees, and increased sanitizing for stores. Kroger even went as far as to hire 100,000 new associates over the past six months to provide relief to those on the front lines and best support the 2,800 communities in which the company operates.

Additionally, the company already provides industry-leading benefits for its 500,000 employees across the nation - including competitive pension plans, comprehensive health care coverage, tuition assistance, and more. Unlike other large corporations like Walmart and Amazon  that have made headlines recently for their questionable workplace practices in light of COVID-19  the majority of Kroger stores are unionized.

Instead of focusing on the companies that have prevented their employees from unionizing and that have not provided the level of concern that Kroger has, Sen. Brown has chosen to attack one of the exemplary models of how large companies should respond to a global pandemic  taking care of employees and customers alike. Unfortunately, uninformed claims coming from Sen. Browns letter threaten the incredible success from Kroger in recent months that have benefited its associates and communities.

Ken Blackwell has served as Ohio treasurer, Ohio secretary of state and as the mayor of Cincinnati.

Why, then, would Sen. Brown sign his name to a letter that attacks an Ohio company that has strived to go above and beyond? Ironically, Sen. Brown has no problem standing up for other Ohio companies, as depicted in his recent criticism of President Donald Trump and his comments regarding Akron-based Goodyear Tire.

It is clear the senator is out of touch with just how important Kroger is to Ohioans. Perhaps the Democrats' march to November has clouded his perspective.

For over a decade, Kroger has been one of Ohios largest employers. In fact, the company hired more than 17,000 new employees in Ohio since mid-March, when the vast majority of companies were making cuts, some even shutting down. These figures make Kroger one of Ohios greatest economic contributors  an important fact to remember during such economic uncertainty.

Further, the companys commitment to diversity and inclusion is a shining example for companies here in Ohio and across the nation, having recently doubled down through the establishment of a $5 million fund to grow its diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. The companys commitment to the safety and well-being of its associates and community members extends far beyond the walls of their stores. These actions continue to elevate Krogers reputation as one of the top 20 companies for diversity and inclusion, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Kroger remains steadfast in its commitment to its associates and customers. The companys swift action early on to address the threats of COVID-19 has undoubtedly saved lives and ensured that fresh food and other essentials remained accessible to consumers in Ohio and the 34 other states in which the company operates. I am proud that, as an Ohio-based company, Kroger has shown the rest of the country how Ohioans come together in times of need.

Ken Blackwell served as Ohio treasurer and secretary of state and as mayor of Cincinnati.

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France's daily coronavirus cases have topped 10,000 for the first time while Spain's have rocketed to 12,000.

The countries' soaring case numbers have led to fears that the UK, which has seen its daily case figures steadily rise since August, could be heading in the same direction.

On Friday, the UK announced 3,539 new daily coronavirus cases - the highest toll in four months.

France reported 10,561 new infections on Saturday - it's highest daily number since launching wide-scale testing.

And Spain announced a whopping 12,183 cases on Friday, bringing the total to above 566,300 just four months after the country's low of 132 new cases on May 25.

France's daily coronavirus cases have topped 10,000 for the first time and the Prime Minister has ruled out a second lockdown

Parisians are seen enjoying the weather in restaurants and cafes along the Rue de Buci in the French capital

Although the number of coronavirus deaths in the two countries does not seem to be rising as steeply, this may be because people could be suffering with the disease for a while before succumbing to the illness.

An increase in infections could also be explained by a steep rise in the number of people being tested.

Health bosses said most of the new infections in the UK were young people, many who only had mild or no symptoms.

Not since May 17, when there were 3,562 infections, have cases been higher. At that point the country was in full lockdown.

But comparing current infections to the first wave is not an accurate barometer of the epidemic's severity because there was no widespread testing months ago.

Friends have a drink together at a bar in Marseille, southern France, on Saturday

It's thought more than 100,000 people per day were catching the illness at the end of March but not getting tested.

However, concerns have been raised over the rates of positive tests continuing to increase. The positivity rate over the past week is now 11.8 per cent.

The World Health Organization says a country does not have the pandemic under control until the positivity rate is below 5 per cent. Only one Spanish region - Asturias - has managed to keep it below that threshold.

Intensive care units in Murcia now have more Covid-19 patients than ever before and three of six of the region's hospitals are almost at maximum capacity.

At a White House briefing on Thursday, US President Donald Trump said Spain was struggling more with the coronavirus crisis than the US.

On Friday, Spain's Health Minister Salvador Illa fired back to his claims.

'I don't think anyone is in a position to teach lessons on this subject. With all due respect to the American nation, especially not its current president,' he said on Spanish Television.

France's milestone came a day after Prime Minister Jean Castex, who recently had to isolate after testing negative twice for the virus, declined to announce any new major restrictions despite a 'clear worsening' in the country's outbreak.

'We have to succeed in living with this virus, without returning to the idea of a generalised lockdown,' Castex said.

Fears were briefly raised after the prime minister spent part of last weekend with the boss of the Tour de France Christian Prudhomme, who tested positive for Covid-19.

It comes after the country announced on Thursday it will pay parents to stay home if schools are forced to lock down due to a surge in coronavirus cases.

Paris revealed yesterday it will pay 84 per cent of the wages of one parent in each household with a child under the age of 16 if their school is forced to close down due to the virus.

The announcement comes after infection clusters emerged across the country since schools were reopened on September 1. The clusters have already lead to the closure of 34 schools and the cancellation of 500 separate classes.

The milestone came a day after Prime Minister Jean Castex (pictured), who recently had to isolate after testing negative twice for the virus, declined to announce any new major restrictions despite a 'clear worsening' in the country's outbreak

Payments will be backdated to 1 September, The Times reports, adding that the French government has also announced an extension of their furlough scheme for struggling businesses.

The series of measures come after French health authorities reported 9,843 new confirmed coronavirus cases, beating by almost 900 the previous record of 8,975, set six days earlier.

After reaching a low of 4,530 on 28 August, the number of people hospitalised with Covid-19 is again trending upward.

However, hospitalisations for the disease are still more than six times below the April 14 peak of 32,292 and the number of patients in ICUs is far below the April 8 record of 7,148.

Doctors and nurses wearing protective gear take care of a patient suffering from the coronavirus disease at the resuscitation intensive care unit (ICU) of the Hopital Europeen hospital in Marseille, France

The rise in infections has mainly affected young people who are less likely to develop complications from the virus. There has so far been less strain on French hospitals, which were almost overwhelmed at the end of March.

Hospital figures are still very far from peaks reached in April but create renewed strain on the hospital system that might lead authorities to take action.

France's decision to put the country under one of Europe's strictest lockdowns between March 17 and May 11 was dictated by the need to keep the hospital system from being overwhelmed.

France's chief scientific advisor on the virus Dr Jean-Francois Delfraissy said the low hospitalisation and death rates were giving the French people a false sense of security.

'France is now at a worrying level which is not far behind Spain, with a lag of maybe two weeks, and much more severe than that of Italy,' Dr Delfraissy said.

According to The Times, Macron added that lockdown measures would be implemented on a regional basis, not national.

France has the seventh-highest COVID-19 death toll in the world.

The Government is currently preparing to impose its new 'rule of six' social gathering restriction from Monday which outlaws groups of seven or more people from meeting up indoors and outdoors. Mr Hancock said today: 'The pandemic is not over, and everyone has a role to play.

'Its so important that everyone abides by the law and socialise in groups up to six, make space between you and those outside your household, get a test and self-isolate if you develop symptoms and wash your hands regularly.'

Boris Johnson is hoping the rule will help to get the virus back under control but there is a growing Tory backlash because while children will be exempted in Scotland and Wales, they will be subject to the restriction in England in a move which critics argue will make many family reunions impossible.

Senior Conservatives have labelled the rule 'absolutely grotesque', accusing the Government of an unacceptable assault on personal freedom and liberty. They have also criticised ministers for imposing the measure without any debate or vote in Parliament.

The rule was agreed at a meeting of the Government's coronavirus strategy committee earlier this week but a string of senior ministers were opposed to it.

A Cabinet source claimed Matt Hancock had driven the decision to adopt the restriction but allies of the Health Secretary said it was wrong to characterise the meeting in such a way.

Despite the surge in cases, the overall prevalence of the virus is still much lower now than it was back in March - about 3,000 people were estimated to be getting infected every day this week compared to 100,000 a day six months ago.

Although similar numbers of cases were seen during May when the country was still in lockdown, the Government wasn't doing enough testing to find the hundreds of thousands of other people who were thought to be infected at the time, meaning the figures for then and now aren't comparable.

Another country to hit a daily milestone on Saturday was the United Arab Emirates, which recorded more than 1,000 new coronavirus cases on Saturday for the first time.

In Spain, which this week became the first EU country to pass half a million infections, an infection was detected among Princess Leonor's classmates.

The 14-year-old heiress to the Spanish throne, who only returned to school in Madrid on Wednesday, will now have to observe a two-week quarantine.

The uncle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, businessman Mohamad Makhlouf, died from Covid-19 on Saturday, two close sources told AFP.

And in Latin America, which this week passed the milestone of eight million virus cases, worst-hit Brazil charted more than 131,000 deaths from Covid-19 as of Saturday, the second-highest in the world behind the US.

Latvia meanwhile reinstated a compulsory 14-day quarantine for arrivals from neighbouring Estonia due to an upsurge in cases there.
JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday announced a new countrywide lockdown will be imposed amid a stubborn surge in coronavirus cases, with schools and parts of the economy expected to shut down in a bid to bring down infection rates.

Beginning Friday, the start of the Jewish High Holiday season, schools, restaurants, malls and hotels will shut down, among other businesses, and Israelis will face restrictions on movement and on gatherings.

Our goal is to stop the increase (in cases) and lower morbidity, Netanyahu said in a nationally broadcast statement. I know that these steps come at a difficult price for all of us. This is not the holiday we are used to.

The tightening of measures marks the second time Israel is being plunged into a lockdown, after a lengthy shutdown in the spring. That lockdown is credited with having brought down what were much lower infection numbers, but it wreaked havoc on the countrys economy, sending unemployment skyrocketing.

The lockdown will remain in place for at least three weeks, at which point officials may relax measures if numbers are seen declining. Israelis typically hold large family gatherings and pack synagogues during the important fast of Yom Kippur later this month, settings that officials feared could trigger new outbreaks.

A sticking point in government deliberations over the lockdown was what prayers would look like during the holidays. While the details on prayer during the lockdown were not nailed down in the government decision, what were expected to be strict limits on the faithful. That prompted Israeli Housing Minister Yaakov Litzman, who represents ultra-Orthodox Jews, to resign from the government earlier Sunday.

Israel has had more than 150,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and more than 1,100 deaths. Given its population of 9 million, the country now has one of the worlds worst outbreaks. It is now seeing more than 4,000 daily cases of the virus.

Israel earned praise for its initial handling of the coronavirus outbreak, moving quickly to seal the countrys borders and appearing to bring infections under control. It has since been criticized for opening businesses and schools too quickly and allowing the virus to spread unchecked.

Much of that criticism has been aimed at Netanyahu, who has faced a public outcry over his handling of the crisis and has seen thousands of protesters descend on his Jerusalem residence every week. While lauded for his decisive response following the spring outbreak, Netanyahu appeared distracted by politics and personal matters, including his trial for corruption allegations, as infections rose over the summer.

Netanyahu has also been lambasted for seeming to cave to pressure from various interest groups, including most recently his ultra-Orthodox governing partners, who appeared to have convinced him to relax a pinpointed, city-based lockdown plan that would have mostly affected ultra-Orthodox and Arab communities.

At the press conference Sunday announcing the lockdown, Netanyahu defended his response, saying Israels economy had emerged from the first lockdown in a better state than many other developed nations and that while cases were high, the countrys coronavirus mortality numbers were lower than other countries with similar outbreaks.

The countrys power-sharing government, made up of two rival parties who joined forces in a stated aim to combat the virus, has also been chided for the new outbreak. The government has been accused of mismanagement, failing to properly address both the health and economic crises wrought by the virus and leading the country to its second lockdown.

Some government ministers meanwhile have pointed fingers at what theyve called an undisciplined public, who they have accused of violating restrictions against public gatherings and mask wearing.

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China's imports of major commodities including crude oil, iron ore and soybean climbed in the first eight months of the year, as the country's economic activity gradually recovered from the COVID-19 hit, according to customs data.

Imports of crude oil surged 12.1% to 368 million tonnes during the January-August period, while refined oil imports rose 1.3% to 20.77 million tonnes, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

The country's soybean imports surged 15% from one year earlier to 64.74 million tonnes in the first eight months. About 65.07 million tonnes of natural gas were imported, up 3.3% from the same period last year.

Iron ore imports climbed 11% year-on-year to 760 million tonnes during the period.

The country's total imports of goods fell 2.3% to 9 trillion yuan (about 131.58 billion U.S. dollars) from January-August, compared to a decline of 2.6% in the first seven months. The trade surplus expanded 17.2% year-on-year to 2.05 trillion yuan.
A residue of concentrated violence has been sweeping the Capitol of Colombia, following the death on Wednesday of an arrested man, while in Police custody, and it`s already caused thirteen deaths.

By James Blears

Widespread rioting throughout Colombia`s Capitol Bogota, as a furious and violent reaction erupted, and still continues to fester about the awful the death of Javier Ordonez.

The Ministry of Defense confirms thirteen dead, 209 people injured and 194 Police Officers also injured, so far. Sixty Police precincts have been attacked and damaged, buses have been vandalized and set ablaze and yet more damage to buildings as well as property.

Defense Minister Carlos Trujillo has apologized saying: "The National Police ask for your forgiveness." Seven Police Officers have been suspended, following this sorry episode. A film showed the arrested man being pinned down, repeatedly tasered and begging them to stop. He arrived unresponsive, apparently lifeless and most likely dead at the hospital.

The ferocity of the response to all of this shows that anger about Police tactics extends far past the shores and borders of the United States, with the thorny issue of just how much reasonable force the Police should be using. In this case, an investigation is underway, to access if criminal proceedings will follow. More than likely they will.
Thanks to a poverty alleviation program, He Xiaoting, a 31-year-old Chinese woman who suffers from post-polio syndrome, has secured a job as a toy designer in a factory of her hometown and shaken off poverty.

"I dreamt of owning a doll when I was a little girl and now I can help more girls realize theirs," He said.

Photo shows He Xiaoting designing toys. (Photo by Yuan Taoxiong/People's Daily)

When she was young, He, a resident in Xingzhen township, Weinan, northwest China's Shaanxi province, had a high fever and has since been stricken with post-polio syndrome.

For all these years, she has been abnormally short and her hands smaller compared with her peers. She also has difficulty standing for long. Although He is now 31 years old, she is just as tall as a child of 12 or 13.

He Xiaoting poses for a photo with a toy in her hands. (Photo by Yuan Taoxiong/People's Daily)

As her parents are seriously ill and couldn't work, He has plucked up the courage and shouldered the burden of supporting her family.

In 2016, He, who had been working for years in Xi'an, capital city of Shaanxi, returned to her hometown and applied for a job at the community factory in Xingzhen township shortly after the factory was established.

"My son is only two months old and I hope to find a job closer to my home so that I can better take care of him and my parents," she told the recruiters.

As a result of a poverty alleviation program jointly launched by Shaanxi province and east China's Jiangsu province, the community factory in Xingzhen township has helped lift 15 local impoverished households out of poverty.

The factory has also made 114 poverty-stricken households become better off by providing each of them at least 1,000 yuan ($146.3) in dividends per year.

He Xiaoting (middle) works with her colleagues. (Photo by Yuan Taoxiong/People's Daily)

According to He, she can design a simple toy in three hours and may need 4-5 days for complicated designs. "As I'm new in the industry, I certainly need to spend more time and efforts than others," He explained.

After completing her own tasks, she also voluntarily learns other work in the factory. Since she is interested in all the jobs of the work flow, everyone in the factory is now familiar to her.

Due to her illness, He had to get around on a manual tricycle in her childhood. Her pleasant personality helped her get along well with her classmates, who would emulatively give her a hand with the tricycle.

Though she couldn't move easily, she would try her best to help her parents with domestic chores.

At the age of 15, He went to Xian alone on crutches to study in a vocational school. She had been down in spirits for some time due to the unfamiliar environment.

I was on crutches every day. And I felt everyone on the campus was looking at me, He said.

Many students offered help to her, but she didn't want to always trouble others, recalled He, who disclosed that one day, she got the courage, which she didnt know how, to drop her crutches and start practicing walking on her own weak legs.

"I couldn't remember how many times I fell down. But I continued to practice walking by myself as long as I could stand up," she recalled.

Finally, she walked to the bus station on her own one day and then traveled around the city by bus. "I felt like I had won a huge victory and it was the happiest day of my life," she said happily.

After graduation, He first assembled circuit boards in an electronic component factory in Xi'an. She worked very hard there. Besides doing a good job with her own tasks, she would also learn to use design software after work.

During her time in Xian, He also studied accounting at a school for adults. She went to work during the day and took accounting courses at night. In her spare time, she would continue to study different kinds of office and design software.

He is really grateful that she could now secure a job as a toy designer near her home. Sometimes, she brings waste toy samples home, which can always thrill her son. In the eyes of her son, He is just like an "awesome magician".

The community factory has provided jobs for a total of 13 handicapped residents. By securing a job near home, these people have not only earned money, but become more confident in their daily life, said Gao Wuguo, secretary of Communist Party of China Xingzhen township committee.

"Taking advantage of Xingzhens industrial transformation, we will encourage more companies to shoulder social responsibilities and help convert poverty alleviation resources to benefits, thus helping more impoverished and handicapped people secure jobs near their homes," Gao added.
An extraordinary row erupted between Michel Barnier and David Frost today over claims the EU could block UK food exports to Northern Ireland as relations continued to deteriorate over Boris Johnson's plans to tear up parts of the Brexit divorce deal.

Mr Barnier tweeted this morning to urge Mr Johnson to 'stick to facts' on Brexit as he said the two sides had agreed to a 'delicate compromise' last year and the bloc 'could not have been clearer about the consequences of Brexit'.

The EU's chief negotiator also rejected claims Brussels could ban the export of UK food and livestock to the bloc in the event no trade deal is agreed by the end of the year.

But his intervention prompted a swift response from his UK counterpart Lord Frost who took to Twitter to challenge Mr Barnier.

Lord Frost said a 'careful balance' had been struck in the Withdrawal Agreement to preserve peace on the island of Ireland and it is 'precisely to ensure this balance can be preserved in all circumstances' that ministers are now putting in place 'powers in reserve to avoid it being disrupted'.

He also claimed the EU had 'said to us explicitly' during trade talks that if Brussels does not formally recognise the UK's post-Brexit food standards regime then 'we will not be able to move food to Northern Ireland'.

The Twitter argument came as Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said he will resign if the Government breaks the rule of law 'in a way that I find unacceptable' over Brexit.

Mr Buckland said Mr Johnson's plans to override parts of the EU divorce deal were just an 'insurance policy' and 'this isn't something that we actually want to have to use'.

He said he hoped the UK and the EU will be able to agree on crunch issues contained within the Withdrawal Agreement but as a 'responsible government' action must be taken just in case talks break down.

Ministers have admitted the Prime Minister's proposals will break international law if they are implemented but the Justice Secretary said he does not believe 'we're going to get to that stage'.

Mr Buckland, who as Lord Chancellor has taken an oath to protect the rule of law, was repeatedly asked this morning if he will quit if the Government does breach its legal obligations.

His caveated response that he will quit if the rule of law is 'broken in a way that I find unacceptable' instantly caused controversy in legal circles as he was accused of 'putting career before country'.

The EU has given Mr Johnson until the end of the month to withdraw his plans or face legal action, with trade talks also expected to collapse if the PM does not perform a U-turn.

But the Government has insisted it has no intention of backing town, putting Britain and the bloc on a collision course.

Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney this morning accused Number 10 of using 'inflammatory language' and of putting out 'spin and not the truth' on Brexit.

Michel Barnier, pictured in London on September 10, today urged Boris Johnson to 'stick to the facts' on Brexit

The UK's top negotiator Lord Frost then hit back on Twitter as he challenged Mr Barnier's claims

Tony Blair and Sir John Major unite to savage Boris Johnson's Brexit plans Tony Blair and Sir John Major today joined forces to accuse Boris Johnson of 'shaming' Britain and 'embarrassing our nation' over his plans to tear up parts of the Brexit divorce deal. The two former prime ministers united to launch an attack on the current occupant of 10 Downing Street as they urged Parliament to block Mr Johnson's plans. Mr Blair and Sir John said the PM's decision to try to override parts of the Withdrawal Agreement struck with the EU last year imperils the Irish peace process, trade negotiations and the UK's integrity. Writing in The Sunday Times, Mr Blair and Sir John said that what Mr Johnson is proposing to do is 'shocking'. They warned it will be impossible to 'salvage' Britain's 'credibility' if ministers 'so blatantly disregard our commitments the moment we sign them'. The Government has argued that the proposals are necessary in order to protect the integrity of the UK and the Good Friday Agreement. But Mr Blair and Sir John, two of the architects of the landmark peace accord, said the 'Government's action does not protect the Good Friday agreement - it imperils it'. The pair of former PMs wrote: 'We both opposed Brexit. We both accept it is happening. But this way of negotiating, with reason cast aside and cavalier bombast posing as serious diplomacy, is irresponsible, wrong in principle and dangerous in practice. 'It raises questions that go far beyond the impact on Ireland, the peace process and talks on a trade deal, crucial though they are. It questions the very integrity of our nation.' They added: 'As the world looks on aghast at the UK, the word of which was once accepted as inviolable, this government's action is shaming itself and embarrassing our nation.' Advertisement

The latest row with the EU was sparked by the publication of the Government's UK Internal Market Bill which MPs are due to vote on for the first time tomorrow amid suggestions that up to 30 Tories could rebel.

The legislation, which the Government is hoping to crash through the House of Commons in the next two weeks, will enable the UK to unilaterally make decisions on key issues, like customs arrangements between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland, contained within the Withdrawal Agreement.

Brussels is adamant that the decisions must be made by a joint committee made up of people from both sides - as set out in the treaty.

But the Government argues its new proposals are necessary in order to protect the integrity of the UK should the two sides be unable to agree terms.

Mr Barnier today rejected that argument as he also dismissed UK claims that the EU had threatened to ban British food exports to the bloc if no trade deal is agreed by the end of the year.

He said the so-called Northern Ireland protocol 'is not a threat to the integrity of the UK'.

'We agreed this delicate compromise with Boris Johnson and his gov in order to protect peace and stability on island of Ireland,' he tweeted.

'We could not have been clearer about the consequences of Brexit.

'Sticking to facts is also essential. A case in point: EU is not refusing to list UK as a third country for food imports.

'To be listed, we need to know in full what a country's rules are, incl for imports. The same objective process applies to all listed countries.'

In a statement issued by Mr Barnier after the latest round of trade talks concluded last week, he said there were still 'many uncertainties' about the UK's food standards regime and 'more clarity is needed for the EU to do the assessment for the third-country listing of the UK'.

The so-called 'third-country listing' of the UK by the EU is necessary to allow the continued export of agricultural goods.

It had been viewed as a formality that the UK would be given the listing even if no trade deal is agreed because the two sides currently have matching food standards regimes.

Mr Barnier's suggestion that the listing could be withheld was seen by some in Whitehall as a move by the EU to put pressure on Mr Johnson to drop his plans to move away from parts of the Withdrawal Agreement.

Lord Frost posted a series of tweets this afternoon in which he challenged Mr Barnier's claims on the food exports issue.

He said 'the EU knows perfectly well all the details of our food standards rules because we are operating EU rules'.

'Yet it has been made clear to us in the current talks that there is no guarantee of listing us,' he said.

'I am afraid it has also been said to us explicitly in these talks that if we are not listed we will not be able to move food to Northern Ireland.

'The EU's position is that listing is needed for Great Britain only, not Northern Ireland. So if GB were not listed, it would be automatically illegal for NI to import food products from GB.'

Mr Frost said he hoped 'the EU will yet think better of this' as he also tried to explain why the UK believes it needs to override parts of the Withdrawal Agreement.

'On the Protocol, we indeed negotiated a careful balance in order to preserve peace and the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement,' he said.

'It is precisely to ensure this balance can be preserved in all circumstances that the Govt needs powers in reserve to avoid it being disrupted.'

Critics have claimed that rowing back on the Withdrawal Agreement will damage the UK's reputation as a trustworthy nation.

Asked why any country should trust the UK if it is prepared to depart from an accord it agreed less than a year ago, Mr Buckland said the hope is that the offending measures will never have to be used.

He told Sky News: 'What we are doing is making sure that if the joint committee negotiations about the [Northern Ireland] protocol fail, and there is still a way to go when it comes to that, we have an insurance policy here in the UK to make sure that any conflicts, any disagreements are not against the interests of the internal market of the United Kingdom, the sovereignty of our own country.

'This isn't something that we do lightly, this isn't something that we actually want to have to use.

'This is something that a responsible government does in order to prepare for the worst.

'But can I reiterate our steely determination to get a deal, not just the free trade deal but the agreement on the protocol to make sure that it works in the interests of the Republic of Ireland, in the interests of the United Kingdom and most importantly in the interests of all the people of Northern Ireland.'

Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis admitted last week the UK's plans to override the Withdrawal Agreement will 'break international law in a very specific and limited way'.

Mr Buckland was repeatedly asked if he will resign if the Government breaks international law during an interview on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.

He said: 'If I see the rule of law being broken in a way that I find unacceptable then of course I will go.

'I don't believe we're going to get to that stage. I know in my mind what I have to do.'

He said the legislation was a 'break the glass in emergency provision if we need it'.

Shadow justice secretary David Lammy accused Mr Buckland of 'putting career before country'.

He tweeted: 'Each time the government breaks the law it's a travesty. By ignoring this, the Lord Chancellor is putting career before country.'

The Lib Dems said Mr Buckland's comments suggested the Government views adherence to the law as being 'optional'.

The party's justice spokesman Wera Hobhouse said: 'As Lord Chancellor, Robert Buckland swore an oath to respect the rule of law.

'It is utterly appalling to see him shrug his shoulders like this when the Conservative Government is preparing to break it. It seems that under Boris Johnson, accepting the rule of law has become optional.'

Labour 'will only support PM's Brexit plans if they do not break international law' Sir Keir Starmer today laid down the gauntlet to Boris Johnson as he said Labour will back the Prime Minister's Brexit plans but only if he scraps the parts which break international law. The Labour leader said his party is willing to support Mr Johnson's new Brexit legislation if he addresses 'substantial cross-party concerns'. Sir Keir also accused the Prime Minister of having 'turned the clock back' and of 'reigniting old rows' by working to override elements of the Withdrawal Agreement which he agreed with the EU last year. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, he said: 'We should be getting on with defeating this virus, not banging on about Europe. Get on with Brexit and defeat the virus. That should be the Government's mantra. 'Labour is prepared to play its part in making that happen. If the Government fixes the substantial cross-party concerns that have been raised about the Internal Market Bill, then we are prepared to back it. 'But if it does not, and the talks collapse, then it is its failure and incompetence that will have let the British people down.' However, the changes necessary to win Labour's support are understood to be major, with it needing to no longer risk breaching international law and to address devolved administrations concerns of a Westminster 'power grab'. Advertisement

Mr Buckland had earlier refused to be drawn on whether he would resign, telling Sky News: 'It is not a question about me or my position. The whole government is actually committed to the rule of law.

'I as Lord Chancellor of course speak more chiefly for the government on those general issues.

'I can assure you that what we are doing is in accordance with I think actually the most honourable traditions of the British state which is to alert everyone to the possibility of a problem, to actually legislation and prepare ourselves domestically for that.

'But to make the point we are not at that stage yet and we don't have to be. If all parties come together and work with a will to get these provisions agreed then we won't need these clauses at all. That is the government's sincere wish. We are 100 per cent committed to these negotiations.'

Mr Buckland also argued that international law is different to domestic law after it was suggested the Government's position amounted to a criminal saying they have bought a balaclava and a crowbar but they hope not to have to burgle a house.

The Justice Secretary said: 'I think analogies with criminal law are wholly misplaced. What we are talking about here is intricate international law arrangements.'

Mr Buckland denied the suggestion he is being 'played' by Mr Johnson. He said: 'I've been in politics a long time and I'm old enough and ugly enough to know when I'm being played and I can tell you the Prime Minister knows my strong views about the need to work positively with our European neighbours.'

Mr Coveney today rejected claims that the EU could try to blockade goods going from Britain to Northern Ireland because of a disagreement over customs rules.

He said: 'There is no blockade proposed and that is the kind of inflammatory language coming from Number 10 which is spin and not the truth.'

Fears of the EU trying to punish the UK over the PM's Brexit plans have prompted the Government to start planning for a potential trade war with the bloc, it was claimed today.

A Government document marked 'Official-Sensitive' bans ministers from saying 'in spite of Brexit'

No10's secret crib sheet for Ministers who can't be trusted to say the right thing on EU talks Ministers have been handed a Brexit 'lexicon' to keep them on message with Boris Johnson's new get-tough tactics with Brussels, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. A confidential crib sheet, marked 'Official  Sensitive', tells them precisely what words and expressions to use  even telling them to stop saying 'Brexit' because that has now been achieved. The memo, dated September 8, says the word can now be used only 'as a historical event that took place on January 31, 2020'. But it also seeks to contrast Mr Johnson's new tougher approach with predecessor Theresa May's by ordering Ministers not to repeat her preferred 'deep and special partnership' description of our future relationship with the EU. Instead, they are told to stress that in future 'the EU will be one of many partners. Stick to the phrase 'friendly co-operation between sovereign equals' '. The 'stay on message memo' comes as the Prime Minister faces threats of legal action from Brussels and a growing revolt from some senior Tories over controversial legislation which will over-rule parts of his own Brexit deal and flout international law. Advertisement

The Sunday Express reported the Government is 'considering all options' so it is prepared if Brussels does adopt a hostile approach. Proposals could see the UK impose tariffs on key EU exports like French Champagne and German car manufacturers.

Mr Johnson is facing mounting criticism from across the political spectrum over his plans to depart from parts of the Withdrawal Agreement.

The PM is facing a rebellion from up to 30 Tory MPs who are furious at the Government's proposals to break international law.

Meanwhile, former prime ministers Sir John Major and Tony Blair have united to urge MPs to reject the legislation, saying it imperils the Irish peace process, trade negotiations and the UK's integrity.

Labour's shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, Rachel Reeves, today said the party's MPs will vote against the UK Internal Market Bill if clauses overriding the Withdrawal Agreement are not removed.

'Tomorrow, the Bill as it stands, the Labour Party, and it looks like a large number of Conservative MPs, will not be able to support it because I cannot go through and Keir Starmer cannot go through the division lobbies knowing that we are deliberately and consciously breaking international law,' she told the BBC.

Sir Keir has said that if the clauses are removed then Labour would be willing to support the Bill which aims to prepare the UK for life outside the EU.
Chinas defence ministry on Sunday blasted a critical US report on the countrys military ambitions, saying it is the US instead that poses the biggest threat to the international order and world peace.

The statement follows the September 2 release of the annual US defence department report to Congress on Chinese military developments and goals that it said would have serious implications for US national interests and the security of the international rules-based order.

Defence ministry spokesman Col Wu Qian called the report a wanton distortion of Chinas aims and the relations between the Peoples Liberation Army and Chinas 1.4 billion people.

UK intel official: China, Russia key adversaries

In a rare media briefing, the chief of Britains Defence Intelligence on Sunday said China and Russia were key adversaries challenging the existing world order without promoting direct conflict and operating in the expanding grey zone between war and peacetime.

Lt Gen Jim Hockenhull said the UKs adversaries are developing new ways of operating, backed up by cutting-edge military capabilities that leverage advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Australia defends raids on Chinese journalists

Australias home affairs minister Peter Dutton on Sunday defended the governments right to intelligence raids to prevent foreign interference, after China condemned searches on the homes of its journalists working in Australia.

Dutton declined to directly confirm that the Chinese journalists were questioned by Australias intelligence agency in June, saying an investigation was still underway, but said there was some activity by the countrys intelligence agency.

Dutton also warned foreign journalists working in the country they might come under the scrutiny of federal agencies if they provide a slanted view of Australian affairs.

His comments come after the evacuation from China last week of Australian journalists Bill Birtles and Mike Smith, who sheltered in Australian diplomatic compounds after being questioned by police. Australian Cheng Lei, who works as a business anchor for CGTN, Chinas English-language state broadcaster, earlier was taken into custody.

The US on Saturday called a decision by Beijing to impose restrictions on all American diplomats on Chinese soil an escalation. China had on Friday announced reciprocal restrictions against US diplomats in China and Hong Kong.
Her bridal hair and makeup done just right, Ayse Keles looked ravishing and relieved, having managed to sneak her wedding day in before Turkey's latest wave of coronavirus restrictions hit. "I have a close friend who had to delay her wedding five times," the 28-year-old said in her white bridal gown while preparing for a photoshoot on the Asian side of Istanbul, Trend reports citing Daily Sabah.

Lavish weddings with fancy cakes, sparkly dresses and wild parties are a huge deal in Turkey, laying the foundations for a new life for millions. But the joyous day drew the government's wrath when videos of raucous street parties with mask-free, arm-to-arm dancing went viral just as Turkey's infection rate began to edge back up to levels last seen in May.

In the Black Sea city of Trabzon, dozens who celebrated a henna night, a wedding custom in which a bride's female friends and family her leaving the family nest  all had to be quarantined after one tested positive. The government's hammer fell on Sept. 4, after which weddings, engagement parties and circumcision ceremonies became limited to an hour in length, with dancing and catering banned.

Keles married the love of her life, Alp Colak, on Aug. 21, just in time for a real wedding  but still two months later and slightly smaller than planned due to uncertainties about what would be allowed. "It was fun, but we had bigger plans that didn't come through because of the restrictions," Colak recalled. "Still, if it were now, even that would be a dream."

'Corona brides'

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has said Turkey is going through "a second peak of the first wave" of the pandemic, which has officially claimed nearly 7,000 lives in the nation of 83 million. Koca specifically blamed "carelessness during religious festivals and weddings" for the rise.

Uncertainties and postponements of weddings can be especially upsetting in places such as Turkey, where most couples live with their parents before marriage.

"Every couple would like to have a fairy-tale wedding. But we, the 2020 corona brides, we are all anxious," Keles said. Turkey has 600,000 weddings annually. Contracts for their organization are concluded months in advance and often involve sums equal to households' yearly incomes. In return, gold coins, jewelry and money gifted to the couple help reduce their families' debts.

"We are talking about a 60 billion lira sector ($8 billion) if we consider that an average of 100,000 lira ($13,000) is spent on each wedding," said Emek Krbyk, who heads dugun.com, Turkey's biggest wedding planning website. He estimated that the industry will suffer a $2.6 billion loss this year, although this could rise.

Zeynep Ece Dundar, an Istanbul wedding planner, said she had so far managed to organize 10 events this year, compared with 70 during the same period in 2019. "We barely make ends meet," she said.

The government thought limiting wedding ceremonies to an hour would make them smaller and safer. But these end in losses for the companies involved, meaning they plan very few if any at all, even if the couples want them. "With only water (but not food) served, we cannot turn a profit," said Hakan Kaya, who runs a green spot in an upscale Istanbul neighborhood often rented for wedding parties. "At this stage, it makes more sense for us to stay closed."

Emek Krbyk agrees that curbs are needed to prevent the spread but says one sector alone should not bear all the responsibility or cost. "I liken the current situation to a bucket with holes: they try to block one hole, which is the wedding sector, but the water keeps leaking out of the bucket," he said. "If measures are to be taken, they should be all over the place. Weddings should not be made the scapegoats."

Authorities started stepping up measures again for wedding parties after a rise in cases.

On Friday, the governorate of Istanbul banned boating companies from hosting weddings and similar gatherings as part of new measures to combat the spread of COVID-19 in Turkey's most populous city.

The governors office also reintroduced a ban on concerts and festivals in open spaces. A statement from the office late Friday said the restrictions were needed because people were not adequately heeding precautions like physical distancing, and confirmed virus cases have increased.

Turkey yesterday reported 1,671 new coronavirus cases in the previous 24 hours, bringing the total to 288,126 with 56 deaths. Citing Health Ministry data, Fahrettin Koca said 1,671 new cases had raised the country's overall count to 288,126.

He also said 1,117 more patients had recovered, taking the total to 256,524. Health workers have conducted 112,213 COVID-19 tests over the past day, pushing the total to over 8.3 million.

To protect each other, we have to protect our loved ones. An effective fight against the virus is only possible with PROTECTION TOGETHER, Koca wrote on Twitter.

While the number of patients in critical condition now stands at 1,223, over 50 more patients have died from the disease, pushing the total death toll to 6,951.
A woman casts her ballot in Tomsk - REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Russians went to the polls on Sunday in regional elections that could prove a test for President Vladimir Putin and the ruling United Russia party.

The presidents approval ratings have sunk to historic lows this year amid a struggling economy, while protests continue in Russias far east and neighbouring Belarus.

The votes for governors and local councils are also being held in the shadow of the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who remains in a German hospital after suddenly falling ill in Siberia last month.

Mr Navalnys team are running a smart voting campaign, which encourages supporters to back whichever candidate in their area has the best chance of beating United Russia, whether they be from communist or nationalist parties.

Around a third of the Russian electorate is eligible to take part in polls in 41 of the countrys regions.

A man casts his vote in Tatarstan - Yegor Aleyev/TASS

They are the first electoral challenge for the Kremlin after Mr Putin effectively won the right to rule for life under changes to the constitution that reset presidential terms, and are seen as a dry run for parliamentary elections next year.

Smart voting is the best answer to Putins reset. By uniting protest votes, we can beat United Russia in elections and deprive it of its support base, Mr Navalnys campaign said.

Some of Mr Navalnys supporters have suggested he was attacked precisely because of the threat this tactic poses to the Kremlin.

Dozens of Navalny-backed candidates are hoping to win council seats in Russias third city Novosibirsk, where the opposition leader was campaigning shortly before his poisoning.

Mr Navalny released a report alleging that the Novosibirsk council was being run by a construction cartel that writes laws and allocates public funds in their own favour.

Sergei Boiko, who is heading opposition efforts in the Siberian city, on Sunday called on supporters to clean out the mafia from Novosibirsk.

Vladimir Putin - Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin

Last week, three opposition activists in Novosibirsk were taken ill after assailants threw a jar containing an unknown liquid into their office.

Story continues

Aside from Novosibirsk, authorities will be watching the results in Siberan Irkutsk, where the Communist Party has launched a serious challenge to the Kremlin-backed incumbent.

In the far north of Russia, local anger over landfill plans is threatening upsets for other Kremlin-backed candidates.

Separately, mass protests in Khabarovsk, far-eastern Russia, are continuing into a second month after the Kremlin arrested and replaced a locally-elected opposition governor.

The elections this year have been held over three days, ending on Sunday, rather than the usual one day of voting. Authorities said the measures were necessary because of the coronavirus pandemic but the opposition argue they increase the opportunity for fraud.
Vietnam's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh speaks at a press conference following the 53rd ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM 53), September 12, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy.

ASEAN reached consensus on cooperation mechanisms with France, Italy, Cuba and Colombia at the 53rd ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM 53) this week.

The Southeast Asian bloc has established development partnerships with France and Italy while including Columbia and Cuba in the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC), Vietnams Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh told a press conference on AMM 53 and related meetings that wrapped up in Hanoi on Saturday afternoon.

Regarding the U.K.s proposal to become an ASEAN dialogue partner, Minh said the bloc acknowledged the countrys significant role both regionally and internationally and in the relationship between the U.K. and ASEAN member countries.

"ASEAN member countries are considering the U.K.s proposal based on ASEAN regulations, as well as cooperation outcomes and commitments of countries in general that seek to become the blocs dialogue partners," he added.

Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung, head of the ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting Vietnam, had said last week that many countries have proposed setting up partnerships with ASEAN as the blocs role and position have advanced in recent times.

ASEAN currently has partner relationships with 16 countries and blocs; and has eight strategic partners - Australia, China, the E.U., India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea and the U.S.

The bloc has 10 members: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Within the framework of AMM 53 and related meetings held September 9-12 via online conferences, ASEANs current partners continued supporting the central role of the bloc in shaping an open, inclusive, transparent and rules-based regional architecture.

ASEAN and its partners agreed to intensify the role and efficiency of ASEAN-chaired forums, including the East Asia Summit (EAS), the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), and the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM+).

They reiterated commitments to multilateral cooperation and the framework of relations between countries on the basis of principles of international law, while stepping up fruitful cooperation in coping with emerging challenges, including the Covid-19 pandemic.

Minh said that the topic of strategic competition among major countries has been discussed in ASEAN forums, including the EAS and the ARF.

The ministers affirmed their determination to maintain Southeast Asia as a region of peace, security, neutrality and stability while strengthening ASEANs central role, unity and resilience. They will also continue promoting trust building, mutual respect and the rule of law in line with the spirit of the Foreign Ministers' Statement on the occasion of marking the 53rd founding anniversary of ASEAN on August 8, 2020.

The statement "demonstrates the central role of ASEAN and the bloc doesnt want to be stuck in competition between countries, affecting the peace and stability of the region," Minh emphasized.

Regarding initiatives proposed by China, including the linking of the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025 (MPAC) with Beijing's Belt and Road initiative and on global security data, Deputy PM Minh said ASEAN is an open community and always welcomes partners' initiatives that contribute to mutual development and build an environment of peace, stability and shared prosperity in the region.

All ASEAN members support the initiatives by China, and ministers have assigned relevant agencies of all sides to research in order to make appropriate proposals, Minh added.

South China Sea

Minh said the South China Sea issue has been mentioned in all ASEAN forums in the spirit of calling for parties to contribute to maintaining peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of navigation and aviation in the region.

ASEAN members have called for all parties to respect international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The South China Sea is known as the East Sea in Vietnam.

"For countries that are members of UNCLOS such as Vietnam, China and other ASEAN countries, compliance with the convention is as a matter of course," Minh said, in response to questions on whether China was complying with UNCLOS.

Minh also said that at AMM 53, ASEAN has stressed the significance and interests of peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of navigation and aviation in the South China Sea, confirming they are the interests of all countries. "This stance has continued to receive the support of partner countries."

He added that the participating ministers also agreed on the need to promote dialogue, enhance trust building, refrain from acts that would increase tensions and complicate the situation, avoid militarization and using or threatening to use force, and settle disputes through peaceful measures on the basis of international law, including the 1982 UNCLOS.

Minh noted that ministers expressed their hope for full and efficient implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and called for the early completion of a binding, effective Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC) in line with international law.

At the press conference, Minh said the ministers adopted 42 documents at the AMM 53 and related meetings, including the joint communique of AMM 53 and the ARF Hanoi Plan of Action II (2020-2025).

Notably, 10 initiatives raised by Vietnam were passed, including the Hanoi statement on the celebration of the 15th anniversary of the EAS and the organization of a meeting of the EAS expert group on the Covid-19 pandemic.

Minh said that as the ASEAN Chair 2020, Vietnam is actively preparing for the 37th ASEAN Summit slated for November this year, hoping that countries would have achieved better control over the Covid-19 crisis by then.

Vietnam has reported 1,060 Covid-19 cases so far, of which 112 are active. It has confirmed 35 Covid-19 deaths. The country has recorded no new domestic transmissions for ten days.
On September 12, seven former WWII combatant nations gathered at a war memorial in Singapore to observe the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. Countries, including India, commemorated the last major surrender ceremony of the Japanese army to the United States on September 12, 1945, that marked the end of WWII with the pact signed at Singapore's City Hall which officially ended WWII 75 years ago. The representatives from the seven nations also paid tribute to those who lost lives to COVID-19, according to a PTI report.

Earlier, an anniversary scheduled to take place at Kranji War Cemetery was cancelled in view of the coronavirus restrictions. However, the remembrance ceremony was held despite the COVID-19. Indian High Commissioner P Kumaran visited the memorial to pay respect to the deceased and the fallen war heroes. High Commissions or Embassies of Australia, Canada, India, Japan, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, and Singaporean representatives from the Battlebox, an award-winning war museum in Singapore managed by private heritage consultancy Singapore History Consultants (SHC) visited the ceremony according to the PTI report. Former enemy combatants in the Pacific theatre of WWIIs High Commissioners, Ambassadors, and representatives came together to honour the fallen and lay wreaths at the Cenotaph in post-war reconciliation.

Read: Battle Of Barki: When Indian Infantry Fought Pak Armour To Capture Lahore During War

Read: Australia Minister Warns Foreign Journalists Amid China Spat

Japanese army on USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay

On September 12, 1945, the Japanese Southern Army to South East Asia Command in Singapore had its last major surrender ceremony of WWII. Japanese military leaders climbed aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, the battleship which was packed with US sailors eager to see the end of World War II. According to reports, the United Staes had also a blockbuster event with parades, movie premieres, galas, and thousands of people to honour the veterans in their 90s or beyond. However, many veterans in the United States army then werent able to return to Missouri in Hawaiis Pearl Harbor due to the ongoing pandemic. And therefore, the ceremony was scaled down to about 50 people, with local veterans and government officials gathering on the USS Missouri.

Names of the surviving WWII veterans were read who was on the ship the day the Japanese surrendered. While World War II ended 75 years ago, not all countries commemorate it on the same day. September 12 marks the anniversary of the formal September 2, 1945, surrender of Japan to the United States, when documents were signed officially aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. The day is termed as V-J Day in many countries, however, many nations celebrate August 15 as the WWII end.

[A plaque marks the spot where World War II surrender documents were signed on the USS Missouri Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Credit: AP]

[In this image provided by the U.S. Navy, sailors aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112) render honors to Battleship Missouri Memorial during the official ceremony for the 75th anniversary of the Japanese surrender that ended World War II. Credit: AP]

[In this Sept. 2, 1945, file photo, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, left, watches as the foreign minister Manoru Shigemitsu of Japan signs the surrender document aboard the USS Missouri on Tokyo Bay. Lt. General Richard K. Sutherland, center, witnesses the ceremony marking the end of World War II. Credit: AP]

[US Navy, sailors man the rails as the guided-missile destroyer USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112) passes Battleship Missouri Memorial during the official ceremony for the 75th anniversary of the Japanese surrender that ended World War II. Credit: AP]

Read: Oil Tanker Authorities Likely Neglected Crew Warnings On Possible Fire: Lankan Court Told

Read: Afghanistan's Warring Sides Meet To Seek Peace
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  Buoyed by strong voter approval of her handling of the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is riding high among New Mexico voters.

Despite vocal criticism from some Republicans, 59% of likely general election voters surveyed said they approve of the job Lujan Grisham is doing as governor and 33% said they disapproved, a new Journal Poll found.

The governor has been in office for a relatively short time period and has a high approval rating, said Brian Sanderoff, the president of Albuquerque-based Research & Polling Inc., which conducted the poll.

Lujan Grisham, a Democrat who was elected governor in 2018, had lower approval ratings last year in several polls done by national firms.

But her aggressive response to the COVID-19 outbreak  including a face covering mandate and broad travel quarantine order  has been met with approval by most New Mexico voters, though its also generated vocal criticism in some quarters.

Among voters who cited the coronavirus pandemic and related health concerns as the biggest issue facing their families in a separate question in the Journal Poll, 74% said they approved of Lujan Grishams job performance as governor while just 20% said they disapproved.

I think her overall job performance is being positively influenced by voters perception of her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sanderoff said.

However, among those who cited economic uncertainty and unemployment as their biggest concerns, the governors approval rating was not as high.

A total of 52% of New Mexico voters who cited economic uncertainty as their top concern said they approved of Lujan Grishams job performance, while 40% said they did not approve.

New Mexico has had one of the highest per capita coronavirus testing figures in the country since the outbreak began, and the state now has the lowest COVID-19 testing positivity rates in the western United States  at about 2.1% as of this week.

But New Mexicos unemployment rate rose to 12.7% as of July  it was the eighth-highest in the nation  and the state faces a projected $2 billion revenue decline in the coming year due to the pandemic and falling oil and natural gas prices.

Several small-business relief programs have been launched by the state in an effort to keep impacted businesses afloat during the pandemic, but some economists have warned it could take four to five years for state employment to return to pre-pandemic levels.

First-term popularity

Other recent New Mexico governors have also enjoyed strong approval ratings in their first terms, only to see their popularity plummet during their second terms.

Lujan Grishams predecessor, Republican Susana Martinez, received the approval of 69% of voters surveyed in a Journal Poll in 2012, nearly halfway into her first term as governor.

Former Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, also had a strong voter approval rating just before the midway point of his first term in office.

But both Martinez and Richardson saw their approval ratings gradually decline, due to a mix of scandals, economic issues and investigations into pay-to-play politics.

The major issues facing Lujan Grisham have been largely related to the COVID-19 pandemic, though the governor has also pushed for expanded early childhood programs, stricter gun laws and an increased state emphasis on renewable energy sources.

About 20 months into her first term as governor, Lujan Grisham, not surprisingly, received a higher approval rating among Democratic voters than registered Republicans.

Among Democrats, 86% said they approved of the governors job performance. In contrast, only 23% of Republicans surveyed said they approved of the job the governor is doing.

However, the governor also got strong support among independents, or those who decline to state a political affiliation, with 55% expressing approval and 34% disapproving.

Due to her support of gun control and abortion rights measures, Lujan Grisham has faced criticism from some GOP leaders for being out of touch with rural New Mexico.

The Journal Poll found that just 32% of voters in eastern New Mexico, which is largely rural and has a higher percentage of Republican voters, approved of the governors job performance, while 63% of voters expressed disapproval.

Lujan Grisham had much higher levels of support in some of the states most populous areas, including the Albuquerque area, where 67% of voters said they approved of her job performance. New Mexicos urban areas have increasingly trended Democratic in recent years, based on election results.

Methodology

The Journal Poll is based on a scientific, statewide sample of 457 likely general election voters who also voted in either the 2016 and 2018 general elections  or both.

The poll was conducted from Aug. 26 through Sept. 2. The voter sample has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.6 percentage points. The margin of error grows for subsamples.

All interviews were conducted by live, professional interviewers, with multiple callbacks to households that did not initially answer the phone.

Both cellphone numbers (74%) and landlines (26%) of likely general election voters were used.
Monster Energys Phil Davis Defeats Lyoto Machida at Bellator 245 Machida is such an elusive guy, its so hard to get a hand on him. Hes just one of those guys, it's very frustrating, Phil Davis

Mr. Wonderful does it again! Monster Energy congratulates Phil Davis on winning the main event fight against Lyoto The Dragon Machida at Bellator 245 inside Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, on Friday night. In the highly anticipated rematch, the 35-year-old light heavyweight division fighter from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, took the split decision victory over the Brazilian karate master after three rounds.

Bellator 245 opened a doubleheader event weekend, followed directly by Bellator 246 Archuleta vs. Mix on Saturday night, at Mohegan Sun resort and casino. Aired on Paramount and streamed on DAZN, Bellator 245  Davis vs. Machida II was contested as a closed-to-the-public event amid extensive COVID-19 safety protocols for staff, officials and fighters.

Anticipation was running high for Friday nights bout between Davis (22-5 MMA) and Machida (26-10 MMA). The two light heavyweight fighters had last clashed in 2013 at UFC 163 in Rio de Janeiro. In the heated bout, Davis took the win by unanimous decision on the Brazilians home turf, instantly followed by controversy over the judges scoring.

On Friday night, both fighters were ready to settle the score once and for all seven years later. Davis stepped into the Octagon as a former Bellator light heavyweight champion and on the strength of two consecutive victories. But Davis also came into the fight fully aware of his opponents karate skills, especially flying kicks that have taken out certified MMA legends.

Keeping his distance and landing strategic shots, Davis spent round one chipping away at Machidas defenses with leg kicks and body kicks. Davis especially focused on kicks damaging the Brazilians leading left leg, which was visibly bruised by the third round. But on the few occasions when he found an opening, Machida proved his counter-strike lethality by firing back with kicks to the legs and body of Davis.

With both fighters choosing their shots strategically, Davis landed a big right hand to the head causing his opponent to stumble at the end of round two. As the fight neared its finish, it was Davis who landed harder and more often compared to the Brazilian. Precise front kicks to Machidas midsection proved especially powerful and tipped the closely contested fight in Davis favor. When all was said and done, the judges pronounced Davis the winner of the light heavyweight rematch via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28).

Machida is such an elusive guy, its so hard to get a hand on him. Hes just one of those guys, it's very frustrating, said Davis upon his light heavyweight division win at Bellator 245 in Connecticut. Asked about his strategic leg kick defense against Machida, Davis said Machida was coming off that great knockout against Randy Couture and I had to prepare for that. To be completely honest, I really learned that technique the first time I had to prepare to fight him.

Davis, who trains with Alliance MMA, has now won three consecutive fights and five of his last six bouts (22-5 MMA). Davis incurred the only loss in the past three years to Russias Vadim Nemkov in 2018 via a very close split decision. But the final word in this rivalry is still pending.

According to MMA media experts, Friday nights victory puts Davis on the short list of potential challengers for new Bellator 205-pound champion Nemkov. Speaking on Nemkovs recent light heavyweight title win against Ryan Bader, Davis said that the Russian is an amazing fighter and Im so proud of him for beating the champion and all that good stuff. Then Davis added: But, you know, live it up my friend. Im coming!

Download High Res Photos Here.

Stay tuned as the MMA action continues back-to-back at the Mohegan Sun on Saturday night: Bellator 246 will be headlined by a high-stakes bout between Monster Energys Juan The Spaniard Archuleta and Patrick Patchy Mix for the promotions Bantamweight champion title. Thanks to Bellator and Mohegan Sun for showcasing world-class fighting events amidst the adversities of the global coronavirus pandemic.

Davis counts amongst Monster Energys elite MMA athletes along with Juan The Spaniard Archuleta, Sergio The Phenom Pettis, Michael Chandler, Valerie Loureda, Rose Namajunas, Jon Bones Jones, Donald Cowboy Cerrone, Jorge Gamebred Masvidal, Chris The All American Weidman, Daniel Cormier, Dominick Dominator Cruz, Tyron The Chosen One Woodley, Yair Rodriquez, Tony Ferguson, James Gallagher, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Jessica-Rose Clark, Quinton Rampage Jackson, A.J. McKee, Aaron Pico, and Gaston Bolanos.

For more on 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.
Representative image

The Maharashtra government is planning to allow reopening of restaurants for the first time since they were ordered to close in March, even as COVID-19 cases in the state continue to surge.

This planning comes amid growing demands from the ruling alliance and opposition parties.

According to a report by Mumbai Mirror, the administration in its meeting earlier this week with the states COVID-19 task force, discussed how restaurants could reopen.

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

The news report cites senior officials as saying that restaurants could be allowed to resume operations on the condition of utilising only 20 percent of their capacity. This would be increased gradually by October-end.

Another bureaucrat told the newspaper that detailed discussion on the matter are expected to happen this week and a decision could be taken later this month, ahead of the next phase on Unlock.

Guidelines detailing the safety protocol would also be put out for restaurants and customers to follow.

Currently, only home delivery of food has been permitted for restaurants outside containment zones.
Naval Facilities Engineering Command Pacific awarded a $36 million firm-fixed-price contract Sept. 9 to Pacific Rim Constructors Inc., a small business based in Dededo, for the construction of utilities and site improvements for main and commercial gates at Marine Corps Base Guam, according to a release from NAVFAC Pacific.

The contract supports the Defense Policy Review Initiative and is funded by the government of Japan as part of the international agreement between the United States and Japan for the realignment of U.S. forces in the Pacific, the Navy stated in the release.

"The contract award is a key milestone for the Officer in Charge of Construction Marine Corps Marianas and Camp Blaz as it will provide the main and commercial entrance for the installation, and will be the first line of force protection," said Capt. Steven Stasick, commanding officer of OICC MCM. "It is exciting to see the progress being made on Guam's new Marine Corps Base."

The work to be performed includes construction of a main gate and a commercial/tactical vehicle gate to provide installation security for Marine Corps Base Guam and meet anti-terrorism force protection and unified facilities criteria requirements.

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Work is expected to be completed by March 2023, according to the release.

Main gate facilities include an entry canopy with guard booths and pedestals, a gatehouse, an overwatch enclosure, a utility building, a search area with a canopy, and a visitor control center building with a parking lot for visitors. Commercial gate facilities include a primary canopy with guard booths and pedestals, pull-off vehicle inspection area, gatehouse/search office, an overwatch tower, a utility building and a parking area for security forces.

According to a statement issued Friday by Joint Region Marianas, Navy construction on Guam is to continue despite the halt to civilian construction ordered by Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero last week.
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It has been eight years since I registered patients to vote in the Bronx. I remember the clinic, nestled in a busy commercial neighborhood with its modest windowfront facade. Inside, the flyer was posted everywhere. Among quilts of signs and reminders, it vied for attention with its large block letter logo, I VOTE, I COUNT. In the waiting room, our team approached patients to ask, Are you registered to vote?.

I was a college intern for the clinic-led voter registration project, spearheaded by physicians. The effort was non-partisan and effective, registering almost 90 percent of eligible voters.

It was an experience that not only sparked my interest in medicine but demonstrated the power of local mobilization. Patients want to vote. But they are besieged by environments that erode opportunities for civic engagement and health. Registering patients to vote in a neighborhood with limited transportation, language barriers, food deserts  a neighborhood in one of the most historically impoverished urban counties in the country  was a small, but tangible way to empower residents.

That summer, I learned that physicians, if they are to achieve patient health, must have meaningful impact beyond the walls of an exam room. Not in a manner that assumes we know best for communities, but through solutions forged in partnership, elevating the patients we serve. Dr. Manisha Sharma, at the time a family medicine resident and leader of the project, would say, Our communities are capable.

Although physicians make an enormous sacrifice for patient care in clinics and hospitals, medical care accounts for only a small fraction of the modifiable factors that contribute to health outcomes. The rest lies, by and large, in social determinants.

Voting, and more broadly, civic engagement, is a social determinant of health. Statistics on voting portray glaring, but familiar disparities. Voters tend to be whiter, wealthier, more educated, even healthier than the general population. Unlike other social determinants, such as secure housing or access to foods, universal voter turnout is feasible without massive financial investment or dramatic shifts in policy and structure. Instead, voter turnout in underserved communities is propelled by grassroots efforts. In this space, health professionals have a platform to facilitate outcomes. Our clinics have access to, and the trust of, some of the most electorally under-represented populations. Encouraging patients to vote in these communities, and just as importantly, aligning with patient interests by voting ourselves, is an opportunity to amplify the voices of the electorally disenfranchised.

The impact of community-centered empowerment, as well as the inseparable nature of medicine and the broader social determinants driving health, have only become more apparent throughout my time as a medical student. Fueled by frustration from the limits of traditional medical practice, young physicians and physicians-to-be have pushed community health and systems sciences into central tenets of curriculum. Outside of the classroom and hospital, physicians have evolved into fierce advocates on the issues of gun violence, structural racism, health care reform, and other public health crises.

I have witnessed our activism ricochet back with admonishments to stay in our lane. As if tangling with the community somehow weakens our abilities as healers. The COVID-19 pandemic exposes the truth: our role as healers relies on the community.

The pandemic swept through ill-prepared health care infrastructures, uncovering vacuums in leadership and guidance. As physicians met unknown challenges with courage, the community rose alongside them. In my own city, local businesses donated valuable personal protective equipment. Volunteer graduate students collaborated with the health department to provide widespread COVID-19 screening and contact tracing. Schools and charitable organizations facilitated access to basic needs for vulnerable residents and amplified social distancing messaging. Family, friends, and neighbors created innovative solutions to combat the deleterious effects of social isolation. The COVID-19 pandemic made evident that community organization is not just a powerful tool, but a critical component of health promotion efforts.

Voter registration in clinics will not solve the mammoth injustices faced by our patients, but it is an avenue through which to acknowledge the dynamic relationship between health centers and the broader community. Health centers and professionals are revered in communities. We also lean on them  as demonstrated by local efforts buoying the pandemic battle. And when we fail communities, like when we allow the malignant forces of racism in our society to taint patient care, we are accountable to them.

Eight years ago, I was a college student contemplating a career in medicine. In eight months, I will introduce myself as a doctor. I am going to ask patients if they have registered to vote because it is a small, but actionable way to empower them. Because where systems have failed, communities are capable.

Yumiko Nakamura and Vishnu Muppala are medical students.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com




France declared a record 10,561 new coronavirus infections within 24 hours as of 2 pm (1200 GMT) on Saturday, according to national public health authority Sante Publique France.







The figure comes a day after Prime Minister Jean Castex warned that the situation was deteriorating and appealed to citizens to strictly observe hygiene, distancing and mask rules.







France has seen infections rise sharply in recent weeks, after they remained at a low level through much of the summer in the wake of a strict 55-day lockdown that ran from March 17 to May 11.







It was one of the European countries worst hit by the epidemic, with a total death toll of 30,910 as of Saturday.







Castex has also given local administrators in Marseille and Bordeaux, as well as the Caribbean territory of Guadeloupe, until Monday to come up with new measures to stall the spread of the virus locally.







On Sunday, newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche published an appeal from six prominent doctors asking people to minimize meetings with family and friends.







"Little by little, we are losing track of the new infections," the six - including infectious diseases specialist Anne-Claude Cremieux and public health professor Philippe Amouyel - wrote.







"Avoid, as far as possible, private gatherings. The smaller a room is, the more people there are, the worse the ventilation is, the greater the risks," the doctors warned. "Reduce the number of people present in the private sphere. If possible, postpone all meetings." (DPA)


After having not raced since his August 29 win in the $1-million North America Cup, Tall Dark Stranger was in the spotlight on Sunday (Sept. 13), as he headlined Kentucky Sire Stakes action at the Red Mile, which was contested over a 'sloppy' track rated two seconds slow.

The off-going certainly didn't seem to bother Tall Dark Stranger on Sunday, as the talented Nancy Takter trainee blitzed to the point at the half and charged through the slop to record an authoratative victory in 1:49.2.

With regular pilot Yannick Gingras currently in Ontario for Grand Circuit racing at Woodbine Mohawk Park, Dexter Dunn got the call behind Tall Dark Stranger, and the duo lined up in Post 5 in Race 2, which carried a purse of $40,000.

There was a battle for the front right from the word 'go,' as at least five of the seven starters fired for the lead into the first turn. The early battle left Tall Dark Stranger in fifth past the :26.2 quarter pole, but he wouldn't be there for long.

The second panel saw Captain Kirk (who was driven by Joe Bongiorno) dart first-up from fourth, and Dunn followed suit second over. Captain Kirk cleared to the point before the :53.4 half-mile pole, which allowed Tall Dark Stranger to take dead aim at the new leader.

Captain Kirk's lead was short lived, as Dunn and Tall Dark Stranger roared right by and angled back down along the pylons. Tall Dark Stranger navigated the turn with ease and clicked off three quarters in 1:22 before his journey home.

Tall Dark Stranger was within himself in the final quarter, as he paced home in :27.2 and held off a late rally by Catch The Fire (Mike Wilder), who closed with pace at the end of the mile. Captain Kirk held on to finish third.

Courtesy of the victory, Tall Dark Stranger, who is by Ontario sire Bettors Delight, has now won seven of his eight starts this season and 15 of his 17 career starts. The bay colt has now banked $1.96-million in career purses for owners Crawford Farms Racing, Marvin Katz, Caviart Farms, and Howard Taylor.

Three-year-old pacing fillies also faced off in a $40,000 KYSS tilt, as a field of seven faced the gate for Race 4. In the contest, the Tony Alagna-trained and Dexter Dunn-driven Reflect With Me came first up after the half, shrugged off soft fractions (:29, :57.2, 1:26.3), and paced away to a strong win in 1:53. Courtesy of the win, the daughter of Captaintreacherous extended her seasonal unbeaten streak to six for breeder Brittany Farms, who own the bay along with Brad Grant. Reflect With Me has now won 11 of her 17 career starts and banked more than $857,000 overall.
A 40-pound (18-kilogram) African serval cat named Spartacus has been found safe and sound after escaping from his home and spending days in the New Hampshire wild.

The cat was was trapped near its home and is in good health, Merrimack police posted on Facebook on Friday. The animal has been returned to its owner, Dean King, who previously told The Associated Press that Spartacus had run away on Wednesday after getting spooked by the family dog.

Heres what the department posted:

A few days back, after the cat went missing, they also shared a post on Facebook which they again updated after rescuing Spartacus.

People on both the posts shared all sorts of comments expressing their happiness:

Yay! I cant believe how invested I was in this cat. Hes not even mine and I feel like my own pet made it home! So happy for his owners! wrote a Facebook user. I am so happy and relieved to hear that! What an exotic, beautiful animal! To the owners, give your boy a hug for me, expressed another.

Thank you MPD for your service and for taking the time to post this happy update. I was worried because temps have been colder and not good for an indoor, sleek cat like this, disregarding the wild animal and vehicle threats, said a third.

King adopted Spartacus from a Florida zoo four years ago. Photos show the long, lean cat is tawny in color with dark spots and has lengthy ears rounded at the top. One photo of Spartacus with his paws up on the kitchen counter, eyeing a coffee maker, has gone viral on social media.

This image of Spartacus, the African serval cat, went viral online. (AP)

The family owns the cat legally and has a permit from the states department of fish and game, police said. Spartacus lives indoors, spending the days in an enclosure and roaming the family house at night.

Calls and emails to King werent immediately returned Saturday. His wife, Lisa King, posted a video of Spartacus perched in his enclosure on Saturday and thanked people for their support.

The image shows Spartacus, an exotic pet. (AP)

I have a bond with this cat and he is my person, she wrote in the Facebook post.

Merrimack is located along the river of the same name, around 12 miles north of the Massachusetts state line and features woods and conservation areas  including the aptly named Wildcat Falls Conservation Area.

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All dedicated coronavirus disease (Covid-19) hospitals in the national capital have been allowed to increase their bed capacity by up to 30% and 33 major private hospitals have been asked to reserve 80% of their intensive care unit (ICU) beds for patients suffering from the viral infection, said Satyendar Jain, Delhis minister for health and family welfare, during a press conference on Sunday.

The move comes at a time when Delhi is seeing a record surge in Covid-19 cases. On Friday, 4,321 new Covid-19 cases were reported --- the highest single-day spike in the national capital to date.

Jain attributed the spike in Covid-19 cases to aggressive testing mechanisms undertaken by his government. He also said the uptick in Covid-19 cases is because of unlocking restrictions in a bid to revive the economy.

It is very much on the expected lines. This surge in Covid-19 cases will stabilise within 10-15 days, he said.

Jain ruled out further lockdown restrictions in Delhi. He said lockdown is no longer a solution to Covid-19 and the public should wear masks.

Also read: Venkaiah Naidu undergoes Covid-19 test ahead of monsoon session

Jain said around though 50% Covid-19 beds in the city are lying vacant, the availability of ICU beds in a few major private hospitals is scarce as most patients are preferring private healthcare facilities to government-run ones.

I held a meeting through a video conference with all private hospitals on Saturday. They have agreed to our plan. Orders have been issued to allow all Covid-19 hospitals in the city to increase their bed capacity by 30%, if required. While 33 major private hospitals have been asked to reserve 80% of their total ICU beds for Covid-19 patients. If some of these ICU beds are occupied, then the figure must be updated in a common pool after Covid-19 patients are discharged, Jain said.

The minister explained that if a Covid-19 hospital has 100 beds, it would be allowed to increase its capacity to 130 beds, according to the latest orders.

At present, Delhi has 14,372 hospital beds, of which 7,924 are lying vacant. Of these, 489 ICU beds with ventilators and 277 ICU beds without ventilators are unoccupied.

The Delhi governments decision came after chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on September 9 had asked officials to draft a plan to increase Covid-19 bed capacity in Delhi, especially ICU beds.

The situation is worse in multi-speciality private hospitals in the national capital.

Over 89% of ICU beds with ventilators in 11 private hospitals were occupied until Friday. While 82% of ICU beds without ventilators in eight private hospitals were also filled on that day.

Delhi recorded the highest-ever total hospitalisation due to the contagion in a single day on Friday after 6,294 people were admitted. The previous record was 6,264, which had occurred during the Covid-19 surge in Delhi in June-July.

Wearing masks reduces the chances of spreading and contracting Covid-19 significantly. The public should wear masks. The government is also running an intensive awareness campaign on the importance of masks. Everyone should wear mask and follow strict social distancing norms. We have moved far away from the times of lockdown. That (lockdown) is not going to happen again, he added.

Over 60,000 Covid-19 tests were conducted in the city for the second consecutive day on Friday. Hospitals and mohalla clinics are also testing asymptomatic people.

However, the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) count continued to remain low, as compared to the less accurate rapid antigen detection (RAD) tests.

Data showed 9,182 swab samples  15% of all the tests  were conducted using the RT-PCR method, according to Saturdays health bulletin.

Jain said the results of the third serological survey, which was conducted in Delhi between September 1 and 5, would be announced in a few more days as the study of the samples is still in progress.

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Harry Styles is one of the only major touring artists not to have rescheduled their 2020 Australian tour dates amid the coronavirus pandemic.

But despite promoters hoping the tour gets the go ahead, it seems very unlikely with international and domestic travel restrictions still in place.

With Melbourne currently under one of the world's toughest coronavirus lockdowns, and the star required to self-isolate for 14 days upon his arrival, fans have blasted Ticketek for giving them false hope.

Anger: Harry Styles (pictured) fans have blasted local ticket seller Ticketek for giving fans false hope about his upcoming Australian tour

'The Harry Styles Australia & New Zealand tour is proceeding as planned and we are excited to welcome everyone to the events in November and December,' a representative for Ticketek wrote on Saturday.

'Can't wait to go and watch a cardboard cutout of Harry on stage for 90 minutes,' one fan sarcastically wrote on Twitter.

'What world do y'all live in where there isn't a global pandemic and no international flights until at least 2021,' a second added.

Not likely? With Melbourne currently under one of the world's toughest coronavirus lockdowns, and the star required to self-isolate for 14 days upon his arrival, fans have blasted Ticketek for suggesting the show will go ahead

Meanwhile, a third chimed: 'As much as I want this to be true, I just don't see it happening and it breaks my heart.'

Others appeared to be angry that the ticket distributor suggested that there was a possibility the tour could be cancelled instead of rescheduled.

'WTF 'cancellation' why not postpone? I can't go through the stress of getting tickets again,' one person wrote.

Can he come? But despite promoters hoping the tour gets the go ahead, it seems very unlikely with international and domestic travel restrictions still in place

Harry is booked to play shows in Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth across November and December.

A statement posted to Ticketek's website reads: 'The Harry Styles Australia & New Zealand tour is proceeding as planned and we are excited to welcome everyone to the events in November and December.

'The safety of fans, artists and staff is always our top priority and we will continue to monitor advice from the local state Government regarding mass gatherings.

Uncertainty: Harry is booked to play shows in Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth across November and December

'In the event of a cancellation, exchanges and refunds will be processed according to AU/NZ consumer law.'

Harry is no stranger to Australian shores, having had played more than 30 stadium shows with his former band One Direction.

Former bandmate Louis Tomlinson was forced to postpone his first Australian tour in the wake of the pandemic which was due to take place in July.

Love on Tour begins in Mexico on September 29, before heading to Brazil, and Colombia before playing shows in Australia and New Zealand in November.

Ticketek have since released an update for Harry Styles Fans: 'Ticketek takes its instructions on any news on the Harry Styles tour from the promoter, Live Nation Australia. We are urgently seeking clarification from the promoter and will be back to fans as soon as we have further information from them.' Advertisement
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Reno, Nevada, on Sept. 12, 2020. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Trump Unleashes on Biden in Nevada After Vicious Ad

President Donald Trump gave a fiery campaign speech in Minden, Nevada, on Sept. 12, saying that he doesnt have to play nice anymore after the Biden campaign released an unsourced campaign ad claiming Trump said unthinkable things about U.S. soldiers while standing over their graves.

He put the most vicious ad, Trump told thousands of supporters gathered at Minden airport as the president tours the state as part of his Great American Comeback campaign.

Theres nobody who loves and respects our military more than me, Trump said. We have 25 people, witnesses, on the record already and theyve said that never took place. Never took place. And yet pathetic Joe  no sources, no nothing.

Just landed in Nevada but while on Air Force One watched most vicious TV commercial I have ever seen. Pathetic Joes people placed an unsourced ad where they have me saying unthinkable things about soldiers while standing over their graves. It is a MADE UP LIE. A TOTAL CON JOB!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 13, 2020

Trump joked that although he knows some of the worst people in the world, pointing to real estate developers in New York, none of them would say what Bidens ad had him say standing on top of the graves of dead American soldiers.

So now we can play it like it is. Lets face it, Joe is shot, Trump said, adding that if Biden gets elected as president, hell just be locked up in a room someplace, and the radical left is going to be running our country.

If Biden wins, China wins. If Biden wins, the mob wins.

Universal Mail-In Ballots

Trump also dedicated some of his speech to criticizing Democrat-run states for pushing universal mail-in ballots.

The Democrats are trying to rig this election. Thats the only way theyre going to win it, he said.

He called out Nevadas Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak for trying to stop Trump campaign events due to risk of COVID-19 transmission. Nevada reported 10 deaths and 414 new cases of COVID-19 on Sept. 12.

But think of this, Trump told his supporters. Hes in control of millions of votes. Heres a guy calling venues, telling them not to have the rally, calling different venues.

This is the guy that were entrusting with millions of ballots, millions of unsolicited ballots.  He can rig the election.

Trump said of Democratic governors, Theyre going to be sending out 80 million ballots.  Where are they going? Who are they sending them to? Are they sending them to certain areas and not to other areas, are they sending them to Democrat areas? These are all controlled by Democrat governors.

At every single place in the last year, tiny amounts, a congressional race in New York, a small number of votes  look at some of these races, every one of these races was a fraud, missing ballots. And I dont mean like 1 percent, I mean like 20 percent, 25 percent.

Trump said he supported a mail-in voting system where individuals have to register to be sent a ballot. Thats where you ask for it; you have to sign papers.

Before the rally, Trumps motorcade passed through 40 miles of roads from Reno to Minden that were lined with supporters. The event, which was originally scheduled for Reno-Tahoe International Airport, had to be moved last minute after the airport authority decided the event would be in violation of Sisolaks emergency directive for COVID-19.

Douglas County then agreed to host the event at Minden-Tahoe Airport.

I am proud and amazed by the quality and professionalism of everyone involved, Douglas County Manager Patrick Cates said in a statement. Our outstanding team of county agencies and first responders worked with the Secret Service to organize plans for a safe and secure event within 48 hours. We consider Douglas County fortunate to have the opportunity to host any president or presidential candidates and to listen to what they have to say about the future of our great nation.

Republican Chairman Michael McDonald accused Sisolak of setting a double standard for Republicans and others who want to stage protests, including Black Lives Matter. He said the 50-person limit hasnt been enforced at those events.

Earlier Sept. 12, the president participated in roundtable events with supporters at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Trump held a roundtable in Las Vegas on Sept. 13 with Latinos for Trump at the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino on the Strip, and will continue on to Henderson for a Great American Comeback speech around 7 p.m. at Xtreme Manufacturing.

Nevada is considered a swing state. Trump narrowly lost Nevada to Clinton in 2016.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
New Delhi, Sep 13 : The Rajya Sabha, on first day of the Monsoon session on Monday, will elect its Deputy Chairman, with NDA's Harivansh Narayan Singh and RJD's Manoj Jha in the fray for the post.

For the ruling National Democratic Alliance, BJP chief J.P. Nadda will move the first motion in support of Singh while Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad will move the first motion from the opposition, and voting may take place, if required.

The upper house of Parliament will also pay condolence to former President Pranab Mukherjee and 18 sitting and former MPs, including Amar Singh.

The government will introduce four ordinances as bills.

Health Minister Harsh Vardhan will explain the circumstances which had necessitated immediate legislation by the Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020, while Home Minister Amit Shah will table a statement explaining the circumstances which had necessitated immediate legislation by the Salaries and Allowances of Ministers (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020, said the Rajya Sabha bulletin.

Ayush Minister Shripad Yesso Naik will table statements explaining the circumstances which had necessitated immediate legislation by the Homoeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 and the the Indian Medicine Central Council (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020.

The three will also move the bills to replace the ordinances.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi will move the motion on the curtailment of Question Hour, which reads: "Keeping in view that the current Session of Rajya Sabha is being held in extra-ordinary circumstances prevailing due to Covid-19 pandemic requiring maintenance of social distancing and keeping the movement of Government officials and others within the Parliament precincts to the bare minimum, this House resolves that Starred Questions and Private Members' Business may not be brought before the House for transaction during the Session, and all relevant Rules on these subjects in the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Rajya Sabha may stand suspended to that extent".

The opposition has questioned the government's move on Question Hour and reducing the time for the Zero hour.
The United States is committed to ensure that personal interests do not take precedence over the national interests during the crucial negotiations between the Afghan government and Taliban in Doha, US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said.

In an interview with TOLOnews in Doha, Khalilzad said a solution should be found to end the Afghan crisis, which will lead to long-lasting peace.

Asked if the intra-Afghan talks would see a breakdown, the US envoy remarked that such a development will not be acceptable for Washington.

It is not acceptable and there is a solution to every problem, and a solution must be found. We are ready to help if the countrys interests come first and personal interests do not come first. I am confident that a solution will be found and we will not allow personal interests to take precedence. This is the promise of the US to the people of Afghanistan, Khalilzad said.

He said there are some people in Afghanistan who prefer the current situation to peace with the Taliban while some are attempting to keep Washington engaged in war so that it could pay the price, according to TOLOnews.

Some prefer the current situation rather than peace with the Taliban. For instance, within Afghanistan there are some who are trying to keep the US engaged in the war, Khalilzad said.

Earlier on Friday, Khalilzad said he is hopeful that talks between the Afghan government and Taliban will pave the way for a peace process and withdrawal of foreign troops after decades of war and insurgency.

The intra-Afghan talks between the Afghanistan government and the Taliban which opened in Qatars Doha on Saturday is aimed at establishing peace and stability in Afghanistan.

The Afghan governments 21-member negotiating team was led by Masoom Stanekzai, a former intelligence chief. On the other hand, the Taliban was led by Mawlavi Abdul Hakim, the terror groups chief justice and a close aide of the groups chief Haibatullah Akhunzada, Al Jazeera reported.

Calling the beginning of intra-Afghan peace talks a truly momentous occasion, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo urged the Taliban and the Afghan government to seize the opportunity, adding that Washington is ready to support the negotiations.

Peace talks were expected to take place in March but were delayed repeatedly due to a prisoner exchange agreement made as part of the deal signed between the US and Taliban in February.
UPDATE: This story has been updated to correct the calculation for the percentage of African American and minority executives.

In putting together the 2020 Washington Technology Top 100, we scoured websites and LinkedIn to gather the names and titles of the senior leadership at the biggest companies in the market. It is something we do each year and is one of the great values of the Top 100.

But given the heightened awareness around racial issues and the continuing challenge of women gaining senior leadership positions, I looked at this information in a different way this year. And while I cant report any kind of upward or downward trend, I do think we can establish a baseline for the number of women and minorities in senior leadership positions at government contracting firms.

This year we identified about 680 people who hold a senior position at a Top 100 company. This includes 98 CEOs. [We came up empty for two companies who do not disclose their leadership on their websites  Mythics, No. 51, and New Tech Solutions, No. 85.]

Of the 98 CEOs, 84 are male and 14 are female, so 14.3 percent of CEOs are women. Of the 678 total executives (including CEOs), 525 are male and 153 are female. By percentage, 22.6 percent of the senior leaders at Top 100 companies are female.

For the CEOs, I was able to go back to 2015 and compare the numbers and the split remains the same  84 male CEOs and 14 female CEOs. [We couldnt identify CEOs for two companies in 2015 as well.]

Its interesting to note that some companies have swap out leaders. In 2015, Lockheed Martin and IBM Corp, both had female CEOs, but today they do not. Hewlett-Packard had a female CEO but they no longer are in the Top 100 thanks to splits and divestitures. SAIC and Northrop Grumman did not have female CEOs in 2015, but today they do.

When we looked at minorities, particularly African American CEOs, only three companies on the Top 100 have a CEO or chairman who is African American. They are all founders of their companies  Rene LaVigne, who led the spin-out of Apptis Technology Solutions to create Iron Bow Technologies (No. 60), Dave Steward, founder and chairman of World Wide Technologies (No. 50); and Charles Adams, founder and CEO of Adams Communications & Engineering (No. 97).

Counting these three CEOs, there are just 38 senior executives at Top 100 companies that are African America. Another 41 executives fall into other minority groups such as Asian and Hispanic. I did not separate out African Americans and other minority executives by sex.

The raw numbers for minority representation are bleak but the percentages make it look even worse. African Americans comprise just over half a percent of all senior executives we identified  5.6 percent. The representation of other minorities is just as bad at 6 percent.

And combining all minorities together doesnt improve things. We identified a total of 79 executives who are either African American or a member of another minority group. Thats just 11.6 percent of all 678 executives.

As I said, I dont have enough past data to make any kind of statement on the trends. My gut tells me that women are doing better. It seems more women are finding leadership roles in mission areas and are leading business units that directly interact with customers.

Of the Top 100 companies, only 25 did not list a female in a senior executive role. That includes the two companies that listed no executives. Not great, and I would still argue that women are underrepresented as CEOs.

While there seem to some positive signs for women executives, when I look at African American and minority executives, the numbers are pathetic. There are 48 companies on the Top 100 where we could not identify a single minority senior executive. Not one.

As I said, I dont have the data to identify any kind of trend, but even if the number of African American and minority executives is growing, it isnt growing very quickly. But honestly, I dont think its growing.

In the aftermath of George Floyds murder, I talked with a lot of executives who are sincerely pushing for more inclusion and diversity at their companies and the lack of a presence of African American and minority executives is something several acknowledged.

I believe them and these numbers are another indication of how much work there is to do.
Red Bull has denied it could be about to lose legendary F1 car designer Adrian Newey.

After weeks of looking miserable amid Ferrari's decline and his impending departure from the Italian team and perhaps Formula 1, Sebastian Vettel was suddenly smiling at Mugello.

His mood might have been a touch of cheekiness as the timing of the Aston Martin announcement coincided with Ferrari's 1000th race celebrations at Mugello.

Indeed, things are suddenly looking up for the quadruple world champion, as he has the full backing of Aston Martin team owner Lawrence Stroll for 2021 and beyond, and even the background involvement of Toto Wolff.

"The knowledge that Sebastian brings is crucial for the team," said Wolff, the Mercedes team boss who is also a minor Aston Martin shareholder.

"He will move everyone forward."

Now, there are even rumours that Vettel could reunite with Newey, who designed all of the 33-year-old's title winning Red Bull cars last decade.

Newey went part-time at Red Bull several years ago, with team boss Christian Horner admitting at Monza that the state of F1 and the difficult relationship with Renault had soured the 61-year-old's motivation.

Horner insisted that the new situation with Honda had re-fired Newey's full involvement.

So when asked about the new Aston Martin rumours, Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko told Sport1 at Mugello: "Adrian is definitely under contract with us."

Attempting to explain the speculation, Marko added: "Adrian was recently able to test a rare Aston Martin and he thanked Stroll for it."

"There's nothing more."

Meanwhile, Racing Point boss Otmar Szafnauer played down suggestions that Vettel could carry over his sluggish Ferrari form to Aston Martin next year.

He claims Vettel simply feels unsupported at Ferrari.

"We all need a little love sometimes - especially when you're mentally pushing the limit all the time," said Szafnauer, who will also run the Silverstone based team after the Aston Martin rebranding.

"It will be our job to put our arms around him and show him what this team is about. I think he will blossom with us."

(GMM)
Philip Hammond wrote a 'flattering' letter to Saudi Arabia's finance minister days before setting out his intention to quit as chancellor before later taking a paid adviser role to the politician.

Mr Hammond visited Saudi Arabia on a two-day trip in July 2019 and then sent a hand signed letter to Mohammed al-Jadaan, Saudi Arabia's finance minister, on July 18.

In that letter, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Hammond described Mr Jadaan as 'excellency' and said he was 'delighted' to have met him.

Mr Hammond said it had been a 'pleasure working with you over the past three years' and he looked forward to 'hearing more about Saudi Arabia's priorities for its G20 presidency'.

Philip Hammond took a role as an adviser to the Saudi finance minister this year. He is pictured meeting King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in Jeddah in May 2016

Three days after the letter was sent Mr Hammond announced he intended to quit as chancellor if Boris Johnson won the Tory leadership election and became prime minister.

Mr Hammond followed through on his plan to quit when Mr Johnson won the leadership.

Approximately one year later the former chancellor became a paid adviser to Mr Jadaan.

Mr Hammond had sought advice from the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) in April 2020 before taking the part time role.

ACOBA rules on whether new jobs are appropriate for former ministers and ex-civil servants.

Mr Hammond told the committee the adviser role related to Mr Jadaan's capacity as the chairman of the Finance Track of the Presidency of the G20 and he was advising exclusively on G20 matters.

Lord Pickles, the chairman of ACOBA, said: 'The committee has considered the risk of this appointment being perceived as a reward.

'The committee noted you met with members of the sovereign government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as chancellor, including the minister of finance.

'However, it gave weight to HM Treasury's confirmation you did not make decisions or take actions in office that could give rise to the real or perceived risk of reward here.'

A spokesman for Mr Hammond told the Sunday Telegraph that the letter was a 'routine courtesy follow up' and it is 'basic good manners to thank someone who has just hosted you'.
As the media and the Labour Party in the UK fulminated in recent weeks about Boris Johnsons appointment of Tony Abbott to Britains Board of Trade, back here in Abbotts home country there was a strange, muted reaction.

Tony Abbott? Oh yes, the pugilistic Howard government minister who became a pugilistic but highly effective opposition leader and then a prime minister who was dumped by his colleagues and then, last year, lost his seat at the election. He was the focus of so much attention not so long ago. But he is so yesterday.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is now seven years into a Coalition government. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

How quickly we can dispense with and semi-forget people in the digital age, our minds fogged further by the unyielding fear of catching a new and potentially deadly virus. Then again, the man who replaced Abbott as PM, Malcolm Turnbull, was himself tipped out by his Liberal Party confreres after only three years in the chair. Unless youre paying close attention, the timelines and party room manoeuvrings and even the names can start to become a blur.

Because Turnbulls successor Scott Morrison ascended to the Liberal throne only two years ago, theres still a lingering sense of his government as somehow being new, a sort of work-in-progress. But the calendar tells us that only a few days ago, the Liberal-National coalition celebrated the seventh anniversary of its current stint in power. Seven years in office. Three election wins in a row. Its a substantial amount of time to hold the reins.
KAMITUGA, Democratic Republic of Congo: Kinyenye Furaha passed out from shock when he realised a mine collapse in eastern Congo had buried more than 50 fellow miners including his brother, he said on Sunday, as the hunt continued for bodies two days after the disaster.

Miners searching the site near the town of Kamituga in Democratic Republic of Congo have so far recovered 18 bodies, after heavy rains on Friday caused the artisanal gold mine to cave in, burying those working below ground.

Before the rain started, Furaha had left the site to remove some large rocks. Soon after, a child ran up to say water was rising in the mine, Furaha told Reuters.

We went back there and found only the pit filled with water. And thats when I lost consciousness," he said.

Dozens of people die each year in accidents in largely unregulated artisanal mines in Congo, where often ill-equipped diggers borrow deep underground in search of ore.

This time, miners were caught out because the wet season is yet to get fully underway, said Kamituga Mayor Alexandre Bundia.

The main problem is that people did not heed the rain," he said outside his office in the mining town in Congos mountainous and mineral-rich South Kivu province.

Scores of men in rubber boots gathered again on Sunday at the mine site on a muddy hillside. A rescue team passed sacks of earth out of the pit in the search for the buried miners, who are all presumed dead.

Recovery efforts will continue on Monday morning, local official Kimbulungu Kyalondawa said.

Back in Kamituga, women gathered to mourn their lost relatives. Sitting close together on the floor, they stared into the distance without speaking, while one held a sleeping baby to her chest.

(Additional reporting by Stanis Bujakera in Kinshasa; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Frances Kerry)

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
Boris Johnson is facing mounting criticism over his legislation overriding his Brexit deal, as leaders from across the political spectrum attacked the threat to break international law.

Senior Conservatives were not backing down on their rebellion against the Prime Ministers plans despite his warning that Brussels could carve up our country without his new Bill.

Former prime ministers Sir John Major and Tony Blair united to urge MPs to reject the legislation, saying it imperils the Irish peace process, trade negotiations and the UKs integrity.

Sir Keir Starmer accused Mr Johnson of having reigniting old rows by working to flout his own Withdrawal Agreement, but pledged Labour support if he addresses substantial concerns.

Tory rebels suggested their numbers were growing and opinions were only hardened by Mr Johnsons increased rhetoric that the EU could impose a trade border in the Irish Sea.

Sir John and Mr Blair, the former Conservative and Labour leaders, united to condemn Mr Johnsons controversial UK Internal Market Bill in an article for the Sunday Times.

We both opposed Brexit. We both accept it is now happening. But this way of negotiating, with reason cast aside in pursuit of ideology and cavalier bombast posing as serious diplomacy, is irresponsible, wrong in principle and dangerous in practice, they said.

It raises questions that go far beyond the impact on Ireland, the peace process and negotiations for a trade deal  crucial though they are. It questions the very integrity of our nation.

Sir Keir called on Mr Johnson to throw out clauses that could breach international law and those that lead the devolved administrations to warn of a power grab to get Labour support.

If the Government fixes the substantial cross-party concerns that have been raised about the Internal Market Bill, then we are prepared to back it, Sir Keir wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.

Story continues

But if they do not, and the talk collapse, then it is their failure and incompetence that will have let the British people down.

Lets make the EU take their threats off the table. And lets get this Bill through, back up our negotiators, and protect our country  https://t.co/7AXOO361js  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) September 12, 2020

The newspaper also reported that ministers are considering opt-outs from the Human Rights Act, and that a formal review could be announced in the coming weeks.

The Tory manifesto pledged to update the Act after Brexit, but the move is contentious with Brussels and negotiators have expressed concern over the UKs commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland, who is under pressure to explain how Government plans to override elements of the Brexit deal are consistent with obligations under international law, will face questioning from the media on Sunday.

His Labour shadow, Lord Falconer, said: A future where (the) UK breaks its international law obligations, and opts out of Human Rights protections is a very bad future.

Unamended I cannot support this Bill. Lets secure Brexit-but remember what we stand for.Already this Bill is damaging brand UK, diminishing our role-model status as defender of global standards. As we go to the wire lets see more British statecraft-less Nixonian Madman Theory pic.twitter.com/pD5Sl55cC6  Tobias Ellwood MP (@Tobias_Ellwood) September 12, 2020

Despite Mr Johnsons attempts to drum up support, Tory chairman of the Commons defence committee Tobias Ellwood said on Saturday that he could not support the legislation without it being changed.

Already this Bill is damaging brand UK, diminishing our role-model status as defender of global standards. As we go to the wire, lets see more British statecraft  less Nixonian Madman Theory, he tweeted.

Commons justice committee chairman Sir Bob Neill, who has tabled an amendment which he said would impose a parliamentary lock on any changes to the Withdrawal Agreement, said he still contends it contains objectionable elements.

Damian Green, who was Theresa Mays deputy when she was prime minister and is backing the amendment, was also understood to not have been won over by Mr Johnsons argument.

Sir Roger Gale also remained a vehement critic, telling Times Radio: If anybody is responsible, if it happens, for bringing the union down, it will be (chief aide Dominic) Cummings and Mr Johnson.
"The only way we're going to lose this election is if the election is rigged."

President Donald Trump's astonishing remark last month -- and his escalating efforts to sow doubts about the integrity of November's vote -- have highlighted a growing concern: can the United States, one of the world's oldest democracies, assure a free and fair election in 2020?

The American voting system may be facing its most serious threat in decades -- fueled by baseless presidential rhetoric, record mail-in voting due to the coronavirus pandemic, worry about ageing machines, and accusations of voter suppression.

Complicating matters, the foreign interference that marred 2016 is being repeated in 2020, made clear by Thursday's US Treasury sanctions against an "active Russian agent" for stoking conspiracy theories advanced by the White House.

But while the 50 US states are on guard against intrusions from Moscow and elsewhere, the most prominent threats may be coming from within.

"The conduct of these elections will be the most challenging in recent decades," said the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which has monitored elections for decades in countries from Afghanistan to the United States.

Covid-19 measures could "have an impact on the level of trust" and integrity of election administration and "ultimately cast doubt in the outcome," the OSCE said in a July report.

The nonpartisan Carter Center, founded by former president Jimmy Carter, has monitored elections in 39 countries since 1989 and is turning its attention to the US for the first time.

"Why? Americans are losing faith in the US electoral process," the center's Jason Carter wrote in late August.

"The country is deeply polarized, and people on both the right and left are concerned about threats to the security of the election and the credibility of the process."

Story continues

- Protections in place? -

Several signs of potential peril have emerged.

Since 2016 more than 1,100 polling stations have been shuttered in Texas, Arizona, Louisiana and elsewhere, according to the Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights.

Disputes over funding the US Postal Service have swelled, even as the agency warns it will struggle to process a record number of mail-in ballots.

Exceedingly long lines during primary elections this year raised concerns about the ability to adequately process voters.

Scores of legal challenges could make it more difficult to count votes on time and train volunteers, and easier to reject ballots as fraudulent.

With election workers often elderly volunteers, many are expected to stay home due to coronavirus concerns, meaning states are scrambling to train enough poll workers.

Georgia launched an investigation Tuesday after some 1,000 episodes of double voting were detected in June's primary and an August run-off.

The scenario appeared to mirror one that Trump himself promoted this month in North Carolina, where he urged his supporters to vote first by mail, then again at the polling station to "make sure it counted."

Despite such developments, "there are protections in place in many places to prevent voter fraud," said John Hudak, a senior governance fellow at the Brookings Institution.

He stressed that while the pandemic is prompting surges in mail-in voting, the potential delays in certifying state results are not a cause for alarm, as Trump has warned.

"It's actually a signal that the election system is working," he said.

- Preventing meddling -

Americans have been worried about election integrity for years.

A 2018 Pew Research study found that the public "is not highly confident that election systems in the US are secure from hacking and other technological threats."

Just 45 percent of respondents said they were at least somewhat confident that election systems are secure, Pew said.

Voters are mindful of the Florida disaster in 2000, when a chaotic recount of the state's razor-thin vote was halted by the US Supreme Court, handing the presidency to George W. Bush.

Florida could emerge as a flashpoint again, as Democrats accuse Republicans of voter suppression efforts.

Still, Harvard professor of government Stephen Ansolabehere is not particularly worried about the lawsuits, polling station closures or other irregularities that have marked 2020.

"A lot of that is the nature of the American system," which can be "adversarial," said Ansolabehere, who has studied US elections closely since 2000.

With each state responsible for running its vote, the federal government takes a hands-off approach to election operations.

That decentralized system is a double-edged sword. "It can make it harder to resolve things, but also prevents federal meddling" and allows technological innovations, he said.

Overall, Ansolabehere expressed "pretty high" confidence in the election's integrity, despite the president's rhetoric.

"Trump calling all this out means everyone is watching," the professor said.

"When everyone is watching, it's hard to do bad things."

mlm/dw
Kanye West does not qualify to be on the presidential ballot in battleground state of Wisconsin after missing a filing deadline, a judge ruled late Friday.

The decision was made by Brown County Circuit Judge John Zakowski who ruled in favor of the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

West had filed a lawsuit against the elections commission over the previous decision to bar him from the ballot because his nomination papers were submitted 14 seconds after the 5pm deadline on August 4.

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Kanye West (pictured at a South Carolina rally in July) does not qualify to be on the presidential ballot in battleground Wisconsin after missing a filing deadline, a judge ruled late Friday

In West's case, Zakowski ruled that the state elections commission was correct in determining that the musician narrowly missed a 5pm filing deadline to get on the presidential ballot.

'The unfortunate fact is this dispute could have been avoided had the West representatives simply arrived earlier,' the judge said.

'Candidates need to plan ahead and arrive in time to get into the building and file the papers in the office of the commission prior to the deadline, there are no exceptions under the statute or the relevant case law.'

West had argued that the deadline did not expire until 5.01pm and regardless of the timing, commission staffers still accepted the papers. The commission voted that West had missed the deadline either by a few seconds or several minutes.

According to the lawsuit, commission staff should have unlocked the building's doors at 4.40pm to accommodate late-arriving filers.

But the commission's building has been locked since the coronavirus pandemic began. West's campaign workers had to call the commission shortly before 5pm to get them to unlock the doors.

A commission staff member said West's representatives didn't place the nomination papers on the counter until 5.01pm.

By the time the papers were organized and officially accepted, it was several minutes past the 5pm deadline.

West had filed a lawsuit against the elections commission over the previous decision to bar him from the ballot because his nomination papers were submitted 14 seconds after the 5pm deadline on August 4. A voter is pictured in Wisconsin on September 9

West's attorneys did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

West announced a presidential bid in July, saying he's seeking the nation's highest office on a ticket he calls the 'Birthday Party'.

Democrats claim Republicans are pushing West's candidacy in swing states to siphon the Black vote from Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

The decision is likely to be rapidly appealed to the conservative-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court.

That court put the mailing of absentee ballots on hold Thursday while it considers whether Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins should be added.

The delay is being closely watched in Wisconsin, a swing state that President Donald Trump narrowly won in 2016 and that polls show is tight again this year.

State law requires ballots to be mailed by September 17 to more than 1 million voters who have requests on file. There is also a September 19 deadline in federal law for mailing ballots to overseas and military voters.

Those deadlines could force the Wisconsin Supreme Court, controlled 4-3 by conservatives, to act within a matter of days on who should be on the ballot.

The state elections commission has argued that printing new ballots this late would not only be expensive, but could also cause 'confusion and disorder' and may not even be feasible.

Whether West and Hawkins are allowed on the ballot could have a significant impact in razor-close Wisconsin.

The Green Partys 2016 presidential candidate, Jill Stein, won 31,006 votes in the state, more than Trumps 22,177-vote margin over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Thousands of ballots across the state have either already been mailed or were being prepared to be sent when the state Supreme Court hit the pause button on Thursday.

The elections commission did not have an exact count as to how many ballots were sent.

While September 17 is the deadline for clerks to mail absentee ballots to those who already have a request on file, anyone who makes a request later will still be mailed a ballot.

October 29 is the deadline for most voters to request a ballot by mail. Returned ballots must be received by the time polls close at 8pm on Election Day.

Election officials have been urging voters to return their ballots as soon as possible because of concerns with slower mail delivery and the expected unprecedented number of absentee ballots.

State elections officials have estimated that more than 2 million of the state's roughly 3 million eligible voters will cast absentee ballots, largely due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.
Curbs on hunting are to be lifted in Algeria from Tuesday after a ban of more 25 years first imposed during its bloody civil war of the 1990s.

The hunting season will run until February 15, said Agriculture Minister Abdelhamid Hamdani, quoted by national news agency APS.

Hunting was banned and farmers' rifles confiscated to prevent them falling the hands of Islamist militants during the war.

But wild boar hunting, for which Algeria is a destination for shooting holidays, was authorised in 2114 to combat the large increase in their numbers due to the ban.

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More people are leaving California than arriving as the state reels from devastating wildfires that only worsen by the year, power outages, poor air quality, and a burgeoning cost of living.

The California dream may be fading as the idyllic oceanfront state sees warming temperatures, burning blazes, challenges in controlling the coronavirus pandemic, and sky-high real estate prices.

Monica Gupta Mehta and her husband said that this years furious fires that darkened the skies over their Palo Alto home made them consider moving their family elsewhere.

'For the first time in 20-something years, the thought crossed our minds: Do we really want to live here?' Mehta said to the Washington Post.

'Yesterday felt so apocalyptic. People are really starting to reconsider whether California has enough to offer them,' Mehta added.

Between 2007 and 2016, some 5 million residents moved to California and 6 million people moved out to other states, according to KSBW.

More people are leaving California than arriving, driven out by worsening wildfires, power outages, and the skyrocketing cost of living. Cars drive along the Golden Gate Bride under a haze of orange smoke in San Francisco on September 9

A poll conducted late 2019 by the University of California at Berkeley found more than half of California voters have given 'serious' or 'some' consideration to leaving due to the high cost of housing, heavy taxation, or political culture.

According to Census data in 2018 more than 86,000 people left California for Texas, nearly 70,000 left for Arizona and about 55,000 left for Washington, according to NBC.

People making $55,000 or less a year were mostly moving out of California between 2007 and 2016 while people making more than $200,000 a year moved in, according to the US Census Bureau.

California's 40 million residents are only seeing the state's issues exacerbated in the pandemic as the Golden State now has more cases of COVID-19 than any other state.

President Donald Trump has blasted California, where he lost by 30 percentage points, as an example of Democrat-sparked urban unrest.

He has repeatedly slammed the state for its immigration policy in creating the first 'sanctuary state' for undocumented immigrants, poor forest management that leads to wildfires, and handling of the pandemic.

Wildfires in California have worsened over the past years, fueled by the warming planet and more severe weather conditions. Vehicles that were destroyed by the Bear fire, part of the North Complex fires, in Berry Creek, California above on Saturday

Los Angeles County firefighters, using only hand tools, keep fire from jumping a fire break at the Bobcat Fire in the Angeles National Forest on Friday in Monrovia

This satellite image taken Saturday shows smoke from Oregon and California wildfires moving west, south and east

But its liberal policies are a reason so many people flock to the state as marijuana is legal, a measure to restore affirmative action in college admissions is on the November ballot, and the legislature just created a committee to study the cost of reparations to racial and ethnic groups the state has historically mistreated.

Today a slew of more than two dozen wildfires are burning, scorching through millions of acres, in the worst inferno in history.

The flames have ripped through a record 3.1million acres of land, more than 3,000 homes and killed at least 22 people.

The fires are sparked by the states extreme weather with soaking wet seasons followed by sharp, dry heat and high wind. Wine Country has burned for four years straight.

'Hopefully, this is a wake-up call,' Anne-Marie Bonneau, who two decades ago left her home in Ontario, Canada, for the Bay Area, said to the Post.

'What is it going to take for this country to do something about the climate crisis? Millions of people are affected by this,' she added.

She believes whats happening in California is a warning of whats to come for the rest of the country.

'As always, Californias sort of on the leading edge. Were always ahead of everybody,' she said.

The coronavirus pandemic is another threat the state is still battling as the virus has infected more than 750,000 and killed more than 14,000 of the state

Kim Cobb, a climate scientist, says despite warning of the dangers of a warming planet for years, even she is shocked by the Wests wildfires this summer.

'The science couldnt be any clearer on this point. The links between warming temperatures and these wildfires are clear. This is going to get a lot worse. . . . I know that challenges the imagination,' Cobb said.

The coronavirus pandemic is another threat the state is still battling as the virus has infected more than 750,000 and killed more than 14,000 of the state.

Latinos account for 61 percent of coronavirus cases, which is a disproportionately high infection rate as they make up just 35 percent of the overall state population.

Many are 'essential workers' serving food, picking crops and working jobs where they need to commute.

Disparities in income are extreme in California, which houses millionaires in Silicon Valley and Hollywood, while the rest of the state is increasingly a service economy.

Median income in the state is $75,277 and the median home price in San Francisco is $1.3million  nearly twice that of Los Angeles.

Three years ago, state lawmakers approved the nations second-highest gasoline tax, adding more than 47 cents to the price of a gallon, forcing service workers to move farther inland and into fire country, leaving them paying more income on fuel to commute to work.

Disparities in income are extreme in California, which houses millionaires in Silicon Valley and Hollywood, while the rest of the state is increasingly a service economy. Median income in the state is $75,277 and the median home price in San Francisco is $1.3million  nearly twice that of Los Angeles. Beverly Hills mansions above

Long commutes and high real estate that force people to live away from work also undermines the states goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2045  a necessary measure to alleviate extreme weather.

San Francisco is seeing a slew of tech workers flee thanks to the ability to work remotely amid the pandemic.

'The tech workers werent necessarily attached to the city, they came here because there was opportunity,' Peter Alvaro, a professor of computer science at the University of California at Santa Cruz, said.

'I hope the city can regrow some of the unique character that was lost in the last boom. The fact that young, wealthy adults are fleeing is good for the culture,' he added.

Last month Gary Cook and his wife packed their three rescue cats into a rented SUV and drove from Napa to Idaho, to build a new life after 18 years in Wine Country.

Some people say they left the state for its liberal politics. Gov. Gavin Newsom above during a tour of the North Complex Fire in Butte County on Friday

Cook says it wasnt the fires that drove them out but the high cost of living, high taxes, power outages and politics. He said that as a conservative, he felt he no longer had a voice in California politically.

'There were significant changes going on that changed our outlook on the whole California dream,' Cook said.

Scott Fuller, who runs a real estate relocation business, says his business is booming as locals flee for a new life elsewhere.

His company called Leaving the Bay Area and Leaving SoCal helps people move away, sell their homes, and find others.

He says that Nevada, Arizona, Texas and Idaho are the top four states his clients are buying in.

He adds many tech workers are trying out smaller industry markets like Denver, Austin, Phoenix, and Seattle.

While a slew of people are fleeing California, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have recently moved in

The couple moved into their $14.65million mansion in Santa Barbara in July

'For a lot of people, [Californias] losing its luster. For the average person who maybe came out here for the weather, I think theyre saying the trade-off is just not worth it any longer,' Fuller said to the Post.

While a slew of people are fleeing California, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have recently moved in.

The couple moved into their $14.65million mansion in Santa Barbara in July.

They purchased the property, known as 'The Chateau' for $14.65million on June 18, making them neighbors with celebrities Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres.
The San Antonio Metropolitan Health District reported 124 new cases of the novel coronavirus in Bexar County on Saturday, increasing the total number of positives to 48,198.

District officials also reported one death within the last two weeks, a Black woman in her 80s with underlying medical conditions.

The death toll stood at 992 Saturday as verified by Metro Health.

There are still 199 deaths under investigation by Metro Health as it continues to verify death certificates in the Texas Department of State Health Services database. Metro Health is now reporting verified deaths that occurred more than two weeks ago in seven-day batches on Sundays.

On ExpressNews.com: Get the latest update on coronavirus and a tracking map of U.S. cases

The number of people with COVID-19 reported to be in San Antonio hospitals dropped for the 11th straight day to 260, down from 278 Friday. Of those, 110 were in intensive care, down from 113 Friday, and 55 were on ventilators to help them breathe, down from 59 Friday.

Just last week, there were 57 more coronavirus patients hospitalized.

Additionally, Bexar County saw 883 new cases between Saturday and last Saturday, an improvement from the more than 1,000 the county saw the week prior.

As the numbers start to show progress, the city adjusted its risk level from moderate to safe Wednesday.

But Commissioner Kevin Wolff warned San Antonians not to get lulled into complacency at Fridays briefing.

The numbers are looking OK right now but dont let that deter you, he said. Make sure youre following those guidelines and well get through this.

Area reports

Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez lifted the countys stay-at-home order Saturday.

He first signed a stay-at-home order for the county March 25.

Cortez noted the countys coronavirus statistics are improving.

I recognize the sacrifices made by those who have abided by this order, he said. I also recognize that this restriction has caused some hardship with families.

While he lifted the stay-at-home order, he said the virus still poses a threat. The countys curfew remains in place from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Face coverings are still required in spaces open to the public, and officials are encouraging people older than 65  that age group is at higher risk of severe illness if they contract the virus  to stay home.

On ExpressNews.com: Along the Texas-Mexico border, its the worst coronavirus crisis

Hidalgo County added 126 new coronavirus cases Friday, bringing the countys total to 29,335.

There were 252 coronavirus patients in Hidalgo County hospitals as of Friday, 90 of those in intensive care.

The county has seen 1,381 fatalities from the virus, reporting 26 new deaths Friday.

In Laredo, about 150 miles up the Rio Grande, one new death was confirmed Saturday, a man in his early 80s, bringing the citys total to 267.

Laredo has had 12,580 positive cases of coronavirus since the pandemic started in mid-March  696 of those were listed as active Saturday.

About 115 patients with COVID-19 are hospitalized, with 53 in intensive care.

Liz Hardaway is a staff writer covering San Antonio government and politics. To read more from Liz, become a subscriber. liz.hardaway@hearst.com | Twitter: @liz_hardaway
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Authorities in New Hampshire searched a lake Saturday for an 83-year-old Massachusetts man who went missing Friday.

The search took place at Lake Massabesic in Auburn, New Hampshire.

New Hampshire State Police said officials were notified Friday night that Joseph Moreau of Methuen went fishing at the lake Friday morning but never returned.

Moreaus canoe was found along with all of his fishing equipment, which was still inside, authorities told NBC10 Boston. Moreaus car was also parked near the lake, the television station reported.

Authorities plan to search the area and lake Sunday.
MISHAWAKA, Ind. - A shooting at a northern Indiana mall left one person dead and sent shoppers running for safety, authorities said.

St. Joseph County Coroner Michael McGann said Saturday evening that one person was killed in the shooting about 3 p.m. at University Park Mall in Mishawaka. He did not release further details or the identity of the person killed.

Police also did not release information on a possible shooting suspect.

The shooting prompted the evacuation of the mall in the city just east of South Bend. Officers remained posted around the mall for hours afterward.

Videos posted on social media showed people running out of the mall in the seconds after the shooting.

Renee Dominik, 44, told the South Bend Tribune that she was in a mall play area with her husband and two children when she heard gunfire.

I heard a bang and saw people running, she said. I thought it was maybe a tornado.

Dominik said a shoe store employee directed people to take cover inside, and she and her family joined about 35 others who rushed into a room in the back of the store before they later left.
13.09.2020 LISTEN

IN THE MATER OF KENNEDY AGYEPONGS ATTACK ON JUDGES AND LAWYERS  DONT LOWER THE JUDICIARY BAR OF JUSTICE: CADRES TO THE GHANA BENCH

When people can get away with crimes just because they are wealthy or have the right connections, the scales are tipped against fairness and equality. The court is the bureaucracy of the law. If we want truth and justice to rule our global village, there must be NO hypocrisy. (quotes on judicial injustice)

The United Cadres Front of Ghana have learnt, listened and viewed the content of an audio-visual recording which is of public knowledge since August 2, 2020, and owned by the No.1 dishonourable Member of Parliament of Assin Central of the Republic of Ghana. Developments thereon leaves much to be desired hence, this open epistle to the revered Justices of the Bench as per below stated:

That we condemn in no uncertain terms the content of the material under reference which has since gone viral; That per the Member of Parliaments conduct, and considering the weight of his utterances alongside THREATS to His Lordship who is presiding over a litigation on a land matter involving the character, and knowing the capability of same, the UCF-Ghana is of the collective opinion that JUSTICE takes its course; That per rumours making the rounds (which the Lordships do not in any way rely on), it is alleged that the President of the Republic of Ghana, had intercourse with His Lordship the Chief Justice of this same Republic to intervene and make sure Mr. Kennedy Agyepong is NOT jailed. It is further alleged, that the Chief Justice had impressed upon the culprit in this regard to do an open retraction of what the recording contains, and proceed to apologise to the affected Judge who, it is alleged has been talked to by the Chief Justice. True to form, and as if to confirm the rumour, a letter dated September 8, 2020, captioned: APOLOGY TO THE HONOURABLE CHIEF JUSTICE, JUDGES AND MAGISTRATES ASSOCIATION OF GHANA. In that scribble, the dishonourable Member of Parliament owned the content of the audio-visual recording, and has accordingly apologized to the Judiciary; That with prejudice prior to the acceptance or otherwise of the Bench, the United Cadres Front of Ghana, take serious exception per the disparaging and dangerous conduct over time and at the various intervals by the character in discussion, that his attempt to desecrate the Judiciary must NOT go unpunished, but rather  SEVERELY PUNISHED. We are of this view because if he is left of the judicial fangs of the law, the Judiciary would be left with NO PRECEDENCE of reference to deal with future offenders of same or worst magnitude, and that would give credence to such reckless acts with untamed IMPUNITY; That the UCF-Ghana is aware the recipient Lordship of Dishounorable Kennedy Agyepongs insults has summoned him to his court on September 14, 2020, to answer a case of contempt. Much as we see it as an apt decision, we feel His Lordship goes one step further to report a case bordering on THREAT OF DEATH to the police against Kennedy Agyepong. We make this request with the fresh memory of Ahmed Suale whose life was terminated based on similar threats he has issued to the Lordship; and That the Lord Chief Justice, Judges and the Magistrates, consider the opening judicial quote to this plea, and exorcise judicial hypocrisy, and allow refined reasoning to be at play in this regard.

Electronically signed

Shine Gaveh

(Chairman)
A meeting between the federal government and labour unions to discuss the hike in petroleum prices and electricity tariff has been moved to Tuesday, PREMIUM TIMES has learnt.

The government announced the meeting to avert the planned strike by labour unions and other civil society organisations over the price increases.

The Nation newspaper reported that President Muhammadu Buhari Friday directed the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, to dialogue with the labour unions on September 12.

But the spokesperson of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Charles Akpan, in a phone interview said:

The meeting has been moved to Tuesday, September 15.

He said the meeting was moved to Tuesday to accommodate all participants.

The venue is Banquet Hall of Presidential Villa. You know all parties that will be involved in the negotiation must be present, he said.

Meanwhile, the President of Trade Union Council, Quadri Olaleye, in a phone interview with PREMIUM TIMES said the meeting could not hold on Saturday because the unions were not properly informed: and we dont attend such impromptu meetings.

We only read about the meeting in the media but now we have been properly communicated to so the meeting is now 10 a.m. on Tuesday, he said.

Grouse

PREMIUM TIMES reported how electricity distribution companies (DisCos) increased tariff from N30.23 to N62.33 per kWh for millions of consumers after government said it would no longer subsidize electricity consumption.

Also, the federal government removed the subsidy on petrol which led to an increase in price from N145 to about N161 per litre.

While the federal government says it no longer has the funds to subsidize petrol and electricity, critics say the governments actions will worsen the plight of millions of Nigerians who are still reeling from the economic impact of COVID-19.

NLC

In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria Saturday night, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) President, Ayuba Wabba said the labour unions will not protest until the Central Working Committee meets and agrees on an appropriate action.

Labour takes one battle at a time; it does not make an announcement without backing its action, NAN quoted Mr Wabba as saying.
California: Diminishing winds and rising humidity helped deadly blazes in Oregon and California, but with dozens of people still missing, authorities in both states feared that the receding flames could reveal many more dead across the blackened landscape.

Oregon's emergency management director said officials were preparing for a possible "mass fatality event," and the state fire marshal was abruptly placed on administrative leave.

More than two dozen people have died in wildfires in California, Oregon and Washington. The White House announced that President Donald Trump would visit California on Monday for a briefing on the fires.

The same smoke that painted California skies orange also helped crews corral the state's deadliest blaze of the year by blocking the sun, reducing temperatures and raising humidity, officials said.

At least 18 people have been killed in recent blazes in California.

Oregon authorities have not released an exact death count, but at least eight fatalities were reported from the fires that have taken a toll from one end of the state to the other. Gov. Kate Brown said Friday that tens of thousands of people had been forced to flee their homes. One person was killed in blazes in Washington.

Two large blazes threatened to merge near the most populated part of Oregon, including the suburbs of Portland.

More than 40,000 Oregonians have been evacuated and about 500,000 are in different levels of evacuation zones, having been told to leave or to prepare to do so, Brown said. The governor dialled back a statement late Thursday by the state Office of Emergency Management that said a half-million people had been ordered to evacuate statewide.

Scores of people were missing in Jackson County in the southern area of the state and in Marion County east of Salem, the state capital, Brown told a news conference. Authorities also announced that a man had been arrested on two counts of arson in connection with a fire in southern Oregon.

Searchers found two victims of the so-called Beachie Creek fire near Salem.

A 1-year-old boy was killed in wildfires in Washington, authorities said.

Amid the smoke and flame, the Oregon fire marshal was placed on paid leave Saturday.

Oregon State Police Superintendent Travis Hampton said the crisis demanded an urgent response, which required a leadership change. Fire Marshal

Jim Walker was replaced on an acting basis by the chief deputy fire marshal.

Almost 500 firefighters were working on the fires near Portland, which were just a few miles (kilometers) apart. The rugged terrain between them limited efforts to contain the flames, Myers said.

If the fires merge, they could generate enough heat to send embers thousands of feet into the air, potentially igniting other areas.

More than 1,500 square miles (3,880 square kilometers) have burned in Oregon during recent days, nearly double the size of a typical year and an area larger than Rhode Island, authorities said.

The land burned in just the past five days amounted to the state's second-worst fire season, after 2015, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee noted. He called the blazes "climate fires" rather than wildfires.

"This is not an act of God," Inslee said.

"This has happened because we have changed the climate."

Jackson County Sheriff Nathan Sickler said a 41-year-old man was jailed on two charges of arson for a fire that started Tuesday in the Phoenix area in southern Oregon.

The fire that burned hundreds of homes had an ignition point in Ashland, near a spot where a man was found dead. Authorities said the man denied starting the fire.

Officials were working to locate about 50 missing people, Sickler said.

California crews made progress Friday in chopping or bulldozing brush-free lines to control the North Complex fire. Gusting winds that whipped up the flames days earlier eased while smoke blocked out the sun and lowered previously scorching temperatures. Saturday's high temperature was expected to top out at 80 degrees or less.

Nearly 15,000 firefighters were battling 28 major wildfires across California, although 24 were sparked Thursday and quickly contained.

The North Complex remained the deadliest this year. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea had said 10 bodies were found but on Friday lowered the figure.

Remains found in a burned storage shed turned out to be from a resin model of a human skeleton that was used by an anthropology student, he said.

A search continued for 19 missing people.

Back in Oregon, evacuation centers were open across the state.

Kim Carbaugh fled her home Monday in Lyons with her husband, two children and two horses.

"When we were driving away and I could see actual fire, the red and orange flames, at the time I didn't feel scared, I had so much adrenaline, we just had to leave," she said Friday from the livestock stables of an evacuation center at the state fairgrounds in Salem.

The site also housed hundreds of animals, dogs, llamas, horses, pigs, cows and chickens. Many people chose to camp or stay in RVs.

Charles Legg sat at a table with his 22-month-old son, who cooed and played with a dinosaur puzzle.

"He's OK," Legg said. "He's not eating as normal. He knows something is going on."
Top officials in West Coast states where record-breaking fires have killed 31 people have accused President Donald Trump of being in denial about the climate crisis.

'This is climate change, and this is an administration that's put its head in the sand,' Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told CNN on Sunday.

The mayor called for 'real action' as he slammed the Trump administration for hosting 'the last vestiges of the flat Earth society of this generation'.

Garcetti's comments came after the White House announced Trump's plans to meet Monday with the heads of California's emergency services as they battle historic infernos that have now burnt through nearly five million acres, an area roughly the size of New Jersey and an annual record - with nearly four months of the fire season still to come.

Officials warned of further fatalities with swathes of land in California, Oregon and Washington still cut off by flames fueled by tinder-dry conditions of the kind climate change causes.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti slammed President Donald Trump for denying climate change in an interview with CNN on Sunday morning

Wildfires across the West Coast have already burned nearly five million acres and killed 31 people in one of the worst fire seasons on record. Pictured: Firefighters work to control the Bear Fire in Berry Creek, California, on Saturday

Trump has made little comment about the blazes in recent weeks, but he acknowledged the scope of the disaster at a Nevada campaign event on Saturday (pictured). 'They never had anything like this,' he said. 'Please remember the words, very simple, forest management'

Trump has made little comment about the blazes in recent weeks, but at a Nevada campaign event on Saturday he acknowledged the scope of the disaster.

'They never had anything like this,' said Trump, who systematically downplays global warming. 'Please remember the words, very simple, forest management.'

Garcetti hit back, saying that 'anybody that lives in California is insulted by that'.

'Talk to a firefighter if you think that climate change isn't real,' he said.

'We need real action. We need to reduce the carbon emissions that we have. And we need to make sure we can manage this water. This isn't about forest management or raking.'

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said Saturday it was 'undeniable' that 'climate change poses an imminent, existential threat to our way of life.'

His running mate, California senator Kamala Harris, backed him up Sunday on Twitter, saying Trump 'denies the evidence.'

'Over the past few years, CA has experienced some of the largest, most destructive wildfires in history - fueled & intensified by the climate crisis,' Harris wrote.

Garcetti's comments came after the White House announced Trump's plans to meet with the heads of California's emergency services on Monday

Berry Creek volunteer firefighter Zack Gable sifts through charred rubble from the Bear Fire

Fire damage is seen in Mill City, Oregon, on Saturday after a blaze ripped through the town

Worsening the sense of doom, all five of the world's most air-polluted cities Saturday were on the West Coast, according to IQAir, with dense smog and ash coating the atmosphere from Los Angeles up to Vancouver in Canada.

'It's apocalyptic,' Washington state governor Jay Inslee told ABC.

'It's maddening right now we have this cosmic challenge to our communities, the entire West Coast of the United States on fire, to have a president to deny that these are not just wildfires, these are climate fires,' Inslee said.

More than 20,000 firefighters are battling the blazes, with officials warning that cooler weather could end Monday as warmer, drier conditions return.

Most of the fatalities have occurred in California and Oregon, with emergency services in the two states recording 30 deaths.

Among them was a 13-year-old boy in Oregon, found in a car with his dog in his lap. The road was so hot it had melted the tires as he tried to flee.

Preparations have been hampered by online claims that 'extremists' are intentionally setting fires in Oregon, which have been debunked by the FBI.

Facebook said Saturday it was removing the posts.

In Oregon some inhabitants returned from evacuation Saturday and patrolled the streets with guns for fear of looting

The skeletal silouhette of burnt trees are seen after a wildfire swept through an trailer park destroying multiple homes in Estacada, Oregon, on Saturday

Marcelino Maceda looks for items in the remains of his mobile home after a wildfire swept through Estacada

In Estacada, a rural Oregon town just miles from a fire, that was deserted earlier this week, some inhabitants returned from evacuation Saturday and patrolled the streets with guns for fear of looting, according to an AFP reporter.

Others holed up indoors as thick, acrid smoke hung in the air and fresh layers of ash from nearby blazes continued to blanket the streets.

Police in Multnomah County, where Portland is situated, issued a notice threatening arrest to armed residents who had established roadblocks near their communities.

Joy, a 56-year-old woman sheltering outside Portland who declined to give her last name, told AFP that she and her daughter don't know if their house in Aims - a short drive east - is still standing.

They decided to evacuate when they saw a flying bird had 'completely dropped out of the sky'.

'If it's killing God's creatures, I don't want to die too,' she told AFP.

In California, Butte County sheriff Kory Honea said additional officials had been brought in to check for human remains, but it was too hot to search.

In a rare sliver of good news, one believed fire victim in Butte County turned out to be a burned anatomical skeleton from a local classroom.

Six of the 20 largest fires in California history have taken place in the last month
John Abraham has said he is doesnt subscribe to terms like insider or outsider and believes that every individual has to fight his/her own battle. The actor was speaking on the insider-outsider debate which has been raging since the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput in June.

Sharing his views on the insider-outsider debate, John said, I dont subscribe to such terms. This is your Twitter trending culture. I believe every individual, be it an insider or outsider, has his/ her own battles to fight. Whether you are gracious about it or bitter, its your decision, but you have to fight this battle. Every person has to prove a point, either you complain about it, or put your head down and bloody do your job. I am clear I have come here to do my job, and I will do it well.

John added that every one has to create his/her own standards. Did I come from outside the industry and make it on my own? Yes. Its a great example for people. Do I think people from the industry are gracious? They are damn bloody gracious. Are all of them gracious? Maybe not, but that exists everywhere in every industry, he added.

John had made his acting debut with 2003 film Jism and is now a successful actor-producer with multiple films in his kitty. The Dostana actor was seen in three films last year: comedy multi-starrer Pagalpanti, spy thriller Romeo Akbar Walter and Batla House, of which he was also the co-producer.

Also read: Plants for SSR: Mukesh Chhabra plants a sapling to fulfil one of Sushant Singh Rajputs 50 dreams

He currently has three projects in the making. He is yet to complete the shooting of Sanjay Guptas multi-starrer crime drama, Mumbai Saga. He will also be seen with Jacqueline Fernandez and Rakul Preet Singh in Attack, which he will co-produce as well. There is also Satyameva Jayate 2 lined up for release.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

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By Madelyn Reese

San Jose Spotlight

As Santa Clara County's homeless population continues to grow, county officials are moving to turn more hotel properties into permanent and interim housing.

The county is vying for $19 million in state CARES Act funds through California's project Homekey to purchase and refurbish two hotel properties and turn them into interim housing for the most vulnerable.

The properties being eyed include an Extended Stay America property in Milpitas on Hillview Court and the Santa Clara Inn in San Jose. Combined, the hotels would provide 106 units.

The state saw success with Roomkey, a project funded by the CARES Act to provide temporary housing in hotels across the state, including Santa Clara County, in response to COVID-19. Now the focus has turned to creating longer-lasting solutions. At last count, nearly 10,000 individuals were unhoused in Santa Clara County.

Interest from hotel sellers has been high.

"(We've) received additional inquiries from other hotel owners but at this time we are waiting to see if the state makes additional funding available," said Consuelo Hernandez, division manager at the county's Office of Supportive Housing, which is overseeing much of the project.

It's likely the Extended Stay location in Milpitas will win funding but the competition in the Bay Area has been tough. Whether the county's application for the Santa Clara Inn is successful is uncertain, according to Hernandez.

"We could still receive funding for Santa Clara Inn if one of the other regions does not fully allocate their share (of funding)," Hernandez said. About $600 million from the CARES Act has been split between eight regions throughout California.

Both hotels already had been on the county's radar to purchase and refurbish using Measure A Affordable Housing Bond funds to turn into interim or permanent housing.

If approved, the Extended Stay in Milpitas could include case management offices, exterior improvements and amenities to the site, according to Hernandez. It would provide a minimum of 79 units for interim housing while the county applies for tax credits to convert the entire site to permanent, supportive housing.

Lisa Moreno, a resident of Milpitas and co-founder of Hope for the Unhoused and Milpitas Parent Coalition, supports the project.

"(Because) it's not near the neighborhoods, I don't think there's a lot of opposition," Moreno said. The property is near the Highway 680 interchange next to Hillview Executive Park.

Moreno said she's seen compassion from her friends, neighbors and others on Nextdoor. She said she has been fighting for additional services for the homeless for years, services that San Jose has but Milpitas does not.

"You see the people in San Jose that will come if they know resources are there," Moreno said. "They're people and all they want to do is be acknowledged. So I want to ask the county: What can you do for us? What does (Milpitas) need to do to get some of these services?"

The transitional housing on Hillview Court is a step, Moreno acknowledged, but it's not going to solve the problem.

"My long-term wish is that federal, local and state governments would work together to provide the necessary wraparound services for these individuals," Moreno said. "This problem is not going to go away. It's going to get worse."

Contact Madelyn Reese at reese.madelyn@gmail.com and follow her @MadelynGReese

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.
College Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

Bryant "Corky" Messner, the Republican candidate for US Senate in New Hampshire, made controversial remarks about Chinese students in video footage obtained by Insider.

Messner suggested encouraging Chinese students to study the liberal arts instead of "hard sciences," or to outright ban them from studying in the US.

Several Chinese and Chinese-American college students in New Hampshire criticized his remarks, telling Insider that it was "dangerous rhetoric for people who look like me or people who have family or friends who are Chinese."

Asked for comment about the responses, Messner, who won his party's primary on Tuesday, walked back his previous remarks.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A Republican US Senate nominee is coming under sharp criticism for accusing the hundreds of thousands of Chinese students in the US of stealing American intellectual property and saying they should be banned from studying "hard sciences."

Bryant "Corky" Messner, a Trump-endorsed candidate in New Hampshire, previously referred to the US-China trade tensions and has taken aim at Chinese students, who he broadly alleged were agents of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP); and that they were receiving a US education only to return to China on behalf of the government.

Messner is up against Democratic incumbent Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who was previously elected for two terms. The Senate election in New Hampshire will be held on November 3.

"I think one of the things we ought to do ... is say to the students, those students, 'You're welcome to study here, but you must study economics, the American constitution, freedom,'" Messner said during the GOP meeting in July, according to video footage obtained by Insider. "Not study the hard sciences, computer science, physics, chemistry, and not give them that kind of education. Let's educate them in freedom and individual liberty.

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Bryant "Corky" Messner Amanda Biundo/Corky for Senate Campaign via AP

"They're exerting their influence throughout the world and it is time for us to be serious about the Chinese Communist Party. Yes, sir," Messner said, adding that the US had unwittingly become "the research and development arm" for China.

In a separate controversial recording, Messner also suggested outright banning students from China.

"We also have to, I think, not allow Chinese students to attend American universities, because they come here and they become educated, and they go back with our intellectual property," Messner said in May, according to HuffPost.

A student-run organization from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire said in a statement to Insider it was "deeply disheartened" by Messner's remarks.

"We wholeheartedly believe that banning a targeted group of students from studying certain subjects is blatant discrimination," the Dartmouth Chinese Culture Society said. "Education in the hard sciences is not a private good restricted for particular ethnicities or nationalities. Rather, it should be open for everyone to pursue."

"While we acknowledge that learning about American values is important, we disagree with Mr. Messner's statement that Chinese students can only study economics, the American Constitution, and freedom," the organization added. "Politicizing the hard sciences not only undermines students' individual interests and passions, but also interferes with the development of scientific research for the well-being of everyone."

Ariel Skelley/Getty Images

'That's just not how human beings work'

Five Chinese and Chinese-American students majoring in different fields at New Hampshire universities criticized Messner's comments, telling Insider his rhetoric is concerning. All of the students spoke anonymously citing privacy concerns and the potential for retribution from their universities or the CCP.

"I don't think education and knowledge should be kept on guard or seen as private where only certain people are allowed to have access while other people are not," a native Chinese student told Insider. "People come to American colleges to learn, to study, and further their knowledge."

The student, a computer science major, explained that she came to the US for the sole purpose of attending her university. Although she did not experience any overt racism during her time in the US, she adds that Messner's rhetoric contributes to the current tension with her country.

"It definitely contributes to this anti-Chinese sentiment that has been bubbling in America for quite sometime," she said. "And I don't think it's going away anytime soon."

Another university student who immigrated from China roughly a decade ago acknowledged that Messner's concern for intellectual slippage back to Beijing had some merit, but noted that his solution to the issue was overly broad and would implicate those who had no ties to the CCP.

"I understand his concern, it is valid," the student said to Insider. "However, I also think that not every international student should be objectified and seen as a weapon for research, because that's just not how human beings work, obviously. Simplifying students and human beings into weapons and arms for research really objectifies us."

"International students bring so much value to America and they actually contribute so much to students's intellectual growth," the student added. "America also has international students studying abroad overseas, and I haven't really heard of any other country saying, 'American students are stealing our information.'"

A freshman attending the University of California, Los Angeles moves into her dorm, September 25, 2014. Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

A Chinese-American student who was born and raised in the US characterized Messner's comments as a slippery slope, in that his scrutiny could reasonably extend beyond Chinese natives and include Chinese-Americans, particularly those who still had family members overseas: "Where do you draw the line with our connection with China? I'm a Chinese-American, but I identify more 'American' because I grew up here."

"It's just labeling all people who may look Chinese as someone who may have alternative motives for a good education," the Chinese-American student told Insider. "Which is, I think, dangerous and kind of disrespectful to Chinese students trying to learn and improve the world  they just happen to be doing it in America.

"As a Chinese-American, I would never want my motives for receiving an education to be questioned," she added. "Just because I'm Chinese-American, is he saying that it makes me dangerous because of that connection to China? It's disrespectful and it could be a dangerous rhetoric for people who look like me or people who have family or friends who are Chinese."

Another Chinese-American college student in New Hampshire said Messner was conflating two different categories of Chinese students  one "that wants an education with an ultimate goal of settling down in the US," and another who received a US-based education and "heads back to China to work."

"I think it's wrong to simply put those two groups together," he told Insider. "If you're coming here to study with a goal of finding a job here, that's literally just opposite of what he's saying."

Asked for comment about the response from the students in New Hampshire, Messner, who won his party's primary on Tuesday, walked back his previous remarks.

"We cannot allow Chinese students to be blamed for their government's actions," Messner told Insider in a statement. "The Chinese Communist government's professed goals to use any means to gain access to American research and technology, including through academic contacts, pose a threat to our national security, but I oppose discriminating against or targeting students from China."

"International students add so much to campus diversity and American-born students can learn so much about the world through them," Messner added.

Scientists work with samples taken for testing for the coronavirus on May 12, 2020. REUTERS/Marko Djurica

Brain-drain allegations

Messner's remarks draw upon allegations made by the Trump administration. The president and federal agencies frequently assert that Chinese academics illegally obtain trade secrets and research in the US-based colleges and corporations before returning to China.

The FBI warned universities to monitor visiting scholars and students from China, and a US Senate report found that the CCP compels some overseas researchers to make secret agreements that may violate scientific codes. Although Chinese academics in the US have been charged by federal investigators in recent months, there is no evidence to support claims that a Beijing-sponsored campaign is a widespread occurrence.

Around 370,000 students from China studied in the US during the 2018-2019 academic year. The University of Southern California hosts the most number of college-level students from China, followed by schools within the University of California system  such as UCLA, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, and UC San Diego, according to The Los Angeles Times.

The Trump administration on Wednesday took steps to combat a CCP goal to "remake the world order in its own authoritarian image" and blocked the visas of over 1,000 Chinese students and researchers that were considered "high-risk."

President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the start of their bilateral meeting at the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo/File Photo

A State Department official said in a statement that the blocked visas only represented a small portion of Chinese students and researchers, and that it was primarily directed against those with ties to the Chinese military.

"We are blocking visas for certain Chinese graduate students and researchers with ties to China's military fusion strategy to prevent them from stealing and otherwise appropriating sensitive research," Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said in a speech on Wednesday.

"From intellectual property theft and stealing trade secrets that rob from American innovators, to harvesting personal data to turn a profit, shattering the privacy of Americans of all ages, to exporting unjust business practices in the form of state backed enterprises that harm American entrepreneurs, to hacking attempts to penetrate and compromise American organizations conducting COVID research, to abusing student visas to exploit American academia, the actions of China may be unabating, but they are not unthwartable," Wolf added.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian in a statement to reporters accused the policy of infringing on students's rights.

"It is outright political persecution and racial discrimination, and seriously violated the human rights of Chinese students studying there," Zhao said in the statement, adding that China "reserves the right to make a further response on this issue."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Here is the status of some of Oregons more than 28 large wildfires as of Sunday morning.

The death toll grew to 10, with three more human remains found in Jackson County. Meanwhile, of the 50 people unaccounted for only one remaining missing in the aftermath of a blaze that leveled entire neighborhoods in the small southern Oregon towns of Phoenix and Talent.

Statewide, wildfires have burned more than a million acres. The Oregonian/OregonLive has compiled fire information and evacuation resources for 10 of the states most prominent blazes, with information updated as of Saturday afternoon. Click on each fire name to see a map and find out more about the blaze:

Beachie Creek fire is lower left. Lionshead is lower right and Riverside is center above.

Beachie Creek

Location: Santiam Canyon east of Salem, six miles north of Detroit

Size: 188,374 acres

Containment: 0%

Cause: Unknown

Evacuation resources: Marion County

Several communities and communication infrastructure threatened. Evacuations, area, road and trail closures in effect.

Holiday Farm

Location: East of the Eugene-Springfield area

Size: 161,872 acres

Containment: 5%

Cause: Unknown

Evacuation resources: Lane County; Linn County

The community of Blue River was decimated early Tuesday as the Holiday Farm fire tore west along the McKenzie River and Oregon 126 in Lane County, ravaging forests, homes and mom-and-pop shops.

Lionshead

Location: 20 miles west of Warm Springs

Size: 138,718 acres

Containment: 5%

Cause: Lightning

Evacuation resources: State dashboard

The lightning-caused fire started on the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation about 14 miles west of Warm Springs and has spread to the Willamette National Forest and beyond.

The Slater and Devil fires have merged on the Oregon-California border..

Slater/Devil Fire

Location: Josephine County

Size: 130,482 acres

Containment: 0%

Cause: Unknown

Evacuation resources: Josephine County

Community of Happy Camp, California, and energy infrastructure are threatened. Evacuations, area, road and trail closures in effect.

Fire commanders remain concerned about whether the Riverside fire in Clackamas County (top, center) would merge with the Beachie Creek and Lionshead fires (lower center).

Location: Near Estacada

Size: 132.526 acres

Containment: 0%

Cause: Human

Evacuation resources: Clackamas County

Clackamas County Sheriffs Office late Saturday dropped the evacuation level for Canby, Oregon City and Sandy from Level 2 (Set) to Level 1 (Ready). Widespread dense wildfire smoke will continue over the fire area. Moderate fire behavior reported as of Sunday morning, with creeping, single tree torching and isolated torching.

The Archie Creek fire is burning 20 miles east of Glide.

Archie Creek

Location: Northeast of Roseburg

Size: 115,857 acres

Containment: 10%

Cause: Under investigation

Evacuation resources: Maps

Large tracts of private and federal timber lands continue to be threatened. Electrical transmission lines are damaged or are threatened. Recreation areas and resorts are closed due to the fire. Progress is being made with structure assessments, protection of structures, use of roads, power infrastructure, containment of fire, and opportunities for future containment. Additional resources are coming to help.

Wildfire tracker: See all fires in Oregon and across the nation

Two Four Two

Location: Six miles northeast of Chiloquin

Size: 14,450 acres

Containment: 10%

Cause: Unknown

Evacuation resources: InciWeb

Strong winds expected Sunday, raising concern. Extreme fire behavior with group and isolated torching. Numerous structures and communications infrastructure threatened. Evacuations, area, road and trail closures in effect.

S. Obenchain

Location: Jackson County, five miles east of Eagle Point

Size: 30,503 acres

Containment: 20%

Cause: Under investigation

Evacuation resources: Jackson County

No new information released Sunday morning.

Brattain

Location: Lake County, southwest of Paisley

Size: 8,000

Containment: 0%

Cause: Human

Evacuation: The Level 3 (Go) evacuation notice for the Brattain Fire Southwest of Paisley is still in effect for all residents of Paisley. From Red House Lane (north of Paisley), South on Highway 31 to Clover Flat Road onto Clover Flat Road to Forest Service Road 3510 (Moss Pass Road). There is a Level 1 (Be Ready) evacuation notice in place this morning for residences between Government Harvey Road (Forest Road 29) and Red House Lane, as well as on Clover Flat Road between Forest Road 3510 and Valley Falls.

The fire is burning in the Fremont-Winema National Forest, near Morgan Butte, approximately 10 miles south of Paisley. The fire is burning in sagebrush-juniper with stringers of Ponderosa Pine in steep, rugged terrain with limited access points. Forecasted weather conditions include a Red Flag Warning from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Sunday for strong, gusty winds and low relative humidity over the fire area.

Thielsen

Location: Diamond Lake area

Size: 5,110 acres

Containment: 0%

Cause: Unknown

Evacuation resources: Douglas County

Ten structures have been lost in the blaze, according to fire personnel.

The Almeda fire started on private land and raced through Phoenix and Talent south of Medford.

Almeda

Location: Ashland, Talent, Phoenix and Medford area

Size: 3,200 acres

Containment: 50%

Cause: Being investigated as arson

Evacuation resources: Jackson County

Started on private land one mile north of Ashland, OR. Timber, brush and tall grass. Active fire behavior with backing and creeping. Several communities threatened. Evacuations, area and road closures in effect.

Echo Mountain was threatening the tiny town of Otis, along Oregon 18, which remained closed Sunday for eight miles east of U.S. 101.

Echo Mountain Complex

Location: Lincoln County

Size: 2,435 acres

Containment: 15%

Cause: Under investigation

Evacuation resources: Lincoln County

Minimal fire behavior with creeping, backing and smoldering. Communities of Otis and Lincoln City threatened. Evacuations and road closures in effect.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 16:07:47|Editor: huaxia

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BANGKOK, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- A Thai university on Sunday published on its website the positive results in animal trial for a COVID-19 candidate vaccine.

Chulalongkorn University said that its joint research with Baiya Phytopharm, a startup Thai pharmaceutical firm, has shown encouraging results in boosting antibody levels in hamsters, rats and monkeys.

"We used Baiya SARS-CoV Vax 1, which was developed from nicotiana benthamiana tobacco leaves, and tested on white mice and monkeys," said Dr. Suthira Taychakhoonavudh, a researcher involved in the development of several COVID-19 candidate vaccines.

Suthira said that the test results from the animals showed that the vaccine boosts the level of antibodies in their bodies effectively after two doses.

"Our next step will be to evaluate the toxicology or side effects of the candidate vaccine," said Suthira, who is also associate dean of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Chulalongkorn University.

Suthira said the COVID-19 immunity level of the monkeys in the tests will be reviewed again six months after they were initially vaccinated.

Meanwhile, Dr. Narin Hiransuthikul, vice rector of Chulalongkorn University, said that the university is in close consultation with the National Vaccines Institute, the Food and Drugs Administration and the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, to seek endorsement as well as to ensure that the candidate vaccines meet the required international standards.

He said that the next phase of tests will be conducted at the Primate Research Center in Kaeng Khoi district of Saraburi province in central Thailand, a lab with animal bio safety level 3 facilities.

Narin said that if vaccine experiments are successful to the end stage, there will be qualified pharmaceutical manufacturers ready to mass produce the vaccines on a commercial basis.

The Thai government in August approved a funding of 1 billion baht (32 million U.S. dollars) for the development of a vaccine against COVID-19.

The funding was handed over to Thailand's National Vaccine Institute. Enditem
MINDEN, Nev.  President Donald Trump set the tone early on at his rally in northern Nevada Saturday night, warning that he was prepared to "be really vicious" in the final weeks of the presidential campaign.

Fuming over a new ad about his alleged disparagement of U.S. military personnel, Trump arrived here with a torrent of insults ready to go. Pathetic Joe. Hes a pathetic human being to allow that to happen, Trump said of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and the ad Biden's campaign released last week, which seized on comments Trump reportedly made about Americas fallen soldiers.

But you know the good part? Trump continued. Now I can be really vicious. Once I saw that ad, I dont have to be nice anymore.

The president also claimed Biden, doesnt know hes alive.

Sleepy Joe Biden. You know where he is now? Hes in his damn basement again, Trump told the crowd.

He accused Nevadas Democratic governor of trying to rig the election, after Trump campaign officials were forced to move the Saturday night rally out of Reno, Nev. due to Covid-19 restrictions forbidding large crowds in the state. And he charged his political opponents with trying to hurt efforts to develop a coronavirus vaccine. The president also said the only way he would lose the election in November is if Democrats "rig" it.

Trumps fiery appearance at an airport hangar in Douglas County, which he carried by more than 30 percentage points in 2016, capped off a turbulent week for his reelection campaign, with aides left to play defense after taped interviews emerged of the president admitting to downplaying the dangers of Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, when the virus first reached the United States. Upon landing in the Silver State, Trump told reporters the pandemic is rounding the corner and repeated his unlikely claim that a vaccine will be available before the end of the year.

But coronavirus seemed far from the presidents mind when he stood before supporters on Saturday, railing against bird cemeteries that accumulate beneath wind turbines, dismissing concerns about lock her up chants that remain a staple of his rallies, and claiming Biden will be praised for his performance at the first presidential debate as long as he gets off the stage safely.

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It was an odd sequence of attacks for the president to offload in Nevada, where his campaign is attempting to court enough Hispanic voters to overcome the razor-thin margin he lost the state by in 2016  and potentially offset losses elsewhere.

The presidents campaign has spent months devising a backup plan that could get him to 270 electoral votes should he lose one or more of the Rust Belt states he flipped four years ago, focusing heavily on areas where his law-and-order message could break through and where polling shows marginal growth in his minority support.

Nevada is among the locations his campaign is targeting as they work to rebuild enthusiasm around his handling of the U.S. economy and solidify his support with Hispanic voters. Coronavirus-related lockdowns decimated the local economy in Las Vegas this summer after casinos and hotels were forced to shutter in accordance with statewide restrictions on large gatherings and indoor services. In Reno, doors were shut at local casinos for nearly two months this summer creating a major loss in room tax revenue across the industry.

Supporters of President Donald Trump gather at the Minden-Tahoe Airport in Minden, Nev., on Sept. 12, 2020.

Along with Arizona, where the president is traveling on Monday, Nevada is also a state where campaign aides believe Trumps expanded Latino support could make a difference in November. Latinos account for roughly 19 percent of Nevadas eligible voting population.

Towards the end of his winding, 90-minute speech Saturday night, the president nodded towards Hispanic voters' pivotal role in the state and, potentially, the country, touting a poll that he claimed showed he is leading Biden among that block of voters

In reality, Biden is leading Trump by double-digits among Hispanics nationally, although a Marist-NBC survey released Wednesday showed Trump with a 4-point edge among Hispanic voters in Florida. That's raised questions about a potential tectonic shift in Hispanic support toward the incumbent Republican, after Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton carried two-thirds of Florida Hispanics in 2016.

And it's another reason for alarm among Democrats, some of whom have been criticizing the Biden campaign for months for their lack of effort in Hispanic communities in Florida, Arizona and Nevada.

Until September, the Trump campaign had outspent Biden on Spanish-language television. The Biden campaign, however, recently told POLITICO it had increased its ad spending, surpassing Trump on Spanish-language channels last week, and also beefed up its Hispanic-outreach staff.

One official involved with the Trump campaign claimed the presidents support among Hispanic voters nationally has reached 30 to 35 percent in some internal polls, though the official declined to share the data with POLITICO.

Trump allies have a number of rationales for his rise in popularity among Hispanics. Some claim the pre-pandemic economy, which saw the Hispanic unemployment rate hit a record low of 3.9 percent a year ago, helped more Hispanics feel comfortable supporting the president, despite his record of racially insensitive rhetoric and policies. Others believe Biden has embraced policy positions that alienate Hispanic Catholics and workers in parts of Nevada, Arizona and Florida.

Trump suggested Saturday night he would do well with Hispanic voters in November because they "like tough people, they like people who are going to produce jobs. And by the way Hispanics know the border better than anyone."
Theyre drawing crowds in Sweden: cute and quirky shopfronts, delis and restaurants created by a mystery art collective called Anonymouse" that have popped up out of nowhere in some cities.

The catch? You have to get down on all fours to see them, tucked away as they are at the bottom of buildings, just big enough for mice.

Its like a treasure hunt," 29-year-old Madeleine tells AFP in Lund, a picturesque university town in the south of the Nordic country where the collectives latest works are on display.

Hidden away in knee-high crevices around the city, the works often take the form of mundane locations, such as student dorms or a restaurant, but always at a scale more welcoming to small rodents than humans.

Most often they include cheesy puns, like the music shop Ricotta Records" which sells classic albums like Back to Brie" by Amy Winemouse" and Stilton John"s Goodbye Yellow Cheese Roll".

The anonymous team behind the creations has been working together for four years, and the installations, which are temporary, are exclusively made of recycled materials.

Its the big world made small," 64-year old social worker Bengt tells AFP, walking past to admire one of the works.

There is almost always a message in them, it makes you think a little about how people are doing," 43-year-old Maria adds.

Remaining clandestine is a top priority for Anonymouse."

So when the Lund municipality commissioned some of the works, they did not even know where to send the check.

They now have 26 creations to their name, including soup kitchens, antique shops and a private detectives office, though they are always temporary and usually stay up for a few months.

Their works have also been seen in other cities in Sweden and beyond, in Bayonne in France and on the Isle of Man in the UK.

Reflecting on the Covid-19 pandemic, their first creation in Lund was a mouse pharmacy, complete with a sign encouraging visitors to Wash your paws."

The only thing that made sense was to build a pharmacy to somehow comment on the current global situation," a spokesperson, who introduced himself as Yasha Mousekewitz, told AFP via email.

Their creations have also been a hit on social media and the collective has garnered more than 139,000 followers on Instagram.
Two former British prime ministers who played crucial roles in bringing peace to Northern Ireland joined forces Sunday to urge lawmakers to reject government plans to override the Brexit deal with the European Union, arguing that it imperils that peace and damages the U.K.'s reputation.

In an article in The Sunday Times, John Major and Tony Blair slammed the current British government for ``shaming'' the country with legislation that, in places, goes against the very deal it signed to allow for the U.K.'s smooth departure from the EU earlier this year.

Major, a Conservative prime minister from 1990 to 1997, and Blair, his Labour successor for a decade, said Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Internal Market Bill ``questions the very integrity`` of the U.K.

``This government's action is shaming itself and embarrassing our nation,`` they said.

The planned legislation, which will be debated by British lawmakers this week, has led to a furious outcry within the EU as it would diminish the bloc's previously agreed oversight of trade between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland if a U.K.-EU trade agreement isn't secured.

The British government has admitted that the legislation would break international law, but argues that it's an insurance policy in the event a trade deal with the EU is not secured by the end of this year. Johnson has said the legislation is needed to end EU threats to impose a ``blockade'' in the Irish Sea that the prime minister asserted could ``carve up our country.'' EU leaders have furiously rejected that charge.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland told the BBC on Sunday that the legislation was a ``break the glass in emergency provision,`` if needed, and that he would resign if he believed the rule of law was broken in an ``unacceptable'' way.

``I don't believe we're going to get to that stage,'' he said.

With the British government showing no sign of changing course, there are real concerns that the talks on a future trade deal between the U.K. and the EU could collapse within weeks. If that happens, tariffs and other impediments to trade will be imposed by both sides at the start of 2021.

The U.K. left the EU on Jan. 31, but it is in a transition period that effectively sees it benefit from the bloc's tariff-free trade until the end of the year while a future relationship is negotiated. Even before the latest standoff, discussions between the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, and his U.K. counterpart, David Frost, had made very little progress.

One major element of the Brexit withdrawal agreement is the section related to ensuring an open border on the island of Ireland to protect the peace process in Northern Ireland.

The issue proved thorny during the more than two years of discussions it took to get a Brexit deal done, as the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland is the only land link between the U.K. and the EU.

The EU wanted assurances the border would not be used as a back route for unlicensed goods arriving in Ireland from the rest of the U.K. _ England, Scotland and Wales. As a result, the two sides agreed there would be some kind of regulatory border between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland.

Major and Blair, who both vociferously opposed Brexit, said the planned legislation puts the 1998 Good Friday agreement that ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland at risk.

Th pair said the bill ``negates the predictability, political stability and legal clarity that are integral to the delicate balance between the north and south of Ireland that is at the core of the peace process.''

It's unclear whether the planned legislation will get through the British Parliament, with a number of Johnson's fellow Conservatives uneasy at the prospect of the government breaching international law.

Tobias Ellwood is one lawmaker who has said he could not accept the legislation, arguing that the bill diminishes ``our role-model status as defender of global standards.''

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Patna, Sep 13 : Tributes poured in on Sunday from across Bihar following the demise of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh.

Raghuvansh Prasad was recognised as a socialist leader in Bihar. He was associated with the RJD for 32 years and was one of the closest aides of RJD President Lalu Prasad Yadav. However, his relationship with RJD soured in the last couple of months after his political rival Rama Singh was inducted into the party.

Raghuvansh Prasad had resigned as RJD vice-president in June 2020 and quit the party on Setember 10.

Following his demise, RJD issued a statement saying he was a stalwart of the RJD and had a great impact on common people. People assembled around him every time he was on the stage delivering a speech. "Raghuvansh Babu Amar Rahe", added RJD in a statement.

Lalu Prasad's elder son and former Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav said, "He is omnipotent despite not being with us. I am deeply shattered by the demise of Raghuvansh Prasad ji. May his soul rest in peace. He was like a parent to us." Lalu Prasad's eldest daughter Misa Bharti said, "I offer deep condolences on the demise of Raghuvansh uncle. We are feeling like orphaned children and so is every member of RJD. Whenever we felt low, your compelling and strong voice boosted our morale. Your demise is disheartening for every member of RJD." Lalu's younger son Tejashwi Yadav said, "You were a great 'Samajwadi' leader, strong pillar and a visionary leader of RJD and the voice of poor. Your loss cannot be fulfilled. You are like a parent to us. We are deeply shattered by your demise. I am feeling alone now." "I spoke to Raghuvansh Babu a few days ago and he said he would soon recover from the illness and start a strong fight. After my father went to jail, people like you have given energy and inspiration," Tejashwi added.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav also tweeted, "Our beloved Raghuvansh Babu, what have you done? I had spoken to you day before yesterday and you said that you are not going anywhere. But you have gone far away from us. I am speechless and extremely sad." Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in his tweet said, "It is extremely sad to hear about the demise of former Union minister and leader Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh. May his soul rest in peace." Following the demise of Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, RJD has decided to observe a seven-day mourning in the party. Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav said the party flag will be flown at half-mast across the state for seven days.

Sharad Yadav, another political stalwart of Bihar, in his condolence message said, "Raghuvansh Babu was my closest friend during my political career. He was a great 'Samajwadi' leader and voice of poor people. He was recognised as a complete leader of the nation. I pay deep condolences to his family for the sudden loss." Mukesh Sahni, President of Vikashsheel Insan Party (VIP) also expressed heartfelt condolences to his family. He said, "Raghuvansh Babu was a leader known for assembling all alliance parties in the Mahagathbandhan. He was a political guide to us as well as to other young leaders of Bihar."
centaur BHPian



Join Date: May 2009 Location: -- Posts: 897 Thanked: 1,158 Times

Used pre-owned SUV or MPV with 3 seat rows Hellp BHPians,



I am looking to get a preowned car and would love to get some suggestions from the group. Since parents staying with me and family is expanding, I now feel the need for a bigger/better car, something which can seat 3 adults and 2 children on car seats/booster seats. I guess none of the 5 seaters would fit the bill here but I am not completely sure and hence looking at preowned options than new ones. This would be the only car in the family and would do the city and highway duties. The other set of requirements apart from this one are-



1. Excellent lumbar back support especially for long drives

2. A good tourer and if possible, FTD

3. Something not too low (aged parents at home)

4. Maintenance/service cost shouldn't break the bank

5. Spouse may drive occasionally but would not be a regular driver

6. 2015 or newer models and only top variants if possible

7. Preferably within 10-12 lakhs (lower the better)



Owing to these I have started looking at 6/7 seaters available and I guess the options are limited



1. Tata Hexa - There are a few Hexa's available, are mostly run less than 50k, are post 2017 models and aren't overpriced. I have been preferring an XTA 6 seater which is very rare to come by.



2. XUV5OO - not many good options available but very wary of the electronics on this. Uncle's first gen XUV had the entire wiring changed within the first year or two. Also have heard of them developing plenty of rattles down the line but no first hand experience of this



3. Innova 2.5 - we have an Innova in the extended family and its a worthy consideration but the available options have well over 1 lakh on the odo and exorbitantly priced. Would still consider if a worthy option comes along



4. Crysta 2.4 - same as the Innova but good thing is that some newer models are priced at the Innova levels. Not considering the 2.8 owing to the FE it gives



5. Pajero Sport - there are few Pajero Sport available too but then should this even be on the list?



I have deliberately left out the Safari Storme and Scorpio owing to an unusable last row. Duster too has been left out owing to the uncertain future and the injector issues that plague some of them. Not considering any options from Maruti/Hyundai either.



Could have considered a preowned Superb/Jetta but the high center tunnel is a deal breaker and then there are not many options around.



Any other options that I can look at? I am not in a hurry as such and can wait for sometime as well. If there are no other/better options available, will probably settle in for a new car later Last edited by centaur : 3rd September 2020 at 17:34 .
'The letter acknowledged that Revenue has supported accountants and clients in recent months but asked for further help at this time.' (stock photo)

Accountants have written to the Revenue Commissioners warning of a tax deadline 'crisis' in the coming weeks.

The Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies Ireland (CCAB-I), which is an umbrella group for a number of organisations, has said that accountants from all over the country are raising concerns about fast-approaching filing deadlines.

"Members in practice from all over the country have been in contact with us in recent weeks telling us of the huge work pressures they face and resourcing constraints in meeting the tax deadlines," said a statement on the Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI) website, a member body.

The letter to Revenue said: "Accountants in small to medium-size practices are facing a crisis this Autumn in terms of getting tax returns filed by the deadlines on behalf of their clients.

"The key problem for our members is that they are working at least eight weeks behind schedule due to work time lost during the lockdown restrictions."

It flagged the fact that staff were "unable to work full hours over the summer due to childcare constraints and an increased workload supporting clients with the wage subsidy schemes, other government grants and subsidy applications, and revised credit arrangements with banks and landlords."

The letter acknowledged that Revenue has supported accountants and clients in recent months but asked for further help at this time.

"Accountants will make every effort to ensure that as many tax returns as possible are filed on time, but due to the extraordinary circumstances brought about by Covid-19, there will be instances where it is just not humanly possible to make the deadline.

"A cohesive respite in the application of surcharges will be of immense importance to accountants who find themselves in difficulty."

The CCAB-I letter said that organisations were fielding concerns from members daily regarding the Corporation Tax deadline of September 23 and the Income Tax deadline of November 12.
President Donald Trump's weeks-long barrage against Joe Biden has failed to erase the Democrat's lead across a set of key swing states, including the crucial battleground of Wisconsin, where Trump's law-and-order message has rallied support on the right but has not swayed the majority of voters who dislike him, according to a poll conducted by The New York Times and Siena College.

Biden, the former vice president, leads Trump by 5 percentage points in Wisconsin and by a 9-point margin in neighboring Minnesota, a Democratic-leaning state that Trump has been seeking to flip with his vehement denunciations of rioting and crime.

The president has improved his political standing in Wisconsin in particular with an insistent appeal to Republican-leaning white voters alarmed by local unrest. But in both Midwestern states, along with the less-populous battlegrounds of Nevada and New Hampshire, Trump has not managed to overcome his fundamental political vulnerabilities  above all, his deep unpopularity with women and the widespread view among voters that he has mismanaged the coronavirus pandemic.

Overtaking Biden in some of those four states could be a significant boost to Trump's re-election chances. He narrowly won Wisconsin in 2016 and barely lost the other three to Hillary Clinton.

While Trump has steadied his candidacy since his political nadir early in the summer, the Times poll suggests that, less than two months before Election Day, he has yet to achieve the kind of major political breakthrough he needs.

Voters in Wisconsin and Minnesota are split on the question of which candidate they trust more to handle the subject of law and order, which Trump has tried to elevate. But the poll, conducted among likely voters, showed they prefer Biden by clear margins on the issues of the coronavirus pandemic, race relations and fostering national unity, a sobering result for the president's supporters.

Further, Trump is still struggling to garner the level of support most incumbent presidents enjoy at this late stage of the campaign. In none of the four states did Trump's support reach the 45 percent mark  a particularly ominous sign given the absence of serious third-party candidates, who in 2016 helped him prevail with less than 50 percent of the vote in a series of battleground states.

And while Trump delivered a focused set of attacks on Biden at the Republican convention, he has swerved far off message in recent days as he has struggled to rebut reports that he disparaged American war dead and told journalist Bob Woodward that he deliberately misled the public about the severity of the pandemic.

In Wisconsin, Biden received 48 percent support compared with 43 percent for Trump. That's a significant drop-off from June, when a Times/Siena poll showed Biden ahead by 11 points.

Nearly all of the narrowing came as a result of Trump's recovering support from voters to the right of center, some of whom had expressed feelings of disillusionment in the earlier poll amid the ravages of the pandemic and a major wave of racial-justice protests.

Biden is further ahead in Minnesota, 50 percent to 41 percent. Although no Republican presidential candidate has captured Minnesota since Richard Nixon's re-election in 1972, Trump lost it by only 1.5 percentage points four years ago. His campaign wants to compete aggressively there to counter anticipated setbacks elsewhere in the industrial Midwest. Both nominees are headed there in the coming week.

In two less populous swing states that Trump barely lost in 2016, Biden is ahead of Trump by single-digit margins: He leads in Nevada by 4 percentage points, 46 percent to 42 percent, while in New Hampshire he leads by a 3-point margin, 45 to 42 percent.

The Times/Siena poll has a sampling error ranging from 3.9 percentage points in Minnesota to 5.5 in New Hampshire.

The four states surveyed in the poll may represent something of a last line of defense for Trump: Of the northern battlegrounds he captured in 2016, Wisconsin is seen as his best chance for winning again this year, over Michigan and Pennsylvania. Trump's campaign has viewed the other three states as potential pickup opportunities this year that could help him make up for lost ground elsewhere.

The poll results suggest that Trump retains a path to reelection that runs through these states, but that he has not yet made enough headway in any of them to catch up with Biden. With little time remaining, the three presidential debates starting at the end of this month may be the best remaining opportunity for Trump to make significant gains.

It is typical for polls to tighten in advance of Election Day, when more voters tune in to the campaign, candidates sharpen their attack lines and unleash new advertising and the forces of political polarization nudge people to the partisan corners of a divided country.

Still, any sign of Trump closing the gap is likely to stir anxiety among Democrats who remember all too well how the president overcame Clinton's polling lead at the last minute in 2016.

In the four swing states polled, Biden's advantage comes from a combination of strong support from women, people of color and whites with college degrees, although he is also performing better among male voters and less-educated white voters than Clinton did four years ago. Biden is well ahead of Trump among voters who live in the cities and suburbs, while Trump has a strong advantage with rural voters.

Across all four states, Trump is viewed mostly in negative terms, with slim majorities saying they see him unfavorably and disapprove of the job he is doing as president.

Trump continues to inspire stronger feelings from voters than his Democratic challenger, both positively and negatively: In Wisconsin, for instance, Trump is seen favorably by 45 percent of voters and unfavorably by 53 percent. But 32 percent of voters there have a strongly favorable view of him, while 45 percent view him in strongly unfavorable terms.

Wisconsin voters are somewhat more warmly disposed toward Biden, with 51 percent viewing him favorably and 45 percent seeing him unfavorably. But fewer voters had intense feelings about him in either direction: 29 percent viewed him in strongly positive terms and 36 percent had a very unfavorable view of him.

Notably, Trump fares substantially better with suburban voters in Wisconsin than in neighboring Minnesota, a dynamic that could reflect Wisconsin's more conservative electorate and the immediacy of the public-safety issue in a state where riots struck the outer suburbs of Milwaukee in the last month.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

In Minnesota, Biden was ahead among suburban voters by 20 percentage points. In Wisconsin, that advantage was just 5 points.

More significant for the former vice president is his strength with seniors, an advantage that Democrats did not enjoy four years ago. Biden enjoys a 12-point lead, 52 to 40, among people 65 and older across the four states and, by overwhelming numbers, they say he would do a better job than Trump unifying the country, handling race relations and addressing the pandemic.

These same voters remain deeply concerned about the virus, with 58 percent of them saying "the federal government's priority should be to limit the spread of the coronavirus, even if it hurts the economy."

If there is a warning sign for Biden in the survey below Trump's modest growth, it is that many seniors want him to more forcefully denounce the violence that has grown out of the summer's racial justice protests.

By a 20-point margin, 53-33, voters older than 65 in the four states said the former vice president had not done enough to denounce rioting. And 70 percent of these same voters said crime was a "major problem" in the country.

Ellen Christenson, a 69-year-old Wisconsinite, said she voted for former President Barack Obama twice before backing Jill Stein, the Green Party nominee, in 2016. Now Christenson said she was torn between Trump and Biden and "could go either way."

Biden, she said, had not sufficiently "condemned the violence and the burning."

Originally a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, Christenson said she now felt it had "gone too far," and she said she "kind of resented" that her workplace recently forced her to take a seminar on microaggressions.

Images of arson and violence in cities like Portland, Ore., and Kenosha, Wis., have plainly alarmed voters, albeit in a broader sense: They indicate being far more concerned about crime in the country than they are about in their area.

When asked which issue is more important, addressing the virus or addressing law and order, slightly more voters in the four states said law and order.

While Biden enjoys a 9-point advantage on the question of who would do a better job handling the protests, the difference is smaller on the matter of which candidate would better impose law and order.

And there are signs that Trump's barrage against Biden on the issue of policing, while inaccurate, has been effective: 44 percent of those surveyed in the four states said he supported defunding the police while only 39 percent said he was not in favor of doing so, which the former vice president has said repeatedly.

Yet even as the president tries to steer the campaign away from the pandemic and toward urban unrest, some of the most pivotal voters are more focused on the virus.

Those who didn't vote in 2016 and those who supported third-party candidates  potentially the decisive slice of this year's electorate  each said by large margins that addressing the pandemic was more important than addressing law and order.
Jesse Tyler Ferguson and married couple Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively expressed interest in starring in a movie based on Taylor Swift's new track The Last Great American Dynasty.

The 44-year-old Modern Family alum was the first to tweet that he was 'available' for the project originally conceived by the 30-year-old pop diva's fan 'Joshlore' last Monday.

Taylor - who boasts 342M social media followers - tweeted: 'Not trying to be "the loudest woman this town has ever seen." But... I LOVE THIS!'

Feature film? Jesse Tyler Ferguson (L) and married couple Ryan Reynolds (2-R) and Blake Lively (R) expressed interest in starring in a movie based on Taylor Swift's (2-L) new track The Last Great American Dynasty

Then the LA-born 33-year-old referenced the song lyrics by joking that she painted the Canadian 43-year-old 'key lime green' while he mentioned the heart attack his potential character Bill would suffer.

Swift and Aaron Dessner co-wrote The Last Great American Dynasty based on the eccentric life of socialite Rebekah Harkness, who was known to clean her pool out with Dom Perignon and once dyed a neighbor's cat green.

The 10-time Grammy winner originally learned about Rebekah - who died, age 67, from cancer in 1982 - after buying her 'Holiday House' mansion in Watch Hill, RI for $17M in 2013.

Playing the neighbor: The 44-year-old Modern Family alum tweeted that he was 'available' for the project originally conceived by the 30-year-old pop diva's fan 'Joshlore' last Monday

Taylor - who boasts 342M social media followers - tweeted: 'Not trying to be "the loudest woman this town has ever seen." But... I LOVE THIS!'

'But Bill's heart?' Then the LA-born 33-year-old referenced the song lyrics by joking that she painted the Canadian 43-year-old 'key lime green' while he mentioned the heart attack his potential character Bill would suffer

Story: Swift and Aaron Dessner co-wrote The Last Great American Dynasty based on the eccentric life of socialite Rebekah Harkness, who was known to clean her pool out with Dom Perignon and once dyed a neighbor's cat green (pictured in 1964 beside a portrait of Bill)

The widow of Standard Oil heir William Hale Harkness stormed society with her 'B**** Pack,' founded the Harkness Ballet, and her ashes were placed in Salvador Dali's 'Chalice of Life' she bought for $250K in 1965.

Taylor could even helm the project herself at her Rhode Island home, having just won best director at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards.

Swift's friendship with Ryan and Blake dates back to 2015, and she even named-dropped all three of their children in her new track Betty.

Setting: The 10-time Grammy winner learned about Rebekah - who died, age 67, from cancer in 1982 - after buying her 'Holiday House' mansion in Watch Hill, RI for $17M in 2013

Taylor can relate: The widow of Standard Oil heir William Hale Harkness stormed society with her 'B**** Pack,' founded the Harkness Ballet, and her ashes were placed in Salvador Dali's (R) 'Chalice of Life' she bought for $250K in 1965

It's all coming together: Taylor could even helm the project herself at her Rhode Island home, having just won best director at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards (pictured February 27)

'Can we all please crawl inside that piano with you and live in this album,' The Rhythm Section actress Instastoried on July 26.

'Like you, Folklore is full of heart, soul, humor, passion, intelligence, wit, whimsy, reality, imagination, strength, vulnerability, and above all things: Love.'

Reynolds previously honored the Cats actress' Scottish Fold 'children' by wearing a T-shirt (Olivia & Meredith best friends purrrrr-ever) in a scene from Deadpool 2 in 2018.

'Can we all please crawl inside that piano with you and live in this album?' Swift's friendship with Ryan and Blake dates back to 2015, and she even named-dropped all three of their children in her new track Betty

'Olivia & Meredith best friends purrrrr-ever!' Reynolds previously honored the Cats actress' Scottish Fold 'children' by wearing a T-shirt in a scene from Deadpool 2 in 2018

Regulars: Both the Golden Globe nominee and Jesse had cameos in Taylor's 2019 music video for You Need to Calm Down as a painter and a groom, respectively

Pride: And on June 14, 2019, Swift performed an acoustic version of her 2014 hit Shake It Off alongside Ferguson at the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Inn riots in Manhattan

Both the Golden Globe nominee and Jesse had cameos in Taylor's 2019 music video for You Need to Calm Down as a painter and a groom, respectively.

And on June 14, 2019, Swift performed an acoustic version of her 2014 hit Shake It Off alongside Ferguson at the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Inn riots in Manhattan.

The Joe Biden supporter will next perform Betty at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville for the 55th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, which air this Wednesday night on CBS.
Instead of launching its own lunar probes for any research material to be collected from Earths natural satellite, NASA is now turning to private companies to get the job done. The US space agency aims to collaborate with private companies from across the globe which can bring in lunar dirt and rocks for it to study.

The new initiative by NASA is a critical one in the field of space exploration, having the potential to set up a whole new marketplace around the globe. As per a blog post, the space agency has released a solicitation for commercial companies to provide proposals for the collection of space resources.

For now, there are specific goals that NASA is looking to meet with such an offer. It outlines that a company will collect a small amount of Moon dirt or rocks from any location on the lunar surface. The company will have to show the proof of the collection as well as the material collected through images.

NASA Artemis Mission (Representative Image: NASA)

The space agency will also require data that identifies the collection location. Once everything is cross-checked, an in-place transfer of ownership of the lunar regolith or rocks will take place to handover the material to NASA. After ownership transfer, the collected material becomes the sole property of NASA for our use, NASA clarifies.



NASA aims to complete this process of retrieval and transfer of ownership of the resources before 2024.

In the future, NASA will think of ways to retrieve the transferred property back to Earth.

A whole new world of opportunity

Earth's moon. (Image: NASA)

NASA has cleared that it may make one or more awards around the task. With this, the US space agency claims to have created a full and open competition, not limited to U.S. companies.



The payment to be done by NASA, however, will be exclusively for the lunar regolith. A timeline division of the payment indicates that the awardee will receive 10 percent of the total agree amount at award, 10 percent upon launch and the remaining 80 percent upon successful completion.

A report by The Verge indicates that NASA will pay anywhere between $15,000 and $25,000 for the resources. Though the amount seems to be quite meager, considering the cost of missions to the moon, the big plus is that the solicitation will open up a whole new lunar marketplace.

The research from the resources will help NASA in its future missions to the moon, aimed to take US citizens back to the lunar surface. NASA has even assigned its astronauts for the same under its Artemis program.
The next few weeks are likely to be among the most polarizing and divisive in recent memory.

But there should be one issue around which a broad bipartisan majority of Americans can agree.

The Supreme Court of the United States shall be composed of nine Justices.

That is the language of the proposed Keep Nine Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It would permanently preserve the independence of the Supreme Court. We urge members of Congress and candidates in both parties to endorse it.

The Constitution is silent on the size of the Supreme Court. Without an amendment defining the number of justices, a future Congress and president could change that number for political advantage. This strategy is known as court packing.

Polling shows that by a more than 3-1 margin voters would support the Keep Nine Amendment. Support among moderates and independents is nearly 4-1.

There have been suggestions that a new president with a majority in Congress do what FDR famously failed to do  pack the court. FDR sought to increase the number of Supreme Court Justices and then fill those new positions with ideological allies. FDRs plan was rejected by the American people and Congress. It divided his allies and emboldened his opponents.

Court packing was then, and would be today, a disaster for the nation and any party that embraced it. If one party packed the court, another party with a new majority would retaliate by trying to pack the court again. The result would undermine both the independence of the court and the rule of law itself.

Polling shows that a majority of voters believe packing the court would weaken the checks and balances on the abuse of power by a future president or Congress.

Candidates in close races who were perceived as receptive to court packing could lose and cost their party the chance of winning control of the White House or Congress.

Several presidential candidates in last years Democratic primary contest indicated an interest in expanding the size of the court. But the eventual nominee, Joe Biden, was clear in his opposition to court packing.

President Trump has likewise denounced efforts at court packing.

But stated opposition to court packing today is not enough to permanently protect the nation from the bitter and divisive consequences of a possible future court-packing attempt.

Political positions, the occupant of the White House and majorities in Congress can change over time. To permanently preserve the independence of the court from a future president and Congress that might wish to manipulate it, a constitutional amendment is required.

Some might say that amending the Constitution is too difficult. But America just celebrated the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote, which Congress ratified because of overwhelming pressure from voters and states around the nation.

In the same way that the 22nd Amendment codified the long-standing two-term limit for presidents, a new 28th Amendment would permanently preserve the current number of nine Supreme Court Justices. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who opposes court packing, has called nine a good number.

We urge the Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, and the Republican nominee, President Donald Trump, and candidates for Congress, regardless of party, to endorse the Keep Nine Amendment. Their support will ensure the U.S. Supreme Court remains an independent guardian of our rights and freedoms for future generations.

As those future generations look back on our era they might observe that 2020 was a turning point. Perhaps 2020 will be remembered as the year American leaders, despite their deep differences on many issues, came together as uniters to protect the independence of one of the key institutions that protects our democracy.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

Nearly three years into his first term as Albuquerques mayor, Tim Keller is enjoying nearly the same high level of support that he had less than one year after he took office.

Among likely city voters, 60% approve of Kellers performance, a new Journal Poll shows. That is close to the results of a 2018 Journal Poll that found Keller had a 61% approval rating after his first nine months in office, when many officeholders still experience honeymoon ratings.

Pollster Brian Sanderoff said it is unknown whether Kellers approval dropped at any point in the past two years and then climbed back up. But he said it appears that the public perception of Keller has improved during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said that may be partly because the virus has temporarily supplanted crime as voters top concern.

Crime, which was a major issue well before Keller took office, remains a significant problem now. Although Albuquerques property crime dipped in 2019, the city recorded the highest number of homicides for any year in recent memory in 2019 and is on pace to break that record this year.

The publics focus may have shifted to COVID-19 for now, but Sanderoff said Kellers legacy is still tied to the citys response to crime.

Crime is still lurking as the biggest issue facing the city, and whether people ultimately will continue to approve of the mayors performance will ultimately be determined by how hes perceive as handling crime, said Sanderoff, president of Research & Polling Inc.

Keller has maintained a high profile during the pandemic, calling frequent news conferences to discuss how the city is responding to the crisis. While Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has imposed closures and restrictions that are unpopular with some New Mexicans, Keller has largely avoided any city-specific regulations. His news conferences have often highlighted city efforts like business grants and child care programs meant to help residents weather the pandemic. Sanderoff said Keller has been a fixture on local TV news and social media throughout the pandemic.

The city has done a good job communicating, and the mayor has been the public face of the city in explaining how they can help, Sanderoff said. Also, the city is not imposing restrictions; theyre just telling people how the city can help with those state-mandated restrictions. Its a lot easier to be popular when youre just saying, How can I help? 

Kellers disapproval rating is 22%, according to the new poll. Another 16% have mixed feelings, while 3% didnt know or wouldnt say how they felt.

Approval was nearly the same among women (61%) and men (59%), though there was some disparity among age groups. Among those 18-49, 68% approve, compared with 54% among those 50 and older.

The disapproval rating of the 50-plus group is 27%  nearly double the disapproval rating of those under 50.

Tim Keller is a relatively young mayor, hes progressive in his outlook, and were finding that younger voters are more inclined to approve of him and less likely to disapprove, Sanderoff said of the 42-year-old Keller.

Although Keller is a Democrat, Albuquerques elected offices are technically nonpartisan. The institutional lack of labeling may explain why there is less polarization between Democrats and Republicans.

The mayor still has a far higher approval rating among Democrats (77%) than Republicans (33%), but Sanderoff said the divide is narrower than in partisan offices.

The fact the mayor has one-third of Republicans approving of him partially explains the 60% (overall) approval, Sanderoff said.

Kellers current approval rating may resemble the 2018 poll results, but Sanderoff said it is impossible to know whether that reflects a sustained level of support without a poll in the interim.

Although it did not include a specific question about Keller, a city-funded poll in November reflected growing dissatisfaction among Albuquerque residents. Fewer than half (49%) reported feeling hopeful about the direction of the city  down from 68% the year before. Nearly a third (32%) said the city had become a worse place to live over the previous year, compared with 19% who felt it had become a better place to live.

Methodology

The new Journal Poll asked, Do you approve or disapprove of the way Tim Keller is handling his job as the mayor of Albuquerque. The poll is based on a scientific sample of 342 likely general election voters in Albuquerque who also voted in either the 2016 or 2018 general elections or both.

The voter sample has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.3 percentage points, though it is higher for subsamples.

The poll was conducted from Aug. 26 through Sept. 2, and all interviews were conducted by live, professional interviewers, with multiple callbacks to households that did not initially answer the phone.

Both cellphone numbers (74%) and landlines (26%) of likely general election voters were used.
Jaisalmer: A 30-year-old man allegedly set himself ablaze at a police station here on Sunday after local authorities demolished a water tank at his farm following a dispute with the sarpanch, a senior official said. The man, Girdhar Ram Bhil, received nearly 50 per cent burn injuries, the police said.

He was taken to a nearby hospital and then referred to Jodhpur where he is undergoing treatment, said Pokaran circle officer Mota Ram. The officer said that the Ramdevra resident had given a statement to the police that local authorities demolished a water tank in his farm after he had some dispute with the sarpanch. Bhil first went to the SDM office on Sunday but it was closed. He then reached the Pokaran police station where he set himself ablaze, the circle officer said.

The police said a case will be registered against the sarpanch and others who were named in the statement. According to a policeman, Bhil entered the police station premises shouting and crying. Before the policemen could understand the matter, he lit a matchstick and set himself on fire. We rushed to rescue him and the flames were doused with blankets. He was taken to a local hospital where he was given primary treatment and now he has been referred to Jodhpur," the policeman 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
FILE PHOTO: Buildings damaged by Hurricane Laura are seen in an aerial photograph in Lake Charles

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Offshore platforms and one refinery along the U.S. Gulf Coast shut down on Sunday as they prepared for a second hurricane strike in less than a month.

Phillips 66 began shutting its 255,600 barrel-per-day (bpd) Alliance, Louisiana, refinery as Tropical Storm Sally was forecast to pass just west of the plant, 24 miles (38 km) south of New Orleans.

Other refineries in east Louisiana were monitoring the storm, forecast to become a category 2 hurricane with winds of 100 mph (161 kph), early on Tuesday.

From Saturday, energy companies began shutting offshore production as they evacuated workers in the path of the storm, located 195 miles (315 km) east-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Chevron Corp shut the Blind Faith and Petronius platforms and evacuated the workers, it said on Sunday.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it began shutting some of its offshore drilling operations on Sunday. Its offshore production was unchanged and all personnel remained on production platforms, company spokeswoman Cynthia Babski said.

Murphy Oil shut the Delta House platform in the path of Sally, the company said.

However BHP Billiton does not plan to take workers from offshore facilities, a company spokeswoman said.

Equinor ASA shut the Titan platform and evacuated all workers on Saturday, a company spokesman said.

BP Plc evacuated non-essential workers from its Na Kika and Thunderhorse platforms, it said.

Other oil producers with drilling rigs and platforms in the area said they were monitoring the storm and ready for action as needed.

U.S. Gulf of Mexico offshore oil production makes up about 17% of U.S. crude oil and 5% of U.S. natural gas output. As much as 1.5 million barrels per day of oil output was shut last month as Hurricane Laura tore through the Gulf of Mexico.

Louisiana declared a state of emergency on Saturday and the city of New Orleans ordered a Sunday 6 p.m. CDT evacuation for residents outside its protective levees. Coastal Grand Isle also issued its third evacuation order since July.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba and Gary McWilliams; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Clarence Fernandez)
Pharrell Williams Happy played through a loudspeaker as students stepped out of cars and off school buses Friday morning. Wearing masks and getting temperatures checked is part of the routine at i3 Academy, Birminghams newest charter school, which opened for students Aug. 20.

All other public schools in Birmingham opened on Sept. 8 but are doing remote-only learning for now.

Opening a charter school in the middle of a worldwide pandemic wasnt in the guidebook nor in the original plan for the school, two years in the making, and now the states largest charter is up and running with 420 students in kindergarten through fifth grade.

As opening day approached, Principal Martin Nalls was uncertain about whether to open for in-person learning, watching as neighboring school systems in Birmingham and Jefferson County decided for remote-only learning at the start of the school year.

But Nalls said the new school had to open its doors for students. Why are we here if were just going to do school the way school it is being done everywhere else, Nalls told AL.com in an interview at the school Friday morning.

Families were given choices: in-person, blended learning (meaning two days on campus, three days remote), or completely remote learning.

School officials documented the first student to enter the school on Instagram.

What school looked like

As one of just two public schoolsboth charter schoolsin the Birmingham city limits that are open for students, school was happening all across the building in many different ways. The other is Legacy Prep, which serves only kindergarten through 3rd grade.

Legacy Prep offered students whose families face certain challenges--such as being in a family with an essential worker--the in-person option, but most students there are remote learning.

At i3 Academy, location in the Woodlawn community, about a third of the student body attends school every day, Nalls said, another third attends school a couple of days a week in a hybrid model, and a third attends school remotely every day.

The school is housed in a renovated church building, which was stripped down to the bare bones and designed to do school differently, he said. The Woodlawn Foundation financed the $14 million in building costs and now leases the building back to the school at a cost of $40,000 per year according to budget documents.

Fully remote students attend live classroom sessions with teachers devoted to teaching online, while students on the hybrid model attend school remotely with their fully in-person classmates on the days they are not in school.

Grade levels are called houses and there are three classrooms per house. After checking this reporters temperature at the door97.6 degrees, all clearNalls started the tour. Masks on, of course.

Right inside the door are the learning commons. Thats where the common library will beeach classroom has a culturally responsive collection of materials alreadyand tables are set up for group work.

i3 Academy math lab teacher John Cross works with a student in the learning commons on Sept. 11 in Woodlawn, Ala.

Upstairs, Lyndsay Blohms fourth-grade classroom was just beginning their morning meeting, where students sat on the floor and practiced their friendly greeting.

Good morning. How are you, students asked their neighbor to the left when it was their turn to do so. The greeting included the students online, who were treated as though they, too, were in the classroom.

Students responded with Im fine, or Im great. One student had a different take. Im excited that I got to go to this school, Marcus said, because its fun.

Marcus is our friendly ambassador, Blohm said.

The schools leadership team includes Dr. Tommy Bice, who serves as chairman of the board. Bice was state superintendent when lawmakers passed Alabamas charter school law in 2015, the 43rd state to do so. There are five public charter schools operating in Alabama this year.

Charter schools have been controversial in other statescritics say they take needed resources away from already struggling public schools and lack oversight. In Alabama, Bice supported the law, seeing charter schools as yet another way to improve education for children.

Since 2015, five charter schoolswhich now includes i3 Academyhave opened, and the pace is expected to quicken now that New Schools for Alabama, an organization devoted to helping open charter schools, is at the table.

Charter schools are differentiating themselves from the public school systems that surround them. Three charter schools--in Montgomery, Mobile and the west Alabama city of Livingstonall opened their doors for in-person learning at the start of this school year while non-charter schools around them opened with remote-only learning.

The states charter commission on Thursday approved two more chartersone in Perry County, one in Prattvilleto open in fall 2021.

Back downstairs at i3 Academy, technology specialist Krystal Fitzgerald sits front and center as you walk into the school. Her job is to make sure students and teachers know how to use technology.

The school didnt initially plan on a one-to-one digital initiative but pivoted to make sure every student has their own device and could get connected to the internet.

Initially, we have been focusing on building relationships, she said and assessing how well students can identify sounds and letters in order to use technology to help them learn remotely.

T.J. Nguyen heads up the schools maker space, where students work in subjects like robotics. He teaches an enrichment class to all grades and was busy working with remote learning students in his classroom. The classroom is filled with boxes of materials, including PVC pipe and kits for engineering projects.

For some of his groups, Nalls said, he came up here on a Sunday and gave them a box so they could do the projects at home.

Up the stairs and down the hall, Chief Academic Officer Dylan Ferniany was tuned in to remote kindergarten teacher Yvette Alexanders online class where she planned to explore her familys farm with her online students.

She worked on alphabet skills with students in an open conversation, a back and forth that resembled as much as possible an everyday dialogue in a traditional classroom.

What comes after 'B', Alexander asked. C! a chorus of voices responded. The class worked through the letters, talking letter sounds.

I want her to go to the zoo, Ferniany said, and stream from there.

Across from Fernianys office, in the math lab, John Cross, a certified math teacher and graduate of Woodlawn High School, teaches students who need extra help in math.

Students typically miss out on the conceptual part of math, he said. Developing these skills now will pay dividends for years.

Cross has help in the math lab from Katie Toler, a certified elementary school teacher who serves as a paraeducator or assistant teacher. Cross and Toler teach small groups of students, and while they may see a lot of students this year, the goal is to shrink that number over time.

Cross said theyre setting the bar high for students and fully expect them to rise to whatever expectations are set. With deliberate practice and time, anything is possible.

Also upstairs are two full-time school nurses and an isolation room for suspected COVID-19 cases.

The school also has a full-time social worker. Chris Buoyer wears a lot of hats, visiting students at home who are absent to make sure the student has what they need.

There may be some situations going on that are different than education, Buoyer said. Somebody might not have lights. Somebody might not have food. So what I do is identify those issues and address them quickly to get the pressure off the parents so theyre more motivated to help the kids get to school.

Buoyer spoke highly of the collaborative environment and focus on kids. Teachers come to me and say Hey, kids need this, and kids need that, he said. He takes those needs to administrators who he says are quick to provide whatever kids need.

Filling the slots

Critics often accuse charter schools of cherry-picking academically talented students from local public schools, but Bice said their doors were open to all students regardless of ability or income level. And under Alabama law, charter schools cannot test students or require any sort of admission criteria.

School founders located in the Woodlawn neighborhood, for moral and ethical reasons, to serve students in historically underserved areas, Bice said. Bice said the founders wanted families to have a choice of where to send their children to school.

Bice has been the education director for The Mike and Gillian Goodrich Foundation, a nonprofit philanthropic neighborhood revitalization effort, since 2016 and knows the landscape well.

The closest public elementary school, Hayes K-8, has been on the states failing school list for eight yearsevery year the list has been published. That means proficiency on state tests has been in the bottom 6% statewide every year for eight years.

According to the states education report card for 2018-19, fewer than 10% of students tested at Hayes K-8 were proficient in reading and only 6.6% were proficient in math.

Bice said they were intentional about recruiting students, wanting to serve students in the local geographic area. And it was absolutely the right thing to do, he said.

The second day of school here was the telling point for me, Bice said. "Kindergarteners, who have not been to school before. They were inquisitive, they were curious. And just eyes, wide open.

The fifth graders, who have now come into their ownit took a week almost for them to realize that they could talk out loud. That they could make a mistake and not be in trouble. That experimentation and the process through discovery is how were going to learn here, rather than just getting the answer. It was a tough nut to crack because it had been schooled out of them.

That dichotomy between incoming kindergarteners and fifth-graders was glaring.

Now the fifth-graders are just on fire, Bice said. They created their own Google room where they chat and hang out.

For the 420 slots the school had available in kindergarten through fifth grade, the school received 1,069 student applications. Thats enough to open a second school, Bice said. When a charter school receives more applications than available seats, the school must hold a lottery, where students' names are chosen at random.

Turning students away, Bice said, was the hardest thing Ive done in my 43 years in education.

Choosing the grownups

Bice said he is unapologetic about recruiting the best adults to work at the school.

Our biggest focus was spending time choosing the right adults to be in the building, Bice said. We were very strategic in choosing who works here. Bice said they developed a profile of what the perfect teacher for a startup, autonomous, innovative, high-poverty school serving minority students would look like and used that profile during the hiring process.

They had 500 applications for 48 full-time employee positions.

Were paying the highest salaries of any school system in the area, he said, because we wanted to be able to recruit the very best.

With elementary school teaching being a female-dominated field, one aspect of the faculty that both Bice and Nalls are particularly proud of: the percentage of men on staff. Nearly 40% of the faculty and staff are male, Bice said, and nearly 20% of those are teachers or other instructors.

Nationwide, 11% of teachers in public elementary schools are men, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Nalls said he expects teachers to produce results, but that doesnt mean only academic achievement. Relationships are number one with us.

I have yet to hear the words test score mentioned, Bice said. If you teach students to think and problem solve and all the thing you want them to do, the test scores will come.

Flexibility and freedom to innovate

Charter schools were originally designed to free educators from regulations to allow them to innovate. Thats what drew Nalls, who has worked in public education in the Birmingham area for 22 years.

What I found in traditional public schools is a lack of flexibility, Nalls said. Im the type of person who would like to try something. Whether it fails or not, give me the opportunity to try it.

We didnt build this building so adults can be comfortable, he said. I think in many situations, traditional public schools allow adults to be comfortable.

The speed at which we can make decisions because of our size is so advantageous, Ferniany, who spent 11 years in public education prior to joining i3 Academys leadership team, said. Its something I havent been able to experience in any other environment.

For example, the school had to shift quickly to a one-to-one device model when COVID-19 made clear that all students needed the ability to learn remotely.

We could make that decision over the course of a day where in other systems those decisions take much longer, she said.

Though the pandemic has made it difficult for parents and families to be on campus, they hold weekly Facebook live meetings with families to stay connected and answer questions.

The plan is to add a grade each year, eventually becoming a K-12 school. They expect no shortage of student applications, Nalls said, adding, We had a family of six children here yesterday hoping to enroll.

Updated 9:25 a.m. to correctly identify Dr. Tommy Bice as education director for the Mike and Gillian Goodrich Foundation.

Updated 9/14/20 11:30 a.m. to correctly identify Legacy Prep has students in kindergarten through third grade.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced the three-month loan moratorium beginning 1 March to help businesses and individuals fight the cash crunch owing to the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic. Subsequently, the RBI extended it by three months which expired on 31 August. Several parties approached the Supreme Court of India seeking a further extension. The apex court is dealing with two other crucial issues -- no interest payment on loans during the moratorium period and no interest to be charged on interest. The court has asked all parties to maintain status-quo on the loan repayment moratorium till 28 September, when it will give its verdict. Meanwhile, the government has appointed a special committee to assess the impact of any further waiver of interest, etc on the banking system.

The non-bank industry in India has seen a slowdown over the past few quarters, thanks to shallow debt markets and sentiment-driven non-availability of credit from the banking system. To add to this stress, the current moratorium has brought to fore the conundrum of borrower behaviour and their intent and ability to pay back the loans. The regulations have favoured the banks over their non-bank competitors.

A few weeks ago, India had a rude awakening with the June quarter GDP slippage of a deep 23.9%, the worst contraction in the history of the country's economy since independence. Unemployment numbers have risen and if demand does not pick up, this is bound to increase. More than 45% of households across the nation have reported an income drop as compared to the previous year. Under complete lockdown, less than a quarter of India's $2.8 trillion economic movement was functional. Up to 53% of businesses in the country were projected to be significantly affected.

One way to look at the emerging data is how this crisis has pushed us back economically by a few years. A positive way to look at this narrative is how it brought us to the 'Digital First' era quicker than all the marketing big-bucks ever could. Covid-19 has truly been a catalyst for the digital transformation philosophy, across the spectrum.

Small-ticket borrowers and digital lending

Traditionally, financial institutions have been averse to serving small-ticket and formal-credit-score-devoid consumer segments. It was left to the public sector undertakings and few of the local private players.

The large volumes of this consumer base has attracted the new-age digital lenders, despite the regulatory arbitrage thats loaded against them vis-a-vis banks; to employ concepts such as cluster-centered funding, point-of-sale lending, peer-to-peer lending, invoice-based lending, cash flow-based lending and online microcredit. They began leveraging cutting-edge technology and alternative credit assessment models (deploying technologies like data analytics, AI, ML and open APIs for insights into consumer behavior and spending to build alternative credit models and provide credit) to quickly fill the credit availability gap and reach out to a wider customer base.

Fintech lenders have digitized and innovatively simplified the pain points of consumers across the lending value chain. Take for instance contactless onboarding, e-KYC processes, technology-assisted credit evaluation and assessment, instant disbursals, digital underwriting etc. The fintech lending market is forecast to exhibit exponential growth due to increasing internet and smartphone penetration, thrust from digitization and regulatory reforms. Credit demand from MSMEs and consumers presents an addressable opportunity of more than $1 trillion by 2023.

The advent of 'open banking' would allow FinTech platforms to have fair access to consumers that traditional banking system has had and yet could not serve adequately well. In fact, this could put the liberty of choice to the consumers, which in essential would mean consumer empowerment". The availability of choice and the ability to choose with freewill is, after all true financial inclusion.

With a total of 85% of all Indian banking customers using digital banking services for their day-to-day activities and considering that Indias digital lending market is poised to grow from $110 billion in 2019 to $350 billion in 2023, digital lending would play a key role in improving the accessibility, availability and affordability of credit for the unbanked and the underbanked.

Recoveries key to revival

The coronavirus pandemic is proving to be an existential threat to the lending sector and more so, for digital lending players. As per RBIs Financial Stability Report released on 24 July, non-performing assets (NPAs) may increase in the coming months. It reported that the gross NPA ratio may increase to 12.5% by March 2021 and can test 14.7% if the economic environment worsens. The lending sector in India stood at $1.35 trillion in FY19. Extrapolating the 12.5% expected gross NPA rate for FY21, we are looking at theoretically-probable defaults amounting to a staggering USD 168.75 billion for this sector.

On the recoveries side, with average case disposal rates ranging from 5 to 15 years in Indian courts and tribunals, a judicial logjam of over 35 million cases, the economic cost of delay pegged at 0.77% of the GDP, the current process of dispute resolution is resource-heavy. The cost in terms of time, effort and money in dispute proceedings far outweigh the reward of the final resolution.

The need for digital transformation in the recovery and redressal space (better known as collections) is felt more now than ever before. Every percentage point of additional collections completed in time is a lesser strain on the capital base of the lending platforms.

Technology-driven resolution in a contactless society

Considering the virus-forced lockdown, the incumbent setup of in-person or physical dispute resolution has come to a standstill and is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. Covid or not, the need to turn to digital technology for dispute-resolution is inevitable. Technology-driven redressal mechanisms that are rule-based, transparent and acceptable under the legal system, popularly referred to as online dispute resolution (ODR), involves minimal human intervention which is made possible by higher level of automation using digital technologies like AI, ML, NLP, data analytics, blockchain.

The use of ODR in India is at a nascent stage and has received a big boost in the past few months, especially due to the travel restrictions  another byproduct of the virus. More importantly, the consumers have been exposed to various digital communication interfaces over the past 6 months and the mental block of having a meeting over a video conference has been removed. ODR has the potential to drastically reduce resolution costs by an estimated 80% and provide enforceable outcomes in up to 45 days. Even our legal system has embraced the concept of ODR as a binding resolution mechanism. All this while providing all parties to the dispute, an effective and convenient platform to participate in the process, remotely in a contactless, safe and secure manner.

As a greater number of disputes are expected to flood the market in the aftermath of this healthcare crisis, ODR is probably the missing piece in the digital transformation journey; the integration of which, will digitalize the entire transaction trail, from credit assessment to underwriting, application to disbursal to collections, and resolution to recovery.

With so much stress on the financial system and the lending platforms all around, the question is not whether digitized dispute resolution should be integrated or not, but by when. Its time that lending institutions look at the last-mile (collections and related disputes) using fully integrated digital solutions.

(Srinath Sridharan is an independent markets expert and Bhaven Shah is co-founder of a tech platform. Views expressed are their own and do not reflect Mints'.)

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The shows next segments are scheduled for September 15 and September 29 at 9:40am Eastern Time.

Auden Albany, the student housing community serving the University of Albany, now hosts a bi-weekly radio segment giving listeners insight into local real estate, student housing and campus updates. Airing every other Tuesday at 9:40am, executives from Audens parent company, DMG Investments, Jeffrey Amengual and Christian OLone host the segment on Albanys Talk1300.

The shows next segments are scheduled for September 15 and September 29 at 9:40am Eastern Time.

For listeners who want to access previous segments or listen on demand, the show is also available as a podcast at BuzzSprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/958177/episodes.

About Auden Albany

Auden Albany is one of the primary off-campus student housing communities at UAlbany, located just a block away from campus. Developed by NYC-based DMG Investments, Auden provides luxury student housing at affordable rates and focuses on providing high-end amenities to students such as fitness centers, study halls, game rooms, yoga studios and more. The community is also unique for the large, fully furnished apartment units that it offers that include private bathrooms, stainless steel appliances, granite countertops and washers and dryers in the unit.

Auden Albanys decision to donate 1,000 face masks was informed by its guiding principle of not just providing housing, but a community and contributing to protecting that community in its greatest times of need.

More about Auden Albany can be found at: https://www.audenalbany.com/

About DMG Investments

Headquartered in New York City at 100 Wall Street, DMG Investments LLC ("DMG") was established in 2013.

DMG focuses on real estate acquisitions, development and management as well as financing. Leveraging the expertise of a team of dedicated real estate professionals with decades of experience creating and adding value for investors, DMG has amassed a portfolio of best-in-class assets across the US in dynamic markets in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and South Carolina.
SAN FRANCISCO - The cityscape resembles the surface of a distant planet, populated by a masked alien culture. The air, choked with blown ash, is difficult to breathe.

There is the Golden Gate Bridge, looming in the distance through a drift-smoke haze, and the Salesforce Tower, which against the blood-orange sky appears as a colossal spaceship in a doomsday film.

San Francisco, and much of California, has never been like this.

California has become a warming, burning, epidemic-challenged and expensive state, with many who live in sophisticated cities, idyllic oceanfront towns and windblown mountain communities thinking hard about the viability of a place many have called home forever. For the first time in a decade, more people left California last year for other states than arrived.

Monica Gupta Mehta and her husband, an entrepreneur, have been through tech busts and booms, earthquakes, wildfire seasons and power outages. But it was not until the skies darkened and cast an unsettling orange light on their Palo Alto home earlier this week that they ever considered moving their family of five somewhere else.

"For the first time in 20-something years, the thought crossed our minds: Do we really want to live here?" said Mehta, who is starting an education tech company.

It would be difficult to leave. They love the area's abundant nature and are tied to Silicon Valley by work and a network of extended family members, who followed them west from Pittsburgh. But Mehta says it is something she would consider if her family is in regular danger.

"Yesterday felt so apocalyptic," Mehta said. "People are really starting to reconsider whether California has enough to offer them."

This is the latest iteration of the California Dream, a Gold Rush-era slogan meant to capture the hopeful migration of an old nation to a new, rich West. For generations, the tacit agreement for California residents resembled a kind of too-good-to-be-true deal. Live in the lovely if often drought-plagued Sierra, or beneath the beachfront Pacific Coast cliffs, and work in an economy constantly reinventing itself, from Hollywood to the farms of the San Joaquin to Silicon Valley.

But for many of California's 40 million residents, the California Dream has become the California Compromise, one increasingly challenging to justify, with a rapidly changing climate, a thumb-on-the-scales economy, high taxes and a pandemic that has killed more here than in any other state.

During the course of his term, President Donald Trump has singled out California, a state he lost by 30 percentage points, as an example of Democrat-caused urban unrest, irresponsible immigration policy and poor forest management, even though nearly 60 percent of the state's forests are managed by the federal government. Several are burning today, with millions of acres already scorched.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has responded specifically in some cases, but in others, he has invoked the California Dream, an adjective attached to no other state. In his January 2019 inaugural address, Newsom warned that "there is nothing inevitable about" that dream.

"And now more than ever, it is up to us to defend it," he said.

As the state's climate has shifted to one of extremes, soaking wet seasons followed suddenly by sharp, dry heat and wind, no region has been safe from fire. This year - even before peak fire season has gotten underway - widespread fires have forced evacuations, from San Jose in Silicon Valley to the distant hamlet of Big Creek along the western slopes of the Sierra.

More than two dozen major fires are burning around the state and have consumed a record 3.1 million acres of land, more than 3,000 homes and at least 10 lives. Los Angeles has reported the worst air quality in three decades as a result of fires surrounding that city, already notorious for orange air and seasonal dry cough.

Wine Country is burning for the third year straight, with a number of vineyards lost. Homes have been destroyed far to the south in San Diego County, and more than 200 campers had to be airlifted to safety amid the Creek Fire, still burning hot and fast between Fresno and Mammoth Lakes.

The mountains behind Santa Barbara County, which gave way after being burned bare by the Thomas Fire three years ago, have turned a worrisome gray-brown tinder in recent weeks.

Those slopes, prepared by one of the state's largest fires in history at the time, slid during rain-saturated mudslides in January 2018. Twenty people were killed in the wealthy enclave of Montecito, sweeping some from inside their foothill homes all the way to the sea.

The mandatory evacuation orders issued then included the home recently bought by Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, newcomers to Santa Barbara's shifting climate.

"Hopefully, this is a wake-up call," said Anne-Marie Bonneau, who two decades ago left her home in Ontario, Canada, for the Bay Area but misses the clean air and less-fractious political environment beyond the northern border. "What is it going to take for this country to do something about the climate crisis? Millions of people are affected by this."

She sees what is happening in California as just the beginning of what is to come across the continent.

"As always, California's sort of on the leading edge," she said. "We're always ahead of everybody."

Kim Cobb is among the climate scientists who, for years, have warned that the consequences of a warming planet will grow more intense, more deadly and more costly over time. But even she has been startled by the scenes unfolding across the West as wildfires rage this summer.

"It's an entirely different thing to look at this footage and hear the sobbing voices of people who have lost loved ones and property and livelihoods," said Cobb, a professor at Georgia Tech's School of Earth and Atmospheric Science. "It's shocking for us emotionally, as well as for any global citizen who is watching this."

She is also adamant that on our current trajectory, the worst lies ahead.

"The science couldn't be any clearer on this point. The links between warming temperatures and these wildfires are clear," Cobb said. "This is going to get a lot worse. . . . I know that challenges the imagination."

The fire fallout and the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed 14,000 people in California, have provided a kind of CT-scan view of the state and its many inequities.

Accounting for 61% of cases, Latinos comprise the vast majority of the coronavirus victims, an infection rate disproportionately high given that they make up just 35% of the overall state population. Many are the "essential workers" serving food, picking crops and living lives that are not privileged enough to take refuge in the safety of telecommuting.

During the summer, the novel coronavirus and wildfires have revealed much for Californians: who stays safe from fire and disease, who keeps their jobs, who waits at home for a shrinking benefits check, and who has a soft-landing evacuation site or a hard shelter bed.

This is the debit side of the California Compromise. It is an economy, the world's fifth largest, that is built by government policy and private enterprise to favor the skilled in Silicon Valley, Hollywood and the wealthy everywhere else. The rest of California is increasingly a service economy that pays a far larger share of its income in taxes and on housing and food.

Median income in the state is $75,277. The median home price in San Francisco is $1.3 million, nearly twice that of Los Angeles. The state government is doing next to nothing to close the gap.

Three years ago, state lawmakers approved the nation's second-highest gasoline tax, adding more than 47 cents to the price of a gallon. With home prices skyrocketing along the coast, service workers in particular are moving farther inland from their jobs and into fire country, meaning they are paying far more as a share of their income on fuel just to stay employed.

The taxes raise more than $5 billion in annual revenue for roads and transportation projects. But the sometimes hours-long commutes, with affordable housing so far from job centers, also undermine the state's goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2045, an achievement that could alleviate some of the extreme weather.

A poll conducted late last year by the University of California at Berkeley found that more than half of California voters had given "serious" or "some" consideration to leaving the state because of the high cost of housing, heavy taxation or its political culture.

The draw for some, and the magnet that keeps many here, is the state's breathtaking physical beauty, family history and a liberal political culture appealing to supporters, many of whom in the north are inheritors of a counterculture ethos.

Through legislation or direct action at the ballot box, California voters established the country's first "sanctuary state" for undocumented immigrants, built from the ground a vibrant justice-reform movement, and committed to some of the boldest environmental protection goals in the country.

In addition, a measure to restore affirmative action to college admission decisions, banned since 1996, is on the November ballot. The legislature just created a committee to study the cost of reparations to racial and ethnic groups the state has historically mistreated. Marijuana is legal. So are hallucinogenic mushrooms in Oakland.

The political gulf once ran between north and south in California, a Bay Area vs. Los Angeles standoff for power and resources. Now the delineation is east and west, including between liberal San Francisco and towns such as Oroville, now threatened by fire.

Sarah and Joey Wilson, a therapist and the owner of a gold mining supply shop, respectively, live 15 minutes from Oroville in Kelly Ridge and are experienced evacuees. But what most bothers them, beyond the frequent fires, is encroachment by the government on their outdoor lifestyles.

Lakes that Joey used to fish are now off-limits. State-erected gates now block public roads he used to drive to access recreational land. And regulations have limited some kinds of gold prospecting, the hobby that supports his business.

"That's actually probably made us want to move more than something like this," Sarah Wilson, 45, said of the close-by wildfire flames.

The loyalty to liberal politics serves as an anchor for many of the state's urban - and most-entrenched - residents. But it has only light, if any, appeal to newcomers or those here specifically for work.

Peter Alvaro has lived in his rent-controlled apartment in the heart of San Francisco since 1999, when he moved from New Jersey for a taste of the city's famed counterculture.

He knows the fires will only get worse, as they have steadily in the past three years. But Alvaro feels his identity is tied up in the city and in the surrounding nature. He loves raising his two daughters here, going to the beach three times a week and watching the city constantly change around him.

Many of the people leaving San Francisco are tech workers, newly freed from the city they helped make so expensive by the ability to work remotely during the coronavirus outbreak.

"The tech workers weren't necessarily attached to the city, they came here because there was opportunity," said Alvaro, a professor of computer science at the University of California at Santa Cruz. "I hope the city can regrow some of the unique character that was lost in the last boom. The fact that young, wealthy adults are fleeing is good for the culture."

Just after the first fires started last month, Gary Cook and his wife packed their three rescue cats into a rented SUV and drove from Napa to their new home in Idaho. After 18 years in Wine Country, Cook and his wife felt California was not right for them anymore.

It was not the fires, which Cook said were not an issue for him, but the area's cost of living, high taxes, power outages and political climate. Cook, who recently retired, felt that as a conservative, he no longer had a voice politically in California.

"There were significant changes going on that changed our outlook on the whole California dream," Cook said.

He said he will miss Napa's famed restaurant scene. Idaho is laid back, and the people are more aligned with his views, but it is more of a steak-and-potatoes kind of place, he says.

Business is booming for Scott Fuller, who runs a real estate relocation business. Called Leaving the Bay Area and Leaving SoCal, the company helps people ready to move away from the state's two largest metro areas sell their homes and find others.

Nevada, Arizona, Texas and Idaho are the top four states his clients are buying in, and many tech workers are trying out smaller industry hubs such as Denver, Austin, Phoenix and Seattle.

Since the pandemic began, he also has been helping people move to less-populated areas within the state such as Placerville or Lake Tahoe. But that trend could reverse quickly because of the record wildfire season, which has been burning around those regions.

"For a lot of people, [California's] losing its luster," Fuller said. "For the average person who maybe came out here for the weather, I think they're saying the trade off is just not worth it any longer."

It has been hard to locate a place on the map, outside the city centers, where a fire has not cropped up in the past month. Some are burning deep in wilderness, a possible long-term benefit for the health of the forests struggling now for the same scant water supply, and others along costal stretches that have never seen fire in modern history.

Others are haunting the dry foothills where fire - and death - have been commonplace in recent years.

Just a few miles north of Oroville lies the Sierra foothill town of Paradise, having burned to the ground in just hours on Nov. 8, 2018, in a wind-whipped tragedy of historically deadly proportions.

Eighty-five people died, many simply overwhelmed by the sprinting flames as they tried to flee in cars and on foot. The Bear Fire is at Paradise's door again, with much less there to burn as the city slowly rebuilds.

Now a thick layer of black and white ash covers the streets, sidewalks and shops of Oroville, a city of 15,000 people that swelled by 25 percent virtually overnight with evacuees from the fire in Paradise, also known as the Camp Fire. The fire followed a near-disaster by a year when the Oroville Dam spillways almost failed with the flooding of the Feather River, threatening to inundate the city.

It is difficult today to find an Oroville resident who did not know someone who perished or lost a home in the Camp Fire. Now, amid a pandemic, the fast-moving Bear Fire is forcing new evacuations as it burns northeast of town.

The fire already has wiped out the small town of Berry Creek, which sits just north of Lake Oroville. Just outside of Oroville, police cars block entry to the roads that lead to the lake, which this time of year would normally be abuzz with Jet Skis and motorboats.

But few residents of Oroville, a conservative, roll-with-the-punches kind of frontier place, are discouraged enough to leave California.

More than natural disasters, many residents say it is the liberal overreach of the Democrat-dominated government of their state that has them frustrated. In 2016, Trump won Butte County in a state where he was trounced almost everywhere else.

"California is always going to be California," said Judy McClure, 69, a retired school librarian.

Rather than leave, she said, she would like to see the government loosen regulations and allow more aggressive forest management to prevent bigger fires.

"There's too much government," she said.

- - -

Albergotti reported from Oroville, Calif.; Dennis reported from Washington; and Wilson reported from Santa Barbara, Calif.
Champarans Sushil Kumar won 5 crore on the firth season of hit quiz show, Kaun Banega Crorepati. He is still among the biggest winners of the show but says that life after the show has been nothing but challenging.

In a note posted on his Facebook page, Sushil has written all about the trials and tribulations he had to face after winning the jackpot. From getting addicted to booze and cigarette, getting duped by cheats, making some bad decisions to even ruining his relationship with his wife, Sushil talked about all that went wrong.

He titled the note as The worst time of my life was after I won KBC. He wrote, From 2015 to 2016, it was the most difficult time of my life and I could not figure out what to do. Sushil said that right after his win, he was asked to appear for functions and various events in Bihar almost 15 days in a month. This led to him putting his education in the back seat. Because the media would keep taking his interviews and ask for updates on his life, he made investments in a few businesses just so that he would have something to tell the journalists. However, most of those ventures flopped.

Sushil then became a philanthropist, donating almost 50,000 every month to different causes. He later figured out that he was being duped. Even his relationship with his wife suffered as she believed he had no clue about which person he should trust. Sushil said that the couple also almost got divorced.

He mentioned that good things also happened to him as he met with a few student groups in Delhi who would tell him about the world and expose him to new ideas. But all this was followed by an addiction, of cigarettes and alcohol. Whenever we would meet, it would be over booze and cigarettes, he said.

Sushil said that he became a big fan of movies and would spend hours on his laptop watching films. This inspired him to become a filmmaker too. He arrived in Mumbai with hopes of being a filmmaker but was advised to work on TV soaps first instead. He wrote a script for a film which sold for 20,000. He would spend all day watching movies at his home and smoking cigarettes. Staying in all day and reading about things made me take an unbiased look at myself and I realised that I didnt come to Mumbai to become a filmmaker but to run away from my own self. The true happiness is in doing what your heart wants to do. You can never calm down you ego. Its a thousand times better to be a good human than a famous one, he said.

Also read: From being asked to serve food to Ayushmann Khurrana to getting groped at 12, Tahira Kashyap opens up on need to smash patriarchy

Sushil then returned home to Mumbai and became a teacher. He said he got rid of his boozing habit in 2016 and hasnt smoked since last year.

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. - As the flames closed in on tiny Berry Creek in the Sierra Nevada foothills early Wednesday, Misty Spires and her boyfriend hooked a fire hose to a hydrant in a desperate attempt to defend their homes and the towns only laundromat.

They gave up around 4 a.m. when propane tanks began exploding and they were dodging embers as big as my feet, she said. But traffic was snarled on the two-lane bridge leading out of town, forcing Spires and others to turn around and drive down a sandbar to escape the flames.

She helped another man load his motorcycle on the back of her pickup truck before sprinting to safety.

It was like a war zone, like standing in the breath of hell, she said.

For the second time in two years, fire has destroyed a mountain community in Butte County. Two years ago it was Paradise, where roughly 19,000 buildings were destroyed and 85 people died in the most destructive wildfire in state history.

This time, it was Berry Creek  an unincorporated town of about 1,200 people in the same remote, rolling heavily forested mountains that locals described as a peaceful, close-knit community.

Dozens of wildfires have been burning for weeks across California and the U.S. West, most sparked by lightning strikes. But the North Complex Fire in Northern California surprised fire officials by how quickly it spread after smouldering for weeks in a mostly unpopulated region.

Aided by strong winds, steep terrain and miles of dried out foliage, the fire  more than 8 miles (13 kilometres) wide  quickly roared into Butte County on Tuesday.

This time, Paradise was spared. Smaller mountain communities such as Berry Creek and Feather Falls were quickly overwhelmed. Firefighters scrambled to rescue more than 100 people on Tuesday and early Wednesday.

But they couldnt save everyone.

By Saturday, authorities said the fire claimed 12 lives and another 13 remained missing.

Millicent Catarancuics 5-acre property in Berry Creek was a rescue shelter of sorts. She had at least four dogs and several cats, many of whom wandered into her yard and never left after finding a loving home.

Her scattered family had seen much tragedy, but in recent years they had mostly settled at her compound in the hills, where it took a 30-minute drive to get anywhere. With her sister, Suzan Violet Zurz, and Phil Rubel, an uncle by marriage, the three lived in quietly, caring for animals and playing the card game FreeCell on a desktop computer.

They were not foolhardy with fires, having voluntarily evacuated for others. Tuesday, they had packed the car and were getting ready to leave when, about 7 p.m., they changed their minds. They were safe, they assured their families.

Authorities would later find Catarancuics body near a car, along with those of two others. Zurz and Rubel are still listed as missing. But Zurzs son, Zygy Roe-Zurz, fears the worst.

Its absolutely devastating to find out the people you love are suddenly and horribly gone, he said. We lived all over the world and finally settled in a place. So much work and so much thought went into being there and its, just, all gone.

Spires and her boyfriend, Jonathan Gonzales, were headed to the muddy sandbar north of Lake Oroville, the largest body of water in the area. Gonzalez knew the area was clear of trees and close to the water and told the drivers caught in the jam getting out of Berry Creek to follow him.

He told the others, If you want to live instead of sitting on this bridge follow me, she said. He saved a lot of lives.

Once there, Spires said most people stayed huddled in their cars. But others got out and consoled each other.

There wasnt much that you can say in that situation but to say, Im glad youre alive, Spires said.

While waiting for daylight, she saw horses and other animals run toward the lake as flames licked the hillsides.

Spires moved from Kansas City to Berry Creek two years ago, drawn to its verdant landscape, creeks and waterfalls that feed into the lake and the mild climate for her mother, who suffers from debilitating arthritis. Her loved ones all survived the blaze, but she mourned the loss of a town she had come to love.

She also mourned the loss of the Sugar Pine Saloon, a 1940s era bar where people in the community had signed their names in the rafters. Spires and her boyfriend were working hard to remodel and reopen it.

It was a place where the whole community was involved in some way, she said. The whole history is just gone.

___

Nguyen reported from San Francisco.
Delhi Police on Sunday (September 13) clarified that Sitaram Yechury, Yogendra Yadav and Jayati Ghosh are not named as co-conspirators in the supplementary chargesheet of Delhi riots filed by Delhi Police.

"As far as tweet by a news agency regarding Delhi Police naming academicians&politicians in supplementary charge sheet of case related to Jaffrabad riots is concerned,it's mentioned in one of online news agency report that names are part of disclosure statement of one of the accused in connection with organizing and addressing the Anti-CAA protests. It is worth mentioning that the disclosure statement has been truthfully recorded as narrated by the accused person," stressed Delhi Police.

The police also said that a person is not arraigned as an accused only on the basis of disclosure statement. But Delhi Police added that legal action is taken only on the existence of sufficient corroborative evidence.

On Saturday (September 12), it was reported that the Delhi Police had named CPI (M) general secretary Yechury, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav, economist Jayati Ghosh, Delhi University professor and activist Apoorvanand, and documentary filmmaker Rahul Roy as co-conspirators in February Delhi riots case in its supplementary chargesheet.

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They have been accused of asking anti-CAA protesters to go to any extreme, spreading discontent in the community by calling CAA/NRC anti-Muslim, and organise demonstrations to malign the image of the Government of India.

According to PTI, the names appeared in a supplementary chargesheet filed by the police on the riots in North-East District between February 23 and 26, which claimed 53 lives and left 581 injured, 97 of them having gunshot wounds.

The names of these eminent personalities cropped up in the chargesheet on the basis of the confessions of three students - womens collective Pinjra Tod members and JNU students Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, and Gulfisha Fathima of Jamia Milia Islamia - in the Jafrabad violence, from where the riots spread to other parts of north-east Delhi.
Pakistan is using cross-border underground tunnels to push terrorists into India and drones to drop weapons for them, the chief of Jammu and Kashmir police said Sunday.

Director general of police Dilbag Singh, however, said the anti-infiltration grid is active and anti-tunnelling operations are underway to scuttle nefarious designs.

Digging of tunnels beneath the IB is part of the nefarious designs of Pakistan to facilitate infiltration of terrorists into this side to step up terrorism, Singh told reporters in Samba district after inspecting the recently discovered 170-metre tunnel at Galar village along the IB.

The tunnel with a depth of 20-25 feet and originating from Pakistan was found by a BSF team near the border-fencing on August 28.

I saw this huge tunnel which is almost similar to the one detected in Chanyari in 2013-14. After the Nagrota encounter, we had received specific inputs that infiltration had taken place through a tunnel and was searching for it, the DGP said.

Three Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists were killed in the encounter in Nagrota in January this year.

The investigation is on but the ground indicators suggest that the tunnel was used by Pakistan in the past to push infiltrators, he said but did not rule out the possibility of more such tunnels.

He said BSF and police personnel are searching the area for any other tunnel.

On the recent recovery of sophisticated weapons, including an M-16 rifle, from a Kashmir-bound truck near Qazigund, he said the investigation is going on and it is believed that the arms were airdropped using drones in Samba sector.

Two overground workers of JeM, who were transporting the weapons in a truck, have identified the place in Samba from where they picked up the consignment for delivery to terrorists active in south Kashmir, officials said.

Asked about the possibility of presence of overground workers of terrorists in Jammu, Singh said the region has always been on the radar of Pakistan and it is evident from suicide attacks on military installations in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts over the years.

We have made adequate deployment and are taking all necessary precautions to frustrate the designs of Pakistan both along the border and in the hinterland, he said.

Officials said the DGP reviewed the overall security situation, especially along the IB, in the district during his visit and was also briefed by senior police and BSF officers.
Madrid: Spain is pleading with young people to stop holding illegal parties as the country's rising COVID-19 caseload continues to lead the way in Europe's impending second wave of infections.

In spite of warnings, in the early hours of Thursday, Madrid police caught and fined 73 people who ignored a ban on late-night gatherings by partying in a basement sauna where no one wore a face mask. Last weekend, 75 people were caught in an unlicensed premises used as a bar and brothel.

The increase in Spain of coronavirus outbreaks has been associated with nightlife and, increasingly, illegal parties. Credit:AP

The government this week launched a campaign to deter youngsters from underplaying the danger of COVID-19. The black and white video juxtaposes young people drinking in the street with images of patients in hospital, ending with a coffin on a gurney.

Spain, with more than 500,000 virus cases, has a transmission rate of 235 confirmed cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the past 14 days. This compares with 126 in France, 37 in the UK and just 29 in Italy.
Tennessee researchers used a supercomputer to analyze lung fluid from coronavirus patients.

They found that patients with severe cases may produce too much bradykinin, a chemical that regulates blood pressure.

This could set off a chain reaction that leads to COVID-19's bizarre range of symptoms  including cardiac, gastrointestinal, and neurological problems.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Claudia da Costa Leite, a radiology professor at University of Sao Paulo, examines lung scans on July 29, 2020. Nelson Almeida/AFP/Getty Images

Related: COVID-19 affects people with diabetes, cancer, conditions

Imagine trying to drive a car with a leaky engine. Now imagine there are no brakes, either. Eventually, you're going to run out of fuel or crash. Some passengers might survive  others won't.

The human body may endure a similar experience in response to a coronavirus infection, according to a study from researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. The lab's supercomputers  one of which is the second-fastest in the world  analyzed lung fluid samples from nine coronavirus patients with severe cases in Wuhan, China.

The computers detected major differences in way these patients expressed certain genes relative to the way healthy people do.

Based on those abnormalities, the researchers came up with a new theory: Patients with severe COVID-19 may experience what's known as a "bradykinin storm."

Bradykinin is a chemical that regulates blood pressure. The researchers found that some people with the coronavirus may produce it in extreme excess. That storm throws major systems  including respiratory, gastrointestinal, and neurological pathways  off balance.

The theory aligns with researchers' growing view of the coronavirus as a vascular disease instead of a respiratory one. Research has shown that COVID-19 can lead to blood clots, leaky capillaries, and inflamed blood vessels  which is why some patients may experience heart damage or stroke.

"We were really scratching our heads for a while, how does this disease have this darn broad set of symptoms across lots of different organ systems?" Dr. Daniel Jacobson, the lead researcher behind the supercomputer study, told Business Insider. "As we looked at the effects of bradykinin, our model was that this virus can affect several different types of tissues, several different organs."

Story continues

Too much bradykinin can send the body spiraling out of control

Scientists already know that the coronavirus binds to cell receptors called ACE2. That's how the virus sneaks into the body's upper respiratory tract, then infects organs like the lungs, heart, kidneys, or intestines.

But the supercomputers found that coronavirus patients had a 200-fold increase in the expression of ACE2 relative to a healthy person. This suggests the virus is actively influencing our bodies to make them even easier to infiltrate. At the same time, they computers found, coronavirus patients also had an eight-fold decrease in the expression of ACE, a protein that normally works with ACE2 to keep blood pressure in check.

"This system that is normally very carefully balanced  COVID-19 really throws it out of whack," Jacobson said.

This imbalance, the researchers think, is what leads to the over-production of bradykinin, which swoops in to keep blood pressure from getting too high. In severe cases, the cycle seems to go into overdrive: The body can't stop producing bradykinin. This is what researchers call a "bradykinin storm."

An excess of the chemical widens the gaps in blood vessels, which allows fluid to leak out. That fluid, in turn, starts to fill up the alveoli: tiny air sacs in the lungs  hence why patients have trouble breathing.

The supercomputers also found that coronavirus patients may over-produce a highly absorbent substance called hyaluronic acid. When the acid mixes with the fluid in the lungs, patients can feel like they're trying to breathe out of "a balloon full of Jell-O," Jacobson said.

"There may be a tipping point where enough of this hyaluronic acid builds up, then all of a sudden they have respiratory distress," he added. "That explains why some people seem to be doing fine and then they crash and all of a sudden need hospitalization or worse."

An explanation for the wide range of COVID-19 symptoms

The bradykinin theory offers a surprisingly cohesive explanation for why COVID-19 infections can result in a broad spectrum of symptoms. Though the disease has certain hallmarks  a fever, dry cough, and shortness of breath  patients have reported a range of cardiac, gastrointestinal, and neurological problems.

"Everywhere we go in the body and look at the symptoms being reported, they map pretty well to exactly what you'd expect to see from bradykinin," Jacobson said.

An infrared vascular imager shows blood vessels on the surface of skin in China's Shaanxi Province on March 6, 2020. Li Yibo/Xinhua/Getty Images

A bradykinin storm could cause fluid to leak from the blood vessels in the brain, which would explain neurological symptoms like dizziness, headaches, fogginess, and confusion that some patients experience. It can also trigger swelling, pain, and inflammation in the body  which can result in muscle soreness and body aches, now known to be common COVID-19 symptoms. That could even lead to purple, swollen toes.

What's more, Jacobson said, a loss of taste or smell is a classic response to decreased levels of ACE receptors. Lower levels of ACE have also been linked to a dry cough and fatigue.

Furthermore, the increased production of hyaluronic acid may explain why some asymptomatic patients have abnormal lung scans, Jacobson added.

"There's probably damage being done in people who feel fine otherwise," he said.

Implications for future treatments

Scientists still need to perform more clinical studies to know whether bradykinin storms are driving COVID-19 symptoms. But Jacobson's team isn't the first to suggest the theory.

In May, Michigan researchers hypothesized that a bradykinin response could lead to life-threatening respiratory complications in some COVID19 patients. A study published the month prior also proposed that the body's bradykinin response was to blame for leaky blood vessels observed in the lungs of COVID-19 patients.

The researchers behind that work suggested that a drug called icatibant, which blocks the body's signal to produce bradykinin, could help treat infected patients. A follow-up study showed that four of nine patients who received the drug no longer needed oxygen support after 10 to 35 hours. The drug also had no severe adverse effects. But the study was too small to yield any significant conclusions.

Jacobson's study, meanwhile, found evidence that vitamin D might hinder a bradykinin storm from developing in the first place. Studies have already shown that Vitamin D could help reduce the severity of COVID-19 infections.

Kathleen Finlay/Getty Images

His study also supports the idea that corticosteroids can improve survival rates for COVID-19 patients. Bradykinin receptors activate an enzyme called phospholipase A2, which is inhibited by steroids. The World Health Organization issued a "strong recommendation" for the use of steroids among seriously ill patients last week.

A competing hypothesis: the cytokine storm

Previously, some scientists suggested that a different internal "storm" could be behind people's severe reactions to the coronavirus: a cytokine storm. That release of chemical signals, when it goes into overdrive, can instruct the body to attack its own cells. This response was also observed in patients who died of H1N1, SARS, MERS, and the 1918 Spanish flu.

Jacobson said a cytokine response could produce some COVID-19 symptoms, but it's probably not as "stormy" as researchers once thought.

"That hypothesis is losing a little bit of traction," he said. "We're not saying they're not linked. I think they are. It just doesn't look like the full-blown cytokine storm is completely supported by data."

A patient suffering from coronavirus disease wears a snorkeling mask converted into a ventilator in Paris on April 1, 2020. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo

So far, the medical community has approached the bradykinin theory with cautious optimism.

"To be honest, I'm worried that this proposal is almost too neat and form-fitting," Derek Lowe, a medicinal chemist, wrote in Science Magazine. "Rarely do you get something that falls together this well."

Still, he added, the findings are "pretty plausible."

Jacobson said his team hopes to do more follow-up studies to test the theory, including studies involving long-haul coronavirus patients who have been sick for several months.

"I have a couple of long haulers on my team, so this is really near and dear to our hearts, and we're seeing it play out in real time," he said.

The bradykinin theory might play in there, too: Jacobson's team thinks that once that storm takes off, it could continue until the body figures out how to reset it. But it's still unclear whether any available treatments would make a difference for long-haul patients.

"That's part of the joy of science," Jacobson said. "For every answer you have, it raises 10 more questions."

Read the original article on Business Insider
MOSCOW -- Russians voted in 41 regions in local elections that were seen as a crucial test for the increasingly unpopular ruling party ahead of next year's national legislative elections.



Eighteen of the 41 regions were selecting governors in the September 13 elections; 11 were choosing regional legislatures; and 22 cities were voting for municipal legislatures. In addition, four by-elections were also being held for vacant seats in the lower house of the national parliament, the State Duma.



About 35 million voters, some one-third of the national total, were eligible to cast ballots.

The elections came less than a month after the August 20 poisoning of opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, who is currently hospitalized in Berlin from the suspected ingestion of a Soviet-developed nerve toxin. His supporters blame Kremlin allies.



As with a recent constitutional referendum that paved the way for Vladimir Putin to remain president beyond 2024, monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were not invited to observe the vote.

As a means of containing the spread of the coronavirus, which has hit Russia badly, early voting was organized for the two preceding days. Critics of Putin, however, argued it was part of an effort to falsify the results in favor of United Russia, the Kremlin-allied ruling party.



In a report issued in July, the independent election-monitoring group Golos said that lawmakers had "used the epidemiological situation as an excuse to make the electoral system even more opaque and subject to manipulation, including direct falsifications."



"The current elections are being held under the worst legislative framework of the last 25 years," the report said.

In many regions, the campaigns have been marred by the disqualifications of non-United Russia candidates, attacks on opposition candidates and their campaign workers, and the destruction of campaign materials.

In Novosibirsk on September 8, several workers of the opposition Novosibirsk-2020 movement sought medical treatment after two unidentified men threw a bottle containing an unknown chemical into a room where dozens of people were undergoing election-monitoring training.

In the town of Nevel in the Pskov region, unknown individuals distributed leaflets overnight that purported to quote from an "intercepted" conversation in an attempt to link a regional Yabloko leader to exiled former oligarch and Putin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Putins popularity rating has been in decline for a number of months, particularly in the wake of a Kremlin-driven effort earlier this year to rewrite the constitution in order to make it possible for him to remain in power until 2036.



United Russia is even less popular, with just 31 percent of Russians expressing a willingness to vote for it, according to research by the independent Levada Center polling agency released on September 7.



The partys image has been battered by its leading role in conducting a controversial national plebiscite on the constitutional revisions and a much-reviled pension reform that raised retirement ages.

The party also faces persistent, unanswered allegations of corruption at the local and national levels, and public discontent with the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.



United Russia has not produced a national platform despite holding a near monopoly on political power in the country for more than a decade, and many of its candidates are running nominally as independents to avoid association with the tarnished brand.

'Nothing New To Offer'



"The party is in total crisis," Moscow-based political analyst Aleksandr Kynev told the AFP news agency. "It has absolutely nothing new to offer."

In addition, the elections are being held in the context of weeks of massive protests in the Far Eastern region of Khabarovsk against the Kremlins removal of a popular governor who was elected in a 2018 landslide over a longtime United Russia incumbent.

Anothe factor is the more-than-a month of protests in neighboring Belarus against a disputed election that gave President Alyaksandr Lukashenka a sixth term.

Allies of the gravely ill opposition leader Navalny are promoting an initiative that they developed and rolled out in 2019 that they call "smart voting." It is aimed at uniting opposition of all stripes to the ruling United Russias stranglehold on political power.



Under the scheme, supporters of the "systemic opposition" can enter their address into a special app, which will then give them a list of the candidates deemed most likely to defeat their United Russia rivals regardless of their party affiliation.

"Our strategy is to increase the turnout among protest voters and to make sure those votes are concentrated for a specific candidate and not scattered," a pro-Navalny campaign worker in Novosibirsk Daniil Markelov told RFE/RL.

Such "smart voting" was credited in part for the opposition's success in winning nearly half of the seats up for grabs in the Moscow City Duma in 2019 local elections.



In the Irkutsk region, Kremlin-backed incumbent Igor Kobzev is facing a strong challenge from former Federal Security Service officer Mikhail Shchapov of the Communist Party. Kobzev was brought to the region in 2019 after the former Communist governor resigned, reportedly under intense Kremlin pressure.



In the northern Arkhangelsk region, United Russia candidate Aleksandr Tsibulsky is being challenged by former Duma Deputy Irina Chirkova of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. Sentiment against United Russia is running high in the region because of a controversial Moscow-backed proposal to build a huge landfill there. Although both Tsibulsky and Chirkova have publicly opposed the landfill, voters associate the project strongly with United Russia.



Pro-Navalny forces are expecting to make gains in the Siberian city of Tomsk, where Navalny was visiting when he was poisoned before getting onto a flight back to Moscow. United Russia currently holds 32 of the 37 seats in the city council, but Navalnys strong base of support in the city could be energized to turn out following the attack on their leader.

With reporting by AFP and Meduza
As many know, New Mexico has 9 million acres of State Trust Land, about $27 billion in the states various permanent funds (the peoples savings accounts) and world-class renewable energy resources.

The land is owned and managed by the State Land Office for the benefit of New Mexico. It is not public land per se. The permanent funds are managed by the State Investment Council, which directs these funds to be invested in a wide variety of ways, but mostly outside of New Mexico, in Wall Street and foreign equities. A small portion is invested in New Mexico.

At the same time, renewable energy resources (solar and wind) are patiently waiting to be tapped for everyones benefit in place of the more expensive and finite oil/gas/coal resources. These fossil fuels are routinely burned, dumping tons of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere every day.

Ah, our atmosphere, the very thin blanket of air that envelops the planet and which is essential for all life on Earth. We need not continue to use our atmosphere as a handy place to dump the combustion products from burning oil/gas/coal.

So, why is New Mexico waiting to build, literally, hundreds of gigawatts of clean electrical power from the abundant solar and wind resources? We have the land, the money, the technology, the people and the resources  all available. The recent New Mexico Energy Transition Act requires that we become carbon free soon for our own electrical energy needs. New Mexico could build not only enough for our state, but also enough to export vast amounts of electrical power to the surrounding region and beyond.

Clean power sales would offset most of the eventual loss of revenue from oil/gas/coal, especially if New Mexico companies own the clean energy businesses and utilities. If developers from other states/countries build and own these clean energy assets, they will accrue most of the financial benefits, similar to the current oil/gas arrangements. The return on such an investment by the State Investment Council would likely exceed its current investments returns while transforming the New Mexico economy with thousands of new jobs.

This opportunity is rare. New Mexico finds itself in a magical situation: plenty of land, plenty of investable cash and world-class clean energy resources.

What, pray tell, are we waiting for? How many more studies, plans and road maps do we need to get going? Lets invest and build some pilot projects to get some real-world experience in building these facilities, very soon, like 2020! Then build more and more solar/wind facilities with requisite storage and be a leading source of clean energy for the future. This process literally has no end.

Looking ahead, we will need to upgrade these facilities with technology improvements. This means our investments could provide sustainable jobs and business opportunities for the foreseeable future.

Today, massive renewable energy projects in neighboring states vastly exceed anything going on in New Mexico. This could be viewed as a race and, in that view, New Mexico is wa-a-a-ay behind and could easily lose this race. We would end up without the fossil fuel revenue, plus be required to buy much of our clean electricity from elsewhere.

If that happens, New Mexicos state revenue could suffer even more. Instead, lets take advantage of our vast, modern, clean energy resources and the investment opportunity they offer to build a robust and sustaining economic future now.

Please.

G.M. Ferguson lives in El Prado.
Tens of thousands of people avoided going to hospital for life-threatening illnesses such as heart attacks during Britain's coronavirus crisis, data has revealed.

Shocking figures reveal that admissions for seven deadly non-coronavirus conditions between March and June fell by more than 173,000 on the previous year.

Previous data for England shows there were nearly 6,000 fewer admissions for heart attacks in March and April compared with last year, and almost 137,000 fewer cancer admissions from March to June.

Analysis by the Daily Mail found that the trends were alarmingly similar across the board for patients who suffered strokes, diabetes, dementia, mental health conditions and eating disorders.

Admissions can count the same patient going into hospital more than once.

It comes as the health service is now urging doctors to start seeing patients face-to-face again amid concerns vulnerable patients are struggling to access phone and online appointments.

The UK's epidemic had forced many GPs to move most of their services to phone calls or Skype to avoid coming into contact with patients unnecessarily.

But all practices will today receive a letter warning them that many patients are experiencing difficulty in accessing their GP.

The letter instructs family doctors to remind all patients that they can come in for appointments if they need to - and warns them not to send people to A&E instead.

Pictured: Kelly Smith and son Finn. Kelly Smith, 31, died from bowel cancer after her chemotherapy treatment was paused during the height of the coronavirus pandemic

One in 50 NHS patients have now been waiting a year or more for planned surgery. The number of those waiting for elective ops for more than 18 weeks is at a 12-year high, with more than two million Britons now overdue

Mum died after virus hit cancer treatment The family of a young mother who died after her chemotherapy was delayed due to coronavirus say her life was cut 'drastically' short. Kelly Smith, 31, was killed by bowel cancer in June after a three-and-a half-year battle. She restarted chemotherapy shortly before lockdown after the cancer spread to her lungs, liver and brain. The mother-of-one, from Macclesfield, Cheshire, was angry at the decision to pause the treatment for three months. She thought the chemotherapy was working. She told BBC1's Panorama she was 'terrified' of dying. Miss Smith said: 'I'm angry, yes, that I got put on this break, because I don't think I should have. I'm angry at Covid because it's me that had this six-week break. I don't want to die. I feel like I've so much more to do.' Her parents Mandy and Craig Russell have launched a petition calling for an end to cancer treatment delays forced by the pandemic. It has been signed by 307,000 people. Mr Russell said of Miss Smith: 'Her life expectancy was drastically cut short after her chemotherapy stopped as a direct result of Covid.' Advertisement

Health experts said the statistics were 'troubling' and warned that many patients may have died or suffered longterm harm as a result.

Gbemi Babalola, senior analyst at the King's Fund think-tank said: 'People with some of the most serious health concerns are going without the healthcare they desperately need.

'Compared with the height of the pandemic, the NHS is seeing an increase in the number of patients as services restart, and significant effort is going into new ways to treat and support patients.

'But the fact remains that fewer people are being treated by NHS services.'

Cancer Research UK chief executive Michelle Mitchell added: 'Sadly the Covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on cancer services and the lives of cancer patients and we're still not even close to knowing what the longterm repercussions could be.'

Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation and a consultant cardiologist, said: 'These troubling statistics again show us that people have delayed seeking care for their heart attack, risking death or long-term heart damage.'

Sarah Scobie, deputy director of research at the Nuffield Trust think-tank, said: 'The pandemic led to an understandable but extreme slowdown of non-Covid health services across the board.

'Sadly there will be unintended consequences of restrictions to accessing services and people choosing not to seek hospital treatment.'

The Mail's analysis is the first to assess the fall in hospital admissions during the lockdown across a wide range of major health conditions.

The figures come as the country is once again imposing tight restrictions following a resurgence in virus cases.

From today, it will be illegal for people to meet in groups of more than six.

Sherwin Hall , his fiance LaTroya Wilkinson-Caines and five-month-old son Sancho Hall

Battle for life after pleas for scan snubbed A new father is fighting for life after his cancer went undetected in lockdown even though he begged for a scan. Delivery driver Sherwin Hall, 28, visited doctors about a pain in his groin at the beginning of the year but was repeatedly misdiagnosed. In March, he pleaded for an MRI scan after he found himself struggling to walk or pass water. But, as Britain was entering lockdown, he was told his condition was not serious enough and doctors insisted he had an inflamed prostate. He was only diagnosed with cancer on June 5 when a 5in tumour was discovered on his pelvis and 30 small tumours across his chest. Mr Hall, from Leeds, whose son Sancho is five months old, saw 16 doctors as he tried to have his pain diagnosed. He is now undergoing chemotherapy but has been told if it does not work he could die within three months. He said 'It breaks my heart that I tried so hard to save my life. 'I begged and begged and begged doctors to give me a scan but they said it was not safe because of Covid and my condition was not serious enough for an exception.' He added: 'I even tried to fund my own private healthcare but all the private hospitals were being used to help with the pandemic. 'It felt like all my avenues were shut down during lockdown.' Mr Hall and his family have set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for private treatment. Advertisement

Even tougher rules are being enforced in areas including Birmingham, Manchester and Bolton, where residents from different households are banned from seeing each other.

Government sources believe these types of restrictions will soon be imposed nationwide which is likely to damage public confidence and potentially deter patients from seeking medical help.

The NHS Digital data reveals that the largest drop in hospital admissions was for dementia  down by 51 per cent in April compared to 2019.

The Alzheimer's Society warned that emergencies such as dehydration and falls had gone 'unnoticed', in addition to patients being too scared to seek help.

Across nearly all conditions, the biggest fall in admissions was seen in April, when lockdown restrictions were at their height.

For mental health disorders such as severe depression and anxiety, they were 43 per cent lower in this month than the previous year.

Diabetes admissions were down by 36 per cent, stroke admissions by 17 per cent and eating disorder admissions by 31 per cent. Experts believe the sharp drop-off was partly caused by patients being reluctant to go to GPs or A&E or to call 999 or NHS 111, and subsequently admitted to hospital.

But many of the admissions would have involved 'planned care' such as routine consultations, operations or treatment, including chemotherapy for cancer.

A large proportion of these services were suspended by the NHS during the pandemic.

In a desperate bid to get patients back in to healthcare, doctors will now be told to actively encourage patients and remind them that in-person services are available again.

GPs are being told to put up posters, record new answer phone messages and send text messages making clear that practices are open and will welcome patients visits.

NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said: Patients are rightly saying that as well as the convenient option of a phone or online GP appointment, practices should continue to offer face-to-face appointments for all those who need them.

Doctors told to remind patients face-to-face appointments are back on Health bosses have ordered GPs to see more patients in person, with only half of appointments currently taking place face to face. All practices will today receive a letter warning them that many patients are experiencing difficulty in accessing their GP. The letter instructs family doctors to remind all patients that they can come in for appointments if they need to - and warns them not to send people to A&E instead. GPs are told to put up posters, record new answer phone messages and send text messages making clear that practices are open and will welcome patients visits. NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said: Patients are rightly saying that as well as the convenient option of a phone or online GP appointment, practices should continue to offer face-to-face appointments for all those who need them. The NHS is today confirming with GP practices that that requirement remains in place. It is the second time in two months that NHS bosses have had to issue a reminder to GP practices about the importance of welcoming patients in person. Advertisement

The NHS is today confirming with GP practices that that requirement remains in place.

It is the second time in two months that NHS bosses have had to issue a reminder to GP practices about the importance of welcoming patients in person.

At the end of July GPs were warned that failure to offer appropriate face-to-face appointments would be considered a breach of their contract.

Between March and July only half of all consultations took place in person, with the remainder taking place over the phone or via video calls.

Experts are increasingly concerned that low numbers of physical medical examinations during the Covid pandemic will inevitably have led to delayed diagnosis of serious conditions such as cancer and diabetes.

Childhood vaccination rates have also dropped as parents have been reluctant to take their children to GP surgeries for fear of exposing them to coronavirus infection.

Professor Andrew Goddard, of the Royal College of Physicians, said: 'The data confirms and shows the scale of what doctors were seeing during the first wave.

'Undoubtedly, many patients were scared to come to hospital or felt their symptoms were not worth troubling an extremely busy NHS.'

NHS medical director Professor Stephen Powis said: 'Our NHS message to the public throughout has been  don't delay, help us help you by coming forward.

'Emergency hospital admissions are now approaching 95 per cent of usual levels with a substantial rebound in routine appointments and operations.'

NHS Digital said the majority of the admissions represented planned care, such as surgery or treatment including chemotherapy, rather than patients being rushed in as emergencies.

Ex-soldier's transplant was delayed for months A former soldier diagnosed with blood cancer in February was told he needed to have an urgent bone marrow transplant  but his treatment was halted due to the pandemic. Father-of-three Will McGookin, 48, was suffering from frequent nose bleeds and severe headaches before he found out he suffered MDS  a syndrome where the body fails to produce healthy blood cells. He was told he needed a bone marrow transplant within nine months to stop it developing into an aggressive form of leukaemia. But weeks later, doctors said his treatment could not be scheduled because it was too dangerous to be admitted to hospital because of coronavirus. Will McGookin - father-of-three who was diagnosed with blood cancer in February was told he needed to have an urgent bone marrow transplant before his treatment was halted due to the pandemic Mr McGookin, from Liverpool, said: 'The exact words were 'I wouldn't admit my own mother because it's too dangerous'. 'I felt like my world was turned upside down. I was shocked, angry and I just felt numb. My family were in bits.' By July, a date for his life-saving surgery was still not set and Mr McGookin was panicking. After months of anxious waiting and frantic phone calls, the procedure is finally scheduled for September 28. His brother, Jim, 51, is a 100 per cent match. Mr McGookin said: 'If Covid wasn't around maybe my treatment would have started and I would have been at the end of my first cycle of chemo.' Advertisement

The cure is worse than the disease: Dr JOHN LEE argues that the coronavirus lockdown could cause more long-term harm that the illness itself

The supposed cure for coronavirus is turning out to be worse than the disease. As analysis by the Mail reveals today, more lives are being wrecked by the official response to Covid than by the virus itself.

In a bizarre paradox, ill-directed efforts at protecting public health are creating a public health disaster.

When the outbreak began, the Government decided to shield the NHS, with the aim of maintaining its capacity for the imminent tidal wave of cases. All resources were focused on this goal.

From March, the treatment of other conditions and illnesses was put in abeyance for three months. And to this day, the NHS has not resumed anything like normal service. But the predicted Covid deluge never materialised.

Even now the fiercely disputed current Covid death toll of 41,628 is barely half the total fatalities of the 1968 flu epidemic in the UK.

The streets of Soho, London where people are all in groups before the new restrictions start on Monday where you can only be in a group of six maximum

Yet the impact of Covid has been truly devastating in a much more insidious way. As today's figures reveal, the effective suspension of much of the NHS, and the mass deferral of non-Covid cases, have wreaked havoc on the nation's health.

Hospital admissions for cancer were down by 36 per cent in April and another 37 per cent in May. As a doctor who served as director of cancer services in Rotherham for over 12 years, I feel despair at these statistics.

For ultimately they are proof that this crisis has warped the Government's and medical authorities' senses of reality, purpose and compassion.

In my field of cancer, NHS guidelines give patients who show any potentially cancerous symptoms  such as a persistent cough, sudden weight loss or blood in the stool  a legal right to be seen by a specialist within two weeks of an urgent GP referral.

Diagnosis should be made within 28 days and, if needed, 95 per cent of patients should begin treatment within 62 days from the original referral.

But in the post-Covid climate of severe healthcare rationing, this target has simply been abandoned. One member of my family who found blood in their urine had to wait more than three and a half months just to be seen.

Tragically, the whole point of cancer pathways is to catch the disease early before it advances and spreads. Yet that basic medical requirement has been ignored in the obsessive attention paid to coronavirus. And so the very ministers and public health bureaucrats who constantly claimed to be 'saving lives' have put numerous lives at risk with their distorted priorities.

Members of staff attend to motorist at a Covid-19 testing centre in central London last week

Due to wilful neglect, the damage caused to cancer patients will be felt for years to come. The same applies to so many other conditions, including cardiovascular problems, diabetes, mental health and dementia, where patients have been denied timely care. Of course, it is not just delayed treatment that is to blame.

The draconian lockdown, now in its second incarnation, also fuels poor health by the harm it inflicts on the economy  through poverty and unemployment  as well as by putting people in enforced isolation. It is a tragic fact that, as history demonstrates, higher suicide rates invariably follow declines in a nation's GDP, particularly among the young  those least likely to suffer from Covid.

As for the elderly, who are most vulnerable to Covid, in another bitter irony, they are the ones who suffer most from the latest restrictions introduced today, the 'Rule of Six' guidelines. Every doctor knows that life can never be about simply the avoidance of death: it's also about the quality of life.

Yet too many older people have been forced to endure a kind of solitary confinement, denied ordinary pleasures such as contact with friends, hugs from grandchildren, or local outings. Even more cruel is the arbitrary rule that only one relative at a time can be at the bedside of a loved one, even in their final moments.

Tearing families apart, denying them comfort at the end, Covid authoritarianism generates the antithesis of compassionate care.

All of which makes it all the more frustrating that this callous, illiberal approach is built on such shallow foundations. There is precious little evidence that coronavirus was ever an exceptional threat to our nation's wellbeing. In effect, the State has wildly over-reacted, partly as a result of being in thrall to scientists such as Professor Neil Ferguson with unproven theories and dubious modelling.

Despite the Government's misplaced talk about the dangerous consequences of a 'second wave', the reality is that the rising number of infections  the inevitable result of greatly increased testing  has not clearly resulted in a significant increase in Covid hospital admissions or deaths.

More than 1,600 people die in Britain every day, yet, despite the Government's scaremongering, the coronavirus daily death toll has been in single or low double figures for weeks.

Indeed, if coronavirus were really the deadly menace that is painted, there would have been a massive spike in cases and deaths after the Black Lives Matter protests, illegal raves and huge gatherings at the seaside during the summer. But nothing of the sort has happened. Yet still the Government refuses to change its doomladen narrative.

On the contrary, the bullying is becoming more intense, reflected in the appointment of Covid marshals and the ritualistic orders to wear masks. The great Irish author C S Lewis wrote that 'of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than omnipotent moral busybodies'.

As this country finally faces up to the real healthcare toll of imposing lockdown, such words could have been describing Britain in 2020.

Dr Lee is a former professor of pathology at Hull York Medical School and a recently retired NHS consultant
Jammu, Sep 13 : Indian and Pakistani troops traded heavy fire on the Line of Control on Sunday after Pakistan resorted to unprovoked firing and shelling at Indian positions in J&K's Poonch district.

Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Devender Anand said at about 5.45 p.m. Sunday, Pakistan initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation by firing with small arms and shelling with mortars along the LoC in Mankote sector of Poonch district.

"Indian Army retaliates befittingly", the spokesman said.

Pakistan has violated the bilateral ceasefire agreement with impunity since the beginning of this year.

24 civilians have been killed and over 100 injured in over 2,730 such ceasefire violations by Pakistan this year.
Bala Chauhan By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) is examining the financial transactions in the recent drug bust cases done by the city police to verify the money laundering angle. Contrary to some reports, the ED has so far not issued notices to Sandalwood actors Ragini Dwivedi and Sanjjanaa Galrani or any of the accused in the drug cases, informed sources told The New Sunday Express.

Ragini and Sanjjana were arrested this week under the Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act by the Central Crime Branch (CCB), which had registered a suo motu case at Cottonpet police station on September 4 against 12 accused. The two actors have been remanded in police custody.

There is a huge aspect of financial gain behind the drug trafficking network. This cannot be small money and there may be multiple players. Apart from the Cottonpet drugs case, this week the City police had seized over one tonne of cannabis (ganja) worth over Rs 6 crore from a warehouse in Kalaburagi. Someone has financed the sourcing of the narcotic drug and stands to gain heavily from it.

The ED is looking at the multiple FIRs registered by the police to find out the financial transactions and the money trail in the contraband network, the officer said.

Mode of transfer

The financial trail will also give the agency an insight into any international money transaction and whether hawala was a mode of transfer of money and payment, he added. A team of ED officials visited the CCB office on September 10 and had interacted with the investigating officers in the Cottonpet drugs case in which CCB has named 12 accused under provisions of the NDPS Act.
Bhubaneswar: The COVID-19 tally in Odisha rose to 1,50,807 after 3,913 more people, including 38 inmates of a jail and a BJD MLA, tested positive for the disease on Sunday, while 10 fresh fatalities took the death toll to 626, a health department official said.

The state also registered the recovery of 3,363 coronavirus patients taking the total number of cured people so far to 1,18,642 which is 78.67 per cent.

The state now has 31,486 active cases, the official said. The new cases were reported from all the 30 districts of the state, he said.

Of the fresh cases, 2,348 were reported from various quarantine centres, and 1,565 were detected during contact tracing, the official said.

Three new deaths were registered in Khurda district, two in Cuttack and one each in Balasore, Ganjam, Kalahandi, Mayurbhanj and Subarnapur.

Ganjam accounted for 215 of the 626 fatalities in the state, followed by Khurda (92).

Fifty-three COVID-19 patients have died in the coastal state due to comorbidities, the official said.

Khurda district, of which Bhubaneswar is a part, reported the highest number of 556 fresh cases, followed by Cuttack at 382 and Puri at 212.

The state has so far tested over 24.23 lakh samples for COVID-19, including 48,504 on Saturday, he said.Meanwhile, Mayurbhanj District Magistrate-cum- Collector V Bharadwaj said that 38 inmates and two employees of Baripada Circle Jail tested positive for COVID-19.

The infected inmates and employees have been isolated in the jail housing about 600 prisoners.

In a social media post, ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MLA from Talcher, Braja Kishore Pradhan, said that he was detected with the virus, and requested all who came in contact with him in the recent past to get themselves tested.

So far 28 MLAs including six ministers and three MPs of Odisha have tested positive for the infection, an official source said.

As the state capital has emerged as a major corona hotspot with 4,735 active cases, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Sunday launched a massive door-to-door health screening in non-slum areas.

"The screening teams are collecting information on people with COVID-19 symptoms and travel history," a BMC official said.

The coronavirus caseload of the city has increased to 16,240 on Sunday with the detection of 395 new cases. Two more fresh fatalities also raised Bhubaneswar's death toll to 62.
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Linkedin Toh Ting Wei (The Straits Times/Asia News Network)  Sun, September 13, 2020 11:01 495 e22cd4161040e111d73a5626c447df3b 2 News Singapore-Airlines,Airlines,travel Free

Singapore Airlines (SIA) is looking to launch no-destination flights from Changi Airport next month, in a bid to give its ailing business a lift.

Sources told The Sunday Times the national carrier is working towards launching this option for domestic passengers, dubbed "flights to nowhere", by the end of next month.

They said SIA also plans to explore a partnership with the Singapore Tourism Board to allow interested passengers to partially pay for such flights with tourism credits that will be given out by the government.

Each flight is expected to take about three hours.

Aircraft charter firm Singapore Air Charter director Stefan Wood told The Sunday Times that he had approached SIA about the possibility of setting up a joint venture to provide such flights to nowhere using the Airbus A-350 planes from SIA.

But he said the talks stalled recently, with SIA indicating interest in going ahead with such plans on its own.

When asked by The Sunday Times about the plans to launch flights to nowhere, a spokesman said: "SIA is considering several initiatives that would allow us to continue engaging both our customers and members of the public.

"We will make an announcement at the appropriate time if we go ahead with these plans."

Several airlines worldwide, including EVA Air in Taiwan, have piloted flights to nowhere in an attempt to cope with the drastic fall in demand for air travel due to the pandemic.

Like other airlines, SIA has been battered by the fallout. The SIA Group, which also includes regional arm SilkAir and budget carrier Scoot, announced on Thursday that it will cut around 4,300 positions, with an estimated 2,400 employees expected to be affected after taking into account previous measures.

SIA has operated a flight to nowhere before, for a charity initiative in 2015 when it ferried more than 300 beneficiaries of the Community Chest, such as children with special needs and the disadvantaged elderly.

No details are available on SIA's flights to nowhere, but Wood said he had envisioned a bundle package for such no-destination flights.

This would have included partnerships with hotels to offer staycations, shopping vouchers for use at Jewel Changi Airport and a limousine service to ferry customers around.

He is confident that there will be demand for such flights in Singapore should they eventually be launched.

A survey of 308 people that his firm conducted found that 75 percent are willing to pay for flights to nowhere.

The most popular price that respondents are willing to pay for an economy class seat is $288, with 45 percent of respondents saying they are willing to do so.

Meanwhile, 40 percent said they are willing to pay $588 for a business class seat.

Sixty percent of respondents said they would prefer the flight to last two hours.

Wood said of these flights to nowhere: "As travel opens, the novelty will certainly wear off. However, when bundled with a staycation, limo transfers and airport shopping experiences, people will lap it up."

He added that his firm will drop plans to launch flights to nowhere on commercial planes in Singapore if SIA successfully introduces its offering.

"To me, it is about the Singapore economy and pumping some money back into the sector," he said.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic senior lecturer in tourism Michael Chiam noted that airlines such as EVA Air and Japan's All Nippon Airways have had good take-up rates on their flight-to-nowhere offerings.

"Some people may find flights to nowhere a novelty and they may be willing to give it a try and participate just for the thrill of it," he said.

Independent aviation analyst Brendan Sobie of Sobie Aviation said such flights will at least break even and use aircraft and crew that would otherwise have been unused.

"It certainly doesn't hurt to do these flights but I wouldn't expect a big impact in terms of revenue or reduced losses during these challenging times," he said.

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This article appeared on The Straits Times newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (R) meets with the visiting Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense General Wei Fenghe (L) in Manila on the afternoon of September 11, 2020. (mod.gov.cn)

MANILA, Philippines Sept. 12 -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte met with the visiting Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense General Wei Fenghe in Manila on the afternoon of September 11, 2020.

Duterte said that the delegation is the first high-level one to visit the Philippines since the COVID-19 pandemic, showing that China attaches great importance to the China-Philippine relations. Under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, China has overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Philippine side hereby expresses congratulations on it, he stated.

Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe (1st R) holds official talks with Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana (1st L) in Manila, the Philippines, Sept. 11, 2020.(mod.gov.cn)

After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese government and military provided a large amount of selfless assistance to the Philippines, and the Philippines side is sincerely grateful for that, he added.

Maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea is in the common interests of all countries in the region. It is hoped that all parties will resolve their conflicts and differences through friendly consultations on the basis of respect for international law, and jointly achieve long-term peace and stability in the South China Sea, Duterte expressed.

General Wei Fenghe said that China and Philippine enjoy a long-established friendship, and the relations between the two countries continue to make new progress under the joint guidance of President Xi Jinping and His Excellency the President Duterte. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the two countries support each other, which reflect the good-neighborly and friendly relations of mutual assistance.

Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana (R) holds a welcoming ceremony for the visiting Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe (L) on the morning of September 11, 2020. (mod.gov.cn)

The Chinese military is willing to develop closer and more pragmatic cooperation with the Philippine military, said Wei. Maintaining the stability of the South China Sea is the shared responsibility of the two countries. It is necessary to persist in resolving issues within the region through consultations, strengthen communication and coordination, so as to properly manage differences, and jointly maintain peace and tranquility in the South China Sea, Wei added.

On Friday morning, General Wei Henghe also held talks with Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana. They exchanged views on the international and regional situations, the relations between the two countries and the two militaries, the South China Sea issue, etc.
(EPA)

Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro has claimed a US spy targeting the largest oil refining complex in the country, which is facing a severe fuel shortage crisis, has been captured.

Mr Maduro said the man, alleged to be a marine who served as a CIA operative in Iraq, was arrested on Thursday for spying on the Amuay and Cardon refineries in the northwest state of Falcon.

He was captured with specialised weapons, he was captured with large amounts of cash, large amounts of dollars and other items, Mr Maduro, an adversary of the United States, said.

Mr Maduro gave no identity but said the man was being interrogated about his activities.

The president also said Venezuelan authorities had foiled a plot on Wednesday that was aimed at blowing up a third refinery, El Palito in Carabobo state, and urged the nations oil workers to be on alert for more attacks.

The gringo empire wants revenge against Venezuela, he said.

It wants to prevent Venezuela from producing all petroleum products, gasoline.

Neither the US State Department nor the White House have commented on the issue.

The deep fuel scarcity in Venezuela has left drivers stuck in lines for hours and days to fill up vehicles, even in the capital of Caracas, in recent days.

Once one of the worlds largest exporters of oil, Venezuela today relies on imports from Iran.

Analysts predict the next three Iranian ships hauling fuel will not arrive for weeks.

If Mr Maduros claim of capturing a US citizen prove correct, the suspect would join two ex-green beret soldiers, Luke Denman and Airan Berry, already jailed in Venezuela for allegedly participating in a failed attempt to overthrow the socialist leader.

Additional reporting by agencies

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For a few minutes, in a tucked-away cemetery filled with crumbling markers of mostly forgotten lives, Robert Logan became more than a name on a headstone.

He became a boy who was born in the nation's capital in 1845 and grew up in Ward 1.

He became a big brother to two sisters - one who died at 15 and one who lived to be 100.

He became a young man who attended school and eventually owned a feed store, a lucrative business at a time when people needed horses to get around and horses needed to eat.

All at once, as a teenage girl stood in front of about two dozen people and described what her research revealed about him, Robert Logan became real. He became a bank account holder, a father of two, a Black man who created a life in Georgetown when it was a much different place than it is now.

The wealthy, mostly White neighborhood that often makes it onto tourists' to-do lists was once the site of auctions of enslaved people and later home to thousands of African Americans.

But you wouldn't know that by walking through it or by thinking back to what you were taught in school.

"I had no idea Georgetown was Black" is a sentiment Lisa Fager hears often.

She is the executive director of the Mount Zion-Female Union Band Society Historic Memorial Park. The foundation manages the preservation of two adjoining Georgetown cemeteries that served as the burial grounds for thousands of enslaved and free African Americans who once walked, prayed and raised families in the neighborhood.

"People have this idea of slavery, that every Black person was enslaved, and not only that, but that slavery was way down in Georgia," Fager says. The reality was more complex. "The free and the enslaved worked, worshiped and lived together."

On the day that teenage girl described Logan's life, Fager stood nearby, listening.

She had been wanting to see an organized effort aimed at uncovering the many untold stories of the people buried in the cemeteries, and finally, that was happening. One young person after another held the microphone and described a life that weeks earlier they hadn't known existed.

It was a moving scene - but not just because of the historical context.

How it came about and what may come of it makes it a notable moment for the region's past and present.

The effort grew from the global pandemic, was bolstered by national Black Lives Matter protests and could provide a template for other states to teach young people aspects of African American history they won't find in textbooks.

"It's so easy to grow up with a skewed understanding of history," says Garrett Lowe, who came up with the idea for the effort. "For me, as a White Washingtonian, third generation, I'm just learning this stuff now at 55."

As Lowe tells it, he would have normally spent the summer tutoring students to prepare them for their college entrance exams. But when the novel coronavirus caused the cancellation of SAT and ACT tests, he started thinking about other ways to keep young people occupied.

He previously had visited the three-acre plot shared by the Mount Zion and Female Union Band Society cemeteries and had been struck by the condition of the grave markers. Many were toppled, damaged or lost as a result of time and human behavior.

When Lowe visited again, he wondered what he might find if he researched some of the names on the headstones that were still decipherable. What he discovered became the basis of a five-week course that he enlisted his childhood friend and fellow Washingtonian, Thomas Duckenfield, to help him lead.

"The vast majority of people in there, their stories are not known," Lowe says. Some were doctors and business executives, he says, but many were laborers, cooks and laundresses.

"Doing this work is pretty subversive," he says. "We're asserting that the poor matter as much as the middle class. We're asserting that the Black matter as much as the White."

Duckenfield, a lawyer who brought a familiarity with genealogy work to the effort, came up with the phrase: "Black Lives Matter(ed)."

The point: Black lives matter now, and they mattered then.

To those familiar with the African American cemeteries in Georgetown, the contrast between their conditions and the well-manicured graves of the mostly White people buried at nearby Oak Hill cemetery has not gone unnoticed.

After Lowe announced the class through an email, more than 20 people quickly signed up. Most were high school students, but three were mothers, and two were eighth-graders. Lowe, Duckenfield and Fager also pulled their children into the effort. Duckenfield's 15-year-old daughter, Catherine, is the one who spoke about Logan.

All the participants were given names to research and offered guidance through Zoom calls for the weeks they spent looking through documents and historical vital records for revealing details.

One showed that a man changed professions in his 70s. He went from a carriage driver to a chauffeur.

Another reflected the reluctance of a family to move away from the graves of two children. When those family members were later buried in Upper Marlboro, Md., they placed a marker there, too, for the children.

One of the more surprising findings involved a White woman. She had no African ancestry, Lowe says, but was forced to carry a document indicating she was a free woman because of how she spoke and where she lived.

About 300 marked graves exist, he says, but undertaker records were used to create a database of about 2,700 names.

"I want to investigate every single person we can," Lowe says. "I'm in this for the long haul. This is not just a covid project for me."

He is already planning future courses, one that is expected to start at the end of this month. He, Duckenfield and Fager also spoke to a group of educators in New Jersey about replicating the work in their communities.

"You don't have to go all the way to Alabama to see Black history - it's everywhere," Fager says. For her, one of the most powerful aspects of the experience came in seeing how connected the students became to their people as they tried to fill in that space between the two dates on their headstones. "As I told Garrett, it's so important to talk about the dash."

The foundation is looking into how to best preserve and move the headstones without further damaging them, she says. But she hopes the public also starts to see that space as sacred. People have been known to use the grounds as a dog run.

Because class started at one of the cemeteries, Fager suggested it end at one with a libation ceremony to celebrate the lives that had been lost - and in a way found.

All of the students wore white and, one at a time, brought life to the people they were assigned to research.

Virginia Hawkins became a woman who could read and write, but whose daughter was illiterate.

Frederick Jenkins Sr. became a day laborer and the father to a man who worked in a flower shop before he was drafted for World War II.

Ellen Sinclair became Ellen Rigsby, a woman who married her Scottish enslaver and took his name only after his death left her and her daughter free.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says his country has captured an "American spy," but did not say where the individual was being held

President Nicolas Maduro said Friday that an "American spy" had been arrested near two Venezuelan refineries, after authorities foiled a plot to "cause an explosion" at another oil complex.

"Yesterday we captured... an American spy who was spying in Falcon state on the Amuay and Cardon refineries," Maduro said in a televised address.

According to Maduro the individual was "a marine who was serving as a marine at CIA bases in Iraq" and who was captured with "heavy weapons" and "large amounts of cash."

The arrest, he said, occurred after authorities on Wednesday "discovered and dismantled" a "plan to cause an explosion" at El Palito refinery -- the closest to Caracas -- located in Carabobo state.

Maduro did not say, however, where the individual was being held.

Last month two former US soldiers, Luke Alexander Denman, 34, and Airan Berry, 41, were sentenced to 20 years in prison in Venezuela on charges including terrorism, after a failed bid to invade the Caribbean country last May.

Just hours before Friday's announcement, the Venezuelan government said it was establishing an "emergency plan" intended to regulate "fuel distribution" in light of severe gasoline shortages in the country, where people wait in lines stretching miles (kilometers) to fuel up their vehicles.

Venezuela suffers fuel shortages despite having the largest proven oil reserves in the world.

The petroleum industry was the cornerstone of Venezuela's economy a century ago, but production has fallen to a fraction of the 3.2 million barrels per day produced just over a decade ago.

atm/bfm/st
A gunman walks up to sheriff's deputies and opens fire without warning or provocation in Compton, Calif., on Sept. 12, 2020. (Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department via AP)

2 Officers Fight for Their Lives After Ambush Shooting; Trump Condemns Attack

Two Los Angeles county sheriffs deputies are fighting for their lives after being shot on Saturday in an ambush attack while sitting in their patrol car, officials say.

A 24-year-old male deputy and a 31-year-old female deputy were shot in the head and had multiple gunshot wounds. They are in critical condition and have undergone surgery.

President Donald Trump later shared a video of the shooting.

Animals that must be hit hard! the president wrote about the shooter and others who have committed similar acts of violence.

Activists on Saturday night blocked the entrance to St. Francis Medical Center, the hospital where the two deputies were treated, and yelled, with one of the activists yelling, we hope they die.

The Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department issued a dispersal warning before clearing the ambulance ramps. The department wrote on Twitter that peoples lives are at stake when ambulances cant get through.

Videos posted on social media show a small group of activists yelling oink, oink and [expletive] the police outside the hospital. One protester yelled, We hope that [expletive] dies. Another yelled, Yall gonna die one by one.

None of the videos show that any ambulances were prevented from entering or leaving the hospital.

Before backup arrived, several police officers faced the protesters on the ambulance ramps as a helicopter circled overhead.

After the small crowd refuse to disperse, one male protester who refused to follow orders was arrested after a struggle. A female protester refused repeated orders to stay back as the officers struggled with the male. She was arrested as well.

The woman was later identified as a member of the press, according to the sheriffs office.

The female adult, who was later identified as a member of the press, did not identify herself as press and later admitted she did not have proper press credentials on her person, the office said on Twitter.

The sheriffs department video shows a male approaching the car and firing several shots through the passenger-side window.

The gunman walked up on the deputies and opened fire without warning or provocation, the sheriffs department said in a Twitter post that included video showing a person open fire through the passenger-side window of the patrol car.

The incident happened around 7 p.m. a short distance from the Compton sheriffs station. The suspect is still at large.

Assembly member Reggie Jones-Sawyer, who is the chair of public safety for California state, told a press conference, This was an unprovoked, cowardly act. The individual will be caught and justice will prevail. Our society must not tolerate such acts of violence.

Tonight, we must as a community must condemn the actions of the perpetrators, but most importantly, we must all come together, pray together for these officers because they are heroes, he added.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
He says that some changes in the Cabinet's economic bloc are possible.

Chairman of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada Dmytro Razumkov rules out serious government reshuffles in the near future and says there are no grounds to disband the incumbent parliament.

He shared his opinion on TV Channel NewsOne on September 12.

Read alsoRuling faction leader announces upcoming Cabinet reshuffles

"I don't think we will see a drastic reshuffle in the Cabinet of Ministers any time soon," he said.

Yet, he did not exclude that changes in the economic bloc are theoretically possible.

"In theory, this is possible. And it can be initiated even by one MP, and the session will then decide whether to support or reject such an initiative," he added.

Razumkov also predicts that the 9th convocation parliament will work until its tenure expires. According to him, there are no legal grounds today for early termination of the powers of the incumbent parliament.

Possible Cabinet-related resignations
While Chinese President Xi Jinping has shown that he is good at political mobilisation of the army and perfected the art of intimidating other countries, he is yet to show that his military is worth a damn in a fight, writes Gordon G Chang, author, in an article published in Newsweek.

In the piece, The Chinese Army Flops in India. What Will Xi Do Next?, Chang argues that Xi has risked his future with the recent high-profile incursions into Indian-controlled territory and both the architect" of these aggressive moves into India and his Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) have flopped unexpectedly.

According to him, the Chinese armys failures on the Indian border will have consequences. As an initial matter, they give Xi an excuse to pick up the pace of replacing adversaries in the armed forces with loyal elements. Heads, therefore, will roll, Chang writes.

These failures will, he predicts, will motivate Chinas aggressive rulerwho as chairman of the Partys Central Military Commission, is the leader of the PLAto launch another offensive against Indian positions.

But can the Chinese prove themselves effective in a battle? Chang says the Ground Force of the Peoples Liberation Army does not have a track record of success in contested situations.

Its last major engagement was in 1979 when, in the effort to teach Vietnam a lesson," the Chinese launched what they called a defensive counterattack" into Vietnamese territory and, in the process, were repelled and humiliated by their much smaller neighbour. Now, after decades of an unprecedented modernization effort, the Ground Force is far better equipped and trained, but it is apparently not much more effective on the battlefield. India is not giving the invaders the opportunity to improve. Both sides have just accused the other of violating decades-old rules of engagement by firing warning shots. It appears, however, the Chinese are the ones closer to the truth: Indias troops are displaying newfound boldness.

India, According to Chang, has effectively ditched these rules intended to limit casualties. The setback in the Himalayas poses problems for Xi, which means it poses a problem for everyone else.

Chinas leader has shown he is good at political mobilization of the army and that he can spend large sums on military equipment. He has also perfected the art of intimidating other countries. Xi Jinping, however, has yet to show his military, in a fight, is worth a damn, he writes.

Other nations will take notice that Chinas military is deficient. Why is the PLA less than the sum of its parts? It can be excessive political control of army operationsa problem in all communist militariesor something else. Yet the failure to push around the Indian military means Xis ability to intimidate anyone is much reduced, he adds.

India and China are engaged in a four-month-long standoff at the LAC in eastern Ladakh. Despite several levels of dialogue, there has been no breakthrough and the deadlock continues.

Both countries have now decided to hold their sixth round of top-level military talks within the next few days. The corps commanders - 14 Corps commander Lt-General Harinder Singh and South Xinjiang Military District chief Major General Liu Lin have not met since August 2.

A senior government officer told News18 there is a complete breakdown of trust between both the militaries. China has mobilised thousands of soldiers, tanks and howitzers within shooting distance of each other in the Pangong Tso-Chushul area.

Indian soldiers then swiftly seized tactical heights on the ridge line stretching from Thakung on the southern bank of Pangong Tso to Gurung Hill, Spanggur Gap, Magar Hill, Mukhpari, Rezang La and Reqin La (Rechin mountain pass), and other height features near Chushul to pre-empt the Chinese army activities there.

The Chinese have since made multiple attempts to dislodge Indian troops from mountain heights.

India has also found that the Chinese side has started troop, artillery and armour build-up in three sectors of the LAC  western (Ladakh), middle (Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh) and eastern (Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh).
Britain is on the edge of losing control of the spread of the coronavirus, according to a member of the governments Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies.

Sir Mark Walport  a former chief scientific adviser  also insisted there was an extremely strong argument for people who can work from home to continue to doing so.

I think one would have to say were on the edge of losing control and youve only got to look across the Channel to see whats happening in France and whats happening in Spain, he told BBC Radio 4s Today programme.

The French on Friday had 9,800 new infections and one can see their hospital admission and intensive care admissions are going up.

The distinguished scientist also cited an alarming study from Imperial, commissioned by the government, suggesting Covid-19 cases are doubling every seven to eight days and warned the R rate of transmission could be as high as 1.7.

The analysis of ICLs Real-time Assessment of Community Transmission (React-1) came as the UK reported the highest daily number of new coronavirus cases since mid-May: 3,539, up from 2,919 the previous day.

Pressed on whether the public should be returning to work, Sir Mark, who said he definitely will continue to work from home, added: The only way to stop the spread of this infection is to reduce the number of people we come into contact with.

Therefore its a fine balancing act. Its very important to get youngsters back to school and universities, but it means were going to have to hold back our contacts in other areas.

Where people can work from home theres an extremely strong argument they should do so.

Speaking on Saturday, the Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said: I think Sir Marks words  hes a very distinguished scientist  are a warning to us all.

Theres a range of scientific opinion, but one thing practically every scientist is agreed is that we have seen an uptick in infection and therefore its appropriate to take public health measures.

The cabinet minister said the rule of six  to be introduced on Monday in England, limiting social gatherings to a maximum of six people indoors and outdoors  was necessary due to concerns over the prevalence of the virus.

In a separate interview on Times Radio, Mr Gove also claimed the UK was not heading towards a second national lockdown, adding: The reason why were taking the steps we announced this week and come into force on Monday is precisely to avoid that situation.

Rather, he said the new measures such as target local lockdowns and new regulations governing social contact were to ensure that children can still go to school, adults can still go to work and the life of the nation can continue.
Angela Lindow, a part-time worker at Sunnybrook Hospital, received a company-wide email in June after George Floyds killing and the resulting racial unrest. The hospital was committing to address inequity, eliminate racism, and listen. She thought, Listen? Weve been right here for years.

Lindow and 11 other racialized Sunnybrook employees in the communications department, which co-ordinates calls made to the hospital and activates emergency response teams by managing codes, first made allegations of systemic racism in their hospital department in January 2016. Some have still been fighting through multiple channels to get a satisfying response from the hospital.

The original allegations pointed to instances of discrimination in hiring decisions, discrimination in decisions to reorganize shifts, changes that seemed to remove racialized staff from visitor-facing positions to less visible work locations and unequal accommodation and treatment between white staff and racialized staff.

The workers brought these complaints to management, and a five-month external investigation concluded that each claim was unsubstantiated with no further explanation in the summary provided to them.

After the investigation concluded, the staff filed claims with the Human Rights Tribunal in July 2016. This fall, they are expected to have a summary hearing. From there, it will be decided if the applicants have enough evidence to move on to a full hearing.

Emily Shepard, a lawyer who works at Human Rights Legal Support Centre which is representing Lindow, said generally, racial discrimination and systemic racism cases can be difficult to prove because the instances, often, are not overt. Its not uncommon for complex cases like this to take a long time to go through the process, Shepard said.

The remaining complainants are hoping to receive monetary compensation for pain, suffering and lost wages, as well as have the hospital form an anti-racism department and new practices for dealing with discrimination cases.

The Star asked Sunnybrook about the original 19 allegations, the internal investigation and the current Human Rights Tribunal cases. The hospital responded with a written statement that said Sunnybrook is following the tribunals process and that the original complaints were addressed in accordance with the hospitals policies.

The statement went on to say that Sunnybrook has a number of policies specific to ensuring a safe and respectful work environment and one that is free from harassment, discrimination and violence. Sunnybrook takes any allegation of this nature seriously.

Like many organizations, Sunnybrook has internally made commitments to address racism and diversity issues within the hospital, but Lindow is still disappointed, especially with the work racialized staff have contributed throughout this pandemic. She felt dismissed when these complaints were originally filed and again now, while trying to have the hospital revisit the issue.

Janet Getten, who has worked at Sunnybrook since 1989, was one of the complainants. She has found the process of trying to be heard demoralizing.

Despite waiting for years for this falls hearing, Lindow and Getten, as well as some of the others they say, still feel the need to pursue it.

I want the hospital to acknowledge that we were treated badly, Lindow said. Especially during a time where COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting Black and brown people, she says its all the more important for the hospital internally to address cases of inequality.

Getten had nothing but positive things to say about the quality of care Sunnybrook has the capacity for, but emphasized that the hospital should still address how she, and other racialized staff, were treated.

Amazing people work at this hospital, Getten said. But theyre not always treated fairly.

For Lindow this is true not only for them as staff, but the patient care. This is a structural, systemic issue and she wonders if racialized staff is treated like this, how can racialized patients feel confident that they will receive equal treatment from the hospital.

The tone is set from the top. The CEOs, the executives, Lindow said. This was a huge case that [the hospital] continues to ignore.

Much of the complaints from 2016 had to do with staff being passed over for new positions for which they were qualified, based on documents reviewed by the Star.

As a unionized job, current employees with seniority and qualifications can often change roles with ease. Four of the complaints involved racialized staff members who were passed over for new roles and instead either external applicants or applicants with lower seniority, who were white, were hired.

In 2015, Getten applied for a position at St. Johns campus as a front desk operator. A typing test requirement was added, which Lindow and Getten say was not usual for internal applicants given the experience they already had within the department. Getten had been working at Sunnybrook for over 20 years at that point, and said in her time she had trained other staff and covered for section leaders.

Despite her experience, Gettens typing score was below what was listed as required in the posting and she was not granted an interview at all. Instead, the job was given to a recently hired white co-worker. The same white co-worker was also mentioned another time in the complaints, when management granted her a position over a racialized man, who successfully grieved the seniority issue with the union and was given the position.

A former section leader in the department who spoke with the Star under the condition of anonymity, said that he had conversations with the hiring manager and shared Gettens typing ability and practice test scores with the manager. Afterwards, the job was posted with a requirement that was out of Gettens range.

Getten has since transferred to another campus at Sunnybrook, but the circumstances around losing out on that last job due to typing ability still hurts, she said.

The same section leader, who is a white man, was originally hired externally as a call operator. When he applied for the section leader position, he said the same manager cited in the complaint about the typing requirement gave him the opportunity to write his own job description for the role, and told him to include criteria that only he could meet. By doing this, it would result in excluding current staff with seniority from being successful at applying, including Lindow who was also interested in the role.

Several attempts by the Star to reach the manager in question went unanswered.

In addition to this instance, Lindow alleges in the Human Rights Tribunal claim that she was passed over for another management position in 2015. Lindow started working at Sunnybrook after being a stay-at-home mother for a number of years since it was walking distance from home and would be a path to re-enter the workforce. She applied for a management position after working as a part-time operator for a year and with previous experience working in emergency management as well as the anti-racism secretariat for the Ontario government. An external white male applicant was hired instead.

In 2015 under the new management, shift times were changed, making the overnight shifts start at 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. rather than 11 p.m., so that there would be more overlap between operators in the morning. While shift changes are said to align with call volume and help mitigate absences, Lindow says that since much of the staff is older racialized women who do not drive, these times posed safety issues for them and would ultimately impact whether they could stay with the job. She also says the shift changes were only implemented at the Bayview campus, not other campuses where staff was predominately white.

Another staff person with over 25 years of experience had her schedule changed and was required to work every weekend, rather than alternating weekends. The employee worked a second job, and as a result of the new schedule, had to change her work status from permanent part-time to casual in order to maintain both jobs, which made her lose out on seniority and pension contributions, the original claim alleges.

Combined, these work changes and lack of job mobility felt like an attempt to force out racialized employees while hiring more white staff in the department, Lindow said, which is why they filed complaints as a group.

Thinking back to hearing that the claims were unsubstantiated after the external investigation, Lindow said, At the end of the day, you had 12 racialized people go to their white manager and say, somethings amiss here. Were feeling the weight of discrimination. All white people investigate and come back and say, theres nothing to see here.

You really do hope that they would have looked at it and said, All of this, all of these things are happening. Lets pick this up and really look into it because 19 of these things happened, Getten said. How is it possible to find that it was their opinion or decision that none of these things happened?

Lindow continued, If management treats us like this, how is a Black patient supposed to feel confident?

Eight of the staffers including Lindow and Getten took the cases to the Human Rights Tribunal in July 2016. Two complainants have since abandoned their cases, so as of now, six continue to await a hearing.

When going through the Tribunal process, cases first go through a summary hearing stage, which is the stage this case is awaiting in the fall. This is when the Tribunal hears some points of the case and decides whether to move forward with a full hearing where evidence will be heard in detail.

Shepard, the lawyer familiar with Lindow and Gettens tribunal claim, said for cases of systemic discrimination, a chance to present all the evidence is best.

Dismissing it at that early stage actually, for cases with those types of allegations, often isnt appropriate, because it doesnt give the tribunal [the opportunity] to look at the full picture, she said. And often you need the full picture to really assess these kinds of allegations.

Correction  Sept. 14, 2020: This article was edited from a previous version to correct the spelling of Emily Shepards last name.

Angelyn Francis is a Toronto-based reporter for the Star covering inequity and inequality. Her reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. Reach her via email: afrancis@thestar.ca
The woman had more than $2 million. But she didnt live like she was rich.

The Central New York woman, who wished to remained anonymous, worked as a health care social worker, dedicating her entire career to helping others.

She lived modestly and alone, her financial adviser said, enjoying the companionship and comfort of dogs and other animals.

But she thought about her sizable inheritance, her adviser said. She wondered How can I use my inheritance for good?

She was almost intimidated by these funds, said her adviser, J. Daniel Pluff, of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. She was preoccupied with wanting to do the right thing with the money upon her passing."

So the woman decided to anonymously leave $2.2 million to the Central New York Community Foundation.

The woman died in February, leaving her inheritance  and then some  to charity, according to the foundation. Her gift created a fund that will aid local nonprofits that help animals and provide health care to people, foundation officials said.

Any animal care organization or health care organizations in Onondaga County or Madison County can apply for grants from the womans fund. Theres a chance Helping Hounds Dog Rescue, based in DeWitt, could receive a grant created by the womans gift, foundation officials said.

Kathy Gilmour, executive director of Helping Hounds, said a grant could help the organization grow its rescue operations and other programs.

Animals bring so much joy to the people that share their lives with them and, so often, both need a little help along the way, Gilmour said. What a comfort it is to have this endowment in our community to ease the burden for those providing that help.

The community foundation plans to make the womans gift last.

The foundation will use part of the fund to provide yearly grants to local nonprofits. The rest will be invested to help the fund grow.

When the donor decided to give her money to the CNY Community Foundation, she was relieved, said Pluff, her adviser.

There is no doubt in my mind, he said, "she would be very pleased with this fund and all that it will do.

Staff writer Samantha House covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? Reach her at shouse@syracuse.com.
The official, who is also head of the SOM ASEAN of Laos, congratulated Vietnam on successfully hosting all events as scheduled and completing the discussion of a series of documents as planned amid the complex developments of COIVD-19 worldwide.

Priorities set by the country as Chair of ASEAN 2020 are progressing well, he added.

The AMM 53 and related meetings, held from September 9-12 via video conference, reviewed the implementation of ASEAN-related works and the results of member nations conduction of the blocs plan on building its three pillars, vision, and master plan on ASEAN connectivity, among others.

At the event, participating countries agreed and were committed to collaborating in COVID-19 prevention and control, including experience exchange and joint research on vaccine production. ASEAN ministers also approved numerous important documents for cooperation for comprehensive economic recovery within the bloc, including a document on the establishment of an ASEAN fund in response to COVID-19 and the Joint Communique of AMM 53 ASEAN.

According to Thongphane Savanphet, at these meetings, ASEAN continued playing its central role in cooperating with international partners, planning programmes, and putting forth priorities in discussions. He said the blocs joint work with its development and dialogue partners have grown robustly in the past five years.

The meetings passed plans for ASEANs cooperation for 2021  2025 with partners like the US, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, and India, among others. ASEAN ministers agreed to grant the development partnership status to Italy and France.

In addition, the ministers also discussed with representatives of ASEAN partner nations on the matters of security and peace, particularly traditional and non-traditional security issues.

The Lao official said the pandemic has interrupted the blocs the Code of Conduct in the East Sea/ South China Sea (COC) negotiation this year.

In the past week, as part of the event, working groups in charge of the negotiation met, with ASEAN and China agreeing to carry out online negotiation if the pandemic keeps going on longer and committed to concluding the work effectively as soon as possible.
Launching an online business is no longer the technical challenge it once was. With basic computer skills and an Internet connection, entrepreneurs and business owners can sell various products and services through the web.

There are limitations to consider, of course. If you are selling a product that needs to be sent via courier to customers, you need to consider the weight and size of what you want to sell.

However, you no longer have to worry about building or implementing all the technology necessary to run an online shop if you do not have web development skills.

Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and WhatsApp allow businesses to establish an online presence without needing to host their own website.

Third-party seller marketplaces like the one offered by Takealot handle payments and logistics, so you dont have to figure out how to use a payment gateway.

MyBroadband recently spoke to ParcelNinja CEO Justin Drennan to find out how you should go about launching an online business with all of the modern tools available on the Internet.

He provided the following tips:

Get your products listed on Google Shopping. List your products on PriceCheck. Use the third-party marketplaces offered by Takealot and Makro. Loot has also recently launched a marketplace. You can also sell your products on bidorbuy. Ship products out of your kitchen. Dont be afraid to start small.

Putting your eggs in someone elses basket

There is a significant drawback to relying on social media platforms for your online presence and third-party marketplaces to sell your wares  the fate of your business is completely in someone elses hands.

It is therefore advisable to build your own online presence as your business grows. This includes registering a suitable domain name and building your own website.

Drennan recommended Shopify as a starting point for building an ecommerce website. Once your business has outgrown using your kitchen as a warehouse, Drennan said that you can upgrade to ParcelNinja for a logistics partner.

If you would like to build your own website, you will need a payment gateway. For this Drennan suggested Ozow, which he said offers real-time electronic fund transfers (EFT) as well as credit card payments.

There are also many other payment gateway options available in South Africa including PayGate, PayFast, and PayU.

No time like the present

While South Africa is in the midst of an economic downturn, and despite the chilling effect that the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown have had on the economy, venture capitalist and motivational speaker Vusi Thembekwayo believes it is a great time to build a business in South Africa.

Considering that South Africa remains in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic, an online business that limits physical contact and is able to sell to people who prefer to remain at home is a good option.

Launching any business is not easy, but offering products for sale online in South Africa is easier than ever before.
Authorities have released the name of a man shot to death Saturday afternoon in Birmingham.

Birmingham police identified the victim as Reginald Horn. He was 22 and lived in Birmingham.

Police spokesman Truman Fitzgerald gave this account of what happened: The Jefferson County Sheriffs Office alerted Birmingham police shortly after 2 p.m. to be on the lookout for a white, four-door sedan involved in a possible domestic-related kidnapping. Shortly after that alert, Fultondale police notified Birmingham police that the vehicle was in the 2000 block of 30th Avenue North.

North Precinct officers headed to that location. While en route, Fitzgerald said, officers heard multiple gunshots. Once at the apartment complex, they found Horn on the ground outside of a vehicle suffering from a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead on the scene by Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service.

Fitzgerald said the preliminary investigation suggests the lookout bulletin was issued after a woman involved in a romantic relationship with Horn called 911 to report she and her sibling were being held against their will. Horn then reportedly drove them to the 2001 30th Avenue North where a physical altercation led to Horn being fatally shot.

Police said there were people detained for further questioning but no arrests have yet been made. The investigation is ongoing.

Horn is Birminghams 84th homicide so far this year. Of those, 11 have been ruled justifiable and one accidental and therefore arent deemed criminal. In all of Jefferson County, there have been 121 homicides, including the 84 in Birmingham.

Anyone with information in Horns death is asked to call Birmingham homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug.29

By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:

The process of returning of Azerbaijani citizens from abroad, both by road and air transport, to the country continues, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan, Head of Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmat Hajiyev said.

Hajiyev made the remark at the briefing of the Operational Headquarters under the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers held on Aug. 29, Trend reports.

He advised the citizens to refuse from trips to foreign countries, except for urgent issues.

"We call on the citizens to refuse from trips abroad, if possible, if they have no urgent need for this. The sanitary and epidemiological situation can worsen at any time, and citizens may face difficulties in returning home."
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A County Kildare musical theatre, song and dance teacher is appealing with the Government to save the arts.

Deirdre Browne, who runs the Deirdre Browne Stage School, is now trying to find a space to allow children who wish to learn to dance. After 21 years of running a stage school, she is now hopeful of securing a space at the new Scouts Den, Oldbridge, Sallins, after the schools that she was teaching in informed her they are nolonger renting out the school in the evenings for after-school activities.

She is a member of the Performing Arts Council for Ireland and says that hundreds of teachers around the country are being impacted by the Government guidelines.

Ms Browne said: If we went back in and did exercising, the children would be eating better and sleeping better by getting their exercise. They are back in school now. We have to go back gradually, we know, fair is fair, but you can just go into a restaurant and have a meal  there is nothing for children. A child can't go to dance class, and it is not just dancing, but it is also musicians, there are thousands of people involved all around the country.

She said: I worked in a dance school for 10 years before going out on my own, there is a lot of people hurt, a lot of people out of money.

Ms Browne says that the schools are under so many regulations that they are not reopening for after-school activities for the foreseeable future.

She said: It has been so long since March, it is always about sports, restaurants and pubs  but nothing about the arts. There are hundreds of us, we have sent so many emails, the guidelines are all over the place. There are no shows on, and all of these people are all out of work.

Ms Browne says that it is concerning for children who are not interested in sports.

She said: There are some people who just live for dance class. It would be great if the Government gave us a bit of leeway.

Ms Browne said: I was going to do a summer camp, but three days before I was due to do that, there was the lockdown in Kildare. I had paid for the hand sanitisers, visors, everything. Dancing exercise was always an environment in which there was a lot of space.

She says that it is urgent that the government 'takes action soon' to protect schools such as hers before it is too late.
A Butte county firefighter douses flames at the Bear fire in Oroville, Calif., on Sept. 9, 2020. (Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images)

Search on for Survivors as Wildfires Torch Millions of Acres, Trump to Visit California

Crews resumed searching for the dead and survivors on Sunday among blackened ruins left by massive wildfires raging in three western states, where millions of acres have burned in weeks and mass fatality incidents are feared in Oregon. President Donald Trump said he would travel to California to see the devastation first-hand.

A blitz of wildfires across Oregon, California, and Washington has destroyed thousands of homes and a half dozen small towns this summer, scorching a landscape the size of New Jersey and killing more than two dozen people since early August.

After four days of brutally hot, windy weather, the weekend brought calmer winds blowing inland from the Pacific Ocean, and cooler, moister conditions that helped crews make headway against blazes that had burned unchecked earlier in the week.

Still, emergency officials worried that the shifting weather might not bring much relief to southern Oregon, where an apocalyptic scene of charred residential subdivisions and trailer parks stretched for miles along Highway 99 south of Medford through the neighboring communities of Phoenix and Talent.

Were concerned that the incoming front is not going to provide a lot of rain here in the Medford region and its going to bring increased winds, Bureau of Land Management spokesman Kyle Sullivan told Reuters in a telephone interview on Sunday.

Ellie Owens, 8, from Grants Pass, Ore., looks at fire damage as destructive wildfires devastate the region in Talent, Ore., on Sept. 11, 2020. (Paula Bronstein/AP Photo)

Oregon Governor Kate Brown called the perilous blazes a once-in-a-generation event, and the director of Oregons office of emergency management, Andrew Phelps, said authorities were bracing for the possibility of mass fatality incidents.

At least ten people have been killed in Oregon, according to the office of emergency management. Brown has said that dozens of people remained missing across three counties.

There are going to be a number of fatalities, folks that just couldnt get warning in time and couldnt evacuate their homes and get to safety, Phelps told MSNBC on Friday.

There were 38 active fires burning in Oregon as of Sunday morning, according to the states office of emergency management website.

Margi Wyatt (R) is comforted by mobile home park manager Valerie after Wyatt returned to the R.V. park to find her home destroyed by wildfire, in Estacada, Ore., on Sept. 12, 2020. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump to Visit California

In California, tens of thousands of firefighters were battling 28 major wildfires as of Saturday afternoon, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Improving weather conditions had helped them gain a measure of containment over most of the blazes.

The White House said Trump will meet with federal and California officials on Monday. The president has said that western governors bear some of the blame for intense fire seasons in recent years, accusing them of poor forest management.

Trumps Democratic opponent in the November election, Joe Biden, on Saturday linked the conflagrations to climate change, echoing comments made a day earlier by California Governor Gavin Newsom.

More than 4,000 homes and other structures have been incinerated in California alone over the past three weeks. Three million acres of land have been burned in the state, according to the states Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Thick smoke and ash from the fires has darkened the sky over the Pacific Northwest since Labor Day, creating some of the worlds worst air-quality levels and driving residents indoors.

A plume rises from the Bear Fire as it burns along Lake Oroville in Butte County, Calif., on Sept. 9, 2020. (Noah Berger/AP Photo)

In Portland, where more than 100 days of protests have turned increasingly tense in recent weeks, the Multnomah County Sheriff chastised residents for setting up their own checkpoints to stop cars after conspiracy theories spread on social media that members of Black Lives Matter or Antifa were lighting fires. Local officials have called those assertions groundless.

Facebook said on Saturday it was now removing false claims that the wildfires in Oregon were started by certain groups.

This is based on confirmation from law enforcement that these rumors are forcing local fire and police agencies to divert resources from fighting the fires and protecting the public, a Facebook spokesman said.

By Deborah Bloom and Adrees Latif
A global health chief yesterday urged workers to get back to the office, saying people should not be too scared of returning to normality.

Dr Hans Kluge said it was important for people to get out and have fun and return to workplaces for the sake of the economy and their own mental health.

The Europe chief of the World Health Organisation (WHO) stressed he was supportive of physical distancing restrictions introduced in Britain and that people must abide by them.

But he also warned of the consequences of failing to gradually open up.

Dr Hans Kluge (pictured) said it was important for people to get out and have fun and return to workplaces for the sake of the economy and their own mental health

The WHO boss spoke to the Mail from the health agencys European headquarters in Danish capital Copenhagen, which he said was operating safely at about 65 per cent capacity.

British workers have been among some of the slowest to return to offices across Europe with figures suggesting as little as 17 per cent have returned in some areas.

It comes amid a spike in Covid-19 cases in Britain, with one Government-led study yesterday suggesting infections are doubling every week. But Dr Kluge cautioned against becoming overly alarmed.

He said: Its normal that if you open up, you are going to see spikes, so thats nothing surprising.

What we hope for, and we are seeing it, is to be positive. Several countries have learnt how to apply the measures in a more localised, in a more tailored way to protect both health and economies because its a balance.

British workers have been among some of the slowest to return to offices across Europe with figures suggesting as little as 17 per cent have returned in some areas (file image)

But union says end rush to return One of Britains biggest trade unions yesterday demanded an end to the rush back to the office and called for schools to be shut, saying workers had a right not to die. Howard Beckett, assistant general secretary of Unite, told a rally that Boris Johnsons call for people to return to their workplaces was putting lives at risk. Speaking on behalf of union leader, Len McCluskey, he said schools were only open so parents could stop working from home. And he called for mass industrial action to stop Chancellor Rishi Sunak ending the furlough scheme at the end of October. Speaking at a virtual rally of the hard-left National Shop Stewards Network, Mr Beckett said: This rush to get workers back to work has to be rejected when workers health and safety is put at risk. He added: Frankly they [the Tories] want the children back at work at school because they want workers back in work... Schools should be shut until such time as we have effective testing. Advertisement

For example, peoples mental health on occasions has become disastrous, so we cannot just continue the status quo. We have to open up, but we have to do it in a targeted, tailored way, and its possible.

Asked if there was a danger people are becoming too scared about returning to normal, he said: Yes. Its OK to spread fun, but not to spread the virus.

There are ways of not doing so, so not going with mass gatherings and going instead with the physical distancing. But we have to be positive, its not the end of the world.

He said it was good for people to get out and about and for workers to return to offices, adding: Its important not to become isolated, to have some face-to-face contact. The Europe region within Dr Kluges remit is 53 countries: the UK, EU and the nations of central and eastern Europe, including Turkey and Russia.

He said the UK should consider recruiting celebrities and social media influencers to better target young people with messages about the need for physical distancing.

Dr Kluge said campaigns where national governments and health officials have teamed up with role models have shown some success, including in Denmark, Russia, Romania, Norway and Greece.

Figures suggest young people have largely fuelled Britains spike in cases, as well as in other countries such as France and Spain.

Dr Kluge said: It really comes down to thinking about how to better engage young people in the Covid-19 response and not point the finger.

He also backed the Mails campaign for coronavirus testing to be introduced at airports for arrivals from high-risk destinations.
President was recently presented with a 4ft replica of Mount Rushmore with his face on it

Coronavirus infections in the Dakotas are growing faster than anywhere else in the nation, fuelling impassioned debates over masks and personal freedom after months in which the two states avoided the worst of the pandemic.

The argument over masks raged this week in Brookings, South Dakota, as the city council considered requiring face coverings in businesses. The city was forced to move its meeting to a local arena to accommodate intense interest, with many citizens speaking against it, before the mask requirement ultimately passed.

Amid the brute force of the pandemic, health experts warn that the infections must be contained before care systems are overwhelmed. North Dakota and South Dakota lead the country in new cases per capita over the last two weeks, ranking first and second respectively, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers.

South Dakota has also posted some of the country's highest positivity rates for Covid-19 tests in the last week  over 17 per cent  an indication that there are more infections than tests are catching.

Infections have been spurred by schools and universities reopening and mass gatherings like the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which drew hundreds of thousands of people from across the country.

It is not a surprise that South Dakota has one of the highest (Covid-19) reproduction rates in the country, Brookings City Council member Nick Wendell said as he commented on the many people who forgo masks in public.

The Republican governors of both states have eschewed mask requirements, tapping into a spirit of independence hewn from enduring the winters and storms of the Great Plains.

The Dakotas were not always a hot spot. For months, the states appeared to avoid the worst of the pandemic, watching from afar as it raged through large cities. But spiking infection rates have fanned out across the nation, from the East Coast to the Sun Belt and now into the Midwest, where states like Iowa and Kansas are also dealing with surges.

Story continues

When the case count stayed low during the spring and early summer, people grew weary of constantly taking precautions, said Dr Benjamin Aaker, president of the South Dakota State Medical Association.

People have a tendency to become complacent, he said. Then they start to relax the things that they were doing properly, and thats when the increase in cases starts to go up."

Health officials point out that the Covid-19 case increases have been among younger groups that are not hospitalised at high rates. But infections have not been contained to college campuses.

College students work in places where the vulnerable live, such as nursing homes, said Dr Joel Walz, the Grand Forks, North Dakota, city and county health officer. Some of them are nursing students who are doing rotations where theyre going to see people who are really at risk. I worry about that.

Over 1,000 students at the states' four largest universities (the University of North Dakota, North Dakota State University, South Dakota State University and University of South Dakota) left campus to quarantine after being exposed to the virus, according to data released by the schools. The Sturgis rally also spread infections across the region, with health officials in 12 states reporting over 300 cases among people who attended the event.

But requiring masks has been controversial. In Brookings, opponents said they believed the virus threat was not as serious as portrayed and that a mandate was a violation of civil liberties.

There are a lot of things we have in life that we have to deal with that cause death, business owner Teresa Haldeman told the council. We live in America, and we have certain inalienable rights.

Though Brookings passed its ban, another hot spot  North Dakota's Morton County, just west of the capital city of Bismarck  soundly rejected a mask requirement after citizens spoke against it. Brookings may be the lone municipality with such an order in the Dakotas outside of Native American reservations, which have generally been more vigilant in adopting coronavirus precautions. Native Americans have disproportionately died from Covid-19, accounting for 24% of deaths statewide.

North Dakota Gov Doug Burgum and South Dakota Gov Kristi Noem have resisted mask requirements. Burgum promotes personal choice but tried to encourage masks with a social media campaign. Noem has discouraged mask requirements, saying she doubts a broad consensus in the medical community that they help prevent infections.

At a press briefing, Burgum displayed a slide that showed active cases in neighbouring Minnesota rising to record levels since implementing a mask mandate July 25.

"In the end, its about individual decisions, not what the government does," he said.

Noem, who has yet to appear at a public event with a mask, carved out a reputation as a staunch conservative when she defied calls early in the pandemic for lockdown orders.

But both governors face increasing pressure to step up their approach.

Dr Anthony Fauci, infectious disease chief at the National Institutes of Health, told MSNBC that he found those figures disturbing," especially as fall weather arrives and Americans begin spending more time indoors.

"You dont want to start off already with a baseline thats so high, Fauci said.

Neither governor appears ready to yield any ground.

We will not be changing that approach, Noem spokesman Ian Fury said on Thursday, citing a low hospitalisation rate and the fact that only 3% of intensive-care beds are occupied by Covid patients.

Doctors in both states warn that their health care systems remain vulnerable. Small hospitals in rural areas depend on just a handful of large hospitals to handle large inflows of patients or complex procedures, said Dr Misty Anderson, president of the North Dakota Medical Association.

Aaker, the president of the South Dakota physician's group, said medical practices have seen patients delaying routine care during the pandemic, meaning that doctors could soon see an uptick in patients needing more serious attention.

Now we are adding a surge in coronavirus cases potentially, he said. "They are worried about being overwhelmed.

Associated Press

Read more

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Why this South Dakota voter supports Joe Biden: 'He still believes in an America that comes together'

Coronavirus: South Dakota tribes reject governor's request to remove checkpoints

South Dakota governor threatens Native American tribes with legal action if they do not remove coronavirus checkpoints

Coronavirus: South Dakota to trial drug promoted by Trump as it becomes Covid-19 hotspot
PW ISSUES....

Inside, confidential and off the record

Guyana another Venezuela?





Niyazz/Getty



The end of political uncertainty and the reestablishment of stable governance are vital in view of

the enormous future investment that will be needed to develop Guyana's massive offshore oil fields.

Can Oil-Rich Guyana Avoid the Venezuela Curse?

The battle for the future of economic freedom in Guyana is being waged right now.

Its gross domestic product growth has improved in anticipation of an oil boom that is now coming on stream. The oil revenues could transform the country, as a petrostate, into the fastest-growing economy in the region.

Alternatively, the country could dissolve into dictatorship, corruption, and tyranny, as has been the case in its oil-rich neighbor, Venezuela , where economic freedom has been repressed and crushed .

Guyana's economy has been considered mostly unfree since 2012. Its economic freedom score declined slightly to 56.2 (out of 100) in the 2020 edition of The Heritage Foundation's annual Index of Economic Freedom .

The country is ranked 24th among 32 countries in the Americas region, and its overall score is well below the regional and world averages.

The fight for a free and prosperous economic future will take place in the context of recent severe political instability.

The previous government, headed by President David Granger, refused for more than four months to accept the results of the March 2 election.

As the Miami Herald reported, Granger refused to accept the results, even when a 33-day recount performed by the Guyana Elections Commission and observed by the Caribbean Community found the opposition People's Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) had won the vote.

As a result, l ast month Secretary of State Mike Pompeo imposed U.S. visa sanctions on the Granger government. That announcement was followed up with action (reported by the Jamaica Gleaner ) by the 15-member Caribbean Community to pressure Granger to step aside. Finally, in early August, he did so.

The U.S. Embassy in Guyana congratulated the People's Progressive Party/Civic on its electoral success and Mohamed Irfaan Ali on his swearing in as President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.

Now, the real work to preserve and promote economic freedom in Guyana begins. As the CNW Network reports, the People's Progressive Party/Civic coalition holds a slim, one-vote advantage in the country's National Assembly.

Meanwhile, as Forbes notes, major Western oil companies, such as Exxon and Total, are now reaping their rewards after 50 years of exploring offshore Guyana for oil reserves. For the oil companies, the end of political uncertainty and the reestablishment of stable governance are vital in view of the enormous future investment that will be needed to develop Guyana's massive offshore oil fields.

The challenge for the new Ali government is to take firm steps immediately to strengthen the rule of law, especially judicial effectiveness and government integrity, and to improve the freedom and competitiveness of financial institutions.

The future of Guyana hangs in the balance. In five years, will it look like copper-rich Chile, or more like oil-rich Venezuela ?

Decisions in favor of policies that promote economic freedom will be the deciding factor.

James M. Roberts / The Daily Signal /August 20, 2020
Just as the second week of school is set to begin, public health officials are warning of two more possible COVID-19 exposures at Winnipeg schools.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 13/9/2020 (494 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Just as the second week of school is set to begin, public health officials are warning of two more possible COVID-19 exposures at Winnipeg schools.

On Sunday afternoon, the province announced a possible exposure occurred at Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute at 720 Alverstone St. on Wednesday, Sept. 9 in the morning and Thursday, Sept. 10 in the afternoon.

A second possible exposure occurred at John Pritchard School at 1490 Henderson Hwy. on Sept. 8, Sept. 9 and Sept. 10 in both the morning and afternoon each day.

In both cases, public health officials say the individuals attended the schools while asymptomatic and that the infection was not acquired at the school.

Schools and cohorts are being notified, the province said in its release on Sunday. Additional cleaning of high-touch areas is being undertaken, the release added.

The risk is deemed low as physical distancing was maintained while the individuals were at school and masks were worn. There are no close contacts connected to the cases and public health officials have not advised anyone to self-isolate. Others who were at the sites do not need to self-isolate, the province said, but should self-monitor for symptoms of COVID-19.

The new cases follow two earlier reports of possible exposures at Manitoba schools.

On Saturday, health officials said additional cleaning was underway at Ecole New Era School in Brandon, after an asymptomatic person was at the school for a short time on Friday. On Wednesday, officials confirmed a Grade 7 student at Churchill High School attended school while asymptomatic on Sept. 8.

Like the two cases announced Sunday, risk of transmission was also considered low in the previous cases.

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.

Earlier on Sunday, public health officials announced 18 new cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba, bringing the total number of lab-confirmed cases in the province to 1,428.

Eleven of cases are in the Winnipeg health region. Three cases are in Southern Health, while two cases are in the Interlake-Eastern region. One case was reported in the Northern health region and one in Prairie Mountain Health.

There are 239 active cases of COVID-19 and 1,173 individuals have recovered.

Fifteen people are in hospital and three are in intensive care.

Sixteen Manitobans have died as a result of the virus.

A total of 1,525 tests were completed on Saturday, bringing the total number of lab tests completed since early February to 154,756.
Readers hoping to buy Clime Investment Management Limited (ASX:CIW) for its dividend will need to make their move shortly, as the stock is about to trade ex-dividend. You will need to purchase shares before the 17th of September to receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 2nd of October.

Clime Investment Management's upcoming dividend is AU$0.01 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of AU$0.02 per share to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Clime Investment Management stock has a trailing yield of around 3.3% on the current share price of A$0.6. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Clime Investment Management's dividend is reliable and sustainable. We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing.

Check out our latest analysis for Clime Investment Management

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. An unusually high payout ratio of 278% of its profit suggests something is happening other than the usual distribution of profits to shareholders.

Generally, the higher a company's payout ratio, the more the dividend is at risk of being reduced.

Click here to see how much of its profit Clime Investment Management paid out over the last 12 months.

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

Companies with falling earnings are riskier for dividend shareholders. If earnings decline and the company is forced to cut its dividend, investors could watch the value of their investment go up in smoke. Clime Investment Management's earnings per share have plummeted approximately 36% a year over the previous five years.

Clime Investment Management also issued more than 5% of its market cap in new stock during the past year, which we feel is likely to hurt its dividend prospects in the long run. Trying to grow the dividend while issuing large amounts of new shares reminds us of the ancient Greek tale of Sisyphus - perpetually pushing a boulder uphill.

Story continues

Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. Clime Investment Management's dividend payments are effectively flat on where they were 10 years ago. When earnings are declining yet the dividends are flat, typically the company is either paying out a higher portion of its earnings, or paying out of cash or debt on the balance sheet, neither of which is ideal.

To Sum It Up

Is Clime Investment Management an attractive dividend stock, or better left on the shelf? Not only are earnings per share shrinking, but Clime Investment Management is paying out a disconcertingly high percentage of its profit as dividends. It's not that we hate the business, but we feel that these characeristics are not desirable for investors seeking a reliable dividend stock to own for the long term. Clime Investment Management doesn't appear to have a lot going for it, and we're not inclined to take a risk on owning it for the dividend.

Although, if you're still interested in Clime Investment Management and want to know more, you'll find it very useful to know what risks this stock faces. For example, we've found 6 warning signs for Clime Investment Management (1 is concerning!) that deserve your attention before investing in the shares.

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.
In Georgia, one summer camp had to shut down less than a week after the first campers arrived due to an outbreak of COVID-19. At least 260 people of the 597 who attended the camp tested positive for the virus within two weeks of the camp shutdown.

In Maine, four camps operated with stricter safety precautions, and were able to host more than 1,000 people from 44 states, including Alabama, and 21 countries, from June to August with only three cases reported after arrival.

After spotlighting the Georgia camp story earlier this summer, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention highlighted the Maine camps as an example of how COVID prevention measures can work to stop the spread of the disease.

Taken together, the studies offer some insight into why the results were so drastically different when both sets of camps took some (but not all) of the same precautions to try to limit the spread of the virus.

Bertha Hidalgo, a PhD epidemiologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said the camp studies can be helpful for schools and universities in the state that are looking to reopen or stay open, even if the camps had some advantages that schools dont have.

I think the Maine camp study really demonstrated that if you are able to effectively test in a timely manner, and then have rigorous follow-up so that you ensure that quarantine period takes place and that its adhered to, that you can really catch the cases that pop up and ultimately prevent spread, Hidalgo said.

Camp stories

Camps in both states required campers and staffers to test negative for the virus before arriving, according to those CDC reports, similar to the strategy employed by Alabama colleges last month. But the camps in Maine went further, controlling who students saw after entry testing, limiting the delay between entry testing and arrival, and conducting follow-up tests to catch new cases.

All the camps took steps such as grouping campers into cohorts to limit exposures. But Hidalgo said the Maine camps were able to successfully limit the peoples exposure to people after they got tested and before arriving at camp, while the Georgia camp was not.

Everyone who attended the Maine camps was instructed to self-isolate with only their family members for 10-14 days before camp arrival. Three of the four Maine camps required campers to submit proof of a negative test taken 5-7 days before arriving. The only exceptions were people could show they had previously tested positive for the virus and had fully recovered.

Four asymptomatic people reported positive tests and delayed their arrival at the Maine camps, isolating at home for 10 days after their results came back.

The Georgia camp only required a negative test within 12 days of arriving at the camp, according to the CDC report.

[The Maine camps] somehow were able to limit the number of potential cases that entered the camp to begin with, Hidalgo said. So that was in stark contrast to the Georgia camp study where the testing happened sometime before, and there was a lag time between when they were tested and when they arrived at camp, allowing for individuals to become infected and then arrive infected at camp.

Another key difference was that the Maine camps retested campers and staff a few days after arrival. The follow-up testing found cases in which people caught the virus after they had submitted their negative test result to attend camp or while traveling to the camp.

They tested them again, five to six days after they arrived, so they were able to isolate anyone who was newly positive for COVID, Hidalgo said.

That retesting at the Maine camps identified three people who tested positive for the virus after arrival despite testing negative before they left. Those three people were isolated for 10 days, and their cohorts were isolated and retested. No additional cases were discovered after these precautions were followed.

If the Georgia camp retested campers or staffers after arrival, it was not mentioned in the CDC report. The CDC report did show that 26 camp staffers who only attended the staff orientation session before the first campers arrived later tested positive for the virus.

The first suspected case at the Georgia camp involved a staff member just one day after the first campers arrived, suggesting that the virus was already circulating among the camp staff before the campers arrived.

Then, once the 346 campers arrived, the virus spread quickly, with at least 260 of the 597 people who attended the camp reporting positive tests within two weeks of leaving the camp.

Dr. Jeffrey Veragles, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Virginia and the lead author of the CDC study on the Maine camps, told The Washington Post that the Maine camps were able to limit spread through diligent adherence to prevention measures, and a little bit of luck.

The fact that we had no known secondary spread is luck, Veragles said. The fact that we didnt have an exponential outbreak is planning.

Limitations for schools

Hidalgo said achieving the bubble of the Maine camp would be difficult in public schools.

Its probably more achievable at the camp level because you have significantly smaller numbers of individuals that are involved in the process, she said.

The Maine camp study had 1,000 attendees, which is significant number, but if youre looking at, for example, Hoover City Schools, there are 13,000 students, not to mention staff. So to get everyone on board, I think is part of the challenge.

Hidalgo also said schools and parents have a hard time knowing whether the measures they take are working to stop the spread because of a lack of widespread testing and contact tracing of positive cases.

We have no idea if the masking and distancing thats happening in the classrooms right now in the schools that have opened is actually working, she said. The cases that are being reported to the school, in many cases, we dont know if theyre being community acquired or if they happened in the schools.

Another issue, Hidalgo said, was the relatively high rate of positive cases in Alabama, especially when you include probable cases.

In order to ensure that youre not going to have positive cases to show up at school, you need that community spread to be low, she said. And so what weve seen in the last two to three weeks is that percent positive in the state, but also in Jefferson County specifically, has increased to over 10%, close to 20%, if you include those probable COVID-19 cases.

Creating any sort of a bubble or cohort in middle or high school would be difficult, Hidalgo said, with extra curriculars like band or sports, and students taking classes at different levels.

Its different than an elementary school where you can keep the kids in a classroom all day in a group of ten and thats all they see all day, she said. Middle and high school, I think that quarantine and that ability to really isolate individuals to avoid mixing is it is a lot harder to achieve.
SYDNEY, Australia - A senior Australian government minister on Sunday warned foreign journalists working in the country they might come under the scrutiny of federal agencies if they provide a slanted view of Australian affairs.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton made the comments during a television interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corp., referring to journalists reporting to a particular community.

While he didnt mention China, Duttons comments come after the evacuation from China last week of Australian journalists Bill Birtles and Mike Smith, who sheltered in Australian diplomatic compounds after being questioned by police. Australian Cheng Lei, who works as a business anchor for CGTN, Chinas English-language state broadcaster, earlier was taken into custody.

If people are here as journalists and theyre reporting fairly on the news, then thats fine, Dutton told ABC TVs Insiders program. He said reporters shouldnt provide a slanted view to a particular community.

Dutton wouldnt confirm reports four Chinese journalists were questioned by Australias national security agency ASIO in June, but said there had been ASIO activity.

Where ASIO has sufficient grounds for the execution of a search warrant or for activities otherwise, then theyll undertake that activity, he said.

If people are masquerading as journalists or business leaders or whoever they might be and theres evidence that they are acting in a contrary nature to Australian law, then ASIO and the Australian Federal Police and other agencies will act.

He said there is no evidence that action by Australian agencies had put Australian journalists in China at risk. Asked about Cheng Lei, he said we want to work very closely with the Chinese in relation to that matter and well continue to do that.

Beijing accused Australia of an interference in Chinas internal affairs and judicial sovereignty for providing diplomatic protection to Birtles, who reports for the ABC, and Smith, who works for the Australian Financial Review.

Australias actions in organizing the two journos to hide in the embassy completely exceeds the scope of consular protection and in fact is interference in a Chinese legal case, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said.
President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit California on Monday where officials will brief him on the devastation brought by the wildfires.

Mr Trumps visit to the Golden State will follow two days of campaigning in Nevada, where his team has planned two major rallies.

The planned visit was announced by White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere.

At least 20 people have been killed in California as thousands of firefighters struggled to contain the blazes. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of structures have been destroyed and more than 3.1 million acres have burned, the Los Angeles Times reported.

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday toured the areas hardest hit by the fires. He blamed climate change and vowed to redouble efforts to decarbonise the economy.

The debate is over around climate change. Just come to the state of California, observe it with your own eyes, he said.

The states of Oregon and Washington have also been battling wildfires.

Mr Trump remained largely silent on the wildfires until Friday night, when he commended the 28,000+ Firefighters and other First Responders who are battling wildfires across the west coast.

Behind the scenes, the Trump administration has issued a major disaster declaration that has provided support for local governments and emergency relief for evacuees and victims.

Images coming out of California show ominous smoke-filled skies above the charred remains of forest areas and some homes.

Officials say they are bracing for more casualties. Mr Newsom, who visited the North Complex Fire Zone on Friday, said We anticipated that the number (of deaths) may potentially go up as we get back into areas that have been ravaged by flame and obviously, smoke begins to clear.
Chairman of Arcadia Group, Philip Green. Arcadia said that it had been forced to make though decisions during the coronavirus crisis. Photo: Chris J Ratcliffe/AFP via Getty

Retail tycoon Sir Philip Greens Arcadia Group has announced full payouts for head office staff facing redundancy, in a reversal.

Arcadia, whose high street brands include Topshop, Topman, and Dorothy Perkins, previously said it was only going to pay some of its employees as little as 50% of their notice pay.

The fashion groups actions relate to around 300 redundancies in its head office, a company spokesman said that Arcadia is extremely sorry to all those individuals impacted for the distress that we have caused and apologise unreservedly.

We recently implemented a policy for those employees who are working their notice on furlough to receive their furlough pay instead of their full pay.

We got this decision wrong and the Board has today amended this policy to ensure all affected employees will receive their full pay. They will be notified of this decision immediately, the company said in a statement.

READ MORE: Brexit, jobs and GD|P rebound: How the UK economy fared this week

The Unite union said it had threatened to take legal action for illegal deduction of earnings on behalf of more than 40 head office staff.

Responding to the U-turn, Unite said its an amazing victory and hailed the promise for full payouts for staff during their notice period as a welcomed U-turn.

Unite regional officer Debbie McSweeney said: We understand that it is almost without precedent for Arcadia to apologise for such behaviour towards employees  but this situation should have never been allowed to happen in the first place by Green, one of the countrys richest men.

Unite would like to sincerely thank our members for the solidarity and personal courage they have shown in standing up to Arcadias management and playing their part in righting a flagrant pay injustice. It is an amazing victory.

READ MORE: MPs urge chancellor to extend furlough for struggling industries

McSweeney claimed it may also serve as a warning for companies who use Rishi Sunaks furlough scheme which aims to help protect jobs during COVID-19.

Story continues

She said: This puts down a strong marker to other employers who may be thinking of taking advantage of the Governments furlough scheme  Unite is on high alert for such cases and how they may adversely affect our members.

Unite will want to examine the Arcadia statement in detail before finally deciding to withdraw our legal action, she added.

On making the decision, Arcadia said that it had been forced to make though decisions during the coronavirus crisis, including the restructuring of its offices. The company said it looked to protect the welfare of its employees and customers, and observed all the guidelines and legislation during these very exceptional circumstances.

In 2002, the group owned by Green and his family became part of Taveta Investments.
Seventy-five years.

Thats the amount of time that has passed since the first atomic bomb was built, tested and used.

The scientists in New Mexico contributed heavily to the project.

On Saturday, Sept. 19, The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History will host the virtual symposium, They Changed the World: The 75th Anniversary of World War II and the Use of Atomic Weapons.

The symposium includes two panels  the first is heavily focused on the Manhattan Project, the second is focused on the world 75 years later.

The symposium planning has taken place over the last few years, says Jennifer Hayden, museum deputy director. It was supposed to be in person and we had all the speakers ready to spend some time in Albuquerque. We had to take it virtual when the pandemic hit.

The first panel, focusing on the Manhattan Project and taking place from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 19, will be dedicated to the discussions of the legacy and history of the program that created, tested, and deployed the first atomic bombs and brought forth the start of the Atomic Age.

The second panel focuses on the last 75 years following the worlds first atomic testing and will take place at 10:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the same day. Panelists will discuss the impacts of the Manhattan Project on the latter half of the 20th century to today. The speakers will delve deeper into a discussion about why this topic is still so relevant, and they will investigate the Cold War, global energy and conflict in relation to nuclear science, and what this may mean for our future.

The world-renowned speakers for the symposium include Pulitzer Prize winner and author Richard Rhodes; founder and president of the Atomic Heritage Foundation, Cynthia Kelly; president and CEO of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Rachel Bronson; former director of Los Alamos National Laboratories, Professor Siegfried Hecker; and more.

This critical time in American history changed the world as we know it, and we are honored to provide an entertaining and educational platform where our community can learn more, said Jim Walther, museum executive director.

Hayden says the symposium is important because it is relevant to the museums mission.

There is a whole other side of nuclear that saves lives and has carbon-free footprints, Hayden says. We offer the entire story of nuclear technology.

Tickets must be purchased in advance at nuclearmuseum.org. Attending one panel session on the Zoom platform costs $25 per household or $40 to attend both panel sessions. Students receive a discount at the time of ticket purchase. For more information on the virtual symposium, visit nuclearmuseum.org.
Crystal Stywalt was returning home from work early on the morning of Aug. 30 when it caught her eye.

Someone scrawled a message on a wall at her home in Walhalla, which is west of Greenville. It said, "You don't belong."

At first, Stywalt, who is Black, was defiant. She figured the person who wrote those words wanted to intimidate her. She vowed to not let them.

The 44-year-old woman and her boyfriend called police, who took photos of the vandalism and made a report. After officers left, the couple noticed something else, something more sinister.

A drainage pipe below the graffiti was burned. The person who wrote the message on her wall also tried to burn her house down.

Stywalt and her boyfriend called police again. Officers returned with firefighters, who determined the fire was hot enough to set the home ablaze but didn't by some stroke of luck.

"Once I really took it all in, its just really hard to believe," she said. "Its taken me days. I think its changed the way I think about this town."

Walhalla police confirmed their agency and the FBI are investigating but could not provide further information, citing the ongoing investigation.

Experts say cases like Stywalt's illustrate a significant oversight in South Carolina's laws.

The Palmetto State is one of just three, along with Wyoming and Arkansas, that lack hate crime statutes. Without such protections on the books, experts say police and prosecutors are left with inadequate tools to seek justice in cases in which victims are targeted for their race, religion or sexual orientation.

For several years, S.C. Rep. Wendell Gilliard, D-Charleston, has tried to get a bill officially criminalizing acts of hate passed. Now, he believes momentum is building toward that goal.

A bill he introduced in 2019 was gaining traction during the 2020 legislative session, but the coronavirus pandemic cut short that effort as state officials raced to deal with the disease's impact as the virus spread quickly across the state.

Now, Gilliard again is concentrating on building support for the bill, which he plans to refile in advance of next year's legislative session.

"This has been a long time coming," the representative told The Post and Courier. "My first attempt was five years ago, back when we had the infamous act at Mother Emanuel. Back then we had five states that didn't have a hate crime bill. Now we're down to three."

Gilliard said a wide gap exists between federal hate crime laws and the spotty coverage provided by municipal hate crime ordinances like those passed in Charleston and Greenville.

The federal justice system is faced with a backlog of hate crimes to prosecute, and it can be hard to get more cases into the pipeline, he said. City ordinances only provide limited protection because they are unable to classify the crime as a felony.

Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson, whose office prosecutes criminal cases in Charleston and Berkeley counties, said she strongly supports passage of such legislation and that the S.C. Commission on Prosecution Coordination has had input into the bill's language.

"Our state has not spoken loudly and clearly about the message we want to send to people who act on hate," Wilson said. "Hate crimes are message crimes. South Carolina needs to have a message of its own in response."

Having a statute would be particularly useful in incidents where the hate-motivation isn't obvious, she said.

In the Emanuel AME Church shooting, Dylann Roof was explicit in his motivation for killing the nine victims: Their race, Wilson said.

But situations like Stywalt's, with no overtly racist symbol used, can prove trickier to pin down.

Authorities could charge someone with graffiti vandalism and arson. While arson carries a stiff penalty, graffiti vandalism is a misdemeanor punishable by a $3,000 fine, up to three years in prison or both, according to South Carolina law.

Gilliard's most recent iteration of the bill would make hate crimes punishable by a fine of $2,000 to $10,000, a prison term of two to 15 years, or both.

Wilson said ideally, the bill would make hate crimes a sentencing enhancement rather than a standalone charge.

She believes that setup would be more useful in real-world, courtroom applications.

Regardless of its eventual form, the solicitor said she hopes a bill will be passed next year.

"Crimes based on hate are profound to victims and to community members," Wilson said. "Its not isolated. When somebodys house is painted and swastikas are put up, its not just that family thats impacted. South Carolina has a lot of ground to make up in its messaging."

Gilliard said a legislative committee is working to find language amenable to Republican and Democratic legislators and he's optimistic the bill will find the support it needs in 2021.

"To me, that was very encouraging, knowing that we were coming off a year when it actually had a heartbeat," Gilliard said. "Statistics show that hate groups are on the rise in South Carolina. If we had a bill, we would have the authority to keep a record of hate crimes around South Carolina. We shouldn't leave the state waiting. We have to offset the negativity coming from these hate groups."

Rep. Marvin Pendarvis, D-North Charleston, agreed, saying the time is right for such legislation.

Pendarvis said the civil unrest that swept the country in the wake of police-involved killings of Black men and women like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor is calling attention to the air of bigotry and racism that exists in the United States, including hate crimes.

"The fact that South Carolina is one of the three remaining states says something," he said.

Pendarvis said he's pleased with the progress he's seen so far on the bill but that he'll need to see it gain measurable traction in the legislature before he's optimistic.

Still, the signs of support are growing.

Georgia recently passed hate crime legislation, and community groups around the Palmetto State are collecting signatures in support of Gilliard's bill.

Building Better Communities, a Columbia-based organization fighting for equity and safety, held the Caravan of Love. More than three dozen people gathered at Emanuel AME Church in downtown Charleston before traveling to Columbia in support of the hate crime bill.

And Gilliard said law enforcement officials like Reggie Burgess and Luther Reynolds, the North Charleston and Charleston police chiefs, have voiced strong support.

Chase Glenn, executive director of the Alliance For Full Acceptance, and Brandon Fish, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Charleston, have been building a coalition of 150 community organizations, businesses and other groups to support the bill.

In the past, groups around the state supported the passage of such legislation, but didn't work together and speak with one voice, Fish said. Now, they aim to remedy those past failures.

"We're getting legislators to work together on a single bill," he said. "On our end, we decided the best thing to do was to get support."

Fish and Glenn have been circulating a petition and gathering signatures from around the state. They plan to present the statement showing broad support for the bill to lawmakers when the session begins next year.

"This is about creating safer communities," Glenn said. "Thats whats exciting about the broad support were seeing in this coalition. It's not just about race. Its not just about religion. Its not just about sexual orientation. Its about everyone."

Hate crimes tend to go unreported or underreported, he said. People are fearful to come forward and report these crimes because they're afraid of how they'll be received.

Stywalt, the Upstate woman whose home was tagged with graffiti, said she's heard the same from members of her community.

"Other people have come to me and told me these things are happening to them," she said. "Nobody's reporting this stuff. They don't go to police."

To learn more about efforts to pass a hate crime bill, or to sign on in support, visit stampouthate.sc.
A deal establishing relations between Israel and Bahrain will result in direct flights between the countries, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

"There will be brisk and direct air traffic between the countries," he said in remarks to the Israeli cabinet, a transcript of which was issued by his office.

The deal, announced on Friday, followed a similar accommodation between another Gulf power, United Arab Emirates, and Israel and resulting pledges of direct air connections.

Saudi Arabia, while not recognising Israel, has said it would allow Israeli airliners to overfly its territory en route to the Gulf.

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Beijing: China's Defence Ministry on Sunday blasted a critical US report on the country's military ambitions, saying it is the US instead that poses the biggest threat to the international order and world peace.

The statement follows the September 2 release of the annual Defence Department report to Congress on Chinese military developments and goals that it said would have "serious implications for US national interests and the security of the international rules-based order".

Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Wu Qian called the report a wanton distortion" of China's aims and the relationship between the People's Liberation Army and China's 1.4 billion people.

Many years of evidence shows that it is the US that is the fomenter of regional unrest, the violator of the international order and the destroyer of world peace," he said.

US actions in Iraq, Syria, Libya and other countries over the past two decades have resulted in the deaths of more than 800,000 people and displacement of millions, Qian said.

Rather than reflecting on itself, the US issued a so-called report that made false comments about China's normal defense and military construction," he said in the statement.

We call on the US to view China's national defence and military construction objectively and rationally, cease making false statements and related reports, and take concrete actions to safeguard the healthy development of bilateral military relations."

Running to more than 150 pages, the Defence Department report examined the PLA's technical capabilities, doctrines and the ultimate aims of China's military buildup. It said it includes becoming a practical instrument" of China's statecraft with an active role in advancing Beijing's foreign policy and aims to revise aspects of the international order."

Certainly, many factors will determine how this course unfolds," the report said. What is certain is that (the ruling Communist Party) has a strategic end state that it is working towards, which, if achieved and its accompanying military modernisation left unaddressed, will have serious implications for US national interests and the security of the international rules-based order."

Much of the report was devoted to analysing China's strategy toward Taiwan, a US ally which China considers a part of its territory to be annexed by force if necessary. China's military capabilities dwarf those of the island of 23 million in numerical terms, although any invasion of Taiwan would be complex and would carry major political risks, the report said.

It also looked at areas where the 2 million-member PLA, the world's largest standing military, has overtaken the US, including in the size of its navy, now the world's largest with approximately 350 ships and submarines compared to around 293 for the US.

China has also built a considerable arsenal of land-based ballistic and cruise missiles and has one of the world's largest forces of advanced long-range surface-to-air systems, the report said.

This year's report comes as relations between Beijing and Washington have hit their lowest ebb in decades amid simmering disputes over trade, technology, Taiwan, human rights and the South China Sea.

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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New Delhi, Sep 13 : Bihar and Bihari aspirations were the dominating talking points with intermittent references to Bihar's past as Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated three petro projects for the state, ahead of the Assembly polls.

"There was a time when LPG gas connections in Bihar were a sign of affluent people. People had to make recommendations for each gas connection. The one who used to have gas in his house was believed to be from a very big family. Nobody asked those who were marginalised in the society, were suffering, deprived, backward, very backward. Their grief, their suffering was also ignored. But now in Bihar this concept has changed," said the Prime Minister in an apparent dig at Bihar's past, primarily ruled by the opposition RJD.

While inaugurating three crucial petroleum projects that will benefit Bihar, he broke it down in simpler terms for normal residents of the state to make sense of what the projects would mean to them. He said, "Today when CNG is reaching many cities of the country, PNG is reaching people of Bihar and eastern India should get these facilities as easily." Resurrecting Bihar's past and contrasting it with its present, Modi said that there was a time in the state when gas-based industry and petro-connectivity were seen as technical terms. However, he added that they have a direct impact on people's lives and their standard of living.

He said that the Prime Minister's package given for Bihar had 10 big projects related to petroleum and gas and about Rs 21,000 crore were to be spent on these projects. "Today this is the seventh project on which work has been completed, which has been dedicated to the people of Bihar," Modi added.

He also stressed that be it the work of expanding the Patna LPG plant and increasing the storage capacity earlier, LGP plant of Purnia to be expanded or new LPG plant in Muzaffarpur - all these projects have already been completed.

Making a strong pitch for the NDA's development mantra, he added that work on the part of the Jagdishpur-Haldia pipeline project that passes through Bihar has also been completed in March last year. He also announced how the work related to pipeline has also been completed on Motihari-Amlekhganj route.

In an apparent dig at the RJD, he once again underscored Bhar's past to highlight its present. He said, "There is neither a shortage of power in eastern India, including Bihar, nor has nature lacked resources here. Despite this, Bihar and eastern India remained behind for decades in terms of development. Many of the reasons for this were political, economic and of priorities." He added that efforts to connect eastern India with Paradip on the eastern seaboard and Kandla on the western seaboard began under the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga Yojana. Seven states are being connected to this pipeline of about 3,000 kms, in which Bihar also has a prominent place.

But being a master communicator, Modi always makes it readable to the layman. To make sense of the metro jargons, he reminded how the Ujjwala scheme came as a blessing for so many. "Today, 8 crore poor families of the country also have gas connections because of the Ujjwala scheme. What has changed in the lives of the poor through this plan, we have all felt again during this corona phase," he said.

Modi also added that it is because of this scheme that many were not forced to venture out to collect logs during the lockdown when staying indoor was necessary.

However, in what has come to be a signature move of the Prime Minister, he concluded by warning that the pandemic is not over yet and maintaining social distancing and practicing personal hygiene is crucial in the given circumstances.
Actor Priyanka Chopra on Saturday shared a romantic picture with husband Nick Jonas. She also wrote a sweet caption to go with it.

Sharing the photo, she wrote: My forever guy...so grateful for you @nickjonas The picture shows Nick and Priyanka in a car. Priyanka has her head resting on Nicks shoulder and holds on to his left hand. We can see Nicks car seat belt. Many Instagram users reacted to the picture; one person said love you guys, while another said love you two. Urvashi Rautela also dropped emoticons on the post.

Priyanka, who has been staying home in Los Angeles with Nick, has shared regular updates from her life through the coronavirus lockdown. On Saturday, she officially debuted her new hair style and wrote: New hair, dont care.

She also often shares posts with Nick. Some time back, she had shared a picture of him doing pushups, while she sat on his back. Sharing it, she had written: Push ups are my favourite exercise @nickjonas. Sharing a photo of their dogs--Gino, Diana and Panda - she had written: Our new family portrait! Welcome to the family, Panda! We adopted this little rescue (soon he wont be so little) just a few weeks ago. We cant be sure but he seems to be a Husky Australian Shepard mix.... and those eyes... and the ears!!!

In July this year, sharing a picture of Nick kissing her, she had revealed how on that day, two years back, Nick had proposed to her. She wrote: To the greatest joy of my life. 2 years ago on this day you asked me to marry you! I may have been speechless then but I say yes every moment of everyday since. In the most unprecedented time you made this weekend so incredibly memorable. Thank you for thinking of me all the time. I am the luckiest girl in the world! I love you @nickjonas

Also read: From being asked to serve food to Ayushmann Khurrana to getting groped at 12, Tahira Kashyap opens up on need to smash patriarchy

Priyanka also shared a throwback, the first picture they took together. She wrote: 2 years ago today we took our very first picture together. Every day since then you have brought me endless joy and happiness. I love you @nickjonas Thank you for making our life together so incredible. Heres to many more date nights.

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In a seven-year research effort, an international team of scientists has clarified the cause for certain genetic forms of Parkinson's disease, and has identified potential pharmacological treatments.

The interdisciplinary research team, led by Prof. Rejko Kruger, of the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) of the University of Luxembourg, experimented on patient-based cell cultures in the laboratory. The new combination of active substances they identified will have to undergo clinical trials before they can be used to treat patients. The research team published its results today in the prestigious scientific journal Science Translational Medicine.

Lack of protein DJ-1 makes you sick

A protein called DJ-1 plays a crucial role in keeping nerve cells functioning. If the body is unable to produce ample amounts of DJ-1, important nerve cells die. The result is the onset of neuro-degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's. The production of important proteins like DJ-1 can be disrupted or halted permanently if the genetic blueprints or the production processes they encode are defective.

Now, Prof. Rejko Kruger's research team in Luxembourg has succeeded in identifying for the first time the importance of an error in the production process known as 'splicing' in the development of a certain form of Parkinson's disease. "In the patients, an essential tool for the assembly of the protein DJ-1 fails to dock properly," Kruger explains. "In scientific terms, we call that exon skipping. As a result of this defect, the protein doesn't get built at all."

The research result offers an entirely new point of attack for treating this malfunction of protein synthesis with drugs.

This insight fundamentally changes our view of the causes of the disease and presents entirely new possibilities for treatment. We could only gain this new understanding thanks to the skin cells from the patients." Dr Ibrahim Boussaad, LCSB scientist and first author of the scientific paper

Cell donation enables progress

The Luxembourg Parkinson's Study, initiated in 2015 (see also http://www. parkinson. lu), includes a group of 800 Parkinson's patients and 800 healthy control subjects. Thanks to the donation of skin cells taken by small biopsies, the researchers in Luxembourg were able to reprogram these cells to grow into nerve cells in vitro.

These nerve cells are very similar to the neurons in affected regions of the donor's brain and can be used for analyses and tests in the laboratory. Because it is not possible to take neurons directly from the brain of patients, for health and ethical reasons, reprogramming is the only way to examine the clinical features of the patient's neurons in vitro. In scientific jargon, this is called a patient-based in vitro model, and is an important step in personalised medicine.

Using this method, Prof. Kruger's team was able to explain the cause of the genetic form of Parkinson's disease in which the PARK7 gene is mutated. Prof. Thomas Gasser, a medical director at the Tubingen University Hospital and co-author of the paper, adds, "We are proud to have been able to contribute our expertise in the reprogramming of patient cells to this stem cell work of our colleagues in Luxembourg." Institutions from Germany, Italy and the USA collaborated in the research project.

Luxembourg's interdisciplinarity is a key to this success

Precise bioinformatics algorithms developed at the LCSB allowed the research team to immediately carry out an automated search for potential active substances for drug treatment. This yielded a hit in the form of the active compounds phenylbutyric acid and RECTAS (RECTifier of Aberrant Splicing). Administered in combination, these two active substances allow the cells in the test tube to effectively reactivate the production of the important protein DJ-1.

"Only by combining numerous disciplines - from medical practice, to laboratory research, to computer science - could we understand the cause and at the same time identify active substances for a potential treatment," Prof. Rejko Kruger explains. He adds, "This kind of scientific progress 'Made in Luxembourg' is possible because all the necessary disciplines have been unified in Luxembourg for several years now."

This work represents the high point to date of the PEARL program of the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR), through which the research of Prof. Kruger and his team is funded. The team of scientists especially expresses its gratitude to the people who are participating in the Luxembourg Parkinson's Study and who have made this research possible in the first place.
Maharashtras coastal districts will have their own marine animal rescue centre before next monsoon and the state through the Mangrove Foundation has allocated a budget of Rs 65.5 lakh to develop new centres and upgrade existing ones.

While two new centres have been proposed at Rs 20 lakh each at Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri, an existing structure at Alibag will be revamped with various facilities at a cost of Rs 4 lakh. Additionally, Rs 10 lakh will be used to upgrade an existing centre in Dahanu while remaining funds have been allocated for the maintenance of existing centres.

These marine animal transit-and-treatment units cater to cases of cetaceans and sea turtle strandings, injuries, post-mortems, and rescues.

Final execution of our projects is expected by May before the monsoon when maximum cases are reported, said Virendra Tiwari, additional principal chief conservator of forest (Mangrove Cell). We are in consultation with experts to further enhance our infrastructure at each centre by including better equipment, a variety of tanks, medical apparatus and providing artificial sea salt (suitable for sea turtles to stay in).

Also read: Delhi records over 4,000 Covid-19 cases for fifth day in a row - 10 points

A total of 110 sea turtles (100 alive and 10 dead) washed ashore or got trapped in fishing nets between November 2019 and September 2020. (WCAWA/Mangrove Cell)

According to data from the mangrove cell, a total of 110 sea turtles (100 alive and 10 dead) washed ashore or got trapped in fishing nets between November 2019 and September 2020. Of these, 101 were Olive Ridley, seven Green sea turtles, and two were Hawksbill turtles. During the same period, 23 cetaceans - nine Indian Ocean humpback dolphins, five Baleen whales, five finless porpoise, and two striped dolphins - washed ashore along the state coastline.

Equipped with two 1,000 litre and five 500 litre tanks, an operation table, medicines, equipment and visiting veterinarians, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) got its first marine animal treatment centre on July 26 at the Coastal and Marine Biodiversity Centre at Airoli, Navi Mumbai.

In 2018, the forest department with various non-profit groups began a marine respondent network to coordinate fast response to marine treatment cases but a designated centre was not present. Only one treatment centre had been functional in Maharashtra in Dahanu, Palghar, over 10 years. This year, 38 turtles were brought to Dahanu while three were taken to Airoli for treatment.

According to a forest officer, who spoke to HT requesting anonymity, the 38 sea turtles were in critical health that washed ashore at Dahanu.

Developing district-wise centres will help provide treatment on time and boost further research. (WCAWA/Mangrove Cell)

While 20 succumbed to death, seven were successfully released after treatment and 11 remain critical under our care, the officer said.

Dr Dinesh Vinherkar, appointed in-charge of the Dahanu rescue centre by the Maharashtra forest department, confirmed the details. This year, the annual mortality and injury rate of turtles has been much higher. Cases involving accidents with boats, propellers or getting caught in fishnets has led to complete blood loss (anaemia), damage to lungs, decapitated flippers or harm to their digestive tract due to plastic, ropes, rubber and foreign bodies in their stool due to coastal pollution - all leading to floating syndrome (wherein a turtle is unable to swim into deep waters and is brought to shore during high tide). Thus, we could only release those that are fit to find food, he said.

Marine biologist with the Mangrove Foundation Harshal Karve said, Developing district-wise centres will help provide treatment on time and boost further research. Data collected will help understand the causes of stranding and aid future conservation practices.

Veterinarian Dr Rina Dev, consultant with the mangrove cell at the Airoli centre said, If every district becomes self-sufficient by providing immediate treatment to marine animals rather than putting pressure on one centre, the entire rehabilitation and conservation process becomes a successful model. The mangrove cell has already begun workshops with all coastal stakeholders explaining specifics about rescues and resolving stranding-related issues.

Dr Vinherkar added, There is a need for providing treatment to these species within a short period to save their lives. It will also help form a network for better results.

Such centres would need equipment including x-ray machines, isolation tanks, dry-docking tanks, thermoregulation equipment, filtration units, artificial sea salt apart from basic apparatus, added Dr Vinherkar.

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Read all about it! There has been plenty of news for the media to report during the pandemic.

However, customers inevitably visited newsagents less regularly during lockdown and some businesses cut back their advertising budgets.

Reach, the publisher of the Daily Mirror and Daily Express newspapers, appears to have been hard hit by that.

Read all about it: Customers cut back on visits to news vendors during lockdown

In July, the last time the company reported on trading, it said it would be forced to cut around 550 jobs - around 12 per cent of its staff - to help it ride out the crisis.

Notably, when it warned of job losses and plunging print sales, the hedge funds began to circle.

That day, New York hedge fund Luxor Capital, run by Christian Leone, started betting against the shares.

Luxor, which did not respond for comment, has since been steadily increasing its short position, which was the first major bet against the shares for over two years.

It now accounts for almost 2 per cent of Reach's shares and comes just a fortnight before the newspaper group's half-year results.

Luxor must see more bad news ahead for Reach.

Gleeson will benefit if land prices remain robust

Tomorrow Gleeson will give an indication of the prospects of an aspect of the housebuilding market that is sometimes overlooked - land buying.

The company has a strategic land arm which snaps up plots of land that are ripe for development - and then flogs them on to other housebuilders.

The division performed poorly last year, selling just two sites in the 12 months to June.

The larger housebuilders had been hoping that the pandemic would at least offer up some land on the cheap.

But no such luck for them so far.

Gleeson will hope for the sake of its struggling division that this continues - and prices remain robust.

Trainline to reveal direction of travel

It has been four months since rail booking site Trainline last gave an update to the market.

So investors will be eager to hear on Thursday how the company is managing with many people still working from home and not commuting.

It will also be interesting to learn how the company plans to negotiate the increasingly common changes in lifestyles and travel patterns as many employers offer staff more flexible working arrangements.

Last week, chief executive Clare Gilmartin offloaded shares in the company for 3million.

Investors will hope for evidence this week that her share sale is not a reflection of the business's direction of travel.

Redrow forecast to announce a loss

Investors with any shares in the housebuilders will be keeping an eye on Redrow's annual results on Wednesday.

The company has already reported that revenues slumped 36 per cent to 1.3billion.

Now number-crunchers at investment bank UBS are predicting that Redrow will slip to a pre-tax loss of 15million.

That is in part down to the lockdown which forced builders to down tools, but also because Redrow has chosen to retreat from London as it predicts more families will move out of the capital for more space in future.

UBS reckons that intriguing move will cost it 25million, pushing it into the red.
Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky's retelling of Khrushchev-era oppression around a 1962 massacre has won Special Jury Prize honors at the 77th Venice International Film Festival.



The 83-year-old filmmaker has described his black-and-white film, Dear Comrade, as a "fairytale" exploration of the "purity" of postwar Soviet characters, many of whom he says are "good and bad at the same time."



It stars Konchalovsky's wife, Yulia Vysotskaya, who was born in the Novocherkassk region where the killing of 26 striking workers under Nikita Khrushchev at the center of the film happened more than a half a century ago.



Vysotskaya, who has described senior Soviet officials as believing they were "creating something...good for mankind," plays a diehard communist and war veteran who is torn between her loyalties to the Communist Party and her daughter.



Variety magazine called it a film with a "seriousness of...intent and...pristine craft," but with deadpan humor that takes aim at "bureaucrats and military men nervously passing the buck as far as it will go."



It had been tipped by some as a possible top-prize laureate in Venice.



But the Golden Lion award instead went to Nomadland, a film by U.S.-based Chinese director Chloe Zhao about a widow who escapes life in a struggling Nevada mining town by living in her van and taking temporary jobs along the way.



The Venice event is the first major film festival to go ahead in a live setting -- instead of mostly remote video -- since the coronavirus pandemic shut down much of Europe in March.

Based on reporting by Reuters
Beijing, September 11: China announced a ban on its citizens from travelling to Czech Republic citing the surge in COVID-19 infections in the European nation. The order was issued on Friday by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Even though Beijing has cited the resurgence of coronavirus in Czechia as reason behind the travel ban, the order comes days after China marked its angst against a top Prague official's visit to Taiwan. Taiwan Seeks 'International Alliance' to Ward Off China Threat; A Timeline of The Historical Taipei-Beijing Divide.

Czech Republic Senate Speaker Milos Vystrcil visited Taipei as part of an official engagement on August 30. The bilateral visit was organised despite strong apprehensions raised by China. The Communist regime in Beijing has called upon all countries with diplomatic ties to approach Taiwan via China.

A failure to consult China on relations with Taiwan would be deemed as not adhering to the one-China policy, Beijing had said last month in response to Vystrcil's visit to Taipei.

COVID-19 Reason Behind Banning Travel to Czechia: Global Times

China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a travel warning on travelling to the #Czech Republic, citing the country's recent surge in COVID-19 infections. pic.twitter.com/priXw499WU  Global Times (@globaltimesnews) September 11, 2020

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had fumed over the Czechian official's visit to Taiwan, saying that any challenge to Beijing's policy over the region would warrant a befitting diplomatic retaliation. He had also warned of a complete overhaul of the bilateral relations if Prague does not amend its stand.

Wang said Taiwan is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory, noting that to challenge the one-China principle over the Taiwan issue is to make an enemy of 1.4 billion Chinese people and is a violation of international trust and conduct.

Further elaborating Wang's remarks, a statement issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry categorically called upon Vystrcil to mark dissent against his Taipei visit.

"To avoid harming overall bilateral relations, we also have the solemn message to the Taiwan authorities and anti-China forces behind the scenes manipulating Vystrcil. Any political manipulation and attempts to create Taiwan's independence is bound to fail," the statement had noted.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 11, 2020 06:37 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
The pardon has renewed anti-American sentiment in the former US colony

A US marine convicted of killing a transgender woman in the Philippines was deported on Sunday after being pardoned by President Rodrigo Duterte.

Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton was halfway through his maximum 10-year prison term for the 2014 murder when Duterte this week unexpectedly ordered his release, drawing condemnation from rights groups.

Escorted by US military personnel, the 25-year-old boarded a US military plane at Manila airport, the Philippine Bureau of Immigration said.

"Pemberton wishes to express his deepest gratitude to President Duterte for granting him an absolute pardon. He is extremely grateful for this act of compassion," his lawyer Rowena Flores said in a statement.

Flores said Pemberton extends his "sincere sympathy for the pain he caused" to the family of his victim Jennifer Laude, the first formal apology from the marine.

"He wishes he had the words to express the depth of his sorrow and regret," she added.

Pemberton met Laude in October 2014 in a bar in the northwestern city of Olongapo after a joint US-Philippine military exercise.

During the trial, a lower court heard that Pemberton and Laude agreed to have sex but the drunken marine turned violent when he discovered Laude still had male genitals.

The lawyer for Laude's family condemned the pardon, which has renewed anti-American sentiment in the former US colony.

"May he find peace of mind. (I'm) hoping he has learned from all these the value of life and dignity regardless of gender and nationality," lawyer Virginia Suarez told AFP.

As part of his deportation to the United States, Pemberton is now banned from entering the Philippines for being a "risk to public safety", the immigration bureau added.

rbl/kaf
(Bloomberg) -- U.K regulators are examining advertisements by Klarna, the Swedish lender backed by BlackRock Inc. and the entertainer Snoop Dogg, as part of a broad inquiry into whether the marketing of buy now, pay later services is encouraging reckless spending by young people.

The U.K.s Advertising Standards Authority started the probe this month after complaints from consumers, said Freddie Alcock, a spokesman for the agency.We are alive to concerns around deferred-payment providers advertising, Alcock said. This includes concerns about whether Klarnas ads are irresponsibly reducing the immediate perceptions of costs of purchases, particularly as many of their ads seem to be targeted at young people.

Buy-now, pay-later services from Klarna and other lenders have become popular in recent years, luring customers with the option of putting off payment or making interest-free installments. Theres no cost to the consumer for deferring payment if installments are made on time. Retailers pay Klarna a cut of purchases.

But with a global pandemic, mounting job losses and U.K. living standards declining the most since 1970, Klarna has also drawn scrutiny. Critics say it encourages customers, particularly younger shoppers, to spend irresponsibly and fall into debt.

Misleading Ads

Last year, a group of U.K. nonprofits called on buy-now, pay-later companies to make loan terms and risks clearer at the outset and described some ads by these lenders misleading.

A Klarna spokesman, Dan Greaves, said the company was aware of the inquiry and working with the agency to address any concerns. Promoting responsible spending is a priority for Klarna, and we recently reached out to the ASA proactively as part of our ongoing dialog with key stakeholders across the industry, Greaves said.

He denied that Klarnas advertisements targeted young people and said the company had invested in education programs to promote responsible spending and money management.

The Advertising Standards Authority doesnt have enforcement authority and aims to work with advertisers to help them stick to the regulators standards, according to its website. However, if an advertiser doesnt fix problems identified by the regulator, it can be referred to other authorities for further action including possible litigation.

Get Smooth

Klarna says its business in the U.K. has increased sharply in recent years, to 9.5 million individual customers and 7,000 merchants. It says that its customers shop more frequently and spend more than ordinary shoppers. In addition to BlackRock and Snoop Dogg -- who once starred in the companys commercials, urging viewers to get smooth -- backers include Permira Holdings and Sequoia Capital.

Permira declined to comment. Representatives of BlackRock, Sequoia and Snoop Dogg didnt respond to requests for comment.

Klarnas biggest markets are Germany and the U.K. It also has 9 million customers in the U.S., where the company has been setting the stage for an initial public offering. This week, Reuters reported that Klarna was in talks with investors for a round of funding that would value it at more than $10 billion.

Greaves, the Klarna spokesman, wouldnt comment on the report. A funding round last year valued the company at $5.5 billion.

Alice Tapper, the founder of the personal finance website Go Fund Yourself, started a #regulateBuyNowPayLater campaign in June urging the U.K. government to protect young consumers from misleading buy-now, pay-later products. She says she was one of the complainants who submitted evidence to the regulator.

Tapper said she welcomed the ASA inquiry as a positive first step toward ending the trivialization and glamorization of what is essentially debt.

More: Snoop Dogg-Backed Klarna Eyes IPO Amid $5.5 Billion Valuation

2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Reuters

Russia's parliament will hold consultations next week on an idea to appeal to President Vladimir Putin to recognise two pro-Russian breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent states, the chamber's speaker said on Friday. Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, made the announcement ahead of talks in Geneva on Friday between Russia's top diplomat and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss soaring tensions over Ukraine. A Russian troop build-up near Ukraine has stirred worries among Western countries that a war could break out between the former Soviet neighbours, whose ties have been fraught since the annexation of Crimea by Moscow and the start of a Russia-backed insurgency in eastern Ukraine in 2014.
New Delhi, Sep 13 : The Congress has flayed the naming of Left leader Sitaram Yechury and others in a Delhi Police supplementary charge sheet in a Delhi riots case and said it will raise the issue in Parliament.

The other opposition parties too will raise the issue during the Monsoon Session of Parliament commencing on Monday.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said: "We are definitely going to raise the issue as it is a case of misuse of official machinery." The party is in talks with non-NDA leaders and working on a joint strategy. Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel and Ramesh have spoken to all opposition political parties on the matter.

Delhi Police has named Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav, former JNU student Umar Khalid, and others in its charge sheet in one of the Delhi riots cases.

Yechury lashed out at the central government: "Delhi Police is under the Home Ministry. Its illegal actions are a direct outcome of the politics of BJP's top leadership. They are scared of legitimate peaceful protests by mainstream political parties and are misusing state power to target the Opposition." These persons were alleged named in the disclosure statements made by accused Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal, and Gulfisha Fathima in connection with the case. The trio is facing charges under teh Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Communal violence broke out in north-east Delhi on February 24 after clashes between supporters of the Citizenship (Amendment0 ACt and those opposed to it.
A 12-year-old boy was kidnapped and hacked to death by his neighbour in West Bengals South 24 Parganas district on Friday, the police said on Sunday afternoon.

The incident happened at Uttarpara village in Baruipur.

Munirul Sheikh, the accused, allegedly lured Tushar Chakraborty, a class 6 student, saying he would get the boy a parrot from the trees near his house. Since the boy knew Sheikh, he went out with him without telling his parents. He was never seen again.

On Saturday, Tushars father received a call from an unknown mobile phone and the caller demanded 5 lakh as ransom for releasing the boy.

After the boy went missing his father had lodged a complaint. We started tracking the number and it led to Muniruls arrest. He confessed that he killed the boy after kidnapping him and called his father the next day, said Rashid Munir Khan, superintendent of police, Baruipur.

Police found that Sheikh had taken a loan of 50,000 from someone and had no substantial income to pay it off.

When we asked him why he killed the boy, Munirul said he got scared. The body was found near Muniruls house, said the SP.

Sheikh was produced before the local court on Sunday afternoon and remanded to police custody.
Several local school districts are looking at possibly changing certain provisions of their dress codes this month, after the ACLU of Texas sent a letter to hundreds of districts across the state asking them to change discriminatory and unconstitutional practices following several recent court decisions.

While school districts throughout the country have removed policies that were based on antiquated sex stereotypes, many school districts in Texas still have policies that treat students differently on the basis of their gender, such as requiring different hair and dress standards for male and female students, Brian Klosterboer, attorney for the ACLU of Texas, said in a statement.

Recent court decisions, including from the U.S. Supreme Court, have found that this type of gender-based discrimination is unconstitutional. School districts need to conform to federal law and fix outdated policies that cause serious harm to students in Texas.

Lumberton ISD is among the local districts to receive a letter and has forwarded the matter to district outside legal counsel for interpretation, according to a spokesperson.

One provision in a Lumberton Middle School dress code found online prohibits dreadlocks, corn rows, or other forms of ponytails.

In a high-profile case last month, a federal judge ruled that a similar policy in Barbers Hill ISD was discriminatory.

Another school district listed in an ACLU post of districts they sent letters to was Hamshire-Fannett ISD.

Superintendent Dwaine Augustine said he had not received or seen the letter, but he was working with administrators at all of his campuses to ensure the dress codes are up to date and in compliance with recent legal decisions.

Also addressed was Silsbee ISD, which also has different dress codes at each campus.

A spokesperson said district officials are informally discussing the letter with no formal discussion on changes planned at this time.

The letter, which was first reported by the Texas Tribune, provides a lengthy legal analysis for why districts need to change their dress code.

Other districts the ACLU said they reached out to include Brookeland, Buna, Chester, Evadale, Hull-Daisetta, Liberty, Sabine Pass, Warren and West Hardin ISDs.

isaac.windes@hearstnp.com

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Dozens of members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara State on Sunday stormed the state police headquarters in Gusau, the Zamfara State capital, demanding the unconditional release of their leader, Abu Dan-Tabawa, and others

Mr Dan-Tabawa was arrested for holding a secret meeting with armed bandits, according to the Zamfara State governors media aide, Zailani Baffa .

The protesters, holding placards with different inscriptions, accused the state police commissioner, Usman Nagogo, of partisanship over alleged frequent arrest of their members in the state.

The police on Saturday evening arrested Mr Dan-Tabawa, a political ally of the immediate past governor of the state, Abdulaziz Yari, at his residence in Gusau, following alleged sabotage of security.

One of the protesters accused the state police commissioner of being the campaign director of the ruling Peoples Democratic party in Zamfara

CP Nagogo is the PDP coordinator in Zamfara, she wrote on her own placard.

Commenting on the development, Mr Baffa wrote on his Twitter: I learnt that security operatives in Zamfara have placed an Abdulazeez Yaris ally, Abu Dan-Tabawa, unde intensive interrogation following indisputable CCTT Camera footage of secret meeting with recalcitrant bandits.

Arrest not politically motivated  Police

The Zamfara State Police Command has, however, said that the arrest of Mr Dan-Tabawa and 17 others by operatives of the command on Saturday was not politically motivated.

The commands spokesperson, Muhammad Shehu, in a statement, on Sunday, said the arrest was an intelligence- driven and proactive action by the state police command to prevent a possible breach of public peace and ensure that the state continues to enjoy the relative peace that is being enjoyed in recent times

The arrest was carried out in the overall interest of public peace, public security and public safety, the statement read.

The Command wishes to warn all citizens of the state in respective of their political affiliation, their status or their standing in the society to desist from actions that are inimical to the safety and security of the citizens of the state, Mr Shehu said in the statement.
A court in Dhaka on Sunday sentenced six people to death for killing a retired primary school teacher and his wife in a bid to grab their land.

The killers did not even spare a school teacher," Judge Abu Zafar M. Kamruzzaman of the Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 of Dhaka said in his verdict.

The convicts were identified as Swapan Kumar Das, Zahidul Islam, Farhad, Moniruzzaman Bhuiyan, Manjurul Islam and Shoyan Mia.

According to the prosecution, Das, along with his associates, killed his step-brother Anil Kumar Das, a retired teacher of a primary school in Tangail, and his wife Kalpana Rani at their home at Rasulpur on July 26, 2017, to grab their property.

Later, police recovered the bodies of the couple from the septic tank of their house.

Victims son Nirmal Kumar Das had filed a case with Tangail Sadar police station.

On September 17, 2018, the investigation officer of the case submitted a charge sheet against the accused, and the court framed charges against them on August 7, 2019.
Tropical Storm Sally formed near Florida on Saturday and is expected to grow stronger as it moves through the Gulf of Mexico.

According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), Tropical Storm Sally could become a Category 1 hurricane late Monday. It is now approaching the Gulf Coast.

Sally is located about 45 miles west of Naples, a Tampa Bay Times report said. It had sustained maximum winds of 40 miles per hour and was moving north-northwest at 8mph. This data is according to the center's 8.p.m. Saturday advisory.

CNN noted that Tropical Storm Sally is now the 18th named storm of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season.

Records also noted the Sally is the earliest 18th named storm on record. Colorado State University meteorologist, Philip Klotzbach, said it broke the record set by Stan in October 2005.

The National Weather Service estimated two to three inches of rainfall in Pinellas County and 1.5 inches in Hillsborough.

Sally will also raise rain in the bay area for up to 90 percent until Monday. There may be a slight drop in this level, to 80 percent, on Tuesday.

It is expected to move over the southeastern and eastern Gulf of Mexico by Sunday. It will hit the Louisiana-Mississippi border as a hurricane, forecasts revealed.

Warnings Issued in Florida, Other States

A hurricane watch was issued from the Alabama/Florida border to Louisiana's parts, said a report from The Weather Channel.

Florida was also given flood watches through Sunday for areas of its west coast. This includes Tampa, Bradenton, Port Charlotte, and Fort Myers.

In the said areas, about two to four inches of rain is expected through the weekend.

Most of the forecast models on Sally show the hurricane moving toward the northern Gulf coast.

"The cyclone will likely become a hurricane in two to three days," said the NHC. But an "increase in vertical shear" could slow the storm from getting worse over the northern Gulf.

There is also the threat of a life-threatening storm surge along the Gulf Coast starting Monday.

An Active Storm Season

As noted, Sally is already early from the past "S" storms. But that is not the only thing that makes it an early, active season for storms.

Other storms also broke records for being the earliest named to date. This includes Cristobal as the earliest "C" storm in recorded history and Hanna as the earliest "H" storm.

Only three storms did not set records for being the earliest in their respective letter: Arthur, Bertha, and Dolly.

There are only three names left for this year's storm season. The next storm names are Teddy, Vicky, and Wilfred. After that, meteorologists will start naming storms in Greek letters like Alpha, Beta, etc.

The naming with Greek letters had not happened since 2005 when 27 storms were named.

Other systems are also in the Atlantic. The NHC is currently tracking six areas: two tropical storms, two tropical depressions, and two tropical disturbances.

Thursday marked the peak of the hurricane season in the Atlantic.

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She is pulling back the curtain on her infamous Hollywood socialite persona in the upcoming documentary This Is Paris, which will premiere on September 14.

But Paris Hilton looked nothing but glamorous on Saturday as she enjoyed an afternoon shopping trip in Beverly Hills.

The 39-year-old businesswoman was all smiles as she strutted down the sidewalk in a pair of lace-up heels while also opting to go without a face mask.

She's a rainbow: Paris Hilton looked every bit the glamour girl on Saturday, while enjoying an afternoon shopping trip in Beverly Hills

Hilton rocked a rainbow zip-up jacket that was completely covered in sequins and featured accents of black on the collar and wrists.

Slung over her shoulder was a silver backpack that was covered in a similar rainbow stripe pattern.

Paris paired her colorful jacket with a plain white tee and some dark denim skinny jeans.

The Simple Life star flashed her killer smile at fellow shoppers, while donning a pair of stylish oversized sunglasses.

Strut your stuff: The 39-year-old businesswoman, who opted to go without a face mask, was all smiles as she strutted down the sidewalk in a pair of lace-up heels

Her blonde hair was parted to one side and flowed down her back in loos waves.

Paris was accompanied by a female friend who had a large white shopping bag in her hand.

Hilton is usually in the company of her entrepreneur beau Carter Reum, 39, who she began dating earlier this year.

Paris and Carter celebrated their seven-month anniversary on August 29.

To commemorate the special date and their love, Hilton uploaded a touching tribute to her boyfriend on Instagram.

This Is Paris: She is pulling back the curtain on her infamous Hollywood socialite persona in the upcoming documentary This Is Paris, which will premiere on September 14

'When we first met, I had no idea of the amazing journey I was about to embark on. My life was always empty, like I was missing something. But when I met you, I knew you were the one,' she began.

Paris included a black-and-white snapshot of herself and Reum sharing a tender moment.

She continued: 'Youve filled my heart with so much love. I believe that everything happens for a reason because everything in my life, all the good and the bad, has led me right to you.

'You are my reason for me being so happy and feeling like the luckiest girl in the world! I love making you happy and promise to make you smile forever

In love: Hilton is usually in the company of her entrepreneur beau Carter Reum, 39, who she began dating earlier this year; Paris and Carter pictured in January

'Love so much handsome! Happy anniversary!' concluded Hilton, along with a lightening bolt emoji,' concluded Hilton in the post seen by her 12.5million followers.

Though things with Carter are going great, it was not always smoothing sailing for Paris when it came to relationships.

In a clip from her impending documentary shared with People, the heiress opened up about enduring 'multiple abusive relationships' in her life.

'I was strangled, I was hit, I was grabbed aggressively. I put up with things no one should,' said the star, who believes she was set up for a future of abusive relationships while attending the Provo Canyon boarding school as a teenager.

Not always sunshine: In a clip from her impending documentary shared with People, the heiress opened up about enduring 'multiple abusive relationships' in her life

Paris says she was abused by five of her exes, whom were all sweet and kind to her in the beginning of their relationship before making a dramatic change.

'They all seemed like such nice guys and then the true colors would show,' Paris explained. 'They'd get jealous, or defensive or try to control me. And there there would come a point where they would become physically, verbally and emotionally abusive.'

Paris initially interpreted the 'crazy' behavior as an indicator of just how much they loved her.

'Looking back, I can't believe I let people treat me like that,' she said.
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is working on two schemes -- credit guarantee and seed funds -- to support in the country, a top government official has said.

Secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra said that an inter-ministerial consultation process is on to work out the contours of the two schemes.

"We are working on a credit guarantee scheme and a seed fund scheme. Both are under inter-ministerial consultations," the secretary told PTI.

He said there would be a corpus in the credit guarantee scheme which would be given to banks and they will leverage that to lend to

This scheme would give banks a comfort to lend, he said adding that it is for credit not for venture capital.

"This is for capex credit," Mohapatra added.

On the seed fund scheme, Mohapatra said that most actually face problems in raising finance or funds in the ideation to the proof of concept stage.

Some states like Gujarat and Kerala already have schemes like seed funds, but they are small, he said. "The central government ministries also have, but we want to put a pan India scheme," the secretary said.

Both the schemes would require approval of the finance ministry and then the would seek nod of the Union Cabinet for these two schemes.

He also said that certain startups have raised some issues pertaining to ESOPs (employee stock option plans) and "that we have forwarded to the revenue department".

Talking about the next edition of ranking of states and union territories (UTs) on their startup ecosystem, the secretary said that the department has already started the process for that.

The department is encouraging states to develop their startup policy to promote budding entrepreneurs.

In the 2019 rankings, Gujarat has again emerged as the best performer in developing startup ecosystems for budding entrepreneurs.

The government had launched Startup India Action Plan in January 2016 to promote budding entrepreneurs in the country. The plan aims to give incentives such as tax holiday and inspector raj-free regime and capital gains tax exemption.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
(Natural News) In an effort to be more inclusive and promote equality, the University of Michigan-Dearborn recently hosted black only events where people of color were encouraged to discuss their experience as students on campus. The meeting allows people of color to discuss how they are marginalized in a predominantly white society.

In order to promote racial unity and social justice, the university took it a step further and punished white students by segregating them into a different group called non-POC (people of color).

The University explained that the event will occur on a bi-monthly basis, on the first Tuesday of every other month. The non-POC group was set up to encourage white people to brainstorm solutions to racism and other issues they find within their non-POC community. A non-POC staff member is assigned to facilitate the group discussions to ensure that the white students remain respectful.

All other students of color, nationality and heritage were allowed in the BIPOC group, which stands for black, indigenous and people of color. This group was set up to give a platform to marginalized racial, ethnic and cultural communities. In the group, marginalized people of color are encouraged to discuss their experience of being a victim in a world dominated by white people.

University separates white people so they can discuss their inherent racism without harming or relying on students of color to educate them

The school has since pulled down any information about the groups online and offered an apology for segregating students under the facade of being more inclusive.

A university spokesperson responded to Breitbart News.

UM-Dearborn sincerely regrets the terms used to describe the cafe events held on September 8. The terms used to describe these virtual events and the descriptions themselves were not clear and not reflective of the universitys commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.

The spokesperson continued:

University of Michigan-Dearborn is committed to fostering and maintaining an inclusive campus environment and encourages ongoing dialogue amongst our students, faculty and staff on challenging issues. As campus activities continue to operate in a predominantly remote capacity due to COVID-19, our Center for Social Justice and Inclusion has looked to develop virtual spaces that allow for these important conversations to continue.

The University of Michigan is not hosting a conversation. They are dividing people by race, contributing to racial tensions. With this stunt, the University of Michigan-Dearborn has endorsed segregation and is fanning the flames of racism toward people with lighter skin tones. This is being accomplished first by separating people with lighter skin tones and then by making them feel ashamed of their heritage and race. The racial division is exacerbated by encouraging people of color to feel as if they have been marginalized, as if they are owed reparations from white people.

The universitys intentions of racial shaming were further revealed by their spokesperson:

The original intent was to provide students from marginalized communities a space that allowed for them to exist freely without having to normalize their lives and experiences, while also providing students that do not identify as persons of color the opportunity to deepen their understanding of race and racism without harming or relying on students of color to educate them.

The University of Michigan is openly segregating white people, to force them to feel guilt for their inherent racism. The university believes that whites need to be isolated and educated on how racist they are without harming students of color. The university believes this is the safest way for whites to admit their sins of racism without students of color needing to educate them.

After being questioned about their endorsement of segregation, the university now claims that both groups are open to everyone and that no one is being racially segregated or screened by race.

Sources include:

Breitbart.com

RaceWar.News
Antarvedi, Sep 13 : Police personnel in Andhra Pradesh's East Godavari district probing the Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple chariot blaze have tested positive for coronavirus, an official said on Sunday.

"In the last 3-4 days, I, the Additional SP (admin), Razole circle Inspector and others have tested positive," East Godavari's Superintendent of Police Adnan Nayeem Asmi told IANS.

Though infected, Asmi is currently asymptomatic and doing well.

"I am asymptomatic, and taking caring of myself at home," he said.

Police officials suspect that they contracted the virus while controlling the mobs which had descended on the temple village from outside Antarvedi. Two of the protesters have also tested positive.

"Normally we take protection but at that point of time with so many people around....," Asmi said.

Following the chariot blaze, many non-local protesters had descended on the temple village, leading to the arrest of 43 of them.

People came from nearby villages and even places as far away as Guntur, Kakinada, Rajamundry and even Tumuluri Lakshmi from Hyderabad.

To control the mobs, police were compelled to be close proximity to the protesters, giving a miss to social distancing and this could have led to the infections.

Already, the police in East Godavari has been burdened with infections before the Antarvedi incident itself.

Asmi said the district police department is stretched with 800 personnel testing positive for coronavirus, out of which only 300 have recovered so far.

To cope with policing demands, additional police forces from other districts and AP Special Police and district special teams were deputed.

On September 5, a six-decade-old seven-tiered wooden chariot of the famous Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple at Antarvedi in East Godavari district was gutted in a fire under mysterious circumstances, leading to a spate of protests Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has handed over the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The sheet says in addition to the high number of uninsured people in America, the hospital payment system itself is broken.

Government programs like Medicare and Medicaid pay hospitals less than the cost of caring for the beneficiaries these programs cover; insurance companies negotiate deep discounts with hospitals; and many people who are uninsured pay little or nothing at all, it says.

These inequities in payment leave hospitals with an annual balancing act  hospitals must ensure that the payments they receive for care from all sources exceed the costs of providing that care. A hospital cannot continue to lose money year after year and remain open.

The sheet says hospitals need a positive bottom line in order to be able to replace or improve old buildings, keep up with new technologies and otherwise invest in maintaining and improving their services to meet the rising demand for care.

How do these government-set and insurance company-negotiated payments compare to the actual cost of providing hospital care to patients? Medicare and Medicaid pay less than cost, the uninsured pay little or nothing, and others must make up the difference, according to the AHA.
About 100 people took part in the event.

A rally was held on Kyiv's Independence Square, also known as Maidan Nezalezhnosti, on Sunday, September 13, to express solidarity with protesters in Belarus.

About 100 people took part in the event, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty's Krym.Realii service reported.

Read alsoUkraine steps up border security pending Belarus-Russia military drills (Video)

Participants in the rally were holding flags and posters, chanting: "Long Live Belarus," "Go away," and "Lukashenko  to the paddy wagon," and singing songs of the Belarusian rock band "Lyapis Trubetskoy."

They unfolded a large white-red-white flag, the same as used by protesters in Belarus, and marched through the central streets, heading to the Belarusian embassy in Kyiv.

Organizers of the event said: "On September 14, citizen Lukashenko, who illegally holds power in Belarus, and Russian President Vladimir Putin are getting together to discuss new conditions for the so-called deep integration."

The organizers emphasize that the Belarusian people "did not authorize Lukashenko to discuss and sign documents concerning the future of Belarus."

Recent developments in Belarus in brief
The Duchess of Cornwall has called her recent guest-edit of The Emma Barnett Show a 'wonderful experience' in a touching note written to a royal fan.

Camillam, 73, took on her first-ever radio guest edit on the BBC Radio 5 Live programme in July where she opened up about life in lockdown and some of her work with her patronages.

Royal fan @GertsRoyals has now revealed a thankyou letter sent by the Duchess after she took her time to send birthday congratulations and praise her for her appearance on the show.

In the note which was shared on Twitter, the Duchess wrote: 'Thank you for your kind letter about my recent Guest Edit of the Emma Barnett Show. I am so glad you enjoyed the programme. It was a wonderful experience, and I was delighted that so many of my charities, including SafeLives, were able to participate.'

The Duchess of Cornwall, 73, has called her recent guest-edit of The Emma Barnett Show a 'wonderful experience' in a touching note written to a royal fan (pictured, with the Radio 5 Live host)

She went on: 'I do hope you and your family have been safe and well during this challenging time.'

The duchess appeared to have personally signed the note in black ink, finishing the note: 'With best wishes, Camilla.'

Her distinctive solo royal monogram - boasting her initial C and a coronet - featured at the top of the letter.

The personalised letter differs from Camilla's birthday thankyou note which was revealed earlier this month by a different royal fan, and features an unseen photograph of the Duchess.

In the letter, which was shared by royal fan @GertsRoyals online, Camilla said she hoped everyone was 'safe and well during this challenging time'

The card included a snap of the duchess casually dressed in jeans with a blue sweater over a pink shirt, while posing on the steps outside her Scottish home of Birkhall.

Capturing Camilla reading All Change by Elizabeth Jane Howard, the photo was originally released by Clarence House in April when the royal shared her favourite reads for Easter.

Katharina of @katsroyalletters shared the card, which included the message: 'Dear Katharina, thank you so much for remembering my birthday. This year, of all years, your kind message was especially appreciated and very cheering.'

The duchess appeared to have personally signed the note in black ink, finishing the note: 'With best wishes, Camilla.'

The letter differs from The Duchess of Cornwall's thank you note for her birthday well wishers, which included a snap (above) of the duchess casually dressed in jeans with a blue sweater, while posing on the steps outside her Scottish home of Birkhall

Royal fan Katharina of @katsroyalletters shared the card, which included a 'beautiful' message, pictured above

Fellow royal fans (above) were thrilled with the post, with one commenting: 'Such a beautiful reply, waiting for mine!'

Her distinctive solo royal monogram - boasting her initial C and a coronet - featured at the top of the letter.

Fellow royal fans were thrilled with the post, with one commenting: 'Such a beautiful reply, waiting for mine!'

In July, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall thanked royal fans for sending letters during these 'difficult and uncertain times'.

Charles, 71, and Camilla sent cards of gratitude to supporters who had taken the time to send their congratulations on the couple's wedding anniversary in April.

In July, Charles, 71, and Camilla, 73, sent thank you notes (pictured) to supporters who had taken the time to send their congratulations on the couple's wedding anniversary in April

The typed note was printed on the back of a photo of the couple taken last summer during a visit to Cornwall, pictured

The letter read: 'It was so very kind of you to think of sending us such a nice message for our 15th wedding anniversary, and we cannot thank you enough for remembering us in these difficult and uncertain times.'

The typed note was printed on the back of a photo of the couple taken last summer during a visit to Cornwall.

The letter was sent to a number of royal supporters, including the anonymous founder of Instagram account The Royal Mail Box, who specialises in sharing correspondence from European royalty.
President Trump has justified the killing of an antifa protestor in Portland who shot dead a far-right Patriot Prayer supporter, describing it as 'retribution'.

Speaking on Fox News on Saturday night to Judge Jeanine Pirro, the president explained how he sent in U.S. Marshals to specifically target antifa supporter 48-year-old Michael Reinoehl.

His killing came days after Reinoehl had fatally shot Aaron 'Jay' Danielson, 39, on August 29, when Trump supporters ended up clashing with Black Lives Matter supporters in Portland.

President Trump said the killing of Antifa supporter Michael Reinoehl in Portland, Oregon earlier this month was 'retribution'

Medics attend to Danielson after he was shot in downtown Portland last month on August 29th

Trump on a purported antifa sympathizer who allegedly killed someone in Portland being killed by federal forces: "This guy was a violent criminal, and the US Marshals killed him. And I'll tell you something -- that's the way it has to be. There has to be retribution." pic.twitter.com/WfIP9b37sA  Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 13, 2020

Michael Forest Reinoehl, 48, was shot multiple times and killed by US Marshals outside an apartment block in Washington state on September 3

Danielson was a member of Patriot Prayer, a group which has organized rallies in support of Donald Trump and far-right protests in predominantly liberal areas, which have been met with large numbers of counter-protesters.

Last week, police officers investigating Danielson's death ended up fatally shooting Reinoehl after finding him in Lacey, Washington, south of Seattle.

Portland police had secured a second-degree murder warrant for Reinoehl in connection with Daniel's death according to Fox News.

Reinoehl was shot multiple times and killed by US Marshals outside an apartment block in Washington state.

The officers swooped in on the self-proclaimed anti-fascist to arrest him after he was charged with the murder of right-wing activist Danielson.

Reinoehl (left). Aaron 'Jay' Danielson, right, who Reinoehl is said to have murdered

'We sent in the U.S. Marshals for the killer [Reinoehl] who shot the young man [Danielson] on the street. Cold blooded killed him. He didn't like his hat or something,' the president explained.

'It wasn't a Trump hat. It was a religious hat. And he shot him cold blood. Two-and-a-half days went by and I put out when are you going to go get him? The U.S. Marshals went in to get him and they ended in a gunfight,' Trump revealed.

'This guy was a violent criminal and the U.S. Marshals killed him. That's the way it has to be. There has to be retribution when you have crime like this. There can't be guys standing up that wanna fight. You can't throw bricks at people with shields.'

Self-declared anti-fascist activist Michael Reinoehl, who was shot and killed by police in Washington State on September 3, 2020, takes part in protests against police violence and racial inequality in Portland, Oregon, U.S. in this photo taken July 18, 2020

At least four officers, including two Pierce County Sheriff's deputies, a Lakewood police officer and a state Department of Corrections officer, fired multiple rounds at the suspect during the incident.

Reinoehl appeared to confess to Danielson's death in a video interview with Vice News just hours before his own death.

In the video, Reinoehl said he had acted in self-defense and said his actions were 'totally justified'.

'I had no choice. I mean, I, I had a choice. I could have sat there and watched them kill a friend of mine of color. But I wasn't going to do that,' he said.

Reinoehl appeared to confess to Danielson's death in a video interview with Vice News just hours before his own death

In a wide-ranging interview on Fox News the president discussed the upcoming election and vowed to crush any 'riots' that occur among opposition should he be declared the winner on election night. The president said he would 'put it down within minutes.'

'Let's say there are threats. They say that they are going to threaten riots if they lose on election night, assuming we get a winner on election night. What are you going to do?' the host asked him.

'We'll put them down very quickly if they do that. We have the right to do that. We have the power to do that if we want,' Trump responded.

'Look, it's called insurrection. We just send in, and we do it very easy. I mean, it's very easy. I'd rather not do that because there's no reason for it, but if we had to, we'd do that and put it down within minutes. Within minutes,' Trump explained.

Trump has repeatedly gone after 'rioters' and 'looters' who he said are rival Joe Biden supporters.

Trump using the term 'insurrection' may refer to the Insurrection Act which allows the commander in chief to deploy U.S. troops to enforce federal or state laws under certain circumstances

Trump told Fox News on Saturday night 'that's the way it has to be' after Reinoehl was shot by Marshalls. He is suspected of killing of Patriot Prayer supporter Aaron Danielson, August 29

During the interview Trump went on to state how he believed Joe Biden to be 'on drugs'

Regarding his opponent, Trump alleged without evidence that rival Joe Biden was on drugs telling Piro, 'that's what I hear.'

Trump made the charge after repeatedly attacking his Joe Biden's mental capacity and stamina.

'It is probably, possibly drugs involved. That's what I hear,' Trump said.

'I mean there's possibly drugs. I don't know how you can go from being so bad where you can't even get out a sentence,' Trump continued.

'I mean you saw some of those debates with the large number of people on the stage. He was  I mean, I used to say how is it possible that he can even go forward.'

Biden managed to prevail over a crowded Democratic field. He stumbled in some debates but many critics wrote that he improved as the debates wore on. His rivals ended up endorsing him en masse after they were defeated.

President Donald Trump again lodged allegations against Joe Biden, without evidence, that: 'It is probably, possibly drugs involved'. Biden is pictured on Friday in Delaware

Saturday night's interview also looked at Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic with the president suggesting the county had 'rounded the corner' and that the development of a successful vaccine was drawing ever closer.

'They [the Democrats] don't want it because they are afraid it will make me look good... We are really rounding the corner. And we have good things out there already - I would say you can't use the word cure yet. But pretty close to a cure,' Trump explained.

'The vaccine itself, it will come come out in October. But whether it's October, November, December. It will come out soon. We have great companies, they are advanced and the results will be good,' Trump insisted.

'We are doing [better] numbers now as we are rounding I think the final turn. With or without, having the vaccine is great. It will happen soon. It could happen in October. But we are rounding the turn on the virus. They have to open up. It's only the Democrats who are closed. In my opinion they are closed for political reasons.'

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said drugmakers involved in coronavirus vaccine trials should be ready to start distributing vaccines by November 1.

Three vaccines set for distribution in the U.S. from Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca are currently in the final stages of clinical trials.

Dr Fauci says U.S. won't get back to normal until late 2021 when a successful vaccine for COVID-19 could be widely distributed

However, Trump's assessment of the progress that the country is making in fighting the virus is does not align with that of the government's top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, who said that he disagrees with the president and stressed that the current statistics are disturbing.

Fauci, the outspoken director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the United States was starting the flu season with a high baseline of around 40,000 new cases a day with deaths averaging around 1,000 a day.

During the interview, Trump admitted to playing down the severity of the virus since it emerged earlier this year.

'Do you want me to jump up and down and say is everyone going to die? I'm a cheerleader for the country. I took tremendous steps, everybody knew how I felt... Look at the great leaders of the world. Winston Churchill stood on the rooftops of houses in London making speeches. You want calmness, you don't want somebody jumping up and down saying this is terrible. We want strength and leadership and we don't want panic.'

Trump then attacked veteran journalism Bob Woodward, to whom he gave 18 on-the-record interviews for his book.

Bob Woodward's book 'Rage,' his second on Trump's presidency, comes out on September 15

Extracts from Woodward's forthcoming book showed the president was more candid about its dangers in private conversations than he was in his public statements.

He also kept to his earlier strategy of arguing he was trying not to cause panic even as he had admitted to Woodward he was trying to down play the dangers of COVID, which has infected more than 6.39 million Americans and killed more than 191,000.

Trump said over and over again he didn't want to be seen in public warning of death.

Trump hasn't denied the comments he made to Woodward - he has previously called stories he doesn't like 'fake news'.

The author taped all 18 of his interviews with the president, which were conducted from December through July.
Brexit is over. It has all been sorted out. It is a historical event that took place on January 31, 2020.

So declares a leaked, confidential Brexit lexicon approved by No.10 and issued to ministers to make sure they are all singing off the same hymn sheet. If only it were true! But, alas, it is a complete fiction.

In the first place, although technically we did leave the EU seven and a half months ago, we are to all intents and purposes still part of the bloc, paying billions into its budget and obeying its rules.

It turns out that the oven ready deal of which Boris Johnson endlessly boasted during last Decembers election campaign hasnt even been placed on the baking tray. Boris Johnson is pictured above in an election rally last year

More importantly, we are still wrangling with Brussels about the nature of our future relationship after we finally do depart. Will we end up with a free trade agreement? Or will it be No Deal, as seems increasingly likely after last weeks eruptions?

Note that No Deal is outlawed by the leaked lexicon, and ministers have previously been told to avoid the term. The official way of describing No Deal is an Australian-type agreement  which actually is no agreement at all.

If only the Government could bring itself to be honest. According to a government dossier leaked to the Sun on Sunday three weeks ago which didnt attract the notice it should have, the lack of a deal could cause chaos in the short term.

The dossier suggested that the double impact of a revival of the virus and a failure to get a free trade agreement with the EU could lead to public disorder, shortages and price increases.

An already weakened economy would tank. Troops might have to be put on the streets to deal with civil unrest.

France would impose mandatory controls on UK goods from day one  ie January 1, 2021  and between 40 and 70 per cent of hauliers travelling across the Channel are said to be unprepared. The flow of goods between Dover and Calais could decline by 45 per cent for three months. Pretty scary stuff.

Yesterday the EUs intransigent chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, above, and his British opposite number, David Frost, engaged in an unedifying squabble on Twitter which only served to show how far apart the two sides now are

The truth is that at the eleventh hour almost everything is undecided. It turns out that the oven ready deal of which Boris Johnson endlessly boasted during last Decembers election campaign hasnt even been placed on the baking tray.

And yet we are offered the fantastical assertion that Brexit is settled, presumably because Mr Johnson wants the British people to believe that he has already honoured his election promise to get Brexit done. Im afraid he hasnt  at least, not yet.

Can he really think we are so stupid? Remainers and Brexiteers alike can see perfectly well that, far from resolving many differences that separate us from Brussels over issues such as fishing and state aid (another term banned in the lexicon), the Government is struggling to find a satisfactory solution.

In fact, we are further from an agreement than we were a week ago, following the Governments announcement that it is prepared to overwrite parts of the Withdrawal Agreement signed with the EU last January  and the breezy admission of a Cabinet minister in the Commons that this would break international law.

This development has not only enraged Brussels and home-grown Remainers, as one would expect. Two in the latter category, Sir John Major and Tony Blair, penned an angry article in yesterdays Sunday Times which many will have regarded as somewhat predictable.

More significantly, seasoned Tory Brexiteers such as ex-leader Michael Howard and former chancellor Norman Lamont have expressed their dismay at the damage to Britains reputation which would be caused by abrogating an international treaty.

Yesterday the EUs intransigent chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, and his British opposite number, David Frost, engaged in an unedifying squabble on Twitter which only served to show how far apart the two sides now are.

Meanwhile, although the Governments controversial Internal Market Bill is very unlikely to be defeated tonight at second reading in the Commons, it faces huge opposition when it goes to the House of Lords. Disquiet among Tory MPs may grow.

We are at a moment of national crisis which may be far more gruelling than anything we experienced last year. Even without the disruption caused by Covid-19, the remaining uncertainties of Brexit would be bad enough. The two together are terrifying.

Maybe Brussels will continue being so unreasonable that a respectable deal with the EU isnt possible. But if Boris Johnson is able to behave like a statesman  which implies a measure of compromise  an agreement could still be obtainable.

But please, Boris, dont take us for fools. We can see that the Australian-style deal of which you so often talk optimistically is no agreement at all. We know very well that Brexit is not a historical event but a continuing, and so far unresolved, problem.

Step away from your aides and advisers, Prime Minister, and in particular the destructive Dominic Cummings, and demonstrate the leadership qualities that might yet enable you to deliver a decent, honest Brexit.
A heartbroken Princess Diana 'used to wait on the doorstep for her mother to return' home following her parents divorce, her brother Earl Spencer has revealed.

Diana's mother Frances Shand Kydd, who passed away in 2004, aged 68, left her father John Spencer, for wallpaper tycoon Peter Shand Kydd in 1969.

She moved out of the family home when the princess was just seven - after losing a bitter custody battle for her four children. Diana and her mother had a rocky relationship and weren't on speaking terms before her death in 1997.

But Diana's younger brother Charles Spencer, 56, who lives in Althorp House, his family seat in the Northamptonshire countryside, has told The Sunday Times how his sibling would wait in vain for their mother's return.

A heartbroken Princess Diana (pictured with her mother in 1989) 'used to wait on the doorstep for her mother to return' following her parents divorce, her brother Earl Spencer has revealed

'While she was packing her stuff to leave, she promised Diana shed come back to see her. Diana used to wait on the doorstep for her, but she never came,' he recalled.

Charles explained: 'Our father was a quiet, constant source of love, but our mother wasnt cut out for maternity... she couldnt do it. She was in love with someone else, infatuated really.'

Father-of-seven Earl Spencer, who is married to third wife Karen, 47, a Canadian philanthropist with whom he has an eight-year-old daughter, said he had a 'ruptured childhood emotionally' after his mother left when he was just two.

He admitted that hes been in and out of therapy for 20 years, working on his unhappy childhood, in which he and Diana were very much in it together.

Diana's mother Frances Shand Kydd, who passed away in 2004, aged 68, left her father John Spencer, for wallpaper tycoon Peter Shand Kydd. Pictured: Charles Spencer

Charles added that Althorp was a 'cold and frightening place to me as a child' and that neither his grandfather or father were happy there.

Frances, then 18, and the 8th Earl Spencer Johnnie, 30, married in 1954 before divorcing in 1969.

The mother of Diana went to live with her new husband in Scotland after losing a custody battle for her children, in which she was dubbed the bolter.

Candidly reflecting on her marriage in a magazine interview in 1997, Frances said: 'While I believe remorse and regret are vibrantly necessary when we have failed others and failed ourselves, I do think repetitive apologies are a form of self-pity.'

His comments come after he spoke out about Princess Diana's death yesterday during an appearance on Radio 4.

It comes after he discussed his grief on Radio 4 yesterday, saying he 'braced' each year ahead of the anniversary of the late royal's death (pictured alongside Prince William, Prince Harry and Prince Charles at Princess Diana's funeral)

Charles said he is 'always surprised by how difficult' the anniversary of her death remains as he revealed it continues to 'take him out at knees.'

He explained: 'I'm always surprised by how difficult August 31 is each year actually. I always slightly brace myself for it and it does take me out at the knees. It is a very poignant time.'

Meanwhile he continued: 'I row over to the island and spend time there. It's very odd when you lose someone very close.'

He added: 'There are holes in every family that can't be filled.'
Police has filed a supplementary charge sheet against founding members of Pinjra Tod, Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita and student activist Gulfisha Fatima in Karkardooma court.

The names of CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav, Jayati Ghosh, an economist, Chandrashekhar Ravan, an Indian Ambedkarite lawyer turned activist also the co-founder and president of Bhim Army and several academicians have appeared in the disclosure statements of an accused, the charge sheet mentioned.

However, Narwal and Kalita refused to sign their statements. The statements have been recorded under section 161 CrPC which has no evidentiary value.

According to the charge sheet, the disclosure statement of Gulfisha Fatima stated that "In the month of December after passing CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act), protests started in the Muslim community area. Due to which I also visited different protest sites i.e. Shaheenbagh, Jantar Mantar, ITO I heard and met people at these protest sites. During this time I met the members of Pinjra Tod, Promila Roy, Rumsa, Subhasani, Nilofar, Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita, and I became friends with Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita."

She also added in her disclosure statement, "During this I strongly opposed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) passed by the government and encouraged the people of the Muslim community to join protests against this law. This movement was to be spread in every Muslim-dominated area of

"For this work, I was told by the leaders of the JCC, Devangana of Pinjra Tod, Natasha Narwal, that we have to strongly oppose CAA/NRC and go to any extent. I was able to bring two communities face to face, on the guidelines of Natasha and Devangana Kalita and Umar Khalid and others," Fatima stated.

"The purpose of this movement is only to present the image of the government of India as anti-Muslim and the protest should be secular. I and my companions Natasha Narwal, Paroma Roy, Subhasani, Rumsha, Guddu Chaudhary, Tasleem Ahmed, Habibul Hasan, Rafaqat, Sahrukh jointly staged a demonstration in Seelampur on January 15, 2020, in which we and other colleagues were also there, she said in her statement," she added.

Disclosure statement also added that everyone got different work and responsibility. Matin Ahmed ex-MLA was also helping us.

"I used to stay at the protest site and operate the stage. Amanatullah, Anas and Sadaf of JCC were with us and used to help in every way. Omar Khalid used to help with money and used to address people in separatist language so that more people joined the strike in early February. In the evening at the site of the protest site, Umar Khalid came to give a speech which provoked the people there and we had built a room near in which we were photographed with Omar Khalid," Fatima stated.

Speeches were made at the picket sites by Devangana and Natasha Narwal as JNU scholars. The less educated people could be tricked and our talk would have more effect. People started explaining to them that they felt that this law was anti-Muslim.

The crowd had started growing and according to the plan, big leaders and lawyers started coming to provoke and mobilise this crowd, including Omar Khalid, Chander Sekhar Ravan, Yogendra Yadav, Sitaram Yechury, and lawyer Mahmood Pracha, Chaudhary Matin, etc. Mahmood Pracha said that the sitting in the demonstration is your democratic right and the rest of the leaders instilled a feeling of discontent in the community by calling CAA/NRC anti-Muslim. Devangana Kalita had said that the government is going to implement the same scheme in Delhi, even if the identity documents are not sent by the NRC in Assam.

"The Government of India is plotting to expel the Muslim community from India through this law, which will now be implemented in Delhi. On this, the feeling of insecurity started coming in people. Now the crowd was increasing daily, which we had to move and bring it to the Jaffarabad area to block the road from Seelampur to Loni road which was surrounded by the Muslim population from all around," Fatima stated.

This all was for the attention of international media under the proposed American President's visit to India, she 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.)
Israeli national security advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat boards a plane leaving Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Sept. 1, 2020. (Nir Elias/Photo pool via AP)

For almost two decades, Arab states pinned the prospects for normalized relations with Israel on a Saudi-led plan that conditioned rapprochement on a deal giving the Palestinians their own state.

But the United Arab Emirates move toward establishing full diplomatic relations with Israel last month, and a similar step Friday by Bahrain, reflects a fracture in the ranks  one that leaves the Palestinians behind.

No matter who does or doesnt normalize next, the message to Palestinians is clear: You are completely on your own, said Khaled Elgindy, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute think tank and a onetime advisor to the Palestinian Authority leadership. The Palestinians already knew they couldnt count on the U.S., and now their traditional base of support  the Arab world  is crumbling.

The impression that most Arab states may be willing to normalize relations with Israel without a two-state solution could be further reinforced in the coming weeks, with the Trump administration pressuring others to follow the United Arab Emirates' lead in a bid to score what it can label as diplomatic successes ahead of the November U.S. presidential election.

On Saturday, Israeli media reported that President Trump was pushing Morocco to introduce direct flights to Israel. (There are no formal relations between the two countries, but about 3,000 Jews live in Morocco, and Israelis are allowed to visit.) And on Sunday, Omans leadership  which has so far resisted normalization  issued a statement saying it welcomed Bahrains initiative on relations with Israel, even as it reiterated its support for a two-state solution.

Oman hopes this new strategic path taken by some Arab countries will contribute to bringing about a peace based on an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and on establishing an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as capital," read the statement.

In some ways, most Arab countries have little to lose in normalizing relations with Israel, said Karen Young, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Story continues

They make this concession  if its a concession  to the Trump administration, then its good for them. But if Biden is elected, who is going to criticize them for it? Young said in a phone interview Saturday. "So its a win-win, and the economic incentives and back-channel talks were there anyway."

Yet even if it is perceived as a win-win for certain states willing to cut a deal, it's seen as a lose-lose by the Palestinians, who have condemned the Emirates' and Bahrain's actions as a betrayal, with the Palestinian Authority saying the Bahrain deal legitimized "the ugly crimes of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people."

It also remains unclear how much support there is for normalization with Israel among general Arab populations, where sympathy for the Palestinians appears to remain high.

The regimes only represent themselves. These are oppressive monarchies that have absolute control, whether political or economic, said Maryam Khawaja, a Bahraini human rights defender based in Copenhagen, in a phone interview Saturday.

Khawaja noted that hours after the announcement of the deal between Bahrain and Israel, #Bahrainis_Against_Normalization became the top-trending hashtag in the country. That happened, she added, despite the dangers Bahrainis face when expressing dissent, including imprisonment and torture.

People in Bahrain know theyre putting themselves at risk, but this issue has brought together different people, whether Sunnis, Shiites, secularists, she said.

And even though the Emirates and Bahrain may have gone ahead with the tacit approval of regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia, it is unlikely Riyadh will follow suit, said Michael Stephens, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute.

"Once you walk through that door you dont really walk back. And for Saudi Arabia theres a high cost," Stephens said in a phone interview Sunday. He added that as the main architect behind the Arab Peace Initiative, it would be difficult for Saudi Arabia to begin normalization with no concessions from Israel, especially with the kingdom's status as a leader of the Muslim world.

"Saudi Arabia simply cannot make peace deals like a little gulf monarchy can. A Saudi monarchy has to think of dynamics that an Emirati or Bahraini prince doesnt; theyre questions of global politics and not just quid pro quo deals."

Economic incentives dangled by Israel and the Trump administration are especially important for Bahrain, which had a Jewish community of around 30 people, according to a census in 2011, and has for years made moves indicating it would welcome normalization, including the hosting of a Peace to Prosperity Workshop last year. Economically, said the American Enterprise Institute's Young, the country is facing a deficit that has ballooned its public debt to 93% of its annual economic output, making it dependent on foreign investment it hopes will be forthcoming after normalizing relations with Israel.

The Emirates had already quietly forged a relationship in recent years, calling upon Israeli technology in medicine, cybersecurity and drone warfare. It also expects Israeli support for its bid to procure F-35 aircraft from the United States.

Thus far, Young added, there has been little fallout over key Palestinian issues. When Trump moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, for example, protests broke out in some Arab capitals, but the outrage was not sustained.

Trump administration officials have also sought to tamp down religious tensions by saying that Israel would grant worshipers from the Emirates and Bahrain access to religious areas, including the Aqsa mosque, one of the holiest sites in Islam.

This will reduce tension in the Muslim world and allow people to separate the Palestinian issue from their own national interests and from their own foreign policy, which should be focused on their own domestic priorities, said White House senior advisor and Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner after the Bahrain deal was announced.

Moreover, there has been growing exasperation with the Palestinians, among younger Persian Gulf leaders with little regard for the political leanings of their predecessors. In 2018, for example, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman complained that Palestinians should shut up and stop complaining and accept a White House peace plan.

The Palestinians also haven't been helped, Elgindy said, by their own disunity, with two rival authorities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

People lose faith," Elgindy said. "Why should I support you, if youre not even supporting yourselves, by being minimally unified, they ask?

Yes, they are dealing with bad faith actors, with those who dont believe in the two-state solution, but theres also Palestinian responsibility. The very least you could do is to have your own house in order. Then you can count on or develop a regional strategy.

Palestinian leaders say the steps taken by the Emirates and Bahrain destroy the Arab Peace Initiative. And regardless of any normalization agreements, said Husam Zomlot, Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom, peace between Israel and the Palestinians will require compromise between the two principal parties.

"The key question is does this bring us closer to peace in the Middle East? Its a capital No," he said in a phone interview Saturday.

He added that lack of support from gulf states would cause additional pain for the Palestinian leadership, but it was not a "make-or-break issue."

"Neither the Emirates nor Bahrain have fired a bullet or engaged militarily with Israel," he said. "The conflict in the end is a Palestinian-Israeli conflict."




New Delhi

Of the over 1.5 million candidates who registered for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), 85-90% appeared for the exam on Sunday thats the basis for determining admissions to undergraduate medical and dental courses.

Union education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, while disclosing the turnout, also thanked state governments, many of which had even arranged transport for the candidates, given the difficulties they faced amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

NTA{National Testing Agency} informed me that around 85-90% students appeared in #NEET exam today. I sincerely thank all Chief Ministers and @DG_NTA for proper arrangements made to facilitate student participation. #NEET participation reflects the tenacity and grit of young,  Pokhriyal said in a tweet.

The NEET turnout was higher than the attendance at the Joint Entrance Examination (Main) figure of around 74 %. NTA officials have attributed this to the fact that JEE (Main) is held twice every year.

Many students who had already taken the exam in Januaray may have decided to skip the test in September because of Covid-19-related concerns.

Reports from across states suggested that students did face inconvenience, but still made it to the examination centres for the career-defining test. Thousands of medical and dental course aspirants travelled to Patna to write NEET, held across 178 centres. In Bihar, altogether 78,960 students had registered to write the exam.

Most students said precautionary measures adopted at exam centres were satisfactory. Many said they faced inconvenience because exam centres were in two districts (Patna and Gaya), which forced them to travel 100 to 200 km.

A NEET aspirant, Anup Kumar of Saran district, said: I left my home at 7 am to reach exam centre at 11 am. Travelling for long hours and a three-hour waiting period before commencement of the exam exhausted me. For the first time, I wore a mask for six straight hours. It caused suffocation.

Candidates seemed relieved after taking the exam, which they said ranged from moderate to difficult.

Jyoti Kumari, who took the exam at A N College, said: I found physics more difficult than biology. Few questions of botany section were tough. Physics questions were time-consuming .

In Jharkhand, the exam was held in 36 centres in Ranchi, Bokaro and Jamshedpur. The attendance was around 85%.

In Ranchi, the examination was conducted in 25 centres where around 12,600 students were supposed to appear.

The city coordinator for NEET, Ram Singh, who is also the principal of Delhi Public School (DPS), Ranchi, said: The examinations passed off peacefully without any trouble. Around 85% students wrote the papers in Ranchi.

NEET aspirants took the test at over 269 examination centres in six cities of Rajasthan. Although the examination was held from 2 pm to 5 pm, aspirants started arriving at examination centres from 11 am onwards in line with the reporting specified by NTA to ensure Covid-19 social distancing.

The candidates were frisked by hand-held metal detectors and allowed into examination centre after hand sanitization and thermal scanning at the entry points. A maximum of 12 aspirants were seated in every examination hall.

The Rajasthan government made special arrangements for NEET aspirants to reach the testing centres by providing free bus service.

The Centres decision to conduct NEET and the JEE had drawn criticism from several opposition leaders who questioned the wisdom of the move when the pandemic continues to rage. The education ministry emphasized that not holding the test could lead to a zero year, which would not be in students interest.

(With state inputs)
A 35-year-old Boston man accused of trying to escape police by driving into a group of officers was caught with several loaded guns, drugs and cash, police in Boston said.

Police on patrol in Dorchester Saturday spotted a blue Honda Odyssey parked outside of 16 Glenway St. The Honda was wanted by police and officers conducting surveillance believed the person connected to the vehicle may be in possession of guns, police said.

Officers watched as the Honda drove away and stopped at the intersection of Columbia Road and Geneva Avenue.

Police then activated their cruiser lights and sirens to stop the Honda.

As officers approached the vehicle, the operator suddenly reached down, placing the car into gear and stepped on the gas causing the car to lunge forward, striking several officers who were knocked to the ground and nearly pinned against the numerous vehicles in the area, Boston police said. Four officers were injured, and one Boston police cruiser was damaged. The suspect made good on his escape, fleeing through the light and continuing through the intersection onto Columbia Road.

The driver, identified by police as Michael McKoy, 35, of Boston, sped away and weaved in and out traffic, police said.

McKoy nearly struck other vehicles, drove the wrong way on one-way streets and sped through stop signs, authorities said. McKoy allegedly tossed items out of the window while driving away from police.

Officers broadcast the suspects location and as they approached the intersection of E. Cottage Street and Hampden Street, they observed the vehicle had crashed into a city light pole, police said. Officers observed the suspect exit the vehicle through the passengers door. Officers exited their cruisers and immediately approached the suspect who was ordered to the ground.

McKoy ignored police and ran away but was eventually caught at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard in Roxbury.

Officers secured McKoys Honda and began to inventory what was inside before it was towed.

Police said they found a black and gray back inside the Honda. Inside the bag was an Intratec Tec-9 firearm with a large capacity feeding device and an extended magazine, a Khar Arms CM .40 caliber firearm loaded with five rounds of live ammunition, a Smith & Wesson Bodyguard .380 firearm loaded with six rounds of live ammunition, a Ruger LC9 loaded with seven rounds of live ammunition, a .380 Auto Diamondback firearm loaded with five rounds of live ammunition, and a .22LR model 999 Sportsman H+R firearm.

Additionally, officers recovered one hundred and sixteen rounds of live ammunition, twenty-two plastic bags containing crack cocaine, one large plastic bag containing approximately 70.4 grams of heroin/fentanyl, a large hunting knife and a $25,000 in US currency, police said.

McKoy was arrested and now faces several firearms charges along with four counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident with personal injury, leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident with property damage, refusing to stop for police and drug charges.

He also faces numerous motor vehicle violations.

Three officers were taken to a local hospital and were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
A study of the African wild dog has identified unusual physical changes that support the animals ability to run for long periods while hunting prey.

The African wild dog is native to southern and eastern Africa. It differs from other predators  such as lions and hyenas - because it uses an unusual hunting method. The animal chases its prey over long distances until the target gets so tired it collapses. Other animals depend on different hunting skills to catch prey, including speed, strength and quiet, secret movements.

A new study of this endangered animal has identified important changes that happened over time that permit the African wild dog to hunt this way.

The African wild dog is the only dog-like animal that has only four digits on the front paws. Scientists say having only four full toes supports increased speed and longer jumps.

The new research identifies a small, hidden first digit under the skin of the front feet, or paws. The discovery was made through computer imaging methods and an examination of an African wild dog that died of natural causes at an animal park.

The muscles related to this digit have been re-formed and are used to help with proprioception - the bodys awareness of its position and movement.

The researchers also saw expansions in limb muscles containing nerve tissue thought to resist tiredness. They also identified tissue material on the front paw that may help launch the dogs forward. In addition, the team observed a reduction in muscles that normally act to turn the wrist and forearm, possibly demonstrating an increased demand for stability.

Groups of 20 to 30 African wild dogs often hunt together in search of prey. They can travel up to 50 kilometers a day. The animals have been recorded running at least 64 kilometers an hour for up to an hour during a hunt.

Heather Smith is a researcher at Midwestern University in Glendale, Arizona. Her team completed a study on the findings. The study recently appeared in the publication PeerJ.

Smith told the Reuters news agency, Theyre very effective hunters, with up to 60 percent of hunts ending in successful kills. She noted that is higher than lions, at 30 percent, and hyenas, at 25-30 percent.

Smith said African wild dogs are clearly built for stamina  having strength that lets you continue to do something for a long time. That makes them different from other predators that use explosive speed, strength and stealth.

However, African wild dogs sometimes lose their kills to these larger, more aggressive carnivores, she said.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Reuters reported on this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for VOA Learning English, with additional information from Midwestern University. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

prey  n. an animal that is hunted or killed by another animal for food

predator  n. animal that hunts and kills other animals for food

endangered  adj. in danger of being lost

digit  n. a finger, thumb or toe

awareness  n. the knowledge that something exists

limb  n. an arm or leg of a person or animal

stability  n. a situation in which something is not likely to move or change

stealth  n. movement that is quiet and careful in order not to be seen or heard

carnivore  n. an animal that eats meat
Thousands of educators across the state, including two in Southeast Texas will receive significant raises this year as the states education agency works to promote teacher recruitment and retention in high-need and rural areas.

Jennifer Irwin, who teaches math and acts as a teacher leader at Evolution Academy in Beaumont, said the raise of almost 50% will enable her to pay off her house in eight years instead of 30.

The appreciation is just a good feeling, Irwin said. I am not the type of person who needs appreciation or affirmation, but it is nice to see it.

Irwin is no ordinary teacher, however. The 32-year-old has certifications in special education services and ESL, recently completed her masters degree at Lamar University, and continues to find new ways to serve her students, the majority of whom are high needs.

This girl has been on this campus. She has earned her masters degree. She has gotten certified in special education because she has students who are receiving special education services, Evolution Principal Veronica Durden said.

She got certified in ESL  because she wanted to make sure that she had the knowledge and skills required to work with all of our students. So she is going way above in making sure that she is capable of working with these students.

Irwin is receiving the raise as part of the Teacher Incentive Allotment, a provision in a law that was passed last year that aims to keep the highest-performing teachers in the classroom and attract them to the campuses with the highest needs.

Only 26 districts were selected as part of the program, receiving a combined $39.2 million in extra funding with the majority of that money going to 3,650 so-called designated teachers who scored highly on district-created and state-approved evaluation systems.

What the TIA does is it generates annual allotments for districts that employ designated teachers, said Grace Wu, the director of strategic compensation for the Texas Education Agency. Those designated teachers fall into 3 levels: recognized, exemplary and master.

Teachers can automatically become recognized teachers if they earn a national board certification. Otherwise, and to receive higher tiered designations, the district has to qualify as a local designation system.

The amount of each allotment varies depending on how many designated teachers there are per campus, and the socioeconomic need or rural status of that district.

Durden said the program will help assuage the fears of high-performing teachers, who tend to avoid campuses with high needs.

We are a high needs school, she said. Our students come to us needing so much. And a lot of educators steer clear of schools where the population has such a high concentration of at-risk students.

Durden said the possibility of a six-figure salary would put the school in a different light.

Wu said the TEA has noticed a similar trend.

We do have data that unfortunately shows that essentially the more experienced teachers get, the more likely they are to teach at campuses with less need, she said.

We are trying to change that narrative to where teachers do want to go to campuses with the highest need and rural areas.

About 90% of the allotment goes directly to teacher compensation on the campus of the designated teacher  although the designated teacher or teachers will not necessarily receive all of it.

Another Southeast Texas educator, Amber Sharpton, who teaches at Harmony Science Academy, is also getting funding from the program.

Sharpton said the raise means the world. She noted there are plenty more teachers not yet designated who deserve to be.

Every year it becomes more and more challenging with parents, with difficult students and you know with the low pay that teachers receive and all the hours they expect of us, a program like this is extremely important, she said.

One route teachers take to receive higher pay is moving into administrative roles.

Mehmet Bektas, the principal of Harmony Science Academy in Beaumont, said he has seen that at his campus.

The teachers pay is not the best, so they look for other responsibilities like admin duties, he said. We want these great talents to stay in the classroom, and with this grant we can do that.

With educators staying in the classroom, Bektas said teaching quality continues to improve and, along with it, student success.

That success and other evaluations are used to rank teachers in the three tiers: recognized, exemplary and master  with each tier bringing more money to the teacher, and the campus.

Melissa Vines, the dean of academics for K-5 at Harmony in Beaumont, said the program will also incentivize other teachers to increase their performance.

From my point of view, all teachers have an opportunity to earn this amount, Vines said. It is not limited. Any teachers that meet that goal can be designated.

But only a small number of districts across the state are qualified to designate their teachers at this time.

That, along with the crisis many districts are facing with the ongoing struggle to teach amid a pandemic, has led some organizations to decry the incentive program.

This is not the time to single out a handful of teachers for raises, Texas State Teachers Association President Ovidia Molina said in a statement. Not when all of Texas 300,000-plus teachers have been going to extraordinary lengths to connect with and instruct their students during this health emergency.

Bektas said that while the small number of districts does limit the reach of the program, it is a good place to start.

This grant is not really a grant that is impacting too many districts, Bektas said. Most of them do not have the qualifications to apply for the grant. It is a good start, but there is a long way to go in terms of supporting good teachers to remain in the classroom.

isaac.windes@hearstnp.com

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Linkedin (Kyodo News) Tokyo  Sun, September 13, 2020 18:02 495 e22cd4161040e111d73a5626c4493c93 2 News travel,tourism Free

Global international travel demand is expected to drop 57 percent in 2020, dented by tighter border controls and quarantine measures imposed in an effort to stem the coronavirus outbreak, according to a British research firm.

Demand for overseas tourism will not return to the level in 2019 until 2024, reflecting the economic effects of the pandemic and lingering negative sentiment toward international travel, including the impact on both leisure and business travel, Oxford Economics Ltd. said in a recent report.

Many countries are beginning to reopen their borders. "However, there is immense difficulty in striking the correct balance between ensuring the virus remains under control while reviving tourism," the research firm said.

Domestic travel demand is forecast to recover more quickly than that for international travel, returning to the level in 2019 by 2022, according to the report.

The 57 percent fall, equivalent to 847 million fewer arrivals, is projected as all regions are likely to see a decline, with trips to North American destinations expected to post the steepest drop of 70 percent.

Asia-Pacific will be the second worst affected region with a 57 percent decline. Northeast Asian destinations are forecast to log the biggest fall in the area of 61 percent.

Read also: Bali postpones plans to welcome international travelers in September

In Japan, inbound visitors plunged 99.9 percent from a year earlier for the fourth straight month in July, with the entry of foreign nationals from more than 140 countries and regions remaining banned.

Cross-border travel is likely to sag 56 percent in Europe despite recent moves to reopen borders and jump-start travel activity, the British research firm said.

Major city destinations are more affected than rural areas, the report said. Bangkok is forecast to post the sharpest drop by number of visitors at 14.5 million people, equivalent to nearly two-thirds of the loss in visitor arrivals across Thailand.

The 10 cities with biggest percentage falls are expected to all be in the United States, including New York, which is likely to see a 79 percent plunge.

Topics : travel tourism
By Naina Thacker

Till he was eight, Rutik Thorat could not fathom why he was in and out of hospitals every two to three months. Since the age of three, the Mumbai resident was diagnosed with sickle cell anaemiaa condition where red blood cells are distorted into a crescent shape. In 2009, when he was hospitalised for close to three months because of severe jaundice, the doctors had lost hope. Thorat managed to survive, but there were more struggles lined up.

A few months later, his father passed away. Two years after that, he realised his father also had sickle cell anaemia. Thorat, then 11 and undergoing treatment for the same, was in deep shock. He made it a mission to find out everything about the disease.

I wanted to ensure no one else goes through what my father went through, and what I was enduring, says Thorat. His family thought he was only educating himself about the disease by poring over reams of text on the subject for hours. No one realised how serious he was about getting to the bottom of it.

Today, the 19-year-oldwho has taken a year-long gap after schooling and before starting his undergraduate educationis working as a student researcher with Mumbai-based HiMedia Laboratories on a novel drug that gives a pleiotropic effect for sickle cell anaemia.

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

Additionally since the outbreak of the coronavirus, Thorat has started working on a new drug therapy for Covid-19.

Given the number of side effects that sickle cell anaemia has, including severe brain strokes and frequent infections, he started drug hunting for the disease. I had one advantage since I was facing frequent hospitalisation, laughs Thorat, I was constantly in touch with my hematologist. I would keep pestering her with all the queries I had.

After plenty of research, he shortlisted 11 to 12 ideas that he discussed with his hematologist, Sangeeta Mudaliar, head of department of hematology at Mumbais Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital for Children. With her help, he narrowed down a novel drug therapy idea. Currently, the drugs available in the market for sickle cell anaemia only focus on one type of therapy. My idea was to give patients multiple advantages through the drugfrom boosting immunity to reducing oxidative stress, explains Thorat.

While the youngster had complete faith in his idea, he did not know how to go about spreading the word. Thorat reached out to scientists, medical institutes and research laboratories all over the country. I started making calls, sending emails and messages on LinkedIn, but I faced a lot of rejections and insults. Most people thought my idea was futile and being only 16 then added to my woes, says Thorat.

Simultaneously, he started interning with the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombays proteomics lablarge-scale study of proteinsunder the guidance of Sanjeeva Srivastava, professor and head of proteomics laboratory at the institute. He worked on glioma, a very aggressive brain tumour, for four to five months. He continued to face hurdles even after completing his internship.

My family had no idea I was doing this. I would bunk school, stating medical reasons and roam around all of Mumbai, trying to meet scientists and medical institutes, says Thorat. It was only after he won the IRIS National Science Fair in December 2018 in the category of cellular and molecular biology that he told his family about his research.

Juggling this with school was not easy. A typical day for him started at 7 am after which he attended school. Post that, he would do his research till 8 pm, have dinner and stay up till 3.30 am to complete his school work. Unlike other children, Thorat barely had a social life. It is not something I feel I have missed out on, he says.

Amid a flurry of rejections came a glimmer of hope. The teenager got an opportunity to work with HiMedia Laboratories as a student researcher. When I first met Rutik, I just saw his deep desire to make a change in this world, especially to mitigate the suffering of millions of poor sickle patients who otherwise have no hope, says Vishal Warke, director (R&D), HiMedia Laboratories. I was impressed by a boy as young as him having such a good understanding of science that generally comes at a much advanced level, and that too only with training and guidance. Since getting external funding was difficult, Warke and his team decided to internally fund Thorats project.

During the pandemic, Thorat used his free time to read up about the coronavirus and started drug hunting for Covid-19.

I realised we could use a combinatorial therapy approach with the novel drugs. This will help to prevent damages to all vital organs, including lungs, in Covid-19 patients, says Thorat, adding that this combination is likely to enhance the immune response and oxygen level in the body. Thorat and HiMedia Laboratories have recently filed a provisional patent for the drug while the in vitro studies are yet to take place.

Currently, his novel drug for sickle cell gives a pleiotropic effect which makes it different from the rest of the drugs available in the market. While other drugs are designed to give one type of benefit like reducing pain or increasing antioxidants levels, Thorat claims his drug has all-in-one kind of a therapy.

The initial in vitro studies show that the drug has a long-lasting effect, and it has no reported severe side effects to date, explains Thorat. He hopes to have the product in the market within five years. The lifespan of patients with sickle cell disease is very less, about 38 to 42 years. I am optimistic about my results, and with my drug, I hope to give such patients a longer life, says Thorat.

(This article first appeared in Forbes India, here)
Officials removed Level 1 Get ready" evacuation notices for parts of the western and northern areas of Clackamas County Sunday -- indicating that the two large fires threatening the greater Portland area are posing less of a threat as firefighting conditions improve.

Residents of Wilsonville, Lake Oswego, West Linn, Clackamas, Happy Valley, Gladstone, Tualatin, Milwaukie and some areas of Boring and Damascus are no longer on alert that they should pack and await orders that they might have to evacuate at a moments notice.

But officials are still advising the public to keep close watch on updates because the situation can quickly change. The Riverside fire, which is burning about half a mile from Estacada in Clackamas County, and the Beachie Creek fire, which started in Marion County but has crept into southwestern Clackamas County, both remained completely uncontained Sunday.

Sunday, Gov. Kate Brown told CBS' Face the Nation that Oregons record-shattering wildfires were the result of an incredible wind storm, decades of mismanagement of our forests in this country and climate change.

We have a landscape that has seen 30 years of drought," Brown said. "This is truly the bellwether for climate change on the West Coast and this is a wake up call for all of us -- that weve got to do everything in our power to tackle climate change.

The blazes have scorched more than 1 million acres across Oregon, spanning from the southern border to the coast and Clackamas County. That figure is about twice the yearly average over each of the past 10 years.

Across the state so far, authorities have confirmed that 10 people have died, at least a dozen are unaccounted for and hundreds are reeling from lost homes due to the widespread wildfires that continue to burn.

In an editorial in The Washington Post, former state Rep. Julie Parrish blamed a host of other reasons other than climate change for the wildfires. Among them, she said, were policies that have been preserving the forests as untouchable playgrounds and denying rural communities timber jobs. Parrish is a Republican who represented West Linn and is a founding member of the Timber Unity Association.

Over the weekend, Oregons congressional members asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to act fast by providing more housing aid for the short- and long-terms to the many Oregonians who have fled the path of the fires.

The blazes have caused widespread evacuations, forcing more than 40,000 people to leave their homes. That also has led to widespread fears that looters would pilfer unattended homes and businesses. Law enforcement say that largely hasnt turned out to be the case, and that they are patrolling evacuated zones in force and have caught just a few thieves.

Thwarting theft

In Clackamas County, 36 sheriffs deputies and Oregon State Police troopers were patrolling zones under Level 2 or Level 3 evacuation orders Saturday night. Over a three-day span last week, dispatchers received nearly 330 calls -- many from residents concerned about burglaries and other suspicious activity. Thats a 405% increase from a three-day period just before the fires started to rage out of control.

The Clackamas County Sheriffs Office announced Saturday night that deputies had caught Buck Adam Nickel, 41, of Estacada, and Kimberlee Tipton, 52, of Milwaukie, after the pair found a trailer in Eagle Creek and decided to help themselves.

The trailer was being used by two good Samaritans who were traveling around Clackamas County helping people evacuate from Level 3 zones. The trailer got a flat tire and when the good Samaritans left it along Judd Road to get supplies to fix the tire, Nickel and Tipton struck and were caught in the act by a deputy, according to the sheriffs office.

Nickel was arrested under accusations of first-degree theft and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Tipton was cited with first-degree theft.

The owners of the trailer were reportedly very happy when they arrived back at the scene and saw the suspects in custody, stated a sheriffs news release.

Air quality is off the charts

Portlands air quality significantly worsened Sunday, reaching 516 in parts of the city on the air quality index by morning, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. That measurement was off the charts, which top out at 300 to 500 and categorize those numbers as hazardous.

The international air quality monitoring website IQAir.com was registering a lower number of 245 for Portland overall. That number is considered"very unhealthy" for everyone. And it was still high enough to place Portland in the No. 1 position for worst air quality among major cities in the world.

Residents in other parts of Oregon were suffering terribly as well. At certain points Sunday, Medford was registering at 323, Corvallis and Lincoln City at 324, Pendleton at 405, Albany at 427, Bend at 490, Eugene at 511, Salem 562 and Roseburg at 579. Vancouver was at 459.

Visibility is so poor in many areas that the Oregon Department of Transportation was urging people not to drive and to stay home if at all possible. Health experts were advising the same, because current air conditions can have a serious effect on health.

The thick smoke has also slowed firefighting by limiting aircraft resources, Oregon state emergency managers said.

The air quality could start improving late Monday or Tuesday, but it could take days longer to return to normal, according to forecasters.

12 Dozens still missing in Oregon

Clackamas County fires

Sundays announcement that the Clackamas County Sheriffs Office has lifted Level 1 evacuation notices to some of the western and northern parts of the county came as a huge relief to many residents.

But the Riverside fire, now burning more than 133,000 acres, was still within half a mile of the small city of Estacada on Sunday. The fire was still 0% contained Sunday morning, with 315 people fighting the blaze, up from 246 people on Saturday. The fires growth, however, has slowed considerably.

The U.S. Forest Service said good weather conditions were limiting the rapid growth of the blaze, but conditions remained dangerous, and the fire remains active. Sunday, firefighters planned to use two drones to assess the fire.

They hope to use helicopters to help put out the fire as soon as visibility improves. A temporary no-flight zone has been set up, and authorities warned the public not to fly personal drones over burned areas because that will cause all firefighting aircraft to be grounded.

A big chunk of Clackamas County, including Estacada, is still under a Level 3 Go! evacuation order as of Sunday afternoon. But the Clackamas County Sheriffs Office announced in the afternoon that Molalla residents were being allowed to return home under a Level 2 evacuation order, meaning they should be ready to leave again at any time. Officials said residents should not yet bring livestock back home.

Evacuation orders had been lifted in Wilsonville, Lake Oswego, West Linn, Happy Valley, Gladstone, Milwaukie and Tualatin.

Portions of west Canby and Oregon City are under Level 2 alert, meaning residents should be ready to leave at any time, while the east parts of those cities as well as Sandy, Carver and Damascus are under Level 1 orders  to prepare to evacuate.

Areas in Level 2 and 3 zones will continue to have to abide by a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. View the full map of zones here.

Marion County

The 188,000-acre Beachie Creek fire devastated Santiam Canyon on Tuesday, all but destroying entire towns and killing at least four people.

The Marion County Sheriffs Office said Sunday that several cities remain under Level 3 evacuations, including Detroit, Mill City, Lyons and Idanha.

By the afternoon, the city of Scotts Mills was downgraded to Level 2 evacuation status, joining areas east of Meridan Road, Davis Creek and Victor Point.

The sheriffs office is continuing to prohibit the public from returning to scorched areas, but residents of the Detroit and Idanha areas can call 503-798-6823 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. to ask that a deputy check the status of their homes and animals that might have been left behind.

The Salem Statesman-Journal also is maintaining a list of which structures made it and which ones didnt.

Search and rescue personnel have continued to look for the dead amid the devastated areas along Oregon 22, which straddles the border between Linn and Marion counties. Lyons, Gates and Detroit are among the towns devastated by the wildfires.

Two of the people found dead have been identified as Wyatt Tofte, 13, and Peggy Mosso, 71.

Sgt. Jeremy Landers said on Saturday evening that the other two confirmed fatalities have not yet been identified. Officials confirmed that five people were missing from the fires.

Also burning in part of Marion County is the Lionshead fire, which covered more than 138,000 acres and was 5% contained Sunday. Control lines on the east and south sides of the fire on the Warm Springs Reservation are continuing to hold.

Residents of the Sidwalter Flats area of the reservation have been given a Level 1 evacuation warning -- Get Ready."

Members of the public wanting to help evacuees can donate to the Red Cross or the United Way Wildfire Relief fund, which needs cash as well as supplies such as masks and durable work gloves. A list of donation needs and drop-off locations in Marion County can be found here. Officials ask that people do not take donations to evacuation centers, which can draw volunteers away from caring for evacuees immediate needs.

Jackson County

Five people have now been confirmed dead in the aftermath of the Almeda and South Obenchain wildfires burning in southern Oregon.

Rich Tyler, spokesman for the Oregon fire marshal, said authorities will not release the names of those who died until all next of kin have been notified.

The Jackson County Sheriffs Office said detectives have found all but one of the 50 people reported missing after the fire.

Tyler stressed the number tied to the two Jackson County fires is fluid and subject to change as officials work to track down displaced people.

This is a snapshot in time, Tyler told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Friday morning. They are still working through the list. This is dynamic. This snapshot in time is going to change in the next hours and as they make phone calls and are in communication with people.

Sheriffs officials in Douglas and Jefferson counties, where large fires also continue to burn, have said they have no reports of people who are unaccounted for.

By Sunday morning, the 3,200-acre Almeda fire was 60% contained, and the 25,000-acre South Obenchain blaze was 20% contained. Some areas near the South Obenchain fire were moved up to Level 2 near the perimeter. More information here.

Several areas near the Almeda fire were lowered from Level 2 (get ready) to Level 1 on Saturday as conditions improved.

Josephine County

The Slater fire is estimated at 122,000 acres as of Sunday and completely uncontained, prompting evacuations of residents along the Redwood Highway near the California border, as well as all areas of the Oregon Caves National Monument. An evacuation map is available on the county website.

Firefighters have kept the fire away from towns like Cave Junction and Kerby, but parts of those towns remained under some level of evacuation orders. No residential structures are known to have burned in the fires, but 150 structures had been destroyed as of Sunday.

County officials said evacuees can find shelter at the county fairgrounds in Grants Pass.

Lake County

The human-caused Brattain fire grew explosively, from 8,000 acres Saturday to 20,000 acres Sunday. It also is 0% contained.

Fire crews also upped their numbers from 90 people fighting the blaze to 192 on Sunday.

Firefighters conducted burning operations Saturday in an effort to protect the small town of Paisley and outlying homes from the Brattain fire.

The operations prompted a Level 3 evacuation for all residents of Paisley, which is home to over 300 people.

The American Red Cross established an evacuation area at the Lake County Fairgrounds in Lakeview.

Lane County

The Holiday Farm fire has decimated Blue River, where about 800 people live, and ravaged countless other buildings and dwellings along Oregon 126.

The fire grew more than 5,000 acres from Saturday to Sunday morning, covering a total of nearly 162,000 acres. The good news was firefighters, who had previously been unable to contain any of the fire, had contained 5% by Sunday morning.

When fire crews went to survey damage near Vida Friday, they discovered a body inside a home on Goodpasture Road, the local sheriffs office said.

Douglas County

The Archie Creek fire grew by more than 5,500 acres from Saturday to Sunday, to 121,379 acres east of Roseburg. But firefighters, who previously hadnt contained any of the blaze, had contained 10% by Sunday morning.

More than 500 people have been assigned to fighting the fire.

Electrical lines and large sections of private and federal timber lands are threatened, officials said.

Firefighters Saturday worked with industrial landowners and loggers to protect structures and create containment lines around the fire.

But thick smoke prevented firefighters from suppressing the fire from the air. Road crews are working to clear downed trees from Oregon 138, so its safe and clear for firefighters to get to the areas they need to reach.

Some evacuation levels were lowered Friday, though some residents remain under Level 3 orders and all county residents remain under at least a Level 1 (be ready) order. The sheriffs office said residents of areas under Level 3 evacuation orders can learn more about their properties in a private meeting Sunday afternoon at Glide High School. Residents must provide proof of address to attend.

Officials expect warm, dry, breezy conditions to continue Sunday.

Lincoln County

The Echo Mountain Complex remained at 2,435 acres from Saturday into Sunday. During that same stretch, firefighters were able to increase the amount of fire thats contained from 15% to 20%.

Rain and mist are forecast for late Sunday, which is good news for the firefighting efforts. More than 380 people are assigned to battling the fire.

Some areas remain under Level 3 evacuations while other evacuation levels have been downgraded or removed. The Statesman Journal reported Saturday that U.S. 101 through Lincoln City is reopened to traffic. Oregon 18 remains closed.

Washington County

The Chehalem-Bald Peak fire was 75% contained Sunday. All Level 3 evacuation orders had been lifted -- meaning all residents are allowed to return home.

Portland General Electric has been working to restore power to homes that were previously in the Level 3, Go! zone. Some residents Sunday were still in the Level 2 Be Ready" zone and were told to be prepared to leave at a moments notice. Residents can enter the address into this interactive map to determine their evacuation zone.

About 30 firefighters from Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue were working the fire, as well as hand crews from the Oregon Department of Forestry, who were focusing on dousing hot spots.

Fire marshal put on leave, resigns

The Oregon State Police on Saturday announced Fire Marshal Jim Walker had been put on paid administrative leave. Then, later in the day, the state police announced its superintendent had accepted a resignation offer from Walker.

The state police did not said why Walker was put on leave. But a source familiar with the situation said Superintendent Travis Hampton had lost confidence and trust in Walkers ability to manage the historic wildfires.

Walker, the source said, had effectively turned over day-to-day management of the fires to his chief deputy, Mariana Ruiz-Temple.

Ruiz-Temple was appointed the acting fire marshal while Walker was on leave. She has since been appointed as fire marshal.

Antifa rumors untrue

Many rumors and conspiracy theories have surfaced during Oregons spate of wildfires, such as those claiming anti-fascists were operating a coordinated arson campaign throughout the state. Such rumors, as well as claims of widespread looting, are not true.

Wildfire tracker: See all fires in Oregon and across the nation

 Aimee Green, Jim Ryan, Jayati Ramakrishnan, and The Oregonian/OregonLive staff

Noelle Crombie, Fedor Zarkhin, K. Rambo, Jeff Manning, Jamie Hale and Shane Dixon Kavanaugh of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report, which has been updated throughout the day.
STAUNTON  Lydia Roller was quick to separate herself from the pack Tuesday at Southwestern High School.

The three-time all-state runner from Staunton, more than 300 days since her last cross country race ended with a runner-up finish in the Class 1A state meet in Peoria, was cruising in her 2020 debut in Piasa.

I remember the first mile, I felt fine, Roller said. I think I ran like 5:55.

It was business as usual for Roller. And then, it wasnt.

After that, I remember little parts of the race, she said. We circled back around the course and I was like, uh-oh, Im in trouble, because I just felt so bad. There was a little hill and I remember I just made it up. And next thing I know, I was on the ground.

Alone on the lead on a remote part of a course she was running for the first time, an elegant runner with the machine-like stride broke down. Roller collapsed.

These kids from Southwestern, they were like, hey man, are you OK? Should we get some help?, said Roller, who could laugh at the recollection five days later. But I got up and I slowly finished. I dont remember the last lap on the track. I just remember finishing  and then I went down again. I dont totally know what happened.

Roller, a two-time Telegraph Cross Country Runner of the Year, has labored before through races in a prep career that places her in an elite group of distance runners in Illinois, regardless of class. But nothing like this.

Ive definitely had hard races, that I know they were hard, Roller said. But I could remember all of it  and I never collapsed.

The five-team meet with the Bulldogs, host Piasa Birds, Roxana, Greenville and Hillsboro could not present a challenger to Roller, even after she was disabled. With Roxana leaving its varsity lineup at home, Roller still won the race by more than two minutes, which is kind of crazy, she said.

Roller, who broke 17 minutes while repeating as state runner-up on the three-mile course at Detweiller Park on Nov. 9, needed 20 minutes, 18 seconds to finish at Southwestern.

Its so weird looking back, Roller said of the race. I just got total tunnel vision and I only remember little parts of it.

It was Rollers first race  cross or track  in seven months. It may be her last for a while, at least. She had originally planned to open her season this Tuesday at Staunton in a quad with Roxana, Carlinville and Litchfield in what would have been her first home meet as a Bulldog.

Now, Roller will be a spectator.

I dont want what happened at Southwestern, only in front of a home crowd where people came to see me, or something like that, Roller said.

After her race at Piasa, Roller underwent tests to check for iron deficiency, because Ive been so exhausted lately, like after not even doing anything, she said. Ill run two miles and feel like Im giving it my all and barely be moving.

It is another setback for Roller, who spent six weeks this summer in a walking boot to treat a stress fracture in her lower leg. The cruelty of most things 2020 has certainly not spared Lydia Roller.

The second week of September, which included pain from shin splints, was not kind. If my shins didnt hurt, I just felt exhausted, Roller said. So, it wasnt the best week.

The resumption of training late in the week also got off to a false start.

I ran two miles on Friday and I felt terrible, she said Sunday. So, I shut it down then and I took a day off yesterday. Im hoping to get in some type of run in today and just continue training and see how I feel each run.

With COVID-19 restrictions limiting schools to competition within their conference or state-determined COVID Region, Stauntons schedule already removed Rollers biggest challenges, including races on the state course at Detweiller.

All that remains for the Bulldogs are four minor meets spread over the next five Tuesdays before the South Central Conference Meet on Oct. 19 at Brightons Schneider Park.

The wisdom of just closing shop for the fall and refocusing on track next spring is something Roller has considered.

Honestly, I have thought about that, she said. Its something I have contemplated, a lot. I feel like I really want to run conference, I want to get that fourth title. Even if I just wait until conference to run, I feel like that would be fine. Its not like Im missing out on these giant invites. Im not missing out on Richard Spring in Peoria, Im missing out on quad meets. I would love to run at conference, regional, a fake state meet if they have that. I dont know yet.

And she will not rush a decision.

Id like to play it by ear, just to see how I feel, Roller said. Definitely, once I get results back to see how my iron is, that will definitely play a role. But I feel like Im going to take it week-by-week, just with everything that is happening.

Another decision may come easier for Lydia Roller, who is also an all-state track performer in the 1,600 and 3,200 meters. What was once a long list of college options has dwindled considerably.

I basically have things narrowed down to one school and its a matter of just committing, Roller said. My parents kind of want me to see the school first, which is really hard with whats going on. But, I guess well see. I think Ill be able to make a decision pretty soon.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 16:36:22|Editor: huaxia

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NEW DELHI, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Indian government will not be holding an all-party meeting before the upcoming monsoon session of the parliament, officials said Sunday.

Generally, the aim of the all-party meeting is to seek opposition's support for smooth conduct of proceedings in both the Houses of the parliament.

The monsoon session of the parliament is scheduled to begin from Monday.

The speaker, however, convened a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee to discuss the agenda for the session that concludes on Oct. 1.

Ahead of the session, all the members of parliament were requested to get themselves tested for COVID-19.

The upcoming session will be held in two shifts -- 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. local time and 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. local time. Except for the first day, the Rajya Sabha (upper house of the parliament) will sit in the morning shift and the Lok Sabha will sit in the evening shift.

The Parliament was adjourned sine die in March days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the countrywide lockdown in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

India has become the second worst-hit country by COVID-19, with the caseload staying high.

The number of COVID-19 cases in the country has reached 4,754,356 on Sunday including 78,586 deaths.

During the past 24 hours, 94,372 new COVID-19 cases and 1,114 related deaths were recorded in the country. Enditem
European Council President Charles Michel (L) and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (R) arrive to attend a press conference in Brussels on June 22, 2020. (Yves Herman/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Chinas Human Rights Abuses Must Be Addressed at Upcoming EUChina Summit: EU Lawmakers

Over 60 members of the European Parliament and rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) are calling on top European leaders to address Chinas human rights issues at the upcoming virtual EUChina summit to be held on Sept. 14.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping will co-host the meeting with Charles Michel, president of the European Council, which defines the European Unions general policies and priorities. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, the EUs executive branch, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will also participate in the meeting. Germany currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

The meeting, originally scheduled to be held in the German city of Leipzig, will be held via video conference instead due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the European Council website, the four will discuss climate change, economic and trade issues, as well as responses to the pandemic, which is caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.

The online summit on Monday is under close scrutiny as relations between China and the EU have soured recently. In March last year, the European Commission called China a systematic rival in a report about the bilateral relationship. Last month, EU Foreign Minister Joseph Borrell called China a new empire and asked EU members to correct their economic imbalances with China, in a commentary published in French newspaper Le Journal de Dimanche.

Meanwhile, 63 members of the European Parliament signed a joint letter addressed to Michel, Von der Leyen, and Merkel, urging them to ensure that there will be consequences if the Chinese government continues to flaunt its human rights obligations. We call for the EU to put human rights at the top of the agenda at the EU-China Summit and in future discussions.

The letter pointed to Chinas human rights violations against Chinese activists and lawyers, Tibetans, the deprivation of language rights for ethnic Mongolians in Inner Mongolia, and the detentions of millions of Uyghur Muslims in internment camps. It also called attention to the erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong following Beijings enactment of a national security law.

In late August, students in Inner Mongolia began boycotting classes and adults staged outdoor protests, after the local education bureau issued new regulations requiring classes in primary and middle schools to be taught in Mandarin Chinese and use standardized Chinese-language textbooks. The region is home to many ethnic Mongolians, who have a distinct language and culture from the Han Chinese ethnic majority who speak Mandarin.

On Saturday, Radio Free Asia reported that Chinese authorities in northern Chinas Qinghai Province were closing down primary schools and forcing students into government-designated boarding schools, where classes will be taught in Chinese instead of Tibetan. The province is home to roughly 1.37 million Tibetans, according to official statistics.

Efforts to address Chinas human rights abuses have not resulted in any meaningful change in behavior from the Chinese government, the letter stated. The upcoming EU-China Summit represents an ideal opportunity to match the EUs rhetoric regarding human rights violations in China with concrete action.

The Monday summit is a follow-up to the June 22 online summit, when Xi and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with Von der Leyen and Michel.

Following the June meeting, the latter two issued a joint press statement, expressing grave concerns at steps taken by China to impose a security law for Hong Kong, and that it is not in conformity with the Hong Kong Basic Law [constitution] and Chinas international commitments.

Despite widespread international concerns, Beijing went ahead with implementing the national security law in Hong Kong on June 30, which punishes vaguely defined crimes such as secession and subversion with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

The EU lawmakers concluded by saying they support targeted sanctions and assets freezes against Chinese officials responsible for policies violating human rights.

RSF, in a statement issued on Sept. 12, called on the three European leaders to bring up the issue of press freedom violations by the Chinese regime.

Human rights is a fundamental value of the European Union, and to not insist for it would only encourage the Chinese regime to continue its policy of information control and repression of independent voices, stated RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire.

He added: Any weaknesses would give China free rein to impose a new world information order, which could be more detrimental to European citizens than it is today.

RSF pointed out that China is the worlds biggest captor of journalists, with at least 118 being held in detention.

The Monday online summit also came after Chinese foreign minister Wang Yis recent European tour, with stops in France and Germany. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas publicly rebuked Wang after the latter threatened that Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil would pay a heavy price for his visit to Taiwan.

We as Europeans act in close cooperationwe offer our international partners respect, and we expect the exact same from them, said Maas in a joint press conference with Wang on Sept. 1.

Maas added: Threats dont fit in here.

The Chinese regime considers Taiwan a renegade province and part of its territory, despite the self-ruled island having its own democratically-elected government, military, and currency. Beijing opposes words or actions by foreign government officials that recognize the islands sovereigntysuch as Vystrcils visit to Taiwan.

Relations between China and the EU have also worsened due to the pandemic, which originated in China. In a recent poll by pan-European think tank European Council on Foreign Relations, 48 percent of Europeans surveyed stated that their view of China worsened during the global health crisis.
An 11-year-old boy has died from injuries suffered in a crash that killed his 8-year-old sister and injured three others in Hoover on Thursday.

Emrhye Prude, an 11-year-old from Hoover, was taken to Childrens of Alabama hospital after the four-vehicle crash on U.S. 31. The boy died today, according to Birmingham Attorney Courtney French, who has been retained to investigate the crash on behalf of the Prude family.

Emrhyes 8-year-old sister, Serris, was killed in the crash.

Please pray for the children and their loved ones during this tough time, French said in a press release. We are committed to getting answers and providing closure for a family that is grieving the death of two children.

A GoFundMe, created by friends to raise money for the childrens mother, Natashah Prude, has raised more then $39,142.

One of the fundraisers organizers posted this update on Saturday afternoon: "It is with a heavy heart I make this post. At 3:06pm I received a message from Natashah saying: Please tell everyone Emrhye got his angel wings.

He is now in heaven with his beautiful sister and Jesus, said the update, which asked for prayers for the family. What a beautiful reunion at the pearly gates. This doesnt lessen the pain we feel here.

The wreck happened Thursday around 7:45 a.m. in front of the Hoover Square shopping center when a southbound 1996 GMC C6 heavy-duty truck struck a 2010 Honda Fit that was stopped in traffic, according to police. The Fit struck a 2017 Lexus GX460, which then hit a 2018 Ford F-150.

Natashah Prude was driving the Fit, police said. She and a 13-year-old passenger were treated for minor injuries. A 22-year-old man driving the Lexus was taken to UAB Medical West in Hoover with minor injuries, according to police.
12:20 | Lima, Sep. 13.

In a statement, they urged Peruvian authorities "to avoid actions that may jeopardize the legitimate exercise of power and the democratic institutional political process" of the country, thereby ensuring favorable conditions for the conduct of general elections next year , especially in a situation in which the world particularly the Latin American region is strongly affected by the spread of COVID-19.
The formation of Tropical Storm Sally on Sept. 12, 2020. (NOAA via AP)

Louisiana Governor Issues State of Emergency Over Tropical Storm Sally

Authorities in New Orleans have told residents to evacuate as Tropical Storm Sally bears down on the Gulf Coast after Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency.

Edwards said in a news conference on Sunday afternoon that he is seeking a disaster declaration from the federal government before the storm makes landfall.

We have every reason to believe that this storm represents a very significant threat to the people of Southeast Louisiana, Edwards said.

A mandatory evacuation was issued for residents in New Orleans outside the levee protection system. That includes people who live in Venetian Isle, Irish Bayou, and Lake Catherine, NOLA.com reported. They have to evacuate starting 6 p.m. Sunday.

At around 10 a.m. on Sunday, the city government said that residents are encouraged to prepare their properties for heavy rain and move vehicles to higher ground. It added, Storm surge between seven to eleven feet is possible in areas outside the levee system, with four to six feet anticipated in Lake Pontchartrain.

National Weather Service officials, in an alert on Sunday afternoon, warned that the city could experience storm surge, hurricane-force winds, and heavy rains.

Storm surge warnings are in effect from Port Fourchon, Lousiana, to the Mississippi-Alabama border. Hurricane warnings are in effect from Morgan City, Louisiana, to Ocean Springs, Mississippi, and from Lake Pontchartrain near New Orleans to Lake Maurepas including metropolitan New Orleans, according to weather service officials.

The National Hurricane Centers cone of uncertainty forecast model for the storm predicts that it will arrive at Louisianas southeastern coast at around 1 a.m. Tuesday. (NHC)

Sally is expected to strengthen to a hurricane on Monday. The storm currently has 60 mph winds and is located about 165 miles south of Panama City, Florida, and is moving to the west-northwest at 9 mph, officials said.

The National Hurricane Centers cone of uncertainty forecast model for the storm predicts that it will arrive at Louisianas southeastern coast at around 1 a.m. Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the city of Grand Isle, Louisiana, issued a mandatory evacuation order starting at 9 a.m. Sunday.

Mandatory evacuations were ordered around the Jean Lafitte area of Jefferson Parish, said Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng on Sunday.

What happened in the past doesnt matter, Lee Sheng said at a news conference. We handle every threat the same  You cant say, Im tired of this, I dont want to do it. I doesnt matter what kind of year weve had  we still have a major threat in front of us.
New UK bill that violates international law has sparked backlash from former PMs and sitting parliamentarians.

The Republic of Ireland has rejected an incendiary claim by Prime Minister Boris Johnson that the European Union (EU) is plotting to destabilise the United Kingdom, as another week of Brexit high drama beckoned ahead of a stormy parliamentary debate in London.

A war of words escalated on Sunday about a bill proposed by the government that London admits would be in violation of its EU divorce treaty and has invited a furious response from former prime ministers, Tony Blair and John Major, as well as some sitting MPs.

Johnsons contention that the EU is plotting a food blockade between Britain and Northern Ireland  which is part of the UK and is meant to enjoy special status with the EU after Brexit  is simply not the case, Irish Justice Minister Helen McEntee told Sky News.





McEntee said the protocol on Northern Ireland in the EU withdrawal treaty was agreed by both sides to ensure fair competition after Brexit, and to comply with a 1998 peace pact that ended three decades of unrest in the province.

Any suggestion that this is going to create a new border is simply not true, she said, while Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney dismissed Johnsons claim as a spin.

The treaty also ensures the integrity of Northern Ireland as part of the UK, she said and it ensures we do not see any kind of a border re-emerging.

Writing in Saturdays Daily Telegraph newspaper, Johnson accused the EU of trying to destabilise the UK, and said the EUs stance justified his governments introduction of the proposed legislation  which will come up for its first debate in the House of Commons on Monday  to regulate the UKs internal market after a post-Brexit transition period expires at the end of this year.

Inconceivable

But writing in Le Parisien newspaper, French Minister of State for European Affairs Clement Beaune said it was inconceivable that a great democracy like the UK would break its word.

Charles Michel, who heads the European Council, said Britains international credibility was at stake as both sides battle to unwind nearly 50 years of economic integration.

He insisted Johnsons government live up to its binding promises, posting on Twitter that it was Time for UK Government to take its responsibilities, after speaking to Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin.

EU negotiator Michel Barnier said the protocol on Northern Ireland is not a threat to the integrity of the UK.

Mutinous MPs are demanding the withdrawal of the bill, along with pressing for Justice Secretary Robert Buckland to resign.

If I see the rule of law being broken in a way I find unacceptable, then of course I will go, Buckland told BBC television.

I dont believe were going to get to that stage, he added, reiterating Johnsons view that the new bill is an insurance policy in the event of a Brexit no-deal this year, as difficult EU trade talks resume this week in Brussels.

Adding fuel to the fire, the Sunday Telegraph reported that British ministers were considering opt-outs from major portions of European human rights law after Brexit, in part to give them greater freedom of action against undocumented immigrants.

Embarrassing our nation

Johnson is fighting on the Brexit front while also resisting mounting disquiet among his own MPs over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Monday will also see the government impose new restrictions on social gatherings.





Get on with Brexit and defeat the virus. That should be the governments mantra, Labour leader Keir Starmer wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.

The main opposition party demanded the prime minister get his priorities right, four years after he led the hugely divisive campaign to quit the EU in a hard-fought referendum.

Major and Blair, who led Britain through the historic Northern Ireland peace talks in the 1990s, urged MPs to reject the legislation, saying it imperilled the peace process, EU trade talks and Britains integrity with the rest of the world.

As the world looks on aghast at the UK  the word of which was once accepted as inviolable  this governments action is shaming itself and embarrassing our nation, they wrote in a joint opinion piece for the Sunday Times.

How can it be compatible with the codes of conduct that bind ministers, law officers and civil servants deliberately to break treaty obligations? they asked.

The EU has threatened Britain with legal action unless it withdraws its unilateral changes by the end of September. Leaders in the European Parliament on Friday threatened to veto any trade pact if London violated its promises.
ALBANY  In late March, the third floor of Building 12 at the Harriman state office campus began to resemble a boiler room.

New York's economy was crumbling from the shutdowns ordered by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to stem the spread of coronavirus. Millions of people lost their jobs and many were forced to file for unemployment benefits. The normally busy office where hundreds of state Labor Department call-center workers process those claims was in triage mode.

"The surge of applications crashed on New York like a wave, pushing our systems to the brink," state labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon testified during an Aug. 13 legislative hearing on COVID-19's impact on the workforce. "In a typical week before the coronavirus crisis, our call center averaged about 50,000 calls, but during the peak week in late March, our call center received over 8.2 million phone calls  a 16,000 percent increase."

Behind the efforts to handle the historic number of jobless applications  heaped on a department using antiquated computer systems and low-paid workers  two narratives emerged from the state's distribution of more than $41 billion in unemployment benefits and federal pandemic assistance.

The first is gleaned from a review of internal labor department correspondence and interviews over the past month with employees on the front lines of the call center. Those workers  all speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of losing their own jobs  contend an untold number of claims may have been overpaid or approved for people not entitled to receive them, including an inmate just released from prison, people who had not worked in at least 18 months and others who filed unemployment applications in multiple states.

They contend that key security protocols, which verify someone's identity and employment history, were removed to expedite the applications as Cuomo's administration faced criticism for the backlog.

"Submit, submit, submit," one of the workers said, describing managerial directives that the person said were guided by members of Cuomo's Executive Chamber staff, who had set up camp on the top floor of the five-story Harriman office building during the height of the crisis.

"People (in the office) were told to submit claims without calling claimants and to fudge things that were always important to us, like (providing) their mother's maiden name, which is our security question," the worker said. "We had high school students who had never worked a day in their life receiving $182 a week in benefits."

In one case, another clerk said, an 80-year-old woman, who sounded like a teenager on the phone, filed a claim stating she had worked as a hairdresser for two days in early March. Although the claim was flagged to obtain three forms of identification from the applicant, the department's retooled software program, which is used to process federal pandemic unemployment benefits, released 25 weeks of payments to the woman totaling more than $14,000.

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The employees said priority also was given to the people whose state representatives, either senators or Assembly members, had provided their information directly to the Department of Labor. In some instances, the workers interviewed for this story said, they were ordered to drop what they were doing and contact those elected representatives' constituents, sometimes only to learn the person had not even filed a claim.

"Does the federal government care that people in New York state Department of Labor are being so lackadaisical with their money?" one of the clerks said. "This has affected a lot of people  there are people who work for (the unemployment office) who drink every night. People are screaming and crying, the amount of stress. They know they are doing things they shouldnt be doing. ... It goes against their morals and ethics."

There is also a huge backlog of unresolved cases and last week there were about 87,000 "issues" that need to be adjudicated by a claims examiner because there may be questions with someone's severance pay, they were terminated from a job or able to work.

"A lot of the claims examiners are on the phones taking calls and not adjudicating," the clerk said. "Experienced clerks were taken off the phones to be 'mentors' (for new hires) ... and more people on the phones have no idea how to answer questions or navigate our system. Basically, no one knows what they are doing."

'Sobbing'

The emotional fallout of the pandemic was also felt by the unemployed people stuck in limbo for weeks, even months, waiting for financial assistance. Morale in the office sunk as mandatory overtime for the staff kicked in on Mother's Day; many have been forced to work evenings and weekends to clear the backlog. In what could serve as a metaphor for the pressure being felt within the agency, a pipe burst on the fourth floor of the Harriman building in mid-June, spewing water across the floor that seeped through the walls and into the third-floor call center.

"You should hear the stories of how people were sobbing on the phone, saying they had nothing to eat ... (and) they were going to be evicted despite the policies put into place to help them," a clerk said. "Grown men begging you to please help them."

Another recounted a man showing up in the lobby  which has been closed to the public  because his identity had apparently been stolen and used to file for both unemployment benefits and a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan.

"We got his information, looked him up, and theres a direct deposit on the claim," a clerk said. "He said the loan for (the) small business was for $55,000 and was also put up in his name."

On July 17, Michelle Martone, a fraud investigator for the Labor Department, sent an email to several colleagues asking that victims not be transferred to her directly but instead to a general mailbox.

"Over the past few days, I have received calls from victims directly referred to me and my phone number," she wrote. "We are well over 35,000 victims at this time and although we have pulled in other staff to assist, we are struggling to keep up. I am also working on a (governor's) Chamber project that takes the majority of my day  so taking several calls each day is slowing that process down."

The surge of applications in March prompted the agency to begin hiring more than 2,000 "vendors" and 400 new clerks, many of whom initially received only a few days of training before being thrust into a job that involves a detailed process to ensure applicants qualify for benefits and are not committing fraud.

Most of the new hires were allowed to work from their residences, including in other states, after signing "non-disclosure agreements" assuring they would keep applicants' personal financial information confidential. But there were apparently little or no background checks performed on the new hires, who included convicted felons and at least one fugitive with a criminal history that includes charges of identity theft, the Times Union found.

The Cuomo administration and the Labor Department have defended their efforts to get state and federal unemployment benefits to the people who lost jobs due to the pandemic. They said their rapid response plan methodically wiped out a backlog of unemployment applications, hastened the distribution of state and federal money to people in need and prevented about $1 billion in fraudulent payments.

PREVIOUSLY: Labor Department says it thwarted $1 billion in fraudulent jobless claims

They also removed steps that paused applications or required a verification telephone call with a state employee  an infuriating process for many of those pushed out of jobs who found themselves unable to connect with the overwhelmed call center for days, even weeks, and that usually left them sitting on hold for hours, sometimes only to be disconnected.

"These baseless allegations are rooted in fantasy  not fact. Every state's unemployment insurance system has been stretched to the max during this crisis, but New York has moved faster than any other major state to get benefits into New Yorkers' hands, while stopping a record $1 billion in fraudulent claims at a time when other states have admitted fraudsters stole hundreds of millions of dollars per week," said Peter Brancato, a spokesman for the agency. "Over the last five months, we have used innovative solutions to speed processing time and increase fraud detection capabilities  and we will not apologize for our efforts to get $40 billion in benefits into over 3 million New Yorkers' hands."

Brancato also noted that last month the department forwarded more than 40,000 cases of suspected fraud to federal prosecutors across the state. But many of those cases will never be prosecuted, in part because the suspects may be overseas or the amount of money that was paid out would not warrant a federal prosecution, according to law enforcement sources.

Brancato added that federal laws and regulations governing the $600 per week in federal benefits processed by the state "have different and less stringent requirements." He said that would explain, for instance, why children were being approved to receive those benefits.

"We had to follow the law whether we/or our employees agreed with it," he said.

3 1 of 3 Phoebe Sheehan/Times Union Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Will Waldron/Times Union Show More Show Less 3 of 3





Fictitious numbers

During her testimony last month, Reardon, who was appointed labor commissioner by Cuomo in 2015, credited "our incredible state workforce" for its response to the crisis. She noted that "thousands" of state workers had been shifted to the Labor Department as the number of call center workers was increased from 400 to 7,000 to deal with the crushing backlog.

Reardon said the department, in part through a contract with Google, also developed an online platform that created a seamless way for applicants to receive the $600 weekly unemployment assistance benefit, which is administered by states. In addition, she said, the department took steps to change its verification processes so that applications would not get stuck in a "partial" or incomplete status and require a phone conversation with an agency clerk.

"This included identifying the number-one reason why unemployment applications go into partial status  which was an incorrect or missing federal employer identification number," Reardon testified at the August hearing. "We issued a directive to all New York-based businesses reminding them of their legal obligation to provide employees with this information."

What Reardon did not discuss during the hearing, according to clerks, was that the administration had removed that requirement and others from the process used to verify someone's identity, their benefit qualifications and their salary and employment history.

In a related March 31 email to labor department workers, program manager Mariangela Viglucci instructed her colleagues that in order to move along "claims that have no wages on file," they should enter two fictitious employer numbers that were coded into the system to allow the applications to proceed.

"These fictitious employer numbers should not be used if there are any wages reported for the claimant's Social Security number," she added.

Brancato said the "dummy" numbers were added only to process applications for people who are "self-employed" or "freelance" and do not have a federal employer identification number.

Employees said other verification steps also were removed from parts of the approval process, including in some instances driver's license checks or one-on-one questioning with applicants who are asked whether they may be drawing other income such as a pension, severance pay or workers' compensation benefit.

"They went back and they put controls on after the fact," one of the clerks interviewed for this story said. "Some of these people that are working these claims had two days' training."

The result, workers said, is that many people who were approved for unemployment benefits may not have been entitled to receive that money  or to receive as much money as they were paid  and that the safeguards removed from the verification processes often resulted in someone being paid more than they had earned in their jobs.

The overtime situation also created friction in the state's workforce that led to a lawsuit being filed in July against the Labor Department and other state agencies by the Public Employees Federation, the state's second-largest public labor union.

The union's complaint says workers were mandated to work 15 hours a week of overtime beginning in May but were paid at a lower pay grade than their own. The state's overtime mandate was, in large part, driven by the rush to clear the unemployment backlog. The lawsuit is still pending in state Supreme Court in Albany.

The wrong kind of experience

The Labor Department's contracts with the 2,500 vendors was augmented with an additional 400 "senior employment security clerks" who were hired as the pandemic peaked in April. Those employees are paid $17.61 an hour to work in the call-center jobs  which require a minimum of a high school diploma and/or a few years of customer service experience.

A Times Union review of the employees hired by the state found some with felony criminal records, even though they are in jobs with access to sensitive personal information that includes Social Security numbers, dates of birth and other personal information.

In July, for instance, the department hired a 46-year-old Syracuse man who is a fugitive in Leon County, Fla., where he failed to show up in court after a 2017 arrest on charges of larceny and offering a forged instrument. He also was arrested in the 1990s in Florida for passing worthless checks, according to court records.

That man additionally has a criminal record in central New York, where he pleaded guilty to grand larceny in 2015 to settle more than 30 felony counts that he faced, including forgery and identity theft, according to the Onondaga County district attorney's office. At the time of his arrest in the town of DeWitt, near Syracuse, he was also a suspect in nearly two dozen other cases involving stolen credit cards in Vermont, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, according to published reports at the time.

Not long after his release from jail in 2015, and after serving part of a one-year sentence, he was arrested again for allegedly stealing a winter jacket from a Syracuse clothing store. Five months later, police were summoned to a Subway store in Syracuse after the owner claimed the man stole $660 from the register while working a weekend shift. He agreed to pay the owner back, and police closed the case as a "civil settlement," according to prosecutors.

In the call center at Building 12, workers said, that same man  whose name is being withheld by the Times Union because he could not be reached for comment  has received attention for flagging applications that appear to be fraudulent. But the workers said they also noticed him writing down information such as Social Security numbers and maiden names of applicants' mothers, which the workers said is unusual.

"He wrote 'willful misrepresentation' and wrote 'fraud' on a claim," a clerk said. "I think that he may be, like, studying the fraud."

Another call center worker hired this year by the Labor Department was a 26-year-old Albany woman who pleaded guilty to felony drug charges five years ago for her role in a cocaine distribution ring. She was hired in April but fired in June, her co-workers said, because of issues with her remote work that had nothing to do with her criminal history.

Not all of the department's hiring of accused felons was pandemic-related: A Troy man hired as a call center worker in December, three months after his arrest on charges of stealing a check from his landlord and forging it to pay himself $3,500, was fired in March for falsely saying that he had contacted a claimant before processing their benefits.

Brancato, the Labor Department spokesman, declined to say whether background checks are conducted on the people they have retained to process claims, including third-party vendors.

In response to that question, he stated: "All agents hired through vendors received confidentiality training and were required to sign non-disclosure agreements regarding confidential UI (unemployment insurance) information/data. All contracts also included language on background checks/security clearance."

Brancato also issued a warning: Anyone (who) works for the (department) and discusses a claimant's case potentially faces misdemeanor charges.

The job applications used by the Labor Department say that a criminal record is not necessarily an impediment to being hired, "depending upon the nature of the criminal offense, its relationship to the position sought, and other factors that must be considered before employment may lawfully be denied based upon prior convictions."

The clerks and other employees interviewed for this story said that for people working at home, especially out of state or those with criminal records, the agency has no way of knowing whether confidential information is being protected or if others in those households have access to it.

They noted that while the state reported more than 42,000 fraud cases to law enforcement authorities this year, that number doesn't reflect the fraud cases that may have slipped by undetected, or the benefits potentially paid to recipients who are not entitled to receive them.

"This is the problem with letting people, after three weeks of training, go home and work from home," a clerk said. "They are not monitored and do not deserve to be trusted with a plethora of information that we guarantee claimants will be secure. ... The supervisors have never even met some of their staff who are working from home."

An earlier version of this story described some of the benefits paid to an 80-year-old woman who had worked as a hairdresser as "state" benefits. A spokesman for the Department of Labor said those benefits were "federal funds ... (with) less strict requirements."
" " The pH scale is a measure of acidity and alkalinity.Acid rain has a pH of 5.0 or less.

Scientists express the acidity of acid rain using the pH scale. The scale defines a solution's acidity, neutrality or alkalinity based on its concentration of hydrogen ions. Acids have a high concentration of hydrogen ions and a low pH. The scale ranges from zero to 14, with pure water at a neutral 7.0. Most water, however, is not exactly pure. Even clean, normal rain has a pH of about 5.6. This is because it reacts with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and forms mildly acidic carbonic acid before it becomes rain.

Acid rain has a pH of 5.0 or less. Most acid deposition ranges from pH 4.3 to 5.0 -- somewhere between the acidity of orange juice and black coffee. But comparing acid rain to safe, natural acids can be misleading. Even at its weakest, acid rain wrecks ecosystems by stunting sensitive plants and killing delicate aquatic eggs.

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Programs that monitor acid rain analyze hydrogen content to determine pH. They also measure atmospheric concentrations of nitric acid, nitrate, sulfur dioxide, sulfate and ammonium. In the United States, the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) supervises wet deposition while the Clean Air Status and Trends Network (CASTNET) observes dry deposition. Monitoring acid deposition helps determine critical loads, or the amount of pollutants an ecosystem can support before damage. Accurate critical loads help set effective targets for SO2 and NOx reductions.

Now we'll learn about the harmful effects of acid rain on aquatic environments, forests, finishes, building materials and human health.

Surface Waters

Surface waters and their fragile ecosystems are perhaps the most famous victims of acid rain. Most of the precipitation that enters a lake, river, stream or marsh must first pass over and seep through soil. All soil has a buffering capacity, or ability to resist changes in acidity and alkalinity. The soil's buffering capacity determines a water body's acidity. If the capacity is low, or has reached its limit, acid rain can pass through un-neutralized.

" " Acid deposition weakens trees and pollutes surface waters. Photographer: Detlev Voss | Agency: Dreamstime.com

Most life is comfortable at a near-neutral pH -- stray too far from pH 7.0, and delicate organisms begin to die. Plankton and invertebrates are sensitive to changes in acidity and die first. At pH 5.0, fish eggs degrade and young cannot develop. Adult fish and frogs can sometimes tolerate acidities as low as pH 4.0, but they starve as their weaker food sources die out. When acid rain disrupts the food chain, biodiversity decreases.

Nitrogen deposition from acid rain also damages coastal waters and estuaries. Nitrogen-rich water supports massive algae growth and algal blooms. Bacteria decompose the dead algae, flourish themselves and soak up the water's available oxygen. Fish, shellfish, sea grass beds and coral reefs die in the algae-choked, oxygen-depleted waters. Scientists estimate that 10 percent to 45 percent of human-produced nitrogen that winds up in coastal waters comes from atmospheric deposition [Source: Environmental Protection Agency].

Most acidic bodies of water do not look polluted. As decaying organic matter settles, acidified water can appear clear and blue. Some species, like rushes and moss, even thrive in acidic conditions. But the greenery and clear waters belie an unwholesome environment. Diversity drops, and species left without predators often grow disturbingly large.

Acid rain also damages forests, as we'll see in the next section.


Former Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg addresses his staff and the media after announcing that he will be ending his campaign on March 04, 2020 in New York City.

WASHINGTON  Former New York Mayor and ex-2020 presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg is slated to spend $100 million in Florida to help Democratic nominee Joe Biden win the state.

The money "will be used to turn out voters for former Vice President Biden in Florida" by financing television and digital ads in both English and Spanish, a spokeswoman for Bloomberg told NBC News. The latest financial push gives the Biden camp more flexibility to spend money in other key states, like Pennsylvania, Nevada and Minnesota.

The move may also put pressure on Republicans and the Trump campaign to spend more in Florida, leaving less money to spend elsewhere.

In August, Biden eclipsed Trump's reelection campaign and raised a colossal $364 million compared to the president's reelection campaign raising $210 million. So far this year, the Trump campaign has spent more than $800 million, according to a recent New York Times probe of the campaign's spending.

Read more: Trump campaign raises hefty $210 million in August, but its well short of Bidens record haul

Trump and Biden are in a dead heat in Florida with 48% support each among likely voters, according to a recent NBC News/Marist poll. Trump was leading among Latinos, while Biden was doing better among seniors than Hillary Clinton in 2016. Trump leads on the economy, while Biden performs better on responding to the coronavirus pandemic and race relations.

Trump won Florida by just over a single percentage point in 2016.


NEW DELHI: The CPI(M) has called a nationwide campaign against the government on issues related to minorities, democratic rights and civil liberties from September 17 to September 22, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said on Sunday.

The campaign, he said, will also focus on immediate cash transfer of Rs 7,500 per month for the next six months to all families outside the income tax bracket and the immediate distribution of free foodgrains of 10 kg per individual every month for the next six months among the needy.

"Issues such as the intensification of communal polarisation; targeting of minorities; large-scale attacks on democratic rights and civil liberties of our people; against the mounting brutal attacks on women, Dalits, adivasis and other marginalised sections, loot of national assets through privatisation and scrapping of labour laws will be highlighted," Yechury said.

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The CPI(M) will demand that the BJP-led central government urgently address the immediate needs of the people, he said. Yechury was briefing the media a day after the party's politburo met on Saturday.

He also said that their demands would include expansion of the MGNREGA to ensure at least 200 days of work a year with enhanced wages.

The CPI(M) leader also demanded promulgation of an Urban Employment Guarantee Act and the announcement of an allowance for all unemployed.

"The protest would be essential to safeguard the Constitution and its fundamental guarantees of liberty, equality and fraternity for all citizens," he said.

Yechury also said that during the poitburo meeting a slew of issues were discussed and thee included the state of the economy as well the status of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said that the CPI(M) is opposed to the 11 ordinances promulgated by the government during the period of lockdown.

"Some of these, particularly concerning Indian agriculture, are extremely dangerous and damaging to our farmers, Indian agriculture and India's economic sovereignty. The CPI(M) has moved a notice for statutory resolutions opposing these ordinances and demanding their withdrawal in both Houses of Parliament,? a statement issued by the party said.

The statement comes ahead of the Parliament's Monsoon Session, which is scheduled to begin on Monday.

The politburo during its meeting also decided that CPI(M) MPs will insist that major policy decisions like the New Education Policy, National Digital Health Mission and its associated programmes, Environmental Impact Assessment and New Mining Regulations be thoroughly discussed and scrutinised by Parliament before implementation, it said.

The politburo noted that during the past six weeks, the government has gone about 'aggressively implementing neo-liberal reforms', among others, according to the statement said.

It alleged that there is a complete 'subversion of the criminal justice system with blatant misuse' of the agencies under the central government like the Delhi Police, the NIA, the CBI and the ED to demonise political opponents.

"The politburo demands immediate stop to arrest of innocent minorities, activists championing the rights of the people, especially the marginalised like the Dalits/tribals, on trumped up charges under draconian laws like the UAPA, NSA and the Sedition Act," the statement said.

The meeting also discussed issues like denial of GST dues to states, status of Jammu and Kashmir and the gravity of the coronavirus situation.
Fire raced up the hill Wednesday night, gaining momentum toward Blair Road in Scotts Mills, as several dozen men worked on building a fire line.

We probably had 20 to 30 people in there hand-falling timber, said Mike Craig, who was operating an excavator at the time. We were just ripping everything out of the ground and pushing it into the fire to make it contained. We probably stopped it within 300 feet from the homes.

Craig watched as flames licked the blade of a bulldozer that plowed toward the fire, the man in the cab silhouetted by the blaze. He snapped a photo with his phone, capturing a dramatic moment in the fight against the Beachie Creek fire that has, to date, burned 188,000 acres, devastated entire towns and killed at least four people.

Its one of the greatest community togetherness events that Ive witnessed, Craig said. And I think, the way that the world is now, why wouldnt you start taking pictures of the greatness of this, and show people what happens when we come together?

These men arent firefighters.

Theyre heavy equipment operators, loggers, farmers and neighbors who refused to let their town burn.

Scotts Mills is a small town of about 400 people, located in Marion County between Silverton and Molalla.

The local man in the photo is Scott Kuenzi, general superintendent with K&E Excavating. Scott hasnt come down from the hillside fire scene in days, and cell phone reception in the area is spotty. But The Oregonian/OregonLive was able to reach his wife, Rebecca Kuenzi, who received a forward of Craigs photo.

"I said, I hope thats not Scott, and the person that took the photo replied and said, Oh yeah, thats your husband.

And I said, shoot.

But Rebecca Kuenzi wasnt surprised at her husbands actions. Shes a local school teacher who had been watching reports of the fires spread.

Two of my students' houses were within, truly, yards of being on fire, she said. Id gotten a picture from one of them, and I just said, Scott, look at this. Youve gotta get up there. So he did.

Scotts brother, Kerry Kuenzi, is president of K&E Excavating. The company brought about 15 men and 15 pieces of heavy equipment  bulldozers, water trucks and excavators  to help dig fire lines and spray down hot spots.

Were just trying to help with the resources Gods given us, Kerry Kuenzi said. The right thing to do is help our neighbors. You gotta pull together in times like this because its like a war zone out here.

Kory White stands at the front of a line of tanker trucks, driven by civilians, that are filled with water and ready to fight wildfires around Molalla, Colton and Scotts Mills.

Community members started mobilizing Tuesday, when smoke began blanketing the area. Craig used an excavator to dig a fire trail below his friends home along Blair Road.

Wednesday morning, the fire was still burning and ODF was down there fighting it, Craig said. They said they had it contained, and they took off, but their containment didnt hold, so by noon or 1 p.m. on Wednesday, the fire was really raging in there. And thats when things really got carried away.

The flames quickly spread, burning up the hillside. So too, did word that help was needed.

Several hundred volunteers have been out fighting fires throughout Scotts Mills and surrounding communities. Theyve formed a kind of command station, directing workers and bulldozers to fire lines via radios.

Jesse Rodriguez Construction, Pacific Underground, D&T Excavation, Wilson Construction, Blue Heron Farm  those are just some of the companies that have lent volunteers and equipment to the effort.

Half of these guys are timber fallers, we all have construction backgrounds, said Craig, who owns Northwest Drilling and Boring Inc. Were all running equipment all the time, so doing it with fire breathing down your neck is the only added difference. Rather than panic, we just get more focused and more determined.

A photo collage by Tina Sharp shows some of the civilian volunteers fighting wildfires in and around the Silverton and Scotts Mills area.

Young guys. Older farmers. Men in their 80s were out there on the line. Kerry Kuenzi estimated there were five civilian volunteers to every one trained firefighter.

Theres a lot of good firefighters that are doing a great job, but theyre just overwhelmed, they cant be everywhere, he said. Its just absolutely unreal how many fires are in different areas, so you get the general population out there trying to help. Id like to think it makes a big difference.

Residents who cant fight fires themselves are providing supplies. Every morning, people stop by Craigs house with cases of water and bags of chips and other snacks.

It just keeps showing up, and I just toss it into my truck as we go back up the hill and set it out on the corner of any road, and it disappears, he said. The volunteers are out there, he said, crawling the hills like ants.

Residents Kristen and Josh Haskett have taken on the role of local press, providing fire updates on a private Facebook group for Scotts Mills residents.

Were trying to post updates so people will not come in here to check on their homes, Josh Haskett said. Were just trying to be the voice of the neighborhood to let them know whats going on.

Saturday afternoon, the couple was parked outside the Scotts Mills fire station, where they had just gotten the latest news on the fires' progression to share online.

People have been spreading false updates, Kristen Haskett said. There was so much bad information that we decided, were tired of this, we need to get real updates to help people out and to give them some peace and ease of mind.

While much of the community has been saved, a handful of homes and buildings have been lost. Those families will have to rebuild. But the communitys efforts have had an impact.

I can honestly say, without a doubt, that the local farmers and community members saved the community, Josh Haskett said. If it wasnt for the local people here and how quickly they acted, I believe a lot more would have been lost, a lot of houses would be gone, and wed be looking at a much more catastrophic fire than what it has turned into.

As of Sunday morning, things were looking good for most of Scotts Mills. Some of the food and supplies that had been donated were being driven to the fairgrounds in Salem for those with a greater need.

Ive heard from so many families that are just so thankful and said that Scott or the K&E guys saved their house, Rebecca Kuenzi said. Ive cried a lot of tears of joy with them. If it hadnt been for all those local men just stepping up, theres no way we would have had this outcome.

-- Samatha Swindler, sswindler@oregonian.com, @editorswindler
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September has been anything but kind to tech stocks. After hitting a record high at the beginning of the month, fears that tech valuations had climbed too high crept into investors minds. As a result, tech stocks have been feeling the heat, with the NASDAQ down 10% since September 2. The index currently sits at 10,853.55, following its fifth decline in six sessions.

While September is traditionally a volatile month for Wall Street, the upcoming presidential election, ongoing pandemic and flaring U.S.-China tensions are also weighing on investors. However, analysts remind investors that beaten-down doesnt mean out, arguing the weakness presents an opportunity to snap up some compelling names at more affordable price points.

To this end, we set out to find beaten-up tech stocks that still represent exciting opportunities, according to Wall Street analysts. Using TipRanks database, we pinpointed three such names. While each has dipped at least 15%, the Street sees a comeback on the horizon as they all earn Strong Buy consensus ratings. Not to mention substantial upside potential is on the table here.

Lam Research (LRCX)

Offering innovative wafer fabrication equipment (WFE) and services, Lam Research helps chipmakers build smaller, faster and better performing electronic devices. Even though shares have slumped by 19% since September 2, several members of the Street believe theres still plenty of fuel left in the tank.

B.Riley FBR analyst Craig Ellis tells clients that strong foundry demand, a memory upturn and strength in China were the key drivers of LRCXs impressive fiscal Q4 2020 performance. Revenue came in at $2.792 billion, reflecting an 11.5% gain and flying past the estimates. Although the company hasnt fully caught up when it comes to fiscal Q3s $300 million sales loss, management notes a significant portion has been recovered.

In China, the sales mix got a substantial boost, with it up 34% or 200 basis points quarter-over-quarter. GM over-achieved, falling just 20 basis points to 46.1% on favorable execution and mix so was 120 basis points better despite high freight costs, Ellis added. The bottom line? Overall, strong LRCX execution, Ellis stated.

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The good news doesnt end there. Its forward-looking guidance blew expectations out of the water, with its fiscal Q1 2021 revenue forecast of $3.1 billion landing $381 million above the Streets call. Not to mention GM and implied OM were 130 and 290 basis points ahead of Ellis prior predictions, respectively, showing the company is overcoming crisis headwinds, in his opinion.

Ahead, LRCX expects continued Memory outperformance as spend rebounds from relatively low CY19&20 levels, driven by an array of secular drivers, while it outpaces F&L revenue growth versus industry and sustains solid Services growth. We sense retained confidence in LT financial targets, aided by new product SAM expansion in high aspect ratio etch and atomic layer deposition tools. Elsewhere GM rise a solid 60 basis points to 46.5%, so are seven-plus quarters ahead of our forecast, Ellis commented.

Even though this guidance is a major positive, Ellis argues there could potentially be even more upside in store. Despite fiscal Q4/Q1 upside we believe a four-to-six quarter positive estimate revision cycle is possible ahead, led by a compute/server and 5G smartphone-led CY21 Memory capacity cycle, prospects for first in four-year synchronized global growth in CY21 to compliment secular 5G, AI, ADAS, and IoT gains for Foundry/Logic gains... We believe the CY23/24 base case and better case financial targets based on $60 billion and $70 billion of WFE at $15 billion/$31.00 and $17 billion/$34.00 not only remain realistic bogeys, but in our view have picked up demonstrably more pull-in tailwinds than push-out headwinds entering 2H20, the analyst explained.

Based on all of the above, Ellis reiterated his Buy recommendation and $450 price target. Should his thesis play out, a potential twelve-month gain of 53% could be in the cards. (To watch Ellis track record, click here)

In general, other analysts are on the same page. With 17 Buy ratings and 3 Holds, the word on the Street is that LRCX is a Strong Buy. The $394.79 average price target brings the upside potential to 34%. (See Lam Research stock analysis on TipRanks)

Applied Materials (AMAT)

Moving on to another semiconductor company, Applied Materials also surprised the Street with its better-than-expected earnings results. With this strength set to continue into 2021, the 15% decline since September 2 presents an attractive entry point, according to the analyst community.

Writing for Craig-Hallum, five-star analyst Christian Schwab told clients, The company is seeing a robust semi capital equipment spending environment continue with expectations for total WFE to grow 10%-15% in 2020 and for strength to continue in 2021.

Adding to the good news, management said it was able to fulfill a significant portion of the $650 million in backlog it was unable to meet in the first half of the year. At the same time, order demand was strong and AMAT exited the quarter with total backlog flat. This demonstrates that the supply environment is improving and the demand outlook is strong, in Schwabs opinion.

During the fiscal third quarter, semiconductor systems revenue was up 28% year-over-year, and at the mid-point of Q4 guidance, could be up 25% for FY20. The strength is coming from the foundry/logic and memory segments. The company expects 2020 total WFE to be split ~55%/45% foundry/logic vs. memory spending and for WFE to grow in 2021 and see a similar split as 2020, Schwab added.

When it came to applied global services, this area of the business gained 11% year-over-year in the quarter, with the company expecting this figure to keep on expanding. The company continues to grow its Services business along with its growing install base. 60% of the Services and spare parts business comes from predictable recurring revenue in the form of long-term service agreements. This year these agreements have seen a renewal rate of over 90%, Schwab mentioned.

It should be noted that display growth is slated to remain flat through FY21. That being said, Schwab sees some encouraging signs in the high end of the market, particularly robust demand for 8K screens and adoption of OLED TVs.

Despite any macro concerns in this environment, management believes it has also demonstrated that semiconductors and supporting industries are essential. Customers continue to drive their product roadmaps and make investments. We expect the strong semiconductor capital equipment spending environment to continue, Schwab opined.

Everything AMAT has going for it keeps Schwab with the bulls. Along with a Buy rating, the analyst leaves an $83 price target on the stock. This target suggests shares could climb 51% higher in the next year. (To watch Schwabs track record, click here)

Are other analysts in agreement? Most are. 4 Hold ratings are trounced by 15 Buys, and therefore, the message is clear: AMAT is a Strong Buy. Given the $76.22 average price target, shares could surge 39% in the next year. (See Applied Materials stock analysis on TipRanks)

PTC Inc. (PTC)

Last but not least we have PTC, which is a global 3D design software company, with it boasting Internet of Things (IoT) and augmented reality (AR) offerings. Since September 2, shares have taken a 16% tumble, but several analysts see a turnaround on the horizon.

Wolfe Researchs Blake Gendron highlights its recent Onshape acquisition as a major positive for PTC. Onshape is a SaaS platform that combines CAD and IoT/AR apps through cloud data management.

Expounding on this, Gendron stated, Core to our positive view of PTC is a CAD/PLM migration to that cloud that is largely out of the companys control. Incumbency in design software is rooted in engineer familiarity (built over many years, hence the PTC/Onshape push for free student access), but the pandemic remains an unprecedented disrupting force that could compel customers to transition (even at enterprise level) and foster greater remote collab/efficiency (a key driver of the Onshape deal).

The potential benefits from the Onshape deal go even further. The other driver of the Onshape acquisition was PTCs vision for greater IoT/AR adoption, a trend perhaps catalyzed by heightened safety measures post-downturn, but previously identified as an opportunity to leverage 3D design expertise in extracting/delivering greater data value across the manufacturing chain, Gendron explained. That being said, PTC will need access to facilities to achieve this growth, which could be problematic thanks to COVID-19.

Given all of the above, even though PTC has lagged in the design space, specifically when it comes to PLM, Gendron sees it as poised to capture better-than-expected share of 1) the SaaS PLM migration, and 2) cloud-enabled IoT/AR.

On the valuation front, Gendron noted, On our valuation and forward ARR, implied EV/ARR of 7.7x is below the average since fiscal Q4 2016, and is consistent with where PTC trades today. That said, execution on IoT/AR growth could see the stock re-rate higher.

All of this prompted Gendron to leave his bullish call and $103 price target unchanged. This target conveys Gendrons confidence in PTCs ability to rise 25% in the next year. (To watch Gendrons track record, click here)

What does the rest of the Street have to say? 9 Buy ratings and 2 Holds have been issued in the last three months. So, the consensus rating is a Strong Buy. In addition, the $100.50 average price target suggests 22% upside potential. (See PTC stock analysis on TipRanks)

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.
She's just weeks away from giving birth to her third child.

And Rochelle Humes celebrated the beginning of her maternity leave as she enjoyed a night out on Saturday.

The presenter, 31, joked she was 'ready to pop' as she dressed her bump in a chic grey shirt dress for dinner at the Novikov restaurant in London after travelling into the city for a cosy weekend break with husband Marvin.

Gorgeous: Rochelle Humes, 31, celebrated the beginning of her maternity leave as she enjoyed a night out on Saturday

Rochelle shared a glimpse of her evening look as she posed in her bathroom in the classic grey shirt dress.

The star - who is due to give birth to a baby boy next month - accessorised her look with a blue ruffled clutch bag as she posed for the snaps.

Later Rochelle changed into a gorgeous paisley printed blazer dress as she and husband Marvin enjoyed their first weekend alone together in months, with the pair donning their matching bathrobes for a cute selfie.

Glammed up: The presenter joked she was 'ready to pop' as she dressed her bump in a chic grey shirt dress for dinner at the Novikov restaurant in London

Gorgeous: Later Rochelle changed into a gorgeous paisley printed blazer dress as she and husband Marvin enjoyed their first weekend alone together in months

Lavish: The expectant star enjoyed a night away at a hotel in London ahead of the birth of her baby boy, which she shared with her fans on social media

Cute: Rochelle also cosied up to Marvin in a sweet selfie in their matching bathrobes after enjoying a night away together

Earlier in the week Rochelle celebrated the beginning of her maternity leave after a busy few weeks, which included guest-hosting This Morning during the summer break.

Last week Rochelle reflected on how her body has changed since learning she was pregnant with her third child.

Speaking to The Sun on Sunday's Fabulous magazine, she said: 'These boobs have grown out of nowhere! They're just massive! I don't know what to do with them. I've got back ache constantly and I didn't have that before.

'With my first two pregnancies, my boobs grew, but not like this. This is a whole new thing. Even though it's the third time, I'm definitely just getting used to this new body.'

Transforming: Last week Rochelle reflected on how her body has changed since learning she was pregnant with her third child

Rochelle also joked that while she may have been suffering with the changes, her husband Marvin is pleased.

She said: 'I mean, of course he's pleased, but he needs to calm down.'

Rochelle and Marvin married in 2012 at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, and they share daughters Alaia-Mai, seven, and Valentina, three.
The government is appointing independent assessors to review everyone on the National Disability Insurance Scheme to ensure the funding is fairly distributed and not just given to "those who can pay the most for a report".

There are concerns in the government that wealthier people are getting a bigger share of the taxpayer funding that covers therapy, equipment and other costs of disability, while those in greater need are potentially missing out.

As of December 2019, NDIS figures show people in Northern Sydney were receiving the biggest funding packages in NSW, with an average of $30,079 compared with the NSW average of $23,066 and the national average of $20,564. The Inner East of Melbourne topped Victoria, with an average package of $27,516 compared with the state average of $19,209.

Government Services and NDIS Minister Stuart Robert said the government would introduce independent assessment from early 2021, removing the need for applicants to spend time and money on reports from various health providers to prove eligibility for a package.
Nearly 6 months after the Secondary School Certificate(SSC) exams were held in the state, parents of students who passed the exams have now urged the education department to complete the admission process for first-year junior college (FYJC) soon.

In line with the Supreme Courts interim stay on the Maratha quota in jobs and education, the state education department stayed the admission process for FYJC until further orders. The second merit list, which was supposed to be declared on September 10 has been postponed as a result of this. In the Mumbai Metropolitan Region alone, nearly 3.1 lakh seats are up for grabs this year against which over 2.12 lakh students have applied for admissions.

With the delay owing to the procedure, parents, students, and colleges are now requesting the education department to release a revised academic schedule for such students. Even as the government has reduced the syllabus by 25%, it is going to be challenging for the students to study the remaining in the very little time that is left. An alternate academic schedule should be declared for this year, said a suburban college principal.

An official from the education department said that a revised schedule had not been made yet. Government instructions are awaited in the matter, he added.

Uday Nare, a teacher at Hansraj Morarji Public school in Andheri who has written to the government in this regard said, teachers and parents are worried that these students would have to face an academic loss due to the delay in the procedure. Some solution needs to be arrived at by the government with the state education department to make the year less stressful for them.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 21:12:11|Editor: huaxia

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TEHRAN, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Iran's army has improved the range of one of its submarine missiles, state TV reported on Sunday, quoting top navy commander as saying.

The army has increased range of the Jask-II missiles, which can be launched by the homegrown Fateh submarine, the Commander of the Iranian Navy Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi told the state TV.

Khanzadi also said that Fateh submarine is a homegrown watercraft with advanced sonar system.

The Iranian commander did not provide details on the range of improved naval missile.

The Iranian navy on Friday fired a submarine cruise missile during a large-scale military exercise in the country's southeastern waters. Enditem
A U.S. Marine convicted of killing a Filipino transgender woman was deported on Sunday after a presidential pardon cut short his detention, in a case that renewed outrage over a pact governing American military presence in the Philippines.

Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton said in a farewell message that he was 'extremely grateful' to President Rodrigo Duterte for pardoning him and expressed his 'most sincere sympathy' to the family of Jennifer Laude, 26, who he was convicted of killing in 2014 after finding out that she was a transgender in a motel northwest of Manila.

During his five-year confinement, Pemberton said he spent 'much time contemplating the many errors' he committed the night Laude died.

'He wishes he had the words to express the depth of his sorrow and regret,' according to Pemberton's message, which was issued by his lawyer, Rowena Garcia-Flores.

Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton arrives with his handcuffs covered at the airport

Pemberton is photographed on the night of his arrest in 2014

Philippine immigration officers and American personnel escorted the 25-year-old Marine, who was in handcuffs and wearing a face mask, from his cell in the main military camp in metropolitan Manila to the airport, where he boarded a military aircraft.

Ahead of the flight, he had a coronavirus test, which was negative, immigration spokeswoman Dana Sandoval told The Associated Press.

Jennifer Laude was killed by Pemberton in a motel room in the Philippines in 2014

The U.S. Embassy said 'all legal proceedings in the case took place under Philippine jurisdiction and law' and that 'Pemberton fulfilled his sentence as ordered by Philippine courts.'

On Monday, Duterte granted an 'absolute and unconditional pardon' to Pemberton in a move that caught many by surprise.

The Philippine leader has long been a vocal critic of U.S. security policies while reaching out to China and Russia.

Duterte's pardon was condemned by left-wing and LGBTQ groups.

Debate has brewed whether the Marine, whose detention was arranged under the treaty allies' Visiting Forces Agreement, can be covered by a Philippine law that grants shorter jail terms to ordinary prisoners for good conduct.

The Regional Trial Court in Olongapo city, which handled Pemberton's case, ruled that the law covers Pemberton and ordered authorities on September 1 to release him early for good conduct.

Pemberton is pictured on Sunday en route to the airport for transfer home to the U.S.

Pemberton is shown arriving in court in December 2015 for sentencing

But Laude's family and the Department of Justice separately appealed, blocking his early release from a maximum prison term of up to 10 years.

Duterte said he granted the pardon because Pemberton was not treated fairly after his early release, which he said the Marine may have deserved, was blocked.

The court order rekindled perceptions that American military personnel who run afoul of Philippine laws can get special treatment under the Visiting Forces Agreement, or VFA, which provides the legal terms for temporary visits by U.S. forces to the country for large-scale combat exercises.

Pemberton, an anti-tank missile operator from New Bedford, Massachusetts, was one of thousands of American and Philippine military personnel who participated in joint exercises in the country in 2014.

He and a few other Marines were on leave after the exercises and met Laude and her friends at a bar in Olongapo, a city known for its nightlife outside Subic Bay, a former U.S. Navy base.

Laude was later found dead, her head slumped in a toilet bowl in a motel room, where witnesses said she and Pemberton had checked in.

A witness told investigators that Pemberton said he choked Laude after discovering she was transgender.

In December 2015, a judge convicted Pemberton of homicide, not the more serious charge of murder that Philippine prosecutors sought.

Pemberton's case became a rallying call for the LGBTQ community in the Philippines

Pemberton at the Bureau of Corrections extension facility at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City

Julita Laude, mother of Jennifer Laude, is pictured by her coffin in October 2017

The judge said at the time that factors such as cruelty and treachery had not been proven.

The VFA could have been abrogated last month if Duterte had not delayed an earlier decision to terminate the pact after President Donald Trump expressed readiness to help the Philippines deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Philippine leader has said his country can survive without America.

If the VFA had been scrapped, it would have removed a legal basis for Pemberton's detention in the military camp and created pressure for him to be moved to one of the country's notoriously overcrowded and high-risk prisons for ordinary criminals.
When Saudi entrepreneur Amal Albasheeri opened her first business in 2003, women were not allowed to enter most commercial premises. It was a totally different era, said Albasheeri, founder of the interior design platform Makan.Design. In 2018, women obtained the right to register a business without the consent of a husband or male relative.

Now we feel like we have the right to exist! she told Al-Monitor.

In recent years, the Saudi leadership ended the world's last ban on female drivers and encouraged women to enter the workforce, accelerating the inclusion of women into the local economy. The moves aim to increase the number of dual-income families at a time when deteriorating economic conditions are eroding the countrys welfare system.

The government also outlawed discriminatory practices in accessing bank credit. But beyond an improved legal framework, empowering women might require a profound change of mentality at the society level.

While more than half of Saudi university students being women, female entrepreneurship is yet to be entirely accepted. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development estimates that in the broader Middle East and North Africa region, gender-based discrimination in laws and social norms costs $575 billion a year.

Decades of cultural conditioning

Unlike regulatory restrictions, internal boundaries built in the minds of Saudi women by decades of cultural conditioning and a draconian male guardianship system cannot be repealed in the blink of an eye and are likely to resist state-led reforms.

Human rights organizations have long criticized the Gulf country for making women second-class citizens. A study published in 2018 found Saudi women tend to lack self-confidence due to gender limitations deeply rooted in the culture.

Arwa Shafi is a program associate at TAQADAM, one of Saudi Arabias top startup accelerators. She told Al-Monitor, The challenges that remain are all at a personal level. There are still a lot of built-in ideas of what you can or cannot do as a female.

Mentorship and accelerator programs like TAQADAM help participants explore opportunities that were previously off limits and turn an idea into a marketable product. More than 30% of our founding entrepreneurs are female, said Shafi, who said the flexibility offered by the six-month-long program has been vital to achieving such high participation by women.

I could attend with my newborn son and continue breastfeeding, Moudi Alghashyan, co-founder of the online wish list Hadiya Registry, told Al-Monitor.

TAQADAM also provides zero-equity funding to facilitate access to finance, one of the biggest challenges faced by women-led ventures as bank credit available to small and medium-sized enterprises in the Arab region is the lowest in the world.

It has been the opportunity I needed. I got to socialize with other entrepreneurs, built connections and received a $20,000 grant, said Alghashyan. During the COVID-19 crisis, Hadiya Registrys sales tripled as many started buying online for the first time.

The importance of role models

For those who wish to reconcile family life with a job, the pandemic has been a wake-up call as business opportunities in the digital economy surged and online shopping gained momentum. The pre-pandemic growth rate of Saudi e-commerce already exceeded 32% annually.

But aspiring female entrepreneurs struggle to identify with the male-led businesses that dominate the headlines. Saudi women do not have role models, that is what we lack, London-based Saudi political analyst Najah Al Otaibi told Al-Monitor.

According to Babson College, a global leader in entrepreneurship education, Role models have a greater impact on a womans entrepreneurial self-efficacy than on a mans.

In Saudi Arabia, less than 2% of business owners with at least one employee are women, according to a 2018 Mastercard study. While the number of Saudi women entrepreneurs grew significantly from 2007 to 2017, entrepreneurship remains the exception as the vast majority of Saudi citizens prefer public sector employment attracted by high wages, social benefits and job security  government departments pay 59% more than the private sector.

In the long term, new curricula could play a crucial role in nurturing a generation of female entrepreneurs. For decades, the education system upheld dominant socio-cultural norms that emphasize the role of women as wives and mothers, read a study by prominent Saudi researcher Hessah Al Sheikh.

According to World Bank estimates, women in the Middle East and North Africa enjoy half the legal rights of men. International organizations and experts have long called on Gulf governments to favor critical thinking-centered teaching methodologies.

Music and arts, which used to be banned, are now part of the curriculum in public schools. This is a great development! We should have an environment encouraging creativity, freedom of thought, freedom of expression, Al Otaibi said.

'Saudi Arabia is now a police state'

Since he was named crown prince in 2017, Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud has portrayed himself as a reformist and Western leaders initially commended this posture. In early 2018, UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the kingdom's de facto ruler has demonstrated by word and deed that he aims to guide Saudi Arabia in a more open direction.

Critics argued the move is an attempt to create a smokescreen. The new regime had to make reforms to gain legitimacy in the West, said Lina al-Hathloul, whose sister is behind bars along with other female activists who had campaigned for the right to drive.

According to Human Rights Watchs former Middle East director, "Their only crime was wanting women to drive before Mohammed bin Salman did." Al-Hathloul told Al-Monitor, Saudi Arabia is now a police state; no one dares to talk, and lamented new regulations like the public decency law have blurred the line between what is allowed and what is not.

Saudi entrepreneurs like Albasheeri are hopeful, saying a more inclusive society is taking shape as the kingdom has entered a new era. As much as we want to keep our traditions, we don't want to live as a conservative country forever, she said.
DUBLIN, Aug. 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "China's Future in Low Carbon and Clean Energy Industry Expansion" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

In the coming years, low-carbon industry developments will set the economic and business agenda in China and other major economies as climate change becomes more severe in its effects.



The renewable energy and NEV industries will see an accelerated shift in investment activities. Renewable energy and electric mobility are among the most effective tools in the fight against climate change, and more countries are in a joint effort to mature these industries.



Therefore, there will be more room for renewable energy companies to expand their business overseas - especially for Chinese companies as they manufacture renewable energy products way cheaper and in a mass scale due to the economies of scale, government support and experience. Chinese NEV manufacturers also have the same advantage as renewable energy companies in terms of attracting overseas consumers with lower prices.



As a result, this report will look at China's current policy ground and emerging private sector investments for a greener development, with 15 + 1 key studies from various companies in renewable energy and the NEV sector. Furthermore, it will lay out the China-specific opportunities & challenges in these sectors as well as providing key insights for investors and market watchers.

Executive Summary:





China stands to benefit significantly by transforming its pattern of economic activity towards low-carbon development pathways. Such a transformation is not only important in preventing climate change and increasing energy efficiency, but it is also important to capitalize on new growth opportunities as a supplier that can help satisfy the increasing global demand for low carbon technologies -solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles (EV).

stands to benefit significantly by transforming its pattern of economic activity towards low-carbon development pathways. Such a transformation is not only important in preventing climate change and increasing energy efficiency, but it is also important to capitalize on new growth opportunities as a supplier that can help satisfy the increasing global demand for low carbon technologies -solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles (EV). Health crises, the limits of old economic models and energy security are the drivers of China's low-carbon industry expansion, especially the renewable energy sector and the new energy vehicle sector.

low-carbon industry expansion, especially the renewable energy sector and the new energy vehicle sector. The key studies represented in this report shows that government incentives and subsidies played a key role in developing these sectors. Thanks to these policies and subsidies, the country is in a leading position when it comes to renewable energy output and has also established itself as a market leader in other related technologies, like electric storage systems.

However, as renewable energy prices have fallen, renewable subsidies are being phased out. Previously subsidies were provided as to make renewable energy cheaper and competitive against traditional means of energy production. Another reason is the impact of the US-China trade war on China's economy. Now, the government is stricter on its spending and subsidy policies. As a result, wind and solar facilities must now compete directly at auction with other forms of power generation.

economy. Now, the government is stricter on its spending and subsidy policies. As a result, wind and solar facilities must now compete directly at auction with other forms of power generation. Considering this situation, there are various challenges and opportunities for these sectors. Challenges include a highly competitive domestic market, possible subsidy cuts, slowing global demand, the USChina trade war and technological developments that the Chinese industry seems to be following from behind. NEV manufacturers are also facing the same challenges.

Moving into the 2020s, the energy industry will see an accelerated shift to renewable energy projects large and small. Renewable energy is one of the most effective tools in the fight against climate change, and more countries are in an effort to switch their energy systems towards renewables. Therefore, in the future there will be more room for renewable energy companies to expand their business overseas - especially for Chinese companies as they manufacture renewable energy products way cheaper due to economies of scale.

In addition, Chinese NEV manufacturers also have the same advantage as renewable energy companies in terms of attracting overseas consumers with lower prices. Chinese NEVs are almost 75 percent cheaper than those of their overseas counterparts.

Lastly, these industries are welcoming foreign investors and putting efforts into improving their technologies. Foreign investment can contribute to the industrial and technological development of the host country through global integration and technology transfer. These investments increase the competition in the NEV and renewable energy industry at multiple stages of production, thereby improving efficiency.

Key Topics Covered:



1. Introduction



2. Executive summary



3. Low-carbon policy drivers & development in related industries

Drivers of China's switch to low-carbon economy

switch to low-carbon economy Current industry trends

4. Major players - Solar energy industry



5. Major Players - Wind energy industry



6. Major players - New energy vehicle industry



7. The major player - State grid corporation of China



8. Future challenges



9. Challenges for solar and wind energy sectors

Challenges for NEV sector

Future opportunities Conclusion & key insights

10. References

Companies Mentioned



BAIC Motor

BYD

CATL

China Ming Yang Smart Energy Group

Envision Energy

Geely Auto

Goldwind

GuodianUnited Power Technology Company Limited

JA Solar Holdings

Jinko Solar

NEV Industry

NIO

Sinovel Wind

State Grid Corp of China

Trina Solar

Xinyi Solar

Xpeng Motor

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/w9vibw

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.



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TOKYO  This was supposed to be the era when Japan finally stepped beyond its centuries of patriarchal dominance and empowered women in the workplace. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the countrys prosperity depended on it, and promised policies to help women shine. He even gave the push a name: womenomics.

Sayaka Hojo has yet to see the fruits of those pledges.

Ms. Hojo, 32, the mother of a young daughter, has had three different employers during the nearly eight-year tenure of Mr. Abe, who said late last month that he was leaving office. In all of those jobs, Ms. Hojo worked mostly with women but was overseen by men  a still-common situation in Japan that belies Mr. Abes promise to significantly increase the share of women in management roles.

And Ms. Hojo, like many women in Japan, cannot accept a full-time job even after Mr. Abe pushed through a law intended to ease Japans brutal work culture. Because she shoulders the bulk of housework and child care, the hours at work would be too demanding.
At dinnertime, 10-year-old Clive Rodgers used to wrap his arms around his plate because he was afraid of germs at the table.

"I was really scared, and if somebody tried to move my arm, I would, like, get really angry and stuff," says Clive, who lives in San Diego with his parents and two younger siblings.

Clive is just one of many young people who have struggled with obsessive-compulsive disorder. OCD affects about 1 in every 200 children and teenagers, which is similar to the prevalence of diabetes in this age group. The hallmarks of OCD are intrusive, unwanted thoughts and repetitive behaviors in response to those thoughts, a cycle that may cause significant anxiety and hamper daily activities.

As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, it's a tough time for any kid who has to stay home all day, studying remotely instead of going to school, unable to enjoy normal social activity with friends. Such stressors are making OCD symptoms worse in some children, even those who didn't specifically fear germs before, doctors say.

"Their rituals and obsessions are just worse because their general mental health is worse," said Suzan Song, director of the Division of Child/Adolescent & Family Psychiatry at George Washington University.

Fears of contamination and illness are generally common among people with OCD, but usually their concerns are not in line with likely threats, said Joseph McGuire, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins Medicine. With the coronavirus, which causes the disease covid-19, there is actual danger present. He is seeing a "rekindling" of symptoms in many patients who received treatment in the past, and need a refresher.

"In this post-covid world, you're hearing from the news media and scientists all saying that this is a real fear," McGuire said. "So now, it's kind of providing validity to intrusive, obsessional thoughts that have been popping in your head for quite some time."

Kids with OCD tend to be very rigid in their thinking, so when it comes to new pandemic hygiene norms, such as hand washing for 20 seconds, "there's a very fine line between safety and compulsion," Song said.

Song said that in the first month of the pandemic, some of her OCD patients actually reported feeling less anxious. Because more people in the world recognized a threat - that is, the novel coronavirus - they would say things along the lines of, "I know that other people are taking care of it, so the burden is not on me," she said. But within three months into the new pandemic reality, general levels of anxiety and depression had risen.

Signs of OCD can emerge in young childhood, but usually between ages 8 and 12 or in late teen years to early adulthood, according to the International OCD Foundation.

Emmeline Paluck of Rochester, N.Y., was diagnosed with pediatric OCD at age 7, although in retrospect, her mother, Amy Hatch, thinks she saw signs as early as age 3.

Hatch remembers Emmeline would compulsively ask her mother, "am I rolling my eyes?" And she became obsessed with her mother's safety, believing every time Hatch left the house, she would die. Emmeline also engaged in self-harming behaviors and had suicidal thoughts, her mother said.

"When your first-grader is having these issues, it's pretty terrifying," Hatch said, "and I felt very alone, and so did she, and her dad did, too."

Through therapy, Emmeline worked for years on managing her intrusive thoughts and behaviors. Now 15, with her routine suddenly disrupted by the pandemic, Emmeline said this spring she felt a huge spike in anxiety - almost like she was "back to square one." She worried she would fall back into compulsive hand washing - something she used to do when she was younger - and other behaviors.

Emmeline said her doctor increased her medication dosage and told her that other patients also struggled and needed dosage adjustments, which reassured her. "It was kind of nice to know that not everyone is handling this well, as well as I thought they were," she said.

McGuire said intrusive thoughts in people with OCD can start out small and build off normal concerns, such as, "Did I leave the coffee maker on?"

But a cycle may emerge where a person feels reassured after checking twice, three times or more, and then resorts to excessive checking in connection with other obsessive thoughts.

They form an association in their minds, such as, "I do this behavior and I feel better," McGuire said. And in some people, this leads to "magical thinking," in which they come to believe a particular ritual - such as knocking on wood three times - will keep their family safe.

There's no single cause exists of OCD, and its neurobiology is still under study. Research has found some genetic associations, but children may also develop it if no other family members have it. In recent years, scientists have found a connection between strep infections, as well as other possible factors, and the sudden onset of OCD symptoms, but these do not represent the majority of OCD cases.

Traumatic events may also trigger OCD symptoms.

Gabriella Kroener's obsessions started around age 11, after a car ran over her foot in a hit-and-run incident. It may have started with a fear of crossing the street and then spiraled to concerns about her siblings crossing the street, traffic, crowds. "The fears just grew and grew and grew," said her mother, Kim Worden.

Before that, she had been a healthy, social child taking all honors classes, Worden said. After the accident, Gabby couldn't participate in cheerleading because of her injury, but she also withdrew from her cheer friends and became much more shy in general. She nearly failed an honors biology course because she didn't want to work with lab partners, her mother said. Gabby decided to retake the class, which ended up moving online because of covid-19.

Gabby, who is now 16, says she became fixated on the idea that she was unintentionally harming others, even after she asked people and they said she hadn't. And she started washing her hands a lot because she feels like "I carry around those germs from hurting people."

Her worries led her to start knocking on doors and other objects made of wood - a lot. "I always felt like I was, like, going to jinx myself and I always just felt that I needed to do it, or else something bad would happen," said Gabby, who lives in New Market, Md.

About a year ago, Gabby's therapist diagnosed her with OCD but acknowledged that she was not the right fit for helping Gabby with her symptoms, Worden said. Through a Facebook support group, she learned about the telemedicine site NOCD, which connected Gabby with a specialist. It was a more accessible, affordable option than alternatives Worden had found, and the therapist has given Worden valuable advice on how to handle situations, too.

"It was a relief to hear a therapist say she can lead a successful life," said Worden, who works as a 911 dispatcher.

The covid-19 pandemic exacerbated Gabby's intrusive thoughts, however. In recent months, she would often sit in bed all day because she feared that if she so much as passed by her siblings on the couch, she would somehow hurt them.

But just before her birthday in July, Gabby went shopping in downtown Frederick, Md., with her friends. It was the first time she had seen them since around the time her school stopped in-person instruction, in March. She bought a couple of pairs of new shorts. The social interaction and activities she used to do in public, like buying new clothes, reinvigorated her mood.

"That's really helped me to, like, see, like, the purpose in life and, like, why you should get out of your bed, because you can actually have fun, even if you have OCD," she said.

The standard therapy for OCD is called exposure and response prevention, or ERP, in which a therapist helps a patient face their fears one step at a time. Some patients with OCD also take a class of medications that are also prescribed for depression called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs. Often a combination of behavioral therapy and medication works best, Song said.

Song takes a "step ladder" approach to exposure and response prevention therapy, analyzing the different steps of a child's OCD rituals and how distressing each of them are. Patients feel most comfortable tackling aspects of rituals associated with the least distress - the ones they are least upset about stopping - and working up from there, Song said.

Both Song and McGuire counsel young patients to view OCD as a force separate and outside of themselves that is causing anxiety and disrupting their relationships with others, and to "stand up" to it. "This is the OCD talking. It's like a bully that's talking. And we have to fight back," Song said.

As part of her therapy, Emmeline used to keep a "worry jar" for her fears, which often involved people dying. She would tell her mother what was bothering her, Hatch would write it down and the two would deposit the slip of paper in the container. Once, Emmeline was so disturbed by a thought that she burned the paper. She stopped using the jar when she was about 9.

There are many misperceptions about OCD. Emmeline gets annoyed when it's used inappropriately, such as "I have to clean my kitchen, I'm so OCD." Emmeline's mother said she and her daughter are passionate about being as open as possible about OCD.

"You wouldn't hide the fact that you had, I don't know, diabetes or arthritis or any other chronic illness," Hatch said. "Why should we hide mental health under this stigma?"

Since therapists are largely seeing patients through video chat programs now, they rely on parents more than ever to help kids practice therapy techniques and confront flare-ups of unwanted behaviors. Often, children will involve parents in OCD-related behaviors, looking to them for validation. Song's advice for parents helping kids with OCD is to have "compassion with limits," and not engage in power struggles.

In Clive's case, his symptoms started in late January and early February, and his parents tried for more than a month to find professional help.

Andy Rodgers, his father, said Clive, who is usually shy and mild-mannered, would suddenly become combative and angry when his father would try to talk him out of his OCD-related rituals.

"I had a few nights where I kind of held it together until we separated rooms and then I cried," Rodgers said. "As a parent, it's the most natural thing in the world, if your kid's in pain or uncomfortable, you want to rescue them and you want to pull them out of that."

Eventually, they found a therapist through NOCD, the same telemedicine site Gabby uses. Exposure response therapy has changed Clive's life, Rodgers said, and created "a family space of compassion and understanding."

Rodgers now sees himself as a "workout partner" for Clive, providing encouragement and positive reinforcement as his son works on curbing OCD behaviors.

In what his father told him was like "the last level of a video game," Clive visited a messy store that had greatly upset him before the pandemic, and spent 15 minutes inside. While taking appropriate coronavirus precautions, Clive successfully touched a variety of objects, and even sat on the floor in a dirty corner. Now, he's working on curbing his compulsion to look at the sun outdoors.

Clive has never met anyone else with OCD, but if he did, he would first reassure them that their secret is safe with him, because he had wanted to keep his condition a secret, too ("I was really mad when my brother told my sister," he said).

Then, he would say that exposure response therapy can be hard, but really helps. He doesn't guard his plate from germs at dinner anymore.

"Even when it's really bad, it just keeps getting less and less and less and less until you're just, it doesn't really bother you anymore, only sometimes," Clive said.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 09/13/2020



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[ Spoiler Warning: This report features spoilers that reveal if Kalani and Asuelu are still together or if the : Happily Ever After? couple has broken up.]

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Did Kalani and Asuelu work things out or did the couple split up -- and are they still together now?

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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 Kalani Faagata has decided to give Asuelu Pulaa another chance on Season 5 of : Happily Ever After?, so did the couple work out their issues and last long-term or has Kalani and Asuelu split?Kalani, a 31-year-old from Orange County, CA, and Asuelu, a 24-year-old from Samoa, met in July 2016 and initially appeared on Season 6 of in 2019.The pair met when Kalani was visiting a resort where Asuelu worked as the activities director, and the couple pursued a long-distance relationship once Kalani returned to America.Once Kalani determined love was a real possibility, she decided to fly back to Samoa to visit Asuelu and the couple had sex. Not only did Kalani lose her virginity, but the encounter resulted in a surprise pregnancy.Kalani's conservative Mormon family was disappointed in Kalani's actions and choice of partner, especially since her father Low didn't want any of daughters to get involved with a Samoan man like himself.Kalani, however, ignored her family's warnings and concerns about Asuelu and went ahead and applied for a K-1 visa so Asuelu could move to the United States and become a hands-on father. At this time, Kalani and Asuelu's son Oliver was five months old.Once Asuelu relocated to the United States, he and Kalani only had 90 days to figure out whether their relationship was strong enough to get married.Asuelu had a lot of adjustments to make when it came to fatherhood and living in a different country, but he and Kalani ended up getting married in September 2018.'s sixth season concluded on TV with Kalani and Asuelu's wedding as well as Kalani learning she was pregnant with their second child.Kalani and Asuelu found out they were expecting Baby No. 2 together less than a year after she had given birth to Oliver, and the news was totally unexpected.Kalani and Asuelu are now parents of two sons: Oliver, whom the couple welcomed in January 2018, and Kennedy, who was born in May 2019.About four months later, Kalani suggested in a poll on her Instagram that Asuelu wasn't helping her with the kids and she felt totally overwhelmed."Do all husbands expect their wives to pay bills, clean the whole house, do all the laundry, feed/watch the kids 24/7 (unless said husband is in public or wants a selfie)?" Kalani asked in the September 2019 poll. "Asking for my gottdamn self. Is this normal?"Apparently 70 percent of Kalani's followers who participated in the poll answered "No."However, the couple appeared to be a very happy family at Christmas time in December 2019.On : Happily Ever After?'s fifth season, Asuelu was shown at work passing out free samples. The couple had been married for one year and three months at the time of filming.Kalani suggested her marriage was suffering and she was exhausted all the time, so her parents moved in with the couple to help them out with the boys, which apparently upset Asuelu because he no longer was the man of the house.Kalani believed Asuelu would rather play volleyball or video games after work than spend time with his family, and she felt romance had gone out the window."I just wish that Asuelu and I could get back to the point where we were in the beginning of our relationship, where we loved to be around each other. I just miss that, and if Asuelu refuses to change, I don't know if I can keep doing this anymore," Kalani said in a confessional.Kalani's dad Low also wanted Asuelu to "step up" and stop "f-cking around." Low said Asuelu would get his "ass whooped or sent back to Samoa" if things didn't change for the better.But Asuelu continued to disappoint Kalani and her family, like when he was angry at his wife for turning down an opportunity for their family to travel to Samoa.Not only would the trip cost thousands of dollars in plane fare alone, but there had also been a Measles outbreak recently -- and children in Samoa were dying from it.Asuelu and Kalani's seven-month-old son Kennedy wasn't vaccinated and wasn't supposed to get that MMR vaccine until 12-24 months old, according to his doctor, so Kalani put her foot down and postponed the family vacation.Instead of going to Samoa, Kalani drove her family to California, which she thought would be a fun place to celebrate Oliver's second birthday -- but Asuelu was grumpy and resentful during the car ride."I think Kalani can't do what mother in Samoa do," said Asuelu, who also claimed being a stay-at-home mom is "easy."Kalani argued that she was the one up all night with both of their sick kids when she was sick too and did "everything for them," and Asuelu called her out for being "annoying" as well as a "lying b-tch."Kalani's mother was driving the car and scolded Asuelu for being "disrespectful" and talking to her daughter that way, which only made Asuelu more frustrated."I don't know how your husband talk to you when you guys been together. But it's my wife; I can talk whatever," Asuelu said. "Your daughter asks stupid questions."Kalani felt Asuelu was trying to sabotage the weekend and ruin it for everyone as a way to get back at her for canceling their trip to Samoa."It just shows me that he doesn't really care about me and the boys and he's just No. 1 to himself," Kalani complained in a confessional, later adding that she'd never be "subservient" to a man.During a heated confrontation in the backyard, Kalani called Asuelu "a manipulator" because of his attempts to change the subject every time he wanted to back himself out of an uncomfortable conversation. She desired "an equal partnership."Since the pair couldn't reach a resolution and Asuelu felt Kalani didn't respect what he contributed to their family, Asuelu took off with his suitcase by boarding a bus to Utah.That night, Asuelu apparently sent Kalani three false locations to drive to in order to pick him up, and once she was ready to give up, he finally gave his actual location.Kalani's sister Kolini said Asuelu "sucked the life" out of her sister and it was hard to see, and Kalani's whole family thought Asuelu was "in the wrong" and had behaved rudely.Asuelu even refused to attend Oliver's birthday party at first and hid in a bedroom.Asuelu later apologized to Kalani, admitting he was "so wrong in saying that a woman in Samoa is better" than his wife, but Kalani was tired of Asuelu's apologies. She wanted to see change in his actions and not just in his words.In order to smooth things over, however, Kalani agreed to visit Asuelu's mother Lesina and two half-sisters in Washington State.Asuelu wanted to bring gifts for his family and give his mother $1,000, which Lesina had asked for, but Kalani rejected that idea and said they couldn't afford it.Kalani agreed to let Asuelu buy $200 worth of gifts and give his mother an additional $100. After all, Asuelu was only working part-time.Kalani figured Asuelu was "trying to buy his family's love" and it was no longer "a cultural thing." She felt bad for her husband and was angry with Asuelu's family.It had been about a year since Asuelu last saw his mother and sisters Tammy and Rosa, but it didn't take long for the women to bring up money once Asuelu reunited with them.Asuelu's mother was shocked he only had $100 for her, and Tammy advised Asuelu to step up like a man and work full-time. Asuelu's family figured Kalani's family could support his kids.Asuelu told the cameras he couldn't afford to take care of his family in Samoa as well as his two kids, and Tammy accused Asuelu of letting Kalani control him and tell him what to do.Kalani later met with Lesina and Tammy on her own in attempt "to talk some sense into them," but the discussion turned out to be a disaster."I just don't know why you feel entitled to me and my family's money... At the end of the day, it is going to be what I say," Kalani told Asuelu's relatives.Asuelu's mother called Kalani "lazy" for not working and pleaded, "Just give me money. That's all I want... I don't care about the kids. I want to take back my son to Samoa to do his duty as before."Kalani was accused of "brainwashing" Asuelu, but she insisted she had done nothing but love him.Kalani said she was "done" with this circus, and then Tammy went after her, looking for a fight physically. Tammy screamed at Kalani as Asuelu's mother held her back, and Kalani called Asuelu's relatives "nuts."When Kalani returned to her husband, she shared the events that had transpired and all Asuelu seemed concerned with was whether Kalani or Tammy would win in a fight. Kalani grew so frustrated that she called Asuelu "a lunatic," who in turn dubbed Kalani "f-cking crazy."Kalani no longer felt supported by her husband, and she worried he'd never change.Kolini told Kalani that she was too good for Asuelu and didn't deserve to live that way. Kolini advised her sister to leave the relationship for her own well-being."I do feel like I love him still," Kalani griped. "I just feel like every day, it's getting less and less, and I feel like if it keeps continuing on like this, I won't want to be a part of this marriage anymore."Asuelu apparently overheard Kalani and Kolini talking, and so he and Kalani got into a huge fight off-camera.Kalani claimed Asuelu had screamed at her at one point and wasn't acting like "his typical self." Kalani said the trip was supposed to bring Asuelu closer to his family but it just ultimately ruined their relationship."I'm questioning if I can even do this anymore... [I want to see] if we can fix his behavior, and if not, I just need to not be with him," Kalani admitted.Kalani wished her marriage was about love, happiness and supporting each other, and she confessed that that's not what she had. In fact, Kalani believed Asuelu wanted to take possession of her.Kalani therefore told Asuelu that they needed to see a therapist or marriage counselor, and Asuelu replied, "I think that's a good idea." The couple just had to get home in one piece first."I am tired and I'm emotionally exhausted... I just need to go home and figure things out. I don't know, I just want to be done. I don't want to be married anymore," Kalani confessed. "I love him, but I have to start loving myself and loving my boys more."A week after the couple returned home to Utah from "the worst trip" of Kalani's life, Kalani said she wasn't ready to give up on her marriage just yet."I feel like I've tried my hardest with this marriage and I'm doing everything I can to fix it. I feel like therapy has become an ultimatum now and he's going to have go with me," Kalani said. "I can't keep living like this. It's insane."Kalani was frustrated because she thought Asuelu didn't like talking through their issues, and she said the elephant in the room was getting "bigger and bigger" to the point where neither spouse could even stand each other anymore.Kalani said she wanted her boys to grow up and see a happy relationship and marriage."How bad is our relationship at?" Asuelu asked."If we keep continuing on like this, I don't think we're going to stay married," Kalani admitted.Asuelu told the cameras he wanted to make his relationship work and fix things, but Kalani wasn't even sure a resolution could be reached."I don't think he understands that I'm at -- I'm past my breaking point. I'm done at this point. I'm giving him a last chance and he's either going to take it or he's going to take his sh-t out of the house," Kalani shared in a confessional.Kalani and Asuelu later met with Dr. Matt Eschler and a Samoan translator, Ilena Williams.Kalani explained she and Asuelu weren't seeing eye to eye and she was at odds with her husband's family. Asuelu said it made him "mad and frustrated" and feel like less of a man when Kalani said he couldn't give more money to his family back in Samoa.But Kalani said she gave what she could and there wasn't more she could do.Asuelu said that in Samoan culture, the man is the head of the household and the woman is the neck, adding that the woman should not cross a line. But Kalani said it's not okay Asuelu viewed her like his property.Asuelu was also angry Kalani had decided they wouldn't see his family anymore, without letting Asuelu decide what to do. Asuelu felt Kalani had tried to ruin his relationship with his family.Dr. Eschler was hoping the pair could begin a brand new tradition or way of life that neither of them was accustomed to in terms of domestic tasks and responsibilities, and Kalani said she and Asuelu had made a little progress in that area.During the ride back home, Asuelu told his wife that she wanted her to make amends with his family, but Kalani wasn't sure how that was going to happen, especially since Asuelu's sister Tammy had tried to fight her."I love you and I'm trying to help our marriage and fix our marriage. It's not that I don't want to. I'll try for you," Kalani told Asuelu.But Kalani told the cameras she wasn't going to allow Asuelu's mother and sister to treat her the way they had in Washington.Asuelu is still working at the same nutrition store in Utah -- which is near the home he shares with Kalani -- where he was shown passing out free samples on an episode of : Happily Ever After?.Also, the pair definitely appear to still be married based on their social-media activity.In late August, Asuelu called Kalani his "wife" when telling fans they can now book him for Cameo videos.And back in late July, Asuelu captioned a series of photos of his family in Pine Valley, UT. They appeared to do some hiking by a lake."Family Adventure #blessed #love #utahcheck," Asuelu captioned the slideshow.Asuelu also posted a TikTok video of himself dancing in the couple's kitchen about a week earlier, and Kalani can be seen in the background preparing food for her family.Asuelu captioned the video, "Morning routine after riding the bus."In early July, Asuelu wished Kalani a happy birthday on his Instagram account by posting a video of his wife and son. He wrote over the video "love of my life."And in the caption, Asuelu gushed, "My wife's birthday. Cheers for 32nd years my love @kalanifaagata and many more to come."Not only has Kalani also posted recent photos with Asuelu on Instagram, but the couple additionally shared two YouTube videos on their channel this past summer after not uploading anything on their channel for almost a year.As recently as June 30, Kalani posted a sweet photo of Asuelu cuddling with their boys on Instagram Stories.One week earlier, Kalani posted a smiling selfie with Asuelu, a video of Asuelu laughing in a massage chair, and brief throwback clips of the couple's axe-throwing date.Kalani uploaded the photos and videos shortly after the June 21 episode of : Happily Ever After? aired on TLC, and she captioned the slideshow, "BTS of tonight's episode. What'd y'all think?"On May 24, Kalani posted a video clip on Instagram of Asuelu and herself talking about how they had once walked through a jungle in Samoa and explored a cave together.The couple was promoting a video they had posted on YouTube."In honor of #samoanlanguageweek, we posted a YouTube video where I butcher basic Samoan, and we talk about our dating life in Samoa (pictures included)," Kalani wrote on Instagram.Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage!
Sri Lankan Navy on Friday said that divers have plugged the fuel leak on MT New Diamond, the oil tanker that was on fire for almost a week. A few days ago, an oil slick was spotted a kilometre away from a loaded supertanker off the countrys east coast. The blaze was doused on Wednesday by Indian Navy and Sri Lankan Navy. According to a statement by the Navy, the fuel of the ship was leaking from a fuel tank and created a two-kilometre long trail in the Indian Ocean via the pipes that had been damaged due to the week-long blaze.

Read: Lebanon Prez Aoun Under Fire For Seizing Sri Lankan Tea Donated To Beirut Blast Victims

Fuel leak fixed

The fire onboard oil tanker MT New Diamond was doused on September 6 before it reignited on September 7 due to prevailing intense heat onboard. Sri Lankan officials are currently working to assess any damage to the environment and marine life from the incident. Sri Lankan Navy spokesman Indika de Silva reportedly said that the ship had tilted slightly towards where the fire broke out due to a large amount of water sprayed to douse the fire. He further added that the oil in the engine room also appears to have leaked out to the sea.

Read: Sri Lanka: Oil Slick Spotted A Kilometre From Stricken MT New Diamond

One Filipino crew member has died after the boiler in the main engine room burst into flames causing the fire. The 22 people who were on board were successfully rescued from the vessel that is reported to be loaded with 270,000 metric tons of crude oil. Jagath Gunesekara, Deputy General Manager of Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA), said that the Sri Lankan government has deployed scientists and researchers from MEPA tasked with examining the area around the ship and nearby coastal areas for the sign of pollution. The large 333-metre long crude carrier is carrying over three lakh metric tons of crude oil for the Indian Oil Corporation from Kuwait to Paradip. ICG ships Sujay, Shaurya, Sarang and pollution response vessel Samudra Paheredar are continuously engaged in the firefighting operation on rotation, using a specialised external firefighting system, a statement from ICG said.

Read: Sri Lanka: Massive Fire On A Stricken Oil Tanker Extinguished, One Dead

Also read: Salvagers Working To Repair Leak On Oil Tanker Off Sri Lanka

(Image Credits: AP)
Awendenaweh was drumming and singing in the quiet courtyard behind FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre as smoke from a sacred fire curled gently into the morning sunshine.

It was definitely not the usual colourful swirl of dance and song that accompanies the Celebration of Nations, an annual partnership and gathering of Indigenous arts, culture and tradition in downtown St. Catharines.

The festival adjusted itself to the pandemic and began Friday. The performances and educational pieces are being held virtually, for the most part. Every year has a theme. This year it is the Mighty Niagara and the Great Lakes Watershed.

Im sticking around to sing some songs and spread care, love, appreciation, support and sharing through song, said Awendenaweh, 60, of the Six Nations of the Grand River. Everyone prays in their way. Natives pray through song and the burning of tobacco.

If you read the Bible, Isaiah 26:20 says stay safe indoors for a little while, while this passes. If we all did that for a month, this would all be gone. But everyone has to participate. It would let the world heal itself.

Saturday, the festival included talks on 13,000 Years of Indigenous Navigation and Settlement in the Great Lakes Waters, short films and the Empathic Poetry Cafe hosted by Janet Rogers.

At one point in the spring, Michele-Elise Burnett, the artistic director, wondered whether Celebration of Nations could be held this year.

Like everybody, we took a pause and wondered how long the pandemic was going to last, Burnett said. We start our planning every year right after the festival ends when the team gets together and begins brainstorming.

Burnett said the festivals theme and lineup of speakers and artists were set when the COVID-19 shutdown began.

Everything was in place when this all happened, Burnett said. We put everything on pause and decided to see where we were in June. When July arrived, we said this isnt going happen, and we decided to go completely virtual.

One of the things that made the celebration successful, she said, is the variety and volume of activities for all ages and interests. At any one time, there might be five things going on simultaneously.

The move to a virtual event meant everything rolled linearly, one after another. It gave Burnett a sense of deja vu.

It reminded me of my radio days, Burnett said. Its the family business. This year, we have a lot of pre-production and pre-recorded stuff, and we moved to block formatting. That is what we do in radio.

It shortened the program  and tripled the work.

Livestreamed performances featured Six Nations of the Grand River of Blood Water Earth by Indigenous creator Santee Smith and music from Indigenous Juno Award winners Lee Harvey Osmond and 2020 Polaris Music Prize shortlisted-artist Lido Pimienta.

A festival can solidify spirituality within the people all over the place, Awendenaweh said. Everybody has that spirit. Some are closely connected to it. Others are way off to the side. We are trying to reach the ones that are way out to the side to bring them into a spiritual realm the creator wants us to be in.

A panel of women speakers discussed traditional insights on the relationships and bonds between humans and the living earth  and the consequences of ignoring natural law.

The social issues have never been more timely as climate change ravages the earth and civil strife engulfs America.

I was listening to an Indigenous comedian, who has since passed away, and he said the Western World needs us because we are the only ones with the instruction manual to live on this earth, Burnett said. It is part of who we are. We want to work as one with all living things, and find harmony and balance.




Haiti - News : Zapping...





The EDH at the bedside of the Carrefour power plants

"This Friday (September 11), I visited the Carrefour 1 & 2 plants in order to assess the repair needs they require in order to better supply the metropolitan network," said Michel Presume DG of the EDH. It should be remembered that these plants, with a total production capacity of 75 Mw, have for some time been producing less than 10 Mw on average.



UN : new Permanent Representative of Haiti

Former Minister of Foreign Affairs (2017-2018) Antonio Rodrigue, presented his credentials to the United Nations Secretariat as the new Permanent Representative of Haiti.



30 student diplomats

Thursday took place the ceremony of handing over letters to 30 Student Civil Servants who passed the entrance examination to the Diplomatic Academy Jean Price Mars of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs "I proceeded to the delivery of letters to 30 Student Civil Servants who have passed the entrance examination to the Jean Price Mars Diplomatic Academy of the MAE. An approach which testifies to our desire to work for a stronger public administration at the service of the Republic," Jovenel Moise.



New leader at the head of the IDB

"On behalf of the Haitian people and on my own behalf, I welcome the arrival of Mauricio J. Claver-Carone as head of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). My Administration hopes to work actively with this new team with a view to improving the living conditions of the Haitian people. I am already inviting the new President of the IDB, immediately after taking office, to come and visit Haiti. This will be an opportunity for me to offer him a more dynamic cooperative approach, based on trust and mutual understanding," declared President Jovenel Moise.



Cap-Haitien : First Municipal Forum on Youth Entrepreneurship

The Municipality of Cap-Haitien is preparing to organize the 1 st Edition of the Municipal Forum on Youth Entrepreneurship (FOMEJ) on October 9, 10 and 11, 2020, in the gardens of the Town Hall located at Streeet 20 F-G. This activity aims to encourage the creative spirit among young people, to promote youth entrepreneurship and to stimulate the real process of economic development in Cap-Haitien through the creation, strengthening and promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). For information and reservations, call +50933338057, +50934344853 or go to the Town Hall of Cap-Haitien.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















A British grandfather is in an induced coma in Tenerife after breaking his neck diving into a swimming pool.

Chris Watkins, 43, from Pontypool, Wales, was on holiday with a group of friends in Playa de las Americas when the accident happened last Friday.

The groundsman's best friend told The Sun that he'd initially thought Mr Watkins was joking when he cried out, 'I can't feel anything.'

'He was on his side crying "I've broken my neck, I can't feel anything, help me" and I told him to stop being silly.' Christian Preece, 43, said.

Chris Watkins, 43, from Pontypool, Wales, was on holiday with a group of friends in Playa de las Americas when the accident happened last Friday (pictured with family)

The groundsman's best friend said that he'd initially thought Mr Watkins was joking when he cried out, 'I can't feel anything'

'I told him he'd only jarred it but he replied, "No, I'm serious," and my heart sank. He's a bit of a joker but I knew from his voice that he was telling the truth.

'He's been my best mate since we were four years old. To see him like this is like living a nightmare.'

His eldest daughter Kayleigh Watkins said her father was struggling with not being able to see his granddaughter, three year-old Gracie-Mae.

Ms Watkins, 23, told the Sun: 'I'm in total shock. I can't believe what's happened. When I saw him in his hospital bed I just started shaking and crying. I felt sick. To see him like that was awful.

His eldest daughter Kayleigh Watkins said her father was struggling with not being able to see his granddaughter, three year-old Gracie-Mae

'He was an absolutely brilliant dad who would do anything for us when we were growing up, and he's exactly the same with Gracie-Mae.

'He loves playing with her and not being able to do that will be so hard on him.'

His family have set up a GoFundMe page to pay for his medical fees and transport home.

The page was created by his sister Nadia Hopkins, who wrote: 'As you all probably know Christopher has had a life changing accident during a holiday in Tenerife.

'As a family we are all in a state of shock and disbelief and we are all completely devastated, being in a foreign country means that family members and friends cannot see him or support his Mother Father and two Daughters who are in Tenerife at the moment.

'Christopher is a fun loving vibrant person who everyone loves, he is full of energy and he is everyone's friend.

'We need your help to raise funds for medical costs and to get Christopher home as soon as possible any donations would be gratefully accepted and the family would like to say thank you in advance.'
Days after creating ripples in Bihar politics by deciding to quit his parent party, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), former union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh passed away at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, on Sunday morning following breathing complications for last one day during treatment post Covid-19. He was 74 and is survived by his two sons and a daughter.

Incidentally, the demise of the mathematics professor-turned-politician, fondly known as Brahma Baba for his off the straight talk and simple lifestyle, was more dramatic coming just three days after he stirred the political poll plot in Bihar quitting the RJD.

Apparently, his RJD exit came over his marginalisation in the party. He wrote an emotional letter to jailed RJD chief Lalu Prasad to forgive him after standing behind him for 32 years after death of Jannayak Karpoor Thakur( former chief minister of Bihar). Singh was a prominent Rajput face in the RJD and had opposed the induction of his rival and strongman Rama Singh, a former Vaisali MP, in the RJD.

There were speculations the five term Vaisali MP could join the ruling Janata Dal ( united) after his recovery. But that was not to be. The last rites of the departed leader will take place on the banks of Ganga in Vaisali on Monday with full state honours after his body is flown in from New Delhi and taken to his native village, Panapur Shahpur in Mahnar, Vaisali today, according to close aides.

Also read: The importance of Raghuvansh Prasad Singh

Politicians and leaders across the country condoled Singh demise. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during a video conferencing event on Sunday, paid rich tributes to the veteran socialist stating that his death had created a void in national and Bihar politics and called him a leader who understood poverty and dedicated his life to stand for his ideals and principles. President Ram Nath Kovind too condoled Singhs death along with Bihar Governor Phagu Chauhan.

PM Modi also made an oblique reference to Singhs resignation from the RJD three days back, saying the leader was going though Manthan ( introspection) about how he couldnt continue with those he had stayed long and worked. Raghuvansh ji had expressed his sentiments in a letter 3-4 days back. But he was equally concerned about the development of Vaisali and expressed it in series of letters. I will urge chief minister Nitish Kumar that we try to fulfill his sentiments in his last letter, PM Modi said.

The PM also recalled his long association with Singh referring to his interaction with the latter in TV debates and also as Gujarat CM when the veteran socialist was serving as Union rural development minister in UPA-1 government. The CM Nitish Kumar also extended regret on Singhs death. Singh was a grassroots leader, a prominent socialist. His death is a personal loss to me and an irreparable loss for political, education and social fields, Kumar said.

In series of letters written by Singh from his hospital bed in his last few days, he demanded from the Bihar CM that work under the job scheme should be allowed on the land of general farmers so that farmers get more work by making necessary changes through an ordinance.

In his political career spanning over four decades, the Singhs socialist high point was his stint as rural development minister in UPA-1 government when he had piloted the implementation of MGNREGA under the then PM Manmohan Singh.

He had also demanded that alms bowl of Lord Buddha should be brought to Vaisali from Kabul Museum and national flag should be hoisted at Vaisaligarh on Independence Day and Republic Day to mark the importance of his native district as the worlds first republic.

On the other hand, Lalu Yadav chose to make a guarded response over Singhs death. Jailed RJD chief Lalu Prasad expressed grief and bewilderment over Singhs death, saying Raghuvansh Babu. What did you do! Only two days back, I told you that you arent going anywhere. But now you have gone so far. I am speechless, saddened. You will always be remembered, he tweeted.

Leader of opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav also called Singhs death a personal loss recalling how the departed leader stood by him at his time of crisis and always guided him like a guardian. The RJD, as a mark of respect, has cancelled all party functions for next seven days to mourn the Singhs death.

Professor Nawal Kishore Choudhary, a political observer, said during his last days, Singh had raised pertinent questions on dynastic politics and there are chances the NDA may try to cash in on his legacy to corner the RJD. But Singh was a leader who had a pan India image and never assertive of his caste identity. There could be some politics in his name but it would have marginal effect, he said.

But many in the RJD felt Raghuvanshs demise has put the party in trouble ahead of the Bihar assembly polls as the formers bid to denounce dynastic politics in an oblique attack on RJD chiefs bid to promote his son and other family members in series of letters in last few days has given enough ammunition to the ruling JD(U) and BJP to berate the opposition party.
A 60-year-old Massachusetts man died while hiking in New Hampshire Saturday after suffering an unknown medical condition while summiting Mount Jefferson, according to the New Hampshire Fish and Game.

The man, who is from Mashpee, was hiking with a small group of people when he suddenly collapsed around 2 p.m.

Other hikers, many who work in the medical profession, saw what happened and immediately performed CPR on the man while also calling 911, authorities said.

Fish & Game conservation officers were alerted to the emergency and started the rescue response. Officials had to call for a Blackhawk helicopter from the National Guard in Concord, New Hampshire for help.

The National Guard crew was able to hoist the man up and into the helicopter using a winch.

Unfortunately, despite all the exhaustive efforts by fellow hikers providing constant resuscitation for nearly 2 hours and the arrival of the National Guard helicopter, he did not survive, the New Hampshire Fish and Game said. The hiker, whose name is being withheld pending notification to family members, was experienced and in good health prior to his collapse.
Some University of Ghana Students of the murdered Law Professor Emmanuel Yaw Benneh, who are still in deep shock are wondering why such a 'calm, patient and friendly' man will be murdered under very mysterious circumstances.

"Why will anyone want to kill a very approachable, friendly, and easy-going man, the students have quizzed.

News of the late Professor Emmanuel Yaw Benneh of the University, whose dead body was found in his home at East Legon Agyiriganor, has come as a shock to many.

Some students of the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College, where the Professor was also said to be lecturing International Law, said it was difficult to believe that anyone would want to kill such a nice man.

He made us appreciate International Law, a female student at the College who sought anonymity, told the Ghana News Agency, whilst trying to hold back her tears.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Effia Tenge, Head of Public Affairs Unit of the Greater Accra Regional Police Command said on September 12, this year, at about 0730 hours, a report was received by the East Legon Police that Prof. Benneh had been found dead in a pool of blood at his residence.

DSP Tenge said the Police Crime Scene Investigation Team from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) proceeded to the Law lecturer's residence and found the deceased lying in a pool of blood with some cuts on the body.

She told the GNA that the body had since been deposited at the Police Hospital Morgue and that investigation was underway.

---GNA
Two months after being fired from the hit Bravo reality series Vanderpump Rules, Stassi Schroeder has reunited with her former costars Katie Maloney and Lala Kent.

After catching up with her pals at a small gathering in Los Angeles, the 32-year-old reality star showed off her burgeoning baby bump in a skin-tight dress on Friday.

As her fiance Beau Clark pulled up their car, the popular podcast host chatted away with Maloney, who wore a thigh-skimming pink snakeskin dress and sneakers.

Reunion: Stassi Schroeder put her baby bump on full display, as she reunited with her former Vanderpump Rules costars Katie Maloney and Lala Kent

Schroeder oozed sophistication in a pair of open-toed brown heels and a matching purse, which she kept slung over her shoulder.

For the occasion, the soon-to-be mother sported a sleek ponytail glam makeup with dusky eye-shadow and a glossy pout.

As they conversed, Maloney kept one hand on her hip and showed off her figure in a plunging frock, which she paired with a gold necklace.

Bumping along: For the occasion, the soon-to-be mother sported a sleek ponytail glam makeup with dusky eye-shadow and a glossy pout

Schroeder competed her all-white ensemble with a long linen jacket and could be seen beaming, as Clark opened the car door for her.

Meanwhile, Kent strolled into the party in a beige and white trench coat and black sneakers.

The blonde beauty recently announced she is expecting her first child with fiance Randall Emmett.

Happy camper: She competed her all-white ensemble with a long linen jacket and could be seen beaming, as her fiance Beau Clark opened the car door for her

Flawless: Lala Kent, who recently announced she is expecting her first child, strolled into the party in a beige and white trench coat and black sneakers

Her flawless long locks were blow-dried out with a voluminous curl, as she toted a black backpack, with a tropical pattern.

Kent's outfit covered any sign of her bump, just four days after she shared a picture of their baby-to-be during an ultrasound appointment.

Randall, 49, proudly showed off their sonogram on his Instagram Story, where he cooed over their new addition.

'There's the baby!' Lala Kent and her fiance Randall Emmett delighted fans once again with another baby update on Wednesday

'There's the baby!' Randall exclaimed as he zoomed into the sonogram, his voice full of joy.

'The baby!' the Vanderpump Rules star chimed in.

The Instagram update comes just days after Lala and her husband-to-be announced her pregnancy on their podcast, Give Them Lala... With Randall.

Family planning: The couple have been open about their desire to have a family

Lala casually announced the news on the podcast, saying: 'Today is my 30 birthday and I can't think of any other way to celebrate than with you guys coming through your headphones and speakers. I had the best gift given to me, my body also helped out too I am pregnant!'

'Lala Kent, a soon-to-be mother!' Randall added.

Lala and Randall have been open about their desire to have a family together, even revealing they had been attempting to conceive a child during quarantine.
New York: Michael Bloomberg, who spent $US1 billion ($1.37 billion) of his own money on a failed 2020 presidential bid, will inject at least $US100 million to help Democrat Joe Biden's campaign against President Donald Trump in Florida.

The billionaire's decision comes at a critical moment in the final 51 days of the race, with polls showing a close race in the battleground state and no financial advantage for the sitting president as voting gets under way later this month.

New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg is to spend $US100 million in Florida. Credit:AP

Trump's initial financial supremacy over former Vice President Biden evaporated after the Republican's campaign spent freely and Democratic fundraising surged once the party's divisive primary ended.

"Mike Bloomberg is committed to helping defeat Trump, and that is going to happen in the battleground states," said Bloomberg adviser Kevin Sheekey, who added that the ex-New York City mayor's spending "will mean Democrats and the Biden campaign can invest even more heavily in other key states like Pennsylvania, which will be critical to a Biden victory."
They are located in Uchturpan county, and are home to more than 20,000 Uyghur inmates, about 10% of the local population. A few days ago, on a visit to Europe, Wang Yi declared that all "education centers" had been closed. US website: 268 fortified structures built in the region since 2017. The international community protests.

Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) - At least three internment camps, with more than 20,000 Uyghur prisoners, are still in operation in Xinjiang. Their existence was confirmed to Radio Free Asia by two police officers from Uchturpan county, home of the offending structures.

The news repudiates recent statements by the Chinese authorities that the detention centers - educational institutions for Beijing - have all been closed. On August 30, during a visit to France, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that all the people housed in these institutions have finished their studies and have found employment.

According to expert data, confirmed by the United Nations, over one million Uyghurs (out of a population of nearly 10 million) and other Turkish-speaking Islamic minorities are arbitrarily detained in Xinjiang, which the local population calls "East Turkestan".

Human rights activists and many governments, including the United States and the European Union, describe the detention facilities as real concentration camps used to indoctrinate the Uyghur population. The Chinese authorities admitted the centers existed in October 2018, arguing, however, that they are vocational training centers to educate Uyghur citizens, especially young people, against terrorism, separatism and Islamic extremism.

The three internment camps indicated by Uchturpan police officers are home to about 10% of the county's Uyghur population (235,000 people). In the largest facility, the Kongtai center, more than 10 thousand local Muslims are reportedly interned.

These latest revelations about Chinese concentration camps come just days after Buzzfeed, a US website, reported that Xinjiang authorities have built 268 fortified structures since 2017: at least one for each county. The calculation was made through the use of satellite data.

Beijing is increasingly under pressure from the international community for its policies in Xinjiang. Yesterday, at the end of a ministerial meeting in Brussels, the European Union and Canada condemned the treatment reserved by the Chinese authorities for the Uyghur minority. On September 1, during Wang Yi's visit to Berlin, the German government demanded China allow international observers to enter Xinjiang.

The US has also intensified its attacks on Beijing's leadership. On September 8, the Trump administration said the United States intend to ban imports of cotton and tomatoes - two of China's top export goods - from Xinjiang. Washington claims that they are produced thanks to the exploitation of Uyghur internees.

Due to the abuses against the Uighur people, the US government has already called on US companies to cut ties with their suppliers in Xinjiang. Nike and Apple, which have strong interests in the autonomous region, have opened an investigation into the employment of Uyghur workers and other local minorities.
Killer whales have been attacking sailing boats off the coasts of Spain and Portugal, in encounters one mariner said felt totally orchestrated and another described as like a sledgehammer.

Scientists have been left perplexed by a growing number of incidents since late July in which a pod of orcas have repeatedly rammed into vessels in the region.

Several boats have been severely damaged in the confrontations, which left one crew member with minor injuries and several others with severely frayed nerves.

While researchers say it is normal for the highly intelligent mammals to follow small boats, it is extremely unusual for them to display such aggressive behaviour.

The most recent assault came on Friday, on Spains northern coast near A Coruna.

Science news in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Science news in pictures Science news in pictures Pluto has 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen Pluto has a 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen that is doing strange things to its surface, Nasa has found. The mysterious core seems to be the cause of features on its surface that have fascinated scientists since they were spotted by Nasa's New Horizons mission. "Before New Horizons, everyone thought Pluto was going to be a netball - completely flat, almost no diversity," said Tanguy Bertrand, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and the lead author on the new study. "But it's completely different. It has a lot of different landscapes and we are trying to understand what's going on there." Getty Science news in pictures Over 400 species discovered this year by Natural History Museum The ancient invertabrate worm-like species rhenopyrgus viviani (pictured) is one of over 400 species previously unknown to science that were discovered by experts at the Natural History Museum this year PA Science news in pictures Jackdaws can identify 'dangerous' humans Jackdaws can identify dangerous humans from listening to each others warning calls, scientists say. The highly social birds will also remember that person if they come near their nests again, according to researchers from the University of Exeter. In the study, a person unknown to the wild jackdaws approached their nest. At the same time scientists played a recording of a warning call (threatening) or contact calls (non-threatening). The next time jackdaws saw this same person, the birds that had previously heard the warning call were defensive and returned to their nests more than twice as quickly on average. Getty Science news in pictures Turtle embryos influence sex by shaking The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperatures at which they are incubated. Warm temperatures favour females. But by wiggling around the egg, embryos can find the Goldilocks Zone which means they are able to shield themselves against extreme thermal conditions and produce a balanced sex ratio, according to the new study published in Current Biology journal Ye et al/Current Biology Science news in pictures Elephant poaching rates drop in Africa African elephant poaching rates have dropped by 60 per cent in six years, an international study has found. It is thought the decline could be associated with the ivory trade ban introduced in China in 2017. Reuters Science news in pictures Ancient four-legged whale discovered in Peru Scientists have identified a four-legged creature with webbed feet to be an ancestor of the whale. Fossils unearthed in Peru have led scientists to conclude that the enormous creatures that traverse the planets oceans today are descended from small hoofed ancestors that lived in south Asia 50 million years ago A. Gennari Science news in pictures Animal with transient anus discovered A scientist has stumbled upon a creature with a transient anus that appears only when it is needed, before vanishing completely. Dr Sidney Tamm of the Marine Biological Laboratory could not initially find any trace of an anus on the species. However, as the animal gets full, a pore opens up to dispose of waste Steven G Johnson Science news in pictures Giant bee spotted Feared extinct, the Wallace's Giant bee has been spotted for the first time in nearly 40 years. An international team of conservationists spotted the bee, that is four times the size of a typical honeybee, on an expedition to a group of Indonesian Islands Clay Bolt Science news in pictures New mammal species found inside crocodile Fossilised bones digested by crocodiles have revealed the existence of three new mammal species that roamed the Cayman Islands 300 years ago. The bones belonged to two large rodent species and a small shrew-like animal New Mexico Museum of Natural History Science news in pictures Fabric that changes according to temperature created Scientists at the University of Maryland have created a fabric that adapts to heat, expanding to allow more heat to escape the body when warm and compacting to retain more heat when cold Faye Levine, University of Maryland Science news in pictures Baby mice tears could be used in pest control A study from the University of Tokyo has found that the tears of baby mice cause female mice to be less interested in the sexual advances of males Getty Science news in pictures Final warning to limit "climate catastrophe" The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a report which projects the impact of a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius and warns against a higher increase Getty Science news in pictures Nobel prize for evolution chemists The nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to three chemists working with evolution. Frances Smith is being awarded the prize for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes, while Gregory Winter and George Smith take the prize for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies Getty/AFP Science news in pictures Nobel prize for laser physicists The nobel prize for physics has been awarded to three physicists working with lasers. Arthur Ashkin (L) was awarded for his "optical tweezers" which use lasers to grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells. Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou were jointly awarded the prize for developing chirped-pulse amplification of lasers Reuters/AP Science news in pictures Discovery of a new species of dinosaur The Ledumahadi Mafube roamed around 200 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Recently discovered by a team of international scientists, it was the largest land animal of its time, weighing 12 tons and standing at 13 feet. In Sesotho, the South African language of the region in which the dinosaur was discovered, its name means "a giant thunderclap at dawn" Viktor Radermacher / SWNS Science news in pictures Birth of a planet Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever. This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star. ESO/A. Muller et al Science news in pictures New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the interstitium. These compartments are found beneath the skin, as well as lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels and muscles, and join together to form a network supported by a mesh of strong, flexible proteins Getty Science news in pictures Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest. These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs Jose Iriarte Science news in pictures One in 10 people have traces of cocaine or heroin on fingerprints, study finds More than one in 10 people were found to have traces of class A drugs on their fingers by scientists developing a new fingerprint-based drug test. Using sensitive analysis of the chemical composition of sweat, researchers were able to tell the difference between those who had been directly exposed to heroin and cocaine, and those who had encountered it indirectly. Getty Science news in pictures Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter's great red spot The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image's colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth. Pictures by: Tom Momary

Halcyon Yachts were reportedly sailing a 36-foot vessel back to the UK when an orca rammed into it 15 times. The boat lost its steering and needed to be towed back to harbour.

It follows two separate attacks on ships 70 miles south, near Vigo, two weeks earlier. One ship radioed the coastguard to say it was under attack, while the other lost part of its rudder.

The first notably aggressive encounters came in late July, when a 46-foot delivery boat was met with nine orcas who left teeth marks on the hull they rammed for more than an hour, spinning the boat 180 degrees and disabling the engine and rudder, leaving the four-person crew adrift in the Gibraltar Straits shipping lane.

The noise was really scary. They were ramming the keel, there was this horrible echo, I thought they could capsize the boat," Victoria Morris, a 23-year-old who was crewing the boat, told The Guardian.

"And this deafening noise as they communicated, whistling to each other. It was so loud that we had to shout. It felt totally orchestrated, the biology graduate added.

A day earlier, Nick Giles was sailing a 34-foot Moody yacht when he heard a bang like a sledgehammer and saw his wheel turning with incredible force as the vessel pivoted 180 degrees.

He felt the boat lift and was pushed around without steering for 15 minutes, he told the paper.

These are very strange events, Ezequiel Andreu Cazalla, a cetacean researcher, told The Guardian. But I dont think theyre attacks.

With orca populations facing various human-led existential threats, the early scientific consensus appears to be that the behaviour is related to stress.

The Gibraltar orcas are endangered, with only 50 believed to be left. But as food grows ever scarcer, the mammals are drawn to the strait - described by Ms Cazalla as the worst place for orcas to live - by the dwindling wealth of blue-fin tuna.

But the costs of more fertile hunting grounds are severe, with orcas facing often deadly competition from human fishing practices.

Theyre very intelligent. They know people are out there: Ive seen them look at boats hauling fish. I think they know that humans are somehow related to the scarcity of food," Ken Balcomb from the Centre for Whale Research was quoted as telling The Atlantic in 2018.

"And I think they know that the scarcity of food is causing them physical distress, and also causing them to lose babies.

But The Guardian reported that Jorn Selling, a marine biologist with Firmm whale watching and research foundation, considered another theory - that, after months of reduced noise in the ocean during the coronavirus pandemic, something most of them probably never experienced before, the orcas could have been angered by the resumption of business-as-usual.
In Vallejo, police encounters often turn violent Vallejos police killings have drawn attention and outrage. They arent the full story: A litany of lawsuits describes nonfatal police interactions gone bad.

In Vallejo, police encounters often turn violent Vallejos police killings have drawn attention and outrage. They arent the full story: A litany of lawsuits describes nonfatal police interactions gone bad.

Delon Thurston sometimes drives home from work wearing disposable plastic gloves.

The gloves press an oily therapeutic treatment  turmeric, black pepper, lavender, coconut oil  into her pores, soothing her achy hands and wrists after her shifts as a massage therapist.

Otis R. Taylor Jr. is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. His columns typically appear Mondays and Thursdays. Email | Twitter

It helps increase the circulation, Thurston told me. My carpals are really important if I want to sustain my career.

But to the Vallejo police officers who arrested her on Oct. 30, 2018, a driver wearing plastic gloves suggested something very different.

Car thieves often wear latex gloves while driving stolen cars to avoid leaving fingerprints, Detective Kevin Barreto stated in his arrest report.

Thurstons encounter with police, which took place after she parked in her driveway, would result in her being pulled from her car, pushed to the ground and, she says in a lawsuit against the city, inappropriately fondled through her clothing by a female officer during a pat-down at the scene.

The city has denied the allegations and has moved to dismiss the lawsuit.

Thurston is among at least 60 people since 2014  most of them people of color like herself  who say they were victims of heavy-handed tactics by city officers. Police stops that were initiated for minor infractions, or for unclear reasons, often turn into violent encounters in Vallejo, a Chronicle investigation found.

Residents, some backed by video evidence, accuse police of dragging them from cars, attacking them with dogs and pummeling them with batons, boots and fists. In claims filed at City Hall and lawsuits filed in county and federal courts, people describe coming away bruised and bloodied.

Review after June killing

These encounters are coming under review by state Attorney General Xavier Becerra. His review and reform agreement comes amid controversy over a Vallejo officers June 2 killing of Sean Monterrosa, a 22-year-old San Franciscan.

According to a police account and body-camera footage, both posted on the departments website, the officer was responding with two colleagues to a looting report at a Walgreens. The officer fired a rifle from the back seat of a truck, through the windshield, as the truck pulled into the parking lot.

Monterrosa, who police said was crouching in the lot, allegedly had a hammer but no gun. A statement released by the Vallejo police officers union said the officer fired as a last resort after Monterrosa grabbed an object in his waistband that appeared to be the butt of a gun. The killing is under investigation by the OIR Group, a police oversight company, and Becerras office is investigating the alleged destruction of evidence  the trucks shattered windshield.

In July, the departments troubles deepened when an attorney representing a former captain said that some officers had altered their badges  bending one tip of a seven-point star  to mark that they had killed people. The ex-captain, John Whitney, filed a legal claim asserting he was fired for speaking up about misconduct issues in the agency. The city did not formally respond to the claim, meaning Whitney may now file a lawsuit to pursue his complaint.

Vallejo Police Chief Shawny Williams, who upon his hiring in November said the department would chart a new direction, said in a news release that he was starting a third-party investigation into the alleged badge-bending, which was first reported by news site Open Vallejo.

Monterrosa was the 19th person killed by Vallejo officers since 2010, according to the Solano County district attorney, an unusually high number for a city of 122,000 people. Vallejo finds itself under a spotlight as communities across the country reckon with the criminal justice systems unequal treatment of people of color. Its a reality faced by many who have lived in Vallejo for years now.

But in drawing attention and often outrage, Vallejos police killings can end up masking a litany of other, nonfatal police interactions gone bad.

Complaints about these encounters are part of a severely strained relationship between many citizens and cops in a city with immense racial disparities in police interactions. In one of the Bay Areas most diverse communities  Vallejo is 30% white, 25% Asian, 22% Black and 20% Latino  69% of police officers are white, and just 7% are Black, according to Police Department data. In 2018, 49% of the 2,315 people arrested by Vallejo police were Black, the FBI reported.

This story draws from interviews with dozens of Vallejo citizens, activists, attorneys and current and former city officials and a review of lawsuits, police reports and almost 150 complaints filed with the city against police. Some complaints are over issues like damaged property during police car and foot chases, but at least 60, from October 2014 to June 2019, allege excessive force by Vallejo officers.

Aside from Joe Allio, who spoke to me last year during his four months as interim police chief  and is now interim assistant chief  and a brief interview with the new chief, Williams, department and police union officials have ignored my repeated requests for response to the cases discussed, as have the City Managers Office and the Solano County District Attorneys Office. Their silence makes it impossible to fully understand the perspective of the officers involved in these events.

My efforts to interview private lawyers who represent Vallejo officers in internal affairs investigations have also been unsuccessful. And the results of those investigations are generally not made public, under California law.

Vallejos police officers face unique challenges. According to FBI data, the city, with 114 officers, had the highest number of criminal cases per officer in the state in 2018. So far this year, Vallejo has seen 21 killings, giving it the highest per-capita homicide rate among Bay Area cities. Fatigue from long overtime shifts, the city police union said in a recent statement, results in dangerous working conditions and adversely impacts citizen safety.

But that doesnt account for the hard, violent turn that many confrontations with police take here.

No repercussions

At City Council meetings, angry residents have frequently aired their complaints about police, sometimes in shouted frustration and protests, to no avail.

The elements of Delon Thurstons story are representative of what many Vallejoans shared with me about their police encounters. According to her lawsuit, shed noticed a black sport utility vehicle behind her as she drove home from work to eat dinner. Shed just pulled into her driveway when the vehicle behind flashed police lights at her.

The officer, Barreto, got out and informed Thurston that shed failed to signal when she turned into her apartment complex, according to his report. Her lawsuit states that she had in fact signaled and that the officer accused her only of making an abrupt left turn. In an interview, she said she found that perplexing and the officers brusque demeanor threatening.

Riding with Barreto that day was Officer Jarrett Tonn, the police report said. Tonn is the officer who shot and killed Sean Monterrosa, according to a civil rights lawsuit filed by Monterrosas family. As the officers, one holding a Taser shock weapon, approached her car, Thurston said, she felt vulnerable, thinking of police violence shed heard about.

She told Barreto that his manner made her uncomfortable, and rolled up her car window. Barretos report says Thurston reached for a bag on the seat, an assertion Thurston denies. He opened the door and pulled the 5-foot-3-inch woman from her car. He then pushed her to the ground, scraping her nose and forehead, Thurston says in her lawsuit.

More officers arrived, and a female officer patted her down. Then, Thurston says in her suit, the officer initiated a pat search of her body, breasts and genitals ... in a manner that left her feeling degraded and violated. The city denied the allegations.

When the officer asked why she was crying, Thurston responded, You guys are humiliating me.

Before Thurston was arrested and taken from her home, Tonn had verified that the car was hers, according to the police report.

Theres no repercussions. Nothings happening after this stuff happens, Thurston said. Its OK for these people to still be on the streets serving our community. Ive cried for a lot of people.

$15 million in payouts

Its bad. Thats how Allio, Vallejos interim police chief from July to October last year, summed up the departmental statistics he saw when he arrived. Based on my research, indicators of trouble in the city are numerous.

During the October 2014 to June 2019 tenure of former Chief Andrew Bidou, a period when calls for reform escalated, the police force was the subject of 147 legal claims seeking damages. Sixty of them alleged excessive use of force or civil rights violations, according to a review of the claims by The Chronicle. Bidou could not be reached for comment.

Claims that arent settled often lead to lawsuits, and Vallejo, as of last month, faced more than two dozen suits alleging police misconduct. Since 2003, Vallejo has agreed to pay more than $15 million to settle such suits, city records show.

The latest: a $5.7 million settlement announced this month for the family of Ronell Foster, who was killed in February 2018 after Officer Ryan McMahon chased him, shocked him with a Taser and struck him with a flashlight before shooting him, according to McMahons statements to police investigators and body-camera footage. The city and McMahon settled without admitting fault.

According to a police press release after the killing, there was a violent physical struggle between McMahon and Foster, during which the officer discharged his duty firearm in self-defense.

Attorneys for the family said Foster was shot in the back after grabbing the flashlight and attempting to flee the officers blows. McMahon, who was cleared of charges by prosecutors, told interviewers that he knew that simply being hit in the head with his flashlight could lead to his death, the investigators report said. Without even thinking about it, I had my firearm out, McMahon said. Im not going to die back here. Im not going to be a victim.

In August, reports released publicly by the department showed Chief Williams had moved to fire McMahon in connection with another fatal shooting last year. The officer is on paid leave.

As a result of the payouts, the California Joint Powers Risk Management Authority, the agency that served as the citys insurance company for about three decades, notified Vallejo in 2017 that if it didnt agree to boost its deductible from $500,000 to $2.5 million, it would be removed from the pool. It was the first time such a step was taken in the authoritys history, said Tony Giles, the companys general manager. Vallejo instead joined PRISM, or Public Risk Innovation, Solutions, and Management, a risk-sharing pool.

Since 2010, 44 Vallejo police officers have shot people, and 14 have been involved in multiple shootings, according to police and city records. Yet no officers have been charged by the Solano County District Attorneys Office, for any reason.

Allio came to Vallejo after retiring as chief of police in Fairfield, a city just up Interstate 80 from Vallejo with a similar population size. He said Vallejos record was unlike any other hed seen. During the period that Vallejo had 147 claims against its police force, Fairfield had 131. But only 30 of those alleged civil rights abuses or excessive force by officers  half of Vallejos number.

Nor is Vallejos pattern of legal settlements typical, in the experience of Brien Farrell, a city resident who was once Santa Rosas city attorney. Vallejos millions of dollars in payouts amounts to evidence that there are problems, he said, and that the city views the risk of a larger jury verdict as a significant risk, and that theyd rather pay this amount than risk a jury ordering them to pay even more.

Before he left his interim post, yielding to Chief Williams, Allio said the department needed to take a close look at itself.

We cant say, Were fine, were just getting sued, Allio said. We have to say, What are our priorities? And they start with the preservation of human life.

Now, state Department of Justice officials will be doing the looking. Becerra said his agencys review will try to support effective policing through improvements in use-of-force procedures, anti-bias and community policing, and accountability, by focusing on training, policy, and transparency in alignment with national standards, best practices, current and emerging research and community expectations.

About two months after he took over the department, I asked Williams whether he was concerned about the number of use-of-force complaints.

Im not here to dissect what happened in the past, he said. It would be unfair and unjust for me to go back and say that theres a problem without examining each case. When force is applied, the way that it works  I think its important to educate the public, too  is that theres a review process.

Williams contracted with Police Strategies LLC of Seattle to build data-analysis tools to track police use of force. The firm previously worked for Williams former employer, the San Jose Police Department.

If you can prevent problems before they happen through exceptional training, and then address them if they do happen, then youre creating a culture of accountability, a culture of transparency, a culture of trust, Williams told me. As a police organization, thats what we want.

Im in church!

Vallejo officials took little action on the flood of complaints when Bidou was chief. Not until August 2019, after protesters against police violence showed up at numerous council meetings, did the city engage the OIR Group for an assessment of the department. The report, released June 12, called on the department to shift to a mindset that revolves less around aggressive enforcement and more around problem-solving and engagement.

The report noted a lack of racial and gender diversity in the citys police force, and a need to strengthen officer performance and accountability by formalizing supervisorial review processes across a range of key areas, and developing mechanisms for constructive accountability.

The report praised the Vallejo use-of-force policy, updated in April, stating that officers should avoid physical confrontations and increase the likelihood of voluntary compliance or cooperation where possible. The department banned choke holds and strangleholds on June 16.

That approach had not been emphasized in the past, the report said. And people who say theyve suffered at the hands of Vallejo police agree. Their stories raise an array of questions.

Jose Villalobos, 47, was at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church with his wife and three children on Nov. 4, 2018, when plainclothes officers struck him in the cheek and tackled him as he walked to the church restroom, according to his lawsuit. Villalobos, a pipe layer who has no vision in one eye, said he thought he was being robbed by criminals. He recalled crying out, Whats going on? Im in church! I dont have any money!

The officers wrestled him to the floor. He recounted hitting his head as he struggled. The men asked no questions, said his lawyer, Thomas Seabaugh. They didnt ask for his ID, but cuffed him and put him in a car, Seabaugh said.

The cops  whom Villalobos lawsuit identifies as Barreto, Tonn and Jerome Bautista  were looking for someone else that day. By the time they realized it, Villalobos had a 2-centimeter gash in his head and a concussion, hospital documents provided by Seabaugh show. Villalobos was released and not charged. The officers denied the allegations, according to court documents.

Vallejo, in response to the ongoing lawsuit, acknowledged the undercover officers contacted Villalobos near the church restroom, believing he looked like a suspect in a criminal case. But the city issued a blanket denial of the rest of his allegations.

More than a year and half later, Villalobos still experiences pain in his left shoulder. He has difficulty sleeping and has numbness in his fingers. He might have to have surgery, his attorney said.

It was a terrible injustice from beginning to end, Seabaugh said. He wasnt threatening anyone, he wasnt punching anyone, he wasnt kicking anyone. Nobody was in danger. Nobody had been injured. He was unarmed. So even if it was the person that they were looking for, its not clear why any of this force was necessary.

Complaints pile up

Many more disturbing accusations emerge from claims The Chronicle obtained from the city through a public records request. People who werent committing crimes in the first place, like Delon Thurston, have ended up being arrested on accusations that they resisted. In many cases, Black men said Vallejo officers aggressively detained them for dubious reasons.

Nickolas Pitts, for instance, alleged in a lawsuit that he was carrying trash to the curb of his apartment on April 4, 2016, when Officers Matthew Komoda and Ryan McLaughlin jumped out of a car with guns drawn, then punched him in the head and ripped out some of his dreadlocks, drawing blood.

Pitts said he was taken into custody and cited for jaywalking. According to court documents, he pleaded not guilty and requested a trial, but Komoda and McLaughlin didnt show up, and the case was dismissed. Vallejo denied the allegations of excessive force but paid Pitts $17,500 in a settlement, according to documents provided by the city.

Jason Anderson, another Black man, says in a lawsuit he was making deliveries for used car dealer AutoLinx on June 9, 2015, when motorcycle Officer James Melville ordered him to pull over. After Anderson got out, a second officer, Robert Herndon, ordered Anderson to put up his hands before shocking him with a Taser, leaving him unable to comply with orders to roll over, the suit says.

Anderson alleges that as more officers arrived, he was punched and kicked, and that he heard the officers concoct a story to justify the beating. According to court records, the city denied the allegations and moved to dismiss the claim, and ultimately agreed to a $75,000 settlement.

Robert Strong, a 23-year-old Black man working as a transit aide for people with special needs, says in a complaint against the city that he was walking to his car after dropping off a client at home on April 19, 2017. He says Tonn drove up and asked him what he was doing in the neighborhood.

Tonn said Strongs license plate was expired, but the expiration was two weeks away, Strongs legal claim states. Strong says he told the officer he was recording the encounter and that when Tonn reached for the phone, Strong pulled his arm away. Tonn threw him to the ground and placed him in a choke hold, the claim states.

Strong filed a federal civil rights lawsuit. According to a status report filed by the parties last month, Strong and the city were having fruitful settlement discussions which may obviate the need to set trial should the discussions come to a successful conclusion.

Adrian Burrell, a Marine veteran, said he was slammed against a wall while using his cell phone to record a Vallejo officer detaining his cousin in the driveway of Burrells home in January 2019. Burrell, who is suing Vallejo, said he suffered a concussion from his head striking a wooden porch pillar. He was let go when the officer learned he had served in the Marines. He said the officer thanked him for his service.

The city moved to dismiss the lawsuit. Both Burrell and the city requested a jury trial, which is scheduled to begin in November 2021, according to court documents.

People who resist

Vallejo City Manager Greg Nyhoff welcomed the Department of Justices review of the local force, saying in a statement that the state would help the city implement better police practices in Vallejo. But during a June 2019 City Council discussion on police calls and use-of-force statistics, Nyhoff defended the department.

There are people who resist, said Nyhoff, who has declined repeated interview requests. There are people with mental illness who you just have to use force, sometimes for their own health or well-being.

A month later, Nyhoff and Mayor Bob Sampayan sent a letter to Becerras office seeking a meeting to discuss the citys plan to improve relations between the Police Department and the community. Its not clear what actions resulted from that meeting, but it would take almost a year  and the death of Monterrosa  before Becerra announced his office was stepping in.

Perhaps the state review will be able to quantify something thats been nearly impossible to nail down: the true extent of excessive force, how deep it runs. Vallejos use-of-force policy requires officers to document any use of force, but incidents are self-reported, raising the prospect of underreporting.

The figures that the Police Department does release show that, from 2014 to 2018, Vallejo officers reported using force in 822 of 16,517 arrests. But, as a 2018 report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights points out, with no mandatory federal or standardized reporting guidelines in place, use-of-force data for police departments across the nation are insufficient to determine if instances are occurring more frequently.

When we first met last summer, Thurston, a soft-spoken and spiritual woman, said she still had pain in her shoulder and lower back from her police encounter  pain that did not respond to the concoction she uses for her wrists and hands.

Thurston, who grew up in Vallejo, said she doesnt understand what prompted the officers to behave the way they did. After she was arrested on suspicion of resisting officers, the Solano County District Attorneys Office charged her but later dropped the prosecution. She feels police targeted her.

I couldve been a Sandra Bland situation, she said, referring to the Black woman who died in a Texas jail in 2015 after a confrontational traffic stop for failing to signal a lane change. They couldve done anything to me at that point. Anything.

After Monterrosas death, and amid the protests demanding racial justice that followed the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Chief Williams issued a statement welcoming Becerras review.

A shift in tone  maybe. But it is the actions ahead that will show whether life changes for people of color in Vallejo.
New Delhi, Sep 13 : Hundreds of veterans including a Retired Air Chief Marshal, 3 Retired Vice Admirals and 5 Air Marshals have jointly come out in support of Navy veteran Madan Sharma, who was recently beaten up by goons allegedly from the ruling Shiv Sena, for forwarding a cartoon of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

"We, the veteran officers of Armed Forces of India, are the proud citizens of India who have, with extreme bravery, protected our nation throughout its history. It is unbelievably shocking, and categorically unacceptable for the veterans of Armed Forces of India, to suffer as helpless victims of hooliganism in Mumbai, as has been experienced in the case of Navy Veteran Madan Sharma, having been brutally beaten up for a triviality by Shiv Sena activists, causing grievous injuries, trauma and loss of honour to the Veteran at his Mumbai residential complex," said a statement signed by hundreds of veterans. 321 of their names have already been compiled and the veterans claim there are more.

The statement has been also signed by 31 retired Lieutenant Generals, 44 retired Major Generals, 38 retired Brigadiers and 40 retired Commodore rank officers. Retired Air Chief Marshal Pradeep Naik, retired Vice Admirals Shekhar Sinha, AR Karve and JS Bedi are some of the signatories.

They asked the society to "remember" the service of the Armed Force veterans, while urging to renew "nationalist spirit" to respect the solemn obligations to them. "They have sacrificed their everything in their youth so that all Indians can live safely and prosper in their lives. We must ensure the dignity, honour and safety of these veterans and commit to make it the highest priority for every Indian national," they said. They added that after the gallantry with which all of them fought, they should not have to face such "dastardly physical attacks" as Madan Sharma had suffered.

Calling it "intolerant hooliganism", the veterans also hit out at the Shiv Sena. "The very fact that all the criminals who attacked the Armed Forces Veteran Madan Sharma, including the chief of the local unit of Shiv Sena, have been bailed out within no time, adds insult to injury. It is unbelievable that the Mumbai Police investigation as well as the Maharashtra government prosecutors took this serious matter so casually that there has not been even a semblance of justice in this case," they complained.

They said that justice has been denied in this case, "in an organised conspiracy to attack and degrade Armed Forces veterans and their families" by allegedly playing "soft upon the criminals on account of their political affiliations."
Facts you should know about Latinos, the largest minority group in the U.S., who will be celebrating their Hispanic Heritage Month beginning Sept.15 until Oct.15.

Latino community is the largest minority group in the country. According to the Pew Research Center, there are around 32 million eligible Latino voters. It is not a surprise anymore why candidates continue to court the Latino and Hispanic community as the election nears.

Meanwhile, as the largest minority group in the country will be celebrating the Hispanic Heritage Month from Sept.15 to Oct.15, here are some facts that you should know according to Pew Research Center:

1. U.S. Hispanic Population

Hispanic and Latino in the U.S have reached a combined total population of 60.6 million in 2019. This makes the Hispanics and Latinos as the second-fastest-growing racial or ethnic group. Additionally, 19 percent of the country's total population is coming from the Hispanic and Latino community.

2. Hispanics with college experience

The increase of the population of Hispanics and Latinos in the country has also paved the way to increase the number of Hispanics to have college experience. In 2018, 45 percent of Hispanics age 25 and older had at least a college experience.

3. Latinos who speak in English

Around 71 percent of Latinos in the country age five and older spoke English proficiently since 2018. A big leap from 59 percent in 2000. One of the factors seen in this increasing number is also the growth of U.S.-born Latinos in the country.

4.Top Hispanic origin groups in the country

People of Mexican origin are composed of around 36.9 million. They are followed by Puerto Ricans with 5.7 million, Cubans with 2.3 million, Salvadorans with nearly 2.4 million, and all other Latinos of around 2.2 million. Mexicans in the Hispanic community is 61.9 percent.

5. Four out of five Latinos are U.S. citizens

As of 2018, about 80% of Latinos living in the country are U.S. citizens, up from 74% in 2010. This includes people born in the U.S. and its territories (including Puerto Rico), people born abroad to American parents, and immigrants who have become naturalized citizens. Among the origin groups, virtually all Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens. Spaniards (91%), Panamanians (89%), and Mexicans (80%) have some of the highest citizenship rates, while Hondurans (53%) and Venezuelans (51%) have the lowest rates.

6. 32 Million are eligible to vote

There are around 32 million Latinos in the U.S. who are eligible to vote for the upcoming 2020 U.S. Presidential election. They are followed by the African-Americans who have 30 million eligible voters. This is the first time that Latinos surpassed the African-Americans.

7. Five States are homes of Latinos

Eligible Latinos who will vote live in these five states. These are California (7.9 million) alone holds about a quarter of the U.S. Latino electorate. It is followed by Texas (5.6 million), Florida (3.1 million), New York (2.0 million), and Arizona (1.2 million).

8. Florida and Texas

These two states share the highest number of eligible voters in the country. About 54% of naturalized citizens who are eligible voters in Florida are Latino, the highest in the nation. Texas (52%) is the only other state where Latinos make up at least half of immigrant eligible voters.

These are just some of the facts that you should know about the Hispanics and Latinos in the country as they celebrate their Hispanic Heritage Month.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Turkey to cease tension-raising activities in the eastern Mediterranean during a visit to Cyprus Saturday, urging all sides to back diplomacy.

Ankara is at loggerheads with Greece and Cyprus over maritime hydrocarbon resources and naval spheres of influence, sparking fears of conflict.

"We remain deeply concerned by Turkey's ongoing operations surveying for natural resources in areas over which Greece and Cyprus assert jurisdiction over the eastern Mediterranean," Pompeo told reporters in Nicosia after a meeting with Republic of Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades and Foreign Minister Nicos Christodoulides.

"Increased military tensions help no one but adversaries who would like to see division in transatlantic unity," he added.

"Regional corporation is absolutely necessary for durable energy security."

The Mediterranean island of Cyprus is divided between the internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus, a member of the EU, and a breakaway state set up after a Turkish invasion launched in 1974 in response to a coup sponsored by the military junta then ruling Greece.

Pompeo met the Cypriot officials after a trip to Doha where he inaugurated long-awaited talks between Afghanistan's government and the Taliban.

"Countries in the region need to resolve disagreements, including on security and energy resource and maritime issues diplomatically and peacefully," he said.

Pompeo said his trip to Cyprus would complement phone calls by President Donald Trump with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Anastasiades welcomed the US' "firm stance on condemning Turkey's illegal drillings within (Cyprus') Exclusive Economic Zone".

- Concerns over Russian warships -

Pompeo's "visit at a time when crucial developments are taking place in the Eastern Mediterranean, due to Turkey's illegal actions, aptly demonstrates the sincere concern and interest of the US in preserving stability in our region," he said.

Story continues

Turkey's "unlawful activities... should be immediately terminated," he said, adding however that he conveyed Cyprus' support for resolving disputes in the eastern Mediterranean through dialogue.

Turkey, which is hunting for gas and oil reserves in waters claimed by fellow NATO member Greece, last month deployed an exploration vessel backed by military frigates.

Greece then responded by shadowing the Turkish ships and staging naval exercises with several EU allies and the United Arab Emirates in its own show of force.

Pompeo's trip comes shortly after the United States lifted a decades-old arms embargo on Cyprus, outraging Turkey, and days after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov paid a visit to Cyprus.

Lavrov, who underscored Moscow's close relations with Cyprus, offered to play peacemaker in the region to ease tensions between Cyprus and Turkey in a dispute over maritime and energy rights.

Pompeo took the opportunity to remind Cyprus that Washington was uneasy about Russian warships stopping off at Cypriot ports.

"We know that all the Russian military vessels that stop in Cypriot ports are not conducting humanitarian missions in Syria and we ask Cyprus and the president to consider our concerns."

Nicosia has repeatedly stated it provides facilities to Russian warships based on humanitarian grounds.

Tensions rose in the region again when Turkey on Friday gave notice of a gunnery exercise off the coast of Sadrazamkoy in northern Cyprus between Saturday and Monday, despite the looming threat of EU sanctions.

Cyprus' Joint Rescue Coordination Centre -- attached to the defence ministry -- late Friday called Turkey's move "illegal" because it "violates the Republic of Cyprus' sovereignty and sovereign rights".

In a separate development, the Greek Cypriot National Guard said Saturday that it would take part in joint training manoeuvres with US forces and two boats.

"Two combatant craft medium transport vessels of the US special navy forces are in Cyprus to participate in joint military drills," it said in a statement.

The drills, which began Saturday and will last until September 20, are taking place in the "framework of the bilateral relations between the Republic of Cyprus and the US."

cc/sw/hkb
The Crown met The Throne as stars of two of the biggest international TV hits enjoyed a night out together in London.

Matt Smith, who played Prince Philip in The Crown, spent the evening with Emilia Clarke, Princess Daenerys Targaryen in Game Of Thrones, sparking speculation of romance.

The pair  who appeared together in the 2015 movie Terminator: Genisys  were all smiles as they sauntered through Soho together on Friday night after enjoying dinner at the Russian-inspired Bob Bob Ricard restaurant.

Matt Smith, who played Prince Philip in The Crown, spent the evening with Emilia Clarke, Princess Daenerys Targaryen in Game Of Thrones, in Soho sparking speculation of romance

Miss Clarke, 33, wore white flared trousers and brown suede boots, while 37-year-old Smith dressed down in white T-shirt, grey jacket and black trousers.

He split from actress Lily James nine months ago, having previously dated model Daisy Lowe, the daughter of rock star Gavin Rossdale.

He was also romantically linked to Karen Gillan, his co-star when he was Doctor Who between 2010 and 2013.

He met Miss James a year later on the set of the film Pride And Prejudice And Zombies, but they split amid rumours of his close friendship with Claire Foy, who starred opposite him as the Queen in The Crown.

The pair previously who appeared together in the 2015 movie Terminator: Genisys (pictured together in 2016)

By comparison, Miss Clarke  who was named Esquire magazines Sexiest Woman Alive in 2015  has had an uncomplicated love life.

She recently split from director and writer Charlie McDowell, the son of actor Malcolm McDowell and US actress Mary Steenburgen.

She previously dated Seth MacFarlane, the creator of the US animated comedy Family Guy.
Frequent sanitisation of the entire parliament complex will be carried out, while arrangements have been made to sanitise various parliamentary papers as well as footwear and cars of MPs.

IMAGE: Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla poses for a photograph at Parliament House ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament in New Delhi. Photograph: Manvender Vashist/PTI Photo

Parliament is fully prepared for the 18-day monsoon session from Monday under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic with many firsts, including sitting of the two Houses in shifts without any off day, entry only to those having a negative COVID-19 report and compulsory wearing of masks.

In run-up to the session, while over 4,000 people including MPs and staff have been tested for COVID-19, most parliamentary operations have been digitalized, entire premises sanitised and doors made touch-free.

The first-of-its-kind monsoon session will see Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha sitting in two different shifts, while special seating arrangements have been made for MPs in adherence to social distancing guidelines.

Barring on the first day, Rajya Sabha will convene in morning shift from 9 am till 1 pm, and Lok Sabha in evening shift from 3 pm to 7 pm.

The chambers of both houses along with their respective galleries will be used for sitting of the members in each shift.

In between the two shifts, the entire complex will be sanitised.

Entry in the premises will be allowed only on production of a COVID-19 negative report, with the test conducted not more than 72 hours before the start of the session.

Frequent sanitisation of the entire parliament complex will also be carried out, while arrangements have been made to sanitise various parliamentary papers as well as footwear and cars of MPs, officials said.

IMAGE: Birla inspects the arrangements made at the Parliament. Photograph: ANI Photo

Frisking of people will also make way for touch-less security scanning, while thermal scanning will also be totally touch-free.

For making the entire Parliament complex a safe zone in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu had held a series of extensive discussions with officials of the home ministry, the health ministry, the Indian Council of Medical Research and the Defence Research and Development Organisation.

As per the standard operating procedures finalised for holding the session from September 14 till October 1, the MPs and staff of secretariats of both houses, as also the media personnel covering the proceedings, will be asked to undergo COVID-19 test, not more than 72 hours before the start of the session.

Officials said arrangements were made for tests of close to 4,000 people, including the MPs, staff members and journalists.

Only MPs and ministers will be allowed inside the main building, while necessary seating arrangements will be made for separate sitting of their personal staff in the complex.

A new seating arrangement following social distancing guidelines has been prepared by both houses for their respective members.

The MPs will also be allowed to address the Chair while seated and wearing their masks so that the risk of infection might be minimised.

It has also been decided that air of air conditioners will be exchanged six times every day to avoid any possible infection.

IMAGE: : AIMIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi sanitises his hands before attending a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee at Parliament House Annexe in New Delhi. Photograph: Manvender Vashist/PTI Photo

The DRDO will also provide multi-utility COVID-19 kits to all MPs.

Each kit will contain 40 disposable masks, five N-95 masks, 20 bottles of sanitisers of 50 ml each, face shields, 40 pairs of gloves, a touch-free hook to open and close doors without touching them, herbal sanitation wipes and tea bags to enhance immunity.

The two houses together have more than 780 members at present.

The health ministry has also suggested that the movement of Members of Parliament in chambers of both the houses can be made unidirectional to avoid face-to-face interactions.

The ministry will make available short video clips to all MPs on awareness about COVID-19 infections and the benefits of wearing masks, etc.

Touchless sanitisers will be kept at 40 different places within the Parliament House complex, and emergency medical teams and ambulances will also be stationed.

All guidelines related to COVID-19 prevention will be strictly followed, the presiding officers of both houses have said.

The provision of ultraviolet boxes has also been made to sanitise various parliamentary papers handled by the presiding officers and members.

Arrangements are also being made for sanitisation of footwear and cars used by the members and those provided by the Secretariat by providing mats of required dimensions soaked in Hypochloride gel placed in troughs.

Marshals will also wear masks and face shields.
Oregons congressional delegation is asking the Federal Emergency Management Agency to immediately make available the greatest possible range of assistance programs as requested by (Gov. Kate Brown) to help people displaced by raging wildfires and pay for emergency response and recovery work.

In a letter sent Saturday, the delegation asked FEMA to begin approving extensive aid that is usually freed up when the president declares a major disaster. The state has asked President Donald Trump to declare a major disaster in Oregon and is waiting for a decision, the federal lawmakers noted. Trump on Thursday took the initial step of issuing an emergency disaster declaration for the state, days after the governor declared a statewide emergency due to the wildfires. The emergency disaster declaration does not trigger aid to individuals.

Congressional lawmakers pointed out that tens of thousands of Oregonians have been placed under evacuation orders, and hundreds have already lost their homes.

We also request that FEMA waive current state cost share requirements to help quickly move unsheltered individuals to safety and make sure that survivors have stable, affordable accommodations as they strive to recover, the delegation wrote.

At Jackson County Expo center with @RonWyden and @SenJeffMerkley delivering hygiene items and speaking with @RedCross. Please, if you can donate supplies or volunteer to help the many displaced Oregonians I encourage you to do so. #oregonfires pic.twitter.com/2b23IRLr87  Rep. Greg Walden (@repgregwalden) September 12, 2020

They specifically asked FEMA to immediately offer help including paying for hotels or other shelter for people who lost their homes or are under evacuation orders. They also asked federal officials to extend individual assistance to people for housing and other needs and disaster assistance to local, state and tribal governments and certain nonprofits to restore infrastructure, remove debris, carry out life-saving work and other measures.

U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader and U.S. Rep. Greg Walden urged FEMA to quickly issue assistance to protect the health and safety of people experiencing displacement and houselessness, and to secure housing stability for the lowest-income survivors displaced by the wildfires in Oregon.

Under the emergency disaster declaration, FEMA has so far sent search and rescue teams, emergency response vehicles and tractor trailers of meals, water, cots and blankets to the state, according to an agency news release.

-- Hillary Borrud: hborrud@oregonian.com; @hborrud

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Advertisement

Top chefs have opened up about how their restaurants and careers fell to ruin when coronavirus hit.

Sydney's hospitality industry was brought to its knees by COVID-19 restrictions, with about 70 per cent of businesses forced to cut staff or close their doors altogether.

Among the rubble of the once thriving culinary scene lies the remains of Neil Perry's award-winning steakhouse chain Rockpool Bar and Grill, Jacqui Challinor's restaurant Nomad and Josh Niland's fish joint Saint Peter.

Bleak images of the revered gastronomic geniuses sitting among their boarded-up venues were captured by commercial food and lifestyle photographer Rob Palmer.

Chef Neil Perry sits among the sheet-covered furnishings and glassware of his mothballed Rockpool Bar and Grill

Josh Niland of Saitn Peter restaurant finds himself on the floor of Saint Peter, surrounded by brown paper bags, containers and other detritus of his quick pivot to takeaway meal

The photographer, who spent months documenting the restaurateurs' spectacular collapse for portrait series 'Industry SOS: The COVID-19 Time Capsule', was able to capture the moment his subjects hit rock-bottom.

'Neil [Perry], obviously to sit there and see his baby that he'd worked so hard at locked up and mothballed was devastating,' Palmer told the Daily Telegraph.

Perry, who retired as culinary director of the 80 restaurants at Rockpool Dining Group in July citing COVID-19 as a reason for his departure, is pictured sitting with his eyes closed among the furniture in his Sydney venue.

While restaurants in all states except virus-addled Victoria have reopened, the business is believed to have lost about $40million last financial year.

Chef Matt Moran photographed during the restaurant closures of Covid-19. At the time all of Matt's venues from North Bondi Fish, Chiswick to Aria were closed for trading

Carol and Sharon Salloum, sisters and owners of Almond Bar. They were recently outspoken about no longer offering Uber Eats as an option for customers because of a lack of profitability

Jacqui Challinor waits for construction to resume in the empty shell of her beloved Nomad resturant in Surry Hills

Challinor's Surry Hills restaurant Nomad was destroyed in a fire in September 2019, only to collapse once again to the pandemic.

The chef was captured with her head in her hands, as her white uniform hung from an empty shelf behind her.

'Nomad had had a fire the year before, they'd just moved the restaurant to a temporary location and a few weeks after opening, COVID hit so they shut for a second time in six months. [Jacqui Challinor] just lost everything'.

The venue will reopen in a temporary space in October.

Carol and Sharon Salloum, sisters and owners of Almond Bar. With eat-in not being an option, they had to shut their doors

Chef Colin Fassnidge photographed during the restaurant closures. He is pictured peeling potatoes with his two daughters in preparation for the evening's soup kitchen

While Niland quickly transformed his venue into a takeaway venue, Palmer said he was at odds with the decision.

'He was saying three or four weeks ago, you would never have seen a takeaway container in my restaurant  He was really struggling with what the vision would be after COVID.'

Niland sits among mountains of cardboard boxes and brown takeaway bags.

Pictured: LP'S Wuality Meats in Chippendale, Sydney, which was forced to close temporarily during the pandemic

Celebrity Chef Matt Moran, who makes regular appearances on Masterchef Australia, was also pictured in his whites with a face mask.

Moran, who runs the iconic Opera Bar outside the Sydney Opera House, has pleaded with the NSW government to undo capacity limits for venues.

The Opera Bar has a capacity of 2,000, but can now only seat 300 under coronavirus restrictions.

Chef Matt Moran photographed during the restaurant closures of COVID-19. Moran has pleaded with the NSW government to undo capacity limits

'I'm not an expert but I think they should definitely be looking at it because Opera Bar is a big outdoor space. Limiting that to 300 - I think it's pretty tough,' he told the publication.

'The one to 4m sq really hurts us. If we went to one to 2m sq it would help a hell of a lot.'

The photography series will be an ongoing project as part of the Powerhouse Museum's Culinary Archive.
The National Youth Organiser of the ruling New Patriotic Party, Henry Nana Boakye has described the educational policy of the NDC in their 2020 Manifesto as unrealistic and not feasible.

Speaking to journalists during a press briefing yesterday, the NPPs Youth leader said the promises lack credibility, it's untenable and a total scam.

Our verdict is that the NDCs 2020 manifesto is simply a document full of unrealistic populist and discredited promises disguised as the peoples manifesto when in fact it is not, he said.

He stipulated,"Data from the National Council for Tertiary Education suggests that the total number of tertiary students in Ghana is 433,360. Giving a breakdown of the figures, the total number of Full-Time Public University Students is 213,315 with an average fee of Ghc1,500 whereas the total number of Public Distant Education Students is 87,186 with an average fee of Ghc3,000.

He further explained, The total number of Sandwich Students - Public Universities is 16,540 with an average fee of Ghc1,600 whiles Technical Universities Students and Private University Students are 56,610, with an average fee of GHS1,300 and 59,709, average fees GHS2,000 respectively. Therefore, 50% of fees of the about 433,360 tertiary students wont be less than Ghc415,430,000 and we can boldly conclude that Mr Mahama cannot do this judging from his track record."

He quizzed where former President Mahama will raise the funding from saying the whole Manifesto is nothing but a scam and rehash of their 2012 Manifesto which he describes as deceptive.

Story By Malise Otoo
Some major roads in the capital city of Accra will be temporarily closed to traffic on Tuesday, September 15, as ECOWAS leaders visit for a meeting at the Peduase Lodge.



At least leaders from eight countries will be attending the high-powered meeting to discuss how to resolve the ongoing crisis in Mali.



President Akufo-Addo as Chairman of ECOWAS will be hosting the leaders, as such, Ghana has to facilitate their ease of movement and other diplomatic obligations.



Superintendent Sasu Mensah of the Motor Traffic & Traffic Department (MTTD) told the media at a press briefing on Sunday that the closure is to ensure a safe passage for the diplomats while they visit.



According to him, the road closures will help to prevent unnecessary delays, as the diplomats move to the meeting venue.



He announced the roads that will be closed temporarily on Tuesday will be:



The Kotoka International Airport to the Liberation Road at Opeibea

The airport bypass to Giffard Road through to the Liberation Road

Kempinski hotel to the National Theater on the Independence avenue

Liberation Road through to N4 to Peduase Lodge

Liberation Road from 37 to Obasanjo Street, Tang Palace Hotel

Independence Avenue to Ako-Adjei.

He cautioned the general public to adhere to traffic regulations as the country hosts the diplomats.



Motorist should park on the right when they see the convoy approaching, he said. Any inconvenience caused is deeply regretted.



He pleaded with the general public to pay heed to the announcement and use alternatives routes.



Supt Sasu Mensah advised that motorists should plan their journeys with the announcement in mind on Tuesday to avoid any delays and discomfort.

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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By Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate intelligence committee is investigating a whistleblower complaint filed by a former top U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official alleging he was pressed to skew official intelligence reports for political purposes, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

Senators Marco Rubio and Mark Warner, the committee's Republican acting chair and Democrat vice chair, wrote to DHS deputy general counsel Joseph Maher on Thursday, saying they had received the complaint and asking for related documents.

Brian Murphy, who until recently was acting chief of DHS' intelligence and analysis (I&A) office, alleged in the complaint that acting DHS chief Chad Wolf asked him to stop providing assessments on Russian election interference and to play down U.S. white supremacist activity.

"As the Committee investigates this matter, we respectfully request that you provide the Committee with all intelligence assessments produced by I&A related to Mr. Murphy's complaint including but not limited to products related to migration and asylum, foreign interference in U.S. elections, and domestic threats related to white supremacism, antifa and 'anarchist groups'", the senators' letter says.

A spokesman for Rubio said Murphy's complaint "will be treated as seriously as any other complaint."

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment but said on Wednesday, "We flatly deny that there is any truth to the merits of Mr. Murphys claim.".

The Rubio-Warner letter, first reported by Reuters, indicates the Republican-led Senate committee is joining the Democrat-led House Intelligence Committee in digging into allegations in the complaint that Murphy, who served as acting DHS intelligence for several months this year, filed earlier this week with the DHS Inspector General.

Mark Zaid, a lawyer for Murphy, said "We have specifically requested DHS's position on whether it will block Mr. Murphy's classified testimony before relevant congressional committees, including when faced with a subpoena."

Story continues

Murphy's complaint alleges that Wolf told him to stop providing assessments of the threat of Russian interference in the Nov. 3 election and to play down U.S. white supremacist activity. Murphy says Wolf told him in mid-May to report instead on political interference threats posed by China and Iran, and to highlight the involvement of left-wing groups in domestic disorder.

The House Intelligence Committee requested that Murphy appear for a deposition on Sept. 21. House committee chairman Adam Schiff said on Friday he met with the DHS' Maher earlier this week to discuss Murphys complaint.

The White House has denied suggestions by Murphy that Robert O'Brien, President Donald Trump's national security adviser, instructed Wolf to play up intelligence supporting Trump's political themes.

(Reporting By Mark Hosenball; Editing by Tom Brown)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Due to the challenges of joining a traditional synagogue service due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Chabad of the North Shore will hold an outdoor shofar service next week.

Chabad of the North Shore will host the outdoor shofar service on Sunday, Sept. 20, at 5 p.m. in Clove Lakes Park. It will be free to all Jewish Staten Islanders, and no membership is required to attend.

The service, which will include prayers for the well-being of all humanity -- a key theme of Rosh Hashanah -- will also be centered around hearing the sound of the shofar, the central observance of the holiday.

It will be one of thousands listed on the Chabad.org/HighHolidayServices, the worlds largest directory of outdoor High Holiday services.

The Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, insisted that the observance of hearing the shofar the key observance of Rosh Hashanahbe made accessible to all Jews even those not attending synagogue, Rabbi Mendy Katzman explained. Chabad of Staten Island has always prioritized making Judaism available to all. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this has taken on a whole new meaning, but our mission to serve everyone remains the same.

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur comes 10 days after and is the Day of Atonement. This year, Rosh Hashanah begins at sunset of Friday, Sept. 18 and ends nightfall of Sunday, Sept. 20. Yom Kippur begins sunset of Sunday, Sept. 27 and ends nightfall of Monday, Sept. 28.

The shofar is the central symbol of Rosh Hashanah, which is celebrated near the beginning of each fall, according to the Chabad of Staten Island. Synagogues blast the shofar every day for a month leading up to the holiday, culminating with a sequence of 100 blasts during the Rosh Hashanah services, which take place this year on September 20. The cry of the shofar is a call to repentance as Jews look back at misdeeds of the past year and resolve to improve during the coming one.

Rosh Hashanah services are generally held in a synagogue. In past years, Chabad has met the needs of those who couldnt make it with a short service focused on the shofar observance. This year, Chabad has ensured that the health concerns Staten Island faces are not an impediment to holiday observance.

Our goal is to lower the barriers of entry, and to encourage each and every Jewish person to actively participate in the observances of Rosh Hashanah, said Malka Katzman. This year, that means bringing a Rosh Hashanah service to a location where people can safely participate and making it free of charge to as many in our community who are hurting financially now.

The 30-minute service will include selected prayers from the High Holiday liturgy.

Participants are asked to wear masks and stay 6-feet away from others not living in the same household. Individually-packed Rosh Hashanah packages will be available, which will include a Rosh Hashanah guide and traditional Rosh Hashanah treats, including an apple and honey.

Chabad of Staten Island will also host its regular traditional High Holiday service outdoors with a more limited, socially distanced crowd on Sept. 19 at 9 a.m., and Sept. 20 at 9 a.m. at 389 Bradley Ave., in Willowbrook.

For more information about this ceremony contact Chabad of Staten Island at 718-370-8953 and rabbimendy@chabadsi.com or visit www.chabadsi.com.

Chabad is also offering Rosh Hashanah-at-Home kits for those who cant leave their home, which will bring many of the resources Jewish people on Staten Island usually enjoy at synagogue into their homes. The kits include a holiday guide, candles, and traditional Rosh Hashanah treats, including apples, honey, and challah bread.

*** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK ***

SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE

Chabad of the North Shore is also bringing a Jewish-themed Shabbat and holiday baking kit subscription service to Staten Islanders, called Judaism UnBoxed.

Malka Katzman explained that, when many think of Judaism, they think of a synagogue or other Jewish institutions, but now more than ever before -- especially during the coronavirus pandemic -- it starts at home. The warmest Jewish memories tend to revolve around the family holiday table filled with traditional holiday foods.

Thats why Chabad of the North Shore is bringing Judaism Unboxed to Staten Island, just in time for Rosh HaShana Katzman said. Parents are looking for ways to bond with their children over their heritage, specifically in the comfort of their home, around the family table. Im sure every Jewish mom can agree, that there is no better way to do it than through food.

In advance of the Jewish holidays, you can receive a holiday-themed baking kit to get your family excited about the upcoming holiday. It comes with everything you need to create the holiday recipe and forge Jewish memories with your family.

For more information visit ChabadSI.com/unboxed or email rabbimendy@chabadsi.com.

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Michigans COVID-19 executive orders are fairly lengthy. But that doesnt mean there isnt room for loopholes, questions and ambiguities.

Gyms and fitness centers across Michigan were given the green light to open Wednesday, Sept. 9 after nearly six months of being shut down. Naturally, gym owners and others had questions about what the changes mean.
San Francisco, Sep 13 : Google's upcoming "Sabrina" streaming device has thoroughly leaked in recent months and now a new report suggests that it could be called the "Google Chromecast with Google TV." According to Artem Russakovskii of Android Police, the Android TV dongle has been listed on Target's retail system with a price tag of $49.99. The listing also displayed the product's name as "Google Chromecast with Google TV".

Russakovskii has also discovered that the dongle will be available in the colours rock candy, summer melon and summer blue.

Previously, it was said that the search giant may launch it under Nest branding but that does not seem to be the case. However, Google is sticking with "Chromecast" branding as it is popular among consumers for years.

The new Google Chromecast is also expected to bring support for 4K streaming at 60fps.It could also come with support for HDMI 2.1 with automatic low-latency optimisation.

It could be powered by the Amlogic S905X2 processor paired with 2GB of RAM and it is also said to support HDR and Dolby Vision.
In a pat to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that in the last 15 years, Bihar has shown that development happens with the right government, decisions and policies.

PM Modi, who launched three petroleum sector projects in Bihar worth more than Rs 900 crore through video conferencing, said his government was working for the growth of all sectors in Bihar.

The prime minister praised the youth of Bihar and termed the state a powerhouse of the countrys talent. He said there was a time when people would ask what could possibly be done in Bihar other than work in the fields? He said the youth had to suffer gross injustice as no big institutes developed there which forced them to step out of the state in search of opportunities.

Institutes of higher learning  agriculture, medical and engineering colleges, including an IIT, IIM, NIFT and a national law institute each  have come up under Nitish Kumars governance in Bihar, the PM said.

Also read: At petroleum project inauguration, PM says Bihar intrinsic to Indias rise

He said Start-up India, Mudra Yojana and many such schemes have provided the necessary amount of self-employment to the youth of Bihar.

He also referred to the significant improvement in the states power condition over the last six years. Earlier, villages used to get electricity for 2-3 hours and cities used to get power for 8-10 hours in a day.

He said Bihar was earlier plagued by the mindset where road projects were sneered at with many asking what was it worth for those without vehicles. The prime minister said there was no dearth of capability or resources in the state. Yet, Bihar and other eastern India states always lagged in development projects because of political and financial reasons as well as indifferent priorities.

He also spoke about the shift in work culture from the days when one generation would witness the foundation laying ceremony of projects and the next generation would witness their completion.

The PM said the special package announced for Bihar a few years ago focused much on the states infrastructure. He said the special package given for Bihar had 10 big projects related to petroleum and gas worth Rs 21,000 crore. Among these, today it is the seventh project which is being dedicated to the people of Bihar. He also listed the other six projects which had been completed in Bihar earlier.

The projects unveiled on Sunday include the Durgapur-Banka section of the Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur pipeline augmentation project and two LPG bottling plants  one at Banka of the IOCL and another of the HPCL at Harsidhi in East Champaran district.

PM Modi said, when CNG and PNG were reaching many cities in Bihar and eastern India, people here should also get these facilities easily.

He said the Bhagiratha effort to connect eastern India with Paradip on the eastern seaboard and Kandla on the western seaboard began under the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga Yojana and seven states would be connected through this pipeline which is about 3,000 kilometre-long of which Bihar also has a prominent role. The line from Paradip-Haldia will now be further extended to Patna, Muzaffarpur and the pipeline coming from Kandla, which has reached Gorakhpur, will also be connected to it. He said when the entire project is ready, it will become one of the longest pipeline projects in the world.

The PM said due to these gas pipelines, big bottling plants were being installed in Bihar of which two new plants had been launched today in Banka and Champaran. Both these plants can fill more than 125 million cylinders every year. These plants will meet the LPG requirements of East Champaran, West Champaran, Muzaffarpur, Siwan, Gopalganj, Sitamarhi, Bhagalpur, Banka, Jamui, Araria, Kishanganj and Katihar in Bihar; Godda, Deoghar, Dumka, Sahibganj, and Pakur districts in Jharkhand and some areas of Uttar Pradesh.

The prime minister said the fertiliser factory of Barauni, which was closed in the past, would also commence working soon after the construction of this gas pipeline.

Reminding people that the good work done in the last 15 years must continue, he said, We must ensure sushasan (good governance).

Earlier, expressing his condolence at the death of former Central minister and long-standing RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh at AIIMS-Delhi on Sunday, the PM said his demise had left a void in Bihar and national politics.
Firms have voiced concerns over the move aimed at preventing Dutch companies from taking their polluting activities to other European countries to avoid the levy. Photo: Getty

The Dutch government has announced it is pressing ahead with plans to introduce a carbon levy on industry, according to Dutch business daily Financeele Dagblad.

It comes after officials suggested the controversial tax would be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, saying it didnt want to burden companies who had other priorities with an extra tax.

Dutch secretary of state for finance, Hans Vijlbrief, told European finance ministers in Berlin, that he hoped other EU countries would join the Netherlands in implementing similar measures.

The aim is to reduce the emission of harmful greenhouse gases such as CO2 and to encourage companies to operate more sustainably, so that the country can meet the Paris climate targets agreed in 2015.

However, firms have voiced concerns over the move aimed at preventing Dutch companies from taking their polluting activities to other European countries to avoid the levy.

Tata Steel (TATASTEEL.NS), Yara (YARIY) and Dow chemicals (DOW) said the tax would damage their competitiveness, as the extra tax will be paid on top of the price they already pay per tonne of CO2 emitted under the European Emission Trading System.

READ MORE: Rio Tinto boss to leave over indigenous Australian cave destruction

The tax  which could be introduced as early as next year  would affect the 300 most polluting companies.

Under the plans, firms will be given some exemption for a certain amount of CO2 emission, but they will have to pay for everything they emit on top of that amount.

However, the government will use a phased out approach between 2021 and 2030  giving companies fewer and fewer exemptions  to allow them to get used to the measures in the first few years, so that together they can reduce emission by 14.3 megatonnes by 2030.

Vijlbrief also told EU ministers that the country is still planning to implement a 7 (6.48, $8.29) tax levy on all airline tickets in 2021, the paper said. The move has already gained support from other EU countries including, Germany, France, Denmark, Belgium, Sweden, Italy, Luxembourg and Bulgaria. Despite the support, Brussels does not deal with taxation as its a national responsibility.

Story continues

Previously, the tax on flying was due to commence on 1 January 2021, but Vijlbrief said he would reconsider the date, in light of the COVID-19 crisis, after lockdown measures and grounded flights hammered global aviation industries.

When is a good time? This is a way of transport that is currently not taxed at all, considering the difficult period the aviation industry is going through, Vijlbrief said of the airline ticket tax.

The proposed industry tax measures will be included in the governments 2021 budget, which will be presented to MPs on Tuesday (15 September).

READ MORE: EU moves to issue green bonds for first time
https://www.aish.com/jw/s/How-the-Rabbi-of-the-Warsaw-Ghetto-is-Giving-Me-Comfort-Today.html

Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapiras book has helped me cope during the pandemic.

Born in 1889, Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira was a well-known spiritual leader in the 1920s and 1930s, first in the Warsaw suburb of Piaseczno, then in Warsaw itself. He set up the largest yeshiva in the city in 1923, called Daat Mosheh, and in 1932 published his first book, a work on education called Hovat HaTalmidim (The Students Obligation), which explains to students that they are descendants of the great prophets and leaders in the Torah, and are capable of growing to similar spiritual heights. Rabbi Shapira organized classes and dispensed charity and became a major spiritual leader of Warsaw Jewry.

When Germany attacked Warsaw in September 1939, Rabbi Shapiras only son and daughter-in-law were killed. His daughter was deported to a death camp soon after. Rabbi Shapira was forced into the notorious Warsaw Ghetto, along with over 400,000 other Jews. Conditions were abysmal; food was scarce and disease decimated the Jews imprisoned there. The hunger in the ghetto was so great, was so bad, that people were laying on the streets and dying, little children went around begging, recalled Ghetto resident Abraham Lewent.

In the hellhole of the Warsaw Ghetto, Rabbi Shapira continued to run a secret synagogue, leading services and delivering lectures to Jews there. He arranged marriages and helped arrange a mikveh, Jewish ritual bath. Each week, he wrote down his weekly thoughts on that weeks Torah portion.

In January, 1943, when the last Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto were being deported to their deaths, Rabbi Shapira gathered his papers together, placed them in a canister, and buried them underground. He included a letter addressed to whomever might one day find his work and asked that they might be sent to his brother, Rabbi Yeshaya Shapira, an ardent Zionist whod urged Polish Jews to move to the Holy Land and who moved there himself in 1920.

I take the honor to allow myself a request of the esteemed personage or the esteemed institute who will find these the following, my manuscripts Please be so kind as to take pains to convey them to the Holy Land to the following address: Rabbi Yeshaya Shapira, Tel Aviv including with them the attached letter. If God will be merciful and I am among the remaining Jews who survive the war, I ask that you please forgive me and return it all to me Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira wrote.

It was the last letter he ever wrote. Rabbi Shapira was shot to death by Nazi soldiers, along with 43,000 other Jews in Aktion Erntefest (Operation Harvest Festival), which saw the murder of Jewish prisoners in the Majdanek, Poniatowa and Trawniki concentration camps over two days in November, 1943. After the war, a construction worker found the canister; its contents were eventually sent to Rabbi Shapiras brother, who published them in a book called Aish Kodesh, or (In English: Sacred Fire: Torah From the Years of Fury 1939-1942) in 1960.

After hearing this remarkable story, I ordered my own copy of Rabbi Shapiras book  but found myself seldom reading it. Its insights and lessons were penetrating, but so dark. On page after page, Rabbi Shapiras words seemed to cry out for hope in a world full of pain and fear that I just couldnt relate to.



Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira

Until now. Obviously, I cannot  and don't want to appear as if Im trying to  equate the sadness and loneliness Ive been feeling during the pandemic in any way with the horrors that Rabbi Shapira experienced. Yet for the first time in my life, I was no longer inhabiting the same bright, carefree world I was used to. I was seeking some solace. I took the volume off my bookshelf and the very first words I read spoke directly to my sadness about being unable to pray in the large congregations I used to enjoy:

Every Jewish person prays to God and cries out to Him, blessed be He, regarding any calamity But what can we do when they do not permit us to cry out, or even to congregate for prayer, and we are forced to pray in hidden places, and every Jewish heart must lament this alone? At least in the depths of his heart, every Jew must shout out to God about it.

Rabbi Shapira was facing imminent death and his words were aimed at people living in horrendous danger, greater than anything we can even imagine today. Yet his comments were so soothing, reminding me that even when were isolated at home, our prayers can remain as vivid as before.

Another powerful passage gave me strength to see meaning in even the difficult parts of life as part of a larger Divine plan. The emotions that were all experiencing in this age of Coronavirus are surely ones we are meant to somehow grow from too.

...if a person sustains himself (in difficult times) only with his belief in imminent salvation, then his experience of agony and suffering remain unmitigated, and it is difficult for him to bear when, God forbid, salvation is delayed. This is not the case if together with the belief in salvation he also bows his head saying, He is God, and will do whats best in His eyes. This actually softens and absorbs the bitterest feelings, and lessens the sting of pain at what is happening. A person is then able to bear more, and his faith has more power to boost his spirits, even when, God forbid, salvation does not come as soon as he had hoped.

Reading Rabbi Shapira over these past few months has been incredibly comforting. At times it feels wrong to gain so much comfort from the wisdom and insights he shared in times that were so much worse than our own. But the hard-won ideas he wrote speak to us still.

Now, as we prepare for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, it can feel even more difficult than ever to be optimistic about the coming new year. Here too, Rabbi Shapira has powerful lessons that feel fresh and uniquely relevant today.

Recognizing the weariness of people living in difficult circumstances, constrained from their ordinary lives, he urged his students to acknowledge this pain as they prepared for a new year. In the days before Rosh Hashanah, in September 1941, Rabbi Shapira observed that the difficulties that he and his students were facing had completely changed the way they viewed the world, making them numb:

Now, in our present circumstances, we can see that by comparison with the way we used to feel we have become numb to all pain and suffering. In the past, we suffered every hurt, no matter how minor. But if we were capable of responding to all the pain of our current suffering with emotion and distress, as we once did, it would be impossible to survive, God forbid, even for a single day.

Despite this pain, Rabbi Shapira had a positive message to convey. No matter how difficult life becomes, we still have it in our power to control how we respond  and to face even the hardest of circumstances with spiritual growth. Its a powerful legacy that speaks to us across the generations with a new urgency today.
Mr. James Kwofie, Managing Director of Ghana Post Company Limited has won an award for his Outstanding Contributions to the Development of Postal Services in Ghana.

The Ghana Development Awards ceremony was held on Saturday 12th September in Accra at the Accra Marriot Hotel to recognise outstanding contributions of individuals and institutions towards the development of Ghana's economy.

Mr. James Kwofie is being recognised for the massive transformation he has brought into the operations of Ghana Post including; technology enhancement in the delivery of mails and parcels underpinned by the digital address system.

Ghana Post has improved fleet capacity, established a modern customer care centre to track and trace deliveries, e-commerce website, e-service, digital payment platform and enhanced financial services.

Since asuming office in 2017, Mr. James Kwofie relentlessly led a team of resulted oriented management to propel Ghana Post to an enviable feat. Ghana Post today uses performance management to continuously improve productivity of the company.

Commenting on the award, Mr James Kwofie, MD of Ghana Post had this to say; "I could not have come this far without the support of H. E. The President of the Republic of Ghana, my sector Minister Hon. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the Board of Directors of Ghana Post, Management of Ghana Post, and our stakeholders and partners. " He dedicated the award to Ghana Post staff across the regions who bought into the new vision.

He continued that business partnership with other stakeholders culminated to his recognition as having contributed to the development of the postal service in the country.

According to the MD, the future of Ghana Post is anchored in its ability to churn out new innovations to meet customer expectations.

He, therefore, called on the government to continue supporting Ghana Post and give a quota of government delivery business to the company as a support to help the company to efficiently meet its obligations as the nation's designated postal operator.

He expects the company to weather the challenges created by COVID-19 over the next 12 months with government support.

He thanked the organisers of the awards for the award and encouraged them to keep up the good work.
 Flash

A Chinese defense spokesman on Sunday expressed firm opposition to a recent report released by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Wu Qian, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, said the report titled "Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2020" is further proof of the U.S. intent to smear China and its military.

China deplores and firmly opposes the action by the U.S. side, Wu said.

The report deliberately distorted relations between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese military, misinterpreted China's national defense policy and military strategies, and hyped up the so-called "Chinese military threat," Wu said.

The U.S. side issued such reports in the past 20 consecutive years, Wu said, describing it as a blatant act of hegemony and provocation that has severely hurt bilateral and military-to-military relations.

China has lodged stern representations with the U.S. side, Wu added.

Stressing that the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the people's armed forces under the CPC leadership, Wu said upholding the Party's leadership is the soul of the PLA and the PLA is committed to whole-heartedly serving the people.

China follows the path of peaceful development and adheres to a national defense policy that is defensive in nature, said Wu, adding that China's military development is aimed at safeguarding the country's sovereignty, security and development interests.

"It does not target any country, nor does it pose a threat to any other country," Wu said.

Wu reiterated that there is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China.

He said tensions across the Taiwan Strait are primarily caused by the Democratic Progressive Party's attempts to bank on foreign support and use of force to resist reunification, as well as the external anti-China elements' attempts to use Taiwan to contain and divide China.

Citing the U.S. wars and military actions against countries such as Iraq, Syria and Libya over the past two decades, Wu said the United States has proven to be the one that instigated regional chaos, violated international order and destroying world peace.

Wu said the Chinese military will faithfully put to practice the vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity, firmly safeguard the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter, actively take part in regional security cooperation, and promptly provide international public security goods.

"The Chinese military is committed to safeguarding world peace, contributing to global development, and upholding international order," Wu said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 22:31:22|Editor: huaxia

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JERUSALEM, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Normalization between Israel and Bahrain will result in direct flights between the two countries, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.

"There will be brisk traffic in direct air links between the countries," Netanyahu said during a weekly cabinet meeting, according to a statement issued by his office.

He told the cabinet that the deal with Bahrain, announced on Friday, was agreed on during a phone conversation that day among U.S. President Donald Trump, Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and himself.

"It was a very warm conversation," Netanyahu said, adding the deal includes "the official establishment of peace with full diplomatic relations and with all that entails."

In August, Israel and the United Arab Emirates announced a U.S.-brokered deal to normalize their ties. The deal is scheduled to be signed on Tuesday at the White House.

Saudi Arabia has announced its permission for flights between Israel and the Gulf to overfly its territory. Enditem
New Delhi: National Testing Agency (NTA) is all set to conduct the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, NEET 2020 today (September 13, 2020) following strict COVID-19 precautions. The Agency has set a dress code for candidates appearing for the exam.

The dress code this year is has been slightly changed due to the pandemic situation. In the dress code this year, wearing masks is mandatory and students are also advised to wear gloves and face shields. Students are allowed to wear casual short-sleeve light colour clothes but they are advised to avoid full sleeve shirts, dresses with big buttons and dark or tight clothes.

Students are not allowed to wear shoes and candidates must wear open-toed sandals or slippers to the examination. The candidates with specific attire for religious reasons are asked to report to the exam hall for mandatory frisking.

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Wearable devices like, analog watch or smart-watch or any phones, bluetooth devices are not allowed inside the examination centre. Candidates are also advised to avoid wearing jewellery.

Over 15 lakh candidates are expected to appear in medical entrance exam National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test this year, according to a National Testing Agency (NTA) official. All candidates are required to carry their NEET 2020 Admit Card with them with duly filled declaration.

In order to maintain social distancing, the NTA has increased the number of exam centres from originally-planned 2,546 to 3,843, while the number of candidates per room has been reduced from earlier 24 to 12.

Notably, the crucial National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), which is a pen and paper-based test unlike engineering entrance exam JEE, has already been deferred twice in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. The exam was originally scheduled for May 3, but was pushed to July 26, and then to September 13.
Kabul, Sep 13 : Afghans from all walks of life have largely welcomed the much awaited face-to-face talks between the Kabul government and the Taliban in Doha, but were cautious about the outcome of the "complicated process" to bring about lasting peace in the war-torn country after decades of conflict.

The intra-Afghan talks opened in Doha on Saturday at a ceremony attended by senior officials from different countries, including US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, reports Xinhua news agency.

The ceremony was inaugurated by Abdullah Abdullah, Chairman of Afghanistan's High Council for National Reconciliation.

A 21-member Afghan team, headed by former intelligence chief Mohammed Masoom Stanekzai, is meeting the Taliban delegation to find a negotiated solution to Afghanistan's prolonged war.

"The opening ceremony of intra-Afghan talks in Doha today is a golden opportunity and historic day for the people of Afghanistan to get maximum benefit to end the war in the country," Mohammad Shakir Zarbi, political analyst and editor-in-chief of the state-run daily Anis, told Xinhua.

Describing the talks a "complicated process" the analyst said: "The start of talks is a welcome step, but convincing the Taliban to accept the values and achievements that the country made over the past 19 years is difficult." Echoing the notion, another local observer Khan Mohammad Daneshjo told Xinhua: "It is difficult to convince the Taliban group to recognize the government and support women rights, human rights, freedom of press and the progress that Afghanistan has made since the collapse of Taliban reign in late 2001." However, Daneshjo, who is the editor-in-chief of Abadi daily, called the talks a "golden opportunity", saying: "We should be optimistic about the future of the country as the war is not the solution" and the Taliban would finally accept the ceasefire to accelerate peace talks with the government.

Nevertheless, the analyst said "observing ceasefire or reduction of violence by the Taliban" from today could be a test for the honesty of the armed group towards resolving the country's problems through political means.

"I was born in war, has grown in war, still living in war and now I am hopeful to see the success of the talks among Afghans to bring about peace in my country," street vendor Mohammad Ashor told Xinhua.

The intra-Afghan talks were part of the historic agreement signed between the US and the Taliban on February 29 also in the Qatari capital.

The talks were to be held 10 days after the deal was signed but it kept getting delayed over the prisoner release issue between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

The government claimed that it has freed all the 5,000 Taliban inmates, while the militant group has also completed the release of 1,000 government prisoners.
The fall semester at the New Brunswick campus began this month, but a majority of classes are being held remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic. A limited number of graduate and international students have been allowed to live on campus.

A spokesman for the school referred questions to the prosecutors office and the New Brunswick police.

Several Rutgers students, some of whom said they had signed leases before the pandemic, live on the block.

One of those students, Jacob Beacher, 20, had moved into his home in June. He said he was sitting in an upstairs bedroom when the gunfire broke out early Sunday. It lasted about 10 to 15 seconds, he said.

People were just shot laying on the sidewalk, he said.

He said the gunmen appeared to be firing toward a house where a neighbor was holding a party. After the gunfire, Mr. Beacher said he went out to try to help, but one of the victims appeared to be in dire condition and was bleeding from the mouth.

I just tried to stay there with him, to let him know there was someone there, there was someone trying to help him, he said.

As soon as the police and emergency medical workers showed up, Mr. Beacher said that the scene turned chaotic, with as many as 200 people pouring into the street.
BC Card President Lee Dong-myun poses at its office in this file photo. He took office as the leader of the payment processor in March this year. Yonhap



By Lee Min-hyung



BC Card President Lee Dong-myun is tasked with finding the next growth engines for the firm amid its weak earnings and growing uncertainties in the local credit card industry.



Lee, as an expert in IT and big data, is seeking to turn the firm into a digital-driven payment processor over the medium- to long term. But he is under growing pressure due to a temporary profit drop, as this was the first earnings report since he took office in March 2020.



BC Card reported a net profit of 53.8 billion won ($45.38 million) in the first half of the year, down 31.6 percent from 2019, the only firm to post an earnings decline among major card firms here.



Card affiliates of major financial firms here  such as Shinhan Card, KB Kookmin Card and Woori Card  all reported double-digit growth during the same period.



The company attributed the poor performance to one-time expenses paid to establish a next-generation IT system after it relocated its headquarters to central Seoul in September last year. At that time, BC Card purchased a building for 370 billion won.



"The decline in our earnings was due to depreciation on the system, and starting from this year, the cost will be recorded in our earnings for more years," a spokesman at the company said.



Lee's official tenure ends at the end of this year, and KT, the parent company of BC Card, will decide whether to extend his term for another year around that time  his predecessors have typically served as CEOs for two to three years.



BC Card argues that the temporary earnings decline was inevitable at a time when it has to find new growth engines by expanding investments and bracing for a new paradigm shift in the card industry.



Lee previously served as the head of KT's convergence technology institute and was at the center of developing big data businesses there.



"Despite the earnings decline, Lee is well versed in converging big data with new areas and finding fresh revenue sources, so expectations are BC Card can transform itself into one of the nation's leading tech-driven finance players under his leadership," the spokesman said.



Possible synergy with K bank



For now, BC Card's major cash cow comes from the commissions it charges its member companies.



But as this business model is not future-oriented, the company is seeking to find new areas for growth by developing digital and mobile businesses.



"We are going to keep finding ways to enhance our digital business, and one scenario is to launch new projects in partnership with K bank," the spokesman said. BC Card recently became the largest shareholder of the internet-only lender.



It has been only a few months since the nation's first internet-only bank resumed operations after suffering years of capital-erosion, leaving it unable to compete with rival, KakaoBank.



"Our top priority is on the digital business, and K bank's recent resumption of business will help us find next-generation revenue sources," the spokesman said.



This scenario is expected to be feasible only if K bank achieves a successful rebound in its business. Early last month, the lender unveiled a vision for its revival by launching a series of financial products, such as mobile device-only mortgages.



Former BC Card CEO Lee Mun-hwan is now the head of K bank, so the possibility for synergy between the two KT partners appears highly likely as long as the internet bank's business is normalized.


A fisherman refuses to go in the same waters that a surfer was mauled in because he knows just how infested the ocean is with killer sharks.

Whenever Joel Merchant goes fishing at Tweed Heads, on the New South Wales border, the 39-year-old fisherman sees droves of great white sharks.

After working in the waters for 20 years Mr Merchant now refuses to go swimming in the same area Nick Slater was killed on Tuesday, citing a massive increase in shark numbers.

Whenever Joel Merchant goes fishing at Tweed Heads, on the New South Wales border, the 39-year-old fisherman sees droves of great white sharks

Mr Merchant, along with other fishermen, have claimed great white shark numbers have increased rapidly in recent times

Nick Slater (pictured) was killed by a shark at Greenmount Beach on the Gold Coast on Tuesday

Mr Slater's death is the first fatal shark attack in the region since 1958.

'I see way too much. There's definitely no shortage of great whites, we see them all the time and we never saw them before,' he told The Daily Telegraph.

'When I set for shark lines now, the majority are eaten by other sharks before I get them on board.'

Mr Merchant said that up to 20 years ago there was 'too much pressure on the shark population' which meant in 2009 restrictions were brought in.

After more than ten years of minimal shark fishing, the waters are filled with the deadly predators.

'People don't fish for them anymore and the amount of sharks out there now is out of control,' the fisherman said.

After more than ten years of minimal shark fishing, the waters are filled with the deadly predators (Mr Merchant pictured with a shark that had been attacked by a bigger creature)

Yamba-based commercial fisherman Adrian Cottee posted pictures of dozens of sharks scrambling near his trawler off Tweed Heads

Mr Merchant is posing with a three metre long tiger shark but all that was left was the head after it was attacked by a bigger beast

Mr Merchant said all the sharks in the water seem healthy and always have enough food but since they've been left alone they are 'now thriving'.

'The chance of interacting with a shark is more and more because there are so many of them.'

Mr Merchant, along with other fishermen in the area, often post on social media when they only catch half a shark or see something bizarre in the water.

Yamba-based commercial fisherman Adrian Cottee posted pictures of dozens of sharks scrambling near his trawler off Tweed Heads.

'We are working off Tweed Heads NSW at the moment and I see this every night,' he wrote.

'We actually had to leave the Tweed area two years ago because the sharks were eating the net and everything would fall out. There's certainly big numbers of sharks out there.'

Mr Slater had been surfing at nearby Greenmount Beach on the Gold Coast on Tuesday afternoon when he was viciously attacked by a monster great white shark.

The 46-year-old longboarder was among at least 40 surfers in the water when he was bitten on the leg and later succumbed to his injuries on the beach.

Longboard rider Nick Slater, 46, was mauled to death by a shark on the Gold Coast on Tuesday

The tooth left embedded in Mr Slater's surfboard has been taken away for analysis to find out what kind of shark attacked him

Bond University shark expert Daryl McPhee said Mr Slater's position at the bottom of the sandbank away from other surfers made him vulnerable.

A large school of bait fish in the water was another factor heightening the danger, he said, but more importantly was the time of day.

'Bites can occur any time during the day but you can expect an increase in shark activity at dusk and dawn,' Dr McPhee told Gold Coast Bulletin.

While those factors contributed to the attack, he said Mr Slater was also the victim of 'exceptionally bad luck'.

While local fishermen believe the number of great white sharks have increased, Dr McPhee said all evidence of shark numbers is anecdotal.

Surf cameras captured the moment Mr Slater was killed by a great white shark at a netted Gold Coast beach in the first fatal attack in the region since 1958

Shark expert Daryl McPhee (pictured) said there were three factors that made Mr Slater a target

No data on the number of sharks was collected before they became a protected species, so there is no way to determine whether numbers have actually increased.

'When we protected white sharks, we didn't know how many were there so there was no baseline for recovery,' Dr McPhee said.

'When someone says 'sharks are protected, therefore the numbers have gone up', we don't know whether they've gone up.'

Since Mr Slater's tragic death it was revealed that the 57km coastline is only protected by 2km of nets, sparking fears beachgoers are not as safe in the water as they once thought.

Early analysis of a tooth lodged in Mr Slater's longboard has suggested the 46-year-old was killed by a 3.5m great white shark.
One of them is Google Maps, which has seemingly lost support for photo uploads.What this means is that Google Maps local guides can no longer upload pictures to the service, no matter their location, as the only thing they got when trying to browse for images on their devices is a No Gallery App Available error.It looks like the issue showed up after the update to Android 11 , so the problem is happening mostly on Google Pixel phones that are already running the latest operating system version.After the update I could no longer add pictures I had taken with the system camera to google maps. The only photos allowed were ones taken in google maps. When I attempted to poke the Folders button the No Gallery App Available was displayed. When I poke the camera button, the camera will open. Poking the 3 dots in the lower right corner to open the system camera will result in the error [..] No camera app is available, one user explains on Googles forums While Google is yet to acknowledge the problem and provide a fix, someone on the forums has discovered a workaround.What you need to do is turn to a different image viewer and use the share feature to upload photos to Google Maps. In their case, the app that worked with this method was Quick Pick, and after selecting the photos and hitting the share option, they could simply choose Google Maps and pick a correct location.At this point, it looks like the problem is experienced on the latest Google Maps version for Android too.
In the year that CREATE, the annual Brown Thomas event that celebrates and promotes Irish design, marks its 10th anniversary, never has the industry needed its support more. The store's Fashion Director, Shelly Corkery, was originally moved to establish CREATE in response to the lack of Irish designers in the store and approaching her and her buying team. "We had only Louise Kennedy at the time. I was quite taken aback by the lack of Irish people presenting to me. I took it upon myself to get out there, open the doors and start looking," she says.

Assisted by Eddie Shanahan, Shelly set in place what is now one of the most important platforms for finding, and showcasing, new Irish design talent in both fashion and interiors. Typically, each year, Shelly spends two days in March interviewing candidates; finalists are then exhibited in the store from July, just in time for tourist season, in what is both an exhibition, and a pop-up store. "I thought it was a lovely opportunity to show our home-grown talent," Shelly reflects. This year, as with everything, Covid-19 affected the schedule, and CREATE will run from September 22.

Careers have been made by CREATE; knitwear designer Lucy Nagle, who started out on the platform, is now stocked in every Brown Thomas store. "CREATE is about looking back to our roots, and to all the people who have Irish roots; for example, this year's exclusive collection by Rixo," Shelly explains. To further this aim, several years ago, she began working with NCAD final-year students, introducing the Brown Thomas NCAD bursary award. "It's all about opening the doors and letting people know we are accessible," Shelly says. For those starting out in the business, Shelly advises continuity in your output, saying, "Start small, and be consistent. No need to change drastically every year; develop a true DNA. Identify what you are good at, and what the customer wants. Listen to the customer." Expand Close Cadhla, left, wears: Hand-beaded silk dress, 980; Sadhbh, right, wears: hand-beaded silk and tulle dress, 910, both Sarah Murphy / Facebook

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Whatsapp Cadhla, left, wears: Hand-beaded silk dress, 980; Sadhbh, right, wears: hand-beaded silk and tulle dress, 910, both Sarah Murphy What has she noted, over the years, that Irish designers particularly excel at? "Knitwear, for sure," Shelly reflects, citing Faye Dinsmore, who takes part again this year. "I do think there is a creativity that Irish designers have. They're not afraid to play, to explore, and I think that's really exciting." This year's offering is a mixture of newcomers and those who have previously exhibited. Cancelling was never an option; Shelly is keenly aware of the importance of supporting Irish design at this moment. "We did push it back from July to September, but I really, really wanted to make it happen. I do believe everybody's talking about community, and looking after our own during this pandemic. We've been doing this for 10 years and therefore I thought, 'There's no way we're going to let this go'," she says, adding, "We have to really show the true talents that are out there, to still give people the opportunities, reach out and develop and help our home-grown talent. We're all busy, but no one is too busy to be looking at what's on our own front doorstep. And I think we need to really, really reflect on that." Photography by Andrew Nuding Styling by Darren Feeney Words by Liadan Hynes
China on Friday staunchly defended Pakistan's record in fighting terrorism, saying its all-weather ally has made "tremendous efforts and sacrifices", countering calls by India and the US that Islamabad must ensure that its territory is not used for terror activities.

India and the US in a joint statement after the 17th meeting of the India-US Counter-Terrorism Joint Working Group and the third session of the India-US Designations Dialogue held on September 9-10, denounced the use of terrorist proxies and strongly condemned cross-border terrorism in all its forms.

New Delhi and Washington Islamabad to expeditiously bring to justice the perpetrators of terrorist attacks, including the 26/11 Mumbai strike and the Pathankot airbase attack.

Asked for his reaction, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian during a media briefing here said that terrorism is a common challenge faced by all countries and Pakistan has made tremendous efforts and sacrifices in fighting terrorism.

The international community should fully recognise and respect that. China opposes all kind of terrorism. All countries on the bases of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit engage in anti-terrorism international cooperation to jointly safeguard the international peace and security," he said.

On the 19th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Zhao said that the terror attack brought many challenges to global security.

Now, the counter-terrorism situation is still severe and has posed risks to all countries," he said.

"China opposes all kind of terrorism and we believe that the UN should play a leading role and we oppose double standards on counter-terrorism and we oppose the attempt to link the terrorism to any specific country," he said.

He emphasised that all countries should work together to prevent and fight terrorism and safeguard the worlds peace and stability.

"So on this very special day, I would like to say that we hope the US wont forget terrorism and Covid-19 are common enemies to all mankind. And China and Pakistan are not the enemies of the US," he said.

About the meeting between Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow on Thursday on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), he said Wang assured that China will continue to provide Pakistan with anti-epidemic support until Pakistan completely overcomes the Covid-19 pandemic.

"China will like to work with Pakistan in advancing the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and further agricultural cooperation, which will deliver benefits to people," Zhao said.

India has objected to the USD 60 billion CPEC as it is being laid through Pakistan- occupied Kashmir (PoK).

We believe that with the joint efforts of both sides, the corridor will play a greater role in Pakistan's economic development and people's welfare," he said.

China will continue working with Pakistan, firmly supporting each other on international multilateral occasions to uphold international fairness and justice, he said.

Next year is the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Pakistan. We will build on our friendship, plan for the future, and make new progress in our bilateral relations, Zhao said.
Teenage terrorists and child killers could be handed whole life prison terms as Boris Johnson called for action on a 'loophole' that allows 'truly despicable criminals' to avoid such a sentence because of their age.

Writing in today's Sunday Express, the Prime Minister outlined proposals in a White Paper being introduced this week, which includes lowering the age limit on whole life sentences from those aged 21 and over for exceptional cases, such as terrorism.

Other murderers aged 15 to 17 will face heftier sentences, while teenage inmates will no longer have their life terms reviewed every two years.

Sean Mercer was 16 when he was convicted of killing 11-year-old Rhys Jones in 2008. Under new proposals, he could serve out his entire 22-year minimum life sentence.

Under the current system, anyone handed a life sentence for crimes committed when they were under 18 can go to court for a review after serving half their sentence.

This can be repeated every two years, resulting in further distress for families of the victims.

Johnson argued: 'We're going to remove a loophole that lets some truly despicable criminals avoid such a sentence because they're under 21 at the time of their crime.

Liverpool schoolboy Rhys Jones was murdered by teenager Sean Mercer in 2008

'But if - like Manchester Arena bombing accomplice Hashem Abedi - you plot, in a cold, calculating and deliberate manner, to murder and maim dozens of people then it doesn't matter if you're "only" 18, 19 or 20 when you do so.'

He added: 'We cannot lose sight of the need for a justice system that, above all else, keeps the people of this country safe.'

'We need a justice system that keeps people safe': Boris Johnson has called for new laws that close the 'loophole' on teen offenders escaping life sentences because of their age

The most radical shake-up of sentencing seen in 20 years also includes new powers preventing the automatic release of offenders who have become radicalised in prison while serving non-terror related sentences.

Meanwhile serious offenders convicted of rape, manslaughter or GBH will not be eligible for release half-way through sentences that are between four and seven years.

Electronic tags will also need to be worn for a maximum of two years, not one, and maximum home curfews will be increased from 16 to 23 hours.

Those who vandalise or damage memorials will be handed heftier sentences, as will those convicted of attacks on emergency workers.

Hashem Abedi was convicted for assisting his brother Salman in the Manchester Arena bombing, but could not be handed a life sentence as he was under 21 at the time of the killings

The proposed changes could impact a number of offenders currently serving sentences for killing a minor and terror offences.

They include Sean Mercer, who murdered 11-year-old Rhys Jones in 2007. Under the new changes, he would have serve the entirety of his 22-year minimum term given to him when he was aged 16.

Hashem Abedi, who assisted his brother Salman in the Manchester Arena bombing, could not be handed a whole-life sentence as he was under 21 at the time of the killings and was instead jailed for 55 years.

Judge Jeremy Baker said a whole-life order would have been a 'just sentence' for Abedi, but as this option was not open to the courts, the hefty jail time handed to him instead could mean he 'may never be released'.

In a statement about the proposed changes, Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said: 'From longer jail time for dangerous criminals to new measures to improve rehabilitation and cut reoffending - we are delivering a system that is more equipped than ever to crack down on crime, which the public can have confidence in to keep them safe.'
The post asks residents to contact either the Lockport Police Department or the Will County sheriffs office if they locate a weapon. Police are asking residents not to touch or move any weapon they may find and to keep an eye on the weapon until police arrive.
French director and writer Maimouna Doucoure was rather taken aback to find that her film Cuties (Mignonnes)  an award winner at this years Sundance Film Festival  was so violently unpopular with the American public after it appeared here on Netflix. In response to promotional materials and clips from the movie (which showed eleven-year-old girls dressed and dancing like strippers), politicians, journalists, and celebrities complained that the streaming service was basically distributing child pornography. A petition calling for Netflix viewers to cancel their subscription gained 600,000 signatories. Yet the moviemakers were baffled, maintaining that Cuties is a social commentary against the sexualization of young children.

If this were a novel  or if the lead actresses werent minors  I might be inclined to side with the defenders. But Cuties isnt a novel; rather its a visual medium, one in which actual eleven-year-old girls have been presented to millions of viewers in ways that, in any other context, would be considered reprehensible, if not criminal.

Since I suspect that many wont watch the movie out of principle, Ill try summarizing it.

Cuties explores the various ways that vulnerable young girls act out sexually. Set in modern-day France, it tells the story of Amy (Fathia Youssouf), who moves with her family (her mother and two younger brothers) into a government-housing scheme. Amy, whose family are part of a strict Muslim community, soon discovers that her father intends to take a second wife, who will occupy the empty room next to hers. Owing to the conventions of her religion, her mother has no say in the matter and must even feign enthusiasm. Understandably feeling angry and confused, Amy internalizes her mothers misery and seeks escape.

Before long, the cuties, a group of highly troublesome popular girls at school, attract Amys attention. The cuties lie, steal, fight, and (with unfettered access to hypersexualized pop culture through their phones) exhibit precocious sexual curiosity, particularly in relation to dancing. Having earned their acceptance, Amy is soon pressured into taking a video of a boys penis as he urinates in a school toilet. Soon, engrossed in her new double life, Amy slips beneath her hijab at a prayer meeting to watch adult women perform a raunchy stripper-esque dance routine. The cuties giggle at pornography in the school toilets; they strut, pout, and make crude sexual comments in order to attract the attention of older boys; they dress in skimpy and provocative clothing (Amy borrows her toddler brothers T-shirt to use as a crop-top). And yet, all the while, the filmmakers remind us that they do not really understand what they are doing  that they are children. In one scene, one of the girls mistakes a used condom for a balloon, causing a chorus of prepubescent shrieking.

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Angelica, the groups ringleader, complains that she is neglected by her parents, but adds that at least people like me. Amy realizes during the most controversial scene in the movie  the cuties dance routine  that this isnt who she is or wants to be and runs off the stage to find her mother. Thereafter, she changes into an age-appropriate outfit and plays outdoors with a skipping rope, a reminder of what girlhood ought to look like. But while the girls inappropriate behavior is not framed as liberation as much as a cry for help, and though depiction doesnt equal endorsement, the nature of the depiction is harder to justify. During the dance sequence, the scantily clad girls grind, hump, and contort their bodies on stage in a way that would be gratuitously sexual for adults, never mind children. Even the (watered-down) IMDb Parents Guide fails to reassure:

A pair of tight leather pants on an 11-year-old girl are forcefully pulled down in the midst of a scuffle with another girl. . . . 11-year-old girls dance suggestively in front of a live adult audience.

Thus, whatever their artistic intentions, in making a social commentary about the sexualization of children, the filmmakers undeniably sexualized children.

Imagine if a movie, a social critique about cruelty to animals, depicted the literal burning and beatings of dogs and cats. Would it be morally convincing for filmmakers merely to replace the usual disclaimer no animals were harmed in the making of this film with a post-production protestation, Oh but our whole point was to show that its wrong? Obviously not. Besides, in the case of Cuties, there was an easy way around the artistic challenge that the script presented. Why didnt they cast young adults who could be made to resemble minors?

Defenses of the film tend to start with the complaint that critics havent watched the film, but my complaint with those defending it is that they have watched it and yet still pretend there isnt a major ethical problem. The New Yorkers Richard Brody writes that Cuties is a film of the center, and its aesthetically of the center  it depicts the unconsidered without advancing to the realm of the subjective, and it doesnt allow its young protagonists much discourse, outer or inner. Only a true intellectual could  when faced with the writhing, leather-clad bottoms and spreading legs of little girls  utter such besides-the-point nonsense.

I hate to say it but its not in the least bit surprising that this is a French film. In the 1970s, key thinkers of the French intelligentsia  Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Simone de Beauvoir, and Jean-Paul Satre among them  published an open letter in Le Monde, a leading French newspaper, defending three men who had been charged with having sex with children under 15. For centuries, the French legal system didnt classify sexual activity with children to be a criminal offense and, apparently, in some instances, it still doesnt. In 2017, the French writer Valentine Faure summarized a recent case in a piece entitled Can an Eleven-Year-Old Girl Consent to Sex? (Ms. Faure thinks Not) for the New York Times:

The events, first reported by the website Mediapart, took place on April 24 in the Paris suburb of Montmagny. That afternoon, the child followed a man, who had already approached her twice in the previous days, telling her he could teach her how to kiss and more. They went to his building, where she performed oral sex in the hallway. Then she followed him to his apartment, where they had sexual intercourse. Afterward, he told her not to talk to anybody about it, kissed her on the forehead and asked to see her again. On her way back home, the girl called her mother in a state of panic, realizing what had just happened. Papa is going to think Im a slut, she said. The mother immediately called the police and pressed charges for rape. But citing Article 227-25 of the French criminal code, the public prosecutor stated that there had been no violence, no coercion, no threat, no surprise, and therefore, the man would be charged only with sexual infraction. That offense is punishable by five years in prison, while rape entails 20 years of imprisonment when the victim is under 15.

By comparison, the moral outrage of Americans at the first whiff of pedophilia is deeply reassuring. Yes, the filmmakers were on to something important: There is much at stake here, and in order to better protect children, we do have to explore unpleasant realities such as those discussed in the movie. Still, a clear line was crossed. The makers of Cuties didnt merely simulate the cultural degradation and abuse of children, they became part of the problem they purport to protest.

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New Delhi, Sep 13 : Union Power Minister R.K. Singh on Sunday said that the government is aiming to push electricity for cooking in a big way, in a bid to provide the poor a cheaper option for their cooking fuel requirement.

Addressing a virtual conference of NTPC, he said that the move will also allow the economy to be self-reliant and give India independence from imports.

"Electricity is the future of India and most of its infrastructure will be powered by electricity. The government has envisaged a Power Foundation to be formed at the Ministry's level and its objectives include cooking to completely run on electricity, which will allow our economy to be self-reliant and give us independence from imports. This government is for the poor and this move will help the poor strata of the society by giving them access to a cheaper medium of cooking," he said.

The minister also praised the various initiatives of NTPC that show the power producer's "unflinching commitment" to the nation and its economic growth.

"The expansion of NTPC will continue and it will keep setting benchmarks in professionalism, efficiency and being an ideal employer, professionalism and efficiency," Singh said.
Mumbai: Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut, who is locked in a bitter battle with the ruling Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, on Sunday met state Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari here and told him about the "injustice" done to her.

The meeting came days after the Shiv Sena-ruled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) demolished alleged illegal alterations at Kangana's bungalow at Pali Hill in suburban Bandra.

Talking to reporters after the meeting that took place at the Raj Bhavan, the actor said, "I met the governor. He heard me as a daughter. I came to meet him as a citizen. I have nothing to do with politics."

"I told him about the injustice meted out to me and what happened was improper. It was indecent behaviour," she said.

The trouble between the Sena and Kangana started after the actor recently said she feared the Mumbai police more than the "movie mafia" and likened the Maharashtra capital to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The 33-year-old actor, who returned to Mumbai on Wednesday from her home state Himachal Pradesh the same day as her house was partially demolished by the civic body, had alleged that the Maharashtra government was targeting her because of her clash with the Sena.

On Friday, the "Queen" actor had urged Congress president Sonia Gandhi to intervene and stop the "harassment of women". In a tweet, she had asked Gandhi if she was not anguished by the treatment given by the Maharashtra government, in which the Congress is also a part.

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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She took on the role of a cult leader out for innocent children's blood in the popular 2017 horror flick, The Babysitter.

But loyal fans of the movie have been left disappointed with its sequel, The Babysitter: Killer Queen.

Released by Netflix on Thursday, some viewers were dissatisfied by how Australian actress Samara Weaving appeared in the film.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Not happy: Loyal fans of the movie have been left disappointed with its sequel, The Babysitter: Killer Queen, which was released on Thursday on Netflix. Pictured Samara Weaving

Samara only returned for a brief cameo in the sequel, compared to the rest of the movie's returning cast who were awarded prominent roles in the second installment.

The first movie sees 12-year-old Cole survive a murderous and satanic rampage by his attractive babysitter named Bee, who is played by Samara.

In the new movie, Cole is now a junior in high school and, except for his friend Melanie, he has a difficult time making others believe that his former babysitter tried to kill him.

A trip to a lake for a party then turns disastrous when he finds out the demonic cult is still wreaking havoc.

While the sequel sounded petrifying enough, viewers were left disappointed following Samara's lack of presence.

Barely in it: It appears viewers were dissatisfied after finding out that Samara only returned for a brief cameo compared to the rest of the movie's cast who were awarded prominent roles in the second instalment

'Wish we had more Samara!' While the sequel sounded petrifying enough, viewers were left disappointed following Samara's lack of presence

Other than some brief throwback scenes from the first movie, Samara only makes a brief appearance at the end.

Upset viewers rushed to Twitter to vent about the blonde bombshell's lack of screen time.

'Just watched #TheBabySitterKillerQueen and I love it well I wish we had more scenes of Samara but I missed her and I love her so much.'

'#TheBabySitterKillerQueen was fun but not enough Samara Weaving.'

Plot: The demonic cult from the first movie is still wreaking havoc in the sequel

'Limited cameo': Upset viewers continued to rush to Twitter to vent about the blonde bombshell's lack of screen time

'I'll say this though: I'm kinda bummed that Samara Weaving's involvement in this seems to be limited to a cameo. Oh well.'

'Something felt off and i couldn't place it. Maybe it was the forced love story or that twist but I know it 100% needed more samara weaving.'

'I finished babysitter 2 and samara weaving was in it for two seconds.'

'The way samara weaving was only in it for 15 minutes.'

Icon role: She took on the role of a cult leader out for innocent children's blood in the popular 2017 horror flick, The Babysitter.

Samara's lack of screen time in The Babysitter: Killer Queen may have been a result of her busy Hollywood schedule.

After winning critical acclaim for the horror Ready Or Not last year, she starred in Ryan Murphy's series Hollywood and is currently filming for the TV adaptation of Nine Perfect Strangers in Byron Bay.

Samara got her break on Australian television playing the role of Indigo Walker for almost five years on Home And Away from 2009.
By Simon Horowitz

Cape May County is a special place to me. My great aunt lives in Del Haven, just north of Cape May, so my family and I visit almost every summer. Her home is situated along the sandy beach of the Delaware Bay. When I was a child, I awed at the vast expanse of the bays reach -- it was a place of serenity. Yet, as time goes on, I have grown worried about its precarious location in the midst of our ever-changing climate.

Her home luckily escaped the worst impacts of Hurricane Irene and Hurricane Sandy. However, as our planet continues to warm, the risk posed to her and other Cape May County residents increase. In late June, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) released an updated Climate Change Report, outlining the vast dangers posed to New Jersey from hurricanes, floods, rising temperatures and more.

Over the next two months, we saw some of those impacts on our communities in real-time. Tropical Storm Fay made landfall in New Jersey on July 10, and caused flooding, downed power lines and fallen trees. On Aug. 4, Tropical Storm Isaias arrived with torrential rain and winds exceeding 75 mph, leading to tornadoes touching down in Strathmere, Upper Township and Barnegat Township.

The impact was devastating for New Jersey, even though many climate scientists are saying it could have been much worse. More than 1.3 million New Jersey residents were left without power, a man in Cape May lost his life due to strong riptides caused by the storm and estimates show that Isaias caused more than $4 billion in damages throughout the nation.

This is the first Atlantic Hurricane Season with nine tropical storms recorded before Aug. 1. And when Tropical Storm Omar was officially named on Sept. 1, it marked the earliest weve ever reached 15 Atlantic storms. This unprecedented activity looks set to continue. While the average Atlantic hurricane season produces 12 named storms, this year the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts between 19 and 25 storms by the end of November.

Currently, scientists are monitoring seven potential storm systems throughout the Atlantic. In the face of the devastation caused by these natural disasters, its imperative that New Jersey state and federal decision-makers link our growing extreme weather events with climate change and take urgent action to reduce our carbon emissions.

So many others feel the same special connection to Cape May that I do. As one of the countrys first seaside resort towns, Cape May is a designated National Historic Landmark District, with some of the oldest and most well-preserved 19th-century Victorian architecture in the country.

Beyond its cultural importance, the entire county is an integral hub for wildlife. Cape May County is home to an array of endangered species and is a key migration corridor for more than 1 million seabirds each year. Cape May National Wildlife Refuge spans multiple regions of the county, preserving more than 11,000 acres and protecting threatened animals and ecosystems. Unfortunately, this unique and beautiful place is increasingly vulnerable to climate change.

The NJDEP climate change report projects a potential rise in sea-level off the coast of New Jersey of up to 1.3 feet by 2030, and up to 2.6 feet by 2050, given a high emissions scenario. While the likelihood of reaching a 2.6-foot rise by 2050 is estimated at 5% or less, a 1.4-foot rise by 2050 has an estimated 50% likelihood. The estimates for 2100 include alarming predictions of up to 6 feet of sea-level rise.

Considering that most Cape May residents live in a flood plain, sea-level rise even on the low end of these estimates could have dire ramifications. As sea levels swell, the peninsula of Cape May slowly sinks. Storm surges, hurricanes, and floods will become more damaging. More homes will be susceptible to saltwater intrusion, infrastructure will be damaged, human health threatened, and places full of historical importance will begin to disappear.

To avoid losing what makes Cape May environmentally and culturally significant, action is necessary. While Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-Dennis, has co-sponsored and supported climate action legislation, more urgent and direct measures are needed to address the looming threat of global warming. Rep. Van Drew should endorse the Congressional Action Plan released by the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. The Congressional Action Plan, which Rep. Frank Pallone helped to craft as chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, provides a template for climate action.

While western states deal with catastrophic wildfires that blot out the sun and turns the sky a brilliant orange, New Jersey is far from being in the clear. The storms, with their flooding, power outages and damage, will only intensify. The COVID-19 summer has also been the summer of climate change and we need to deal with both crises at the state and congressional level because the time for climate action is now.

Simon Horowitz is a global warming solutions associate with Environment New Jersey, a citizen-based environmental advocacy organization. The group represents more than 20,000 dues-paying members across the state and is based in Trenton and New Brunswick.

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Haryana Congress president Kumari Selja on Sunday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of making policies which are detrimental to the interests of farmers and in favour of a handful of private companies.

Stating that the Central government has already passed three Ordinances to deprive the farmers of their natural rights, Selja said now the Union government is planning to present the Pesticides Management Bill-2020 that would ruin small farmers and businessman. She said the government is prepared to pass this Ordinance during the Parliament session starting on Monday.

However, neither the farmers nor farmer associations have been taken into confidence before proposing this Ordinance that would be hampering their interests, she said. The state Congress president demanded a detailed debate on the proposed Ordinance in the Parliament, saying that new suggestions should be incorporated in the Bill.
BEIJING, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese military has introduced a monthly one-day event to hear suggestions from the civilian sector concerning military technological innovation, the Science and Technology Commission (STC) of the Central Military Commission said on Sunday.

The first such event was held on Saturday, gathering 44 participants from universities, research institutes and high-tech firms, said the STC.

Since the STC released the monthly event schedule in July, 755 scientific research teams have signed up and submitted national defense innovation ideas, it added.
Claiming that 'outsiders' are attempting to defame Mumbai, Shiv Sena via its editorial Saamana has justified the action of BMC on Kangana Ranaut's office and said that it is shameful that BJP is supporting 'the actor' who compared Mumbai to 'Pakistan.' This after the act of alacrity entailed in the demolition of Kangana's office was widely panned, and spoken of in scathing terms in the Bombay High Court as the bench stayed the BMC's action.

Sena said that voices should be raised against the one who compared Mumbai to Pakistan and the one who also criticised CM Uddhav Thackeray using words like 'Tu'. Saamana's editorial stated that those who made unauthorised constructions in Mumbai are comparing BMC to 'Babur', and it is disheartening to see that not even half of the Bollywood fraternity are raising their voice against the actor (Kangana). The article goes on to compare the demolition job of the BMC with a 'surgical strike' citing that Kangana had built her office in what she herself described as 'Pakistan.'

This comes after Sanjay Raut, spokesperson and MP of Shiv Sena as well as the writer of most of the articles in Saamana, when confronted by media a day after he used foul language against Kangana said that the issue of construction and demolition of buildings is under BMC and Mumbai Mayor, or BMC Commissioner is answerable.

Earlier on Saturday, in a veiled attack on Kangana, Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana has said that 'Mumbai is not Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and those who made such remark are 'enjoying' the result of it. Brazenly defending nepotism in Bollywood, Sena mouthpiece has said that it is not new and has dominated in the olden times as well. Sena's editorial said that those who have made fortune in Mumbai, they make their buildings in areas like Pali Hill and Malabar Hill, adding that they should be grateful to Mumbai.

READ | Sena takes a veiled dig at Kangana Ranaut via Saamana; defends nepotism, issues challenge

Kangana slams Sonia Gandhi, CM Uddhav

Kangana Ranaut slammed CM Uddhav Thackeray after Shiv Sena ruled BMC demolished her office and invoked Balasaheb Thackeray. She also slammed Congress party president Sonia Gandhi for keeping silent and staying 'indifferent' while the party's ally Shiv Sena continued to 'harass a woman' and 'ensured the mockery of democracy'. Taking to Twitter, Kangana asked Sonia Gandhi if she wasn't feeling anguished as a woman by the treatment being meted out by the Shiv Sena and asked her to 'urge' her ally to 'uphold the principles of the Constitution given to us by Dr. Ambedkar'.

READ | Sushant Death Probe LIVE Updates

BMC demolishes Kangana's office; Bombay HC gives interim relief

On Tuesday, the BMC issued a 'stop work notice' to Kangana Ranaut under section 354(A) of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act and told the Bollywood actor to produce permission within 24 hours. However, BMC officials on Wednesday pasted a new notice at her office stating that the structure will be demolished. They then broke the lock of the premises and partially demolished parts of the building before Ranaut's lawyer moved the HC, which gave her interim relief from the demolition process.

The actor moved Bombay High Court, and the Court ordered an interim stay on the demolition. It has adjourned its hearing till September 22 and has asked the BMC to file a response by September 18. The bench comprising of Justices SJ Kathawalla and RI Chagla has directed Kangana Ranaut to file her amended petition by September 14.

READ | Kangana Ranaut warns Sonia Gandhi 'history will judge you' on Uddhav govt's actions

After Kangana Ranaut reached Mumbai, she visited the office of her production house Manikarnika films. She took to her Twitter and reminisced the day she had conducted the inauguration ceremony for her office and said that she hasn't worked since then as COVID hit and the nation went into lockdown soon after. Kangana went onto reveal that she intends to keep the office "ravaged" as she cannot afford to renovate it. She said that she considers the ruins as a symbol of a woman's will.

READ | Kangana Ranaut Vs Shiv Sena LIVE Updates
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said on Sunday law will take precedence over political affiliations after his partys workers were arrested for assaulting a retired officer of the Indian Navy, who forwarded a cartoon mocking Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Madan Sharma, the former Indian Navy officer, was assaulted on Friday in the Kandivali area of Mumbai allegedly by a group of workers of the ruling Shiv Sena.

The law is always respected in Maharashtra. The accused were arrested immediately, irrespective of the party they were associated with, Raut was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Also read: Why rest of Bollywood is silent, Shiv Sena trains gun on Akshay Kumar

Raut said that the incident of assault could have happened to anyone. He pointed to the call made by defence minister Rajnath Singh and the number of attacks on ex-servicemen in Uttar Pradesh  a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled state  as well.

Maharashtra is a big state. Something like this can happen to anyone. Do you know how many ex-servicemen have been attacked in UP? But the defence minister didnt call them. Our government believes that no innocent person should be attacked, Raut told ANI.

The Sena leader was referring to Singhs call to the retired naval officer on Saturday.

Also read | If that girl apologises...: Sanjay Raut on Kangana Ranauts Mumbai-PoK comment

Spoke to retired naval officer, Shri Madan Sharma who was attacked by hooligans in Mumbai and enquired about his health. Such attacks on Ex-Servicemen is completely unacceptable and deplorable. I wish Madanji a speedy recovery, Singh tweeted.

Sharma had forwarded Thackerays cartoon on a group on WhatsApp. The six Sena workers asked Sharma to meet them at his housing societys gate in Thakur Complex. The six men, including shakha pramukh Kamlesh Kadam, then assaulted the ex-serviceman.
While the publics top betting choices squabbled midpack, driver Scott Young and On A Streak took the front and battled to the finish to hold off 4-5 choice Southwind Tyrion and win the $535,000 William Wellwood Memorial on Saturday (Sept. 12) at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

Logan Park, off at 90-1, left for the lead with Warrawee Whisper landing in second and On A Streak in third. Past the quarter in :27.2, Young sent On A Streak for the lead and cleared command from Logan Park while Southwind Tyrion carried even-money shot Macho Martini wide into the turn before the two favourites tucked into fourth and fifth. Macho Martini floated wide moving to a :57.2 half trying to flush Southwind Tyrion first over, but while in tight quarters was forced three wide as Locatelli split horses to the far turn.

Macho Martini circled back to the two wide path but raced a three lengths off his stablemate On A Streak, who raced pressed to three-quarters by Southwind Tyrion in 1:25.4. The pair exchanged blows through the stretch, with Southwind Tyrion edging to the lead before On A Streak surged back to the front at the inside. Macho Martini started to rally late and lunged to the pylons in the final sixteenth as On A Streak hit the finish with a nose in front of Southwind Tyrion in a 1:54.3 mile. Tokyo Seelster closed for fourth.

This is incredible. Even a guy like me doesnt have a whole lot of words, said Scott Young after the race as he scored his first win on the Grand Circuit. The nerves were good, I was actually even surprised with myself. I had complete confidence in my colt. He just missed Yannicks colt last week, and with an inside post I figured hed be top three for sure and anything better would be great.

I took a look over and saw Yannick first up, Bobby [McClure and Macho Martini] following him obviously. I thought could try and get a little distance in the last turn and my colt dug all the way down the lane. I still thought Yannick was gonna get me halfway down the way and I was content with second even. But he kept digging and right at the wire we got her.

Returning $32.00 to win, On A Streak won his first race from six starts, earning $312,601 for owner Determination. With the victory, the Luc Blais-trained colt by Cantab Hall secured a spot into the final of the Mohawk Million, a race where nine other owners had an opportunity to purchase a spot on the gate. The win gives Serge Godins Determination a second spot on the Mohawk Million starting gate, which he can either keep or sell to another stable.

The William Wellwood Memorial was one of the handful of major stakes events on the Saturday card at Woodbine Mohawk Park. Recaps from the other races are available at the following links:

To view the results from Saturday's card of harness racing at Woodbine Mohawk Park, click the following link: Saturday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park.
At the peak of the fire, Kostas Chloros watched as 100-foot flames consumed the trees behind his home of 23 years as though they were paper.

The superintendent of the 132-year-old Lick Observatory, in the hills east of San Jose, stood with his back to its familiar white dome on the afternoon of Aug. 19 as massive flames seared the hillside below. He stumbled back to avoid the heat waves. Embers, leaves and burned twigs flew at him. Ashen smoke seeped through his mask.

When I saw the big flames coming up the hill, I thought, theres nothing saving this, said Chloros, 55, standing in the same spot on a recent morning.

What was at stake was irreplaceable. The observatory, the brainchild of wealthy businessman James Lick, opened in 1888. Perched atop Mount Hamilton, an hours drive east of San Jose, the 3,600-acre site houses 10 telescopes in nine domes and a couple of dozen other buildings. Its pride is the Great Lick refractor  a telescope measuring 57 feet long, 4 feet wide and weighing more than 25,000 pounds.

Licks astronomers have discovered planets around suns, developed laser guide star systems and created the technology to clarify telescope images.

And last month, astronomers and fans of the observatory watched on its live-stream cameras as part of the SCU Lightning Complex fires, one of the largest in state history, roared around the site. Midafternoon on Aug. 19, the fire jumped Highway 130 and leaped up the hill to the visitors center, snaking around the parking lot, engulfing two smaller ridges, and nearly encircling the mountaintop.

The fire destroyed the original house of a 19th century astronomer that had been unused since the 1980s, and damaged Chloros own home and three others. But with about 50 firefighters on-site to swoop in when the worst of the fire passed, the rest of the buildings were saved.

It really was a miracle, said Claire Max, director of the University of California Observatories, which oversees the site, on a recent Facebook Live video. It was amazing the observatory survived considering everything.

Max lauded firefighters and said Chloros deserves knighthood for using his knowledge to help them. The superintendent was quick to praise the heroic efforts of fire crews across California. Local Cal Fire Capt. Gene Parks shrugged off the spotlight, saying that his crews were just doing their job  although they appreciated the publics gratitude for saving the famous site.

The observatory is one of the oldest in the world still used for research, said Tony Misch, director for the Lick Observatory Historical Collections Project. Today, its home to close to 30 people, including two small children.

Chloros, a Greek native who moved to the U.S. in 1991, first visited the observatory on a UC Santa Cruz class field trip and applied for a job a year later. For the past two decades, hes worked up the ranks from a telescope technician to overseeing operations.

Driving carefully around the property with a radio on his hip on a recent morning, Chloros was calm as he described a fire besieging his home.

It started with the now infamous lightning storm that ripped through the early morning of Sunday Aug. 16 and lit the wilderness on fire. Two days later, Parks reported to the Cal Fire Smith Creek Station, 7 miles down the mountain. As winds pushed the fire closer from the north, he warned the observatory residents around 11 p.m. that they should leave sooner rather than later.

Chloros positioned people at intervals along the unlit, winding road to make sure everyone made it out safely by midnight. He and his wife, Tina Kurth, were the last to drive down as the sky rained ash around 1:30 a.m. Chloros stayed up in a San Jose parking lot to check in with each resident, before finally joining his wife at a friends house in Saratoga.

Parks arrived on the mountaintop with around 30 other firefighters just after Chloros left. With historic fires stretching Cal Fire resources thin statewide, the captain feared that was all the backup he would get.

Later in the morning, more crews did arrive from Montclair, Porterville, Bakersfield, Tulare and San Luis Obispo. Chloros, still in Saratoga but in radio contact with the crews, quickly realized they needed someone to help navigate the property. By noon, he was back at the observatory.

Chloros paired up with Parks to shut off building alarms, give advice about which roads were safe to travel, and keep the generator running to pump water for fire trucks with the power out. Parks directed crews to clear vegetation around structures to make them less vulnerable. If the blaze got within a quarter mile, crews would pull back up to the parking lot in front of the visitor center and its most famous dome.

The wooden dome was protected by the parking lot, road and a mostly bare hillside, thanks to federal and state vegetation management grants, that helped keep fire away from the main buildings, Chloros said.

By midafternoon, the massive plumes north of the observatory sparked a spot fire near Chloros home and three others. Simultaneously, flames surrounded a neighboring ridge with three houses and a dome. Crews retreated.

There was nothing you could do at that point, Chloros said. The size of the fire, the intensity of the fire, there was a big concern that a lot of the buildings would not survive it.

Fire Tracker Follow wildfires across the state Latest updates on wildfires burning across Northern and Southern California

Parks said he tried to reassure Chloros  as soon as the fire passed, crews would get in to save what they could. But Parks, a Cupertino native whod visited the observatory countless times, said he was also worried the Bay Area landmark would burn on his watch.

I didnt want to be the one who had lost something in my career like that, he said.

When the smoke cleared, the two men saw a brick house on fire. It had been home to Edward Emerson Barnard, one of the observatorys first astronomers.

As soon as the main blaze passed, six engines headed through the smoke and spot fires toward separate ridges. On one ridge, crews trained their hoses on a home partially in flames while on a neighboring ridge, others reached Chloros home as flames licked his basement office. If theyd arrived a few minutes later, firefighters said, the house would have been lost. In total, crews saved four homes.

The fire continued to rage around the observatory as dark fell on Wednesday, Aug 19. But by the next evening, the most intense fight for the observatory had been won; Chloros was finally able to leave. Parks continued working for two more weeks.

Chloros, who went down the mountain after the fire, has returned almost every day since. He said he was never scared for his own safety.

It was an amazing miracle that with heroic efforts they were able to keep the structures still standing, he said.

The areas evacuation order was lifted on Sept. 5 and most of the staff are expected to return this weekend. There is still no power and the site needs reliable electricity to operate telescopes. Management will conduct a scientific assessment to check if equipment was damaged and doesnt yet know the cost of any repairs. The site has been closed to the public during the pandemic, and it might be many more months before visitors can return.

Chloros, whos been sleeping in a dormitory, also doesnt know when he can move back into his home. The hill beside it is now just a graveyard of gray trees.

Its still taking some getting used to it, he said. The mountain, the whole region has changed.

Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@mallorymoench
New mining activities have been approved across more than 150,000 hectares of public conservation land since 2017, OIA documents obtained by Forest & Bird reveal.

Activities applied for or approved range from exploration for lithium on numerous conservation areas south-west of Rotorua; drilling for coal on the unique sandstone erosion pavements of the West Coasts Denniston Plateau; a possible tungsten mine near Glenorchy; and numerous gold exploration activities in and around Coromandel Forest Park and Victoria Forest Park.

In addition, there are numerous public conservation areas currently subject to minerals permits from New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals where the companies involved have not yet sought permission from the Department of Conservation. This includes Puketi Forest in Northland, and lithium exploration in a conservation area near Whangarei.

The Government made the promise to stop new mines on public conservation land in 2017, but continues to approve prospecting and exploration activities in these rare and precious areas, says Forest & Bird Chief Executive Kevin Hague.

Allowing mineral exploration in these landscapes sends a strong signal that protected areas which are home to native species today will be mine pits tomorrow.

The majority of our conservation land is not currently safe from damaging mining activities  that includes ecological areas, scenic reserves, forest parks, and stewardship land, says Kevin.

Despite being derided by some as being a wasteland, stewardship land is no such thing  it has simply not yet been formally categorised."

Forest ringlet butterfly, just emerged. Photo:Mike Reid

These areas often have the highest biodiversity values of any conservation land and are home to species such as kiwi, long-tailed bats, giant carnivorous snails, and lowland kahikatea forest.

"In many cases, mining these areas causes permanent loss, and in others it takes decades to recover. Temporary predator control schemes offered as compensation for some of the most damaging mines do not make up for this, says Kevin.

West Coast green gecko. Photo: Rod Morris

At a time when New Zealand is trying to plant more forests, it makes no sense to clear-fell existing native forest. As time runs out to prevent dangerous climate change, it makes no sense to start new mines for coal.

"New Zealands endangered species cant afford to lose more of their forest and wetland habitats to mining. Public conservation land is needed for nature. Aotearoa has more than 4,000 species threatened with extinction by industries that just extract more and more from nature. Our environment is at breaking point, and time is running out to protect it.

We believe a line needs to be drawn now  no new mines on conservation land, as Prime Minister Ardern promised in her Speech from the Throne in 2017, says Kevin.

A table of prospecting and exploration applications made to the Department of Conservation between November 8 2017 and July 8 2020 is available here. More information on some of the applications listed is also available on request.

Great spotted kiwi chick
An evil father who hunted down and shot his two children dead as they hid under a desk left a suicide note blaming his estranged wife for his cowardly crime.

John Edwards, 67, killed his daughter Jennifer Edwards, 13, and his son Jack, 15, in West Pennant Hills in Sydney's north-west on July 5, 2018.

The children were found 'crumpled together' under Jack's bedroom desk with multiple gunshot wounds.

Edwards killed himself at his rented home near Normanhurst on the night of the murders, with investigators later discovering a USB-stick near his body containing a note for the mother of the children, Olga.

Jack (pictured left) and Jennifer's (pictured right) body were found under his bedroom desk with multiple gunshot wounds

Before turning the gun on himself, the twisted killer also hung a 'World's Greatest Daddy' shirt on a chest of drawers at the end of his bed.

'Olga you may scream out what has John done when the reality is what has Olga done,' the three-page suicide letter began, the Daily Telegraph reports.

'None of this had to happen had you been a halfway normal person.'

Six months after the murder-suicide that shocked Australia, Olga took her own life.

An inquest into the deaths began last week and the NSW Coroners Court heard Edwards had 'a propensity for domestic violence', including physical and psychological assaults against the women in his life and his children.

Edwards (pictured) killed himself at his rented home near Normanhurst on the night of the murders.

One ex-partner said he was never physically violent but 'controlling' while another said he was 'unbalanced and a narcissist', the lead investigator told the inquest.

Some of his odd controlling behaviours included making them wear lipstick and mini skirts, giving them the silent treatment for weeks, or restricting finances.

Including the two he murdered, Edwards had 10 children to seven partners.

He threatened to take two of his previous partners' lives and gave another rat poison, while his other kids described being beaten with a belt and cattle whip.

Edwards deceitfully told one woman he was in the armed forces and 'Aboriginal chieftain', while another described trying to run escape with the kids while he was in the shower.

One of his kids said custody visits were like prison.

Edwards was awarded licences to shoot rifles and pistols in June 2017 after NSW Firearms Registry staff used a police database report that had failed to pick up several matters related to domestic violence.

Over the next year, he legally acquired five weapons including the Glock 17A 9mm semi-automatic pistol he used to shoot dead Jennifer and Jack.

Edwards hired a car and stalked his daughter on her way home from school in order to learn their new address before he followed or chased his daughter inside.

Neighbour Bruce Wilson heard five shots over about a minute and approached the home, knowing 'someone is shooting the children'.

He eye-balled Edwards as the 68-year-old 'half skipped' down the home's front stairs.

'I said ''Is everything OK, what have you done?''' Mr Wilson told the inquest.

'He didn't say anything, he just walked towards me.

Six months after the murder suicide, the children's mother Olga (pictured) took her own life

'He was in no hurry, he didn't rush at all. Everything was methodical and well-thought-out.'

A bloodstained piece of paper with Jennifer's train timetable and movements was found in Edwards' pocket during his post-mortem examination.

Data from the USB indicated he wrote the note less than an hour before leaving to stalk Jennifer.

It is not known how Edwards initially tracked down his daughter's movements before following her home, as he burned his mobile phone and tablet before his death.

Based on his history and the note, the lead police investigator suspects the financial planner could have hired private investigators to find the family.

'(The note) appeared to be a timetable of Jennifer's movements to and from school,' Detective Sergeant Tara Phillips told the NSW Coroners Court last week.

Edwards had previously used a private investigator to track the children's mother, the officer said.

Having tracked down and spoken to numerous ex-partners of Edwards and many of his children, the detective painted a picture of a controlling, narcissistic, self-centred and calculating man.

'He had a history of exerting control over the women in his life and his children. He had a propensity for domestic violence,' she said.

Edwards, 67, turned the gun on himself at a rented home near Normanhurst, northern Sydney (pictured)

When Edwards' 15-year marriage to Olga broke down in 2016, he 'became consumed with maintaining a relationship with Jack and Jennifer' and blamed Olga for the children's estrangement, the detective said.

After the children's murder, Olga detailed to Det Sgt Phillips how Edwards had over the years physically abused the children over minor things, such as touching his phone or CD collection.

But exactly how he found the family in West Pennant Hills may never be known.

'He'd set fire to all his electronics, so we were unable to extract (anything),' Det Sgt Phillips said.

The inquest, which is expected to run until September 25, will closely examine how Edwards was able to legally acquire the handguns he used to kill his children and then himself.

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) or 1800respect.org.au

Lifeline 13 11 14 or lifeline.org.au
Deputy Premier John Barilaro was offered a slew of concessions by Planning Minister Rob Stokes over NSW's contested planning policy aimed at preserving koala habitat but opted to go public rather than negotiate.

In a letter sent to the Nationals leader on August 21, Mr Stokes thanked Mr Barilaro for his "ongoing, constructive engagement as we seek to finalise" a new state environmental planning policy for koalas.

Planning Minister Rob Stokes (right) offered extensive concessions to Nationals leader and Deputy Premier John Barilaro in a letter sent last month. Mr Stokes's office said it had yet to receive a response. Credit:James Brickwood, Louise Kennerley

The five-page letter, obtained by the Herald, said the marsupials "face a wide range of threats and are suffering [a] long-term population decline", prompting the need to improve their protection on private and public land.

The changes don't affect ongoing farming operations "even if the land is core koala habitat", it said.
(Newser)  Oregon's fire marshal has stepped down as a deadly rash of wildfires ravage his state, the Oregonian reports. Details remain foggy, but an insider suggests Fire Marshal Jim Walker wasn't up to the job. He allegedly handed over daily management of the crisis to his chief deputy, Mariana Ruiz-Temple, and lost the confidence of State Police Superintendent Travis Hampton, who accepted Walker's offer of resignation. The job has now fallen on Ruiz-Temple's shoulders: "Mariana has led with grace, transparency and courage," said Gov. Kate Brown. "She embodies the experience Oregon needs to face this crisis, in this moment." For more on the fires:



The numbers: In a word, staggering. Some 94 major West Coast fires have struck mostly forested and rural areas across several states, primarily California, (25), Washington (16), Oregon (13), and Idaho (10), but big cities like Los Angeles and Seattle are choking on the unhealthy air. The fires have killed 33 people and burned 4.6 million acres as of Sunday, CNN reports.

story continues below

Tragedy : A boy, his grandmother, and their dog perished earlier this week inside a vehicle in Marion County, Oregon, KTLA reports. The victims were Peggy Mosso, 71, Wyatt Tofte, 13, and Wyatt's dog, Duke, who was found in the boy's lap. Wyatt's dad Chris had gone looking for a generator and wasn't there when the fire struck.

: A boy, his grandmother, and their dog perished earlier this week inside a vehicle in Marion County, Oregon, KTLA reports. The victims were Peggy Mosso, 71, Wyatt Tofte, 13, and Wyatt's dog, Duke, who was found in the boy's lap. Wyatt's dad Chris had gone looking for a generator and wasn't there when the fire struck. Trump : After weeks of saying little about the wildfires, President Trump plans to visit McClellan Park, California, and Reno, Nevada, on Monday, CNN reports. "THANK YOU to the 28,000+ Firefighters and other First Responders who are battling wildfires across California, Oregon, and Washington," he tweeted Friday.

: After weeks of saying little about the wildfires, President Trump plans to visit McClellan Park, California, and Reno, Nevada, on Monday, CNN reports. "THANK YOU to the 28,000+ Firefighters and other First Responders who are battling wildfires across California, Oregon, and Washington," he tweeted Friday. Inmates : California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Friday allowing inmate firefighters to become professional ones after their release, the Hill reports. The legislation will let certain prisoners who are already fighting the fires have their records rescinded. That includes inmates convicted of rape, murder, kidnapping, and arson.

: California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Friday allowing inmate firefighters to become professional ones after their release, the Hill reports. The legislation will let certain prisoners who are already fighting the fires have their records rescinded. That includes inmates convicted of rape, murder, kidnapping, and arson. Climate: Democratic governors and lawmakers hit the Sunday talk shows and opposed President Trump's argument that forest mismanagement caused the wildfires, the New York Times reports. "These are consequences of a warming planet that have huge impacts on rural America, with our forests, with our farming, with our fishing," said Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon on NBC's Meet the Press.

(Read more wildfires stories.)
Inside Hook

Actor and producer John Boyega has emerged in recent months as a voice speaking truth to power. Earlier in the summer, Boyega delivered an impassioned speech in support of Black Lives Matter. More recently, he critiqued Disneys handling of race and representation in the latest Star Wars trilogy. Boyega has established himself as a talented actor with an ambitious artistic vision  which makes the behavior of fragrance company Jo Malone London all the more frustrating.



According to a new report in The Hollywood Reporter, Jo Malone London hired Boyega to direct and star in a video promoting the company. Titled A London Gent, it featured Boyega along with friends and family, and featured a number of scenes shot in Peckham, the London neighborhood in which Boyega grew up. So far, it makes sense: a London-based company hired an actor from London to turn his vision of the city into sounds and images.



Then the commercial was reshot for the Chinese market, featuring actor Liu Haoran in the lead and removing all scenes of Black people from the video. Boyega was unaware of this decision until Jo Malone London posted the new ad on Twitter.
A 69-year-old Atlantic City man has been charged with murder in the shooting of a woman following a neighborhood dispute, the Atlantic County Prosecutors Office said Sunday.

Atlantic City police responded to Belfield Avenue around 11:24 a.m. on Saturday in response to a 911 call and found Marketa Thorpe, 32, with a gunshot wound, authorities said. Thorpe was taken to Atlanticare Regional Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

Maximo Santiago, was arrested shortly after the shooting and charged with first-degree murder and weapons offenses.

He is being held at the Atlantic County Justice Facility pending his detention hearing.

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.
Jogeshwari police booked an 18-year-old for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old. The incident came to light on Friday when the minor was admitted at a nursing home at Sanatacruz for postnatal treatment after she gave birth to a boy at home.

According to the police, the survivor and the accused became friends through Facebook two years ago and later got into a relationship. In January this year, the accused called her to his place saying no one was home.

An officer from Jogeshwari police station said, The survivor went to the accuseds home where he allegedly sexually assaulted her. Two to three months later she realised she was pregnant. On September 11, she delivered a boy at her home after which she was admitted to a nursing home in Santacruz.

After the incident came to light, the police reached the nursing home to record the minors statement and later registered a first Information report (FIR) against the accused.

The accused was booked under section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 4 (penetrative sexual assault), 8 (sexual assault) and 12 (sexual harassment) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. The police are further probing the case.
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Bharat Book Bureau Provides the Trending Market Research Report on Catalyst Fertilizer Market Forecast to 2027 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis by Production Process (Haber-Bosch Process, Contact Process, and Others); Metal Group (Base Metal and Precious Metal); Application (Nitrogenous, Phosphatic, and Others)under Chemical & Materials Category. The report offers a collection of superior market research, market analysis, competitive intelligence and Market reports.

The Global Catalyst Fertilizers Market was valued at US$ 2,423.32 million in 2019 and is projected to reach US$ 2,992.38 million by 2027; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 2.8% from 2020 to 2027.

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Based on production process, the catalyst fertilizer market is segmented into Haber-Bosch Process, Contact Process, and Others. The Haber-Bosch Process segment accounted for the largest share in market in 2019, and also expected to register the fastest CAGR during 2019-2027. The Haber process, also called the Haber-Bosch process, is an artificial nitrogen fixation process and is one of the main industrial procedures for the production of ammonia. The process converts atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia (NH3) by a reaction with hydrogen using a metal catalyst under high temperatures and pressures. Before the development of this process, ammonia (NH3) was difficult to produce on an industrial scale, with early methods such as the Birkeland-Eyde process and Frank-Caro process all being highly inefficient. Although, the Haber process is mainly utilized to produce fertilizer these days, during World War I, it provided Germany with a source of ammonia for the production of explosives, compensating for the Allied Powers' trade blockade on Chilean saltpeter. The Haber-Bosch process relies on catalysts to accelerate the hydrogenation of nitrogen. The catalysts are "heterogeneous," meaning that they are solid that interact on gaseous reagents. The catalyst typically consists of finely divided iron bound to an iron oxide carrier containing promoters, possibly including aluminum oxide, potassium oxide, calcium oxide, and magnesium oxide.

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Clariant, DuPont de Nemours, Inc.;HaldorTopse; Johnson Matthey; LKAB Minerals AB; PDIL; Quality Magnetite; QuantumSphere, Inc. Axens; and Agricen are among the players present in the global catalyst fertilizer market.

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Washington

Fearing a coming cash crunch, President Donald Trump's campaign has pulled back from television advertising over the last month, ceding to Democratic nominee Joe Biden a huge advantage in key states and sparking disagreements over strategy among the president's senior team.

Republican officials have been inundated with calls from worried activists and donors who complain about constant Biden ads in their local media markets, with very few paid Trump responses, according to people familiar with the conversations.

The complaints have upended the dynamics that dominated much of the race so far. With less than eight weeks before Election Day, the once lean Biden campaign is flush with cash, while the massive Trump operation is facing tough budgetary decisions down the stretch.

Among those worried is Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, who recently told the president she was concerned his ads were not on television in states such as Michigan and Florida where Biden was blanketing the airwaves, according to people familiar with the conversation. The president shared the concern, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The decision to slash spending has been ordered by Trump's new campaign manager, Bill Stepien, who has been restructuring the budget since taking over the campaign operation in July, after it had already spent nearly $1 billion.

Stepien has described facing difficult choices, as he tries to save considerable money for the final 30 days before the Nov. 3 election.

The moves have resulted in an enormous short-term advertising benefit for Biden, who maintains a polling lead in most of the battleground states. Between Aug. 10 and Sept. 7, Biden's campaign spent about $90 million on television ads, more than four times the $18 million spent by the Trump campaign, according to tracking by a Democratic firm.

Trump-aligned outside groups made up some of the difference, spending an additional $28 million, compared with about $16 million by groups backing Biden. But the outside spending did not eliminate the Democratic advantages in competitive states.

Even with the outside group spending, Democrats have been able to dominate the airwaves where the election will likely be decided. Between Aug. 10 and Sept. 7, pro-Biden efforts outspent pro-Trump efforts by a margin of $9.3 million to $560,000 in Michigan, $17.7 million to $6.1 million in Pennsylvania and $20.5 million to $7.8 million in Florida.

Stepien, in a statement to The Post, dismissed complaints about his strategic decisions.

"Four years ago, those of us on the 2016 campaign got used to tuning out the Beltway experts questioning why we were spending so much time in Scranton, why we were buying fewer ads on television and more on digital and why we were making one last trip to Wisconsin," he said. "We're pretty pleased with the outcome of those decisions and the President's team is similarly confident in our approach this time."

Trump campaign officials noted they have a far more robust ground game than Democrats and a candidate who travels far more often and generates far greater media interest, lessening the need for paid advertisements.

Republicans working on Senate and House races, however, have been alarmed, as they have seen Democrats take over the airwaves in parts of the country where lower-ranking candidates are depending on the president to carry them to victory.

"There is actually a lot of frustration out there with the Trump campaign being dark, especially in places like Arizona and North Carolina," said a Republican strategist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "Those two places have big Senate races."

At the heart of the tension in Trump's orbit are disagreements over what share of campaign spending should go toward getting out the vote on the ground versus spent on television and how much money the campaign should expect to raise from donors in the final weeks of the campaign  along with how serious their financial problems could become.

The president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser, continues to oversee the campaign's major financial decisions, and has signed off on Stepien's new approach.
North Korean Ri Jong-chol, center, who was arrested in connection with the death of Kim Jong Un's half-brother, is transferred from Sepang district police station in Sepang, Malaysia Friday, March 3, 2017. AP



The United States Department of Justice has filed a criminal complaint against a North Korean man suspected of killing Kim Jong-un's half brother on charges of violating sanctions placed on the communist regime.



The justice department on Friday (Washington time) announced a criminal complaint charging Ri Jong-chol and two others with "conspiracy to violate North Korean Sanctions Regulations and bank fraud, and conspiracy to launder funds."



Ri is suspected of murdering Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of the North Korean leader, in 2017 in Malaysia. Ri was taken into custody but was later released due to lack of evidence.



"The defendants allegedly established and utilized front companies that transmitted U.S. dollar wires through the United States to purchase commodities on behalf of North Korean customers," the justice department's statement read.





Ri Jong-chol talks to reporters from inside the North Korean Embassy in Beijing, Saturday. Yonhap
The temporary truce that India and China seem to have worked out after a meeting of foreign ministersS Jaishankar and Wang Yiin Moscow last week does not guarantee no conflict will break out. The potential of a clash is still strong, says Srikanth Kondapalli, a professor of China studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University. India holding on at the border for four months in the face of Chinas much vaunted military and economic might has shown that the asymmetry of power argument does not hold any more, he adds. Edited excerpts from an interview:

The meeting between Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi produced the first joint statement between India and China since the start of this crisis in May. How do you view this development? Is this the start of a process leading to a thaw, perhaps?

The points mentioned in the joint statement are bland but they are welcome as they ease tensions. There was no real expectation of an outcome from the Jaishankar-Wang Yi talks; the outcome was a surprise. What tipped the scales in terms of a joint statement coming through, is not clear. We have seen an armed stalemate for four months, with India-China ties on the edge. We have seen pictures of rocket launchers, tanks in China all ready to unleash their power against India, they were showcasing militarism. The Chinese have also made many diplomatic statements that can be described as coercive. These have come from their ministry of foreign affairs, their defence ministry, their Western Theatre Command, from the editor of Global Times, Hu Xijin. The different Chinese statements have appeared interventionist, prescriptive and coercive. Now, the Chinese side seems to have climbed down and changed tack suddenly. What I see is temporary peace.

What do you think prompted this change from the Chinese side?

It could be (Russian President Vladimir) Putins intervention. In the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Russia and China have equal standing. The Chinese cannot say no to Russia because they are heavily dependent on Moscow for policies and coordination in relation to US, EU and Indo-Pacific. The (Chinese) climb down could also be due to the onset of winter. The temperatures in Ladakh at those heights can go to minus 40C and that is not conducive for human safety, forget preparing for a war. We have had a stalemate in Ladakh for four months now and these were the summer months. If you dont have a result for your mobilization in summer, how can you expect it in winter? The question of success or failure comes with a big question mark in mountain terrain. India has a competitive advantage in mountain warfareyou saw what happened in Galwan valley (15 June, 2020). India came across as a formidable adversary. The Indian mobilization has been effective. It was reflected in the visits of Prime minister Narendra Modi and others to Ladakh; the defence minister (Rajnath Singh) was there and the Indian army chief (Manoj Mukund Naravane ) was there. From China side, we only know of a visit by the Chinese foreign minister (Wang Yi) to Tibet. At least, that is the only one made public. On the Indian side, the military was given a free hand, which bolstered their effectiveness, unlike previous governments, which intervened in military operation. This has emboldened the armed forcesthere are no pressures on the military. There is coordination at various levels. All of which has helped the Indian Army put up stout resistance. Yet another reason for China to change its mind could be its ongoing tussles in South China Sea, East China Sea (with Japan over Senkaku islands), its battles with the US and Australia (on the diplomatic, trade and other fronts). If they face reverses on the Indian front, then it will have cascading effect in the Taiwan Straits as well as South China Sea, the East China Sea and all the other fronts I just mentioned.

Did Indias use of the Special Frontier Force with recruits from the Tibetan community in India have anything to do with Chinese changing their mind? Also does it signal a change in Indias Tibet policy?

India taking commanding heights on the top of five features to the south of Pangong Tso I think may have contributed to China changing its position. I say that because India taking commanding positions on those features tilted the balance in favour of India. The operations to secure the heights on those features were undertaken by the Special Frontier Force (SFF). The taking of those heights could lead of interception of Chinese forcesgiving India a tactical advantage. Indian forces can intercept Chinese convoys moving from Chushul to Demchok through the valleys below. That is a definite disadvantage for China. So in that sense, yes, the SFF deployment may have had a role to play. Has India changed its Tibet strategy? I dont think we can say that. The SFF operations have so far been on the Indian side of the line of actual control (LAC). We dont know if they were employed out of Indian territory in Tibet. We know that the SFF played a role in the 1971 India-Pakistan war then again in the 1999 Kargil war. This is the first time we have seen them being deployed on this scale in a situation with China.

India and China have had so many agreements in the past that havent worked. What makes you think that Fridays joint statement will work even if in bringing temporary peace?

There is no guarantee that this will work. This can also be thrown out. It all depends on the ground reality. A skirmish is still possible. A temporary peace was effected in Moscow with the possible intervention of Russia. The only guarantee of permanent peace is a border settlement, for which we dont have a solution. I say temporary peace because winter is approaching and that, as I said earlier, is a constraining factor. There will not be a complete pull back. Indian troops will be present in Ladakh even if there is a pullback.

So what you are saying is that we will have a Siachen kind of situation where troop presence is maintained throughout the yearin Ladakh vis-a-vis China, too?

Yes. There will be soldiers manning heights and other areas. Or technology will be used for surveillance. Either way, the dynamics of the LAC management will undergo a change. There will be increased militarization of the LAC at least in Ladakh, which has become eye of the storm.

Against all this, what kind of a future do you see for India-China relations? The events this summer seem to have reset all equations.

Foreign minister Jaishankar has said that unless there is disengagement of troops, India will not develop bilateral relations. Chinas position is, let us focus on developmental partnershipinvestments in infrastructure and other areas. Clearly, there is a gap between the two sides. Indias position is that Chinese troops have to withdraw to April 2020 positions. I think that is unlikely to happen. So we are likely to see an India-China relationship that is adversarial, difficult and complicated. The Chinese are not likely to vacate lands they have occupied and they will not climb down from that position. So what I see is that there will be photo ops at BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) meetings and SCO meetings, but India-China summits like we saw in Wuhan (in 2018) and Chennai (2019) are unlikely if there is no compromise.

One thing I would like to add here is that what this tension on the India-China border has shown is that the asymmetry in power" argument does not hold now. There was this argument that India being a $2-trillion economy and China being five times that meant that China had a major advantage. They have a much stronger military force, much bigger economy, bigger military spending etc so India is no match for Chinathat myth has been busted. Concerted action on the part of India has yielded results.

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MOUNT PLEASANT, MI - A pair of mid-Michigan casinos will soon prohibit the use of certain types of masks being used by its guests.

Beginning Monday, Sept. 14, the Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort in Mount Pleasant and the Saganing Eagles Landing Casino & Hotel near Standish will no longer permit the use of neck gaiters, bandannas, or masks with ventilation valves.

In a statement issued by Soaring Eagle Casino on the move, it noted guests are no longer permitted to use the masks which have been found to be less effective in preventing the transmission of COVID-19.

Our two casino properties are making this change in conjunction with recently updated CDC recommendations for face masks, the statement reads.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website recommends people not use masks with exhalation valves or vents.

The purpose of masks is to keep respiratory droplets from reaching others to aid with source control, per the CDC website. However, masks with one-way valves or vents allow air to be exhaled through a hole in the material, which can result in expelled respiratory droplets that can reach others. This type of mask does not prevent the person wearing the mask from transmitting COVID-19 to others.

The CDC website also notes a caution in the use of neck gaiters, as their effectiveness against the spread of COVID-19 is unknown at this time.

Both casinos are owned by the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe. The facilities were voluntarily closed in mid-March but have since reopened with several restrictions in place including temperature checks with infrared cameras at primary entrances and with no-contact thermometers at secondary entrances, plexiglass partitions in appropriate interactive areas, gaming chips regularly sanitized, playing cards replaced more frequently, and fewer tables in restaurants.

More on MLive:

Sunday, Sept. 13: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

Michigan adds 692 new coronavirus cases, 13 deaths

Michigan State University students asked to self-quarantine as coronavirus cases surge
Marysville, CA (95901)

Today

Windy with a mix of clouds and sun. High around 65F. Winds NNW at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Partly cloudy. Low around 45F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph.
New Delhi :

A day after a cooking gas agency belonging to his brother were among petrol pumps and LPG agencies raided by the anti-corruption wing in Odisha, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday said nobody is above law which will take its course if any irregularity is found.



"Nobody is above law, whosoever he may be," Pradhan said when asked to comment on the raid conducted following allegations of adulteration and black-marketing. He said state governments as per law can conduct searches and such an action should be taken to its logical conclusion of either punishing the guilty or exonerating those not involved.



"States have a right under the Essential Commodities Act to carry out searches and take action. They have done it. It should be taken to logical conclusion," he said.



"Nobody is above law, whether it is my bother or any of my relative. If they find something irregular, law will take its own course." On Saturday, Odisha's anti-corruption vigilance department conducted raids at several petrol pumps and cooking gas agencies across the state, including the one belonging to Pradhan's the brother following allegation of adulteration and black-marketing.



Based on the allegation of black-marketing of cooking gas by agencies, adulteration of diesel, petrol and lubricants and its sale in lesser quantity, searches were conducted in places such as Koraput, Nawarangpur, Puri, Bhubaneswar, Berhampur, Balsore, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Angul and Cuttack, a vigilance department statement said.



The premises searched included a gas agency of Pradhan's brother at Talcher in Angul district. BJP State General Secretary Prithviraj Harichandan alleged that the move is an example of misuse of vigilance by the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government.



Pradhan, however, said he would not attach any political motives to the action as he is in-charge of the ministry concerned. "I should not say so (political vendetta). I am in-charge of this ministry and sector. Every state has right to enforce the Essential Commodities Act. They (Odisha) have done that. Law will take its own course if they find something irregular," he said. Besides, the "concerned (oil) companies would take action (in cases irregularities are found)", he said.

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The Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, attacks Donald Trump on national security (AP)

Joe Biden spoke about losing his son Beau as the Democratic presidential nominee met families of 9/11 victims on Friday morning. "You know, I lost mine," he said as was handed a photo a 9/11 victim. "[He] never goes away".

The venom of the presidential campaign was briefly paused for the anniversary of the terror attacks, with Mr Biden and Vice President Mike Pence bumping elbows at memorial services in Shanksville.

The ceasefire didn't last long. Following the service, the VP delivered beers to volunteer firefighters in the town as allegations from Donald Trump resurfaced online claiming Mr Biden took drugs during his Democratic primary debates against Bernie Sanders.

The president has suggested his opponent get drug tests, prompting Mr Biden to hope he doesn't "get baited" by Trump during the upcoming presidential debates.

A Democrat running against Qanon supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene, meanwhile, suddenly dropped out of the Georgia race for "personal reasons". Kevin Van Ausdal said he was deeply saddened, but didn't go into depth as to why beyond "personal and family reasons".

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Press Release

September 13, 2020 With PH poverty alleviation budget already in trillions

Nancy urges NEDA-PSA to monitor success, failure rate of gov't livelihood programs

...sees need for all govt agencies to consolidate database Senator Nancy Binay urged the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) to create a consolidated database to monitor success rates of livelihood programs financed by the government. "Dapat yung mga livelihood programs na binibigay sa mga tao, kooperatiba, at organisasyon dapat minomonitor ng ahensyang nagbigay," Binay said. "Hindi lang yung basta makapagbigay. Dapat may study ang bawat ahensya. Dapat rationalized at may significant impact sa beneficiary, at importante din malaman kung ano ang economic returns ng mga programang ito," she added. The senator expressed her concern after a recent virtual briefing of the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) on the proposed 2021 National Expenditure Program revealed the absence of available data on the results of government livelihood programs. "Maybe in the next budget we can provide funds to conduct a study for these types of programs since we have been spending a lot for these," Binay said. According to Binay, if a certain agency aims to provide P20,000 cash assistance to those who want to start a business or livelihood, there should be a mechanism where it can monitor, assess, and report its success, and follow up the progress or failure of the intended startup. "Gusto natin malaman kung bakit nga ba P20k ang ibibigay na startup sa isang gustong mag-nenegosyo? Bakit hindi 50k or P100k? Ano ang basis ng P20k at anong mga negosyo ang pwedeng masimulan sa ganyang puhunan?" Binay said. "Kapag naibigay na, namo-monitor ba ng ahensya kung umunlad yung buhay nung recipient? Nakapagtayo nga ba talaga ng negosyo? Ano na ang nangyari sa pamilyang tinulungan?" she pointed out. Binay said the lack of data on the success rate of government programs is alarming considering the billions to trillions of pesos the government had already invested in past programs for the past decades. "Kulang tayo sa research, planning and monitoring. Imagine trilyun-trilyon na ang suma-tutal ng mga livelihood programs na inilabas ng gobyerno sa nakaraang mga dekada for poverty alleviation pero parang wala namang pag-unlad kung pagbabatayan natin ang objectives ng ayuda," Binay said. "Importante ang ganitong mga datos dahil kelangan nating malaman kung sulit ba itong pagbibigay natin ng pondo sa mga ganitong klaseng programa," she added. The senator had earlier questioned the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) on how the agency is monitoring its repatriation grant to displaced OFWs amounting to P20,000. During a Senate hearing, OWWA chief Hans Leo Cacdac admitted that while there are success stories from OFWs using the aid, the agency does not have "full-fledged" data on the matter. In a bid to accelerate poverty reduction and promote growth in areas where poverty incidences are high, government agencies are given allocations to embark on a concerted effort to ensure that the factors limiting the poor's participation in the economy growth are addressed. Most of the government agencies (like DOLE, DSWD, DA, DILG, DND-OPPAP, TESDA, DTI, DepEd, DOST, etc.) have allocations for poverty alleviation programs, but fail to monitor the success or failure rates of their programs and their beneficiaries.
We are starved for COVID-19 stories.

Not so much the consequences of this terrible disease, they are tragic and often told, but rather the stories of how the virus is spreading.

For months now Ontario and Toronto public health officials have released near-daily numbers of new and current COVID-19 cases. If youre a numbers person, theyve been fascinating to follow, and it was something to root for as Ontarios cases dropped in August.

However, as theyve started to go back up, the numbers with little context, without the stories behind them, have been frustrating. The pandemic is in a kind of fog: its happening out there, but hard to see. How are these new cases being transmitted?

Public health officials have been vague with these details, instead lumping cases into categories like community spread or travel. Even when more specific, like this week when Toronto Public Health said the rise here is driven by interprovincial travel, bars and other indoor gatherings, and people from separate bubbles socializing without masks, its better  but still hard for people to relate to, as we spend so much of our time indoors in a variety of scenarios. We need more specifics to know exactly where the risk is.

Numbers are abstract and for most people raw data is hard to relate to, so the ongoing decrees by well-meaning public health officials to stay vigilant have started to sound like the adults in Peanuts cartoons: the wah-wah of a muted trombone, droning on with the same lecture.

No offence to those officials intended, but humans are storytelling creatures. Its how weve communicated for thousands of years. In her 1979 book The White Album, Joan Didion famously wrote, We tell ourselves stories in order to liveWe look for the sermon in the suicide, for the social or moral lesson in the murder of five. Stories are how we make sense of the world.

When public health officials have decided to be forthcoming with stories, theyve resonated widely, like the Brass Rail strip club in Toronto or the karaoke bar in Quebec. We need more though. Without the contact tracing stories, were left to wildly speculate and toss accusations around in the void.

Anecdotal stories we see passing through our social media feeds, of crowded beaches or some young people partying, become overly represented because its the only things we can see. Beaches are easy to photograph, so even completely reasonable, safely spaced out ones illustrated many COVID stories.

And those millennials, perhaps the generation that shares the most on social media, bear the brunt of everyones scorn.

They must be the cause of the increase in cases, right? Premier Doug Ford pleaded this week for young people to stop attending parties, even as photos surfaced of he and other members of his government attending MPP Stan Chos wedding without masks in late August. Mixed messages dont help either.

Is it parties and bar hopping, or are young people contracting the virus because they often work low-paying, front-line service jobs that put them in contact with the public? Without the actual stories, we dont know.

Ford also said the province isnt publicizing workplace outbreaks because he doesnt believe in targeting companies. This week 60 COVID-19 cases were linked to one workplace in Mississauga, but Peel Public Health is not revealing which one for privacy reasons. Is that in the public interest? Stories have power.

The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit knows this and made details of their elaborate web of contract tracing public after an August outbreak. They showed how 31 cases were linked to a single familys social life that spread to other families through social gatherings, a card game in a storage unit and a swimming party. They even provided an anonymous family tree-style diagram to show the spread.

Fifteen years ago, I attended a conference where different kinds of storytellers talked about their work, including the chief storyteller at Motorola. He didnt work in marketing but rather in product design. Motorola found that there was a disconnect between the user testing data it collected and its engineers and designers. The storytellers job was put the data into scenarios  stories  that fleshed out the context: operating a car radio while driving in a rainstorm or trying to make a call on a cellphone while holding a baby.

These stories helped them design better products. The contact tracing stories could help people make decisions to alter their behaviour. The vague stay the course messaging isnt working.

Privacy concerns are quite real, but most stories can be anonymized. Hire professional storytellers and tell us the type of business, but dont name it. Who was at the family gathering? What were they doing? Was barbecue or pizza served? Paint a picture. Windsors card game is real, something we can imagine, that we can see.

COVID fatigue has made it seem not real, but stories are the antidote.
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), which has arrested actress Rhea Chakraborty and others for their link to the drugs angle in Sushant Singh Rajput case, has denied that she, during interrogation, gave names of 25 A-listers in the film industry who consumed drugs with her and the late actor. It was recently reported that the central investigating agency had drawn up a list of celebs consuming drugs from Rheas confession, which included the names of Rakul Preet Singh and Sara Ali Khan.

Now, NCB deputy director KPS Malhotra has denied preparing any such list of Bollywood celebrities. According to Free Press Journal, Malhotra said, We have not prepared any Bollywood list. The list earlier prepared was of peddlers and traffickers. Its getting confused with Bollywood."

When asked about the reports, he added, The names have not been zeroed upon." On Saturday, Times Now had reported that Rhea had told Rakul and Sara consumed drugs with her and Sushant in his Lonavala farmhouse. Sushant and Sara had appeared in Kedarnath together, which was the latters debut film.

After the report of Rhea naming Bollywood celebrities surfaced in media, various rumours circulated on the internet about Sara and Rakul being summoned by the NCB. However, the tweets were made by fake accounts and were later taken down.

Meanwhile, a Mumbai sessions court on Friday rejected the bail plea of Rhea, along with her brother Showik and four others. Their bail applications were rejected by judge G B Gurao of the special court hearing cases filed under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. Special Public Prosecutor Atul Sarpande had opposed their bail, saying that Rhea and Showik financed and arranged drugs.

All the six accused - including Samuel Miranda, Dipesh Swant, Abdul Basit and Zaid Vilatra - are likely to move the Bombay High Court for bail, Rheas lawyer Satish Maneshinde said shortly after the ruling.
Normally, I would spurn the idea of citing an anonymous post that purports to contain inside information on a presidential candidate. But two factors currently weigh on my mind, causing me to make an exception.

One is that MSM Trump-haters have no compunction at all over relying exclusively on anonymous sources. The Atlantic used to be prestigious, and regarded as the gold standard for rigorous reporting and editing, and yet went with allegations against President Trump that are completely incongruent with his other behavior: expressing contempt for wounded and dead veterans.

That alone would not be enough.

But the other factor is more serious and directly relevant to the anonymous post I am about to cite.

The Biden campaign clearly is hiding their candidate from exposure to circumstances that might test his mental acuity and vigor on a sustained basis. We now have direct evidence that the campaign has been deceiving the public by using a teleprompter for Biden to read when allegedly answering questions in an alleged interview. The campaigns chief spokesman evaded answering a direct question about teleprompter use during faux interviews.

Thus, we know that the critical question of Bidens ability to discharge his duties if elected is being deceptively evaded. That, in my mind, opens the door to consider what is claimed to be an insiders account of the true state of Bidens health, now that we know his campaign would deceive us on this question.

What follows is a transcript of a posting that originally appeared online here. While remaining utterly skeptical, please see how well the allegations fit with the behavior that we have seen. To my mind, they fit observable Biden behavior like a glove. If this is disinformation, it is done very well.

FORMER BIDEN CAMPAIGN STAFFER: Joe Biden is in the early stages of dementia and is on medication for it. "This is the big one, and the one I have the least direct experience with, but its been an open secret for some time. Anyone who has had a relative with Alzheimers or dementia can tell you, there are good days and bad days. On the good days, when Joe is at his most lucid, his campaign manager Jen will send him out for photo ops or TV interviews make hay while the sun is shining, you know? On the bad days, Jen just tells the press pool No Joe today, and theyre all like, Okay, cool! Most of the time, hes just a little foggy and gets really agitated. But one of my co-workers told me that back in May, there was a day where he thought he was running against Gary Hart in the 84 primary again. Joe went under wraps for several days after that. Hes been more lucid recently because his physician, Dr. OConnor, put him on Namenda. Jen apparently was worried about someone finding it out, because she insisted that he prescribe it under a series of phony names, and then have the interns pick it up. I bet there are a lot of pharmacists in Philly wondering why there are so many young people on Namenda. The dementia medication has had, um unfortunate side effects. Theres no dancing around this the medication has made Joe incontinent. Though his good days have increased dramatically, he can barely get through a press event without running to the bathroom. Thats why he didnt take questions after announcing Harris as his running mate. They werent afraid of the questions, the press loves him they were afraid he was going to piss his pants on-camera. Lately, Jens been having closed-door meetings to discuss which brand of incontinence pads would be best to purchase. Seriously, a group of paid staffers sat around and discussed which brands were the least visible, the least likely to leak, and wouldnt audibly crinkle. Thats around the time I left the campaign. I cant be a party to this sick game anymore. I never really liked Joe Biden, but he deserves better than to be thrust into the public eye when he should be in memory care. His wife should put a stop to this, but shes way too excited about being First Lady to care about her ailing husband."

If memories of Bidens behavior are not fresh in your mind, please read Howie Carrs column today, which chronicles a number of instances that are consistent with serious dementia. For instance:

soon he began reading  or trying to read  some statistics. Numbers are not Dementia Joes forte, to put it mildly. This day, he kept repeating the word military. But the actual virus numbers were for Michigan, the state he was in, in addition to his perpetual state of confusion. Perhaps his handlers wrote MI, assuming that even someone as simple as Joe Biden could put two and two together. If so, they were misinformed. U.S. COVID-infected military uh excuse me U.S. COVID-infected in America, six thousand 344,700 U.S. COVID deaths one thousand 189,506. Military COVID-infected 118,984. Military COVID deaths 6114. Actually, Mr. Vice President, the militarys death toll is exactly seven. The fatalities in Michigan, where you were babbling, is actually closer to that six-thousand figure. Way off, but this is a guy whos earlier pegged the number of deaths in the panic as 120 million (at the time it was 120,000). He has also claimed that 150,000,000 Americans have been killed by firearms since 2007, but lets move on to his proposals for tax rates. If you change the tax rate it went from 38 percent to 21. If you just send it back to 20 uh  38%, um, if you  36% to 28, thats what we started trying to do.

Even more significant than an inability to handle numbers (in a guy who has voted on countless budgets while in the Senate) is Joes pattern of disappearing into his basement for days, as if waiting for good days.

If Biden is indeed on Alzheimers meds and his family and campaign thus are aware of his medical condition, then we have a pretty clear case of elder abuse.

I repeat: this is not necessarily a genuine post from an ex-insider. But why has Biden refused to take a cognitive ability test? Given the teleprompter deception his campaign has employed, they owe us evidence of his mental fitness for office.

Photo credit: Twitter video screen grab (cropped)
The European Union has said that it would like to see a "credible" government in Lebanon before releasing the next round of funding for the blast-hit country. Janez Lenarcic, EU's commissioner for crisis management has called for an urgent formation of a credible government before starting the second phase of funding. EU has so far contributed $79 million since Beirut was rocked by explosions on August 4.

The #Lebanese have the 's full support. Many continue to suffer in the aftermath of the #BeirutExplosion & from the pandemic. While meeting @MustaphaAdib72, I stressed the need for a concerted reconstruction effort, underpinned by decisive reforms. Lebanon has no time to lose. pic.twitter.com/xk6k2s3g37  Janez Lenarcic (@JanezLenarcic) September 12, 2020

Read: Lebanon Prez Aoun Under Fire For Seizing Sri Lankan Tea Donated To Beirut Blast Victims

After the blast at Beirut port earlier last month, the European Union called for "much-needed" reforms in the country. French President Emmanuel Macron visited Lebanon twice and oversaw the transition of the government currently being led by Prime Minister-designate Mustapha Adib, a former diplomat chosen by a group of ex-Prime Ministers after Hassan Diab resigned in wake of the catastrophe and the subsequent protests.

Read: Beirut Fire: Lebanese President Michel Aoun Suspects Foul Play, Demands Accountable Probe

Janez Lenarcic on September 12 arrived in Lebanon on board a humanitarian flight carrying essential medical supplies and firefighting equipment. Upon landing in Lebanon, Lenarcic told reporters at the airport that the EU would like to the formation of a credible government as soon as possible, which could provide the Lebanese people with what they want and also the international community with what they expect.

Read: Beirut Fire: Video Shows Cloud Of Smoke As Blazes Erupt At Port Weeks After Deadly Blast

"The cargo of this latest flight was donated by the Portuguese Cooperation agency (Camoes) and the German NGO Orienthelfer. A total of 54 tonnes of humanitarian supplies, medicines, and medical equipment have now been delivered to Lebanon on 3 humanitarian flights. The flights are organised and funded by the EU," a statement read published on the website of the European Commission.

Beirut blast

The blasts that struck Beirut on August 4 killed at least 177 people and injured 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 left nearly 3,00,000 people homeless is said to be among the most powerful non-nuclear explosions in recorded history.

Read: Beirut: Emotional Video Shows Pet Parents Reuniting With Their Dogs
The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) has appointed Aviareps, a global leader in tourism marketing, as the destinations travel trade marketing and communications representative in Saudi Arabia, as well as Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE.



The representation, which comes into immediate effect, will see Aviareps promote AlUlas unique tourist attractions and experiences to travellers and outbound travel industry professionals located in the Gulf Countries, through various targeted marketing and public relations activities.



AlUla is a living museum of preserved tombs, sandstone outcrops, historic dwellings and monuments, both natural and human-made, that hold 200,000 years of largely unexplored human history. It was also the capital of the ancient kingdoms of Dadan and Lihyan, which controlled the caravan trade of old. AlUla is also home to the site of Hegra (Al-Hijr), which was the principal southern city of the Nabataean kingdom, famed for its spectacular monumental tombs.



Through a mix of public relations and marketing services, the Aviareps team will be responsible for raising the profile of AlUla as a year-round travel destination for visitors from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Countries seeking holiday memories that last a lifetime.



Melanie De Souza, Executive Director, Destination Marketing at RCU, said: We are excited to collaborate with Aviareps in Saudi Arabia and the GCC as we look to launch AlUla as a year-round destination in the coming months. We are positive that this partnership will help us generate greater awareness of AlUla as a unique travel destination and increase visitor numbers both domestically and from the neighbouring countries of the GCC, where they can find unmatched travel experiences.



In addition to being home to a series of fascinating historical and archaeological sites such as Hegra, Ancient Dadan, the capital of the Dadan and Lihyan Kingdoms, AlUla offers some of the worlds most scenic desert landscapes, a lush oasis, and immersive arts and events experiences. Exciting initiatives are underway and planned with Aviareps to bring the excitement of AlUla to life for potential visitors and industry partners, De Souza added.



Many marketing and promotional initiatives are planned to be rolled out within the dedicated markets, including campaigns focused on nature and heritage, adventure tourism, events and arts, luxury experiences and cultural immersion.



Glenn Johnston, Vice President Middle East & Global Public Affairs, Aviareps said: It is an honour to work with RCU and assist with the launch of AlUla as a new tourist destination not only for Saudis and residents of the region, but for travellers internationally. With our full commitment and expertise, we look forward to playing our role in making the opening of AlUla to the world a rich, rewarding and meaningful experience for all involved.



Often referred to as one of the worlds largest living museums, AlUla is located in north-western Saudi Arabia and is cradled in a spectacular valley with palm groves running through its centre and sandstone cliffs surrounding it. An area the size of a country this site is accessible by road and thrice-weekly flights from Jeddah and Riyadh.



Once opened in October 2020, visitors to AlUla will have the opportunity to access its four main heritage sites, including Saudi Arabias first UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hegra (Al-Hijr), Jabal Ikmah, (the open-air library), and Dadan . From December, AlUlas Old Town, will be open to visitors for the very first time. This labyrinth of 900 mud brick buildings has been continuously occupied since the 12th century.  TradeArabia News Service




The exams will no longer be unified and will be taken and evaluated electronically

Egypt's well-established and decades-old system of high school final exams, known as Thanaweya Amma, has been abolished as of the end of the 2019/2020 academic year, Egypt's Education Minister Tarek Shawki announced in a presser on Tuesday.

The high school final exams, which determine university prospects based on grades obtained, will be replaced by a new electronic module as of the upcoming 2020-2021 school year.

The exams will no longer be unified and will be taken and evaluated electronically, without any human intervention, Shawki said.

The exams will be based on multiple-choice questions and students will know their results once they are finished, he noted.

The ministry will issue four versions of the exam at the same difficulty level, with students allowed to retake any subject in a second-round without any grades deducted, which revives the improvement exam system that was in place until the 1990s.

"The improvement exams will return as we do not want the Thanawaya Amma exams to be a matter of life and death," he added.

Over the years, dozens of Thanaweya Amma students have taken their own lives during the course of the final exams, and after receiving undesired marks and under parental pressure to achieve.

"The diligent student will join the faculty he/she wants," Shawki said.

"The concept of equal opportunity does not mean that the exams must be standardised... the exams will be different but have the same level of difficulty," he pointed out.

"The new system will put an end to exam leaks and cheating," he stressed.

In the past few years, Thanaweya Amma exams have been repeatedly leaked and shared on Facebook and WhatsApp.

The minister assured that the science, mathematics, literature divisions of Thanaweya Amma will remain unchanged.

Limited school attendance

Egyptian schools are set to resume activities in September and October under a hybrid plan that will give students from kindergarten through high school the option of attending class in-person two or more days a week to reduce density at classrooms amid the coronavirus pandemic, according Shawki.

Shawki elaborated on the state's plan for the new school year, saying the ministry is issuing general instructions for all schools nationwide, but that it is up to each school's headmaster to announce a schedule for students.

Less than three months before the end of the 2019/2020 academic year, Egypt suspended in-person classes at schools and universities as part of sweeping anti-coronavirus measures, introducing a new research paper system as an alternative to written and oral exams for all grades, except for final year students, who sat for in-person exams in June and July.

According to the minister, the new school year 2020-2021 will start on 17 October at all Egyptian schools, with only international schools allowed to start earlier on 15 September.

"We were thinking about how [to solve the issue of] accommodating over 23 million pupils and over 1.3 million teachers, as well as administrative employees, amid the pandemic. The solution cannot be generalised over the country's schools, but rather each school will have its own solution," the minister said.

He added that the ministry will suggest that educational directorates allow pupils from kindergarten to third grade to attend face-to-face classes for four days at double-shift schools and only three days a week at single-shift schools.

Pupils from the fourth to the sixth grade can attend school from two to three days a week.

The ministry also will suggest allowing each preparatory and high school student to attend school at least two days a week.

The educational resources for students from the third primary grade to high school will vary from educational TV channels and online platforms established by the ministry, he added.

The minister said that all anti-coronavirus safety measures must be in place, including keeping a safe distance of 1.5 meters between students.

He said that morning line ups will not be suspended, but each school's headmaster will determine which students will stand in the queues.

Shawki stressed that the students should refer to their respective schools to know what they should do during at-home days.

Last month, the country's Supreme Council of Universities announced that the next university academic year will begin on Saturday 17 October, with the implementation of a hybrid education model aimed at reducing the density of students inside education halls.

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The Delhi government said on Sunday it expected the fresh surge in coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases in the national capital to stabilise in 10-15 days, even as it announced measures to augment health care infrastructure in the city to tackle growing active cases and boost the critical care system at hospitals.

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain ruled out further lockdown restrictions in Delhi, arguing that they were no longer a solution to the pandemic and implored the public to wear masks and maintain hygiene.

It [the surge] is very much on expected lines, and will stabilise in 10-15 days, he said at a digital news conference.

Jain attributed the spike to aggressive testing undertaken by the Delhi government in recent days, as well as the easing of restrictions in a bid to revive the economy, which was hit severely by the pandemic.

All private hospitals treating Covid-19 patients in Delhi have been allowed to increase their bed capacity by up to 30% and 33 major private hospitals have been asked to reserve 80% of their intensive care unit (ICU) beds for patients suffering from the viral infection.

The move to augment hospital bed capacity comes at a time when Delhi is seeing a record surge in Covid-19 cases. The Capital on Saturday added 4,321 new cases of Covid-19  the highest single-day spike in the city so far. Another 4,235 new cases of the infection were added on Sunday.

He said that although around 50% Covid-19 beds in the city were vacant, ICU beds at a few major private hospitals were running out, with patients preferring private health care facilities to government-run ones.

I held a meeting through a video conference with all private hospitals on Saturday. They have agreed to our plan. Orders have been issued to allow all Covid-19 hospitals in the city to increase their bed capacity by 30%, if required, while 33 major private hospitals have been asked to reserve 80% of their total ICU beds for Covid-19 patients. These are hospitals that have 50 beds or more. If some of these ICU beds are currently occupied with non-Covid patients, then they must be included for Covid-19 patients after the existing ones are discharged, Jain said.

The minister explained that if a Covid-19 hospital has 100 beds, it would be allowed to increase its capacity to 130 beds, according to the latest order.

At present, Delhi has 14,372 hospital beds, of which 7,924 are lying vacant. Of these, 489 ICU beds with ventilators and 277 ICU beds without ventilators are unoccupied.

The Delhi governments decision came after chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on September 9 asked officials to draft a plan to increase Covid-19 bed capacity in Delhi, especially ICU beds.

As HT first reported on September 9, the situation is worse in multi-speciality private hospitals in the national capital. Over 89% of ICU beds with ventilators in 11 private hospitals were occupied until Friday, while 82% of ICU beds without ventilators in eight private hospitals were also filled on that day.

Delhi recorded the highest-ever total hospitalisation due to the contagion in a single day on Friday after 6,294 people were admitted. The previous record was 6,264 during the Covid-19 surge in the city in June-July.

Wearing masks reduces the chances of spreading and contracting Covid-19 significantly. The public should wear masks. The government is also running an intensive awareness campaign on the importance of masks. Everyone should wear a mask and follow strict social distancing norms. We have moved far away from the times of lockdown. That (lockdown) is not going to happen again, Jain added.

Hospitals and mohalla clinics are also testing asymptomatic people amid a boost in testing in the Capital.

However, the count of the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests, considered to be the most accurate to diagnose Covid-19, continued to remain low in comparison with the less accurate rapid antigen detection (RAD) test.

Data showed 9,182 swab samples  15% of all the tests  were tested on Friday using the RT-PCR method, according to Saturdays health bulletin.

Jain said the results of the third serological survey, which was conducted in Delhi between September 1 and 5, would be announced in a few more days as the study of the samples is still in progress.

He added that the test positivity ratio of Delhi of a single day is 7.19%, whereas the national test positivity rate is about 8.8%. Delhi recorded 28 deaths as per Saturdays bulletin which brings down the mortality rate of the last 10 days in Delhi to about 0.68%, which is much lower when compared to the national average of 2.23%, Jain said.

The Delhi governments decision to reinforce hospital bed capacity is on the right track, said Dr Lalit Kant, former head of epidemiology and infectious disease at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

It is good that the government has finally done something about the low availability of ICU beds in major private hospitals. The government, however, should also simultaneously improve its contact-tracing exercise. Also, surveillance should be strengthened further and suspected [Covid-19-positive] persons outside containment zones need to be checked for Covid-19 with an RT-PCR test, he said.

Private health care providers cautioned that the move could endanger the lives of non-Covid patients in need of emergency or other life-saving care. Some associations plan to make a representation to the Delhi government on Monday and take legal recourse, if necessary.

The patients who had been delaying their surgeries and other planned procedures have started coming into the hospitals in the last one month, with most of the big private hospitals running at least 90% of their total ICU capacity. If you look at the statistics from these bigger hospitals in the last three months, they received about 2.5 times non-Covid-19 patients than Covid-19 patients. This means the government would be jeopardising the lives of these non-Covid-19 patients, said Girdhar Gyani, director general of the Association of Healthcare Providers (India).

Apart from that, this move is also penalising the private hospitals economically. When they say 80% of the ICU beds have to be reserved, it means the beds have to be reserved even if there arent any Covid-19 patients. But, the government would not be paying the hospitals. It is one thing to say reserve 500 beds and we will pay for it. Besides, why should ICU beds be kept vacant when someone else might need it, said Gyani.

Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, one of the 28 that has been directed to reserve beds, already has a high percentage of beds set apart for Covid-19 patients and the problem is one of sufficient staff, according to hospital authorities.

We had been asked to create a 100-bed ICU initially when we had met the health minister even before the June surge. So, we have been slowly able to ramp up our capacity. Now, we have 117 of 167 beds reserved for Covid-19 patients, but with almost all big hospitals doing so there will be a problem for non-Covid-19 patients. For us, the challenge will be manpower, more staff is needed for Covid-19 ICUs so we are in the process of hiring more nurses. Our doctors are also exhausted now, said Dr DS Rana, chairperson of the board of governors at the hospital.
When, at 22, the jewelry designer Beth Bugdaycay traveled to Istanbul to meet her new mother-in-law, she arrived with a request: that her husbands mother teach her a few family dishes. I think sharing a family recipe with another person is very personal, says Beth, now 47, who co-founded the jewelry company Foundrae with her husband, Murat, in 2015, and lives with him and their two children above their TriBeCa store. Learning hers was a way to show that I respected her family and her culture, and that I was committed to keeping those traditions alive with her son in New York.

The Bugdaycays kitchen, which Beth and Murat designed, along with the rest of their duplex, in 2016, delivers on that promise: Beth calls it the heartbeat of our house. Here, the couple cooks primarily Mediterranean food, including many recipes drawn from the repertoire of Murats mother, Beser (whom everyone calls Hatice). One of Beths favorites is a dish of stewed green beans and tomatoes, called Ayse Kadin Fasulye in Turkish. Its also an apt representation of the style of cooking she learned all those years ago in that its stripped down and incredibly fresh.

Its not just the recipe that connects her to Murats family, but the process. Before she does nearly anything else, she sits in the nook-like booth in her kitchen to string the beans. I love that it feels traditional, says Beth, reminiscent of a simpler time. I know that for Murat, whenever he sees me doing that, its very romantic for him. It makes him feel that we have a real home. Not that the couple has always agreed about just how that home would look. When they were designing the kitchen, they had to balance Murats desire for tidiness with Beths love of collecting. (Her friends, she says, might call it hoarding.) The solution was storage, and plenty of it. Along the kitchens walls, smooth panels of wood open to reveal endless shelves set with a myriad serving pieces and other kitchen accessories shes acquired over the years, from a silver tea strainer, a gift from her parents, to her great-great-grandmothers china, to a midcentury bottle opener shaped like a fish. Shes the sort of person who might find herself with a cut-glass shrimp dish but no cereal bowls.
Several broadcasters wont send camera crews inside Donald Trumps indoor campaign events in Nevada over concerns that staff could be exposed to coronavirus.

CNNs Brian Stelter, whose network will not be covering the presidents indoor rally on Sunday with its own camera crew, reports that news outlets have been forced to make tough decisions about how to keep their staffers safe while the president flouts public safety guidelines by increasing the risk of transmission among large groups at his indoor events.

Major TV networks have decided not to send their camera crews inside, because they feel it will not be safe enough, he said. Its not wise to go along with the presidents loosey-goosey approach."

The president has held six indoor campaign rallies in the month that followed after he had admitted to journalist Bob Woodward in a February interview that Covid-10 can be transmitted via the airborne virus.

It goes through air, Bob, the president said on 7 February, which was recorded and recently published in advance of his the journalists book Rage. "That's always tougher than the touch. You know, the touch, you don't have to touch things. Right? But the air, you just breathe the air and that's how it's passed  Thats very tricky one. That's a very delicate one."

In that same interview, the president admitted that the virus was "more deadly" than even your strenuous flus despite his public statements that downplayed the risk of transmission and falsely compared the fatality rates between flu and Covid-19 infections.

The president held six rallies between that interview and 2 March. He cancelled an event in Wisconsin scheduled for 19 March.

He told Mr Woodward on 19 March that he wanted to always play it down.

"I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic," he said.

The president reignited his campaign with a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on 20 June. Moments before the event, the campaign announced that six staffers had tested positive for the virus and were isolated.

Health officials there linked a significant spike in infections to the rally and related events.

Few attendees at a campaign rally in Minden, Nevada on 12 September wore masks.

His rally was initially scheduled for Reno, but it was moved following warnings from the Reno Tahoe Airport Authority that a rally for 5,000 people in a private hangar would be in violation of the states current restrictions amid the pandemic. It also reportedly violated the terms of the companys lease for the private hangar.

On 13 September, the president is scheduled to host a rally at Xtreme Manufacturing, a heavy-equipment manufacturing facility in Henderson, Nevada  its his first indoor rally in months.

Nevada currently remains in Phase 2 of its reopening plan, limiting public and private gatherings to 50 people.

The state also requires residents wear face coverings when they are out in public and at public venues.

More than 193,000 Americans have died from Covid-19-related illness, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
One of New Jerseys largest art collections was once again on display Saturday as Montclair Art Museum opened its doors to the public for the first time in nearly six months  with COVID-19 safety precautions in place.

The museum that first opened back in 1914 temporarily closed along with much of the state back in March as the coronavirus pandemic swept New Jersey. Museum members were welcomed back on Saturday, and the general public can visit starting Sunday.
The $70 billion JobKeeper wage subsidy program has potentially been rorted by thousands of businesses but not one has been penalised despite more than 8000 tip-offs to the tax office and 2200 employees found to be on multiple applications for payments.

JobKeeper began on March 30 and until August 26, more than 15,000 businesses have been removed from the scheme after the Australian Tax Office found them to be ineligible. During the same period, the ATO received 8000 tips from the public pointing to 6250 businesses or sole traders who may have been rorting the system.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg's JobKeeper scheme has helped out Australia's largest listed companies to the tune of $1.8 billion. Credit:

The ATO has told more than 8000 businesses they may need to repay JobKeeper money because their paperwork did not adequately demonstrate their eligibility.

To get onto JobKeeper, employers and sole traders estimate their turnover has, or will likely, fall by 30 per cent or more (if turnover is under $1 billion). For bigger firms, a drop of 50 per cent or more is needed. Businesses are expected to provide evidence of revenue declines.
For some strange reason, the Chicken Littles of the world have become terrified by the idea that socialism is just over the hill for the United States. The most frightened even throw in communism as though it was synonymous with socialism.

Under communism, there is no such thing as private property. The country was hysterical over communism after World War II when Stalin was gobbling up the small countries in Europe. In fact, the Vietnam and Korean wars were fought to stop the march of communism in the world. But we should not fear communism because Russia has already proved it doesnt work.

Consensus needed for socialism

According to history, socialism is less rigid but makes changes through democratic practices, which means that a significant majority of the people must support the idea or the politicians wont pass it.

People who live in fear of socialism simply do not understand democracy. They believe that somehow they will wake up some morning and socialism will be everywhere. The governmental system in the United States, with all of its vertical and horizontal checks and balances, requires years of consideration before anything gets adopted.

Case in point: The greatest need in our society is a medical program that will stop all of the illness and death suffered by people who cant afford coverage. This was brought up by President Harry Truman almost 100 years ago and we are still talking, talking and talking about it.

Socialism or meeting needs

Most folks in America were around when President Barack Obama threw the Hail Mary that fell way short of providing universal medical care. The plan was full of compromises and in need of repair. So people are still dying.

We already have some significant socialism because it was not considered socialism but responses to pressing needs. The Great Depression of the 1930s told us that we needed Social Security; then we needed medical care for the elderly; then we needed minimal medical aid for the poor. Each as the need became apparent.

The volatility of the agriculture industry brought farmers a safety net which they deny is socialism, but socialism by any other name is still socialism. In fact, our farming industry was born when the federal government handed out free land to settlers and the Northern Pacific Railroad.

Socialism slow and incremental

If we looked back at our history, the socialism we have adopted has been slow and incremental. Thats the way American democracy works. There will never be a sudden junking of free capitalism, so sleep peacefully.

Socialism is no stranger to North Dakota. Many of those now frightened by socialism are the same ones who proudly tell out-of-staters about the state-owned largest mill in the Northern Hemisphere and the most prosperous bank west of Minneapolis.

In the minds of some, any form of socialism is evil. It takes a degree of selfishness to arrive at that conclusion because most of the socialism we have adopted to date has created a sense of community. It shows that we care about the needs and problems of others.

Increasing care for others

Actually, this country is so rich that we can afford to increase our care for others by building our national community to include more and better health care, social security, education, infrastructure, retraining, health research and whatever else we think is a pressing need.

Many people in America are in need of more socialism. This is no time to yell that the sky is falling.

In the final analysis, we will be judged more on our compassion for others than the purity of our economic system.

Lloyd Omdahl is a political scientist and former North Dakota lieutenant governor. His column appears Sundays.

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FREDERICTONVoters in New Brunswick head to the polls Monday in the countrys first provincial election since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and lessons learned may provide a template for future campaigns.

Campaigning was very different. There was no kissing babies, no pressing flesh, no barbecues, no rallies, no balloons, said Donald Wright, a political scientist at the University of New Brunswick. It really was a low-key campaign conducted with signs, pamphlets and social media.

Public health restrictions prevented large rallies and prompted some of the parties to forego door-knocking.

Progressive Conservative Premier Blaine Higgs called the election in August after he was unable to get opposition parties to sign an agreement not to bring down his minority government until September 2022  or until 30 days after public health officials declared the pandemic over.

The snap election call sent parties scrambling to find new ways to get their message out in an era of physical distancing.

We live in a wired world, and that certainly has helped their cause, Wright said, noting the parties have concentrated much of their campaign efforts on social media.

Higgs said the province cant put everything on hold because of the virus.

We have to keep moving, he said in an interview. Social media has become more important. When I go to events, its not big crowds like we used to have. We make sure that is the case, so we dont violate public health issues.

Higgs said the novel coronavirus has forced all parties to do things differently, and it has meant candidates picking up the phone more to speak directly to voters about the issues.

Green Leader David Coon, a veteran of multiple campaigns, said even the simplest activities were affected by COVID-19 concerns.

That included going to a street corner with signs and waving to motorists driving by. One of the organizers said Now we have to sanitize the signs, Coon said. They had to be sanitized before the next group of volunteers went out.

In other cases, Coon said his party would put candidates in the back of a truck in a busy area and encourage people to approach to discuss the issues, but getting the message across wasnt always easy.

When youre trying to talk to people and youre wearing a mask, theyre wearing a mask, and youre distanced apart, its not as comfortable as a normal conversation, Coon said. Its harder for people to hear because of the mask.

Mackenzie Thomason, the 23-year-old interim leader of the New Democrats, is running in his third election. While his party is using social media, he also felt it was important to go door-to-door.

I am wearing a mask, gloves and standing back the length of a metre stick plus my arm, he said, joking that hes gone though eight million bottles of sanitizer.

Thomason said most people were willing to talk, but he had a few who refused to come to the door or engage in conversation because of health concerns.

Liberal Leader Kevin Vickers said hes also experienced difficulty getting the message out to voters during the pandemic.

The traditional signs are up, were using social media, were getting out in the public when we can. Theres no question, this has been a challenge, he said.

Liberal candidate Steven Burns is new to politics and felt he had no choice but to campaign door-to-door in order to introduce himself to voters and get their input.

I put my mask on before I get to a door. I use a pen or something to hit the doorbell and I step back about 10 feet and I wait for the person to come to the door, Burns said. I leave my mask on until they open the door and ask them if it is OK with me being there, and if I could pass them some literature.

He said he has been to about 2,000 doors. Ive only had two people ask about the COVID restrictions or if I should be there, he said.

Kim Poffenroth, the provinces chief electoral officer, said Friday she believes the election has gone well. Her office launched a campaign urging voters to use advance polls and mail-in ballots in an effort to reduce lines at polling stations on election day.

The agency says 133,000 people voted at advance polls, an increase of 45,000 from the 2018 provincial election and about one third the total turnout that year.

Poffenroth said her office has learned a lot, right down to how much sanitizer and personal protective equipment are required at each polling station. She said counterparts across the country are watching closely.

Theyve been in contact with me, particularly those that have elections scheduled, such as Saskatchewan in October, she said. Weve been exchanging information about what weve done and what they are planning. There really was no playbook for how to do this.

Wright said the provinces relatively low COVID-19 case count made the election easier.

I think New Brunswick can be pretty proud of what it has accomplished, he said. I think the key message is that it can be done and that it has to be done. It is the price of democracy that we have to hold elections, even in a global pandemic.

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The airlines representative said on September 11 that flights aim to meet demand of Vietnamese passengers travelling to Japan for study and work.

Accordingly, flights will depart from Hanoi for Tokyo at 11:45pm on September 18, 25, 30 and leave Ho Chi Minh City at 0am on September 30, using Boeing 787 - the largest wide-body and most modern aircraft of the carrier.

The airline is building a plan to resume flights to the Republic of Korea, China, Taiwan (China), Laos and Cambodia in the near future.

Earlier from June, Vietnam Airlines conducted several one-way flights between Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Seoul in the RoK and Frankfurt in Germany.

Many of its aircraft were also upgraded to carry cargo instead of passengers to help it through the pandemic crisis.

Further information could be found on the website www.vietnamairlines.com, Vietnam Airlines mobile app and Facebook page www.facebook.com/VietnamAirlines, its ticket agents nationwide or customer care hotline 1900 1100.
ARISS Telebridge Contact with school in Spain

An ARISS educational school contact is planned for Chris Cassidy KF5KDR with students Avellaneda Ikastetxea, Sodupe, Spain.

The contact is scheduled on Friday September 18 2020 at approximately 12:56 UTC, which is 14:56 CEST.

The link to the ISS will be operated by the amateur radio ground station ZS6JON, located in South Africa.

The contact will be web-streamed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMDcOZOF2

FE&feature=youtu.be

School Information:

"Our School, Avellaneda ikastetxea, is situated in a small town called Sodupe, which is in the north of Spain. We have 643 students, who speak Spanish, English and Basque, which is the language of the Basque Country.

Our main objective is the training of students, based on human and Christian values, so that they become autonomous, competent and socially committed people."

Students First Names & Questions:

1. Paula: What did you want to be when you were young?

2. Luken: What made you think that you wanted to be an astronaut? Was it your dream?

3. Anartz: How long does it take from the Earth to the Space?

4. Maren: How do you feel when you leave the Earth?

5. MartiAn: When you are at space, what do you carry with you in the rocket? What things do you need?

6. Markel H.: How much time do you spend in space before returning to Earth?

7. Leire Lejona: What is concretely the objective of you mission?

8. Amets I.: If you are ill, who can help you?

9. Luis: Is the space suit comfortable?

10. Ayala: How do you cook in the space?

11. Ibai: What type of food do you eat? Do you like it?

12. Adrian: What is the first thing you'll do when you get back?

13. Virgy: What do you do in your free time?

14. Koldo: Is there pollution in space?

15. Aimar: How many astronauts are there in your space-station?

About ARISS:

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS). In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation(AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the ISS National National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org.

Gaston Bertels ON4WF
Britain's biggest technology company is poised to be sold to a US rival in a highly controversial $40billion takeover.

Cambridge-based chip designer ARM Holdings is close to signing a deal with US firm Nvidia, just four years after it was bought by Japan's SoftBank for $32billion, the Wall Street Journal reported last night.

A deal to offload ARM - seen as the jewel in the crown of British technology - would be highly controversial.

Business potential: ARM is seen as the jewel in the crown of British technology

Last week, Shadow Business Secretary Ed Miliband called on the Government to intervene in the takeover, warning of the 'potential consequences of this takeover, including the possible implications for where the company is headquartered and the thousands of jobs in Britain that depend on it'.

One of ARM's founders, Hermann Hauser, said a takeover by Nvidia would be 'disastrous'.

ARM's technology is used to power smart phone, but also connected devices - which in future will include driverless cars.
The Presidency on Sunday aimed directly at former President Olusegun Obasanjo, attacking him as the divider-in-chief and insisting the former leader is not the the uniter-in-chief.

Obasanjo had on Thursday last week while delivering a speech titled, Moving Nigeria Away from Tipping Over at a consultative dialogue attended by various socio-cultural groups including Afenifere, Middle Belt Forum, Northern Elders Forum, Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo and Pan Niger Delta Forum, said that Nigeria is slowly becoming a failed state and a basket case that urgently needs to be pulled from the brink of collapse.

In his most recent statement former President Olusegun Obasanjo attempts to divide the nation while President Muhammadu Buhari continues to promote nation building and the unity of Nigeria, said Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu.

The Presidency said while President Muhammadu Buhari continues to promote nation building and the unity of Nigeria, Obasanjo, on the other hand has made attempts to divide the country.

The Presidency has therefore advised the former president to sheath his sword and rest what it called the pretentiousness about the Messiah that has (mis)led him to pronounce often wrongly, as he disastrously did in the 2019 elections, about the life and death of Nigerian governments.

The difference is clear. From the lofty heights of Commander-in-Chief, General Obasanjo has descended to the lowly level of Divider-in-Chief (to adapt the coinage of Time).

Before responding further to the unfair attacks on President Buhari and his administration by the former President, it is important that we categorically state that contrary to the assertions by a few analysts, the recent speech in which President Buhari advised West African Presidents against tenure elongation beyond constitutional limits has been consistent with his long held views on the need to adhere to the rule of law.

Even though he tried it and failed, the recent uptick in the number of such leaders proposing to do, or actually carrying on in office beyond term limits is sufficient to cause concern among democrats in the sub-region given its prospects of destabilizing the states and the region.

President Buharis advocacy is consistent with his principles and in line with the current policies of his administration and indeed that of the ECOWAS Charter which is that term limits must be respected and that the change of government is only permissible through the ballot box.

Having cleared this misperception, we hope that Chief Obasanjo would once again sheath the sword and rest the pretentiousness about the Messiah that has (mis)led him to pronounce often wrongly, as he disastrously did in the 2019 elections, about the life and death of Nigerian governments.

As some commentators are already suggesting, Chief Obasanjo should, in accordance with his mantra as a statesman, get involved with problems solving, when and where they exist instead of helping the mushrooming of a poisonous atmosphere of ethnic and religious nationalism.

Surely, he must have disappointed many of his local and foreign admirers by showering commendations on a few extremist groups who have vowed to shun the invitation to the National Assembly to participate in the process of constitutional amendment.

No doubt, he must have left those admirers confused in announcing the support for the boycott of a democratic process of changing the constitution, at the same time calling for dialogue and engagement.

The fact that the process he ushered in under his administration with the dubious intention of amendments that sought tenure elongation failed-as did two other attempts by the successor administrations of the same political party- does not in any way justify his dismissal of the exercise by the 9th Assembly as a another waste of time and resources.

To the credit of the All Progressives Congress-led 8th Assembly, the process of constitutional amendment was kickstarted and carried through, paving the way for, among other benefits, the financial independence of local government councils, States Houses of Assembly and the countrys Judiciary. These changes have already been signed into laws by the President as mandated by the constitution.

The recent decisions by the administration as they relate to subsidy withdrawal, helping to plug some of the most horrendous notorious holes and release of scarce resources for the more pressing needs of the people has also not escaped the ire of the former president.

Its a known fact that the withdrawal of subsidies had been on the wish list of the Obasanjo-led Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. They failed in achieving these measures because, one there was a shared greed. They plundered the treasury as much as anyone could in the name of either subsidy or waiver with reckless impunity.

Two, is to say it takes courage and rare statesmanship on the part of a leader to do as President Buhari to shun populism and seek the best interest of the people and the state, providing the kind of reform and development that Nigeria urgently needs.

This President has run an administration focused on infrastructure and development. He has repaired our damaged relations with neighbours and our traditional allies such as the UK, US, China, Russia, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia and the others with lots of benefits to the country.

It is a pro-business administration that has used diplomacy to unlock bilateral trade and investment.

He leads a government that has liberalized the investment climate and market access by achieving reforms that have placed the country in the list of the worlds top reforming economies.

Nigeria, which other nations had mocked and ridiculed for so many things that were wrong is today progressing at a pace reflecting its size and potential.

With so much to show and many more coming, it is little surprise that President Buhari would be the object of envy and harsh unfair challenges by politicians who failed to deliver, but continue to nurse ambitions of delighting the audience long after their curtain has been drawn.
For months now, people have been wondering whether all of Bidens appearances, including the easy ones, are scripted. Now we know the truth.

For the Biden campaign, the Wuhan virus has been a benefit. Its allowed Biden to conduct his interviews from the safety of his own home. Because there are no public appearances, his campaign can keep secret whether Biden relies on a teleprompter for even friendly, casual interviews. Videos of Bidens slip-ups suggested that he was using a teleprompter, but the campaign wasnt talking. Now, though, a sharp-eyed viewer looking at footage of Biden talking to James Corden believes hes exposed Bidens secret: Even for friendly, inconsequential interviews, Biden and his interlocutors have a script.

Whats new in the 2020 election, as opposed to 1988 or 2008, is Bidens cognitive decline. Although his campaign and the mainstream media are denying it, its obvious to everyone. Several times, people have suspected that, during allegedly spontaneous question and answer sessions, hes actually relying on a teleprompter:

Joe Biden is relying on a teleprompter to answer questions: "move it up here," he tells his staff.



There are long pauses between his words as he waits for the prompter to scroll. pic.twitter.com/zYlMbfd2mA  Trump War Room - Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) September 7, 2020

Joe Biden reads from a teleprompter at almost all of his events... and he can barely do that sometimes. pic.twitter.com/DZBRwCpk19  Jake Schneider (@jacobkschneider) September 8, 2020

When Fox Newss Bret Baier asked TJ Ducklo, a Biden campaign spokesman, whether Biden used a teleprompter for interviews, Ducklo unleashed a torrent of non-responsive accusations against the Trump campaign and Baier himself:

Biden national press secretary TJ Ducklo refuses to answer questions on Joe Bidens teleprompter use in interviews and Q&A: you cant answer the question pic.twitter.com/oN2I2XXZpr  Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) September 11, 2020

Most people watching took Ducklos wall of words as a yes. Yesterday, we got confirmation that Biden does, in fact, use a teleprompter even for friendly interviews.

Back in April, when Biden did an online interview with James Corden, Biden displayed a photograph of himself with his sons Beau and Hunter. The photograph was beautifully framed, behind glass. Unfortunately for Biden, that glass reflected a teleprompter with alternating blue and green script, with one color presumably representing Cordens questions and the other showing Bidens answers:

Check out the teleprompter in the reflection. Biden blatantly read from a script for most of the interview with James Corden.



I bet his handlers werent too happy with him going off script. He probably got reprimanded. pic.twitter.com/BPK2FGB8cz  Michael Moore (@mbracemoore) September 12, 2020

Someone even provided helpful signage to explain what viewers are seeing reflected in the glass:

Yes, this "Interview" was scripted. Note different colors for teleprompter text. They are two sides to the "conversation". I've worked with TV teleprompters before. This is what they are.



This was staged. It's all a show.



Why does Biden need a script? pic.twitter.com/zEwyR5E94u  Eye of Orwell (@OrwellOf) September 12, 2020

Biden has always been a loose cannon. Voters learned about this in 1988 when Biden had to drop out of the Democrat party primary for lying, insulting voters, and blatant plagiarism. Even the British have noted that Biden still spins fantastic tales:

And of course, Bidens insulting way of speaking to voters is the stuff of legend:

When Biden is obviously off the teleprompter leash, he still insults people. For example, Rep. James Clyburn may have dragged Biden over the finish line in South Carolina, thanks to Clyburns sway with that states black voters, but few blacks will forget how Biden then said that a black persons race is defined by supporting Biden:

There are two things you should take away from learning that Biden is relying on a script, even for friendly interviews. First, this confirms that his cognitive deficit is so severe he can no longer be trusted to speak on his own.

Second, it puts the lie to Benjamin Franklins quip that three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead. The Biden teleprompter cover-up has involved dozens of people. After all, for this to work, not only were Bidens aides covering for him, all of the people who interviewed Biden and stuck to the script were in the know.

Nevertheless, all of them  all the staffers and left-wing individuals or outlets conducting the interviews  were so determined to remove Trump from office that none leaked this secret. It turns out that, when political power is at stake, leftists will take the truth to the grave with them.

Image: Biden and the teleprompter (Twitter screengrab)
In March 2020, schools across the globe shuttered their doors as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic became more critical. Prince George and Princess Charlottes school, Thomass Battersea closed their doors on March 10 after someone affiliated with the school had come into contact with someone who contracted the virus.

With so much happening, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince William packed up their lives and moved from their Kensington Palace Apartment in London to their country home Amner Hall in Norfolk where they remained until July.

A major adjustment for everyone, the Cambridges were homeschooling their kids and doing virtual royal duties. However, now that Thomass Battersea is opened again, Prince William is super relieved.

Homeschooling was a major challenge for The Cambridges

As many families across the world soon came to understand, homeschooling is not for the faint of heart. Its challening enough to remain focused on your computer as an adult, but Zoom school for children is nearly impossible.

Though the Cambridges had an extra set of hands with their live-in nanny, Maria Borrallo, they had to wrangle their school-age children and their rambunctious two-year-old, Prince Louis. Royal expert Michelle Tauber told People,

They would be doing the kinds of things that families everywhere are trying to do  cooking with the kids, reading, puzzles. Everyone is doing their best on that front and Im not exactly sure they would be faring any better than the rest of us. Its a lot to juggle. We know there are parents everywhere trying to do the act of keeping up with their work commitments as well as making sure the kids schooling continues. They likely have their trusted nanny on hand, Maria Borallo, and she would obviously be lending plenty of support.

RELATED: Kate Middleton Just Revealed Her Family Had a Really Difficult Time in Quarantine

Prince William says he discovered he lacks patience amid homeschooling

When homeschooling rolled into summer camp as the virus ragged on, the Cambridges had to find new ways to keep their kiddos occupied and engaged. It gets a bit hectic, Im not going to lie, Kate told BBC. Children have got such stamina. I dont know how, honestly. 

For his part, Prince William was upfront about how frustrating and stressful homeschooling was. On the BBC Radio 5Lives That Peter Crouch podcast, he explained,

Ive found it pretty testing, not going to lie, trying to keep the children engaged in some kind of work, its been an interesting few months. Ive learned through homeschooling that my patience is a lot shorter than I thought it was, thats probably been the biggest eye-opener for me, and that my wife has super patience. I have to admit Im a bit embarrassed about my maths knowledge, I cant do Year two math.

Prince William is super relieved Prince George and Princess Charlotte are back in school

During a recent visit in Belfast, Prince William expressed how thrilled he was that his days of virtual learning were a thing of the past. I think every parent is breathing a sigh of relief that school has started again. Five monthsits been wonderful, but its been a long five months, Hello! reported.

We wonder how Prince Louis is doing now that he has his nanny to himself again.
The cash-and-stock deal could be sealed early next week and would value Arm in the low $40 billions.

SoftBank Group Corp is close to selling British chip designer Arm Holdings to Nvidia Corp for more than $40 billion, a deal which would create a giant in the chip industry, the Wall Street Journal reported https://on.wsj.com/2Rlv7HC on Saturday.

The cash-and-stock deal could be sealed early next week and would value Arm in the low $40 billions, the Journal report said, citing sources.

Nvidia is known for its graphics chips that power video games, but it has developed other markets including artificial intelligence, self-driving cars and data centers.

Arm supplies the chip technology for virtually all mobile devices such as phones and tablets but is also expanding into processors for cars, datacenter services and other devices.

The British company does not make chips. Instead it licenses out the underlying technology so others can make chips with it. It has previously collaborated with Nvidia.

Last year Nvidia said it would make its chips work with processors from Arm to build supercomputers deepening its push into systems that are used for modeling both climate change predictions and nuclear weapons.

SoftBank acquired Arm for $32 billion in 2016, its largest-ever purchase, in part to expand into the internet.

The terms would mark a big win for the Japanese company which has struggled to jump-start growth in the business, according to the WSJ.

Nvidia declined to comment. SoftBank and Arm did not respond to Reuters' requests for comments.

Reporting by Shubham Kalia.
Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut, who is locked in a bitter battle with the ruling Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, on Sunday met state Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari in Mumbai and told him about the injustice" done to her. The meeting came days after the Shiv Sena-ruled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) demolished alleged illegal alterations at Kanganas bungalow at Pali Hill in suburban Bandra.

Mumbai: Actor Kangana Ranaut and her sister Rangoli meet Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at Raj Bhavan https://t.co/43Fxd8cDol pic.twitter.com/48B3TTf6Cf ANI (@ANI) September 13, 2020

Talking to reporters after the meeting that took place at the Raj Bhavan, the actor said, I met the governor. He heard me as a daughter. I came to meet him as a citizen. I have nothing to do with politics." I told him about the injustice meted out to me and what happened was improper. It was indecent behaviour," she said. The trouble between the Sena and Kangana started after the actor recently said she feared the Mumbai police more than the movie mafia" and likened the Maharashtra capital to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

#NewsAlert | I spoke with Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari about the injustice that happened to me, he is our guardian here. I hope I get justice so that peoples faith in the system is restored: Kangana Ranaut.#KanganaVsAghadiJoin the broadcast with @SiddiquiMaha. pic.twitter.com/bj0HoR63rf  CNNNews18 (@CNNnews18) September 13, 2020

The 33-year-old actor, who returned to Mumbai on Wednesday from her home state Himachal Pradesh the same day as her house was partially demolished by the civic body, had alleged that the Maharashtra government was targeting her because of her clash with the Sena.

On Friday, the Queen" actor had urged Congress president Sonia Gandhi to intervene and stop the harassment of women". In a tweet, she had asked Gandhi if she was not anguished by the treatment given by the Maharashtra government, in which the Congress is also a part.
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Cases of coronavirus in care homes have quadrupled in a month and 4.5million vulnerable people may be asked to return home to isolate as Britain's virus crisis threatens to spiral out of control.

A Department of Health report marked 'official sensitive' and circulated on Friday said that the rate of coronavirus recorded through satellite tests - which are used in care homes - had quadrupled since the start of the month.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock took an emergency update on Wednesday saying that outbreaks had been detected in 43 care homes, according to the Sunday Times.

Meanwhile, another report has revealed that up to 4.5million people deemed to be at risk of serious illness from Covid-19 will be asked to stay at home again or given tailored advice on protecting themselves if cases rise to dangerous levels.

Britain has recorded 3,497 new cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, marking the highest Saturday rise since May, as SAGE warns that England is now on the brink of 'losing control' of a new Covid outbreak

Members of the South Central Ambulance Services move an elderly patient from hospital to a care home near Portsmouth, south England on May 5, 2020

A Care worker visits her client at his home during the coronavirus pandemic on May 3, 2020 in Elstree, England

People identified using a new 'risk model' based on factors such as underlying health conditions, age, sex and weight will receive letters containing specific advice, the Sunday Telegraph reports.

A source told the newspaper the plan is initially due to operate in areas with severe levels of infection, but officials are prepared to roll it out nationwide if required.

In a letter sent out Friday, care bosses were urged to 'take the necessary action to prevent and limit outbreaks', pointing out that in the last three days there had been an increase in notifications of coronavirus cases in care homes.

At the moment it is the workforce that is most affected, but the letter says that 'clearly' there is a risk that the virus will spread to residents and in some cases already has.

The letter, which was written by Stuart Miller, director of adult social care delivery at the Department of Health and Social Care, said: 'You will know already that we are experiencing a rise in confirmed Covid-19 cases, across the UK population.

'I need to alert you to the first signs this rise is being reflected in care homes too.

'Over the past three days, Public Health England (PHE) has reported an increase in notifications of Covid-19 cases in care homes.

'Testing data has also shown an increase in the number of positive results.

'Currently, the infections are mainly affecting the workforce but clearly there is a risk the virus will spread to care home residents, or to other parts of the care sector.

PHE data suggests that Covid-19 cases are surging among the over-50s, as senior officials last night warned of 'worrying' signs for high-risk groups. Last week, infections apparently increased 92 per cent among those in their 50s, 72 per cent among those in their 60s, and 44 per cent among those in their 80s and older

'Unfortunately, in some care homes with recent outbreaks, this does appear to have occurred, with residents also becoming infected.'

A Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman said: 'Throughout our coronavirus response we have been doing everything we can to ensure all staff and residents in care homes are protected.

'We are testing all residents and staff, have provided 200 million items of PPE and ring-fenced 600 million to prevent infections in care homes, with a further 3.7 billion available to councils to address pressures caused by the pandemic, including in adult social care.

'There is a high demand for tests and our laboratories continue to turn test results around as quickly as possible and we plan to rapidly expand it in the coming weeks as well as bringing in new technology to process tests faster.'

The concern over care homes comes as more than 3,000 coronavirus cases were recorded overall in the UK for the second day in a row - the first time since mid-May that recorded cases have been above that level on consecutive days.

The Government said that as of 9am on Saturday, there had been a further 3,497 lab-confirmed cases in the UK, slightly lower than the 3,539 cases recorded on Friday.

More than 3,000 cases of coronavirus were officially recorded yesterday while a Government-led study by Imperial College London showed the number of infections was doubling each week

Tough new Covid-19 lockdown measures were announced for parts of the UK on Friday as cases continued to rise and as the R number - the reproduction number of coronavirus transmission - climbed above one.

According to Government advisers, the last time R was above one was in early March.

The public has been warned against having a 'party weekend' ahead of rule changes on Monday, when social gatherings in England will be limited to groups of six people both indoors and outdoors, a new restriction dubbed the 'rule of six'.

Police have been dispersing gatherings and handing out fixed penalty notices over the weekend, with one teenager facing a 10,000 fine for hosting a house party with dozens of guests in Nottingham.

The Sunday Telegraph reported that if cases rise to dangerous levels, millions of people deemed high-risk will be asked to shield at home or given advice to protect themselves.

Official PHE figures show Birmingham's case rate was less than 30 per 100,000 by the end of August but this has soared to 78 per 100,000 in less than a fortnight

Regarding the plan, a DHSC spokeswoman said: 'We keep all aspects of our response to the pandemic under review and in line with the advice of our scientific and medical experts.

'Shielding for the clinically extremely vulnerable has been paused since the start of August in most of the country while average rates of coronavirus remain low.

'Shielding is still advised in specific areas of the country where prevalence of the virus is higher.'

A Whitehall source told the Telegraph that the shielding measure will first be rolled out in areas experiencing spikes in cases, but that the government is prepared to implement it on a 'blanket basis' if necessary.

Britain had recorded 3,497 new cases of coronavirus as of 9am Saturday, marking the highest Saturday rise since May, as SAGE warned that England is now on the brink of 'losing control' of the virus.

Nine more deaths were also recorded, bringing the total number of people who died within 28 days of a positive test for coronavirus to 41,623. The total number of confirmed cases stands at 365,174.

LONDON: People enjoying a night out in Leicester Square in London's West End

But despite the surge in cases, the overall prevalence of the virus is still much lower now than it was back in March - about 3,000 people were estimated to be getting infected every day this week compared to 100,000 a day six months ago.

Similar numbers of cases were seen when the country was still in lockdown in May, but the Government wasn't doing enough testing to find the hundreds of thousands of other people who were thought to be infected at the time, meaning the figures for then and now aren't comparable.

It comes as a key SAGE adviser yesterday warned England could lose control of coronavirus amid 'worrying' signs of Covid among middle-aged people as infections in the over-50s soared by 92 per cent in a week.

Professor Sir Mark Walport warned the public that England is on the brink of 'losing control' of the viral outbreak as he urged people to cut off contact with friends and family.

The Government is imposing panic restrictions across England, with Boris Johnson's draconian new 'rule of six' due to kick into force on Monday amid fears the reproduction 'R' rate could be as high as 1.7.

As the reproduction rate rises the number of people one infected person could pass the virus onto increases dramatically - putting the country at risk of a second wave of illness.

Officials are pointing the finger at people aged between 17 and 29 for a spike in coronavirus cases as they flock to pubs, bars and restaurants and sometimes fail to abide by social distancing measures.

The UK's national statistician, Professor Sir Ian Diamond, has pleaded with people to be 'unbelievably vigilant about social distancing' in order to prevent a second Covid wave.

But some Conservative backbenchers are pressuring for England to follow Scotland and Wales in exempting under-12s from the six-person limit, with MP Sir Desmond Swayne calling the ban 'absolutely grotesque'.

Daily coronavirus cases in Scotland have also hit a four-month high, with total of 221 people have tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours - the highest daily figure since May 8.

It came after lockdown restrictions in Glasgow, East Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire were continued for a further week on Monday, having first been introduced on September 1.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: 'Please heed all the public health advice. More than ever we must remember that what we do as individuals just now affects the wellbeing of everyone. Let's look after each other.'

'Covid is on the rise again across the UK and Europe. Keeping it under control requires care and vigilance from all of us. And bluntly, it means restricting as far as possible our interactions with other households.'

Public Health England (PHE) data suggests Covid-19 cases are surging among the over-50s, as senior officials last night warned of 'worrying' signs for high-risk groups. Last week, infections rose by 92 per cent among people in their 50s, 72 per cent among those in their 60s, and 44 per cent among those in their 80s and older.

There was a 20 per cent increase in Covid-related hospital admissions last week on the previous week among those aged 60-75, a 72 per cent increase among 75 to 84-year-olds, and a 67 per cent rise in those 85 and over.

Yvonne Doyle, medical director at PHE, said: '3,539 new cases of Covid-19 have been reported overnight, compared to 2,919 yesterday. Most of these cases are people tested in the community.

'Although younger people continue to make up the greatest share of new cases, we're now starting to see worrying signs of infections occurring in the elderly, who are at far higher risk of getting seriously ill.

'This is a reminder of the ongoing risk as the virus spreads throughout the UK. People should continue to follow social distancing rules, wash their hands regularly and wear a face covering in enclosed spaces.'

Experts who have been swabbing tens of thousands of people in England found 13 people per 10,000 were infected between August 22 and September 7, compared to four per 10,000 between July 24 and August 11.

Weekly cases in men aged 60 to 69 rose from 221 to 352 in the past week, an increase of 60 per cent, while among women in the same age group there was a 72 per cent jump from 219 to 376.

Officials had said that while the rise in cases was apparent in younger age groups, it was likely to move on to older people, which would be followed by an increase in hospitalisations.

It has also been suggested a 'rapid acceleration' in coronavirus cases could be linked to the hugely popular Eat Out to Help Out scheme, an Oxford University researcher has said.

The scheme, which involved the government fronting 50 per cent of the bill up to 10 per head at participating restaurants from Monday to Wednesday, has been hailed as the hospitality industry's saviour.

However, a new report from Oxford University public policy researcher Toby Phillips suggests the scheme may have contributed to a 'rapid acceleration' in reported infections in Britain and 'encouraged extravagant levels of eating out'.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that the alleged spike in coronavirus infections justifies the Government's 'arbitrary' new 'rule of six', warning people 'the pandemic is not over'.

The Imperial College London REACT-1 study found the epidemic is doubling in size every 'seven to eight days'. By comparison, Covid-19 infections were increasing by twofold every three days at the start of the crisis.
CAMBRIDGE  Hundreds gathered in front of Cambridge City Hall Saturday for a Take Back Cambridge rally held to address what they described as inaction of all levels of government ... to appropriately address the crime, drug addiction, and mental health issues that are plaguing the city.

The rally was organized by a group calling itself the Cambridge Neighbourhood Watch. Rally attendees brandished signs reading Taxpayers Matter Too, Arrest The Criminals, and Our Children Deserve Safety.

Adam Cooper, one of the rally organizers, addressed a lively and sometimes angry crowd.

This is taking back the power of the people to be heard, Cooper said.

Cooper described substance users as people who do not fear consequences and that the barrage of drug-fueled crime, anti-social behaviour, harassment, theft, forced entries in Cambridge are a direct result of policies and enablement from all levels of government.

This problem we face is not homelessness, he said.

Instead the problem is drug addiction, compounded by the enabling and maintenance of that addiction by the failed policies of so-called harm reduction.

Cooper criticized consumption and treatment services sites, which reduce overdose and death by providing drug users with a medically supervised environment in which to use their drugs.

Kitchener has had a consumption and treatment site for almost a year and it has been described as effective in reducing the number of overdoses and deaths.

The approach of these sites, known as harm reduction, is a scientific approach backed by years of research.

Cooper described harm reduction as championed by people who believe in ideology and not science.

If you think crime is bad now, Cooper said of sites, wait till we get one of those.

Attendees loudly clapped and cheered in response to Coopers calls to take power away from elected officials and activists. Many repeatedly called for Cambridge Mayor Kathryn McGarry to resign.

The crowd also called on Waterloo Regional Police Chief Bryan Larkin to resign for his public stance supporting the decriminalization of personal possession of illicit drugs.

I think he needs to stop playing politics and start doing law enforcement, Cooper said of Larkin.

Cooper said words like compassion and care used by elected officials with respect to harm reduction approaches were absurd.

Cooper went on to demand that public safety become the number one issue for local and regional councillors. This year, Waterloo Region has seen 64 overdose-related deaths in eight months and may surpass 2017 as the year with the highest recorded deaths on record.

Cooper said that it was a disgrace that local politicians were shaming people into silence about these issues.

Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services and the City of Cambridge have each independently conducted extensive public consultations in Cambridge over the last three years.

Not everyone at the rally agreed with the organizers.

Lee Sperduti, a Galt resident, said that concerns about security and safety were valid, but that we cant bring pitchforks and come with a mob mentality.

I would disagree with the majority of what was said today, Sperduti said. It felt like a political agenda was being pushed.

Sperduti said that he sees social issues as systemic and that they require approaches rooted in evidence.

Others were encouraged by the gathering.

Sagrario Dominguez, who came to the rally with her husband and two children, recently moved to Cambridge from Mexico. She said that the rally made her feel encouraged to stay in the city.

Cambridge is a beautiful and perfect place to raise my kids, she said. Though she said that she has not personally been threatened by homeless people or substance users, Dominguez said that their mere presence in the city made her feel afraid.

After Coopers speech, rally attendees marched through downtown Galt, passing by a smaller, counter-protest organized by Alicia Brown, a Cambridge resident.

One person told counter-protesters as they passed by that homeless people and drug users could catch a bullet as a way to fix the problem.

Brown, who has lived in Cambridge for 34 years, said that this kind of open hostility has been growing over the years. She has lived in the downtown core for the past six years and said she personally has never had an issue or problem with street-involved folks.

Usually people are going through some sort of mental health challenge, she said. Theyre not trying to be aggressive.

Kevin Hiebert was another counter-protester and Cambridge resident of 21 years. He attended the counter-protest to let homeless people and substance users know that people in this city care for them and that he does not want to judge them for trials and tribulations they may be going through.

Hiebert acknowledged that the fears that brought people to the Take Back Cambridge rally were rooted in real desires to feel safe and secure.

The fear is real, but address fear by understanding whats behind it, Hiebert said.

He called for more education to better inform the public that public health experts have solutions rooted in facts and science.

In his speech to rally participants, organizer Cooper also criticized programs in Eastside Vancouver, calling them an example of how consumption and treatment services sites and harm reduction strategies are associated with crime.

However, years of research studies and commissioned reports show that the supervised harm reduction service in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, Insite, led to a decrease in rates of petty crime.

After factoring in HIV rates and deaths prevented, a 2010 study calculated the societal benefit of the site to be more than $6 million per year after taking program costs into account.

Kitchener residents have spoken about the positive impact of their consumption and treatment services site. As of late August, the Kitchener site had reversed 112 overdoses. However, the proposed CTS site in Cambridge continues to be a contentious topic among residents.
From left to right: Angie Mosso, Wyatt Tofte, Peggy Mosso, and Coby Bertalotto. Lonnie Bertalotto

At least 46 wildfires are burning in Oregon, including the Santiam/Beachie Creek Fire, which grew from 469 to over 131,000 acres overnight from Monday to Tuesday.

That fire, currently at 182,000 acres, killed a 12-year-old boy, Wyatt Tofte, and his grandmother, Peggy Mosso. Their bodies were found Wednesday near their home in Mehama.

Family members said Mosso was a devoted, fun-loving mom and grandma, and Tofte was a shy but adventurous kid.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

On Monday night, Peggy Mosso called her son, worried. She'd broken her knee the week before, and the timing wasn't good: The Santiam/Beachie Creek Fire was burning not far from her home in Mehama, Oregon, where Mosso lived with her daughter, her daughter's partner, and her 12-year-old grandson.

Officials had issued a level 2 evacuation order for the area, meaning people should prepare to leave at a moment's notice.

Eventually, fierce winds took out the power in Mosso's home, and the call was disconnected. Still, her son, Lonnie Bertalotto, wasn't overly concerned.

"When we went to bed, it was 15 miles away, everyone assumed it was ok," Bertalotto told Insider.

But overnight from Monday to Tuesday, the blaze grew from 469 to more than 131,000 acres.

"At that speed, it's an explosion," Bertalotto said.

On Wednesday, search and rescue teams found Mosso and her grandson, Wyatt Tofte, dead inside their car near their home. Mosso's daughter, Angie, had told Wyatt to run for it, but it appears he and his grandmother had tried to drive away from the flames.

Angie's partner, Chris, had left the house Monday evening to borrow a tractor to help the family evacuate. But the flames then prevented him from returning for hours; Chris found Angie on Tuesday morning, severely burned and collapsed on the road nearly 3 miles from her home.

She was rushed to a hospital then transferred to a burn clinic in Portland, where Angie awoke Thursday to the news that her son and mother didn't make it.

Story continues

Peggy Mosso and Coby Bertalotto. Lonnie Bertalotto

An unprecedented and deadly fire season

The Santiam/Beachie Creek Fire sparked in Oregon's Opal Creek Wilderness in mid-August, but it ballooned this week after extreme winds blew through the region. It's currently at 182,000 acres and is 0% contained.

The blaze is one of least 46 burning in Oregon, which have collectively spread over at least 900,000 acres, according to Gov. Kate Brown.

"To put that into perspective, over the last 10 years, an average of 500,000 acres burn in an entire year," she tweeted on Thursday. "We've seen nearly double that in 3 days."

In Mehama, the fire burned down a number of homes and other buildings. Officials haven't yet given estimates of how many were destroyed.

"It's not real. It's surreal," Bertalotto said.

Two other people have died as a result of the Oregon fires as well: The residents of Medford died in the Almeda Fire, which has grown to about 3,200 acres.

"This could be the greatest loss of human lives and property due to wildfire in our state's history," Gov. Brown said on Wednesday, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.

A farm is leveled by the South Obenchain Fire along Butte Falls Highway in Eagle Point, Oregon, September 10, 2020. Adrees Latif/Reuters

In California, meanwhile, more than 3 million acres have burned  more than any other year on record, with around two months still to go in the fire season. In total, 20 people have died in California since the season began, including 10 people in Butte County this week. The state's August Complex Fire in the Mendocino National Forest, at more than 746,600 acres, has become the largest in California history.

And in Washington, more than 480,000 acres have burned since Monday  more than double the state's total from all of 2019. A one-year-old boy died after he and his parents were found along the banks of the Columbia River; their truck was found abandoned and wrecked nearby. His parents suffered third-degree burns and are now in a Seattle hospital, according to the Seattle Times.

Along the West Coast overall, nearly 100 large fires are burning.

A law enforcement officer watches flames launch into the air from the Bear Fire in Oroville, California on September 9, 2020. Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images

The record-breaking year is part of a trend: Climate change is leading wildfire seasons in the west to become longer and more destructive. As the planet's temperature rises, drier conditions and more heat waves increase the likelihood of fires. California's average fire season now lasts 75 days longer than it did in the early 2000s, according to the state's Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

"We are essentially living in a mega fire era," Jake Hess, a unit chief for that department, said last month.

A family's loss

Wyatt Tofte, center, sits with relatives at Silver Falls State Park in Salem, Oregon. Coby Bertalotto

When Lonnie Bertalotto's son Coby was a kid, Peggy Mosso would take him on trips to Silver Falls State Park in Salem. There, Coby's grandmother would scatter jewelry and other items she'd collected from yard sales beneath the falls.

"She'd tell us pirates used to come and land their treasure chests down there," Coby told Insider. "It would be like a treasure hunt."

Mosso lived most of her life in Scio, a tiny town of around 1,000 residents south of Salem, before moving in with family in Mehama. A lover of animals, Mosso rode horses and had many pets, including a dog and several cats. By 71, Coby said, Mosso had slowed down a bit, but she still doted on her family and took her grandkids on regular trips to Silver Falls.

Lonnie said his mother liked cooking when family members came to visit, even though she lacked a certain flair in the kitchen.

"She couldn't cook worth a darn," Lonnie said.

Wyatt Tofte, Lonnie's nephew, was "very loved and special," he said. Coby described his cousin as shy, polite, and "just a genuinely nice kid."

Wyatt Tofte at age 12. Coby Bertalotto

"He loved his video games," Coby said. But if family members wanted to go on any kind of excursion, whether it was a quick errand or a big hike, "he'd put down his game, he'd be ready to go."

The family said they're still taking time to grieve and process what happened. Coby said that although family is accepting donations via PayPal, they don't have a Gofundme page, so any in existence are fake.

Read the original article on Insider
Retail and hospitality businesses face a 'bloodbath' of failures as landlords prepare to call in unpaid rent from lockdown.

The Government's ban on evictions ends on October 1, meaning legal action can then be taken to evict tenants from thousands of shops, restaurants, bars and pubs.

Deadline: The Government's ban on evictions ends on October 1, meaning legal action can then be taken to evict tenants

Businesses already owe 3.5billion of unpaid rent and service charges before the September quarter is taken into account.

Trade body UK Hospitality has called on the Government to extend rent relief until the end of March 2021.

Describing the prospect as a 'bloodbath', UK Hospitality's chief executive Kate Nicholls said: 'Later this month, many businesses will not be able to pay rent that is due. Thousands of sites and the jobs they support will be lost.'
Midland County ended the week with less than 100 coronavirus cases for the first time since mid-June.

The 79 cases reported by the Midland Health Department were the fewest going back to June 7-13, according to Reporter-Telegram records, and continue a downward trend more than a month in the making. Since Aug. 2-8, when the health department reported 414 cases, there have been five straight weeks of week-over-week declines. The health department has reported less than 200 cases during the last four weeks, and this week was the first week with less than 100.

Consider that the 79 cases are an 80.9 percent drop since Aug. 2-8 or the average total of cases stretched over seven days was just more than 11 cases a day.

It also appears to be a regional trend, according to the Department of State Health Services, Midlands 79-case total is consistent with what is happening in other larger-population communities in West Texas. The DSHS, as of Saturday morning reported, 41 cases this past week in Tom Green County (San Angelo), 44 in Taylor County (Abilene), 66 in Ector County, 92 in Randall County (Amarillo/Canyon) and 101 in Potter County (Amarillo). The outlier appears to be Lubbock County, where cases jumped by 1,071 new cases (11.3 percent) in one week.

Midland Health officials also stated this past week that the number of new cases is not only the decline but so is the number of people testing positive. That percentage had been as high 30 percent earlier in the summer. On Aug. 4, Midland ISD Superintendent Orlando Riddick said a 21 percent positive rest rate was a reason for the district to implement at-home learning to start the 2020-21 school year. This past week, MMH CEO Russell Meyers reported that the number of people testing positive during Midland Health testing had been below 10 percent for two straight weeks. He also said that more than 400 people had been tested each week and those people exhibited symptoms or had been determined to have been exposed to someone who tested positive for coronavirus.

The decline in new cases is something that community leaders have said was possible, especially if Midland County residents wear masks, practice social distancing and avoid any larger gatherings.

During the past month, schools across the city have started, and Midland ISD, in particular, has started its return to some on-campus learning.

Health leaders have stated the rest of September is significant  in terms of cases reported  because of the Labor Day holiday and the increased number of cases that have happened after the holidays (Memorial Day and July Fourth) during the pandemic.

The health department also reported, as of Friday, 1,219 active cases (a decrease of 116 week over week and 1,970 recovered (194 more). During the pandemic, there have been 3,441 total cases.

The number of coronavirus-related deaths reported this week  4  were two less than last week and the fewest going back to Aug. 9-15, according to Reporter-Telegram records. During the pandemic, there have been 77 coronavirus-related deaths.

Coronavirus report

Cases Tuesday: 47

Cases Wednesday: 12

Cases Thursday: 10

Cases Friday: 10

Cases this past week: 79

Total Aug. 30-Sept. 6 123

Total cases during pandemic: 3,441

By weeks

March 15-21 3

March 22-28 8

March 29-April 4 13

April 5-11 8

April 12-18 10

April 19-25 29

April 26-May 2 13

May 3-9 17

May 10-16 19

May 17-23 4

May 24-30 5

May 31-June 6 26

June 7-June 13 46

June 14-20 121

June 21-27 241

June 28-July 4 209

July 5-11 335

July 12-18 283

July 19-25 418

July 26-Aug. 1 372

Aug. 2-8 414

Aug. 9-15 297

Aug. 16-22 194

Aug. 23-29 157

Aug. 30-Sept. 5 123

Sept. 6-Sept. 12 79

Total number of deaths

By weeks

July 5-11 4

July 12-18 6

July 19-25 10

July 26-Aug. 1 7

Aug. 2-8 7

Aug. 9-15 4

Aug. 16-22 9

Aug. 23-29 5

Aug. 30-Sept. 5 6

Sept. 6-12 4

Source: Reporter-Telegram records

West Texas

(according to statistics updated Saturday morning from the Department of State Health Services website)

Larger West Texas counties

Last This

Week week

Lubbock 8,331 9,402

Potter 4,143 4,244

Midland 3,336 3,416

Ector 2,876 2,940

Randall 2,303 2,395

Tom Green 2,067 2,108

Taylor 1,342 1,386

Also

Scurry 559 578

Andrews 386 400

Pecos320 343

Howard 302 403

Gaines 264 279

Dawson 237 268

Brewster 203 208

Reeves 177 182

Ward 111 115

Winkler 98 104

Reagan 86 86

Martin 74 75

Crane 71 71

Upton 20 21

Glasscock 6 6

Source: Texas Department of State Health Services
September is Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month, and New Mexico is a high-risk state

Suicide is a public health crisis in New Mexico. In 2019, New Mexico reported nearly 10 suicide deaths a week, and almost 1,000 deaths during the past two years. Suicide is preventable, and it deserves broader attention from all of us.

In New Mexico, suicide is the leading cause of death for children ages 10-14 years, the second leading cause of death for residents 15-24 and 25-34 years of age, and the third leading cause of death for ages 35-44 years. The data reflects the dire need to move forward with greater coordination to increase awareness and prevent suicides.

What is often hidden in the numbers is the debilitating impact on friends, families and communities, including schools and places of work. Suicide affects generations, and often shatters the lives of suicide loss survivors. We have evidence of what is working, and can work, throughout the state. But to turn the numbers around, we must develop more awareness, share more resources, and create better interventions.

Our collaborative state agencies each have missions that support public, family, community and behavioral health. Each of us are aligned on doing more to achieve more so that together, we can aggressively turn New Mexicos suicide numbers around.

We are asking our partners in health care, education and business to forge stronger alliances focused on this goal. Our Public Health offices, public schools and departments of Human Services and Children, Youth and Families are prepared to do more, and ask for more support, so we can succeed where we have not.

There are many ways for New Mexicans to get and stay involved:

 Check out online resources. The Suicide Prevention Resource Center and the Alliance of Hope for Suicide Loss Survivors offer valuable, evidence-based and user-friendly information for all age groups. The nmcrisisline.com offers peer-to-peer and health care worker and first responder support.

 Get suicide-gatekeeper skills trainings. These are available at Question, Persuade, Refer; Youth Mental Health First Aid; Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training; and Counseling on Access to Lethal Means.

 Reach out. Take time to listen. Offer assurance that there is help for despair and that most suicidal individuals go on to live meaningful lives.

 Connect with people who may be lonely, isolated, or depressed. Individual and community connectedness help protect persons at-risk for suicide.

 Limit access to guns and other lethal means. In 2018-2019, 38% of youth who died from suicide used a gun belonging to a family member.

 Update your phone. Add the New Mexico Crisis and Access Line  1-855-NMCRISIS. Download the NMConnect app to call, text and access mental health resources.

 Help reduce stigma about mental health. Avoid stigmatizing those who struggle with mental health challenges and addiction.

 Exercise. Invite someone who may be depressed or suicidal to exercise with you.

 Advocate for increased access to behavioral health and substance use treatment services throughout New Mexico.

 Encourage community leaders to seek more funding for much-needed counseling, substance-use treatment, behavioral health care and for suicide-prevention activities.

 Sponsor or participate in a walk or fund-raising activity in your community to promote suicide as a local public health concern.

 Partner with organizations like local chapters of the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention (AFSP), the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), and county health councils, local businesses or schools.

This month and every month, New Mexicans can work to reduce our high rate of suicide. Promoting awareness and developing our resources, together we can save lives.
SPIRITUAL MESSAGE: Yes, relaxation is the most complex phenomena. All these things are part of it: let go, trust, surrender, love, acceptance, going with the flow... All these are part of it, and start happening if you learn the ways of relaxation, says Osho, the Zen

ALSO READ: Horoscope Today: Astrological prediction for September 13, whats in store for Aries, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio and other zodiac signs

ARIES (March 21 - April 20)

You tend to imagine the worst by thinking negatively and torturing yourself endlessly this week! Professional ventures and business deals need to be completed with creative, intelligent handling of different energies. You can expect business plans to change, so be flexible and innovative. You need to learn lessons from past experience and move forward with wisdom and maturity. Accept difficult situations in the moment and go with the flow.

Lucky Number: 9 Good Colour: Rainbow Pastels

TAURUS (April 21  May21)

You feel frustrated this week, as grand ideas in which you infused a lot of energy dont seem to be working according to the plan. However, things arent as bad as they look, be realistic to achieve goals. Disruption in business is temporary. New plans, opportunities and collaborations need to be explored as they

actualise in the near future. Remodelling structures, changing systems could be the answer for a streamlined, productive business. Personal relationships are loving if you drop expectations and judgments.

Lucky Number: 10 Good Colour: Scarlet

GEMINI (May 22 - June 21)

A youthful and beautiful influence enters your life this week. You rejuvenate energy and move into new professional or business ventures. You are at your creative best and have the opportunity to be original and the courage to be different in personal and professional aspects. You are likely to collaborate with overseas partners or be involved in an international project that brings out your potential. A daughter or a young woman close to you is ready to take independent decisions about her future.

Lucky Number: 9 Good Colour: Maroon

CANCER (June22 - July 22)

The Sword of Creativity cuts through clouds of confusion, brings crystal clarity in work situations and detachment in destructive relationships. You use this great sword to cut away from negative situations and point towards professional goals. Intellectual activity, brain storming, decision making and artistic pursuits are gainful and satisfying. You are in harmony with existence and in rhythm with life - accept this great gift and share it with loved ones.

Lucky Number: 1 Good Colour: Emerald Green

LEO (July 23 - August 23)

You make a quality truce in ongoing conflicts at work and home. There is peace after war this week! There is mental clarity after a period of chaos, leading to positive changes in personal, professional aspects. You recover from an illness that may have been bothering you. You are more relaxed at work, happy at home than you have been for some time. You establish intellectual authority, gain respect in your field of work during a convention or seminar.

Lucky Number: 4 Good Colour: Forest Greens

VIRGO (August 24- September 23)

Communication is the name of your game this week, so dont hesitate to speak your mind. People who matter appreciate your professional skill and wisdom. You tend to get mentally stressed, over analyse situations. Messages, contracts from overseas, business transactions and meetings keep you busy. Children, loved ones and family bring joy and celebration. Its best not to confuse or complicate situations more than they are already. Dont wait for people and opportunities to come to you, meet them half way.

Lucky Number: 1 Good Colour: Royal Blue

LIBRA (September 24 - October 23)

You may be gifted with a relaxing break this week that rejuvenates your energy and personal relationship. A special work assignment brings great success and exposure. Your online social life is scintillating, as you connect with well-known personalities and fun loving people. Focus on priorities, values and relationships that are important or you could confuse yourself and others. Communications and gifts may arrive unexpectedly. Living totally in the moment and going with the flow are great virtues.

Lucky Number: 6 Good Colour: Saffron

SCORPIO (October 24 - November 22)

Family, friends and loved ones connect with you to share some memorable occasions. You regain health and vigour to indulge in sporty pastimes and busy work schedules. Beware of over-indulgence in food, drink or work as you tend to disregard warning signals. You are fortunate with business deals and stand to gain in financial transactions. A positive, creative approach to family problems heals old wounds. Beware of a conceited person who takes advantage of your good name and goodwill.

Lucky Number: 9 Good Colour: Lotus Pink

SAGITTARIUS (November 23 - December 23)

Trust your intuition and follow your feeling, rather than listening to your mind and logic this week. Ignore gossip or slander in the work area, as things are changing very quickly. You maybe separated for a short while from a loved one and feel the pain of absence. Avoid a busybody who tends to interfere in your private matters. Its advisable to keep professional and personal situations separate, or there can be confusion. Meditation and yoga are recommended to avoid stress and health problems.

Lucky Number: 5 Good Colour: White

CAPRICORN (December24 - January 20)

Gift yourself the knack of responding totally to whatever comes, as it comes in life! Infighting can be detrimental to production in business or harmony at home. Avoid cruel, violent people, as they tend to take up cudgels with you on non-issues. Friends, family and loved ones are supportive. Your personal affairs may take time to resolve, be patient. A Leo person lends energy and resources to your business venture. Complication in financial matters can be expected. Beware of an unwelcome visitor or admirer who may take advantage of you.

Lucky Number: 5 Good Colour: Old Rose

AQUARIUS (January 21 - February 19)

Youthful energy is infused in professional ventures and passion in personal relationships this week. You are subtle, and prefer to mask deep emotions with a calm surface. You move projects with dynamic energy towards completion and financial gain. You regain a position of power which was lost in the past. Personal relationships are deep, loving now. Beware of a secretive, crafty young man who cares for power and can be ruthless to achieve it. Overweening ambition or obsession can lead you into murky waters at this point.

Lucky Number: 5 Good Colour: Turquoise

PISCES (February 20 - March 20)

Personal conflicts are resolved and family situations healed. Increase and decrease in finances and business may be expected before you arrive at a stable position. Since you can be carried away by enthusiasm, its best to maintain a careful balance of yin and yang energies. You are able to work in an unrestricted space from now on. Trust your intuition about people and situations. Women play important roles in your life. It is best to avoid extremes in food, expenses, emotions and other areas of life to maintain a balance within and outside.

Lucky Number: 2 Good Colour: Sky Blue`

(Ma Prem Ritambhara has been reading Tarot cards professionally in Mumbai, Pune, Zurich and New Delhi, for the last 15 years and continues to do so from her studio at home in New Delhi. Her clientele is from all over the world, from all walks of life, and she reads cards, predicts, counsels and heals professionals, business people, men, women, children, students and couples. She conducts individual as well as group readings. Contact her at ritambhara7@gmail.com.)

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Photo: Getty Images

On Tuesday, President Trump called himself the great environmentalist, a claim undermined by his administrations decision, implemented last Tuesday, to allow coal companies to more easily pollute nearby waterways with potentially cancerous byproducts. But a new report from the presidents Commodity Futures Trading Commission could possibly  but not likely  change the perspective of some members of his party concerned with the economy, if not the environment. In Managing Climate Risk in the Financial System, the authors forecast that business-as-usual emissions will cause immense chaos in U.S. financial markets.

The report, obtained by the New York Times and expected to be released on Wednesday, determines that a world wracked by frequent and devastating shocks from climate change cannot sustain the fundamental conditions supporting our financial system. This assessment is hardly new: Anyone with a basic understanding of the 2008 financial crisis could anticipate what might happen if a significant chunk of the $1 trillion coastal property bubble rapidly loses value due to more frequent flooding and storm surges. But as the Times notes, the report carries new weight coming with the imprimatur of the regulator of complex financial instruments like futures, swaps, and other derivatives that help fix the price of commodities like corn, oil, and wheat.

This is the first time a government entity has looked at the impacts of climate change on financial markets in the U.S., Robert Litterman, an investment adviser and the chairman of the panel that produced the report, told the Times. Rather than saying, Whats the science? this is saying, Whats the financial risk?

The authors of the report  which include representatives from Morgan Stanley, the agricultural trader Cargill, and the oil companies BP and ConocoPhillips  also addressed the similarity between the 2008 financial crisis and climate-related volatility. However, they noted that financial challenges stemming from a more chaotic planet would not hit simultaneously. Its an assessment that would provide little relief to those managing regional crises, as homeowners struggle to find insurance in fire-prone markets in California or banks limit loans to farmers in the Midwest during droughts.

To help prepare for the risk, the report from the commission recommends that the Financial Stability Oversight Council, created by the Treasury Department after the 2008 crisis, includes climate risk in its annual assessment. It also recommends that the Federal Reserve supports international coalitions that handle climate threats, and calls for the Labor Department to revoke a proposed rule that would block retirement investment managers from weighing out environmental risks in their recommendations. It also stresses the importance of a carbon pricing by taxing emissions or establishing a cap-and-trade system. However, according to the Times, some of the authors have taken a realist perspective, acknowledging that if Trump wins in November, his administration is all but certain to ignore the report and its recommendations.

This post has been updated to reflect that the report from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission did not explicitly state that President Trump would most likely ignore its recommendations if he is reelected.
Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday have asserted that construction of the dam with Nepal would resolve the problem of flooding by the Ganga river in Bihar and its neighbouring States. The Union minister said India has an understanding with its neighbouring country to construct a dam in Pancheshwar, Nepal.

The statement from the Union Minister came just days after the eighth meeting of the Nepal-India Oversight Mechanism was held through video conferencing. The meeting made a thorough review of the implementation of the projects under bilateral cooperation.

READ | Nitin Gadkari to launch various road projects with Andhra CM Jagan Reddy on Sept 18

We have an understanding with Nepal to construct a dam in Pancheshwar, Nepal. Once this dam is built, we will be able to able to resolve the problem of floods by Ganga, particularly in Bihar, UP & Jharkhand. But we are facing problems: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari (12.09) pic.twitter.com/H2skEbZbsS  ANI (@ANI) September 12, 2020

During the meeting, a comprehensive review of bilateral economic and development cooperation projects was carried out and both the countries deliberated on the issues and agreed to expedite their implementations. The meeting was attended by representatives of various Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government of Nepal, officers of the Embassy of India, consultants and contractors engaged in the implementation of the projects.

READ | Nitin Chandra's first-ever Maithili film 'Mithila Makhaan' wins National Award

India and Nepal hold joint virtual meetings

Last month the governments of India and Nepal had organised the eight Joint Working Group (JWG) meetings. The discussions of the meetings: included reviewing the bilateral development projects, oil and gas projects that are undertaken at the present and those which can be undertaken in the future. "The Joint Working Group was incepted in the year 2017, to make the ties between Indian Oil Corporation Limited(IOCL) and Nepal Oil Corporation(NOC) stronger. The first meeting of the same was held in January this year," said a press release from the Indian Embassy of Kathmandu.

READ | Speed of building PMAY houses improved during pandemic: Prime Minister Narendra Modi

READ |PM Modi addresses beneficiaries of PMAY from MP, 1.75 lakh families benefited from scheme

(With inputs from ANI)
None of the three companies with coronavirus vaccines in advanced clinical trials in the United States have made public the protocols and statistical analysis plans for those trials  the detailed road maps that could help the independent scientists better understand how the trials were designed and hold the companies accountable if they were to deviate from their plans. In some cases, crucial details about how the trials have been set up  such as at what points an independent board can review early study results or under what conditions a trial could be stopped early  have not been made public.
Palmdale, CA (93550)

Today

Sunny skies. Becoming windy late. High 62F. NE winds at 10 to 20 mph, increasing to 25 to 35 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low 41F. Winds NE at 15 to 25 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.
Gregory Cheadle lost his girlfriend, friends and his party after he was infamously tethered to Donald Trump at a rally

Gregory Cheadle couldnt resist the urge to crack a joke at a rally in Redding, California back in June 2016 when Donald Trump was a presidential candidate.

Cheadle was a California congressional candidate at the time, and being a Black Republican, he was a rarity among the overwhelmingly white crowd that had shown up to support Trump.

As Cheadle watched from the VIP section, Trump launched into a long-winded spiel about a Black supporter who had assaulted an anti-Trump protester at an Arizona rally. When Trump asked the crowd where his supporter was Cheadle decided to play along and shouted, Im here!

Gregory Cheadle (via campaign website)

Oh, look at my African American over here, Trump cheerfully responded as he pointed at Cheadle. Look at you. Are you the greatest?

Read More: Herschel Walker says friend Trump being called racist hurts my soul

The crowd laughed and cheered and Cheadle laughed along with everyone else. He left the rally early and took a nap at a friends house. By the time he awakened, the lighthearted banter hed shared with Trump had gone viral.

According to CNN, his phone was filled with texts and voicemails from reporters that wanted to interview him. But there were also messages from disgruntled family and friends that wanted to know why he had allowed Trump to publicly degrade him. Both black and white people posted insulting remarks on his Facebook page, calling him Uncle Tom and the N-word and threatening to cause him bodily harm.

Read More: Trumps little Black friend no longer supports his racist ways

Cheadle quickly discovered that the loneliest place in the world was reserved for a Black man who was considered himself a friend of Donald Trumps.

Since that day, Cheadles life has changed completely. He lost friends, went into hiding, and even lost his girlfriend, a staunch Democrat who no longer wanted to be seen in public with him.

Story continues

Today, Cheadle no longer supports President Trump and has lost respect for some Black conservatives.

Although he admits to being bothered by Trump telling four congresswomen of color to go back to where they came from, he refuses to call Trump racist.

Instead he says that Trump has a white superiority complex.

Have you subscribed to theGrios podcast Dear Culture? Download our newest episodes now!

The post Trump called him my African American and upended his life appeared first on TheGrio.
Imperial Valley News Center

Hospital Agrees To Pay $50 Million To Settle Allegations Concerning Improper Compensation To Referring Physicians

Washington, DC - Wheeling Hospital Inc., an acute care hospital located in Wheeling, West Virginia, has agreed to pay the United States a total of $50,000,000 to resolve claims that it violated the False Claims Act by knowingly submitting claims to the Medicare program that resulted from violations of the Physician Self-Referral Law and the AntiKickback Statute, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

The Physician SelfReferral Law, commonly known as the Stark Law, prohibits a hospital from billing Medicare for certain services referred by physicians with whom the hospital has a financial relationship, unless that relationship satisfies one of the laws statutory or regulatory exceptions. The AntiKickback Statute prohibits offering or paying remuneration to induce the referral of items or services covered by Medicare, Medicaid, and other federally funded programs. Both the Stark Law and the Anti-Kickback Statute are intended to ensure that medical decision-making is not compromised by improper financial incentives and is instead based on the best interests of the patient.

Improper financial arrangements between hospitals and physicians can influence the type and amount of health care that is provided, said Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark of the Department of Justices Civil Division. The department is committed to taking action to eliminate improper inducements that can corrupt the integrity of physician decision-making.

Our office is committed to ensuring that health care providers in the Northern District of West Virginia abide by the law, said Bill Powell, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia. We are pleased this settlement will enable Wheeling Hospital to resolve these prior False Claims Act violations and continue to provide a full range of healthcare services to patients in the area.

Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries trust that their healthcare providers will make decisions based on sound medical judgment, said Scott W. Brady, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Our office will take decisive action against any medical providers which betray that trust and make medical decisions based on their own financial interests. Our seniors deserve nothing less.

Improper inducements made to physicians can interfere with medical decision-making and undermine the publics trust in the health care system, said Special Agent in Charge Maureen R. Dixon of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. Our agency will continue to investigate those who seek to improperly enrich themselves at the expense of public safety and federal health care programs.

In this case, the United States alleged that, from 2007 to 2020, under the direction and control of its prior management, R&V Associates Ltd. and Ronald Violi, Wheeling Hospital systematically violated the Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute by knowingly and willfully paying improper compensation to referring physicians that was based on the volume or value of the physicians referrals or was above fair market value.

The settlement announced today stems from a whistleblower complaint filed in 2017 by a former Executive Vice President of Wheeling Hospital, Louis Longo, pursuant to the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act, which permit private persons to bring a lawsuit on behalf of the government and to share in the proceeds of the suit. The Act also permits the government to intervene and take over the lawsuit, as it did in this case as to some of Longos allegations. Longo will receive $10,000,000 of the settlement.

The United States intervention and settlement in this matter illustrates the governments emphasis on combating healthcare fraud. One of the most powerful tools in this effort is the False Claims Act. Tips and complaints from all sources about potential fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement, can be reported to the Department of Health and Human Services, at 800HHSTIPS (800-447-8477).

This matter was handled on behalf of the government by the Justice Departments Civil Division, the U.S. Attorneys Offices for the Northern District of West Virginia and Western District of Pennsylvania, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The case is captioned United States of America ex rel. Louis Longo v. Wheeling Hospital, Inc. et al., No. 19-cv-192 (N.D.W. Va.). The claims resolved by this settlement are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability.
A manhunt was underway Sunday for the gunman who shot two Los Angeles County sheriffs deputies while they were sitting in their squad car in what appeared to have been an ambush. The 31-year-old female deputy and 24-year-old male deputy, who were each shot numerous times, underwent surgery Saturday and are in critical condition. One of the officers was shot in the face and the other in the head, sources tell the Los Angeles Times. The shooting was caught on surveillance video that shows a man walking up to the parked patrol car and firing several shots into the vehicle. The gunman then runs from the scene.

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Update: The gunman walked up on the deputies and opened fire without warning or provocation. pic.twitter.com/cBQjyKkoxJ  LA County Sheriffs (@LASDHQ) September 13, 2020

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Sheriff Alex Villanueva said the two deputies were sworn into office 14 months ago. This is just a sober reminder that this is a dangerous job and, you know, actions, words, have consequences, and our job does not get any easier because people dont like law enforcement, he said. Villanueva expressed anger over anti-police sentiment. It pisses me off. It dismays me at the same time, he said.

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If they die, fast trial death penalty for the killer. Only way to stop this! https://t.co/K3sKh28GjX  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 13, 2020

The shooting immediately became political fodder as President Donald Trump reacted on Twitter. Animals that must be hit hard! Trump wrote as he retweeted the surveillance video of the shooting. The president also said that if the deputies die, there should be a fast trial death penalty for the killer, adding that it was the only way to stop this! Joe Biden also condemned the shooting. This cold-blooded shooting is unconscionable and the perpetrator must be brought to justice, Biden tweeted.

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This cold-blooded shooting is unconscionable and the perpetrator must be brought to justice.



Violence of any kind is wrong; those who commit it should be caught and punished.



Jill and I are keeping the deputies and their loved ones in our hearts and praying for a full recovery. https://t.co/330QfeIUGg  Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 13, 2020

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Protesters gathered outside the hospital where the deputies were being treated on Saturday night. To the protesters blocking the entrance & exit of the HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM yelling We hope they die referring to 2 LA Sheriffs ambushed today in Compton: DO NOT BLOCK EMERGENCY ENTRIES & EXITS TO THE HOSPITAL, the sheriffs department tweeted. Peoples lives are at stake when ambulances cant get through. A reporter and a protester were arrested outside the hospital. The sheriffs department tweeted that the reporter was arrested when she interfered with the arrest of a male protester. The female adult, who was later identified as a member of the press, did not identify herself as press and later admitted she did not have proper press credentials on her person, read a tweet. Josie Huang, a reporter for public radio station KPCC, wrote on Twitter that she was released Sunday morning. She said she had seen the tweets from the sheriffs department and had thoughts and videos to share soon after a little rest. NPR said it was appalled by the arrest: The rights of journalists are protected by the First Amendment, and essential to an informed public and our Democracy.
NUR-SULTAN, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- China and Kazakhstan will continue to boost cooperation in various areas in the post-epidemic era, visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here on Saturday while meeting with Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tleuberdi.

Kazakhstan is an important Eurasian country and a friendly neighbour of China, said Wang, adding that China always gives priority to its relations with Kazakhstan in its overall foreign policy, especially the neighborhood diplomacy.

He said that the heads of state of the two countries, who have forged firm mutual trust and friendship, have been providing strategic guidance to the healthy development of the bilateral ties and mutually beneficial cooperation.

The two heads of state agreed to lift the bilateral relationship to a permanent comprehensive strategic partnership last year, Wang noted, adding that the two sides should implement the consensus reached by the leaders in various fields, make it a common cognition of all walks of life in the two countries, so as to consolidate public support for the bilateral ties.

The two sides should jointly well preserve the hard-earned China-Kazakhstan relations and make sure that their relationship will not be disturbed and maintain a sound and steady momentum of development, he said.

Wang said the two countries have helped and supported each other in the fight against COVID-19. At the time when the prevention and control of COVID-19 have become a regular practice, the two sides should strengthen all-round cooperation in the post-epidemic era in an orderly manner, implement the docking of the joint construction of the Belt and Road with the Bright Path new economic policy and further tap the potential of cooperation in various areas, he added.

With the China-Europe freight train service becoming a land transportation artery like a modern railway version of camel caravans across Eurasia, Kazakhstan's role as a strategic hub for transit transport has become more prominent, Wang said, adding that China is ready to scale up the cross-border railway and highway transportation and accelerate exploration to restore and enhance the cargo capacity at border crossings.

The two sides will build the Silk Road of Health, Wang said. China will continue to support Kazakhstan in its fight against COVID-19, share its experience in epidemic prevention and control and treatment of patients and strengthen cooperation in the research and development of vaccines and medicines until the epidemic is defeated in Kazakhstan, he noted.

The two sides will also build the Digital Silk Road to strengthen cooperation in the digital economy, Wang said.

China has recently proposed its global initiative on data security, which aims to promote the formulation of global data security rules and build an open, cooperative and secure global data space, Wang said.

China welcomes joint efforts of all countries including Kazakhstan to advance the process and is ready to strengthen communication and coordination with the Kazakh side to jointly combat disinformation, said Wang.

For his part, Tleuberdi said Kazakhstan always places ties with China as its foreign policy priority, and the Kazakhstan-China relations have made great strides despite the epidemic, with the two sides maintaining high-level exchanges and constantly-deepening good-neighbourliness and friendship.

The two heads of state decided to build the permanent comprehensive strategic partnership last year, which lifted the bilateral ties to a new level, he said.

Kazakhstan speaks highly of the decisive anti-epidemic measures taken by China and appreciates China's support to Kazakhstan in the fight against COVID-19, said the minister.

He said that the two sides should resume normal exchanges between various departments and at various levels as soon as possible, resume port customs clearance and freight transportation, and tap the cooperation potential in the fields such as infrastructure, investment, trade, transportation and cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

Kazakhstan supports China-proposed initiatives, such as building a global community of health for all, he said.

The Kazakh side also supports the "Global Initiative on Data Security" launched by China, said Tleuberdi, adding Kazakhstan is willing to make this a priority in the bilateral cooperation and work with China to combat disinformation.

The two sides also exchanged in-depth views on the regional and international issues of common concern, and announced the launch of a program to facilitate personnel exchanges for the resumption of work and production in the two countries.
New Delhi, Sep 13 : Samsung has announced a software update, bringing new health, communication and connectivity features to the Galaxy Watch Active2 that debuted on the Galaxy Watch3.

One of the new features being added is the running analysis, which helps runners improve their form and performance. It analyzes aspects such as asymmetry in your steps, flight time, contact time, stiffness, and more. It also measures VO2 max, an indication of the amount of oxygen one can use while exercising.

"The update also adds fall detection. When a potential fall is detected, the user will immediately be given the option to send an SOS notification to up to four pre-designated contacts, ensuring that help is never too far away," the company said in a statement.

All of the new communications features that come with the Galaxy Watch 3 such as support for emoticons and images, smart reply and chat history are included in this update.

Now, one can control their mobile experience with the watch more effortlessly, including giving instant access to the playlist on the phone. With this latest update, one has an even more seamless music experience across the devices - from a smartphone to Galaxy Buds device to a smartwatch.

Additionally, Galaxy Watch Active2 will now support the scroll capture feature, so when you take a screenshot from your smartwatch, it is automatically sent as an image to your smartphone.

That way, one can capture message threads, workout information and more and quickly save them for future reference.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Donald Trump supporters attend a rally at the Minden-Tahoe Airport in Nevada on 12 September. (AP)

Several broadcasters wont send camera crews inside Donald Trumps indoor campaign events in Nevada over concerns that staff could be exposed to coronavirus.

CNNs Brian Stelter, whose network will not be covering the presidents indoor rally on Sunday with its own camera crew, reports that news outlets have been forced to make tough decisions about how to keep their staffers safe while the president flouts public safety guidelines by increasing the risk of transmission among large groups at his indoor events.

Major TV networks have decided not to send their camera crews inside, because they feel it will not be safe enough, he said. Its not wise to go along with the presidents loosey-goosey approach."

The president has held six indoor campaign rallies in the month that followed after he had admitted to journalist Bob Woodward in a February interview that Covid-10 can be transmitted via the airborne virus.

It goes through air, Bob, the president said on 7 February, which was recorded and recently published in advance of his the journalists book Rage. "That's always tougher than the touch. You know, the touch, you don't have to touch things. Right? But the air, you just breathe the air and that's how it's passed  Thats very tricky one. That's a very delicate one."

In that same interview, the president admitted that the virus was "more deadly" than even your strenuous flus despite his public statements that downplayed the risk of transmission and falsely compared the fatality rates between flu and Covid-19 infections.

The president held six rallies between that interview and 2 March. He cancelled an event in Wisconsin scheduled for 19 March.

He told Mr Woodward on 19 March that he wanted to always play it down.

"I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic," he said.

The president reignited his campaign with a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on 20 June. Moments before the event, the campaign announced that six staffers had tested positive for the virus and were isolated.

Story continues

Health officials there linked a significant spike in infections to the rally and related events.

Few attendees at a campaign rally in Minden, Nevada on 12 September wore masks.

His rally was initially scheduled for Reno, but it was moved following warnings from the Reno Tahoe Airport Authority that a rally for 5,000 people in a private hangar would be in violation of the states current restrictions amid the pandemic. It also reportedly violated the terms of the companys lease for the private hangar.

Nevada currently remains in Phase 2 of its reopening plan, limiting public and private gatherings to 50 people.

The state also requires residents wear face coverings when they are out in public and at public venues.

More than 193,000 Americans have died from Covid-19-related illness, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Read more

Trumps Nevada campaign rallies at risk due to coronavirus health guidelines in battleground state

Trump concealed real dangers of coronavirus while playing it down publicly, Bob Woodward claims in new book
Since the Wuhan virus first made itself known to the world in January 2020, there have been stories about its origin. Initially, China blamed bats sold at its famous Wuhan wet market. However, it soon became apparent that the virus did not originate with local bats. By February, Sen. Tom Cotton was suggesting that the virus originated in a lab. The current operating hypothesis is that the Chinese government was researching a bat virus at its lab, only to have a careless accident release it into the general public. This hypothesis may change when Dr. Li-Meng Yan, a Hong Kong virologist who is hiding from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), releases what she claims is irrefutable proof that the Chinese manufactured the virus.

Sen. Tom Cotton suggested in mid-February, when the world was beginning to come to terms with what China had unleashed, that the virus was not zoonotic  meaning that it did not jump from animals to humans  but was instead created in a Chinese lab and intended as a form of germ warfare, even if the release itself was accidental. The Washington Post firmly announced that he was repeating a debunked conspiracy theory. (So did HuffPo, Yahoo News, and The Daily Beast, to name just a few.)

Yan, who was based in Hong Kong, not mainland China, had done research in China during the viruss initial outbreak. She knew, therefore, that Sen. Cotton was correct that the virus had escaped from a lab, rather than a wet market. Thats why, by the end of April, Yan had sneaked out of Hong Kong and placed herself in hiding from the CCP, which wanted to disappear her. By July, she was telling the world Beijing knew that there was a dangerous virus abroad in China long before it admitted to that fact, and that the virus was spread by person-to-person contact.

In a bombshell interview on Friday, Yan confirmed that Sen. Cotton was also correct that China created the virus in its laboratory near Wuhan. Although shes still in hiding, Yan spoke with Loose Women, a news show on Britains ITV channel.

Yan explained that this is not mere supposition on her part. Although the Chinese government has removed all of her data from its databases, she has enough data at hand to publish a report proving the viruss laboratory origin.

Although Yan generally indicted Beijing for lying about everything connected with the virus, as well as intimidating scientists and the World Health Organization into covering for its lies, the bombshell was her claim that the virus is manmade (beginning at 3:35):

This virus is not from nature. This is based on the China Military Institute discovered and owned some bat coronavirus named CC45 and ZXC21. Based on that, after-lab modification, [it] becomes the norovirus. [snip] I have my intelligence from the CDCs in China, from the local doctors, from doctors and other people around China. So, also based on my evidence, I work on vaccine and also biology, immunology in the University of Hong Kong. All these things get together, clearly shown, and now get verified. These are the truths. All the other things are covered up. [snip] It comes from the lab, the lab in Wuhan. And the lab is controlled by China.

Yan admitted that it was difficult to prove that the virus is manmade, but shes been working alone and with other scientists on the project since January. She clailms that they will soon publish proof about the viruss manmade origins.

The genome sequence is like a human fingerprint. So based on this you can recognize [and] identify these things. So, I use the evidence that exists in the genome sequence of [unintelligible] to tell people why this has come from the lab in China, why they are the only ones who made it. And also everyone who even have no biology knowledge, you can read it, and you can check and identify, verify by yourself. This is the critical thing for us to know the origins of the virus. If not, we cannot overcome it. It will be life-threatening for everyone in our life.

Yan has not alleged that China deliberately released the virus as a way of waging germ warfare against the world. For now, its reasonable to believe that the release was a careless accident. Nevertheless, the fact that China made the virus, then lied about it, and is now withholding from the world information about the viruss genetic make-up (and, therefore, ways to treat or vaccinate against the virus) still means that the Chinese Communist Party is engaged in a form of low-level germ warfare against the rest of the world.

As someone in Hong Kong memorably said, Dont trust China. China is asshole.

Image credit: Pixabay public domain
13.09.2020 LISTEN

Some unknown AK-47 wielding armed men in masks have attacked a bullion van in the Ashanti region which has led to the death of one bank staff and leaving two others in a critical condition.

Police sources revealed that two police officers, a driver, and a cashier of the bank [name withheld] were onboard the Toyota Hilux bullion van when the attack happened on Friday, September 11, 2020.

About seven men in masks wielding AK-47 rifles and pump-action guns attacked the van when it reached a section of the road at Manso-Mem.

The gunmen amid firing of gunshots succeeded reportedly in disarming the two police officers on escort duties and bolted with an unspecified amount of money.

All four occupants were rushed to the St. Martins Catholic Hospital at Agroyesum.

The cashier of the bank died at the hospital while one of the police officers was treated and discharged.

The driver of the van and the other police officer have been referred to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital where they are currently responding to treatment.

The body of the bank cashier has been deposited at the St. Martins Hospital morgue.

---CitiNewsRoom
Home Minister Anil



Deshmukh said people in will be fined Rs 500 instead of Rs 200 from Monday for not wearing masks amid the outbreak.

Speaking to reporters here, he said all precautions must be taken and social distancing norms have to be followed strictly till such time as a vaccine is developed for COVID- 19.

"Despite appeals, many people are not wearing masks. From Monday, the fine here will be Rs 500, up from the current Rs 200," he said.

Queried on Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's statement earlier in the day that a conspiracy was underway to defame the state, Deshmukh said it was true.

"From the last two months we can see there is a conspiracy going on to defame Maharashtra," Deshmukh said.

Thackeray made the remarks during a televised public address on Sunday afternoon.

(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.)
Chandigarh, Sep 13 : Fearing backlash, the Akali Dal, an alliance partner with the Central government, has appealed to it not to present the three Central agricultural ordinances for approval in Parliament until all reservations expressed by farmer organisations as well as farmers and farm labourers are duly addressed.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) core committee, which was presided over by its President Sukhbir Badal here.

A party statement here on Saturday evening said the core committee felt that it was its responsibility to get the reservations of the "annadata" addressed, and asserted that it was committed to take up all the issues raised by farmers with the Union government.

The committee noted that the SAD leadership led by its President had met farmer organisations, farmer representatives and representatives of "khet mazdoor (farm labourers)" during the last few days. It also held discussions with farm experts to take their views besides taking the view of grassroots party workers as well as the senior party leadership.

The release said a considered view had emerged that the Union government should not rush through with passing the three Central ordinances till the apprehensions conveyed to the SAD were not addressed.

Sukhbir Badal conveyed to the core committee that he had also been approached by farmers as well as farm organisations from adjoining states and that all of them had expressed apprehensions about the ordinances and urged the SAD to take up their issues and grievances with the Central leadership.

"Taking this into account, the SAD is also of the view that the concerns should be taken up for consideration by the Centre." Meanwhile, the core committee felt it was appropriate that the SAD President lead a delegation to discuss the concerns of the farmers with the Central government.

"Sardar Parkash Singh Badal remains the undisputed leader of the farmers of India. Farmers are the life and blood of our party. We have always fought to protect the interests of the farming community, including farmers and 'khet mazdoor'. We will continue to do so. No sacrifice is too big to ensure the future of our farmers is safeguarded," the SAD President said.

The northern states of Punjab and Haryana, known as the 'granaries of India', have been currently witnessing protests against the farm Ordinances promulgated by the Union government.

The ordinances are the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance.

The Punjab Assembly on August 28 passed a resolution, moved by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, rejecting the farm ordinances and proposed electricity bill promulgated by the Union government.

The resolution was passed with a voice vote in the absence of SAD members. However, both members of the BJP were present in the House.

While tabling the resolution, the Chief Minister said the Assembly was seriously concerned about the apprehensions and anguish caused by the three ordinances that were not only against the interest of the farmers and the time-tested agriculture marketing system established in the state, but are also against the Constitution of India.

Showcasing Punjab's image as the food bowl of the country, the Chief Minister said that during the 60s, farmers of Punjab ensured food security for the country despite being a miniscule two per cent of the country's population.




Haiti - Justice : Release of 5 UDMO agents incarcerated at the National penitentiary





Saturday morning, Port-au-Prince experienced difficult times during which more than twenty vehicles were set on fire, others vandalized and barricades of flaming tires erected on several streets, blocking traffic, by demonstrators, so that heavily armed men on motorcycles, demanded the release of the 5 police officers of the Departmental Units of Maintenance of Order (UDMO), responsible for monitoring the residence of Me Monferrier Dorval, the president of the Bar Association of Port-au-Prince killed on August 28 in front of his residence https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-31661-icihaiti-pelerin-5-assassination-of-the-president-of-the-bar-of-port-au-prince.html .



These 5 police officers Doddeley Pierre, Mackenson Cleus, Markenson Previl, Angou M. Orcel and Seneque were finally released at midday on the order of Me Ducarmel Gabriel, Commissioner of the Government of Port-au-Prince. However, according to the release document from the prosecution they will have to be transferred to IGPNH to be placed in isolation.



These releases come after the intervention of the Prime Minister who declared on a radio of the capital "[...] I have just given instructions to the Minister of Justice to follow this file closely. At the Executive level, we demanded that the perpetrators, material and intellectual, be found and tried. But these police officers, in any case, are not involved in the assassination of Me Dorval [...] if they have committed administrative errors, they must answer before the General Inspectorate. If the IGPNH [...] Having said that, there is no question of detaining the police at the national penitentiary, because according to my investigation, they committed an administrative error."



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-31676-haiti-diplomacy-the-core-group-condemns-the-assassination-of-the-president-of-the-bar-association.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-31668-haiti-insecurity-rain-of-reactions-around-the-assassination-of-me-monferrier-dorval.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-31661-icihaiti-pelerin-5-assassination-of-the-president-of-the-bar-of-port-au-prince.html



TB/ HaitiLibre


















The government will meet on Monday to approve a decision on extending the state of alert in Romania by another 30 days.

Prime Minister Ludovic Orban on Sunday announced that a meeting of the National Emergency Management Committee will take place on Monday, while an extension to the current state of alert will be approved in a government meeting."We will have a meeting of the National Emergency Management Committee on Monday, at 11:00-12:00hrs; the government is called to convene in a meeting at 12:00hrs to make decisions. For the time being, we have agreed - because we have had several requests - to allow the resumption of public assemblies, rallies. Of course, I was in favour of the idea of allowing public assemblies, rallies but health safety rules applying to other events will have to be followed in this case as well. (...) Most likely, the assemblies will be capped at as much as is currently allowed for electoral assemblies: 100 people in the open air, physically distanced, wearing a face covering. I don't want to censor or have anyone comment that we are censoring the right of people to protest, the right of people to demonstrate in public assemblies, but we will make sure that the health protection rules are followed,"Orban said on Sunday in Calarasi.The decision to extend the state of alert could not be introduced on the agenda of Thursday's government meeting due to the lack of approval from the Legislative Council."If we do not have the approval of the Legislative Council, we will not be able to adopt today [Thursday]. That means that on Monday we will have to convene the National Emergency Management Committee, so that we can adopt the extension of the alert state," Orban told the ministers at the beginning of the government meeting on Thursday.Senior official with the Interior Ministry Gheorghe Sorescu showed that the bill regarding the extension of the state of alert was drawn up and submitted to the secretariat, with all the approvals, in order to be submitted to the Legislative Council."It contains all the measures established in the current regulation. (...) It also contains the health protection measures necessary on September 27, the election day," Sorescu added.The government approved on August 14 under a decision an extension of the state of alert by 30 days in all Romania from August 16.After leaving the state of emergency, Romania entered the state of alert for the first time on May 15. This is the fourth time the measure has been extended amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Threat to Tomar

Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar is a worried man these days. On his home turf of Gwalior-Chambal, crucial Assembly bypolls are set to take place, which may establish the supremacy of Jyotiraditya Scindia as BJPs iconic figure on Tomars turf.

Tomar, who holds the additional charge of panchayati raj and rural development, was embarrassed when a well-known party spokesman fumbled and failed to name him as the countrys agriculture minister.

The spokesperson, having roots in the BJPs economic cell, reportedly took Radha Mohan Singhs name, who was agriculture minister in the previous Narendra Modi ministry. Sources close to Tomar feel their leader needs more visibility if he has to counter Scindia within the BJP.

Dissidents new dilemma

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi turned out to be smarter than her detractors. The 23 Congress dissenters who wrote a letter seeking inner party democracy are now perplexed by Sonias move to appoint the Congress Working Committee nominating some prominent dissidents who were asking for CWC polls.

Would Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and Mukul Wasnik muster the courage to turn down a CWC nomination? As per the party constitution, 12 members are required to be elected while an equal number can be nominated.

Last time when CWC polls were held, the party was led by Sitaram Kesri in 1997. Sonia is travelling abroad for her medical checkup and likely to skip the monsoon session of parliament.

In her absence, a six-member panel [without Rahul or Priyanka Gandhi] would officiate.

How to protest

The monsoon session of Parliament is starting amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Ironically, when the House had met in March 2020, the chair had reprimanded members for wearing masks.

Six months later, wearing masks has been made mandatory. The seating arrangement is also bothering the Opposition as members are spread to galleries in order to enforce social distancing. How would they protest if access to the well of the House is denied?

AAP in hills?

Though the Uttarakhand state Assembly poll is scheduled for early 2022, the BJP has begun preparation.

Politically, the Trivender Singh Rawat government does not seem strong enough to return to power. So BJP strategists are looking for a third front to prevent the Harish Rawat-led Congress from edging the party out of power. The buzz is that Arvind Kejriwals Aam Aadmi Party is set to contest the hill state poll in a big way.

The presence of a third contender will be bad news for the Congress. The BJP is also reportedly promoting the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal, otherwise considered a defunct outfit. The calculations are that if AAP and/or Uttarakhand Kranti Dal get a few seats through cutting into Congress votes and anti-BJP votes, then a Haryana-like situation can bring the BJP back to power.

Bhai closes Darbar

Jafferbhai Mansuri of Delhi Darbar fame is no more. Covid-19 took another toll. Jafferbhai was a legend in Mumbai as his biryani of the Delhi Darbar chain of restaurants was worth every paisa.

In 1973, Jafferbhai had founded his Delhi Darbar restaurant at Bombay's Grant Road, and by 2006 he became the Biryani King, having a chain of restaurants called Jaffer Bhais Delhi Darbar from Grant Road to Jogeshwari. The chain also owns several restaurants in the UAE.

Jafferbhais biryani was much sought after in wedding receptions. An unassuming and affectionate person, Jafferbhai used to keep a keen eye on his friends and acquaintances who were often given a packet of biryani and kebabs to relish at home.

Silence, they said

Swami Agnivesh will be greatly missed. The social crusader in saffron was a spare time politician who did not get his due even in death, as most English-language newspapers did not carry his obituary.

Surprisingly, most Urdu dailies had news of his death on the front page with some editorials and lengthy obits.

Perhaps it was due to Agniveshs consistent opposition to BJPs brand of Hindutva. A brahmin from Andhra, Agnivesh was a vocal Arya Samaji whose influence spread from Punjab-Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan to other parts of the Hindi heartland.

Agnivesh had given up a career as a professor in Calcutta to be a full-time social activist. His mission was to resist the RSS at all levels.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 23:00:01|Editor: huaxia

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TEHRAN, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said on Sunday that 1,044 centrifuges are being employed in the uranium enrichment activities at Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, official IRNA news agency reported.

These centrifuges are used "in line with the policy to reduce commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)," Ali Akbar Salehi, the AEOI chief, was quoted as saying.

"Th enrichment is carried out according to our needs and we will stockpile it," Salehi added, without elaborating on the purity of enriched uranium at Fordow.

Iran has been able to counter the challenges caused by the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA, or the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, he noted.

Iran has gradually scaled back its commitments under JCPOA since last year in response to the U.S. unilateral decision to withdraw from the international agreement between Tehran and the major world powers in May 2018. Enditem
Renowned 60 Minutes journalist Liz Hayes has broken down in tears while revealing her father died after an epic healthcare blunder.

Hayes' father Brian Ryan, 88, died on September 11 last year as a result of a 'catastrophic' stroke after he wasn't given his prescribed medication for eight days.

'I couldn't pretend that this was somebody else's story,' Hayes said on the Channel Nine program on Sunday night.

'He said he was always fearful something like that would happen. I instinctively knew that what I was witnessing was wrong.'

Mr Ryan had developed pneumonia last August before being admitted to a local public hospital in his hometown of Manning River, on the NSW mid-north coast.

Liz Hayes' father Brian Ryan, 88, died on September 11 last year as a result of a 'catastrophic' stroke after he wasn't given his prescribed medication for eight days

He was then transferred to the nearby private hospital where he successfully recovered and fought off a chest infection.

'In the country I think it is accepted that the medical services aren't like the city. But it is also trusted that there would be great care, dignity and as many resources as could possibly be found in the country,' she said.

Then in the early hours of September 7, just a few hours after Hayes said goodnight, her father suffered a stroke and was rushed to the public hospital.

'At two in the morning, Dad was wheeled into an empty room in a ward on the top floor,' she said.

'Other than his family, no one came to see him or us. We were standing there thinking "something must happen now", you don't just park a patient and don't tell somebody.

'His notes were just plonked on the end of the bed and that's when I saw the terrible truth.'

Hayes said it was then that she found out that her father - who had a heart condition - hadn't been given his prescribed blood thinner tablets, Apixaban, for eight days.

Hayes said investigating her father's horrific death was like experiencing 'a very personal trauma'

'Dad's medical notes states that the doctor from the private hospital came to the emergency department to advise that he hadn't been given the critical medication,' she said.

'If that hadn't had happened to dad I feel confident he wouldn't have suffered that stroke and he would still be here.

'I can't believe something that simple could go wrong,' she said through tears.

'Of all the medications not to give him, that was the most important medication for him to have.'

Hayes also shared an emotional video she had taken on her phone from her father's hospital bedside as he passed away.

'This is my dad. We were to take him home today, but we're not, because of what's been called "an error",' she told the camera.

'Dad is now dying because of some terrible mistakes that were made with his medication.'

The private hospital investigated following Mr Ryan's unexpected death, and admitted a doctor hadn't properly written down the elderly man's medication when he was admitted.

Hayes then started delving deeper into the hospital, and discovered the rural hospital usually had just one doctor on the ward.

'Doctors were brought in often from outside of the area. And when the lights went out, so too did the doctor,' she said.

'On the night of dad's stroke, the doctor on duty wasn't actually in the hospital - but was on call.'

Hayes said a number of medical professionals contacted her about the state of the hospital, but said they all feared the consequences if they were identified

Hayes said investigating her father's horrific death was like experiencing 'a very personal trauma'.

'You're trying to walk through this pool of grief but there's a journalist always inside you going "this is just wrong",' she said.

Hayes said a number of medical professionals contacted her about the state of the hospital, but said they all feared the consequences if they were identified.

NSW Shadow Minister for Health Ryan Park said rural public hospitals are begging for more resources.

'This is Australia in 2020. We should pride ourselves on having universal access to healthcare,' Mr Park said.

'At the moment, a postcode is determining the level of access to healthcare that you get, and that's simply not right.

'If some of these stories were coming out of a major Sydney hospital, there'd be a riot on the street and there would be action within the day.'
Mr. Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, Member of Parliament for Assin Central, will on Monday appear before an Accra High Court to show cause why he should not be severely punished for contempt of court.



"I hereby summon the said Kennedy Ohene Agyapong per a warrant issued under my hand and seal to appear before the High Court (Land Court 12) on Monday, September 14, 2020, at 10:00 am to show cause why he should not be severely punished for contempt if the matters are proven against him to the satisfaction of the court," the High Court Order said.



The MP, allegedly, made a scandalized statement in the case in, which Susan Bandoh and Christopher Akuetteh Kotei had sued him (Kennedy Ohene Agyapong), one Ibrahim Jaja, Nana Yaw Duodu aka Sledge, and the Inspector General of Police in a land matter.



Mr. Agyapongs appearance before the Court comes after the High Court's ( Land Court 12) attention had been drawn to a television (NET2 TV) and Radio (Oman Fm Station) programme allegedly aired on September 2, this year.



In the said programme, the MP is said to have "scandalized and threatened" the Court.



The order of the Court is signed by Justice Amos Wuntah Wuni, a High Court Judge, on September 9, this year.

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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Turkmenistan passed the Regulations on mandatory state individual insurance of passengers in all types of transport as well as crews of air, sea, river, road and rail transport. President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov signed a decree to this effect at a government meeting via videoconference.

The document instructs the Ministry of Finance and Economy of Turkmenistan jointly with the State Insurance Organization to establish the procedure on creation and spending of insurance funds for mandatory state insurance of passenger transportation.

According to the decree, this measure has been taken in accordance with the Air Code and the Merchant Shipping Code of Turkmenistan, the laws of Turkmenistan On Automobile Transport, On Railway Transport and On Insurance with the view of providing insurance coverage for passengers and crews of vehicles.

 TURKMENISTAN.RU, 2022
With operations in more than 35 countries and revenue in the tens of billions of dollars, the world's second-biggest mining company, Rio Tinto, has come a long way since its formation in the 1870s when a group of investors bought the rights to a rich mineral site in the south-west of Spain.

It's a company that has had its fair share of financial and management upheavals over the decades, but when it comes to reputational damage, the destruction in May of the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge heritage rock shelter in Western Australia was one its biggest faux pas. While the company's board finally took decisive action last Friday  removing chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques and two deputies  there is clearly still some way to go.

The structural issues that led to the blasting of the ancient site appear years in the making. A federal parliamentary inquiry into the incident heard late last month how the mining company had centralised power in the group's London headquarters.

Bruce Harvey, who ran Rio's global community and Indigenous relations until 2013, told the inquiry Mr Jacques transferred his role to London after becoming CEO in 2016, and diluted the role of individual mine site leaders. And Glynn Cochrane, an adviser at Rio until 2015, explained that Rio had sidelined anthropologists and archaeologists from Aboriginal relations in recent years and had instead hired people with more of a focus on "branding, marketing and media".

There have always been tensions between the London-dominated board of Rio Tinto and the Australians who managed the operations that generated the overwhelming bulk of the groups earnings. Despite the board including three Australians, Mr Jacques' restructure was only going to exacerbate the situation, and leave it exposed to operational risks.
Last month, the James T. Foley U.S. Courthouse on Broadway in Albany quietly played host to something the Capital Region had not seen for months: a jury trial.

A lawsuit involving allegations of excessive force against two correction officers from Bare Hill Correctional Facility in Malone went to trial Aug. 19 before U.S. District Judge Mae DAgostino. It ended two days later with a split verdict: the jury determined one of the officers, Justin McGrath, used excessive force on an inmate in January 2016. Jurors found the other defendant, Sgt. Matthew Barnaby, not guilty.

The jury determined the former inmate, Joseph Tranchina, should be compensated $190,000 by McGrath.

Just like that, a trial had come and gone - unlike the months before when COVID-19 brought the world and with it, jury trials, to a near standstill.

In state court, the wait continues in the Capital Region -- for now. Chief Judge Janet DiFiore expressed optimism in her weekly address last Monday that it may soon end. A limited number of jury trials began last week in Suffolk, Schuyler and Erie counties, she noted.

The right to a trial by jury is one of the keystones of our justice system, and so this weeks restart of a limited number of jury trials marks an important step in our journey toward our new normal, DiFiore said. "Based on the many weeks of careful preparation by our judges and professional staff, and based on our successful experience in safely and smoothly impaneling over 100 grand juries across the state without significant incident or illness, we are confident in our ability to begin to safely conduct jury trials throughout the New York state courts.

Last month's case in U.S. District Court could have been held up. On Aug. 12, DAgostino denied a request from McGrath to adjourn the case, which began with a lawsuit Tranchina filed in November 2017.

D'Agostino was not going to allow that.

As I have previously stated many time before, the court would never proceed with a trial if it felt it could not safely be done, DAgostino wrote. The court has gone through painstaking plans to screen jurors, social distance the trial participants, totally re-configure the courtroom, and has consulted an infectious disease specialist.

In a dose of harsh reality, the judge added: Certainly, no judge, no court, no doctor, or anyone else can possibly guarantee that no one will be exposed to COVID-19 during a trial. Today, the simple task of going to a grocery store constitutes a calculated risk.

The judge noted an .88 percent positivity in test results (as of Aug. 11) in new COVID-19 testing in New York, that intensive care unit beds were at their lowest levels since mid-March and that schools had been given permission to open.

Having taken every reasonable step to reduce risk to all, including consulting with an infectious disease specialist, the request for an adjournment of the trial is denied, the judge stated.

And the trial went on.

Law School Honors

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Albany Law School will laud five graduates, including retired U.S. District Magistrate Judge Randolph Treece, at the 2020 Grand Honors Awards on Thursday, Sept. 24, which will be held online during "Virtual Reunion Week."'

The Trustees Gold Medal, which began in 1966 and is considered the highest accolade bestowed by Albany Law School, will be awarded to Treece, a 1976 graduate and the first Black judge to serve on the federal bench in New York's Northern District. The honor goes to a person who has demonstrated a record of exemplary support and dedication to the advancement of Albany Law School."

The Distinguished Alumni Award, which dates to 1998 and recognizes a person's continuous record of service to the school and is considered the highest honor bestowed by the National Alumni Association Board of Directors, will go to Dale Thuillez, a 1972 graduate and special counsel to the firm of Thuillez, Ford, Gold, Butler & Monroe.

The Donald D. DeAngelis 60 Excellence in Alumni Service Award, created in 1989, which recognizes a graduate's outstanding dedication and commitment to alumni, the National Alumni Association and Albany Law School, will go to Thania Fernandez, a 1985 graduate and the executive secretary for the state Department of Education.

The Outstanding Young Alumni Award, which began in 1980 and is given to alumni who have graduated in the past 10 years and have demonstrated extraordinary commitment to the school through consistent volunteerism and engagement, will go to Emily Chapman, a 2013 graduate and associate at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.

The Humanitarian Achievement Award, which was created last year, will go to M. Sherry Gold and the Gold Family. She is the founding donor of the Barry A. Gold '70 Health Law Clinical Program Endowment Fund, named for her late husband. The honor recognizes the"extraordinary humanitarian contributions of an individual in the community who dedicates their time and legal expertise to improve quality of life and fight indifference, intolerance, and/or injustice through providing pro bono services, engaging in activism, supporting legal education, improving the delivery of legal services, and beyond,"
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

Rage and rants churn through Feminist Art in the Trump Era, an exhibition at Santa Fes Axle Contemporary.

Jurored by famed contemporary art critic, author and Galisteo resident Lucy R. Lippard, the show runs on the exterior of the mobile art space through Nov. 3. Many of the 27 works by New Mexico artists resonate with a hopeful soon-to-be extinct disdain for the Trump era.

These artists worked from a galaxy of materials, ranging from photographs to collage, pop-up books, wool, clay, brass, spray paint, mixed-media and gesso. Many combine humor with personal vitriol. Lippard filtered through 165 entries for the final selections.

I was looking for feminist statements; a few are oblique, but most of them are pretty straightforward, she said. I also wanted a wide range of styles from conceptual to painterly.

Nika Feldmans Protest Patch is a silkscreen design plastered with the text We are the granddaughters of all the witches you were never able to burn haloed in roses.

I believe she saw that phrase on a sign at a demonstration, Lippard said in a telephone interview from Maine.

Kristin Barendsen, Patti Levey and Lauren Ayer produced an image of a nude (and masked) woman smashing a Trump pinata. The women wrote in an artists statement about beating the pinata in reaction to the 2016 presidential election returns.

As women, our bodies have been a battleground for sexual assault and self-hate, they stated. Two of us are queer; one is Jewish. All three of us feel more vulnerable under this aggressive and violent administration, and we feel a strong imperative to fight back and use the power of our voices. Our collective was galvanized. We became the Furies.

The Furies were a trio of Greek goddesses of the underworld who swore eternal vengeance against lying men.

Alex Fischer created a cartoon of the naked Trump back with the headline The Emperor Had No Clothes.

Madrid gallery owner Liz Patterson turned to environmental issues in her clay sculpture Singing Women. The figure laments the melting snows of global warming.

The nude female back in Isabel Winson-Sagans photography project Original Face is more nebulous. She wrote that the work represents existential questions about the female body.

We got some nice stuff and we got some puzzling stuff, Lippard said.

Theres certainly some rage, she continued. Certainly, women are justifiably enraged at the moment.

Political feminist art has always had a sense of humor, she said. There were a couple of pussy hats.

The exhibition also commemorates the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, as well as Axles 10-year anniversary.

Online

Feminist Art in the Trump Era is one of a large group of projects being promoted by the Feminist Art Coalition throughout September and October. The gallerys location is posted daily at axelart.com. The exhibition also will be online at the same address.
I wonder if my progressive friends and colleagues would believe me if I told them that a hundred years ago, Soviet prisons were full of good socialists and good Marxists. They too at first cheered on the riots and the revolution.

What today's good progressives don't understand is that professional revolutionaries have a different relationship with an ideology or a cause from the good progressives'. Professional revolutionaries remind me of the joke about the humble villager from abroad visiting the West and taken by friends to a fashion show  runway models and all that. Asked afterward if he enjoyed the show, the visitor shakes his head. He didn't care for it at all. Why? "First they show you the women," he says. "Then they try to sell you the clothes."

The professional revolutionary dangles the ideology. He shows you the cause. But what he wants you to buy is the idea that he  not you, but he and his cronies, they and they alone  should call the shots. And God help you if you should disagree.

A hundred years ago, at Communist Party meetings in Moscow, good party members would suggest that instead of all the decisions being made by the cabal at the highest level, why not allow the workers in the factories and the trade unions to decide what's to be done? After all, the purpose of the proletarian revolution was to benefit the workers, wasn't it? Lenin's answer to those people was "Shut the hell up!" That was one of his answers. Another was "You're under arrest."

Lenin didn't want people to be loyal to the ideology, to be good socialists or Marxists. He wanted them to be personally loyal to him, to the preservation of his regime. That's why it made perfect sense for Soviet jurists to rule that it wasn't necessary for a person to actually commit an offense to be guilty of one. Either you worked to assure the continued ascendance of the Bolsheviks, or your own continued existence became problematic.

I wonder if my progressive friends and colleagues could kill a man simply for disagreeing with them. I'm thinking in particular of one young, ardent colleague who loudly exclaimed that he "hates moderates." I wonder if he could kill a moderate  if he could, for example, kill me. I assume he might have some qualms. Felix Dzerzhinsky would not. Felix Dzerzhinsky was a professional revolutionary who spent a substantial amount of time in tsarist prisons. After the revolution, Lenin prevailed on Felix to organize and direct the Bolshevik secret police, the Cheka. Arguably the most feared man in Moscow, Dzerzhinsky was called "Iron Felix" because he had no compunction about ordering anyone's execution.

Right now, in the heart of our own country, incipient Lenins and Dzerzhinskys are awaiting their opportunity. With any luck, their moment will pass, and we'll never know their names. But if the good progressives get the revolution of their dreams, it will be their rears in the prisons of our homegrown Lenins and Dzerzhinskys, and they'll find themselves looking down the muzzles of the former's machine guns.

There's an old Central Asian saying: "He who would perfume a scorpion, will not thereby escape its sting."

The Marxist revolutionary philosophy is the scorpion. The racial and social justice sloganeering is the perfume. My progressive friends and colleagues are enticed by, excited by, intoxicated by the perfume. I wonder if they have any idea how badly they can be stung.

I commend to them the story of the scorpion and the frog. The scorpion wants to cross a river but can't swim. So he asks a frog to carry him across. Ordinarily, frogs know enough to keep their distance from scorpions. But the frog knows that the scorpion will drown if he harms the frog in transit, so he agrees. Halfway across the stream, the scorpion stings the frog. "Why ever did you do that?" gasps the frog, about to go under and taking the scorpion with him.

"It's my nature," snorts the scorpion. "It's my nature."

Sheldon Bart is the author of Race to the Top of the World: Richard Byrd and the First Flight to the North Pole (Regnery History). He is currently writing a non-fiction book about an American intelligence agent in Bolshevik Russia. A trustee of the Foundation to Illuminate America's Heroes, he is also acting vice president of the American Polar Society.
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND / ACCESSWIRE / September 13, 2020 / Upbots, the online trading platform enabling traders to trade Crypto, DeFi, Forex, and commodities, has received a strategic investment from Alameda Research. This makes the Upbots institutional and private sales of around 1.1 million USD in token sale funding. Upbots believes that Alameda Research will bring invaluable expertise that will help build the Upbots trading ecosystem. Having already entered into partnerships with a host of platforms in the DeFi, DEX, and CEX space, Upbots is also actively pursuing DEX and DeFi protocols. These partnerships will enable traders on the platform to trade seamlessly on a host of exchanges.

What is Alameda Research?

Alameda Research is one of the premier trading houses in the crypto space, and their expertise will be critical in helping Upbots to scale up their trading ecosystem. The investment aims to combine DEX and CEX, forming a trading system that integrates various DeFi protocols supporting mortgage and lending, and seamlessly switches between manual and robot transactions.

More details on the IEO

Upbots has also announced that their IEO will be taking place on the FTX exchange on the 14th of September 2020. The capital that will be raised through the IEO will be used to facilitate the development of the platform, business expansion, day to day operations, partners, legal advice, and reserve. Traders will get access to 6% of the UBXT tokens, the remaining having already been sold via the institutional and private sales.

The tokens' distribution is as follows; a total of 500 million tokens, out of which 45% (225 million) have been allocated to the institutional and private sales and the upcoming IEO. Out of the 45% tokens allocated, 39% were sold at 0.01$ for 1 UBXT (22% institutional sale and 17% private sale). The remaining 6% will be made available during the upcoming FTX IEO sale. The 22% institutional sale has been completely sold out while the 17% allocated for the private sale has also been sold out.

The remainder of the tokens have been allocated in the following way -

25% allocated as reserve holdings

14% allocated to the UBXT development fund

10% allocated to the team

5% allocated to the advisors

1% allocated to Bug Bounty

What does the UBXT token do?

The UBXT token will be used to process all transactions on the Upbots platform. The UBXT token represents an ERC-20 token that has several use cases.

Means of payment - The token can be leveraged to pay for user training, subscriptions, and other purchasable services.

Copy Trading and Bot performance - Traders on the platform can mirror profitable transactions and rent bots to trade 24/7. The bot developers can get commissions.

HODL-ing - Incentives like free trading tools, higher referral bonuses, free membership are given to traders to hold their UBXT tokens.

Referral program - Traders who refer Upbots and bring new traders to the platform can claim a referral fee that can be paid through UBXT.

Bringing together services that were available only on standalone platforms, Upbots is lowering the threshold for new traders who are just starting out in cryptocurrency and Forex trading. The platform offers an advanced interface with a single point of control for experienced traders. By bringing together an easy to use interface along with the tools for effective portfolio management, Upbots hopes to become the preferred platform for both beginner and experienced traders.

The platform is feature-packed, giving you secure access through APIs to the largest exchanges, allowing traders to trade without worry. Upbots will also be integrating with exchanges that have significant liquidity, having announced that OKEx and ByBit will be added onto the platform along with BitMEX, Bittrex, CoinbasePro, Kraken, and Binance. A partnership with DEX.AG, an aggregator for decentralized exchanges, has also been announced. This partnership enables the Upbots dashboard to give traders instant access to atomic token swaps on exchanges supported by DEX.AG. Add to this, Upbots learning platform that enables traders to learn and improve their skills and a library of resources for the more seasoned trader, the platform has given traders all the tools needed to be successful.

CONTACT:

Hector Cullen

hector@bcnewswire.com

SOURCE: Upbots

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/605878/Upbots-IEO-Is-Set-to-Launch-on-FTX-Exchange
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Russian car lovers donned vintage outfits to flock the streets of Moscow and mark the 50th anniversary of the creation of the popular Lada car yesterday.

Gathering for the Gorkyclassic GUM Rally, the vintage vehicle enthusiasts celebrated the creation of one of their countries most well-known and trusted cars, with models dating back to the 1970s at the heart of the celebration.

The classic car show, which takes place once a year in the Russian capital, sees vintage car lovers gather together, some opting for vintage looks to go with their vehicles.

The Lada, which was first commercialised in 1970, was manufactured by AvtoVAZ, a Russian company now owned by the French group Renault.

Gathering for the Gorkyclassic GUM Rally in Moscow, vintage cars enthusiasts celebrated the creation of one of their countries most well-known and trusted cars, the Lada. Pictured: A light blue Lada that once competed in the Tour d'Europe

Ladas were first manufactured in 1970s and are one of the Russia's most well-known cars. Pictured: a blond woman reapplies gloss behind the wheel of her yellow Lada

The show offered a window into the past, with many of the cars perfectly preserved to maintain their original interiors and features.

As the sun shone on the Russian capital, car fans made the most of the day, strolling between the different models.

Visitors appeared in high spirits as they joined the owners of the vintage cars, who proudly showed their vehicles off.

The Gorkyclassic Motor GUM Rally takes its name from one of the biggest shops in Moscow.

A Lada owner showed off his car during the rally before showing off the cars impressive motor and performing tweaks on the interior

Many visitors to the show donned vintage outfits, with women opting for playful costumes as they posed next to a yellow and blue Lada

The original 1970 Lada car was the star of this year's show with several models making it to the rally.

Families walked up to the Lada models, all parked together during the show, some of which were adorned with GUM rally stickers.

AvtoVAZ's Lada, which was first manufactured in 1970, with technical help from Fiat, takes its name from a type of small boat in Slavic language.

It was born out of a cooperation agreement between Fiat and the Soviet minister of automotive industry Alexander Tarasov signed in 1966.

Other rally goers wore a selection of vintage costumes for the occasion, with one woman opting for a jumpsuit and red head scarf

The top of this green Lada was propped with accessories, making it look as though the owner was heading off to a summer holiday

Crowds gathered to catch a glimpse of the vintage cars during the rally (pictured, a yellow and blue Lada is applauded by car fans)

Two men place a GUM Motor Rally sticker on a blue Lada. The Lada was born out of a cooperation agreement between Russia and car manufacturer Fiat

The cars first appeared in Russia under the Zhiguli brand, but the brand's name was changed to Lada when the vehicle began to be commercialised internationally.

The first ever Lada to be built was produced on the 100th anniversary of Lenin's Birth on April 1970.

The Lada VAZ-2101 was the first vehicle to make it to the market in Russia. Its design was derived from the Fiat 124 Sedan.

There were very few repair shops around the country, and the Lada was marketed as DIY-friendly and easy to maintain.

Women in costumes and vintage outfits strolled through the streets next to members of the public as they attended the car rally

Many of the cars on show at the rally offer a glimpse into Russia's past (pictured, a red Lada with a GUM Motor Rally sticker seen in central Moscow)

Rows of the vintage cars were parked alongside one another for the rally yesterday, with locals strolling through the area to study the vehicles

A blue Lada during the rally. The cars were manufactured by AvtoVAZ, a Russian company which is now owned by the French group Renault

A gray Lada makes it7s way to the rally in the Moscow traffic among modern cars. The cars were meant to be a sturdy version of the Fiat 124 Sedan
Richmond, VA, Sept. 11, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) Board of Directors today announced Bob Stolle as the organizations Chief Executive Officer and President of CIT. Stolle previously served as CITs Senior Vice President of Policy and Regional Initiatives as well as the head of CITs Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Division.

Virginias entrepreneurship community has grown tremendously during Ed Albrigos tenure at CIT, and we are grateful for his dedicated service to our Commonwealth, said Governor Ralph Northam. I am pleased to welcome Bob Stolle to lead the agency and its efforts to advance our innovation economy.

On behalf of the CIT Board of Directors, I wish to thank Ed Albrigo for his outstanding leadership, said Michael Steed, CIT Board Chairman and Founder and Managing Partner of Paladin Capital Group. Ed has had a transformational impact on CIT and the Virginia innovation ecosystem from launching new innovative programs in technology and industry areas critical to Virginia, to launching the Virginia Founders Fund to ensuring that Virginia companies continued to receive over 4 million dollars in vital funding during COVID through CRCF, GAP, Smart Communities, and Unmanned Systems programs.

CIT and the new Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority (VIPA) are in great hands, said Ed Albrigo, outgoing CIT CEO. I am thrilled that the CIT Board appointed Bob Stolle as the new CIT President. Bob knows CIT, the VIPA legislation, VIPA budget, and the key stakeholders for VIPA and CIT very well. Our communities and CIT staff highly respect Bob. There is no better choice for the new CIT President.

Representing CIT, Bob currently serves on the GO Virginia Guideline Workgroup, he is on the executive committee of the University-Based Economic Developers (UBED), the GENEDGE Alliance, and is on the Boards of eight regional technology Councils in Virginia. He co-chaired Technology, Innovation & Startups for the Virginia Chambers Blueprint Virginia strategic plan, and he serves on the Investment Advisory Board for the Launch Place Seed Fund in Danville.

Mr. Stolle has also served in several key positions for the Commonwealth of Virginia during the administration of Governor George Allen, including Secretary of Commerce and Trade, where he was responsible for 15 state agencies and promoting economic and community development in the Commonwealth. He also served on the technology transitions teams for Governors Warner, Kaine, McDonnell, McAuliffe, and Northam.

Bob has an engineering degree from the US Naval Academy. He served on active duty and in the Reserves as a Navy pilot and retired with the rank of Commander.



About the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT)

Investing for Commonwealth Growth | CIT concentrates on the early commercialization and seed funding stages of innovation, helping innovators and tech entrepreneurs launch and grow new companies to create high-paying jobs throughout the entire state of Virginia. Founded in 1985, CIT, a nonprofit corporation, has been a primary driver of advocating for innovation and entrepreneurship in the Commonwealth. CIT accelerates next-generation technologies and technology companies through commercialization, capital formation, and market development initiatives. Our programs include | CIT GAP Funds | Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund (CRCF) | Virginia Founders Fund | Broadband/Rural Broadband | Smart Communities | Cybersecurity | Unmanned Systems | SBIR/STTR Support (Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) & Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs) | University Partnerships | Startup Company Mentoring & Engagement on behalf of Virginia Entrepreneurship & Economic Development. CITs CAGE Code is 1UP71. Contact: 2214 Rock Hill Road #600, Herndon, VA 20170 | 703.689.3000 | www.cit.org | You can also follow CIT on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

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A Molalla man was arrested Saturday for attempting to burglarize at least one business inside his evacuated hometown, police said.

Duane Schlip, 56, tried to burglarize a local towing company, and then stole a utility terrain vehicle from a locked facility at Molalla Middle School Thursday, police said.

Officers arrested Schlip while he was casing neighborhoods, according to police.

Schlip was charged with attempted burglary, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and first-degree theft.

This is the first known case of someone arrested for trying to commit theft or burglary during the evacuations in Molalla. Police have said they are on the lookout for thieves, but decried social media rumors that the issue was widespread.

Its been blown way out of proportion, Frank Schoenfeld, Molalla chief of police, told The Oregonian/OregonLive Friday. There have been no confirmed cases of looting in town.

-- K. Rambo

krambo@oregonian.com

@k_rambo_
CNN host Jake Tapper abruptly ended his interview with economist Peter Navarro on Sunday after the White House adviser repeatedly failed to answer a question about Donald Trump misleading the public about the deadliness of Covid-19 earlier this year.

When Mr Tapper asked Mr Navarro to address the audio recording of Mr Trumps private comments to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward in February about how deadly the coronavirus pandemic was  even as he was publicly likening it to the common flu  Mr Navarro swerved into a long rundown of the Trump administrations actions on the health crisis.

"I'm not giving you 10 minutes to do this," the CNN host said in an attempt to return to the question at hand about Mr Trumps attempt to purposely mislead the American people. "I'm specifically talking about what President Trump was saying to the public in February and March," Mr Tapper said.

Amid a back-and-forth of interruptions and accusations from Mr Tapper that Mr Navarro wasnt answering the question, the White House adviser fired back, I am answering your question. You just dont like the answer.

With the conversation obviously going nowhere, Mr Tapper attempted to wrap the subject.

"[Trump] was not honest with the American people. You're not answering the question," the CNN host said.

Mr Navarro shot back:"You're not honest with the American people. CNN is not honest with the American people. Do you want to go there?"

Mr Tapper cut in again: You didn't answer the question. Thank you Peter Navarro. We just played tapes, you didn't answer my question. You didn't answer the question, no you didn't. OK, Peter Navarro, thank you so much. I appreciate your time today. Thank you so much.

When CNN producers cut off Mr Navarro's video and audio feed, Mr Tapper capped the segment with a damning statistic:

"And I would just like to remind the American people watching that the United States has less than 5 per cent of the world's population, and the United States has more than 20 per cent of the world's coronavirus deaths. That is a fact."

Senate Republicans last week mostly came to the president's defence over the contradictions between his early public statements downplaying the coronavirus and his private conversations with Mr Woodward for his book, Rage, acknowledging the severity of the threat it posed.

It doesn't bother me, Senator Kevin Cramer told reporters last Wednesday of the president's comments.

I don't feel like he was ever lying to anybody. He's a hopeful, upbeat, positive person, the North Dakota Republican said. The gravity of it, when it was becoming clearer, was also reflected by him.

Mr Trump's messaging about Covid-19 has been wildly inconsistent as he has tried to express optimism about the disease going away.

For instance, the Trump administration pushed to open schools this fall for in-person classes because, as the president said as recently as 5 August, "this thing's going away. It will go away like things go away."

The US was fending off a second spike in new cases at the time of those comments.

Mr Trump admitted to Mr Woodward in a recorded conversation on 19 March that it was part of his coronavirus strategy to publicly "play it down" to avoid a "panic" among the people.
Russia's new Skyfall missile will be able to fly around Earth for years and launch a nuclear strike at any moment, Britain's defence intelligence chief has warned.

The 9M730 Burevestnik missile, also known as Skyfall by Nato, has been linked to the deaths of at least five scientists in an accident in Nyonoksa, north eastern Russia, that caused a radiation spike 'one thousand times higher than lethal,' last August.

Britain's Chief of Defence Intelligence, Lt Gen Jim Hockenhull, told a media briefing: 'Moscow is testing a subsonic nuclear-powered cruise missile system which has global reach and would allow attack from unexpected directions'.

Russia's Skyfall missile would be able to fly around the Earth for years and could launch a nuclear strike at any moment

Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly called the missile as a 'radically new type of weaponry'

It's understood the missile will be able to fly around the Earth for years, ready to launch a nuclear strike at any moment.

Last year it was reported that the weapon could be ready to launch by 2025.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly called it 'a radically new type of weaponry' with 'unlimited range and unlimited ability to manoeuvre'.

Lieutenant-General Hockenhull says the West is having to keep pace with adversaries who do not play by the rules with nations such as Russia and China continually challenging the existing order without prompting direct conflict.

He said that 'conventional threats remain' but 'hostile states are willing to take incredible risks'.

Lt Gen Jim Hockenhull said Russia is 'pushing the boundaries of science and international treaties' and the nuclear-powered missile could have 'a near-indefinite loiter time'.

He was quoted by The Sunday Telegraph as he spoke at the Five Eyes intelligence hub at RAF Wyton, in Cambridgeshire.

Five Eyes is an intelligence alliance made up of experts from the UK, US, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

At the media briefing, the Chief of Defence Intelligence warned Russia had invested in submarines and underwater capabilities, including an unmanned water vehicle, 'capable of delivering a nuclear payload to coastal targets, or even carrier groups at sea,' that could also target internet cables.

Lt Gen Jim Hockenhull, the British Chief of Defence, said the missile had global reach and could 'attack from unexpected directions'

He told the briefing how Russia's army was smaller than during the Cold War, but had changed its approach to warfare since then.

He said: 'They have looked hard at the West to see where best to place their investments to give us the most challenges.'

Britain has long accused Russian operatives of using the Novichok chemical weapon on former double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018.

Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia were two of five people exposed to the substance, both spending weeks in hospital recovering.

The missile, also known as 9M730 Burevestnik in Russia, has been linked to an explosion in Nyonoksa, north eastern Russia, last August

Dawn Sturgess, 44, of Amesbury, Wiltshire, died in July that year after coming into contact with a perfume bottle thought to originally contain the poison, while her partner, Charlie Rowley, spent nearly three weeks in hospital.

Lt Gen Hockenhull said: 'Whilst conventional threats remain, we have seen our adversaries invest in artificial intelligence, machine learning and other ground-breaking technologies, whilst also supercharging more traditional techniques of influence and leverage.

'As we have seen in Salisbury, hostile states are willing to take incredible risks.

'We must make sure that we have both the intent and the capability to ensure that such wanton acts of irresponsibility will not go unpunished.'

Lt Gen Hockenhull described Iran and North Korea as regional threats, but warned China posed the biggest threat to stability around the world.
Elyse Knowles and her boyfriend Josh Barker recently moved to Byron Bay.

But the pair took time out this weekend for another idyllic spot - the Northern Territory.

The couple enjoyed the sights in Alice Springs on the day they landed, taking in a light show in the evening.

Fun! Elyse Knowles and her boyfriend Josh Barker took time out this weekend to travel to the Northern Territory. Both pictured

They then headed to Alice Springs Desert Park where they handled various exotic birds.

The Block star shared a number of photos of the pair to her Instagram, showing them beaming in the desert state.

Elyse looked angelic in a white mini dress with puffed sleeves, and appeared to go makeup free, her blonde hair drifting in the breeze.

Nice! The couple enjoyed the sights in Alice Springs on the day they landed, taking in a light show in the evening

Desert babes: They then headed to Alice Springs Desert Park

She captioned one set of images: 'Landed in the Northern Territory and couldn't be more excited.

'Last night in the Alice Springs Desert Park at the light show. It's been on our bucket list for so so long !!

'If it's not on yours yet, put it on there RIGHT NOW!!! The colour of our land is so dam amazing'.

Careful! There the couple handled various exotic birds including an owl

Elyse captioned one set of images: 'Landed in the Northern Territory and couldn't be more excited. 'Last night in the Alice Springs Desert Park at the light show. It's been on our bucket list for so so long!'

Elyse and Josh relocated to Byron Bay last year in search of a more environmentally conscious lifestyle.

The Block winners are renting a $1.5million bohemian-style home featuring rustic furnishings and high ceilings.

The sustainable property has three double bedrooms, wide verandas and a self-contained studio apartment attached and is conveniently located just a 10-minute walk from the beach.

Elyse told Daily Mail Australia: 'The community is more environmentally conscious. [You see it in the] conversations that people have every single day talking about the ocean and the marine life.'
Family members bow to their ancestral graves at a memorial park in Incheon, west of Seoul, Sunday, ahead of the traditional Chuseok holiday, which falls on Oct. 1 this year. The Incheon city government designated Sept. 12-29 as a period to pay visits to ancestral graves, instead of closing the memorial park during the extended five-day holiday, which begins Sept. 30, as a precautionary measure against COVID-19. Yonhap
Santosh Kumar Yadav, a resident of Darbhanga in Bihar, travelled for more than 24 hours and changed two buses to cover a 700-odd kilometre distance to reach Kolkata for his National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). Unfortunately, he was late by 10 minutes.

Yadav was not allowed to enter the examination centre at a school in Salt Lake, a township located to the east of Kolkata.

I pleaded the authorities but they said I was late. The examination started at 2 pm. I reached the centre around 1.40 pm. The last deadline for entering the centre was 1.30 pm, Yadav told a local television channel. I lost a year, he added.

Also read: Covid-19 vaccine possible by 2021 first quarter, says Harsh Vardhan

Incidentally, NEET examinees were asked to report at least three hours in advance in view of the time taken for security and health checks amid the Covid-19 crisis.

Describing his ordeal, the student said, I boarded a bus at Darbhanga at 8 am on Saturday to reach Muzaffarpur. From there I took a bus to Patna but there was a traffic jam on the route and I got delayed by almost six hours.

I took another bus from Patna at 9 pm. The bus dropped me near Sealdah station (in Kolkata) at 1.06 pm. A taxi brought me to the examination centre, said Yadav.

The school authorities could not be contacted but inconvenience faced by NEET examinees became a subject of political debate as many had to shell out huge amount of money to travel from one part of the state to another in hired cars.

Also read: NEET 2020 - 85-90% of over 15 lakh students take exam amid Covid-19 concerns

The Supreme Court (while dismissing a petition for delaying NEET and JEE) said that students should get all help to travel and get accommodation. During the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), examinees in West Bengal had to face a lot of difficulty and the chief minister had said 70 percent of them could not take the test. This government is not at all sympathetic towards students, said Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president Dilip Ghosh.

The state government did not deny that examinees had to face an uphill task on Sunday.

We knew that students would face trouble. The metro railway can carry them within Kolkata but what about those from other districts? Chief minister Mamata Banerjee cancelled the state-wide lockdown on Saturday only to help students travel. But they still faced problems because of the pandemic situation, said state education minister and Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee.

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Rushes bulk supplies of essential commodities, like special winter tents and heaters, warm clothes, sunglasses and packaged food

Indian army soldiers walk along the line of control at the India- China border. It has also been decided all security forces will remain at their respective locations all through the winter to deal with any Chinese threat. (AP)

New Delhi: The Union home ministry has started preparing well in advance for any potential threat from the Chinese forces in the coming winter season. It has started rushing bulk supplies of essential commodities, like special winter tents and heaters, warm clothes, sunglasses and packaged food.

The MHA is trying to ensure that adequate stocks for over six months are available at all high-altitude border locations along the India-China border in the next 10 days. Sources claimed a large consignment of good quality essential supplies were being transported to all remote locations in the high-altitude region. In view of the increased tensions with China in Ladakh, the Indian forces are making unprecedented arrangements to ensure China doesnt attempt any border incursions during winter.

It has also been decided all security forces will remain at their respective locations all through the winter to deal with any Chinese threat. Earlier, during the harsh winter months, both Indian and Chinese forces used to withdraw from their patrolling locations, but this time the Indian forces will remain at their positions.

The MHA has already asked all border guarding forces to send in their specific requirements for winter deployment along the sensitive China border. It also directed these forces, particularly on the China and Nepal borders, to finalise their winter deployment schedule by this month and start deployment from next month to deter any Chinese mischief.
Donald Trump has made gains in the battle for the crucial state of Florida, as new polling data shows the race tightening.

At the end of July, one poll put Joe Biden as many as 13 points ahead in the Sunshine state. Even if that poll was a possible outlier, the Democratic nominee had largely managed to maintain a lead in Florida, which carries 29 electoral college votes.

But a poll by NBC News suggests the race is effectively tied, with both Mr Biden and Mr Trump on 48 points. Another poll, conducted by Quinnipiac University put support for Mr Biden at 48 per cent to Trumps 45 per cent, within the polls margin of sampling error.

It had been Quinnipiac University that had given Mr Biden a 13 point lead over the president in its July poll.

Meanwhile, also this week, the Cook Political Report, which is widely respected by Democrats and Republicans, shifted its assessment of Florida to Toss Up, from Lean Democrat.

It also reconsidered the state of Nevada another battlegroup from Likely Democrat to Lean Democrat, another indication of how many battleground states are tightening in Mr Trumps favour, 50 days from election day.

 Trump on terror

Of all the states, few are considered more important to win than Florida. That is especially so for Republicans who have little likely chance of securing the 270 electoral college votes required to win the White House without it.

Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak told The Independent he believed Mr Trump was going to win Florida. He also admitted if he lost it, it would spell very bad news for Republicans

My view is this is going to come down to one or two states. I think its going to be really close, he said. I'll say this: it could be an early night. I mean, if Trump loses Florida, its going to be an early night, and Bidens going to win.

The developments come as Mr Trump headed to Nevada on Saturday, trying to drum up more support in a state where polls show Mr Biden still leading, and to raise money for a campaign that is facing a possible cash crunch.

An average of polls of Nevada by RealClearPolitics gives Mr Biden a six-point lead.

But the Cook Political Report said there were signs the state had become more competitive in recent weeks.

According to data provided to the Cook Political Report by the ad-tracking firm Advertising Analytics, the Trump campaign outspent Biden on the Nevada airwaves in June and July $2.4M to $225,000, it wrote in a post on its website.

By August, however, the Biden campaign was on TV in a big way  spending $2m. They have booked another $2.2, for September and $1.6m for October. The Trump campaign was dark in August but has pre-booked $1.m for September and another $3.7m for October.

Mr Trump will hold a rally in Reno on Saturday evening, a Latinos for Trump event and another rally in Las Vegas on Sunday, followed by a campaign event in Phoenix, Arizona, on Monday.

He then plans to head to California to see the damage caused by recent wildfires.

Nevadans don't need more bluster from the president, and don't need his reckless rallies that ignore the realities of COVID-19 and endanger public health, Mr Biden said in a statement on Saturday.

Nevada families need solutions - from containing the pandemic to building the economy back better to making quality health care more accessible to millions of Americans.

Additional reporting by Reuters
Then in 2014, there was a lot going on in the country that was jibing with what I saw in these books. I had this idea that maybe the union was the problem, and that if we lived in smaller countries, wed be better off, that it might be a more efficient and certainly a more democratic way to arrange things. And I got interested in who else in history had this idea.

A lot of people will see this book as a response to Trump and think that if hes defeated in November, it wont have any more relevance. Thats absurd to me, because I thought of this idea before Trump was even a candidate for president. Not that I havent been surprised by whats happened since, but Im a little less shocked than most people by whats developed since 2016.

Image Richard Kreitner, author of Break It Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of Americas Imperfect Union. Credit... Thomas Bollier

Whats the most surprising thing you learned while writing it?

The major thing is that really almost every region, every state, every group of people has at one time or another thought about breaking it up. Everyone knows about the Confederacy, and we assume thats all there is to say about secessionism in American history. Today, people in California and Texas respond to the idea with: That was settled at Appomattox, or We fought a war over that, remember? Those are lazy, cheeky lines of dismissal. Im not saying all of these movements are of equal weight or plausibility, but this is everyones inheritance.

I grew up in New Jersey, which has had its brief flirtations with secessionism  most interestingly in 1786, when the Articles of Confederation were failing to keep the country together. There was a proposal to start an import tax, a tariff, to give the federal government revenue. New York was the last holdout. Under the Articles of Confederation, every state needed to approve an amendment, which is why the country was effectively ungovernable. New York was a great port city and had its own customs revenues that it would have had to give up if the tariff went into effect. New Jersey said, as long as New York wont adopt this amendment, we wont contribute any more money to federal coffers. A lot of people saw this at the time as a de facto secession from the union. And that triggered the series of events that led to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
After being elected Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Nana Akufo-Addo, has served notice to convene a consultative meeting on the current political instability in Mali.

This was revealed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, in Accra at the Information Ministry on Sunday.

According to her, the meeting is scheduled for September 15, 2020 at the Presidential Lodge, Peduase.

It is to kick off at about 10:00am.

It would be recalled that the 57th Summit of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government, President Akufo-Addo was unanimously elected as Chair of ECOWAS Authority for a period of one year.

According to her, the security challenges in the region range from terrorism and violent extremism to insecurity at sea, political instability, election-related violence, drug and human trafficking, epidemics and pandemics which tend to cause instability in the region.

Dealing with threats to human lives and property, democratic governance and increasing insecurity in the Gulf of Guinea and Lake Chad Basin- Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and the northern parts of Nigeria, are very crucial, she said.

 There is no gainsaying that trade and economic development cannot thrive in an environment of insecurity, hence the need for the sustenance of regional peace and security, democracy and good governance, and the strengthening of co-operation among Member States.

She noted that the political crisis in Mali poses a major threat to the region if not dealt with appropriately.

With a vast territory without effective governance and the operations of several splinter terrorist groups operating in the country, a deterioration of the Malian socio-political crisis poses a serious security threat to the region, she said.

The country has come under three severe attacks since the military coup on 18th August 2020 with far-reaching ramifications on Burkina Faso and Niger. Reports indicate that while a number of people have been killed by the Jihadists, more than seven hundred (700) jihadist activities have been neutralised since the onset of the coup in mid-August. Such events should be considered a worrying sign for security and stability in the country and the region.

 The current situation in Mali may embolden the jihadists to undertake more attacks that will further cripple the country and destablise the region, she said.

This is the reason why ECOWAS has deployed efforts to address the situation since it began in June 2020 and following the coup d' etat that toppled the government of President Keita on 18th August, 2020 and his subsequent resignation and the dissolution of the National Assembly on 19th August 2020, according to her.

Since the onset of demonstrations in Mali, ECOWAS has carried out a number of mediation activities, she explained.

At the 57th Ordinary Summit of the E COWAS Authority held on 7th September, 2020 in Niamey, Niger, the Heads of State reaffirmed their determination to ensure that constitutional order is quickly restored in the country, with a political transition led by a civilian President and Prime Minister for twelve months, the Foreign Minister said.

 The Authority maintained all the decisions taken at its Extraordinary Summit of 28 August, 2020 and noted the ongoing consultations between the Malian stakeholders initiated by the National Council for the People's Salvation (CNSP). The Authority also directed that the Head of Transitional Government and Prime Minister, both civilians, be appointed no later than 15 September, 2020, she said.

The Consultative Meeting being convened by the Chair of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government on the Political Situation in Mali on 15th September, 2020 at Peduase is part of the mediation efforts of ECOWAS to return Mali to constitutional rule and to prevent the political situation from deteriorating further, she said.

Opposition rejects transition deal

The meeting is coming off at a time when the opposition coalition which led mass protests in Mali ahead of last months coup has rejected a transition charter.

On Saturday, September 12, 2020, Malis military leadership agreed to establish a18-month interim government until an election could take place.

The agreement followed three days of talks with the opposition and civil society groups.

However, the M5-RFP group, which took part in the negotiations, observed that the resulting document was an attempt by military leaders to grab and confiscate power.

The group also stated that the document did not take into account what it said was a majority vote for a civilian interim leader, and did not reflect the views and decisions of the Malian people.

This is despite the fact the interim charter announced by the military leaders stating that an interim legislative body is to be established comprising M5-RFP members.

The ousted 75-year-old former president, it would be recalled, departed Mali last week for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on 5 September for medical treatment.

That was after he suffered a minor stroke, according to military officials.

---Daily Guide
Given her history, its unsurprising that U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos tried to use the pandemic to coddle wealthy private schools at the expense of public school children by unilaterally altering the standard school funding formula in disbursing pandemic relief funds. Thankfully, a federal judge this month stopped her. But the episode highlights, once again, the question of why this determined enemy of public education continues to serve in Americas top education post.

DeVos is a wealthy Republican donor whose lack of experience in public education has been an issue since her contentious Senate confirmation in early 2017. What DeVos has mainly brought to the table is her affinity for private schools and colleges  including scam-prone, for-profit operations and fringe institutions  often at the expense of the public school and university kids who her department is primarily supposed to look out for.

She has made it harder for students to get debt relief even if they were taken advantage of by unscrupulous schools, and easier for religious schools to discriminate against gay, lesbian and transgender students. She typically comes down on the side of the monied and powerful and against vulnerable kids and families.

That pattern persisted this year regarding extra money appropriated for schools and colleges to address fallout from the pandemic. In the rush to approve the funds, Congress didnt build in strict guidelines on how it was to be used. Given that lack of specificity, the clearly proper approach would have been to distribute it based on the rules already in place for divvying such funding between public and private school students. Such funds are typically shared with private schools based on the number of low-income students enrolled in them. But DeVos took it upon herself to change that standard to favor  who else?  the rich. Her self-created new rule steered tax funds to private schools based not on low-income enrollment but on total enrollment, irrespective of how many of those kids were from wealthy families.

U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, an appointee of President Donald Trump, ruled on Sept. 4 that DeVos had no authority to take it upon herself to thwart the will of Congress, effectively coddling private schools at the expense of public ones. That ruling applies nationally and should be the final word on the subject (assuming the administration doesnt just ignore the ruling, as it has in other instances lately).

DeVos has repeatedly demonstrated that shell find any avenue she can to divert public money from public schools to private ones, going around Congress to do it. This shouldnt be a partisan issue. If congressional Republicans still claim to be the party of fiscal responsibility, they should be confronting this rogue education secretary at least as strongly as Democrats are.
(Natural News) The delicate wash cycle in washing machines may not be so delicate after all: Recent research found that delicate wash cycles shed more microfibers than ordinary spin cycles.

Researchers from Newcastle University partnered with Proctor & Gamble to test the effects of various variables such as temperature and water volume on microfiber shedding. They found that the greater the water volume, the more microfibers are shed. In a delicate wash cycle, more volumes of water are needed to adequately wash the clothes, upending current notions that place the blame on abrasive wash cycles.

The study suggests that it might be time to rethink the way people wash their delicates in order to minimize water pollution. Microfibers are major pollutants of the worlds oceans; they bypass wastewater filters due to their minute size and make their way into rivers and seas.

By avoiding high water-volume-to-fabric washes such as the delicate cycles and ensuring full wash loads, said co-author Max Kelly, we can all do our bit to help reduce the amount of these synthetic fibres being released into the environment.

The findings of the study were published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Delicate wash cycle pollutes oceans

A report from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature found that synthetic clothes and textiles contribute to 35 percent of primary microplastics found in oceans. Primary microplastics are very small particles that are five millimeters or less in size. They are directly released into the environment.

Clothes shed plastic microfibers through washing. In fact, more than 4,500 fibers are plucked per gram of fabric in each wash, according to preliminary research by the Plastic Soup Foundation, an ocean conservation project in Amsterdam thats funded by the European Union.

For the study, the researchers measured how many plastic microfibers are shed from polyester clothing for a range of cycles. They first used a tergotometer, a device composed of eight washing vessels that simulate domestic washing, testing whether changing the spin speed, temperature, time and water volume affects the number of plastic microfibers that get released. Then, the team tested polyester fabric on identical washing machines at a Procter & Gamble facility using a delicate wash cycle.

They found that 800,000 more plastic microfibers are plucked from clothing in a delicate wash cycle than a standard wash cycle. This is because a delicate wash cycle uses more water, the researchers found.

Previous research suggested that machine agitation is the most important factor affecting microfiber shedding. Machine agitation is composed of the spin speed, the number of changes in spin direction and the length of pauses during a wash cycle.

The high volume of water used in a delicate cycle, which is supposed to protect sensitive clothing from damage, actually plucks away more fibers from the material, said Kelly.

Mitigating environmental pollution is everyones responsibility, added Kelly. Introducing small changes to ones washing habits can make a big difference. (Related: Minimizing fibers used in synthetic fabrics can reduce plastic pollution and save marine life.)

How microfibers harm oceans

While microplastics are very small and lightweight, they cumulatively impact the environment in significant ways. They get scattered throughout the worlds waters, from tropical waters to polar ice, from freshwater to even the atmosphere. Previous research found that microfibers are responsible for 85 percent of shoreline pollution around the world.

Microfibers are also effective conveyors of other pollutants; they leach chemicals added to plastics or absorb pollutants in the water around them.

Due to their size, marine animals can mistake them for food. Authorities previously found microplastics in zooplankton, fish, mussels and whales. When ingested, chemicals in microplastics may affect the bodily functions of animals.

Microfibers also affect humans as they can pollute drinking water and the air, as well as find their way into our food.

These hazards highlight the importance of curbing water and air pollution and the need to enact policies regulating the use of microplastics.

Learn more about the hazards of plastic microfibers at OceanHealthNews.com.

Sources include:

MindBodyGreen.com

OceanCleanWash.org

TheGuardian.com

EurekaAlert.org

MarineDebris.NOAA.gov

IntelligentLiving.co
Pushing for new roads to reelection, President Donald Trump is going on the offense this weekend in Nevada, which hasnt supported a Republican presidential candidate since 2004.

Trump is defying local authorities by holding public events Saturday and Sunday after officials blocked his initial plans for rallies in Reno and Las Vegas because they would have violated coronavirus health guidelines. It's the kind of fight that Trump's team relishes and underscores the growing importance of Nevada in Trump's quest for 270 electoral votes as the race against Democrat Joe Biden looks tight in a number of pivotal states.

Trump narrowly lost Nevada in 2016 to Hillary Clinton, and the state has trended further toward the Democrats in the past decade. But Trump's campaign has invested heavily in the state, relying on its ground game to turn out voters. Democrats, by contrast, have largely relied on virtual campaign efforts during the pandemic, save for the casino workers Culinary Union, which has sent workers door to door.

Also read: Trump, struggling to define Biden, steps up Harris attacks

The Democrats are scared. They know President Trump has the momentum," said the state GOP chairman, Michael McDonald.

Both candidates have spent about $4.5 million in Nevada, while Trump has made $5.5 million in future reservations in the state and Biden has allocated $2.5 million, according to the ad tracking firm Kantar/CMAG.

The Trump team originally planned rallies at airport hangars in Reno and Las Vegas, but those were scuttled by due to concerns the campaign would not abide by COVID-19 restrictions. State Republicans blamed Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak for trying to hurt the presidents reelection chances, even though the Reno rally was canceled by airport officials and Las Vegas airport officials said they were never contacted by the campaign.

Sisolak has limited in-person gatherings indoors and outdoors to 50 people since May, a recommendation based on White House reopening guidelines.

Instead, Trump scheduled an event in Minden, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) south of Reno, on Saturday night. He planned to host a Latinos for Trump roundtable Sunday morning in Las Vegas, followed by an evening rally at a manufacturing facility in neighboring Henderson.

Privately, the Trump campaign welcomed the fight, believing it highlighted a reelection theme: Trump's insistence that the nation has turned the corner on the pandemic, while Democrats, including Biden and governors, are hurting the nation's economy and psyche with stringent restrictions. The pandemic, which has killed more than 190,000 Americans, still claims 1,000 lives a day.

The fact that Donald Trump is even considering holding these unsafe events in the midst of a global pandemic is just the latest example of his poor judgment and complete disregard for Nevadans public health and safety, said Madison Mundy of the state Democratic Party.

The White House announced Saturday that Trump will visit California on Monday to receive a briefing on the devastating wildfires racing through the region. He has largely been silent on the blazes, which Oregons emergency management director said was a possible mass fatality event.

Some Democrats fear a possible Trump momentum gain in Nevada, with the president showing increasing support from Latinos and noncollege educated white voters, two important constituencies in the state.

Also read: Opinion | Stage set for class wars in the United States

The tightening race in a number of the most contested states has led to a renewed effort for Trump to expand his electoral map.

The campaign has lavished attention on three Great Lakes states that flipped his way narrowly in 2016. Several polls earlier this summer suggested Trump may be in trouble, but a handful in both Pennsylvania and Wisconsin following the nominating conventions showed a close race.

Polling in North Carolina and Florida also shows a competitive race, and there is increasing concern within the Trump campaign about Arizona. Once considered fairly safely in Trumps column, Arizona has been ravaged by the coronavirus and the Trump team has grown worried about a slip in support among the states older residents.

The president on Monday planned to return to Arizona, which he has visited multiple times since he resumed traveling during the pandemic.

If Arizona slips away, Trump campaign officials privately acknowledge that it would complicate his path to 270 electoral votes. If he loses Arizona, winning Wisconsin  the most likely Midwest state for Trump to retain  would not be enough even if he keeps Florida and North Carolina. It would require him to win somewhere else, which has led to a renewed focus on Minnesota, New Hampshire and the at-large congressional districts in Nebraska and Maine.

Nevada has become a particular focus, in part because Las Vegas is an appetizing location for Trump to raise money. He scheduled at least one high-dollar fundraiser there over the weekend  as well as one in Washington before he flies west  as he looks to assuage growing concerns that he could fall short of cash. Couples were asked for $150,000 for the Las Vegas fundraiser.

The Republican National Committee said the $18 million expected to be raised over the weekend, including from a stop Saturday at his hotel in Washington, would be shared by Trump's campaign, the committee and several state GOP committees.

Trump and Republicans raised $210 million in August, a robust sum but far behind the record $364.5 million taken in by Biden and his party that month. Though the Trump campaign has insisted that it has more resources on hand than it did at this time in 2016, whispers about a financial disadvantage led Trump himself this past week to suggest he may put some of his own fortune into the race.

Nevadas financial health is dependent on the national economy doing well because the state draws so much revenue from tourism. When the pandemic hit, Nevadas casinos and all gambling shuttered for about 11 weeks, and the state is trimming about one-quarter of its budget at a time of sky-high unemployment.
Lucknow, Sep 13 : History-sheeter Surendra Kalia, who had allegedly staged an attack on himself in Lucknow to get police gunner and had escaped to evade arrest, has been found hiding in Kolkata in West Bengal.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Lucknow, Somen Barma told reporters, "A team has been sent to seek remand of Surendra Kalia from Kolkata. Kalia carries a cash reward of Rs 50,000 on his head. He also ran an extortion racket and took railway contracts." Kalia was arrested from a hotel in Jadavpur police station area on August 31.

Kolkata Police chanced upon Kalia while conducting a drive to enforce lockdown. He was living in the hotel under the false identity of Surendra Kumar, said Kolkata Police officials.

The Kolkata Police recovered an improvised 9 mm pistol from Surendra's possession and booked him under the Arms Act.

Kalia has over 20 criminal cases against him. He had allegedly staged an attack on himself on July 14 near a hospital in Alambagh area and his private gunner Ramroop Yadav suffered injuries.

Kalia had lodged a police complaint, alleging an attempt on his life at the behest of jailed mafia don-turned politician Dhananjay Singh.

Lucknow Police had lodged an FIR but the ballistic report exposed Kalia's lies testifying that 13 rounds were fired on his vehicle from two weapons, but shells of only one were found from the spot.

Kalia was an associate of mafia don Abhay Singh. His aide Ashish Pandey was killed in a shootout over a railway contract issue by henchmen of Narendra Pahadi in Lucknow in March 2016.

Kalia has also been named in similar shootouts in Lucknow's Charbagh and Hussainganj.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 19:36:48|Editor: huaxia

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by Xinhua writers Luo Chen, Min Zuntao, Peng Zhaozhi, Peng Peigen

NANCHANG, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- As the bell rang, students from Yantian Primary School ran out of the classroom with their melodicas, rushing into the music classroom next door.

Yang Hao, the only music teacher of the village school in east China's Jiangxi Province, then guided the students to review the tunes from the previous class and helped them correct their fingering one by one.

Over the years, students from the school -- many are left-behind children whose parents work outside the village -- have set up their own melodica band and led a more colorful life thanks to Yang's guidance.

Yang's music course has been the favorite of the students in the school located in the remote mountainous Wanzai County.

Yang Hao chats with school melodica band members during a training session at Yantian Primary School in Gaocun Township, Wanzai County, east China's Jiangxi Province, Sept. 3, 2020. (Xinhua/Peng Zhaozhi)

FILLING A NEED

Yang, 30, still remembers the first day when he came to the school: it was nearly a two-hour drive from the county town to the village, along a long and winding mountain highway.

In 2017, he chose to be a rural teacher after graduating with a degree in music, and then was assigned to the school. At that time, there were over 100 students and only nine teachers in the school, with no one specifically assigned to teach music, PE or art classes.

Photo taken with a drone on Sept. 4, 2020 shows Yantian Primary School in Gaocun Township, Wanzai County, east China's Jiangxi Province. (Xinhua/Peng Zhaozhi)

To fill the need for music education, Yang started thinking about an appropriate way to teach his students.

After comparing several musical instruments, Yang, who majored in saxophone at college, chose the melodica as the instrument for his students to learn music.

"The melodica is easier for primary school students, and is affordable. An ordinary melodica costs just over 80 yuan (about 11.65 U.S. dollars)," he said.

Yang's idea was supported by the school's headmaster Luo Xinping. When the autumn semester of 2018 started, a melodica band consisting of 28 students was founded in Yantian Primary School.

Yang Hao offers instruction to school melodica band members during a training session at Yantian Primary School in Gaocun Township, Wanzai County, east China's Jiangxi Province, Sept. 3, 2020. (Xinhua/Peng Zhaozhi)

ENRICHING LIFE

It was not easy to start a new course in such a village school. These 28 students had barely received any formal music education before, thus Yang had to begin with the very basics.

Moreover, some of the parents did not support the idea, thinking that learning the melodica would affect their children's grades.

"When we first started learning the melodica there were many things I didn't understand, so I asked Mr. Yang. He explained them for me one by one," recalled Li Jiating, a fifth-grader at the school.

Yang Hao teaches in a music lesson at Yantian Primary School in Gaocun Township, Wanzai Township, east China's Jiangxi Province, Sept. 4, 2020. (Xinhua/Peng Zhaozhi)

With Yang's endeavor and patience, the children gradually grasped the basics of music and began to enjoy playing the melodica.

"Before I learned to play the melodica, I always watched TV, helped with the housework and played with my friends outside after finishing my homework," Li said. "But now, I practice the melodica. Every time I finish a tune, I feel a sense of achievement."

At the school, most of the students are left-behind children raised by their grandparents. Yang found that many of them had no special hobby, and some of them were even addicted to playing mobile games.

However, with the introduction of the melodica, many students saw their lives transformed.

Yang Hao (2nd R) holds a Q&A session for members of Yantian Primary School's melodica band in Gaocun Township, Wanzai County, east China's Jiangxi Province, Sept. 4, 2020. (Xinhua/Peng Zhaozhi)

CONTINUING STORY

Last year, 16 students from the melodica band took part in a county-wide contest on behalf of the town. For the contest, Yang had taught them a new tune and led them in practicing it for several months.

For the children, this was a rare chance to leave the mountains and experience the outside world. Even though they were nervous before taking the stage, their performance still won warm applause from the audience in the hall.

"With the success of the performance, those parents who hadn't supported us changed their mind, and many students that hadn't studied the melodica started asking to join," Yang said.

Photo taken with a drone on Sept. 4, 2020 shows Yang Hao and school melodica band members taking part in a training session at Yantian Primary School in Gaocun Township, Wanzai County, east China's Jiangxi Province. (Xinhua/Peng Zhaozhi)

Taking this opportunity, Yang and Luo decided to promote the teaching of the melodica in the school and more and more students started playing the instrument.

Nowadays, the sound of melodica can often be heard around the village.

Li Jiating (C), a member of Yantian Primary School's melodica band, plays a new melody for her mother as the band's instructor Yang Hao (L) pays a home visit in Wanzai County, east China's Jiangxi Province, Sept. 4, 2020. (Xinhua/Peng Zhaozhi)

"This is a good start for our school's art education," Luo said. "We want to recruit art teachers to enrich our art education so that the children in our village have more opportunities and platforms to realize their dreams."

Yang Hao (1st R) holds a weekly field training session for members of Yantian Primary School's melodica band in Gaocun Township, Wanzai County, east China's Jiangxi Province, Sept. 3, 2020. (Xinhua/Peng Zhaozhi)

(Video reporters: Peng Zhaozhi, Luo Chen, Min Zuntao; video editor: Wu Yao)
Two Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department deputies were critically wounded in a shooting after being "ambushed as they sat in their patrol vehicle" in Compton, California, Saturday, the department tweeted.

Details: Police were looking for the gunman, who "opened fire without warning or provocation," per the department. Sheriff Alex Villanueva told a news briefing one of the deputies is a 31-year-old mother and the other is a 24-year-old man.

Both graduated from the academy 14 months ago. They had surgery for multiple gunshot wounds, he added.

President Trump, who's due to visit Sacramento, California, Monday retweeted video of the shooting with the comment, "Animals that must be hit hard!"

Around 3am., the LA County Sheriff's department tweeted: "To the protesters blocking the entrance & exit of the HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM yelling "We hope they die" referring to 2 LA Sheriff's ambushed today in #Compton: DO NOT BLOCK EMERGENCY ENTRIES & EXITS TO THE HOSPITAL. People's lives are at stake when ambulances can't get through."

Of note: Reporter Josie Huang, who works for LA NPR affiliate KPCC, was arrested during a protest that broke out in the aftermath of the shooting. KPCC executive editor Megan Garvey tweeted, "Why are reporters being arrested? Where can I go get her?"

The LA County Sheriff's department later claimed Huang "did not identify herself as press and later admitted she did not have proper press credentials on her person."

Huang tweeted on Sunday morning, "Hi, all. Im out of county jail and am headed home. Thank you for caring. I have seen @LASDHQ tweets and have thoughts and videos to share soon after a little rest."

Editor's note: This article has been updated with details from the briefing and the arrest of reporter Josie Huang.
mfanukhona@times.co.sz

MBABANE  UNDP has pledged its contribution towards Eswatinis inclusive economic growth, which includes strengthening the rule of law and justice to boost investor confidence.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said business could thrive in Eswatini and help address social and economic inequalities if the systems and core institutions for governance were strengthened.

capacity

It said this was actually possible if institutions had the capacity to deliver rule of law, justice, security and basic services to those at risk of being left behind.

To realise this dream, UNDP mentioned that government institutions should equitably engage with men, women and communities, including the most marginalised ones.

In its Draft Country Programme Document for Eswatini (2021-2025), UNDP says safeguarding human rights is important to combat inequalities and offer necessary checks and balances to ensure that businesses promote inclusive economic growth.

Adopting a whole-of-government approach, UNDP said it would support national leadership in building capacities for integrating the Sustainable Development Goals into national plans and budgets while facilitating innovative use of goal-based disaggregated data to inform national and sectoral plans and budgets.

oversight

Working closely with key national oversight institutions such as Parliament and the Commission on Human Rights and Public Administration, UNDP pledged to strengthen the orientation of lawmaking, representation and oversight functions towards the goals.

Special focus, it says, will be on engaging parliamentary leadership to enhance accountability, particularly on budget scrutiny, and develop committee structures that can take charge of the goals (including ensuring development of timely credible data and reports from relevant institutions).

By integrating the goals into plans and budgets and supporting their monitoring and oversight with digital solutions, UNDP, with other United Nations partners, will contribute to creating an enabling environment for reaching the furthest behind first.

Given the interconnected and complex nature of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, support to strengthening financing frameworks at country level will be taken forward as part of broader efforts to support Eswatini on Sustainable Development Goal-related reforms.

UNDP will support an integrated national financing framework through the development finance assessment and integrated financing solutions as part of the overall UNCT approach to supporting the government to implement the 2030 Agenda, UNDP partnered with the national leadership to design the masterplan for economic recovery.

Taking this forward, UNDP says it will focus on strengthening national coordination capacities through sector-wide approaches for planning, financing and results-based management to enhance efficiencies and coordination and supplement Sustainable Development Goal-centric data for policy reform.

policy

Towards mitigating the socioeconomic impact of COVID-19, UNDP will facilitate dialogue for developing fiscal policy responses, while supporting the monitoring and development of policy stances to the pandemic.

Positioning the country to respond to the challenges and opportunities of COVID-19 will be central to economic recovery. UNDP will also support both investment mapping for the goals and impact investing to mitigate risks to reaching these goals due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A key implementation strategy for the country programme is through partnerships with civil society organisations (CSOs).

UNDP says it will engage CSOs in testing innovative solutions and creating evidence for scaling-up.

UNDP will support civil society efforts to undertake monitoring of progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals and international human rights treaties.






By Express News Service

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray appealed the Maratha community members to refrain from calling any protest during a pandemic and assured them that the government is committed to working on the Maratha reservations.

Amid protests called on by various pro-Maratha quota organizations, the CM in his online address to the state on Sunday said that they are exploring various options on providing Maratha reservations, which was given an interim stay by the Supreme Court on September 9.

We do not want to do politics over this sensitive issue. The government is committed to this reservation. We will approach the Supreme Court and take the case to a larger constitutional bench as per suggestions of the apex body. We appeal the people to extend the cooperation with the state government, Thackeray said.

The CM said that the ruling of the apex court was also unexpected as reservations in other states were not touched and the petitions in that regard were also pending any ruling.

Uddhav Thackerays appeal comes when pro-Maratha activists have started calls for protests in various districts while some organizations have started their deliberations at Aurangabad to decide the future course of action.

This is your government so there is no point in agitating against our own. I have also spoken with the Opposition leader and BJP MLA Devendra Fadnavis who is presently in Bihar, he has also promised to extend all help. So, lets solve this together, Thackeray said.

Breaking his silence on actor Kangana Ranauts controversy, the chief minister said there are deliberate efforts being made by some people to malign the state and target his government.

But I have seen many such political storms. Politics is being played. Let them do that. I will not speak on the issue now but will make my stand clear some other time after keeping the chief ministerial mask aside, he noted.

However, Thackeray did not speak over the attack on the retired Navy Officer allegedly by Shiv Sena activists.
Secretary, department of space and chairman, space commission K Sivan on Saturday said Gaganyaan programme, the indigenous mission that would take Indian astronauts to space, was extremely important for India as it will boost science and technology capability of the country.

Addressing the 15th convocation function of the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad (IIIT-A) and the institutes first ever convocation to be held online on Saturday, Sivan highlighted the importance of the Indian crewed orbital spacecraft that will launch a manned mission to space, making the country fourth in line to have sent a human to space.

Speaking as the chief guest, Sivan said starting a space programme in a country like India in 1960s was one big crazy idea. But Vikram Sarabhai foresaw the potential of space technology in transforming India. When the whole world was using space for military domination, Sarabhai thought that for a country like India with its immense size and diversity, the space technology platform is the only suitable platform for fast-track development. And the results are here for all of us to see.

Each moment in our lives in one way or the other is connected with space technology. Today when we embark on expanding the scope of Indias space program, we are actually realising the vision of Sarabhai, he added.

He also said that the reforms like allowing private sector, start-ups as well as academia to undertake space missions thereby bringing in innovation, technical diversity and human resource development had immense potential to improve the bottom line of space industry in India.

The top scientist said that despite the progress made over the last half a century, we still had unresolved issues of reducing poverty and hunger, providing good health services and sanitation, adequate supply of clean drinking water, providing quality education to people, etc. He called upon the students to work wholeheartedly in solving these problems.

As many as 403 students were awarded different degrees at convocation function. Besides this, the institute also awarded 23 medals to meritorious at the convocation. Ten research scholars were also conferred PhD degrees.

IIIT-A director Prof Nagabhusan shared that of the 196 students, who had opted for campus placement support, 191 had been already placed. A whopping 83 companies had visited the campus, offering average salary package of 22.5 lakh per annum.

Vaibhav Srivastava was awarded the Chairmans Gold Medal for 2020 for his outstanding performance. Vaibhav Srivastava, Shivam Fialok and Simran Gill were awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal respectively for BTech (IT). In BTech (ECE), Shravya Pandey was awarded gold, Srishti Agrawal the silver and Gauranshi Nili the bronze medal respectively.

Dr TCM Pillay memorial gold medal for BTech (IT) was awarded to Garima Chadha, Nobel Laureate prof Claude Cohen Tannoudji gold medal to BTech student Tanya Agarwal, Prof Dr Ing Mathias Kleiner gold medal to BTech student Niharika Shrivastava and prof Joelle Cohen Tannoudji gold medal to MTech bio-informatics student Shivani Gupta during the convocation.

All outstation guests, students and members of various bodies including the board of governors attended the event online while those present in the campus attended it physically from the IIIT-A auditorium while adhering to all social distancing norms and wearing facemasks.
The Delhi Police Sunday said it is investigating the role of all individuals who took part in the February riots and were behind the larger conspiracy of organising violence and inciting communal passion amongst communities.

In an official statement, it said various interest groups are using social media platforms and other online portals to raise questions about the fairness of investigation into the northeast Delhi riot cases.

It is alleged that anti-CAA protestors, including social activists, academicians and students, are being framed in "false cases", the force said

"Some are taking out few lines out of the chargesheets filed in the courts out of context in order to create a controversy and doubt about the investigation. Their assertion is not true and, instead, motivated," the police said in the statement.

The statement said the Delhi Police does not consider it appropriate and necessary to reply to them at this stage as the matter is sub-judice.

The force said it is for the police to conduct investigation and submit its report to the court to take cognisance in the matter for trial, adding that those raising questions may instead take it up in the court of law at the appropriate time as per established judicial process.

The riots in the northeast district between February 23 and 26 had claimed 53 lives and left 581 injured, 97 of them with gunshot wounds.

"Delhi Police is investigating into the role of all such individuals who took part in the riot and were part of the larger conspiracy in organising violence in the northeast Delhi and inciting communal passion and hatred amongst communities," it also stated.

According to the force, the Delhi Police has registered 751 FIRs in connection with communal riots that took place in the last week of February this year.

As far as the investigation is concerned, Delhi Police has meticulously carried out the probe in the most professional manner, it said.

After collecting and collating all evidences, the investigation has been finalised in most of the important cases and the charge sheets submitted in the court for trial, the police also said.

They said that the riots also caused large scale damage to both private and public properties.

In their attempt to prevent violence, 108 police personnel received injuries and 2 succumbed, the statement said.

So far, police have arrested 1,575 persons in 751 cases. Over 250 charge sheets have been filed in the riots related cases in which 1,153 accused (571 Hindus and 582 Muslims) have been charge-sheeted.

All these cases are pending before the special courts constituted for the trial, the police added.
Beginning Monday, Corvallis community members will be able to make their case for why they should help review, and potentially change, the names of the citys schools.

Now that the Corvallis School Board has stricken the names of three former presidents from its schools, it has begun discussions as to what will replace those names and who will further review other district building names. A School Renaming Task Force membership application will go live Monday on the Corvallis School districts website and will be available for seven days, until Sept. 21.

The main thing that well want to know is why a person would want to serve and participate on the task force, said district spokeswoman Brenda Downum. We really want to have multiple perspectives for the process.

The applications will be available online-only in English and Spanish. According to the groups charter, the district plans to appoint nine to 15 diverse residents, students, parents, school staff and social justice experts. Downum said applicants will be asked to disclose their race and why theyd be a good fit for the task force. Appointees will be notified by the end of the month, and their first meeting will be held virtually during the first week of October.

On Aug. 6, the board voted in favor of a resolution immediately removing the names of Herbert Hoover, Thomas Jefferson and Woodrow Wilson from three Corvallis elementary schools. In the interim, the schools have adopted the names of their mascots: Husky, Jaguar and Wildcat, respectively. The same resolution also calls for a community engaged process to review the names of all schools in the district and make recommendations for replacement or retention.

So, according to Superintendent Ryan Noss, the task forces primary goals are to review the names of all district buildings and recommend new names for any buildings with names deemed inappropriate.

In the past month, district staff have removed signage with the names from the schools, edited the names out of district-run websites as well as social media accounts and submitted name-change paperwork required by the Oregon Department of Education. Research is still being done regarding further name changes in computer systems the district uses and grant updates to reflect new school names.

Local law enforcement, emergency responders and the U.S. Postal Service have also been notified of the name changes. According to Downum, temporary signage has been arranged to be put up at the three elementary schools without permanent names. It is unclear at this time how much money the district has spent and plans to spend on name-change-related infrastructure.

Tentatively, final school name recommendations will go to the School Board by January. The board will then vote to finalize a name for each school. Noss stressed that this deadline can be flexible.

Our prioritys going to be a complete process, with time for community input and thoughtful deliberation, he said.

There will be two public input periods, during which the task force will take name recommendations from the community. One will be prior to the task forces first meeting and the other at the halfway point of its work.

Multiple School Board members during their Thursday meeting expressed concerns that some previously submitted name recommendations may be overlooked once the task force begins its work. The best way a Corvallis resident can ensure their recommendation is received, members agreed, is to resubmit it to the task force once its official channel of communication has been established.

Name recommendations, according to the Aug. 6 resolution, should be a source of community inspiration and highlight the work of local and national figures whose histories, as they relate to social justice, have been vetted.

In Corvallis  we do have diversity, but sometimes we dont always see it, Downum said. We really are seeking to have representation in the work that we do.

Reporter Nia Tariq can be reached at 541-812-6091 and nia.tariq@lee.net.

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School leaders are forcing hundreds of pupils to isolate at home for two weeks after just one child tests positive for coronavirus.

Whole year groups are being sent home amid major confusion among teachers and local public health officials over the Government's official guidance for schools.

Current guidance to schools states: 'Maintaining distinct groups or 'bubbles' that do not mix makes it quicker and easier in the event of a positive case to identify those who may need to self-isolate and keep that number as small as possible.'

But many schools have designated whole year groups as a bubble, meaning that hundreds of pupils are being told to isolate in the event of a positive test.

School leaders are forcing hundreds of pupils to isolate at home for two weeks after just one child tests positive for coronavirus. Whole year groups are being sent home amid major confusion among teachers and local public health officials over the Government's official guidance for schools. (File photo)

The MoS understands that all Year 7 and Year 10 pupils at 20,000-a-year North London Collegiate School (above), a top independent day school for girls aged 4-18, have been told to isolate for two weeks after just two pupils fell ill last week.

City of London School for Girls (above), where fees cost 19,000 a year, sent more than 100 pupils home last week after one Year 8 pupil tested positive

Doctors, scientists and MPs last night warned that the 'farcical' policy threatened to wreck the education for a generation of children who only returned to classrooms earlier this month after spending six months at home.

It also threatens to set back efforts to return millions of workers to offices and workplaces because they have to stay at home to look after their children.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal at least a dozen schools have sent hundreds of children home in the last week after a single pupil tested positive for Covid.

Labour's health spokesman Jon Ashworth said: 'This is not sustainable and it's a nightmare for parents trying to get back to work. Children could be off for two weeks, go back to school and another kid gets it then they are all back off again. When would it end?

'I urge the Government to look at this and issue clear guidance to end this farcical situation.'

Tory MP Robert Halfon, chairman of the Education Select Committee, said: 'They should not be sending an entire year group home, the priority must be to keep kids learning in schools. The Government must urgently clarify in tablets of stone what is supposed to happen.'

Year 5 pupils at Medway Primary School (pictured) in Leicester have been sent home for a fortnight after a pupil tested positive for Covid

The MoS understands that all Year 7 and Year 10 pupils at 20,000-a-year North London Collegiate School, a top independent day school for girls aged 4-18, have been told to isolate for two weeks after just two pupils fell ill last week.

City of London School for Girls, where fees cost 19,000 a year, sent more than 100 pupils home last week after one Year 8 pupil tested positive. Year 5 pupils at Medway Primary School in Leicester have been sent home for a fortnight after a pupil tested positive for Covid.

Year 10 students at Beauchamp College in Leicester must also self-isolate for a fortnight after a fellow pupil tested positive. In Wolverhampton, around 200 pupils were sent home to self-isolate for a fortnight after two positive Covid-19 cases in two schools.

Year 1 pupils at Newsham Primary School in Blyth, Northumberland, are self-isolating for 14 days after a student in the year group was diagnosed with Covid-19.

Dr Sunil Bhopal, a leading paediatrician, said: 'If we want children to have an education this is not a reasonable policy. Our priority needs to be educating our children through the winter. You can't send them home every time a pupil in their year group gets ill. Fourteen days in the house without going out at all does make me really concerned about children's physical and mental well-being. It's quite traumatic for children.'

Dr Bhopal said schools should adopt a similar strategy to treating a meningitis outbreak, adding: 'You don't send the whole year group home, you isolate the closest contacts and monitor whether they fall ill.'

Dr Ellie Cannon, a GP and MoS columnist, said: 'If you've got one child testing positive, isolating 200 children in a year group is disproportionate. We do not have any good evidence of Covid spreading among children at this stage. Teachers and schools need proper guidance, and we've got to make sure the response is proportionate.'

A Department for Education spokesperson commented that schools which sent whole year groups home 'are following our clear published guidance on how to respond to a positive case being confirmed in a school'.
The lengthy saga of ex-Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn takes a new turn next week when the auto titan-turned-fugitive's former assistant Greg Kelly goes on trial in Tokyo.

Ghosn's arrest in the Japanese capital in November 2018 on allegations of financial misconduct made headlines worldwide and kicked off an astonishing fall from grace for the businessman, once hailed as a corporate saviour for rescuing Nissan from the brink of bankruptcy.

But Kelly was also detained that day, having been effectively lured back to Japan from the United States on the premise of an urgent meeting.

And with Ghosn in Lebanon as an international fugitive after he made an audacious escape while out on bail in Tokyo last year, Kelly is now the only person expected to face trial any time soon in connection with the case.

The American lawyer appears in court from Tuesday facing a single charge: of conspiring to under-report tens of million of dollars in pay that Ghosn was allegedly promised after his retirement.

Kelly, who will turn 64 on the day the trial opens, denies any wrongdoing. He faces up to 10 years in jail if convicted.

The trial, expected to last around 10 months, centres around one question, fraught with complex technicalities: did Kelly and Nissan between 2010 and 2018 illegally conceal payments of around 9.2 billion yen ($87 million at today's rates) promised to Ghosn on retirement?

Nissan, which will be on trial alongside Kelly, says yes, and plans to plead guilty, multiple sources told AFP.

- 'I didn't do anything wrong' -

But Kelly has insisted on his innocence since day one.

"I didn't do anything wrong," he told AFP in an interview in early September.

"Carlos Ghosn never got paid anything and he wasn't promised anything," he insisted.

Nissan and Japanese prosecutors disagree, arguing they have evidence that these future payments were pledged to Ghosn, and therefore should have been disclosed in the firm's financial filings as required by Japanese law.

Story continues

Prosecutors have amassed a vast amount of documents, only a small portion of which the defence have been given so far, according to Kelly's lawyers.

Despite that, his team decided to agree to move to trial, arguing they had "no choice", with Kelly prevented from leaving the country and separated from his family while he waits for his case to go to court.

Kelly's legal team say they are confident he can be acquitted, despite the track record of Japan's prosecutors, who win over 99 percent of the criminal cases they bring to court.

But they argue they have been put at a strong disadvantage by the court's refusal to allow overseas witnesses to testify by videoconference.

The defence say some witnesses who could help acquit Kelly fear being detained if they testify in person in Japan.

"There is no trust in the Japanese judiciary system among foreign witnesses," Kelly's US lawyer James Wareham told AFP.

"They are afraid, they are not going to come to Japan."

- Defence remains confident -

Despite the obstacles, Kelly's Japanese lawyer Yoichi Kitamura said he is "confident we can win the case".

Nissan has been tight-lipped about the trial, with a spokeswoman saying only "we do not comment on pending litigation".

The company appears uncomfortable to finally have arrived at the court date, with a source close to the firm's leadership saying there was concern about negative media attention.

One of the trial's key witnesses will be Hari Nada, Kelly's former colleague, who obtained whistleblower status from prosecutors in exchange for his cooperation.

Former CEO Hiroto Saikawa, who was forced out over financial improprieties discovered by an internal investigation in the wake of the Ghosn scandal, will also give testimony.

The fact that he was able to resign without facing prosecution has been cited by Ghosn as evidence of what he claims is a biased justice system.

The former auto chief has defended his decision to flee Japan by claiming he would not have received a fair trial.

etb/sah/rma/axn/kaf
LONDON, Sept. 13, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Huobi Global announces today the H-token series - a suite of assets that are issued on Ethereum and backed by cryptocurrencies from other blockchains to bring more digital assets to the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem.

Simple Facts of H-Token Series

In February 2020, Huobi Global launched HBTC, an Ethereum-based token that can be 1:1 exchanged for BTC. A design like HBTC, which aims to be the bridge between the centralized and decentralized finance, ensures that users do not lose the value of BTC while enjoying the flexibility of Ethereum.

Today, approximately 5,000 HBTC has been minted, and these tokens enable users to seamlessly access decentralized protocols such as Uniswap, Curve, Balancer, Nest, and ForTube. In the near future, HBTC will also be used as DAI collateral on MakerDAO. HBTC's growing use cases prove that its value has been recognized by the market.

At today's launch, Huobi Global will provide three H-tokens, including DOT, LTC, and BCH. The combined market cap of these assets has approximated $1.1 billion and they are welcomed by crypto enthusiasts around the world.

The issuance of the H-series assets will allow more users in the crypto world to benefit from DeFi, accelerate the development of the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem, and promote the growth of Ethereum-based assets. As a bridge between centralization and decentralization, Huobi aims to make assets freer and allow hundreds of millions of people around the world to truly benefit from the development of DeFi.

"Huobi, as a bridge between the centralized and decentralized world, aims to liberate the wealth of the world. We hope to grow together with the Ethereum community, empower community projects, and actively embrace an open ecosystem," said Huobi CIO and head of Huobi DeFi Labs Sharlyn Wu. "Huobi's mission in DeFi is to provide the community with more high-quality assets, to make DeFi more inclusive, to make the global financial system better, and to realize the vision of enabling hundreds of millions of people around the world to truly benefit from the development of DeFi." Huobi DeFi Labs is an incubator backed by Huobi to support the DeFi ecosystem.

Media contact:

Hailan

4000600888

[email protected]

SOURCE Huobi Global
A demonstrator holds a sign reading "Defund the Police" during events to mark Juneteenth  which commemorates the end of slavery in Texas, two years after the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves elsewhere in the United States  amid nationwide protests against racial inequality, in New York City on June 19, 2020. REUTERS/Brendan Mcdermid

The Texas Municipal Police Association, the largest law enforcement group in the state, put out two ads in Austin telling drivers to "enter at your own risk" after the city slashed its police department budget.

"Limited Support Next 20 Miles," one of the signs reads.

The billboards come in response to the Austin City Council's decision to cut its police department budget by a third.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

A law enforcement group in Texas announced the release of two billboards that warn Austin visitors that the city slashed its police department budget.

"Warning!!! Austin Police Defunded Enter at Your Own Risk," reads one of the billboards.

Another sign tells visitors that there's "Limited Support Next 20 Miles."

Amid calls to defund the police, the Austin City Council last month voted to cut $150 million from its police department budget. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott criticized the decision, saying in a statement that it "paves the way for lawlessness."

The Texas Municipal Police Association, the group behind the ads, announced the release of the billboards earlier this week in a Facebook post. On its website, the group bills itself as "the largest law enforcement association in Texas," representing 30,000 officers across the state.

"This reckless act, a political stunt by the city council pandering to the radical left, will do nothing but endanger the people of Austin," the Facebook announcement read.

"As the largest police association in Texas, it is our duty and responsibility to stand up for the brave men and woman of the APD, as well as the other law enforcement agencies with jurisdiction within the city limits which will have less of APDs resources to depend on, and to raise public awareness of the dangers of defunding not just Austin, but any city across the U.S."

"Defund the police" has become a rallying cry among demonstrators protesting police brutality. Large-scale protests against police brutality erupted after the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died at the hands of Minneapolis police on Memorial Day. Months after Floyd died, police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, shot a Black man named Jacob Blake in the back at least seven times, reigniting protests nationwide.

In response to the protests, several other cities across the country have announced substantial cuts to their police department budgets.

Read the original article on Insider
Joseph Scott Pemberton was found guilty of killing Jennifer Laude outside a former US Navy base northwest of Manila.

The Philippines on Sunday deported a United States Marine convicted of killing a transgender woman in the Southeast Asian country in 2014, after he was granted an absolute pardon by President Rodrigo Duterte.

Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton left Manilas international airport at 9:14am local time (01:14 GMT) aboard an American military aircraft bound for the United States, according to Bureau of Immigration (BI) spokeswoman Dana Sandoval.

Pemberton was accompanied by representatives from the U.S. embassy on his way to the airport, she told state television PTV-4.

As a consequence of the deportation order against him, Pemberton has been placed on the Bureaus blacklist, perpetually banning him from coming back, BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said in a statement.

Renato Reyes, leader of the activist group that opposed Pembertons release, condemned the governments move to release Pemberton, saying the Philippines is at the losing end again.

LOOK: Photos of Pemberton in Camp Aguinaldo before he was taken to the airport pic.twitter.com/MDfeBLv4WK  Mike Navallo (@mikenavallo) September 13, 2020

We must ensure that there would be no more Pembertons in our land, no more crimes against Filipinos, Reyes said on social media.

Details of Pembertons flight arrangements were not disclosed to the media until after he left amid tight security measures.

A court had found Pemberton guilty of killing Jennifer Laude in a hotel in Olongapo, outside a former US Navy base northwest of the capital Manila, six years ago, in a case that sparked debate over the US military presence in its former colony.

Dutertes move to pardon Pemberton has sparked condemnation from activists who described the move as a mockery of justice.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, who served as a lawyer in the prosecution of Pemberton, had said Dutertes decision may have stemmed from his desire to get access to coronavirus vaccines being developed by US firms.

However, the Philippine health ministry quickly said that none of the US vaccine makers the government is in talks with had set any conditions.
Alleged Russian interference in the 2020 presidential election is headline news, once again, as a Ukrainian lawmaker is charged by the Trump administration in a sweeping plot to sow distrust in the American political process, reports the Associated Press. Microsoft also made claims that it detected hacking attempts targeting U.S. political campaigns, parties and consultants by agents from Russia, China, and Iran. In a September 10 blog post, Microsofts Tom Burt, Corporate Vice President of Customer Security & Trust, listed three groups from each region that Microsoft observed carrying out their cyber operations.

Rarely in the news, however, is the role played by Israeli cybersecurity startups in the creation of the Russiagate narrative itself. Incubated within the Israeli military apparatus and benefiting from an uninterrupted stream of billions in U.S. taxpayer dollars, these private Mossads have been present behind the scenes throughout the numerous Russia-related scandals fomented by the mainstream press to sow partisan discord among the American electorate and line the pockets of network executives.

Evidence of their activities has been exposed  though not pursued  in the latest volume of a U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee investigation on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, which shows how then-candidate Donald Trump personally embarked on a parallel campaign on behalf of Israel to block a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Originally submitted by Egypt, UNSCR 2334 strips Israeli settlements beyond the 1967 borders of any legal validity in the eyes of the international community and brands them a flagrant violation under international law. Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, had refused all of the advances made by Trumps operatives to use its veto power against the measure, and Trump himself would prevail upon Egyptian President al-Sisi  whom Trump calls his favorite dictator  to withdraw the declaration. Together with Israeli pressure, UNSCR 2334 seemed destined to languish in obscurity as Egypt acquiesced and delayed the vote to permit them to conduct an additional meeting of the Arab Leagues foreign ministers to work on the resolutions wording.

The Senates inquiries uncovered a consistent thread of IDF-linked cybersecurity firms and intelligence assets coordinating and facilitating meetings between the coterie of Russian characters that make up the Russiagate universe and the Trump campaign, including protagonists like Guccifer 2.0, the hacker who released Hilary Clintons infamous emails to Wikileaks via a cell phone registered in Israel.

George Birnbaum, a former chief of staff to Benjamin Netanyahu and GOP operative, told the committee how Trump aide Rick Gates had inquired about using Israeli technology to collect dirt on opponent Hillary Clinton at a March 2016 meeting, explaining to the senators what would be so attractive about Israeli companies, specifically:

These guys came out of the military intelligence army unit, and its like coming out with a triple Ph.D. from MIT. The amount of knowledge these guys have in terms of cybersecurity, cyber-intelligence [is] just so beyond what you could get [with] a normal education that its just unique  there are hundreds and hundreds of Israeli start-up companies that the founders are guys who came out of this unit.

The unit Birnbaum is referring to is the IDFs Unit 8200, where these hundreds and hundreds of tech startups are born right in the bowels of the Israeli national security state and propagate throughout the world and the United States, in particular.

Described as private Mossads for hire, many of the Israeli hacking and surveillance firms that moved behind the scenes, brokering meetings between Trumps people and Russian oligarchs like Oleg Deripaska during the height of the so-called Russian collusion, were working through a key middle man with close ties to then-Trump National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, who was himself also working in an advisory capacity with the consortium of cyber-spy companies run by former Israeli intelligence officers known as the NSO Group, that is comprised of several of the Israeli startups summoned before the committee for voluntary, closed-door testimony.

While the American public was fed one Russophobic scandal after another, and Robert Mueller held court in the press for two years straight, no one  especially Mueller  was paying attention to this perverse network of Israeli surveillance companies who operated the virtual scaffold upon which the Russiagate narrative was being constructed and whose fellow Unit 8200 graduates in other subsectors of the cybersecurity industry are deeply ensconced in highly questionable activities surrounding the coming 2020 election.

The NSO Group

The NSO Group gained notoriety when it was identified as the developer of Pegasus, the iPhone spyware that was found installed on slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggis phone in the days leading up to his gruesome death. NSOs cell phone tracking technology has been associated with other ghastly events, such as the scandal involving Pegasus in Mexico, where a team of international investigators looking into the disappearance of 43 students in Ayotzinapa was targeted by the spyware, as well as Mexican journalists and their families.

One of the NSO companies questioned by the Senate committee in relation to Russian interference, Psy-Group, is currently under investigation in California, where it was caught red-handed actually trying to rig a local election for a paying customer. Another, Circles, was founded by a former Israeli intelligence officer and is known for covertly intercepting phone calls, text messages, and tracking locations of unaware citizens, according to a report by Forensic News. In 2018, Haaretz published an expose on the company disclosing the extent to which Circles and the Israeli espionage industry is helping world dictators hunt dissidents and gays, among other nefarious opportunities available in the global commerce of surveillance technologies.

The middle man the Senate investigation identified is Walter Soriano; singled out for his association with several Russian oligarchs like Oleg Deripaska and Dmitry Rybolovlev, who bought Trumps West Palm Beach mansion in 2008. The Senate report accuses Soriano and Israeli cybersecurity companies of coordinating between the Trump Campaign and Russia, but fails to pursue the matter beyond that.

The UN resolution denouncing Israeli settlements would pass on December 23, 2016, after four temporary Security Council members, Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal, and Venezuela reportedly took matters into their own hands and moved the vote forward. UNSCR 2334 became official as a result of a historic breach of established pro-Israel policy by the United States, which abstained from the vote. Widely reported as Obamas parting shot to Netanyahu and the incoming administration, the passing of the resolution went against Obamas own record of using U.S. veto power to banish similar proposals.

President-elect Donald Trump would take office in a matter of weeks and the Mueller investigation kicked off the barrage of Russophobic content peddled over the digital airwaves night after night. Stories like Maria Butinas were plastered all over the media to buttress the Russiagate narrative.

The legend of Maria Butina

Butinas former lover, Paul Erickson joked about being a CIA asset and had built a phony reputation as a man of staunch moral Christian values. Erickson worked for several Republican campaigns dating back to the late 80s, including a stint as national policy director for Pat Buchanans 92 White House run. He first achieved international notoriety as Mobutu Sese Sekos lawyer, reportedly accepting a $30,000 lobbying contract to obtain a U.S. visa for the African despot, which was ultimately denied.

It was Ericksons long-standing ties to the NRA and the organizations former president David Keene, which set the stage for the Maria Butina story as a Russian infiltrator looking for access to U.S. political organizations. Erickson had worked with Keene as a registered foreign agent since the 1990s and formed part of the NRAs efforts to forge closer ties to Israel since at least 2011.

Prosecutors would paint Butina as a seductress, ensnaring Erickson in a duplicitous relationship, but it was the cunning GOP operative who first spotted Butina during a 2013 trip to Moscow with Keene. Butina and Erickson would meet again in Israel one year later where they would begin their love affair during which he would become integral to Butinas activities, assisting the Russian gun enthusiast in developing relationships with individuals and organizations involved in U.S. politics, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

A con-artist by most accounts, Erickson is described by a Republican legislator as the single biggest phony Ive ever met in South Dakota politics. South Dakota was where Yale-educated Erickson came up in the political arena and where hes left a long trail of burned business associates and friends. In 2019, Erickson pled guilty to wire fraud and money laundering, admitting he had bilked 78 people of $2.3 Million over 22 years and was sentenced this past July to seven years in federal prison.

The NRA has been forging ties to the Israeli security state for years now. In 2013, Trumps former National Security Adviser, John Bolton, joined a delegation of 30 in Jerusalem for a 10-day tour of Israels police institutions. The honorary NRA member stated on that occasion, that Israel could serve as a model for American security. The legend of Maria Butina, itself, was seeded in Israel that same year when an obscure Israeli gun-rights group posted on Facebook that she had announced to have signed a cooperation agreement with the NRA and neighboring countries to promote gun rights at a meeting with its members.

Butina would meet with Erickson and Keene two weeks later in Moscow, along with Alexander Torshin, former deputy governor of Russias central bank and lifetime NRA member. Torshin, who has been targeted by U.S. sanctions, traveled with Butina to the United States to discuss U.S.-Russian economic relations in April 2015. The pair met with several senior American officials, like Federal Reserve vice chairman and former Israel central bank chief, Stanley Fischer; the Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, Nathan Sheets and others in a meeting moderated by AIG CEO Maurice Hank Greenberg. The details of the high-level meeting, two months before Donald Trump made his announcement to run for president, have never been made public.

Feature photo | Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee business meeting to consider authorization for subpoenas relating to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, the code name for the counterintelligence investigation undertaken by the FBI in 2016 and 2017 into links between Trump and Russian officials, June 11, 2020. Carolyn Kaster | AP

Raul Diego is a MintPress News Staff Writer, independent photojournalist, researcher, writer and documentary filmmaker.
SHANGHAI -- China banned pork imports from Germany on Saturday after it confirmed its first case of African swine fever last week, in a move set to hit German producers and push up global prices as Chinas meat supplies tighten.

Chinas ban on imports from its third largest supplier comes as the worlds top meat buyer deals with an unprecedented pork shortage after its own epidemic of the deadly hog disease.

The ban on Germany, which has supplied about 14% of Chinas pork imports so far this year, will push up demand for meat from other major suppliers like the United States and Spain, boosting global prices.

German pork exports to China are worth around 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) annually, and volumes had doubled in the first four months of this year on soaring demand after Chinese output shrank around 20%.

A spokeswoman for the German Food and Agriculture Ministry confirmed the ban, adding that the ministry remained in talks with the Chinese government on the matter.

German farmers association DBV urged the German government to continue talks with China about using a regional ban on imports involving only the local area in which an ASF case was found, rather than a blanket national import ban.

Germanys huge pork sales to China involve huge volumes of pigs ears, feet and tails. These are hardly eaten in Europe and the ban has created intense concern among German farmers about where this can now be sold, said DBV president Joachim Rukwied.

The ban, announced by Chinas customs agency and its agriculture ministry, had been widely anticipated given Beijings history of moving quickly to implement bans in such cases.

It comes two days before Chinese President Xi Jinping attends a meeting via video link with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Union leaders.

Export boon

The move is expected to benefit other major suppliers like the United States, Spain and Brazil.

Spains white pig sector is fully prepared to continue its growth trend in sales of safe and quality pork products to the Chinese market, Daniel de Miguel, international director of trade body Interporc, said on Friday ahead of the ban.

Unlike other European countries, Spain has not had to shut any pork processing plants due to coronavirus outbreaks in recent weeks, he added.

The United States is also well positioned to ship more pork to China, said Joe Schuele, spokesman for the U.S. Meat Export Federation.

U.S. live hog futures climbed on Thursday and Friday on anticipation of the ban.

African swine fever spreads through contact with infected animals body fluids and can also be spread by people and trucks. It is almost always fatal in pigs and there is no cure or vaccine available. It does not harm people.
Erdman had a good alibi, but two of the prosecution witnesses, sisters age 17 and 11, testified that they saw him carrying a suitcase near the Dennison residence on the critical Sunday. It was when they had been on their way home from a confirmation class at St. Paul Lutheran Church, which was about a mile from Dennisons house.

Later it was discovered that a photo of all the girls in the class had been taken that Sunday, and the Erdman defense team, evidently grasping at straws, asked Father Rigge whether he could determine at exactly what time it had been taken. Based on the shadows in the photograph, he testified that he was able to calculate that the plate was exposed at precisely 3:21 p.m. on the afternoon in question, proving that the identification by the young girls was not reliable. (In fact, it appears that an imposter with a suitcase and dressed in Erdmans style had been spotted walking through the neighborhood that afternoon.)

In his memoirs, Father Rigge said he didnt care whether Erdman was guilty or not, but had given testimony only to advance the scientific reputation of Creighton University and its observatory.
Philippine immigration officers and American personnel escorted the 25-year-old Pemberton, who was in handcuffs and wearing a face mask, from his cell in the main military camp in Manila to the airport, where he boarded a military aircraft. He was put on an immigration blacklist and will be banned from returning to the country, said immigration spokesperson Dana Sandoval.
A former New Jersey Superior Court judge turned Fox News legal analyst has been accused of sexually assaulting a man more than 30 years ago who was set to appear in his courtroom, according to a federal lawsuit.

Andrew Napolitano, Fox News' judicial analyst, allegedly forcibly sodomized and sexually assaulted a man in Hackensack who was facing three counts of arson in Napolitanos courtroom, according to the lawsuit filed in New York Southern District Court by attorney Jon L. Norinsberg, on behalf of the alleged victim.

The alleged victim is seeking $10 million in damages, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit is rife with graphic details of the alleged encounter between Napolitano and the man, going through a sordid cause and effect that allegedly left the victim with a lighter sentence.

In November 1987, the alleged victim was facing arson charges from a three-count indictment and hired Robert Hollis as his defense attorney, the lawsuit said. According to the lawsuit, Hollis was one of the leaders of a prostitution ring, which his then-client was unaware of.

Shortly after Hollis took on the alleged victims case, it was abruptly transferred to Napolitanos jurisdiction, with Hollis reassuring his client that hes my friend and I can take care of your case now," according to the lawsuit. Under Hollis advice, the alleged victim pleaded guilty to all three counts of the indictment, without any sort of plea agreement, according to the lawsuit.

Through an arrangement with Hollis, the alleged victim, who was then 20 years old, was instructed to visit Napolitano at his Hackensack home on December 1988, and to bring a Christmas card and a snow-shovel, according to the lawsuit.

When the alleged victim arrived, Napolitano answered the door and told him he was there to shovel snow, according to the lawsuit. Although he complied, the alleged victim thought it was odd; there was no snow on the driveway, merely a thin sheet of ice, the lawsuit said.

Soon after, Napolitano came back outside wearing a long trench coat, and beckoned the alleged victim back to the house. After talking to the victim for a while, Napolitano discussed the alleged victims case, explaining that the counts potentially meant years in prison, the lawsuit said

You know, you could be going away for a long time, Napolitano told the alleged victim, according to the lawsuit.

It was then that Napolitano put his hand on the mans shoulder and forced him down to his knees, according to the lawsuit. As Napolitano pushed the alleged victim down to the ground, Napolitano told the man to be a good boy," according to the lawsuit.

The alleged victim was then forced to perform oral sex on Napolitano, according to the lawsuit.

Although the alleged victim wanted Napolitano to stop, he was paralyzed with fear and scared of what Napolitano would do to him if he resisted or fought back, according to the lawsuit.

Judge Napolitano has assured us in the strongest possible terms that these allegations are false and he will fight them aggressively in court, Fox News said in a statement.

After the alleged assault, it seemed Hollis knew what happened between his client and Napolitano, telling the alleged victim dont worry about anything, the lawsuit said.

When it was time for sentencing on the alleged victims charges, Napolitano handed down what the alleged victim claimed was an extremely lenient sentience, according to the lawsuit.

Despite a prior juvenile arson charge and the severity of the criminal charges of arson, burglary of a motor vehicle and aggravated arson, Napolitano dismissed two of the alleged victims criminal charges and amended the other, the lawsuit said.

Napolitano allowed the alleged victim to avoid any jail time, instead handing down a sentence of five years of probation with 150 hours of community service, the lawsuit said. In addition, Napolitano ruled that any probation violations would be brought straight to him, the lawsuit said

The lawsuit also alleges that Napolitano, in an effort to block the alleged victim from filing the federal lawsuit, recently contacted police in New York and South Carolina - where the alleged victim now lives - and made false accusations that the alleged victim had made threats on Napolitanos life.

In a statement released by Napolitanos attorney Tom Clare, Napolitano denied all of the alleged victims accusations.

These accusations are completely false. Full stop, Napolitano said in the statement. I have never done anything like what the accuser describes, at any time, to anyone, for any reason. I have never had any personal relationship or inappropriate contact or communication of any kind with the man making this accusation. Each and every one of his claims against me are pure fiction. Period.

In his statement, Clare called the alleged victim a career criminal and claimed that the alleged victim had a history of making violent threats to harm Napolitano, prompting law enforcement to monitor the South Carolina mans movements.

Rodrigo Torrejon may be reached at rtorrejon@njadvancemedia.com.
Baby Lives Matter activist beaten, bloodied by Antifa rioters in Portland

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A pro-life activist and independent journalist says he was beaten by a group of Antifa and other left-wing rioters in Portland, Oregon Tuesday as violent protests and riots continue to engulf the city after more than three months.

Tayler Hansen, who is is known as the founder of the Baby Lives Matter movement, took to Twitter on Wednesday to detail an attack he suffered at the hands of four violent activists wearing Antifa black bloc attire.

Hansen, who has made headlines for painting the phrase BABY LIVES MATTER on the streets in front of abortion clinics nationwide, had been covering the riots and unrest in Portland for several days prior to the attack.

He was even arrested over the weekend along with several Antifa activists, writing on Twitter that he spent a night in the dog house with those I was there to expose!

Following his release from jail, Hansen returned to the streets of Portland to film the chaos Tuesday night. It didnt take long for him to become the target of violent protesters.

Last night in Portland I was beaten bloody by four people in Black Bloc



Heres the story pic.twitter.com/7xTopp692t  Tayler Hansen (@TaylerUSA) September 9, 2020

Last night in Portland I was beaten bloody by four people in Black Bloc, Hansen wrote on Twitter.

A photo of Hansen with a bloody wound on his chin accompanied the tweet.

That tweet was part of a lengthy thread where Hansen explained the events that unfolded in Stumptown the previous night.

It started with a press member recognizing me, he proceeded to get his phone to show a group of Black Bloc what I believe to be my Instagram, Hansen recalled. I fled and changed my disguise, and returned once they had arrived at a different location.

Hansen provided video evidence documenting two suspicious men addressing him by name on a Portland street corner.

That encounter was preceded by a Twitter user announcing Hansens presence in the area and accusing him of saying that he infiltrated antifa.

As I was standing on the corner two suspicious men were looking at me and talking amongst themselves, they walked by and directly addressed me by my name.



Heres the video of them acknowledging my presence. pic.twitter.com/HllDYWyCBT  Tayler Hansen (@TaylerUSA) September 9, 2020

I began walking away, a few blocks down there was a group of four dressed in Black Bloc waiting for me around the corner, Hansen explained. They proceeded to beat me. I was punched in the face, thrown on the ground where they began kicking me in the back and hitting me in the face again.

As they fled one yelled Stay out of Portland b****! he added. I am thankful they stopped the beating when they did and didnt use weapons to inflict harm or death upon me.

The attack on Hansen comes just over a week after a Trump supporter was shot to death in Portland by a left-wing protester sympathetic to the anti-fascist movement. The suspect of that attack was shot and killed by Portland police last Thursday when they tried to take him into custody.

In August, another man was hospitalized after he was beaten by Portland demonstrators.

Hansen first gained national attention after painting a mural reading BABY LIVES MATTER across the street from a Planned Parenthood clinic in Salt Lake City, Utah in July.

The pro-life activist felt compelled to start painting the murals after racial justice activists began painting the phrase Black Lives Matter on streets across the U.S. as part of the nationwide demonstration against the killing of African-Americans by police officers.

[Ten] unarmed Black Americans were killed by police in 2019. They have murals all around the country. Almost 400,000 innocent babies were murdered by Planned Parenthood in 2019. Its about damn time they get a mural too, Hansen proclaimed in a tweet at the time.

Hansen has also painted Baby Lives Matter murals in Washington, D.C., Richmond, Virginia, and Charlotte, North Carolina. He is six murals away from achieving his short-term goal of painting 10 Baby Lives Matter murals.

As the Baby Lives Matter movement expands nationwide, other pro-life groups have followed Hansens lead.

Over the weekend, members of Students for Life of America, Human Action Coalition and the Frederick Douglass Foundation teamed up to paint the phrase Black Preborn Lives Matter in front of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Baltimore.
The U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that IRS is ready to send the $1,200 stimulus checks to over 160 million Americans and qualified individuals.

The IRS is now ready and prepares to send the $1,200 checks within one week, according to the U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The IRS will use the same mechanism in sending the stimulus checks that could be anytime before the government operation shuts down.

There are three options left for distributing stimulus checks and other relief aid: first, another bill from the Republican Senate; second, another version of the stimulus package from Democrats. And last, is through an executive order that only Pres. Trump can do.

While bipartisan on another relief aid could still be possible as Congress returns next week to draft their own version of the stimulus package that includes stimulus checks, Pres. Trump's administration is also looking for ways to legally send the $300 billion unspent budget under the CARES Act.

If ever that Congress will discuss and deliberate another stimulus bill next week, it would be the fifth time since the impasse of their stimulus negotiations in July. Congress has failed to act on the call for another stimulus package two months ago, and Democratic members in Senate also rejected the Republican-led targeted bill.

Meanwhile, Congress will return next week and has 12 working days to draft the new stimulus bill while the Senate has 22 workings days since they resumed last week. The remaining days are very critical and essential for the possible another round of stimulus package.

Even though the Republicans and the Democrats have different views on the total amount of another stimulus package but one thing is just for sure, both parties are eager to send another stimulus checks up to $1,200 under the CARES Act.

Meanwhile, IRS is ow ready and preparing to send the $1,200 stimulus checks once Congress gives the green light to use the $300 billion unspent budget. According to a recently published report, the IRS will send the money within the week of its approval.

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that if the Senate passes the bill on September 30 and Congress will agree on it on October 1, Pres. Trump will immediately sign it on October 2. This means that the IRS will start sending the stimulus checks in the week ending October 12.

It can be remembered that Pres. Trump, who has bee very vocal and assertive in pushing for another round of stimulus package, also said that he would immediately sign a bill related to the stimulus package. He even said that he wanted to give more relief aids.

After the Democrats in the Senate rejected the proposed targeted bill that will help millions of Americans in the country, a series of actions were immediately taken to make sure that people in the country will meet their daily needs and expenses.

Trump's LWA's program or $300 unemployment will be extended for another three weeks. This means that those who started to receive the claims will have to expect a total amount of $1,800 unemployment claims. On Friday, legislation was also passed to suspend the payroll taxes until the end of this year from 6.2 percent to zero percent.

Check these out!
Nigerians arrested in Patong for romance scam, overstay

PHUKET: Two Nigerians have been arrested in Patong for operating an online romance scam and for overstaying their visa.

patongimmigrationcrimepolice

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Sunday 13 September 2020, 06:03PM

Photo: Patong Police

Police Police named the two men arrested as Nkemakolam Benson Ugonna, 21, and Osuchukwu Chukwuemeka Malachy, 19.

The pair were arrested at a hotel on Phra Meita Rd in Patong yesterday (Sept 12) by Patong Police officers led by Maj Suchart Chumphusaeng.

According to a report of the arrests, the two Nigerian men were brought to the attention of the Patong Police by an immigration officer in Songkhla investigating scammers who used Facebook accounts with photos of good-looking men to dupe Thai women to send them money.

According to the report, the two men told women through their fabricated Facebook persona that he would send a gift to the women, but that he needed them to send him money to pay for shipping costs.

After victims had transferred money to the designated accounts, the men withdrew money from the accounts via ATMs in different areas.

The two men were observed withdrawing money from the accounts via ATMs in Patong very often, leading officers to track them down to the hotel where they were staying

The two men were taken to Patong police Station for further questioning, and charged for operating the romance scam and for overstaying in the Kingdom of Thailand, reported Patong Police.

Under the current visa amnesty, which ends on Sept 26, the only way the two men could have been charged for overstaying their visa is if their permits to stay had already expired before Mar 26, when the visa amnesty was brought into effect.

However, officers at Patong Police Station today declined to confirm any other details of the arrests of the two Nigerian men, saying that only Maj Suchart, the leading officer in the case, could respond to questions  and that he was unavailable today.
Dhawala Gosaraviya is Ajith P. Dharmasuriyas fourth novel. He has published four childrens books and written lyrics for a recent movie Sri Wickrama. He is also a talented painter.





by Pramod Kandanarachchi

in Brecksville, Ohio





Dhawala Gosaraviya by Ajith P. Dharmasuriya

Genre: Historical Fiction

Sarasavi Publishers

ISBN # 978-955-31-1923-0





Ajith P. Dharmasuriyas novel Dhawala Gosaraviya that won 1st place at the 2019 Central Province Cultural Story Contest, came out recently. This tale is set in early 20th century in Hambanthota when the society was still feudal, although more traditional social hierarchy had been replaced with a new rich class.













Ajith narrates this fiction mainly from the points of view of Rendaralaa powerful aristocrat of their villagehis two wives and his love-interest, Heen-eki.





Dhawala Gosaraviya, somewhat confusing title, is how the author presents Heen-eki to the reader. The title itself is an enigma since the noun Gosaraviya (an unkempt women?) is not a very complementary phrase to refer to a female. Yet, the adjective Dhawala (fair-skinned?) is applied in an incredibly positive light as the source of her beauty.





Amusingly, Heen-ekis husband Suddappu, an illegitimate son of a Dutch church musician and a Sinhalese peasant woman, also able to win not only Heen-ekis hand but the heart of one of Rendaralas wives too.





Apparently Suddappus European complexion, even though a basis of disdain by other men throughout his life, doesnt hurt him with the opposite sex (in an unrelated note: the obsession for the fair-skin by those living in Indian Sub-Continent (with many skin-care products endorsed by many celebrities to make someone look whiter) is out of touch and frowned upon by contemporary Woke-culture in the West). But that is a subject for separate discussion.





Dhawala Gosaraviya is Ajith P. Dharmasuriyas fourth novel. He has published four childrens books and written lyrics for a recent movie Sri Wickrama. He is also a talented painter.





Interestingly, there is a cameo appearance by Leonard Woolfassistant Government Agent in Southern Province who is well known as the author of the novel The Village in the Jungle (Baddegama). In fact, Ajith was motivated to write this novel after reading his Diaries in Ceylon.





There is also a spectacular entrance of Halleys Comet in 1910 that is vividly described by Ajith. All the villagers travel to Kande Viharaya (on Bullock Carts and on foot) joined by Leonard Woolf in person (on a Horse Carriage) to witness this event. Although Halleys Comet is generally thought of as a bad omen, it was the happiest day of Heen-ekis life.





There are many background stories throughout the novel that sometimes veer away the reader from more exciting parts. Those are mainly disputes of various characters battling for dominance as the traditional village is converting to a more commercial entity. The author shows immense maturity in understanding the socio-economic forces operating in that era.





The main conflict of the story arises from complex relationships among Rendarala, his wives Karlinahami and Katharina, his cousin Punchirala, Heen-eki and her husband Suddappu. It is not clear whether this was a love-pentagon or even a love-hexagon depending on the situations. And Heen-eki definitely has something about her that attracts many suitors. On the other hand, it may not be different to what many females face at public transport, workplace or even at places of worship especially if they are Dhawala irrespective of whether they are Gosaraviya or not.





Despite living in a conventional society, their outlook of life when it comes to amatory affairs is furthest from traditional. None of them confine their behaviors to Victorian values that the European rulers subjected us for centuries. How Rendarala can genuinely love all three women in his life (simultaneously in this case) is indeed astonishing.





However tough, wealthy and powerful Rendarala is, he still cannot have children. So, there is nobody to pass on his wealth or carry his name. And that is eating him up inside. Then, he has this obsession with Heen-eki. To make matters worse Katharina is fond of Suddappu. The lust for Heen-eki on one hand and the jealousy of her husband Suddappu on the other and the guilt in his heart consumes Rendaralas soul.





This is when the author, Ajith Dharmasuriya, decides to look beyond the shortcomings of the exterior of Rendarala and see the powerful humanity in his heart. Ajith manages to appreciate the complexities of all of them and bring out the goodness of their characters.





This makes Ajith an exceptional storyteller. That is also what makes Dhawala Gosaraviya special and worth reading.





Veteran actor Sriyantha Mendis in his postscript to the novel wishes that this work someday become a visual art. There are all the ingredients for a popular and meaningful movie inside this story.








Photo: (Photo : Cameron Casey from Pexels)

A Utah dad whose son attempted to kill him in 2014 says that he has forgiven his son for what he did. The dad, Weston Harding, said that he has long forgiven his son, "My greatest interest is in his well-being and his progression."

The son, Erik Dair Harding, has appeared before the parole board. His family has expressed support for the 22-year-old son.

READ ALSO: Family of Chicago Man Shot by Police Looks for Answers and Bodycam Footage





The attempt to kill the Utah dad

In 2016, Erik tried to kill his father by planting a pipe bomb to his SUV. The bomb detonated, but the Utah dad survived while sustaining injuries.

Authorities discovered the pipe bomb under the driver's seat. During the investigation, the police asked the Utah dad if he has any idea of who might have grudge against him. According to the Utah dad, his youngest son expressed his upset about different matters. The investigation disclosed that Erik was upset because his parents could not afford to send him to college.

After blowing up his father's SUV, Erik made another pipe bomb, this time in an attempt to take his own life.

READ ALSO: Dad Wants to Impress Daughter's Boyfriend, Ends up Crashing Luxury Car





The failed attempts and the reason behind them

Erik admitted that he has searched ways in making a pipe bomb on the internet. He did this when he realized that he cannot attend college.

According to police reports, the son thought of killing his father so that he could claim zero income on his application for financial aid in college.

The son gets convicted

After a year of police investigation, the son was convicted for attempted murder, a first-degree felony, and attempted recklessness of an incendiary device, and second-degree felony.

The conviction comes with an order to serve the prison for at least three years or up to life imprisonment.

READ ALSO: Creative Dad Builds Desks to Help Kids Who Are Attending Virtual Learning Sessions





Utah dad forgives his son

Even if his son has done something serious, the father from Utah along with other family members, has constantly written letters to the parole board and showed up to the hearing to show support.

Weston says during parole hearings that he loves his son and he has completely forgiven him. The Utah dad's concern now is for his son's well-being.

Aside from this, the father shared that he has seen how his son has improved over time. He said, "He definitely wants to pick up his life and move forward. He now has hopes for the future and desires to make a positive influence."

Weston believes that people who have no support will not go a long way. He also said that he is hoping that his son will soon come home.

The Board of pardons with five members will vote on whether they are going to grant parole to the 22-year-old man.

READ ALSO: Dad and His Daughters Rescue Backyard Snakes for Free
Hopes for the second stimulus checks before the November 3 General Election are all but dashed as the Republicans and Democrats leaders are on a standoff in passing a second COVID-19 relief package.

After the Democrats rejected the skinny stimulus bill of the Republicans last week in the Senate, Americans are not likely to receive second stimulus checks before the election unless, by some miracle, the Congressional leaders come together for their sake.

However, even a miracle now seems unlikely with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He says he wished he could say they are getting another package but that it does not look right now, according to a CNN report.

An agreement between the Democrats and Republican leaders on a second COVID-19 relief package is all that is needed. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he could immediately start printing second stimulus checks as soon as he receives the order to send them out. This is according to a Forbes report.

However, time is running out for the Americans as the U.S. government will partially shut down by October in preparation for the election. The Congress will take a recess by October 12.

The COVID-19 relief package's primary aim was supposed to give Americans spending money to stimulate the U.S. economy.

Both parties have expressed their willingness to negotiate for a second relief package. Still, they so far have continued to bicker on a lot of issues involved, topmost of which is the total amount of a second package.

They also bickered on the issue of sending out second stimulus checks.

With their continued standoff and the election fast approaching, it begs the question, is the Congressional leadership prioritizing politics over the U.S. economy at the expense of millions of Americans.

Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said that not having a deal will benefit the Democrats, which is why they are avoiding one because they want to win back the Senate and the White House.

Florida Republican Marco Rubio, who chairs the Senate Small Business, said that he is worried that as companies run out of money, there will be another round of layoffs, which will mean further bad news for the U.S. economy.

Rubio added that the Democrats might be counting on a piece of bad economic news in October because it might help them during the November election.

However, the stalemate is costing the U.S. economy and the Americans. Many would need second stimulus checks to tie them over until the COVID-19 pandemic ends because the first $1,200 checks are dwindling out.

The $600 weekly enhanced unemployment benefits have ended last July. Even the additional $300 weekly unemployment checks given to Americans who lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic might end as soon as next week.

This because, according to a Latin Post report, the $44 billion federal funding for the additional unemployment benefit is about to run out.

With no second stimulus checks to look forward to, this may mean that millions of Americans will not be able to cope with even the most basic of needs.

Check these out:

Additional $300 Weekly Unemployment Checks to End as Soon as Next Week

Second Stimulus Check: Could Get You Up to $1,200 Based on Your Dependents

US Stimulus Checks Received in Austria
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Kids across the U.K. and Europe have been masking up and heading back to school. For many its been a long time coming, and sorely needed, but understandably many carers and teachers are worried.

Evidence suggests school reopenings havent been the primary cause of flare-ups in local Covid-19 cases. The coming months will nevertheless bring some challenges.

At first glance, Norways experience indicates a return to the classroom isnt necessarily accompanied by a significant uptick in infections. Children there returned to school at the end of April, with strict new hygiene rules and smaller classes, before breaking up for the summer holidays two months later. The Nordic country managed to tame the pandemic in that period with travel restrictions, quarantine requirements and caps on private gatherings.

More recently, as fall term began, Norway has seen a rise in Covid-19 infections, but one driven by young adults. So far this month, the most common presumed places of infection, according to Norways contact tracers, are households, workplaces, universities and private events such as weddings.

In this back-to-school season, there has been an increase in infections elsewhere too, but, again, other factors are being blamed.

Take Scotland. Some virus clusters emerged in Glasgow after the term began in August. The government has said these were due to community transmission rather than the virus spreading in schools. After a cluster involving students from a couple of high schools in northern Glasgow and Lanarkshire, the countrys national clinical director told BBC Radio Scotland that house parties were a real concern and more needed to be done to encourage youngsters to follow social-distancing measures even in private.

In Germany, while some schools or classes have closed when a case of Covid was declared, an increase in infections has mainly been linked to people returning from vacations  as many as 40% of recent cases are thought to have been transmitted abroad. The others have mostly been traced to family gatherings and private events.

Story continues

The manner in which schools open, and other measures across society, appear relevant. Virologist Christian Drosten believes the lack of school-based Covid clusters in Germany is more down to there being relatively little virus transmission happening in the country, thanks to an early response and effective testing and tracing. If so, keeping schools open may be more challenging in countries where the infection rate is rising such as Spain, Italy and France.

In May, Israel inflamed its just-tamed epidemic by racing to open classrooms before there were proper social-distancing measures in place and without a robust contact-tracing system. By contrast, Denmark has been seen as a model for implementing reduced class sizes, near-hourly hand-washing and a blend of online and on-site learning to avoid overcrowding.

Of course, its still early in the school year, and Europes winter is coming. Colder, wetter weather will force school windows shut. And discipline around social distancing could become harder to maintain the longer its required.

Devi Sridhar, a professor at the University of Edinburgh, told Sky News that Scotlands testing system has been having to race to catch up with the demand of all the children coming home with coughs and colds and fevers.

Things will become even more challenging as we enter flu season. Countries clearly have a challenge to stay on top of the situation. But keeping schools open doesnt have to reignite the flames of a coronavirus epidemic.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Lara Williams manages Bloomberg Opinion's social media channels.

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

Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.

2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Avengers Captain America star Chris Evans came under trolling and attack on social media after he accidentally displayed a close shot of a penis on his social media. Since then, the Hollywood actor became the topic of discussion on Twitter with Google Trend showing a spike in searches that are otherwise utterly abhorrent.

The 39-year-old actor shared a short video on his Instagram on Saturday of himself and some friends playing Heads Up. But at the end of the video, a shot of the actors phone camera roll came up, which featured a close-up photo of a penis. The picture was cropped too closely to be identified further.

According to Google Trend data, in the past 24 hours searches worldwide showed, Chris Evans leaked pic", Chris Evans dick picture", Chris Evans licked dick", Chris Evans Instagram dick", Chris Evans Instagram penis". In India, people even went curious about, Chris Evans leaked nude".

Photo: Google Trend

The incident that was quite unexpected seems to have made netziens too curious, curious beyond the boundaries of someones privacy. A renowned actor of international fame, who is a multiple-time holder of Peoples Choice Awards for his role of Captain America, has suddenly been reduced to a Google search of dick, nude and penis. Social media soon flooded with jokes and memes about the actors genitals and memes. All of it should remind us: Mental health is not a joke and its quite mortifying to see ones nudes leaked and people unable to hold back from latching on to it.

While news headlines poured in, inciting further interest in readers with how Chris Evans has left social media scandalised with his accidental nude snap, we often forget amid the buzz that celebrities too, deserve the privacy and space following an otherwise embarrassment.

However, amid the trending dick pictures, many netizens and fans voiced out how the actor, who gifted the world such hit films, do not deserve this unscrupulous treatment. Many even rightly reminded others that the actor has been reported to suffer from anxiety, panic attacks and before social media makes the situation worse for him, they better take a step back on their curiosity.

Before sharing Chris Evans nude, remember that the actor suffered an anxiety disorder with the rise of his Hollywood career and even refused to be Captain America on several occasions for fear that fame would affect him and his family.#ChrisEvans pic.twitter.com/J6PeEDAJYJ Marvel Fans Forever (@MarvelFansFore1) September 13, 2020

Chris Evans has done so many wonderful and kind things for our community. Today he mistakenly posted a personal image for a brief moment before taking it down. Chris has struggled with depression and panic attacks. Please respect him and his family delete that photo. #ChrisEvans pic.twitter.com/fRiXi46Dfy LM2 (@loudogg94) September 12, 2020

#ChrisEvanslook at this lovely person. please respect his privacy. pic.twitter.com/sGLyOIyUKL Mandy (@Mandy53733155) September 13, 2020

imagine how mortifying it would be to have your fucking nudes leaked and youre all spreading it like wildfire. Hes probably anxious enough as it is andeveryone is completely disrespecting him. Mental health is not a joke, have a bit of respect for his privacy. #chrisevans pic.twitter.com/nov8j4LYAi Nel (@ell_2306) September 12, 2020

chris evans deserves the world but the world doesnt deserve chris evans pic.twitter.com/MN1vhHtONA (@ilsze3) September 12, 2020

(reminder that chris evans has severe anxiety) this is the only chris evans pic u need to see <3 pic.twitter.com/2kwxXP1m9T  (she/her) BLM  (@cloudyskyforme) September 13, 2020

Please be kind, empathetic and respect his privacy.Heres something positive: Chris Evans is worthy both in movies and in real life pic.twitter.com/hfqqLrEVrX  Abhishek Punjabi (@abhipunjabi21) September 13, 2020

On the work front, Chris has recently announced his upcoming collaboration with Avengers director Russo Brothers. Chris and Ryan Gosling are going to team up for Netflix film The Gray Man, being made for a whopping budget of USD 200 million.

The Gray Man is based on the 2009 Mark Greaney novel of the same name and is about a freelance assassin and former CIA operative named Court Gentry (played by Ryan). The movie will follow Gentry as he is hunted across the world by Lloyd Hansen (Chris), a former member of Gentrys CIA team.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service offers a $50,000 reward for information that will lead to a conviction in the female mail carrier shooting on Chicago's South this week.

On Thursday, a 24-year-old woman working around 11:40 AM on the 9100 block of South Ellis Avenue shot in both legs, right buttock, stomach area, and head, as per the Chicago police.

According to Fox News, witnesses at the scene told the police that two speeding cars fired shots out the window. The Chicago police do not believe that the mail carrier was the target of the gunmen.

Branch 11 President of National Association of Letter Carriers, Mack Julian, told ABC7 that the victim is stable. For any information about the shooting, you may call the U.S. Postal Inspection Service at 1-877-876-2455 to report it.

On Thursday, the Chicago postal worker who was shot four times by stray gunfire delivered mail along her route. The cops said that the female worker had a critical condition at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Witnesses and the Chicago Fire Department confirmed to CBS that the woman was a postal mail carrier. Officers said that the worker wore her full uniform when the shooting took place. Video footage from the scene indicates that her mailbag was on the ground outside the home gate.

According to Daily Mail, the victim's coworker appeared in the scene in tears, and their manager said that the victim worked at Grand Crossing Branch. The U.S Postal Inspection Service Chicago Division confirmed that they were investigating the shooting. However, there is no other information available on the victim or the incident.

A spokesperson said, "Chicago Division Postal Inspectors have responded to a reported shooting in the 9100 block of South Ellis Avenue in Chicago, IL. We are in the initial stages of the investigation, and we cannot comment further at this time."

This year, the victim is the second USPS worker shot in Chicago, as per the Chicago Tribune. Chicago police said that there is an ongoing investigation.

In March, a USPS employee was also shot in the cheek while delivering mail on the Southwest side. A 47-year-old man was the victim in the March shooting. In 2019, another Chicago postal worker shot while driving an unmarked van, as per the Chicago Sun-Times report.

The shooting in 2019 was followed by a violent Labor Day weekend in the city wherein 51 people were shot. Eight of the victims were reported dead, including an eight-year-old girl killed inside a parked car.

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RS chairman Venkaiah Naidu breaks down over oppn ruckus, equates it to 'sacrilege'

Om Birla says it pained him that Lok Sabha did not run smoothly during Monsoon session

It's RJD's Manoj Jha vs JD(U)'s Harivansh as Rajya Sabha set to elect Deputy Chairperson

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Sep 13: Opposition parties have confirmed their support for the candidature of Rashtriya Janata Dal's Manoj Jha for the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman's election, to be held on 14 September.

RJD's Manoj Jha will contest against NDA''s nominee Harivansh of the JD(U). Harivansh was the RS deputy chairman till his previous term ended. He has since been re-elected to the Upper House from Bihar.

Jha was teaching in the Delhi University when he entered politics and became a Rajya Sabha MP. He is also the national spokesperson for the Rashtriya Janata Dal.

The RS deputy chairman''s election will witness a battle between the two regional players, RJD and JD(U), in Bihar which is slated to hold assembly elections soon.

The election for the post was necessitated as the incumbent Harivansh Narayan Singh had completed his term as a member of the Rajya Sabha in April this year. He was sent to the Upper House of Parliament again from Bihar.

In 2018, he had defeated Congress''s BK Hariprasad and was elected the deputy chairman.

Farooq Abdullah to attend parliament session for 1st time after Article 370 abrogation

Harivansh Narayan Singh is likely to be elected to the post again as BJP floor managers are confident of securing the support of about 140 MPs, including the fence-sitters YSR Congress, TRS and BJD.

The strength of the BJP-led NDA has also gradually increased to more than 114 in the House with an effective strength of 244 members as there is one vacancy.

Floor managers of NDA are trying to build a consensus among all parties so that Harivansh Narayan Singh could be elected unanimously.

The Congress has decided that the opposition will put up a joint candidate for the post and it will reach out to various parties in this regard.

BJD has nine members in the Rajya Sabha of the 10 seats from Odisha, while the other one is held by the BJP.

BJP''s Ashiwini Baishnab was elected to the Rajya Sabha with the support of the BJD in June last year.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Sunday, September 13, 2020, 20:58 [IST]
Travel will continue to play an irreplaceable role in meeting critical business demands, even as health and safety are top-of-the-mind among employees, a survey showed.

The survey reveals that ensuring their health and safety while travelling is most important to business travellers, with 65% placing it in their top three considerations.

Top concerns about returning to business travel also include infecting their families (55%) and getting sick themselves (53%).

These concerns could be contributing to employees' stress during the trip. 45% of business travellers said they find the actual trip the most stressful stage, a 50% increase from last year. 26% find pre-trip activities such as planning, booking and organising their trip to be the most stressful, while 29% find post-trip activities such as filing expense reports and monitoring their health after returning home to be the most stressful.

New research fielded by SAP Concur in May-June 2020 looks into business travellers' concerns and expectations post-Covid-19.

Business travellers hold themselves most accountable to protect their health and safety once travel starts again (36%). However, they also are looking to their employer to protect their health and safety (18%).

This leads to the question - Are travel managers prepared to meet business travellers' expectations in light of the fluid state of business and travel during these unprecedented times? The SAP Concur survey found that among travel manager respondents, 96% reported that their company was not fully prepared to manage evolving travel demands during the outbreak. What were the biggest pain points experienced?

They are handling the volume of cancelled reservations (44%), processing the volume of refunds, receipts, and unused tickets (43%) and determining if it is safe to travel in absence of government guidelines (40%).

As business travel resumes, travel managers could face similar challenges on top of meeting employees' expectations to ensure they feel protected and safe.

If companies don't adapt, 65% of business travellers say they intend to take some degree of action, such as asking to limit or reduce travel in their current position (45%), searching for a new position within their company that does not require travel (10%), or searching for a position at a different company (8%).

Considering this, here are a few tips that can help travel managers meet business travellers' expectations to keep them healthy and safe:

*Update travel policies: Travel managers should look at their current travel policy and make updates to fit the current situation. One important guideline to update is what the company will consider essential travel. They should work with human resources and their business leaders to determine which business functions need to be conducted in person and which ones can be done online. Thirty-nine percent of business travellers say they consider limiting business travel to only the most business-critical trips as vital for their company to implement when travel resumes. Not only will it help minimise employees' exposure, it can also make a difference in the company's bottom line.

*Consult the experts: National health organisations and hospitals offer free information for businesses and consumers who need to travel. Travel managers should stay up-to-date on the latest guidance and ensure employees know about these resources. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers a Travel resources page with helpful information on traveling within the country and internationally. The Mayo Clinic also has a web page with Covid-19 travel advice. TripIt from Concur offers a helpful Travellers Resource Centre that gathers a collection of resources to make finding information about public health, safety advisories, and travel guidelines easy.

*Health checks and personal protective equipment (PPE): Travel managers should look into ways they can implement mandatory personal health screenings before and after travel for employees. In fact, 39% of business travellers believe this is an important measure companies should take. This can help ease business travellers' concerns about infecting others and being infected themselves in the course of travel. In addition, 33% of business travellers want easier access to PPEs like gloves or facemasks and expect their company to provide them with this equipment.

*Implement technology that gives insight into employees' travel plans: It's vital for travel managers to know where employees are during business trips so they can communicate with them should an incident occur. An integrated technology solution that provides up-to-date business traveller data and the ability to reach out to employees in the event of an emergency offers peace of mind to both the business traveller and the travel manager.

While these tips won't fully solve for all business travel challenges, they can help alleviate some of the concerns, employees have when it comes to returning to travel and help businesses adapt, stabilise, and re-imagine business travel in the new normal. -- Tradearabia News Service
Many Air France-KLM planes have been grounded for months because of the coronavirus

The survival of the Air France-KLM group is not guaranteed if the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic continues, Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra warned Sunday.

France and the Netherlands, each with a 14-percent share of the group, have poured out billions of euros in aid to help national carriers that virtually came to a standstill in the first half of 2020.

"It's not a given," Hoekstra said in an interview with Dutch public television NPO, stressing the need to cut costs.

In the spring, Paris gave Air France seven billion euros ($8.3 billion) in loans, and The Hague granted KLM similar aid worth 3.4 billion euros.

The bailout for KLM must be accompanied by "a comprehensive restructuring plan" as well as commitments to reestablish performance and competitiveness.

Hoekstra said he had insisted in talks with KLM on the importance of changing direction.

Dutch press agency ANP said KLM has to develop a restructuring plan by October 1.

Air France-KLM suffered a loss of 2.6 billion euros in the second quarter as air traffic virtually shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic.

This followed a loss of 1.8 billion euros in the first quarter.

Air France said it would cut almost 7,600 jobs by the end of 2022 and KLM up to 5,000 jobs.

Explore further KLM gets 3.4 bn euro Dutch bailout

 2020 AFP
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, and his major challenger, Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), on Sunday, explained how they swapped political parties for the September 19 governorship election.

Four years ago, Mr Obaseki was the candidate of the APC, while Mr Ize-Iyamu was that of the PDP, but the tide changed in the forthcoming election as they have now swapped parties while vying for the same position.

Speaking during the EdoGovernorshipDebate on Channels Television on Sunday, Mr Obaseki said following his disqualification from contesting the APC primary, he had discussions with his political family who gave him the go-ahead to join the PDP.

Mr Obaseki thanked the PDP for giving him the platform to contest the forthcoming governorship election in Edo.

I think the whole country knew what happened to me in the APC. I was at the party and was disqualified from contesting the governorship primary. I discussed it with my people and we decided on the PDP. I want to thank the party for giving me the umbrella, Mr Obaseki stated in a one-minute explanation to the question of why he changed party.

Mr Ize-Iyamu conversely responding to the same question said he was a foundation member of the APC but left in 2014 when he was not satisfied with the conduct of the state congress.

The APC governorship candidate said, I am a foundation member of the APC. I left in 2014 because of a problem that arose in our congress. Thank God I am back and I remain constant with the agenda I have. I am not new in the APC, it is my home.

In the course of the debate, both candidates disagreed on so many issues including the financial contribution to the Adams Oshiomhole governorship campaign funds in the past.

The moderator of the debate had sought to know why there was recurring decimal of Oshiomhole, for or against, between both candidates.

Mr Obaseki said he was one of those who helped Mr Oshiomhole to become governor in the state by raising funds for the former national chairman of APC, who he said had no money when he (Mr Oshiomhole) left the Nigeria Labour Congress as its president.

I was one of those who helped Oshiomhole to become governor in the state. When he left the Labour union, he had no money, so, I joined others to raise funds for his campaign. For eight years, I worked pro-bono (work without pay) for him. When I became governor, he felt I should be subservient and that was where the godfather issue started, he said.

But Mr Ize-Iyamu swiftly reacted when he said from him inquiries, Mr Obaseki only contributed N100,000 to the campaign funds of Oshiomhole.

I am shocked to hear what Obaseki said. In that fundraising, N10 million was realised and I asked Oshiomhole what was Obasekis contribution and he said N100,000, Mr Ize-Iyamu said.
President Trump on Saturday mocked his Democratic rival Joe Biden for sleeping in his basement while he is making stops in the Western United States, including in fire-ravaged California as well as hotly contested electoral states like Nevada.

Once again, Sleepy Joe told the press they could go home at 9 A.M., Trump tweeted on Saturday.

Meanwhile, your Favorite President, me, will go to Reno, Nevada tonight, three stops in Las Vegas tomorrow, with California and Arizona on schedule Monday.

Dont worry, we wont be taking off Tuesday, either!

President Trump (left) on Saturday mocked his Democratic rival Joe Biden (seen right with his wife, Dr. Jill Biden) for sleeping in his basement while he is making stops in the Western United States, including in fire-ravaged California as well as hotly contested electoral states like Nevada

While I travel the Country, Joe sleeps in his basement, telling the Fake News Media to get lost,' Trump tweeted on Saturday

Once again, Sleepy Joe told the press they could go home at 9 A.M., Trump tweeted on Saturday. Meanwhile, your Favorite President, me, will go to Reno, Nevada tonight, three stops in Las Vegas tomorrow, with California and Arizona on schedule Monday'

Trump then tweeted: Just landed in Nevada but while on Air Force One watched most vicious TV commercial I have ever seen. Pathetic Joes people placed an unsourced ad where they have me saying unthinkable things about soldiers while standing over their graves. It is a MADE UP LIE. A TOTAL CON JOB!

Trump later tweeted: While I travel the Country, Joe sleeps in his basement, telling the Fake News Media to get lost.

If youre a reporter covering Sleepy Joe, you have basically gone into retirement!

Trump then tweeted: Just landed in Nevada but while on Air Force One watched most vicious TV commercial I have ever seen.

Pathetic Joes people placed an unsourced ad where they have me saying unthinkable things about soldiers while standing over their graves.

It is a MADE UP LIE. A TOTAL CON JOB!

The ad was a reference to a story from The Atlantic magazine earlier this month which claimed the president was overheard disparaging dead US soldiers as losers and suckers while on a trip to Europe in 2018.

In the article, a source described to have first-hand knowledge of the president's views and said Trump 'doesn't see the heroism in fighting'. Other sources said Trump is deeply anxious about dying or being disfigured, and that fear manifests itself as disgust for those who have suffered.

The day of the planned visit at Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, November 10, 2018, was also the 243rd birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps.

The Battle of Belleau Wood, which lasted 20 days in June 1918 and ended with German forces soundly defeated, was a defining moment in World War I for the Marine Corps.

But Trump, on the same trip, reportedly asked aides, 'Who were the good guys in this war?' He also said that he didnt understand why the United States would intervene on the side of the Allies, the Atlantic reported.

Earlier this month, The Atlantic magazine reported that Trump disparaged fallen and wounded US soldiers as 'losers' and 'suckers.' Trump has denied the claims. He is seen above at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, in May 2017

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Trump said he'd be 'willing to swear on anything' that he never said anything derogatory 'about our fallen heroes.'

'There is nobody that respects them more. No animal  nobody  what animal would say such a thing?'

He also wanted to go to the cemetery in France but said he was unable to because of heavy rainfall in Paris, and that the U.S. Secret Service would not allow him to motorcade there.

'The helicopter could not fly. The reason it couldn't fly, because it was raining as hard as I'd ever seen. And on top of that it was very, very foggy,' Trump said on Thursday.

He added that staffers tried to arrange a motorcade, but that it would have meant going through busy parts of Paris.

'The Secret Service told me, you can't do it. I said I have to do it. They said you can't do it,' Trump said.

Several other media outlets, including Fox News, seconded The Atlantics reporting, though more than a dozen current and former Trump administration officials pushed back and denied hearing the president make those remarks.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries turns 60 tomorrow, and the oil producer group is putting a brave face on its Covid-curtailed Diamond Jubilee. But rifts within the cartel are resurfacing as de facto leader Saudi Arabia struggles to maintain discipline among members itching to pump more crude.

The birthday celebrations, due to be held in Baghdads Al-Shaab Hall where OPEC came into being, have been postponed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. That may be a blessing as the OPEC family gathering would have been a lot more like the Simpsons and a lot less like the Waltons, to misquote former U.S. President George H. W. Bush.

Rifts have always existed among a membership that for most of the groups life has ranged between 12 and 15 very different countries, whose only unifying characteristic has been an economic over-dependence on oil exports.

The differences at the heart of OPEC have never been more obvious than they were in the mid-1980s, when it embarked on an ill-fated attempt to create a rules-based mechanism for allocating oil production targets.

Members submitted preferred criteria for setting quotas, along with their suggestions for weighting them. Not surprisingly, the Arabian countries of the Persian Gulf, with tiny populations and huge amounts of crude, favored criteria based on their wealth of oil reserves. By contrast, countries with large populations and limited oil reserves favored socio-economic considerations, such as population size or the level of external debt.

The whole initiative was eventually allowed to wither away, having done little more than expose the deep fault line that cut right through the group.

That existential schism is the backdrop for OPECs perennial problem: Getting members to stick to the production targets they agree to. The cartel has never found an effective way to overcome this free-rider problem.

The Arabian Peninsulas high reserves/low population countries have, in general, been much better at sticking to their output targets than the rest. The recent exception being Iraq, which was exempt from quotas from 1990 to 2017 due to war, sanctions and the need to rebuild its shattered economy.

Story continues

Recently, it looked as though Saudi Arabias new oil minister Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman had hit on a solution. Rather than turning a blind eye to cheating and shouldering a disproportionate share of the burden of balancing supply and demand, he has publicly shamed the cheats and demanded they make up for their initial failures to cut as much as they had promised.

It was never going to be easy to overturn a situation that had persisted for decades, yet the prince has been nothing if not persistent and his determination is bearing fruit.

But its turning into a frustrating game of Whack-A-Mole. No sooner has one cheat been brought to book than another pops up. The two biggest culprits, Iraq and Nigeria, have both promised deeper cuts and even appear to be trying to implement them. But thats highlighted the shortcomings of others, notably Russia, the non-OPEC counterweight to Saudi Arabia in the enlarged almost-four-year-old OPEC+ alliance so crucial to making any difference in a pandemic-plagued world.

Russia has implemented about 95% of the output cut it pledged in April, according to figures presented to the OPEC+ groups Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC). Thats a lot better than during the alliances first agreement that ran from the start of 2017 until the end of March. But its production is still about 100,000 barrels a day above its target, making it the second-biggest over-producer in July in volume terms.And yet no one, not even ABS as the Saudi oil minister is commonly known, is calling the country out.

Why has Russia been given a free pass? Perhaps theres a sense the country has implemented deeper cuts than many expected after it walked away from the previous OPEC+ deal. Or perhaps the Saudis feel its unwise to antagonize such an important partner, especially one thats historically been treated with suspicion by OPEC.

The next problem to pop up may be even more embarrassing for Saudi Arabia: compliance questions concerning the United Arab Emirates, the kingdoms long-time ally. By its own admission, the UAE has pumped about 100,000 barrels a day more than it should have in August due to peak summer electricity demand, putting its compliance at 82%. But that may be an understatement, according to the so-called secondary sources OPEC relies on to monitor its deal.This spells the potential for more unwanted friction when the JMMC meets later this week. Its a really bad sign that one of the more disciplined members is now changing its tune. It will make it more difficult to convince other producers to continue to toe the line. Its a real shame, coming just as the group would prefer to celebrate its successes rather than dwell on its challenges.

And there have been successes, a major one being the record 9.7 million barrels a day cut from global supply thanks to the current OPEC+ arrangement with 10 non-OPEC allies that Saudi Arabia is trying to hold together.

I remain convinced that, despite the groups very obvious shortcomings, oil markets have been a lot less volatile because of its existence over the past 60 years. A world without OPEC, or some similar group, would be far from paradise.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Julian Lee is an oil strategist for Bloomberg. Previously he worked as a senior analyst at the Centre for Global Energy Studies.

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

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At an off-campus space at the University of California at Berkeley in the fall of 1962, a tall, thin Jamaican doctoral student addressed a small crowd, drawing parallels between his native country and the United States.

He told the group, a roomful of Black students, that he had grown up observing British colonial power in Jamaica, the way a small number of whites had cultivated a native Black elite in order to mask extreme social inequality.

At 24, Donald J Harris was already professorial, as reserved as the Anglican acolyte he had once been. But his ideas were edgy. One member of the audience found them so compelling that she came up to him after the speech and introduced herself.

Mother instilled in me core value of America: Kamala Harris

She was a tiny Indian scientist wearing a sari and sandals  the only other foreign student to show up for a talk on race in America. She was, he recalled, a standout in appearance relative to everybody else in the group of both men and women.

Shyamala Gopalan had been born the same year as Harris, in another British colony on the other side of the planet. But her view of the colonial system was more sheltered, the view of a senior civil servants daughter, she told him. His speech had raised questions for her. She wanted to hear more.

This was all very interesting to me and, I daresay, a bit charming, recalled Harris, now 82 and an emeritus professor of economics at Stanford University, in written answers to questions. At a subsequent meeting, we talked again, and at the one after that. The rest is now history.

Sen. Kamala Harris often tells the story of her parents romance. They were idealistic foreign graduate students who were swept up in the US civil rights movement  a variation of the classic American immigration story of huddled masses welcomed on its shores.

Oh, how I wish my mother was here, says Kamala Harris

That description, however, barely scratches the surface of Berkeley in the early 1960s. The community where they met was a crucible of radical politics, as the trade union left overlapped with early Black nationalist thinkers.

It brought a wave of Black undergraduates, many the descendants of sharecroppers or enslaved people who had migrated from Texas and Louisiana, into conversation with students from countries that had fought off colonial powers.

Members of the study group that drew them together in 1962, known as the Afro American Association, would help build the discipline of Black studies, introduce the holiday of Kwanzaa and establish the Black Panther Party.

Long after the particular intensity of the early 60s passed, the community it created endured.

Donald Trump's failure cost US lives, livelihoods: Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris, who declined to comment for this story, was one of the more moderate Democrats in the 2020 presidential field and has cast her political outlook in decidedly pragmatic terms.

Im not trying to restructure society, she said last summer. Im just trying to take care of the issues that wake people up in the middle of the night.

Still, at high-profile moments  including when she accepted the vice presidential nomination  she has noted the lasting influence of her parents circle at Berkeley. For Gopalan and Donald Harris, those friendships would change everything.

I had to go there

For decades, the brightest students from British colonies like Jamaica and India had been sent, by reflex, to Britain to pursue advanced degrees. But Donald Harris and Gopalan were different. Each had a compelling reason to want an American education.

In Gopalans case, the trouble was that she was a woman.

Gopalan, the oldest child in a high-achieving Tamil Brahmin family, wanted to be a biochemist. But at Lady Irwin College, founded by the British to provide an education in science to Indian women, she had been forced to settle for a degree in home science. Her brother and father thought it was hilarious.

My father and I used to tease her like nobodys business, said her brother, Gopalan Balachandran, who would go on to earn a doctorate in computer science and economics. We would say, What do you study in home science? Do they teach you to set up plates for dinner? She used to get angry and laugh. She would say, You dont know what Im studying.

His sister died in 2009. But in retrospect, he realizes she must have been seething.

She would have been frustrated like hell, he said.

But she had a plan: In America  unlike India or the United Kingdom  it was still possible to apply for a degree in biochemistry, her brother said. She presented her father with a fait accompli: She had been admitted to the University of California at Berkeley.

Her father was astonished, her brother said, but not opposed. He was only worried; none of us had been abroad. He said, I dont know anybody in the States. I certainly dont know anybody in Berkeley. She said, Father, dont worry, he said. He offered to pay for her first year of studies.

Eight thousand miles away, in 1961, something similar occurred with Harris, who was seeking a doctorate in economics.

When he was awarded a prestigious scholarship granted by the British colonial government, it was assumed he would study in Britain, like the recipients who had preceded him.

But Harris didnt want to go to Britain. His early education had marinated him in British culture, all those obedient choruses of Rule, Brittania. (Read the words; youll be astonished! he said.) He began to see, he said, how Britains static rigidity of pomp, ceremony and class had been transplanted onto plantation society in Jamaica.

No, he was drawn to the US

As a teenager he had listened to big-band jazz music broadcast from the US naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, and stumbled onto a late-night rhythm and blues broadcast from WLAC in Nashville, Tennessee. To him, the U.S. looked  from a distance and perhaps naively, he said  like a lively and evolving dynamic of a racially and ethnically complex society.

UC Berkeley had come to his attention in a news story about student activists traveling to the South to campaign for civil rights.

Further investigation of information about this university convinced me I had to go there, he said.

Using the scholarship to study in the US was such a grave departure from custom and tradition, he said, that the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Education wrote for advice to an eminent West Indian professor, Sir Arthur Lewis, who was teaching economics at Manchester University. The deliberation took so long that classes had already started when the economists letter of approval arrived.

I was overjoyed, Harris recalled. Two weeks into the semester, he boarded a plane for San Francisco. A meeting had been set in motion.

Finding a group

Shyamala Gopalan fell into important friendships at Berkeley right away.

As she stood in line to register for classes, in the fall of 1959, the person standing behind her was Cedric Robinson, a Black teenager from Oakland.

In 1960, there were fewer than 100 Black students in a student body of 20,000, historian Donna Murch wrote in her book Living for the City: Migration, Education and the Rise of the Black Panther Party.

Robinson, whose grandfather had fled Alabama in the 1920s to escape a lynching, was the first in his family to enroll in college. As a Black kid from Oakland, he didnt even know what one did to get into the university, recalled his widow, Elizabeth.

The woman in front of him made an impression. Gopalan, his elder by two years, often wore a sari in those days, and acquaintances said they thought she came from royalty; thats how she carried herself. When Robinson stepped up to the desk, the registrar assumed he was a graduate student from Africa and asked, politely, if his country was also paying his tuition.

Robinson, who died in 2016, thought that was hilarious, said historian Robin DG Kelley. He would tell that story over the years as he went on to earn a masters and a doctorate, then tenure at the University of California at Santa Barbara, writing five books along the way. He and Gopalan would form a lifelong friendship.

When he wrote his best-known book, Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition, in 1983, he listed the old friends who had helped him formulate his ideas. They were all Black, except for Gopalan.

They would both become part of a Black intellectual study group that met in the off-campus house of Mary Agnes Lewis, an anthropology student.

The group, later known as the Afro American Association, was the most foundational institution in the Black Power movement, said Murch, who devoted two chapters to it in her book.

This was no casual book club. Reading was assigned, and if you failed to keep up with it you would pay. At one discussion on existentialism, community college student Huey Newton  the future co-founder of the Black Panther Party  was chastised for not having done the reading, recalled Margot Dashiell, 78, who went on to become a sociology professor at Laney College.

He came back the next time and he was fully prepared, she said.

Those bare-bones gatherings  there was a lot of floor-sitting, she recalled  were her first exposure to the idea that American Black culture had its origins in Africa.

We were getting a new language, she said. We were inventing a new language. The first new word was Afro American. I had never heard it in my life. We were not going to be this thing that had no origin, Negro. We were going to be calling out our heritage.

Dashiell explained that they had all been raised to be integrationists, to fight for admission to white institutions. This was a revolutionary turn of thought, she said, that we have differences, but the differences are not bad.

The group would later limit its membership to people of African descent, refusing admission to the white partner of a Black member, Murch wrote.

But as a former colonial subject and a person of color, there was no question that Gopalan belonged, other members said in interviews.

She was part of the real brotherhood and sisterhood; there was never an issue, said Aubrey LaBrie, who went on to teach courses on Black nationalism at San Francisco State University. She was just accepted as part of the group.

As part of the group, Gopalan sometimes joked about the vastly different world she had left behind. Dashiell remembered her laughing with Robinson about a suitor who had approached her family about arranging a marriage, sending relatives scrambling to consult astrological charts.

Foreign students were arriving in increasing numbers, representatives of newly independent states with nonwhite elites. The groups found each other naturally.

They were people from somewhere else, who had a broader view of the world, and they were people of color, said historian Nell I. Painter, 78, whose father was on the Berkeley faculty at the time. I remember people from somewhere else as representing a kind of intellectual freedom.

In 1961, when Harris arrived on campus, he, too, fell in with the study group right away.

On one of his first days at Berkeley, he said, he spotted a Black architecture student holding a hand-painted sign, staging a one-man demonstration against apartheid in South Africa, and introduced himself. The student turned out to be Kenneth Simmons, a guiding light in the Afro American Association, along with Lewis and Robinson, he said.

Harris described the study group as an oasis, his introduction to the realities of African American life in its truest and rawest form, its richness and complexity, wealth and poverty, hope and despair.

It was in that company, in the fall of 1962, that he met his future wife. We talked then, continued to talk at a subsequent meeting, and at another, and another, he said. The following year they were married.

Until then Gopalan had expected to return to India, she reflected years later. I never came to stay, she told a reporter for SF Weekly. Its the old story: I fell in love with a guy; we got married; pretty soon kids came.

Live-action politics

As a couple, Harris and Gopalan Harris stood out, with their upper-crust accents and air of intellectual confidence, their contemporaries said. Anne Williams, 76, who was still in her teens when they met, found Harris reserved and academic in his presentation, difficult to get to know. Gopalan Harris was warm and charming.

You could tell she was for the people, quote unquote, even though she had an aura of royalty about her, she said. Here was a woman, deeply brown, and yet she could have flowed from one set to another in terms of race.

Baron Meghnad Desai, 80, an Indian-born economist, recalls meeting the couple on the steps of a house as they all made their way in to a dinner party. In those days, he said, we were an argumentative lot. We could argue about politics in many countries.

Gopalan Harris was a passionate debater, fiery and radical but not Marxist in any sense. Her husband, he recalled, did take a serious interest in radical political economy, but he was a calm and patient arguer.

There was no doubt about that, they were very much together very much in love, he said.

In those days, colonial powers were crumbling in all directions. In 1960, 17 African nations gained independence. The same year, Fidel Castro was received with open arms in New York Citys Harlem, where he met with Malcolm X, Soviet Premiere Nikita Khrushchev and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India.

We did think all sorts of possibilities were there, Desai said. Governments were falling, and left-wing governments were taking over. It was really moving and shaking stuff.

Many in their circles saw a link between the civil rights struggle and independence movements outside the country, said LaBrie, a member of the study group who became a lifelong family friend.

It was just kind of a seamless flow between civil rights and those who supported the Cuban revolution, Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba and the Algerian revolution, LaBrie said. There was an easy flow. People werent labeling themselves.

In 1963 and 1964, five members of the group joined a trip to Cuba organized by the Student Committee for Travel to Cuba, in defiance of a State Department travel ban, to see how Afro Cubans lived under Castros government. Williams and another member, James L. Lacy, recalled first hearing about the trip at a gathering organized by the Harrises.

Those of us who called ourselves nationalists, we were very much encouraging the people of Cuba and South America and Central America to do what they were doing, said Lacy, 85, a retired professor.

Harris said he did not recall taking part in any activism around Cuba, which could have jeopardized their immigration status. We were certainly very much aware of and scrupulously careful about following the rules and regulations governing our role as foreign students, he wrote.

Protests around civil rights, however, were a big part of the young couples life. In her speech at the Democratic National Convention last month, Kamala Harris said that her parents fell in love in that most American way  while marching together for justice in the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

For foreign students  many coming from countries with strong left-wing student movements  the rise in activism made them feel at home, said Indian economist Amartya Sen, 86, who was teaching at Berkeley at the time and befriended the couple.

Suddenly, America felt less like an alien country, said Sen, who won the Nobel Prize in 1998. Now they had a lot of friends, and they were growing roots.

Those ties became the village'

By the time the couples first child, Kamala, was born in 1964, political tides had begun to shift again.

White students had jumped into protest with both feet, rejecting the establishment and the old-fashioned mores of the 1950s. Support for third-world liberation was giving way, gradually, to demands for the political right of free speech. In 1966, seemingly out of nowhere, an actor named Ronald Reagan awakened a sleepy conservative electorate and defeated Californias Democratic governor.

The Harrises marriage would fray as Harris took short-term teaching positions at two different universities in Illinois. When he won a tenure-track position at the University of Wisconsin, Gopalan Harris settled, instead, with her children in Oakland and West Berkeley.

The break was apparent to their 5-year-old daughter.

In The Truths We Hold, her 2018 memoir, Kamala Harris wrote, I knew they loved each other very much, but it seemed like they had become like oil and water.

She wrote that had they been a little older, a little more emotionally mature, maybe the marriage could have survived. But they were so young. My father was my mothers first boyfriend.

Harris career would flourish. A left-wing critic of neoclassical economic theory, he was a popular professor and became the first Black scholar to receive tenure in Stanfords economics department. But a deep freeze had settled in the marriage.

Gopalan Harris, a research scientist who published influential work on the role of hormones in breast cancer, filed for divorce in 1972. The split left her so angry that, for years, she barely interacted with Harris. Kamala Harris has recalled that, when she invited both her parents to her high school graduation, she feared that her mother would not show up.

She was quite unhappy about the separation, but she had already got used to that, and she didnt want to talk to Don after that, said her brother, Balachandran. When you love somebody, then love turns into very hard bitterness, you dont even want to talk to them.

Harris has since expressed frustration at custody arrangements that, he said, brought his close contact with his daughters to an abrupt halt. His daughter has made little mention of him during the campaign, and he has declined previous interviews, explaining that the celebrity-seeking business is not my thing, and I have tried hard to keep out of it.

He was not around after the divorce, Meena Harris, Kamala Harris niece, told The New Yorker. Their experience and relationship with Blackness is through being raised in these communities in Berkeley and Oakland, and not through the lens of being Caribbean.

Into the vacuum stepped Gopalan Harris old friends, connections from the Berkeley study group.

She was a single, working mother of two in a country where she had no close relatives. Not until her oldest daughter was in high school could she afford a down payment on her own home, something she desperately wanted, Kamala Harris wrote in her memoir.

A web of support  from day care, to church, to godparents and piano lessons  radiated out from the Afro American Association.

Those ties became the village that supported her in rearing the children, said Dashiell, the sociology professor who was a member of the discussion group. I dont mean financially. They surrounded those children.

LaBrie introduced Gopalan Harris to his aunt, Regina Shelton, who ran a day care center in West Berkeley. Shelton, who had been born in Louisiana, became a pillar of the young familys life, eventually renting them an apartment upstairs from the day care center.

Gopalan Harris often worked late, recalled Carole Porter, 56, a childhood friend of Kamala Harris. She was intensely focused on her work, Porter said.

Shyamala didnt play, she said. Being an immigrant, 5 feet tall, and having an accent  when things like that happen to you, and you face stuff, that toughens you up.

But there was always a snack and a hug at Sheltons. If it got too late, the sleepy children would go to bed at her house, or Shelton would send her daughters to tuck them in at home. One of Kamala Harris favorite stories from childhood is of preparing a batch of lemon squares with salt instead of sugar; Shelton, her face puckered, said they were delicious.

On Sunday mornings, Shelton would take the girls to the 23rd Avenue Church of God, a Black Baptist church. This, Porter said, was what Gopalan Harris wanted for them.

She raised them to be Black women, Porter said. Shyamala really wanted them to have both.

Dashiell said she was certain that some influence of the study group survived in the Harris children.

The thinking within the association was deep, she said. You would look at, what are the underlying causes of the problems that we find ourselves in as Black people? And that is something that would have translated, through these families, to Kamala.

In the years since, Kamala Harris has often reflected that her immigrant mothers chosen family  Black families one generation removed from the segregated South  powerfully shaped her as a politician. When she took the oath of office to become Californias attorney general, and then a US senator, she asked to lay her hand on Sheltons Bible.

In office and into the fight, she wrote in an essay last year, I carry Mrs. Shelton with me always.
Avocados, tomatoes, cars, computers and oil head north while gasoline, auto parts, computer chips, natural gas and corn head south.

Thats the basic rhythm of trade along the U.S./Mexico border, where the two nations exchanged $41 billion worth of goods in June  roughly $1.4 billion per day, or nearly $1 million per minute.

Shutdowns related to the coronavirus pandemic have not stopped cross-border trade, but they have slowed it. The $243 billion in trade between the two nations during the first six months of the year marked a 21 percent drop from the nearly $309 billion one year prior, according to Miami trade data firm World City.

More Information U.S. Top 10 Trading Partners in 2019 Mexico made history when it finished 2019 as the top trading partner for the United States. A trade war and shutdowns related to the coronavirus pandemic sent China falling from first place down to third place. See More Collapse

Once the pandemic ends, however, international trade experts expect a quick recovery, spurred by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Known as USMCA, the three-way trade deal was drafted as an update to the 26-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement. The pact, signed by all three nations in November 2018, quietly went into effect July 1.

Border: Energy exports help Laredo to become top U.S. trade hub

Taking effect as the United States and Mexico struggle to contain the spread of the highly contagious and deadly virus, USMCA is expected to speed the post-COVID recovery, especially in Texas, a border state World City figures show accounted for nearly two-thirds of U.S. trade with Mexico through June.

Although the deal largely kept NAFTA intact, USMCA has some important updates that are expected to add jobs and keep more money in the region. Automobiles must now have 75 percent of their components made in either the United States, Canada or Mexico to be tariff-free. Thats an increase from the 62.5 percent under NAFTA.

USMCA also added provisions for intellectual property, cross-border data transfers and digital commerce, which did not exist when NAFTA was enacted in January 1994 but have since become economic drivers.

Were not talking about a small market here, said Alicia Kerber-Palma, Mexicos consul general in Houston. On the contrary, this deal represents over $1.5 billion of daily trade between the U.S. and Mexico, that benefits 500 million consumers in all three countries. Were talking about almost 19 percent of the worlds gross domestic product.

Tex-Mex trade

Mexico ended last year as the No. 1 trading partner for the United States for the first time ever, a position it reached thanks in large part to the U.S.-China trade war. And of the $615 billion of trade between the two nations last year, more than $14.1 billion went through the Port of Houston, making Mexico the Bayou Citys top trading partner in 2019, World City trade figures show.

The pandemic has temporarily slowed the ports energy-heavy trade with Mexico, but commercial ties with Houston and Texas run deeper than just shipments of crude oil, gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

Mexican firms such as state-run oil company Pemex, cement giant Cemex, airline Aeromexico, bread maker Bimbo and dairy bottler Lala employ thousands of people in the Houston area while numerous Texas companies in the energy, medical and manufacturing sectors have a presence in Mexico.

We all consider USMCA to be critical to the state and region as we move out of recession, said Laura Murillo, president of the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

COVID has caused what most trade experts view as a temporary dip in cross-border commerce, but some Houston companies are seeking to turn the pandemic into a business opportunity.

Headquartered in Cypress, Petra Oil makes motor oil and numerous other products used by auto dealerships and oil change shops. The privately held companys president, Arnold Gacita, saw COVID taking its toll on sales and responded by launching four new products over the last four months  face masks, liquid hand sanitizer, gel hand sanitizer and a sprayable disinfectant.

Gacita said USMCA makes shipments to Canada and Mexico tariff-free and usually with less customs paperwork than other destinations.

A lot of companies import products from Mexico, Gacita said. Were one of the few exporting constantly to Mexico.

Keep on Trucking: 18-wheelers haul LNG exports into Mexico

However, it may take some time before other manufacturers feel the full economic benefits of USMCA.

Pandemic shutdown orders disrupted manufacturing operations around the world, forcing some companies to rethink supply chains and what nations their parts come from.

Tony Garza, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico-turned-trade expert with international law firm White & Case, said the issue played out in a dramatic fashion in North America.

As Mexico shut down its factories amid the pandemic, U.S. companies suddenly couldnt get the parts necessary to continue their production, he said. Eventually, U.S. companies pushed Mexico and succeeded in getting factories added to the countrys list of essential businesses that could reopen. However, this episode and similar experiences globally will reshape how companies think about their supply chains and resilience.

Laredo rises

Post-COVID, one of the biggest beneficiaries of USMCA is expected to be Laredo. Already a busy trade hub with Mexico, the trade war with China allowed the border city to become the nations top port in March 2019. Pandemic-related shutdowns in China allowed Laredo to reclaim that status again in February, according to figures from World City.

Trucking and warehouses employ nearly one-in-three people, who are regarded as essential workers during the pandemic. Nowhere is that more apparent than Laredos booming cold storage industry, which was already thriving before USMCA but has seen increased activity with more people staying home.

Avocados, tomatoes, strawberries and other produce are trucked in from Mexico and housed in cold storage warehouses before getting shipped on I-35 to San Antonio, Austin and beyond, or across U.S. Highway 59 to Houston and points east.

Supporting that trade, there are 25 cold storage facilities with 1.1 million square feet of space operating in Laredo while warehouses with another 500,000 square feet are expected to be added over the next year, figures from the Laredo Economic Development Corp. show. After the pandemic ends, USMCA is expected to bring investment beyond the cold storage sector, Laredo Economic Development Director Teclo Garcia said.

Tesla is coming to Austin, but 25 percent of their parts are made in Mexico, Garcia said. We can play a part in that. Austin is right up the street on I-35. We want to take advantage of that regional economy.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, is pushing for the trade deal to be supported by two projects  the Ports-to-Plains Corridor from Laredo to Denver and a second international rail bridge to Mexico in Laredo.

Trade: Border wait times swell amid shuffle to handle migrant crisis

Tony Payan, a U.S-Mexico relations expert with Rice Universitys Baker Institute, said the Trump administrations push to update NAFTA created two-and-a-half years of uncertainty among investors, which resulted in some projects being put on hold.

Nobody was celebrating with champagne after the deal was signed, Payan said. From the Yukon to the Yucatan, alls you heard were sighs of relief.

And then, the pandemic happened. COVID and USMCA could potentially incentivize U.S. manufacturers operating in China to open backup plants or move their operations south of the border, but Payan said that depends on an unpredictable wild card  Mexicos president, Andres Manuel Lopez-Obrador.

Known as AMLO, Mexicos left-of-center nationalist president has a knack for making foreign investors nervous by favoring government-funded projects over the private sector, Payan said.

Even after USMCA, which raised the minimum wage for autoworkers in Mexico, the cheapest labor out of the three nations is still in Mexico, Payan said. But AMLO is hostile to private investment.  Hes deeply distrusting of the private sector.

Texas Inc.: Get the best of business news sent directly to your inbox

Mexico and Canada also eased their rules about taxing individual packages coming from the United States, meaning U.S. e-commerce providers do not have to pay as high pay taxes on products shipped to customers in those nations.

The trade deal also strengthened intellectual property and privacy laws that protect the online trade of music, electronic books and other products. And as smart phone use and video streaming services continue grow in Mexico, more communications networks will need to be built, including some that cross the border.

Duncan Wood, director of the Wilson Centers Mexico Institute said USMCA enacted privacy laws and the movement of data in a way that lays the groundwork for a 21st century economy.

For companies like Google, data is critically important, Wood said. And if data is the new oil, we need to have rules to govern its trade and movements across borders. Businesses need and want certainty.

sergio.chapa@chron.com

http://twitter.com/SergioChapa
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West Coast Wildfire Smoke Makes It to Michigan: NOAA

Wildfires in California, Oregon, and Washington state have created hazardous air conditions across the West Coast of the United States as smoke travels thousands of miles.

A satellite image that was published over the weekend shows smoke from the West Coast stretching as far as Michigan, located thousands of miles away.

Here is a visible satellite image valid at 2pm PDT showing the vast extent of the wildfire smoke, the Weather Prediction Center wrote on Twitter Saturday. The area in the orange contour is smoke in the mid-upper levels of the atmosphere that has reached as far east as Michigan! The red contour is the dense smoke near the West Coast.

International air quality monitoring website IQAir.com reported that air quality in Portland, Oregon, was the worst in the world on Sunday. It said that Vancouver in Canada, Seattle, and San Francisco are in the top 10beating out massive cities like New Delhi, India; Jakarta, Indonesia; Beijing, China; and Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Oregon cities like Medford, Corvallis, Albany, Eugene, Salem, and Bend all had worse air quality than Portland, according to OregonLive.

The National Weather Service has implemented air quality alerts for much of the West Coast, including parts of California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington state.

Air pollutants can cause breathing difficulties for children, the elderly, as well as persons with respiratory problems. Those individuals who are sensitive to increased particulate matter or smoke are encouraged to avoid prolonged or strenuous outdoor activity during this alert. It is also recommended that all other individuals limit prolonged or strenuous activity outdoors, said the weather agency.

Late Saturday, the Jackson County Sheriffs office said that four people had died in the wildfire that burned in the Ashland area. Authorities earlier this week said as many as 50 people could be missing from the blaze. But they said the number of people unaccounted for is now down to one.

At least 10 people have been killed in the past week throughout Oregon. Officials have said more people are missing from other blazes, and the number of fatalities is likely to rise. Twenty-two people have died in California, and one person has been killed in Washington state.

Among the people killed was Millicent Catarancuic, who was found near her car at her five-acre home in Berry Creek, California. At one point she was ready to evacuate with her dogs and cats in the car. But she changed her mind as the winds seemed to calm and the flames stayed away. Then the fire changed direction, rushing onto the property too quickly for her to leave. She died, along with her animals.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON  The coronavirus was spreading around the world, and officials at the United States Agency for International Development were anxious to rush humanitarian aid to nations in need. But first, they had to settle a debate over American branding and whether it should be displayed on assistance headed to conflict zones.

Political appointees from the White House and the State Department wanted the aid agencys logo affixed to all assistance packages to show the world how much the United States was sending abroad, even as it grappled with its own outbreak.

Career employees at U.S.A.I.D. argued that the logo and other American symbols could endanger people who delivered or received the aid in countries that are hostile to the United States and where branding exceptions are usually granted.

At the end of the debate this spring, relief workers were allowed to distribute aid without the branding in a handful of countries in the Middle East and North Africa. But the discussion, as described by a half-dozen current and former officials at the aid agency and relief workers who were briefed on it, delayed assistance for several weeks to some of the worlds most vulnerable communities as the pandemic began to peak.
Bahrain has agreed to normalize relations with Israel, becoming the latest Arab nation to do so as part of a broader diplomatic push by President Donald Trump further ease the Jewish state's relative isolation in the Middle East and find common ground with nations that share US wariness of Iran.

Trump announced the agreement following a phone call he had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

The three leaders also issued a brief joint statement marking the second such Arab normalization agreement with Israel in the past two months.

Bahrain is one of the few Arab countries with a small Jewish population of around 60 and they live in harmony with other religions in the tiny Gulf nation.

"We were elated because it means that visitors from Israel can come back here and it'll be great for them to actually see the synagogue again and maybe to visit their relatives who are buried here," said Ebrahim Nonoo, head of the Jewish Community in Bahrain.

Nonoo, a former member of the parliament, said the deal will benefit tourism industry in both countries.

"For the Bahrainis it'll be a wonderful idea to go to Israel and do some touring there, so tourism will benefit greatly undoubtedly and I'm pretty certain many people will look to invest in Bahrain as well, they'll see it as a second Dubai."

The announcement came less than a week before Trump hosts a White House ceremony to mark the establishment of full relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, something that Trump and his Middle East team brokered in August.

Bahrain's foreign minister will attend that event and sign a separate agreement with Netanyahu.

Friday's agreement is another diplomatic win for Trump less than two months before the presidential election and an opportunity to shore up support among pro-Israel evangelical Christians.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 16:41:49|Editor: huaxia

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KABUL, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Two bomb blasts took place in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan on Sunday morning, injuring two civilians and triggering panic among the people, the capital police confirmed.

In one incident, two civilians were wounded after a roadside bomb exploded in Mirwais Mina locality, Police District 5 roughly at 9:30 a.m. local time, the Kabul police confirmed in a brief statement.

Another explosion followed in Bagh-e-Daud locality in Paghman district on the western outskirts of the capital, the statement said, adding the blast caused destruction but left no casualties.

Over the past years, the capital city with a population of nearly 5 million has been hit by series of terror attacks by the Taliban insurgents and militants of the Islamic State (IS) opposing the government.

On Wednesday, at least 20 people were killed and 35 others wounded after a roadside bomb went off targeting the convoy of First Vice-President Amrullah Saleh in the city. Enditem
FAIRFAX, Va. - Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax formally kicked off his campaign for governor Saturday, a year after facing two allegations of sexual assault.

Fairfax delivered a campaign speech at the Old Court House in Fairfax in northern Virginia.

In February 2019, Fairfax faced calls for his resignation from fellow Democrats after two women publicly accused him of sexual assault.

Meredith Watson, who attended Duke University with Fairfax, said he raped her in 2000. Vanessa Tyson, a California professor, said Fairfax forced her to perform oral sex when they both attended the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004.

Fairfax has denied the allegations and accused the women of being part of a smear campaign to end his political career.

The voters are incredibly smart. They see through this kind of destructive, politically motivated kind of politics. And they are ready to move to higher ground, he told The Associated Press this week.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Debra Katz, Tysons attorney, renewed calls for a public hearing by the General Assembly on the allegations. Democrats have previously rejected those calls.

Apparently Lt. Governor Fairfax believes that the citizens of the Commonwealth have forgotten about the serious and credible allegations of sexual assault made against him by Dr. Vanessa Tyson and Meredith Watson and about his deplorable treatment of them after they came forward, Katz said in a statement.

Fairfax, the second African American elected to statewide office in Virginia, has repeatedly likened the accusations against him to the lynching of African Americans during the Jim Crow era, and said they are a product of ongoing systemic racism.

On Sunday, Fairfax is scheduled to speak at Fort Monroe in Hampton, where in 1619 the first enslaved Africans in English North America arrived 401 years ago.

Fairfax was elected Virginias lieutenant governor in 2017.

The sexual assault allegations against Fairfax were made soon after Gov. Ralph Northam faced calls for his resignation over the disclosure of a racist photo in his medical school yearbook. Northam says he was not in the image, but acknowledged he had worn blackface for a Michael Jackson costume when he took part in a 1984 dance contest in Texas.
The global lockdown amid the ongoing pandemic has greatly affected the education sector and has triggered disruptions in the way classes are held this school year.

In the Philippines, education officials said that educational institutions will embrace the distance learning approach to ensure that learning among students in all levels remains unhampered. It will also ensure the safety of the students as the country struggles with the health crisis.

In a distance learning set up, the interactions happen between the educators and students who are geographically remote from each other during the actual instruction. While distance learning is not a new concept, some recent definitions focus more on it as a new development that requires not just massive technical adjustments but also changes in the way learning institutions will need to operate in general.

Challenges amid Distance Learning

For Vertiv, a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, distance learning underlines the importance for educational institutions to leverage technology in order to thrive even in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nowadays, schools, universities, and colleges, which used to only conduct traditional face-to-face classes, are faced with numerous challenges, especially in having to equip educators and students with the tools needed to enable distance learning.

Educational institutions need to ensure the availability of the schools IT network for educators to access student information, such as enrollment, class records, among others, even when they are not physically present in the campus. They also need to ensure the accessibility of its IT systems to make modules and other learning materials available for the teachers.

In public schools, for instance, learning references can be accessed by educators, parents, and students using DepEd Commons, a project of the Department of Education (DepEd) aimed at supporting the continuous delivery of basic education to Filipino learners through open education resources (OER).

Apart from the platforms, learning institutions must also ensure that they can support mobile learning. This refers to learning across multiple contexts, through social and content interactions using personal electronic devices.

In mobile learning, virtual classes can be more engaging for students, especially that distance learning can be very solitary and didactic when teachers just ask their students to watch videos, read documents or click on presentations.

Educators must have the capability to innovate and experiment with available online tools to make virtual classes more engaging. In recent years, modern classrooms have been harnessing the power of technology to equip their learning facilities with necessary digital tools not just to support the teaching-learning process but also to provide a more interactive learning experience, especially for distance learning approach, said Jason Lim, country manager of Vertiv Philippines.

Empowering the education sector

Despite the benefits that these innovations bring, digital transformation in schools is not always easy. A typical campus, for instance, would have multiple buildings connected to the same network, usually managed only by a small IT team. Since most of the staff members, teachers, and students, are working remotely, the visibility, access, control, and management of all IT assets is extremely challenging for the IT managers.

Furthermore, these assets must also be protected in its entirety, from hardware to software. With the increasing personal information stored online, as well as personal devices connected to the IT network, IT managers must ensure that sensitive student information is protected against cyberattacks and other threats.

To help schools tackle these challenges, Vertiv has been innovating solutions that can help empower the education sector. With its range of uninterruptible power supply (UPS) solutions, Vertiv helps ensure the availability of the schools critical data center, so access of vital records online remain unhampered. In addition, its range of data center infrastructure management (DCIM) solutions allow IT managers to monitor the schools IT infrastructure even when they are not there, physically.

Vertiv support schools in improving uptime with its full-range of Liebert UPS, which are future-proof, eco-friendly, and highly efficient. With the school year set to start in October, coinciding with the typhoon season, there is a higher risk for downtimes due to potential power interruption. Vertiv UPS technologies will help cover the backup power needs of the IT infrastructure.

Vertiv SmartCabinet

For schools that are supporting volumes of critical data, the Vertiv SmartCabinet, a fully integrated, micro data center solution, helps provide an intelligent and integrated infrastructure that allows them to quickly deploy a data center even in tight locations. The SmartCabinet is a solution that combines power, thermal management, and IT management in a simple, rapidly deployable design, making it ideal for schools that need to deploy IT infrastructure quickly across different locations.

This solution allows IT managers to standardize processes and centrally manage applications and infrastructure remotely, while still providing low latency computing which is crucial for distance learning. With remote IT management, combined with Vertivs efficient and effective deployment services and remote IT management capabilities, expensive trucks rolls are also reduced, allowing the SmartCabinet solution to significantly lower the total cost of ownership compared to traditional approaches.

The SmartCabinet solution is also easy to deploy due to Vertivs standardization, factory integration, and industry-leading deployment services. It also decreases security risks with rights-based access and control, optional onsite intrusion prevention, and detection, as well as video surveillance. Lastly, the solution helps reduce downtime risks with its secure remote IT management, on-line double-conversion uninterruptible power supplies, and next-day on-site emergency services.

As IT becomes an integral part of the education sector, Vertiv aims to bring together cutting-edge solutions to ensure uninterrupted operations, optimal performance, and scalability of data centers, communication networks, and other critical IT facilities.
A new package of Covid-19 relief measures to support businesses and residents will be tabled to the legislative this month, Hong Kongs No 2 official revealed on Sunday, as the city recorded 19 new coronavirus infections.

Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said the government will seek Legislative Council approval for the next round of coronavirus relief measures for those directly affected by social-distancing measures, after HK$290 billion (US$37.2 billion) worth of help was provided previously.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po also became the first official to set a milestone for the city to eliminate untraceable new infections, saying reaching that point would create the conditions for the economys revival.

Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.

The number of new daily infections has been slowly going up in recent days. The number of cases reported on Sunday was the highest in a week, pushing the citys tally of infections to 4,957, with 100 related deaths.

Matthew Cheung, Hong Kongs chief secretary. Photo: Edmond So

There were just six new infections last Tuesday and Wednesday, but the number climbed back up to 12 on each of the following two days, rising to 13 on Saturday and then 19 on Sunday.

But the health authorities said the increase in new infections could just be due to the mass coronavirus screening scheme, under which 1.71 million people had been tested and which will end on Monday.

While the Centre for Health Protection declined to say when the third wave of outbreak might end, Professor Ivan Hung Fan-ngai from the University of Hong Kongs medical school said it could take another four to six weeks before the city returned to zero new infections on a daily basis.

He estimated there were still around 40 to 50 hidden coronavirus carriers in the community.

As we have reached the end of the wave, it is likely many hidden carriers may have recovered on their own so the mass testing drive may not be able to find them, he said.

Story continues

As of Sunday, 26 coronavirus carriers had been identified through the voluntary programme. Hung said the results from the scheme were within the expected statistical range.

While the citywide exercise would have been even more successful if it had come during the peak of the third wave, Hung said, it had still been useful in finding hidden carriers of the virus.

Cheung, meanwhile, wrote in his Sunday blog that the government will seek approval from Legcos Finance Committee for the next round of coronavirus relief measures.

The fresh round of subsidies will focus on people who have been hard hit by the social-distancing measures, he wrote.

The government had previously announced relief measures worth nearly HK$290 billion, including a HK$10,000 [US$1,300] cash handout to permanent residents, and wage subsidies to help prop up struggling businesses.

In a separate blog, the finance chief said Hong Kong was fighting to contain the coronavirus outbreak so there would be no more infections that were untraceable.

The eradication of infections with unknown sources offered the chance of establishing a health code allowing people to travel between mainland China and Hong Kong, stimulating both economies, Chan wrote.

The government has so far approached 11 destinations, including Thailand and Japan, to discuss forming travel bubbles.

Chan added that keeping the virus under control in Hong Kong will be key to reviving the economy.

Paul Chan, Hong Kongs finance chief. Photo: May Tse

Earlier this month, the city relaxed some social-distancing measures, including increasing the limit of how many people can gather in public from two to four, and reopening venues such as beauty salons and gyms.

Chan said that restaurants, which could now seat up to four to a table, had enjoyed more business since the curbs were eased.

Both Cheung and Chan both made eleventh-hour pleas to residents to take part in the testing scheme.

I urge all residents who have not taken the test, particularly foreign domestic workers and students, to take advantage of the last two days of testing and make a final push to break the virus chain of transmission, Cheung wrote.

Among the 19 new cases, 11 were locally transmitted while eight were imported. Of the imported cases, five were people returning from India and three were domestic workers coming from the Philippines. Authorities were unable to trace the source of infection for three of the cases, while three were detected through the testing scheme.

The recent increase in new infections could be due to the community testing drive, even though the proportion is low, it shows there is still hidden chains of transmission, Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable disease branch at the Centre for Health Protection, told a daily coronavirus briefing on Sunday.

She said it was a positive sign that not many invisible carriers have been identified through the screening programme.

The proportion of new cases detected is not very high, which to me is a good thing. It signifies that there are not many silent carriers in the community, she said.

But it also proved that there are indeed some cases in the community, and so we have to be vigilant to keep up our personal hygiene.

Despite a rebound in new infections, she defended the governments decision to discuss forming travel bubbles, saying discussions take time and restrictions will not be eased immediately.

Chuang declined to comment on Hungs remarks that it will take four to six weeks for Hong Kong to return to zero daily infections, saying she had not made such forecasts. But she warned that the coronavirus was highly infectious and there were still invisible carriers in the city.

She urged citizens to keep social-distance rules, wear masks, and wash hands frequently.

Among the new cases was an Indonesian domestic worker, 41, who lived in the Lai King Disciplined Services Quarters in Kwai Chung.

Another was a self-employed delivery worker, 52, who lived in King Wing House in Tuen Muns Shan King Estate. He usually worked in North District.

One of the untraced cases was a 75-year-old retiree who lived in Cheung Sha Wans Lai Tsui Court.

More from South China Morning Post:

This article Coronavirus: Hong Kong to provide more Covid-19 subsidies to those struggling with social-distancing curbs, as city records 19 new infections first appeared on South China Morning Post

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Two deputy sheriffs who were shot multiple times as they sat in a parked patrol car in Los Angeles County on Saturday evening are expected to recover from their injuries, the authorities said Sunday.

God bless them, it looks like theyre going to be able to recover, Alex Villanueva, the Los Angeles County sheriff, said of the wounded deputies on Sunday, according to The Associated Press. Sheriff Villanueva, who was speaking with religious leaders, added, They survived the worst, according to The Associated Press.

The officers, whom the department has not identified, were shot at the M.L.K. Transit Center, a Metro station in Compton, around 7 p.m. local time on Saturday, the authorities said. The Sheriffs Department said on Twitter that the deputies had been ambushed.

The deputies, a man, 24, and a woman, 31, who is the mother of a 6-year-old boy, were taken to a hospital and underwent surgery, department officials said. Sheriff Villanueva said the female deputy was able to summon help by calling in on the police radio despite having been shot.
By PTI

MUMBAI: Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday said it was unfortunate that the BJP is backing Kangana Ranaut despite the actress likening Mumbai to Pak-occupied Kashmir, and added this was done with an eye on Bihar polls.

In his weekly column Rokhthok in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana', Raut also claimed there is a systematic effort to reduce the importance of Mumbai, and constantly defaming the city is part of that conspiracy.

"This is a difficult period when all Marathi people in Maharashtra should unite," Raut said.

By supporting Ranaut and through its stand in the Sushant Singh Rajput case, the BJP wants to win Bihar polls with the upper caste Rajput and Kshatriya votes, he said.

"While doing this, it doesn't matter if Maharashtra is insulted. Not one Maharashtra (BJP) leader was sad over the manner in which the state has been humiliated," Raut said.

"An actress humiliates the chief minister and people of the state shouldn't react, what kind of one-sided freedom is this?" asked Raut, who is the executive editor of Saamana.

"When her illegal construction in the city, which she calls as Pakistan, is demolished, she calls the demolished structure Ram Mandir. You are crying hoarse when there is a surgical strike on the illegal construction. What kind of a game is this?" he asked.

Responding to the demolition, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis had said the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government should focus on fighting coronavirus instead of Kangana Ranaut.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said on Friday he hoped talks between the Afghan government and Taliban due to begin on Saturday would lead to an end to the country's long-running war, but said many challenges remain.Khalilzad told reporters in a telephone briefing that the United States would engage the participants and be willing to assist if needed, but the two sides would decide how to proceed.

"This is a new phase in diplomacy for peace in Afghanistan. Now we are entering a process that is Afghan-owned and Afghan-led," he said, adding they the talks would hopefully bring about a roadmap to end the war. "These negotiations are an important achievement, but there are... significant challenges on the way to reaching an agreement," he added.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Dan Grebler)
The Covid-19 pandemic started as an urban phenomenon in India. But it is now spreading at a faster rate in rural areas. An HT analysis on August 26 had shown that 55% of new Covid-19 cases reported in August were in districts where the rural population had a share of more than 60%. These districts had reported only about 23% of new cases in April.

With the pandemic spreading to rural areas, fatality should have gone up. Indias rural population is poorer compared to their counterparts. According to the 2011-12 consumption expenditure survey (latest available estimates) average monthly per capita expenditure was 1,430 in rural areas compared to 2,630 in urban areas. This has a direct bearing on ability to access health services. India has among the higher share of out of pocket expenditure (62.4%) in total health spending in the world (average 18.2%). Health infrastructure in rural areas is also significantly worse compared to urban areas. According to the National Health Profile 2019, there were 1.2 government hospital beds per 1000 people in urban areas compared to just 0.3 in rural areas.

An HT analysis based on data compiled by How India Lives throws a counter-intuitive result. Rural areas seem to be doing better in terms of case fatality rate (CFR). CFR is defined as the cumulative number of deaths as a share of the cumulative number of cases.

The analysis classifies districts into five categories based on the proportion of the rural population  entirely urban (under 20% of the rural population), mostly urban (20%-40% rural), mixed (40%-60% rural), mostly rural (60% to 80% rural) and entirely rural (over 80% rural population). The proportion of the rural population is based on the 2011 census (the latest data available). The proportion of rural population in 94 districts created after 2011 has been assumed to be the same as the districts they were carved out of. The analysis shows that CFR drops sharply from urban to rural districts. It is 2.66% in the 16 entirely urban districts to as low as 0.98% in the 357 entirely rural districts.

As a result of this variance, urban areas account for a disproportionate share of Covid-19 deaths. Forty-nine entirely urban and mostly urban districts have reported 39% of Indias Covid-19 cases but a majority 54% of the countrys Covid-19 deaths. Similarly, districts with higher rural population have a higher share of confirmed cases and a lower share of deaths.

What explains the fall in CFR from urban to rural areas? Experts are divided on the issue. Some believe this to be a result of poor data collection on cause of death in rural areas, while others think lower co-morbidities and a relatively younger population in rural areas could be the reason. The truth, as is often the case, could be somewhere in the middle.

Dr T Jacob John, professor emeritus and former head of virology at Christian Medical College, Vellore, said poor data reporting could be one possible reason. In the best of times as well, Indias health management system does not monitor deaths. Also, the quality of data will be much better in urban areas than in rural areas, he said.

Data from the ministry of home affairs support this line of argument. While 86% of deaths are registered in India, the cause of death is medically certified in only 21% of registered deaths. A state-wise analysis shows that the share of medically certified deaths to total registered deaths was lower in states which have a higher share of mostly rural and entirely rural districts. Of the 584 mostly rural and entirely rural districts in India, 211 are in five states  Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. These states are among the laggards in terms of the share of deaths that have a medically certified cause.

A large number of non-Covid deaths in rural India go unreported, do we know that it is not true for Covid-19 as well? asked Satyajit Rath of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. We may be undercounting deaths... It is quite possible that confirmed Covid-19 patients staying at home might die there and not be reported, he said.

Experts also cited lower share of population with co-morbidities in rural India as a possible reason for lower fatality rate there. People in villages are relatively healthier and prevalence of diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure is lower in rural areas, said Dr Suresh Kumar, medical director at Delhis Maulana Azad Medical College. People in rural areas generally have a healthier lifestyle, they breathe cleaner air, have good food and also do a lot of physical activities, he said. People with diseases such as diabetes are at a higher risk of developing serious consequences and dying due to Covid-19.

According to the fourth National Family Health Survey, conducted in 2015-16, diabetes and hypertension was more prevalent among both men and women in urban areas. For example, in urban areas, 2.6% women and 2.1% men reported diabetes compared to 1.2% women and 1.5% men in rural areas.

To be sure, even as the prevalence of diseases such as diabetes is lower in rural areas, life expectancy at birth  the number of years a new-born can expect to live  is higher in urban areas (72.4 years) than in rural areas (67.7 years).

The government does not release data on the age-structure of patients at the district-level. However, the Census 2011 data shows that rural areas in India have a slightly higher proportion of younger population than urban areas. For example, nearly 52% of people in rural areas were under 24 years of age while this figure was 46% in urban areas. But the proportion of persons above 50 years old was similar in both urban and rural areas, about 16%.

Another piece of evidence suggests that data coming from rural districts might not be as good as its urban counterpart. The entirely rural districts have not caught up with the trend of dropping fatality rates in India.

In three months between June 1 and September 1, the fatality rates dropped in all groups of districts except in the 357 entirely rural districts where it hovered around 1%. It dropped by nearly one percentage point elsewhere. Here, only the period after June 1 has been compared as all groups of districts had at least 15,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases by then.

Even if rural India is less vulnerable to Covid-19, at least in terms of deaths, there is merit in pushing for better data collection and monitoring to fight the pandemic better.

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In 1871, the famed political cartoonist Thomas Nast had William Boss Tweed, the famously corrupt New York politician, boast, As long as I count the Votes, what are you going to do about it? In the 21st century, weve added a new wrinkle, which is a ballots journey from the voter to the person whos doing the counting. In addition to inviting fraud, the Democrats new fealty to mail-in voting destroys the privacy that has long protected voters against intimidation.

Democrats are grimly determined to shut down the polls and rely solely on voting by mail. This does not mean voting using absentee ballots, which have a decent reputation. Absentee ballots require that the voter act affirmatively to obtain an absentee ballot. The Democrats dream, which is already a reality in Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, and Utah, is to shut down polling places entirely and rely solely on the post office to get votes from the voter to the government for counting.

California was not a mail only state until this summer, when it used the excuse of the Wuhan virus to enact a law mandating that every registered voter get a ballot in the mail. This will happen without regard to whether people have moved, died, or fraudulently registered. The state will be papered with 51 million ballots regardless of whether there are 51 million registered recipients.

The possibilities for fraud are endless. Its easy to list them: Stealing envelopes that the mail carrier has just delivered to the addresses, stealing envelopes left in mailboxes or apartment lobbies for mail pick-up, unscrupulously filling out ballots for voters through ballot harvesting, volunteering to help the elderly and then taking advantage of them, and having corrupt mail carriers volunteer to lose ballots from neighborhoods known to lean left or right.

But while everyone has been focusing on fraud, there are a couple of other problems that people are ignoring. The first is the fact that the United States Post Office relies on human beings, and human beings are fallible. With the best will in the world, theyre going to make mistakes.

On Fox Newss WSJ at Large, Gerry Baker provides an excellent survey detailing the risks associated with voting by mail. J. Christian Adams then explains about the risk arising from the post offices mistakes, the mistakes that a registrar of voters can make, and general voting fraud:

Watch the latest video at foxnews.com

Heres just some of what he had to say:

First of all, we know that vote by mail disenfranchises voters. The Post Office only has a success rate goal of 96% on-time delivery. Thats 4% failure. That would have been 120 electoral votes in states with a 4% margin in 2016. So vote by mail disenfranchises people, they get rejected. Thats the first problem. The second problem is it cranks in vulnerability into the election. I dont want to put the fate of the country into the hands of the people who regularly deliver me my neighbors mail.

The other thing that people are ignoring is that there is no ballot privacy with mail-in votes. Your name is on the envelope. Whoever opens the envelope will know exactly how you voted.

We already have a strong suspicion that Trump supporters are hiding from pollsters because they dont want a stranger somewhere in America, or even in a call center in India, to know that they support Trump. Imagine those same voters having to grapple with the fact that an employee down the road at the civic center building is going to know exactly how they voted.

And speaking of those employees, theres the risk that, if they pull a vote from an envelope and disagree with it, theyll trash it. Thats not going to happen in a modern voting system where the votes are tallied in the booth or put in a scanner at the polling place.

If you want your vote counted and to have the full benefit of a private ballot, go to your polling place on Nov. 3. Another thing you might consider is volunteering at a polling site. Because of the risks the Wuhan virus poses to the elderly who often staff polling places, theres a concern that those sites will be understaffed, something Democrats use as another justification for mail-in voting.

Image: Thomas Nast cartoon 1871, in the Library of Congress.
As Coronavirus cases in India are on a continuous rise with the tally of cases breaching the 47 lakh mark, the Union Health Ministry on Sunday issued 'post COVID-19 management protocol'. A holistic approach is required to follow up care and well-being of all post- COVID recovering patients," the Health Ministry said in a statement.

"After acute COVID-19 illness, recovered patients may continue to report a wide variety of signs and symptoms including fatigue, body ache, cough, sore throat, difficulty in breathing, etc. As of now, there is limited evidence of post-COVID sequelae and further research is required and is being actively pursued," it added.

The Health Ministry encouraged the use of Chyawanaprash, Yoga Asanas, daily gargling and walks among others for those who have recovered from the novel Coronavirus. Besides, the ministry has also urged to take AYUSH medicines only when prescribed by a registered doctor.

Daily practise of Yogasana, Pranayama and Meditation, as much as health permits or as prescribed. Breathing exercises as prescribed by treating physician. Daily morning or evening walk at a comfortable pace as tolerated, said the ministry. The ministry further advised patients to seek mental health support if there is a need. The post COVID protocols have been divided into three levels - 1. Individual-level, 2. Community-level and 3. Healthcare facility sitting.

Here is the full list of the post Covid management protocols

READ | 15 more deaths take COVID-19 toll in Puducherry to 385

READ | Delhi Govt resumes doorstep delivery of public services amid COVID-19 crisis

COVID-19 upsurge in India

India in the last 24 hours reported 94,372 new COVID-19 cases taking the national Coronavirus tally beyond the 47-lakh mark, as per the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday. With the latest spike, the total cases stand at 47,54,357 of which, 9,73,175 are active cases while 37,02,596 patients have been cured/discharged and migrated. 1,114 deaths due to the pathogen were reported in the last 24 hours, across the country, taking the national death toll due to coronavirus to 78,586.

READ | With surge in recoveries, India's COVID-19 recovery rate stands at 77.88%: Health Ministry

READ | Odisha's COVID-19 tally crosses 1.5-lakh mark, death toll mounts to 626

(With agency inputs)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 16:53:06|Editor: huaxia

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A worker makes glassware at a glass factory in Tripoli, Lebanon, Sept. 12, 2020. Two huge explosions rocked Port of Beirut on Aug. 4, shaking buildings all over Lebanon's capital, killing around 190 people and injuring about 6,500 others. The glass on buildings destroyed in the explosions have been recycled by local people to make glassware. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)
New Delhi, Sep 13 : Personal details of hundreds of thousands of users on over 70 adult dating and some e-commerce websites worldwide have been exposed online, security researchers said on Sunday.

The cybersecurity research team at vpnMentor which is world's largest VPN review website found that the hacked websites were using the "same marketing software built by email marketing company Mailfire".

"The software in question had been compromised through an unsecured Elasticsearch server, exposing people all over the world to dangers like identity theft, blackmail and fraud," the report mentioned.

Upon further investigation, it turned out that some of the sites exposed in the data leak were scams, set up to trick men looking for dates with women in various parts of the world.

The leaky database that stored more than 882GB of log files was taken offline on September 3 after vpnMentor researchers tracked it down.

Each of the millions of notifications contained valuable and sensitive Personally Identifiable Information (PII) data for people using the affected websites to send and receive messages.

The leaked data revealed included full names, age and date of birth, gender, email addresses, locations of senders, IP addresses, profile pictures uploaded by users and profile bio descriptions.

Aside from the PII data, the leak also exposed conversations happening between users on dating sites affected.

"Mailfire acted immediately and secured the server within a few hours. Mailfire assumed full responsibility and insisted that the companies exposed were in no way responsible at all - and our research has also confirmed this to be true," the report said.

Among the websites affected included a dating site for meeting Asian women, a premium international dating site targeting an older demographic.

It also appeared that many of the websites shared common owners.

"At the beginning of our investigation, the server's database was storing 882.1 GB of data from the previous four days, containing over 370 million records for 66 million individual notifications sent in just 96 hours," the vpnMentor research team said.

"This is an absolutely massive amount of data to be stored in the open, and it kept growing. Tens-of-millions of new records were uploaded to the server via new indices each day we were investigating it".

Anyone who would have found this database would have been able to learn the identities of users who signed up on these dating sites and access their profiles to read private messages or see past connections, reports ZDNet.
Ahead of bypolls in Madhya Pradesh, the ruling party BJP and the opposition Congress accused each other on Sunday at public meetings held in two different regions of the state of, what they said, betraying people after making promises for their welfare. The bypolls are due for 27 assembly constituencies dates of which are yet to be announced by the Election Commission.

While laying the foundation stones for several projects in Bhander assembly constituency in Datia district and Gohad assembly constituency in Bhind district, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, Congress sought votes of people by projecting the face of Jyotiraditya Scindia in the run-up to 2018 assembly elections but when it formed its government Kamal Nath was appointed the chief minister. He hardly moved out of the secretariat to meet people and redress their grievances. Also, he dumped several welfare schemes launched during the BJP regime earlier for farmers, students, youths, women and other sections of society.

Chouhan asked people, Was this act of Congress not like stabbing people in the back?

Also read: India may see 7 million Covid-19 cases by October, says study

Senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member Jyotiraditya Scindia, home minister Narottam Mishra, cooperative minister Arvind Bhadoria and women and child development minister Imrati Devi also addressed the gatherings.

Scindia said, It was for the first time when Gwalior-Chambal region gave tremendous support to the Congress in 2018 assembly elections by giving 26 seats out of total 34 in the region to the party. People thought the Congress government would draw a bigger line of development than that in the BJP government in the previous years. But the Congress chief minister didnt come out of Vallabh Bhavan (state secretariat). Instead of setting the record of development, the Congress government set a record in corruption. Sand mafia, liquor mafia and transfer industry had their say in the government.

Scindia asked, Digvijaya Singh projected himself as well-wisher of Dalits. I want to ask him if he is really a well-wisher of Dalits then why didnt the Congress send Phoolsingh Baraiya to Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh?

Scindia said, The ensuing bypolls are not for certain constituencies but concerns the entire state. The entire country is looking forward to this election. We have to ensure victory of the BJP on all the 27 seats and give a befitting reply to corrupt Congress.

While BJP leaders attacked the Congress in Gwalior-Chambal region, state Congress president Kamal Nath took a dig at the BJP in Malwa region.

Addressing a public meeting in Sanver assembly constituency in Indore in support of the party candidate Premchand Guddu, the former chief minister said, The BJP in its 15 years of rule from 2003 to 2018 only produced labourers in Madhya Pradesh while in its present regime it is only making false promises to people.

Nath asked people, Have you ever seen labourers from Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Kerala? However, if you have seen labourers on TV screens, they must be labourers from Madhya Pradesh (returning home during the Covid-19 crisis). This is what the BJP government gave to Madhya Pradesh in all these years. People can see how the BJP has brought the state to such a sorry pass.
NEW YORK - T-Mobile is pushing to offer internet service to schools that are doing online learning with a program aimed at low-income students who dont have access. In the U.S., millions of students dont have high-speed internet or computers at home  a difficult enough situation when it was just about trying to get homework done, but a much bigger problem when many school districts have moved part or all of the school day online during the coronavirus pandemic.

School districts are spending big to address the crisis. The L.A. Unified School District is investing $100 million in online learning, including computers and internet service for kids who dont have them. T-Mobile wants to expand its business that serves large organizations like big companies and schools.

It had already planned to give districts 100 gigabytes of free wireless data per year per student, a commitment the company made while pursuing its acquisition of Sprint. But since that allotment wouldnt last more than a few months if kids streamed school all day, T-Mobile is adding two paid plans as well: $12 a month per household for 100GB, or $15 a month for unlimited data. The carrier says those prices are discounted to reflect the free-data offer.

Matt Staneff, T-Mobiles chief marketing officer, and Mike Katz, an executive who leads the T-Mobile division that caters to large organizations like schools and big companies, spoke with The Associated Press about the companys new effort to serve schools. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: Is providing connectivity to schools something that you see as a big business opportunity?

Staneff: Sure, theres business opportunities there. But the motivation of doing this is that we recognize theres a problem in society of kids not being connected. We want to do more than just try to win customers. This is a huge problem.

Q: And you think 10 million kids have connection issues that stops them from being able to do online school? Estimates vary, but Ive seen higher numbers. (A new study says between 15 million and 16 million public-school students dont have adequate internet connections or devices for online school.)

Staneff: Theres another data point that says 56% of school-age kids have had trouble completing their homework. And thats a little bit broader because its not just the internet. A lot of them do it on a phone. They have internet access. It could be that they need a bigger screen, which is why were also offering at-cost, larger-screen devices. Weve looked at the enrollments in the school lunch program, weve looked at all the Census data. Thats what this number is.

Q: What have you been charging schools for getting internet to students who dont have it?

Katz: It ranges greatly. I can tell you this program is now going to be our main education program. The district, they can get unlimited starting at $15. Thats value thats not available anywhere else in the market, and it enables schools to then pass through service at no cost to the students.

Q: So does the new program offer better pricing for schools than whats available to them from T-Mobile now?

Katz: Its netting so prices are lower than what weve done at any time.

Q: How long will this be available?

Staneff: Once you sign up, youre good for five years.
Deadly wildfires in Oregon and Washington are taking lives, destroying property and making the air dangerous to breathe.

Health experts are advising all residents to stay indoors unless absolutely necessary. Most non-medical grade masks wont protect lungs from the fine particulates of wildfire smoke.

The National Weather Service has issued an air quality advisory for most of the western, central and southern parts of Oregon and Southwest Washington.

Conditions in Portland, which has the worst air quality of any major city, could improve on Monday, according to the National Weather Service. Until then, smoke, which is a mixture of air pollutants, and dense fog are thick enough to block out the view of the sun, but not the heat.

The biggest question we have been getting is, Should I run my air conditioner? says Rachel Smith of Pyramid Heating + Cooling in Portland. Yes, you can run your A/C because it is not pulling air from outside. Just make sure to set the fan to on, rather than auto, to ensure the fan is constantly circulating and filtering air."

If you have a fresh air system, turn it off until the smoke is cleared since it will draw in the polluted air from outside, she adds.

Steps to Healthy Indoor Air

The Oregon Health Authority, American Lung Association and Smith of Pyramid Heating + Cooling recommend these steps to keep indoor air healthy:

Make sure all windows and doors are shut. Place damp towels under doors or in other crevices where polluted air might leak in.

Avoid indoor activities that increase indoor pollution, like smoking, burning candles and using a gas stove.

Refrain from doing activities that stir up dust already inside your home. Limit vacuuming unless your vacuum has a high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter.

Check your heating filters daily due to the amount of wildfire smoke. You will need to change or clean them more often. Make sure you have the right size filter to ensure as many particulates as possible are being filtered and they are not going around the filter. Have backup filters ready.

If you have a central heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system, set the fan to on, rather than auto, to make sure the fan is constantly circulating and filtering air.

If you have a fresh air system, turn it off while the wildfire smoke is in and around your area. Turn it back to on after the smoke has subsided.

A short-term solution to a rooftop HVAC is to turn the system off at the thermostat, or duct tape cardboard or a large trash bag over the economizer hood to prevent outside air from coming in, says Smith. Make sure you remove this when the smoke has subsided, she adds.

If you have a heat recovery ventilator (HRV) and energy recovery ventilator (ERV), unplug the unit where it is mounted. Make sure you plug it back in when the smoke is gone.

Treating Smoky Fabric

Tiny smoke particles stick to surfaces and embed in porous carpeting, furniture, books and even paint, according to experts at ServiceMaster, which specializes in restoring buildings after water, smoke or fire damage.

The company offers these tips to reducing smoke odor:

Wipe walls, ceilings, floors and other solid surfaces with a solution of dish soap, white vinegar and warm water to remove smoke particles. Smoke residue doesnt stick to glass, but it does to window frames, sills, screens and blinds.

Sprinkle baking soda on upholstery and carpet, wait a few hours to allow it to absorb the smoke smell then collect the baking soda using a vacuum with a HEPA filter.

Wash or dry clean curtains, area rugs, furniture covers, decorative cushions, duvets, blankets and any other affected fabrics. Use the manufacturers cleaning recommendations.

Dont keep your clean items in your home until it is completely free of smoke odor.

Know the Air Quality

To check the air quality in your area, visit IQair.com. Or visit the EPAs air quality website, airnow.gov, and type in your city or ZIP code. View interactive maps at the states web page, oregonsmoke.blogspot.com, or the EPAs web page, fire.airnow.gov.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality also allows smartphone users to check air quality though an app that can be found by searching for OregonAir in the app store.

 Janet Eastman jeastman@oregonian.com; 503-294-4072; @janeteastman

 Grant Butler; gbutler@oregonian.com; 503-221-8566; @grantbutler

 Aimee Green; agreen@oregonian.com; @o_aimee
Europe will face a rising death toll from the coronavirus during the autumn months, the World Health Organization warned on Monday, as the number of daily infections around the world reached a record high.

Israel was among the countries battling a new spike, announcing a three-week lockdown from Friday when people will not be allowed more than 500 metres from their homes.

The announcement sparked a wave of anger.

"It's unfair!" said Eti Avishai, a 64-year-old seamstress. "They didn't stop the big gatherings in synagogues, the weddings and the other events, and now I can't be with my children and grandchildren during the holidays?"

The World Health Organization reported 307,930 new cases worldwide on Sunday, the highest daily figure since the beginning of the pandemic in China late last year, as global cases rapidly approach 29 million.

"It's going to get tougher. In October, November, we are going to see more mortality," WHO Europe director Hans Kluge told AFP in an interview.

WHO Europe's 55 members started a two-day online meeting Monday focusing on their response to the virus.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the meeting by video-link: "We are by no means out of the woods."

- Millions back to school -

The latest surge has sparked alarm across Europe, and revived the debate over how best to respond to the rise in infections. England has limited social gatherings to no more than six people from Monday.

On the other hand, millions of schoolchildren in other affected countries have returned to their classrooms for the first time in months.

Italian children were among the first in Europe to see their schools closed, and some 5.6 million returned for the first time in six months on Monday.

Although officials said thousands of extra classrooms had been set up, there were concerns over a lack of surgical masks for teachers and a shortage of single-seat benches.

Story continues

Some southern Italian regions postponed their reopening, worried they were not properly prepared.

A Vatican spokesman meanwhile said Pope Francis was being "constantly monitored" after having met with a cardinal who later tested positive.

- Trump rally 'reckless' -

While Europe battles with rising infections, other parts of the world are tentatively easing restrictions.

Saudi Arabia said it would partially lift a six-month suspension of international flights this week, while South Korea said it would ease rules in and around the capital Seoul after cases declined.

The backlash against the restrictions is also being factored in by beleaguered governments.

Australian police arrested dozens of people over the weekend at anti-lockdown rallies in Melbourne as crowds defied stay-at-home orders. Similar rallies took place in Germany and Poland on Saturday attended by anti-vaccine campaigners, conspiracy theorists and far-right activists.

Such protests are relatively common in the United States, the hardest-hit nation in the world with more than 6.5 million infections and 194,000 deaths.

President Donald Trump, under pressure for campaigning for the economy to reopen despite the catastrophic figures, was criticised for holding big rallies over the weekend.

"Tonight, President Donald Trump is taking reckless and selfish actions that are putting countless lives in danger here in Nevada," state governor Steve Sisolak, of the rival Democratic Party, tweeted ahead of the Sunday rally.

At the rally, Trump boasted about his success dealing with the pandemic and dismissed Sisolak as a "political hack".

- 'Exhausted' health workers -

There was some good news in Britain, where regulators allowed clinical trials to resume on one of the most advanced experimental vaccines.

Researchers on the joint AstraZeneca-Oxford University project, who hope to finish tests by the end of the year, had "voluntarily paused" the trial after a UK volunteer developed an unexplained illness.

A vaccine is considered crucial to the fight against the virus, but the WHO's Kluge said the public should not put all their hopes on a single drug.

"I hear the whole time: 'the vaccine is going to be the end of the pandemic'. Of course not," he said. The end of the pandemic would come when communities learn to live with the disease, he stressed.

Meanwhile, the wider effects of the pandemic are biting hard on medical staff and strained health systems.

"They're always being asked for more, always too much, they're exhausted."

Czech Post meanwhile announced Monday it was to deliver face masks and respirators to millions of senior citizens this week, as the number of cases rose there.

burs-jj/pma
The President of the Republic Nana Akufo-Addo has reaffirmed his commitment to paying customers affected by the collapse of the infamous Diamond Microfinance Limited (DKM).

The president has dropped hints of the settlement of the matter by end of September. President Akufo-Addo pledged that all customers of DKM will be paid in full.

He was addressing a gathering of Chiefs and people of Wenchi in the Bono Region as part of his presidential tour, the President stated that everyone who was owed money by the microfinance company will receive payment.

By the end of September, everyone who was owed by DKM will be given their money, he said.

President Akufo-Addo added that the payments were not going to be done in installments but rather all creditors will be paid in full.

We are going to make sure that all balances are paid in full. We are not paying in percentages like Mahamas government, he assured. Background

In 2015, some microfinance companies in the Brong Ahafo region found themselves in a mess, following accusations that they squandered the deposits of their customers.

The central bank in 2015 suspended the operations of DKM for violating the Banking Act.

Though the central bank subsequently lifted the ban on the company's operations, DKM was unable to pay its customers their locked up cash.

According to then-President, John Mahama, and his Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, DKM Microfinance had spent about GHS 77 million of their clients' monies.

President Akufo-Addo in his campaign towards the 2016 elections assured the clients of these companies that he would retrieve their locked-up monies for them when he is voted into power.

The Bank of Ghana confiscated the assets of the company and appointed the Registrar General's Department to commence liquidation processes to refund customers of the company.

---CitiNewsRoom
Lucknow, Sep 13 : There have been reports of several private schools functioning on the sly since the past two weeks.

These schools have claimed proper sanitisation and adherence to safety protocols and have encouraged children to come back to school.

Parents, too, have agreed to send their children to school since online classes are not working well for them -- children are not able to understand, there are network problems and families do not have multiple gadgets even if they have more than one child.

When these schools started functioning quietly, no one complained -- neither the parents because they were paying fees and neither the teachers since they would receive salaries.

However, the bubble finally burst when a government primary school in Deoria district was found functioning for the last one month in violation of the Covid-19 lockdown norms.

An inquiry has now been ordered into the incident.

Additional Basic Shiksha Adhikari (ABSA), Deoria, Gyan Chand Mishra conducted the inquiry after a photograph of the students on the school campus went viral. Mishra has recommended the suspension of the school headmaster, Zulfikar Khan.

Earlier, in Jalaun, a probe was ordered against a private school in Madhavgarh area that was found to be open during the pandemic.

A video of the school where about 40 children were found to be attending classes amid the pandemic went viral on various social media platforms in August.

A senior official of the education department in Lucknow said, "Strict action will be taken against those found violating the government orders. If we get any complaint about a private school having opened up, we will initiate action in that case too." Rakesh Kumar (name changed) whose daughter studies in Class 9 in a prestigious private school in Lucknow, said the school had offered to start classes and most parents agreed.

"My daughter will take her board examinations next year and needs to complete the course. Online classes are not the same because of disruptions in network and electricity supply. Besides, we do not know how long the corona will last and cases are going up every day. We are taking precautions and sending our daughter to school. She is much more relaxed now," he said.

The children of this school have been asked not to wear uniforms to school. They have been allowed to wear home clothes. Obviously, this has been done to avoid their identification.

Meanwhile, sources said some senior officials were aware of some private schools opening up and holding classes for students on the premises. "The lockdown has been lifted and unless there is a complaint, we cannot take action suo moto," said an official.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, said that the Declaration of Peace between Bahrain and Israel achieves the goals of the Arab Peace Initiative that will help promote security and stability in the region while ensuring the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people as well achieve sustainable peace.

Dr Al Zayani emphasized the importance of the peace agreement to be signed by the United Arab Emirates and Israel, which contributed in stopping the annexation of Palestinian lands in a step that boosts the chances for a comprehensive peace in the Middle East.

Bahrain stresses the need to reach a just and comprehensive peace solution as a strategic option to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to the international legitimacy resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative, in a manner that preserves the rights of the Palestinian people, he said.

Sisi calls HM King Separately, HM the King received a telephone call from Egyptian President Abdelfattah El-Sisi who congratulated him on declaring the establishment of diplomatic relations between Bahrain and Israel. The Egyptian President expressed congratulations on the kingdoms historical step which will advance the peace process and open prospects for stability in the Middle East.

National Assembly hails Bahrains historic step The Shura and Representatives Councils hailed the establishment of diplomatic relations between Bahrain and Israel as a historical step promoting peace and stability in the region. Both the councils underlined support for the historic step that would increase stability, security, and prosperity in the region.

The Shura and Representatives Council called on the government to coordinate with the legislative branch when taking any future steps in this regard. Hailing the deal, Information Minister Ali bin Mohammed Al Romaihi said, All historical precedents confirm that all the Kingdoms initiatives and decisions have always been in the interest of the Palestinian people and protecting them, and no one can outbid the Kingdom in this regard.
The second shooting occurred just after 11 p.m. in the 500 block of North Pine Avenue, police said. On the sidewalk, officers found Danielle Pearson, 33, with a gunshot wound to the head. She was pronounced dead at 11:18 p.m. at the scene. She lived on the block where the shooting took place, according to the medical examiners office.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday gave his seal of approval to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as the face of the NDA ahead of elections in the state, saying Kumar had a very important role to play in taking Bihar forward on the path to progress.

Dedicating to the nation three petroleum sector projects in Bihar worth more than Rs 900 crore, PM Modi said, We must ensure sushasan (good governance) in Bihar. The good work done in the last 15 years must continue. He added that the chief minister has played a big role in our aim towards a New India, New Bihar.

Without naming the opposition RJD or its leader LaluPrasad, and the partys ally the Congress, Modi blamed the states backwardness on a mindset which made them sneer at economic progress and thought lip-service was enough when it came to the betterment of the poor. Bihar has for long been plagued by a peculiar mindset. Road projects were frowned upon and people used to ask what do these have to offer those who walk on foot and do not have vehicles, Modi said in a veiled reference to Prasad.

Such indifference to progress also took its toll onhigher education. But the last 15 years have been of sushasan.Infrastructure has improved. New medical and engineeringcolleges, law institutes and polytechnics have come up. NitishKumar has a very important role to play in ensuring that theprocess continues, he said.

Once considered arch-rivals, Kumar had walked out of the alliance with the BJP in 2013 when Modi, who was then the Chief Minister of Gujarat, was named the Prime Ministerial candidate of the NDA.

The prime ministers endorsement comes at a time when there have been reports of a rift between NDA allies JD(U) and LJP ahead of elections in Bihar. Sources said a number of LJP leaders were against contesting elections under the leadership of Nitish Kumar as they were upset with his poor handling of the Covid-19 situation, the floods, migrant crisis and employment issues in the state. So far as the JD(U) is concerned, party insiders say the spat with LJP is over seat sharing ahead of the elections.

The source said that Chirag Paswan is eyeing to contest at least 43 seats in the assembly elections but Bihar CM is unwilling to give more than 25-30 seats to the LJP.

The LJP, which fought the 2015 assembly elections with the BJP as the ally partner, contested on 55 seats and managed to win just two seats. The LJP finished runner up in 36 assembly seats and managed to get 4.8 per cent vote share.

However, dismissing rumours, LJP chief Chirag Paswan on Saturday said, I have no problem with the name of Nitish Kumar as the face of the NDA." I am okay with any Tom, Dick or Harry chosen by the BJP," NDTV quoted the 37-year-old leader, who has been critical of the Bihar chief minister over management of floods and the COVID-19 pandemic in the state.

Laying down certain conditions for the alliance, Paswan said that the partners need to agree to a common minimum programme which includes his Bihar First and Bihari First" campaign and said that he was not willing to work on Kumars seven resolves commitment, announced ahead of the 2015 election. Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswans son, Chirag has in past expressed his ambition for the chief ministership of the state.

LJP sources said any attempt to undermine the partys position in the state will prompt it to go all out against the JD(U). They said the JD(U) has been working to undercut the LJP. They cited the ruling partys decision to join hands with Dalit leader Jitan Ram Manjhi, who has a history of targeting the LJP, a party whose base is primarily among Dalits, as another attempt in this regard.

The BJP, meanwhile, has been maintaining that the ruling National Democratic Alliance is intact in the state and has stuck to Kumars projection as its chief ministerial face.

The schedule for assembly elections in the state is likely to be announced in the coming days. The Election Commission has indicated that it would like to conclude the exercise before end of term of the present house on November 29.
With actor Rhea Chakraborty's arrest over 'procuring' weed for late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, the conversation has been hyped by overzealous media houses in a quest for skyrocketing TRPs.

With mentions of marijuana dating all the way back to the Vedas, the plant has long been entwined in Indian history. From Shivbhakts to bhaang and more, cannabis has been a part of our culture for longer than people realize.

With actor Rhea Chakraborty's arrest over 'procuring' weed for late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, the conversation has been hyped by overzealous media houses in a quest for skyrocketing TRPs.

However, before jumping on the bandwagon of opinions, it's important to remember that the criminalization of weed is a Western imperliastic import, something India tried to withstand for a long time.

Pressured into it by the USA in 1985, the government's Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act is an archaic law attempting to regulate cannabis use, and evidently failing.

It's time to revisit the past and present and rediscover the liberating trip of pot in pop culture through the years.
New Delhi, Sep 13 (UNI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah, condoling the demise of senior Rashtriya Janata Dal leader and former Union Minister Raghuvansh Prasad here on Sunday, said he will be remembered for his dedication to the welfare of the poor and deprived class of the society.

Taking to Twitter, Mr Shah said Deeply saddened on the demise of senior Bihar politician Raghuvansh Babu. His entire life was devoted to the ideals of Lohiya Ji and Karpoori Thakur ji and he will be remembered for his dedication to the welfare of the poor and deprived class of the society."

Singh passed away at All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here. The 74-year-old leader was admitted to the hospital since a week after developing post-Covid-19 complications and was put on a ventilator support.
A peaceful protest over mail delays was held outside the entrance to a post office at 1 p.m. on Saturday at the corner of Livernois and Big Beaver roads in Troy.

Organized by Paul Krause, a Troy resident, about 15 people rallied to bring awareness to the issue, holding signs up at cars and passers-by.

According to The Associated Press, mail delays have recently been caused by Postmaster General Louis DeJoys changes to the mail service, including removing sorting machines and distinctive blue boxes at some processing facilities and nixing overtime for employees.

DeJoy, who started his position in June, has already said hes halting some of the changes, at least until after the election.

This is after the House of Representatives voted in August to reverse the changes and a group of states is now suing to immediately undo them, saying the upcoming election is at stake.

The concern is that, because of the coronavirus pandemic, the election will be impacted because many voters are sending in mail-in ballots this year.

In response to this, the Oakland County Democratic Party and MoveOn.org organized #SaveThePostOffice Saturday protests on August 22 in front of a post office, located at 200 West 2nd Street in Royal Oak, to save the post office from (Donald) Trump and declare that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy must resign, according to MoveOn.org.

Its possible Saturdays protests could have derived from these #SaveThePostOffice Saturday protests, as protesters held signs that said, Save the Post Office and Dont Mess with My Mail.

We feel that the delay in the postal service is very problematic and we are here to bring awareness not only to people and voters and representatives and our congress that we cant stand for this anymore, Krause said, wearing a mask that said vote on it.

We need a post office that is efficient like it used to be, he said.

When asked about the upcoming election, if he thought people would vote twice or as illegal aliens, Krause said he thought election fraud wouldnt occur.

If you look at election fraud, you have to go back to history. Our history shows that theres only 0.0025 percent election fraud. Why would you foresee that its going to be any worse?, he said.

Feedback from cars passing by was apparently very positive, with one protester even posing with a mail carrier.

Jennifer Kanefsky, one protester, said she was out protesting because she feels the issue is bipartisan.

Because, I think the mail is important for everyone. Republicans and Democrats. My sister mailed me and my husband an anniversary card from Connecticut three weeks ago and it arrived yesterday (on Friday, September 11), she said.

Thats ridiculous! People are waiting for prescriptions. Everybody needs to get their mail.

This is way beyond political. Its personal. Its peoples lives, Kanefsky added.

Its unclear if another protest will be held, but information will likely be available under the hashtag, #SaveThePostOffice, on Facebook and Twitter.

Also check the Michigan Democratic Partys website or their Facebook page, or visit MoveOn.org.
A bronze parapet bearing the names of victims in the 9/11 attacks is adorned with flowers and remembrance messages at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York, the United States, Sept. 11, 2020. Commemorative activities were held on Friday in New York City to remember those who lost their lives in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks despite the COVID-19 pandemic. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)
Bidens struggles with Hispanic voters has some questioning if he can win Nevada and Florida

Union workers in battleground states are worried about former Vice President Joe Bidens chances to defeat President Donald Trump.

Read More: Trump has leverage over Biden on one important issue in battleground states

As polls are beginning to show that Bidens advantage over Trump gets narrow in key states, Democratic union workers are worried about Bidens chances of victory.

Biden had a 5-point advantage or a likely Democrat odds of seizing Nevada over Trump, according to the University of Nevada-Las Vegas Lee Business School poll and the Cook Political Report, respectively. As time goes on, however, the very same Cook Political Report went from likely to lean Democrat.

Florida, another battleground state with more delegates, went from leaning Democrat to a toss-up.

At the beginning of summer, Biden once predicted 308 to 187 lead in the electoral college against Trump. However, the former vice presidents advantage has slimmed down to 279 to 187 for Trump, the Cook Political Report shows.

For battleground union workers in Nevada, the states local election is shaping up to be in favor of Trump.

Poll workers at the Miami-Dade County Elections Department deposit peoples mail in ballots into an official ballot drop box on primary election day on August 18, 2020 in Doral, Florida. Voters casts ballots in Miami-Dade to elect Miami-Dades mayor, School Board seats, Miami-Dade state attorney and Judges. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

I think Nevada could end up very much like Michigan did in 16, said D. Taylor, the head of Unite Here, the powerful Culinary Workers Unions national organization, Bloomberg reported.

Trump won the state over Hillary Clinton in 2016 by less than 1% in the electoral college.

Although the state of Nevada awards six electoral college votes out of the 270 needed to secure the presidency, Bidens loss of the likely Democratic state is a blow to momentum.

It also a suggestion that his favorability among Hispanic people is dying down, considering that his campaign has not specifically targeted them.

Hispanic Democratic voters in Nevada make up about 17% of the states eligible voters, Bloomberg reports. Former presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders defeated Biden in the Nevada caucuses after his Vermont challenger won half the Hispanic vote, according to CNNs entrance polls of the January caucuses.

Story continues

Only 17% of Hispanic Democratic voters supported the eventual Democratic nominee.

Florida, which Trump won over Clinton in 2016, is another state where the Latino vote is crucial.

Read More: Trump called him my African American and upended his life

Trump has his Miami-Dade Cuban supporters, though they are skeptical of him. They like his tough position against socialism, Cuba, and Venezuela, and his emphasis on having a good economy with tax cuts, Cook Politics Report found.

Have you subscribed to theGrios podcast Dear Culture? Download our newest episodes now!

The post Union workers worried Trump has edge over Biden in key races in Nevada and Florida appeared first on TheGrio.
As Democratic members continue to reject the proposed Republican-led targeted bill, what are now the updates and current status of relief aids and other benefits?

Millions of Americans were hoping that the Republican-led targeted bill or a new round of relief aid would have strong bipartisan support on Thursday. However, it was not what was expected to happen because Democratic Senators did not support the new relief aid.

Much of the fund under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act has already been used. However, there is still around $300 billion unspent budget that Pres. Trump suggested to be released and be used as stimulus checks.

The said amount is more than enough for over 160 million Americans and eligible individuals who applied during the first round. Meanwhile, here are the updates and current status of the relief aids:

Unemployment Benefits

The first round of federal unemployment claim expired last July. After it, Pres. Trump asked Congress to act on the relief aid to ensure that people in the country will receive the help they need. However, Congress failed to act, but Pres. Trump immediately responded by issuing and signing an executive order that extended the unemployment claim.

The executive order mandated the Federal Emergency Management Agency to divert its unspent fund for unemployment claims. The FEMA will send $300 for eligible individuals, while the stat can add another $100.

Additionally, Pres. Trump ordered to extend the unemployment benefits to another three weeks after the Democratic Senators rejected the targeted bill on Thursday. This means that eligible unemployed individuals will receive an amount of $1,800.

Eviction Ban

One of the memoranda that Pres. Trump issue last month was the eviction protection. This is to make sure that millions of Americans will not get homeless amid the global pandemic. Trump's administration believed that the number of COVID-19 infections in the country would increase if more people were on the streets, homeless.

Moreover, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also released the National Eviction Moratoriumthat makes it illegal for landlords to evict the tenants who no longer pay their rent because of a job loss or any other problems related to COVID-19.

However, this does no0000t apply to everyone because there are terms that tenants should pass first. They need to fill up a form called "Halt in Evictions to Prevent Further Spread of Covid-19," and provide a copy to their landlord or owner of the residential property.

Individuals who are earning less than $99,000 and couples who jointly filed an amount of $198,000 in their latest tax return are qualifiedThey also need to declare that they did everything but end up nothing and only depend on their daily needs through a charity.

Second Stimulus Checks

One of the benefits that millions of Americans are hoping until today is the second round of $1,200 stimulus check. Both parties already agreed to send the stimulus payments. However, they cannot proceed with the bill because they disagreed on the total amount of the stimulus package.

However, Pres. Trump asked Congress to use the $300 billion unspent budget under the CARES Act and is now looking for legal ways to release the fund even without Congress's approval through executive actions.
Diehard Greys Anatomy fans will never forget the tragic episode where George O Malley (T. R. Knight) died. He was only part of the show for five seasons; however, fans think they know what would have happened if he was never hit by that bus.

Greys Anatomy stars Kate Walsh, T. R. Knight, and Katherine Heigl | Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic

Why did George O Malley leave Greys Anatomy?

The decision for George O Malley to depart Greys Anatomy was because the actor who played his character, T. R. Knight, called it quits. The stars ultimate reason for leaving stemmed from many different things.

In 2007, you may remember that co-star Isaiah Washington, who played Preston Burke, reportedly used a homophobic slur to refer to Knight. After the incident, Washington was fired from the show. However, the actor never recovered from the issue enough to want to continue on the series.

RELATED: Greys Anatomy Fans Predict Which Character Will Exit the Show in Season 17

Knight left Greys Anatomy in 2009, citing a breakdown in communication with Shonda Rhimes. He also was upset that O Malley was getting a decreasing amount of screen time on the show. Plus, the conflict with Washington forced him to come out as gay publicly.

George O Malley would have hit it off with April Kepner

April Kepner (Sarah Drew) joined Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital in season 6 after the merge of the two hospitals. Since O Malley died at the end of season 5, the two characters never met.

He wouldve been close to April had they met, one fan wrote on Reddit. George wouldve been a really incredible trauma surgeon, too.

RELATED: Greys Anatomy: This 1 Major Character Wouldnt Be on the Show If It Wasnt for George O Malley

Other fans quickly agreed that April and George would have been fast friends.

I really couldve seen him and April getting along and having a friendly competitive relationship while both were doing trauma.

O Malley would have helped Alex Karev and Izzie Stevens relationship on Greys Anatomy

Fans also feel that O Malleys relationship with Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) would have grown and changed.

I feel like if George was there in season 6, he couldve been a mediator to Alex and Izzie [Katherine Heigl] when they had problems, another fan added. He could have told Alex to tell Izzie to come back when he told her to leave. Alex wouldve respected him for telling him to fight for him and Izzie.

Fans also add that the course of Izzies career at the hospital would have changed if O Malley were still alive in season 6.

RELATED: Greys Anatomy Fans Think This 1 Underrated Character Should Narrate the Series Finale  Not Meredith Grey

If George were still there, then Izzie would have stayed and never even been fired, one fan wrote. She made a mistake because she was nice, and Charles took advantage of her kindness. She mentioned George immediately before mistreating the patient.

Right before Izzie gives a patient the wrong medication, she yells at Charles for not having each others backs in the hospital. She brings up how George threw himself in front of a bus to save someone. So, fans feel that Izzie wouldnt have been thinking about her friends death; therefore, she would have never made a mistake.

Season 6 would have just been way better if he had stayed, another fan concluded.
French Champagne, German cars and Irish beef could all be hit with tariffs by the UK if the EU triggers a trade war amid growing Brexit tensions, it was claimed today.

The Government is said to be looking at how it could respond if Brussels tries to punish Britain.

Relations between the two sides have sunk to a new low after Boris Johnson unveiled his plans to override parts of the Brexit divorce deal.

The EU has given the Prime Minister until the end of the month to withdraw the plans or face legal action and the potential collapse of trade talks.

Boris Johnson's plans to override parts of of the Brexit divorce deal have sparked EU fury

But the Government has insisted it will not be backtracking, putting the two sides on a collision course and sparking fears of revenge.

A Whitehall source told the Sunday Express that 'a trade war is a concern' and ministers are 'considering all options'.

It is thought a tit-for-tat plan could see the UK target flagship EU exports like German car manufacturers, French wine producers and Irish beef.

However, such measures would apparently only be taken by the UK if the EU was to strike first.

Tory Brexiteers are increasingly of the belief that Brussels could try to punish Britain over Mr Johnson's attempts to tear up parts of the Withdrawal Agreement.

Some are even pushing for the Government to axe the treaty entirely, with one Tory MP saying: 'The problem is that we have seen the EU can misuse the Withdrawal Agreement and at the moment it still stands if we walk away from trade talks.'

Michel Barnier last week appeared to hint that the EU could ban UK food exports to the bloc if no trade deal is agreed by the end of the transition period in December.

The EU's top negotiator said there were still 'many uncertainties' on the UK's post-Brexit standards regime and that 'more clarity is needed' in order for Brussels to agree to allow British exports of food and livestock to continue.

Ministers are said to be 'considering all options' amid fears the EU could trigger a trade war amid rising tensions. Michel Barnier is pictured in London on September 10

Mr Barnier today rejected claims that the EU could block UK food exports to the bloc if the two sides fail to strike a trade deal by the end of the year

The comments were seen by many in Westminster as a threat that UK exports could be impeded.

But Mr Barnier today dismissed the claims as he tweeted: Sticking to facts is also essential. A case in point: EU is not refusing to list UK as a third country for food imports.

To be listed, we need to know in full what a countrys rules are, incl for imports. The same objective process applies to all listed countries.

However, his British counterpart Lord Frost challenged Mr Barnier as the pair became embroiled in an extraordinary Twitter row.

Lord Frost claimed the EU had 'said to us explicitly' during trade talks that if Brussels does not formally recognise the UK's post-Brexit food standards regime then 'we will not be able to move food to Northern Ireland'.
New Delhi: Actress Shamita Shetty has occupied a spot on the trends list after her tweet on Kangana Ranaut's office demolition by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) went viral. Kangana's plush office in Mumbai's Palli Hill was partly demolished by the BMC earlier this week amid her bitter face-off with the Maharashtra government over her PoK remark. The Bombay High Court, however, soon gave a stay order on the demolition and sought a reply from the BMC.

The demolition drive by the BMC was condemned by many Bollywood stars and Shamita, too, voiced her opinion and tweeted, "I won't go into the merit or demerit of what Kangana said. She has freedom of speech, but what happened yesterday seemed undignified shocking & v v wrong! Democracy, human/property safety compromised with goondaism? Am a proud Indian and always felt safe in Mumbai but now.. saddened and unnerved! #DeathofDemocracy!"

Kangana Ranaut's remark comparing Mumbai to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) drew the ire of the ruling Shiv Sena, which also controls the BMC.

Before the demolition work, the BMC posted a second notice outside her bungalow, informing her of the action being taken by the civic body.

The actress arrived in Mumbai on the same day and all through her journey from Manali, she kept tweeting about the BMC officials bringing down her property.
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Linkedin Ryan Arcadio (Inquirer.net/Asia News Network)  Sun, September 13, 2020 22:05 495 e22cd4161040e111d73a5626c449655c 2 Entertainment 50-cent,philanthropy,fast-food Free

Rapper 50 Cent gave away over US$30,000 in cash tips to fast-food workers in his hometown Queen in New York.

The artist, whose real name is Curtis James Jackson III, surprised the employees with social media influencer Jay Mazini, as per his Instagram post on Sept. 9.

@jaymazini is the real deal, he saw me in the hood yesterday so we went tonight and showed everybody some love, the Jackson said.

Read also: Jennifer Hudson, sister Julia give away 2,000 bags of school supplies to kids

Mazini first spoke with the employee manning a local Burger Kings drive-thru window before Jackson appeared. The social media star asked the staff member how many were working with her at the time and had all of them approach the window.

When they gathered by the window, Mazini began handing out dollar bills to each of them. Shortly after, the rapper walked toward them and gave away money from his own pocket as well.

One worker could not help but shout and thank the rapper for his generous act.

This is amazing! Thank you! she said.

The cheers and crowd surrounding Jackson and Mazini eventually drew the attention of police nearby. However, the rapper assured them that they were fine and even offered the money as well, which the cops refused.

Following their sudden giveaway, Mazini also spoke about the surprise on his own profile.

PASSED OVER 30K ME & @50cent TO THESE HARD WORKERS, DURING THIS PANDEMIC, he said.

Mazini also hinted at working on a project with Jackson, telling his followers to stay tuned to whats about to come.

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This article appeared on the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post
Frontline domestic violence specialists say the economic impacts of COVID-19 are disproportionately affecting victims, trapping them in situations of abuse due to financial dependence, unemployment and a lack of affordable accommodation.

A survey of specialists at 34 community services across NSW found rising rates of women experiencing domestic violence since the onset of the pandemic, with more than 85 per cent recording an increase in the complexity of client cases.

Women are experiencing heightened levels of abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit:Shutterstock

The biggest concerns being flagged by frontline specialists at the moment are that perpetrators are ramping up their use of violence and abuse in the context of excessive drug and alcohol misuse, unemployment, and financial pressures, said Hayley Foster, chief executive of peak body Womens Safety NSW, which conducted the survey.

The results emphasised the economic impacts, which are driving an escalation of violence and abuse, while at the same time leaving victims with less financial means to escape their abusers.
The Centre on Sunday urged Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to ensure adequate oxygen availability in all healthcare facilities and unrestricted intra- and inter-state movement of oxygen cylinders because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Union Health Ministry held a virtual meeting where Union Health Secretary, Secretary DPIIT and Secretary Pharmaceuticals participated. State Health Secretaries and Industries Secretaries of the seven states also participated in the meeting and discussed ways to ensure adequate oxygen availability in all healthcare facilities and unrestricted intra- and inter-state movement of oxygen, the statement stated.

Union Minister for Commerce and Industry and Railways Piyush Goyal addressed them. The states were advised to ensure facility wise/hospital wise oxygen inventory management and advance planning for replenishment so that there are no stockout, the health ministry said in a statement.

They were urged to ensure that no restriction is imposed on the movement of medical oxygen between states and UTs, and provision of green corridor for Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) Tankers within the cities.

Hospitals and institutions have long-term tender/contract agreement for supply of oxygen with manufacturers, which need to be honoured. Hence, states must not impose restrictions on free movement of oxygen, the statement underlined.

Timely payment of dues to the manufacturers and suppliers to maintain uninterrupted supply of oxygen was stressed. States were urged to improve power supply infrastructure and ensure uninterrupted supply to Oxygen Manufacturing Units, ensure proper disinfection of oxygen cylinders as per protocols while sending cylinders to fillers of oxygen.

They were also urged to ensure effective coordination with steel plants for oxygen procurement since steel plants provide approx. 550 MT/day oxygen in addition to oxygen manufacturers who provide 6,400 MT/day.
MUMBAI: Amid furore from the opposition over the recent attack on Navy veteran Madan Sharma and demolition drive carried out by BMC at actress Kangana Ranaut's Mumbai office, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday stated that there is a 'conspiracy' to defame his state. He added that his government has been working effectively to tackle COVID-19 infection in the state.

"Whatever political storms come, I will face... I will fight coronavirus too," Thackeray said in a televised public address. A day after COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra crossed the 10-lakh mark, Thackeray said his government has done effective work to tackle the pandemic.

The Maharashtra Chief Minister also appealed people to not organise morchas, protests or any sort of demonstration on Maratha quota issue during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. His statement on Maratha quota came days after the Supreme Court on September 9 directed that no quota will be granted to people of the Maratha community in education and jobs in the state this year and referred the hearing on a batch of plea challenging the constitutional validity of a Maharashtra law granting Maratha reservation in education and jobs to a larger bench.

The Maharashtra government led by Uddhav Thackeray is facing heat from several quarters after a few Shiv Sena workers allegedly roughed up a Navy veteran for forwarding a cartoon lampooning Maharashtra Chief Minister. On September 12, Six Shiv Sena workers were arrested charged under section 325 of the Indian Penal Code for causing grievous hurt as well as rioting sections, and later released on bail.

The Maharashtra government is facing criticism for the recent demolition drive carried out by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) at actress Kangana Ranaut's Bandra office earlier this week. The incident had taken place at a time when the actress was involved in a verbal spat with the Sena. It is to be noted that BMC is controlled by the Sena.

Kangana courted controversy and locked herself in a faceoff with Shiv Sena after she likened Mumbai to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) saying she feared the city police more than the 'movie mafia'.

The NCP, who is the part of the coalition government in Maharashtra on Saturday came out and defended the Aghadi government in the state had nothing to do with the demolition of the alleged 'illegal alterations' at Kangana's office and the decision to do so was taken by the BMC.




Haiti - Aquin : Announcements of President Jovenel Moise





Friday September 11, President Jovenel Moise, accompanied by Minister of Public Works Joaceus Nader went to La Coline, the largest of the communal sections of Aquin (South Dept) to meet with the population and provide solutions to some of the problems in this area.



In order to support the actions of farmers in the region, he said he had instructed Patrix Severe, the Minister of Agriculture to take all the necessary measures to assess the possibility of installing a solar pump to irrigate all the land.



In addition, Jovenel Moise, faithful to his promise to connect all the communes in the country and bring public services closer to the population, announced that he had issued instructions to connect the intersections of La Coline and Fond des Blancs.



These road infrastructure works financed by a donation from the World Bank to the tune of $6.7 million will begin in November 2020 and end in June 2021. In addition, the Head of State announced that assessments will be also be carried out to build 20 kilometers of power lines at La Colline.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















A couple of spooky apparitions were caught on camera running across the road at what is widely believed to be one of the most haunted places in America.

The spine-tingling footage was shot last week at the Gettysburg Civil War battle site in Pennsylvania.

Greg Yuelling, 46, took the ghostly video as he was driving through the historic site on a visit with his family.

A couple of spooky apparitions (one circled) were caught on camera running across the road at what is widely believed to be one of the most haunted places in America

'We just went there as tourists, to learn more about the history of the Civil War and see the old battleground, where the Gettysburg Address was given and all that stuff.

'We were driving along one night and we started hearing noises, I heard things to the left and my uncle heard things to the right, and there was a fog, but the fog was weird, it was only in one patch not dispersed,' he told The Sun.

'Then we saw these shapes moving in the darkness, they were the size of humans, one of them ran right through the cannon. It was scary, it was crazy. My uncle got so scared he rolled up the window.'

'We went back and watched the videos over and over again, and then we blew them up on the big screen to get a closer look. That made us even more freaked out,' he said.

'It was really exciting, but I also got this strange, ominous feeling, like something was telling me to go back there,' Yuelling said. 'I couldn't go to sleep but I was creeped out, so I didn't go.'

The site of Gettysburg was where one of the most brutal and bloodiest battles of the American Civil War took place in 1863 as Union and Confederate forces fought.

Up to 51,000 soldiers are thought to have died in the three-day long battle together with 5,000 horses.

Soldiers died in triage units that had been set up around the perimeter of the site while many more bled to death on the battlefield as the battle raged. An aerial image shows the graves of Union soldiers killed during the Battle of Gettysburg

Soldiers died in triage units that had been set up around the perimeter of the site while many more bled to death on the battlefield as the battle raged.

'I've heard people say you can catch videos of ghosts around there, but we were so skeptical until that night,' said Yuelling who had long been a skeptic.

'I always questioned the validity of those ghost videos you see on TV, I was always pretty disbelieving. I believe everything now.'

The video was uploaded to YouTube where one person commented with a rational explanation for the spooky sight.

'Its nothing more than a reflection from the headlights of his car reflecting back off the canons onto the water streak on his window. Look closely and you can see the streak of water a second or two before the "ghosts" seemingly appear and they loop over the wheels of the canons in sync with the water streak. It's nothing more than that.'
OTTAWAPro-gun activists marched in Ottawa on Saturday to contest what they describe as the injustice and ineffectiveness of the federal governments assault weapon ban.

The Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights is behind the outdoor event on Parliament Hill, dubbed an integrity march, to advocate for the rights of its members.

The organization, which did not respond to a request for comment, said on its website the event was aimed at showing Canadians that gun owners are your friends, colleagues and neighbours.

In a post on its Facebook page, the group chided the federal government for its ineffective and expensive gun ban, saying Canadians dont support it.

The Parliamentary Protective Service said roughly 800 people attended the event.

In May, the Liberal government announced it would be banning a range of 1,500 types of assault-style weapons, which it says were designed for the battlefield  not hunting or sport shooting.

Nathalie Provost, a survivor of the Polytechnique massacre and a spokesperson for gun control group PolySeSouvient, said the objective of the federal government was not to penalize everyday citizens who take part in activities like hunting, for example.

A hunter has the right to hunt. My family has hunters  theres no problem, Provost said. What worries us the most is there is little gun control.

Provost said she believes pro-gun activists are organizing the march because they are worried.

They are worried about losing a privilege, she said. I think they are very worried and they realize many Canadians want those weapons removed from the market.

The Trudeau government announced in May that the newly prohibited weapons could no longer be legally used, sold, or imported.

The government is in the process of setting up a buyback program to take the guns out of circulation, issuing a tender last month for 15 companies to come up with a range of options and approaches to inform the design and implementation/management of a potential buyback program for the recently prohibited firearms.

Gun control advocates say the proposed buyback must be mandatory in order to effectively reduce gun violence.

The tap that allowed the entry of new assault weapons is closed, but there are still quite a few in the pool, Provost said.

Provost wants these types of weapons to disappear completely from the Canadian landscape.

The worst horror scene of my life  it didnt last very long, but it killed six people. And (for) me, its four bullets in my body, she said.

Its maddening the speed at which these weapons destroy.

For its part, the CCFR has challenged the constitutionality of the Trudeau governments ministerial order in Federal Court.

It argues in its challenge that the banned rifles are weapons intended for hunting and sport shooting, since that is how their owners have used them for decades.

The group argues that the new regulations, enacted by ministerial decree, are illegal and go beyond the scope of the powers conferred on the federal cabinet.

A spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Bill Blair defended the legality of the order, saying it came after months of public consultation.

The use of an Order-in-Council is exactly the process the law provides for when it comes to classifying firearms, Mary-Liz Power said in an email. The Conservative Party, under Stephen Harper, used orders in council to downgrade the classification of several dangerous weapons just before the 2015 election without any public consultation.

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GODFREY  Low-tech nature met a high-tech nature app on Saturday as volunteers with The Nature Institute at 2213 S. Levis Lane in Godfrey kicked off a socially distanced weekend of measuring the areas flora and fauna using anybody with a smartphone, a good eye for detail and curiosity about the natural world.

Participants in the Backyard Biodiversity Weekend on Saturday and Sunday dont even have to be at The Nature Institute to take part, as the real-meets-virtual event allows users of the free iNaturalist app to upload images that help scientists get a much better idea of the living things in the Riverbend area.

All you have to do is take a picture on your smartphone and put it on the app and it helps identify the different things and helps to keep track about whats living in an area, said Emily Ehley, environmental educator at The Nature Institute. We are encouraging people to get outside, whether here or in their own backyards, and learn a little bit more about all of the things that are living around them that they may not normally have noticed.

The Nature Institute decided to hold the Backyard Biodiversity Weekend after COVID canceled plans to hold a Bio-Blitz this spring., A Bio-Blitz is where a large group of people come together in one location to find as many different living species as they can in a short time frame.

This is our way of reconfiguring things so people can do things individually but still be connected to this big picture and getting that data together, Ehley said. iNaturalist is a really easy to use platform for gathering data, and scientists actually go in and look at where things are being seen in these areas. They are able to use that data for their own research.

Ehley said most residents who search for biodiversity are amazed at the number of different migratory birds that frequent the area due to our proximity to the Mississippi River. She also said that people are always surprised at the quantity and variety of non-vertebrate animals that can be found anywhere they look, and to make the point she and education director Ramona Puskar overturned a log and immediately found a Darkling Beetle.

Looking for little things like insects can be really exciting too, Puskar said. We invite people to lift up logs and look under leaves and they are really surprised by how many types of insects and small things are all around them that they wouldnt necessarily notice if they didnt go looking for it.

We want to encourage people to be excited and curious rather than scared of all the other living things that they have around them, Puskar said. Learn a little bit more, rather than just reacting, oh, a spider! Instead, think about what kind of spider it is, and where it lives.

Puskar said that as a complement to the Backyard Biodiversity Weekend, interviews with scientists have been posted on The Nature Institutes Facebook page and Youtube channel that comment on the wealth of living things to be found in the Riverbend area.

The Nature Institute is a non-profit land conservation and environmental education organization based in Godfrey that hosts field trips and programs and owns and manages more than 450 acres of protected land, including the Olin Nature Preserve, the Mississippi Sanctuary, the Kemp and Cora Hutchinson Bird Sanctuary, and the Heartland Prairie Project at Gordon Moore Park.
A Nigerian senator, Aliyu Wamakko, has lost his daughter, Sadiya.

Sadiyas death was contained in a statement by Lanre Lasisis, an aide to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila.

In the statement, Mr Gbajabiamila condoled with Mr Wamakko, a former Sokoto State governor, over the demise of Sadiya.

Mr Gbajabiamila, who described the passing away of Sadiya as painful, said he shares in the grief of the Wamakko family at this moment.

My heart and prayers go to the family of Distinguished Senator Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko.

It is painful losing ones daughter. I pray that Allah (SWT) will grant her soul Jannatul Firdaus and give the family the fortitude to bear this huge loss, the speaker said.
(CNN)  Billionaire and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is planning to spend at least $100 million in the crucial battleground of Florida in support of Democratic nominee Joe Biden, a source familiar with the plans confirmed to CNN.

Last week a NBC News/Marist College poll showed the race in a dead heat in the Sunshine State with Biden and President Donald Trump each garnering support of 48% of likely voters.

"Mike Bloomberg is committed to helping defeat Trump, and that is going to happen in the battleground states. Mike's substantial investment in Florida, in addition to his contributions to the DNC and to voter protection and restoration efforts this cycle, will mean Democrats and the Biden campaign can invest even more heavily in other key states like Pennsylvania, which will be critical to a Biden victory," top Bloomberg adviser Kevin Sheekey told CNN.

The Washington Post, which first reported Bloomberg's expected expenditure, said the one-time Democratic presidential candidate decided to put in that large of an amount in Florida after it was reported in the New York Times and later confirmed by Trump that he is prepared to spend millions in support of his reelection effort, according to advisers.

One area of concern for Democrats is Biden's current under-performing among Florida Hispanics.

The NBC/Marist survey showed Trump garnering 50% of the Latino vote in the state.

When asked if the focus of his effort will be Latino voters, one Bloomberg adviser said. "We'll talk to every constituency important to winning FL, Latino voters clearly a focus. Will be a mix of direct spending, gifts to Democratic super Pacs, and FL political efforts already underway."

Trump now calls Florida home and has held several events there in recent weeks.

Many political observers consider the state a must win for Trump to have a chance at winning the election.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Bloomberg plans to spend at least $100 million in Florida to support Biden"
Lucknow:

The Uttar Pradesh Board of Secondary Education will conduct the UP Board Class 10 and 12 examinations from March 16, 2017, the Election Commission announced on Monday.

The UP Board Class 10 and Class 12 exams were postponed because of the upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. The state assembly polls will end on March 11, followed by a three-day Holi break.

According to reports, the late declaration of results will affect the academic session this year with Class 12 students having limited time to apply in universities after the completion of exam because of the delay.

When assembly elections were held in Uttar Pradesh in2012, the UP Board exams were rescheduled.

Earlier, the Board had released the date sheet according to which the Class 10 exams were to begin from February 16, while the Class 12 exams were to be held between February 16 and March 20, 2017. However, they were forced to hold the date sheet following directions from the EC.

60,29,252 candidates have registered for class 10 and 12 Board exams for the academic year 2016-17.

34,04,571 will appear for Class 10 Board exam, while from Class 12, about 26,24,681 students have registered for the exam.

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A law enforcement officer watches flames launch into the air as fire continues to spread at the Bear fire in Oroville, California on September 9, 2020. Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images

California Mayor Eric Garcetti slammed President Donald Trump on Sunday, suggesting his remarks on the wildfires raging across multiple West Coast states are inadequate.

Trump has repeatedly said that forest fires can be prevented using "forest management" tactics like raking and cleaning.

"He's going to come out here and probably tell us, 'I'm going to send you rakes instead of more help,'" Garcetti said of Trump. "We need actual help. Material help not based on our party affiliation or how we voted."

The president is scheduled to deliver a briefing in California on Monday, which would mark his first official visit since wildfires broke out over a month ago.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

California Mayor Eric Garcetti on Sunday slammed President Donald Trump's upcoming visit to the state and his response to the wildfires raging across the US west coast.

"He's going to come out here and probably tell us, 'I'm going to send you rakes instead of more help,'" Garcetti said of Trump. "We need actual help. Material help not based on our party affiliation or how we voted."

The president is scheduled to deliver a briefing in California on Monday, which would mark his first official visit since wildfires broke out over a month ago.

Last month, Trump said that forest fires can be prevented using "forest management" tactics like raking and cleaning. Trump reiterated the claim again at a campaign rally in Nevada on Saturday night.

Garcetti, in a lengthy speech on CNN's "State of the Union" said he listens "to fire professionals, not the president of the United States" when seeking information on what causes these blazes.

Garcetti attributed the cause of the blazes to "years of drought" and "climate change."

State of the Union (@CNNSotu) September 13, 2020

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"This is an administration that put its head in the sand," Garcetti said, referencing the White House's decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement and downplay the global consequences of climate change.

"Talk to a firefighter if you think that climate change isn't real," Garcetti added.

"It seems like this administration are the last vestiges of the flat earth society of this generation. We need real action. We need to actually reduce the carbon emissions and we need to make sure we can manage that water. And this is not about forest management or raking. Anybody who lives here in California is insulted by that quite frankly and he keeps perpetrating this lie."

Last month, Trump ordered federal aid to be delivered to California to aid in recovery efforts. This week, he also approved an emergency declaration for Oregon, another state engulfed in flames.

Dozens of people have died from the fires raging across the West Coast, according to multiple outlets.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider asking about Garcetti's remarks.

Read the original article on Insider
There was a time when India had a robust system of public libraries. However, in the past few years, more than 5000 public libraries have shut shop. Maintaining a public library is a state subject, and each state has its own priorities. For example, going by a 2018 survey, the government of Uttar Pradesh, which has a population of more than 200 million, supports only 20 rural libraries, while the government of Kerala, with a population of 34 million, supports around 7,600.

That is why it has mostly fallen to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) around India to take the initiative and launch community libraries taking books to sections of society that most need them.

The Community Library Project (TCLP) in Delhi is one of the most robust of them. What started in 2009 as a book club now serves 4,000 children. TCLP has four branches in Delhi-NCR that give free access to books to everyone. TCLP is also a learning lab that follows the best practices of the trade and trains librarians and teachers. Its director Mridula Koshy says most people in India limit the use of books to learning and knowledge, which is not their only purpose. The celebrated author says, When we read a book, we imagine other cultures. Books help us in thinking and exploring our curiosity. We also acquire some facts from them, but thinking is most important.

Along with its reading room, storytelling sessions and workshops, the library has an empowering system of student councils, which motivate younger kids and help the librarians run the centre. Mridula, 50, believes that civic institutions like libraries can mediate between citizens and the government, or citizens and the marketplace. Thats why they are essential for the fabric of our country.

Different communities require different interventions, adds Lakshmi Karunakaran, the program director of the NGO Hasiru Dala, which works for the welfare of waste-pickers in Karnataka. The waste-picker community that we deal with needed multidimensional intervention, so we thought whats better than books and an art room? says the 37-year-old, who initiated the Buguri community library project in 2017, and which now has three centres across the state. Issues like child marriage, drug abuse and domestic violence are the biggest challenges of this community. That is why there was a need for day-to-day engagement with its children.

Along with reading room programmes, discussions and borrowing books, the Buguri library also conducts creative art therapy sessions for kids. A significant impact of the library project has been a change in how children are viewed in the community now. The library has a Book Box that also travels to locations without centres for conducting reading sessions.

Inspired by the work done by the Delhi and Karnataka community libraries, 34-year-old Kolkata girl Ruchi Dhona left her corporate job to set up a similar project in Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh. After a trial project in 2018, she went to Spiti in 2019 with a grant from Wipro, taking her project Lets Open a Book to every school in the valley. The challenging terrain and sub-zero temperatures make it difficult for civil-society organisations to carry out interventions in such areas, and Ruchi has been a lone soldier running the show in Spiti with some help from the Meenakshi Foundation.

Serving 600 students now, Ruchi says, The idea is to build a culture of reading among children. The focus of the initiative is government primary schools, where we begin by setting up small libraries, followed by working with the teachers to help them understand how to use these books and how they can engage the children. We are helping to revive the local public library as well. She wants to inspire children in Spiti to write their own stories.

With COVID and lockdown, however, all these fantastic projects have taken a big hit. For Ruchi, the biggest challenge is internet connectivity. She says, These are quite challenging times for community libraries since these spaces are not just about physical books but also one-on-one interactions. All of us are finding ourselves in completely uncharted territory. The best bet is digital. Living in Dharamshala, since Spiti banned entry for outsiders, she is now creating audio and video books and sharing them with children in the valley via a local volunteer.

Though connectivity is not an issue in Bangalore and Delhi, the Buguri community library and TCLP are facing a lack of digital devices, and the fact that their members do not have the money to buy data plans.

Buguri has started to connect with their community via conference calls. Children who did not have a phone could join their friends for a read-aloud session. Lakshmi and her team created a play Maya & Thoonga to spread awareness about COVID amongst the children in the waste-picker community. Their creative healing sessions are also now being run via calls. Each centre has a WhatsApp group to stay in touch with the children of their area. The library also started a podcast in four languages on a local radio channel called Radio Active, which helped connect with children and even parents without mobiles or internet.

The constant threat of coming in contact with the virus while dealing with medical waste; being marginalised by society; the withdrawal symptoms of having no access to substances; escalating domestic violence, poverty and hunger  the problems amongst the waste-picker community increased several-fold during lockdown. Lakshmi tells us, There is an even stronger need to enable access to books for our children now. We started sending out a reading and activity books with every ration packet that we distributed.

On its part, TCLP concluded that during lockdown, the libraries had two crucial responsibilities: first, to continue to provide access to quality reading material; and second, to act as a centre for information that members and their families desperately need as most TCLP members are part of the migrant community who live in Delhi.

They have 10 WhatsApp groups for sharing audio and video stories with their members. This online library is called Duniya Sabki and the student council members, librarians, teachers and volunteers contribute to it. Stories and articles for all ages are regularly uploaded on TCLPs Facebook page, YouTube and on their website too.

Still, as Mridula puts it, An online-library can never be a fraction of what a free physical library can be. The latter brings multiple people and multiple interests into multiple engagements in one location. A digital library can only ever be an addition to a physical library.

During this lockdown, the distribution of food took over every other need. Charity from all over went into supplying ration. TCLP staff also did some relief work in collaboration with other NGOs despite the fact that one of their significant funders backed out. Unhappy with the turn of events, Mridula says, Peoples right to food security, which is a right of citizenship, cannot be met by non-profit organisations distributing ration or by resident-welfare associations cooking food. These are commendable and necessary efforts, but today charity has reached its limit, and incredibly the government has still not been called out for their failure to meet citizens needs. The current thinking that only ration relief needs to be funded and all other needs are to be viewed as competing interest is going to hurt the very people it purports to help.

Research shows that the longer children stay out of school, the higher the risk that they will not return. Mridula tells us, Our library is planning to open in a minimal way because to continue to stay closed puts our members at increasing risk.

The Buguri library has also taken a few steps towards opening. As the lockdown eased, with parents moving out to work, we saw a drop in the engagement in online classes. So, we continued our work through a hybrid model with small group contact sessions keeping in mind the safety requirements. That way, we can have a deeper engagement with children, says Lakshmi.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 10:36:25|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- China's latest efforts to deepen reform on its business system will contribute to the building of a high-standard market system and further stimulate entrepreneurship, the country's top market watchdog said.

The State Council, China's cabinet, has released a circular which listed business system reforms in four areas, introducing multiple measures to improve business environment and invigorate the market.

Tang Jun, deputy chief of the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), said the new business system reform is a major policy move and is expected to herald breakthroughs in broader reforms that streamline administrative approvals, delegate power to lower levels and improve regulations and services.

Previous reform efforts have yielded tangible results, contributing to the rise in market players and ease of doing business. The country now has 132 million registered market entities, and it takes no more than five working days to open a business.

The ease of starting a business is an important gauge of business environment and plays an important role in spurring entrepreneurship and market vitality, Tang said.

According to the circular, China will push for adopting fully online procedures for starting a business in order to further reduce the time required for setting up an enterprise to no more than four working days.

Another highlight of the business system reform will be about the production license system. Efforts will focus on delegating power in a bid to boost efficiency, enhancing supervision, and improving government services in this area, said Sun Huichuan, an official with the SMAR in charge of quality oversight. Enditem
News

Washington, DC - Remarks by President Trump on the Announcement of Normalization of Relations Between Israel and the Kingdom of Bahrain:

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Just a few moments ago, I hosted a historic call between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and King Hamad Al Khalifa of Bahrain. Both leaders expressed their condolences as well to the American people on this very, very tragic, horrible event that took place on September 11th. And they very much meant it. I want to thank them for that.

Theres no more powerful response to the hatred that spawned 9/11 than the agreement that were about to tell you. You will hear something today thats, I think, very, very important for not only the Middle East but for the world.

In the spirit of peace and cooperation, both leaders also agreed that Bahrain will fully normalize its diplomatic relations with Israel. They will exchange embassies and ambassadors, begin direct flights between their countries, and launch cooperation initiatives across a broad range of sectors, including health, business, technology, education, security, and agriculture. This is a truly historic day.

There have been two peace agreements with Israel in the last 72 years. This is now the second peace agreement that we have announced in the last month, and I am very hopeful that there will be more to follow. I can tell you theres tremendous enthusiasm on behalf of other countries to also join. And we think, ultimately, youll have most countries join, and youre going to have the Palestinians in a very good position. They want to come in  theyre going to want to come in because all of their friends are in. But we have tremendous enthusiasm for coming into the deal.

I want to thank the group of very talented people behind me, and youre going to be hearing from them in a second. But its just a very historic day, a very important day, and so interesting that its on 9/11. Its such a great time. We didnt know this was going to happen in terms of the timing, but it did happen, and were very honored by it.

When I took office, the Middle East was in a state of absolute chaos. Ive restored trust with our regional partners, and together weve eliminated the ISIS caliphate 100 percent; isolated the radicals who pervert Islam and sow instability. Today, nations across the region and throughout the world are joining together, united in their determination to build a better future, free from the evils which perpetuate terror. And I think you see that. I think you see that happening very, very strongly.

I also spoke with King Salman of Saudi Arabia, and we talked about this, and he is  hes a great gentleman. And what theyve done in terms of fighting terror is a much different ballgame than it was before we attained this office. The fact is that Saudi Arabia was doing things that theyre not doing anymore, and so are other countries and neighbors. They are doing things that they just would never have done. Their levels and their  all of the things  all of the many, many elements of fighting and hate, they seem to be evaporating. And well find out very soon. But they seem to be evaporating.

So things are happening in the Middle East that nobody thought was even possible to think about, and thats whats going on right now. Bahrain has agreed to join Israel and the United Arab Emirates for  and, by the way, I want to thank Mohammed, whos a great leader, a truly great leader  at the White House on Tuesday. So theyll be here on Tuesday for the signing of the Abraham Accords. The significance of the signing will be elevated from an already historic breakthrough to one representing a previously unthinkable regional transformation. And thats exactly what it is. Its unthinkable that this could happen, and so fast.

And, as you know, when we did the original signing with  and which will actually take place in terms of official on Tuesday  United Arab Emirates, people thought that was amazing. And now theyre hearing this, and theyre also hearing from other countries because they understand that other countries want to very much come in.

On this occasion, I want to thank the leaders of Israel and Bahrain for their vision and courage to forge this historic agreement. Their leadership is proving that the future can be filled with hope and does not need to be predetermined by conflicts of the past. You know all about the conflicts of the past; theyre very legendary. There was a lot of problems going on, but weve been able to work things out to a level that nobody thought possible. This is really something very special  very, very special.

As more countries normalize relations with Israel  which will happen quite quickly, we believe  the region will become more and more stable, secure, and prosperous.

In the meantime, were pulling most of our soldiers out. So were doing it the opposite way. They were doing it with nothing but fighting and blood all over the place. The sand was loaded up with blood. And now youre going to see that a lot of that sand is going to be loaded up with peace.

The United States will continue to stand with the people of the region and work with them, and build a brighter and much more hopeful future.

So were very proud of this. And as time goes by, I think youll see more and more why. I think most of you realize how important it is. Even the New York Times, who was very generous in their praise of the original deal, and they never thought  I think nobody thought this was going to happen so quickly after the first.

But theyll both be here on Tuesday. Theyre going to be signing. Benjamin Netanyahu will be here. The Prime Minister will be here  Israel. And we look forward to that.

Just on this deal, because of the importance of the deal, well take some questions. But first, Id like to ask Jared to say a few words and Mike Pence to say a few words and some of the folks. David, Id like you to say something about it because its so historic.

And these people have worked so hard and so long on it. This is really the culmination of a long period of time  lets put it that way. I dont want to say how long, but its been  its a long period of time. Its a great thing.

Jared, please.

MR. KUSHNER: Thank you, Mr. President. And first, I want to thank you for your leadership on this issue. Your first foreign trip was to Saudi Arabia, where you outlined a vision for the region. And all of the promises you made on that trip and all of the things that you foreshadowed have occurred.

Its been a strategy that youve stuck with, and I want to thank you for giving me the trust and confidence that youve given me in order to work on this file over the last years. And I think the results that weve achieved has been beyond anyones expectations. And I believe that theres even more to come.

I just returned from the region last week. I was in the Middle East, where I took the first commercial flight thats ever flown from Israel to the United Arab Emirates. That flight flew over Saudi Arabian airspace. It was the first time in 72 years that Saudi Arabia has now waived their airspace to allow commercial flights to fly from Israel back and forth.

Bahrain then did the same thing. The United Arab Emirates waived a 48-year boycott on Israel, which was an incredible development. And there are now delegations moving throughout the Middle East, figuring out how to bring the people closer together.

What President Trump has done here is unthinkable. Hes brought people in the Middle East together. Theres been these barriers that have existed that have led to so much instability, so much war, so much loss, so much hopelessness. And were seeing so much hopefulness now coming.

And I will say something that I never thought would be the case, which is that, on this last trip, the amount of optimism that has happened, that were experiencing in the Middle East, is truly incredible.

So I just want to congratulate you. I want to congratulate the people of Israel. I want to congratulate the people from the Kingdom of Bahrain. I want to thank their tremendous leadership. And I also want to congratulate the people of the Middle East because the first deal that you were able to accomplish was so popular that things are really starting to move in a really strong direction.

And this makes America safer. It allows us to  to bring our troops home. It allows us to work on bringing prosperity to American communities.

So, really, thank you for your leadership.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Jared. Great job.

MR. KUSHNER: And congratulations on this great success.

THE PRESIDENT: Great job. Thank you very much, Jared.

Mike, please.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Mr. President, I can think of no more fitting tribute to the heroes that were forged on this day 19 years ago, and all the heroes that were forged on battlefields ever since, than to see this peace agreement announced today.

And, Mr. President, you said from early on that we could stand with Israel and we could stand for peace. Your very first foreign trip was to the Arab world  to reach out, to create new alliances. You affirmed our support for Israel when you moved the American embassy to Jerusalem. And the strength with which you have approached this has made now this second historic peace agreement possible.

And I just want to  I want to congratulate you and thank you, Mr. President, for your leadership.

I also want to  I want to thank the people of the Kingdom of Bahrain and the people of Israel for finding a way forward to begin to take one more step toward peace in the Middle East and to know that, in this President and in the American people, they will have an ally with us.

The Good Book says, Blessed are the peacemakers. And, Mr. President, I just want to congratulate you, I want to congratulate Prime Minister Netanyahu and King Hamad of Bahrain on bringing peace between their nations and widening the reach of peace in the world.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Congratulations.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Mike. Great.

Our wonderful Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, who has been really something. Hes been  I put him there. I knew him for a long time. He was one of the most successful lawyers in the country, by far. And at least, based on his paycheck, I can tell you that. (Laughter.) And he is a great lawyer. Hes a great talent and a great dealmaker. And I put him there for a reason. I put him there to get it done, as in, just dont be a regular ambassador, like so many are. Just get it done; see if you can bring peace to the Middle East.

David, please.

AMBASSADOR FRIEDMAN: Thank you, Mr. President. And I will always be indebted to you for giving me that honor. Its one that I hold extremely dear.

But, as you know, Mr. President, people have thought about the Middle East, for the past 100 years or more, as a place of violence, of hopelessness, of suffering, of war. What were seeing in real time, in this room today and last month, were seeing the paradigm for the Middle East completely change. The world is turning in a very positive way. And its all because, if I may say, because of the policy that you began in May of 2017 of trusting our allies, of empowering our allies; and in my case, of course, of being the greatest friend that Israel has ever had  of putting people on the job who share those values and convictions. And the fruit is now being borne in this incredible peace agreement.

Your policy of peace through strength has changed the world profoundly for the better. And Im  as the Ambassador to Israel, Im eternally grateful for the changes that you have made for the U.S.-Israel relationship.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, David. Great job. Thank you.

Avi, please.

MR. BERKOWITZ: Thank you, Mr. President. Congratulations.

THE PRESIDENT: He looks young, but hes not as young. (Laughter.) I will tell you, hes very smart. Go ahead.

MR. BERKOWITZ: Thank you, Mr. President. Congratulations on just a tremendous, historic, you know, achievement here today. I think I just speak for everybody in this room, all of my colleagues who have worked in your administration, that thanks to your leadership, theres just a tremendous sense of pride to be an American, to work on these issues under your leadership.

And Im just so appreciative to you and so honored to be part of your team. So thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Avi. (Applause.)

MR. HOOK: Mr. President, I think historians will look back on these two peace agreements as the beginning of the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict. And you talked about the journey to get here. And I remember I heard you pledge, when you were in Riyadh and when you were in Israel  you pledged that you would strengthen Americas friendships and to build new partnerships in the pursuit of peace. And youve kept that promise, and we see that very clearly today.

Rather than appeasing Americas adversaries in the region, youve recruited Americas allies. And you focused on shared interests and shared threats, but you also asked them to shoulder their part of the burden and to fulfill their end of the obligation. Nations rallied behind it, and as a consequence, the foundation has now been laid for great things in the coming years.

THE PRESIDENT: Great. Well said. Thank you very much.

Would you have anything to say?

MAJOR GENERAL CORREA: Mr. President, on behalf of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines, thank you for your bold leadership and Sheikh Mohammeds bold leadership; Prime Minister Netanyahus bold leadership; King Hamads bold leadership; Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, again; your bold leadership. What weve tried for the last 100 years has not worked.

And I think its very fitting that, on September 11th, we honor those special operators that we buried and lost with  with peace. And this is a way to beat terrorism at the end of the day. So were honored and privileged. And thank you for your leadership.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, they had a lot of bad thinking, a lot of bad concepts, a lot of things that I never thought were going to work. These were the ones that we were relying on to make the deals, and they wasted 35 years; they wasted many, many years. And theyre the ones that have been critical of us, and look whats happening: Now theyre, all of a sudden, saying, I think they made a mistake. Theyre all saying that about themselves.

So I just want to thank this group in particular for staying here and helping us out and doing things that nobody thought couldve happened. And under the old concepts of national defense or whatever category you want to put it under, it  that wasnt working, and it was never going to work. And we changed things around very drastically, and then we started to negotiate.

And the good news  and I look at David because you know it, you see it, you hear it  the good news is we have many other countries now in the Middle East that want to be in this. And that means peace  because theyre tired of fighting. You know, they can fight and theyre all great fighters, and theyre warriors, but even great warriors get tired of fighting, and theyre tired of fighting.

And I can see things positively happening with Iran, ultimately. And I think that can all work out very well, and I think that so many great things are going to happen. And then we can also discuss the Palestinians. I think the Palestinians are going to end up doing something thats going to be very smart for them. And all their friends are coming into this, and they want to come into it  they want to come into it very badly.

And I can see a lot of good things happening with respect to the Palestinians, which would be really wonderful. Whether you are on their side or not on their side, people want to see it all brought to an end, and brought to an end quickly. So thats going to be very important.

But this is a very historic day. Would anybody else like to say anything? Please, go. Please.

MR. VANDROFF: Mr. President, I just want to thank you and Ambassador OBrien for giving me the opportunity to serve on the National Security Council staff and be part of something historic and be part of a team. Avi and Jared are tremendous leaders, and the opportunity to work with them to do something important has been the highlight of my life. And thank you for letting me do that, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: And youve been doing this for a long time. You never saw anything like this, right? (Laughter.)

MR. VANDROFF: No. No, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: A little  we take a little bit of a different approach.

MR. VANDROFF: Yes, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: Anybody? Please. Come up, my friend.

MR. POTTINGER: Mr. President, 19 years ago today, my father and I almost got caught in the crosshairs of that first jet that hit the Twin Towers. That event changed the course of my life; it led me to become a United States Marine, which led to other things that brought me through a strange path here. And I want thank you for the leadership youve shown.

Walter Russell Mead recently wrote  he was quoting Churchill, who once said  he got a bowl of pudding, and he said, Take it away. It has no theme. Theres now a theme emerging in the Middle East.

THE PRESIDENT: There is a theme. Thats good.

MR. POTTINGER: And it is a theme of what is possible from peace through strength, from not appeasing our enemies, and holding our allies and friends close.

So, congratulations, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. And this is a very, very big day. Very, very big day. Would you like to say something?

MR. GREENWAY: Yes, sir. Like Matt and many others, 19 years ago, within a month of the attacks of 9/11, I and others were conducting operations in Afghanistan. As General Correa pointed out, its a privilege to be in different historic circumstances today; to be part of a tremendous team with outstanding leadership, all of it possible, sir, because of your vision, because of your leadership and the relationships of everyone in this room. Its an enormous opportunity. Its something that no one could imagine, but its an enormous privilege, and Ill always be grateful for it.

So, congratulations to you, sir. And thank you to you and everyone else here.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, its an honor to have worked with all of you. Youre really talented people  incredible. And you were willing to be flexible. The word flexible is a very important word because we werent going by the old standards and norms; we were going by standards that can get things done. But not only get them done, get them done in a much better way.

MR. GREENWAY: Yes, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: And this is just the beginning. A lot of things are happening, and theyre happening very quickly. People want to be involved, and they want to be involved. For the first time, I think  some of you have told me, the first time ever, that youve ever seen anything like this, where theyre rushing into an agreement. They want to be involved.

Theyre tired of fighting, as I said. Theyre tired of fighting. No matter how they are, no matter how great a warrior they are  and you have some great warriors. I know most of them. But its time.

Thank you all very much. Thank you. (Applause.)
Films Division is all set to mark the celebration of 'Hindi Diwas' tomorrow by streaming well-researched documentaries leading to the historic occasion of the adoption of Hindi as an official language of the Union of India on 14th September 1949. Mock enactment of the meeting of the Constituent Assembly by children and travelogues showing the growth and popularity of Hindi in different States will also be shown by the Films Division to mark the celebration on September 14.

Films Division is all set to mark the celebration of Hindi Diwas tomorrow by streaming well-researched documentaries leading to the historic occasion of the adoption of Hindi as an official language of the Union of India on 14th September 1949. Mock enactment of the meeting of the Constituent Assembly by children and travelogues showing the growth and popularity of Hindi in different States will also be shown by the Films Division to mark the celebration on September 14.

A total of five films on Hindi shall be available for a free viewing for 24-hours in the official and also on the YouTube page of the Films Division. The pioneering efforts of Beohar Rajendra Simha, a well known Hindi scholar-writer who rallied and lobbied in favour of Hindi along with other stalwarts like Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Maithili Sharan Gupta, and Kaka Kalelkar came to fruition on Simhas 50th birthday on 14th September 1949 when the Constituent Assembly adopted Hindi as one of the official languages of the Union of India which was ratified by the Constitution of India that came into effect on the 26th of January 1950.

Also Read: Maharashtra CM announces My Family-My Responsibility campaign to battle coronavirus

Under Article 343 of the Indian Constitution, Hindi written in the Devanagari script was adopted as the official language. Today, Hindi is one of the widely spoken languages in the world and the first language of more than 520 million people. One of the films being streamed is Witness to our Constitution (Samvidhan Ke Sakshi), which depicts interesting aspects of the Constituent Assembly meeting, and the decision to make Hindi an official language of India.

The other films are  Bharat Ki Vaani, a travelogue through different States to realize the importance of Hindi; Hamari Bhasha, on Hindi as a National Language which can unite the country as one and; Hindi Ki Vikas Yatra, a film on the growth and status of Hindi in India. (ANI)

Also Read: Kerala gold smuggling case: KT Jaleel says no plans to disclose reality over rumours
Councillor David Brown has said he regrets his decision to take part in the meeting while driving. (SWNS)

A councillor has resigned after he attended a Zoom cabinet meeting while driving a lorry.

David Brown, from Boston Borough Council, took part in the call on Wednesday despite being behind the wheel at the time.

In the footage, the councillor is wearing a seatbelt and is sat by a window which clearly shows the vehicle moving past trees.

Many viewers complained about his behaviour after the meeting was uploaded to YouTube.

Brown, who represents Kirton and Frampton in Lincolnshire, has now quit the cabinet but will remain a councillor.

Read more: Parrots given up during lockdown because they are too noisy at home

David Brown, from Boston Borough Council, has resigned from the cabinet (Picture: SWNS)

Brown said he regretted attending the meeting while behind the wheel but claimed he had only listened when he was driving and later stopped.

He said: I have resigned from my cabinet post, because that's what the leader wanted me to do.

I think it's probably the wise thing to do.

He added: I was just listening  what's the difference between listening to that and your car radio.

People twiddle with car radios and what have you, what's the difference?

There's no different to me waving to a lorry coming towards me (sic).

Read more: Woman arrested for hosting silent disco for more than 300 people

Lincolnshire Police have confirmed they are investigating a report of a man using a device while driving, but could not confirm it was Councillor Brown.

A Boston Borough Council spokesperson said: "This is being investigated through the correct channels and dealt with accordingly."

It is illegal to use a hand-held mobile phone while driving unless a hands-free kit has been set up beforehand, according to gov.uk.

This rule also applies when a car is queuing or stopped at traffic lights.
Peter Navarro was on Sunday abruptly cut from his CNN interview after a heated debate over Donald Trump 'downplaying' the threat of the coronavirus.

The president's aide told Jake Tapper: 'You just don't want to listen, Jake', adding: 'This is not fair, Jake. You're constantly interrupting me and you're not letting me talk.' He then accused Tapper of 'cherry picking'.

State of the Union host Tapper had asked Navarro why Trump 'acknowledged to Bob Woodward behind closed doors coronavirus was five times deadlier than the flu, misleading the American people'. He added: 'Why wasn't he honest?'

Navarro told Tapper: 'I am answering your question. You just don't like the answer.'

Peter Navarro was on Sunday abruptly cut from his CNN interview after a heated debate over Donald Trump 'downplaying' the threat of the coronavirus. The president's aide told Jake Tapper: ' You just don't want to listen, Jake'

"Why wasn't the President straightforward with the American people?" CNN's @jaketapper presses White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on President Trump concealing the threat of Covid-19 https://t.co/BfoWL4UaMV #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/iIt5rIvHvV  CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) September 13, 2020

He added: 'The answer is in February all the way through the middle of March when the world health organization finally said there was a pandemic and China was hiding the information, finally, that's when we knew that there was a pandemic.

'And you know what, Jake, we were at that point prepared for the worst. In February we were moving mountains on PPE, therapeutics, testing and vaccines so that in the time that we needed those things we got those things.'

Trump spoke privately about the deadly nature of the coronavirus in recorded interviews even as he was publicly downplaying the severity of COVID-19 early this year, before the pandemic would take nearly 200,000 American lives and counting.

On Sunday Navarro was probed about the comments. His interview was then ended as Tapper said: 'He [Trump] knew it was deadlier than the flu and he was lying to the American public two weeks later.

'I'm not cherry picking. He was not honest with the American people. You're not answering the question.'

Navorro replied: 'You're not honest with the American people. CNN is not honest with the American people.'

Cutting in Tapper said: 'Okay. You want to go there? I said you're not answering the question. Thank you, Peter Navarro. We just played tape. You didn't answer the question.

'Okay. Peter Navarro, thank you so much. I appreciate your time today.'

Earlier in the interview Tapper told Navarro he was 'wrong' after the aide claimed: 'He was called a xenophobe and a racist by Joe Biden.'

Navarro added: 'This is not fair, Jake. You're constantly interrupting me and you're not letting me talk.'

Tapper replied: 'You're talking about something else. It's a very basic question...You want to talk about what you want to talk about, right...He knew it was deadlier than the flu and he was lying to the American public two weeks later.'

'Jake, you're cherry picking', Navarro replied.

Donald Trump spoke privately about the deadly nature of the coronavirus in recorded interviews even as he was publicly downplaying the severity of COVID-19 early this year, before the pandemic would take nearly 200,000 American lives and counting

In recorded interviews that were revealed Wednesday afternoon, Trump  who regularly speaks of his disdain for much of the 'fake news' media  spoke liberally with Woodward, pictured, about his inner thoughts on the virus and private conversations with Kim Jong-un  despite having called an earlier Woodward book a 'con on the public.'

The president shared his stark assessment with the Washington Post's Bob Woodward in recorded phone interviews in February, as the virus was spreading from China to other parts of the world.

In recorded interviews that were revealed Wednesday afternoon, Trump  who regularly speaks of his disdain for much of the 'fake news' media  spoke liberally with Woodward about his inner thoughts on the virus and private conversations with Kim Jong-un  despite having called an earlier Woodward book a 'con on the public.'

'This is deadly stuff,' the president told the Watergate reporter, Washington fixture and author who has interviewed U.S. presidents going back to Nixon.

Washington Post Associate Editor Bob Woodward's new book 'Rage'. Woodward compiled nine hours of recorded conversation with President Trump for the book, which comes out 15 September

'You just breathe the air and that's how it's passed,' Trump told him in a February 7 call. 'And so that's a very tricky one. That's a very delicate one. It's also more deadly than even your strenuous flu.'

Trump had been briefed on the virus in the Oval Office January 28, as Washington Post excerpts describe.

National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien warned him: 'This will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency,' according to Woodward.

He told the nation February 2: 'Well, we pretty much shut it down coming in from China.'

February 7  the date of the Woodward call  is the same date Trump tweeted about China's president: 'Nothing is easy, but [Chinese President Xi Jinping]  will be successful, especially as the weather starts to warm & the virus hopefully becomes weaker, and then gone.'

Trump continued: 'Great discipline is taking place in China, as President Xi strongly leads what will be a very successful operation. We are working closely with China to help!'

Trump then told Woodward in a March 19 interview explaining his comments: 'I wanted to always play it down.'

'I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic,' he said.
Riot police clear Melbourne's Queen Victoria Market of anti-lockdown protesters during a rally on Sept. 13, 2020. (William West/AFP via Getty Images)

Riot Police Deployed at Protests Against Melbournes COVID-19 Lockdown

Police in full riot gear engulfed a Victorian Market to take control of a protest against the states COVID-19 lockdown on Sunday.

In a strong response to a second day of protests, shielded riot police and officers on horseback were deployed in great numbers, outnumbering the estimated 200 to 250 people who had gathered outside Melbournes Queen Victoria Market.

Two men were arrested in a fruit and vegetable stall.

Riot police prepare to deploy against anti-lockdown protesters at Melbournes Queen Victoria Market during a rally on Sept. 13, 2020. (William West/AFP via Getty Images)

A police statement confirming the two arrests read: A 44-year-old Burwood East man, believed to be a primary agitator for these protests, remains in police custody and is expected to be charged with incitement.

His home will be subject to a search warrant.

Another person was arrested for assault police.

Police detain an anti-lockdown protester at Melbournes Queen Victoria Market during a rally on Sept. 13, 2020. (William West/AFP via Getty Images)

Across Melbourne, 72 more people were detained at smaller unprohibited gatherings.

Previous protests against Melbournes strict lockdown have been mostly peaceful, but tensions escalated at the market.

Police were disappointed that many protestors were aggressive and threatened violence towards officers. There were no injuries to police that have been identified at this time, read the statement.

The search for offenders are ongoing, police said, adding that our investigations into this protest will continue, and we expect to issue further fines once the identity of individuals has been confirmed. So far, 176 infringement fines have been issued.

There were a few tense moments when protesters started grabbing fruit and throwing it at police, an AAP photographer said from the scene.

Other videos show mounted police riding close to a group of protesters in a bid to break the gathering up.

Protesters yelled, This is not a police state and Youve got to be on the right side of history.

There was also a bit of aggression toward the media, calling us scum,' the AAP photographer said.

Victorias Shadow Health Minister, Georgie Crozier, expressed her dismay at the scenes of the protests.

These images are just so disturbing  this is Melbourne, Victoria for gods sake!! but youd think it was some tinpot regime. So over the top! Crozier wrote in a Twitter post.



Discontent in Victoria about lockdown measures has increased in recent weeks after the Victoria government extended the state of emergency powers for six months after the initial legislated six-month period came to an end. Stage four restrictions were also extended by two weeks.

At a press conference on Sept. 13, Premier Daniel Andrews extended emergency powers.

I can announce that we have extended the state of emergency and the state of disaster for a further four weeks, he said.

A state of disaster empowers police to override constitutional norms to ensure people comply with the Chief Health Officers directions.

In Melbourne, this has meant the enforcement of mask-wearing, staying with 5 kilometre distance from home, and the states 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew under the citys stage four restrictions.

The Australian Associated Press contributed to this article.
The awards were given in recognition of NGMEXs exemplary best practice on corporate governance as well as online annual report structure

Nagoya Mercantile Exchange (NGMEX)

The awards were given in recognition of NGMEXs exemplary best practice on corporate governance as well as online annual report structure

The awards were given in recognition of NGMEXs exemplary best practice on corporate governance as well as online annual report structure

Tokyo, Japan, Sept. 13, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NGMEX, a full-service commodity and multi asset exchange that incorporates the complete workflow of a trading venue and also provides on-line commodity futures and option trading, is pleased to announce that it has won three awards in the annual edition of the International Rankings for Outstanding Corporate Governance in Asia Pacific: Best Ranked Corporate Governance by Industry, Best Online Annual Report in Asia Pacific and the Bronze Award for Investor Relations Website in Asia Pacific.



As a promoter of sound corporate governance and investor relations practices, we at NGMEX are honored to receive these international recognitions. They are a testament of our reliable commitment to embody the high values of accountability, integrity, transparency and governance in our business operations. These awards are a reminder of our contribution to the evolution and progress of good corporate governance and investor relations practices in the market, as we aspire further towards building an exchange of quality. I would like to attribute this recognition to all NGMEX employees for their efforts in ensuring operational excellence and exemplary execution. said Yasutomo M. Izumi, Executive Chairman and President of NGMEX.

The International Ranking is the most inclusive ranking system for investor relations website, online annual report, corporate governance practices and financial disclosure procedures. The ranking is based on extensive technical proprietary research of publicly traded companies through a clear and transparent methodology.

More than 50 Exchanges from over 25 countries participated in this edition of the Global Ranking. Participants were benchmarked against companies in the global and Asia Pacific region in four main categories comprising Best Ranked IR Website, Best Ranked Online Annual Report, Best Ranked Financial Disclosures Procedures and Best Ranked Corporate Governance Practices.

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Nagoya Mercantile Exchange (NGMEX)

NGMEX is a full-service multi asset exchange that incorporates the complete workflow of a trading venue and also provides on-line commodity futures and option trading. The organization believes in delivering nothing but the best to its loyal customers. From the individuals to the corporations, from institutions to the government agencies, NGMEX has always been a trusted establishment offering genuine industry insights and information on the benchmark commodity prices. NGMEX mission is to provide traders with state-of-the-art order entry capabilities, extremely competitive execution timing and the professional service that today's financial world demands.

Sadao Endo +81-9078960105

sadao.endo@ngmex.org

News Via KISS PR Internatinal News Release





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Photo taken in Chicago, United States Credit - Getty Images/EyeEm

Two Los Angeles County sheriffs deputies were critically injured after being shot multiple times in an apparent ambush on Saturday night, law enforcement officials said.

The deputies were sitting in their patrol car outside of a train station in Compton City shortly before 7 p.m. when the alleged gunman approached their vehicle from behind, Homicide Captain Kent Wegener said at a press conference later that night. Wegener said that the suspect approached the vehicle from behind, and then moved along the passenger side of the car.

He acted as if he was going to walk past the car, and then he made a left turn directly toward the car, raised a pistol and fired several rounds inside of the vehicle, striking both of the sheriffs deputies, said Wegener, adding that the suspect fled north by foot.

The suspect, who one of the deputies later described as a dark-skinned male, was recorded shooting the deputies in at least one video, which was released by the LA County Sheriffs.

Sheriff Villanueva Discusses Ambush Shooting of Two Deputies in Compton. To watch the full press conference, please visit https://t.co/fOaVP5wTUe pic.twitter.com/7gXlbLQpAK  LA County Sheriffs (@LASDHQ) September 13, 2020

The deputies radioed for help after the attack, and were transported to St. Francis Medical Center by fellow deputies.

Sheriff Alejandro Villanueva said that both of the officers were in critical condition, and were out of surgery at the time of the press conference.

The deputies, identified as a man, 24, and a woman, 31, had both been sworn into office 14 months ago, Villanueva said. Villanueva said the female deputy is the mother of a 6-year-old boy. Her husband and the male deputys parents and girlfriend were at the hospital, Villanueva said.

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Villanueva called the attack a somber reminder that the deputies do a dangerous job.

And you know, actions, words have consequences. And our job does not get any easier because people dont like law enforcement. Its going to be a challenge day after day, Villanueva said, seeming to connect the shooting to recent anti-police brutality protests. However, the sheriffs department will never be deterred in keeping our passengers safe on the MTA lines, keeping our communities safe. Were committed to that.

Since police in Minneapolis killed an unarmed Black man named George Floyd in May, protesters have taken to the streets and to social media to call for police accountability in the killing of Black people, as well as other reforms. The protests have been largely peaceful, although they have sometimes ended in violent confrontations between police and demonstrators.

Two California state assembly members, Mike Gipson, who represents Compton, and Reggie Jones-Sawyer, chair of public safety for the state of California, attended the press conference. Each called for members of the public to come forward with information about the shooting.

Tonight we must, as a community, condemn the actions of the perpetrators, Jones-Sawyer said. But most importantly, we must all come together, pray together, for these officers. Because they are heroes. They are heroes of the first and foremost all of us would like to be.

After the shooting, President Donald Trump shared a video of the attack on Twitter.

Animals that must be hit hard! Trump wrote.
(Photo : REUTERS/Amanda Perobelli) An employee is seen at the Reference Center for Special Immunobiologicals (CRIE) of the Federal University of Sao Paulo (Unifesp) where the trials of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine are conducted, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, June 24, 2020. Picture taken June 24, 2020. (Photo : Steve Parsons/Pool via REUTERS) A scientist works during the visit of Britain's William, Duke of Cambridge, to the manufacturing laboratory where a vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been produced at the Oxford Vaccine Group's facility at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, Britain, June 24, 2020

The race for the COVID-19 vaccine continues for the Oxford-AstraZeneca. After pausing due to safety health issues, the hospital is now proceeding to restart its clinical trials in the United Kingdom. Here's why it was paused in the first place.

Oxford-AstraZeneca resumes volunteer testing of drug

On Saturday, Sept. 12, Daily Mail U.K. reported that partnership between Oxford University and drugmaker AstraZeneca officially resumed its process.

The U.K. Medicines Health Regulatory Authority declared this announcement after an independent review of the safety data triggered a pause on Sept. 6, Oxford said in a statement.

Since the operation will begin again, Oxford-AstraZeneca targets that the drug will be available before the end of the year. Oxford said that 18,000 people have already received "study vaccines" as part of the human trials.

The company, however, did not explain whether the clinical trials will soon jump outside the U.K. areas. But it is expected to happen soon in parts of U.S., Brazil, South Africa, and India.

At the end of August, the trials already begun its phase 3 in the U.S., with an expected count of 30,000 volunteers.

Why was it paused in the first place?

Surprisingly, the reason behind the sudden pause of the program was the issue of the safety of the drug.

As said on Sept. 6, Oxford-AstraZeneca reported a major stumble on their research. One volunteer from the clinical trials experienced getting ill.

As of now, experts are still studying whether the patient's illness came from their created drug. This was the main reason why the UK health agency decided to pause the program.

After that, no info was released about the patient.

"We cannot disclose medical information about the illness for reasons of participant confidentiality," Oxford said. "We are committed to the safety of our participants and the highest standards of conduct in our studies and will continue to monitor safety closely."

However, NIH Director Francis Collins might have mentioned at a Senate committee on Wednesday, Sept. 9 that it was paused due to "spinal cord problem."

Shockingly, Oxford admitted that some volunteers in their trials are expected to experienced something wrong with their bodies.

"In large trials such as this, it is expected that some participants will become unwell, and every case must be carefully evaluated to ensure careful assessment of safety," said Oxford.

ALSO READ: [VIRAL] Researchers Claim Google Searches for Gut Symptoms is Related to Number of COVID-19 Cases and Show New Hot Spots

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Jamie Pancho

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Hearst Connecticut Media file photo

West Haven Public Schools officials are working to indentify anyone who may have been in contact with an individual who has tested positive for COVID-19.

In a letter to staff, students and parents Thursday, Superintendent Neil Cavallaro wrote that school and West Haven Health Department officials have been made aware of positive cases in the school community, which at this time are unrelated to any school sponsored events.
Saudi Arabian-led coalition fighter jets attacked barracks and military sites of the armed Houthi movement in Yemen's capital Sanaa

Saudi Arabian-led coalition fighter jets early on Sunday attacked barracks and military sites of the armed Houthi movement in Yemen's capital Sanaa, Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya reported.

The coalition also destroyed four Houthi drones at Al-Delmi air base north of Sanaa, Al-Arabiya said, citing local sources.

There was no immediate official confirmation from the coalition, which launched air strikes on two sites in Sanaa a day earlier.

Those strikes followed a Houthi claim it had attacked an "important target" in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Thursday using a ballistic missile and drones.

The coalition did not confirm an attack on Riyadh but said it had intercepted and destroyed ballistic missiles and explosive drones launched towards the kingdom on Thursday.

Bombings in Sanaa city have been relatively rare since September 2019, when Saudi Arabia launched indirect talks with the Iran-aligned Houthi movement, which it has been at war with since 2015.

The conflict has killed 100,000 people and led to what the United Nations describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The Houthis took over the Yemeni capital Sanaa and most other cities in 2014 after ousting the Saudi-backed government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The coalition that Saudi Arabia leads intervened to try to restore Hadi to power.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 23:53:54|Editor: huaxia

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ADDIS ABABA, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- The number of confirmed COVID-19 positive cases across the African continent reached 1,346,658, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said Sunday.

The continental disease control and prevention agency said in a statement that the death toll related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic also rose to 32,502 as of Sunday afternoon.

The Africa CDC also said that some 1,083,438 people who have been infected with COVID-19 have recovered across the continent so far.

The most affected African countries in terms of the number of positive cases include South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Ethiopia and Nigeria respectively, according to the Africa CDC.

According to the Africa CDC, Africa's total COVID-19 cases represent about 5 percent of all cases reported globally.

The Africa CDC also disclosed that nine African countries account for 81 percent of the new COVID-19 cases reported during the past week, including South Africa at 27 percent, Ethiopia at 17 percent, Morocco at 16 percent, Libya at 5 percent, Algeria at 4 percent, Kenya, Nigeria, Namibia and Egypt at 3 percent each.

In terms of reporting the highest cumulative incidence COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population in Africa, South Africa placed first at 1,079, Cabo Verde second at 647, and Djibouti at 539, according to the Africa CDC.

South Africa has so far reported 648,214 cases and 15,427 deaths as of Sunday, it was noted.

Egypt, which has the second-highest COVID-19 cases in the continent, earlier this week officially became the second African country to pass the 100,000 COVID-19 infections milestone, according to figures from the Africa CDC.

The North African country has so far reported 100, 856 positive cases and 5,627 COVID-19 related deaths as of Sunday, according to the Africa CDC.

Morocco, which is the third-most COVID-19 affected African country in terms of positive cases, has reported 84,435 positive cases and 1,553 deaths as of Sunday. Enditem
ASEAN step up cooperation with EU, India

The ASEAN-EU and ASEAN-India Ministerial Meetings were held virtually on September 12 within the framework of the 53rd ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM 53) and Related Meetings.



Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh led the Vietnamese delegation to the meetings.



At the ASEAN-EU Ministerial Meeting, both sides emphasised the importance of the relationship between the two regional organisations that are considered the most successful. The two sides acknowledged the positive progress in the bilateral cooperation in recent years, especially in the active implementation of the ASEAN-EU Action Plan for the 2018-2022 period.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh speaks at the ASEAN-EU Ministerial Meeting (Photo: VNA)





For many years, the EU has been the most important partner of ASEAN, especially in economic and development cooperation. The EU is currently the third largest trading partner of ASEAN with a two-way trade reaching 280 billion USD in 2019 and the third largest source of foreign investment of ASEAN with a total volume of FDI hitting 16.2 billion USD last year.



The ministers affirmed their strong commitment to strengthen the ASEAN-EU comprehensive cooperation relationship in the coming time, and continue promoting their "Partners in Integration" relationship. The two sides welcomed the 22nd ASEAN-EU Foreign Ministers Meeting in Belgium in January 2019. They shared the view in principle on upgrading ASEAN-EU relations to the level of strategic partnership and agreed to formalise the upgrade soon.



The two sides agreed to continue effectively cooperating in areas of mutual interest and strengths, including economy-trade, connectivity, transport, counter-terrorism, fighting transnational crime, cyber security, marine security and health care. Amid the complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, the two sides agreed to work closely to support capacity building and response to the COVID-19 pandemic and promote recovery.



The EU is one of the first partners to coordinate with ASEAN to successfully organise the ASEAN-EU Ministerial Online Conference on COVID-19 Epidemic Response on March 20, 2020. ASEAN highly valued the EU's announcement to mobilise a 800 million EUR assistance package for the ASEAN region to prevent and mitigate impacts of COVID-19.



Addressing the event, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh affirmed that as ASEAN Chair 2020, Vietnam supported efforts to deepen ASEAN-EU relations, towards officially upgrading the bilateral relations to the level of strategic partnership.



Strengthening connectivity plays an important role in promoting economic recovery and maintaining growth, Minh said, and welcomed the EU's proposal on the ASEAN-EU Joint Ministerial Statement on Connectivity and supported promoting connectivity and complementary to the implementation of the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025 and the EU Connectivity Strategy.



At the ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting, the ministers noted that despite complicated and unpredictable developments, especially the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the ASEAN- India relations continue to make significant progress across all fields, including the implementation of the ASEAN-India Action Plan 2016-2020.



India affirmed its relationship with ASEAN, emphasising that ASEAN plays a central role in India's Act East policy. ASEAN highly appreciated India's commitment and active participation in ASEAN-led mechanisms such as the East Asia Summit (EAS), ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting (ADMM ) and the Expanded ASEAN Maritime Forum (EAMF) as well as India's support for regional cooperation and ASEAN community building.



The two sides agreed to promote cooperation in the areas of economy, trade and investment; maritime cooperation; counter-terrorism and fighting transnational crime; connectivity; science-technology and innovation; natural disaster prevention, control and mitigation; climate change response, cultural and people-to-people exchange, and narrowing development gaps.



Regarding response to COVID-19, India affirmed to support ASEAN in overcoming the pandemic's consequences and promoting sustainable recovery and work closely with ASEAN in research and production of COVID-19 vaccines and treatment medicines.



ASEAN appreciated India's active support for regional cooperation, including capacity building, narrowing the development gaps, and earmarking one billion USD in credit to support projects connecting the two sides.



Addressing the event, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh emphasised the importance of the ASEAN-India strategic partnership and affirmed India as a reliable partner and friend of ASEAN.



ASEAN and India should make efforts to strengthen economic and trade connectivity, and maritime cooperation, while coordinating to fully exploit the 1.8 billion-people market, and strengthening cooperation to achieve two-way trade turnover of 200 billion USD by 2022, Minh said.



He also affirmed the importance of India's participation in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and emphasised that the RCEP Agreement is always open to India.



In both events, the ministers exchanged views on world and regional issues of common interest. Regarding the East Sea, the ministers continue emphasising the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, safety, freedom of navigation and aviation; not militarising; avoiding acts that further complicate the situation, and settling disputes in line with international law, including the 1982 UNCLOS.



The meetings supported the full and effective implementation of the Declaration on Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and early finalisation of an effective and efficient Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) in accordance with international law, including the 1982 UNCLOS.



The EU emphasised the need to respect international law, refrain from tense actions and militarisation, and support efforts to build laws governing behavior in the region.



India informed the ASEAN countries of the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative. The EU welcomed ASEAN to play its role in promoting cooperation, dialogue, building trust in the region, supporting efforts to seriously and fully implement the DOC and develop an effective COC in accordance with international law and the 1982 UNCLOS.



At the meetings, Minh highly appreciated the support of the partners for ASEAN's efforts to participate in ensuring peace, security, stability and navigation and aviation in the East Sea.



He reaffirmed ASEAN's principled position and emphasised the need to strengthen trust building, avoid militarisation and acts that erode trust and complicate the situation, and settle disputes in line with international law, including the 1982 UNCLOS, continue the full and effective implementation of DOC, and early finalisation of an effective and efficient Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) in accordance with international law, especially the 1982 UNCLOS, contributing to peace, security, stability in the East Sea and the region.



Following the two meetings, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh chaired an international press conference, announcing the outcomes of AMM 53 and Related Meetings. ASEAN Secretary-General Lim Jock Hoi attended the online press conference.
An Indian living in Dubai was honoured by the police after he returned a bag containing USD 14,000 and gold worth 200,000 dirhams (USD 54,452), as per a report in PTI.

Retesh James Gupta returned the bag and was praised by the police for his actions, said Gulf News.

PTI (Representational)

The police hailed his honesty.



Brigadier Yousef Abdullah Salim Al Adidi, Director of Al Qusais Police Station, awarded Gupta at the police station.

He also emphasised the need for cooperation between the police and the public.



PTI (Representational)

Gupta thanked Dubai police for awarding him and said he was proud and happy.



Whom the bag belongs to is not yet known.


In the late 1990s China decided to model its rapidly modernizing armed forces on the Western model. Chinese were impressed with how the American led force demolished the Iraqi army in 1991. This Hundred Hour War was an impressive demonstration of how a well-equipped and well-trained all-volunteer force could roll over a Soviet-style, largely conscript force, even when outnumbered. There were several instances during that short war when outnumbered American units defeated larger Iraqi forces. Chinese officers looked at that and decided that this was the kind of military China needed. This attitude was reinforced in 2003 when two American and one British division invaded and defeated Iraq in a few weeks. In both those wars the Americans allowed TV journalists to accompany the combat units, so there was lots of video for Chinese troops and officers to study.

By 2003 China was still hampered by a force modeled on the Russian (Soviet Union) model, an organizational style that had largely been discredited. China still depended on conscription for a lot of its troops and were only beginning to build an effective NCO (sergeants and petty officers) corps along with better trained and selected officers.

China found that it was a lot easier to obtain modern weapons and combat uniforms than it was to train the troops to fight like the Westerners. Changing recruiting, training and leadership methods is still a work in process, even after about 25 years of effort. For example, one crucial factor in achieving combat effectiveness similar to the Americans was unit cohesion. U.S. combat units trained for over a year to create a brigade that was ready to deploy overseas for combat. That preparation period could be compressed, but only if most of the same troops remained with the unit. This was, and still is, impossible for Chinse army units. The problem is that a third of the two million strong Chinese military are still conscripts, most of whom are gone in two years. Worse, most of those conscripts are in the army, which accounts for about half the military personnel.

It gets worse. Until recently, every year all the new conscripts came in at once. The traditional induction date for new recruits was November first. Like their Russian mentors, China inducted most of its new troops at one time. Russia does it twice a year, but China only recently adopted that approach. November was at the end of the main harvest season and most young men had little to do over the Winter months so Russia, and China, favored this time of the year to induct new and train recruits.

In China this was made worse because these new recruits were trained by local (to where they lived) military units. This meant these units, especially the army ones, lost about a third of their troops and had to assign another five or ten percent of the unit to training the new conscripts. In effect most army units were much less effective for half the year. The navy, air force and rocket forces had far fewer conscripts and were not much disrupted by the annual induction and discharge of conscripts. In fact, most ship crews have no conscripts at all. This was much the same in front-line air force and rocket (ballistic missile) units. Some elite army units, like special operations and airborne, had far fewer conscripts and were not disrupted.

Since 2015 China has been addressing this problem by moving the induction date back to a month or so, so induction takes place a month or so after high school and college students graduate. Induction was then conducted twice a year and in 2020 a new schedule of even more frequent inductions was to begin in January 2020. The coronavirus disrupted that and that new program will instead begin in 2021. The plan is to eventually induct new troops year-round, as in the West. To make that work the Chinese also shifted to separate basic training centers. Again, this was based on the Western model. In a few years Chinese combat units will be able to train and be combat ready as their American counterparts are. However, this requires that the Chinese program to build a Western style NCO force succeeds. So far the NCO program seems to be working but this sort of thing takes time, and another decade or two will be needed to complete.

Another major change in the Chinese military is persuading more high school and college graduates to volunteer for service and stay in for up to ten years. Until the last few decades there were not a lot of Chinese high school and college graduates in general and the military ran its own schools and did not depend on civilian universities for new personnel. Times have changed and that was one reason for changing the induction date to August 1st, to make it easier to attract new graduates before they found good jobs in the civilian economy. Its a simple idea that makes a big difference. Changing over to a Western style year-round induction system requires many more internal changes and more expense. Changing the annual induction date, on the other hand, was a lot cheaper.

Since 2008 the Chinese military has made themselves more attractive to college grads and has been able to attract more of them. While about 150,000 college grads join each year, the military has not been able to attract many from the top universities. These are the men needed by the senior military leadership in 20-30 years, when Chinese forces will be much more powerful and complex. That's because the Chinese military is getting a lot more high-tech gear, a process that will continue in the future. It is obvious that it will require high quality leaders to get the most out of it. At the moment it looks like the high-end gear will arrive on schedule but not the high-end leadership. There are too many more attractive opportunities in the civilian economy and the conscription process is corrupt enough that anyone who doesn't want to be in the military can avoid it, while many who need a job but are not qualified can bribe their way in. This is troubling because the government, and to a lesser extent the military leadership, want to do something about corruption in the military. This problem can best be addressed with better quality leadership at the top. The current leadership knows that many of its senior officers are dirty. All these guys came up in the wake of the calamitous 1960s "Cultural Revolution." This disaster discredited the communists and led to the economic reforms (a market economy) of the 1980s. The Communist Party is still in charge but wants to deal with corruption (which is fomenting rebellious attitudes among the people) and increase the quality of leadership in the military. This is proving to be difficult.

The corruption problem is made worse by the fact that conscription is handled by local entities, which are run by local politicians who are often corrupt, or willing to tolerate a lot of corruption. The military has tried to address this by sending more army personnel to increase the number of them assisting the local officials while also trying to spot who is corrupt and report those officials for prosecution.

The Chinese armed forces have changed a lot since 2000. Uneducated country boys are no longer welcome. Then again, neither are tattooed and pierced urban hipsters or anyone who snores. In the 1990s, the military was, as the Chinese like to say, a "peasant's army." Worse, none of the officers or NCOs had any combat experience. The last of the Korean War vets were gone and the few veterans of the 1979 war with Vietnam were still trying to forget that disaster. The army was largely non-mechanized, with many primitive weapons and aging equipment. That has all changed in the last decade.

Now most of the troops are better educated, more experienced, and largely from urban areas. Most of these troops are single children, the result of the "one child" policy. Officially introduced in 1978, this draconian solution to population growth did not really get going until the 1980s. In the last decade nearly all the new recruits came from single child families. Often called "little princes," their parents (and grandparents) lavished them with all the attention usually spread among many more kids. Often described as spoiled, these kids did get more adult attention, better education, and more of everything. They enter the military with lots of skills like computers, driving, and the ability to learn new stuff in a hurry. The best of these kids went to the top universities and few choose the military as a career.

The army has found that this new generation is much more capable and quicker to learn. Senior commanders welcome this because it's the kind of manpower Western forces use to achieve very impressive results on the battlefield. Chinese NCOs and officers have learned how to work around the bad habits (selfishness, insubordination, stubbornness) of some little princes and make the most of the talents these troops bring with them. The most incorrigible little princes are just tossed out.

The Chinese military is smaller now than in 2000. A decade ago there were 2.4 million, 40 percent of them conscripts. Now there are two million, with a third of them conscripts. Most Chinese troops are volunteers. Technically, about 700,000 men are conscripts that serve for two years, with each year's class of conscripts inducted in the autumn. Only about 350,000 conscripts are inducted each year, and nearly all of these tend to be volunteers. That's because only about four percent of each year's crop of 18-year-old males is needed. How do they decide who to take? Naturally, the army tries to get the most physically, psychologically, and educationally fit for the armed forces. To that end the military has been administering tests to draftees for nearly two decades now. If you're not literate (over 90 percent of Chinese are), they don't want you. But the better educated 18-year olds don't want to go into the military, not with that booming economy out there. If selected most of these lads bribe their way out or simply rely on there being enough qualified volunteers to satisfy the recruiting officials.

A lot of young men who don't have much education very much want to get into the military. For one thing, it's a job, and there are opportunities for education and advancement. The military tries to identify the more capable among these poor, uneducated young men, so they can be taken into service.

Men who have been accepted by a university are automatically exempt, as are those with a criminal record. Drug addicts, the physically or mentally infirm, and anyone who just doesn't seem right to the examiners, is exempt from conscription. And for many of those who are perfect, there are numerous officials willing to take a bribe and get you off the list.

The work of deciding who actually gets drafted is done by thousands of draft boards or, as the Chinese call them, People's Armed Forces Departments (PAFD). Each is assigned a quota, based on how many 18-year olds are coming of age in a town or city neighborhood. Since these locations vary greatly in the wealth and educational levels of the inhabitants some PAFDs have an easy time of it, while others have to struggle to meet their quota. In some wealthy PAFDs hardly anyone wants to go and some interesting soap operas ensue. In less wealthy PAFDs bribes will be paid to get some kids in. Not large bribes but you get the picture. In the late 1990s, the operation of the PAFDs was turned over to the military, in an attempt to reduce the corruption and ensure that the best quality recruits were obtained. This was partially successful, if only because most of the people running each PAFD were still locals and often reporting to some corrupt local official.

Partly in response to this dramatic change, China recently revised its Military Service Law (which stipulates how troops are recruited, their living conditions, and benefits in general) for the first time since the 1990s. In an attempt to get more highly educated young Chinese to join, living conditions are being improved and pay has been increased. Moreover, in recognition of the fact that many of the brightest troops will not make a career out of the military, the new law gives departing troops help in getting a good civilian job. One of the more attractive benefits is help with college tuition for soldiers who successfully complete their service. The Chinese probably noted how successful the U.S. G.I. Bill educational benefits were in attracting prime recruits.

China will eventually have a Western quality military, or something very close to it. The Chinese realize this takes time, as in several decades. The Chinese are willing to take the time, make the effort and do it right.
BAGHDAD - Iraqs top Shiite cleric on Sunday threw his support behind the prime ministers announcement that parliamentary elections will be held ahead of schedule next year, saying the timing should not serve the interests of political groups.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistanis comments came in a statement released by his office after a meeting with the U.N. envoy to Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert. A photo released by al-Sistanis office showed the black-turbaned cleric meeting with the U.N. envoy and an interpreter.

Sundays meeting was the first public face-to-face between al-Sistani and a foreign official since the spread of coronavirus in Iraq earlier this year. The country is one of the hardest-hit by the virus in the region, with nearly 300,000 confirmed cases and more than 7,900 deaths.

It is also the first such meeting since al-Sistani, 90, underwent surgery for a fractured bone in January.

In August, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said parliamentary elections would be held in June, nearly a year before they had been scheduled to take place. Early elections have been a key demand of protesters, who have been holding mass demonstrations since October demanding change in the country, where corruption is widespread.

A new government will be formed by the politician who secures the most support from parliamentary blocs after the elections.

Parliamentary elections scheduled for next year are very important, said the Iran-born al-Sistani, who enjoys wide influence in Iraq and among Shiite Muslims worldwide. He said the vote should be held under fair conditions that give them credibility so that people are encouraged to participate.

Al-Sistani said early elections are the right and peaceful path to getting out of the current host of political, economic, security and health problems Iraq faces.

The cleric warned that delays in holding the elections in a free and fair manner will lead to deepening the countrys problems and reaching, God forbid, a point that would threaten its unity and the future of its people.

Al-Sistani also called on the government to investigate major cases of corruption in the country and to seriously work to reveal all those who committed criminal acts that killed and wounded protesters and security forces.

According to the prime ministers office, some 560 protesters have been killed mostly by gunfire from Iraqi security forces. Al-Kadhimi has vowed to investigate their deaths.
Toronto police have made an arrest after they say an armed man crashed into two vehicles before fleeing from officers Saturday night.

The collision occurred in the area of Rexdale Boulevard and Highway 27, near Woodbine Racetrack at around 5 p.m. Police said there were reports the suspect was armed with a silver handgun.

After colliding with the cars, police said he fled on foot into a field, where officers tracked him down and took him into custody.

There are no reported injuries, police said.

Breanna Xavier-Carter is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star's radio room in Toronto. Reach her via email: bxavier@thestar.ca
Opposition demands discussion in Lok Sabha on standoff at LAC, economic slowdown

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Sep 13: Opposition parties have sought a discussion in Lok Sabha on the issues of economic slowdown, unemployment and standoff between Indian and Chinese forces during a meeting of floor leaders of the House on Sunday to discuss the agenda for the Monsoon session, DMK leader TR Baalu said.

A day before the start of the session, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla chaired the meeting of the business advisory committee (BAC) of the lower house.

Opposition leaders have sought discussions on the standoff between India and China at the LAC, unemployment and economic slowdown, Baalu said. The DMK leader said he has also sought a discussion on issues such as revising the creamy layer for OBC and non-payment of states' share of revenue collected under GST.

No all-party meet before monsoon session begins tomorrow

Birla told reporters after the meeting that the leaders of all parties have assured their support for the smooth functioning of the House. He expressed the hope that Lok Sabha will transact a good amount of business. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi along with Arjun Ram Meghwal and V Muraleedharan, ministers of state in the same ministry, also attended the meeting.

Joshi said the government is ready for discussion on all issues which will be decided in the BAC. He said the meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere, and floor leaders will again meet on Tuesday to deliberate upon the agenda for the parliament session.

Asked whether the government is ready for a discussion on the standoff between India and China at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Joshi said it will be decided while keeping in mind national security and the country's strategic interests. According to sources, Lok Sabha will be adjourned briefly on Monday as a mark of respect to former president Pranab Mukherjee and a sitting MP who died recently.

And thereafter, sources said, the House may take up discussion on two bills which have already been passed by Rajya Sabha. A discussion on the COVID-19 pandemic can start on Tuesday.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also said on Sunday that his party wants a discussion in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on the situation at the border with China and the state of the economy.

He also mentioned "closure of businesses and the state of the MSME industry, the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and other issues like airport privatisation, the draft EIA notification." "We hope the Opposition would get an opportunity to speak and serious national issues would be discussed. We expect the prime minister to be present in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and give a reply to the questions raised by us," he said at a virtual press conference.
New Delhi: The Delhi high court is likely to hear on Monday a public interest litigation (PIL) that seeks a direction that homosexual couples have the right to get married under the 1955 Hindu Marriage Act, arguing that barring such unions was a violation of their constitutional rights.

The PIL, filed on September 8 by four members of the LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex) community and listed before a bench of chief justice of the Delhi HC DN Patel and justice Prateek Jalan, said that nothing in the Hindu Marriage Act mandated that a marriage take place only between a Hindu man and a Hindu woman.

The petition pointed out that in 2018, the Supreme Court read down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalized homosexuality.

The non-recognition of the rights of gay couples, especially when their sexuality has been recognised as such as valid by the Honble Supreme Court of India is violative of various provisions of the Constitution of India as well as various conventions that India as a sovereign state is signatory to, the petition stated.

This is the second petition to be filed on the issue of same-sex marriage rights. In January, a couple in Kerala  Nikesh Pushkaran and Sonu MS  filed a petition in the Kerala high court challenging the Special Marriage Act.

The Delhi HC petition was filed by four people  Abhijit Iyer Mitra, Gopi Shankar, Giti Thadani and G Oorvasi.

In the 21st century, there is no reason that same-sex couples should not enjoy the same rights as others, said Raghav Awasthi, advocate for the petitioners.

Equality is important. We have people from the diverse LGBTI communities who are refused by registrars to accept or register their marriage ceremonies. I want to marry my partner, too, and register our relationship, said Gopi Shankar, one of the petitioners.

Shankar pointed to a 2019 Madras high court judgment that upheld the marriage between a man and a transwoman, saying that the word bride in the Hindu Marriage Act also included a transwoman.

The text of the law does not, on a plain reading, exclude same-sex marriages. However, in practice the law has been understood to exclude them. The court, however, should recognise same-sex marriages not merely as a legislative lapse, but as a positive fact, said Saurabh Kirpal, a Supreme Court advocate who appeared for the petitioners in the Navtej Johar case, which led to decriminalisation of homosexuality in 2018.

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Even with all the restrictions, its starting to gain a new sense of sacredness in what were trying to do because we know that face mask is a reminder that your life is sacred. And because your life is sacred, I keep my face mask on in order to worship God who unites us all.
Respectable, inspirational and hardworking  thats how friends and former colleagues described Walter Adams, Jersey Citys only African American chief of police.

Adams, 85, died on Friday, the city announced. To his former colleagues, Adams was the one to give minorities representation in law enforcement.

He knows the streets, he knew the people, Tyrone Reynolds said. Day one, he came in knowing what was needed.

Reynolds was sworn in by Adams during the administration of then-Jersey City Mayor Anthony Cucci.

Cucci served from 1985 to 1989; it was also under Cucci that Adams was promoted to chief of police.

Walter Adams, a retired African American police chief, died on Friday at 85. Tyrone Reynolds, second to the left, was sworn in by Adams.Courtesy of Tyrone Reynolds

Reynolds said Adams was serious about his job. Prior to being promoted to police chief in 1988, Adams served as a detective, narcotics officer and director of public safety in 1985.

He was the one who inspired a lot of us, Reynolds said.

For former Jersey City mayor Jerry McCann, he was shocked when he heard the news. McCann knew Adams when he was just a Jersey City police officer.

McCann said, at the time, there were not a lot of African Americans on the force, meanwhile a lot of problems were in the African American community.

They needed representation, and he was the person who did that, McCann said.

Reynolds added that Adams' name was synonymous to crime-fighting  thats how much he was respected in the community. Adams pushed for excellence, Reynolds said.

McCann agreed, and said Adams was a good man.

Hes in a better place today, McCann said. ... What Id tell him is to keep an eye on us. He kept an eye on us while he was here on earth, so now he can keep an eye on us while hes up in heaven.

I hope there will be someone else like him, Reynolds added. ... I was shocked (by the news), but then I smiled. Its fitting that the Lord called him home on Heros Day (9/11) he was definitely a hero.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- More than 40 % of Americans are working from home, and among them the urge to work nest is strong. My sister-in-law turned the family shed into a shoffice, with charming homemade curtains hiding the tools and a pillow for the pandemic puppy. Surging home prices suggest that many who are working from home and find themselves shedless are in the market for a bigger house.

I hope to put a big yellow Slow sign on home-buying in a pandemic. The housing market may be soaring because of bad information and short-term thinking. You dont know whether bosses will make work-from-home permanent or who will be targeted for downsizing. You may come to rue buying at a time when inventory is so low and prices so high.

Regret is already in the air. LendEDU, a financial information website, surveyed 1,000 mortgage holders in August and found that most people who bought houses after March 2020 already regretted taking out a mortgage. The survey is not scientific, but the results make sense. Record low mortgage rates enticed new buyers, while urban hotspots for the virus drove people out of cities. In July, there was a 56% drop in Manhattan property sales and a 44% increase in the citys neighboring suburbs. Home prices in nearby New Jersey counties increased over 11% while New York City prices fell 13% compared to last summer.

Buying in a sellers market is not a good move. Home sellers are taking their once-in-a-lifetime moment to sell their house substantially over asking prices, asking prices that were connected to rental prices in the neighborhood. Conventional financial advice suggests if a home costs more than 20 times the annual rent the home could fetch, the house is probably overvalued  a $400,000 home should rent for $1,667 per month or more. In times of low mortgage rates, the breakeven ratio can be a bit higher. But in this K-shaped recovery, rents are falling, occupancy rates are down, and your house might remain overpriced.

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Because homeownership has always been messaged as a mandatory part of the American Dream and subsidized by the federal government, homeownership is always a bit overrated. Owning a home might be beneficial over the long run  if the house price appreciates more than a diversified financial portfolio, or if people dont have to move for their jobs or family, or if marriages last, or if neighborhoods and financial situations dont change much. In some areas, rental stock can be lower quality for the same carrying costs as homes. And some people list home repair as a hobby.

But, for most people, calling the landlord when things go wrong is a benefit, and many home buyers forget to budget for home repair and maintenance which typically costs 2-4% of a houses value per year. Most homeowners at some point regret having to mow the lawn and clean the gutters on weekends. At many rental apartment complexes, luxuries such as professional landscaping and outdoor maintenance come standard.

Another advantage to renting is avoiding the down payment. If you put a chunk of money, say $50,000, into a down payment, you forgo earning higher risk-adjusted returns on a low-fee index fund, which is a lot more liquid and a lot less expensive to manage than putting all those eggs in one basket.

Renters also have more flexibility than homeowners, and flexibility is good for employees  especially with so many uncertainties, from the long-term fate of the economy, to the potential for a new federal stimulus, to whether bosses will require physical presence in the future. Renters can more readily move for a pay raise or a new job.

While there can be certain tax advantages to owning a home, these may not last forever. Economist Dambisa Moyo warns that government support for policies subsidizing homeownership (such as loan guarantees and mortgage tax deductions) may wane as future Congresses look for new revenue to forestall soaring deficits.

A pay cut or job loss might even lead homeowners to sell assets in their retirement accounts  sometimes at their lowest values  to pay the mortgage. This is a terrible financial setback; some of the worst-hit families in the Great Recession were those who lost their jobs and were stuck in their homes. But renters can simply move to a cheaper place.

My advice is to wait to buy a home until the economy, the virus and Congressional policies stabilize. Sharing a small space is tough. But paying for a bigger one can be even tougher.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Teresa Ghilarducci is the Schwartz Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research. She's the co-author of "Rescuing Retirement" and a member of the board of directors of the Economic Policy Institute.

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

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Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard in Los Angeles. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles County public health officials on Saturday reported 1,177 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 29 more related deaths.

The report brings the county's total number of cases to 253,176 and deaths to 6,197, officials said. The new data includes three new deaths each in Long Beach and Pasadena.

Among the new cases, 71% were people younger than 50, according to the Public Health Department. Those ages 30 to 49 accounted for 35% of the total, the most of any age group.

L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer called for the young to be more vigilant.

We need the help of our younger county residents to slow the spread even more than we are doing now, so that we can move into lower tiers that allow for the reopening of more business sectors and schools," Ferrer said. "This means this is not the time for nonessential activities and social gatherings, but a time for distancing and avoiding close contact with people you don't live with."

Health officials urged all residents to minimize nonessential activities such as dining out. They pointed to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that on-site dining and drinking outside the home are among the riskiest activities for COVID-19 transmission.

Of the 29 people whose deaths were reported Saturday, nine were older than 80, eight were between 65 and 79, three were between 50 and 64, two were between 30 and 49, and one was between 18 and 29. Nineteen had underlying health conditions, including six who were older than 80.

Of all county COVID-19 deaths for whom information about race and ethnicity is available, 51% were Latino, 23% white, 15% Asian, 10% Black and fewer than 1% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander.

The Public Health Department reported 877 people hospitalized with COVID-19 on Saturday, a third of them in the ICU. Testing results are available for more than 2.44 million individuals, with 10% testing positive.

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Information on reopening protocols and safety measures is on the Public Health Department's website.

The department also announced Saturday that due to unhealthy air caused by the region's fires, some L.A. County COVID-19 testing sites will be closed through the weekend.

Testing was suspended Saturday at East L.A. College (Monterey Park), Pomona Fairplex Gate 17, San Gabriel Valley Airport (El Monte) and Montebello Civic Center. Those sites, as well as College of the Canyons (Santa Clarita), will remain closed Sunday.

Notification was being sent to residents who had appointments at those sites to reschedule. Same-day and next-day appointments are still available at testing sites across L.A. County.
London: Face masks may be giving people COVID-19 immunity and making them get less sick from the virus, academics have suggested in one of the most respected medical journals in the world.

The commentary, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, advances a theory that universal wearing of face masks might be helping to reduce the severity of the virus and ensuring that a greater proportion of new infections are asymptomatic.

Scientists are speculating that face masks may have even greater benefits than originally expected. Credit:Luis Ascui

If this hypothesis is borne out, the academics argue, then universal mask-wearing could become a form of inoculation that would generate immunity and "thereby slow the spread of the virus in the United States and elsewhere" as the world awaits a vaccine.

Increasing evidence suggests that the amount of virus someone is exposed to at the start of infection  the "infectious dose"  may determine the severity of their illness. A large study published in the Lancet last month found that "viral load at diagnosis" was an "independent predictor of mortality" in hospital patients.
WHITE HALL  Lewis and Clark Community College and North Greene schools are partnering to offer a welding program to students, community members and employers.

The program, which is funded through a Career and Technical Education grant awarded by the Illinois Community College Board, is designed to support the improvement and innovation of career and technical programming throughout Illinois.

This welding program is open to high school students and members of the public can join as available in the spring. It is designed to meet the needs of local employers and will allow participants to earn multiple welding certificates and an associate of applied science degree in welding.

According to Lewis & Clark associate dean of adult education Valorie Harris, the grant will fund up to $100,000 through December 2021.

The primary audience is North Green High School students, Harris said. Its exciting that beginning in the spring semester at the earliest, classes may also include out-of-school youth and adults from the community, depending on need and the availability of seats. If there arent enough seats and there are enough potential students, theres a possibility that an evening section may be offered.

Cheri Madson of the North Greene Education Foundation recognized the potential impact for the school district and the local economy.

The North Greene Educational Foundation wants the welding program at North Greene High School to add a curriculum option that ensures our students are employable locally upon graduation, Madson said. The vision for this program is to expand by offering classes that are open to community members as well.

The welding program isnt the first time Lewis & Clark and the school district have partnered. In 2019, a successful certified nursing assistant program was established with a grant.

Were excited to build on our strong working relationship with the North Greene School District, Lewis & Clark dean of career programs Sue Czerwinski said. This innovative program not only serves high school students but meets the needs of community members and local employers.
At a news conference on Saturday night, Mr. Williams said that Mr. Walker and his girlfriend returned a rental car on Friday and then paid a man to take them to their next destination. Mr. Williams said the car they were riding in was pulled over because it had a broken taillight.

The deputies asked Mr. Walker for his identification even though he was not the driver, Mr. Williams said. The deputies became upset when he inquired  like every American citizen has the right to inquire  Why are you asking me for my ID? Im not driving, and I have not done anything wrong, Mr. Williams said.

The next thing you know  and youve seen on the video  hes attacked, beaten in his face, throughout his body, Mr. Williams said. He is choked, he is unable to breathe.

At one point, the videos show one of the deputies punch Mr. Walker several times in the head. Both deputies appear to be on top of Mr. Walker, using their body weight to apply pressure to his neck and torso.

Mr. Walker appears to say I cant breathe. He also appears to lose consciousness as the deputies roll him over to reveal his bloodied face. A woman who was recording one of the videos can be heard screaming throughout the interaction, and an officer asks her to return to a car as she pleads with them.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Seven people were wounded in a shooting at a southeast Grand Rapids business early Sunday, bringing the total number of citywide overnight shooting victims to 11.

The shooting at the business involving seven victims happened about 1:30 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 13 in the 3900 block of Stahl Drive SE.

Grand Rapids police responded to the East Paris Hookah Lounge, 3950 Stahl Dr., on a report of shots being fired.

They soon learned that seven people had arrived at Mercy Health St. Marys Hospital and Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital seeking treatment.

One of those people, a 29-year-old man shot in the back, had a wound considered life-threatening. He was last known to be in serious but stable condition.

The other people all had non-life-threatening injuries.

Police said the victims were a 28-year-old man shot in the arm, as well as other men with ages listed as 37, 23 and 21. A 22-year-old woman also was shot.

Police did not specify the wounds for all the victims. They said a 37-year-old man had injuries related to gunfire.

Investigators believe roughly 20 rounds were fired from both inside the business and into the business from the outside.

Police said most of the victims were not cooperating.

The owner of the East Paris Hookah Lounge, who asked MLive not to name him, said he left the business at 11 p.m. Saturday and deputies with the Kent County Sheriffs Office woke him up at 1:30 a.m. about the shootings outside the venue.

He said when he arrived at the business he was "shocked and mad.''

It is covered by insurance but it still hurts, he said outside the boarded up storefront where the glass had been shattered. The business remains open because he says the inside is fine.

The shooting on Stahl Drive SE was among what police believe were four separate shooting incidents overnight.

At about 10:10 p.m. Saturday, two men ages 19 and 20 showed up at Spectrum Health Blodgett Hospital with non-life-threatening wounds from a shooting at Kalamazoo Avenue SE and Adams Street.

A candlelight vigil had wrapped up earlier at the same location. The area was the scene of a shooting Friday afternoon that killed one and critically injured another.

On Saturday night, police responded to the area about 9:50 p.m. after people called 911 to report shots fired involving numerous cars and people. The crowd from the vigil had mostly left, police said.

Officers discovered that several cars and one building was struck by bullets. They recovered numerous casings.

At about 10:05 p.m., a separate shooting was reported at a residence in the 500 block of Lincoln Avenue NW. A 22-year-old man was shot in the abdomen and had non-life-threatening injuries.

He was not fully cooperative during the investigation, police said.

Then at about 11 p.m., a 25-year-old man showed up at Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital with an arm wound. He told police he was shot near the intersection of Michigan Street and Monroe Avenue NW, but police did not find a crime scene.

His injuries were not life-threatening, police said.

Reporter Anya van Wagentonk contributed to this article.

More from MLive

Kalamazoo activists call for unity, accountability during protest outside county courthouse

Teen hunter dies after run over by corn chopper in Huron County

One dead, one injured in Southeast Grand Rapids shooting
El-Sisi issued the directives during a meeting held to follow up on the development ventures in North Sinai and the New Valley areas of East Owainat and Toshka

Related Sisi directs govt to prioritize electricity projects in North Sinai

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has instructed government agencies to work in a concerted manner to achieve the state's goal of increasing the area of productive agricultural lands and building modern urban communities in North Sinai and the New Valley.

El-Sisi issued the directives during a meeting held on Sunday with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and other officials to follow up on the development ventures in North Sinai and the southern valley areas of East Owainat and Toshka, according to a presidential statement.

The president was briefed on the efforts exerted by the different government bodies to plan the infrastructure of these areas, particularly for electricity, water, and agriculture resources.

He also was briefed on the efforts to enhance the axes of farming and irrigation by digging water channels to transfer water from treatment plants in the west of the Suez Canal to the east.

The meeting also reviewed updates on developing the cities of the North Sinai governorate, especially El-Arish city, through constructing a number of new axes, upgrading and expanding the existing roads, as well as renewing facilities and buildings and achieving the optimal use of lands.

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The writer is a keen observer of the goings-on in the backrooms of power.

Agnivesh had given up a career as a professor in Calcutta to be a full-time social activist. His mission was to resist the RSS at all levels

Threat to Tomar

Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar is a worried man these days. On his home turf of Gwalior-Chambal, crucial Assembly bypolls are set to take place, which may establish the supremacy of Jyotiraditya Scindia as BJPs iconic figure on Tomars turf.

Tomar, who holds the additional charge of panchayati raj and rural development, was embarrassed when a well-known party spokesman fumbled and failed to name him as the countrys agriculture minister.

The spokesperson, having roots in the BJPs economic cell, reportedly took Radha Mohan Singhs name, who was agriculture minister in the previous Narendra Modi ministry. Sources close to Tomar feel their leader needs more visibility if he has to counter Scindia within the BJP.

Dissidents new dilemma

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi turned out to be smarter than her detractors. The 23 Congress dissenters who wrote a letter seeking inner party democracy are now perplexed by Sonias move to appoint the Congress Working Committee nominating some prominent dissidents who were asking for CWC polls.

Would Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and Mukul Wasnik muster the courage to turn down a CWC nomination? As per the party constitution, 12 members are required to be elected while an equal number can be nominated.

Last time when CWC polls were held, the party was led by Sitaram Kesri in 1997. Sonia is travelling abroad for her medical checkup and likely to skip the monsoon session of parliament.

In her absence, a six-member panel [without Rahul or Priyanka Gandhi] would officiate.

How to protest

The monsoon session of Parliament is starting amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Ironically, when the House had met in March 2020, the chair had reprimanded members for wearing masks.

Six months later, wearing masks has been made mandatory. The seating arrangement is also bothering the Opposition as members are spread to galleries in order to enforce social distancing. How would they protest if access to the well of the House is denied?

AAP in hills?

Though the Uttarakhand state Assembly poll is scheduled for early 2022, the BJP has begun preparation.

Politically, the Trivender Singh Rawat government does not seem strong enough to return to power. So BJP strategists are looking for a third front to prevent the Harish Rawat-led Congress from edging the party out of power. The buzz is that Arvind Kejriwals Aam Aadmi Party is set to contest the hill state poll in a big way.

The presence of a third contender will be bad news for the Congress. The BJP is also reportedly promoting the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal, otherwise considered a defunct outfit. The calculations are that if AAP and/or Uttarakhand Kranti Dal get a few seats through cutting into Congress votes and anti-BJP votes, then a Haryana-like situation can bring the BJP back to power.

Bhai closes Darbar

Jafferbhai Mansuri of Delhi Darbar fame is no more. Covid-19 took another toll. Jafferbhai was a legend in Mumbai as his biryani of the Delhi Darbar chain of restaurants was worth every paisa.

In 1973, Jafferbhai had founded his Delhi Darbar restaurant at Bombay's Grant Road, and by 2006 he became the Biryani King, having a chain of restaurants called Jaffer Bhais Delhi Darbar from Grant Road to Jogeshwari. The chain also owns several restaurants in the UAE.

Jafferbhais biryani was much sought after in wedding receptions. An unassuming and affectionate person, Jafferbhai used to keep a keen eye on his friends and acquaintances who were often given a packet of biryani and kebabs to relish at home.

Silence, they said

Swami Agnivesh will be greatly missed. The social crusader in saffron was a spare time politician who did not get his due even in death, as most English-language newspapers did not carry his obituary.

Surprisingly, most Urdu dailies had news of his death on the front page with some editorials and lengthy obits.

Perhaps it was due to Agniveshs consistent opposition to BJPs brand of Hindutva. A brahmin from Andhra, Agnivesh was a vocal Arya Samaji whose influence spread from Punjab-Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan to other parts of the Hindi heartland.

Agnivesh had given up a career as a professor in Calcutta to be a full-time social activist. His mission was to resist the RSS at all levels.
Toronto police are looking for a hit-and-run driver after a pedestrian suffered life-threatening injuries early Saturday.

The 52-year-old man was crossing the street with a group at Dundas Street East and Parliament Street around 2:30 a.m., police said.

The man was the last person in the group to cross the street, when the driver crossed into a westbound lane and struck him.

The suspect then fled the scene heading east on Dundas, police said.

Police describe the suspect vehicle as a grey Honda Civic.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-1900 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS.

Breanna Xavier-Carter is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star's radio room in Toronto. Reach her via email: bxavier@thestar.ca
- Detectives have since Friday, September 11, been pursuing MP Oscar Sudi with the aim of arresting him

- On Friday night, the officers stormed Sudi's compound in Eldoret but were not able to arrest him

- Heavy deployment of police at his home sparked revolt from locals who barricaded the road leading to the MPs home

- At least two security officers were injured during the night raid

- Sudi is set to be arraigned over alleged incitement days after Emurua Dikirr MP Johanna Ng'eno pleaded not guilty to a similar count

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Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi has surrendered to the state at Langas Police Station.

Sudi, in a statement, said he handed himself at the Kapseret sub-county police headquarters early on Sunday, September 13.

READ ALSO: Coronavirus: 3 more people die as Kenya records 176 new cases

MP Oscar Sudi (in red jacket and cap). Photo: Oscar Sudi.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: ODM insists Obado should be impeached, defends governor Ojaamong. "He was not blocked from office"

Manhunt

Since Friday, September 11, police have been pursuing the lawmaker over alleged incitement but were unable to arrest him even after surrounding his home for almost an entire night.

"As a law-abiding citizen, I have presented myself at Langas Police Station early this morning even before the officers arrived. It was unnecessary to be treated with a lot of drama by sending a contingent of police officers to my home.

I was away the time police arrived at my place. Thank you all for standing with me," said Sudi.

READ ALSO: Walinzi wa Rais Uhuru wakamatwa nyumbani kwa Mbunge Oscar Sudi

The lawmaker was accompanied by MPs Caleb Kositany (Soi), Didmus Barasa (Kimilili) and Uasin Gishu Woman representative Gladys Shollei.

Johana Ng'eno arrested

Sudi presented himself to police seven days after the arrest of Emurua Dikirri MP Johana Ng'eno, whom according to the DPP, issued inciteful remarks.

Ng'eno claimed that 95% of the Mau Forest belonged to the Kalenjin community while only 5% belonged to the Maasai.

READ ALSO: Kakamega: Police officer collapses, dies after slapping man at miraa chewing base

Emurua Dikirr MP Johana Ng'eno (pictured). Photo: Nation.

Source: UGC

Pack and leave

He went further and asked President Uhuru Kenyatta to "pack and leave" if he was not ready to work with his deputy William Ruto and not to run Kenya as if it "belonged to himself or his mother Mama Ngina.

His remarks were echoed by Sudi, who tore into Uhuru for "persecuting William Ruto" and running the country like personal property dragging in his slur the name of the former first lady.

READ ALSO: Kakamega: Police officer collapses, dies after slapping man at miraa chewing base

No apologies

Sudi later said he had nothing apologise for to the president's family stating that he only mentioned Mama Ngina's name to remind Uhuru that everyone's mother was equal.

"Those who have been calling out my name should apologise to me for claiming I said things that for a fact I didn't mention. Just like every other Kenyan has a mother the president also has a mother. This, therefore, makes all of us equal.

Even the Bible says that every child who suckles from the breasts of his or her mother will never forget them. Let them tell me exactly what I did wrong. Meanwhile, I will be waiting for an apology from them," said Sudi.

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.

Married women should not seek advise from single ladies -Christine Odhiambo on marrying a conductor. On TUKO TV.

Source: TUKO.co.ke
File image

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on September 13 said that while no date has been fixed yet on launching of the COVID-19 vaccine, it may be ready by the first quarter of 2021.

The minister also said that the government was discussing emergency use authorisation for the COVID-19 vaccine and a consensus on the matter is likely soon. He was addressing the first episode of his 'Sunday Samvaad', a social media interaction programme.

"A consensus on emergency authorisation for COVID-19 vaccine is likely soon," he said, adding that frontline healthcare workers, senior citizens and persons with comorbidities will be given priority.

"I will be the first to offer myself for receiving COVID-19 vaccine if people have a trust deficit (in it)," Vardhan said.

While commenting on the price of the vaccine, the minister said it is premature to decide on that at this stage, but "the Government of India will assure that the vaccine will be made available to those who need it the most, irrespective of their paying capacity," Hindustan Times reported.

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

Vardhan said the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) is one of the most ambitious programmes of the government and is set to catapult the country to the position of a global leader in the field of digital health, according to a statement issued by the Union health ministry.

"However, there are vested interests that do not want India to succeed and are spearheading a disinformation campaign against the NDHM," he was quoted as saying in the statement.

Vardhan was answering questions from his social media followers.
I worked in Company A for 12 years and then moved to Company B and worked for 2.5 years. There was a gap of one month between the two. Thereafter, I stopped working. Company A had deposited my Employees Provident Fund (EPF) contributions in a PF account, while Company B opened a different account for PF. Four months after leaving Company B, I transferred Company As PF account to Company Bs PF account. My status is non-salaried ever since I left Company B. I have following questions: 1) will the tax treatment for the two corpuses (at Company A and B) be different if I withdraw the entire amount today? 2) will Company B corpus attract tax deducted at source (TDS)? 3) will Company B corpus be taxable on withdrawal? 4) if not taxable, do I have to declare these corpuses in my tax returns? 5) If I do not withdraw the corpus and let it remain in the merged account, will it continue to get interest; If yes, then for how long?

Ravi

It is assumed that you have ceased employment before completing the age of 55, and you have not migrated abroad permanently.

Queries 1, 2 and 3: The accumulated PF balance due and payable to the employee (the balance to his credit on the date of cessation of employment) is exempt from tax if he has rendered continuous service for a period of five years or more. Where there are multiple employers and the PF balances are transferred to the PF account with the most recent employer, the cumulative period of employment is seen. Since the cumulative period of employment is more than five years, the accumulated balance to the extent payable to you post ceasing employment with employer B shall be exempt.

It may also be noted that for the period that you were on a break from employment, you would not be considered as an employee of any organization and, hence, any accretions in the accumulated PF balance due to you during this period would also be taxable in your hands. Tax on the same should be paid through the prescribed advance tax instalments (if applicable) and/or self- assessment tax prior to filing of the tax return.

As you have rendered continuous service for a period of five years or more, there should be no TDS, while crediting these amounts to you/or at the time of withdrawal made immediately post cessation of employment with employer B.

Query 4: From a disclosure perspective, the portion of the PF withdrawal, which is exempt from tax (accumulated balance until the last working day, excluding the interest (a) pertaining to one months gap between employment and (b) accretions post the last day of working with employer B) is required to be disclosed under Schedule EI (exempt income) of the tax return form. The taxable interest and details of tax deposited on the same would need to be included in the relevant schedules in the tax return form.

Whether there is any TDS or not on such income will depend upon the position adopted by the payor, quantum of interest and so on. You may be required to pay advance tax on this income, depending on factors like quantum of overall income (including this income) and tax liability, TDS withheld and age of the tax payer, among others.

From the timing of taxation perspective, for the taxable interest on employer contribution post completion of your employment, it may be contended that the same should be offered to tax on a year-on-year basis. For the taxable interest on employee contribution, the same may be offered to tax based on the method of accounting adopted by the taxpayer, cash or mercantile. The disclosures in the tax returns would need to be made accordingly.

Query 5: As per the existing provisions, a PF account becomes inoperative and does not earn further interest, where an employee retires from service after attaining the age of 55 years or migrates abroad permanently or dies and does not apply for withdrawal of his accumulated balance within 36 months. Until such time, interest will continue to accrue on the PF balances, but no interest will accrue, once the account becomes inoperative. In your case, it is assumed that you ceased employment before completing 55 years of age and no contributions have been made to the PF account thereafter. Therefore, you should be able to earn interest in the PF account till the age of 58 years or until the date of withdrawal, whichever is earlier.

Parizad Sirwalla is partner and head, global mobility services, tax, KPMG in India. Queries and views at mintmoney@livemint.com

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Leke Adeboye, a son of the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has called on broadcaster, Ifeday...

Leke Adeboye, a son of the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has called on broadcaster, Ifedayo Olarinde, better known as Daddy Freeze to apologise to his parents.

Leke made the comment on Instagram in response to Daddy Freezes apology to the founder of Living Faith Church aka Winners Chapel, David Oyedepo.

Daddy Freeze offered the apology after a video showing him insulting Oyedepo two years ago went viral recently.

The broadcaster, who is known for propagating controversial Christian messages, had also discredited some of Adeboyes sermons in the past including a recent one on marriage.

However, Adeboyes son said he expected Daddy Freeze to also apologise to his parents and threatened to also post old videos showing the broadcaster attacking his parents.

He wrote, I am still waiting for my apologies o (sic). I am still waiting for Pastor Adeboye and Pastor Folu Adeboye or you want me to go and find the videos?

Daddy Freeze, who is the Convener of the Free the Sheeple Movement and Leader of the Free Nation in Christ, had recently come under attack from several clerics including Senior Pastor, Dunamis International Gospel Centre, Dr. Paul Enenche; the founder of Salvation Ministries, Pastor David Ibiyeomie, and several others for verbally attacking Oyedepo.

The broadcaster has been known to propagate controversial Christian doctrines which include the non-payment of tithes.

He has been feuding with several popular and influential clerics and described those who demand tithe as thieves.
Hassan Rouhani, the president of Iran - Anadolu

Tory MPs have accused the EU of "appeasing" Iran and called on the Government to use Brexit as an opportunity to impose sanctions on the Islamic republic.

Likening the nuclear deal Brussels signed with Iran to "appeasement", they claim "the erratic and provocative conduct of Tehran" is justification for Britain to take a tougher stance like the US.

Former Brexit minister David Jones and Bob Blackman, the executive secretary of the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers, are leading the calls amid growing concerns over human rights abuses by Tehran's totalitarian regime.

Writing for The Telegraph, Mr Jones, a former Welsh Secretary, said: "While still a member of the EU, Britain helped to negotiate the nuclear deal with Iran, which resulted in the suspension of all United Nations sanctions on the Islamist regime.

"Despite the erratic and provocative conduct of Tehran since the deal was concluded, Britain has, with the other European powers, continued to support it.

"Sadly, this has been the case for decades where policy on Iran is concerned. Even before the nuclear deal, Europe has generally pursued conciliation and arguably outright appeasement, to the extent of even overlooking vile crimes against humanity in order to avoid undermining relations with the Islamic Republic.

"Why is the UK continuing to support EU foreign policy when we have already relinquished our membership of the club? Why are we standing by while Iran continues to demonstrate an undiminished commitment to malign activities, including aggressive regional destabilisation in the Middle East and the development and testing of ballistic missiles that could one day carry a nuclear warhead?"

Supporting US President Donald Trump's decision not to recognise the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran, he added: "The White House has been urging its closest allies to apply 'maximum pressure' to the Islamic Republic. Brexit offers Britain an opportunity to make a rational, positive change in British foreign policy and abandon timorous EU appeasement."

Story continues

Mr Blackman, the MP for Brent and Harrow, added: "I have repeatedly called for both the UK Government and the international community to apply international law and sanctions on Iran, correctly, for consistent violations that continue to oppress the Iranian people.

"In the future, I want the UK to lead the international community in applying justice where it is needed. I see leaving the EU as an opportunity for the UK to break away the EU's disastrous foreign policy on Iran, whereby gross human rights violations committed by Iran are ignored and appeasement is sought instead."

Both politicians are demanding an international inquiry into the 1988 massacre in which 30,000 political prisoners were murdered in Iran.

They claim Iranian dissidents tried to alert the international community to a continuing massacre of Iranians "only to be studiously ignored throughout the West".

Despite repeated international calls for an independent inquiry into the massacre, no one has been held accountable for the killings to this day.

The 30,000 deaths were primarily opposition activists affiliated to the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organisation (MEK).

In June 2018, there was a plot, foiled by international security services, to blow up a major opposition rally near Paris.

An Iranian diplomat is currently in custody in Belgium, awaiting trial for masterminding the attempt on the lives of MEK leader Maryam Rajavi and high-profile speakers including Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani.

On Sunday night, Ms Rajavi, the President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, based in Paris, said: "As the Iranian Resistance called for, just a few hours after signing of the JCPOA, the six UN resolutions must be reimposed and all sanctions on weapons sales to Iran must be reimposed."
The former mayor of NYC will inject funds in the key electoral college state so Biden can spend elsewhere, aide says.

Michael Bloomberg, a New York billionaire and short-lived contender to be the Democratic challenger presidential nominee, has announced plans to inject at least $100m to help Democratic candidate Joe Biden overcome president Donald Trump in the important battleground state of Florida.

The spending revelation from the former mayor of New York City comes as Trumps significant funding advantage over Biden has dried up amid reports of free-spending early on in the campaign.





Mike Bloomberg is committed to helping defeat Trump, and that is going to happen in the battleground states, said Bloomberg adviser Kevin Sheekey, who said the spending will mean Democrats and the Biden campaign can invest even more heavily in other key states like Pennsylvania, which will be critical to a Biden victory.

Florida is considered one of the most important states to win in the November 3 general election, with its 29 electoral college votes seen as near essential in any path to victory for Trump, who lost the popular vote but won the electoral college four years ago.

Races in Florida have been close in recent presidential election cycles. Trump won the state by 1.2 percentage points in 2016. Recent polls show the president and Biden effectively tied in the state with 50 days until the election.

Florida is also considered one of the most expensive battleground states for campaigning. Last week, Trump said he would be willing to contribute his money to help his campaign if needed, as he did in 2016.

Boost before early spending

Trumps re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee on Wednesday said they raised a combined $210m in August, falling far short of matching Bidens record-breaking haul of $364.5m for the month.

Trump took to Twitter on Sunday to deride the funding from Bloomberg, who spent more than $1bn on his own campaign to be the Democratic nominee, but failed to get traction before dropping out in March and quickly endorsing Biden.

I thought Mini Mike was through with Democrat politics after spending almost 2 Billion Dollars, and then giving the worst and most inept Debate Performance in the history of Presidential Politics. Pocahontas ended his political career on first question, OVER! Save NYC instead. https://t.co/WgbVvEUt2N  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 13, 2020

I thought Mini Mike was through with Democrat politics, Trump said on Twitter in reaction to the news. Save NYC instead.

Bloombergs spending is meant to help Biden before early voting starts in Florida on September 24. Most of the money will go to television and digital advertising, his adviser said.
Today we'll do a simple run through of a valuation method used to estimate the attractiveness of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) as an investment opportunity 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. It may sound complicated, but actually it is quite simple!

We would caution that there are many ways of valuing a company and, like the DCF, each technique has advantages and disadvantages in certain scenarios. For those who are keen learners of equity analysis, the Simply Wall St analysis model here may be something of interest to you.

View our latest analysis for Abbott Laboratories

The model

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) estimate

2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 Levered FCF ($, Millions) US$7.09b US$7.78b US$8.15b US$8.82b US$9.30b US$9.73b US$10.1b US$10.4b US$10.8b US$11.1b Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x6 Analyst x6 Analyst x4 Analyst x2 Est @ 5.53% Est @ 4.54% Est @ 3.84% Est @ 3.36% Est @ 3.02% Est @ 2.78% Present Value ($, Millions) Discounted @ 7.9% US$6.6k US$6.7k US$6.5k US$6.5k US$6.4k US$6.2k US$5.9k US$5.7k US$5.4k US$5.2k

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = US$61b

Story continues

The second stage is also known as Terminal Value, this is the business's cash flow after the first stage. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a country's GDP growth. In this case we have used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (2.2%) to estimate future growth. In the same way as with the 10-year 'growth' period, we discount future cash flows to today's value, using a cost of equity of 7.9%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2030  (1 + g)  (r  g) = US$11b (1 + 2.2%)  (7.9% 2.2%) = US$200b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= US$200b ( 1 + 7.9%)10= US$94b

The total value is the sum of cash flows for the next ten years plus the discounted terminal value, which results in the Total Equity Value, which in this case is US$155b. To get the intrinsic value per share, we divide this by the total number of shares outstanding. Compared to the current share price of US$105, the company appears around fair value at the time of writing. Remember though, that this is just an approximate valuation, and like any complex formula - garbage in, garbage out.

dcf

Important assumptions

We would point out that the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate and of course the actual cash flows. Part of investing is coming up with your own evaluation of a company's future performance, so try the calculation yourself and check your own assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Abbott Laboratories 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 7.9%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.938. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

Next Steps:

Although the valuation of a company is important, it 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 Abbott Laboratories, we've compiled three essential factors you should look at:

Risks: Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 2 warning signs with Abbott Laboratories , and understanding these should be part of your investment process. Future Earnings: How does ABT's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other Solid Businesses: Low debt, high returns on equity and good past performance are fundamental to a strong business. Why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals to see if there are other companies you may not have considered!

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every American 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.
He promised the closely watched average figure will be tweeted out each morning by the Department of Health and Human Services from tomorrow. For regional Victoria to skip ahead to step three, where all students return to school and restaurants and cafes reopen to seated customers, its 14-day average must remain below five and it must also record zero "mystery" cases (where the source of infection cannot be traced) over the previous 14 days. "Hopefully we can have very good news for regional Victoria tomorrow. That is subject to the numbers that come in today," Mr Andrews said. "That should be a great boost for everybody, not just in regional Victoria, but in metropolitan Melbourne."

The Premier renewed his plea for Victorians, even with the mildest symptoms, to get tested for the virus after 8937 tests were carried out on Sunday, far fewer than the preferred 20,000 tests. "We don't want any steps in this safe and steady road map to be deferred or to be compromised," he said. No new cases in country Victoria No new COVID-19 cases were reported in regional Victoria on Monday. The south-west town of Colac, where a second outbreak linked to the Bulla Dairy factory was triggered by a resident who returned from Melbourne, has 23 active cases. Greater Geelong has six active cases, while Bendigo has one. Ballarat is currently COVID-free.

"We're pleased to think we will be able to take those big steps, but safe steps, towards opening regional Victoria up," Mr Andrews said. Under changes to restrictions for regional Victoria overnight, there can now be public gatherings outdoors of up to five people from a maximum of two households. Infants aged under 12 months are not counted. People who live alone or single parents with children under 18 can have one nominated person visit their home. Childcare in regional areas will be open to all children and in term four, schools will be reopened in stages, with safety measures. Retail outlets in regional Victoria, including hairdressers, will open, with some restrictions on numbers.

Melbourne's road map out of lockdown. Credit:Scott McNaughton But Professor Sutton warned against complacency, particularly in the country. "I don't want anyone looking at the daily numbers by postcode and saying, 'There are no cases in my postcode, what is the issue here?' I am sure someone in Wuhan in January said, 'We have only got 100 cases, why is the city being locked down?' We can't have short-term memories on this," Professor Sutton said. "We have to consider Victoria as a whole and do the right thing, no matter what it looks like locally for us." Nine cases emerge in Hallam, Narre Warren

Professor Sutton urged residents of Hallam and Narre Warren to come forward for testing, after nine of Monday's 35 new cases were from the area. Loading He said the Casey council area, which includes those suburbs and has a large multicultural community, was dealing with community transmission linked to high-risk workplaces. "We haven't linked all of the households definitively. They might be linked by a workplace that hasn't been identified. They might be linked by going to a single setting that hasn't been identified," he said. "It is a community that is a priority for engagement, a priority for testing for us. They do the right thing, but they have some vulnerabilities, in terms of where they are needing to work and how they are needing to work."

Professor Sutton said he had made a personal offer to speak to residents in the area himself. "Having been to Afghanistan a couple of times over the years, I want to be able to reflect on my cultural experiences and the fact I know that there are universal motivations that every family has to do the right thing to protect their own families and the wider community," he said. "That is absolutely the case here and I know they're motivated to get on top of this as much as anyone." Victoria by the numbers Of the state's 1075 active cases (100 fewer than on Sunday), 176 are among healthcare workers, 513 are linked to aged care outbreaks and 10 are connected to disability facilities.

There are 122 Victorians in hospital fighting the virus, including 12 in intensive care and seven on ventilators. Health officials have identified six new mystery cases of the virus, with no known source of infection. A man in his 70s, a woman and man in their 80s and three men and one woman in their 90s died over the past day. Their deaths were all connected to aged care outbreaks. The state's death toll increased to 729, after one death was removed from the tally due to duplication. Forty-one cases were recorded on Sunday and 37 on Saturday, while 13 coronavirus-related deaths were reported over the weekend.

Greatest COVID risk is at a 'mate's place' Mr Andrews announced a $100 million city recovery fund on Monday designed to help bars and restaurants take their operations to the streets this summer. He said people were at less risk of contracting COVID-19 in restaurants than socialising with friends and family at home. "We are often at our greatest risk when we're at a mate's place having dinner because there is no time limit, there is no waiter making sure we keep our distance," he said. "There is not necessarily all the kinds of infection control, cleaning tables, cleaning common areas, all of those things."
All through the month of August, the Congress in Uttar Pradesh seemed a bit slow in its pace of protests on the streets. It was unlike what was witnessed in the months before that, with the partys confrontation with the Yogi Adityanath government on the issue of buses for migrant labourers being the high point.

The party further seemed to be giving space to other opposition parties, with reports of internal bickering among leaders, old guard vs young turks debate and speculations about Priyanka Gandhis delay in coming to the state even as Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) leader and MP Sanjay Singh dug heels in Lucknow, going for an all-out attack against the BJP government.

However, this apparent slowdown was part of a larger strategy or may be a necessity. Though not visible on the surface, the activities at the partys state headquarters in Lucknow were scaled up to a frenetic pace and personally anchored there was Sandeep Singh, the personal secretary to party general secretary and Uttar Pradesh in-charge Priyanka Gandhi.

Sources say Singh was in Lucknow since August 16 on a special mission assigned by his leader. The mission was to put the partys internal house in order, curb dissent, forge solidarity between the new and old leadership and all along, do a solid caste homework to lay a strong pitch for the assembly elections that are a year-and-a-half away.

THE BIG BRAHMIN PUSH

The month-long exercise to put the house in order is now on the fast track, with the Congress trying to find a solid caste base in the state. The exercise, which was started last year by elevating Ajay Kumar Lallu  a lesser-known leader from one of the most backward castes  as partys state president, seems to be heading towards a culmination with a strong Brahmin push being made in the newly constituted Congress working committee (CWC) and allocation of other central responsibilities.

The Brahmin faces who have either been elevated or accommodated also include former Union minister Jitin Prasada. While Prasada continues to be in the CWC as a permanent invitee, the party high command had also placed a mega responsibility of the poll-bound state of West Bengal on his shoulders. The ex-Union minister has been made in-charge of West Bengal and Andaman and Nicobar.

Clearly, despite being a signatory to the dissent letter written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the young Brahmin leader has not been ignored. Pramod Tiwari, another big name of UP Congress, and Rajiv Shukla are the other two Brahmin leaders to find place as permanent invitees to the CWC.

Another top Brahmin leader from eastern Uttar Pradesh entrusted with a major responsibility is former MP Rajesh Mishra. He is now part of the five-member central election authority of the All India Congress committee (AICC).

MINORITES AND THE OTHER CASTE HOMEWORK

Apart from the big Brahmin push, Rajya Sabha MP and partys strong Dalit face in UP, PL Puniya, too is a permanent invitee to CWC and will also continue to be the in-charge for Chhattisgarh. The other 3 leaders from UP, who have found place in the partys top decision-making body are RPN Singh, Vivek Bansal and Salman Khurshid.

While RPN Singh, who hails from the royal family of Kushinagar town in eastern Uttar Pradesh, is from the backward caste; Bansal comes from the Vaishya community. Apart from a place in the CWC, RPN Singh has also been given the responsibility for the state of Jharkhand, while Bansal has been appointed in-charge for Haryana.

Salman Khurshid, The lone Muslim face from UP to be in the highest decision-making body of the party, had earlier also been entrusted with the responsibility of heading the manifesto committee in Uttar Pradesh. As in-charge of this committee, Khurshid will be working closely with Priyanka Gandhi in drafting the partys election manifesto ahead of the 2022 assembly polls.

WHY CASTE ARITHMTIC IS NECESSARY

Even before the recent re-structuring of the partys central leadership keeping in mind the caste fault lines was done, an attempt at caste mathematics was already underway at the state level. The recently expanded state Congress committee has seen a serious consideration of the same. While one of the two organisation secretaries is Sanjeev Sharma, a Brahmin, the other is Anil Yadav, an OBC.

There were also eight other Brahmin leaders among the 30 more appointments made to the PCC. Five each are from the Muslim and the Dalit communities. The expanded state committee is expected to give more strength to the party already being headed by Ajay Kumar Lallu, a two-term MLA from a humble background and a backward caste.

The question is why is this caste homework so necessary for the Grand Old Party and what does it aim to achieve through the new re-structuring? Insiders say the party is working on a two-pronged strategy. While on one hand, Priyanka Gandhi herself is gearing up to launch a campaign in the state and lead it from the front, the other agenda is to have a strong and caste-calculated organisation to convert her charisma into votes and support.

A senior leader in the party said, Struggle on streets and Brand Priyanka alone cant ensure a big electoral victory. The party needs a strong caste base. For us, the priority at hand is to bring back the Brahmins to our fold.

Historically, since Indias Independence to the mid-eighties, Brahmins and Dalits had been the partys core vote base. Brahmins, to a larger extent, then moved on to the BJP under the rising influence of Hindutva politics, while Dalits gradually shifted towards caste-based identity politics of the BSP. The Muslims, henceforth, kept experimenting with either the Backward Caste dominated Samajwadi Party or else the BSP in order to fight the BJP.

Now, as Priyanka Gandhi has taken a serious plunge in state politics, it becomes imperative for her and her party to regain the lost ground. The idea is that if the party can successfully win back the Brahmins and a section of Dalits, it can then hope to catch on to the imagination of the minorities as well.

Amidst the rising Brahmin discontent against the Yogi Adityanath government and Priyanka Gandhis strong outreach among the Muslims in the aftermath of the anti-CAA stir, the party hopes for a turn-around. The hope is that Priyanka Gandhis strong intervention in the state on issues ranging from law and order to cases of atrocities on Dalits, along with a strong organisation, will catch peoples imagination in the days to come.
Yi-Wen Jiang, a violinist who was, until recently, billed as a member of the Shanghai Quartet, an internationally known chamber group with roots in China, says he didnt give the pig emoji a second thought.

Responding to a post on social media about Chinese-American relations a few months ago, he typed in the image of the smiley pig face  the cute one, he said  and went about his day. But his posting soon caused an outcry and he was called a bigot for what his critics said was his effort to deride the Chinese people as pigs.

Within days, Mr. Jiang had lost his job and, he said, his reputation.

Now Mr. Jiang, who has been a U.S. citizen for over two decades, has brought a lawsuit in New Jersey Superior Court, contending his offhand remark on social media was purposely distorted by those who object to his longstanding criticism of the Chinese government.

He is suing not only his former partners in the quartet, who his suit says unfairly dumped him once he became a subject of scorn, but also a college in New Jersey, where he lives and where he lost his artist-in-residence post.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 14:31:28|Editor: huaxia

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LOS ANGELES, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Two Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies were shot on Saturday night in an apparent ambush and are in critical condition, authorities said.

"One male deputy and one female deputy were ambushed as they sat in their patrol vehicle. Both sustained multiple gunshot wounds and are in critical condition," tweeted the Sheriff's Department.

"They are both currently undergoing surgery. The suspect is still at large," it said.

Both deputies were shot in Compton, a city situated south of downtown Los Angeles, and transported to a local hospital, according to the department.

"They are both still fighting for their lives, so please keep them in your thoughts and prayers," said the department.

One of the deputies is a 31-year-old mother of a six-year-old boy and the other is a 24-year-old man, said officials in a news briefing at night.

The suspect was described as a dark-skinned male, according to officials.

A video clip of the shooting posted online by the Sheriff's Department showed the suspect in dark clothing moving towards a sheriff's vehicle parked by the roadside and opening fire without warning or provocation. The shooter then ran away from the scene.

Law enforcement officials were searching for the suspect after the attack. Local television live footage showed a large police presence is currently on the scene.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation Los Angeles said in a tweet that it has offered resources and stands ready to assist in response to reports of the attack. Enditem
Farooq Sahab suggested me to speak with Pakistan but I will speak to the youth: Amit Shah in Srinagar

If normalcy to be brought in Kashmir, Article 370 has to be reinstated: Farooq Abdullah

Farooq Abdullah to attend parliament session for 1st time after Article 370 abrogation

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Sep 13: Lok Sabha MP and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah has arrived here to attend the Monsoon Session of Parliament beginning Monday, his first visit to the national capital after the abrogation of provisions of Article 370.

The National Conference president, who arrived here Sunday, is likely to be in focus since he was under detention during the last two sessions.

On August 5 last year, a bill for re-organisation of Jammu and Kashmir was tabled in Parliament and the 82-year-old was taken into preventive custody.

BJP confident of blunting Opposition attack in Parliament

The veteran politician from the Kashmir valley is keen to raise the Jammu and Kashmir issue during this session, party leaders said.

The 18-day Monsoon Session, which begins Monday, will last till October 1. The last session was short-terminated on March 25, following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Story first published: Sunday, September 13, 2020, 20:42 [IST]
By Express News Service

BERHAMPUR/BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday hailed the cooperation of Ganjam residents in containing the spread of Covid-19 and appreciated the service of doctors and paramedics as well as the hard work of the district administration in achieving this difficult feat.

Inaugurating a rail over bridge (ROB) at Berhampur and laying the foundation stone for cooperative ginning mill at Digapahandi through video-conferencing, Naveen said Ganjam is slowly returning to normalcy but the danger is not yet over. He appealed to people to remain alert and follow Covid guidelines religiously till the coronavirus war is over.

The Chief Minister also appreciated the contribution of Covid Warriors and panchayat representatives in managing the Ganjam situation. Stating that Berhampur deserves a special focus of the Government as an important commercial, health and higher education hub of Southern Odisha, he said a lot of initiatives are being chalked out to transform Berhampur into a modern city.

The new ROB, constructed at a cost of Rs 27 crore, will provide hassle-free communication to people. The Chief Minister further said the cooperative ginning mill at Digapahandi will provide jobs to 100 skilled and unskilled workers besides helping cotton growers of the nearby six blocks.

The ROB from Lanjipali to Engineering School in Berhampur was started in 2015 and completed as per schedule. It will benefit more than 40,000 people in the city.

The ginning mill is first of its kind in the cooperative sector and will be set up in PPP mode with total investment of Rs 2.1 crore. The unit will have a capacity to produce 50 quintal lint cotton per day. The cotton producing areas of Digapahandi, Sanekhmundi, Dharakote, Sheragada, Patrapur, Jagannathprasad and Bhanjanagar blocks of Ganjam district will be benefitted by it.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bikram Keshari Arukha and Minister for Steel and Mines Prafulla Mallick hailed the steps taken up by the Chief Minister to start economic activity even during the pandemic. Berhampur MP Chandrasekhar Sahu, Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy and senior officials were present.

BJP workers staging protest near the project site at Berhampur. (Photo | EPS)

On the other hand, over 30 BJP workers staged dharna at the project site in Berhampur alleging that the approach road for the ROB is incomplete.

They also claimed that the size of the road on Lanjipali side is around 62.20 metre against the actual plan of 73.80 metre. They said since the land which was to be acquired for the project belonged to influential persons, the approach road was narrowed down by 11 metres.

The BJP workers further alleged that due to the narrow approach roads, the existing ROB at Haladiapadar often witnessed accidents. The Lanjipali ROB too would face similar situation, they added.
Hitting out at Shiv Sena, Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis, on Sunday, said that the ruling party should concentrate on the rising COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra, rather than fighting with the Opposition. Repeating his advice, Fadnavis said that Sena should see the 'Gunda Raj' they are following with the Kangana matter and the assault on an ex-Navy officer while addressing a press conference in Bihar's Gaya. The ex-Maharashtra CM is currently in Bihar rallying for the BJP as the state-in-charge.

Coronavirus LIVE Updates: Post-COVID protocol released; India's tally soars to 47,54,357

Fadnavis: 'Fight Corona, not us'

"Maharashtra govt should see the Kangana matter and should see way the people of his party attack on the Naval Officer. The kind of 'Gundaraj' who try to run is totally wrong. Maharashtra govt should first fight with Corona and not with Opposition or Kangana," said Fadnavis.

Maharashtra Government must fight with Corona first ! pic.twitter.com/8cgEHBRQEc  Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) September 13, 2020

Mumbai's active COVID cases cross 30,000-mark with 2085 new cases; city tally at 1.69 lakh

CM Uddhav: 'Ready for political storm'

Addressing his state after almost three months, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday, while he is aware of the criticism against his COVID-19 handling, his 'silence should not be taken for weakness'. Alleging that he is well aware of those trying to 'defame Maharashtra', he said he is ready for any sort of political storm that comes his way. In a jibe of sorts, CM Uddhav also said that former CM and current leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis is in Bihar, but had been consulted regarding the Maratha reservation fight.

Echoing Thackeray, Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut said, "We have decided not to say anything. We are going to listen and note it. History cannot be forgotten. We are saying which party is saying what on Maharashtra because power has been lost by them. We will not raise such issues, we will raise questions of national importance - China, economic slowdown."

CM Uddhav claims 'plot to defame Maharashtra; My silence isn't weakness'; won't elaborate

Sena Vs BJP

The allies-turned-foes Shiv Sena and BJP fell out disputing over CM posts and cabinet sharing in the Maharashtra government, after winning the state polls in November. Since the Sena-NCP-Congress government came into power, BJP has criticised Thackeray's policies - COVID handling, defence of Maratha reservation at SC, scrapping of several Fadnavis govt projects, gram panchayat polls deferment to name a few. Sena - which has been in an ideological conundrum - has also butted heads with the Congress over Ram Mandir, NRC, CAA, Muslim reservation, Indo-China faceoff.

'Shiv Sena will say nothing, but note everything', says Raut as Kangana meets Maha Guv

The recent spat between the saffron parties is due to the attack on Navy veteran Madan Sharma by Shiv Sainiks. While Sena has justified the attack claiming that no one had the right to 'defame' the ruling CM, BJP has lamented the 'death of democracy'. BJP has also come out in support of actress Kangana Ranaut as she tangles with Sena-led BMC in a legal battle over the alleged 'unauthorised constructions' in her Pali Hill office - which has been partially demolished by the BMC, prior to the Bombay High Court stay. The BJP has lauded the Centre's Y+ security provided to her after Sena threatened her when she made controversial remarks about Mumbai by comparing it to 'PoK' and 'Taliban'.
President Donald Trump speaks at a rally at Minden-Tahoe Airport in Minden, Nev., on Sept. 12, 2020. (Andrew Harnik/AP Photo)

Trump Says Media Published Suppression Polls During 2016 Election

President Donald Trump said that in his view, election polls that were published by the media ahead of the 2016 election were suppression polls.

You know, in my opinion, the polls, theyre suppression polls, Trump said during a Great American Comeback event on Sept. 12 in Minden, Nevada.

Theyre meant to make people discouraged. Even me, Im supposed to be discouraged.

Fortunately, four years ago, we werent discouraged, because if we were to believe the polls, nobody would have voted. The concept is, really make people feel so that on Election [Day], they go  Lets go out to dinner, then well come home. Lets not bother voting.

But my people dont get suppressed. My people go out and vote. Theres no suppression. Phony polls.

According to a poll published by the New York Times on Sept. 12, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is currently ahead in approval ratings in the state by 4 percentage points. Nevada is being closely watched in 2020, as Trump only narrowly lost the Silver State to Hilary Clinton in 2016.

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump board Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Sept. 11, 2020. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden waves after delivering remarks in Warren, Mich., on Sept. 9, 2020. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The president spoke for more than an hour to thousands of supporters gathered at Minden airport, contrasting his Keep America Great policies to that of his opponent, Biden.

Joe Biden spent the last 47 years selling out America, offshoring your jobs, throwing open your borders, depleting our military, and sacrificing your childrens future in China, Trump said.

Ive spent the last four years bringing our jobs back to America, securing our borders, rebuilding our military, and standing up to China like never before.

Nobody has ever stood up to China like we have stood up to China, and you havent seen the last of it.

Trump gave the example of his support to American farmers as an example of his strong actions to rebalance trade with China.

Nobodys done to China what I did. Look, tens of billions of dollars of tariffs we took in. I gave $28 billion to farmers; theyre doing very well, he said.

The president also said that the 2020 election is a more important election than four years ago.

Ill tell you, he said, because at no time before has there been a clearer choice between two parties or two visions, two philosophies, two agendas for the future.

If Biden wins, China wins. If Biden wins, the mob wins.

Trump is scheduled on Sunday to visit Treasure Island Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas at 10 a.m. for a roundtable with Latinos for Trump, and continue on to Henderson for an Great American Comeback speech around 7 p.m. at Xtreme Manufacturing.

The Henderson event will have limited access due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Toronto Public Health is asking anyone who visited Club Paradise between Aug. 29 and Sept. 10 to monitor for symptoms of COVID-19 after seven people at the club tested positive for the virus.

Six employees and one patron of the west-end strip club tested positive for COVID-19 since Sept. 4. The club has closed voluntarily for two weeks.

Dr. Vinita Dubey, Associate Medical Officer of Health, told the Star the employees were working when they were infectious.

Using contract tracing logs at the club, public health reached out to people who had close contact with the confirmed cases and instructed them to get tested and self-isolate for 14 days, said Dubey.

However, they have not been able to contact approximately 300 people who attended the establishment during these dates, Dubey said.

While the risks to patrons is considered low, public health recommends anyone who visited during the time frame to monitor for symptoms over the next two weeks.

Dubey reiterated the importance of providing accurate contact information such as ones name, number and email to businesses.

This information will help public health to quickly follow up with COVID-19 cases and their close contacts and help reduce potential COVID-19 transmission.

Public health inspectors found the establishment to be in compliance with all reopening protocols.

A recorded voicemail at the club states it will reopen Sept. 26 following a 14-day closure.

In August health officials reached out to patrons of another strip club, the Brass Rail on Yonge Street, after an employee tested positive for the virus.

Dr. Kevin Smith, president and CEO of the University Health Network, wrote on Twitter yesterday that he was concerned about the increase in COVID-19 cases in the city.

Weve gone from zero (0) covid inpts for some weeks to seven (7) inpts - the majority in ICU. Its time to act! he wrote.

We know how to turn the tide on increasing cases of Covid. Mask. Physically distance. Hand wash. Limit gatherings. Test. Trace. Isolate. Get serious.
For Subscribers Farmers concerned about chemical costs, supply issues heading into 2022

Higher fertilizer and chemical costs are on the minds of farm groups as they look toward spring planting.
Australia's Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton during a press conference at the Department of Justice in Washington, on March 5, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Australian Home Affairs Minister Puts Foreign Journalists on Notice

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has warned foreign journalists operating in Australia will be under scrutiny of federal agencies if they are providing a slanted view to a particular community.

If people are here as journalists and theyre reporting fairly on the news, then thats fine, Dutton told the ABC televisions Insiders program.

His comments came after a week when two Australian journalists had to be evacuated from China having taken shelter in Australian diplomatic compounds after being questioned by Chinese police.

Dutton declined to confirm that four Chinese journalists were contacted by Australias intelligence agency in June, only to say there was ASIO activity.

Where ASIO has sufficient grounds for the execution of a search warrant, or for activities otherwise, then theyll undertake that activity, he said.

If people are masquerading as journalists or business leaders or whoever they might be, and theres evidence that they are acting in a contrary nature to Australian law, then ASIO and the Australian Federal Police and other agencies will act.

He said there was no evidence yet that the actions by the Australian agencies was what lead to Chinese police questioning Australian journalists in China.

Dutton declined to comment on a third Australian journalist, Cheng Lei, who is being held by Chinese authorities.

We want to work very closely with the Chinese in relation to that matter, and well continue to do that, he said.

News Corp newspapers reported the AFP raided a Canberra apartment block housing Chinese embassy staff in May.

But Dutton described it as day-to-day community policing.

It was related to either a drug matter or to another domestic matter, so as I understand it, he said.

Colin Brinsden in Canberra
Only 10 to 15 per cent of people with COVID-19 require hospitalisation  a figure that has remained largely unchanged throughout the pandemic. "What brings people to hospital is shortness of breath, that's the main thing people get concerned about, and feeling short of breath with a cough that is getting progressively worse," Professor Stuart said. "Often they will come into hospital with a fever." Professor Stuart has noted striking differences between age groups struck down with the virus. While children were more likely to present with a fever and milder symptoms such as loss of appetite, elderly patients often came to hospital confused or after falling and injuring themselves.

Loading "The elderly can present with things that are not classically coronavirus," she said. "Things like increased falls, increased confusion and delirium  they're the things we need to be careful of and watching out for in the elderly. "It's a very tricky virus and it presents in so many different ways, so we have always got to be thinking, 'Could this be COVID?' no matter what presentations we are seeing to the hospital." Delirium is an acute condition characterised by an abrupt change in the brain that causes confusion and reduced awareness. Professor Stuart said Monash Health had treated an increasing number of elderly patients in recent months, whereas the first surge of infections largely involved returned travellers.

"We've had so much more transmission this time around that we are seeing more cases and then ... we have a whole range of people having no symptoms right through to people needing intensive care," Professor Stuart said. She said the good news was the virus did not appear to be making people sicker. "From what I have seen there is no worsening sort of strain from presentations  it's just the pure numbers of people being infected increasing," she said. A breakdown of Victorians being tested, which was obtained by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, shows that of the more than 2.4 million people tested for the virus across the state, people aged in their 20s and 30s made up almost 40 per cent.

Those in the 30 to 39 bracket made up the highest proportion of people tested, at 19.8 per cent of all tests, followed by Victorians aged 20 to 29 (17.7 per cent), 40 to 49 (14.8 per cent), 50 to 59 (12.8 per cent) and 60 to 69 (9.5 per cent). Children aged nine and under made up of almost 7 per cent, followed by those aged 10 to 19 (6.5 per cent). People aged 70 to 79 made up 6 per cent of all those tested. Victorians aged 80 to 89 made up just 4 per cent, followed by people aged over 90 at less than 2 per cent of people tested. A health data snapshot released by NSW last week showed stark differences in virus symptoms across age groups, with young children and the elderly more likely than other cohorts to have diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting. Emergency doctors nationwide have previously reported increasingly seeing certain types of skin rash or sore and discoloured fingers or toes that appear to be a manifestation of coronavirus. Temporary loss of taste and smell is also a common symptom.
A grand war is being fought between two opposing ideologies to control the enormous soft power which Bollywood wields.

If its parts were to be read in isolation, it could have been just a story about an honest prince with a gambling problem. Or a story about a king in lust denying his son his rightful claim to the throne. Or of another kings blind love for his son leading to a devastating war.

But the Mahabharat is a sum of all these stories. These are just important sub-plots of the worlds most thrilling, expansive epic.

Sushant Singh Rajputs death and the public spectacle that has ensued is a riveting story. Many of us are annoyed by the daily, primetime inquisition of his girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty by screaming anchors, singling her out as the sole villain, or she being thrown into jail on charges seemingly unrelated to Sushants death.

Others are angry at what they feel are an elaborate PR exercise by certain channels and a part of Bollywood to whitewash her role, as also the Maharashtra administrations apparent desperation to save her from scrutiny.

But Rheas story  or even the great Sushant saga for that matter  is a part of a much larger Mahabharat unspooling slowly.

Only if you look down at the events from a helicopter, will you be able to see the real Kurukshetra. A grand war is being fought between two opposing ideologies to control the enormous soft power which Bollywood wields.

It started in 2014 right after the arrival of Narendra Modi in Delhi as the Prime Minister. An influential section of the film industry has been at the forefront of narrative-building and campaigns against what it called intolerant India, Lynchistan and suchlike.

Simultaneously, a much smaller but vocal part of Bollywood started openly praising Modi and wearing their Hinduness with pride. First it was Anupam Kher, but gradually that voice has got stronger with Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn and others joining, and now approaching crescendo with Kangana Ranaut.

After Modis 2019 sweep and subsequent passing of the Citizenship Amendment Act, the fight reached the streets. Actors and directors physically joined protests at Azad Maidan and Shaheen Bagh. Indias nationalists accuse Bollywood of doing the bidding for shadowy, anti-India forces who are waging a proxy war against Modi governments idea of a muscular India.

Right after this came Sushants death. It was a tipping point, inexplicably uncorking the bottled-up anger of an entire nation at Bollywood. It gave voice to what ordinary Indians seem to be silently bristling over all this while: that Bollywood is a lawless zone where nepotism and the underworld rules; where star brats can get away with anything including drugs, gun-running, terrible behaviour and even murder; and where Indias traditional values and love for the nation find no respect.

There are other crucial factors at play. Millions of households have been glued to the TV, even while being exasperated at loud anchors, to see that justice is done to a small-town boy who dared to dream big and achieved much of that. They see in Rhea a gold-digger and druggie who corrupted their son, slow-poisoned him, worked constantly against his family and finally took him away from them for good.

A smaller, urban, English-speaking set sees in Rhea a young woman from its own milieu being hounded without solid proof, and being hanged in public perception for just possessing some pot and chemicals.

But what they both miss is that the real war is for the control of Bollywood. The Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government is desperate to stop the investigation. The reasons are best known to those who head it. It has used its police force and BMC to bully, threaten, break into premises of rival voices, and dig dirt on them.

The Centre has sent at least three to four major investigative agencies to sniff around. The Sushant probe is its key to Bollywoods room of dark secrets. The CBI is doing its work quietest, having learnt a lesson from the Aarushi case on what media glare can do to an investigation. The Narcotics Control Bureau is using this opportunity to beef up its dossier on dozens of celebrities. And the Enforcement Directorate is following the dirty money. Obviously unannounced, the Intelligence Bureau has swooped in as well.

Imagine the leverage the Modi government will have on the entire ecosystem as this probe progresses.

By the time all this ends, those like Rhea could just be collateral damage, left with a punishment possibly much harsher than she deserves. But that is the tragedy of wars. Regardless of which side wins, it is often the individual who loses, sacrificed to historys turning tides.
Chinese businessman Kai Dai, who last year registered a new airline in Slovenia, recently became the part-owner of the Adria Airways Pilot Academy, fuelling speculation his company, Kylin Prime Capital, may become an important player in the countrys aviation sector. The Chinese-backed company established European Prime Airways last year, with Slovenias business registry indicating its main activities as being passenger and air transport. A former Adria Airways pilot, Blaz Berdnik, holds a 10% share in the airline. In a statement, Kylin Prime Capital told the Finance daily this week, We are at the very beginning and we cannot comment on plans for European Prime Airways. We can neither confirm nor deny the companys involvement in the EU air transport industry.





Last month, the Adria Airways Flight School was sold for 7.500 euros as part of the former flag carriers bankruptcy procedure. The purchase was made by Slovenias former Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Peter Jambrek who joined forces with Kai Dai. Their Institute for Constitutional Systems and Human Rights formally acquired the school. Mr Jambrek said his plan was for the flight school to become the biggest in the world. "We are targeting a large pool of countries - in China for instance there is a tremendous shortage of pilots, and the same is true for India and Indonesia", Mr Jambrek said. The plan is for the school to start operations next year, once all bureaucratic matters are settled. The flight schools biggest asset is a still valid but inoperative ATO (Approved Training Organisations) license, enabling the buyer to continue training future pilots. The developments come in the lead up to the first anniversary of Adria Airways bankruptcy.





Chinese investments in Slovenias aviation sector have so far been unsuccessful. The Chinese-backed SHS Aviation won a fifteen-year concession for Maribor Airport in 2017. It planned to turn the airport into a European hub for the arrival of Chinese tourists. In order to aid its vision, the company established a new carrier - VLM Slovenia - which commenced operations from Maribor to several European destinations. However, after a number of difficulties, the carrier went bankrupt, with the Chinese investor later pulling out of Maribor Airport as well, accusing the state of not holding up to its part of the agreement to adopt a new airport spatial plan in order to allow for its development. To this day, a new spatial plan has not been adopted.
CAIRO  Egyptian authorities are moving ahead with a big crackdown on homes and other buildings constructed illegally on farmland nationwide.

Municipal authorities have demolished thousands of structures built on agricultural land without permits and in violation of Egypt's agriculture laws.

These structures were constructed over the years because of corruption in some administrative offices, including in municipalities that should have been acting against construction violations. There are growing calls to bring to court municipal officials who failed in preventing such construction over the years.

Underlying the ongoing campaign is Egypt's fear about the loss of almost 9 million acres of farmland to urban expansion.

Egypt has been fighting tooth and nail to protect this farmland  employing vast resources to do so  and prevent it from turning into jungles of concrete. Some farmland areas have been turned into unorganized housing blocs.

Cabinet spokesman Nader Saad said Aug. 31 that the country has lost almost 12% of its farmland to construction, describing the loss of farmland to urban expansion as a national catastrophe.

This further sounded the alarm over Egypt's future ability to produce enough to feed its population. This is the land that produces our food, Saad told the private TV network Al-Hayat.

Egypt has been locked in a struggle between its need for food and its need for housing for decades.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization says Egypt only produces 60% of its food and spends $2.5 billion annually to import the remaining 40%.

The gap between food production and consumption is expected to widen if Egypt's burgeoning population of 102 million continues to increase as it has and food production does not keep pace.

Egypt has lost enough farmland to the construction of homes, said Sayed Khalifa, the head of the Farmers Union, the independent guild of the nation's farmers. We will keep importing food so long as we allow our farmland to be lost and fail to produce enough food.

Farmland loss to urban growth is only one of many challenges facing food production in Egypt. These challenges include climate change-induced rising temperatures and rising sea levels.

A continual rise in the sea level brings the risk of submersion and greater salinity of the Nile Delta, which produces a sizable portion of Egypt's food.

Ethiopia's Nile dam is also expected to significantly affect Egypt's ability to produce food.

Egypt is trying to adapt to climate change and is involved in what seems to be unending negotiation over the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam in Cairo's bid to reduce harm from the project.

But Egypt's main effort to stop the loss of its farmland is to stop its people's unrelenting construction of homes on this farmland.

Egyptian authorities are acting firmly in this regard. They are demolishing thousands of homes constructed without permits on farmland in various provinces.

The authorities are also threatening to punish, including by jailing and fining, those involved in construction violations on agricultural land.

Egypt has a raft of laws that strive to protect farmland from loss to the construction of homes.

Law No. 7 of 2018 punishes those who construct buildings illegally on farmland by jailing up to five years and a fine up to 5 million Egyptian pounds (roughly $312,500).

It further gives the authorities the right to remove violations, even after the jailing and fining of the people committing them.

The same law punishes those who destroy farmland and commit acts that reduce its fertility, including by constructing on it.

Nevertheless, such a law and others have done little to prevent the construction of homes on farmland, which has already assumed enormous proportions.

On July 9, a spokesman for the Ministry of Local Development, Khaled Qassem, said authorities had demolished homes constructed on more than 1 million square meters of farmland (247 acres).

Magdi Malak, a member of the parliaments Committee on Agriculture, said Aug. 31 that 1.9 million construction violations were committed on farmland between 2011 and 2019.

These figures were received with anger inside government quarters.

On Aug. 29, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi threatened to use the army to erase whole villages constructed on farmland.

He faulted the nation's media for failing to explain the dangers inherent in the construction of homes on agricultural land.

Building homes on farmland threatens our country's food security, Mohamed al-Qersh, an assistant to the minister of agriculture, told Al-Monitor. The government works hard to protect this security.

Egypt's population has been growing at 1.94% annually, adding 2 million people to the population every year. The population would rise to more than 160 million in 2050 if growth remains constant.

This growth threatens the agriculture sector, which the Food and Agriculture Organization says provides livelihoods for 55% of the population and directly employs about 30% of the labor force. The sector accounts for about 20% of total exports and foreign exchange earnings. The same sector contributes almost 11.3% of Egypt's gross domestic product.

Most of Egypt is arid desert, which is why most agricultural and housing activities are concentrated along the Nile Valley and Nile Delta.

Egypt's successive administrations tried to reduce the pressure of construction on farmland in the Nile Valley and Nile Delta by invading the desert.

They did this by constructing new urban communities in the desert and also reclaiming thousands of acres of desert land and converting them for agricultural use.

However, most reclamation projects were not very successful, specialists said.

Most of the reclamation projects were done without proper feasibility studies, Gamal Seyam, a professor of agricultural economics at Cairo University, told Al-Monitor.

To increase food production and compensate for farmland loss, Sisi's administration is reclaiming around 1.5 million acres of land in the desert.

The same administration has been constructing thousands of apartments to meet demand for housing and put the lid on the unorganized construction of homes, especially on farmland.

However, there are fears of a political or security backlash from the ongoing demolition of homes constructed on farmland, especially with anger running high already because of commodity price hikes.

Some people are warning against the ongoing demolition campaign, advising the president to find a solution other than the demolition of homes. Other people came out to complain that the house demolitions have destroyed their life's savings.

But Malak said demolition is the only action the authorities can take to protect the farmland and rescue food production.

If we do not act now against the loss of farmland to this suburban expansion, we will end up losing all our farmland, the legislator said. The president and the government are constitutionally responsible for the protection of the farmland and also ensuring the production of enough food for the people.
Several opposition MPs have given notices in Parliament seeking a discussion on the India-China standoff at the LAC, sources said on Saturday.

They said the opposition leaders are expected to raise this issue during the meeting of floor leaders of both houses of Parliament called by presiding officers.

The parliament is scheduled to start from Monday and will conclude on October 1.

The business advisory committee meeting of both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha is scheduled to be held on Sunday.

The Indian Army and the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) have been locked in a tense standoff in multiple areas along the LAC in eastern Ladakh since early May.

Shots were fired across the LAC on Monday for the first time in 45 years with the two sides accusing each other of firing in the air.
The Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Council of Small Business of Australia, the Australian Industry Group and other business lobbies cautiously welcomed the package. Loading But there were also warnings that the money did little to help businesses with debt, which is looming as the greatest threat to the survival of many firms, and that tax deferrals may even make matters worse. David Gandolfo, owner of business-to-business lending firm Quantum Business Finance, said cash grants were welcome but payroll tax deferrals, rather than waivers or reductions, had the potential to create "zombie" businesses. "It's great as a headline, but when you just defer the problem you create a problem down the track," he said.

Mr Gandolfo, also the deputy chair of the Council of Small Business and president of the Commercial and Asset Finance Brokers Association of Australia, said businesses might need to pay a far greater amount of payroll tax in future years, which would be seen as a liability by banks and hamper their ability to receive credit. "In one or two years, no one will be in a position to pay double," he said. "The intention is good . [but] waivers or reductions would be much better, or a payment plan where you know what you will pay next year. It creates a problem where you may create zombie businesses which are just operating but may eventually hit the wall. Youre delaying the inevitable.

The Australian Industry Group's Tim Piper also warned Victorias policy of deferring payroll tax, instead of waiving it, stored up a debt problem for the future. We are extremely disappointed that the government has only deferred payroll tax," Mr Piper said. Loading "It means this debt will continue to hang over businesses which may not have recovered enough by the time they need to repay the government." However, Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Paul Guerra said the $3 billion package would spark hope for businesses that would not be able to open for some time.

"Todays announcement is a signal of confidence in business and will provide hope for many businesses that may have been wondering how they will get through the coming weeks of continued restrictions," he said. Business Council of Australia president Tim Reed said the package would do much to support smaller companies. Premier Daniel Andrews sent a clear message to Canberra during Sunday's announcement that he was looking for more economic support from the Commonwealth. We're very grateful for JobKeeper, very grateful for JobSeeker and as the Prime Minister indicated just a few weeks ago, We're all Victorians. That's what the Prime Minister said and Im so so grateful for that," Mr Andrews said. Its up to them to announce what they're going to do with their budget, what theyre going to do with their policy.

But if hardship drives your policy, then obviously there's more hardship here than in other parts of the country and hopefully that will be reflected. Mr Morrison said in a statement later in the day that he commended Victoria's announcement, but he pointed to the already massive sums that had flowed to Victoria from the Commonwealth. Mr Andrews sent out a message to Prime Minister Scott Morrison that Victoria would need further support. Credit:Getty Images/Alex Ellinghausen "Over the three months alone till the end of the year, 1.36 million Australians living in Victoria will receive $10.9 billion in JobKeeper support, accounting for more than 60 per cent of all JobKeeper payments across the country," the Prime Minister said. "Victoria is where the need is greatest at the moment because of the scale of the outbreak that has occurred and that is why the majority of payments will be made in Victoria.
A victory for Biden in Florida would significantly complicate Trumps path to victory.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is committing at least $100 million to help Joe Bidens presidential campaign in the crucial battleground state of Florida.

Bloombergs late-stage infusion of cash reflects Democrats concerns about the tight race in a state that is a priority for President Donald Trump. A victory for Biden in Florida, the largest of the perennial battleground states, would significantly complicate Trumps path to reaching the 270 Electoral College votes needed to secure a second term.

Democratic presidential candidates former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg (L) and former Vice President Joe Biden speak during a break during the Democratic presidential primary debate at Paris Las Vegas on February 19, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Republicans, however, feel confident in their chances in the state, pointing to GOP wins in 2018 and stronger-than-expected turnout in 2016 as evidence the state is trending in their direction. Theyve invested millions in Florida focused on Latino outreach and boosting their field operation, and the states size and diversity makes campaigns there expensive.

Read More: Michael Bloomberg donating $100M to historically Black medical schools

In a sign that Bloombergs planned investment put Trump on alert, however, the president tweeted out his disdain for Bloomberg on Sunday morning, referencing the attacks the businessman received at a Democratic primary debate in February from Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

I thought Mini Mike was through with Democrat politics after spending almost 2 Billion Dollars, and then giving the worst and most inept Debate Performance in the history of Presidential Politics. Pocahontas ended his political career on first question, OVER! Save NYC instead, he tweeted.

The billionaire Bloomberg launched his own campaign for the Democratic nomination late last year amid worries about Bidens strengths. Despite spending $1 billion on his campaign, Bloomberg struggled and dropped out in March, quickly endorsing Biden.

Mike Bloomberg has a reputation for "getting the job done" and I pray for another success. Vote Joe Biden! https://t.co/uR1SeWyZZm  Joyce Glennon  FL GAL (@jglennon1) September 13, 2020

One of the worlds wealthiest men with a net worth estimated to exceed $60 billion, Bloomberg promised throughout his campaign that he would help Democrats try to defeat Trump regardless of how his own White House bid fared.

Story continues

He exited the presidential race pledging to spend whatever it takes to defeat Trump, and has already invested millions to support Democrats up and down the ballot. Bloomberg transferred $18 million from his presidential campaign to the Democratic National Committee, and transferred its offices in six key swing states to the local Democratic parties there.

The businessman has contributed $500,000 to Voto Latino to help register Latino voters, $2 million to the group Collective Future to help register African American voters, and $2 million to Swing Left, a group focused on electing Democrats in swing districts. One of the groups he has founded and funds, Everytown for Gun Safety, has committed to spending $60 million on elections this cycle, and Bloomberg himself has pledged another $60 million to support Democrats in House races.

Read More: Joe Biden leading President Trump in swing state polls

Bloombergs new spending is intended to boost Biden before the start of early voting in Florida, which begins on Sept. 24. A Bloomberg adviser said much of the money will go to television and digital advertising. Republicans are outspending Democrats by about $8 million in the state in future television ad reservations, according to a review of Kantar/CMAG data by The Associated Press.

Have you subscribed to theGrios podcast Dear Culture? Download our newest episodes now!

The post Bloomberg to spend at least $100M to help Biden in Florida appeared first on TheGrio.
Ukraine estimates losses from Crimea annexation at about US$36 bln so far

23:58, 13.09.20 6595

The amount will be increasing as long as the occupation of the Ukrainian peninsula continues.
A dog died in a trailer fire Saturday morning in Wainfleet while a second escaped the blaze.

Wainfleet Fire and Emergency Services Chief Morgan Alcock said the occupant of the trailer, living there for the summertime, was not home at the time of the incident.

Firefighters were called to 12826 Lakeshore Rd. just after 10 a.m. for the report of a trailer fire beside Jessies Place, a business that serves food in the summer months. Its located 300 metres east of Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authoritys Long Beach Conservation Area and Campgrounds.

Smoke from the blaze was visible at least 15 kilometres away from the fire scene.

The fire consumed the trailer and a nearby jet ski, said Alcock.

He said firefighters assisted a neighbour from her home on the east side of the fire but added there was no damage to that residence.

Wainfleet called on Haldimand County Emergency Services for mutual aid and it sent a tanker from its station in nearby Lowbanks to provide additional water.

There were nearly 20 Wainfleet volunteers on scene, including Alcock and Deputy Chief Shawn Schutten.

As firefighters checked for hot spots and poured water on the remains of the trailer and jet ski, they also opened a shipping container sitting just behind the fire.

There were some items inside that were smouldering, said Alcock.

He said the cause and origin of the fire are undetermined and will be investigated, adding that it was not suspicious.

Niagara Emergency Medical Services paramedics were on scene but there were no injuries. Niagara Regional Police closed down Lakeshore Road at Minor Road as firefighters fought the fire.
Malaika Arora reveals she worked and travelled through her pregnancy, says marriage was never a hindrance
The makers of two rival documentaries about the death of Sophie Toscan du Plantier had a 'face-off' at a west Cork market last weekend in full view of their chief subject - the former journalist Ian Bailey.

The Sunday Independent understands there were tense words between the documentary-makers who descended upon Schull market last Sunday, where Ian Bailey operates a weekly stall with his partner Jules Thomas.

Acclaimed director Jim Sheridan has been working for six years on a series on the murder of the Frenchwoman, entitled In Abstentia.

It is due to be aired in January. Naoimh Reilly, directing on behalf of Mr Sheridan's production, was filming and interviewing Mr Bailey as he worked at the market.

In the middle of filming, the director for a rival Netflix production on the unsolved du Plantier murder, Englishman John Dower, showed up and began speaking to a cameraman from the Sheridan crew.

The Netflix production is a planned three-part documentary by British producer Simon Chinn.

Bailey, currently fighting his third attempted extradition to France, noticed the arrival of Mr Dower, and pointed this out to Ms Reilly.

"I was working at the market last Sunday. Naoimh Reilly was down filming on behalf of Jim. They were doing some atmospheric work. I agreed to be filmed and interviewed.

"Then I saw John [Dower] at the market. I pointed the other director out to Naoimh Reilly. She went over to him then. Words were exchanged.

"What those words were, I do not know," Bailey told the Sunday Independent.

A separate source told this newspaper that the "tense'" conversation between the film-makers was "like something straight out of the movie Anchorman".

Bailey added that he is co-operating fully with Sheridan's documentary series but is not participating in the Netflix production. "I've consistently made it politely clear to the Netflix team that I'm co-operating with Jim Sheridan's team and I am not in a position to co-operate with them as I otherwise might have been."

When contacted, Reilly confirmed she was present at Schull market last Sunday, interviewing Bailey and recording market scenes for the forthcoming series.

She declined to comment on her conversation with the rival UK director but did say that the Sheridan production was coming along well.

"We have some absolutely great footage. We have excellent access to some of the key witnesses, former gardai involved in the case, members of the du Plantier family and Ian Bailey. All of our contributors are decent, smart people. They don't talk to just anyone."

She added: "Our focus is on Sophie Toscan du Plantier. We want to remind people of the effect her death had on the community.

"It's been in the pipeline for six years. We have thousands of hours of footage. Episode one is already in edit. It is due to air in January."

English director Dower was also contacted but he declined to comment.

The murder remains one of the country's most notorious unsolved crimes.

Ms du Plantier was beaten to death outside her holiday home on December 23, 1996 during a short pre-Christmas trip to West Cork.

International interest in the story has exploded following the success of West Cork, the smash-hit podcast about the crime.

Although never charged in Ireland, Bailey was tried and convicted of murder in absentia in a Paris court last year.

On October 12, Justice Paul Burns will deliver his decision on whether Bailey is to be extradited to France.

This is the third extradition attempt by the French authorities.

Speaking to the Sunday Independent in July, Bailey described the French authorities' latest extradition bid as a "form of torture".
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 10:55:35|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attends the ASEAN-China foreign ministers' meeting via video link on Sept. 9, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan)

"The most urgent task of the summit is to gather consensus in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, promote the revival of economic cooperation, and maintain the overall situation of regional peace and development," Wang Yi said via a video link at the East Asia Summit.



HANOI, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Foreign ministers of China, member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other regional countries agreed to further strengthen cooperation in economic recovery in the post-COVID-19 era during the 53rd ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting and related meetings which wrapped up here Saturday.

As COVID-19 response and post-pandemic recovery took up a bulk of the meetings' topics, China, the ASEAN member countries and other regional countries repeatedly stressed the importance of joint efforts in effectively addressing the issue.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi addressed on the issue on multiple occasions during the meetings, which were held under the chair of Vietnam, the rotating chair of ASEAN for this year.

"The most urgent task of the summit is to gather consensus in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, promote the revival of economic cooperation, and maintain the overall situation of regional peace and development," Wang said via a video link at the East Asia Summit on Thursday, which celebrates the 15th anniversary of its founding this year.

He called for providing new impetus to the fight against the pandemic, supporting the World Health Organization (WHO), and jointly building a regional "anti-pandemic firewall."

Wang also stressed new measures for economic recovery and striving to make East Asia a source of stable growth for the world economy in the post-pandemic era.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attends the 21st ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Plus Three Foreign Ministers' Meeting via video link on Sept. 9, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan)

When attending the 21st ASEAN-China, Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK) (10+3) Foreign Ministers' Meeting on the same day via video link, Wang said that all parties should continue to coordinate the anti-pandemic and developing needs, create a new aspect for cooperation in the post-pandemic era and promote 10+3 cooperation to a new level.

He said that China suggested improving the level of public health governance, continuing to support the WHO in playing an important role in the global fight against the pandemic, and jointly opposing the politicization of the pandemic and the stigmatization of other countries.

Wang's calls echoed his words at the Special ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers' Meeting on COVID-19 held in Vientiane, Laos in late February, when the pandemic had just broken out globally. He stated back then that China and the ASEAN had vowed to join hands to fight the COVID-19 to forge a closer community of shared future.

"This is time for the ASEAN Plus Three mechanism to prove its value and capacity in the pandemic combat," said Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh at the meeting. He also suggested China, Japan and South Korea continue their coordination with ASEAN in this regard, and intensify the cooperation in the research and production of vaccines and medicines against COVID-19.

At the ASEAN-China Ministerial Meeting held on Wednesday, the ASEAN applauded China's cooperation and support in the fight against COVID-19, and suggested China actively participate in the bloc's initiatives such as the COVID-19 response fund, regional reserves of medical supplies and recovery framework.

Wang said China is willing to work with them to actively promote exchanges and cooperation in the post-pandemic period, face up to global and regional challenges together, and foster a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future.

Wang made proposals to join efforts to thoroughly prevail over the epidemic, promote regional economic recovery, promote sustainable development, and improve the long-term planning for China-ASEAN cooperation.

The 53rd ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting and related meetings began on Wednesday, with 42 documents reviewed and approved over four days, Pham Binh Minh announced at a press briefing Saturday.

Vietnamese delegates attend the 27th meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum (ARF) in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Sept. 12, 2020. (VNA via Xinhua)

In a joint communique published after the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting, the foreign ministers called for the effective operationalization of the COVID-19 ASEAN Response Fund, and looked forward to further progress on the various initiatives to respond to COVID-19. They also looked forward to the submission of the ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework and its implementation plan to the ASEAN summit later this year.

Moreover, they stressed enhanced collaboration and sharing of experience with ASEAN's partners in research, development, the production and distribution of vaccines, providing access to medicines for COVID-19 and other diseases in future public health emergencies, and making them available and affordable to all as global public goods.

Key issues including the ASEAN Community Vision 2025, sub-regional cooperation multilateralism, non-traditional security challenges and others were also discussed during the meetings.

Founded in 1967, the ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Vietnam is the ASEAN chair for 2020. 
Well known Longford farmer Mike Magan is appealing to his Irish dairy farmer colleagues to donate one days milk to help famine relief efforts in Yemen.

Speaking with Damien OReilly, presenter of CountryWide on RTE Radio 1, Killashee man Mike revealed he is not a campaigner and that he was prompted to organise the appeal after watching a television news report on the famine in Yemen.

It hit me very hard as I watched a father feed his ill daughter sugar and water to keep her alive.

I asked myself, can we do something? And I came up with the crazy idea of getting milk from one cow for a day from each of the 16 or 17,000 dairy farmers in Ireland.

That is approximately 30 litres of milk per farmer or 500,000 litres in total. This would help produce 70 tonnes of whole milk powder which is the first food of choice at a time of famine.

Tipperary TD Jackie Cahill took to social media to endorse Mikes campaign and he encouraged every dairy farmer to donate to this effort to help the Yemeni people at a time when they need it most.

Deputy Cahill added, If over 500,000L of milk could be made available to the famine relief efforts, Irish farmers would be standing in solidarity with the people of Yemen when they need it most, providing a powdered product full of nutrition.

This could save many lives. Parents such as the one that Mike spoke about feeding their children water and sugar need access to such supplies, and this is our chance as a farming community to make a difference to peoples lives.

Mike outlined that a bit of momentum has gathered behind his milk from one cow for a day campaign and that the co-ops are getting behind it.

It is a farmer-led campaign on Twitter (@MikeMagan1) and Facebook, and with so much negativity out there, it is no harm to harness social media for some good.

Yemen has been devastated by a civil war, which began in 2014 and with over 24 million in need of aid, it is the world's single largest humanitarian crisis.

Years of conflict, drought and instability have left thousands of Yemenis struggling to get food, water and medicine. The continued airstrikes and fighting on the ground are putting many innocent lives in peril and with an already weakened health system, Covid-19 is just another layer of suffering.

Mike urged non-farmers, who wished to lend support, to log onto the Irish Red Cross website www.redcross.ie and to donate to the Yemen Appeal.

Expressing the hope that farmers would get behind the appeal, Mike commented, Farmers are caring and accustomed to getting up in the middle of the night to save a calf, so why not help a child in Yemen.
In the run up to the assembly polls in Bihar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated three petroleum sector projects, gave a big thumbs up to chief minister Nitish Kumar, and reached out to voters, calling the state a "powerhouse of talent".

Modi's praise of alliance partner Kumar came weeks ahead of the elections that are likely in October-November, as he dedicated three petroleum projects worth nearly Rs 900 crore to people. These included a gas pipeline that extended from Durgapur in West Bengal to Banka in Bihar.

Banka was also the beneficiary of an LPG bottling plant while another such unit is located at Harsiddhi in East Champaran district.

"I had the opportunity of flagging off the work on extension of the gas pipeline a year-and-half ago. I am delighted to see its completion. The country and Bihar have come out of an era when a project was announced and a generation had to wait for its completion. Nitish ji has played an important role in ushering in this change in the state," Modi said.

In his trademark style, the prime minister began his speech with a few sentences in Angika, the dialect spoken in Banka and adjoining districts.

He marvelled at the gas pipeline project which was no mean feat" as it involved working across a stretch of nearly 200 km of difficult terrain dotted with many rivers, dense forests and hills.

"I would like to use the terms gas-based industry and petro-connectivity, which may sound very technical but actually impact the lives of the common people," he said, addressing the function virtually from the national capital.

"Just imagine what would have been the situation if people were to keep venturing out in search of wood and other fuel for cooking their meals. The need is no longer there thanks to schemes like the Ujjwala Yojana which has ensured that LPG reaches households of the poorest of the poor," he said while talking about the coronavirus outbreak.

The prime minister recalled how people would queue up in front of the residences of MPs for a cooking gas connection from their quota.

"There was a time when having an LPG connection was a luxury not many could afford," he said.

Launching a veiled attack on Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, who he did not mention by name, Modi said Bihar has come out of an era when rail, road and internet connectivity were made light of and people used to say of what use roads are for those who walk on their feet.

He said Bihar, like the rest of eastern India, never lacked samarthya (potential) and sansadhan (natural resources) but suffered for want of political will and faulty priorities.

"Being a land-locked state, Bihar was obviously at a disadvantage when it came to availing petroleum projects. All that is going to change. The gas pipeline and the bottling plants will not only make things easier for the consumers, but also open up lots of employment avenues in the state," the PM said.

Showering praise on the state for its rich art, culture and cuisine, Modi said, It would not be an exaggeration to call Bihar a powerhouse of talent. Its people can be found in all IITs and centres of excellence. Bright

minds from here are serving in important capacities at the Centre.

"We all are indebted to Bihar. And it is our duty to ensure that Bihar gets a government that ensures that good governance it has seen in the last 15 years continues and realises its full potential," he said.

Turning his attention to the education sector, the prime minister blamed the "indifference" of the past governments for the lack of quality institutions in Bihar which compelled the states youth to move out for pursuing higher learning.

"But now things are changing. The state has many new agriculture, engineering and medical colleges. Under Nitish ji, the state has seen a massive rise in the number of polytechnics besides having its own IITs, IIMs, two central universities and top-class institutions offering courses in law and fashion technology," Modi added.

He also said central schemes like Start Up India and Mudra Yojana were empowering the states young men and women to set up their own businesses while Kaushal Kendras (skill development centres) were making them employable.

"There are more than 8,000 gas-based projects worth Rs six lakh crore. Many of these are new while others that were shelved have been re-started. These hold out a huge promise for the unemployed youth of Bihar," he noted.

The prime minister ended his speech with a reference to the COVID 19 pandemic, and repeated his slogan jab tak dawaai nahin, tab tak dhilai nahin (no laxity until a cure is found)".

"I salute the people of the country, and Bihar in particular, who did not get bogged down on account of the hardships that the pandemic brought. I congratulate my mothers and sisters whose lives will become much easier because of these gas-based projects," he added.

Among those who attended the function were chief minister Nitish Kumar, governor Fagu Chauhan, deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi and Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Ashwini Kumar Choubey.
A Brooklyn man died on Saturday after he was shot three times while sitting in his BMW, according to police.

Arfan Butt, 33, succumbed to his injuries after being shot in the torso multiple time in Dyker Heights in Brooklyn.

He had been sitting in his BMW at the time when two males discharged a firearm, the New York Post reports. Police found Butt lying on the ground.

Arfan Butt, 33, succumbed to his injuries after being shot in the torso multiple time in Dyker Heights in Brooklyn

The shooting occurred in front of 1222 78th Street, between 12th and 13th avenues at around 5.20pm.

'He was shot three times in the torso,' an NYPD spokesman said.

Police say that the suspects fled the scene in a Mercedes Benz in an unknown direction

Butt had been taken to the Maimonides Hospital after the shooting.

Police say that the suspects fled the scene in a Mercedes Benz in an unknown direction.

No arrest have been made an the investigation is ongoing.
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NEW MILFORD  Firefighters responded to a fully involved fire on Brookside Trail Sunday afternoon, according to officials.

Fire Marshal Kevin Reynolds said the home was completely gutted, adding at least 40 firefighters responded to the blaze as well as mutual aid from Brookfield and Northville.

Reynolds said the fire was reported about 3:30 Sunday afternoon and took about 15 minutes to get under control. He said one adult and two teenagers lived in the home, noting there were no injuries.

Firefighters, Reynolds said, were performing overhaul on the structure about 40 minutes later.

Reynolds said the cause of the fire was still under investigation. He said the Connecticut Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit were making their way to the scene to assist in the investigation.
MP on



Sunday said it was unfortunate that the BJP is backing despite the actress likening Mumbai to Pak-occupied Kashmir, and added this was done with an eye on Bihar polls.

In his weekly column Rokhthok in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana', Raut also also claimed there is a systematic effort to reduce the importance ofMumbai, and constantly defaming the city is part of that conspiracy.

"This is a difficult period when all Marathi people in Maharashtra should unite," Raut said.

By supporting Ranaut and through its stand in the Sushant Singh Rajput case, the BJP wants to win Bihar polls with the upper caste Rajput and Kshatriya votes, he said.

"While doing this, it doesn't matter if Maharashtra is insulted. Not one Maharashtra (BJP) leader was sad over the manner in which the state has been humiliated," Raut said.

"An actress humiliates the chief minister and people of the state shouldn't react, what kind of one-sided freedom is this?" asked Raut, who is the executive editor of Saamana.

"When her illegal construction in the city, which she calls as Pakistan, is demolished, she calls the demolished structurea Ram mandir. You are crying hoarse when there is a surgical strike on the illegal construction. What kind of a game is this?" he asked.

Responding to the demolition, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis had said the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government should focus on fighting coronavirus instead of

(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 Covid-19 pandemic has made the world far more uncertain. It's impacted our work and finances, our relationships, and of course, our physical and mental health.

Finding the sense of surety we all crave is almost impossible, which leads to stress, anxiety and powerlessness that drains us emotionally. These feelings of helplessness can be traumatic, putting our body and mind in a constant "flight or fight" state. Staying in this tense state for too long not only hurts our quality of life but makes our immune systems more vulnerable.

It's important to recognize that this stress is a natural response to what's happening in the world. After being gentle with ourselves, we also need to find a self-care routine that treats both the body and the mind, helping us to break the cycle of endless "what-ifs" about tomorrow's challenges.

There are plenty of ways to cope with anxiety from uncertainty. Exercise, meditation and breathing techniques have all been proven to mitigate stress. Recently, however, health care professionals, researchers and practitioners are finding consensus around an activity that combines these three techniques into a powerful tool for regulating emotions and managing stress - Kundalini Yoga.

How Kundalini Yoga can help

Kundalini Yoga is an ancient practice that incorporates movement, dynamic breathing techniques, meditation and mantras to channel your body's energy. While most forms of exercise produce the endorphins that make you feel better, Kundalini Yoga also releases the tension and anxiety that builds up over time in your body's glands and nerves. It resets your stress response so that you can achieve an internal biochemistry of calm, balance and depth of self.

This is supported by a growing body of evidence indicating that contemplative practices such as yoga and meditation are effective at treating anxiety. In one recent study, researchers from Harvard Medical School, Boston University and the Sundari Satnam Kundalini Yoga Center compared Kundalini Yoga with common cognitive treatments in reducing symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder. Those who were treated with yoga had lower relative levels of anxiety and had a decrease in physical symptoms compared to traditional treatments.

Start your practice at home

One of the many beautiful aspects of yoga is that it requires no special equipment - though a yoga mat is helpful - so there's nothing to stop you from practicing Kundalini Yoga in your living room. Training with a qualified Kundalini instructor will eventually be necessary to learn proper form, but there are plenty of techniques you can easily perform on your own that will help you to cope with the uncertainty of the pandemic.

Try this Kundalini meditation at home whenever you feel worried or anxious. Choose a peaceful surrounding, inside or outside. You can have soft music playing to enhance your sense of peace.

l Sit in Easy Pose.

l Sit on the floor. You can use a pillow or cushion for comfort.

l Cross your legs in front of you in a comfortable and relaxed way.

l If you are uncomfortable sitting on floor you can sit in a chair with your legs uncrossed and your feet flat on the ground.

l Place your hands on your knees, palms down, close your eyes and observe the sensations of your body and mind.

l Place your hands on the center of your chest at heart level.

l Begin by resting the back of your left hand in the palm of your right hand.

l Gently grab your left hand with your right, so that your right thumb is nestled in your left palm.

l Cross your left thumb over your right.

l Curve the fingers of your right hand around the outside of your left hand and hold it gently with the four fingers of the left hand remaining straight.

l Bring your hands to your heart center, resting them against your chest.

l With eyes closed, inhale deeply and relax. Breathe slowly for 10-30 minutes.

l In daily life we typically breathe 15 times a minute. Try slowing down to 4 breaths per minute by inhaling to the count of 10 and exhaling to the count of 10. A slow breath will slow your heartbeat, reduce your stress response, and give you a peaceful, secure feeling.

l Your mind will begin with a lot of "chatter" and anxiety. That is normal! Don't try to suppress your thoughts, let them come and go until your mind is peaceful. If you have a particularly persistent thought, try naming it. Say to yourself, "This is my worry about my son," for example. And let it go.

l It is difficult at first, but if you do this breathing technique regularly you will find that your mind will welcome the silence and will start to relax. Soon, you will build the habit and the capacity to keep your mind calm in challenging environments.
Kochi (Kerala) [India], September 13 (ANI): One person was arrested and foreign currency worth Rs 15.7 lakh was allegedly seized from him by the Air Intelligence Unit of Kozhikode Airport, said the Commissionerate of Customs (Preventive), Kochi, on Sunday.



"Air Intelligence Unit of Kozhikode Airport seized foreign currency worth Rs 15.7 lakhs (Saudi Riyal 71,150, Qatar Riyal 800, Omani Riyal 210, UAE Dirham 10,235) from a passenger who was planning to travel to Dubai by flight IX 1343. The seizure was made with the help of CISF," said the Commissionerate of Customs (Preventive), Kochi.

The passenger has been arrested and further inquiry is underway.

More details are awaited. (ANI)


Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attends the ASEAN-China foreign ministers' meeting via video link on Sept. 9, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan)

"The most urgent task of the summit is to gather consensus in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, promote the revival of economic cooperation, and maintain the overall situation of regional peace and development," Wang Yi said via a video link at the East Asia Summit.

HANOI, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Foreign ministers of China, member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other regional countries agreed to further strengthen cooperation in economic recovery in the post-COVID-19 era during the 53rd ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting and related meetings which wrapped up here Saturday.

As COVID-19 response and post-pandemic recovery took up a bulk of the meetings' topics, China, the ASEAN member countries and other regional countries repeatedly stressed the importance of joint efforts in effectively addressing the issue.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi addressed on the issue on multiple occasions during the meetings, which were held under the chair of Vietnam, the rotating chair of ASEAN for this year.

"The most urgent task of the summit is to gather consensus in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, promote the revival of economic cooperation, and maintain the overall situation of regional peace and development," Wang said via a video link at the East Asia Summit on Thursday, which celebrates the 15th anniversary of its founding this year.

He called for providing new impetus to the fight against the pandemic, supporting the World Health Organization (WHO), and jointly building a regional "anti-pandemic firewall."

Wang also stressed new measures for economic recovery and striving to make East Asia a source of stable growth for the world economy in the post-pandemic era.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attends the 21st ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Plus Three Foreign Ministers' Meeting via video link on Sept. 9, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan)

When attending the 21st ASEAN-China, Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK) (10+3) Foreign Ministers' Meeting on the same day via video link, Wang said that all parties should continue to coordinate the anti-pandemic and developing needs, create a new aspect for cooperation in the post-pandemic era and promote 10+3 cooperation to a new level.

He said that China suggested improving the level of public health governance, continuing to support the WHO in playing an important role in the global fight against the pandemic, and jointly opposing the politicization of the pandemic and the stigmatization of other countries.

Wang's calls echoed his words at the Special ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers' Meeting on COVID-19 held in Vientiane, Laos in late February, when the pandemic had just broken out globally. He stated back then that China and the ASEAN had vowed to join hands to fight the COVID-19 to forge a closer community of shared future.

"This is time for the ASEAN Plus Three mechanism to prove its value and capacity in the pandemic combat," said Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh at the meeting. He also suggested China, Japan and South Korea continue their coordination with ASEAN in this regard, and intensify the cooperation in the research and production of vaccines and medicines against COVID-19.

At the ASEAN-China Ministerial Meeting held on Wednesday, the ASEAN applauded China's cooperation and support in the fight against COVID-19, and suggested China actively participate in the bloc's initiatives such as the COVID-19 response fund, regional reserves of medical supplies and recovery framework.

Wang said China is willing to work with them to actively promote exchanges and cooperation in the post-pandemic period, face up to global and regional challenges together, and foster a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future.

Wang made proposals to join efforts to thoroughly prevail over the epidemic, promote regional economic recovery, promote sustainable development, and improve the long-term planning for China-ASEAN cooperation.

The 53rd ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting and related meetings began on Wednesday, with 42 documents reviewed and approved over four days, Pham Binh Minh announced at a press briefing Saturday.

Vietnamese delegates attend the 27th meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum (ARF) in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Sept. 12, 2020. (VNA via Xinhua)

In a joint communique published after the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting, the foreign ministers called for the effective operationalization of the COVID-19 ASEAN Response Fund, and looked forward to further progress on the various initiatives to respond to COVID-19. They also looked forward to the submission of the ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework and its implementation plan to the ASEAN summit later this year.

Moreover, they stressed enhanced collaboration and sharing of experience with ASEAN's partners in research, development, the production and distribution of vaccines, providing access to medicines for COVID-19 and other diseases in future public health emergencies, and making them available and affordable to all as global public goods.

Key issues including the ASEAN Community Vision 2025, sub-regional cooperation multilateralism, non-traditional security challenges and others were also discussed during the meetings.

Founded in 1967, the ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Vietnam is the ASEAN chair for 2020.






Haiti - Justice : The Phantom 509 Group issues an ultimatum and threatens





On Saturday, the "Phantom 509" Group made up of hooded individuals and others wearing National Police uniforms issued an ultimatum to the Ministry of Justice for the release of police officer Jean Pascal Alexandre imprisoned at the national penitentiary since May 13th on the order of Jack Lafontant the Government Commissioner of the Court of First Instance of Port-au-Prince at this time.



Recall that Jean Pascal Alexandre, member of the Brigade for the Fight Against Drug Trafficking, was arrested on May 8 on the instruction of the Public Prosecutor's Office, accused of murder, arson, destruction of public property and State security https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30777-haiti-justice-a-police-officer-incarcerated-in-the-penitentiary-the-phantom-group-issues-an-ultimatum.html



If they do not obtain the release of Jean Pascal Alexandre, the "Phantom 509" Group threatens to burn down state offices...



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30777-haiti-justice-a-police-officer-incarcerated-in-the-penitentiary-the-phantom-group-issues-an-ultimatum.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30755-haiti-security-the-group-phantom-509-soon-reported-as-an-terrorist-group-to-international.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30644-haiti-politic-the-group-phantom-509-target-of-the-justice.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30641-haiti-flash-violent-demonstration-of-police-officers-of-the-group-phantom-509.html



SL/ HaitiLibre


















Teachers want rapid testing of suspected Covid cases in schools as a matter of urgency after more than 50 schools were found to have cases of the virus.

Teaching staff have serious concerns about what actions ought to be taken once a case of the virus is suspected in a school, said Kieran Christie, general secretary of the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI).

Primary teachers are also seeking action to ensure priority testing is provided for teachers to avoid the disruption caused when a teacher can't attend school.

"Obviously when a case emerges in a school, there are legitimate concerns within the school community," said the ASTI leader.

"Decisions relating to confirmed cases of Covid-19 in schools are made by the HSE Departments of Public Health. The ASTI has sought to discuss a range of issues with the Health Protection Surveillance Centre but a meeting has been declined," he told the Sunday Independent.

"We believe clarity is essential so that school communities - including parents, students and teachers - know what to expect and understand the rationale behind decisions."

The questions that the teachers' leaders want the health officials to answer include:

 Why is it not automatically assumed that a whole class will be deemed to be close contacts when a Covid case is confirmed?

 Why is there no blanket policy on testing entire year groups and classes in place?

 Why has there been no implementation of expert advice that the entire class of an infected child be sent home to isolate for two weeks and to undergo testing if a single child is infected?

The teachers' union will "vigorously pursue" these matters and rapid testing of suspected cases, he said.

Primary teachers are also seeking priority testing for teachers in the event of suspected infections.

A spokesman for the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) said swift contact tracing was also vital for the welfare of pupils, teachers and other staff.

He said the INTO raised these concerns again in recent days with the Department of Education.

Department officials gave earlier undertakings to raise these matters with the Department of Health and the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet).

"The issue of priority testing goes to the heart of keeping schools open. If a teacher is sent home to get a test and they are waiting five or six days, they have to have substitute teachers come in. If the subs can't come in, the class might have to be sent home - which is hugely disruptive.

"So the quicker a teacher can get a negative test and be brought back into the classroom, the better it is for everyone.

"Bearing in mind, of course, the vast majority of all tests are negative," the spokesman said.

Michael Gillespie, general secretary of the Teachers' Union of Ireland, said the supply of substitute teachers is already starting to be a problem, particularly in Dublin where it is too expensive for many substitute teachers to live.

On Friday, a school in Co Carlow was missing four teachers because of Covid testing and illness, but no substitutes were available.
Laois has experienced a spike in Covid-19 cases in the second week of September according to official figures.

Daily data reported to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HSPC) and published by the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) shows that there were 12 new cases in the first five days of September. Over the next three days, there were no new cases.

However, 22 new infections were confirmed in four days from Wednesday 9 to Saturday 12 of September. The National Public Health Emergency team confirmed that there were new cases in Laois on Sunday 13 but did not say how many.

The HSPC reported that Laois had one of the lowest records of new infections among its neighbouring in the last week of August and the first week of September.

However, figures for Saturday, September 12 show that there were more new cases in Laois than in Kildare which has the highest number of cases of the virus outside Dublin.

Laois GPs warned last week that there had been a surge in referrals for testing and surgeries were busier than normal. A national GP monitoring system also revealed that Laois has become one of the warm counties for GP referrals for testing.

The increase in new cases is a lot less the jump in cases which led to Laois, Offaly and Kildare being put under a new partial lockdown in August.

Public health officials urge people to limit their contacts, stay 2 metres from other people, wear masks and observe good hand hygiene and cough/sneeze etiquette
By PTI

PANAJI: Goa Police have arrested 42 tourists after a raid on a gambling den at Calangute beach village near here, an official said on Sunday.

Cash worth Rs 10 lakh, 57 mobile phones and other material were seized following the raid conducted in a hotel near the Calangute beach in North Goa district around Saturday midnight, a police spokesman said.

The accused, all tourists from Gujarat, Maharashtra and New Delhi, were caught gambling on the fifth floor of the hotel, he said.

All the accused have been booked under provisions of the Goa, Daman and Diu Public Gambling Act, he said.

The official said they will write a letter to the state tourism department to seek suspension of the hotel's licence.
In June, I had the opportunity to participate as a poll worker for the primary elections. As an individual who will be of voting age in January, I had many questions about the voting process. Given that there was a shortage of poll workers due to COVID-19, I also considered it my civic duty to help out. During my experience, many questions were brought to my attention by the voters. With the November election approaching soon, I thought that if they had those questions, others might as well, and it might be important to pose them here:

Why arent you asking to see ID?

A state ID or picture ID is not required to vote in New Mexico (outside of some municipal elections). One gentleman approached me at the check-in table and said, paraphrased, So if I had the information for my son  name, year of birth, address  who is in school in Texas and I told you that I was him, you would accept what I said at face value and print me a ballot with his name on it? The answer was, Yes, we cannot identify you through a picture ID, but it would be fraudulent for you to do so.

The gentleman did not, of course, do this and was reasonably affronted by the idea that someone could do this in this election. Of course, at the polls, any of the workers have the right to contest somebodys vote, but it would require approval from the presiding judge as well as a unanimous approval from all of the other workers.

There were also two other people who approached me and presented their IDs and when told they were not necessary, insisted that I look at them because they felt it was that important that a voter be identified as eligible to vote.

Why arent voting rules posted?

We had two individuals show up to vote who were registered as Independents. Since it was a primary election, they were not allowed to vote on the Democrat, Republican or Libertarian tickets. They stated that in other states, registered Independents could choose to vote in one of the primary elections. However, New Mexico has a closed primary. It seemed as if this information was not well known and voter-rule posting could have prevented these people from waiting in line only to be sent home without casting their vote.

Who can legally vote?

When talking with another poll worker, I was informed of a situation in which an individual arrived with two other individuals who were severely intellectually disabled. There were questions by those in attendance about whether the individuals with impairments had the right to vote. Coming from a family who works closely with individuals with developmental disabilities, I am aware that individuals with intellectual impairments retain their right to vote, even if they are adjudicated due to lack of capacity and have a guardian. Other attendees stated that in this situation, it seemed as if these individuals with severe intellectual disabilities were unaware of the process and their caretaker was casting votes for them. The question posed was, Who monitors the influence on the vote of those who are deemed incapacitated and the potential fraud that might occur?

What changed since I last voted?

For a small percentage of voters, the system showed they were not registered to one of the three major parties. These voters were insistent they had been registered to one of these parties for years and have never had this issue. Unfortunately, these voters left without voting or casting a provisional ballot. I am not aware of what exactly the issue was (and) do not know if this glitch has been investigated or fixed.
The death toll from the wildfires devastating the American West has soared to 33, officials have revealed.

As Donald Trump prepared to visit California and sparked fury among regional politicians over his claim the wildfires were the resort of poor forest management, officials said dozens of people reported missing had now been accounted for.

Nevertheless, at least 33 fatalities have now been confirmed in the states of California, Washington and Oregon, according to the Associated Press.

Even cities such as Seattle and Portland, themselves located many miles from the fires, have been engulfed in smog.

Warnings about air quality have been issued to residents.

 Wildfires in California

The Seattle Times said air quality was expected to get better after a super-massive smoke plume billowed into the region over the weekend.

Washington governor Jay Inslee told ABC News about a woman he had spoken to the in the town of Malden, which had been absolutely decimated.

What struck me, as I was listening to her, the only moisture in Eastern Washington was the tears of people who have lost their homes, he said.

Now we have a blowtorch over our states in the west, which is climate change, and we know that climate change is making fires start easier, spread faster and intensify.

Additional reporting by agencies
BAZ BAMIGBOYE: Despite Covid winter turmoil, the West End got a shot in the arm today with news that one of the biggest shows of the year will go ahead... two years after it was due to open.
Three people were arrested on the Northwest Side early Saturday morning after firing gunshots in the air and briefly evading police, the San Antonio Police Department said.

Police said a man had asked two friends to take him to his girlfriends apartment.

When they arrived, the man got out of the car and walked up to the door  it was about 3:45 a.m. His girlfriend would not let him in, though, so he became angry and started kicking the door and fired several shots into the air, police said.

The man then ran back to the car and the three quickly drove off without turning on the cars headlights, officials said.

A San Antonio police officer saw a car matching the description at Horn Boulevard and Babcock. After a brief chase, police pulled over the car. Two men in the car were arrested. A third man ran from the police and through another apartment complex where officers were working on an accident, officials said.

That man was arrested at the accident scene.

Multiple charges are pending, police said, and the investigation is ongoing.

Liz Hardaway is a staff writer covering San Antonio government and politics. To read more from Liz, become a subscriber. liz.hardaway@hearst.com | Twitter: @liz_hardaway
Phuket Opinion: A uniformed response

PHUKET: The Royal Thai Navy Third Area Command, based in Phuket, issued a press release on Friday (Sept 11) that was more than a little disconcerting. The press release espoused how our good Navy was doing its part in protecting the country from illegal immigrants arriving from Myanmar, under the guise that it was protecting local people from illegal arrivals who may be bringing the COVID-19 virus with them.

opinionmilitary

By The Phuket News

Sunday 13 September 2020, 09:00AM

Personnel at the Royal Thai Navy Third Area Command monitor satellite and drone footage from a Navy control room. Photo: Royal Thai Navy / Third Area Command

The Navy release explained how Admiral Sittiporn Maskasem, Chief of Naval Operations, had come to Phuket in person to review the action being taken by the Third Area Command.

Of course, the response was that the personnel at the Phuket naval base, which is responsible for all naval action along Thailand entire Andaman coast, was on watch for these potentially dangerous migrants through various means, including its UAV drone and by working with officials in Ranong, the province north of Phuket which directly shares its water borders with Myanmar.

What was not included in the press release was any steps to help prevent COVID-19 from being brought onto the island by road, despite Phang Nga, the province immediately north of Phuket, reimposing strict health measures a week ago amid fears that migrant workers from Myanmar being brought into the province illegally by employers.

Now that is much closer to the truth, and those heightened COVID-prevention measures were doled out by Phang Nga Governor Chamroen Tipayapongtada, a relatively young Governor who was very well liked during his term as Governor of Phuket only a handful of years ago.

Governor Chamroen knows how the local migrant worker import system works so well that he warned all officials and employers they would face legal action for any infected migrant workers found in the respective areas.

Meanwhile, Phuket Provincial Police and provincial government officials have yet to announce any steps to check any persons, including migrant workers, arriving in Phuket by road. If these migrant workers bringing COVID-19 to Phuket were such a genuine concern, our officials forgot to stop and check people at the bridge.

Much, much worse, however, is how the phrase illegal immigrants from Myanmar was applied. The release came just four days after nearly 300 more Rohingya made landfall in Aceh, at the northern tip of Sumatra  just 200km southwest of Phuket.

The 297 refugees comprised 181 men and women, and 14 children. They were reportedly at sea for six months, and made land on Sumatra amid the dangerous southwest monsoon conditions.

Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, a non-profit group focusing on the Rohingya crisis, said the passengers that arrived in Aceh on Monday had set sail from southern Bangladesh at the end of March or early April, bound for Malaysia.

It was also confirmed that the Royal Thai Navy was continuing its push back policy of intercepting refugee boats at sea to prevent them from coming ashore in Thailand.

The Royal Thai Navy  and the Thai media  have made no mention of this policy for years. Even after the great fiasco where the Royal Thai Navy was exposed for its active role in preventing refugees from arriving in Thailand, it called the process helping them on.

If they think they doing the right thing by this, they can think again. This helping them on just further endangers these refugees in poorly maintained boats on dangerous seas, and has led to boat sinkings and drownings further south beyond the Thai Navys area of responsibility. In July Malaysian authorities said some two dozen Rohingya migrants feared to have drowned off the countrys coast after a treacherous boat crossing had been found alive, hiding in bushes on an island. They were the lucky ones.

For those with short memories, the push back policy began years ago with Army Commander Lt Gen Manas Kongpan, who was the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) Region 4 Commander at the time.

He has now been sentenced to 82 years in jail for his role in human trafficking following the discovery of diabolical mass graves found at makeshift prisons in the jungle near the Mayalsian boarder in Padang Besar, Songkhla province.

If the Royal Thai Navy wants to issue press releases about the good work it is doing in protecting the people of Thailand, a little more honesty would be appreciated.
Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav has attacked the Uttar Pradesh chief minister and the states police chief over the law and order situation and alleged that the police force has become synonymous with injustice under the BJP government.

Under the BJP government, the police, instead of becoming people-friendly, had become synonymous with injustice and atrocities, he alleged.

In a press statement, the party chief added that some police officers were hand in glove with the criminals. Why wouldnt the criminals become fearless when one police officer or the other is found hand-in-glove with criminals in some part of the state?

Irrespective of lecturing, the polices work-culture in the state would not change, Akhilesh said.

The former chief minister cited a robbery incident in Aligarh to claim people and their properties were no longer safe in the state.

Only yesterday (Friday), criminals looted Rs 35 lakh worth jewellery and Rs 40,000 from a jeweller in Aligarh at gunpoint and the incident is an example of the collapsed law and order in the state, he said.

People are all the more insecure because officers are patronising criminals and protecting them Imagine, in Bijnor, a woman police officer felt unsafe from an ASP (assistant superintendent of police) rank officer. A woman cop is not feeling safe in this system! he added.

Also Read: NSA to be imposed against men suspected of murdering Dalit man

The SP chief cited a couple more cases of alleged complicity or laxity of policemen in the state.

One Ramu Kushwaha in Lalitpur, died by suicide when he could not get justice in connection with his complaint that police had snatched his cell phone and Rs 20,000 cash. In Gorakhpur, a woman died by suicide when the Pipganj police station personnel did not act on her complaint. In Kannauj, a youth died due to torture in police custody, Akhilesh said, adding that the incidents of custodial death, loot and murder were affecting UPs image in the country and worldwide, he said.

Also Read: UP don Mukhtar Ansaris wife, her two brothers booked under gangsters act

Akhileshs assault on the law and order situation comes amid criticism that UP police was using extra-judicial methods to deal with gangsters and history sheeters. The state administration has also been slapped on the wrist for the alleged misuse of the National Security Act.
Former union minister and senior Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh passed away at AIIMS, New Delhi on September 13 due to post-COVID complications.

The 74-year-old was undergoing treatment at the hospital for the complications. In a political career spanning over four decades, Singh most notably served in former prime minister Manmohan Singhs Cabinet as the Union Minister for Rural Development.

An expert in the rural and agricultural landscape of the country, Singh is called the architect of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme.

Since its launch in 2006, the rural employment guarantee scheme has aimed at providing livelihood security in rural areas by guaranteeing at least 100 days of minimum wage employment per year, mostly in the construction of durable assets such as roads, canals and ponds.

Passed in September 2005 under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, the scheme was implemented by Singh, then-Minister of Rural Development.

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

MGNREGA was reportedly facing a delay when Singh had approached then-UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and told her about the inordinate delay.

Gandhi soon summoned the then-Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who at the time was heading the Group of Ministers (GoM) on MGNREGA, and told him to expedite the project, as per a Hindustan Times report.

MGNREGA was subsequently rolled out in 200 districts in 2006.

"MGNREGA was a big step towards eradicating poverty by ending unemployment. Employment for all is the first step towards ensuring roti, kapda, makan, padhai aur dawai (food, clothes, shelter, education and health). People are ready to work. So it is the duty of a Government to provide work," Singh had told The Hindu BusinessLine in an interview in May this year.

He also called for the induction of agricultural work in MGNREGA. "Governments may take a small percentage of share from farmers for letting MGNREGA workers work in their farms. This step will create huge employment opportunities. Farmers can approach panchayats or Gram Sabhas for workers and workers can also approach them for work. As the work is real, monitory or social accountability will also be real," he had said.

Weeks ahead of the Bihar elections  slated to be held in October and November - Singh, a close aide of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, had quit the party just days ago on September 10. Unhappy with the way the party was being run, Singh had resigned as its vice-president in June.

Announcing his decision to quit RJD, the former union minister had penned a letter to party chief Yadav. "After Jannayak Karpuri Thakurs demise, I stood with you for 32 years, but not now. I have great affection for party leaders and activists. I am sorry, Singh said in the letter.

RJD chief, however, rejected Singh's resignation. He, too, sent a hand-written letter to Singh saying "you are not going anywhere".

"Dear Raghuvansh babu, a letter written by you is being circulated in the media. I do not believe this. My family and RJD family wants to see you among us once you recover, Yadav, who is in jail, said in the letter.

He added, "For four decades, we have discussed political, social and family-related issues together. You are not going anywhere."

Shortly after Singh's death was confirmed, Yadav tweeted: "Dear Raghuvansh babu! What did you do? I told you the day before yesterday, you are not going anywhere. But you went so far. I am speechless. I am sad. Will miss you very much."

Singh was reportedly unhappy over talks of former Lok Janashakti Party (LJP) Member of Parliament Rama Kishore Singh joining the RJD. Raghuvansh Prasad and Rama Kishore are Rajputs and bitter rivals. Kishore had defeated Raghuvansh Prasad in the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Vaishali.

Speculation was rife that Singh was set to join the Janata Dal (United). A day after quitting RJD, Singh had written to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar seeking an extension of MGNREGA benefits to the farm sector.

Singh has been in the political wilderness for some time, having lost two consecutive elections in 2014 and 2019 from Vaishali which he had represented in the Lok Sabha five times.

The former Professor with a PhD. in mathematics was part of the Union Cabinet for three terms.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a moving tribute to former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, saying his death has left a deep void

in Bihar and national politics.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi too expressed grief, saying with Singh's demise a strong voice of the village and farmers has been lost. "With the demise of Shri Raghuvansh Prasad Singh ji, a strong voice of the village and farmers has been lost forever. His service and dedication for the upliftment of villages and farmers and his struggle for social justice will always be remembered. My heartfelt tributes to him," Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.
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North Haven Police Department /

NORTH HAVEN  A 56-year-old man was arrested and charged Friday in connection with an alleged residential burglary on Upper State Street, according to North Haven police.

Robert Picagli, 56, was charged with third-degree burglary and second-degree larceny, police said on Facebook.
Pakistan using underground tunnels to push terrorists, drones to drop arms: J&K DGP

India

oi-Deepika S

Jammu, Sep 13: Pakistan is using cross-border underground tunnels to push terrorists into India and drones to drop weapons for them, the chief of Jammu and Kashmir police said Sunday.

Director General of Police Dilbag Singh, however, said the anti-infiltration grid is active and anti-tunnelling operations are underway to scuttle "nefarious designs".

"Digging of tunnels beneath the IB is part of the nefarious designs of Pakistan to facilitate infiltration of terrorists into this side to step up terrorism," Singh told reporters in Samba district after inspecting the recently discovered 170-metre tunnel at Galar village along the IB.

The tunnel with a depth of 20-25 feet and originating from Pakistan was found by a BSF team near the border-fencing on August 28.

"I saw this huge tunnel which is almost similar to the one detected in Chanyari in 2013-14. After the Nagrota encounter, we had received specific inputs that infiltration had taken place through a tunnel and was searching for it," the DGP said.

Three Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists were killed in the encounter in Nagrota in January this year.

"The investigation is on but the ground indicators suggest that the tunnel was used by Pakistan in the past to push infiltrators," he said but did not rule out the possibility of more such tunnels.

Hindi, Kashmiri and Dogri to become official languages of Jammu and Kashmir

He said BSF and police personnel are searching the area for any other tunnel.

On the recent recovery of sophisticated weapons, including an M-16 rifle, from a Kashmir-bound truck near Qazigund, he said the investigation is going on and it is believed that the arms were airdropped using drones in Samba sector.

Two overground workers of JeM, who were transporting the weapons in a truck, have identified the place in Samba from where they picked up the consignment for delivery to terrorists active in south Kashmir, officials said.

Asked about the possibility of presence of overground workers of terrorists in Jammu, Singh said the region has always been on the radar of Pakistan and it is evident from suicide attacks on military installations in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts over the years.

"We have made adequate deployment and are taking all necessary precautions to frustrate the designs of Pakistan both along the border and in the hinterland," he said.

Officials said the DGP reviewed the overall security situation, especially along the IB, in the district during his visit and was also briefed by senior police and BSF officers.

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Story first published: Sunday, September 13, 2020, 20:33 [IST]
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Two L.A. County Sheriff's deputies remain in critical condition Sunday after being shot multiple times around 7 p.m. Saturday while sitting in a patrol car parked near the Willowbrook Metro station in Compton, according to authorities. Both underwent surgery Saturday night.

The Sheriff's Department has announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person who shot the deputies. He is described as a male between the ages of 28-30.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva said one deputy was a 31-year-old mother of a six-year-old son. The other deputy is a 24-year-old male. The sheriff said both had been sworn into the department 14 months ago.

Villanueva said they called in the shooting themselves and were alert when taken to St. Francis Hospital in Lynwood.

According to the sheriff's department, the deputies were "ambushed as they sat in their patrol vehicle."

"I want everyone to have a prayer for them for their recovery at this time," said Villanueva at a Saturday night press conference.

The sheriff, clad in a bullet proof vest, expressed anger at the shooting.

"It pisses me off," he said. "This was a cowardly act."

He also suggested that the anti-police sentiment expressed during recent protests could have played a role in motivating the shooter.

"Words have consequences," Villanueva said.

The ambush also means deputies will have to be more on guard, he said. "We are going to have to look for these things, use the buddy system."

Not long after the news conference ended, some protesters arrived and confronted sheriff's deputies.

One man taunted a deputy, shouting: "It's a celebration! It's a celebration!"

As a small group of men appeared to film deputies with their phones, at least one deputy pointed a weapon at them.

One man is heard saying: "If you want to fire the shot, fire the shot."

KPCC/LAist reporter Josie Huang was arrested as she tried to document the deputies' arrest of one protester. She was charged with obstruction and released from custody hours later.

DEPUTIES ARE 'ALIVE AT THIS TIME'

Capt. Kent Wegener, who commands the department's homicide bureau, said at the news conference that one of the deputies was able to give a description of the gunman, saying the person who fired the weapon was male. He also cautioned that the video released by the department came from a fish-eye lens and may distort the height and weight of the person.

The MTA's many cameras around the train station likely will help investigators identify the assailant, Wegener said.

At this time, Wegener said 14 homicide detectives are working the case, in addition to other crime scene analysts.

Sheriff's officials last night tweeted out video of a person walking up to a patrol car and firing into the passenger window. The footage is grainy and shows a person approaching the car, firing a gun and then running away. The tweet from the main account for the sheriff's headquarters said:

"The gunman walked up on the deputies and opened fire without warning or provocation."





The video was retweeted by President Trump, who has nearly 86 million followers on Twitter and has taken a hard line on anti-police protests, pushing back on calls for reform. He has often talked about protesters in de-humanizing language, which was true again tonight. In his tweet Trump said: "Animals that must be hit hard!"

[Screenshot of the incident appears below. Warning: the video is not graphic but may be disturbing to watch.]

(Courtesy LASD)

Moments ago, 2 of our Sheriff Deputies were shot in Compton and were transported to a local hospital. They are both still fighting for their lives, so please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. We will update this thread with information as it becomes available.  LA County Sheriffs (@LASDHQ) September 13, 2020

The shooting, which occurred around 7 p.m. prompted an intense manhunt. Heavily armed deputies could be seen going door-to-door as darkness fell in the neighborhoods around the Metro station, where the shooting happened.

Deputies could also been seen using flashlights to search the ground in the immediate area, presumably looking for the assailant's gun or any other evidence that might lead them to the suspect.

SHOOTING COMES AMID PROTESTS

Use of force by law enforcement has been the focus of protests and calls by some activists to defund police departments since nationwide protests sparked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in May.

There have been numerous protests in recent days in L.A. over the fatal shootings of Black and Brown men by sheriff's deputies.

In the Compton area, two recent shooting by sheriff's deputies have sparked angry protests. In June, a deputy fatally shot Andres Guardado. An autopsy revealed Guardado, 18, had been shot five times in the back. The deputy claimed he had a gun. Last year, Ryan Twyman, 24, died after two deputies fired 34 times at him. Twyman was unarmed in his car.

A protest Saturday in Westmont, an unincorporated neighborhood northwest of Compton was peaceful. The families of Dijon Kizzee, 29, and Anthony Weber, 16 -- both fatally shot by deputies in Westmont -- spoke at that event.

This is a developing story. We will have more as information becomes available.

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After the BJP blamed the Maha Vikas Aghadi government for failing to defend Maratha reservation before the Supreme Court, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday said the state government will move the Supreme Court again on the issue of reservation. Urging Marathis to not take to the streets, the CM said the government and the opposition, too, are fighting for the cause.

Also Read | State failed in defending Maratha quota in Supreme Court: Fadnavis

All recent developments on Maratha quota issue

* On September 9, the Supreme Court stayed the implementation of the 2018 Maratha quota law of the state and referred the petitions challenging the law to a larger constitution bench.

* The Supreme Court in its order said Marathis do not need reservation. The state government has not shown any extraordinary situation which warrants the reservation.

* In the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Act, 2018, Maratha community was declared as a socially and educational backward class.

* Former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis blamed the state government for failing to present the case in front of the Apex Court. Tamil Nadu and our situation is the same. Despite that, while referring to the constitutional bench, the apex court didnt stay the reservation declared by them but in our case, it was stayed. We need to see where we lacked in explaining the case effectively before the apex court, Fadnavis said.

* The Supreme Court verdict is a major set back for the MVA government, which presently has around 64-65% reservation, including 12-13% Maratha quota.
The world has regularly paid too much attention to stupid but insignificant things Donald Trump has said or done.

We in Ireland (and Remainers in the UK) have often overreacted to some of Boris Johnson's Brexit decisions.

The furious response in recent days to his government's decision to breach the Brexit deal made with the European Union less than a year ago is both appropriate and proportionate.

Brandon Lewis, the UK's Northern Ireland minister, openly admitted in parliament that the government of which he is a part would not implement legal obligations as pertain to the North.

It was a truly extraordinary development. Among other things, it is a breach of trust that has returned Ireland-Britain relations back to the lows of the early 1980s.

A time when the Troubles were raging, and when Dublin and London had little, if any, common ground on a way forward.

Two former Conservative prime ministers, Theresa May and John Major, and a former party leader, Michael Howard, publicly criticised the move.

They rightly observed that it did great damage to Britain's standing in the world, both as a country with which to make deals and do business, and as a voice to criticise other countries in which the rule of law has no meaning in practice.

In Ireland and across the rest of the EU, the unilateral breach of an 11-month old agreement was met with near disbelief.

Even against a backdrop of a sustained and rapid deterioration in relations between Britain and its near neighbours in recent years, it is hard to overstate the additional damage the move has done.

Even if it turns out to be merely a negotiating tactic.

The actions of the British government bring Dublin's ultimate nightmare back into view - a no-deal exit followed by an EU obligation to put checks on the southern side of the Border.

It brings that nightmare back at a time when we are already living through the nightmare of a pandemic, and when it is clear that we will still be living with its awful reality at the beginning of next year, when the real rupture between the EU and UK takes place.

What motivated Boris Johnson and those in his party who support Brexit to back unilateral changes to the deal they agreed and voted through Westminster less than 12 months ago?

The conventional wisdom here, and among many Remainers in the UK, is that Brexiteers are motivated by imperial nostalgia.

This is wrong, and when one fails to understand one's neighbour, one is at greater risk of making errors in analysis, action and counter-action.

Those opposed to Brexit in Britain tend to lean to the left. The centre of political gravity in Ireland has moved squarely to the left - on both the role of government, and social and cultural issues.

The modern left, driven by its American avant garde, is obsessed with colonialism, empire and race.

The killing of George Floyd by a police officer in the US, on top of sudden mass unemployment created by the Covid crash and the most polarising president in modern American history, has caused the centre ground of American politics to weaken, if not collapse.

Conservatives are becoming reactionary and leftists are becoming more and more engulfed in identity politics.

As American ideas remain incredibly influential, they are exported across the Atlantic at lightning speed.

The colonial obsessions among many on the left have become even more strongly felt in recent months. There are growing calls to 'decolonise the curriculum' in universities and to tear down statues that are construed as having imperial connections - including statues outside Dublin's Shelbourne hotel.

As a growing number on the left today demonise anyone who does not share all of their views, they have also become less capable of listening to those who think and feel differently.

Those they dislike have long been labelled 'neo-liberals', a strawman term because nobody calls themselves a neo-liberal.

Hillary Clinton infamously described Trump supporters as "deplorables".

In Ireland and in Britain, those who favour Brexit - half of the UK population, including hundreds of thousands of people in Scotland and Wales - are all too readily labelled racists who yearn for a return to imperial times.

As someone who lived in Britain for a decade, as well as in five continental European countries, I find these characterisations well wide of the mark.

In my experience, racist comments are less common in Britain than in most other European countries. Perhaps because it has a longer experience of large-scale non-European immigration than most continental countries, and has grown more used to being a multi-racial, multi-cultural society.

A far better explanation for Brexit (which I have always viewed as bad for all involved) is British geography and history. Europe has been a source of insecurity for our neighbouring island for aeons.

From the Romans to the Normans, from mid-second millennium superpower Spain to the France of the Sun King and Napoleon, from the Nazis to the Soviets - threats have come from the continent. Being a semi-detached "scepter'd isle" has over the centuries been a source of security.

While Colonel Blimp types still exist, and they are well represented in the ranks of Brexiteers, insecurity and fear of continental domination is a much more important factor in the national psychology of the British (or, more particularly, the English and the Welsh) than the fashionable leftist view that imperial nostalgia drives Brexiteers.

It is often forgotten in Ireland, perhaps because our neighbour has been the hegemonic power in our small archipelago for a millennium, that the UK's period as a major European power has been relatively short, and is weakening rapidly.

Its time as a leading global power was (it is long over) even shorter - a single century from its emergence as a commercial superpower during the industrial revolution in the 19th century.

It is also worth noting that of all the European imperial powers, none dismantled its empire faster than the British.

And none of Britain's wars of the period came close to matching those of France or Portugal in bloodshed or duration, and that is true even if one were to include this island's Troubles as a war of decolonisation.

There has rightly been a great deal of anger and concern caused on this island by what the British government did last week.

It is entirely warranted. What happened was an act of bad faith the like of which has rarely been seen in diplomacy among European democracies.

Britain is tearing itself apart over Brexit. Attributing what is happening to one of the worst possible motives - a yearning to subjugate us and others - is not just an analytical error, it will inflame feelings if the worst happens on January 1. A no-deal rupture in less than four months will be an earthquake on this island.

It will destabilise the already fragile politics of Northern Ireland. It will do lasting damage to Ireland-Britain relations. It will put the Border centre stage. It will threaten Ireland's position in the EU's single market.

But misdiagnosing the reason for such a nightmare will help nobody, least of all the inhabitants of this island.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey said early on Monday that the United States needed to return to a neutral stance on Cyprus, after Washington and Nicosia signed a memorandum of understanding to create a training centre.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said earlier this month that the United States would lift a 33-year arms embargo on Cyprus and deepen its security cooperation with Nicosia.

During a visit to Cyprus, Pompeo said on Saturday that Washington remained "deeply concerned" about Turkey's actions in the eastern Mediterranean, where it is at a standoff with Greece and Cyprus over maritime areas thought to be rich in natural gas.

"The memorandum of understanding will not serve peace and stability in the eastern Mediterranean and will damage the solution of the Cyprus problem," Turkey's Foreign Ministry said.

It added that the recent steps by the United States increased the tensions in the eastern Mediterranean.

"We invite the U.S. to return to the neutrality policy it traditionally follows on the island of Cyprus and to contribute to the efforts aimed at the solution of the Cyprus issue," the ministry said.

The eastern Mediterranean island was split in a Turkish invasion in 1974 triggered by a brief Greek-inspired coup. Its internationally recognised Greek Cypriot government represents the whole island in the European Union, although its authority is effectively confined to the southern part. North Cyprus is a Turkish Cypriot state recognised only by Ankara.

Turkey has sent two survey vessels to separate areas in the region, drawing strong protests from both Cyprus and Greece, which say Ankara is operating on their respective continental shelves.

Turkey says it has a legitimate claim over the area. There is no agreement between Greece and Turkey delimiting their continental shelves, while Turkey disputes any claims by Cyprus, with which it has no diplomatic relations.

(Reporting by Ali Kucukgocmen; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 17:34:43|Editor: huaxia

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DHAKA, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh eased from Sunday air travel restrictions on domestic flights as the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) has issued updated guidelines.

In line with the updated guidelines, which also comply with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) rules, domestic flights operators are now allowed to carry passengers in all seats except the last two rows, on condition that airlines provide face shields to passengers.

CAAB Chairman Air Vice Marshal M Mafidur Rahman told journalists that the decision was taken following growing demands of passengers in domestic routes and as the COVID-19 situation is showing signs of abating in the country.

He, however, said operators have to keep at least two consecutive rows from the front/aft on any side (left/right) in economy class and at least one row in business class vacant for the use of COVID-19 suspected passengers.

Apart from them, the CAAB chief said operators shall provide face guards to all passengers occupying either on the aisle seat for two-seat rows or center seats in three-seat rows.

CAAB in its guidelines had earlier said operators have to keep at least 25 percent seats vacant on each flight to ensure proper social distancing.

In an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the country, since March 21, CAAB shut down all the domestic flights.

CAAB on June 1 permitted operation of all domestic flights maintaining social distancing and following health guidelines.

Flight operations on international routes from Bangladesh also resumed from June 16 on a limited scale.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 infections in Bangladesh totaled over 336,000, while fatalities stood at 4,702, according to the figures reported by the Directorate General of Health Services under the country's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday. Enditem
MINDEN, Nev. - Kicking off a Western swing, President Donald Trump barrelled into Nevada on Saturday looking to expand his paths to victory while unleashing a torrent of unsubstantiated claims that Democrats were trying to steal the election.

Trump defied local authorities by holding a rally in tiny Minden after his initial plan to hold one in Reno was stopped out of concern it would have violated coronavirus health guidelines. Unleashing 90-plus minutes of grievances and attacks, Trump claimed the states Democratic governor tried to block him and repeated his false claim that mail-in ballots would taint the election result.

This is the guy we are entrusting with millions of ballots, unsolicited ballots, and were supposed to win these states. Who the hell is going to trust him? Trump said of Gov. Steve Sisolak. The only way the Democrats can win the election is if they rig it.

As part of his ongoing crusade against mail-in voting, lawyers for the presidents reelection campaign are urging a federal judge in Las Vegas to block a state law and prevent mail-in ballots from going to all active Nevada voters less than eight weeks before the election.

Addressing a mostly mask-less crowd tightly packed together, Trump spoke in front of mountains draped in haze, the scent of smoke in the air from wildfires raging a state away in California. The president expressed his condolences to the victims but, declaring that I dont have to be nice anymore, focused on tearing into his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.

Trump claimed that the Democrats running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, would be president in about a month if Biden won, asserting that the former vice-president would be but a figurehead and that Harris would hold power. He claimed that the media would treat Biden like Winston Churchill if he was able to merely stand on the debate stage in three weeks. And embarking on a swing that would also include stops in Las Vegas and Phoenix, Trump mocked Bidens slower travel schedule. You know where he is now? He is in his damn basement again!

And, for good measure, Trump invoked his 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton, leading the crowd to launch into its traditional Lock Her Up! chant. The president claimed he usually tried to stop the chant but on Saturday declared, I dont care if you say it anymore and, breaking yet another norm of the office, suggested that Clinton should be in jail.

Trump also offered a fierce defence of his handling of the pandemic, which has killed more than 190,000 Americans and still claims nearly 1,000 lives a day. And he blamed Democratic governors across the nation, including Sisolak, for deliberately slowing the pace of reopening their states to hurt his election chances.

State Republicans claimed Sisolak tried to stop the rally, but the decision to cancel the Reno event was made by airport officials. Sisolak has limited in-person gatherings indoors and outdoors to 50 people since May, a recommendation based on White House reopening guidelines.

Privately, the Trump campaign welcomed the fight, believing it highlighted a reelection theme: Trumps insistence that the nation has turned the corner on the pandemic, while Democrats, including Biden and governors, are hurting the nations economy and psyche with stringent restrictions. Its the kind of political fight that Trumps team relishes and underscores the growing importance of Nevada in Trumps quest for 270 electoral votes as the race looks tight in a number of pivotal states.

Several thousand people covered the tarmac in Minden, including Tom Lenz, 64, of Sparks, Nevada, who said he didnt vote for Trump last time.

But I will this time. I think he knows what hes doing, said Lenz. Hes pro-faith, pro-life, hes made more peace in the world. Biden cant even talk.

Trump narrowly lost Nevada in 2016 to Clinton, and the state has trended further toward the Democrats in the past decade. But Trumps campaign has invested heavily in the state, relying on its ground game to turn out voters. Democrats, by contrast, have largely relied on virtual campaign efforts during the pandemic, save for the casino workers Culinary Union, which has sent workers door to door.

The White House announced Saturday that, while out west, Trump will also visit California on Monday to receive a briefing on the devastating wildfires racing through the region. He has largely been silent on the blazes, which Oregons emergency management director said was a possible mass fatality event.

Some Democrats fear a possible Trump momentum gain in Nevada, with the president showing increasing support from Latinos and non-college education white voters, two important constituencies in the state.

The tightening race in a number of the most contested states, including increasing concern on the presidents team about Arizona, has led to a renewed effort for Trump to expand his electoral map. Once considered fairly safely in Trumps column, Arizona has been ravaged by the coronavirus and the Trump team has grown worried about a slip in support among the states older residents.

If Arizona slips away, Trump campaign officials privately acknowledge that it would complicate his path to 270 electoral votes. If he loses Arizona, winning Wisconsin  the most likely Midwest state for Trump to retain  would not be enough even if he keeps Florida and North Carolina. It would require him to win somewhere else, which has led to a renewed focus on Minnesota, New Hampshire and the at-large congressional districts in Nebraska and Maine.

And Nevada has become a particular focus, with hopes of turning out huge numbers in rural areas, including Minden, population 3,000.

Everything he said he was going to do, he has at least tried to do, said Ron Falstad, a 67-year-old retired firefighter. Last time, everybody underestimated him. This time, you cant underestimate him. So they are trying to destroy his character.

Trump was hosting two fundraisers in Las Vegas on Sunday. The Republican National Committee said it expected to raise $18 million, which would be shared by Trumps campaign, the committee and several state GOP committees. Trump and Republicans raised $210 million in August, a robust sum but far behind the record $364.5 million taken in by Biden and his party that month.

___

APs Advance Voting guide brings you the facts about voting early, by mail or absentee from each state: https://interactives.ap.org/advance-voting-2020/
Other Bollywood stars should have come forward and dismissed Kangana Ranauts slander against Mumbai, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut has written in his column Rokhthok in party mouthpiece Saamana, terming the entire episode a conspiracy to defame Mumbai.

Taking Akshay Kumars name, in particular, the editorial questioned why other Bollywood actors who have earned name and fame in Mumbai are silent. Is Mumbai only for making money? Raut asked mincing no words.

Questioning the silence of the Bollywood fraternity, Sanjay Raut compared Bollywood with the Pandavas who maintained silence while Draupadi was disrobed.

Also Read | What Kangana Ranaut has said so far on joining politics

Commenting on the ongoing probe into the SSR death case by Mumbai Police, Kangana Ranaut had compared Mumbai/Bollywood with Pak-occupied-Kashmir, which triggered a long-drawn battle between Kangana and Shiv Sena. Kangana alleged that she had received threats from Sena leaders after her comments on Mumbai, following which she was provided Y-plus security by the Centre. The day she reached Mumbai from her hometown Manali, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation razed an allegedly illegal portion of her Mumbai office. The matter has reached the Bombay High Court, which stayed the demolition drive. Kangana is scheduled to meet Maharashtra Governor BS Koshyari on Sunday before she leaves the city.

While the Maha Vikas Aghadi government of Maharashtra has distanced itself from the ongoing controversy, Shiv Sena is carrying forward the battle riding on Maratha pride. Those who come to Mumbai to try their luck in this industry first stay on the footpath and then shift to Juju, Pali Hill and Malabar Hill to build their bungalows. All these people have always been grateful to the city and the state which allowed them to chase their dreams and make it big. They have never betrayed Mumbai but have also contributed to the growth of the city, Saamanas Saturday editorial noted.
Local culture and heritage companies urged to find out if they are eligible for Welsh Government support

This article is old - Published: Sunday, Sep 13th, 2020

Wrexham-based organisations in the culture and heritage sector can find out if they are eligible to apply for financial support from a new multimillion pound scheme.

Local Member of the Senedd, Lesley Griffiths is encouraging relevant organisations to apply for a share of the Welsh Governments 53 million Cultural Recovery Fund.

The aim of the fund is to help support and sustain Wales cultural industry in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The funding will be delivered via three main pathways. A new 18.5m fund intends to provide essential support to music venues, heritage sites, museums, archives, libraries, events and their technical support suppliers, and independent cinemas who have all experienced a dramatic loss of revenue due to the pandemic.

An eligibility checker is available online and organisations will be able to make applications from 14 September. The closing date for applications is 30 September.

A separate element of the Cultural Recovery Fund, worth 27.5m, is being delivered through the Arts Council of Wales to support theatres and galleries.

This fund was launched 17 August with details available on the Arts Councils website.

Finally, 7m of funding will support individual freelancers in these sectors. The Welsh Government is expected to provide further details in the near future.

Wrexhams MS Lesley Griffiths said: Our cultural industry is critical to our way of life but it has suffered drastically during the pandemic.

This vital Welsh Government funding will help safeguard its survival, ensuring organisations and individuals overcome the crisis.

With the eligibility checker now available online, I encourage all local companies and organisations who may be entitled to support to check and prepare ahead of the full application process opening next week.
Song said that in the first month of the pandemic, some of her OCD patients actually reported feeling less anxious. Because more people in the world recognized a threat  that is, the novel coronavirus  they would say things along the lines of, I know that other people are taking care of it, so the burden is not on me, she said. But within three months into the new pandemic reality, general levels of anxiety and depression had risen.
Klark Byrd is the managing editor of The Paris News. He can be reached at 903-785-6960 or klark.byrd@theparisnews.com.

Julia Furukawa is the assistant managing editor of The Paris News. She can be reached at 903-785-8744 or julia.furukawa@theparisnews.com
Joseph Scott Pemberton is escorted by immigration officers and US personnel as he arrives at the airport in Manila - AFP

A US marine convicted of killing a transgender woman in the Philippines was deported on Sunday after being pardoned by President Rodrigo Duterte.

Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton was halfway through his maximum 10-year prison term for the 2014 murder when Mr Duterte this week unexpectedly ordered his release, drawing condemnation from rights groups.

Escorted by US military personnel, the 25-year-old boarded a US military plane at Manila airport, the Philippine Bureau of Immigration said.

"Pemberton wishes to express his deepest gratitude to President Duterte for granting him an absolute pardon. He is extremely grateful for this act of compassion," his lawyer Rowena Flores said in a statement.

Ms Flores said Pemberton extends his "sincere sympathy for the pain he caused" to the family of his victim Jennifer Laude, the first formal apology from the marine.

"He wishes he had the words to express the depth of his sorrow and regret," she added.

Pemberton met Laude in October 2014 in a bar in the northwestern city of Olongapo after a joint US-Philippine military exercise.

During the trial, a lower court heard that Pemberton and Laude agreed to have sex but the drunken marine turned violent when he discovered Laude still had male genitals.

The lawyer for Laude's family condemned the pardon, which has renewed anti-American sentiment in the former US colony.

"May he find peace of mind. [I'm] hoping he has learned from all [this] the value of life and dignity regardless of gender and nationality," lawyer Virginia Suarez told AFP.

As part of his deportation to the United States, Pemberton is now banned from entering the Philippines for being a "risk to public safety", the immigration bureau added.
As Chair of ASEAN 2020, Vietnam made the response to COVID-19 a top priority of the 53rd ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM 53) and related meetings, according to Dr Balazs Szanto from Webster University Thailand.

He said the bloc needs a common approach that is acceptable to all sides involved and takes into consideration the benefits of member nations.

Dr Balazs Szanto from Webster University Thailand

At the event, economic and trade cooperation also received a significant attention, he noted, adding that it is key to economic recovery of the region after it has been hit by the pandemic and a global economic downturn.

Regarding the security matter, the Dr said Vietnam is holding an important role as a party claiming territorial sovereignty in the East Sea. By leading ASEAN, the nation has the conditions to push for the formation of a stronger common voice of the bloc on the issue, he stressed.

According to him, in the Joint Communique of the AMM 53, ASEAN reiterated its commitment to building a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) and respecting and sustaining the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC). Based on current developments, he said the bloc is likely to push for an effective COC and apply it practically.

The expert highlighted Vietnams positive initiatives as the ASEAN Chair, adding that they place regional economic recovery at the centre. Despite COVID-19 impacts, member nations have overcome challenges and gradually built a common response mechanism for an unprecedented difficulty by setting up a regional fund for COVID-19 response as well as boosting cooperation on health and regional linkage.

Intra-bloc connection is a priority in Vietnams agenda this year, he said, adding that in spite of the pandemic's impacts, ASEAN has demonstrated its solidarity.

He went on to say the crisis is an opportunity for the bloc to prove its central role and show its true value in regional cooperation and development matters.

VNA
FILE PHOTO: Buildings damaged by Hurricane Laura are seen in an aerial photograph in Lake Charles

HOUSTON (Reuters) - U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil producers on Saturday evacuated offshore facilities as a tropical storm brewing off the Florida coast was forecast to strengthen into a hurricane and threaten the prime oil region.

Chevron Corp and Murphy Oil Corp on Saturday started removing workers from offshore oil and gas platforms. Royal Dutch Shell, BHP, BP and Hess Corp said they were monitoring the storm and prepared to take action if needed.

Tropical storm Sally crossed the tip of Florida overnight and moved into the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The latest forecast by the National Hurricane Center calls for its maximum sustained winds to reach 80 miles per hour (129 kph) ahead of landfall next week. https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCDAT4+shtml/121459.shtml

Chevron has begun evacuating all staff from its Blind Faith and Petronius platforms and initiated shut-in procedures, a spokeswoman said, while production at its other offshore platforms was unaffected.

Murphy Oil was preparing to evacuate non-essential personnel from its most easterly facilities and monitoring the storm for potential impact on other properties, a spokeswoman said.

U.S. Gulf of Mexico offshore oil production accounts for about 17% of U.S. crude oil production and 5% of total U.S. natural gas production. As much as 1.5 million barrels per day of oil output was shut last month as Hurricane Laura tore through the Gulf of Mexico.

Sally was forecast to strengthen in the next several days and head for an area between southeastern Louisiana and Alabama.

If Sally becomes a hurricane, it would be the second to hit the U.S. Gulf Coast in less than a month. Hurricane Laura struck Louisiana with devastating, 150 mph winds, leveling coastal towns and putting two oil refineries out of commission for weeks.

(Reporting by Gary McWilliams; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Leslie Adler)
Tropical Storm Sally is expected to strengthen into a category 2 hurricane as it approaches Louisiana, with governor John Bel Edwards to request a federal declaration from Donald Trump ahead of landfall on Tuesday.

Hurricane-force winds, life-threatening storm surges and flash flooding is forecast for much of southeast Louisiana, as well as Mississippis coastal and southern regions.

Mr Edwards said at a press conference on Sunday that Sally has shifted slightly west, bringing more of the state into its path, including parts of the New Orleans metro area.

The governor spoke to Donald Trump on Sunday morning and said he would submit a request for a pre-landfall federal declaration later today.

"We have really good reason to be very concerned about this storm, particularly because it will be a very slow-moving storm, Mr Edwards said.

Everybody should take this seriously, please understand that you should be moving now, acting now to get you and your family ready for this storm.

The storm is expected to move further inland on Tuesday and into Tuesday night with winds up to 90 mph as it reaches category 2 status, according to the National Weather Services National Hurricane Centre.

Sally, which formed off Floridas coast in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, is the earliest 18th named storm of an Atlantic hurricane season, coming almost three weeks earlier than the previous recorde set by Stan on 2 October, 2005, according to meteorologist Philip Klotzbach.

In declaring a state of emergency on Saturday, Mr Edwards implored residents to take preparations seriously.

Barely two weeks ago, Louisiana suffered a devastating blow when Hurricane Laura came ashore as the strongest hurricane ever to make landfall in Louisiana history, leaving a trail of destruction in its path," Mr Edwards said.

Hurricane Laura killed at least 26 people after battering southwest Louisiana on 27 August, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.

More than 100,000 homes and businesses remain without power while the Red Cross says more than 20,000 people still havent returned home. At least 7,200 homes were either destroyed or suffered major damage.

Tropical Storm Sally is in front of a number of storms currently being tracked in the Atlantic, including Paulette, which has strengthened from a Tropical Storm to a Hurricane and is expected to move toward Bermuda by Monday morning. Tropical Depression Renee and Tropical Depression Twenty are also being tracked, with the latter expected reach hurricane strength by 15 September.
Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) have conducted a study that has determined the role that a critical protein plays in the development of hair cells. These hair cells are vital for hearing. Some of these cells amplify sounds that come into the ear, and others transform sound waves into electrical signals that travel to the brain.

Ronna Hertzano, MD, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery at UMSOM and Maggie Matern, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, demonstrated that the protein, called GFI1, may be critical for determining whether an embryonic hair cell matures into a functional adult hair cell or becomes a different cell that functions more like a nerve cell or neuron.

The study was published in the journal Development, and was conducted by physician-scientists and researchers at the UMSOM Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery and the UMSOM Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS), in collaboration with researchers at the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University in Israel.

Hearing relies on the proper functioning of specialized cells within the inner ear called hair cells. When the hair cells do not develop properly or are damaged by environmental stresses like loud noise, it results in a loss of hearing function.

In the United States, the prevalence of hearing loss doubles with every 10-year increase in age, affecting about half of all adults in their 70s and about 80 percent of those who are over age 85. Researchers have been focusing on describing the developmental steps that lead to a functional hair cell, in order to potentially generate new hair cells when old ones are damaged.

Hair cells in the inner ear

To conduct her latest study, Dr. Hertzano and her team utilized cutting-edge methods to study gene expression in the hair cells of genetically modified newborn mice that did not produce GFI1. They demonstrated that, in the absence of this vital protein, embryonic hair cells failed to progress in their development to become fully functional adult cells. In fact, the genes expressed by these cells indicated that they were likely to develop into neuron-like cells.

Our findings explain why GFI1 is critical to enable embryonic cells to progress into functioning adult hair cells. These data also explain the importance of GFI1 in experimental protocols to regenerate hair cells from stem cells. These regenerative methods have the potential of being used for patients who have experienced hearing loss due to age or environmental factors like exposure to loud noise." Dr. Ronna Hertzano, MD, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery at UMSOM

Dr. Hertzano first became interested in GFI1 while completing her M.D., Ph.D. at Tel Aviv University. As part of her dissertation, she discovered that the hearing loss resulting from mutations in another protein called POU4F3 appeared to largely result from a loss of GFI1 in the hair cells. Since then, she has been conducting studies to discover the role of GFI1 and other proteins in hearing. Other research groups in the field are now testing these proteins to determine whether they can be used as a "cocktail" to regenerate lost hair cells and restore hearing.

"Hearing research has been going through a Renaissance period, not only from advances in genomics and methodology, but also thanks to its uniquely collaborative nature among researchers," said Dr. Herzano.

The new study was funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It was also funded by the Binational Scientific Foundation (BSF).

"This is an exciting new finding that underscores the importance of basic research to lay the foundation for future clinical innovations," said E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, UM Baltimore, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean, University of Maryland School of Medicine. "Identifying the complex pathways that lead to normal hearing could prove to be the key for reversing hearing loss in millions of Americans."
The latest supplementary charge sheet in Delhi riots case has triggered a controversy, as it names CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury as well as academicians and activists like Jayati Ghosh, Yogendra Yadav and Apoorvanand. Delhi Police has clarified that none of these people are named as accused and they figure in a disclosure statement by an accused. However, many are not buying this argument and believe it is a precursor to taking action. Yechury spoke to DH's Shemin Joy on this issue.

Q. One of the charge sheets on Delhi riots has mentioned you as among the "big leaders" who "provoked and mobilised" crowds during the protests against Citizenship Amendment Act. How do you respond to this?

First of all, what is the connection between my address at a peaceful meeting opposing the CAA? It is the stated position of my party that we are opposed to the CAA. Secondly, 56 people have died in the Delhi riots in February. Who is responsible for this? Where are the charge sheets against those people? Thirdly, this is a motivated orchestrated effort to link the anti-CAA protests with the Delhi riots. There is no action against those who gave hate speeches, including Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur and BJP leader Kapil Mishra, which instigated the violence. These are widely documented but no action has been taken. In fact, if there is any cause behind this violence, it is this. Nothing has been done on that. The fourth point is that exercising the right to peaceful protest is the essence of the Indian Constitution. Defending the Constitution, which is what the anti-CAA movement was about, is not only our right, it is also the duty of any political leader.

Q. Delhi Police say that you have not been named as accused. How do you respond?

How did this charge sheet come into the public domain? Why did the police put this up just days before the convening of the Monsoon Session of Parliament? Delhi Police is brazenly acting under Home Minister Amit Shah to implicate us in connection with the communal violence. Polices illegitimate, illegal actions are a direct outcome of the politics of BJPs top leadership. The BJP government is scared of questions in Parliament, in the media and RTI. The Prime Minister cannot hold a press conference or answer RTIs about his private fund or show his degree. They think they can silence political opposition by blatant misuse of State power. We fought the Emergency, we will defeat this too.

Q. So, you see a political link to this?

Yes, the Delhi Police is working under the directions of Home Minister Amit Shah. It is a political orchestration that the MHA, which means the political leadership in the country, which means the BJP government, is doing. This is an act of crude partisanship and vengeance. The BJP-RSS is scripting its own narrative of organised communal violence. It is clear that the BJP-RSS has gone about to portray Delhi riots being a 'deep-rooted conspiracy' by anti-CAA protesters.

Q. You are a vocal critic of the Narendra Modi government, especially on the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and the economy. Do you think you have been singled out because of your views?

This government has a large number of issues which are inconvenient to them, which I keep raising. What we are raising is in defence of the Indian Constitution and its values. What they are doing is undermining this very Constitution. There are a large number of issues they like to skirt. The Covid-19 pandemic and destruction of the economy is the immediate backdrop on which they want to silence me. They are scared of legitimate peaceful protests by mainstream political parties and are misusing state power to target the Opposition. BJP's illegal intimidation won't stop people from opposing discriminatory laws like CAA. To assert that all Indians are equal irrespective of their religion, caste, colour, creed, region, gender and political affiliations is not only our right but our duty. We will exercise it.

Q. Are you suggesting that there is a pattern in this?

The charge sheet exposes the current pattern of how the MHA is operating. This is in line with the growing pattern of the most blatant abuse of the police and other central agencies like CBI, NIA, ED to frame prominent opponents and demonise them. Mention the name of somebody in somebody else's charge sheet. Procure an order from the lower court to frame charges against all those who are named and then proceed to register cases against them. This is exactly what they did in the Bhima Koregaon case. All those who are in jail under UAPA in this case, whether it is Varavara Rao, Gautam Navlakha, Sudha Bharadwaj, Anand Teltumbde etc, all were victims of the same pattern. This exactly the same pattern which they used to take action against Harsh Mander.

Q. Are you seeing the latest charge sheet as a precursor to preparing the ground to take action against you?

Absolutely. This is a political witch-hunt. They want to silence all those who are critical of this government.

Q. How do you analyse the Delhi Police investigations into the riots?

It is clearly motivated. They are working under the directions of the MHA and BJP. Delhi Police is furthering the narrative of its political masters. You are investigating the riots, which is one-way communal violence. Now, instead of investigating that aspect, you are picking up all those who are involved with anti-CAA protests by orchestrating a connection. They are trying to say that anti-CAA protests are responsible for the riots, which itself is a complete fabrication. Riots were caused by very very obnoxious hate speeches and calls for violence. Hate speech videos by those who instigated violence which led to the death of 56 persons in Delhi are on record. The person who led violent mobs in JNU is also on video. The BJP government and Delhi Police under it, cannot see those because it is hell-bent on destroying our democracy. This is the real 'chehra, charitra, chaal and chintan' of Modi and his BJP. Nothing is being done against those people who gave hate speeches. Instead, all peacefully protesting people are being picked up. Even there, there is communal profiling.
Republican lawmakers urge DOJ to investigate Netflix for distribution of child porn in Cuties

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Sen. Ted Cruz has joined other Republicans in Congress in urging the Department of Justice to investigate Netflix to find out whether it violated any federal laws by distributing the French film Cuties, that many say sexualizes underage girls and promotes the normalization of pedophilia.

The film sexualizes young girls, including through dance scenes that simulate sexual activities and a scene exposing a minors bare breast, notes the Texas Republican in his letter to Attorney General Bill Barr on Friday.

Cruz has urged the Department of Justice to investigate the production and distribution of this film to determine whether Netflix, its executives or the individuals involved in the filming and production of Cuties violated any federal laws against the production and distribution of child pornography.

The senator further warned, " ... it is likely that the filming of this movie created even more explicit and abusive scenes, and that pedophiles across the world in the future will manipulate and imitate this film in abusive ways."

The DOJ, Cruz added, has a significant role in preventing the sexual abuse of children. The Department enforces federal criminal law making it a serious crime to produce or distribute material involving the sexual exploitation of minors, including the filming of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

Also on Friday, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, and Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, also demanded an investigation by the DOJ.

Theres no excuse for the sexualization of children, and Netflixs decision to promote the film Cuties is disgusting at best and a serious crime at worst, Cotton told the Daily Caller. I urge the Department of Justice to take action against Netflix for their role in pushing explicit depictions of children into American homes.

Banks was quoted as saying: As a father of young daughters, I find it sickening. Not only is this movie fodder for pedophiles, it encourages very young girls to defy their parents wishes and share pornographic images of themselves with strangers. Our culture has come a long way in recent years, recognizing the power of television, movies and magazines to affect young girls.

On Saturday, Banks wrote on Twitter: Glad to join [Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.,] in calling on the DOJ to bring charges against Netflix for distribution of child pornography.

A Netflix spokesperson has defended the film.

Cuties is a social commentary against the sexualization of young children, the spokesperson was quoted as saying. Its an award winning film and a powerful story about the pressure young girls face on social media and from society more generally growing up  and wed encourage anyone who cares about these important issues to watch the movie.

In response, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., suggested Netflix executives testify in front of the U.S. Senate. Maybe @Netflix would like to come talk this over before Congress, Hawley wrote on Twitter Thursday.

Aja Romano, who's on the culture staff at the far-left site Vox, said last week that she considered the movie a wonderful, poignant, challenging and nuanced coming-of-age film, smartly crafted by a wonderful director and dismissed the controversy around it as propaganda fueled by QAnon types and anti-Semites.

Im frankly delighted by a bunch of bigots settling in with pitchforks to flame the pedophile movie and discovering this lovely subtle story about girls battling fraught gender roles, she added.

Many Twitter users have likened the film to child porn and said they would no longer subscribe to the online streaming service and urged others to do likewise, accompanied by a #cancelnetflix hashtag, which was the top trending topic on social media last week.

Last month, thousands of people urged Netflix to pull the film. It didn't pull the film and only apologized for the artwork it used to promote the movie.

Were deeply sorry for the inappropriate artwork that we used for Mignonnes/Cuties. It was not OK, nor was it representative of this French film which won an award at Sundance. Weve now updated the pictures and description, Netflix said in a statement posted on Twitter last month.

The apology came after more than 150,000 people signed a change.org petition, calling on Netflix to remove the film.
Here are todays leading news stories:

Politics

-- Up to 42 documents have been adopted within the framework of the 53rd ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting and Related Meetings held from September 9 to 12 via videoconference, a record in the history of ASEAN foreign ministers meetings, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

Society

-- Vietnams novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) tally stands at 1,060, with 910 having recovered and 35 deaths on Sunday morning, according to Ministry of Health statistics.

-- Two suspects have been arrested for stealing a ship weighing 180 metric tons in the northern province of Thai Binh and bringing the vessel to northern Hai Duong Province to sell its parts.

-- A 48-year-old man and 55-year-old woman have been sentenced to 5.5 years and 3.5 years in prison, respectively, for pickpocketing passengers at a busy bus station in Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City.

-- Prolonged downpours have resulted in landslides that damaged four schools in Bao Thang District, located in the northern province of Lao Cai, authorities confirmed on Saturday.

-- The Nghia Ky landfill, the largest in the central province of Quang Ngai, resumed its operations on Saturday after a two-year shutdown. Local residents began blocking garbage trucks from entering the landfill in July 2018 as their lives were seriously affected by pollution brought about by the dumpsite.

Business

-- Local experts believed that Vietnam will reach its export target for timber and wooden products at US$12 billion this year, despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The country's export value of timber and wood products in August was estimated at $1.15 billion, up by 21.7 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

World News

-- More than 28.3 million people have been infected with COVID-19 while over 20.3 million patients have recovered from the disease around the world, according to the Vietnamese Ministry of Health's figures. Over 914,100 patients have lost their lives to the virus.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - With many teachers opting out of returning to the classroom because of the coronavirus, schools around the U.S. are scrambling to find replacements and in some places lowering certification requirements to help get substitutes in the door.

Several states have seen surges in educators filing for retirement or taking leaves of absence. The departures are straining staff in places that were dealing with shortages of teachers and substitutes even before the pandemic created an education crisis.

Among those leaving is Kay Orzechowicz, an English teacher at northwest Indianas Griffith High School, who at 57 had hoped to teach for a few more years. But she felt her school's leadership was not fully committed to ensuring proper social distancing and worried that not enough safety equipment would be provided for students and teachers.

Add the technology requirements and the pressure to record classes on video, and Orzechowicz said it "just wasnt what I signed up for when I became a teacher."

"Overall, there was just this utter disrespect for teachers and their lives," she said. "Were expected to be going back with so little." When school leaders said teachers would be "going back in-person, full throttle, thats when I said, `Im not doing it. No."

Teachers in at least three states have died after bouts with the coronavirus since the start of the new school year. Its unclear how many teachers in the U.S. have become ill with COVID-19, but Mississippi alone reported 604 cases among teachers and staff.

Kay Orzechowicz poses Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020, for a portrait at her Griffith, Ind., home. After 35 years of teaching, Orzechowicz said COVID-19 "pushed her over the edge" to retire from northwest Indiana's Griffith High School at the end of July. Turning 58 in October, Orzechowicz had hoped to keep teaching for a few more years before retiring from the classroom. But after the pandemic intensified in March, the English teacher said her concerns about holding out mounted. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

In cases where teachers are exposed to the virus, they could face pressure to return to the classroom. The Trump administration has declared teachers to be "critical infrastructure workers" in guidance that could give the green light to exempting them from quarantine requirements.

Throughout Indiana, more than 600 teacher retirements have been submitted since July, according to state data. Although the state gets most of its teacher retirements during the summer, surveys suggest more retirements than usual could happen as the calendar year progresses, said Trish Whitcomb, executive director of the Indiana Retired Teachers Association.

"Ive gotten more (teachers) calling me back saying, `Well, Im going to go ahead and retire," Whitcomb said. "Some still wanted to go back in the classroom, but they didnt think the risk was worth it. They looked at their grandkids and the life they have, and I think theyre saying, `Im just not going to do it."

In Salt Lake County, Utah, the state's most populated metropolitan area, more than 80 teachers have either resigned or retired early because of concerns about COVID-19 in schools. More than half of those happened in one of the county's five school districts, Granite School District. All of the district's teachers who left were fined $1,000 for failing to give 30 days' notice.

Mike McDonough, president of the Granite Education Association teachers union, said the departures stem from frustration over how the schools have reopened. In Granite, most students will return to in-person instruction for four days a week, and there are few opportunities for teachers to instruct solely online.

Some teachers waited until the last minute, hoping that the district would change its reopening plan. But checking out of the classroom was "the only way to keep themselves safe," he said.

"Teachers are still scared and overwhelmed," McDonough said. "I have heard from teachers that are just heartbroken to leave the classroom, but they didnt feel safe going back. They dont want that level of risk, and they have no other choice but to get out."

Education leaders in states including Arizona, Kansas, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Texas have said they are bracing for worsening teacher shortages as the pandemic drives away some educators.

To try to maintain staffing levels in classrooms, the Missouri Board of Education made it easier to become a substitute teacher under an emergency rule. Instead of the previous requirement - 60 hours of college credit - eligible substitutes now only need to obtain a high school diploma, complete a 20-hour online training course and pass a background check.

Iowa responded similarly, relaxing coursework requirements and the minimum working age for newly hired substitutes.

In Connecticut, college students have been asked to step in as substitutes. Michele Femc-Bagwell, director of the teacher education program at the University of Connecticut, said the school has been getting requests to use fifth-year graduate students as substitute teachers. Heavy class loads and internship responsibilities, though, limit their availability to one day a week.

Many who work as substitutes are retired teachers such as 67-year-old Margaret Henderson, of Phoenix, who said she will not return as she had planned.

"I dont want to get called into a classroom where a teacher has called out because of the virus or to quarantine. ... And we know thats going to happen more and more," Henderson said. "There are still uncertainties about the safety of reopening the school buildings. Can you blame (substitutes) for not wanting to go in?"

In rural Iowas Hinton Community Schools, Hinton High School Principal Phil Goetstouwers said the school is already down to a third of the substitute teachers it had last year. More than half of those are also willing to sub in other districts, he said, making it even more troublesome when teachers are absent.

Allen Little, who retired as a math teacher in Sioux City, Iowa, this past spring, said the "complexities" of teaching during the pandemic made him decide to retire three years earlier than he had planned. Although he anticipated returning to work as a part-time substitute this fall, fears about the virus are holding him back. He encouraged his son, who is studying to be a social studies teacher and who considered getting experience as a substitute, to weigh the risks carefully.

"Were thinking about students, our schools, our community with every decision we make," Little said. "But we also have to think about ourselves and our families. Whats best for us, maybe more and more of us ... is not being inside the classrooms right now."

___

Associated Press Writer Pat Eaton-Robb contributed to this report from Hartford, Connecticut.

___

Casey Smith is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Kay Orzechowicz poses Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020, for a portrait with the family dog Buddy, at her Griffith, Ind., home. After 35 years of teaching, Orzechowicz said COVID-19 "pushed her over the edge" to retire from northwest Indiana's Griffith High School at the end of July. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Kay Orzechowicz poses Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020, for a portrait at her Griffith, Ind., home. After 35 years of teaching, Orzechowicz said COVID-19 "pushed her over the edge" to retire from northwest Indiana's Griffith High School at the end of July. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Niagara Regional Police have released some good news.

After asking an unidentified woman to return an officers badge lost in St. Catharines, the NRP reported Sunday the item had been returned.

No other details were provided.

An NRP detective lost the badge at Walmart at 525 Welland Ave. at about 2:30 p.m. Thursday when he dropped his wallet in the parking lot.

Video surveillance showed a woman picking up the badge and leaving the area. Police issued a press release asking for the woman to return the lost property.

Read more about:
Toronto police are looking for a 22-year-old suspect following a Fashion District stabbing early Sunday morning which landed one man in the hospital.

Police received reports of the stabbing and possible robbery in the area of Richmond Street and Brant Street at around 12:30 a.m. and located a man with multiple wounds. They say the fight followed a verbal confrontation.

Police say Cyrus Alaei is wanted on charges of aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, and failing to comply with a release order.

The suspect is described as 52 with a medium build was spotted fleeing on foot towards Spadina Avenue.

He was last seen wearing a black toque and black hooded sweatshirt, say police. He is considered violent and dangerous. If located, do not approach, call 9-1-1 immediately.

This is the second stabbing in the area over the weekend. Hours earlier, at 6:30 p.m. at Portland Street and Rush Lane a man was taken to hospital with serious injuries. He is now in stable condition.

With files from Kevin Jiang

Kevin Jiang is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Stars radio room in Toronto. Reach him via email: kjiang@thestar.ca
'We Back Blue' Marchers Rally In Support Of Kansas City Police Marchers demonstrated their support for police on Saturday during a mile-long walk in Kansas City promoted by We Back Blue, a national organization supporting law enforcement. About 140 people waved signs and thin-blue-line flags and carried photos of fallen officers as they marched from Washington Square Park to police headquarters downtown in a peaceful but animated procession.

Special request link from a cop TKC reader who is also a progressive and local public radio listener . . . Here's the NPR consideration of more locals hitting the streets for the po-po as (thankfully) demographics don't always influence politics.Read more:
A large number of L.A. County sheriff's deputies converged on the area surrounding St. Francis Medical Center, where two sheriff's deputies are being treated after being shot. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles County sheriffs deputies arrested a public-radio reporter as she covered protests that had erupted outside a hospital where two deputies were being treated for gunshot wounds suffered Saturday evening in an "ambush" attack.

The incident drew widespread condemnation from journalism organizations and prompted the sheriff's chief watchdog to launch an investigation.

The reporter, Josie Huang, of KPCC and LAist, was taken into custody outside St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood and released hours later. She received a citation for allegedly violating the obstruction law, Penal Code Section 148.

Thats what surprises me the most is that once she was identified as a reporter that they transported her, that they cited her," L.A. County Inspector Gen. Max Huntsman said Sunday. The independent monitor oversees investigations into actions by the Sheriff's Department.

The incident came a day after sheriff's deputies in riot gear surrounded a news conference being held by activists. The speakers were condemning the department's use of force against demonstrators who have been gathering regularly to protest the killing of Dijon Kizzee by deputies in South Los Angeles last month. At Friday's event, one sheriff's official grabbed a legal observer who had been filming him. When the news conference ended, the deputies ordered those attending, including reporters, to leave the area.

The inspector general's office has opened investigations into the department's conduct at the news conference, as well as its arrest of Huang, Huntsman said.

"Those two incidents are of concern to us because 1st Amendment rights are absolutely critical to the publics respect of law enforcement," he said. "And so we feel that requires immediate investigation."

The office doesnt have the power to prosecute or bring a lawsuit against the department, but its purpose is to provide information to the public. How long that may take is uncertain, Huntsman said.

Story continues

We have requested information from the Sheriffs Department, he said. They have of late not cooperated in investigations of themselves so we do not anticipate their cooperation, and that makes things more difficult.

Huang wrote in a series of tweets that she had been trailing behind deputies as they followed a man down the street when she saw a commotion ahead of her. The deputies had pinned the man down in the street and were arresting him. As she filmed the arrest, deputies shouted at her to back up and then shoved her, she said.

Video posted by KABC-TV Channel 7 showed multiple deputies then pinning Huang to the ground and handcuffing her.

We saw one of the radio reporters that was here at the scene, she had rushed up to the police line there to see what was going on when she was suddenly taken down by the deputies, said ABC7 reporter Leanne Suter. We are not exactly sure what happened there, why they tackled her and put her into a patrol car, but that happened.

Demonstrators had gathered outside the hospital where two Los Angeles County sheriffs deputies were recovering from surgery. Both were critically wounded after being shot Saturday evening in Compton in what authorities described as an ambush that was captured on surveillance video.

The Sheriff's Department's relationship with the community has remained tense in the wake of several deputy-involved shootings, including the killing of Kizzee as he rode a bicycle in the Westmont neighborhood of South L.A. An attorney for Kizzees family has said he was shot at 15 times as he ran away.

On Thursday, sheriffs detectives shot and killed a man who they said opened fire on them as they served a search warrant in Compton.

In June, video surfaced of three sheriff's deputies beating a man who was handcuffed and lying face down on the pavement, sparking outrage and prompting Compton city leaders to call for the deputies immediate removal.

We are tired of dodging sheriffs cars that have no regard for traffic laws or personal property, being snatched out of our cars, having our vehicles illegally searched, being threatened and intimidated, beaten and in some cases murdered, Compton Mayor Aja Brown said at a news conference.

In the wake of Saturday's shooting, Brown said she was "devastated to learn of the tragedy" and that the city would be working with the Sheriff's Department to find and arrest those responsible.

The Sheriff's Department said on Twitter that some of the protesters blocked entrances and exits of the hospital Saturday, but that could not be independently verified.

Video from the scene shows a small group of people approaching a driveway leading to the hospital before security officers block them from entering the campus. The security officers are then replaced by sheriff's deputies, at least one of whom points a weapon at the group while some of those gathered shout obscenities and call the deputies names. Huang can also be seen approaching the group and asking for an interview.

The situation becomes more tense as sheriff's deputies order people to back up and then begin shoving them. One deputy appears to strike a man with a baton.

Deputies were trying to arrest a protester who refused to comply with an order to disperse, the department tweeted, when Huang ran towards the deputies, ignored repeated commands to stay back as they struggled with the male and interfered with the arrest.

The department said that Huang did not identify herself as a member of the media and lacked proper press credentials.

That account was directly contradicted by videos Huang shared on Twitter, which showed that she did not intervene in the man's arrest but instead was filming from a distance. As deputies take her to the ground, she can clearly be heard identifying herself as a reporter with KPCC and screaming for help.

"After my phone drops, it keeps recording and it captures two deputies damaging my phone by kicking and stepping on it," she wrote. "I can hear myself in the background shouting: 'You guys are hurting me' and 'Stop it.'"

As Huang was being put into the patrol car, she could be seen wearing a lanyard around her neck with a badge attached to it.

The Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists said in a statement that it was deeply troubled by news reports and on-the-scene video that details what clearly seems to be inappropriate use of force to subdue and arrest Huang.

SPJ/LA takes special note that this is at least the second time that a journalist of color from this news organization was mistreated and injured while reporting on civil protests," the statement said.

In June, a Long Beach police officer shot KPCC reporter Adolfo Guzman-Lopez in the neck with a rubber bullet while he was covering an anti-police-brutality protest. The department later apologized and pledged an investigation.

"This action by the Sheriffs Department demands attention both for what appears to be an excessive use of force, and as a serious threat to the First Amendment, which protects the press, free speech, and the right to protest," SPJ/LA said.

Herb Scannell, chief executive of Southern California Public Radio, said in a statement that the charge against Huang should be dropped. "Her arrest is the latest in a series of troubling interactions between our reporters and some local law enforcement officers," he said. "Journalists provide an essential service, providing fair, accurate and timely journalism, and without them, our democracy is at risk."

Huntsman described the events as the latest turn in a polarizing cycle that had seen law enforcement officers and civilians spinning further away from each other.

I think we have a feedback loop going on where law enforcement feels under assault, where members of the public feel under assault and as a result youre having protests  and theres violent confrontations between police and members of the public, he said. And that convinces all parties that members of the other party are violent. And it gets worse and worse.

To break the pattern, Huntsman said, its crucial to stress the importance of following the law, and that applies to members of the public and sworn officers.

As long as law enforcement doesnt follow the law as to itself, its difficult to convince the public its legitimate and maintain the best protection law enforcement officers have against violence from the public, which is that feeling they are legitimate, that theyre not an enemy of the public but are representing the public, he said, adding that the Sheriff's Department should respond to questions from his office and the media with enthusiasm rather than anger.

"I hope we can get through this process of yelling at each other and get to a point where the government is more responsive to the laws and the desires of the public."

Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.
Beirut, Sep 13 : Plumes of white smoke covered the Port of Beirut, triggering panic among the residents of the Lebanese capital city.

According to local media reports, the smoke covered the port, where a major fire broke out on September 10, on Saturday night, reports Xinhua news agency.

Civil defence teams have been staying at the port over the past two days since the blaze erupted at the port's duty free warehouse destroying food products, oil, tires, beauty products, clothes, shoes, home appliances and electric equipment.

The Chief of Information for the Beirut fire brigade Ali Najm said the teams were attempting to remove the products stored at the port which created the white smoke while the situation is under control.

The losses due to the blaze was estimated to be worth $15 million.

Spokesperson of the Lebanese Red Cross (LRC) Rona Halabi noted that a big part of the products which were to be distributed to poor families in Lebanon and Syria were destroyed in the blaze.

Beirut's port is a vital facility used by the LRC to store products.

The fire broke out just over a month after the August 4 explosions in the port that claimed the lives of 190 people, injured thousands others and left as many as 300,000 homeless.

The explosions were caused by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate detonating at a warehouse in the port.

The cause of the fire is unclear and investigations are still ongoing.
New Delhi: Actress Kangana Ranaut has shared a cryptic note on the "chaos that has engulfed her". The picture, an old one, features her sitting with a pen in hand at her home in Manali while the tweet says, "In this chaos, there are potent pauses that engulf me. Where am I? I don't recognise. What life threw at me so far I could barely catch up with but it's asking for more, I give every ounce of me still it needs more and suddenly chaos engulfs me."

In this chaos there are potent pauses that engulf me. Where am I? I dont recognise. What life threw at me so far I could barely catch up with but its asking for more, I give every ounce of me still it needs more and suddenly chaos engulfs me again. pic.twitter.com/8ZyMByCPyB  Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) September 13, 2020

Kangana has found herself in the midst of controversies after her PoK comment drew ire from Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. Her recent remark comparing Mumbai to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) didn't go down well with Shiv Sena. She later accused Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut of threatening her to not return to Mumbai if she has no faith in the police.

Her office in Mumbai's Pali Hill was also demolished by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) before she landed in Mumbai on September 9.

The actress has been naming and shaming several big Bollywood celebrities for fanning nepotism and recently in the drug conspiracy related to actor Sushant Singh Rajput death case.

Before her visit to Mumbai, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) granted Y category security to Kangana.

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government has also ordered a probe in Kangana Ranaut's alleged link in drug nexus. The probe was ordered after a 2016 interview of actor Adhyayan Suman, who is her ex-boyfriend, went viral. Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said that the Mumbai Police will probe allegations by Adhyayan Suman that Kangana Ranaut took drugs.
Our weekly roundup of books that should be on your radar.

We love stories, and even in the age of Netflix-and-chill, there's nothing like a good book that promises a couple of hours of absorption  whether curled up in bed, in your favourite coffeehouse, or that long (and tiresome) commute to work. Every Sunday, we'll have a succinct pick of books, across diverse genres, that have been newly made available for your reading pleasure. Get them wherever you get your books  the friendly neighbourhood bookseller, e-retail website, chain store  and in whatever form you prefer. Happy reading!

For more of our weekly book recommendations, click here.

***

 FICTION

Rumble in A Village: A Novel

By Luc Leruth with Jean Dreze

Aleph Book Company | Rs 699 | 308 pages

Writer Luc Leruth and economics professor Jean Drezes novel follows Anil Singh, a London banker, who finds out he is the sole heir to his uncle who has died in Palanpur. On his way to India, Singh discovers his uncle has been murdered and that his domestic help, a Dalit woman named Neetu, has been arrested, but no one believes she is the killer. While being a murder mystery, the book also offers a larger narrative about life in an Indian village as Singh bumbles along.

Read more about the book here.

Twilight in a Knotted World

By Siddhartha Sarma

Simon & Schuster India | Rs 599 | 296 pages

Journalist and historian Sidhhartha Sarmas novel follows Captain William Henry Sleeman, who administers the Jabalpur district during the hold of the East India Company. He is tasked with investigating a group of criminals who strangle their victims, called the 'Phansigar problem'. He soon starts to uncover language, beliefs, lore, and superstition from the countryside. As his investigation makes him confront the nature of the homeland he has adopted, he comes across uncomfortable truths.

Read more about the book here.

Brink

By SL Bhyrappa; translated by R Ranganath Prasad

Niyogi Books | Rs 595 | 420 pages

Translated by R Ranganath Prasad, Kannada author SL Bhyrappas novel is a love saga between widower Somashekhar and Amrita, an estranged woman. It meditates on the moral, philosophical, and physical aspects of love between a man and woman. He brings love and warmth into her life, but she often loses her temper and has swift mood changes, inflicting pain on him during these times. Will Somashekhar be able to help Amrita overcome her depression?

Read more about the book here.

 MEMOIRS and BIOGRAPHIES

Running Toward Mystery: The Adventure of an Unconventional Life

By Tenzin Priyadarshi and Zara Houshmand

Penguin Random House India | Rs 599 | 256 pages

With Iranian-American writer Zara Houshmand, The Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi, President and CEO of The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT, records his lifelong journey as a seeker. He shares his thoughts on science and technology, meditation and spiritual disillusionment, and the relationship between Buddhism and the modern world. And encourages readers to contemplate one's meaning and purpose, and to embrace the deeper mystery of what it means to be alive.

Read more about the book here.

The Most Notorious Jailbreakers: Untold Stories of Escaped Convicts

By Abeer Kapoor

Rupa Publications | Rs 195 | 184 pages

Journalist Abeer Kapoors book records stories of 16 criminals who have escaped from prisons all over India. Among the stories are those of Sher Singh Rana, who killed Bandit Queen Phoolan Devi, and walked out of prison with his friends wearing uniforms of the police officers who were to escort him to Roorkee for his hearing; and conman Natwarlal, sentenced for 113 years, who promised to pay a policeman if he helped him escape and later, the entire bundle of cash mysteriously caught fire.

Read more about the book here.

 NON-FICTION

The Making of Aadhaar: Worlds Largest Identity Platform

By Ram Sevak Sharma

Rupa Publications | Rs 595 | 240 pages

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Chairman Ram Sevak Sharma provides a first-hand account of the making of the Aadhaar, the worlds largest identity project. He was among those leading the team in developing the technology that undergirds it, creating an online authentication system for the digital world. A case study of a major governmental project, Sharma also discusses how it continues to change and redefine India.

Read more about the book here.

The Story of China: A Portrait of a Civilisation and Its People

By Michael Wood

Simon & Schuster India | Rs 899 | 624 pages

Author and historian Michael Wood lays down the story of China, one of the oldest civilisations on earth. The book presents its grand history, interspersed with personal stories from Woods own travel journals. He discusses archaeological discoveries, court cases going back to the Qin and Han dynasties, stories from Silk Road merchants and Buddhist travellers, and more. In the modern era, he also presents manifestos of feminist revolutionaries Qiu Jin and He Zhen, the 1989 Tiananmen Square crisis, the new order of President Xi Jinping, and more.

Read more about the book here.
The list of achievements and accomplishments is remarkable  and oh so long.

But they don't define the man.

There is more.

Rather than repeat all that Gene Budig earned and achieved once again, let's make another list: generous, thoughtful, kind, so very supportive of others, especially young people, and so pleased to see them succeed and grow, so quick to share what he had learned and earned.

Understandably, that doesn't show up in all of the recent stories about him, some of which recalled wonderfully humorous encounters with that privileged breed of major league baseball owners who sometimes forget that, while they may own the clubs, we own the game.

So, let me just add a lifetime achievement that probably belongs at the top of the list in defining this Nebraskan who led three universities and baseball's American League: Gene Budig was an extraordinarily good and decent man.

* * *

The policy of destruction.

It's hard not to notice.

Most recently, the U.S. Postal Service after a stab at the U.S. Census Bureau.

Before that, and ongoing, the U.S. Justice Department and its role.

And, of course, immigration policy that has left the Statue of Liberty proclaiming a falsehood.

Before that, a whole lineup: trade agreements scrapped, a climate change treaty abandoned, the World Health Organization departed, a nuclear deterrence deal ended, long-standing allies insulted and mutual defense treaties under attack and endangered.

And the results of November's presidential election already questioned and undermined long before we cast our votes.

This is intended more as observation, and even as an expression of curiosity, rather than as judgment or criticism. Maybe this is exactly what Americans want; we'll find out soon enough.

What's so intriguing is the question of what motivates all of this.

Some of it can be seen as just tearing down what Barack Obama built; but it's more than that.

Is this politics or policy? Is there purpose and an endgame?

Or is this just personality?

* * *

Finishing up:

* President Donald Trump goes to California on Monday as 29 major wildfires continue to burn, and the visit could turn fiery: He says it's an issue of forest mismanagement (rake your leaves; clean your floors); California's leaders say it's the result of climate change.

* As 2021 legislative redistricting approaches with its fundamental requirement to create districts of equal population, Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon reminds us of the uneven distribution of population in this rural state: Sen. Megan Hunt's district in mid-town Omaha comprises 6.5 square miles; his western Nebraska district contains 17,000 square miles.

* Now probably is a good time for all of us to begin writing a daily journal for the benefit of future historians: We are in the midst of a pandemic with a long way yet to go and about to experience a presidential election whose results might be rejected by a president and, if so, then what?

* Chuck Hagel, looking ahead: "It's up to us. We're so much better than what we're showing today."

* Down, but not out: State senators Anna Wishart and Adam Morfeld immediately renew their effort to legalize the use of medical marijuana in Nebraska after the Nebraska Supreme Court erases the issue from the 2020 ballot.

* Downer of the week: "If you're talking about getting back to a degree of normality which resembles where we were prior to COVID, it's going to be well into 2021, maybe even toward the end of 2021," Dr. Anthony Fauci says.

* But the sun is shining once again in our town and we're back in the 80s; life is good.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSdon

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The big shareholder groups in Tupperware Brands Corporation (NYSE:TUP) have power over the company. 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.

Tupperware Brands isn't enormous, but it's not particularly small either. It has a market capitalization of US$1.1b, 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 seems that institutions are noticeable on the share registry. Let's delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about Tupperware Brands.

Check out our latest analysis for Tupperware Brands

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Tupperware Brands?

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 Tupperware Brands does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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. 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 Tupperware Brands, (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. Tupperware Brands is not owned by hedge funds. The Vanguard Group, Inc. is currently the largest shareholder, with 6.8% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 4.1% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 3.5% by the third-largest shareholder.

Story continues

Our studies suggest that the top 25 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.

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. While there is some analyst coverage, the company is probably not widely covered. So it could gain more attention, down the track.

Insider Ownership Of Tupperware Brands

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

I can report that insiders do own shares in Tupperware Brands Corporation. It is a pretty big company, so it is generally a positive to see some potentially meaningful alignment. In this case, they own around US$16m worth of shares (at current prices). Most would say this shows alignment of interests between shareholders and the board. Still, it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 18% ownership, the general public have some degree of sway over Tupperware Brands. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Tupperware Brands better, we need to consider many other factors. Be aware that Tupperware Brands is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is potentially serious...

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.
The Kaduna Internal Revenue Service (KADIRS) has shut down 13 gaming offices in its ongoing operation to close all unregistered gaming offices in the state.

Liye Anthony, Head of Gaming in the agency, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna on Sunday.

Mr Anthony said that the operation, which began on Thursday, had so far shut down five offices of bet9ja and King Bet respectively, two Access Bet offices and one office of Derby Lotto.

He said that there were about 1,500 gaming offices across the state operating illegally without due registration and license.

According to him, the exercise will continue until all the illegal gaming offices are shut down.

We will continue to go after them until all the operators of the gaming companies regularised their operations and obtained the needed license to operate in the state, he said.

The Executive Chairman of the agency, Zaid Abubakar, had told journalists that apart from operating illegally, the gaming companies were owing tax liabilities of close to N500 million.

Mr Abubakar explained that K.C. Gaming Networks, owner of bet9ja, was withholding tax of N325 million, Bet King N68 million and Access bet N33 million.

He said that the gaming companies were mopping about N2.0 billion monthly from the state and were not paying a kobo to the state government as tax.

He also said that the operators of the gaming companies were equally required by law to integrate their operations into the KADIRS Service Software, stressing that the companies failed to do so.

NAN reports that the Kaduna State Tax Codification and Consolidation Law, 2020, as amended, mandated gaming companies to register and obtain a license before operating in the state.

Section 86 of the law mandated that any gaming company wishing to operate in the state should, upon payment of nonrefundable N400,000 registration fee, apply in writing for an operating license.

Section 91 also imposed a 10 per cent tax on every stake money and winning amount which should be promptly deducted and remitted monthly to KADIRS by every licensed gaming company in the state.

(NAN)
Hundreds of Belarusian women coalesced in country capital Minsk asking authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko to step down from his position. In a show of defiance, the women banged pans and pots as they marched through the city. Anti-Government Protests, which have now entered their second month have intensified in the recent days.

#Belarus Day 32 of the protests. Women came out to the streets. It takes two plainclothesmen to detain a young woman,while another four stand nearby. I thought the authorities have some limits and female rallies would continue. No,yesterday and today, women were brutally detained pic.twitter.com/odc89gorUA  Hanna Liubakova (@HannaLiubakova) September 9, 2020

Photographs and videos that have emerged on the internet show woman being pushed back by riot police. Many other feature women from all social-economic background taking to streets. A particular video that has made headlines show women trying to scare away the riot police by screaming collectively.

Belarus protests began last month after Lukashenko was announced to have won the presidential election despite his unpopularity. The authoritarian leader has served 26 years in office and protesters believe that the election was rigged, thereby have rejected the results.

Credits: AP

Read: Belarus President Lukashenko Plans Russia Visit To Foster Ties Amid Mass Protests At Home

Read: Nordic Leaders Stand With Belarusian Opposition

As the demand for change intensifies and reaches the factories that are the pride of Lukashenko, the authoritarian ruler has announced that he would leave fr Russia soon. The recent unrest in Belarus has led some of the largest and longest-lasting public demonstrations in the countrys history with scores of protestors, activists and even journalists being detained by the authorities. Russia, in the past, has extended support to the authoritarian president and it is believed that Lukashenko is travelling to Russia in order to strengthen his relationship with with Kremlin.

Lukashenko to visit Russia

As per reports, Lukashenko will leave for Russia on September 14 wherein he will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. On Friday, as many as nine protestors were reported to have been arrested in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. Protestors have also been detained in the cities of Vitebsk, Gomel and Baranovichi, according to the Viasna human rights centre in Minsk.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the main opposition leader who went up against Lukashenko in the elections has been forced to flee the country after threats and is currently residing in Poland.

Read: Belarus: Protests Break Out After Exit Poll Predicts Lukashenko Re-election

Read: Women Protesters Detained In Belarus Capital

Image credits: AP
By PTI

KOLKATA: Jadavpur University has formally decided to provide android handsets and data pack to students, not having such facilities, as new semester classes are slated to begin this month, an official said on Sunday.

The JU also decided to hold final semester examination in arts and science stream in contactless digital mode from October 1 to 10.

JU Pro-Vice-Chancellor Chiranjib Bhattacharya told PTI on Sunday that those students not having smartphones and net connectivity will be provided with the handsets and data pack in arts, science and engineering streams very soon.

"We will provide them with good quality sets compatible with net facilities, sharing, uploading and downloading options and for those needing good connectivity data pack and recharge for three months," Bhattacharya said.

He, however, said the total number of such students was being assessed by a university committee after the students' union provided their own survey figure.

Asked how the students not having android sets and poor net connectivity will get access to classes as digital classes in arts and science are slated to begin from September 14, Bhattacharya said the authorities are planning to complete the process as early as possible.

Semester classes for engineering are slated to begin from September 25.

Asked to elaborate on the digital mode of teaching, Bhattacharya said it will be done on a virtual platform on Google.

Also, audio and video clips of lectures and course contents will be uploaded at a secure, protected dedicated section in university portal.

The teachers of the concerned department will be able to access the section and share the links of files through pdf with the student having net connectivity.

The students having net connectivity will share the contents with those deprived of the facilities as of now.

Once they too get the facilities, everyone will be able to participate in classes and there will be no digital divide.

The varsity will provide the handsets and net pack from its own fund raised from contributions from various quarters including alumni and faculty.

The Pro-VC said the university on Friday decided to hold final semester exams in arts and science streams from October 1 to 10 in 'non-contact, digital' mode.

"Questions will be sent through email before exams. Students will have to download the questions and answer on paper sheet in two hours time. After two hours they will have to mail it back through attachment," he said.

The students will be given some extra time keeping in mind net connectivity issues but that cannot be indefinitely extended.

"If any student faces difficulty he can call up a helpline number given before the exams," he said.

The varsity decided to hold exams after the UGC gave nod to the state Higher education department to conduct final semester tests in October, he said.
- Ras Kuuku has been admitted at the Ridge Hospital following his performance at the Asaase Soundclash

- Ras reportedly got his arm twisted when he battled on stage with Kamelyeon at Asaase Radio

- He was the winner of the Reggae/Dancehall Artiste of the Year at VGMA 2020 and has been in the news since then

Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in

Ghanaian reggae and dancehall musician, Ras Kuuku, has reportedly been admitted at the Ridge Hospital following his performance at the Asaase Soundclash on the night of September 12, 2020.

According to reports sighted by YEN.com.gh on Ghanacelebrities.com and OMGVoice, Ras Kuuku got his arm twisted when he battled on stage with Kamelyeon at Asaase Radio.

A photo of Ras Kuuku on a hospital bed surfaced along with the report and it is hoped that the musician gets well soon to return to full action.

READ ALSO: Asaase Soundclash: Shatta Wale, Stonebwoy battle it out (videos, photos)

See post below:

It would be recalled that Ras Kuuku was the winner of Reggae/Dancehall Artiste of the Year at the 2020 edition of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards.

He won the highly coveted title by beating the likes of Ak Songstress, J Derobie, Jupitar Samini, Epixode.

Following that, the dancehall musician, being proud of his achievements, took his award to shows and any place he found himself after the first week and the plague reportedly got missing but he later spoke about that.

READ ALSO: Asaase Sound Clash: How Stonebwoy arrived at venue for battle with Shatta Wale in new video

Ras Kuuku admitted at hospital following wild performance at Asaase Soundclash Souce: Facebook, OMGVoice, Riddimsghana.com

Source: UGC

The Asaase Soundclash, where Ras performed and sustain the injury, was a battle between Stonebwoy and Shatta Wale to determine who was the true dancehall king.

In another trending report, the spiritual father of Pastor Sylvester Ofori, the Ghanaian Christian leader who shot his wife at Orlando in the United States, has finally spoken regarding the incident.

Prophet Elisha Salifu Amoako, who is the Founder and General Overseer of Alive Chapel International in Ghana, made these declarations in a video sighted by YEN.com.gh.

The Ghanaian prophet indicated that he saw this unfortunate incident coming and warned pastor Sylvester Ofori regarding the fact that he might take his wife's life.

Enjoy reading our stories? Download YEN's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Ghana news!

VGMA21 full performances | #Yencomgh

Share your stories and news by getting interactive on our Facebook page!

Source: YEN.com.gh
Advertisement

Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth has returned to Portsmouth from exercises after seven of its crew tested positive for Covid-19.

The 65,000-tonne, 3.1 billion vessel had been set to leave the city on Monday, but her sailing was pushed back after the outbreak.

Around 100 further members of crew were isolating onboard because they had been in contact with positive cases.

On Sunday, crowds gathered to watch the impressive carrier as it returned to the naval city.

It was picking up supplies ahead of sailing for further exercises to prepare it for Carrier Strike Group readiness ahead of its first operational deployment next year.

It was the second time the carrier has had to postpone its sailing after two crew members tested positive for Covid-19 in April.

Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth has returned to Portsmouth from exercises after seven of its crew tested positive for Covid-19

The 65,000-tonne, 3.1 billion vessel had been set to leave the city on Monday, but her sailing was pushed back after the outbreak

Around 100 further members of crew were isolating onboard because they had been in contact with positive cases

On Sunday, crowds gathered to watch the impressive carrier as it returned to the naval city after it left for exercises

It was picking up supplies ahead of sailing for further exercises to prepare it for Carrier Strike Group readiness ahead of its first operational deployment next year

It was the second time the carrier has had to postpone its sailing after two crew members tested positive for Covid-19 in April

Following brief training exercises at sea, the aircraft carrier is returning for less than a week to collect supplies ahead of trialling F-35B jets

A Ministry of Defence spokesman confirmed that 'fewer than 10' members of the 1,000-strong crew had tested positive for the coronavirus and had been taken ashore to be put into isolation in barracks

It is aiming to declare strike carrier capability later this year ahead of its first operational deployment in 2021

A number of British and American F-35B stealth jets will also be onboard the aircraft carrier in the largest cohort of jets seen on a British warship in more than a decade
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London, Sep 13 : A research which compared beliefs held by British Muslims and white non-Muslims, showed that Islamist and far-right ideas were resonating with young people in the UK, and one in five young white non-Muslims believe British culture is "under threat from invasion".

Polling conducted by Savanta ComRes, a market research consultancy headquartered in London and operating internationally, found that one in five young people in both the groups think there is an "unresolvable conflict between Islam and the west", and white non-Muslims are feeling threatened and Muslims feeling victimised.

Thirteen per cent of both groups (Muslims and white non-Muslims) said violent action was sometimes justified to achieve change.

Fifteen per cent of Muslims and 9 per cent of white non-Muslims agreed that "people should be prepared to go out to fight to defend their religion or culture with force".

Fourteen per cent of white non-Muslims were found to believe that Islam promotes violence.

Author, Cristina Ariza, who is a research analyst at Tony Blair institute for Global Change, told The Independent newspaper that the Covid pandemic, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, and rising English Channel crossings may have caused "shifts" in opinions.

"We have new groups emerging and mobilising as a response to BLM but it takes time for those views to permeate through the public. The anti-Muslim branch of the far right has been banging the drum on this for a decade," Ariza added.

Around a quarter of both groups agreed that democracy was "broken" and the government should be boycotted.

One in 10 Muslim respondents said engaging with non-Muslim institutions like UK politics, "undermines the Muslim community".

Nine per cent said Muslims who did engage were not true believers or were "traitors to Islam".

The report also criticised government strategy to counter extremism, saying Brexit had "made progress difficult", and called for an updated government counter-extremism strategy.

Savanta ComRes conducted a poll of 1,011 Muslims and 1,011 white non-Muslims aged 18 to 30 in May 2019, then convened two online research groups with 57 participants in total last October.

Responding to the report, a government spokesperson said it was "committed to confronting extremism in all its forms, including strengthening communities so they can resist extremist narratives and protecting vulnerable people from being drawn into terrorism".
The world has yet again been shocked by a brazen attempt to poison and kill another opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The poisoning of Alexei Navalny fits a bloody pattern of assassination and intimidation that has been growing for nearly 20 years.

Targeted for his highly effective reports exposing corrupt Russian officials and oligarchs, Navalny is the latest victim in a long line stretching back to 2006, when former FSB agent, Alexander Litvinenko, was poisoned with a radioactive polonium in a London hotel by two Russian agents. Litvenenko became an enemy of the Putin regime after he exposed a plot by the FSB to blow up a group of apartment buildings south east of Moscow in 1999.

Russian opposition activist and journalist, Vladimir Kara-Murza was poisoned in Moscow in 2015, shortly after pro-democracy leader Boris Nemtsov was savagely gunned down steps from the Kremlin. In a coma for several weeks afterwards, Kara-Murza barely survived and endured years of painful rehabilitation, only to be poisoned once again in 2017.

In 2018, Russian GRU military intelligence agents employed Novichuk  the same KGB developed toxin used against Navalny  to poison the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, England, and which resulted in the death of an innocent bystander who was inadvertently exposed to it.

Designed to inflict horrific and highly visible suffering, the Putin regime uses poisoning both to kill opponents and intimidate critics.

Putins KGB style targeted poisonings and assassinations have forced several leading critics of the regime into exile  including political and human rights activists, journalists and environmental leaders, many of whom now live abroad in hopes of avoiding a fate similar to that of Navalny. That list includes Garry Kasparov, environmental activist Evgenia Chirikova, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and countless others. Personal safety may also force Navalny to remain in exile, perhaps fulfilling the objective of his would-be assassins.

Yet living abroad does not guarantee the safety of Putins critics or make them immune from the Kremlins intimidation, nor does it protect critics of the Kremlin living in the West. Kremlin propaganda agents have worked to radicalize portions of the Russian speaking community here in Canada over the past years and have attacked critics of the Kremlin, including myself, using Kremlin outlets, including the crypto-Stalinist, Komsomolskaya Pravda.

A toxic mix of both automated and radicalized trolls flood online comment sections of the pieces that I write about the Putin regime. The accusations range from the deeply ominous to absurdly hateful: I was accused last year of being a demon, Satan, Ukrainian, evil Jew,  in an email from a Mosocw based IP that ended with, Evil scum, die!!!!!! and signed by Avtomat Kalashnikova.

In May of this year, York Region Police investigated violent threats that were sent to me by a radicalized pro-Kremlin extremist. When offered to press charges, I declined, with the understanding that my rage-filled interlocutor had himself been victimized by Putins propaganda into becoming a tool of it.

Incessant trolling, intimidation and threats are part of the cost of being a critic of the Kremlin  as well as the regimes in China and Iran. These incidents serve as lessons that the Russian government is actively working to silence and intimidate critics both at home and abroad, whether through direct action or through proxies; some through economic incentives, while others through psychologically manipulative propaganda.

Threats of violence against critics and activists should be taken seriously by all Western governments. The threat posed by the Russian governments efforts to strategically encourage emotional and extreme nationalist reactions to criticism of the Putin regime in Russian speakers through propaganda is very real; lives may even be at risk.

Thankfully, the Canadian government does occasionally act to protect us from foreign regime intimidation and information warfare. In 2018, Canada expelled a number of Russian government propaganda agents  a move shockingly characterized by some as un-Canadian.

The tentacles of poisonous foreign repression and intimidation are long and dangerous. Yet we must remain vigilant in order to ensure that the threats dont escalate into violence against Canadians who are critical of foreign governments in Russia, China, Iran and any other regime that engages in mass human rights abuses and corruption.

Marcus Kolga is a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and founder of DisinfoWatch.org.

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(Natural News) Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, along with 49 other Republican members of the House of Representatives, sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr urging him and his Department of Justice (DOJ) to launch an investigation to find out who are the main groups and individuals that are funding, organizing, inciting and participating in the engineered riots occurring all across the country.

We write to share our deep concerns regarding the ongoing violence that has gripped American cities and threatened the rule of law across our nation, wrote the congressmen.

Buck said that Antifa and the many left-wing anarchist groups affiliated with the violent organization have been largely responsible for the barrage of totalitarian attacks on the country. Buck lists down several examples, including the massive destruction of private property, including buildings and small businesses, in many major cities, the hijacking of peaceful rallies and protests, organizing armed mobs and even attacking a sitting U.S. Senator.

It is clear that these individuals are well-funded and supported by a national network of left-wing activists committed to perpetrating violence and furthering anarchy in our streets. As such, we urge you to immediately open an investigation to identify and prosecute all individuals and groups responsible for funding and organizing these terroristic acts that are wreaking havoc on our nation.

The Justice Department needs to open an investigation into who is funding these violent riots.  Congressman Ken Buck (@RepKenBuck) August 30, 2020

Buck further laments on how Antifa continues to infiltrate peaceful protests and agitating the demonstrators into starting and participating in violent riots. He also mentions the fateful incident in Portland, when one Antifa rioter, Michael Forest Reinoehl, shot and killed Aaron Jay Danielson, a Trump supporter and a member of the conservative activist group Patriot Prayer.

Buck went on to describe how the riots in Portland and other cities reveal that Antifa and their other left-wing allies are fighting hard to destabilize American society. They do this by targeting federal buildings and weakening the ability of law enforcement agencies to protect life and private property. The congressman also points out how Antifa have gotten better equipment as the demonstrations went on, with many now sporting military grade helmets, gas masks, protective vests, using more sophisticated weaponry like fireworks and becoming more organized and disciplined in their tactics.

Buck argues that this increasing level of sophistication and discipline shows that Antifa are gearing up to go to war with America, and that this kind of rampant violence being perpetrated in cities across the country cannot continue.

Antifa and their allies in the Black Lives Matter movement are the main conspirators in this engineered wave of rioting and civil unrest sweeping the nation. Learn more by listening to this episode of the Health Ranger Report, a podcast by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, as he talks about Black Lives Matter is not a racial equality organization, but a movement rooted in Black supremacy and anti-White bigotry, racism and genocide.

DOJ working to indict leaders of Antifa, BLM

The congressional request for the DOJ to conduct an investigation on the rioting comes just days after the Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Chad Wolf said that Barr was working on prosecuting the leaders of not just Antifa but Black Lives Matter as well. (Related: Cotton, Loeffler introduce trio of Senate bills to crack down on rioters.)

Wolf mentioned this during an appearance on Fox News with Tucker Carlson on August 31.

Why havent we seen the leaders of Antifa and Black Lives Matter arrested and charged with conspiracy under, say, RICO, like the heads of Mafia families were? asked Carlson.

This is something I talk to the AG personally about, replied Wolf. And I know that they are working on it.

During his appearance, Wolf also pointed out how, of the around 300 arrests federal law enforcement have made for criminal protesting and rioting, around a third of them happened in Portland. Wolf also said that the DHS and the DOJ know for a fact that Antifa and Black Lives Matter agitators from Portland are being flown to other parts of the country in order to organize, start and participate in riots.

Federal authorities leading the investigation asserted that their operation is intended to target only coordinated, criminal activity  and violence related to riots, destruction of federal property and violence against law enforcement officers.

While Wolf was not able to divulge any more information due to it being an ongoing investigation, he was able to say that the DOJ has charged around 75 individuals in Portland with different federal crimes, and that they are focusing their resources on uncovering the leading organizers of Antifa and the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as the main financiers who are backing the domestic terrorist organizations efforts to move agents across the country to participate in various riots and anti-police actions.

In a different occasion, Wolf talked about how the cause of all the violence perpetrated by Antifa and BLM is local and state officials not taking the threat of left-wing extremism seriously from the beginning.

Learn more about what the federal government is trying to do in order to fight back against the violence perpetrated by left-wing mobs in cities like Portland and Kenosha at Rioting.news.

Sources include:

WND.com

Buck.House.gov [PDF]

Newsweek.com

WashingtonTimes.com

Breitbart.com

USAToday.com
Ewan McGregor is returning as Obi-Wan Kenobi for a Disney+ series. (Image by Lucasfilm)

Ewan McGregor has admitted he is more excited to reprise his Star Wars character Obi-Wan Kenobi in a new Disney+ series than he was for either Attack Of The Clones or Revenge Of The Sith.

The actor told Empire Online that he is particularly excited to work on the upcoming show with director Deborah Chow, who previously oversaw episodes of The Mandalorian.

The storylines are going to be really good I think, he said. I'm just excited to play him again. It's been long enough since I played him before.

It has now been 15 years since McGregor last played Obi-Wan Kenobi, during which time he said Star Wars fans had become more appreciative of the prequel trilogy, especially those who watched The Phantom Menace, Attack Of The Clones and Revenge Of The Sith as children.

McGregor arrives for the UK premiere of Revenge of the Sith in Leicester Square, May 16, 2005. (Reuters/Dylan Martinez)

You know, our films weren't much liked when they came out, by my generation who loved the first ones, McGregor said.

I think people of our generation wanted to feel the way they'd felt when they saw those first three movies when they were kids, and George [Lucas] wanted to take our ones in a different direction, he had a different idea.

It was tricky at the time, I remember... I've met people who, they mean a lot to them, those films, more so than the original three, and I'm like, 'Are you kidding?'

Earlier this week McGregor confirmed that production on the spin-off series is due to begin early next year, while he also teased that it might be a standalone season.
FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is seen outside its headquarters in Shenzhen, Guangdong province

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada is signaling it might not compensate major telecommunications providers if the federal government bans equipment made by China's Huawei from 5G networks, setting up a potential fight over a bill that could hit C$1 billion ($758 million).

Canada, under pressure from the United States to ban Huawei Technologies Co Ltd gear on security grounds, is studying whether to allow the firm into the country's next-generation 5G networks. If Ottawa does announce a formal ban, the affected companies have made clear they want compensation for tearing out their existing Huawei gear, said two sources close to the matter.

But the Liberal government, already pressing wireless providers to cut what it says are excessively high bills, seems less convinced.

"I'm not sure there is a solid legal case that we would have to compensate for making a proper national security decision," said a government source who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation. Federal politicians, said the source, also had to worry about "the public perception of handing over a billion dollars or more to very large companies."

Ottawa has spent almost two years studying whether to allow Huawei into 5G networks and in June, with no sign of a decision coming any time soon, impatient Canadian providers took matters into their own hands.

Bell Canada and Telus Corp said they would partner with Ericsson and Nokia Oyj, even though they use Huawei in their 4G networks. Technical experts say it is hard to marry one company's 5G equipment with 4G gear from another provider. This effectively means the decision to go with Ericsson would eventually force Telus and Bell to remove the Chinese firm's 4G equipment. Bell and Telus do not have to act immediately, since a crucial auction of spectrum needed for 5G networks will not happen until June 2021. In a February 2019 filing, Telus said a ban without compensation could increase the cost of its 5G network deployment and make services more expensive for consumers. Telus did not respond to a query as to whether it still felt the same way about compensation. Bell did not respond to a request for comment. Scotiabank analysts said on June 2 it would cost Bell a total of between C$300 million and $350 million over three to five years to strip out Huawei gear. At the same time, BMO estimated Telus had roughly double the exposure than that of Bell.

In March, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a bill to provide $1 billion to help small providers replace equipment made by Huawei and Chinese firm ZTE. Canada's government is on track to run up the highest budget deficit since World War Two as it tackles the coronavirus outbreak and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will on Sept 23 outline major measures to revive the economy. "We obviously want to spend money on things we feel are going to grow the economy rather than on something like that (compensation)," said the government source. One person directly familiar with the file took a more jaundiced view, noting that while Britain had told firms to remove their Huawei equipment, it had given them until 2027.

Story continues

The person said this also happened to be the time when the gear would become obsolete and require replacement.

"I don't think the thinking in the Canadian government is dissimilar with respect to that question," said the person. The office of Canada Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains - which will announce the decision on Huawei and 5G - said it would be premature to discuss future actions.

($1 = 1.3194 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Denny Thomas and Nick Zieminski)
More skeletons are coming out of the cupboard in Kerala, as the son of a minister and senior CPM leader is alleged to have links with the Kerala gold smuggling case accused.

Already, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's principal secretary, CPM state secretary's son and a minister are facing probe in this connection. It is alleged that gold smuggling key accused and former employee of UAE consulate in Thiruvananthapuram, Swapna Suresh had mentioned in her statements to the investigation agencies about her association with a minister's son.

BJP state president K Surendran on Sunday alleged that the son of a minister was very close to Swapna Suresh, and he had also received a commission of the UAE Red Crescent funded housing project in Kerala.

He also alleged that Kerala police seeks custody of Swapna Suresh to disrupt the investigation. "It is aimed at sabotaging the probe. The Chief Minister and the CPM were hailing the probe into gold smuggling case. But with party leaders and their children coming under probe, the party is now alleging that the probe is politicised," he said.

While the minister concerned is yet to comment on the allegations, various political parties staged a protest march to his residence.

Kerala Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said that earlier, CM Pinarayi Vijayan was hailing the Central investigation agencies' probe, but now CPM is alleging that the probe is politically motivated because a minister, another minister's son and CPM state secretary's son have come under the spotlight.

Surendran said that already the fact is out that Rs. 4.5 core commission was involved in the Rs. 20 crore housing scheme for the homeless, as head of the CPM controlled news channel itself admitted it.

"Swapna admitted that she received Rs. One crore. Who are the others who received the remaining commission? CPM should clarify the connection minister's son with Swapna Suresh," he said

Protests against Minister continued

Protests continued against Kerala Higher Education Minister K T Jaleel who was quizzed by Enforcement Directorate on Friday.

Jaleel alleged in a social media post that baseless news is being unleashed by the media against him and he doesn't mind to clarify the facts.

Workers of various opposition parties staged a protest against the minister at various parts of the state.
Texas lawmakers urge Lubbock to block Planned Parenthood, become 15th sanctuary city for unborn

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One of Texas largest cities could soon become the states 15th sanctuary city for the unborn if pro-life activists have their way.

With an estimated population of 260,823, Lubbock is the 11th largest city in the Lone Star State. On Aug. 25, state Sen. Charles Perry and state Reps. Dustin Burrows and John Frullo wrote a letter to Lubbock Mayor Dan Pope urging him to enact a sanctuary city ordinance that would ban abortion within city limits.

The battlefield to protect the unborn has shifted from the state to the local arena in recent years, the lawmakers said in the letter. For that reason, passing an ordinance designating Lubbock as a Sanctuary City for the Unborn will help to continue the Texas belief that life begins at conception, while also protecting the safety of mothers.

The proposed ordinance declares that: It shall be unlawful for any person to procure or perform an abortion of any type and at any stage of pregnancy in the city of Lubbock, Texas. ... It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly aid or abet an abortion that occurs in the city ...

The letter to Pope comes as Planned Parenthood, the nations largest abortion business, announced plans to open a new abortion clinic in Lubbock by the end of the year. We respectfully request that the city of Lubbock take all necessary actions to prevent them from opening, since this organization profits off ending the lives of unborn children, the lawmakers wrote.

Perry also launched a petition asking residents to send a clear message that the abortion industry should not set up shop in our backyard.

Two weeks after the lawmakers sent the letter to Pope, more than 200 Lubbock residents gathered outside of Lubbocks Citizens Tower to express support for the proposed ordinance.

This is not a matter that can wait until after the November election but must be addressed now, Mark Lee Dickson, the director of Right to Life of East Texas, said in a Facebook post featuring pictures of the gathering. The Mayor and City Council have the opportunity to save a countless number of unborn children from being murdered within their city limits. The choice is theirs.

Two years ago, a majority of Republican primary voters in Lubbock voted in favor of proposition 7 to abolish abortion. The proposition received the support of 15,480 Republican voters in Lubbock while 5,986 opposed it.

The Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn initiative, led by Dickson and Right to Life of East Texas, had its first success last year when the East Texas city of Waskom became the first sanctuary city for the unborn.

Since then, 13 other Texas cities have followed suit. While the ACLU filed a lawsuit against seven of the cities that have become sanctuary cities for the unborn, it ultimately dropped the lawsuit.

Besides Lubbock, efforts to create sanctuary cities for the unborn extend into other larger Texas cities, including Abilene and San Angelo, both of which have more than 100,000 residents. The city of Big Spring, which has a population of slightly less than 30,000, is the largest city so far to have passed an ordinance banning abortion within city limits.

While Right to Life of East Texas has succeeded in convincing several Texas cities to establish themselves as sanctuaries for unborn babies, that has not stopped other Texas municipalities from going in the other direction on the issue of abortion.

The pro-life organization labeled Austin, the capital of Texas and one of the states largest metropolitan centers, as a city of death after its city council voted to allocate $150,000 of taxpayer funds to help fund travel, lodging, child-care, and other support for Austin women who are planning on aborting their unborn child.
A senior official for the European Union's executive branch said Saturday that concerns among the bloc's finance ministers about stablecoins will be addressed in future legislation.

On Friday, finance ministers from major EU members like Germany and France called for heightened restrictions on stablecoin activities in the region. The next day, during a press conference, European Commission executive vice president Valdis Dombrovskis sought to assuage such concerns.

"Some ministers yesterday expressed some concerns about the risks of so-called stablecoins currently outside our rules. Rest assured that our legislative proposals will address those concerns comprehensively," he remarked, according to a published copy of his remarks. "We will regulate the risks for financial stability and monetary sovereignty linked to so-called stablecoins' used for payments purposes."

At the same time, Dombrovskis advocated for a "proportionate" policy response.

"But we want to be proportionate: crypto assets provide many opportunities, and we want to regulate innovation in, not out," he said.

The European Union is expected to unveil a detailed framework for the oversight of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, and recent reports indicate that the latter  as well as their issuers  could fall under the jurisdiction of both state-level and EU-level regulators.





 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.
Dozens of people have been killed in Sudan and South Sudan in recent days, and hundreds of thousands displaced

Egypt has sent more than 197 tonnes of food and relief aid to both Sudan and South Sudan in coordination with Egyptian civil society organisations, the social solidarity minister said on Sunday, in the wake of devastating floods.

Dozens of people have been killed in Sudan and South Sudan and hundreds of thousands displaced as the Nile reached its highest level in a hundred years.

The NGOs that participated in the aid included the Egyptian Red Crescent, the Egyptian Food Bank, the Orman Association, El-Jamia El-Shareyah, Misr El-Kheir, El-Ber Wel Tawqa, Resala, and Dr. Mostafa Mahmoud Charity Association, the statement read.

The 109-year old NGO Egyptian Red Crescent, which follows the standards of the International Movement of Red Cross and Red Crescent, has sent an international relief team to South Sudan to distribute aid, in coordination with the Sudanese Red Crescent Society and South Sudan Red Cross, executive director Rami El-Nazer said.

Another team transporting aid prepared by the ERC stayed in Sudan for three days to assess the situation and provide emergency relief to those afflicted, El-Nazer added.

In the statement, Social Solidarity Minister Niveen El-Qabbag voiced solidarity with people of the two countries, saying that Egypt has always supported the people of fraternal nations during crises.

The floods in Sudan have affected more than half a million people, destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of homes, and raised the risk of disease outbreaks, the UN said on Thursday.

Due to the overflowing of the White Nile, around 5,000 people in South Sudan have been displaced and over a hundred have died, according to the South Sudanese state news agency.

Egypt has sent several batches of aid to Sudan as part of an ongoing aid airlift operation launched upon the directive of President Abdel-Fattah El Sisi to help the Sudanese people deal with the disaster.

In addition, Health Minister Hala Zayed travelled to Sudan on Tuesday to offer assistance, accompanied by a 20-strong team of doctors with different specialisms, as well as a number of nurses and experts in epidemic control.

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A 68-year-old Crown Point man who shot and killed his adult son two years ago is likely to die in prison after the Indiana Court of Appeals rejected his request to overturn his conviction.

Jerome Wilderness Sr. is serving a 55-year prison term for murder, with a firearms enhancement, for killing his 39-year-old son, Jerome Wilderness Jr., on Feb. 17, 2018, at their home in the 1200 block of West 97th Place.

Wilderness argued in his appeal that his trial was unfairly prejudiced by alleged errors in the admission of evidence, witness testimony, jury instructions and prosecutorial misconduct.

In a detailed 36-page ruling, the three-judge appeals court unanimously rejected each claim, finding there was nothing that impeded Wilderness' right to a fair trial and concluding there was no basis for overturning his murder conviction.

"A defendant is entitled to a fair trial, not a perfect trial," the appeals court said. "Here, we do not find error, much less errors that resulted in prejudice. Accordingly, reversal is not warranted."

According to court records, the conflict between Wilderness and his son followed the younger Wilderness moving into his parents' home while going through a divorce.
By PTI

RAJPIPLA: Hundreds of tribals from 14 villages around the Statue of Unity on Sunday formed human chains against acquisition of their land by the Gujarat government for development of the area, which they said would affect their livelihood.

On the occasion of the Indigenous Peoples' Rights Day, residents protested peacefully outside their villages by holding placards and banners.

One of their main demands included cancellation of the recently-enacted Statue of Unity Area Development and Tourism Governance Act, an activist said.

The act gives power to the government to acquire land across these villages for any development projects in the area around the world's tallest 1,182-metre statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

People from 50 tribal-dominated talukas in 16 districts in eastern Gujarat took part in the protests organised by Adivasi Samanvay Manch, said activist Praful Vasava.

"The state government is forcibly taking away farm land owned by tribals that forms the basis of their livelihood in the name of development projects," he alleged.

He said a large number of tribals were displaced because of the projects.

"We demand that the government grant us rights under the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act," he said.

When asked about protests, Narmada district superintendent of police Himkar Singh said tribals marked the Indigenous Peoples' Rights Day on Sunday.

"They just came out of their houses on road to protest and they did so peacefully. Similar events were organised all over the district and in other parts of Gujarat," the police officer said.
A supporter of the National Council of Resistance Iran (NWRI) and the Iranian Exile Society in Berlin holds a placard with th picture of Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari while protesting against his execution at the Iranian embassy in Berlin, Germany, 12 September 2020. EPA-Yonhap



Iranian state TV on Saturday reported that the country's authorities executed a wrestler for allegedly murdering a man, after President Donald Trump asked for the 27-year-old condemned man's life to be spared.



State TV quoted the chief justice of Fars province, Kazem Mousavi, as saying: ''The retaliation sentence against Navid Afkari, the killer of Hassan Torkaman, was carried out this morning in Adelabad prison in Shiraz.''



Afkari's case had drawn the attention of a social media campaign that portrayed him and his brothers as victims targeted over participating in protests against Iran's Shiite theocracy in 2018. Authorities accused Afkari of stabbing a water supply company employee in the southern city of Shiraz amid the unrest.



Iran broadcast the wrestler's televised confession last week. The segment resembled hundreds of other suspected coerced confessions aired over the last decade in the Islamic Republic.



The case revived a demand inside the country for Iran to stop carrying out the death penalty. Even imprisoned Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, herself nearly a month into a hunger strike over conditions at Tehran's Evin prison amid the coronavirus pandemic, passed word that she supported Afkari.



The International Olympic Committee in a statement Saturday said it was shocked and saddened by the news of the wrestler's execution, and that the committee's president, Thomas Bach, ''had made direct personal appeals to the Supreme Leader and to the President of Iran this week and asked for mercy for Navid Afkari.''





Protesters wave the Lion and Sun flag of the National Council of Resistance of Iran and the white flag of the People's Mujahedin of Iran, two Iranian opposition groups, as they demonstrate outside the Iranian embassy in London on September 12, 2020 against the execution of Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz and against the Iranian government. AFP-Yonhap
Walkers wear protective face masks at St Kilda pier in Melbourne, the first city in Australia to enforce mask-wearing to curb a resurgence of COVID-19

By Lidia Kelly

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Police in Australia's Victoria state arrested 74 people and fined 176 for breaching public health orders as scattered protests against a weeks-long coronavirus lockdown continued for a second straight day across Melbourne.

A riot squad marched through fruit and vegetable stalls at the city's landmark, the Queen Victoria market, before the scuffling with protesters erupted, with some people throwing fruit at the police, television footage showed.

Victoria Police said in a statement that there were between 200 and 250 people involved in the protests, but there were no immediately known injuries to the police.

"It was extremely disappointing to see people not just protesting but putting the lives of other Victorians at risk despite all the warnings," the police said in an e-mailed statement.

The protests came after 14 people were arrested at small dispersed rallies on Saturday and as Victoria is set to ease its lockdown restrictions very slightly as of Monday, as the number of new daily coronavirus cases continued to fall in the country's hotspot.

On Sunday, there were 41 new coronavirus cases reported and seven more deaths, showing a steady downward trend from a peak of more than 700 cases in a single day in early August.

Victoria accounts for about 75% of Australia's more than 26,600 COVID-19 cases and more than 90% of the country's total 810 deaths. The state capital, Melbourne, has been under strict lockdown for six weeks.

The city will remain under hard lockdown, but the amount of time people will be able to spend outside will double to two hours per day and the overnight curfew will be shortened by an hour as of Monday.

"They are small steps, but that's what's safe, absolutely appropriate, with numbers still coming down, but (remaining) too high to open up," Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews told a televised briefing earlier on Sunday.

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Kim Coghill)
The tally in Tamil Nadu



surged past the five lakh mark on Sunday with 5,693 fresh cases being added, the Health department said.

The state's COVID-19 aggregate stood at 5.02 lakh as 74 related deaths were reported today, taking the toll to 8,381, the department said in a bulletin.

Recoveries continued to outnumber fresh infections as 5,717 people walked out from various healthcare facilities, taking the total of those cured to 4.47 lakh so far.

Active cases including those in isolation stood at 47,012 in the state.

As many as 84,308 specimens were tested on Sunday, pushing the total number of samples tested so far to 58.88 lakh.

Meanwhile, the state capital clocked 994 new cases, taking its infection count closer to 1.50 lakh mark.

Besides, Coimbatore recorded 490 new cases, followed by Salem 309, Thiruvallur 300, Chengalpet 299, Tirupur 291 and Cuddalore 251, the bulletin said.

Erode, Kancheepuram, Kanyakumari, Nagapattinam, Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, Tirunelveli, Vellore and Villupuram logged more than 100 cases.

Among the 74 who died of the virus today, 66 had comorbidities.

As many as 43 deceased were between the age of 60 and 79, the bulletin said.

Seven of the new infections who tested COVID-19 positive were returnees from various States, it said.

Of the 8,381 deaths reported till date, 2,976 people were from Chennai.

(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.)
Authorities in New Hampshire recovered the body of an 83-year-old Massachusetts man who went fishing Friday and never returned home.

Members of the New Hampshire Fish and Games dive team located the body of Joseph Moreau, of Methuen, on Sunday.

New Hampshire State Police said his body was recovered in Lake Massabesic in Auburn, New Hampshire. Moreau went to the lake Friday to go fishing. Officials were notified Friday night that Moreau had not returned.

Authorities were able to find his canoe and car, which was parked near the lake.

An autopsy will be conducted Monday. The case remains under investigation.
Former Biggest Loser trainer Michelle Bridges has criticised social media stars for turning the health industry into a 't**s and a*** fest'.

The concerned 49-year-old appeared to lash out at popular fitness influencers such as Tammy Hembrow and Natasha Oakley for setting unrealistic body expectations by sharing countless images of their six-pack abs and bountiful bottoms.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Michelle explained: 'I feel like Im really old in saying that it concerns me and it worries me that my industry is turned into a T&A fest. But nonetheless, thats where were at.'

'It concerns me!' Former Biggest Loser trainer Michelle Bridges [pictured] has criticised social media stars for turning the health industry into a 't**s and a*** fest'

Speaking on the new-age overemphasis on physicality, Michelle added: 'I feel like it's a place that we're going to be able to navigate, but we're going to have to start working on that.'

Michelle also explained that the health industry still has a long way to go to fairly promote sustainability and diversity.

'Back in the day, everybody used to throw their arms in the air about how everything was airbrushed, pulled in and tightened up. Magazines are almost dead and gone these days, but now it's just moved to Instagram. It's the same conversation.'

Michelle has built a hugely successful career as a personal trainer over three decades, which has seen her help plenty of people achieve their long-term health goals healthily and sustainably.

Having her say: The concerned 49-year-old appeared to lash out at popular fitness influencers such as Tammy Hembrow [pictured] and Natasha Oakley for setting unrealistic body expectations by sharing images of their six-pack abs and bountiful bottoms

Michelle explained: 'I feel like Im really old in saying that it concerns me and it worries me that my industry is turned into a T&A fest. But nonetheless, thats where were at' [Pictured fitness influencer Natasha Oakley]

'The same conversation': Michelle also explained that the health industry still has a long way to go to fairly promote sustainability and diversity

The TV star's fight for inclusivity prompted her to begin an activewear line with Big W a decade ago.

The line goes up to a size 26 and has been affordable for the masses, making it a runaway success for Michelle.

While Michelle has worked her way up in the fitness industry through conventional means, others have catapulted to success overnight by sharing their workouts and envy-inducing snaps of their toned physiques.

As one of Australia's most successful fitness influencers, Tammy Hembrow's 11.5 million followers are regularly treated to her scantily-clad snaps.

The mother-of-two, 26, is not shy in flaunting her sculpted form in a series of bikini snaps.

Different era: While Michelle has worked her way up in the fitness industry through conventional means, others have catapulted to success overnight by sharing their workouts and envy-inducing snaps of their toned physiques

Bottoms up! As one of Australia's most successful fitness influencers, Tammy Hembrow's 11.5 million followers are regularly treated to her scantily-clad snaps

Bronte born influencer Natasha Oakley, who now lives in Los Angeles, is another success story, having racked up 2.2 million followers thanks to her impressive physique and sun-soaked workouts.

Despite the scrutiny faced by fitness influencers, many have capitalised extraordinarily on their digital success.

Australian fitness queen Kayla Itsines, 29, has built a global fitness empire worth $696million with her now ex-fiance, Tobi Pearce.
Congress of Aboriginal Peoples Vice-Chief Kim Beaudin is calling for accountability after a panel of experts assigned to look into the use of Structured Intervention Units (SIUs), in Canadian prisons released a scathing report on Aug. 19 detailing how their work was obstructed, undermined and blocked by the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC).

The panel has now disbanded and will not be able to complete its work to ensure safety for prisoners in Canada, said Beaudin, who worked as a justice of the peace for the Province of Saskatchewan for five years, and later as an advocate for incarcerated Indigenous youth.

SIUs are meant as a way to avoid solitary confinement and are implemented when an inmate is found to be a danger to themselves or others. The panel was supposed to gauge their effectiveness. Beaudin said they are essentially one and the same.

Im dealing with people in prison that have been cut completely off from their families. Literally cut right off. Theyre not even allowed to talk to them. Their mothers cant even visit them when theyre in prison. Theyre not allowed, Beaudin said.

University of Toronto criminologist Anthony Doob, who chaired the inquiry, said their work was thwarted by a lack of co-operation from the Correctional Service of Canada.

Very simply, this panel has not been allowed to do its work, Doob, wrote in an Aug. 19 memo attached to the report. Doob said the CSC did not provide workable data to go by.

Beaudin pointed to the death of Curtis McKenzie, a 27-year-old member of Lac La Ronge Indian Band, who took his own life in March while in the custody of the Correctional Service of Canada at Saskatchewan Penitentiary in Prince Albert.

He suffered from (having been) in solitary confinement  We fought so hard trying to get some oversight and trying to make sure that Canada was following international law about torture, and obviously theyre not, Beaudin told Canadas National Observer in an interview on Thursday.

It seems like once you are in the system youre done. Youre hidden in the system. Theres no transparency, theres no accountability for officials. They can do whatever they want.

Beaudin said McKenzie was one of many.

We have no oversight. Ive counted four people who died in prison as a result of suicide alone. I believe two out of federal (prison) and two provincial (prison) in Saskatchewan ... That was just in the last month and a half, Beaudin said.

This is another way of silencing people. These are the kinds of things that happen behind closed doors that we dont hear about.

Beaudin said the panel of experts appointed to investigate SIUs gave him hope that change was on the horizon.

It was a faint hope but thats gone now.

Beaudin pointed the finger at CSC commissioner Anne Kelly, who he said has responsibility within the public service for the actions of her department, and for implementing the policies set out by cabinet to lower the disproportionate rate of Indigenous people in federal prisons.

Its time for her to step down. Thats what I think. She should step down because shes clearly not doing her job ... She was given a mandate by Trudeau. Its clear that shes not following that mandate, Beaudin said.

Beaudin also called for Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair to bring fresh blood to the CSC leadership. Ideally someone with a background other than corrections, he said.

Somebody who has a different way of looking at things. Who comes to it with a different lens. Not bringing the stereotypes that they learned when they went through the system themselves, Beaudin said.

Beaudin lambasted the CSC for what he called a failure to expedite releases of prisoners due to COVID-19, and a failure to implement oversight promised in 2018 relating to suicide in prisons.

He said its time to re-examine the CSCs spending priorities.

I know that after this pandemic passes theyre going to have to look at making cuts overall to Canadas budget where they spend money and prioritize money Beaudin said.

Increasing a budget at Correctional Service of Canada shouldnt even be a priority. Its time that we defunded the Correctional Service of Canada

Blairs office said the government continues to value and support the SIU Implementation Advisory Panel (IAP) and intends to renew the appointments of the Chair and its members so that it may complete its work.

Minister Blair has spoken with the chair of the Implementation Advisory Panel, Dr. Anthony Doob about the Panels serious concerns and has asked the Correctional Service of Canada to work with the chair to develop a work plan that will help ensure the panel gets all the information it needs to complete its work in a timely manner, Blairs press secretary Mary-Liz Power told Canadas National Observer in a written statement.

Power said the government has made commitments to expand programs to keep at-risk youth out of the criminal justice system, make drug treatment courts the default option for first-time non-violent offenders, and introduce legislation to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The SIUs are supported with an investment of $448 million for new staff, infrastructure and mental health care. These investments will support enhanced assessment and early diagnosis of inmates at intake and throughout incarceration, enhanced mental health care, support for patient advocacy services and 24/7 health care at designated institutions, Power said.

The federal inmate population increased 1.2 per cent since 2010, while the Indigenous inmate population increased by 52.1 per cent.

The rate of Indigenous incarceration within provincial correctional facilities in Saskatchewan is 76 per cent and is 65 per cent at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary.

According to the most recent national data available from the annual report of the office of the correctional investigator (2018-2019), Indigenous offenders are overrepresented in the number of incidents of attempted suicide, accounting for 39 per cent of all such incidents in the last 10 years.

The CSC said it is working to improve those numbers, but said it could not provide the number of Saskatchewans Indigenous people who have died by suicide in their custody by press time.

We recognize that there is an overrepresentation of Indigenous offenders in our correctional institutions, which is a reflection of the disparities within our society that we must all work to fix  here at CSC as well as within our criminal justice system, CSC spokesperson Marie Pier Lecuyer told Canadas National Observer in a written response.

Addressing this systemic issue takes time and we know there is more work to do. We are committed to ensuring that Indigenous, Black and other racialized offenders are afforded the same protections, dignity and treatment as others, consistent with the Canadian Human Rights Act, and CSCs policies, Lecuyer said.

She said a critical component of addressing systemic racism at CSC lies in our ability to listen, learn and take action by working in partnership.

On Nov. 30, 2019, a new correctional model was introduced which eliminated administrative segregation, also known as solitary confinement.

CSC has been  and continues to  actively work on the IAP to provide the data they requested, so they can complete their important work. We are committed to providing the panel with what it needs as we continue to work collaboratively with them, Lecuyer said.

The CSC said commissioner Anne Kelly personally met with the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples and has had ongoing correspondence with them this Spring about ways to work together.

We have a positive relationship, Lecuyer said.

Kelly said she reached out to National Chief Robert Bertrand again after Canadas National Observer asked for comment on Friday.

There is great strength that comes from working collaboratively with Indigenous partners, both nationally and locally, and we benefit greatly from their knowledge and involvement, Lecuyer said.

Congress of Aboriginal Peoples National Chief Robert Bertrand told Canadas National Observer that solutions dont lie in keeping Indigenous people locked up, but in working to lower that number. He said the CSC has to find a way to bring fresh air to the discussion.

So many times, if an Indigenous person has a mental problem the answer (from Canada) was lets throw them in jail. Thats not a solution, Bertrand said. Bertrand said the number of Indigenous inmates in Canada needs to go down and that hes willing to work with the CSC to that end.

We are the perfect organization to sit down with the Corrections Service of Canada to find these solutions. Lets bring the percentage down of incarcerated Indigenous people ... Lets change the system ... Lets sit down and work co-operatively, Bertrand said.

Bertrand said what has happened to Curtis McKenzie and others while in CSC care is unacceptable.

Lets go into these prisons, find these people and bring their files to the light for the Canadian public.
Recently, Google launched Android 11 for Pixel devices and OnePlus, Oppo, Xiaomi, and Realme phones. Now, Google has launched the Android 11 Go edition too.Android Go is a stripped-down version of Android and it was initially released in 2017. It is specially designed for smartphones that run on a low-end and an ultra-budget with RAM of 2GB or less.Android 10 Go edition was made for devices with less than 1.5 GB of RAM, but due to various issues with that, now it seems that Android 11 Go edition will work on devices with 2GB of RAM or maybe lesser, but looks like that functionality will improve from its previous version.Android 11 Go has some prominent features like grouped notifications from chat apps in the notification bar just like how it is in Android 11. It also grants one-time permissions to the apps for a microphone, camera, and location. Also, it is reported to have a twenty percent faster downloading speed than the Android 10 Go edition as per Google.Another important and interesting feature in the Android 11 Go edition is the addition of a gesture-based navigation system. So, users can use gestures to swipe around the phones user interface. It is not known yet what gestures are included that can carry out navigation on the phone, but it surely means that this version is not only going to be lighter as compared to the regular Android 11, but it is also going to be easier to operate.Google has told media outlets that Android 11 Go is going to come out with new phones having 2GB of RAM or less. It is probably not going to upgrade the existing 2GB phones though. So, it means that if someone has Android 10 Go, they may not be able to upgrade it to Android 11 Go as it was suggested by XDA Developers previously, but Google says that it is up to Original Equipment Manufacturers if they will provide an upgrade to the existing system or not.Some developers think that one size fit for all regular Android is not working for many people and Google should take Go edition more seriously and should provide more clarity around its functionality and upgrades by making it easier to port apps to.Read next: Googles Area 120 Creates Online Events App for Creators
Oracle has said nothing publicly about what it would do with TikToks underlying technology, which is written by a Chinese engineering team in Beijing  and which Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has charged is answerable to Chinese intelligence agencies. That is a major concern of American intelligence agencies, led by the National Security Agency and United States Cyber Command, which warned internally that whoever controls the computer code could channel  or censor  a range of politically sensitive information to specific users.

ByteDance and TikTok have denied that they help the Chinese government.

TikTok has become the latest flash point between Washington and Beijing over the control of technology that affects American lives. The Trump administration had already banned the Chinese telecom giant Huawei from selling next-generation, or 5G, networks and equipment in the United States, citing the risk of a foreign power controlling the infrastructure on which all internet communications flow.

But TikTok took the battle in new directions. For the first time, the United States was trying to stop a Chinese cultural phenomenon, with an intense following among American teenagers and millennials, which carries with it the possibility of future influence.

Even if Oracle may try to close a deal, it is unclear whether Beijing would create new obstacles to the process. And election-year politics have hung over the negotiations from the start. Unlike many other technology companies, Oracle has cultivated close ties with the Trump administration. Its founder, Larry Ellison, hosted a fund-raiser for Mr. Trump this year, and its chief executive, Safra Catz, served on the presidents transition team and has frequently visited the White House.

Last month, Mr. Trump said he would support Oracle buying TikTok. He called Oracle a great company and said the firm, which specializes in enterprise software, could successfully run TikTok.

I think that Oracle would be certainly somebody that could handle it, he said.
On Sir John Rogerson's Quay there is a huge diving bell, used many years ago by the men who built Dublin's quay walls to protect themselves from drowning in the cold swirling Liffey waters.

The bell would be lowered into the river, forming a safe cocoon to keep the builders safe.

However, in today's Dublin Docklands - after almost a decade of fast-paced transformational development - there is a feeling once again that some cracks are beginning to show.

Last week, Bloomberg reported that Google had abandoned its plans to rent the 200,000 sq ft Sorting Office building to house 2,000 employees, sparking predictions that the bad old days of the crash could return.

"Look, you'd prefer if that Google thing didn't happen," developer Johnny Ronan told the Sunday Independent. "You'd prefer if the headline was 'Google takes another 200,000 square feet'. But it's not the end of the world in my view at all."

There are two different narratives about the future of the commercial property market in Dublin's Docklands. One has the docklands outside the safety of its diving bell: about to be washed away by cold currents of economic stagnation, Brexit, global antagonism to Irish taxation policies and Covid-19 inspired remote working.

The other narrative has Dublin's Docklands inside the diving bell, a little uncomfortable, but safe from the torrent of bad economic news.

That is the narrative favoured by those with skin in the wider property game. Whether it is commendable optimism in the face of adversity or hubris will only really be apparent in hindsight.

Ronan, who owns Ronan Group Real Estate (RGRE), has had well documented ups and downs in a development career that has tracked the highs and lows of Ireland's property market. A prolific developer in the docklands, he has built major projects for Google, as well as large developments for Amazon, Salesforce and Facebook.

His future projects will be watched closely as a gauge of Dublin's commercial property market. He has two key docklands developments that have just kicked off. An 18-month contract for excavation works has just begun at his 1bn 44-storey Waterfront development next to the Point Village. It will contain 1,000 apartments and half a million square feet of offices.

Further up river, a 22-storey tower at Tara Street has started but has been delayed by Covid.

"We've done the excavation and the piling and it's going ahead," he said. "But we've had a change of idea. Half of it was going to be a hotel but we've gone back in [for planning permission] to change the hotel to offices.

"Look, I wouldn't be over-building now, you know. We've started on Waterfront, which is a very big scheme. But of course it won't be delivered for three or four years. I can't see too many offices coming out of the ground now until this Covid thing settles down," he said.

"We're going with Tara because we have to, timing wise. We have a fair bit on, but I would say a lot of other developers will be taking a deep breath now before building spec [speculative] stuff empty."

So office development will slow down in the area? "Apart from what's on the way I don't think there will be a lot more spec stuff, no," he responded.

"Look, naturally when things take a bit of a pull like this the funding and everything gets harder. Spec development at the best of times is not easy."

But, unlike other property sources, Ronan ruled out cuts in leases or rent in the area.

"Rents are only back to where they were in 2006 or 2007, but costs [of building] have dramatically increased. Also, look at the amount of sites that were hanging around empty back then, whereas now the only site left is our one at Waterfront. You've a shortage of prime sites and the prime ones will always be sought after."

Of course, it is no real surprise that a decision by Google related to its Dublin property portfolio would be seized upon as a potential bellwether. The tech giant employs about 8,000 people here and had plans to grow to 11,000. Any retreat from Ireland would leave a massive vacuum.

Prior to Covid, Google was busy putting down even deeper roots in the city. Unusually for a tech company, it bought both Bolands Mills and the nearby Treasury Building (from Ronan's RGRE) but neither will be ready for occupation for some time. It had planned to lease the Sorting Office to accommodate the first wave of this next stage of Irish growth, according to sources.

But post-Covid, Google began a worldwide reassessment of its business, according to sources. With many Irish-based foreign staff returning home, and with the Sorting Office deal at the 'legals' stage but not yet signed, it was not difficult for Google to quickly change its plans.

Dublin's Docklands, of course, does not exist in a bubble and the huge change in the way people now work has had a profound impact. But Ronan insists the office still has a future.

"People are social animals. So I'm not at all concerned about that. There was a lot of yapping about that but I think that was wrong. The data is proving that the vast majority of people are going off their heads at home. It's fine for a while but they get fed up with it and want to get back."

And, said Ronan, regardless of how people feel about remote working, companies like Salesforce, Facebook, Amazon and Google, need people interacting in an office environment. He pointed out last week's assessment of remote working by Netflix boss Reed Hastings: "a pure negative".

Donnacha Neary of high-end office fitout firm Sonica also does not believe that the Google decision is some sort of canary in the coalmine.

"Landlords are going to face intensive negotiations for anything that's coming up for rent review in the next 18 months and I think they can see that coming," he said.

But, he added, major firms are still prepared to spend money on new offices and new fitouts.

"We have in the last eight weeks alone signed 40m worth of contracts for fit-out alone. We've signed seven-figure deals with companies like Indeed, Guidewire and Qualtric," he said.

It's all part of a change that was happening anyway but which has accelerated due to the pandemic, said Neary. Rather than abandoning the office, companies are adapting them.

"Pre-Covid, many tech companies we work for, Google included, were exploring transformational change in their portfolio. Covid has whetted that appetite and is pushing that transformational change.

"But they still very much have the office at the heart of what they are doing, particularly when it comes to attracting the best talent."

And it is not just those in the property sector who argue that reaction was over the top.

"Anyone who believes that Google is going to 'pull out' of Ireland doesn't know how tech FDI works," said Stephen McIntyre, founding partner of Frontline X, a growth-stage fund for US companies looking to expand to Europe. "They won't pull out, not because of loyalty to Ireland, but because it's bad for business."

Prior to joining Frontline, he was responsible for Google's ad business in Europe, Middle East and Asia before heading up Twitter's first international office, in Dublin. The pandemic presents opportunities as well as threats to the continued growth of the city as a global tech hub, he said.

"When considering how Ireland - and other European countries like the UK or Netherlands - are affected by Covid, it is critical to look closely at job type. Big tech companies have two critical functions: engineering and sales. They build products and sell them, write code and own customer relationships. Engineering is the higher caste but sales is important too."

McIntyre said Frontline X had spent the lockdown studying how 175 VC-backed software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies had expanded from the US to Europe over the past decade.

"Our data demonstrates that over 40pc of all expansions into Europe have been led by product and engineering, with over 80pc of these choosing London, Dublin, or Amsterdam as their EU HQ. When tech companies began globally laying off staff in March/April, some cities were harder hit than others. Why? Because engineers were the last to go. Job cuts in San Francisco were lower than Denver, Dublin or London because San Francisco HQs had relatively more engineers than other cities."

But, he said, a new acceptance of remote working could mean less engineering concentration in Silicon Valley, already a trend for several years pre-Covid: "Why can't this be good news for Dublin or London or Berlin? A country that depends on tech FDI shouldn't get distracted by office space and what that implies for future job numbers," he said.

Nevertheless, Google's decision came at a time of increasing nervousness. The second quarter - dominated by lockdown - was a write-off for commercial property deals and the worst quarter on record. But industry sources argue that viewing that quarter in isolation is a distortion.

"The second quarter was a wipeout, but the third quarter will be okay," said one well-informed source with knowledge of deals in the area. "The third quarter is not going to set the world on fire for deals, particularly now with the Google deal not happening, but it will be decent. But it's quarter four of this year and quarter one of next year that we're concerned about now because you don't have the deal flow coming through now that would translate into lease activity then."

New developments will be thin on the ground, said the source.

"Funding is going to prove challenging because of the amount of due diligence you will have to do and even then you will probably get a lower loan-to-value and it's going to be much more difficult to fund," said the source. "Developers probably say that's a bad thing but from a supply and demand perspective it's probably not bad. It means we're not making the mistakes of the past and delivering all this stock that could sit vacant for a long time."

"If you are lending into Ireland, you're now thinking about Brexit and Covid. The Google announcement is probably just another thing that will be used against the developers by lenders as an excuse not to lend. But they were already reticent anyway. They may be saying they're still in the market to lend, but if you got a term sheet today, relative to what you would have got in February, the terms are going to be different."

That assessment is backed up by a review of the first half of 2020 by property company HWBC. It found that speculative construction of new office space in Dublin has slowed significantly due to Covid. But, like others in the property industry, it remains guardedly optimistic that the market can ride out the issues.

"Whilst there is a high level of uncertainty in the Irish commercial property market, a crash - as experienced in 2009/10 - is unlikely due to the lack of oversupply and the well-capitalised long-term investors who now underpin the market."

Nevertheless, the impact has been substantial. The level of take-up in the first half of the year was 36pc lower than a year ago, at 1.1m sq ft. HWBC said it expects take up this year to fall below 2m sq ft for the first time since 2012 "with this reduced demand making developers increasingly nervous about delivering new supply unless it is underpinned by a pre-let commitment from a blue-chip tenant".

Of the 5.5m sq ft under construction for delivery in the city centre over the next three years, more than half is already pre-let, it said.

"Whilst the declining demand is a concern for the sector, HWBC's view is that the situation is structurally different from the last crash for two important reasons. First, unlike in 2009, the market is not in a position where large amounts of speculative supply is in the pipeline for delivery," said the review.

"Secondly, the main owners in the current market comprise of large pension funds and institutional investors who are well capitalised and not under pressure to cut rents to let space quickly. This compares to a market in 2009 that was dominated by domestic developers and speculators who were backed by massive bank lending with little or no wriggle room to cope with a falling market," it said.

Speaking to the Sunday Independent, HWBC director Iain Sayer said that, despite the firm's very cautious assessment, he was not overly concerned by the Sorting Office deal falling through.

"It's one deal that has fallen out of bed. There are plenty of other deals that are still happening, even in the docklands."

The 200,000 sq ft deal would have been far beyond the average 15,000 sq ft Dublin deal.

"It is actually an over-performance to let buildings in their entirety before they reach practical completion even if we have seen a number of these deals here in recent times. But nobody underwrites a development project saying 'I'm going to have the whole thing let to Google before I've even built the basement'. You'd be bonkers to underwrite on that basis."

Sayer and many others in the property sector have a cautious but optimistic view. But like the men in the diving bell who built the Liffey walls, they will all be watching anxiously for any more cracks above their heads.
Strict limits on household, indoor, outdoor and sporting events will still be in place until next April even under the Government's best-case scenario for living with Covid-19.

A five-level plan will be published on Tuesday with ministers and officials still debating the finer details of the document this weekend.

Level five will be the most restrictive and similar to the lockdown in March and April, with level one the least restrictive but still placing limits on the numbers allowed in homes and at indoor and outdoor gatherings.

Read More

The 'Living with Covid' plan will prioritise keeping schools and creches open in all phases if possible, while encouraging parents and employees to gradually return to their workplaces provided it is safe to do so in a bid to regenerate towns and cities that have been economically devastated in recent months. Schools and creches may be closed in level five but this will depend on the public health recommendations and available evidence at that time.

"Level five is back to where we were in March, level four is a more diluted version of that, and levels three and two are where we are hovering around now," said a senior government source. "But level one is still more restrictive than people would have hoped. But it's equally truthful to say that it's as good as we can get in the current environment."

Sport events

There will be exemptions for sporting events where between 400 and 500 people can attend, subject to a venue having a capacity of at least 5,000. Ministers are this weekend pushing to increase the limits on those attending outdoor sporting events, which have been behind closed doors in recent weeks. But the current plan as drafted creates the possibility that only a few hundred people could be allowed to attend the All-Ireland finals in Croke Park in December.

Different counties and regions could be placed at different levels depending on various factors, including their 14-day incidence rate of the virus, but no more than two levels would be allowed at any one time in the State.

The Government this week intends to keep almost all parts of the country at level two but amid growing concerns about the spread of the virus in Dublin, the capital could be categorised at level three, with restrictions similar to those that were in place in Laois, Offaly and Kildare last month.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin warned yesterday that the Government would not be afraid to implement restrictions in Dublin to stop the virus spreading. "We won't be afraid to implement measures specifically in Dublin, if that's the way forward," he told RTE Raidio na Gaeltachta. "We did that in Kildare, Offaly and Laois... I know that some counties have a low number of cases, and I understand that argument, that there are differences and so the same restrictions shouldn't apply."

New test centres will also be set up in every county, with pop-up testing centres to deal with specific outbreaks and clusters in certain areas. The Government will also expedite recruitment for testing and contact tracing, with the aim of having 3,000 people involved in this. There are now between 700 and 800 seconded health service staff working on testing and tracing.

The levels explained

Based on the drafts of the new plan circulated to senior government figures in recent days, the Sunday Independent can reveal that under the best-case scenario - level one - there will be no more than 10 visitors from three households allowed in a person's home, indoor gatherings will be limited to 100 people, and outdoor gatherings will be limited to 200 people.

There will be no restrictions on travelling from your home and all pubs, restaurants, shops and other businesses will be open.

Under level two, where most counties in the State are currently at, no more than six people from three households will be allowed in a person's home, with indoor gatherings limited to 50 people and outdoor gatherings also limited to this number.

Under a level three scenario, gatherings in the home would be limited to six people from only one other household; while there would be a ban on indoor gatherings with certain specified exceptions and a limit of 15 people on outdoor gatherings.

Under a level four scenario, there would be a ban on all indoor gatherings, with outdoor gatherings limited to 15 and household visits banned. People would be encouraged not to socialise with people outside their household and told not to travel more than 5km from their home.

The same restrictions would apply for household and indoor gatherings under a level five scenario, while there would also be a ban on all outdoor gatherings.

Pubs and restaurants will be closed in the upper levels of the plan, but remain open at levels one and two.

A government source stressed that under the plan the situation whereby so-called 'wet' pubs have been closed since March while all other businesses have been allowed to reopen will not happen.

"If it is a case of businesses being restricted or closed it will be all businesses," they said. "Specific sectors won't be pulled out."

Read More

The exact details of the plan are still being finalised this weekend ahead of a meeting of the Cabinet Covid sub-committee tomorrow, before the plan is signed off by the full Cabinet tomorrow and published.

Green list

The Government will also drop the travel 'green list' in favour of a EU-proposed traffic light system for flights. However, as the system has not yet been agreed at EU level, the Coalition is considering adopting its criteria in the interim and adding a number of countries where the incidence rate of the disease is below 25 per 100,000 over the previous 14 days to the existing 'green list'. This could see countries like Germany, Poland, Bulgaria and Iceland added.

For so-called hotspot countries outside of the EU which have a high rate of the virus, passengers intending to travel to Ireland will have to be tested before boarding a plane.

The red list proposal that would have banned entry from certain countries, previously mooted by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, has been shelved in favour of this approach.

The communication of the new plan is being managed by the Taoiseach's department as the Government seeks to improve its messaging around Covid restrictions following heavy criticism in recent weeks.

Department of the Taoiseach secretary general Martin Fraser will chair a new oversight group that will examine the advice of the National Public Health Emergency Team including how implementable it is, fine-tuning it, and ensuring it is communicated clearly to the public.

Officials from various government departments, including Health and Justice, along with the HSE chief executive Paul Reid and the acting chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn, will be in the group.
Immigration Detention Center

Immigration Detention Center J. Emilio Flores/Corbis via Getty Images

Kathy Kunkel, secretary of the New Mexico Department of Health, was frustrated.

She was getting reports the first week of May of horrifying conditions at the Otero County Processing Center, one of three U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities in the state. Detainees were responsible for disinfecting their own living spaces but weren't getting adequate cleaning supplies. Their sheets hadn't been washed for a month. Social distancing was impossible inside housing units shared by dozens of men.

Kunkel's staff had been calling the center repeatedly. She wanted to stop new transfers to Otero from other states to reduce the risk of a coronavirus outbreak. She didn't know where to turn.

So she pulled out her iPhone and typed a message to Dr. Alexander L. Eastman, the senior medical officer at the Department of Homeland Security. "Can you help me in this? We sent 500 tests. They don't answer calls."

She hit send. Eastman previously had told her that it was "iffy" whether he had any authority to step in because Otero, 30 miles north of downtown El Paso, Texas, is run by a private prison operator, Management and Training Corp. After reading her latest note, he changed his tune: "Have escalated to ICE top leadership. Will circle back."

It was too late. Otero has since become one of the ICE facilities hardest hit by the pandemic, despite the fact that New Mexico's public health experts repeatedly offered their help and expertise to slow the spread of COVID-19.

View reported COVID-19 cases at all ICE facilities here

Internal emails obtained by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting provide a behind-the-scenes look at the frustration that built up over months within the New Mexico Department of Health as officials with ICE or its contractors failed to test detainees exposed to the virus  or turned down vital testing assistance. State officials sought to control the spread of the virus at detention centers  including county jails and ICE facilities  worried that a COVID-19 outbreak in a correctional setting could spread into the community.

Story continues

Kunkel, 69, is straightforward, avoiding the government jargon that leaders often fall back on in times of crisis. She began her career as a pediatric social worker at the University of New Mexico. After getting her law degree, she joined the state attorney general's office, going on to become general counsel and then deputy director for the Department of Health. Last year, Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham appointed Kunkel as health secretary.

Now Kunkel is managing the state's pandemic response from a command center at the dining table in her Albuquerque home. She's led an aggressive effort to test, trace and contain burgeoning outbreaks across businesses, schools, child care centers, hospitals, nursing homes and corrections facilities. The effort is one piece of the assertive response to COVID-19 in New Mexico, where officials closed schools early and rapidly organized free testing. The result: As of early August, New Mexico's positivity rate of 1 in 30 tests was much lower than in neighboring states such as Texas, where 1 in 6 tests were coming back positive, and Arizona, where the rate was 1 in 4. New Mexico is also among the states with the lowest number of cases per capita.

But ICE repeatedly stonewalled the health department's efforts. ICE continued detainee transfers, despite warnings from Kunkel's staff that such movement could spread the virus. And as Kunkel rolled out a state plan to test every person in detention, ICE officials failed to return the department's calls  or secure enough of their own test kits.

In the early days of the pandemic, any positive COVID-19 test result was a threat, Kunkel told Reveal.

"We wanted to respond quickly and provide support as time went on. We needed their cooperation to do it more effectively and to cooperate with us," she said of ICE. "That, unfortunately, didn't always happen."

ICE disputed the version of events chronicled in state records obtained by Reveal. The agency declined to comment on detainee transfers, citing a pending lawsuit against the agency. But in a statement, an agency spokesperson said medical personnel at Otero "maintained open lines of communication" with the health department during the "collection and processing of COVID-19 tests during the voluntary saturation testing of all detainees at the facility."

But a New Mexico Department of Health spokesperson disagreed: "ICE has not maintained open channels of communication with DOH," Jodi McGinnis Porter told Reveal in an email.

Kunkel only could look on from the outside as COVID-19 cases slipped out of control at Otero. At a time when testing kits were scarce, health department staff had no idea whether the 500 they sent to Otero had even been used.

Kunkel, state Corrections Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero and Dr. Chad Smelser, the state's lead COVID-19 epidemiologist, described ICE as slow to track and control the coronavirus and reluctant to accept the state's help.

"We have to be concerned about every person in New Mexico, every single person," Tafoya Lucero said. "It continues to be a source of frustration to feel like, and to see, that these people who really should be on board with us enthusiastically  to protect the population that we serve in an institution  that they're not following through."

Emails show that wardens and health administrators for Management and Training Corp. and CoreCivic, the other private contractor running ICE facilities in New Mexico, mostly responded to health department inquiries. The resistance came from ICE, which over a period of months failed to return phone calls and comply with the state's plan to conduct testing at all detention facilities, officials told Reveal.

ICE has maintained that it is safely managing the coronavirus risk. "ICE is firmly committed to ensuring the health and safety of individuals in its custody, its employees, contractors, and the general public," one top ICE official, Henry Lucero, told Congress in June.

According to Lucero and other statements issued by ICE, the agency has been following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, providing detainees with sanitizer and soap, and reducing the population in detention centers to promote social distancing. Detainees who test positive, the agency says, "receive appropriate medical care."

Yet according to public health experts, detainees live and sleep in cramped quarters where social distancing is impossible. ICE has refused to free many immigrants who qualify for release, either through bond or parole. More than 5,000 detainees have tested positive since the start of the pandemic, ICE figures show. So have 1,000 employees, according to recent congressional testimony. About 600 detainees are currently positive for COVID-19 within ICE's detention network, which currently holds more than 20,000. Six detainees and at least two guards have died from the virus.

And those are just the outbreaks ICE has publicly acknowledged. Researchers say the agency's official tally of COVID-19 cases is almost certainly a vast undercount because so few detainees have been tested. When the Vera Institute of Justice, a social justice advocacy nonprofit, modeled the behavior of COVID-19 on the ICE detention system, it found the true case total "may be up to 15 times higher than the figures reported by ICE as of mid-May."

The records that Reveal obtained from New Mexico and a handful of other states underscore the likelihood of an undercount: ICE isn't testing. The federal government provides ICE with 5,000 test kits a month, but officials say most of those are used for screening detainees as they enter the system and before they board deportation flights, rather than on regularly testing the people in detention. ICE contractors source additional tests for their own facilities, but the net result is a huge shortfall. At Otero, Kunkel said, staff said the facility would get very few tests without the state's help. As of July, 415 detainees were being held at Otero.

View reported COVID-19 cases at all ICE facilities here

ICE's failure to comprehensively test, combined with its continued practice of transferring detainees, has fueled new outbreaks all over the country. Immigration Centers of America, which runs a detention center in Farmville, Virginia, initially turned down the state's offer to help with testing "without an explanation," said Dr. Robert Nash, regional director for the Virginia Department of Health. Detainees in Farmville have experienced the worst outbreak of any ICE facility in the country, with 339 detainees testing positive so far. In early August, the Associated Press reported that 259 of Farmville's 298 detainees had the virus.

At the Mesa Verde ICE detention center in Bakersfield, California, emails disclosed in a court case suggest that ICE rejected a medical contractor's plan to test all its detainees because the agency wouldn't have room to isolate everyone who tested positive.

Inside one of ICE'S biggest outbreaks

A single-story detention facility for immigrants is covered with khaki-colored corrugated siding.

The Otero County Processing Center just outside Chaparral, New Mexico, can house just over 1,000 people. Credit: Joel Angel Juarez for Reveal

The Otero County Processing Center opened its doors in 2008 just outside the small town of Chaparral, New Mexico. It can house just over 1,000 people and is overseen by a staff of about 300. The building blends into the desert around it, wrapped in khaki-colored corrugated siding. It is surrounded by a double wall of chain-link fence and concertina wire and fronted by a covered walkway built with detainee labor.

The facility is part of a 15-acre complex that is also home to the Otero County Prison Facility, which holds up to 1,400 federal and state prisoners. Both facilities are operated by Management and Training Corp., a Utah-based prison contractor.

Although a sign outside describes Otero as an ICE facility, day-to-day decisions are made by Management and Training Corp. It's the same across the ICE detention network, with the agency relying on private companies and local jails to house detainees.

One of those detainees landed in Otero in early April. The government had held him in El Paso for a week, from March 27 to April 4, before sending him 30 miles away to Otero.

Within two days, the new detainee had developed a fever, cough and sore throat. On April 7, the detainee was tested for COVID-19. He appears to be the first confirmed case of the virus in a New Mexico ICE facility.

Otero officials placed him in isolation in the medical unit. But by then, he'd already come in contact with at least 74 other detainees. Rather than test them all immediately, the facility placed them under quarantine for 14 days.

This practice, called cohorting, has become standard ICE practice during the pandemic. Ada Rivera, medical director for the ICE Health Service Corps, told Congress in June that cohorting "is recommended by CDC guidelines." But those guidelines actually say that "cohorting should only be practiced if there are no other available options." As Mother Jones reported, cohorting without testing can be dangerous because people without symptoms can easily spread the virus to others in their quarantine unit. Only testing and isolation can prevent that.

After the detainees had been quarantined for more than a week, Otero health services administrator Guillermo Contreras decided he wanted help to test more widely. He called one of the state health department's epidemiologists, Sandra Melman.

On April 15, Melman wrote details of the call for Kunkel and other colleagues. "They would now like to test them all and are asking for our assistance to do so. They do not have enough testing capacity."

The department responded by sending 500 to 600 tests, officials say.

One week later, 25 detainees arrived at Otero. One of them, records show, had come from the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego. He had developed a cough, body aches and congestion days earlier and was awaiting the results of a COVID-19 test.

Hours after the detainee arrived, Contreras received word that the test had come back positive. He wrote again to the health department with the bad news.

A day after Contreras' email, Kunkel got another update on the transfer, this time from Smelser, the acting state epidemiologist.

Smelser told Reveal that he has been advocating for more than a decade for ICE to monitor detainees being transferred into and out of New Mexico for infectious diseases such as chickenpox and measles. Now, in his message to Kunkel, he wondered why ICE would want to further strain a facility struggling to contain an outbreak by adding more possibly contagious people to the mix.

"I have never understood the reasons or protocols for these transfers," he wrote. "Do you have any suggestions on how to deal with this? Could we get a senator to complain?"

Warnings of an 'alarming situation'

The outbreak already was brewing at Otero. On May 8, a member of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's staff forwarded Kunkel an email from an advocate, warning of an "alarming situation" there. Margaret Brown Vega, a volunteer who supports people detained by ICE, wrote that Otero detainees with COVID-19 symptoms still had not been tested.

"It is unclear to what degree, or how, the state or county health departments are overseeing what is happening," Brown Vega wrote.

Kunkel quickly wrote two messages to her staff from her iPhone. In one, she asked a staff member to call and get more information. In the other, she decided to go higher up the chain at ICE. She said she wanted to stop transfers from other states:

"I called dr Alex Eastman in this last week and he said USDHS authority "iffy" due to contractor manager. We continue to call daily to medical director. Sent over 500 test kits. We are trying to get in there; also want to stop transfer if detainees from other state. Continue to work it"

Kunkel had met Eastman, the top medical official for the Department of Homeland Security, the previous year when he was working with states as asylum seekers were arriving in record numbers.

Eastman told Kunkel in an email that he had flagged the issue for top ICE leadership. But she said he also warned her that the response "was not going to be very strong." The agency would not make Eastman available for an interview.

It wasn't just Otero. On May 18, in response to an email from Kunkel ordering her staff to contact county detention facilities for testing, state surveillance officer David Selvage wrote:

"All 3 ICE facilities are a challenge As of last week when I spoke to Warden Chad Miller at (Torrance County Detention Facility, managed by CoreCivic), he was adamant that his company would not permit universal testing of the ICE and US Marshal holds. I think that they all need to be tested, but that is my opinion. I believe that the US Marshal holds have a fairly high infection rate."

A CoreCivic spokesperson said in a statement that leadership at the Torrance facility and the Cibola County Correctional Center, the other ICE facility CoreCivic runs in New Mexico, have been "in frequent communication" with health department officials, including Selvage. "We have rigorously followed the guidance of local, state and federal health authorities, as well as our government partners."

State officials' struggles to get through to ICE would continue in the coming months.

Appeal from the governor

In June, Lujan Grisham assigned Tafoya Lucero, the corrections secretary, to establish a line of communication with ICE. At first, the agency appeared open to finally cooperating. As Tafoya Lucero recalled, "Suddenly, the leadership from ICE, they were returning my phone calls."

But two weeks later, when the secretary asked ICE to provide its own test kits and stop transfers in and out of Otero, the officials went silent, Tafoya Lucero said.

In mid-July, Scott Marquardt, president and CEO of Management and Training Corp., which runs Otero, was called to testify before the House Homeland Security Committee. Marquardt held up the widespread testing at Otero as a mark of his company's commitment to containing COVID-19.

"We have administered multiple rounds of extensive testing for the 467 individuals in the facility, administering 794 tests," he said.

But beyond saying that "MTC has worked closely with ICE and state and local health departments," he didn't acknowledge that New Mexico had provided the bulk of those tests. The company declined to answer Reveal's questions about its testing at Otero.

Today, the health department says ICE still is not testing detainees inside Otero at the level it recommends.

After the aggressive intervention from Kunkel and her health department, the outbreak at Otero has apparently died down. In all, 150 detainees contracted COVID-19 there. As of Sept. 9, there were no active cases at the facility. But with continued transfers from other facilities and a lack of tests to keep monitoring the population, another outbreak remains possible.

Tafoya Lucero said her calls to ICE still go unreturned. She says it disturbs her that the welfare of so many people in custody in her state are out of the health department's reach.

"My concern is," she said, "are they endangering people?"

This story was edited by Andrew Donohue and Esther Kaplan and copy edited by Nikki Frick.

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Two Los Angeles Deputies were shot in an ambush at a Metro station in Compton on Saturday.

The ambush took place around 7 p.m. on Saturday at the Metro Blue Line station at Willowbrook Avenue and Compton Boulevard, Los Angeles.

It happened just a short distance from the Compton sheriff's station.

A surveillance video of the suspect's ambush was released by the department. It showed the Los Angeles deputies as they sat in the patrol vehicle.

A man in dark clothing walked up to the deputies and shot several times at a close range, reported ABC7. The suspect then ran off on foot.

One of the victims was seen emerging from the passenger side and stumbling around on foot for a few seconds before the video ends.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva called the ambush a "cowardly act".

"The two deputies were doing their job, minding their own business, watching out for the safety of the people on the train," he said.

He added that there is "no pretty way to say" how negatively he felt to see someone walk up to the deputies and start shooting them. "It dismays me at the same time," he added.

The deputies were identified as a 31-year-old mother of a six-year-old boy, and the other a 24-year-old man. Both of their families came to the hospital after the shooting.

Villanueva said both deputies were only sworn into duty 14 months ago in the same class.

"Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers," the department said in a tweet.

Deputies Had Critical Injuries

As reported by The Hill, there were two victims, one male and one female.

They sustained "multiple gunshot wounds and are in critical condition." The County Sheriff's department tweeted late Saturday that they were "still fighting for their lives."

Both of them had to go through surgery at a local hospital. Later on, the department confirmed that the victims have been out of surgery.

Officials told Los Angeles Times that at least one of the deputies was shot in the face and the other in the head.

Shooter Still at Large

Officials did not get a detailed description of the shooter, other than he was a man, NBC Los Angeles reported. Sheriff's Capt. Kent Wegener said investigators were combing the area for videos that might show more information on the suspect.

Streets in the area were blocked off by deputies in search of the suspect.

The department had at least 14 detectives on the scene of the crime to investigate. There were also forensic specialists, the Special Enforcement Bureau, K-9 units and other department personnel on scene.

President Donald Trump also reacted to the shooting. He retweeted the video of the crime and commented: "Animals that must be hit hard!"

A small crowd was gathered near the hospital in Lynwood where the deputies were brought for treatment.

Witnesses said members in the group were chanting anti-law enforcement slogans. At one point, some of them also tried to get inside the hospital.

Anyone with information on the shooter can call detectives at 323-890-5500.

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Moscow, Sep 14 : Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has criticized the US policy of forming alliances against third countries, including China.

Responding to a question about Washington's attempt to pitting other countries against China, Lavrov said "the policy is alien to us", Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.

"Neither Russia, nor China, nor our allies ever offer someone to be friends against someone," Lavrov said Sunday on a local TV program.

"We have a completely different diplomatic and political culture. We have a desire to develop good relations with everyone," he said.

Russia never puts forward preconditions for cooperation that its partners must deliberately worsen relations with some countries in the first place, Lavrov noted.

"'To be friends against someone,' in my opinion, contradicts the very meaning of the word 'friendship,'" he added.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Flagstaff City Council and mayoral candidates have been given the chance to answer a weekly question in no more than 150 words. This weeks question is:

Mayor

Charlie Odegaard

Public comments are the glue that brings the people and the elected body

together; forming cohesion for community values. The Mayors role is to facilitate comments whether written or spoken to the Council body. The role of the elected is to look at every issue entirely and to move forward so that it benefits the community.

Public comment is not limited to those who show up, even though it does carry a lot of weight. We need to recognize, as a community of 75k residents, that there are other opinions and we need to do our homework of what is best for the community. I love being in the community and listening to what people are saying. We need to listen to staffs expertise in their field and we receive legal advice. Individual Council members need to practice restraint from the noise of the political verbiage that only creates division.

Paul Deasy

The City Council represents the public, so it should always consider public comments on the issues. I believe that the more people who comment, the better, and Councilmembers should consider new perspectives that the public brings to the table.

To encourage more public participation, Id like to see Council consider certain changes. Council used to start its regular meetings at 6 p.m. Since COVID, they start at 3 p.m. The earlier in the day Council meetings start, the less likely it is that people who hold regular jobs can participate. As Mayor, I will ask the Council to discuss changing the time that regular Council meetings start back to 6 p.m., because its important to make it as easy as possible for the public to engage in the local political process.

Council

Jim McCarthy

Public input is essential. Our key principle is that government is for, and by, the people.

I get input when people write letters to Council, in meetings, and listening to people wherever I meet them. Solutions come from across the political spectrum. As a Council member, I weigh all inputs, including my own moral compass. Council must balance the common good with the rights of individuals.

Council recently heard strong voices to defund our police (until 2:48 in the morning). We decided to support the police, add funding for training to meet community goals, and to have a subsequent Council discussion about the actions and policies of our police. The decision supported the underlying common goal of a safe community with zero police bias.

My goal is to look beyond simple ideology, to find solutions that really work. That is how we come together to solve shared problems.

Becky Daggett

I will always listen to community members and sincerely consider their ideas, concerns, and perspectives as a critical part of my decision making process. I only commit to a course of action after listening, asking questions, seeking out those with subject area expertise, and careful study.

Ive stood before the council many times in support of or opposition to a variety of issues and I understand that a vote counter to your position is frustrating and sometimes infuriating. Ive also had to make difficult decisions when some disagreed. It is vital to understand public opinion from people directly impacted by a council decision, even when their voices arent the loudest. I will seek out those views.

Ultimately, I promise to sincerely listen, honestly consider comments, and in the end make decisions based on what I think is best for the health and prosperity of the city and the people who live here.

Anthony Garcia

Community engagement is an essential component to our local political process. It inspires inclusion, ensuring that every Flagstaff citizen has the opportunity to utilize their voices to foster change and shape our vision.

As leadership, public comment is the road map we follow to better understand where policy can effectively meet the needs of our community.

As citizens, we are the experts of our streets, neighborhoods and the pathways we traverse. This is an important perspective that adds value to our community when expressed publicly.

I currently serve our community as the BPAC Chair. In this role, my priority is to garner robust community input and keep the community engaged throughout the process. Essentially, its our (taxpayer) money that enables the citys budget. We the people, deserve a say in how that money is spent.

Public comment is one of many factors to consider when establishing balanced public policy.

Eric Nolan

I believe in building community and practicing responsible politics. This means Ill continue being proactive in reaching out for comments, listening to concerns, and taking all opinions into consideration. Part of the problem I see within many of our issues, and many complaints I hear in general, is a lack of easily accessible information and dialogue.

This is why I believe in communication and transparency as once we have all the facts on the table then well know exactly what were working with allowing us to more fully engage in a meaningful discussion. Many of the issues we face are complex in nature and well need community input to find good resolutions! We have some conflicting and contentious issues (for example, open spaces vs affordable housing) and this is where I see education helping to show us the bigger picture more clearly so that we make the best decisions possible.

Eric Senseman

The most effective leaders make decisions based on a complete body of evidence, and so they don't make decisions based solely on public comment. With that said, public comment is still one of several important considerations in finding a just and optimal resolution to any issue.

I believe that doing something solely because a mass of people want you to isnt a good practice, since the public doesn't always know the underlying causes and effects of an issue. As a city council member, I would listen, digest, and categorize all comments, verbal and written, that are laid before me and use those in concert with the opinion of experts on a given subject matter. I would then gather as much information and facts as possible, from as many sources as possible, in order to make an informed decision that is best for the community.

Miranda Sweet

Public engagement in all City governing processes is important, which is why there are many citizen Commissions for different departments within the City (I am currently on the Airport Commission, myself). The Public Comments portion of Council meetings is equally important, because like our personal relationships, if we do not communicate our grievances, frustration can take center stage and create an argument.

I also acknowledge that some Flagstaff citizens just want to be heard. My life experiences have taught me that there is a time to respond and a time to simply listen. I am proud to have customers that have continued to support my business for over 20 years. The years of support reflects my customers respect for the way I manage personal and professional relationships, as well as my fashion sense. I look forward to creating more individual connections as a member of your Flagstaff City Council.

Editor's note: Eric Senseman's response to the role of and funding for police in Flagstaff was submitted in time last week. Here it is:

Black communities in America have been disproportionately affected by police violence. I am sympathetic to the resulting unrest and frustration.

As such, I think its important, as was suggested by Mayor Evans recently, that the Flagstaff Police Department, the City of Flagstaff, and community members have inclusive conversations to understand, and make transparent, the viewpoints of all parties.

Flagstaff spends about five percent of its total budget on the police department and that percentage is comparatively lower than many other cities. As the population of Flagstaff grows, its important to have a police department that can handle inevitable increases in crime. I believe its in our collective best interest to adequately fund our police department while also investing in additional training for officers, and I think we should explore additional systems for public safety that could be used to assist the police department in responding to non-criminal disputes.

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President Donald Trump on Saturday called Joe Biden 'the worst' candidate who 'doesn't know he is alive' at a rally that violated Nevada's coronavirus regulations.

'He is the worst candidate in the history of presidential politics. He doesn't know he is alive,' Trump said at his rally at the Minden-Tahoe airport.

The president hopped from topic to topic in his more than 90 minutes remarks, veering from attack line to attack line during his rally, often in the space of seconds: he attacked the Democrats, railed against the coronavirus, complained about the Black Lives Matters protests in cities - among other topics.

He spoke in front of the Sierra Mountains with the smell of smoke in the air from the wildfires one state over.

The crowd was riled up, repeatedly yelling 'four more years' and 'we love Trump.' They waved signs that said 'peaceful protesters' - which is what the president has started calling his rallies.

President Trump also complained his Democratic rival will get a favorable comparison to Winston Churchill, the legendary British prime minister who lead the United Kingdom through World War II. Trump revers Churchill and often compares himself to the political icon.

'We have a debate coming up in three weeks and here's the problem. Winston Churchill was a great debater,' Trump said.

President Donald Trump called Joe Biden 'the worst' candidate who 'doesn't know he is alive'

President Trump's rally was moved to Minden after Reno officials canceled his rally there due to COVID concerns

The crowd at Trump's rally violated social distancing rules; Nevada only allows gatherings of 50 people

He said if Biden makes it to the debate and 'if he gets off the stage they're going to say it's the single greatest debate they've ever seen. Winston Churchill was nothing compared to Sleepy Joe.'

He repeated several of his previous insults of Biden. In addition to the 'Sleepy Joe,' he complained Biden is still in his basement, and railed against Biden's son Hunter.

'Joe is shot, let's face it,' Trump said.

'Using him is just an excuse to get the super libs in there,' he said.

He also attacked Biden's ability to keep the United States' safe. Biden has over 40 years of government service.

'Biden's plan is to appease domestic terrorists,' Trump said. 'He'll never be able to protect your family, your loved ones, your community.'

He also argued a Biden presidency would ruin the economy. The president has made a strong economy a key to his re-election and it's one area where voters give him high marks.

'I think 1929 would look like good times,' Trump said.

He also tied Biden to one of his major pet peeves - windmills.

'Did you ever seen a windmill when it's shot - like Joe?,' Trump said.

'It just starts to rust,' he said. 'And no one wants to take them down because it's a lot of money to take them down.'

Trump railed against environmentalists who want to use wind energy, warning people they won't be able to watch TV at night because the wind's not blowing.

He complained windmills will kill bald eagles.

'You want to see a bird cemetery,' Trump said. 'Walk under a windmill sometime.'

The president also attacked his former Democratic rivals in addition to his 2020 opponent - bringing up Hillary Clinton's emails, which was a popular line for him on the 2016 campaign trail, and complaining about President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize.

Trump again attacked Clinton for using a private email server as secretary of state, which she was cleared of any wrong doing in an FBI investigation.

'She took her telephone and smashed it with a hammer and then deleted the emails,' Trump said.

'She illegally deleted and her lawyers should go to jail with her,' he added.

The crowd responded with 'lock her up' - a crowd favorite from the 2016 election.

'I don't care if you say it anymore,' Trump told them as they yelled the slogan.

He also turned his wrath on Obama.

'Obama came into office they gave him the Nobel prize almost immediately,' Trump said. 'And he had no idea why he got it and he was right about it.'

Obama received the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize - shortly after he took the oath of office in his first term - for his 'extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between people'.

'I'm a hell of a lot better president than he is,' Trump said of Obama.

The crowd - not using social distancing and few wearing face masks - cheered on Trump

Supporters wave signs as they wait for Trump to arrive at his rally at the Minden-Tahoe Airport

Trump complained about Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize - Obama is seen with his diploma and gold medal during the Nobel ceremony at the City Hall in Oslo on December 10, 2009

He then turned his fury on the media, complaining his own nominations for the Nobel Prize didn't get adequate coverage in the media.

'So we were nominated a few days ago for a Nobel Peace Prize,' Trump said. 'And yesterday we were nominated a second time.'

'I got zero time on the nightly news  the network news,' he added.

As the crowd booed - with some yelling 'CNN sucks' - Trump continued on.

'The president is your country is honoured by being nominated by the Nobel Prize,' he said. 'Not one mention. These people are corrupt.'

Trump on Saturday dismissed Nevada's restrictions on crowd size because of the coronavirus pandemic and bragged his rally venue is 'packed.'

'We just landed in Nevada and we're very booked up. The venue is packed. 1,000 people  many times that,' he told reporters when he landed in Reno.

He ripped into Nevada's Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak for not allowing him to hold his rally at his original location - the Reno airport - because the state forbids gatherings of more than 50 people because of COVID.

'He tried to stop us. We went to different venues,' Trump told his rally. He charged Sisolak with 'calling venues and telling them' not to the let the campaign hold events.

The rally was packed with several thousand people with no social distancing and few people in the crowd wearing masks. The rows of people on bleachers behind the stage, and in view of the cameras, were wearing masks.

'We call it a protest so we can do it,' Trump said of his rally.

The president railed against the expanded mail-in voting options Nevada's state legislature allowed due to the coroanavirus pandemic, repeating his argument it would lead to a 'rigged' elections.

Multiple studies have shown mail-in votes do not lead to election fraud. And at least 80 million Americans are expected to vote by mail this year because of the pandemic.

'The governor tried to stop us and he couldn't but he's in control of millions of votes,' Trump said. 'He's a political hack.'

'He's a guy who tried to silence us by not having this but our crowd turned out much bigger,' the president bragged as the crowd roared their approval.

'So I'm up millions of votes he can rig the election,' Trump said of the governor.

'They only way they're going to win is to rig it,' he said of the Democrats.

'The only way we're tied is if they screw around with the ballots, which they will do in my opinion,' the president noted.

'This is the greatest scam in the history of presidential politics,' he said of universal mail-in voting, adding that dead people and dogs are getting ballots.

'People died, they're getting ballots. They're sending them to dogs. You see that? Dogs got ballots. Everybody's getting ballots. Probably everybody but Republicans are going to get the ballots,' he said.

He urged the crowd to be poll watchers on Election Day.

'I hope you're all gonna be poll watchers because with you people watching the polls it's going to be pretty hard to cheat. I'll tell you, I wouldn't want to be a cheater,' he tells supporters as they cheer.

The rally was moved from the Reno airport to the Minden-Tahoe airport approximately 45 mins away after officials canceled the Reno event out of concerns about the virus.

Nevada does not allow gatherings of more than 50 people.

Trump landed in Reno - because the 747 he was traveling on was too big to land at the Minden-Tahoe Airport - and complained he didn't have Air Force One in the background, which he usually has at his airport rallies.

'Why didn't we have land here then we could have the plane in the background,' he said to the crowd. Instead Trump took his motorcade on the 45 minute journey from Reno to Minden.

'The Beast costs almost as much as the plane,' Trump bragged. 'It's a tank.'

A crowd listens as President Donald Trump speaks at a rally at Minden-Tahoe Airport

Trump railed repeatedly against Democratic rival Joe Biden at his rally

So the Trump campaign moved the rally down the Sierra Mountain range to Douglas County, a much more conservative area. The total population of about 49,000 people is an overwhelmingly Republican area.

A Trump campaign official told RGJ.com there would be adequate social distancing at the event but 'no one from Douglas County will be enforcing anything.'

Trump expressed confidence he could win Nevada this November even though the state hasn't voted for Republican President since 2004.

'I've been here a lot in my life and I know it well. I think we're gonna win it,' he said upon landing in Reno.

The Trump campaign is holding several events in Nevada this weekend, hoping the state's six electoral votes can provide a firewall should they lose a state they lost in 2016 - like Arizona.

Trump will hold another event on Sunday in Las Vegas. His original rally was canceled out of the same COVID concerns.

Instead he will speak at Xtreme Manufacturing in nearby Henderson.

Henderson spokeswoman Kathleen Richards told the Las Vegas Review Journal that the city had issued written and verbal warnings to Xtreme Manufacturing, reminding the company of the restrictions on social gatherings. If the company does violate the rule, it will receive a citation, she said.

Additionally the president will visit California on Monday to be briefed on the wildfires there, capping off a weekend campaign swing on the West Coast with a visiting to the devastating blazes that have killed at least 29.

'It is about forest management. Please remember the words, very simple, forest management,' Trump said of the fires during his rally on Saturday night.

The White House announced his California visit shortly before he left for Nevada.

'President @realDonaldTrump will visit California on Monday where he will be briefed on the state's wildfires,' White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere wrote Saturday on Twitter.

President Donald Trump will visit California on Monday to be briefed on the wildfires there

More than 746,000 acres in California have burned, including the Bobcat Fire (above) in the woods in the Angeles National Forest north of Monrovia

Following that, he'll visit McClellan Park in Sacramento County on Monday, which has served as a base for CALFire operations, Fox 11 in Los Angeles reported.

The White House has touted its support for the first responders and fire fighters in the state.

'THANK YOU to the 28,000+ Firefighters and other First Responders who are battling wildfires across California, Oregon, and Washington. I have approved 37 Stafford Act Declarations, including Fire Management Grants to support their brave work. We are with them all the way!,' Trump tweeted on Friday night.

President Trump visited California after the 2018 wildfires, touring the area with then-Governor Jerry Brown and then Governor-Elect Gavin Newsom.

It is unclear if Newsom will join the president for this trip. The two men do not get along but have spoke on the phone Friday about the roaring fires devastating the West Coast.

At least 20 have been killed in California, eight in Oregon and one in Washington state as thousands of firefighters struggle to bring the blazes under control. Four people have been arrested on arson charges.

Images out of the California show orange skies, damaged property, and smoke-filled scenes.

More than 20,000 firefighters are battling the blazes.

Officials are bracing for more casualties.

'We anticipate that number (of deaths) may potentially go up as we get back into areas that have been ravaged by flame and obviously, smoke begins to clear,' warned Newsom, as he visited a scorched forest near the raging North Complex Fire on Friday.

The map above shows 103 fires that have already burned more than 3.4 million acres across the western United States

The August Complex Fire this week became by far the biggest recorded blaze in Californian history, ripping through 746,000 acres of dry vegetation in the state's north, as multiple fires combined.

But it is just one of around 100 large fires on the West Coast, and other rapidly growing blazes closer to populated areas have proven deadlier.
Migrants crossing the Channel in small boats could be banned from claiming asylum in Britain as part of plans to curb human rights laws.

Home Office officials have been asked to consider a draconian clampdown on asylum rights in a bid to halt the flow of Channel migrants, which has reached record levels in recent weeks.

Under one 'nuclear option', people could be banned from claiming asylum if they arrive in the UK from a safe country like France.

Migrants crossing the Channel in small boats could be banned from claiming asylum in Britain as part of plans to curb human rights laws. Pictured: Priti Patel and Michael Gove visiting the Port of Dover

Ministers are also looking at curbing the right of failed asylum seekers to fight deportation in the courts.

Both moves would breach the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which is implemented in the UK via the Human Rights Act.

A Government source last night insisted that ministers 'remain committed to the ECHR', but acknowledged they were looking at 'how we implement it in our country'.

The source said any changes were 'not imminent'. The review is also said to be looking at whether to 'disapply' the ECHR from new laws such as the Overseas Operations Bill, which is designed to protect British troops from 'vexatious' claims following service abroad.

Home Secretary Priti Patel is under pressure to act following a sharp upsurge in Channel migrant numbers to more than 6,000 so far this year.

The Home Secretary is under pressure to act following a sharp upsurge in Channel migrant numbers to more than 6,000 so far this year (pictured)

At a meeting with Tory MPs last month, she said the asylum system was 'broken', and pledged to come forward with new laws that would 'send the Left into meltdown'.

Miss Patel said the system was being 'exploited by leftie Labour-supporting lawyers' who were doing everything they could to stop the Government removing people.

The push to shake up human rights laws is being driven by the Prime Minister's chief adviser Dominic Cummings, who has previously complained the ECHR is responsible for blocking the deportation of dangerous criminals from the UK.

Although the ECHR is not part of EU law, Brussels negotiators have asked for assurances that the UK will continue to comply with it.

The push to shake up human rights laws is being driven by the Prime Minister's chief adviser Dominic Cummings

Mr Cummings has suggested that voters would have expected Britain to be freed from the jurisdiction of European judges after Brexit.

But Whitehall sources acknowledged that limiting asylum rights could put the UK on a collision course with the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, which ministers have so far shown no appetite to withdraw from.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland yesterday made clear he was ready to fight to keep the UK signed up to the provisions of the ECHR.

He insisted the idea of the UK pulling out of the convention was 'for the birds'. It would be 'wholly wrong' to quit the convention, he said.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland yesterday made clear he was ready to fight to keep the UK signed up to the provisions of the ECHR

Pointing out Britain helped to draw it up after the Second World War, he told Times Radio: 'It is a badge of honour for this country that we did that.

'Yes, there have been moments when we have had disagreements and clashes about aspects of its interpretation, but you know there is a wide margin of appreciation that allows member states  Britain, France, other countries  to make their own laws which give us a huge amount of freedom.

'And I do think that rather than focusing on the European Convention we should be focusing on our own domestic laws and working out where perhaps we've gold-plated laws a bit too much in what is often an English law tradition, rather than criticising the convention itself.'
The Trump campaign had vetted several outdoor venues, but they were all blocked by the governor, according to an administration official familiar with the planning. Tim Murtaugh, a campaign spokesman, defended the indoor setting, saying in a statement, If you can join tens of thousands of people protesting in the streets, gamble in a casino, or burn down small businesses in riots, you can gather peacefully under the First Amendment to hear from the president of the United States.

Earlier in the day, White House and Republican officials struggled to respond to sharp questioning by Sunday morning news show hosts about why Mr. Trump knowingly played down the coronavirus in the crucial early months of the pandemic, as revealed by the journalist Bob Woodward in his new book, Rage.

The White House trade adviser, Peter Navarro, claimed on the CNN program State of the Union that nobody knew how dangerous the virus was at the time the president spoke to Mr. Woodward in February and March. In fact, Mr. Navarro himself wrote a memo in late January warning Trump administration officials that the virus could cost the United States trillions of dollars and put millions of Americans at risk of illness or death.

Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, provided a different defense of the president, saying that Mr. Trump had understood the serious threat the virus posed by early February, but was calm and steady and methodical because he did not want to cause a panic.

The host, Chuck Todd, characterized the presidents defenders as saying, You dont yell fire if youre in a crowded movie theater.
Could small businesses be heading out of the frying pan and into the fire? While many small and medium enterprises are no doubt relieved to have made it through national lockdown, they now face a set of new challenges.

Government support schemes such as furlough, grants and business interruption loans are all winding down  just as businesses are coming to terms with tighter business margins, staff redundancies, long-term changes in the way people shop, the cost of being Covid-secure  and sudden local lockdowns.

And to add to the mix, there is uncertainty over Brexit. Many businesses feel they must dig deep to ensure they survive.

Setting new goals : Bird and Blend's Krisi Smith and Mike Turner outside their shop

Tej Parikh, chief economist at the Institute of Directors, says it is a 'crucial' time for small firms. He says: 'We're moving away from a period when businesses needed bridging support during lockdown. They now require assistance with cash flow difficulties.

'Many Government support schemes are being lifted but consumer demand isn't back to previous levels. As a result, there's great uncertainty over making key decisions such as launching new products or committing to new investment.'

HOW TEA FIRM TURNED OVER A NEW LEAF Having to close temporarily all eight stores due to lockdown could have meant curtains for specialist tea retailer Bird and Blend. But managing director Mike Turner says his company is now stronger than ever He and co-founder Krisi Smith, both 32, are about to embark on an aggressive business expansion plan. It will result in three new stores being opened next month, the launch of a new tea  spiced pumpkin pie  and bringing forward the sale of its popular 'Tea Advent' calendar Turner says: 'We set up Bird and Blend seven years ago to combine our knowledge of working in the tea and hospitality industries. 'We wanted to make the business not just about the product, but the whole experience of smelling, tasting and talking about tea.' With sales in stores and festivals out of the question, Bird and Blend furloughed two-thirds of its staff and moved everything online. Website sales doubled thanks to advertising which added many new customers to its fan base. Now Bird and Blend has reopened its stores, is recruiting more staff and making the most of cheaper rents to expand. Turner adds: 'One of our new shops is on Portobello Road in London's Notting Hill which we would never have been able to afford normally.' While the sampling and smelling of teas remains off-limits thanks to Covid-19, staff are still making customers feel welcome. Turner says: 'By being happy, chatty and smiling, you can still give someone a hug from ten metres away.'

End of furlough and rent protection

With the furlough scheme ending next month, businesses must make tough decisions about whether to keep employees on or let them go. Simultaneously, they are having to get to grips with the introduction of the 'Kickstart' scheme that encourages them to employ 16 to 24-year-olds  with the costs met by taxpayers.

Andrew Goodacre, chief executive of the British Retailers Association, says: 'The Kickstart scheme will be a challenge for retailers as it is only for new jobs  redundancies are more likely. Mean - while, the 1,000 bonus in January next year for keeping staff on after furlough ends is not attractive enough as many retailers will have to deal with stark realities.'

Fears over the cost of local lockdowns have been allayed slightly with the Government promising up to 1,500 of sup - port for every three weeks an outlet is forced to close, but many say more is needed.

One of Goodacre's main concerns is the rent moratorium being lifted at the end of this month, meaning businesses can be kicked out of their premises if they are unable to pay their rent.

He says: 'Around 20 per cent of independent retailers could not pay their rent in the second quarter of this year. I expect the same number, if not more, to struggle when their third quarter rent is payable.

'While the larger supermarket chains and online shops have been doing well, retail footfall is still down around 20 to 30 per cent, which is really difficult for smaller shops. Without support, many will be forced to close.'

Pivot your business...and be positive

A note of optimism is sounded by Emma Jones, founder of small business net - work Enterprise Nation.

She says: 'A lot of businesses have come out of lockdown stronger than when they went in. Businesses have gone through so much uncertainty in recent years  for example, the General Election, Brexit and coronavirus. Many feel that if they have survived all these events, they can survive anything.'

The secret for many businesses, she says, is not to rest on their laurels. She adds: 'Those which are doing well are those that have pivoted. They have moved online or launched new products, adapting quickly to where, how and what customers are buying.'

Research by Enterprise Nation shows that businesses which seek advice swiftly are also doing better than those that bury their head in the sand.

For example, on Brexit, she says it is essential that businesses with a focus on exports get advice not only from their accountants, the Government and Customs and Excise, but also from companies in the same boat.

While a deep recession is still a threat, a start-up boom is underway with a record number of new companies being formed. Jones says: 'Businesses which launch in a recession tend to survive longer because they budget for low costs and think they have spotted a gap in the market.'

Many groups are calling on the Government to help further. Schemes being mooted include Brexit 'vouchers' to spend on seeking Brexit advice, more support for retailers and tax breaks to incentivise investment. Enterprise Nation has developed free online courses covering everything from web design to embracing TikTok.
New Williamstown Elementary School Principal Kristen Thompson takes a brief mask break on the steps of the school on Friday.

Q&A: New Williamstown Elementary Principal Finds Great Team in Place

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  Changing jobs in the middle of a global pandemic can be tough. Moving 2,000 miles to do so is even tougher.

But Kristen Thompson was motivated to make a move and is dedicated to making the most of the opportunity to serve as principal at Williamstown Elementary School.

And she has found a community of like-minded professionals ready to take on the challenge of teaching in the COVID-19 era when students return for remote instruction on Wednesday.

"If I've learned one thing being at WES in this short amount of time, it is that we have a staff of absolutely dedicated, motivated and supportive teachers on staff here," Thompson said.

"They are not only dedicated to students, they're dedicated to growing professionally in order to impact students. I believe that there is still a learning curve for everyone, and they are embracing that curve and making the best of it  so students are still getting the best education we can provide."

Thompson is one of two new principals in the Mount Greylock Regional School District this fall. At the middle-high school, Jake Schutz moves into the corner office after serving as the school's assistant principal.

Thompson comes to the Berkshires after 11 years in education in New Mexico, most recently as an assistant principal at West Mesa High School in Albuquerque.

Former Mount Greylock Superintendent Kimberley Grady, who appointed both principals in the spring, this week praised Thompson, an applicant for both open spots, for her experience with restorative justice and restorative practices.

"Kristen was so well respected by her administration and colleagues in New Mexico," Grady said. "The interview committees -- both of them -- loved her responses to many of their questions.

"She is experienced and student-centered. She ran lead on new initiatives and worked collaboratively with a variety of teams in her years in New Mexico."

As she helped make final preparations for the year ahead, Thompson chatted with iBerkshires.com about her reasons for relocating to Williamstown, her background and her plans for the year ahead.

Question: So, this can't have been how you pictured your introduction to a new school community. How has it been trying to make connections with the staff in the building?

Kristen Thompson: It's been great. I've been working with the admin team, and they've been super supportive to find outlets for contact with building staff. Via email and Zoom meetings, I met with the staff in the summer.

Now that we're back on contract and in the building, I've been doing what I call entrance meetings, spending 15 minutes with individual staff to chat about what's on their mind and to start building relationships.

Q: It sounds like you're pretty comfortable with the Zoom interactions and that sort of thing, but can it take the place of being able to sit down one-on-one with someone?

KT: There's no substitute for having that face-to-face interaction that's going to be as highly effective as it could be, but it's what we have right now that's most effective that we can use. It allows us to at least see someone even if it's on a screen.

Now, having folks in the building, even though we're following protocols and maintaining social distance, it's been wonderful to hear people and have people around.

We're lucky to have those [high tech] tools, I think. I can't imagine when I was in elementary school how our teachers could have done it.

Q: Have you been able to make any connections with families or even kids?

KT: As far as contacting families, I have been using the same platforms -- phone, email, robocalls.

It was definitely in my plan to do [more one-on-one with families], but I felt getting things ironed out logistically so I had accurate answers to give them in those meetings was a priority.

As we move in and are able to slow down, I think I'll be able to have those meetings with the community more often. It's definitely something on my mind and feel is incredibly important. I just felt I needed to take care of logistics so I could have answers for them.

It's a complete learning curve for me right now -- not only learning the school but also learning about the community and how the community wants to communicate.

Q: You mentioned the administrative team. How important has it been to have the support of people like your assistant principal and people in the office and at the district level who have been on the ground for years?

KT: Especially this year, it's been everything. The support I've had from this team has honestly gotten me through every roadblock I've faced. They've been completely open to any question I have, clarifications, helping me talk through problems, showing me where to find information, helping me with the culture of the school and the traditions we want to keep at the school when we can have those traditions in person again.

They've given me insight on why certain procedures and protocols are in place and why things are done the way they're done. That insight is vital for me. I come from such a different district and different community.

Honestly, the support they've given me has been the .. sometimes it feels like the only way I've gotten through some of the situations

Q: Pandemic aside, why was this the right time for you to relocate to Massachusetts?

KT: My in-laws and significant other are from Central Mass. I had visited, and even though it was dead of winter, this desert girl fell in love with Massachusetts.

I visited a few times afterward. We were looking at family planning and where did we want to end up and where did we want to anchor ourselves to build a foundation, and I just felt this feeling that this is where we should be.

Obviously, education here in Massachusetts is top notch. Everything Massachusetts does is top notch.

I felt kind of that calling. You know the feeling when you're in a place and feel, 'I belong here.' That's the feeling I got

Q: And what about WES makes it a good fit?

KT: I feel like our mission and our thought processes were very much aligned, putting students first. I feel that strongly in this community.

It was very apparent as I was going through the interview process and being introduced to members of staff on my interview team that putting students first definitely aligned with my values.

I think that there's a comfort in being in a small community that I've never really known before. But it came on quickly. It came on quickly as I was chatting with people and doing a little research on my own. Just this overall comfort feeling of not only would I be successful personally here but also successful professionally because of the people here and community at large.

Q: You were a finalist for the principal position at the high school. Were you also aware of and interested in the elementary school position at the same time?

KT: I was not aware about the elementary position. At the time, when I applied, I was looking at mainly high schools.

When there was the opportunity to look at the elementary school, I thought, I have experience in elementary education. Yes, I haven't been in elementary schools for a while, but I was thinking about the positives of the elementary situation and the warmth and the absolute joy of being in elementary school. It is something that's always stayed with me as I've moved forward in my career

Q: You started your career as an elementary school teacher, right?

KT: I started as a fifth-grade teacher. Then I moved to kindergarten for three years. From there, I went to the complete opposite end of the spectrum and started teaching sixth-grade -- middle school in Albuquerque is sixth, seventh and eighth. I spent six years teaching social studies and English there.

Q: And then you went into administration?

KT: Yes.

Q: What was the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Albuquerque schools?

KT: Around the same time, March, when schools in Massachusetts had to move to remote, schools in Albuquerque moved to remote as well.

We were in the middle of student-led conferences, and we got the notice on a Friday that we would be out for at least two weeks remotely. All the information was coming down from the state and district and superintendents. We were very much in the same boat as Massachusetts.

Q: Did you return to in-person instruction at some point?

KT: We stayed out for the year. In the district I was at, they still are in remote.

Q: I know you weren't in the classroom at the time, but what was the experience like of trying to support your teachers and students through that process of going remote?

KT: It was a whirlwind. It was a balance of being supportive and changing the mindset from, 'This is new, I can't do it,' to 'Yes this is new, but I can embrace it.'

We were balancing the supportive role and also an instructional role -- supporting teachers with the different online platforms, saying, Have you thought of this strategy with your students?' There were almost individualized problems and challenges that teachers had.

Q: And you were learning about all this at the same time.

KT: One hundred percent. I felt like I was juggling 10 or 12 balls at the same time.

Q: I realize that most of the energy this summer has been directed toward making plans for remote and hybrid instruction, but longer term, do you have thoughts on innovations that you might want to look into?

KT: I feel like even without COVID, without all of this huge change, I always like to learn and look at the systems we have in place and look at what's going on.

I'll be looking at our strengths and building on those strengths but also looking at opportunities for growth. That's what my plan was to do: take a year to acclimate, look at systems, curriculum, teams we have in place, data and be able to compile all that information. I was not going to go in and change everything dramatically.

Even in a normal setting, my goal was to look at what works and build on opportunities to grow in all areas of teaching.

Q: Does that timeline get pushed back now? In other words, is next year the year to do all those evaluations if, ideally, the school year opens normally?

KT: It's all fluid at this point.  I think we're going to be faced with some opportunities that we maybe weren't aware of before. We can have the best laid plans in place, but we still have to be fluid.

As far as putting a timetable, we have to take things one day at a time right now. The number one thing is safety, safety and instruction, making sure our kids are not only safe but getting the best instruction they can right now.

For me that's a constant process. If we're not fluid and looking at that, we're limiting ourselves in how successful we can be

To say that things are going to stay the same and my timeline hasn't shifted would be inaccurate.
In court Sunday, authorities said video outside the store allegedly captured a masked Venerable while the robbery was being committed. And high-quality surveillance at a nearby liquor store 11 minutes after the shooting captured a clear image of one of the teens and Venerable, who was wearing the same clothing as that seen at the robbery scene, said Assistant States Attorney James Murphy.
A Colorado landscaper who was hired by Barry Morphew to work the weekend his wife disappeared has insisted she was not having an affair with him, and said he was acting strangely at the time she vanished.

Suzanne Morphew, 49, was reported missing from her Salida, Colorado home by neighbors on Mother's Day - Sunday May 10.

Landscaper Morgan Gentile denied rumors that she had been having an affair with Barry, saying: 'I got treated through all this just like I'm the other woman, even though I'm not the other woman. I just happen to be a woman.'

She said the experience had left her frightened of her former boss.

'I'm scared of Barry,' she said. 'I don't want to see him again, ever again.'

Barry insisted he had not been having an affair at the time of his wife's disappearance.

'Everybody's out there saying, 'oh, you got a girlfriend, you must have an affairs,' he told Fox21.

'Where is it? There's nobody. There's never been another love in my life.'

Morgan Gentile, who worked for Morphew, told Fox News that he had been acting strangely

Barry and Suzanne Morphew are pictured with daughters Mallory and Macy. Suzanne, 49, was reported missing on Mother's Day - May 10 - and has not been seen since

On May 9, the day before Suzanne went missing, Gentile was working on a riverside area near Salida with Barry, 52.

'He was acting really weird about the beach area,' she told Fox21 News. 'I was like: "Barry what's up?"

'He seemed stressed. He definitely seemed weird on Saturday.'

Gentile had agreed to work in that area for the entire day but said Barry dismissed her from the job early, at 11am.

'He said that he had to go make the wife happy  do some hiking or biking,' she said. 'And I found out, like, later that day that he was in town all day.'

Suzanne Morphew was reported missing by neighbors from their $1.5 million home

Gentile said she heard Barry was out shopping by himself.

The following day, May 10, Gentile was surprised to suddenly get a call from Barry asking her to work on a project in Broomfield, 150 miles away, with him.

They had talked about doing it in April, and then May, and then suddenly he made his decision.

'Last minute he changed everything,' she said.

'In fact, he called me that Sunday  Mother's Day  and was really frantic, really didn't sound like himself.

'I hung up the phone and I thought he just had the worst night of his life.'

She then drove up to the Broomfield site with another contractor, Jeff Puckett, and met Barry there.

Suzanne and Barry Morphew had been together for over 30 years, Barry said

By the evening of Sunday May 10, Barry had already been hard at work.

'Barry said that he had been up there all day, like getting the job ready for us,' Gentile said.

Barry then told Gentile and Puckett that there had been a family emergency, and he needed to leave, she says.

'But we didn't have the tools that we needed,' she said. 'It looked like Barry had emptied out his truck.'

Gentile and Puckett said they waited at the Holiday Inn where Barry expected them all to stay.

Puckett took over Barry's room, when he left, and told DailyMail.com that he found it scattered with wet towels and strongly smelling of chlorine.

'We opened the door and, I mean, the chlorine hit you and you're, like, my eyes started watering and burning,' she confirmed.

'And the towels were like super wet on the floor, and it looked like he had made the bed before he left.'

Speaking with Fox 21, Barry admitted that the room smelled strongly of chlorine, but claims he had nothing to do with the stench.

'I'm not going to beat around the bush: it smelled [of chlorine] real strong,' he conceded.

'I did not go to the pool and I did not get chlorine. I'm sure that they washed the rooms with that for the COVID. I don't know, but I [smelled] it too when I was in there.'

A manager at the $92-a-night property told DailyMail.com that they do not use chlorine to clean guest rooms. The pool is also currently closed.

Jeff Puckett and Morgan Gentile stayed at the Broomfield Holiday Inn for Morphew's job

Puckett (pictured) and Gentile waited at the hotel for Morphew but never visited the site

Puckett and Gentile waited at the hotel for further instruction.

On the morning of May 11, Barry called to say his wife had 'gotten attacked, or a mountain lion has got her,' Gentile said.

He told Gentile they were going up the mountain to find his wife.

Gentile said she and Puckett packed up and drove back to Salida.

She said, back in town, she was approached by two men, both of whom she told Fox were 'linked' to Morphew, who told her: 'We would give you your paycheck, but we don't want it to look like hush-hush money. You have rights, but you don't have to give CBI (Colorado Bureau of Investigation) your phone.'

Gentile ignored the men, and spoke to the CBI five times, and handed over her phone.

'I know my rights and I don't have anything to hide,' she said.

She said she was then fired by Barry.

'He fired me because I gave up my phone, I wasn't staying quiet and I was complying with CBI,' she said.

'I feel like if he was innocent, he would have talked to me. I worked with him every day for a long time.'

Suzanne Morphew has not been seen since she was reported missing on May 10

Barry said Gentile's account could not be trusted.

'She's a meth head,' he told Fox21.

'She's mad at me because I fired her and don't let her work for me anymore.

'She's mad. So they're not gonna say anything good about me.'

Authorities investigating her disappearance have not named and suspects or persons of interest.

'I am innocent. 100% innocent,' Morphew told Fox21 News.

'The social media and the news media has made it seem like I'm a bad guy.'
Pizza Delivery Employee Shot and Killed by Teen Girl in Indiana: Police

A 17-year-old Indiana girl was charged with murder for the shooting deaths of Dominos employee Joshua Ungersma and her boyfriend.

Jaelynn Billups, the suspect, is accused of shooting and killing Ungersma on the night of Aug. 31, officials said last week. Billups also faces murder charges in the death of her boyfriend Alberto Vanmeter, who tried to rob Ungersma, prosecutors said.

Billups and Vanmeter were attempting to rob Ungersma, who delivered a pizza. Ungersma then shot and killed Vanmeter during the robbery, according to a probable cause witness in the case who was identified as Patrick Gibson, reported the Journal and Courier.

Gibson said he went outside his home in Lafayette near 16th and Hart streets after hearing Ungersmas shots. Ungersma told him that he was OK but needed the police. When Gibsons roommate called 911, Billups walked to Ungersma and shot him, Gibson added.

Ungersma died of several gunshot wounds, officials said in the affidavit, according to the paper.

Officials said that Ungersma and Vanmeter were dead when they arrived on the scene, WTHR reported. They added that upon arrival, Billups was seen tossing a 9 mm handgun to the sidewalk when she was asked to show her hands to police.

Jaelynn Niree Billups did aid, induce or cause Joshua Ungersma to kill  Alberto Edwardo Vanmetere, while Billups and Vanmetere were committing or attempting to commit robbery, the affidavit said.

Jaelynn Billups in a police mugshot photo. She was charged with two counts of murder. (Lafayette Police Department)

Prosecutors said Billups ordered a pizza from Dominos to be delivered to an empty house. She was charged with conspiracy to commit armed robbery, theft, pointing a firearm, carrying a handgun without a license, and the two murder charges, officials said.

According to an obituary, Ungersma was the father of a newborn child and stepfather of his wifes son.

A GoFundMe page was set up to raise money for the family.

Joshua was such a great man, he saw the good and potential in everyone. With his passing being so tragic and unexpected, i wanted to ask for assistance with covering his funeral expenses. Any help and/ or encouraging words and memories are welcomed and appreciated. Joshs mother, Sheila Anderson, will be beneficiary of your generous donations. She will ensure that after funeral expenses are covered, your contributions will be put into a trust fund for Sebastian. Thank you for all your love, your caring, and your help, the page says.
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A look at Canada's recent policy updates in support of international students during the coronavirus pandemic.

Measures in place to support international students in Canada A look at Canada's recent policy updates in support of international students during the coronavirus pandemic.

Measures in place to support international students in Canada A look at Canada's recent policy updates in support of international students during the coronavirus pandemic.

Measures in place to support international students in Canada A look at Canada's recent policy updates in support of international students during the coronavirus pandemic. Alexandra Miekus Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has released a summary of temporary measures currently in effect for international students, study permits and post-graduation work permits.

The introduction of strict travel restrictions introduced to manage the outbreak of the coronavirus has had a profound impact on Canadas immigration programs in recent months. Travel restrictions limit, among other things, the entry of international students into Canada. Under the federal governments Order-in-Council, only international students who fall under these three categories can enter Canada at the moment:

International students with a valid study permit; or

International students approved for a study permit on or before March 18, 2020; or

International students coming from the United States.

Canada recognizes the important contribution that international students make to the social and economic life of the country. That is why it has put in place a number of measures to ensure that international students who choose to study in Canada can do so. The changes include a two-stage study permit process and the ability to begin studies online, with this time counted towards the Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP).

For those who are following these changes, or whose applications may be affected by them, here is a consolidated overview of current temporary policies regarding studies in Canada.

The information is based on the latest backgrounder listing facilitative measures to support international students affected by the COVID-19 pandemic published on the Government of Canada website.

Get help with your study or work permit

Study permits

The coronavirus outbreak has made it difficult for international students to get the documents they usually need for Canadian study permits.

To remedy the situation, IRCC has implemented a two-stage approval process that made it possible for international students to begin their fall semester online without a final study permit. Those who have been unable to provide biometric data, the results of an immigration medical examination, or other required documents, may still be considered for a study permit. Those approved in the first stage will have already met most of the criteria for a study permit.

IRCC has stated that complete study permit applications that have already been submitted will be processed as quickly as possible.

Students who successfully complete both stages will be able to travel to Canada once travel restrictions are eased.

Post-Graduation Work Permit Program

After a student completes an eligible program at a designated Canadian educational institution (for example, a university or college), he or she may obtain a Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) for up to three years. The final duration of the PGWP depends on how long the individual has studied at a Canadian institution of higher learning.

Prior to the pandemic, distance learning could not count towards PGWP eligibility. IRCC made a series of announcements over the past months to allow online learning to count towards PGWP eligibility.

Currently, students can study online from abroad until April 30, 2021, without affecting their eligibility or the duration of a future post-graduation work permit. There is however one condition: they must be able to complete at least 50 per cent of their program in Canada.

In addition, students who are enrolled in 8- to 12-month programs that began in the spring, summer or fall (May-September) semesters of 2020 will be able to apply for a post-graduation work permit even if they complete their entire program abroad.

Finally, students who are enrolled in a program with a start date between May and September 2020, who study online until April 30, 2021, and who graduate from more than one qualifying program of study, may be able to combine the duration of their programs of study when applying for a PGWP in the future. The same condition applies to students in this situation, which requires that 50 per cent of their total studies be completed in Canada.

Students who are already in Canada

IRCC has said that students already in Canada for the winter, spring and summer terms will not lose their eligibility to obtain a PGWP if they are required to complete more than 50 per cent of their program online, reduce their studies to part-time or take a full break due to the restrictions imposed on in-class learning as a result of the pandemic.

Get help with your study or work permit

 2020 CIC News All Rights Reserved
BRISTOL, Tenn.  First responders and their supporters climbed stairs Saturday in memory of those who died in the World Trade Center in 2001.

The sixth annual Tri-Cities 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb gave climbers the opportunity to climb at Bristol Motor Speedway. During the climb, which was held in the grand stands at the Last Great Colosseum, individuals climbed 110 floors, the height of the fallen World Trade Center.

Each climber carried an ID tag of a fallen hero and rang a bell to announce the name.

Lines of uniformed first responders and others could be seen walking through the stands Saturday. Many carried American flags. Others wore patriotic red, white and blue colors during the walk.

A total of 343 registered for the event, which was the limit, according to coordinator Andrew Catron. On Sept. 11, 2001, a total of 343 firefighters died as a result of the terrorist attack in New York.

Since the Tri-Cities events inception, nearly $150,000 has been raised for the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. The proceeds benefit the FDNY Counseling Services Unit and the programs provided by the NFFF to support our nations fallen firefighters.

In the past, the event has been held in Kingsport, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was moved to BMS on Saturday.

By relocating the vent to BMS, which provides an outdoor venue, and implementing procedures including hand sanitizing stations, social distancing and masks being worn in common areas, organizers said safety was at the forefront.

Catron, a Kingsport firefighter who has organized previous climbs, said the event at BMS gave people an opportunity to demonstration respect and admiration for those who gave their lives trying to save others. He said it shows that people will never forget.

BMS General Manager Jerry Caldwell said the venue was honored to serve as the location for this years climb.

We are proud to do our part to help pay tribute and remember all of the men and women who selflessly gave their lives while trying to save others at the World Trade Center on that fateful September day in 2001, Caldwell said.

Several local fire departments were represented Saturday, including the Bristol Tennessee Fire Department, the Avoca Volunteer Fire Department and Big Stone Gap Fire Department.

Organizers raised more than $18,000 for the event.

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US President said he will meet emergency services in California as record fires that have killed 27 people smothered the West Coast

US President Donald Trump said he will meet emergency services in California on Monday as record fires that have killed 27 people smothered the West Coast in dense smog.

Officials warned of further fatalities with swathes of land in California, Oregon and Washington still cut off by flames fueled by tinder-dry conditions, as presidential challenger Joe Biden linked the fires to climate change.

The unprecedented infernos have now burnt through nearly 5 million acres (2 million hectares), an area roughly the size of New Jersey.

Trump plans to meet with the heads of California's emergency services, battling fires that have scorched more than 3.2 million acres in the state this year -- an annual record, with nearly four months of fire season still to come.

He has made little comment about the blazes in recent weeks, but at a Nevada campaign event on Saturday he acknowledged the scope of the disaster.

"They never had anything like this," Trump said. "Please remember the words, very simple, forest management."

But Biden, speaking earlier, said the causes were much broader: "The science is clear, and deadly signs like these are unmistakable -- climate change poses an imminent, existential threat to our way of life."

"President Trump can try to deny that reality, but the facts are undeniable."

Worsening the sense of environmental catastrophe, all five of the world's most air-polluted cities Saturday were on the West Coast, according to IQAir, with dense smog and ash coating the atmosphere from Los Angeles up to Vancouver in Canada.

In Portland, thick, choking smoke blanketed the downtown area Saturday morning.

"It is as if I had smoked 100 cigarettes. I've never seen this but we try to stay positive as conditions are getting better," said a 37-year-old man who gave his name as Jessie.

'Dropped out of the sky'

More than 20,000 firefighters are battling the blazes, with officials warning that a respite provided by the arrival of cooler weather could end Monday as warmer, drier conditions return.

Oregon has suffered another four deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the state's death toll this week alone to 19.

Among them was a 13-year-old boy found in a car with his dog in his lap in Oregon. The road was so hot it had melted the tires as he tried to flee.

Emergency official Andrew Phelps warned Oregon is "preparing for a mass fatality incident based on what we know and the number of structures that have been lost."

Preparations have been hampered by online claims that "extremists" are intentionally setting fires in Oregon, which have been debunked by the FBI.

Facebook said Saturday it was removing the posts, some of which sought to link the blazes to Antifa -- a structureless movement that says it is dedicated to fighting fascism and is a favored target of conservatives.

"This is based on confirmation from law enforcement that these rumors are forcing local fire and police agencies to divert resources from fighting the fires and protecting the public," wrote Facebook spokesman Andy Stone.

In Estacada, a rural Oregon town just miles from the fire, that was deserted earlier this week, some inhabitants returned from evacuation Saturday and patrolled the streets with guns for fear of looting, according to an AFP reporter.

Others holed up indoors as thick acrid smoke hung in the air and fresh layers of ash from nearby blazes continued to blanket the streets.

Police in Multnomah County, where Portland is situated, issued a notice threatening arrest to armed residents who had established roadblocks near their communities.

Joy, a 56-year-old woman sheltering outside Portland who declined to give her last name, told AFP that she and her daughter don't know if their house in Aims -- a short drive east -- is still standing.

"We saw a bird that was flying and then all sudden it just completely dropped out of the sky... if it's killing God's creatures, I don't want to die too. So we left," she told AFP.

In California, Butte County sheriff Kory Honea said additional officials had been brought in to check for human remains, but "right now, the areas that we need to search are too hot."

In a rare sliver of good news, one believed fire victim in Butte County turned out to be a burned anatomical skeleton from a local classroom.

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Having a Luxembourgish passport allows you to enter 124 countries.

The Passport Index grading system has ranked Luxembourg as fourth best in the world when it comes to passport strength. Belgium, previously ranked 6th, is now in first place, with a passport that opens the doors to 124 countries, 91 of which don't require a visa.

Belgium is followed by Germany and Austria before Luxembourg is positioned in fourth place.

France, Sweden, Italy and Spain belong, alongside a number of others countries, to the second grouping of passports, with access to 123 countries, 90 of which will not require a visa.

Two countries have found themselves hit particularly hard, and these are the US and Singapore. The US is now in 54th place, just behind Singapore.

The three countries at the bottom of the list are currently Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Various factors influence the ranking, including a mobility score, visa requirements, electronic travel authorisation, and a world openness score. Covid-19 measures and restrictions have played a role in the ranking.
Amid ongoing Afghan peace, fresh clashes between the Afghan national forces and the Taliban are being reported from the countrys southern province of Kandhar. As per reports, the clashes left six insurgents dead while three others have been injured on Sunday, September 13.

Read: International Support For Afghanistan Peace Talks

Taliban forces attack checkpoint

According to a spokesperson for the 205th Atal Corps, Khwaja Yahya Alawi, security checkpoints in the Maiwand district of Kandahar province were attacked by Taliban forces on Sunday. The attack on the checkpoints was repelled by the Afghan air force which used airstrikes to counter Taliban fighters and destroy their equipment.

Read: Kabul Residents React To Afghanistan Peace Talks

Afghan Peace Talks

The renewed infight could once again stall the long due peace dialogue between the warring sides, dashing hope of Aghan peace after four decades of conflict. The Afghan government and Taliban officials began peace talks in Qatar on September 12, following a deal between the Taliban and Washington back in February.

The deal stated that the US will reduce its troops Afghanistan while the government and Taliban exchanged a pre-determined number of prisoners. The long-anticipated peace talks finally began after the Afghan government released the final batch of Taliban prisoners last month.

The intra-Afghanistan Peace talks are being considered a diplomatic breakthrough that could potentially stabilise the war-torn country after nearly four decades of conflict. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a statement, said the peace talks were a historic opportunity to end the conflict in the country as the people of Afghanistan have carried the burden of war for too long.

(With ANI Inputs)

Read: Afghanistan's Warring Sides Meet To Seek Peace

Read: US Secretary Of State Mike Pompeo To Attend Intra-Afghan Peace Talks In Qatar
New Delhi, Sep 14 : Delhi Police arrested former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Umar Khalid under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in connection with northeast Delhi riots that broke out in February this year.

Khalid has already been booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) along with Jamia student and RJD youth wing president Meeran Haider, JCC media coordinator Safoora Zargar, and Danish, a resident of northeast Delhi's Bhajanpura.

"My son Umar Khalid has been arrested tonight at 11 p.m. by Special Cell, Delhi Police under UAPA. Police was questioning him since 1 p.m. He has been implicated in Delhi riots," said Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas, father of Umar Khalid.

Khalid was summoned on Saturday and Sunday. He was arrested after being questioned for around 10 hours and will be produced before a Delhi court on Monday.

Earlier on September 2, Khalid was called by the Crime Branch for questioning in the northeast Delhi riots case. He was let off after the questioning.

The arrest comes hours after Delhi police issued a statement on Sunday in which it has asked those who have doubts and questions about the northeast Delhi riots probe to take legal course at the appropriate time.

The Delhi police said that various interest groups are using social media platforms and other online portals to raise questions about the fairness of investigation of the northeast Delhi riot cases.

Earlier, retired IPS officer Julio Ribeiro, who was former Mumbai police commissioner, DGP Gujarat and Punjab, and former Indian Ambassador to Romania, has written to Delhi Police Commissioner S N Shrivastava, questioning the probe into the northeast Delhi riots cases.

Since December, Delhi was brimming with tensions after the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed. A sit-in protest against it started at various parts of the national capital. An agitation also started near Jafrabad metro station in northeast Delhi.

The protests in northeast Delhi turned violent and around 53 people were killed.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
KALAMAZOO, MI  Dozens of community members and activists gathered Saturday to protest the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safetys handling of rallies and demonstrations that happened over the summer.

More than two dozens protesters stood outside the Kalamazoo County Courthouse holding signs and attracting the attention of motorists passing by, who would occasionally honk in solidarity.

We want answers and we want actions," Noelle Massey, one of the organizers, told MLive outside Saturday, Sept. 12.

Massey took issue with remarks police made about how they handled a violent incident on Aug. 15, when the far-right Proud Boys rallied downtown and clashed with counter protesters.

During a KDPS news conference Aug. 28, police listed examples of aggressive behavior on the part of counter protesters and reiterated prior characterizations in a Kalamazoo Public Safety officers report that the actions of counter protesters were a catalyst for that days violence.

They gave us words in the press conference that seemed to be a little bit of a placating event, but what we took away from that was, well review things and will see how we can do it better,'' Massey said outside the courthouse.

"Within a couple of weeks, we got a response from our chief of police that a Styrofoam cup (thrown by a counter protester at marching Proud Boys) was the cause of all the violence, and that the Proud Boy who pepper sprayed me was acting in self-defense when I was there to keep people out of the violence and keep the peace.''

Saturdays peaceful protest comes on the heels of KDPS releasing 10 videos on Sept. 8 that showed the clashes between the Proud Boys and counter protesters and how the police responded.

We are demanding actions that actually reflect their words and hopefully some real changes will come from this otherwise well do this forever, Massey said.

Video footage shows punches being thrown by both Proud Boys and counter protesters on multiple occasions, as well as at least one member of the Proud Boys using either pepper spray or mace. However, Kalamazoo Assistant Chief Vernon Coakley said it was being legally used in self defense.

Heres another scene from today: The two sides were clashing before a member of the Proud Boys unleashed pepper spray at the crowd, gets hit in the head with bag. pic.twitter.com/b399gID4P9  Samuel J. Robinson (@samueljrob) August 16, 2020

Related: Police need to keep opposing protest groups separated, experts say after Proud Boys rally

Kalamazoo Public Safety Chief Karianne Thomas has been criticized in recent weeks over the strategies her department used during the Proud Boys rally and counter protest.

Compared to the last police chief, I feel as this administration does a really bad job at self-criticism, they deflect and they blame everyone else," said Andy Argo, a local activist who participated in Saturdays protest, as well as several other protests over the summer including the Proud Boys rally.

When they say, Well learn and do better,' that means concrete action, and theres been none," Argo said.

Coakley made a brief, out-of-uniform appearance at Saturdays protest to offer an ear to frustrated residents.

Wearing a Michigan State track-suit, Coakley told demonstrators that it takes dialogue on both sides in order to learn and do better.

What is relationship building? Its dialogue, you get to know someone through meeting them and talking with them at times, that how you build relationships, it takes not just talking, but listening, and thats why Im here today," Coakley said.

Can we rewind 2020? No. Im hoping to push through 2020 and turn this calendar, this has been a learning lesson for all of us, youve heard me say that but really this is how we learn.''

Massey confronted Coakley as he arrived outside of the courthouse. She said she asked him about his motivation for his visit to to the demonstration and his response was to come down and see smiling faces.

Sure, its all smiling faces when youre out of blue and down here for a peaceful protest but where was that when we were being attacked by the Proud Boys? she said.

Many protesters including Massey said they are still looking for answers over how Kalamazoos Black Lives Matter protests were met by police in June.

When videos surfaced on social media of officers using tear gas on protesters who were laying in the street, acting peacefully, Coakley said the protesters who were laying there had been chased all around the community before the gas was deployed.

Local organizer Tamara TC Custard, who said she was among the crowd of people who were gassed, disagreed with Coakleys interpretation of the events.

I was a part of that group that got pepper sprayed down here, to know that those babies were in that crowd and got pepper-sprayed is detrimental to me as a leader, as a mother and as a human being, Custard told the crowd Saturday.

Custard held a prominent voice during the demonstration Saturday evening, calling for unity and togetherness to build trust between Kalamazoo residents and their public safety department.

We have to have a working relationship with our city leaders and our public safety department, we have to be able to sit down and have uncomfortable conversations, Custard said.

Custard said she spoke to Coakley prior to Saturdays protest and plans to continue a dialogue between them and KDPS.

She announced to the crowd that a group of activists will invite the community to occupy the outside of the county courthouse in protest of KDPS' response to the various demonstrations over the summer, every Wednesday and Saturday throughout September.

Also on MLive:

Kalamazoo police chief responds to criticism of handling of Proud Boys rally

Kalamazoo City Commission forms committee to guide police force in response to protests

$300-per-week in federal unemployment to Michigans jobless wont last long

Vice mayor, activist husband use life experiences to push for systemic change

Coronavirus in local schools is inevitable, Kalamazoo County health director says
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Saturday affirmed the governments resolve to ensure that patient of Covid-19 must not be denied beds and must be provided prompt treatment.

He said the collective goal must be to have a health system that is available, affordable and accessible to all and the aim of the Centre along with the states was to achieve a mortality rate of less than one per cent.

Bhushan inaugurated a virtual conclave for private hospitals providing Covid-19 treatment in the country organised by the ministry in collaboration with FICCI and AIIMS New Delhi.

He reiterated the resolve of the Government to ensure that patient of Covid-19 must not be denied beds and must be provided prompt treatment. The collective goal must be to have a health system that available, affordable and accessible to all. He highlighted that the aim of the Centre along with the state/UT governments is to achieve a mortality rate of less than one per cent, the release said.

During the meeting, the importance of timely treatment of co-morbid patients to reduce fatality was stressed.

An official release said hospitals were asked to ensure seamless admission of patients.

They were also encouraged to protect healthcare workers by adopting all practices on infection prevention and control and keep the staff motivated.

The importance of evidence-based treatment protocols and reducing heterogeneity in treatment to Covid-19 patients was also underscored.

Senior doctors from private sector hospitals also shared their experiences and challenges about their battle against Covid-19.

Several best practices were shared by private hospitals. Concerns around delayed referral of patients from smaller facilities and financial stress owing to lack of health insurance were also discussed.

The conclave was attended by more than 150 hospital representatives, senior doctors and clinicians from across the country.
Two weeks after his discharge, Home Minister Amit Shah has been re-admitted to All India Institute for Medical Sciences (AIIMS) after complaining breathing issue on Saturday, multiple sources told IANS.

However, the hospital did not come on record to confirm this.

The sources told that Shah was admitted around 11 p.m. on Saturday night. As per the sources, he is being kept in CN tower, a facility reserved for VVIPs. Shah is getting treatment under Dr Randeep Guleria, director of AIIMS. His condition is said to be stable now.

Shah has been suffering from post-COVID ailments for a month now. He was previously admitted to AIIMS on August 18 after he suffered post-COVID ailments days after his recovery from COVID-19 disease which he contracted in early August.

He had tested positive for COVID-19 on August 2 and received treatment at Medanta Hospital in Gurugram.

He was discharged after testing negative on August 14 only to re-admitted in AIIMS days after to treat his post-COVID syndromes on August 18. He had complained of breathing issues then.
A screen grab from a security camera video released the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department shows a gunman walking up to sheriff's deputies and opening fire without warning or provocation in Compton, Calif., on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020. Officials say two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies were shot in their patrol car at a Metro rail station in what appeared to be an ambush. The sheriff's department said the male and female deputies were shot in the head and had multiple gunshot wounds and were undergoing surgery. Deputies were searching for a suspect. (AP)
https://www.aish.com/sp/so/Rosh-Hashanah-Jew.html

My spiritual journey from the night clubs in Prague to serving as a lone Israeli soldier on the Gaza border.

A few years ago I made a life changing decision. I moved to Israel and joined the Golani 13 Brigade. I was what you'd call a Rosh Hashanah Jew  my Judaism consisted of going to shul once a year on Rosh Hashanah (and in college I managed to miss that a couple of times). I just didn't connect to my Jewish heritage. I grew up with Snoop Dog, Eminem and Trance.

Then something sparked inside when I was clubbing in Europe, I felt alone, like I had no meaning. I just slammed a shot of absinth after blowing out the fire.

Waking up the next day something was calling me to take advantage of the time away from Arizona and connect to something Jewish. I was in Prague and decided to visit the Jewish community. I hadn't been in a synagogue in a long time. I had my bar mitzvah and I thought I was done. But something was telling me that I needed to know more about who I was.

I discovered the Holocaust museum in the center of Prague. Entering into this small room the size of most luxury home living rooms, I saw thousands of names written on the wall. My heart skipped a beat, my eyes opened, and my stomach started to sink. Then the tears flowed as I entered the synagogue situated next to the museum.

Wearing a paper skullcap, I poured out my heart. Memories flashed before me. The parties, the girls, the drinks, and regret. This was a turning point. I was in a place where my own people suffered the worst suffering imaginable. Last night I was partying, and only half a century ago the Holocaust was raging. Something was off. The tears wouldn't stop flowing as I listened to my favorite songs on my mp3.

Not really remembering how to read Hebrew from the siddur, I prayed from my heart. What's my purpose? Why am I here? I was an amateur model and DJ who was going from party to party. Something suddenly opened inside of me and I left Prague promising myself to pay more attention to my Jewish identity and be open to learning more about my Jewish heritage.

Coming back to the US, I connected to my campus rabbi at Arizona State Rabbi Jordan Brumer to ask questions like Are we really the chosen people? and Why is there anti-Semitism in the world? Week after week wed meet at Starbucks and I'd drill him with my latest nagging question. Thats when I told him that I had signed up for a trip to Israel through Taglit-Birthright. He made some arrangements and said that if I wanted, I could go to the Aish Essentials program after the tour.

I was grateful for the opportunity to learn about my heritage in the heart of Jerusalem facing the Western Wall. My observance began to slowly grow. I ordered a pair of Tefillin from the Internet, not knowing the importance of having them certified by a scribe. I later found out they weren't kosher.

My trip to Israel was so uplifting. It helped me foster a love for the Land of Israel and its people. After my 10-day birthright trip, I made my way to Aish HaTorah where I immersed in the treasures of Judaism at my own pace. My time there was short since I needed to finish college, but I found a way to get credit while staying in the Holy Land.

I interned at the Jaffa Gate Tourism office for a few months helping tourists from all over the world discover the beauty of Israel. I was living a dream, living in Jerusalem, helping people and getting school credit.

That's when I read the Jerusalem Post article about Michael Levin, a lone soldier who was killed in combat.

Michael had been on leave in America when the Second Lebanon War broke out. Instead of staying safe at his home in Pennsylvania, he got on a plane to join his paratrooper unit in battle, and he fell sacrificing his life for his nation. His story struck me to the core. Inspiration and imagination overcame me; I wanted to follow his path.

I graduated and then needed to figure out my next step. After failing to make headway in the real estate boom of Arizona in 2006, I decided to push myself in the direction I knew my soul was calling out for. I called my grandpa one morning when things weren't really working out, "Grandpa, I think I want to make aliyah and join the Israeli army."

From that moment it was a focused effort to find myself in Israel and make my dream a reality. I merited moving to Israel and joining the IDF, like my hero Michael, who today my son is named after.

Explosion on Gaza Border

Something amazing took place while I was serving on the Gaza border. It was the eve of Rosh Hashanah. We were stationed at our post which housed a 120mm GPS Cannon. We couldn't leave our position to go to shul but luckily some of our buddies replaced us. We had only four religious guys in our unit and another two decided to join our prayer quorum of ten men. But we lacked another four guys. Over the last month while serving in Gaza, tons of soldiers had been getting interested in their Judaism and a bunch decided to join us for the prayer service.

On the Gaza border

We gave them kippahs, and we temporarily laid our guns down. The shul was no bigger than a garage but our joy was overwhelming. We were singing at the top of our lungs, totally rejoicing with each other, brothers in arms on the border of Gaza. All because of these non-religious guys who joined us.

We finished the prayer service, hugging each other. The love and brotherhood that permeated the synagogue was something beyond what many of us had ever experienced. We entered the cafeteria glowing, charged by the unforgettable prayer service. My Ethiopian friend made kiddush. There was delicious gourmet food (food during the holidays is better than usual since soldiers aren't at home with their families). At this moment I knew I was fulfilling my dream.

Just as we were about to shout "L'Chaim!" together, a huge explosion ripped through the air.

During my service in the army I always kept in mind what Rav Noah Weinberg ob"m would say during his 48 Ways series: pleasure requires pain. We had endured plenty of pain. Basic and advanced training were far behind us. We had finished a few months guarding the Lebanon border. Now we were on the Gaza border where I'd listen to mp3s of Rabbi Weinberg's classes, which helped me be a strong soldier.

At that moment during kiddush, just as we were about to shout "L'Chaim!" together, a huge explosion ripped through the air.

Sirens blasted and red lights spun in circles. Our emergency units ran out to their stations and the rest of us ran to the bomb shelter. Some of us began reciting psalms, not knowing what would happen next. This was a similar feeling that we had when one of our leading commanders was killed on the Lebanon border. Would we be going in? After all, we were about 100 yards from Hamas on the other side of the border. Our minds and hearts were racing.

The situation calmed down a bit and we got the clearance to go out of the shelter. The first thing we wanted to know was where did the rocket hit? We found the spot and were shocked to the core. It was right next to the hangout bench where everyone chills after meals. Since more people wanted to join the Rosh Hashanah prayer service, the meal was postponed for half an hour. If there was no prayer service, we would have all been hanging out at that exact location when the rocket hit.

Every Jew has the power to step up and do more for his people. Whether it's learning, praying or donating, everyone plays a part, and we need to grab our opportunities and step up and do what we can to help the Jewish people this new year.

With the increase in anti-Semitism around the world, let's unite and rejoice in who we are. We are one and no one will stop our love.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday praised Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, saying the state had shown in the past 15 years that inclusive economic development is possible with the right government in place, taking the right decisions and following the right policies.

Modi, who dedicated to the nation three petroleum sector projects in Bihar worth more than 900 crore through video conferencing, said his central government was working for the growth of all sectors in Bihar.

The PM praised the young people of Bihar, which he termed a powerhouse of talent. He said there was a time when some people would question what one could do in Bihar other than work on farms. He said the absence of big educational institutes used to force the young to step out of the state in search of opportunities.

Institutes of higher learning  agriculture, medical and engineering colleges, including an IIT {Indian Institute of Technology), IIM {Indian Institute of Management}, NIFT {National Institute of Fashion Technology} and a national law institute each  have come up fast under Nitish Kumar in Bihar, he said.

Modis speech came ahead of assembly elections due in Bihar, where his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is part of a coalition government headed by Kumars Janata Dal (United), or JD(U). Chief minister Kumar thanked the PM for the projects launched on Sunday.

Modi said Startup India, Mudra Yojana and such schemes had provided a boost to entrepreneurship and opened up self-employment opportunities to the young people of Bihar. He also referred to a significant improvement in the states power situation over the last six years, where villages earlier used to get electricity for 2-3 hours and cities for 8-10 hours a day.

Modi said Bihar was earlier plagued by a mindset that saw people sneer at road projects on the grounds that these were of no use to people without vehicles. Modi said there was no dearth of capability or resources in the state. Yet, Bihar and other eastern India states always lagged behind in development because of political and financial reasons as well as apathy.

He also spoke about the shift in the state governments work culture from the days when one generation would witness the foundation laying ceremonies of projects and the next generation would witness their completion.

The PM said a special package announced for Bihar a few years ago focused much on the states infrastructure. He said the special package given for Bihar had 10 big projects related to petroleum and gas worth 21,000 crore.

The projects dedicated on Sunday include the Durgapur-Banka section of the Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur pipeline augmentation project and two liquified petroleum gas bottling plants  one at Banka of Indian Oil Corporation and another of Hindustan Power Corporation Limited at Harsidhi in East Champaran.

He said the effort to connect eastern India with Paradip on the eastern seaboard and Kandla on the western seaboard began under the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga Yojana and seven states would be connected through this pipeline, which is about 3,000km long; The line from Paradip - Haldia will now be extended to Patna and Muzaffarpur and the pipeline from Kandla, which has reached Gorakhpur, will also be connected to it. When the entire project is ready, it will become one of the longest pipelines in the world.

The PM said due to these gas pipelines, big bottling plants were being installed in Bihar. The two pipelines launched on Sunday have a capacity to fill more than 125 million cylinders every year. These plants will meet the LPG requirement of Godda, Deoghar, Dumka, Sahibganj and Pakur districts and some areas of Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.

Reminding people that the good work done in the last 15 years must continue, he said, We must ensure sushasan (good governance).

The PMs comments, praising chief minister Nitish Kumar, smacks of political opportunism, said political analyst DM Diwakar, a former director of the AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies, Patna.

It was Modi who completely ignored Kumars fervent request with folded hands to declare Patna University a central varsity during its centenary function in 2018. Kumar, on the other hand, had raised a brouhaha {in 2015} over the PMs DNA comment and vowed to never ever come together with the BJP again. However, with elections around the corner, the situation is much different today and both the leaders are singing paeans to each other, he said.

It was a reference to a comment by Modi that there seemed to be something wrong with Nitish Kumars DNA, recalling a dinner invitation by the latter which he cancelled.

There have been improvement in infrastructure, roads, power sector and literacy, but employment has not increased, migration and poverty have not reduced and income transfer has not taken place, as a result of which it is debatable whether Bihars story is one of inclusive growth, Diwakar added.

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Stratford Police met with representatives of the Greater Bridgeport NAACP Saturday to discuss a personal social media post by a sergeant aimed at the Black Lives Matter movement, and are planning talks with all Stratford Police to discuss race relations.

While no administrative action has been taken against Rivera, the incident remains under investigation, according to a statement from Mayor Laura Hoydick.

Sgt. Jamie Rivera called Black Lives Matter a terrorist organization in a Facebook post announcing his support for President Donald Trump.

Rivera also said that Sept. 10 was National Suicide Day, adding Do any of you know how many cops KILL themselves everyday cause they deal with s*** you see in the movies? This is our real life!!

A copy of the post was shared via Facebook by former Stratford Town Council member Stephanie Philips, saying that while Stratford Police were investigating, ... how will they guarantee this guy will treat Black & Brown people fairly? How do they assure us this guys attitude doesnt poison other officers?

Philips, in her post on Saturday, asked about reaction from Police Chief Joseph McNeil and Hoydick.

The sentiments expressed by Sgt. Rivera specific to the Black Lives Matter movement do not reflect our thinking at the Stratford Police Department, McNeil said in a Saturday evening statement from Hoydick. I thank the Rev. [Stanley] Lord and his executive team for taking the time to sit down with Sgt. Rivera and I so we could jointly confront the issues surrounding this incident and try to use it as an opportunity that breeds better understanding and cooperation in our community, and with law enforcement personnel.

The Stratford Democratic Town Committee condemned the irresponsible, offensive, and erroneous comments, calling them unacceptable and reprehensible.

They are aimed at movements to end systemic police brutality against black men, women, and children and to silence those calling for such reform, according to a Facebook post Saturday from the Stratford DTC. This act of bad faith calls into serious question the suitability of the officers who stand against this goal.

The DTC post called for holding people accountable for their words and deeds, especially those in whom we have placed our trust and our safety. It is also imperative that those who do not share the values of routing out racism in our law enforcement system and in our communities be investigated and assessed on whether they can conduct their jobs without bias or malice.

Saturday evening, Hoydick released a statement announcing that the sergeant, Chief McNeil and NAACP representatives had begun a dialogue.

Chief McNeil and NAACP leaders reached out to each other to bring themselves and Rivera together for a dialogue over the content of the message face-to-face, and to work together on a way forward that promotes mutual understanding and tolerance, Hoydicks statement read.

Joining Rivera, McNeil and Lord at the meeting were Greater Bridgeport NAACP Executive Committee members Nicola Hall and John Marshall Lee, and Stratford resident and former Town Council member Emma Brooks.

I feel that this was a productive meeting, McNeil said in Hoydicks statement. Being able to listen to one another is always the first step in making progress.

We thank Chief McNeil, and yes, Sgt. Jamie Rivera, for meeting with the Greater Bridgeport Branch NAACP Executive Committee today, Lord said in Hoydicks statement. The meeting was tough, honest and insightful. We look forward to continuing our open dialogue, adding that the relationship between police and the NAACP is needed.

The remarks made by Sgt. Rivera on his personal Facebook page are disappointing, showed terrible judgment, and do not represent the thinking of our Police Department, its leadership, or this administration, Hoydick said in a statement. Police officers occupy a unique position of public trust, and incidents such as this can understandably compromise that standing. When something unfortunate like this takes place, it is essential to take quick and meaningful action, and use the event and an important teaching moment. I am proud of the Police Chief for collaborating with the NAACP to make this meeting happen, and I am thankful to Rev. Stanley Lord and the members ofthe NAACP who were willing to come togehter today for this critical dialogue.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 10:23:13|Editor: huaxia

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HANOI, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Foreign ministers of China, member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other regional countries agreed to further strengthen cooperation in economic recovery in the post-COVID-19 era during the 53rd ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting and related meetings which wrapped up here Saturday.

As COVID-19 response and post-pandemic recovery took up a bulk of the meetings' topics, China, the ASEAN member countries and other regional countries repeatedly stressed the importance of joint efforts in effectively addressing the issue.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi addressed on the issue on multiple occasions during the meetings, which were held under the chair of Vietnam, the rotating chair of ASEAN for this year.

"The most urgent task of the summit is to gather consensus in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, promote the revival of economic cooperation, and maintain the overall situation of regional peace and development," Wang said via a video link at the East Asia Summit on Thursday, which celebrates the 15th anniversary of its founding this year.

He called for providing new impetus to the fight against the pandemic, supporting the World Health Organization (WHO), and jointly building a regional "anti-pandemic firewall."

Wang also stressed new measures for economic recovery and striving to make East Asia a source of stable growth for the world economy in the post-pandemic era.

When attending the 21st ASEAN-China, Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK) (10+3) Foreign Ministers' Meeting on the same day via video link, Wang said that all parties should continue to coordinate the anti-pandemic and developing needs, create a new aspect for cooperation in the post-pandemic era and promote 10+3 cooperation to a new level.

He said that China suggested improving the level of public health governance, continuing to support the WHO in playing an important role in the global fight against the pandemic, and jointly opposing the politicization of the pandemic and the stigmatization of other countries.

Wang's calls echoed his words at the Special ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers' Meeting on COVID-19 held in Vientiane, Laos in late February, when the pandemic had just broken out globally. He stated back then that China and the ASEAN had vowed to join hands to fight the COVID-19 to forge a closer community of shared future.

"This is time for the ASEAN Plus Three mechanism to prove its value and capacity in the pandemic combat," said Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh at the meeting. He also suggested China, Japan and South Korea continue their coordination with ASEAN in this regard, and intensify the cooperation in the research and production of vaccines and medicines against COVID-19.

At the ASEAN-China Ministerial Meeting held on Wednesday, the ASEAN applauded China's cooperation and support in the fight against COVID-19, and suggested China actively participate in the bloc's initiatives such as the COVID-19 response fund, regional reserves of medical supplies and recovery framework.

Wang said China is willing to work with them to actively promote exchanges and cooperation in the post-pandemic period, face up to global and regional challenges together, and foster a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future.

Wang made proposals to join efforts to thoroughly prevail over the epidemic, promote regional economic recovery, promote sustainable development, and improve the long-term planning for China-ASEAN cooperation.

The 53rd ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting and related meetings began on Wednesday, with 42 documents reviewed and approved over four days, Pham Binh Minh announced at a press briefing Saturday.

In a joint communique published after the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting, the foreign ministers called for the effective operationalization of the COVID-19 ASEAN Response Fund, and looked forward to further progress on the various initiatives to respond to COVID-19. They also looked forward to the submission of the ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework and its implementation plan to the ASEAN summit later this year.

Moreover, they stressed enhanced collaboration and sharing of experience with ASEAN's partners in research, development, the production and distribution of vaccines, providing access to medicines for COVID-19 and other diseases in future public health emergencies, and making them available and affordable to all as global public goods.

Key issues including the ASEAN Community Vision 2025, sub-regional cooperation multilateralism, non-traditional security challenges and others were also discussed during the meetings.

Founded in 1967, the ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Vietnam is the ASEAN chair for 2020. Enditem
More than six months have passed since the novel coronavirus or Covid-19 outbreak was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The declaration, though came late, also triggered a race to find a medicine and a vaccine for the disease. A race, the outcome of which would shape the future of the mankind and the world at large. A sprint, finishing line of which is being closely watched by the 7.8 billion people residing on this planet with a bated breath. Not only is it a race against time like one rarely seen in the recorded human history, it is also a test of mankinds scientific achievements till date.

As of today, just one vaccine  the Russian Sputnik V, developed by Moscows Gamaleya Research Institute  has been approved for mass local use in the country. In fact, Russian healthcare regulator licensed the vaccine even before assessing its efficacy in a phase-3 trial, causing much concern and uproar among medical fraternity.

The vaccine triggered immune response while producing antibodies in volunteers during Phase-1 and 2 human trials, according to a study published in medical journal The Lancet on September 4. However, these trials, experts say, were limited in nature with just few participants to attest to its efficacy and ally the safety concerns.

Beside the Russian vaccine, according to WHO database, there are at least 34 more vaccine candidates in various phases of clinical trials.

Two Chinese candidates  Ad5-nCoV and CoronaVac  have been approved for limited use in the country. While Ad5-nCoV has been developed by CanSino Biologics in collaboration with countrys Academy of Military Medical Sciences, the CoronaVac, on the other hand, is a product of private biotech major Sinovac Biotech Ltd.

In fact, Ad5-nCoV became Chinas first Covid-19 vaccine to be granted invention patent by the authorities. The invention also showcased Chinese militarys rising profile in countrys medical research and vaccine development.

Story continues

Both the Chinese vaccines are in the final-stages of overseas trials in various countries, including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Brazil and Indonesia.

A US-based Moderna candidate, mRNA-1273, is another potential vaccine in the race. The messenger RNA or mRNA-based vaccine entered phase-3 trial on July 27 with active help from the US government. The vaccine, co-developed with National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, underwent trials at 89 sites across the US. Later in August, the Donald Trump administration struck a $1.525 billion deal with the Massachusetts-based company for 100 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine. The company is also in talks with Japan and European Commission to supply 120 million doses of the vaccines post approval.

The search for vaccine has further brought together the Swedish-British biopharma major AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. Further, Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) has tied up with the two to mass produce the vaccine post the approval. With production capacity of more than 1.5 billion doses per year, the SII is the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by number of doses produced and sold globally.

Their candidate AZD1222 performed well in the Phase 1 and 2 trials with acceptable safety profile, and favorable immunogenicity against the virus.

However, the phase 3 trials met with a brief hiccup after a UK participant in one of the studies developed a neurological illness. Later, health regulators in both UK and India allowed resumption of the trials.

Another closely watched vaccine candidate is from the joint stable of German drug developer BioNTech, US-based pharma major Pfizer and Chinese Fosun Pharma. Their mRNA-based vaccine candidate BNT162 is in late-stage trials in US, Brazil, Argentina and Germany. According to the latest available information, the alliance has sought approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to expand the enrolment of their Phase 3 pivotal trial to up to approximately 44,000 participants from 30,000 earlier.

The third vaccine candidate from China is an unnamed inactivated vaccine developed by Wuhan Institute of Biological Products under the state-run China National Pharmaceutical Group. The result first and second stages of clinical trials published in June said that the vaccine triggered a strong neutralising antibody response. On June 23, Sinopharm began the third stage of clinical trials in the United Arab Emirates.

Hyderbad-based Bharat Biotech is also leading the effort in the field. The company, in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune, is leading the effort to develop Indias first indigenous Covid-19 vaccine, named Covaxin. According to the companys website, it has already started human trials on its vaccine candidate and, according to news reports, it appeared safe in early trials.

In the animal study trials results released last Friday, the company claimed that the vaccine candidate was found to generate robust immune responses.

In addition, Ahmedabad-based pharma major Zydus Cadilas vaccine candidate is also in the race. The companys DNA based vaccine ZyCov-D is currently undergoing human trials. Sharvil Patel, the companys managing director in an interview to CNBC-TV18, recently said the company would be building 100 million doses of capacity for the vaccine and will start manufacturing COVID vaccine if phase II data is good.

Although many of these experimental vaccine candidates are in the phase-3 trials, there is no guarantee that any of these six will give us the answer, as Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program said in August. However, one thing is certain that any vaccine invented outside China would definitely be mass produced in India. Remember, India solely accounts for around 60% of the total vaccines supplied to the UNICEF, according to IMARC, a globally recognised leading market research firm.
Losing Reality

Say what you want about the Kardashians, but no one can dispute that they revolutionized the monetization of fame and personal branding. What started out in 2007 as a run-of-the-mill reality show about a wealthy, attractive family, Keeping Up With the Kardashians has now spawned multiple beauty and fashion empires and helped make one of its cast members into a billionaire (Kylie Jenner, who leveraged the platform into a top-selling cosmetics line), at least temporarily. This past week, Kim Kardashian announced to her 188 million Instagram followers that the series will end after its 20th season, in 2021. But the familys presence in pop culture and social media is so ubiquitous that you may not even notice their show is gone.

Image Credit... Giacomo Bagnara

Whats Next? (Sept. 13-19)

Left at the Altar

At first, it seemed like a fairy tale match in the world of finer things: Back in November, French conglomerate LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton announced plans to buy Tiffany & Company for more than $16 billion, a record in the luxury industry. Then the pandemic hit, the economy imploded and LVMH got cold feet. Tiffany wont be jilted so easily, though, and is suing LVMH in an effort to force the deal. But it may have to settle for a much lower price  or risk putting itself back on the market.

A Crack in the Glass Ceiling

Citigroup made history when it announced that Jane Fraser would become its next chief executive and the first woman to lead a major financial institution in the United States when she takes over in February. Ms. Fraser joined the bank, the countrys third largest, in 2004 and now runs its global consumer banking business. While her promotion is certainly a step for women in finance, theres a long way to go toward gender parity on Wall Street, where men still outnumber women by 2 to 1.

There Will Be Blood

Silicon Valleys most scandalous court case just got even stranger. Elizabeth Holmes, the former chief executive of the failed blood-testing start-up Theranos, is exploring a mental disease defense for her criminal fraud trial. She is accused of lying that her companys technology could perform blood tests from a tiny finger prick, and defrauding doctors and patients who trusted the results. On Wednesday, the judge overseeing the case ruled that government prosecutors can examine Ms. Holmes for evidence of mental disease or defect or other mental condition bearing on the issue of guilt, according to the court filing.
CHESTER  As the end of the federal Census data collection approaches on Sept. 30, Delaware County municipalities are pulling out all the stops to get their residents counted  even bringing in super heroes.

The Census is a snapshot of the country that determines how many publicly funded budgets and projects receive money for the next ten years  everything from how many students get free lunches to allocations of funds for roads and bridges, hospital services and education to how congressional seats are apportioned.

The overall self-reported Census response rate in Delaware County is just over 71 percent; communities that need the most federal dollars tend to see lower response rates.

We still have work to do, said Joanne D. Craig, vice president for programs at The Foundation for Delaware County which has been working with Delaware County to get everyone counted. Many census tracts in the county are still nowhere near the response rate we need them to be. Time is running out to ensure a complete count. Just a one percent under-count could cost Pennsylvania $400 million annually. Here in Delaware County, we could lose millions of dollars in funding for education, health care, our roads and more.

Census enumerators have been banging on doors to try and bring that 71% number much higher, according to Michael Molina, recruiting manager for the Census, based in Reading and covering Delaware County.

When you factor in Census takers knocking on doors, Delaware County is well over 90 percent, said Molina on Thursday. Were almost done and we expect a really good count for both Delaware County and the whole Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Molina said there were a number of locations in the county where the self-reporting rate lagged around 50 percent, including Chester, one of the two spots that he said need some work.

In Chester, city Councilwoman Elizabeth Williams has organized a caravan that spent the week going around the city to locations to improve the response rate. City officials joined 8-10 census enumerators in locations such as the Martin Luther King Apartments, the Chester Bennett Homes and Chatham Estates.

The Census suggested this. Reading did this a month ago and it was a success, said Williams. Its important to have everyone counted, as an undercount would cost the city in revenue. When you do an estimate, you make my city lower in that count. Thats not a true count, you guessing. I dont need no guessing.

Williams, along with other municipal employees, knocked on doors as the Census employees spread out to other homes. When she met someone who hadnt finished the Census, she brought in a Census taker to ask the nine questions, which only took a few minutes.

Williams said most residents are understanding.

I ask people if they filled out the Census. When they hesitate, I know they didnt do it, said Williams. Then we get the Census taker.

Williams said having local officials and residents taking part of the caravan has been helpful.

I think the door knocking is better. People in the community know us. They know us out there. It makes a big difference.

On Thursday, they visited the Wellington Ridge, managed by the Chester Housing Authority, and they brought along a friend to help  The Black Panther. The superhero (actually the Rev. Dr. William Brown) certainly brought out smiles with everyone wanting to have their photo taken with him.

At least one Census enumerator, who didnt want to be named because they arent permitted to speak with the press, said the work is interesting. He said while most people are understanding, some are certainly suspicious.

Its like vaccinations. Some, you are just not going to convince them. And its both sides of politics, he said. The liberals say, Youre only doing this to get the illegals; the conservatives, Youre only doing this to know where my guns are.'

The Census has been the top priority since we got here [since the new mayor was elected], said Alison Dobbins, Upper Darby Township special projects manager. Weve got lawn signs going up in multiple languages all over the township, banners hanging from the 69th Street bridge, lots of outreach to local businesses. Were really trying to pull the numbers up in areas that are lower performing at this time.

Dobbins said the lowest performing tracts in the township have seen a 50 percent response rate and the recent change in the date of the end of the census from Oct. 31 to Sept. 30 has made things challenging.

Helping people understand you dont have time to wait, and understanding the new deadline, is part of our messaging, Dobbins said. The township has been focusing on person-to-person conversations with residents in lower response tracts.

The mayor has food distributions twice a week in two locations. We spend time talking to people as they are waiting in line for the food, explaining the importance of the Census, explaining that knowing how many people live here helps us advocate for getting the free food boxes, said Dobbins.

The township has placed yard signs, written in multiple languages, around area streets to encourage residents to sign up.

Dobbins said they have also worked with the school district to have laptops and hot spots available for people to complete the Census on the spot as they came to pick up free lunches the school district provided over the summer.

The township and school district also partnered on a poster contest theme, If you live here, you count here.

Upper Darby has a large immigrant population. Part of the challenge we have is in other countries, a government form like the census would only be completed by citizens, said Dobbins. They see it as a government form. I dont have to do it or I should not do it. Were helping people understand, No  if you live here you have to do it.'

This year is a clear demonstration of the need for good numbers. A lot of the programs that we are applying for, federal funding such as the CARES Act, are based on our numbers and demographics of Upper Darby, said Mayor Barbarann Keffer. We have a program called Make Upper Darby Count. Weve gotten a lot of buy-in from community groups and faith-based groups. COVID has really made us scramble and be more creative in how were doing outreach.

Lansdowne Mayor Anthony Campuzano said local officials are also trying to get the word out to get as many residents counted.

Were probably a little under what we were ten years ago, percentage wise, so were concerned about that, particularly in one area (of the borough) and were pushing to catch up, said Campuzano. Ten years is a long time. We want to make sure we stay at least where we are and not go backwards. Were going to put out some door knockers throughout the town to urge people because it is so easy to do. You can do it online.

Campuzano said theyve had some people knocking on doors and giving out postcards

The problem were run into this year is the COVID, said Campuzano. Peoples minds are elsewhere  safety, some people are out of work. This kind of took a back seat to that. Thats why were doing everything we can to get the word out to Lansdowne and what it means financially to the borough.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 15:12:20|Editor: huaxia

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ULAN BATOR, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia has brought back a total of 263 more stranded nationals home from Japan on a chartered flight amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the country's State Emergency Commission (SEC) said Sunday.

The chartered flight from Tokyo to Ulan Bator landed at the Buyant-Ukhaa International Airport on Saturday night, the SEC said in a statement.

The returnees consist of pregnant women, the elderly, children, the disabled and sick, and those with financial or other problems, the commission said, adding that they will be isolated at designated facilities for 21 days.

Following the suspension of international commercial flights, more than 20,000 nationals came back on chartered flights, trains or buses from different parts of the world, according to the commission.

The Asian country planned to send a total of 13 chartered flights this month to bring back more stranded nationals from abroad.

Mongolia has reported a total of 311 COVID-19 cases, all of which were imported.

No local transmissions or deaths have been reported in the country so far. Enditem
Eberle and Hauser said their schools offered free breakfast to students prior to the CEP designation and that this has led to more students eating breakfast. They added this opportunity also has led to a greater focus by students in the classroom.

We know how hard it can be to work on an empty stomach and you are unable to focus because your stomach hurts or you have that empty feeling in your stomach, Hauser said. We know that our kids are getting a nutritious meal and that that will help not only their health, but also help them focus on their academics. It is about getting those needs met. We know that students could have two meals at school to help with their nutrition.

Spellman said the CEP designation reduces the stigma among students who may not want to be identified as qualifying for free or reduced meals.

There is just that stigma where they do not want to feel like they are being identified as a poor kid. So the CEP (designation) actually helps increase participation in the school meal program, she said. Since everybody is able to eat for free, it reduces that stigma like, Oh, that kid is free (meal-qualified) and his parents cannot afford things. So decreasing that stigma increases equity for students to have nutritious food.
Justice Melody Stewarts 2018 election to the Ohio Supreme Court opened up a seat on the 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals, and in December 2018, Gov. Mike DeWine named Ray Headen, a local bond counsel and expert in financing law, to fill it. It was an unconventional choice -- someone without the usual background in the criminal, civil or juvenile cases that typically come before an Ohio appeals court. Yet that diversity in background was something our editorial board effectively endorsed, too, in recommending Headen for a different seat on the 8th District court in 2018, in a race Headen lost.

Headen, 60, a Richmond Heights Republican, is now on the ballot again, seeking to retain his appellate court seat. He faces experienced appellate attorney Lisa Forbes, 57, a Shaker Heights Democrat and longtime partner in the Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease law firm. The winner will serve out the remainder of Stewarts original term, to 2023.

Forbes, who won a four-way Democratic primary earlier this year with 56% of the vote, is personable and highly knowledgeable about appellate law. She is a career litigator who has appeared before appellate courts throughout the state, and sharp without being overbearing. We enthusiastically endorsed her in the primary.

Still, in a very close call, we endorse Headen to hold this seat. He now has experience as an appellate judge, and clearly relishes the role. More significantly, hes crafted a bipartisan partnership with Justice Michael Donnelly, one of two Democrats on the Ohio Supreme Court, to advocate for criminal-sentencing and plea-bargaining reforms -- two critical avenues to greater racial equity and justice in Ohio. Forbes backs these efforts, also, but without the clear relish for the political fight that Headen -- one of the few Black male judges now serving in Cuyahoga County -- brings to the table.

We urge voters in Cuyahoga County to retain Ray Headen on the 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals, unexpired term, by electing him on the Nov. 3, 2020, ballot. Early voting begins Oct. 6.

The two candidates for the 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals, unexpired term -- appointed Judge Ray Headen and attorney Lisa Forbes -- were interviewed by the editorial board of The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com on Sept. 8, 2020, as part of the endorsement process. Listen to audio of this interview below:

Editors note: This post was updated Sept. 16 to add audio of the interview.

About our editorials: Editorials express the view of the editorial board of cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer -- the senior leadership and editorial-writing staff. As is traditional, editorials are unsigned and intended to be seen as the voice of the news organization.

Have something to say about this topic?

* Send a letter to the editor, which will be considered for print publication.

* Email general questions about our editorial board or comments or corrections on this endorsement editorial to Elizabeth Sullivan, director of opinion, at esullivan@cleveland.com.

Other resources for voters:

League of Women Voters vote411.org voters' guide.

Judge4Yourself judicial ratings from five Cuyahoga County bar associations.

JudicialVotesCount.org website with information on judicial candidates' legal background and why they are seeking judicial office.
Borrowers who have deferred bank loans for six months or longer will not have their credit ratings affected until at least March 2021 under new guidelines announced by the Australian Banking Association.

The ABA announced it would extend the credit rating amnesty by a further six months, as the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic takes longer than expected.

Customers granted loan deferrals on mortgages and other credit products in April were assured that banks would not report missed payments to credit agencies, provided they were up to date with payments when the relief was authorised.

Australian Banking Association chief Anna Bligh has encouraged people with loan deferrals to contact their banks. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Negative credit ratings due to lapsed payments can make it harder to access credit cards or business and mortgage loans.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 18:11:49|Editor: huaxia

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TEHRAN, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Iran reported 2,089 new COVID-19 patients overnight on Sunday, raising the total number in the country to 402,029, according to the health ministry.

During the past 24 hours, 956 Iranians were hospitalized for complications from the novel coronavirus, said Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman for Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, during her daily briefing.

The pandemic has so far claimed 23,157 lives in Iran, up by 128 in the past 24 hours, she added.

Besides, 346,242 people have recovered and been discharged from hospitals while 3,791 remain in intensive care units.

As of Sunday, 3,559,565 COVID-19 lab tests have been carried out in Iran, the spokeswoman noted.

She said 13 Iranian provinces are still in high-risk condition.

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 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
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Linkedin Josa Lukman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, September 13, 2020 15:05 495 e22cd4161040e111d73a5626c448ed8c 1 Food #food,#cuisine,#diplomacy,#gastronomy,#gastrodiplomacy,#Indonesia,#rendang Free

With its rich spices and endless regional variation, Indonesian cuisine is everything you want it to be  comfort food after a long day, cure for homesickness in a faraway land or even just your everyday lunch.

Based on his findings when doing research for his book Gastronomi Brand, author Irwansyah said both Indonesian students and expatriates still thought of Indonesian food as just nasi goreng (fried rice) and rendang (meat slow-cooked in coconut milk and spices).

In my experience as a student at the University of Hawaii, even when we are thousands of miles away from Indonesia, we will always be on the lookout for noodles, Indomie in particular, he said in a webinar hosted by the International Relations Alumni Family of the University of Gadjah Mada (KAHIGAMA) and the Indonesian Gastronomy Community.

National branding: A country's cuisine can be marketed as part of its national branding, like how the United Kingdom is synonymous with tea. (Courtesy of Irwansyah/-)

But beyond instant noodles, there lies an opportunity for cultural diplomacy through food.

Prior to the 1970s, Irwansyah explained, gastronomy was thought to be about mealtimes and the characteristics of dining.

The 1990s then brought about the era of fast food and franchises, before culminating in the 2000s with the idea that we are what we eat.

We began to think that the food we consumed represented our own character. This concept is what I developed to compare each nations approach.

For example, the United Kingdom has a custom of having tea as a specific meal of the day, whereas Italy is heavy on tradition and the notion of family.

When cuisine can be transformed into a nations identity and become a part of that nations branding, it will become an influential symbol that can offer an emotional experience [...] We have to agree to cast [Indonesian] cuisine as a cultural artifact vital to Indonesias branding, Irwansyah said.

Cecep Herawan, secretary general of the Foreign Ministry, said Indonesia could take a page out of Frances playbook, which had managed to elevate French cuisine to the level of global cultural heritage.

With our wide variety of culinary examples infused with history and culture, I think wed be able to achieve that. There is a national process that has to be done first, by listing the cultural varieties of Indonesian food.

I heard that the Education and Culture Ministry have included rendang on the list. Once its on the list, we can then push for UNESCO to include it in the list of cultural heritage, he said.

A taste of Nusantara: 'Rendang' (meat slow-cooked in coconut milk and spices) is a prime example of a renowned Indonesian dish. (Courtesy of Shutterstock/-)

Stephanie Dambron, proprietor of the Djawa restaurants in Paris, highlighted the important role of the Indonesian diaspora in spreading Indonesian cuisine.

I have many customers who didnt know anything about Indonesia before coming to my restaurants, and then they chose to travel there for their holidays because they discovered Djawas food and liked it, said Stephanie, who is half French and half Indonesian.

Djawa, which began in 2010 as a catering business, opened its doors in 2012 and has since then expanded to five locations in the city center. The restaurant specializes in street food, with dishes like satay, mi goreng (fried noodle) and rendang.

Indonesian cuisine, Stephanie says, runs the spectrum in terms of preparation and taste, from sweet and salty to aromatic and spicy.

The wide range of spices used in the dishes is also a benefit  and not just for the taste buds  as spices have a longer shelf life than fresh ingredients.

Also interesting to note is Indonesian cuisines relative obscurity on the global gastronomy scene. While this is certainly a challenge, it is also an opportunity as it allows Indonesia to shape what it can offer to the world.

Although Indonesias incredible beauty also resides in the diversity of its islands and people and culinary specialties, I think it is very important to present a simplified selection  a persistent selection that you always come across when you go to an Indonesian restaurant anywhere in the world, Stephanie said.

Indonesian flavor: Starting as a catering business in 2010, Djawa opened its doors in 2012 and has since expanded to five locations in the Paris city center. (Courtesy of Ubud Food Festival/-)

The selection of dishes must be iconic  typical, traditional and able to be found throughout the country. However, the dishes must also be compatible with the local tastes of each country.

For example, Stephanie noted that if you proposed empek-empek (fish cakes) in France, it might not work because they smelled strange to French diners and had an unfamiliar texture.

On the other hand, she said, nasi goreng could easily be enjoyed by a majority of people, while satay sauce, although it provoked a lot of enthusiasm, was a love-it-or-hate-it food.

Marketability plays a strong role as well. Martabak, for example, particularly the sweet version, can be marketed as a pancake. On the other hand, lontong (rice cake) may not fare as well because locals do not have a familiar image of it.

On the international market, people dont know anything about Indonesian food, so I think its too early to focus on the regional specificities of a particular dish. [...] It is very important to promote real, authentic Indonesian culture through the food, but also to add some flexibility to be able to market it well internationally.

The myriad of regional variations can also prove confusing when trying out Indonesian food for the first time.

Agus Saptono, consul general of Indonesia in Mumbai, India, noted the difficulty of explaining an Indonesian dish like soto (soup), which varies greatly from Jakarta to Kalimantan.

Rendang served at Djawa, for instance, has its spiciness chopped in half to accommodate the French palate. The sauce is much more generous in serving, and the overall texture is much more liquid.

Though making these changes broke her heart, Stephanie said, the changes needed to be accepted to see the bigger picture in making Indonesian cuisine more famous. Fusion food is also out of the question, as it will dilute the branding and distinction.

It is impossible to create a fusion of Indonesian dishes and a little bit of Thai because it needs to be very clear to present Indonesia as something very different from and independent of other Southeast Asian countries. (ste)
Jean-Marc Sirichai Kiesch, who was arrested in Spain last month after spending 16 years on the run, has been released.

According to Spanish news outlet Huelva Informacion, a judge has decided that the now 39-year-old would be able to remain in Punta Umbria in Spain. Sirichai Kiesch has been stripped of his passport and will need to present himself before a judge every 15 days.

The magistrate made this decision based on the "roots in Spain of said person and the time that has elapsed" since the commission of the crime in Luxembourg, 21 years ago, until now.

Jean-Marc Sirichai Kiesch was one of Europol's most wanted individuals, originally sentenced to 20 years in prison for killing an elderly woman in Eppeldorf in 1999 and then setting fire to the house to conceal the crime.

Sirichai Kiesch was located in Spain on 10 August, where he started a new life in 2006. He now has a partner and a child.

Luxembourg authorities had originally requested an extradition.

Read: Luxembourg's "most wanted" man arrested in Spain after 16 years on the run
The total coronavirus cases in the country mounted to 47,54,356, while the toll climbed to 78,586 with 1,114 people succumbing to the infection, said the health ministry.

As India's COVID-19 case count soared to over 47 lakh with 94,372 new infections reported in 24 hours, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan on Sunday said a vaccine against the infection could likely be ready by early 2021.

Speaking during the virtual Sunday Samvad interaction, the health minister said the vaccine would be made available first to those who need it the most, irrespective of their capacity to pay.

Seeking to allay fears over the safety of such a vaccine, Vardhan said he would be happy to take the first dose if people had any "trust deficit".

Vardhan stated the government is taking full precautions in human trials of vaccines and the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 under the Chairmanship of Dr VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, is drawing up a detailed strategy on how to immunize the majority of the population.

The Centre has directed all states and UTs to fix a reasonable price for COVID-19 treatment in private hospitals for making it affordable for the common man, a statement quoted the minister as saying.

Free coverage up to Rs 5 lakh for COVID-19 patients for those who are eligible under the Ayushman Bharat PMJAY package was announced, the statement noted.

Vardhan's remarks came on a day when Karnataka, Uttarakhand, and Punjab recorded record highs in daily cases. Karnataka logged 9,894 fresh infections  3,479 from Bengaluru urban while 2,628 more tested positive in Punjab. Maharashtra reported 416 deaths and 22,543 cases, while Andhra Pradesh's caseload touched 5.67 lakh with 9,536 more contracting the infection.

The total coronavirus cases in the country on Sunday mounted to 47,54,356, while the toll climbed to 78,586 with 1,114 people succumbing to the infection in a span of 24 hours, according to the health ministry's data updated at 8 am.

But the COVID-19 case fatality rate due to the coronavirus infection has further dropped to 1.65 percent, it said.

The recovery rate rose to 77.88 percent, with a total of 37,02,595 people recuperating from COVID-19 so far, the data showed. About 58 percent of the recovered cases were reported from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, the ministry said.

The same five states account for 60 percent of the 9,73,175 active cases in the country, it added. "Nearly 57 percent of the new cases are reported from five states," the ministry highlighted.

'Ensure adequate oxygen supply'

The health ministry urged seven states  Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh  to ensure adequate oxygen availability in all healthcare facilities.

Amid concerns over shortage of medical oxygen supply, the health ministry held a meeting with the DPIIT Secretary, Pharmaceuticals Secretary and the Health Secretaries and Industries Secretaries of seven states to discuss ways to ensure adequate oxygen availability in all healthcare facilities and unrestricted intra- and inter-state movement of oxygen.

The states  Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh were advised to take measures such as ensuring timely payment of dues to manufacturers and suppliers, advance planning in hospitals and provision of green corridor for Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) Tankers within cities.

Centre issues post-COVID care guidelines

The Centre also issued a new management protocol for patients who have recovered from COVID-19. Calling for a holistic approach for follow up care and well-being of all post-COVID recovered patients, the health ministry said such patients must continue COVID appropriate behaviour, including use of masks, hand and respiratory hygiene, and physical distancing.

At the individual level, the protocol suggested drinking adequate amount of warm water (if not contra-indicated), taking immunity promoting AYUSH medicine prescribed by a qualified practitioner of AYUSH and to carry out household chores if health permits. It advised people to resume professional work in a graded manner.

Daily practice of yogasana, pranayama and meditation, as much as health permits or as prescribed, breathing exercises as prescribed by treating physician and daily morning or evening walk at a comfortable pace as tolerated were among other measures.

The protocol also called for self-health monitoring at home of temperature, blood pressure, blood sugar (especially, if diabetic), pulse oximetry etc (if medically advised).

However, the procedure is not meant to be seen as preventive or as a curative therapy, the ministry stressed. It also cautioned that the recovery period is likely to be longer for patients who suffered from a more severe form of the disease and for those with pre-existing illness.

Raghuvansh Prasad Singh passes away

Former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh died on Sunday morning while undergoing treatment in New Delhi's AIIMS. He was 74.

Singh, who had recently resigned from RJD, had fallen ill after developing post-COVID-19 complications. His conditioned worsened on Friday night and he was put on ventilator in the ICU.

Singh became breathless and developed other complications before breathing his last at 11 am, Kedar Yadav, a close associate of Singh told news agency PTI.

Uttarakhand, Karnataka see record jump

Meanwhile, states and UTs released daily updates of fresh COVID-19 infections and deaths. A record 1,637 people tested positive for COVID-19 in Uttarakhand, taking the state's infection tally to 31,973, while 12 more patients died.

Karnataka registered its biggest single-day spike of 9,894 new COVID-19 cases and 104 related fatalities, taking the total number of infections to 4,59,445 and the toll to 7,265, the state health department said. The day also saw 8,402 patients getting discharged

after recovery.

Of 9,894 fresh cases reported on Sunday, 3,479 cases were from Bengaluru urban alone.

Punjab too reported the highest single-day spike of 2,628 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the infection tally to 79,679 in the state, while the death toll reached 2,356 with 68 more fatalities.

The total count of cases in Maharashtra rose to 10,60,308 with 22,543 new cases while the cumulative toll reached 29,531 with 416 deaths.

With inputs from PTI
Bruises of the decade-long civil war in Nepal have not yet been healed. The ignition of the unrest has plummeted, but the dissatisfaction of the conflict-hit people is still like a fire under the ashes which can be stirred and enflamed with any internal and external provocation any time. Key issues and challenges of transitional justice including enforced disappearance, internal displacement, abduction, extra-judicial killing, torture concerning the armed conflict (1996-2006) have not yet withered even a long duration has elapsed after the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) signed between the state and the conflicting party, the then Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). Peoples predicament has not seen any end yet.

The CPA signed between the government of Nepal and the CPN (M) on November 21, 2006, ended the decade-long armed conflict and led the country towards a strengthened democracy. The Interim Constitution promulgated in 2007 with wider and strong human rights mandates, provisions and mechanisms gave people hope. Later, the Constitution of Nepal 2015 was promulgated which has adopted the democratic values such as the rule of law, democracy, independence of the judiciary, human rights, devolution of powers, adult franchise and press freedom. But, even after one and a half decades of the CPA, the robbed dreams and aspirations of the people who were the victims of intimidation, extortion, internal displacement, abduction, extra-judicial killing, mental and physical torture, etc have not been restored and brought back to peace in life.

Genesis and narrative of TRC

The CPA has clearly paved the way for the creation of transitional justice mechanisms under the law. In pursuant to the clause 5.2.5 of the CPA, the high-level Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established on February 10, 2015, in accordance with the Enforced Disappearances Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act, 2014. The commission was mandated to investigate cases of human rights violations and crimes against humanity, and to create an enabling environment for social reconciliation.

Internationally, such a commission is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoings by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state actors also), in the hope of resolving conflict leftovers from the past. In both their truth-seeking and reconciling functions, truth commissions have political implications. A truth commission is focused on the past, rather than in ongoing events; it investigates a pattern of events that took place over a period of time; it engages directly and broadly with the affected population, gathering information on their experiences, etc.

The operational mandate of Nepals Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) is due to expire in coming February. It is the subject of shame on the part of the commission that it has neither completed even one investigation into the tens of thousands of complaints filed by victims of human rights violations committed during the countrys decade-long conflict. It is virtually inauspicious and tardy to a transitional justice process. Though the pressure from the international community and victims groups to keep moving the transitional justice process forward compelled the government for the extension of the tenure of the body, there is very less expectation of the achievement of meaningful justice for the victims of conflict-related human rights violations.

Stranded justice crippled with impunity

The limping pace of the commission arouses the suspicion of the frail diagnosis, improper medications and haphazard recommendations. An even more significant challenge is the persistent culture of impunity in Nepal, and the harsh reality is that powerful perpetrators of human rights violations are spared from the action. They keep themselves under the protection of the cocoon of different flags of the power centres.

Till now, the TRC has only completed preliminary investigations of fewer cases. This lack of progress can be attributed both to the extremely high number of complaints the commission has received, limited resources, and inadequate funding. Without the funds, a one-year extension will not be sufficient for the commission to finish its work.

The leadership of the commission is likely to be weak with the rampant intrusion from the backdoors. Although the signatories of the CPA recognised that an amnesty provision would be unacceptable to the international community and it would jeopardise the legitimacy of the agreement, Nepals long history of failed commissions of inquiry gave them good reasons to think that a TRC would ultimately serve the interests of impunity.

The possibility is that amnesties would be granted for gross violations of human rights. If dillydallying of the commission is to ensure the avoidance of the possibility of granting amnesties for human rights violations which are unconstitutional and contrary to international law, it will be a welcoming step.

By giving the benefit of the doubt, we have to have endurance and patience. The judgments should not be manifestly inadequate and akin to complete or partial impunity. Further entrenchment of the impunity worsens the grave situations and justifies the legal maxim Justice delayed is justice denied.

Conflict victims demonstrate at Maitighar Mandala on Monday, January 13, 2020.

What next?

The commission has adopted a policy to fulfil the responsibilities by continuous discussions and deliberations with victims and other stakeholders in providing justice and reparations to victims of grave violations of human rights following the fundamental norms of CPA. Considering the reverberations in the meetings and interactions with the stakeholders, the commission will strive hard for prompt justice to conflict victims.

However, it has been high time to put due attention by all concerned stakeholders who are aspirants of transitional justice and sustainable peace and to heed for justifiable, needful, and time-suitable law formation. Only then, the commission can fulfil its responsibility effectively taking them as a base. The commission hopes that the state will not have any reservations regarding amendments of acts to let justice, reparations and reconciliation processes get wider acceptance.

The healing for the atrocious and inhumane forms of crime and human rights violations that happened during the conflict will not be possible through regular judicial mechanisms. Therefore, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up to deal with conflict-related grievances of the victims and their families. The state of impunity is one of the main challenges for the protection and promotion of human rights. The inaction against the perpetrators including the cases of murder, rape and other grave criminal offences reveals the unholy nexus between politics and crime. It is the sheer instance of criminalisation of politics and politicisation of crimes.

Connivance is rampant among Nepali politicians, bureaucrats and security personnel as a cultural practice which is responsible for violations of the value of rule of law, promoting impunity. The state efforts are inadequate in terms of fulfilment of human rights obligations enshrined in the international human rights instruments. The implementation part of the commission is weak due to reluctance on the part of state agents and politicians. Now, all political parties need to play their role to make the transitional justice process a success.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 13:00:53|Editor: huaxia

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NICOSIA, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Visiting U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Saturday that the United States is "deeply concerned" over Turkey's gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean amid growing tensions between Turkey, Cyprus and Greece.

"We remain deeply concerned by Turkey's ongoing operations surveying for natural resources in areas over which Greece and Cyprus assert jurisdiction in the Eastern Mediterranean," Pompeo said at a joint press conference with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades.

Turkey and the two European Union members are engaged in a war of words over oil and gas reserves and maritime rights in the disputed region, prompting fears that tensions will continue to rise.

Anastasiades, for his part, voiced readiness to enter negotiations for a comprehensive solution of the disputes, urging Ankara to end "aggressive actions."

Seven Mediterranean states on Thursday urged Turkey to resolve territorial disputes with Greece and Cyprus through negotiation, warning of "further restrictive measures" if Turkey does not halt its "unilateral activities."

On Friday, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said EU countries should abandon a policy of "blindly" taking the side of Greece and Cyprus, and called on Greece to enter unconditional and direct talks to settle down disputes. Enditem
The results of Bharat Biotech are encouraging but there are queries raised about the effects on the central nervous system which have not been detailed in the animals.

Hyderabad: Animal results of the two-dose, unactivated SARS-Cov 2 vaccine, Covaxin BBV 152, has shown protection and reduction in the replication of SARS-Cov 2 virus in nose, throat and lung tissues.

The animal trials were conducted on 20 monkeys in India and three different vaccine candidates were tried on them. The first dose of vaccine was given on Day 0 and the second dose was given on Day 14.

The results showed protective efficacy, increasing SARS-Cov 2-specific immunoglobulins which are antibodies, reducing replication of the virus.

Three groups of monkeys were given the vaccination and one group was not vaccinated. The three vaccinated groups did not develop pneumonia, while the non-vaccination group developed pneumonia.

According to the official note released by Bharat Biotech, there have not been any adverse side-effects noted in the animal trials. There was a robust immune response as there was protection from SARS Cov-2 virus even when exposed in high amounts.

The results of Bharat Biotech are encouraging but there are queries raised about the effects on the central nervous system which have not been detailed in the animals.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.
A part of Belfast is sealed off tonight, following the discovery of a suspicious object.

The City Way area of the city is currently closed off.
As flames raged around him, Chris Tofte drove into the heart of the Oregon wildfire desperately searching for his wife, son and mother-in-law.

Unable to see for the smoke, he almost ran over a badly burned woman stumbling in the road, her clothes and shoes melted off, her face and hair scorched.

Stopping, he hurried the victim into his Jeep, saying she must come with him deeper into the blaze to find his son and wife Angie. "I am your wife," the woman said through blackened lips. After 24 years of marriage, he hadn't recognised her.

Their 13-year-old son was later found dead, sheltering in a car near their home with the body of the family dog in his arms.

The harrowing story of the Tofte family was reported by the Salem Statesman Journal.

It has come to symbolise the anguish faced by victims of the record-breaking fires devastating vast areas of Oregon, California and Washington state.

Chris and Angie Tofte lived half an hour's drive from Salem, the state's capital, with their son Wyatt, her mother Peggy Mosso (71). a 200lb bullmastiff called Duke and three cats.

They had not been told to evacuate but Mr Tofte decided to collect a trailer in case they needed to move their possessions to safety.

When he returned the next day, the road back to their home was blockaded by police. The fire had swept through. After finding his wife, Mr Tofte rushed her back to paramedics at the blockade then went back into the inferno to look for Wyatt.

His wife, in agonising pain, told him: "Don't come back until you find him."

Wyatt was eventually found dead in a burnt-out car outside the Toftes' destroyed house, with Duke and his grandmother, who also died in the fire.

It appeared the family had woken up in the morning to find their home on fire.

Mrs Tofte told her son to run with Duke down a hill to safety. She stayed to look after her mother, who was immobile having broken her knee.

As the flames closed in, Mrs Tofte made the agonising decision to leave her mother behind, and walked five kilometres out through the flames. She was in a critical condition in hospital.

Lonnie Bertalotto, Wyatt's uncle, said: "We believe Wyatt was running down the hill, and came back to get his grandma."

In a statement, the family said: "Our family is devastated by the loss of our kind-hearted, 13-year-old Wyatt and his beloved grandmother Peggy." Wyatt was described as "just the sweetest little boy".

So far, at least 25 people have died and scores are missing in the fires, which have burned almost five million acres across several states.

Oregon's emergency management director said thousands of homes had been destroyed and it was preparing for a possible "mass-fatality event". Half a million people in the state remained under evacuation alert.

After four days of treacherously hot, windy weather, a glimmer of hope arrived with calmer winds blowing in from the ocean, helping firefighters make headway against the blazes,

Gavin Newsom, the California governor, blamed the fires on climate change during a visit to a charred mountainside. "The debate is over around climate change," Mr Newsom said. "Just come to the state of California. Observe it with your own eyes. California, folks, is America fast-forwarded."

But with dozens of people still missing, authorities in Oregon and California fear the receding flames could reveal many more dead across the blackened landscape.

Oregon's emergency management director said officials were preparing for a possible "mass fatality event".

In California, smoke that painted skies orange also helped crews corral the state's deadliest blaze of the year. The smoke helped blocked the sun, reducing temperatures and raising humidity, officials said.

Nine people have been confirmed dead in California since fires caused by lightning that started weeks ago fused into a monster blaze.

Oregon authorities have not released an exact death count, but at least eight fatalities were reported from the blazes across the state.

More than 40,000 Oregonians have been evacuated.
EASTON - "Welcome Easton, to the funk explosion," said Bill Ehalt, lead singer of The Brotherhood." The funk vibrations were heard a whole block away from the Ashlar Aspetuck lodge on Saturday.

Residents celebrated Easton's 175-year anniversary with a town-wide party. Live music played on the masonic lodge lawn and families gathered with their chairs and blankets. Lines formed for the food truck and some finished off the meal with a frosty ice cream. Kids played and adults danced all afternoon under the sun.

The celebration culminated with a drive-in-style fireworks show Saturday night at Samuel Staples Elementary School.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs refutes claims that the 12 detained people were democracy activists and said they were trying to separate Hong Kong from China.

Beijing has hit back at US criticism over the detention of 12 Hong Kong activists in mainland China.

The United States says it is deeply concerned about the group whose ages range between 16 and 33.

In a tweet, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs refuted claims that the detained were democracy activists, and said they were trying to separate Hong Kong from China.

The families of the detainees are calling on the Hong Kong authorities to help bring the group home.

Al Jazeeras Divya Gopalan reports.
Happiness is lower, insomnia is higher and there has been an increased incidence of mental health issues during the pandemic. This raises the question of how people can find more ways to be happy during these difficult times. We humans are often creatures of habit, slow to adjust to new circumstances, so which changes should we make?

One striking feature of the pandemic is that US personal savings rates have spiked. In April, the rate exceeded 30%. It has been falling, down to 19.5% in June, and will probably fall further yet. But it is still much higher than it was in the pre-Covid era, when it ranged from 3% to 8%.

Despite these falling rates, Americans probably ought to spend even more. Savings have been so high in part because people are hoarding resources for an uncertain future. But a lot of the explanation, especially for those with higher incomes, is that planned expenditures became impossible, dangerous or inconvenient. Instead of flying to Paris and staying at a hotel on the Seine, they drove to a cabin in Maine or West Virginia. Or maybe they postponed that purchase of a new car or spent less time browsing in a bookstore. In any case, the end result is less spending and more savings, whether conscious or not.

Those may well have been prudent decisions. Still, many of us are not spending enough money having fun. We have been too slow to develop new, Covid-compatible interests.

So think how you might achieve more pleasure from spending money. Ordering more books? Spending more time at the farmers market? Subscribing to more online newsletters? If you wish to see the new movie Tenet," for example, but fear virus exposure, you and your friends may be able to rent out a whole theater for less than $200.

To some extent people are already doing such things. But it is a common result in empirical economics that consumption habits are slow to adjust to changing circumstances, especially unprecedented circumstances. It is not enough for you to develop new spending habits  you should double down on them.

You also should be giving more to charity. Remittances from the U.S. to Mexico have risen recently, an unusual outcome in a typical recession. Part of the story is that Mexican migrants have fewer ways to spend their money in the U.S., due to Covid-related restrictions, and their relatives and friends in Mexico are in needier positions. So follow their lead and do more to help people around the world. It might prove more rewarding than buying more heirloom tomatoes.

A related piece of advice: Tip more, either when you eat out (preferably outside) or when you receive home delivery of food. Waiters and food-service delivery people face higher levels of danger on the job, and are more likely to have precarious family financial situations. So if you used to tip 15%, try 20% or 25%. Just dip into those savings.

You also should spend more time driving to see your friends. (If you have kids at home, you might consider giving both yourself and them a break and driving them to see their friends.) In most parts of America, traffic is noticeably less than it was before the pandemic, so take advantage of that. I recently visited a friend for an outdoors lunch in Washington. What used to be a 75-minute trip from Virginia now took only 45, and with much less uncertainty.

If you are like me, you probably know a lot of people who live just a little farther away than you are used to traveling. Suddenly they are closer than you think. Meeting in person, even with social distance, is one way to lessen the emotional isolation many people are experiencing because of the pandemic.

The stresses and problems of the pandemic are very real, and we cant just wish them away. But we are imperfect creatures of habit and routine, and if we can accept just a bit more change at the margin  starting with our wallets  it can help us all.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Tyler Cowen is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a professor of economics at George Mason University and writes for the blog Marginal Revolution. His books include 'Big Business: A Love Letter to an American Anti-Hero.'

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Its a terrible feeling to sit at home and do nothing while your state is burning.

Over the past six months, weve developed a deeper reverence for our nurses and medical professionals risking their lives to fight a deadly virus. Now our firefighters are the heroes of the moment, including the more than 2,000 of them who are currently incarcerated.

Every year California needs more people on the frontlines of our deadly fires, and Californians arent rushing to volunteer. The segment of the population that consistently seeks out this perilous, though rewarding, work are the formerly incarcerated. Many of them get a taste for the job while participating in fire camps, and want to continue when theyre released, yet until recently most have been barred from doing so.

On Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB2147, which will allow formerly incarcerated individuals who participated in a state or county fire camp to apply to have their criminal records expunged sooner. Until now, formerly incarcerated firefighters had to wait seven years, but with the new bill, they will be allowed to start the process of getting their records cleaned as soon as theyre off parole, thereby becoming eligible to apply to be a firefighter.

Inmates who have stood on the frontlines, battling historic fires should not be denied the right to later become a professional firefighter, Newsom tweeted after signing AB2147.

Steven Rose, 33, is currently fighting the third largest fire in California history, LNU Lightning Complex. Rose spent five years in prison after being caught in the middle of a residential burglary. He now has a full-time position at Cal Fire, running a warehouse that serves six counties.

Rose says when he was younger, he was attracted to crime for the thrill, and to support his drug habit. Now he finds excitement in a very different way.

I like driving up and seeing a plume of smoke, Rose says. Your hair stands up, you start sweating ... Youre going to give up on your body long before it gives up on you; youre going to give up on yourself long before your mind is actually broken. The body is a crazy thing. Right? It heals itself.

Rose attributes his experiences in fire camp during prison for his success on the outside. At that point in his life, Rose had never written a resume, and the trainers at the camp helped him learn how to do that.

Lets just say I dont mind looking in the mirror anymore, Rose says. Before I was selfish. I was angry. I did not care. And now I wake up daily ... I like to get to work and do something meaningful. No matter what, if I do one task a day at work thats what keeps me going. I get home and Im proud.

Rose qualified for fire camp because he was young and able-bodied, but also because he was a minimum-custody prisoner, serving a sentence for a nonviolent felony offense.

Brandon Bailey, 33, a philosophy student at UC Berkeley, has seen what can happen when ex-inmates with firefighting experience never get a chance to use their skills after release.

His father, Alex Schmies, spent 19 years in prison for a controversial case that is now studied in law schools. While chasing Schmies, a police car crashed into another vehicle, killing its driver. Schmies was charged and convicted in the death. While incarcerated, Schmies was allowed to study firefighting at a community college, and worked on fire crews in the summers for nine years.

Bailey says his father was sent to the most toxic and dangerous spots, where helicopters were dropping fire retardant. The work was brutal, and paid pennies, but his father said he would have done it for free. He grew to love it.

Schmies was released from High Desert State Prison in Shasta County in 2013. For seven months he lived in his car in Redding. Even though he was in a lot of pain, he stayed sober until he was brutally beaten to death by a group of strangers.

My father would have jumped on the chance to keep firefighting, Bailey says, but he was always told he didnt qualify.

For many in our society today, prisoners are an abstraction, a statistic thats much easier not to give a face or a name to. Incarcerated firefighters have won widespread respect for their willingness to do a dangerous job for the greater good, shifting them in the minds of many from the category of human of dangerous other to heroic human.

This dramatic shift, though in some ways hopeful, is also dangerous. After all, firefighting is not for everyone. Many people come out of prison resilient, skilled, with keen senses tested by extreme hardship, but many more come out traumatized, hurt and defeated. Shouldnt all formerly incarcerated people get the opportunity to pursue their dreams and give back to society, not just the extremely brave and able-bodied ones?

A person shouldnt have to risk their lives to get a second chance. Its essential to recognize that our mechanisms of justice are critically flawed, unequal and discriminatory. The vast majority of people who go through our criminal justice system emerge having have been done an injustice to, by society, through harsh sentencing disproportionate to their crime, racial discrimination and unnecessary cruelty.

We need to create more incentives and an easier path for everyone coming out of our prisons to provide for themselves and contribute in a constructive way. We need a lot more carrots and far fewer sticks.

The expungement of a criminal record is a form of restorative justice. You may have hurt society, you may have hurt yourself, but we need you, we still care about you and we want you back in the fold. Many people in our prisons have caused significant harm, but we as a society continue this harm by failing to give our incarcerated population a meaningful path to make amends and move forward.

For many years, Rose was very harsh with himself for the choices he made and the harm they caused others. He now sees himself being of service to his unit, something bigger than his own failures and accomplishments.

I just feel who I was is not who I am today, Rose says. That shouldnt have a bearing on what I can do. Its who I am today that matters.

When a police car drives by during our conversation Rose laughs, remembering how different his reaction would have been during his years of crime.

If given the opportunities, Rose adds, I assure you ... a lot of (incarcerated) people will take this to the next level and run with it and just be just amazing firefighters, amazing workers, amazing people, you know? Given the right circumstances and a push in the right direction.

Helping restore dignity to our formerly incarcerated restores our dignity too. It gives us the potential to expand our humanity to include those we fear, dismiss and objectify as other. It is both the ethical thing to do and in our collective best interest.

We should welcome and reward the willingness of some prisoners to fight fires, help with COVID-19 and respond to the climate crisis  just as we should make an encouraging path for those who want to get an education, care for their children and protect aging parents.

When it comes to these essential life lessons, we as a society have a lot to learn from the formerly incarcerated among us.

Sarah Shourd is a multimedia journalist, author, playwright and advocate against the overuse of solitary confinement in prisons.
 Flash

Foreign ministers of China, member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other regional countries agreed to further strengthen cooperation in economic recovery in the post-COVID-19 era during the 53rd ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting and related meetings which wrapped up Saturday.

As COVID-19 response and post-pandemic recovery took up a bulk of the meetings' topics, China, the ASEAN member countries and other regional countries repeatedly stressed the importance of joint efforts in effectively addressing the issue.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi addressed on the issue on multiple occasions during the meetings, which were held under the chair of Vietnam, the rotating chair of ASEAN for this year.

"The most urgent task of the summit is to gather consensus in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, promote the revival of economic cooperation, and maintain the overall situation of regional peace and development," Wang said via a video link at the East Asia Summit on Thursday, which celebrates the 15th anniversary of its founding this year.

He called for providing new impetus to the fight against the pandemic, supporting the World Health Organization (WHO), and jointly building a regional "anti-pandemic firewall."

Wang also stressed new measures for economic recovery and striving to make East Asia a source of stable growth for the world economy in the post-pandemic era.

When attending the 21st ASEAN-China, Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK) (10+3) Foreign Ministers' Meeting on the same day via video link, Wang said that all parties should continue to coordinate the anti-pandemic and developing needs, create a new aspect for cooperation in the post-pandemic era and promote 10+3 cooperation to a new level.

He said that China suggested improving the level of public health governance, continuing to support the WHO in playing an important role in the global fight against the pandemic, and jointly opposing the politicization of the pandemic and the stigmatization of other countries.

Wang's calls echoed his words at the Special ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers' Meeting on COVID-19 held in Vientiane, Laos in late February, when the pandemic had just broken out globally. He stated back then that China and the ASEAN had vowed to join hands to fight the COVID-19 to forge a closer community of shared future.

"This is time for the ASEAN Plus Three mechanism to prove its value and capacity in the pandemic combat," said Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh at the meeting. He also suggested China, Japan and South Korea continue their coordination with ASEAN in this regard, and intensify the cooperation in the research and production of vaccines and medicines against COVID-19.

At the ASEAN-China Ministerial Meeting held on Wednesday, the ASEAN applauded China's cooperation and support in the fight against COVID-19, and suggested China actively participate in the bloc's initiatives such as the COVID-19 response fund, regional reserves of medical supplies and recovery framework.

Wang said China is willing to work with them to actively promote exchanges and cooperation in the post-pandemic period, face up to global and regional challenges together, and foster a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future.

Wang made proposals to join efforts to thoroughly prevail over the epidemic, promote regional economic recovery, promote sustainable development, and improve the long-term planning for China-ASEAN cooperation.

The 53rd ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting and related meetings began on Wednesday, with 42 documents reviewed and approved over four days, Pham Binh Minh announced at a press briefing Saturday.

In a joint communique published after the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting, the foreign ministers called for the effective operationalization of the COVID-19 ASEAN Response Fund, and looked forward to further progress on the various initiatives to respond to COVID-19. They also looked forward to the submission of the ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework and its implementation plan to the ASEAN summit later this year.

Moreover, they stressed enhanced collaboration and sharing of experience with ASEAN's partners in research, development, the production and distribution of vaccines, providing access to medicines for COVID-19 and other diseases in future public health emergencies, and making them available and affordable to all as global public goods.

Key issues including the ASEAN Community Vision 2025, sub-regional cooperation multilateralism, non-traditional security challenges and others were also discussed during the meetings.

Founded in 1967, the ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Vietnam is the ASEAN chair for 2020.
A woman has filmed a dramatic interaction with police at a COVID vehicle checkpoint in north Melbourne, where she was forcibly removed from her vehicle.

Natalie Bonett shared the dramatic footage to her Facebook page this weekend and explained she was going through the Wallan checkpoint, something she does every single day, where she produces her license and permit.

However, it appears the problem was unrelated to COVID restrictions, but rather her phone mounted to her windshield.

I was stopped before even entering the checkpoint and the police officer told me that it was against the law to have my phone on a car charger mount on my windshield to which I was in disbelief, he then attempted to get into my vehicle at which I started recording, Ms Bonett said on Facebook.

Natalie Bonett shared the dramatic footage to her Facebook page this weekend. Source: Facebook/Natalie Bonett

They called for backup and had 4 police officers grab me by the legs and pull me out of my car and arrested me.

While trying to cuff me they had their knees in my back and couldnt breathe.

In the video, the male officer is heard asking a masked Ms Bonnett for her name and address.

"The problem is you're not stating your name to me," the officer is heard saying.

Ms Bonett again refused to get out of the car.

"I don't feel safe. You're armed," she said.

"You're safe, don't you worry about that," the officer replied.

The footage then shows the officer lean into the vehicle as Ms Bonett protests, before she is forcibly removed.

Ms Bonett said she recorded a 14 minute video of the incident, showing her being arrested and claims it will leave people disgusted.

I am shaking, crying and in complete disbelief that I was treated this way, she said.

In a statement, Victoria Police confirmed they arrested a 29-year-old woman for allegedly refusing to provide her details and drivers licence at a checkpoint in Kalkallo on Saturday, just before 6pm.

Story continues

The checkpoints between metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria are an important component in stopping the spread of Coronavirus, the statement said.

Police spoke to the female driver at the checkpoint in relation to her mobile phone obstructing her view due to its position on the windscreen and explained that this was an offence.

The woman refused to remove her phone from the windscreen.

The footage then shows the officer lean into the vehicle as Ms Bonett protests, before she is forcibly removed. Source: Facebook/Natalie Bonett

Police said the woman then refused to provide her details, noting it was an offence to not do so under Section 59 of the Road Safety Act.

The woman was warned that if she did not provide her details, she would be arrested. She still refused and was asked by police to get out of her car, the statement said.

When she refused this request, she was taken from the car by officers and taken into custody.

She was later released and is expected to be charged on summons with driving with obscured vision, fail to produce licence, fail to state her name and address, resist arrest, assault police and offensive language.

Since the video was uploaded to Facebook on Saturday, it has been shared over 5000 times and racked up nearly as many comments.

Yahoo News Australia has reached out to Victoria Police for comment.

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

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Great news, "SVU" fans!

Detective Olivia Benson and her entire squad are about to start filming "Law and Order: SVU" season 22. Mariska Hargitay, who stars as the formidable Benson, announced the news in an Instagram post on Saturday. She also shared a photo of her script and the entire cast conducting a practice read via Zoom.

"It's official! The bands back together! We had our first read thru today. #zoom Remember me in quarantine.#SVU22 ," she wrote. "We start shooting Monday."

Known for featuring stories "ripped from the headlines," it seems that season 22 for the hit NBC show will be no different. The script in Hargitay's post seems to suggest that the title for the premiere episode is "Remember Me in Quarantine."

The coronavirus pandemic caused most movie and scripted television shows to shut down production in March. Fans shared their excitement about the drama coming back to television soon.

Law and Order: SVU cast (therealmariskahargitay / Instagram)

"So excited! Ive rewatched from the beginning this whole quarantine," one fan wrote.

"It's the little things," someone else added.

Fans were also quick to congratulate Hargitay on her executive producer credit, which can be seen at the top of the script. Others had questions about their favorite cast members.

"Okay but wheres Stabler," one fan wondered, referencing Detective Benson's partner in crime fighting over the years who is said to appear on this next season.

Another wrote, "Am I the only one looking for Stabler?! I really gotta chill."

Unfortunately for fans, Detective Elliott Stabler's upcoming "SVU" spinoff series "Law & Order: Organized Crime" has been postponed until 2021. So we're not sure if he will still be appearing on early episodes of "SVU" season 22 like promised.

law and order season 22 premiere

While the show may be profiling coronavirus fictionally this upcoming season, the pandemic did tragically hit close to home for the "SVU" family in real life. The show lost a beloved member of its behind the scenes crew in March when costumer Josh Wallwork, who was 45, died of COVID-19.

Hargitay paid tribute to him on social media.

"Heartbroken we are. I dont think I ever saw him without a smile on his face," Hargitay wrote on Twitter. "He brought love and kindness everywhere he went. Always ready with the joke. The SVU Corredor will never be the same. We will miss you Josh. #ForeverInOurHearts"
The Crown star Emma Corrin appeared to be taking inspiration from her character Princess Diana as she stepped out in Venice.

The actress, 24, donned a stylish red and cream printed shirt as she jumped on a boat to travel through the canals.

Emma is set to make her debut as the late Princess Diana in the fourth of series of Netflix's The Crown in November, which will document the early days of her romance and eventual marriage to Prince Charles.

Gorgeous: The Crown star Emma Corrin appeared to be taking inspiration from her character Princess Diana as she headed out in Venice

Emma opted for a laid-back look as she donned an oversized cream shirt with a contrasting red print by Bode, which is typically priced at $450 (352).

The young star teamed the look with thigh-skimming cut off shorts and chunky heeled shoes as she headed out for the day.

Emma carried her essentials in a slouchy cream cross-body handbag, and was later seen out for dinner with her male companion after changing into blue flared jeans.

Exciting: The actress has taken on the role of the late Princess (pictured in 1989) during the early days of her relationship and marriage to Prince Charles for The Crown's fourth series

Low-key: Emma opted for a casual cream and red printed shirt as she boarded a boat for a ride along the canals after heading out of her hotel

Close: She was seen chatting to a pal as she headed out for the day in thigh-skimming cut off shorts

Pals: Emma was then joined by a mystery male companion as they strolled through the city together in the evening. She is visiting Italy during the 77th Venice Film Festival

Casual: Keeping her mask to hand, Emma chatted to a staff member as she exited the hotel

The pair donned protective face masks as they headed out and about together in the city after enjoying a meal together.

MailOnline has contacted a representative for Emma Corrin for more information.

Emma is set to make her long-awaited debut as Princess Diana in The Crown's fourth series, and recently spoke about the role of a lifetime while posing for a stunning shoot in British Vogue.

The Grantchester star said she got to know Princess Diana 'like you would a friend,' while discussing taking on the iconic role.

Emma also revealed that she needed 10 people to help get her into the 'massive' replica wedding dress.

Exciting: Emma is set to make her long-awaited debut as Princess Diana in The Crown's fourth series, which will be released on Netflix in November

Candid: The Grantchester star recently said she got to know Princess Diana 'like you would a friend,' while discussing taking on the iconic role

Big role: She said: 'I feel I've got to know Diana like you would a friend. I know that sounds really weird, but I get a great sense of companionship from her'

Getting into the role: 'I suppose, over time, you kind of start to patch together a sense of empathy and a sense of understanding. I love figuring people out,' she added

Amazing: The young actress also recalled filming the first scene with Diana in her wedding dress

She will portray Diana during the early part of her relationship with the Prince of Wales, before handing over the role to Elizabeth Debicki, for series five and six of the hit Netflix drama.

The Misbehaviour star explained how she developed a sense of 'empathy and understanding' for the late princess.

She told the publication: 'I feel I've got to know Diana like you would a friend. I know that sounds really weird, but I get a great sense of companionship from her.

'I suppose, over time, you kind of start to patch together a sense of empathy and a sense of understanding. I love figuring people out.'

No mean feat: Emma also revealed that she needed 10 people to help get her into the 'massive' replica wedding dress

Beauty: On the moment she tried on the dress for the first time, she said: 'I walked out and everyone went completely silent. More than anything else I wear in the series, it's so... it's her.'

The young actress also recalled filming the first scene with Diana in her wedding dress.

The original ivory silk taffeta wedding gown designed by David and Elizabeth Emanuel was hand-embroidered with 10,000 pearls and featured a 25ft train.

Emma revealed that she had needed 10 others to help her put on the replica gown, and that the crew went silent seeing her in it for the first time.

She told the magazine: 'The Emmanuels, who designed the original, gave us the patterns, and then it was made for me.' David Emmanuel was a consultant on set.

'We were filming the scene when you first see her in the wedding dress - I think it was Lancaster House in London - and I had a team of about 10 people helping me put it on, because it's massive.

'I walked out and everyone went completely silent. More than anything else I wear in the series, it's so... it's her.'

Keeping quiet: Emma also admitted that she had kept the role secret, but that some friends had correctly guessed her casting

The immense train of the original dress was famously creased when Diana arrived for the wedding, prompting Elizabeth Emmanuel to whisper to David: 'Oh it's creased. But when she came out of that carriage it was the most wonderful vision I'd ever seen.'

Emma also admitted that she had kept the role secret, but that some friends had correctly guessed her casting.

She said: 'I didn't tell anyone for a while. I love my mates but I think it would have got out.

'My friends from school did this incredible thing, where they made me a scrapbook filled with all of the screenshots from our group WhatsApp, where I have said, ''Oh my God, guys, I've been invited to read''.

'Or a random conversation we'd had four years ago when I said, 'Isn't Diana amazing!'

Chatty: Emma and her male companion were deep in conversation as they settled down to enjoy a meal together

Pals: The pair seemed to enjoy each other's company as they sipped their beverages

Sensational: Emma's casting was announced in April 2019, with The Crown's creator Peter Morgan calling her 'a brilliant talent who immediately captivated us'

Diana married Charles in 1981, and the couple welcomed sons William in 1982 and Harry in 1984. After separating in 1991, the couple divorced in 1997.

Emma's casting was announced in April 2019, with The Crown's creator Peter Morgan calling her 'a brilliant talent who immediately captivated us when she came in for the part of Diana Spencer.'

He said: 'As well as having the innocence and beauty of a young Diana, she also has, in abundance, the range and complexity to portray an extraordinary woman who went from anonymous teenager to becoming the most iconic woman of her generation.'
The Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, has announced September 21 date for reopening of primary and secondary schools in the state, ending months of school closure occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr Fayemi who disclosed this in a state-wide broadcast on Sunday evening also directed that tertiary institutions in the state be opened to students from October 2, subject to each institutions Governing Council decision and strict adherence to safety protocols to curb the spread of COVID-19.

The governor stressed that the authorities of the tertiary institutions are to liaise with the Ekiti COVID-19 Task Force for guidance on the appropriate measures to be put in place before reopening.

Specifically, the governor said students in SSS II, JSS III and Primary 6 are to resume on September 21, while students in SSS I, JSS II and Primary 5 and 4 are to resume from September 28.

Students in JSS I and Primary 1-3 are to resume on October 19, while pupils in Kindergarten and Nursery Schools are expected to resume on November 2, when more assurances of safety for their age bracket would have been established.

The governor noted that the decision to open more classes was taken because there has been no spike traceable to students in exit classes who are writing their certificate examinations saying: This shows that our preventive measures to safeguard them from being infected has been effective.

On worship centres, Mr Fayemi disclosed that they can henceforth hold two services on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays while midweek services and night vigils are still prohibited.

He said: After a careful review and advice by the experts, I am glad to announce that worship centres can now hold two services on Friday, Saturday or Sunday as the case may be but mid-week activities and night vigils remain suspended for now. Other protocols and regulations concerning worship centres reopening still subsist.

Reprieve also came for residents of the state on social activities especially the ones taking place in halls and event centres with owners of such facilities now mandated to rent them to users on condition that they should not contain more than 50 per cent of their normal capacities.

Mr Fayemi said: Owners of halls and event centres may now be allowed to rent out their facilities but under no condition should such a facility contain more than 50 per cent of its normal capacity.

This is to allow for social distancing. Events centres are expected to observe all protocols prescribed for religious centres and to obtain certificate of readiness before opening.

The governor, however, expressed concern on flouting of social distancing rules and non-use of face masks saying enforcement will also be scaled up to ensure compliance with COVID-19 regulations.

The governor added: While we have progressively responded to the initial lockdown with gradual relaxation in line with the progress made, we must remain vigilant as we cannot afford to indulge ourselves such that a spike may recur as a result of flagrant disobedience to the established protocol

We cannot afford to go back into another round of lockdown with its attendant repercussions. This point needs to be emphasized; though, there is a national decline in number of cases, there has been a noticeable upsurge in Ekiti.

One proof of this is the unpleasant but consistent figures that we have recorded in the last month. As at the time I addressed you on August 5, 2020, there were only 152 confirmed cases in Ekiti.

Today we have recorded a total of 299 cases which means we recorded 147 new cases within a month. You would recall that the total recorded cases from March to August were 152. This suggests that from August to date, we have had near 100 percent new cases, even while national number has maintained a stable decline.

It is in view of this, that I have issued a new directive to the law enforcement agencies to ramp up their enforcement activities. We should not delude ourselves that we are out of the pandemic until there is a reliable vaccine in place.

Even as we continue to evaluate situations and act promptly, I urge you to take personal measures and responsibility by adhering to all existing protocols, as not doing so, could jeopardize our collective wellbeing.

Speaking on empowerment, the governor said his administration was doing everything possible to support entrepreneurs, artisans and self employed residents.

He disclosed that over 200 businesses accessed the COVID loans from CBN through the Microfinance and Enterprise Development Agency (MEDA) while Ekiti residents should expect to benefit from the multiple initiatives from the Federal Government to support the economy, including the recently launched COVID Survival Fund.

The governor thanked the states medical and health workers in the front line and the COVID-19 Response Resource Mobilisation Team as well as all donors to the COVID-19 Support Fund.

He urged residents to keep safe in all fronts especially with more rains coming adding that we must not only keep safe in terms of COVID-19 prevention, we must also ensure that the drainages are kept free to forestall flooding, just as our drivers must keep safe to avoid accidents in these last quarter as we move towards the end of the year.




Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae arrives at the ministry building in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, Friday. She apologized over graft allegations surrounding her son on Facebook, Sunday. Yonhap



By Yi Whan-woo



Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae apologized, Sunday, over snowballing allegations that she abused her power to seek special favors for her son during his mandatory military service.



However, Choo denied the allegations in a Facebook post. She said the prosecution, which has been looking into the case, should fear nothing but the people and "be faithful" in uncovering the truth.



"I am deeply sorry for causing troubles to the people over my son's military duty at a time when COVID-19 is afflicting every part of society," she wrote.





Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae posted an apology on Facebook, Sunday, over allegations that she abused her power to seek special favors for her son during his military service with the Korean Augmentation to the United States Army (KATUSA).

Choo said she had kept mum over the case because, as justice minister, she oversees the prosecution and she "did not want to have any influence over the ongoing investigation."

"But now I must say every piece of truth should be uncovered through the probe," she added.






Our historical understanding of Blackness is most commonly shaped by the story of the Atlantic slave trade  the forced movement of Africans to the West, in particular to the Americas. But this is a linear narrative that is dominated by American voices. It's not just potentially exclusory; it doesn't adequately take into account the diversity of black people worldwide. The same is true of Blackness studies, which continue to be dominated by and serve the interests of Western scholarship. Aretha Phiri asks Michelle M. Wright, professor and author of Becoming Black : Creating Identity in the African Diaspora, about her work in disrupting the slavery narrative.

Aretha Phiri: To start with a recent development, the Black Lives Matter movement appears to have gained global momentum. And yet its impact seems to be mainly in the global North. Does this suggest that black people's experience of race and racism is not universal?

Michelle M. Wright: The fight for freedom is important, but it really has to include everybody. This requires some radical rethinking. We have to ask who gets to access contemporary spaces. Who has the time (and money) to join in the fight according to the times and places set by the leaders? Who speaks the language we have chosen to communicate in, and who is left out? Black folks are astonishingly diverse in their cultures, histories, languages, religions, so no single definition of Blackness is going to fit everyone. When we fail to consider this, we effectively leave many Black people out of the conversation.

Aretha Phiri: Slavery's afterlife is central to Black Lives Matter's important call for racial and structural justice and equality. Yet, in your paper , Black in Time: Diaspora, Diversity and Identity, you trouble the dominance of a corresponding Middle Passage epistemology as racially reductive. What is broadly meant by Middle Passage thinking and how is it disseminated by US-based scholars?

Michelle M. Wright: In most US (and European) academic conversations, the  Middle Passage   also known as the Atlantic slave trade  is used interchangeably with the African  diaspora   the dispersal of Black and African people from their original, typically (West) African locales to North America. This linear mapping is not just convenient, it is false. Ninety-five percent of enslaved Africans were transported to South America and the Caribbean, not the US; not to mention the millions of slaves who were transported east to places like Turkey and India. Reinforced by a linear timeline which is understood to progressively track history, this mapping further distorts history in service to the West. That is, because (West) Africa is the starting point, the tendency is to view it as embedded in the past and the West as aligned with the future.

In my book , Physics of Blackness: Beyond the Middle Passage Epistemology, I call this particular mapping of Blackness the Middle Passage epistemology. It's a specific form of knowledge or way of knowing (the world) that is oriented to the West, specifically to America. This is problematic not just because it hierarchises or ranks Blackness, but also because (transatlantic) scholarship on Black African diaspora is often imagined through historical and cultural parameters in which Middle Passage Blackness is the norm, often the only representation of Blackness. A statue of a Black Lives Matter protester in Bristol was put in the place of a statue of a slave trader - and then removed. Ben Birchall/PA Images via Getty Images

Aretha Phiri: Building on your observation, I am struck by the continued influence in South African universities of Paul Gilroy's seminal text The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness in particular and US-based Black Atlantic studies in general. Where these foreground the global influences and contributions of Black peoples, they also unfortunately disseminate Middle Passage thinking which situates Africa in the past. What are the other challenges presented here?

Michelle M. Wright: Not only is what is typically represented in Black Atlantic scholarship narrow, it is almost always heterosexual and masculinist. It struggles to imagine race and racism outside of the threat of emasculation and racial futures and racial pasts outside of a heteropatriarchal norm.

Most recently, the famous 1619 Project in The New York Times aimed at documenting the impact of slavery on the US. But it focuses almost exclusively on Black men in African American history, eliding the achievements of women and queer folks. This leads to the assumption that it is heterosexual Black men who played the major contributory roles. But our earliest abolitionist movements were started by Black women, our first Presidential candidate was a Black woman, and it was Black queer activists like James Baldwin and Bayard Rustin who were central to the Civil Rights Movement . So yes, part of the ethical challenge, then, is to recognise that some Black people have much more privilege than others.

Read more: On decolonising teaching practices, not just the syllabus

Aretha Phiri: I am struck, again, at how your analysis is relevant to Black African scholarship, where considerations of women and queer bodies have also historically been obscured or omitted

Michelle M. Wright: Racial metanarratives are inherently limiting. It's very difficult for Black Africans, much less Black Europeans and Black peoples of the Pacific and Central and South America, to read themselves through the dominant (US) framings of Blackness. For example, if you are a Kenyan living in Mombasa, chances are high that your greatest preoccupation is not racist white cops, but violence from Black Kenyan policemen . And here we are, one scholar Zimbabwean/South African, the other a US citizen born and raised in Western Europe, both women, myself queer. The Middle Passage epistemology fails because it dictates that you belong to the past and I belong to the present and future. But history, nationality, gender, class and sexuality intersected us here at this exchange even as we came through different paths and bring different experiences, outlooks and philosophies.

This article is part of a series called Decolonising the Black Atlantic in which black and queer women literary academics rethink and disrupt traditional Black Atlantic studies. The series is based on papers delivered at the Revising the Black Atlantic: African Diaspora Perspectives colloquium at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study .

Aretha Phiri is an NRF-rated researcher and previously a fellow at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS)

Michelle M Wright does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

By Aretha Phiri, Senior lecturer, Department of Literary Studies in English, Rhodes University And

Michelle M Wright, Professor of African Diaspora Studies, Northwestern University
COLUMBIA  After a lull at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, illegal crossings at the southern U.S. border have begun rising again in recent months, resurrecting an issue that has bedeviled congressional negotiators for many years.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has often been at the center of those negotiations, offering a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants in exchange for stronger border security measures  a compromise that drew harsh criticism from some conservatives.

Since becoming a close ally of President Donald Trump, Graham has toughened his rhetoric on illegal immigration at times, prompting Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison to accuse the Republican incumbent of "playing towards our greatest fears."

This is the fifth installment of an eight-part series in The Post and Courier leading up to the election that will lay out the policy views of Graham and Harrison on issues that matter most to South Carolina voters.

The responses to this candidate questionnaire have been edited and condensed for space and clarity.

Do you support a pathway to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants already in the U.S.?

Graham: I have been involved in every bipartisan effort to fix a broken immigration system since 2006. I support a pathway to citizenship for non-felon illegal immigrants while we simultaneously secure our border, address the root causes of illegal immigration and modernize our legal immigration system. A pathway to citizenship must be earned, not given. An individual should have to pass an English proficiency exam, undergo background and national security screenings, pay a fine for the law that was broken, file tax returns, and get in the back of the line from the country of origin so you do not gain an unfair advantage over those who have done it legally. I expect a secure border, E-verify to stop hiring of illegal immigrants, and modernized legal immigration in return for a pathway to citizenship.

Harrison: Combined with effective border security, Congress should finally work in a bipartisan way to create a path towards citizenship  particularly for those undocumented immigrants without a criminal history who have put down roots in the United States. I support DACA, which prevents the deportation of undocumented immigrants who came to America as children. Congress should cement this program into law by supporting the DREAM Act, which has overwhelming bipartisan support. These are not radical ideas. Lindsey Graham in 2013 was a key player in a reform bill that would have provided a path to citizenship. But our senior senator has changed. Instead of appealing to our hopes, he now sees benefit in playing towards our greatest fears.

Do you believe the federal government should decriminalize illegal immigration?

Graham: Decriminalizing illegal entry into the United States is a bad idea. Incentivizing illegal entry by offering free health care and other benefits are more bad ideas. If these proposals are put into practice they would lead to terrible outcomes for the United States. I strongly oppose decriminalization.

Harrison: No, we should not decriminalize illegal border crossings. Our goal should be to protect our borders and our national security, while instituting humane policies that reflect our values as a nation of immigrants. For centuries, our country has welcomed people fleeing religious persecution, war and humanitarian crises to create a better future for themselves and their futures. With proper safeguards in place, we should offer refuge to some migrants with legitimate fears of persecution and violence. After all, scripture tells us, I was a stranger and you welcomed me. Our country cannot ignore the situations that refugees are escaping either. We must pursue diplomatic and economic solutions that encourage prosperity in places like Central America.

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Do you support President Trumps efforts to build a physical wall on the border between the U.S. and Mexico?

Graham: I support President Trump's efforts to build a physical wall in border areas where it makes sense. I've seen his plan. I support his plan. In previous immigration proposals I supported over $40 billion for various forms of border security, including physical barriers.

Harrison: There are places along the border where a wall makes tactical sense. But given wide differences in topography, land rights, and other issues, it is not feasible nor cost-effective to construct a sea-to-sea barrier between our countries. Efforts to secure funding for this have hurt South Carolina. Lindsey Graham played a key role in a national emergency declaration to fund the border wall, which diverted $11 million away from the construction of a new, sorely needed fire station at Beauforts Marine Corps Air Station. He promised the money would come back, but we still havent seen it. This is just another example of Lindsey Graham playing political games with serious challenges facing our country.

President Trump has significantly decreased limits on the number of refugees who can be admitted to the U.S. each year. Denials for H-1B visas have also increased under the Trump administration. Do you support or oppose those efforts? What do you believe appropriate limits would be?

Graham: I believe in meeting the needs of our economy when it comes to legal immigration. When an American company cannot find an American worker to fill a job, after advertising at a competitive wage with benefits, then they may access workers from abroad. These workers must be paid fair wages so as not to displace or disadvantage American workers. We have a declining population, and we need to supplement our workforce in a rational way. H-1B workers come from the high-tech, STEM area, of which there is a shortage of in the United States. As to refugees, I believe it is incumbent upon the United States to do our fair share but to make sure the vetting is sufficient to avoid national security problems. There have been many episodes in Europe where terrorists have infiltrated the refugee flow, causing great harm. We must have a balanced approach of admission of refugees with a very strong vetting program from troubled regions.

Harrison: America was built, in part, by those who came here fleeing violence and persecution in search of a better life. I believe that we should continue to be a beacon of hope for those people in distress, and accept a number of refugees who can be adequately screened before relocation. I disagree with those who want to shut down the H-1B Visa program. These visas should be an option for companies who have to hire specialized roles but cannot find domestic workers with the requisite expertise. Reliance on this program underscores the need to improve our job training programs in South Carolina, by investing to make sure students are ready to fill the high-paying jobs of tomorrow.

Do you support detaining asylum-seeking families in non-prison settings until their asylum claims can be processed, or should they be released into the country while awaiting a decision?

Graham: One of the biggest improvements has been the willingness of Mexico to hold asylum seekers in Mexico until their hearing date in the U.S. so the person is not released into the U.S. President Trump deserves credit for bringing about this change. Our asylum laws have been abused and people are playing the system. Under the old system all you had to do was claim asylum. You would then have a hearing date which could be years away. In the meantime, the asylum seeker would be released into the United States and the vast majority never showed up for the hearing. The biggest change on asylum claims has been the Triangle Nations of Central America and Mexico allowing adjudication in their countries and holding people as they await their hearings in the U.S. To deter another wave of illegal immigration, it is imperative that we do away with the policy of sanctuary cities. Sanctuary cities are magnets for illegal immigration and create safe havens for criminals as well as migrants.

Harrison: As a father and a Christian, I cannot support any immigration process that breaks families apart or separates innocent children from their parents. Make no mistake: Policies that separate young kids from their parents or guardians have profound, long-term consequences on children, who did not arrive here on their own volition. We need leaders who will stand up for Americas values of decency and respect, but Lindsey Graham is not that leader. Hes made it perfectly clear that hes for the detention of asylum seekers and migrants in overcrowded and unsanitary facilities. He said, "I don't care if they have to stay in these facilities for 400 days." That kind of callousness does not reflect the values of South Carolina.
Bengaluru, Sep 13 : In a truly inspirational story, a three-year-old girl from Iraq gave her elder brother a lifesaving gift as she donated her bone marrow.

The heart touching story took place in Bengaluru where Ahmed, an 18-year-old boy from Iraq, had undergone a successful bone marrow transplantation in Manipal Hospital in Bengaluru.

He had undergone splenectomy in his native country and was referred to this hospital in Bengaluru since only optimal treatment is available in Iraq.

According to doctors at the hospital, the teenager was also suffering from symptomatic anemia (needing frequent blood transfusions) and jaundice.

Dr Mallikarjun Kalashetty, consultant -Haematology, Haemato -Oncology & Bone Marrow Transplantation - at Manipal Hospital, said Ahmed required an allogeneic bone marrow transplantation.

"The best donors for such patients are the human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-matched siblings who are normal or with a minor form of haemoglobinopathy (a hereditary condition involving an abnormality in the structure of haemoglobin) or thalassaemia (a blood disorder involving lower-than-normal amounts of an oxygen-carrying protein)," Dr Kalashetty explained.

However, things were not easy for the medical team at the hospital considering the age of the donor - the patient's three-year-old younger sister - and the obvious language barrier.

Transfusion experts at the hospital soon realised the process was challenging as they required the processing of 8-10 litres of blood from the donor aged three, weighing 18 kilograms, who had only a blood volume of about 1.3 litres.

"Considering her age, the donor had to be sedated to elicit cooperation during apheresis (extracting blood and separating components) in multiple sittings and preserve the stem cells through cryopreservation. To counter the low volume of blood going into the apheresis machine, we filled the dead spaces with compatible RBC, and to reduce the fluid overload, we determined and monitored the volume of the fluid going into the body of the child," said Dr C. Shivaram, consultant, transfusion medicine.

However, the allogeneic bone marrow transplantation was successful and Ahmed has now recovered from the sickle-cell disease. "'He did have few complications after transplantation like mucositis, febrile neutropenia, and viral reactivation, which were successfully managed," Dr Kalashetty said.

He further added that Ahmed's quality of life has improved significantly and his parents are overjoyed to see their son doing so well after suffering from the illness for several years.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Choking smoke that posed a health hazard to millions blanketed the West Coast on Saturday as firefighters battled deadly wildfires that obliterated some towns and created tens of thousands of refugees, the latest in a series of calamities this year.

For people already enduring the coronavirus pandemic, the resulting economic fallout and political tensions evident in the Black Lives Matter protests and far-right counter protests, the fires added a new layer of misery.

Whats next? You have the protests, coronavirus pandemic, now the wildfires. What else can go wrong? lamented Danielle Oliver, 40, of Happy Valley, southeast of Portland.

Also read: At least nine killed as scores of wildfires scorch US West Coast

The known death toll from fires in the three states stood at 27 and was expected to rise sharply. Most of the deaths were in California and Oregon.

Oregons emergency management director said officials were preparing for a possible mass fatality event if many more bodies turn up in the ash. And the state fire marshal was abruptly placed on administrative leave after the state police superintendent said the crisis demanded an urgent response that required a leadership change.

Oliver has an autoimmune disorder that makes her vulnerable to wildfire smoke, so she agreed to evacuate. She was nervous about going to a shelter because of the virus, but sleeping in a car with her husband, 15-year-daughter, two dogs and a cat was not a viable option.

The temperature checks and social distancing at the American Red Cross shelter help put her mind at ease. Now the family waits, hoping their house will survive. She has previously experienced homelessness.

Im tired. Im tired of starting all over. Getting everything, working for everything, then losing everything, she said.

Those who still had homes were not safe in them. A half-million Oregonians were under evacuation warnings or orders to leave. With air contamination levels at historic highs, people stuffed towels against door jambs to keep smoke out. Some even wore N95 masks in their own homes.

Some communities resembled the bombed-out cities of Europe after World War II, with buildings reduced to charred rubble piled atop blackened earth. Residents either managed to flee as the flames closed in, or perished.

Millicent Catarancuics body was found near a car on her 5-acre property in Berry Creek, California. The flames came so quickly she did not have time to get out.

On Tuesday, she packed several of her dogs and cats in the car but later called her daughter to say she decided to stay. Firefighters had made progress battling the blaze. The wind was calm. The flames still seemed far away. Then they rushed onto the property.

I feel like, maybe when they passed, they had an army of cats and dogs with her to help her through it, said her daughter, Holly Catarancuic.

Also read: Three dead as wildfire devastates northern California

In Oregon alone, more than 40,000 people have been evacuated and about 500,000 are in different levels of evacuation zones, Gov. Kate Brown said.

Fires along Oregons Cascade Range grew Saturday, but at a slower rate than earlier in the week when strong easterly winds acted like a bellows, pushing two large fires  the Beachie Creek Fire and the Riverside Fire  toward each other and the states major population centers, including Portlands southeastern suburbs, wildfire managers reported.

Fire managers did get a spot of good news: Higher humidity slowed the flames considerably.

In California, a total of 28 active major fires have burned 4,375 square miles, and 16,000 firefighters are trying to suppress the flames, Cal Fire Assistant Deputy Director Daniel Berlant said. Large wildfires continued to burn in northeastern Washington state too.

President Donald Trump will visit California on Monday for a briefing on the West Coast fires, the White House announced.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and the governors of California, Oregon and Washington state  all Democrats  have said the fires are a consequence of global warming.

We absolutely must act now to avoid a future defined by an unending barrage of tragedies like the one American families are enduring across the West today, Biden said.

The same smoke that painted California skies orange also helped crews corral the states deadliest blaze of the year by blocking the sun, reducing temperatures and raising humidity, officials said.

Smoke created cooler conditions in Oregon too, but it was also blamed for possibly the dirtiest air in at least 35 years in parts of the state. The air quality index reading Saturday morning in Salem, the state capital, was 512.

The scale normally goes from zero to 500.

Above 500 is literally off the charts, said Laura Gleim, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. Portland has never seen air quality this bad since the department started monitoring there in 1985.

The weather conditions that led up to the fires and fed the flames were likely a once-in-a-generation event, said Greg Jones, a professor and research climatologist at Linfield University in McMinnville, Oregon.

A large high-pressure area stretching from the desert Southwest to Alaska brought strong winds from the east toward the West Coast, lowering relative humidity to as low as 8% and bringing desert-like conditions, even to the coast, Jones said.

Instead of the offshore flows that the Pacific Northwest normally enjoys, the strong easterly winds pushed fires down the western slopes of the Cascade Range.

The smoke in Portland filled the air with an acrid metallic scent like dull pennies. It was so thick that Ashley Kreitzer could not see the road when she headed out to work as a ride-hailing driver.

I couldnt even see five feet ahead of me, she said. I was panicking, I didnt even know if I wanted to go out.

George Coble had no home to return to. He came with some of his employees Saturday to a wasteland of charred tree trunks just outside Mill City, Oregon. Coble lost everything: his fence-and-post business, five houses in a family compound and vintage cars, including a 1967 Mustang.

The family  three generations that lived in the compound  evacuated with seven people, three horses, five dogs and a cat.

Well just keep working and keep your head up and thank God everybody got out, Coble said. There are other people that lost their family. Just be thankful for what you did get out with.
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Malmo, Sweden  Sun, September 13, 2020 20:08 495 e22cd4161040e111d73a5626c44954d1 2 Art & Culture Sweden,Museum,Disgusting-Food-Museum Free

Poop wine and scorpion vodka are just some of the stars of a new exhibit on revolting alcohol at the Disgusting Food Museum in Malmo in Sweden.

A large jug of a yellowish semi-translucent liquid is the center piece of the new exhibit: wine made from human excrement.

"This is traditional Korean medicine. This is not something that people drink anymore. It's an historic drink and it was drunk in order to cure bone breakage and bruises," the museum's director Andreas Ahrens, who prepared the concoction himself, explains to AFP.

He is adamant that "now it smells more like alcohol than feces", as he removes the cap for a whiff.

"But when you're making it, the smell is quite horrendous," he admits.

Visitors' reactions range from gag reflexes to smiles of amusement as they take in the different beverages on display.

Among the pieces on show are both experimental items, like a Scottish beer with a 55-percent alcohol level sold in a stuffed squirrel, and more widely produced drinks, like Fernet Branca, a bitter, herbal Italian liqueur.

You'll also find beer made with Icelandic whale testicles, Ugandan Waragi, a strong gin-like beverage, as well as "pruno", a wine made by American prisoners who famously let it ferment in toilets.

Visitors also get a glimpse into cultural differences when it comes to alcohol consumption.

For instance Gammeldansk, a Danish bitter hard alcohol, is considered normal around Scandinavia, "but in the rest of the world is considered quite disgusting," Ahrens explains.

"It's the same with all the other items in the main exhibit. It's things that people like where it comes from, and might appear disgusting if you're not from there," he says.

Marie-Louise Syrjalainen described her visit as "very exciting," but stressed it was also "very, very, very disgusting."

"It shows very unexpected things," she told AFP.

Despite its focus on repulsion, the Disgusting Food Museum has seen a growing number of visitors since opening its doors two years ago.

In addition to Malmo it has staged exhibitions in Nantes, Berlin and Los Angeles, but the COVID-19 pandemic health crisis forced it to close for a few weeks due to a lack of visitors.

With the new alcohol exhibition, which will be on display for three months, Ahrens hopes to entice visitors after months of scarcity.
'Why do politicians ask for votes if they cannot rehabilitate us? Where do we go -- to the footpath?'

IMAGE: Resident of a slum near Sarai Rohilla Railway line in New Delhi. Photograph: Atul Yadav/PTI Photo

The COVID-19 pandemic took away her family's livelihood and now 48-year-old Veeramma fears she will lose her roof in the wake of the Supreme Court ordering the removal of 48,000 slum dwellings along railway tracks in Delhi.

"My husband was born here. My son was born here. My in-laws breathed their last in this house. This is all we have," said Veeramma as she sat on crushed stones outside her home at a slum cluster alongside a railway track near Jal Vihar in Lajpat Nagar.

The 48-year-old, who works as a domestic help, said her employers haven't called her back to work yet.

"My husband cannot move. My son is a daily wager, he doesn't have much work, too. We don't have enough ration to feed the family for another week," said Veeramma looking at her two-year-old granddaughter, a third generation to be born in the slum cluster.

"We don't have the money for my granddaughter's milk. Even if we beg, we won't get anything. The times were never so bad," she said.

The Supreme Court had on August 31 ordered the removal of 48,000 slum dwellings along railway tracks in Delhi within three months.

As per rough estimates, there are around 2,40,000 people living in slums in Naraina Vihar, Azadpur, Vihar, Shakur Basti, Mayapuri, Sriniwaspuri, Anand Parbat and Okhla among others.

IMAGE: The Supreme Court had on August 31 ordered the removal of 48,000 slum dwellings along railway tracks in Delhi within three months. Photograph: Atul Yadav/PTI Photo

The Northern Railways had submitted a report to the apex court which said that mushrooming of slums along railway tracks is acting as hindrance towards keeping them clean.

Panchavarna, 55, said her family had moved to Delhi from Chennai.

"We know the land belongs to the government, but where will we go? Who will take our responsibility?" she asked.

Elumalai, 35, reminded the government's promise of "jahan jhuggi wahin makan" made before the elections.

"We do not say we won't accept the court's order. This land belongs to the railways and they will take it one day, but where will we go? No one cares for us," Elumalai, whose father came to Delhi from Chennai in 1978, said.

Interestingly, each household in the slum has got electricity connection, Aadhaar card, voter id, and ration card.

The Aam Aadmi Party government had built community toilets for the slum dwellers last year, so that no one defecates in the open or on the tracks, said 45-year-old Shankar Sarangam, a driver who did not get a salary for three months during the COVID-19-induced lockdown.

"The salary has been reduced by half. I have a family to feed. We were thankful to god that we have a roof over our head," he said.

"Now the jhuggi will be gone, too. The railways should have at least considered the timing of the move. The impact of the pandemic will linger on for another three years," Sarangam said.

IMAGE: As per rough estimates, there are around 2,40,000 people living in slums in Naraina Vihar, Azadpur, Vihar, Shakur Basti, Mayapuri, Sriniwaspuri, Anand Parbat and Okhla among others. Photograph: Atul Yadav/PTI Photo

In another slum along the railway tracks in Sriniwaspuri, Ramnadhar Mandal, 40, asks, Why do politicians ask for votes if they cannot rehabilitate us? Where do we go -- to the footpath?

Mandal, who hails from Bihar's Katihar district, has two baby girls who are learning to walk.

"Think of these children. We will have to spend nights in the open, in rains and winters, he said, clasping his hands together, as if making a request to the government.

Gunodhar Mandal, 60, who came to Delhi from West Bengal's Malda district 25 years ago is not very hopeful of a proper rehabilitation.

I am afraid we will be asked to leave the city and go back to the village. We have nothing left there, he said.

The matter has taken a political tone with the Aam Aadmi Party targeting the Bharatiya Janata Party for eviction notices being issued by the railways.

AAP spokesperson and MLA Raghav Chadha on Friday tore eviction notices sent to the residents and said no one could raze their shanties "till Kejriwal is alive".

The Delhi BJP has alleged that despite being in power for over five years, the AAP has done little to rehabilitate people living in slums in the city.

The Arvind Kejriwal government says the railways cannot demolish the slum clusters along the train tracks without providing alternative accommodation to its inhabitants in accordance with the provisions of Delhi Slum and JJ Rehabilitation and Relocation Policy, 2015.

IMAGE: A closed house near Lajpat Nagar Railway line. Photograph: Atul Yadav/PTI Photo

On its part, railways said it was working in line with the orders of the Supreme Court, but refused to elaborate further on the issue.

In a letter to the railways on Thursday, the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board, headed by chief minister Kejriwal, said that according to the 2015 policy, the rehabilitation work has to be undertaken by the agency which owns the encroached land.

However, the DUSIB also said it can undertake rehabilitation work but the railways will have to pay for the cost of land and construction as well as relocation charges ranging from Rs 7.55 lakh to Rs 11.30 lakh per flat.

The agency also provided a list of over 29,000 completed housing units and another 16,600 under construction ones available with the Delhi government.

These houses were constructed in different parts of the city including Narela, Bawana, Baprola, Sultanpuri and other places under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission between 2007 and 2019.

The DUSIB has said the 29,257 completed flats will be ready to move in by March-April 2021, while the under construction 16600 flats at Tikri and Pooth Khurd will be ready by December 2021.
A property consisting of five sites with full planning permission, together with a three bedroom house, located at the Silken Vale in Maynooth, will be sold by public auction later this month.

Coonan Property is the selling agent for this very unique property which will be offered for sale by public auction on on September 30 at 3pm in the Glenroyal Hotel, Maynooth.

The holding consists of an attractive three-bedroom semi-detached bungalow (279 Old Greenfield) on 0.74 acres with FPP for five houses under planning reference 19/1155 from Kildare County Council. The planning provides for four four-bedroom semi-detached houses with access onto Silken Vale, plus one two-bedroom detached bungalow with access onto Old Greenfield.

According to the selling agent, this is a superb infill development opportunity close to Maynooth University, the train station and main street. The site provides for further potential development due to the existence of the dwelling house, which also contains an attractive one-bedroom bed sit.

Maynooth has a full range of amenities including national and secondary schools, Maynooth University and a full range of shopping amenities such as Manor Mills Shopping Centre on Main Street. The town itself has easy access from the M4 and is just 20 minutes drive to the M50 and 30 minute drive to Dublin airport. It has a regular commuter rail service to Dublin city and there are further plans to bring a Dart service to Maynooth. It is adjacent to the nearby Intel plant in Leixlip and is very accessible to a range of employment areas such as Dublin and Naas

Viewing of the property is by prior appointment at any reasonable hour. Maxwell Mooney & Co Solicitor, Maynooth, is handling the sale.

For more information, contact Philip Byrne of Coonans on philipb@coonan.com or 01 6286128. Price on application to the selling agent.
G eoffrey Cox has dealt a blow to Boris Johnson's Brexit plans by declaring he will vote against a controversial new bill if ministers use it to override the Withdrawal Agreement.

MPs will begin to debate the UK Internal Market Bill on Monday with a Tory rebellion against it gaining momentum.

Former Attorney General Mr Cox has said it would be unconscionable for the UK to tear up an international agreement it had said, following on from comments by Justice Secretary Robert Buckland that he would resign if the rule of law was broken in a way he he finds "unacceptable".

Mr Cox said there is no doubt the unpalatable implications of the Withdrawal Agreement were known when the Prime Minister signed it, a time when he was the chief law officer.

The Brexiteer warned he would not back the UK Internal Market Bill unless ministers dispel the impression they plan to permanently and unilaterally rewrite an international agreement.

The QC, who was attorney general during the unlawful suspension of Parliament, said tariffs and customs procedures on certain goods entering Northern Ireland from Britain were part of the deal.

There can be no doubt that these were the known, unpalatable but inescapable, implications of the agreement, he wrote in The Times.

He said if the powers in the Bill were used to nullify those perfectly plain and foreseeable consequences then it would amount to the unilateral abrogation of the treaty obligations signed in October.

It is unconscionable that this country, justly famous for its regard for the rule of law around the world, should act in such a way, he said.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland has said he would resign if rule of law broken in a way he finds 'unacceptable' / PA

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland had earlier said the controversial powers amounted to a break the glass in emergency provision if we need it and said he did not believe they would be used.

He said, during questioning on The Andrew Marr Show, that he would resign if I see the rule of law being broken in a way I find unacceptable, and insisted ministers were committed to getting a trade deal with the EU.

But the chances of the desired free trade deal being struck were hanging in the balance, with Downing Streets chief negotiator Lord Frost heading to Brussels for informal talks this week.

Mr Johnson warned that Brussels could carve up our country  without his new Bill, as he stepped up his rhetoric as senior Tories prepared to rebel against the legislation.

Outrage at the Bill has come from across the political spectrum, including from Conservative former prime ministers Theresa May, Sir John Major and Lord Howard.

Sir Bob Neil will table an amendment to the legislation / PA Archive/PA Images

Sir John and fellow former PM Tony Blair united to urge MPs to reject the shaming legislation, saying it imperils the Irish peace process, trade negotiations and the UKs integrity.

It raises questions that go far beyond the impact on Ireland, the peace process and negotiations for a trade deal  crucial though they are. It questions the very integrity of our nation, they wrote in the Sunday Times.

Despite Mr Johnsons attempts to drum up support, Tory rebels suggested their numbers were growing and opinions were only hardened by Mr Johnsons increased rhetoric.

The Prime Minister, with a large Commons majority, should win an expected vote of the Bills principles during the second reading of the Bill on Monday.

But a rebellion could come later with Commons justice committee chairman Sir Bob Neills amendment, which he said would impose a parliamentary lock on any changes to the Withdrawal Agreement.

Labour minister Rachel Reeves said the party would need to look at the detail of Sir Bobs amendment and said Labour MPs will table amendments of their own.

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She told the Marr show that Labour will vote against the Governments Bill if it still contains clauses overriding the Withdrawal Agreement.
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Sun and clouds mixed. High around 25F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 13F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph.
3-kg bomb at Delhi flower market: Police yet to zero in on any suspect

Phase 4 stations to accept 'One Nation One Card': Delhi Metro Chief

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Sep 13: The automatic fare collection system in the upcoming Phase-IV lines of the Delhi Metro will be fully compliant with the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC), and commuters will also be able to use a mobile phone to enter or exit a station on its corridors, DMRC chief Mangu Singh has said.

Asserting that Delhi Metro is a "modern metro system" comparable to the best in the world, he also said that these two facilities might be rolled out at the Airport Express Line by the end of this year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March 2019 had launched the indigenously-developed NCMC to enable people to pay multiple kinds of transport charges, including for metro and bus services across the country, through a common card.

Dubbed as ''One Nation One Card'', the inter-operable transport card would allow the holders to also pay their toll taxes, parking charges, retail shopping and even withdraw money.

Singh said the facility to use mobile phones to enter or exit automatic fare collection (AFC) gates, are available in major modern systems in various countries, including in the Seoul Metro.

Ensure coronavirus patients not denied beds, get prompt treatment: Health ministry to pvt hospitals

"We are working to continuously improve our system, with better technological and other interventions, to improve our rolling stocks and energy efficiency. In Ph-IV, our AFC system will fully accept the national common mobility cards, which can be used in any cities," he told PTI.

"Also, a mobile phone will effectively work as smart card, and riders will be able to use to enter or exit the AFC gates, in Ph-IV lines," Singh said.

The managing director of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, however, underlined that e-payment system and technology are fast-evolving and by the time the Ph-IV work is complete, new technologies may emerge.

"But, we have been working on it for quite some time, and the facilities of NCMC and entry and exit using mobile phones might be available by the end of this year on the Airport Express Line," he added.

Currently, riders on the Airport Express Line can also enter or exit AFC gates using a QR code on mobile phone that has to be collected from a metro counter, but the future plan is to have a system whereby commuters can generate their own QR codes on phones and enter through AFC gates using that facility, the top official said.

The DMRC chief said, these two facilities will be first available on the brand new lines to be built under Ph-IV, and hopefully by the time the construction is over, the corridors to be built under this phase as extensions of existing lines, would "also be upgraded" for compliance.

Asked if old smart cards will work in Ph-IV lines, he said, "Yes."

The Union Cabinet, in a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, in March last year had approved three out of the six corridors of the Delhi Metro's proposed phase IV.

Under approved segment of Phase-IV, 61.679-km of new metro lines shall be constructed across three different corridors comprising 45 metro stations. These new sections shall provide interconnectivity among the already operational lines of the Delhi Metro.

According to the government, the Mukundpur-Maujpur, R K Ashram-Janakpuri West and Aerocity-Tughlakabad corridors were approved by the Cabinet.

The other three proposed corridors of Phase-IV which have not yet been approved by the Union Cabinet are Rithala-Bawana-Narela, Inderlok-Indraprastha and Lajpat Nagar-Saket G Block.

After a long wait, work had begun on the construction of Delhi Metro's Phase-IV project with a groundbreaking ceremony held at Haider Badli Mor here on December 30 last year.

And, with that piling work had begun for construction of 10 stations of 28.92-km Janakpuri West-R K Ashram Marg corridor, which is an extension of the Magenta Line and will have a total of 22 stations.

Asked about the status of construction of stations under Ph-IV, Singh said, tenders have been floated and finalised for all the major elevated sections.

The DMRC chief said Ph-IV work has been affected by the COVID-19 situation but the ongoing project will get delayed only by a couple of months and the therefore "won't entail much cost escalation".

"Individual projects have longer timelines, so impact wouldn't be much. And, construction work has not been affected really as funding for such projects comes from JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) loans. Also, 80-90 labourers are back after they had moved back to their native places due to the pandemic," he said.

"So, work is going on in full swing now," Singh asserted.

On the status of three remaining corridors of Ph-IV, he said, "currently there is a setback to all new projects, as far as central government is concerned, so we expect some delay in getting the sanctions".

"If sanction happens in a year's time say, but we are keeping ourselves ready by then with the design and detailing. Also, from time of approval, work will begin in one-and-a-half year time, and completion time likely to be two-and-a-half years from then," he said.

The Ph-4 project will see many highs and several firsts for the DMRC, including the first-ever metro bridge over Yamuna to be built using the cantilever construction technique, and the highest point in the DMRC system, at Haiderpur Badli Mor, where the viaduct level is going to be at 28 m.
The US has signed a framework for defence cooperation with the Maldives to deepen engagement in support of maintaining peace and security in the strategic Indian Ocean, the Pentagon has announced, as the Trump administration looks for strengthening alliances in the Indo-Pacific to counter Chinas growing presence in the region.

The framework for defence and security relationship was signed in Philadelphia on September 10 between Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia Reed Werner and Maldivian Minister of Defence Mariya Didi. .

The framework sets forth both countries intent to deepen engagement and cooperation in support of maintaining peace and security in the Indian Ocean, and marks an important step forward in the defence partnership, the Pentagon said.

The Indo-Pacific is a biogeographic region of Earths seas, comprising the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean.

During discussions after signing the agreement, Mariya said the framework will strengthen defence and security cooperation between the two countries, Maldivian portal Sun Online reported.

Mariya said that peace and security in the Indo-Pacific and Indian Ocean region is tied to the best interests of both countries.

She stressed the importance of bilateral dialogue and engagement, against a backdrop of growing transnational threats such as piracy, violent extremism, terrorism, and illicit trade, which she said remained relevant, even amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

According to a statement released by the Defence Ministry, the framework outlines a number of bilateral activities, including senior-level dialogues, discussions, engagements, and opportunities in areas such as maritime domain awareness, natural disasters, and humanitarian relief operations, the report said.

Mariya said that the Maldivian government sees the framework as an important milestone in defence and security cooperation between the Maldives and the US.

Werner and Didi also discussed US support for the island nation in its response to COVID-19 and areas for future cooperation, and agreed to work toward scheduling the first Defense and Security Dialogue, the Pentagon said.

Both sides reiterated their commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific that promotes the security and prosperity of all nations in the region, the Pentagon said. The Central Indo-Pacific includes the numerous seas and straits connecting the Indian and Pacific oceans. The resource-rich Indo-Pacific region is where China has been trying to spread its influence. The US has also been pushing for a broader role by India in the strategically important region. China is eyeing to expand its influence in the Indian Ocean region. China has already taken control of Pakistans strategic Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea.

China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and with Japan in the East China Sea. Both the areas are said to be rich in minerals, oil and other natural resources. Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have overlapping claims in the waterway.
The head of Australia's largest life sciences investment firm has more than just the prospect of a coronavirus vaccine on his mind when considering opportunities in the biotech sector in a post-pandemic world.

Brandon Capital Partners' managing director, Dr Chris Nave oversees the $700 million Medical Research Commercialisation Fund, which has government and super fund backing and invests in companies that turn innovations from the lab into commercial opportunities.

Managing director of Brandon Capital Dr Chris Nave runs the Medical Research Commercialisation Fund. Credit:Chris Hopkins

Nave has been looking for local medical innovations long before anyone had ever heard of 'COVID-19'. For him, cutting-edge healthcare solutions will always be important for Australia.

"Biotech is recession-proof, and we absolutely have companies where COVID has created an opportunity," he says.
(Natural News) Federal officials are looking into whether a series of wildfires burning out west are at least partially the result of arson as more than a half-million people in Oregon alone were forced to flee their homes.

On the anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history, fire officials in Oregon were ordering people to evacuate the heavily-populated northwest portion of the state as fires burned out of control.

The Epoch Times reported:

People evacuated statewide because of fires had climbed to an estimated 500,000more than 10 percent of the 4.2 million people in the state, the Oregon Office of Emergency Management reported late Thursday.

One fire approached Molalla, triggering a mandatory evacuation order for the community of about 9,000 people located 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Portland. A police car rolled through the streets with a loudspeaker blaring evacuate now.

The evacuees included inmates housed at a womens prison located less than a mile from Interstate 5 in the suburbs of Portland, where Antifa and Black Lives Matter thugs have been purposely trying to burn down police, government, and federal buildings all summer long.

The womens prison was not yet being directly threatened by flames, however, but officials with the Oregon Department of Corrections said the inmates were evacuated out of an abundance of caution.

Two large fires were threatening to converge into one massive conflagration by Friday, officials said, nothing that firefighters in Clackamas County were ordered to temporarily disengage because of growing danger.

Meanwhile, officials attempted to calm nerves and reassure the public as well as residents who were ordered to leave their homes. Police said they would be beefing up patrols in the area to prevent looting  and with so much Antifa and BLM around, no doubt thats a necessary course of action to take.

Local fire officials said on Twitter: To be clear, your firefighters are still working hard on the wildfires in Clackamas County. They are taking a tactical pause to allow firefighters to reposition, get accountability & evaluate extreme fire conditions.

We havent abandoned you, the fire officials added.

As to the cause of at least some of the fires, federal law enforcement officials believe they are part of a coordinated and planned attack. We reported:

Many of these arson attacks are being strategically coordinated to destroy suburban areas in the Western United States. Law enforcement are putting everyone on high alert to help identify opportunists who seek to set communities ablaze. They have apprehended a number of arsonists and warn that there are still some on the run.

Specifically, law enforcement officials have arrested Christine Comello, 36, for allegedly starting several fires including one involving a pallet outside of a commercial business and another that was set to blow up an old oil drum.

Also, Elias Newton Pendergrass, 44, is suspected of igniting a fire that torched some 400 acres, which caused residents west of Eugene to bail out. As of this writing, he is still on the loose.

And Anita Esquivel, 37, is suspected of lighting fires along Highway 101 near Salinas, Ore.

We are reacting to a coordinated series of attempts to start fires anywhere and everywhere in Oregon. Public and Private lands, incorporated and unincorporated areas, federal officials said, adding that all indications are the fires are part of a larger coordinated effort to commit arson in regions of the state that are not very well protected.

In all, wildfires are burning in Oregon, California, and Washington state, according to Law Enforcement Today, which added in a Breaking News alert that federal officials warned there could be more attacks soon.

By all indications so far in the preliminary stages of these investigations there is a coordinated effort on the part of these individuals to start fires in areas that are the least protected and most vulnerable then slowing working their way into more populated areas and neighborhoods, officials said.

Sources include:

LawEnforcementToday.com

NaturalNews.com

TheEpochTimes.com
Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) National Council Vasile Dincu told a news conference on Sunday that the local elections on September 27 can be "a great electoral disaster."

"On September 27 we can have a big electoral disaster - Romania, not PSD - on September 27 we can have a very low turnout that is somewhere in the middle of the normal elections and then there will be many representatives of all parties with low legitimacy in the local administration; we could have hugely long queues, because if in a polling station in Bucharest, say, where 1,500 people normally vote, if voting took place according to all indications and all health safety rules are followe, then out of 1,500 only 500 could vote in the allotted time," said Dincu.He added that there will be people who will not be able to vote, even if the voting hours were extended, which proves that the government is not ready for the elections."So there could be hugely long queues, people who might not be able to vote even if we extend the voting time; so the elections might show us that we are not prepared, as a national administration, as a government, as a society, either for reopening the schools or for elections," said Dincu.
Jimmy and Tam have been the clear frontrunners on The Block up until this point, impressing all three judges and taking top spot in a series of room reveals.

However their winning streak came to an end on Sunday night's episode, scoring just 21-and-a-half points, the lowest for their master bedroom and walk-in robe.

Judge Shaynna Blaze did not hold back when critiquing their 'tiny' walk-in robe, branding it a 'disaster'.

'It's a disaster!' The Block's Jimmy and Tam lost their winning streak as the judges, including Shaynna Blaze (pictured), slammed their 'tiny walk-in robe' and issued the LOWEST score

Jimmy and Tam began on a high note, presenting a gorgeous 1950's master bedroom with pink and yellow tones.

Judge Neale Whitaker said the couple had 'not disappointed' or let him down yet, while fellow judge Darren Palmer said they 'have that special thing' about styling that you simply cannot teach.

However, the praise came crashing down, when all three judges walked through an empty space that was to be the ensuite, before getting to the walk-in robe.

Master bedroom: Jimmy and Tam began on a high note, presenting a gorgeous 1950's master bedroom (pictured) with pink and yellow tones

Criticism: However, the praise came crashing down, when all three judges walked through an empty space that was to be the ensuite, before getting to the walk-in robe (pictured)

'I'd like to know why they made it so small, it's tiny,' Shaynna said of the walk-in robe. 'I'm sorry, this is a disaster!'

Darren added: 'I've got to say, honestly, that bedroom is one of the most impressive bedrooms that I think I've seen on The Block thus far, and this walk-in robe is one of the most disappointing.'

He also found it bizarre that the couple designed the space so that the ensuite leads onto the walk-in robe, and not the other way around.

Not impressed: 'I'd like to know why they made it so small, it's tiny,' Shaynna said of the walk-in robe. 'I'm sorry, this is a disaster!'

Not their usual best: Jimmy and Tam (pictured) had been on a winning streak on the show, up until that point

For Harry and Tash, Darren praised their 1920's master bedroom's vaulted ceilings that offered 'grandeur', while Shaynna said the room 'does everything the buyer would want'.

'They've got that nod to the period right in this room and I feel like the modern elements are not clashing,' Shaynna added.

All judges agreed their walk-in robe was glamorous, however they would have loved greater attention to detail with Shaynna unable to reach the wardrobe hangers.

Praise: For Harry and Tash, Darren praised their 1920's master bedroom's vaulted ceilings that offered 'grandeur', while Shaynna said the room (pictured) 'does everything the buyer would want'

Walk-in robe: All judges agreed their walk-in robe (pictured) was glamorous, however they would have loved greater attention to detail with Shaynna unable to reach the wardrobe hangers

Winners: Harry and Tash (pictured) won the room reveal for the week with 25-and-a-half points

Sarah and George's 1940's master bedroom started off on a positive note, with Shaynna describing their ceiling panel as 'divine' and a 'dream come true'.

However, Neale was particularly vocal about their dominant and overwhelming wall mural that he had 'seen many, many times before'.

All three judges said the walk-in robe offered functionality but lacked glamour.

Not a fan: Sarah and George's 1940's master bedroom (pictured) started off on a positive note, with Shaynna describing their ceiling panel as 'divine' and a 'dream come true'. However, judge Neale Whitaker (far right) was particularly vocal about their dominant wall mural

No flair: All three judges said the walk-in robe (pictured) offered functionality but lacked glamour

Not bad: Sarah and George (pictured) placed fourth on 23 points

'There's no romance here, there's no glamour. I find this really ugly,' Neale said.

Daniel and Jade's 1930's master bedroom was a favourite of the judges, with Shaynna loving the 'Hollywood' feel and Neale the 'contemporary colour palette'.

Darren was in awe of the finish on the doors in their walk-in robe, while Shaynna said she would have liked more hanging space.

In awe: Daniel and Jade's 1930's master bedroom (pictured) was a favourite of the judges, with Shaynna loving the 'Hollywood' feel and Neale the 'contemporary colour palette'

Detail: Fellow judge Darren Palmer was in awe of the finish on the doors in their walk-in robe (pictured), while Shaynna said she would have liked more hanging space

Impressive: Daniel and Jade (pictured) tied second on 25 points with Luke and Jasmin

Luke and Jasmin's 1910 master bedroom saw all three judges gasp when they entered the space.

Shaynna loved the 'stunning' bay window, wall panelling and white on white palette.

Neale added that they have 'found their style' - a beautiful mix of vintage and contemporary.

No faults here: Luke and Jasmin's 1910 master bedroom (pictured) saw all three judges gasp when they entered the space

Space issues: However, the lack of hanging space in their walk-in robe (pictured) was also mentioned by the judges

Second: Luke and Jasmin (pictured) tied second with Daniel and Jade on 25 points

'I feel like I've just landed at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore at the turn of the last century,' he quipped.

However, the lack of hanging space in their walk-in robe was also mentioned by the judges.

Harry and Tash won the room reveal for the week with 25-and-a-half points, followed by Daniel and Jade, and Luke and Jasmin on 25, Sarah and George on 23, and Jimmy and Tam on 21-and-a-half.

The Block continues Monday at 7.30pm on Channel Nine.
Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut, who is locked in a bitter battle with the ruling Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, met state governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari in Mumbai on Sunday to apprise him of the "injustice" done to her.

She said she explained to the governor her "point of view" and sought "justice".

The meeting took place days after the Sena-ruled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation demolished alleged illegal alterations at Kangana's bungalow at Pali Hill in suburban Bandra following a verbal spat between the ruling

party and her over her remarks on Mumbai and the city police.

Talking to reporters after the meeting at Raj Bhavan, the actor said, "I met the governor. He heard me as a daughter. I came to meet him as a citizen. I have nothing to do with politics."

"I told him about the injustice meted out to me and what happened was improper. It was indecent behaviour," she said.

Kangana was accompanied by her sister Rangoli Chandel.

Both of them removed their masks for clicking photos when they met the governor.

Kangana bowed to touch Koshyari's feet.

WATCH: Kangana apprise the governor of the "injustice" done to her



About the meeting, she later tweeted, "A short while ago, I met his Excellency the Governor of Maharashtra Shri Bhagat Singh Koshyari ji. I explained my point of view to him and also requested that justice be given to me. It will restore faith of common citizen and particularly daughters in the system."

The trouble between the Sena and Kangana started after the actor recently said she feared the Mumbai police more than the "movie mafia" and likened the Maharashtra capital to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Reacting to her statement, Sena leader Sanjay Raut had purportedly said, "We kindly request her not to come to Mumbai. This is nothing but an insult to Mumbai Police."

The 33-year-old actor, who returned to Mumbai on Wednesday from her home state Himachal Pradesh the same day her house was partially demolished by the civic body, had alleged that the Maharashtra government was targeting her because of her clash with the Sena.

She had also criticised Maharashtra chief minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, saying his "ego will be destroyed" the way her Bandra home was demolished.

On Friday, the "Queen" actor had urged Congresspresident Sonia Gandhi to intervene and stop the "harassment of women".

In a tweet, she had asked Gandhi if she was not anguished by the treatment given to her by the Maharashtra government, in which the Congress is also a part.
Greece announces major arms purchase as Turkey tension rises Greece has bought 18 French-made Rafale warplanes in what seems its biggest biggest military overhaul in nearly two decades

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Saturday announced a "robust" arms purchase programme and an overhaul of the country's military amid rising tension with Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean.

What appears to be Greece's most ambitious military overhaul in nearly two decades was unveiled as it is engaged in a growing stand-off with Turkey over hydrocarbon resources and naval influence in the waters off their coasts.

The bitter row between the NATO allies has roped in other European powers and even sparked fears of more severe conflict.

"The time has come to reinforce the armed forces... these initiatives constitute a robust programme that will become a national shield," Mitsotakis said in a keynote address in the northern city of Thessaloniki.

Mitsotakis said Greece would acquire 18 French-made Rafale warplanes, four multi-purpose frigates and four navy helicopters, while also recruiting 15,000 new troops and pouring resources into the national arms industry and cyber-attack defence.

New anti-tank weapons, navy torpedoes and airforce missiles will be secured, the PM said.

The initiative, which includes upgrades of another existing four frigates, is also designed to create thousands of jobs, he said.

More details on the cost of the programme and origin of the weapons purchases will be announced at a news conference Sunday, a government source told AFP.

- The French connection -

Mitsotakis is believed to have hammered out the programme announced on Saturday after talks with French President Emmanuel Macron during a southern European leaders summit in Corsica this week.

In contrast to other EU and NATO allies, France has strongly backed Greece in its burgeoning showdown with Turkey, as well as Cyprus.

French Defence Minister Florence Parly welcomed the arms deal, saying it was the first time a European country had bought the Rafale warplanes.

Dassault Aviation, which makes the planes, said it was "delighted" with the order.

Story continues

In a war of words that has become increasingly hostile, Macron has told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan not to cross "red lines" and has sent warships and fighter jets to the eastern Mediterranean.

On Saturday, Erdogan told Macron "not to mess" with Turkey.

The Turkish president also urged Greece to "stay away from wrong" actions backed by countries like France in the disputed waters.

The row escalated last month when Turkey sent an exploration ship and a small navy flotilla to conduct seismic research in waters which Greece considers its own under postwar treaties.

Greece responded by shadowing the Turkish flotilla with its own warships, and by staging naval exercises with several EU allies and the United Arab Emirates in its own show of force.

The dispute has put NATO -- among others -- in a difficult position, with Mitsotakis saying last month the alliance's "hands-off approach" in not taking sides was "profoundly unfair".

On Saturday, Mitsotakis said that Turkey "threatens" Europe's eastern border and "undermines" regional security.

In an article published in The Times, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Le Monde this week, Mitsotakis reiterated his desire for dialogue with Turkey, provided it stops acting "like a provocateur."

- No dialogue 'at gunpoint' -

"We do need dialogue, but not when held at gunpoint," Mitsotakis wrote.

"If we cannot agree then we must seek resolution at the (International Court of Justice at the) Hague," he said.

Last month, Greece ratified a maritime border pact with Egypt seen as a response to a 2019 Turkish-Libyan accord allowing Turkey access to areas in the eastern Mediterranean where large hydrocarbon deposits have been discovered.

Both Greece and Turkey have rejected each other's respective agreements as null and void.

EU diplomatic chief Josep Borrell has said that unless Turkey can be engaged in talks, the bloc could develop a list of sanctions at a European summit on September 24 and 25.

Greece's last equivalent purchase spree was in the early 2000s with deals brokered or explored for German tanks and submarines, American warplanes and Russian defensive missiles and hovercrafts.

But most of these plans were shelved owing to the cost of organising the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

Some of the agreements were dogged by corruption and bribery claims that were later investigated by parliament. Two former Greek defence ministers were subsequently jailed.

jph/dl/ach
Trainspotting, Oblivion, Star Trek Into Darkness.

Whatever your preferred genre, well help you find something to watch on TV today. Choose from sci-fi, drama, comedy or action as TopFilmTip brings you the best films on TV for Sunday, 13 September.

Some films may require a Sky subscription.

Contented man realises his life's a sham in Peter Weir's prophetic Philip K Dick-esque indictment of vicarious reality TV The Truman Show 12:40apm Sony Movies

Time traveling Oedipus woos mum, brutalises poop chomping bully, invents rock n roll and befriends suicidal Doc to hit 88mph Back to the Future 2:30pm Film 4

Ropey accents, gloriously OTT bad guys and wonderfully preposterous action sequences in top guilty pleasure Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves 3:05pm Channel 5

Workaholic dad rediscovers childhood adventure and zeal in Steven Spielbergs swashbuckling insult-battling pirate fighting fun Hook 4:00pm SyFy

LOS ANGELES - 1942: A movie still of Humphrey Bogart and Dooley Wilson on the set of the Warner Bros classic film 'Casablanca' in 1942 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

In the coolest night club in cinematic history a tough man must make a tough choice, hill-of-beans-not-amounting gem Casablanca 4:20pm BBC Two

Esoteric ocular-enlarging artist allows another ownership of her artistic endeavours causing corrosive creative crisis Big Eyes 4:45pm Film 4

In-laws offender steals mutagenic potion, is rescued by gingerbread-golem and supports his friend's interspecies dronky-love Shrek 2 5:00pm ITV2

Les Incompetent abandoned boy becomes self-sufficient learns empathy then sadistically burns/brakes/bludgeons burglars Home Alone 5:55pm E4

Affable preteen kids instigate onslaught of abrasive authors abominations in slappy-scheming, werewolf chewing fun Goosebumps 6:50pm SyFy

Teenage time traveller breaks history, visits hoverboarding future / idealised past and Trumpian dystopian present in flawless sequel Back to the Future Part II 6:50pm ITV2

Tortuga bros exuberantly battle ninja clan and mucousy Krang in truck-nun-chuk-ing fun Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows 6:50pm Film 4

A man battles the odds as he tries to heal the hatred between European settlers and Apache natives in true story Broken Arrow (1950) 7:05pm Sony Movies Action

Story continues

Rule breaking space scoundrels face punch-proof white supremacist and incur wrath of Robocop in sexy sci-fi Star Trek Into Darkness 8:00pm E4

One half of an effective team begins to question his world-view whilst patrolling post apocalyptic world: running, gunning sci-fi meme borrowing fun Oblivion 10:40pm ITV4

Trainspotting (Film4)

Toilet swimming addict braves soiled slingshots stories, hallucinatory babies in Danny Boyle's smack smothered Trainspotting 10:55pm Film 4

Liam Neeson pursues the man who wronged him meeting mirages, thieves and mystics in metaphysical, philosophical western Seraphim Falls 11:15pm Sony Movies

Jewish comedians explore how holocaust humour originated in the darkest of places to provide ultimate psychological revenge in taboo treading doc The Last Laugh 11:45pm Sky Arts

Sperm seeking/soaked thunderbuddies legally wrangle for Clubber Lang personhood in weed-fuelled, lawyer loving nerd-melee Ted 2 00:45am Film 4

Devastated by the death of his partner of 16 years, a gay academic prepares for suicide. Contemplative and moving drama A Single Man 1:30am Sony Movies

Everything new on streaming in September:

The films premiering on Sky Cinema and Now TV in September

The best new films coming to Disney+ in September

Everything coming to Netflix UK in September

Everything coming to Amazon Prime Video in September
It is basically over

6-12 months

In another year or years

It was never a real pandemic

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(Newser)  With meat packers facing high COVID-19 rates, where were the feds? Investigating, it seems. Now regulators have slapped fines on two meatpacking plants and triggered a fresh round of finger-pointing over worker safety amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Washington Post reports. Levied this week, fines against a JBS plant in Colorado and a Smithfield Foods plant in South Dakota total about $29,000a pittance, some say, for companies that rake in billions of dollars in revenue per year. "These tiny fines are nothing to [meat plant owners]," says Kim Cordova, president of the UFCW Local 7 for JBS workers. "They give an incentive to make these workers work faster and harder in the most unsafe working conditions imaginable."

story continues below

But JBS and Smithfield pushed back, saying they had to sort out worker safety on their own. "We took extraordinary measures ... to keep our employees as healthy and safe as possible," a Smithfield rep told CBS News. Now the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which calls its six-month probe "exhaustive," is telling both companies to increase social distancing or put up barriers between workers. But JBS and Smithfield have already opposed social-distancing measures and quarantines that kept workers at homeand increased the pressure on those who did show up, the AP reports. Meanwhile, the Food Environmental Reporting Network estimates that COVID-19 has infected at least 42,534 meatpacking workers and killed at least 203 across 494 plants. (By one estimate, some 56% of infected workers are Latino.)
Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to attend a video conference with European leaders on Monday, the second such meeting between Chinese and European leaders in two months.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Tuesday.

The active involvement of Chinese leaders in international cooperation indicates that China's pace in promoting international cooperation has not been hindered by US interruptions, which have become a big threat to internationalization and global stability.

During the Monday video conference, Xi will meet with President of the European Council Charles Michel, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss China-EU relations and issues of common interest, Zhang Ming, head of the Chinese Mission to the EU, told the media at a briefing on Friday.

This type of meeting is the first of its kind in history. We hope it will help increase political trust, enhance practical cooperation, send a positive signal that China and the EU are jointly upholding multilateralism and free trade and promoting economic recovery, Zhang said.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, which is still raging globally, communication between China and the EU has not ceased. Xi and Li, as well as other Chinese leaders have maintained close contact with their European counterparts through phone calls and correspondence, Zhang noted.

The summit via video link will send a clear signal of confidence on the negotiation of the China-Europe bilateral investment treaty (BIT), or in a broader context, that the two economies share a solid foundation for deepening cooperation in the post-virus era, observers said.

"The meeting is of great significance amid a Washington-led crackdown on Beijing and as the US presidential election draws near. It shows that both China and Europe are looking to be independent from US pressure, casting China-Europe relations from their own perspectives and based on their own tempo," Cui Hongjian, director of EU Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Both China and Europe will join hands to defend multilateralism, which could help clear away concerns surrounding the new cold war ideology and decoupling. A stable China-Europe relationship will also help the world economy to navigate the uncharted waters under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Cui.

Analysts predict that the video conference will pave the way for the EU Summit, in which Chinese leaders are expected to participate, and where some big deals between the two economies are expected to be signed.

This year marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of China-EU diplomatic ties and is described by many as a milestone year in China-EU relations.

Li Keqiang will attend the WEF Special Virtual Dialogue with Global Business Leaders on Tuesday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian announced Friday.

He will deliver an address and have discussions with the business leaders attending the meeting, Zhao said.

China's continuous and active efforts to promote international cooperation in the post-pandemic era are vital for the world economy to recover from the disaster while the US has kept moving against the tendency of internationalization by promoting protectionism and unilateralism instead, Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Prosperous exchanges between China and other countries indicate that China's pace in international cooperation has not been affected while the US is promoting unilateralism and protectionism, Li Haidong said.

Promising summit

The EU Summit was originally scheduled to for September in Leipzig, Germany, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

"Despite the absence of face-to-face meetings due to the pandemic, the video meeting is a way for both sides to keep communicating, reduce misunderstandings and cement political trust. It will create conditions for in-person meetings later," Cui noted.

The summit will deliver on several priorities, one of which is to facilitate the BIT and ensure that its negotiation should be completed by the end of 2020 - as previously planned by top officials, analysts said.

Talks on the deal were launched in 2013 and there have been more than 30 rounds of negotiations since then.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in early September that China-EU BIT negotiations have entered the final stage, and both sides need to ratchet up efforts and make "political decisions" where necessary to solve lingering problems as soon as possible and ensure its completion as scheduled.

"Both sides have reached consensus on the most technical issues. During the video conference, officials from both sides will address some persistent disagreements on such things as claimed subsidies to state-owned enterprises," Cui said.

Analysts noted that throughout the meeting, China and the EU bloc will vow to strengthen cooperation on trade and economic issues, in particular guaranteeing a stable supply chain and preventing industrial decoupling against the backdrop of rebooting the economy in the post-virus period.

"China and Europe could also expand cooperation in jointly building a green and digital economy, a direction which the EU bloc has been transiting to," Cui noted.

Cooperation sustains stability

It is important for China and Chinese companies to enhance cooperation with their foreign counterparts, which will benefit global development and help sustain international order under the interruption of the US, Li Haidong noted.

The US has become a big threat to global stability and security. It wants to isolate China from the world, but it will not succeed, Li said.

China, a country that has led the world in fighting against the novel coronavirus epidemic and resuming production, will not be affected by external interruptions but will only embrace the world more actively and openly in the post-pandemic era, Chinese analysts said.
All the diplomatic dialogue will mean nothing unless the Chinese military is ready to disengage on the ground

The next corps commanders meeting between Indian and China, which is expected later this week, is crucial as it will show whether the Peoples Liberation Army is ready to work on ground towards disengagement and de-escalation after the foreign ministers of the two countries agreed on a five-point agenda during their meeting last week in Moscow.

Sources said all the diplomatic dialogue will mean nothing unless the Chinese military is ready to disengage on the ground. India wants that the status quo ante of April 2020 should be restored, and the Chinese should withdraw their 50,000-odd troops which they have pushed near the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh.

The corps commanders may meet this week. The dates have not been confirmed yet, the sources said.

After drawing up the five-point understanding with all its diplomatic rhetoric, the ball is back in the military field. Wonder how the disengagement and proper distancing is possible without a common reference point or mutually known LAC alignment. India must insist on the delineation of the LAC, former Army Chief Gen. Ved Prakash Malik tweeted on Saturday. The Chinese use negotiations to gain time, strengthen positions on the ground and keep the adversary guessing about their real intentions. Troops need to remain fully alert, stand firm and not be lulled by diplomatic talks, he added.

This will be the sixth round of corps commanders talks between the two sides. A major general-level meeting was also held on August 8 at Daulat Beg Oldie to discuss disengagement at the strategic Depsang plains.

The last and fifth corps commanders meeting was held on August 2 at Moldo, where the Chinese had refused to go back from the Finger area in Pangong Tso. The Chinese side also did not meet its earlier commitment to disengage in other standoff points, including Gogra Post. There was a feeling that the Chinese side was using the corps commanders meeting to buy time to strengthen their positions in the transgression areas.

However, the situation changed after August 29-30 when India occupied some strategic peaks in the Chushul secto,r which overlook the Chinese garrison in Moldo. In the Finger area in Pangong Tso, Indian soldiers are now at several points which are higher than the Chinese positions on the ridgelines of Finger 4. The domination at key points by the Indian Army has put added pressure on the Chinese Army.
Ewan McGregor on "Good Morning America", February 5, 2020. (Paula Lobo/ABC via Getty Images)

Actor Ewan McGregor has revealed he now supports the Scottish independence campaign, after previously believing the country should remain a part of the United Kingdom.

Scotlands independence referendum in 2014 saw 55 percent of voters favour a no decision, but McGregor said things have changed since the 2016 Brexit referendum that saw the UK vote to leave the European Union.

Read more: Ewan McGregor says he moved from London to LA to avoid people asking for 'soulless' selfies

Talking from his California home on the Real Time with Bill Maher show, the Trainspotting star said: I was always for keeping the Union because I think it worked  but after the Brexit vote Ive changed my tune about it I think.

I think Scotland has been voting for a government that they havent been given for years. Were a very left voting country in Scotland and weve been under Conservative rule. I think probably enough is enough.

McGregor in Revenge of the Sith (Credit: Lucasfilm/Fox)

He added: We were shooting the follow up to Trainspotting on the night of the Brexit vote. They showed the people who voted to stay in Europe on a map in yellow and the people who voted to leave in blue. The map was split in half  Scotland was yellow and England was blue, apart from around London.

I just thought, thats it. I think were going in different directions, so I think its time. I just think probably its time.

Once Boris became prime minister, Scotland was like, Right, thats it, were f***ing out of here you know?

Read more: 'Star Wars': Ewan McGregor teases plot details of Obi-Wan Kenobi spin-off series

McGregor admitted he had been left totally confused about Scottish independence after the Brexit referendum in June 2016.

He told the Andrew Marr Show at the time: The truth is I didnt want Scotland to be independent in 2014. I didnt understand how it was going to work.

I was worried that Scotland would flounder if it was on its own and I believed in the union and I felt like we were stronger together. Then Brexits happened. Now Im totally confused.
SUDHIR SURYAWANSHI By

MUMBAI: When Aaditya Thackeray, the third scion of the Thackerays, entered politics and walked inside the Assembly as an MLA from Worli last year, many thought the Shiv Sena had transformed itself. The old style of threatening opponents and the Marathi Manoos exclusivist agenda appeared a thing of the past. But the recent incidents involving an assault on a retired naval officer and part-demolition of Kangana Ranauts office have belied those hopes. The Sena is back to its game, analysts say.

Sena strongman Bal Thackeray had built his political career and expanded his party on hate and bigotry. Thackeray first targeted south Indians with a slogan of Bajao pungi, Bhagavo lungi, then north Indians, Muslims, Dalits and others to consolidate his position among staunch Marathi and Hindu voters in Mumbai and elsewhere in Maharashtra. Vaibhav Purandare, the author of Bal Thackeray and the rise of Shiv Sena, says Shiv Sena remains stuck in its old mirror image at a time when an emerging Maharashtra gives precedence to jobs, health and environment. The basic idea behind bringing in Aaditya and sewing up an alliance with secular parties was to project an appearance of reinvention.

Bal Thackeray was a charismatic leader who would get away with his controversial statements. But the current leadership is neither as much charismatic nor in the Opposition, says Purandare.

The Sena has to realize that it is the ruling party, and that it cannot create a law and order problem.

ALSO READ: Six Shiv Sena workers, who assaulted retired Navy officer for sharing Uddhav's cartoon, get bail

It is not always necessary to react to every statement and action directed against you. During Bal Thackerays time, Senas hooliganism was of a different kind the Sainiks would threaten the government or a local corporation on popular issues.

Shiv Senas image problem

The problem, he says, is that Shiv Sena is stuck with the image issue. If they stop reacting strongly, the people would say the party is losing its grip over Mumbai. And if they react strongly as they did in the Kangna Ranaut case, then they have to face public criticism. They have to carefully decide the way forward, Purandare pointed out.

Raju Parulekar, senior journalist and writer who has seen the rise and fall and rise of the Shiv Sena, says the current approach of the leadership will surely help the party to remain in the dominant position.

He says political party workers need catharsis. Sena workers achieve it by showing off power and doing something openly. Then, Senas cadre is different from the Congress and the NCPs. They need to be charged up. They have a history of bouncing back by their street smart politics, Parulekar said.

A former Shiv Sena minister who is a close aide of CM Uddhav Thackeray says the party never starts a showdown, but if some comes its way, then it doesnt spare.

Kangna Ranaut is a film actor. No sane person would tolerate her remarks against the Mumbai city and Maharashtra. She called Mumbai Pak occupied Kashmir (PoK), Pakistan, and even called the BMC workers as Baburs army. There is a limit. So we decided to give it back. Those who stay in glass houses should not throw stones at others, simple, he said.

Kangana part of BJPs design

Marathi writer and blogger Avinash Usha Vasant says the BJP wants to snatch Senas dominance over Mumbai and Bollywood by exploiting the Sushant Singh Rajput case. Kangana Ranaut is one of the persons who are a part of this design. Shiv Sena has the strongest union in Bollywood which can make or break any film. The BJP is trying to make inroads into the film world by targeting a few Bollywood

people, said Avinash.

But he says the demography of Mumbai is changing fast. Some decades back, Marathas accounted for nearly 60 per cent of voters. Today, that number is only 28 per cent. A cursory glance at the name plates of big housing societies can give us the real picture of Mumbai.So, Shiv Sena has to not only project itself in the reinvention mode, but it has to reinvent itself in reality and quickly before the peoples trust in it evaporates and the Congress and NCP pull the plug, Purandare said.

Next generation, same Sena!
The U.S. Department of Labor has fined two meatpacking companies, which are worth billion dollars each, with $15,615 and $13,494 after 10 of their workers passed away due to coronavirus earlier this year.

As stated by the Food & Environment Reporting Network, six workers of the JBS meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colo., and four laborers of Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls, S.D. died from coronavirus. Over 300 people of the Greeley plant and about 1,300 of the Sioux Falls location caught the virus.

JBS, the Brazilian-headquartered, the world's largest meatpacking company, was issued a $15,615-worth fine based on an inspection in Greeley on May 2020, while after the spring inspection, Smithfield was penalized $13,494, Ny Daily News reported.

Last year, the world's largest meatpacking company reported a $1.5 billion net income. The federal fine charged to the company is only comparable to about 0.001% of the reported income. On the other hand, Smithfield claimed a trifling $183.8 million net income last year. Their charge was equivalent to 0.007% of their reported 2019 income.

In a statement by union leader Kim Cordova, whose local stand for around 3,000 JBS plant workers, a $15,000 fine from Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was no big deal to a company like JBS, which earns more than a billion, adding that the penalty only provoked the company to carry on endangering its laborers. Cordova articulated several of the families of those who died from coronavirus were still battling to conquer the disastrous consequences from the negligence and inaction of JBS.

The Department of Labor stated that the fines issued on the companies were the maximum allowed by the law. It has been cited by the OSHA that both companies failed to safeguard their employees from coronavirus exposure and Smithfield has not done enough ahead of the company's first recognized coronavirus infections at the plant on March 23, like practicing social distancing among workers or providing face masks and physical barriers.

Read also: Fact Check: Did CDC Tell Parents to Prepare for Sleepovers at Schools Due to COVID-19?

According to Politico, the OSHA's guidance presents the steps each employer must take to protect their workers in this time of the pandemic, which has taken more than 191,000 American lives. Those include physical barriers, social distancing, face coverings, and face shield, together with communicated safety warnings in a language that could be understood by company workers.

In a news release, Sheila Stanley, OSHA Sioux Falls Area Director, articulated employers were required to quickly implement proper measures to protect their employees' health and safety, adding that employers must meet their responsibility and take necessary measures to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus at their workplaces.

In a statement by Keira Lombardo, executive vice president of corporate affairs and compliance of Smithfield, the company has taken extraordinary measures on their own initiative to protect their employees' health and safety in order for them to fulfill the company's obligation to the American people to sustain food supply, continuing that Smithfield has incurred additional Covid-19 related expenses amounting to $350 million during that second quarter alone. And added that OSHA used what Smithfield has done as an April 26 guidance model.

Both JBS and Smithfield found fault with the fines and stated they plan to oppose them.



Related article: Coronavirus Manmade? Chinese Virologist Plans to Release Evidence to Prove Claim

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 13)  San Miguel Corporation (SMC) president and chief operating officer Ramon S. Ang, through the RSA foundation, has committed to build a hospital that specializes in infectious disease research.

The SMC said over the weekend that the state-of-the-art hospital will be built on a three to five-hectare property in the southern part of Luzon to help "future-proof society post-pandemic" and provide care for ambulatory patients.

This pandemic has been an eye-opener for all of us. Our health care system needs to be strengthened. For this reason, we want to help build up our countrys capability to handle future pandemics and other health crises, Ang said in a statement.

We envision this hospital to be resilient and adaptable," he added. "It will operate efficiently, improve health services, and make health care more accessible and affordable to a greater number of Filipinos."

The hospital will also contain a research facility that will provide support for government on public health concerns, specifically, infectious diseases.

Over the last six months, SMC, under Ang, emerged as a leading private sector partner in COVID-19 response.

The SMC allotted 500 million out of its over 13 billion COVID-19 response package to donate medical-grade personal protective gear and medical equipment to government and public and private hospitals.

Its donations of RT-PCR testing machines, fully automated RNA extraction machines, and PCR test kits alone, have also raised the countrys total testing capacity by 15,000 tests per day.
The National Hurricane Center says Sally has rapidly strengthened to a hurricane, sustaining top winds of around 85 mph.

Storm-weary Gulf Coast residents rushed to finish last-minute preparations Monday as Hurricane Sally chugged slowly through warm Gulf waters. Forecasters said the biggest threat is flooding, with as much as two feet of rain falling in some areas.

"The bottom line continues to be that Sally is expected to be a dangerous slow-moving hurricane near the coast of southeastern Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama during the next 2-3 days," the National Hurricane Center said early Monday.

Sally is perhaps the least welcome guest among lots of company: For only the second time in recorded history, meteorologist Philip Klotzbach said, there are five tropical cyclones churning in the Atlantic basin: Paulette, Rene, Teddy and now Vicky also are spinning over ocean waters.

Jeremy Burke was lifting things off the floor in case of flooding in his Bay Books bookstore in the Old Town neighborhood of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, a popular weekend getaway from New Orleans, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) to the west. The streets outside were emptying fast.

"It's turning into a ghost town," he said. "Everybody's biggest fear is the storm surge, and the worst possible scenario being that it just stalls out. That would be a dicey situation for everybody."

The National Hurricane Center said it was too early to tell exactly where Sally would come ashore, because it's still not known when it would make a turn to the north.

At 10 a.m. local time, it was about 135 miles (220 kilometers) east-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. A hurricane-hunter aircraft crew said it was strengthening rapidly, to top winds of 85 mph (140 kmh). It was moving slowly, at just 6 mph (9 kph).

Sally is expected to reach shore by early Tuesday, bringing dangerous weather conditions, including risk of flooding, to a region stretching from the western Florida Panhandle to southeast Louisiana.

"That system is forecast to bring not only damaging winds but a dangerous storm surge," said Daniel Brown of the Hurricane Center. "Because it's slowing down, it could produce a tremendous amount of rainfall over the coming days."

Sally could produce rain totals up to 24 inches (61 centimeters) by the middle of the week, forecasters said.

People in New Orleans were watching the storm's track intently. A more easterly landfall would likely bring the heavier rains and damaging winds onto the Mississippi coast, or east of that. Already outer bands from the storm were hitting the Florida Panhandle.

A more westerly track would pose another test for the low-lying city, where heavy rains have to be pumped out through a century-old drainage system. Officials with the Sewerage and Water Board said Sunday that all of the pumps were in operation ahead of the storm, but the aging system is susceptible to breakdowns.

The Hurricane Center warned of an "extremely dangerous and life-threatening storm surge" for areas outside the levee protection system that protects the greater New Orleans area stretching from Port Fourchon, Louisiana, to the Alabama/Florida border.

"I know for a lot of people this storm seemed to come out of nowhere," said Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards Sunday. "We need everybody to pay attention to this storm. Let's take this one seriously."

It was just a little over two weeks ago when the opposite end of the state was bracing for Hurricane Laura, which blew ashore on August 27 as a Category 4 hurricane in Cameron Parish, which borders Texas. That storm scoured the southwestern Louisiana coast, ripping off rooftops and leaving large parts of the city of Lake Charles uninhabitable. So far 32 people have died in Texas and Louisiana, the vast majority of them in Louisiana.

Mississippi officials warned Hurricane Sally was expected to coincide with high tide, leading to significant storm surge.

Pensacola, on Florida's Panhandle, was bracing for 10 to 15 inches (25 to 38 centimeters) of rain.

All northern Gulf Coast states are urging residents to prepare. A mandatory evacuation was already been issued in Grand Isle, Louisiana, ahead of Sally. On Saturday, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell issued a mandatory evacuation order for Orleans Parish residents living outside the parish's levee protection system.

Hurricane Paulette, meanwhile, was moving away from Bermuda. The entire island was inside its eye on Monday and many customers lost power, but Bermuda's buildings are built to withstand bigger hurricanes.

Once a tropical storm, Rene was forecast to become a remnant low Monday. Teddy became a tropical storm Monday morning, and was expected to become a hurricane later in the week, forecasters said. And Tropical Storm Vicky formed east of the Cape Verde islands.
The Ministry of Public Security has proposed charging former director of the Hanoi Center for Disease Control (CDC) Nguyen Nhat Cam and nine others for allegedly tripling the purchase price of the real-time PCR detection systems.

On September 12, the ministry announced the findings of an investigation into the price gouging on these systems at Hanoi CDC, Nhan Thanh Property Valuation and Auction JSC, Vietnam Trading and Material Science Company and other relevant entities, the local media reported.

Former director of the Hanoi Center for Disease Control (CDC) Nguyen Nhat Cam

The ministry also transferred all documents related to the case to the Supreme Peoples Procuracy. The ten suspects were accused of allegedly violating bidding regulations, leading to serious consequences.

Among these suspects, six are ex-officials of the Hanoi CDC, including Cam; Nguyen Vu Ha Thanh, former head of financial and accounting department; Le Xuan Tuan, an employee of the same department; Hoang Kim Thu, former chief accountant at Hanoi CDC; Nguyen Thi Kim Dung, former head of the administrative organization department; and Nguyen Ngoc Quynh, former head of the planning and operation department.

The remainder are Dao The Vinh, director of Vietnam Trading and Material Science Company; Nguyen Tran Duy, general director of Nhan Thanh Property Valuation and Auction JSC; Nguyen Ngoc Nhat, an employee of Vitech Development Company; and Nguyen Thanh Tuyen, an employee of Phuong Dong Medical Equipment Company.

The results of the Ministry of Public Securitys investigation showed that early this year, the Hanoi CDC bought some real-time PCR detection systems, which were imported into Vietnam at a price of more than VND2 billion, but the Hanoi CDC reported a cost of some VND7 billion.

The suspects were found to cause losses of more than VND5.4 billion for the State. However, they have all returned the embezzled funds.

SGT
Weeks ahead of Bihar Assembly election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday (September 13) dedicated to the nation three projects related to the petroleum sector in Bihar. The prime minister dedicated the three projects through video conferencing.

The projects include the Durgapur-Banka section of the Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur pipeline project and two LPG bottling plants. The prime minister said that the package which was approved by his government for Bihar included 10 big projects related to petroleum and gas and the Centre was committed to spend Rs 21,000 crore on these projects. PM Modi added that seven out of 10 projects have been completed.

"In the last 15 years, Bihar has shown that development happens with the right government, decisions, & policies, and also reaches everyone. We are working for the growth of all sectors in Bihar," said PM Modi.

Live TV

The prime minister lauded Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and said that he "played a big role for a new India and a new Bihar". "Bihar was behind in terms of development for many years -- politics, cash crunch were some of the reasons," PM Modi said.

"There was a time when road connectivity, internet connectivity were not discussed. Being landlocked state, Bihar faced many challenges... Nitish Kumar has played a big role in our aim towards a New India, New Bihar," he added.

It is to be noted that CM Nitish Kumar is the face of BJP-led NDA coalition government in Bihar.

The 193-km long Durgapur-Banka pipeline section, built by state-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC), is a part of the Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur Pipeline Augmentation Project, for which the foundation stone was laid by the Prime Minister on February 17, 2019. Durgapur-Banka section is the extension of the existing 679-km long Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur LPG pipeline to the new LPG bottling plant at Banka in Bihar.
Nick Printup, a Welland resident and media and communications honours student at Brock University, is the first Indigenous student to receive the Lou Cahill Scholarship.

Printup, who is of Onondaga and Algonquin descent, said, I have found my lived experience as a young Indigenous man to be valued in a colonial educational institution. I am able to directly share my culture, customs and lived experiences with my peers, which helps to educate them on Indigenous issues that they otherwise would not be privy to.

The scholarship is awarded annually to an upper-year major in business communication or media and communications. To qualify for the award, Printup had to demonstrate a commitment to academic excellence, community involvement, and participation in charitable activities.

He was awarded $1,250 and may have an opportunity to receive mentorship from public relations and communications professionals in Niagara.

The Lou Cahill Scholarship was established more than a decade ago to honour the work of Canadian public relations pioneer Lou Cahill, who died in 2008 at the age of 94, said Anita Wasiuta, board chair of the Communications + PR Foundation.

Lou continues to be an inspiration to public relations practitioners of all ages and he would have been thrilled to see the credentials of this years winner, Nicholas Printup, an accomplished student with much to offer the profession.

Printup is a member of the presidents advisory committee on human rights, equity and decolonization. Also, he serves on the sexual violence prevention and the decolonization subcommittees. In 2019, Printup was presnted with the Aboriginal Student Services Aboriginal Achievement Award.

Printup plans to pursue graduate studies in media production after completing his honours degree.
Mumbai, Sep 13 : Actor Amit Sadh in his latest social media post said that he hopes to learn from his mistakes and continue to inspire.

Amit shared a string of pictures from the web-show "Avrodh: The Siege Within".

Alongside the image, Amit wrote: "Sharing few still from #Avrodh! Thank you again for giving my characters and the stories I try to bring to you so much love and acceptance!! And also for calling me out, when I faulter and when I'm uninspiringng." He added: I hope I can learn from my mistakes and continue to inspire. I love this relationship and this means the world to me." The actor has started shooting for his upcoming digital project titled "Zidd", an action-packed series.
Photograph: Erin Edgerton/AP

Engineers in Charlottesville, Virginia worked to remove a 900lb Confederate statue on Saturday, a moment of symbolic reckoning in the university town that was rocked by a white supremacist march in August 2017.

Related: Black Virginia state senator charged with 'injury' to Confederate monument

The statue taken down was not that of Robert E Lee, which extremists said they were defending in clashes which led to the murder of a counter-protester. Instead, Charlottesville removed a bronze figure of a Confederate soldier, known as At Ready, that has stood for 111 years outside the Albemarle county courthouse.

Around 100 people cheered from behind barricades as bronze plaques were taken off the sides of the monument and a cannon was removed, the Washington Post reported. Police stood by.

This is a magnificent moment, community organizer Don Gathers, 61, told the Post. Much of the racial tension, strife and protest were seeing across the country emanates from right here in Charlottesville. But now were moving the needle in a positive way.

Donald Trump provoked outrage in 2017 when he said there were very fine people on both sides of clashes in which Heather Heyer, 32, was killed when an extremist drove his car into a crowd.

Statues to leaders and generals of the Confederacy, which fought and lost the American civil war in an attempt to maintain slavery, have returned to the news this year, amid nationwide protests over racism and police brutality stemming from the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis officers in May.

In Charlottesville, news reports said armed individuals and militia groups have made periodic patrols around Confederate monuments.

Albemarle is the first locality to use a process for removing statues that was approved by the states general assembly. But activists have said they are disappointed that At the Ready will be re-erected elsewhere.

We feel like its just basically toxic waste disposal in another community, Jalane Schmidt, an associate professor at the University of Virginia, told the Post.

Story continues

In Richmond, the state capital, protesters removed a statue of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy from 1861 until 1865. The Democratic mayor ordered another 11 memorials taken down.

Saturdays removal in Charlottesville came after county supervisors voted on the matter. Larger statues of Lee and Thomas J Stonewall Jackson, another Confederate general, remain in place.

Supporters who argue they are no more than memorials to war veterans have filed suit to save them. The city argues that the monuments, put up like many such statues decades after the civil war, were intended to, and did, send messages of intimidation, exclusion and hostility to African Americans.

The issue of whether the statues were part of a regime of city-sanctioned segregation is headed for state supreme court.
LONDON - Two former British prime ministers who played crucial roles in bringing peace to Northern Ireland joined forces Sunday to urge lawmakers to reject government plans to override the Brexit deal with the European Union, arguing that it imperils that peace and damages the U.K.s reputation.

In an article in The Sunday Times, John Major and Tony Blair slammed the current British government for shaming the country with legislation that, in places, goes against the very deal it signed to allow for the U.K.s smooth departure from the EU earlier this year.

Major, a Conservative prime minister from 1990 to 1997, and Blair, his Labour successor for a decade, said Prime Minister Boris Johnsons Internal Market Bill questions the very integrity of the U.K.

This governments action is shaming itself and embarrassing our nation, they said.

The planned legislation, which will be debated by British lawmakers this week, has led to a furious outcry within the EU as it would diminish the blocs previously agreed oversight of trade between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland if a U.K.-EU trade agreement isnt secured.

The British government has admitted that the legislation would break international law, but argues that its an insurance policy for that potential no-deal scenario. Johnson has said the legislation is needed to end EU threats to impose a blockade in the Irish Sea that the prime minister asserted could carve up our country.

Britains Justice Secretary Robert Buckland told the BBC on Sunday that the legislation was a break the glass in emergency provision, if needed, and that he would resign if he believed the rule of law was broken in an unacceptable way.

I dont believe were going to get to that stage, he said.

EU leaders have furiously rejected Johnsons charge that the bloc is planning a major disruption to normal trade between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney told the BBC that the kind of inflammatory language coming from the British government was spin and not the truth.

Still, with the British government showing no sign of changing course, there are real concerns that the talks on a future trade deal between the U.K. and the EU could collapse within weeks. If that happens, tariffs and other impediments to trade will be imposed by both sides at the start of 2021.

The U.K. left the EU on Jan. 31, but it is in a transition period that effectively sees it benefit from the blocs tariff-free trade until the end of the year while a future relationship is negotiated. Even before the latest standoff, discussions between the EUs chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, and his U.K. counterpart, David Frost, had made very little progress.

One major element of the Brexit withdrawal agreement is the section related to ensuring an open border on the island of Ireland to protect the peace process in Northern Ireland.

The issue proved thorny during the more than two years of discussions it took to get a Brexit deal done, as the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland is the only land link between the U.K. and the EU.

The EU wanted assurances the border would not be used as a back route for unlicensed goods arriving in Ireland from the rest of the U.K.  England, Scotland and Wales. As a result, the two sides agreed there would be some kind of regulatory border between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland.

Major and Blair, who both vociferously opposed Brexit, said the planned legislation puts the 1998 Good Friday agreement that ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland at risk.

Th pair said the bill negates the predictability, political stability and legal clarity that are integral to the delicate balance between the north and south of Ireland that is at the core of the peace process.

Its unclear whether the planned legislation will get through the British Parliament, with a number of Johnsons fellow Conservatives uneasy at the prospect of the government breaching international law.

Tobias Ellwood is one lawmaker who has said he could not accept the legislation, arguing that the bill diminishes our role-model status as defender of global standards.

___

Follow APs full coverage of Brexit and British politics at https://www.apnews.com/Brexit
Express News Service By

NEW DELHI: Several prominent personalities, including IPS officers and police associations, condemned the shocking remarks made by former CBI Director Nageswara Rao on the death of social worker Swami Agnivesh.

The Indian Police Foundation (IPF), a multidisciplinary think-tank based in Delhi, said Rao desecrated the police uniform and embarrassed the government with his hate messages.

Even as Raos tweets came under heavy criticism, the retired IPS officer continued to defend his remarks on Saturday. The IPF said, Tweeting such hate messages by a retired officer posing as an IPS officer  he has desecrated the police uniform which he wore and embarrassed the government. He demoralises the entire police force in the country, especially the young officers.

On Friday night, just hours after Agniveshs death, Rao put out a tweet that the death of activist Swami Agnivesh as good riddance and claimed he did enormous damage to Hinduism. My grievance against Yamaraj is why did he wait this long, Rao further wrote.

ADG of Police in Chhatisgarh RK Vij criticised Raos tweet and said, Insult to human life. Sad. Another IPS officer Rakesh Balwal expressed shock over Raos tweet and wondered if Raos Twitter account had been hacked.

Balwal, posted with the National Investigation Agency in Jammu and Kashmir said, No sane person can ever celebrate death, even if its of his worst adversary.

Many called out Rao for spreading hate and for misrepresenting Hinduism. Activist Rahul Easwar tweeted, May Bhagwan Krishna save #Hindu & #Hindustan from #Hate Virus.Historian Irfan Habib said Rao is a disgrace and questioned what he would have done as a police officer.

Can imagine what all you must have done as a police officer? Abusing the dead may be Hindutva but is certainly not Hinduism. Better late than never. Get yourself treated, Habib said.

Congress national spokesperson Pawan Khera also disapproved of Raos tweet.
Have you ever seen the inside of a restaurant kitchen? If you have, you will know that it is nothing like the pretty space you see on food shows on TV where celebrity chefs demonstrate dishes.

A restaurant kitchen is usually a busy, bustling, not-very-pretty (okay, ugly) space where chefs jostle each other, a lot of shouting goes on and an air of chaos prevails.

They are not supposed to be like that, of course. The legendary French chef Auguste Escoffier, who designed the staffing for the modern restaurant kitchen, wanted it to be like a well-run military operation (the kitchen team is called brigade) with various army-style ranks for the various chefs. The top chef (the man who took final responsibility) would stand proudly at the pass, from where the dishes were collected by the waiters. The chef acted like the general in command. In a classic French kitchen, the top man is never addressed by name, he is just called Chef by everyone. (Would a lesser rank ever address a general by name?)

The best restaurant kitchens have more in common with factories or workshops than home kitchens

At expensive places in France, the ghost of Escoffier still stalks the stoves. But at most other restaurants, it is a chaotic free-for-all. And even the best restaurant kitchens have more in common with factories or workshops than home kitchens. This is why the few chefs who run happy relaxed kitchens (Daniel Humm at Eleven Madison Park in New York and Davies and Brook in London) encourage guests to eat a little snack in the kitchen halfway through the meal. (This has been copied by many inferior restaurants the world over.) At Mugaritz in Spain, Andoni Luis Aduriz shows guests the zen-like calm of his kitchen to indicate how different his style is.

New York-based French chef Daniel Boulud will enter the delivery space using separate kitchens

For the most part, however, kitchens have been the dirty little secret of the restaurant business. Restaurants want to restrict guests to the plusher dining room and not let them see the madness in the kitchen. (Sometimes there may be hygiene issues as well.) At Chinese restaurants in India where the chefs are not remotely Chinese, guests are actively discouraged from seeing the kitchen.

In the 1970s, as the microwave oven grew in popularity in America, many restaurants used their do-not-enter kitchens for skulduggery. Because nobody knew what was going on in the kitchens, restaurateurs could just buy microwavable packets of dishes from catering suppliers, and reheat them in the microwave when the order came in. Then they would serve them on fancy plates.

This practice continues all over the world. If you go to a moderately-priced restaurant in any tourist centre in Europe (Venice, for instance) and the menu is very large, get up and walk out. It is usually all frozen food that they will microwave for you.

At Mugaritz in Spain, Andoni Luis Aduriz shows guests the zen-like calm of his kitchen

But this year, as delivery has boomed, all the old rules have changed. The great growth area in the food business has been the cloud or ghost kitchen. This, as you probably know already, is a kitchen in an inexpensive area that is proud of functioning like a factory where different cuisines can be cooked in different sections. Most successful ghost kitchen operators in India like Karan Tanna or Cross Border Kitchens have several brands, all of which are cooked in the same kitchen by faceless chefs and cooks.

Over the last few months, I have tried the food from many ghost kitchens and it is usually of the same quality as all but the top restaurants. But because ghost kitchen operators do not incur restaurant-level expenses (low rent, no waiter salaries, no air conditioning, etc.) they can price their food at less than half of what restaurants charge. And most of them are better organised when it comes to delivery.

This is now a global trend and, in the US, large restaurant companies are opening their own ghost kitchens. For instance, The New York Times reports, SBE Collection, a major hotel and restaurant company now uses ghost kitchens to fulfill orders for its restaurant brands: Umami Burger, Sams Crispy Chicken and Krispy Rice. Customers dont necessarily know that the food does not come from the restaurants but from ghost kitchens.

French chef Auguste Escoffier designed the staffing for the modern restaurant kitchen

When Dani Garcia, the three Michelin-starred Spanish chef was in Delhi a few months ago for a pop-up, he told me that he had turned his back on Michelin-star food and closed his three-star restaurant. Garcia has now tied up with SBE to develop cheaper brands that can be run out of ghost kitchens. No restaurants will be opened.

Other chefs have had the same idea. Though Daniel Boulud has an empire of (relatively) high-end restaurants around the world, the New York-based French chef will also enter the delivery space using separate kitchens. Boulud has had to lay off many of his kitchen staff during the pandemic. He thinks the delivery kitchen will allow him to rehire many of his cooks.

In India too, the big boys are now getting into the delivery business. Lite Bite Foods (owner of Punjab Grill, Tres and other popular restaurants) has already opened one ghost kitchen and is in the process of opening three more.

Spanish chef Dani Garcia (right) tied up with SBE to develop brands that can be run out of ghost kitchens; (Left) His dish, crab salmorejo

All this is well and good but it is the next step that I am really intrigued by. Assume you run a mid-level restaurant. Assume now that you have to put Butter Chicken, Biryani etc. on the menu. What do you do? Do you hire a great Punjabi chef? A biryani guy? And another cook to make, say, your momos for you?

At the moment, restaurants are either hiring expensive specialist chefs or they are getting the guy who makes Chicken Manchurian to also make the biryani. That is why the food at many mid-level standalones in India is so bad.

But imagine if they could sign up with a ghost kitchen to have Butter Chicken, Biryani and Momos delivered to them every morning. The quality would probably be better and the ghost kitchen would offer competitive prices. The customer would never know that the food came from a ghost kitchen because he or she would not be allowed to see the restaurant kitchen.

Its the same principle as the mid-range restaurants in the West who buy their food from catering giants and then just microwave it before serving.

It is certain to happen here: not only are ghost kitchens the future, so are ghost chefs  and ghosted food!

The views expressed by the columnist are personal

From HT Brunch, September 13, 2020

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Home  Politics  Now onwards, seniority is the only basis for Nepali security personnel to work in UN missions

Kathmandu, September 13

Following Nepal Army and Armed Police Force, Nepal Police has also decided to adopt seniority as the only basis for a staffers selection to participate in a UN peacekeeping mission.

With this, no one can use money or their nexus with high-profile officials to get an opportunity to work in the missions that many personnel find lucrative.

Now, the selection procedure is expected to be more objective, well-managed, and transparent, Nepal Police spokesperson SSP Kuber Kadayat hopes.

Nepal Police UN Section chief SSP Birendra Basyal says the Ministry of Home Affairs recently approved UN Formed Police Unit Selection Criteria that proposes seniority as the sole basis. Now, any staffer can guess when s/he gets an opportunity to participate in the mission.

Whereas Armed Police Force was using seniority as the sole basis for the past few years, Nepal Army had also adopted the model last year.
NEW DELHI : Vodafone Idea Ltd, which is under scrutiny of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) over its RedX premium plan, last week submitted its responses to the regulator. In an interview, Trai chairman R.S. Sharma said the response is under investigation and the results will be out in a week. Sharma, 65, was given a rare two-year extension till 30 September. Sharma shared his views on higher tariffs, and the need to have more service providers in the 5G space. Edited excerpts:

View Full Image R. S. Sharma , Chairman ,The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)

What is the status of the probe into Vodafone Ideas RedX premium plan, which is allegedly in violation of Trai rules?

Trais investigation is not about gains and losses of a company. The probe is about certain principles, and we are asking certain specific questions on the plan. The response (from Vodafone Idea) has come recently. They challenged our decision (to withhold the plan from on-boarding new customers) at TDSAT (Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal), which directed us to investigate it. Vodafone Idea has submitted the answers to our questions. We are examining them, and within a week, we will come out with the final response.

Is Indias telecom sector heading towards a duopoly, considering Vodafone Idea and state-owned BSNLs position?

Its not a duopoly, it is actually a 3+1 marketthree players in the private sector and one (owned by the government). We have a very robust market. Let us also understand that in the entire world, stabilized markets have the 3+1 equation. So, it is not unusual for India. With regards to calling some operators weak and some strong, I dont agree with these definitions. I think everybody is doing their best to provide services, so I am not really worried on that front. As far as their economics are concerned, telecom services providers are free to increase tariffs, which have been under forbearance since last 16 years. We are not interfering in the tariff plans at all.

Telecom operators have spoken about raising tariffs in the next one year, first to 200 per user and eventually to 300. What is your view?

The prices are under forbearance, and it is not just today, it is from the day when one-minute calling cost was 16 and 80 paise. We are not even thinking of forgoing that forbearance policy. It is the business of telecom operators, and increasing prices will be their decision. We dont put any constraint on any particular plan of theirs, whether they want to increase or decrease it, they are free to do so.

Should we have more players offering 5G services?

Yes. I am not saying that the number of telecom service providers should increase, but I think the service provisioning on a paradigm will have to shift from the current scenario. Currently, telecom operators have the resources, infrastructure, network and spectrum, and they provide services till the last mile. This vertical integration has to break down and unbundle in the 5G scenario because you will not only have 1.2 billion customers, you will have billions of devices and varied applications, besides the users, connected. Therefore, I feel end-to-end service provisioning will probably not work out. There will be a number of service providers who will be joined together. Ultimately, we will see hierarchy (among those providing services)  some will provide bandwidth, some network and infrastructure and others will look at last-mile arrangements.

Existing operators have often highlighted that levies and taxes are too high, even unsustainable. What is your take?

I personally have no opinion. But we have already recommended the government to reduce some levies in telecom such as spectrum usage charges and licence fee. We have been advocating for reduction in levies at various points in time. The final decision to reduce the levies is with the department of telecom and the ministry of finance.

Do you have any unfinished agenda before completing your tenure?

Regulatory systems are not pre-emptive. So long as the market is functioning appropriately, there is really no need for a regulation. Regulations should be thought of as rules which should be imposed only when there is a need. First, we have always believed in light-touch regulation, so one cant say that there is an unfinished agenda. The second part, besides regulation, relates to three areas where Trai has direct responsibility. These areas are tariff, quality of service and interconnection.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 16:24:58|Editor: huaxia

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Kazakhstan's First President Nursultan Nazarbayev (2nd R) meets with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (2nd L) in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, on Sept. 12, 2020. (Xinhua)

NUR-SULTAN, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Kazakhstan's First President Nursultan Nazarbayev met with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi here on Saturday, with both sides reaffirming commitments to strengthening ties and deepening cooperation in the construction of the Belt and Road.

During the meeting, Wang conveyed a verbal message from Chinese President Xi Jinping to Nazarbayev.

Wang said that the achievements of China-Kazakhstan relations today are a result of endeavors and wisdom of Chinese leaders and President Nazarbayev. As the world is undergoing changes unseen in a century, the lasting and steady development of China-Kazakhstan ties with rich connotation are closely linked with the future of our two countries and two nations.

No matter how the international situation changes, China will always give priority to its relationship with Kazakhstan with regard to its neighbourhood diplomacy. China will not waver in its confidence and resolve to deepen cooperation and friendship with Kazakhstan, Wang said.

Wang recalled that when President Xi proposed the initiative of jointly building the Silk Road Economic Belt at the Nazarbayev University seven years ago, President Nazarbayev expressed his support at the scene.

China and Kazakhstan have taken the global lead on the joint construction of the Belt and Road. The two nations have aligned their development strategies, started production capacity cooperation, and launched a series of cooperative projects with strategic significance, which generates a guiding and demonstration effect for other countries, Wang said.

Wang noted that China and Kazakhstan are both committed to the great cause of realizing prosperity and national rejuvenation. To achieve the end, the two sides should deepen political mutual trust, follow the development path in line with their own situations, and support each other's stability and development.

Wang added that President Xi has set out the goal of fostering a dual-cycle development architecture with the domestic cycle as the mainstay and with domestic and international development reinforcing each other. The move will provide Kazakhstan with broader market and more opportunities.

China will continue to support Kazakhstan in it fight against COVID-19 and give priority to the needs of Kazakhstan and other neighbors after COVID-19 vaccines are successfully developed, said the state councilor.

Nazarbayev, for his part, thanked President Xi for his verbal message and asked Wang to convey his sincere greetings to the Chinese president.

Nazarbayev said that he cherishes the friendship with President Xi, adding that he was much touched when Xi awarded him the Friendship Medal during the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing last year.

Wang is the first foreign minister to pay a formal visit to Kazakhstan after the outbreak of COVID-19, which shows that China attaches great importance to its relations with Kazakhstan and the high level of political mutual trust between them, Nazarbayev said.

Kazakhstan speaks highly of the successful fight against COVID-19 by China, the only major country that has achieved positive economic growth, Nazarbayev said, adding that China's new dual-cycle development model will provide broad opportunities for bilateral cooperation.

Nazarbayev expressed the belief that under the leadership of President Xi, China will surely achieve its grand development goals. Kazakhstan firmly supports the domestic and foreign policies put forward by China and appreciates its endeavors in safeguarding multilateralism and preserving international fairness and justice, Nazarbayev said.

Kazakhstan will continue to support, as always, the joint construction of the Belt and Road, and push forward the development of the permanent comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries, he added. Enditem
New Delhi: The Delhi government has allowed gyms to resume operations from Monday (September 14, 2020), also yoga institutes has been permitted to reopened from Monday. While, the weekly markets have also been allowed to reopen till September 30.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led government issued a formal order on Sunday. Gyms and yoga institutes have been allowed to open with immediate effect, as per the official order.

As a rule, every gym and yoga institute will have to follow the standard operating procedures issued by the Central government.

Earlier, as part of the Unlock 4 which commenced on Tuesday, most of the states further eased the coronavirus-induced restrictions on the movement of people and functioning of commercial establishments like bars and hotels, while major temples like the Madurai Meenakshi and the Konark too reopened, with mandatory COVID-19 precautions.

Many states have come out with their set of rules related to relaxations permitted outside the containment zones, though they were, by and large, following the Centre's August 29 guidelines on prohibiting activities of schools, colleges, cinema halls, etc till September 30.

The Unlock process of the country had begun on June 1 with the graded reopening of commercial, social, religious, and other activities. Unlock 4 will come into effect from September 1 and will continue till September 30.

Meanwhile, India on Sunday reported more than 94,372 new cases in the last 24 hours taking the total to 47,54,357. The death toll surged to 78,586 with 1,114 fatalities in last 24 hours, stated the Ministry of Health data. The total cases include 9,73,175 active cases, 37,02,596 cured/discharged/migrated cases.
Thousands of Israelis marched towards Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus residence in Central Jerusalem asking him to step down from his position. Fresh protests broke out in the country capital and nearby areas over the weekend with people asking him to resign following corruption changes. In addition, the 70-year-old leader is also being targeted for mishandling the coronavirus pandemic.

Read: Head Of Bahrains Jewish Community On Israel Deal

Read: Iran Says Bahrain Now Partner To 'crimes' Of Israel After US-brokered Deal

The protests continue in Israel where some citizens are unhappy with the government's handling of #Covid_19, high unemployment rates, and allegations of corruption against the PM Benjamin Netanyahu.#COVID19 #Netanyahu pic.twitter.com/faUsqS0vox  Palestine Culture (@PalestineCultu1) September 8, 2020

Photographs and videos which surfaced on the internet show hoards of people gathering outside Netanyahus official residence with placards and posters. Many also chanted slogans asking him to resign.

  -      4  !

    # # pic.twitter.com/3O7mYaj4Jb  Or-ly Barlev ~ -  (@orlybarlev) September 12, 2020

September 5, 2020

Israelis clash with police during a protest march against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.#Israel pic.twitter.com/LQqsLNJavz  Laila Palestinian girl (@LailaPalestini1) September 7, 2020

'Mishandling' of the pandemic

Opposition against Netanyahu was rekindled by his poor handling of the coronavirus pandemic which has killed over 1,100 people in the Jewish nation. Although Netanyahu garnered plaudits for his measures in at the beginning of the pandemic, his policy to reopen the nation backfired. Following a major plunge in the economy, Netanyahu announced the resumption of business and public spots, however, it led to a resurgence of the infection.

Netanyahu has also attracted flak after corruption charges surrounded him. The Israeli Prime Minister was formally indicted on corruption charges on January 28. According to international media reports, Netanyahu has been charged for alleged bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three separate corruption cases. However, he has reportedly insisted that he is innocent and called the investigations an 'attempted coup' driven by the left and the media.

This comes as the US, Bahrain, and Israel issued a joint statement on September 11, announcing another historic breakthrough to further peace in the Middle East. Bahrain King and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed their deep appreciation to the US President for his dedication to the peace in the region. The parties will continue their efforts in this regard to achieve a just, comprehensive, and enduring resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to enable the Palestinian people to realize their full potential, the statement read.

(Image credits: orlybarlev/Twitter)

Read: Trump To Host Israel-UAE Deal Signing Ceremony; Netanyahu 'proud' To Attend Historic Event

Read: Benjamin Netanyahu Formally Indicted In 3 Corruption Cases In Court
Jeffrey Epstein (pictured in his mugshot in 2017) was secretly bankrolled by the father of his alleged madam and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, a new report claims

Jeffrey Epstein was secretly bankrolled by the father of his alleged madam and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, a new report claims.

The source of the pedophile's massive fortune - which was valued at roughly $636million after his jail cell suicide last fall - has long been shrouded in mystery.

For decades Epstein ran his own wealth management fund - but its assets have never been made public and it was known to have served just a handful of ultra-rich clients.

One year after his death, an insider has revealed that Epstein received a helping hand from disgraced British newspaper baron Robert Maxwell - his 'madam' Ghislaine's dad.

The anonymous insider told The Sun that famed modeling scout Jean-Luc Brunel, a longtime acquaintance of Epstein, exposed Robert Maxwell's ties to Epstein in a conversation with friends nearly 20 years ago.

Ghislaine and Robert Maxwell are pictured at the Cannes Film Festival in 1987. Robert Maxwell mysteriously died aged 68 in 1991 - before Ghislaine was publicly linked to Epstein

An insider said that modeling scout and Epstein acquaintance Jean-Luc Brunel (pictured) exposed Robert Maxwell's ties to Epstein in a conversation with friends nearly 20 years ago

US investigators investigating Epstein's alleged child sex trafficking ring - and the accomplices who helped facilitate it - have now reportedly secured sworn testimony about Robert Maxwell's involvement with the pedophile.

Robert Maxwell is known as one of Britain's most powerful media magnates and most notorious fraudsters.

He spent his business career investing in Israel's economy after losing most of his family during the Holocaust and moving to the UK to build a publishing empire.

He died aged 68 in suspicious circumstances after falling off his megayacht in 1991. After his death, he was revealed to have stolen 500million ($623 million) from employee pension funds.

Robert Maxwell is known as one of Britain's most powerful media magnates and most notorious fraudsters

A former close associate of Brunel - who is on the run after being accused of helping procure underage girls for Epstein - told The Sun that the Frenchman spoke to friends about Robert Maxwell back in 2002.

'Jean-Luc was telling them how Ghislaine's father Robert Maxwell was one of the reasons why Jeffrey Epstein had money,' the source said.

'He said Maxwell had been one of Epstein's early investment clients. I assumed that Maxwell had invested in Epstein, who then used that money to make his own.

'Jean-Luc also started talking about a book featuring Robert Maxwell and wanted to get hold of a copy straight away.'

Robert Maxwell's daughter Ghislaine moved to New York City soon after her dad's death and started dating Epstein.

How she met Epstein remains unknown, but The Sun's latest report suggests that they could have met through her father.

Ghislaine moved to New York City soon after her dad's death and started dating Epstein (pictured together in 2005). How she met Epstein remains unknown, but the Sun's latest report suggests that they could have met through her father

Ghislaine and Brunel (pictured in an undated photo) have both been accused of helping procure underage girls for Epstein's sex trafficking ring

Epstein began making a name for himself in finance after he joined Bear Stearns in 1976 and quickly rose through the ranks, jumping from junior assistant to partner in just a few years.

He went on to found his own wealth management firm with Victoria's Secret mogul Les Wexner as his largest client.

Dozens of women have accused Epstein of raping them at his many properties around the world.

Several alleged victims have described Ghislaine as Epstein's chief enabler, recruiting and grooming young girls for abuse.

Epstein, 66, was facing sex trafficking charges in Manhattan when he killed himself in August 2019 while awaiting trial.

Ghislaine, 58, went on the run after Epstein's suicide and was finally arrested at her compound in New Hampshire in July.

She is accused of enticing underage girls to travel for sex, actually having sex with them and Epstein and later lying about it under oath in depositions when she was being sued by Virginia Giuffre Roberts, one of Epstein's accusers who says she had sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17.

Maxwell pleaded not guilty to the charges against her and is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn until her trial.
Corporate card startup Brexs ads began blanketing billboards and bus stops across San Francisco not long after its founding more than three years ago in the city, broadcasting its presence from the rooftops to the local startups it hoped to attract as customers.

Despite its ubiquity, Brex is moving to become less physically centered in the Bay Area. Its the latest company to make changes forced by the coronavirus pandemic permanent by announcing to employees late last month the company will go remote first.

The biggest advantage of remote is being able to hire without geographical boundaries said Henrique Dubugras, co-founder and co-CEO of Brex. He said the company will continue to have offices in San Francisco, Salt Lake City, New York and Vancouver, British Columbia, but that employees no longer need to show up at a physical location to work, continuing the remote model the coronavirus pandemic has forced on many companies.

If you still prefer working from the office you still can go to the office, but if you dont youre not required to, Dubugras said. Allowing employees to live wherever they want and wherever they feel happier  for us it makes a lot of sense.

While the vast majority of company employees will be able to work remotely, facility managers and office administration and others will still need to be in the office.

The company is asking those who plan to move to stay in a time zone that is within four hours of Pacific Time. Employees will see their pay change if they move to another market, but current Brex employees who relocate before Sept. 1 of next year will not see their pay change until 2024.

Anyone hired after Sept. 1 will see their pay adjusted if they move.

Facebook has said it may cut pay for employees who choose to leave the Bay Area, and other companies including VMware and Twitter reportedly may as well. The same seems possible for some Brex employees who leave the area, although it is not clear by how much.

The company is the latest high-value startup to shift away from the office after Twitter and Square said this year they would let most employees work from home for good. Mountain Views Quora and San Franciscos Coinbase also count themselves among the growing list of remote-first companies.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

Giants such as Facebook and Salesforce have said they will allow employees to work from home until next year and in some cases beyond.

In a memo sent to employees, Brexs other co-founder and co-CEO, Pedro Franceschi, outlined plans to use the remote model to streamline work and decision-making while still cultivating relationships among co-workers.

The internet will profoundly shape our way of working, Franceschi wrote. But rather than looking at how we can replicate the office remotely, we need to look at how the internet can enable our work.

One way Franceschi and Dubugras hope to accomplish that is by relying more on written communication, something the company has been focusing on since early this year. The idea is to schedule meetings on Zoom only when an issue proves difficult to resolve.

That means fewer chances to connect and chat with co-workers. Dubugras said he hopes to tackle that problem by encouraging employees to intentionally spend more time connecting about things other than work.

Franceschi wrote that with almost half of the company working outside of its San Francisco headquarters before the pandemic, offices would probably not feel too different with a remote first model in place.

Dubugras admitted that even so, in-person connection cant be fully replaced with online interactions and he plans on having company gatherings every two months or so once the pandemic is over.

A mostly remote company also means employees spend more time at home and risk feeling isolated or overworked.

The founders said they want managers to step in to help employees handle their schedules not only to ensure productivity at work but to make sure people are exercising and spending enough time with family and friends.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Dubugras said he has been sharing some of his own thoughts and struggles with coworkers using a video blog and that he hopes employee resource groups will continue to help create a community feeling.

He said the company has been hiring after it announced it would lay off 62 employees in May, just over a week after announcing $150 million in new funding.

The reduction in force was one of the hardest things weve done at Brex, Dubrugas said, adding that most of the companys recent hiring has been focused on engineering and product design roles, and that with pared down office expenses he hopes the company can invest more in its people.

Some decisions are yet to be made, particularly around the companys nonoffice physical spaces.

Dubugras said no final decision has been made about what to do with the Brex-owned South Park Cafe in San Francisco. The restaurant closed for a time in March after a cafe employee tested positive for the coronavirus and has not returned to normal hours because of long-term uncertainty around the restaurant industry and how that intersects with the companys overall strategy.

Dubugras said no final decision has been made about the Oval Room either, a members-only lounge located above the restaurant where Brex cardholders can network.

With the myriad unknowns of long-term remote work, the company is leaving room for what it calls iteration, trying new things and keeping the ones that work.

We shouldnt forget that remote is still uncharted territory, Franceschi wrote in his message to employees. In order to make it great, well need to try out many different things, and even invent some of them ourselves.

Chase DiFeliciantonio is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: chase.difeliciantonio@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChaseDiFelice
My father began, Well, it was nice talking to you.

Wait! I said. You havent talked to me yet!

Well talk when we see each other, he said. We dont have to make the phone company rich. Hed gotten on the phone just to get me to hang up.

Then one day, I called when my mother was out. My father answered the phone, and he couldnt hand me over to my mother, so we started to talk. He told me hed been thinking about his grandfather, and I asked about him. He began telling me. I discovered that if I asked him about his past, he would stay on the phone.

The older he got  and he lived to be very old  the more eager my father was to talk about his past, especially his childhood in Warsaw, where he was born into a Hasidic family in 1908 and lived until he left for New York with his mother and sister when he was 12. His father died of tuberculosis when he was very young. He described the apartment he lived in, the neighborhood, his grandparents and his mothers many siblings, in such detail, I felt he was recreating the world of his childhood, and inviting me in. The stories he told became a world we inhabited together. He introduced me to the people he knew there, and to the child he was.

One of his stories involved his mothers sister, Eva, who left Warsaw when he was 5. He recalled a time when he climbed up on top of a free-standing wardrobe: I must have been 4 years old, he said. Eva was sitting there at the table and I wanted her to take note of this great thing Id done, climbing up on top of that wardrobe, so I made some noise and she looked up and saw me and started yelling, Get down from there! She made me cry. I had expected to be praised!

My father is 87 when hes telling me this story, but when he talks to me about his childhood, hes ageless. He becomes the little boy in his story, then laughs at the way the little boy saw the world  at the humor he now can see. As he laughs, he hunches his shoulders and crinkles his eyes in a disarming way. I see in that gesture the affection he feels for his child self, together with the indulgence of an adult who knows better.

After my mother died, when my father was 95, I visited him often in the assisted living apartment he moved to. We could talk all day, and often did, though sometimes hed fall asleep and sometimes wed sing instead. Though by then I knew the stories of his childhood, I often heard new details, or asked new questions, or reminded him of details hed forgotten.

One day, after one of our conversations, he said, Ill take some wonderful memories with me.

I said, Youll leave some here with me, too.
Rule of six also means she may have to choose who she spends the period with

ueen, Charles and senior Royals will be unlikely to walk to church in public

The traditional Royal Christmas faces being scrapped if the current Covid-19 regulations continue, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The Queen, Prince Charles and senior Royals will be unlikely to walk to church in public on Christmas Day, enjoy a family lunch at Sandringham or take part in the long-established Christmas Eve present opening and dinner.

The rule of six, which limits almost all indoor and outdoor gatherings to half a dozen from tomorrow, may mean the Queen, like everyone else, will have to choose who she spends the festive period with.

Festive tradition: The Queen in red for the Christmas Day service at Sandringham last year. The Monarch will be unlikely to walk to church in public on Christmas Day

When the crackdown was announced last week, Boris Johnson was unable to guarantee that the rules would be gone by Christmas.

Arrangements are further complicated by HMS Bubble, the name coined for protective measures thrown around the Queen and Prince Philip to protect them from the virus. It means members of their family cannot stay with them unless they first self-isolate.

Courtiers are understood to be reluctant to encourage crowds, where infections become more likely, so could torpedo plans for the traditional walk to St Mary Magdalene Church on the Sandringham estate. Last year, some 1,500 wellwishers flocked to see Prince George and Princess Charlotte attend their first public service and greet the crowds.

Any sort of church attendance on Christmas Day is highly unlikely under the current guidelines, a source said. There is no desire to create crowds and over the years, the Royals walk to church has become more and more popular. It is now something of an event, so this year will need to be looked at very carefully. Perhaps it could be ticketed, as the church does stand on private land, but there could be no interaction. The Royals do not want to encourage crowds.

The Queens custom of hosting about 30 of her closest family for lunch at the Norfolk estate before watching her speech to the nation is also under threat, as is the opening of presents together on Christmas Eve.

The Queen, 94, and Philip will this week leave Scotland to spend a few weeks at Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate. The Duke of Edinburgh will stay at his five-bedroom manor house while the Queen returns to Windsor Castle.

Prince Charles, Prince William, the Duchess of Cambridge, the Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry arrive to attend Christmas Day Church Service on the Sandringham Estate in 2018

Prince Edward, Sophie Countess of Wessex, James Viscount Severn and Lady Louise Windsor at the Christmas Day morning church service at St Mary Magdalene Church in 2019

She intends to commute to work at Buckingham Palace and undertake engagements including welcoming new ambassadors and meeting the Prime Minister and other officials.

Aides are working on creating bubbles at each of Sandringham, Windsor and Buckingham Palace. One said: Logistically it is quite challenging, but Her Majesty has made it clear she wants to return to work at Buckingham Palace as much as she can.

The Queen and Philip spent much of the lockdown period at Windsor before travelling to Balmoral in early August. Family members visited, but meetings were held outdoors during shoots and picnics.

Last night, Buckingham Palace said: The plans for Christmas have not been discussed, but any activities would take into account the relevant advice and guidance at the time.
The United States and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Saturday (local time) signed an Enhanced Consular Privileges and Immunities Agreement providing protection to Emirati and American consular staff serving their citizens in both countries.

According to an official statement issued by the US Department of State, this agreement will boost the ability of consular staff to protect the interests of citizens and advance national interests.

"The United States and the United Arab Emirates signed an Enhanced Consular Privileges and Immunities Agreement which will provide enhanced protections to Emirati and American consular staff serving their citizens in both countries. This agreement will strengthen the ability of consular staff to protect the interests of citizens and advance national interests, and is a testament to the value that the United States and the place on the safety and morale of their consular teams," read the statement.

It further said, "The continues to be an important strategic partner in maintaining stability in the Gulf, protecting American interests in the Middle East, and ensuring the free flow of commerce throughout the Gulf region."

"We are grateful for the strong bilateral partnership we continue to have with the and look forward to future initiatives," the State Department 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.)
Turkeys expansionism in the Eastern Mediterranean and the wider Middle East is coming to an end on all fronts. After a decade of interference in other countries and military operations in Syria, Iraq and Libya, a new regional balance is gradually taking shape, with Turkeys influence slowly but steadily receding. Turkeys maximalist aspirations have become empty rhetoric.

One of the reasons for this is Greek-Egyptian cooperation. Greece and Egypt have been working closely over recent years on all levels. In early August, the two countries signed a deal for the partial demarcation of their respective exclusive economic zones (EEZs) southeast of Crete and northeast of the Matrouh governorate in Egypt. The deal is a necessary first step that needs to be supplemented by a tripartite Greece-Egypt-Cyprus deal according to international law provisions, especially the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Turkish reactions to the Greek-Egyptian EEZ deal have been awkward and hostile in a sign of Turkeys increased anxiety over the realigning regional balance.

Both Egypt and Greece have witnessed considerable upgrades in their military capability. Egypt under the leadership of President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi has expanded its military and now ranks ninth on a global level. Greece is currently upgrading its military arsenal by spending some 10 billion Euros over the next few years, obtaining 18 4.5-generation Dassault Rafale jets and at least four frigates. Greece has also requested that it be included in the US F-35 fighter-jet programme from which Turkey has been expelled. These initiatives will offer Greece a considerable advantage over Turkey in air power in the Mediterranean by the end of the 2020s.

Meanwhile, Turkey has attempted to exert pressure on Greece on both the land and the sea. In March 2020, Turkey used migration as a weapon against Greek territorial sovereignty, but to no avail. Now Greece has deployed both military and police formations, and it is completing an extended fence on its land borders. The renewal of demographic pressure on Greece through strategically engineered migration remains an option for Turkey, but this failed in March and it will not succeed today, especially as the EU fully supports Greeces actions.

After its failure on land, Turkey has attempted to relocate the tension with Greece on the sea. But there it has met with a double failure, both diplomatic and military. On the diplomatic level, the Greek-Egyptian EEZ deal rendered the memorandum between the Al-Sarraj government in Libya and Turkey void. On the military level, the steady presence of the Greek naval fleet and air force has halted Turkish aggression.

Now the EU is considering implementing extended sanctions against Turkey at its upcoming Special European Council meeting to be held on 24-25 September dedicated solely to Turkish provocations in the Eastern Mediterranean. It is probable that Turkey will be subjected to a series of sanctions in the fields of shipping and energy. The EU sanctions will also not just target individuals, but will also be aimed at whole sectors of the Turkish economy. As its economy crumbles and the Turkish lira plunges, the EU sanctions could seriously undermine the ability of Ankara to maintain its presence in Libya and its attempts to impose its ideas in the wider region.

France has been preeminent among the EU states in halting Turkish aggression. French President Emmanuel Macron has declared that enforcing red lines is the only language Turkey understands, and the expansion of French-Greek military cooperation will be announced in September. France is thus acting as an external stabilising force, and its energetic diplomacy is not objected to by the US, which potentially views France as a counter-balance in the wider region. France has excellent relations with Egypt and Greece, and together these three countries could form an alternative defence structure that would complement or even replace NATO activities in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Finally, the US has lifted a 33-year embargo on the sale of non-lethal security equipment to Cyprus. The US is thus changing its stance in the Eastern Mediterranean, realising that Turkey has become an unstable actor and one prone to maximalist notions of regional hegemony that undermine both NATOs stability and regional peace.

Time is not on the side of Turkey either in the Mediterranean or in North Africa. In the Mediterranean, the decisive stance of Greece and Egypt has halted Turkish plans. In Libya, the advance of Government of National Accord (GNA) forces into the east of the country has been halted as a result of the stance taken by Egypt that has declared the Sirte-Jufra axis to be a red line that must not be crossed.

The military theatrics of the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seem by now to be both self-repeating and tiresome. Even its playing of the Islamist card with the conversion of the Hagia Sophia Church in Istanbul and other Christian monuments in Turkey into mosques has backfired. Turkey has lost virtually all its sympathisers in moderate Western circles, and its religious diplomacy seems patronising and arrogant to the Islamic community.

Despite the emerging balance, Turkey will likely continue to act provocatively against the interests of major Mediterranean actors, however. Only this time round it is not facing individual actors or war-torn states such as Iraq, Syria or Libya. Instead, Turkey is up against powerful states with considerable military power, such as Egypt and Greece, and it is also confronted by France, a European nuclear power that is determined to halt Turkeys neo-Ottoman dreams.

What this goes to show is that once again Turkey is on the wrong side of history.

The writer is a lecturer in geopolitics at the University of Athens in Greece.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 10 September, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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A ready-for-action Russian nuclear-powered missile that can fly around the Earth for years is among the threats the UK could face in the coming decades, the chief of defence intelligence has warned.

Lieutenant-General Jim Hockenhull says the West is having to keep pace with adversaries who do not play by the rules with nations such as Russia and China continually challenging the existing order without prompting direct conflict.

He said that conventional threats remain but hostile states are willing to take incredible risks.

Lt Gen Jim Hockenhull said Russia is pushing the boundaries of science and international treaties and a nuclear-powered missile could have a near-indefinite loiter time.

Lt Gen Hockenhull used the poisonings in Salisbury as an example of what states are willing to do / REUTERS

He told The Sunday Telegraph: Moscow is testing a subsonic nuclear-powered cruise missile system which has global reach and would allow attack from unexpected directions.

It is believed that Lt Gen Hockenhull was referring to the 9M730 Burevestnik missile, designated SSC-X-9 Skyfall by Nato, according to reports.

Britain has long accused Russian operatives of using the Novichok chemical weapon on former double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018.

Five people were exposed to Novichok in Salisbury / EPA

Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia were two of five people exposed to the substance, both spending weeks in hospital recovering.

Dawn Sturgess, 44, of Amesbury, Wiltshire, died in July that year after coming into contact with a perfume bottle thought to originally contain the poison, while her partner, Charlie Rowley, spent nearly three weeks in hospital.

Lt Gen Hockenhull said: Whilst conventional threats remain, we have seen our adversaries invest in artificial intelligence, machine learning and other ground-breaking technologies, whilst also supercharging more traditional techniques of influence and leverage.

As we have seen in Salisbury, hostile states are willing to take incredible risks.

We must make sure that we have both the intent and the capability to ensure that such wanton acts of irresponsibility will not go unpunished.
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Kim Kardashian debuted a brand-new line of her popular shapewear brand Skims on Saturday that's aimed at pregnant women.

But the new item sparked controversy on social media as some users criticized the message that pregnant women might need to slim down.

The 39-year-old Keeping Up With The Kardashians star shared the news on Instagram with an array of pregnant women in different styles and shades of her product.

Mixed reception: Kim Kardashian, 39, unveiled a new line of Skims maternity shapewear on Saturday, but some social media users were upset by the clothing

Coming soon: Kim noted the maternity line would be available on Wednesday, September 16, and would come in nine different colors; pictured in November 2019 in Santa Monica

'What youve been waiting for: @SKIMS Maternity is coming soon! Introducing Maternity Solutionwear that offers the best in comfort and support for your changing body during and after pregnancy,' Kim captioned the ad.

The reality star noted the maternity line would be available on the Wednesday, September 16, and would come in nine different colors.

Her Skims Instagram account also featured some closeups of the pregnancy clothing, with models caressing their baby bumps.

In addition to a one-piece set, the look also came with separate bras and full-length leggings or shorts.

Some of the clothing advertised was functional, including the Maternity Nursing Sculpting Bra with easy-to-open clasps to make it easier to nurse.

Crucially, all of the maternity bodysuits advertised 'non-compressive cores,' so as not to apply pressure on the stomach.

Closer look: Her Skims Instagram account also featured some closeups of the pregnancy clothing, with models caressing their baby bumps

Safety first: Crucially, all of the maternity bodysuits advertised 'non-compressive cores,' so as not to apply pressure on the stomach

In her Insta Stories, Kim showed off the new clothing and revealed that the new Skims still had 'butt-shaping' designs, but that a thinner fabric was used over the midriff 'so its not compressing on your stomach which is really important because you obviously dont want to do that.'

'But you want to shape everything else around it,' she said.

'If only there were cute bras like this that were holding you up and snatching you and making you feel better about yourself while you can breastfeed  that would have been everything to me,' Kim continued while perusing her items. 'I never wore a maternity bra because there was nothing out there, so this was really important to me.'

Despite those practicalities, many social media users questioned why pregnant women needed to be sculpting their physiques at all.

'.... shape wear for pregnant bodies... what the f*** is this???' wrote one outraged Twitter user.

Another person offered a more sarcastic take: 'I'm sure that's the one thing pregnant women need above all! Being pressed to a slimmer figure.'

Envy: 'If only there were cute bras like this that were holding you up and snatching you and making you feel better about yourself while you can breastfeed  that would have been everything to me,' Kim said; shown with Kanye West at the 2013 Met Gala

The end: The line was announced following news that Keeping Up With The Kardashians will end in 2021, after Kim and Kylie Jenner wanted to drop out, according to Page Six; shown in 2007

Not a fan: Despite those practicalities, many social media users questioned why pregnant women needed to be sculpting their physiques at all

Unnecessary: Another person offered a more sarcastic take: 'I'm sure that's the one thing pregnant women need above all! Being pressed to a slimmer figure'

But plenty of others seemed excited about the new development, with one person admitting, 'I'm getting this and I'm not even pregnant.'

In fact, users have been commenting on Kim's past Skims-related posts throughout recent months asking if a maternity line would be forthcoming, and multiple pregant women had expressed disappointment that they didn't have the same options available to them.

Kim's new items arrive following news that her long-running series Keeping Up With The Kardashians will be coming to an end it 2021 with its 20th season, which just began filming.

Page Six reported Saturday that the decision to pull the plug came from Kris Jenner, after both Kim and her younger sister Kylie Jenner expressed a desire to leave the show.

Kim's older sister Kourtney Kardashian had already quit before the most recent season, though her former partner Scott Disick and her sister Khloe Kardashian were both reportedly interested in continuing the series.
British Airways is planning to resume direct flights between Bahrain and England early next month with a timely boost for tourism and business between the two countries slowly emerging from the Covid-19 crisis, a report in Gulf Daily News, our sister newspaper said.

To read the full report, visit: www.gdnonline.com
Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut on Sunday apprised Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari of the unjust treatment she received following her criticism of Mumbai Police in connection with the forces probe into Sushant Singh Rajputs death.

A war of words broke out between the actor and the ruling Shiv Sena after Ranaut compared Mumbai with Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir and saying she does not feel safe in the city.

Ranaut, who was in her hometown of Manali in Himachal Pradesh for the past few months, reached Mumbai on September 9, the day the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) razed the illegally built portions of her office.

Here are the latest developments on the row:

* Kangana Ranaut meets Maharashtra Governor

Kangana Ranaut and sister Rangoli Chandel met Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at Raj Bhavan. I told him about the unjust treatment I have received. I hope justice will be given to me so that the faith of all citizens, including young girls, is restored in the system. I am fortunate that the governor listened to me like his own daughter, Ranaut was quoted as saying by news agency ANI after the meeting.

* I am no politician: Kangana Ranaut

I am no politician. I have no connection with politics. I presented my thoughts as a commoner, Ranaut said. Her comments come amid speculations that she might join politics.

* Will face all political storms: Uddhav Thackeray

In an apparent reference to political criticism over the Shiv Senas tussle with Ranaut, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said he was ready to face all political storms. I will have to remove the mask of the chief minister to respond to politics. I dont speak, it doesnt mean I dont have answers, he said without naming anyone.

* Conspiracy to defame Mumbai: Sanjay Raut

In his column Rokhthok in the Sena mouthpiece Saamana, Sena leader Raut wrote that other Bollywood stars should have come forward to dismiss Ranauts remarks against Mumbai. He termed the entire row a conspiracy to defame Mumbai. Raut named actor Akshay Kumar in the column, questioned the silence of the Bollywood fraternity as he compared the film industry to the Pandavas who remained silent when Draupadi was being disrobed.

*Sena accuses BJP leaders in Maharashtra of helping outsiders vilify Mumbais image

Once again the efforts to vilify the image of Maharashtras capital Mumbai have begun. These attempts are made by the outsiders. But, as per tradition, the moles inside our own house are to make them stronger. In the intervening period, Mumbai was called Pakistan. BMC was referred to as Babar after the municipal corporation took action on the illegal construction of an actress (Kangana Ranaut) who insulted Mumbai, Raut wrote in his article in Saamana.

* Y-plus security cover for Ranaut on her fathers request: Union minister

Ranaut, who will be returning to Manali on September 14, has been provided with Y-plus security cover following her fathers request to the Himachal Pradesh government, Union minister of state for home G Kishan Reddy has said.

Ranauts father also met Jai Ram Thakur and submitted a memorandum that his daughter was being subjected to harassment and based on his request, the Himachal chief minister informed the Centre about the situation, according to Reddy.

* Bombay HC stays BMC demolition drive at Ranauts property

Following a plea filed by the actor against the razing of alleged illegal alteration at her office in Mumbai, the Bombay High Court stayed the demolition drive for now and has adjourned the hearing till September 22. BMC has filed its response in the matter saying the actors allegations of harassment and mala fide action by BMC were false and unwarranted. Ranauts lawyer Rizwan Siddiqui has sought time to respond to the affidavit.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel will enter a three-week nationwide lockdown starting on Friday to contain the spread of the coronavirus after a second- wave surge of new cases, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

During the lockdown, which comes during the Jewish high-holiday season, Israelis will have to stay within 500 metres of their houses, but can travel to workplaces that will be allowed to operate on a limited basis.

Schools and shopping malls will be closed but supermarkets and pharmacies will remain open. The public sector will operate with fewer staff, but non-governmental offices and businesses will not have to close, as long as they do not accept customers.

Indoor gatherings are limited to 10 people and no more than 20 people outdoors.

"I know those measures will exact a heavy price on us all," Netanyahu said in a televised address. "This is not the kind of holiday we are used to. And we certainly won't be able to celebrate with our extended families."

The Finance Ministry said the lockdown will cost the economy, which slipped into a recession in the wake of the virus, an estimated 6.5 billion shekels ($1.88 billion).

Netanyahu, who has faced increasing criticism over his handling of the coronavirus crisis, said he instructed his finance minister to come up with a new economic package to assist businesses hurt by the lockdown.

Israel declared an even tighter lockdown in April when the virus first arrived, after which daily cases dropped to low double digits among a population of nine million.

But as the economy reopened, daily infections jumped, passing 4,000 last week. On Saturday, 2,715 new cases were reported. Since the outbreak began, 1,108 people have died.

The country's health system "raised a red flag" a few days ago, spurring the government to act, Netanyahu said.

The director general of the Health Ministry, Hezi Levy, said in a radio interview earlier on Sunday that "dozens of localities are being sucked into the circle of morbidity."

"We have to impose severe restrictions, but they will be able to stem this wave and not bring us to the brink of an abyss," Levy said.

(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch and Jeffrey Heller, Editing by William Maclean)
"Catastrophic" flooding from Tropical Depression Sally spilled inland across eastern Alabama and southwestern Georgia on Wednesday, bringing peak winds down to 45 mph winds, per the National Hurricane Center.

Why it matters: The mayor of Orange Beach, Ala., said one person died in the storm and hundreds of others have been rescued, per AP. Sally made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane near Gulf Shores, before later being downgraded to a tropical storm and later a depression. But the NHC warned late Wednesday it's "still causing torrential rains over eastern Alabama and western Georgia."

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

The storm's heavy rains were spreading northward over eastern Alabama and Western Georgia.

The Florida Panhandle could see surges of up to 6 feet.

What else is happening: Some 570,000 PowerOutage.US. customers in Alabama, Mississippi and Florida were without power Thursday morning.

The storm surge was rising in Alabamas Mobile Bay.

The big picture: Sally formed as a tropical storm on Saturday off Florida's coast in the Gulf of Mexico.

With more than 17 million people in Sally's path, shelters opened from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle.

Sally was the 18th named storm  now of 20  for 2020's Atlantic hurricane season. It is also the earliest named storm to form over the ocean.

What to watch: A few tornadoes could occur across portions of northern Florida and southern Georgia, per NHC.

The National Weather Service predicts rainfall of two to six inches between eastern Alabama and southeast Virginia, with areas seeing between 6 and 10 inches.

The Hurricane Center expects flooding in inland regions of eastern Alabama and central Georgia to persist into Thursday. Heavy rain and flooding are forecast to spread from the Carolinas into southeast Virginia.

NHC forecasters are also monitoring Hurricane Teddy, declared a hurricane early Wednesday, and Tropical Storm Vicky. By late Thursday, Teddy's winds are predicted to increase to 130 mph, making it a Category 4.

The next storm to be named will be Wilfred. After Wilfred, all names will have been used up, and forecasters will need to tap the Greek alphabet for referencing storms.

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

Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.
Express News Service By

NEW DELHI: Residents of jhuggies in the city held are planning to stage a protest outside Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals residence against the Supreme Courts recent order to remove 48,000 slum clusters located along railway tracks in the national capital.

Panicked and anguished over the demolition order, residents asked where they are supposed to go now. The Sunday Standard on Saturday visited slum areas on the railways land in Anand Parbat, Naraina Vihar, Jal Vihar and Nizamuddin to interact with residents who said they will not vacate unless given alternative.

First, give us an alternative house to stay and then, demolish this house, or we will take our lives on these railway tracks, said Anandi, a slum-dweller of Madarasi Colony situated across the railways lines of Jal Vihar in Lajpat Nagar.

Anandi, who lives with her husband and two children in the slum, added: I born and brought up here. Even we dont want to live in this area surrounded by garbage but where are we supposed to go during this pandemic. If the government assures and give us an alternative land, we are ready to move out. Seema, another Lajpat Nagar slum dweller, said: During the Congress government, too, slums were demolished in the city, and people were shifted to Jangpura, then to Trilokpuri.

The government had assured us they would provide us with food, shelter and other amenities, but nothing happened. In the next three months, there will be winter. here Where will we go with small children?.

Seema works as a housemaid and her husband is a cab driver. The apex court has also barred other courts from passing a stay order on the demolition of the slums. The AAP government, however, has said it will file a review petition in the matter.

The Delhi government has also asked the railways not to demolish slums without providing alternative accommodation to the inhabitants in accordance with provisions of the Delhi Slum Rehabilitation Policy.

The court should at least think of the pandemic. Many have died due to the Covid-19. These slums have protected us the deadly virus, so far, said Indrani, who lives in a slum along the railway line of Nizamuddin. The 45-year-old housemaid in the locality is the sole earner of her family of five  three children, an octogenarian mother-in-law. With no earnings during the lockdown, Amudha had to sell her earrings and even mangalsutra for survival.

Large number of migrants from Tamil Nadu

Slum clusters situated on the railways land in Nizamuddin accommodate a large number of migrants are from Tamil Nadu. They have been living here for more than four decades. According to the slum dwellers of Nizamuddin, Madrasi Colony and Shakur Basti and Naraina Vihar, more 1.5 lakh migrants from Tamil Nadu live in these clusters. According to the government, of 140 km-long railway track, 70 km of these tracks are occupied by 37 number of large jhuggi clusters. In total, there 48,000 JJ clusters situated along railways lines in the city.
Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard is pleased to announce Partners Tara R. Devine and Jennifer L. Ashley have been named to the 2020 Notable Women in Law list by Crains Chicago Business.

The 2020 Notable Women in Law list recognizes women who have a track record of setting legal precedents, winning big cases for their clients and mentoring the next wave of women in law  all while finding ways to give back to their communities. Ms. Devine and Ms. Ashley were among 124 honorees chosen from more than 200 nominations.

"These lawyers represent almost every major firm and type of practice Almost all have been shaken by the pandemic but have skillfully adapted, whether by delivering an oral argument remotely or by arranging socially distanced document signings They are expanding the role of the womens resource group to make sure that young associates get the skills and confidence they need to succeed. And they reach beyond their firms to support young girls, law school students, asylum seekers and disabled people, Crains wrote in the official announcement.

For more information, please contact Marcie Mangan at (877) 975-7991 or mmangan@salvilaw.com.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 20:34:12|Editor: huaxia

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BAGHDAD, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric Ali al-Sistani on Sunday called for holding the scheduled early elections under a fair electoral law and the supervision of the United Nations.

Al-Sistani's comments came during his meeting with Hennis-Plasschaert, special representative of the UN secretary-general for Iraq, in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, some 160 km south of the capital Baghdad, according to a statement by his office.

"The (early) parliamentary elections scheduled to take place next year are of great importance, and they must be conducted according to a fair law, far away from the private interests of some political blocs and parties, to allow the results a high degree of credibility," al-Sistani said in the statement.

"Integrity and transparency must be taken into account in the various stages of the elections, and the supervision and monitoring should be done in coordination with the UN mission to Iraq," he told Hennis-Plasschaert who heads the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq.

On July 31, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi set June 6, 2021 as the date for the early elections to match what he promised in his government's political program announced when al-Kadhimi took office in May. Enditem
ABBOTSFORD, B.C.Police say an officer and a suspect in an alleged theft are in hospital following a police-involved shooting at an outdoors store in Abbotsford, British Columbia.

Police say in a news release that officers responded on Friday to a theft in progress at a Cabelas at McCallum Junction.

They say a responding officer challenged two suspects as they exited the store and one fled while the other allegedly pepper-sprayed the officer.

Abbotsford police say the second suspect then ran away but returned moments later, allegedly spraying the officer again and physically assaulting the officer.

Police say the officer then shot the suspect.

Emergency Health Services spokeswoman Leslie Dickson says one patient was airlifted to hospital in critical condition, while a second patient in serious condition was taken to hospital by ground crews.

Police say both suspects are in custody and the public is not in any danger.

British Columbias police watchdog, the Independent Investigations Office, says it is investigating.

The IIO is a civilian-led oversight agency that reviews all incidents of death or serious harm that may have been the result of a police officers actions.

Read more about:
Clinical trials of one of the most advanced experimental Covid-19 vaccines resumed Saturday after a brief safety pause, as infection numbers continued to march upward in countries across the globe.

The world's hopes for a reprieve from the pandemic were dealt a blow earlier in the week when pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and Oxford University announced they had "voluntarily paused" their vaccine trial after a UK volunteer developed an unexplained illness.

But on Saturday the trial was given the all clear by British regulators to resume following a safety review. The company also announced it was resuming clinical trials in Brazil next Monday after being given the green light there as well.

The global death toll from the coronavirus has risen to 916,000 with 28.5 million infections, while France and the United Arab Emirates posted grim new milestones for daily infections on Saturday.

And with billions still suffering from the fallout of the pandemic, a worldwide race for a vaccine is underway, with nine companies already in late-stage Phase 3 trials.

Even during the pause, AstraZeneca said it remained hopeful that the vaccine could still be available "by the end of this year, early next year".

Oxford University said that "in large trials such as this, it is expected that some participants will become unwell and every case must be carefully evaluated".

Charlotte Summers, lecturer in intensive care medicine at Cambridge University, said the pause showed the researchers' commitment "to putting safety at the heart of their development programme."

"To tackle the global Covid-19 pandemic, we need to develop vaccines and therapies that people feel comfortable using, therefore it is vital to maintaining public trust that we stick to the evidence and do not draw conclusions before information is available," she said.

- Backlash -

That public trust will be crucial to convincing a public that is impatient for a vaccine -- and in some corners sceptical.

Among the impatient is US President Donald Trump, who has been accused by rival Joe Biden of "undermining public confidence" by regularly raising the possibility that a vaccine will be ready before November's election.

The Republican president is under pressure as the US toll continues to rise, nearing 6.5 million cases on Saturday with more than 193,000 deaths -- by far the most in either measure in the world.

Biden also called Trump "reckless" for holding a rally in the Nevada city of Reno even after the venue had to be changed because the event breached local Covid-19 restrictions. Television images of the rally Saturday showed a packed outdoors crowd, with few wearing face masks.

Some of those potentially sceptical about a vaccine meanwhile turned out in numerous German cities and Poland's capital Warsaw on Saturday, protesting against anti-coronavirus measures and often defying mask-wearing rules.

The movement is made up of a number of different groups, from self-declared "free thinkers" to anti-vaccine campaigners, conspiracy theorists and far-right activists.

- France, UAE milestones -

There are signs of a resurgence of the virus in numerous countries that lifted many coronavirus measures after beating back the first wave of infections months ago.

France reported 10,000 new infections on Saturday, the country's highest daily number since launching wide-scale testing.

The milestone came a day after Prime Minister Jean Castex declined to announce any new major restrictions despite a "clear worsening" in the country's outbreak.

"We have to succeed in living with this virus, without returning to the idea of a generalised lockdown," Castex said.

Another country to hit a daily milestone on Saturday was the United Arab Emirates, which recorded more than 1,000 new coronavirus cases for the first time.

In Spain, which this week became the first EU country to pass half a million infections, a case was detected among Princess Leonor's classmates.

The 14-year-old heiress to the Spanish throne -- who only returned to school in Madrid on Wednesday -- will now have to observe a two-week quarantine.

The uncle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, businessman Mohamad Makhlouf, died from Covid-19 on Saturday, two close sources told AFP.

And in Latin America, which this week passed the milestone of eight million virus cases, worst-hit Brazil charted more than 131,000 deaths from Covid-19 as of Saturday, the second-highest in the world behind the US.

Latvia meanwhile reinstated a compulsory 14-day quarantine for arrivals from neighbouring Estonia due to an upsurge in cases there.





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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Ho Chi Minh City hospitals have released all COVID-19 patients after they had beaten the novel coronavirus, according to the municipal Center for Disease Control.

The city has confirmed 77 coronavirus cases since the virus first hit Vietnam on January 23, the center said on Sunday.

All of the patients have recovered from COVID-19, it added.

Eight hundred and sixty-three people are being quarantined at centralized centers in the city, with 238 self-isolating at home or other lodging facilities.

The Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control will continue monitoring arrivals from outbreak-hit regions.

The city has ceased taking samples at aiports for COVID-19 testing since Friday.

Those who having left Da Nang, where a new viral wave erupted in July, since September 5 and then arrived in the southern city are required to declare their health status and to have their samples for COVID-19 tests taken at places designated by local medical centers.

Screening tests will continue to be conducted at wholesale markets and companies in the southern hub after no cases have been recorded at these places.

Ho Chi Minh City is now prepared to charge international arrivals for quarantine while local authorities have already started monitoring all crews of inbound international flights who stay in the city.

Health workers have conducted 5,273 tests on such flight crew members and found zero coronavirus infections so far.

On July 25, Da Nang, a touristy city on the central coast, recorded the first local COVID-19 case after Vietnam had gone 99 days without documenting any domestic transmission, the Ministry of Health said. A total of 551 locally-transmitted cases have been registered nationwide from that date, most traced back to the coastal city.

Ho Chi Minh City has logged 16 cases since then, including eight linked to the beach city and eight imported infections. All have exited hospitals.

Vietnam confirmed three imported cases on Sunday, all Vietnamese returning from Russia, taking the national tally to 1,063, according to the Ministry of Health. They are isolated for treatment at a hospital in south-central Phu Yen Province.

Eigth patients were declared free of the pathogen the same day, with recoveries having reached 918.

Thirty-five patients have died, most having suffered critical comorbid conditions.

The death toll did not include three COVID-19 patients who passed away after they had tested negative for at least three time.

The country has recorded zero community transmission for 11 days on end.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
New Delhi:

A panel has recommended reservation for girl students in IITs in order to address the issue of slump in the number of female students entering the prestigious institutes.

The committee is learnt to have suggested creating up to 20 per cent supernumerary seats for girls out of the total number of seats.

The recommendation of the committee will be taken up in the meeting of the joint admission board (JAB) for a final decision, which will decide whether the reservation will come in effect from 2017 or from 2018.

Concerned by the slump in number of girl students entering IITs, the JAB has set up a sub-committee under the chairmanship of professor Timothy Gonsalves to find ways to rectify the situation in the institutes.

The number of seats for male candidates will not be affected and this will help IITs achieve the 1 lakh target by 2020. Also, only candidates who have already qualified in JEE-Advanced will be considered.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Palestinian leaders on Sunday called for demonstrations against the "shameful" deals the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are set to sign with Israel.

Officials from both Gulf states are due to attend a ceremony at the White House on Tuesday to formalise ties with Israel, prompting Palestinian factions to unite in appeals for protest.

"We invite our population, in particular those in (Palestinian) refugee camps, to denounce these shameful agreements," a statement read, signed by groups including the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Gaza's rulers Hamas.

The statement also called for rallies outside embassies of the US, Israel, Bahrain and the UAE.

The Palestinians last month accused Abu Dhabi of a "stab in the back", as the Gulf country became only the third Arab nation after Egypt and Jordan to announce it would have formal relations with Israel.

Bahrain followed suit on Friday, breaking with the long-held stance of Arab leaders that an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is a prerequisite for normalising relations.

But in recent years, Israel and the US have been courting Gulf states over their shared animosity towards Iran.

The deals with Israel were dubbed "peace for protection" by Saeb Erekat, PLO secretary-general.

"Some decision-makers now in the Arab world do believe that Arab national security metrics will depend on the protection of Israel," he told journalists on Sunday.

Erekat referred to Washington's longstanding policy of ensuring Israel is militarily stronger than other countries in the Middle East.

Arab nations are not permitted "to have any superiority on Israel on any field," noted Erekat.

However, the policy has come under the spotlight in recent weeks, over reports that the US could sell F-35 stealth fighter jets to Abu Dhabi as part of the deal with Israel.

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a news conference at the State Department in Washington, on Sept. 2, 2020. (Nicholas Kamm/Pool via Reuters)

Serbias Announcement to Designate Hezbollah as a Terrorist Organization Welcomed by US

Dominoes Are Falling on Hezbollahs Illicit Operations in Europe: Pompeo

Serbias announcement to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization will limit the ability of the Lebanese Shia militia group supported by Iran to operate in Europe, said U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a statement on Sunday.

Serbias intention was announced as a part of the economic normalization deal between Serbia and Kosovo brokered by President Donald Trump and signed earlier in September, according to the statement.

A police officer walks out of Al-Irschad Mosque during raids on mosques and associations linked to Hezbollah in Bremen, Berlin, in Germany on April 30, 2020. (Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images)

In April, Germany banned Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and took strong actions against its suspected supporters. Lithuania also designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization in April and banned its affiliates from entering the country.

In 2019, Hezbollah was banned by the United Kingdom and designated as a terrorist organization by Kosovo.

The dominoes are falling on Hezbollahs European operations, where it has continued to plot terrorist attacks, procure military technology, and raise much needed funding, Pompeo said in the statement.

The United States, which first designated Hezbollah as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997, continues to call on European countries and the European Union to designate or ban it in its entirety  with no distinction between its so-called military and political wings, Pompeo said.

We urge all countries in Europe and elsewhere to take whatever action they can to prevent Hezbollah operatives, recruiters, and financiers from operating on their territories, Pompeo said.

Hezbollah is a terrorist organization that is responsible for multiple large-scale terrorist attacks, including the 1983 suicide truck bombings of U.S. Embassy Beirut and the U.S. Marine barracks; the 1984 attack on the U.S. Embassy Beirut annex; and the 1985 hijacking of TWA flight 847, during which U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem was murdered, according to State Departments 2019 report on terrorism.

The United States also blacklisted 15 Lebanon-based individuals linked to Hezbollahs financial support network in February.

Last week, Pompeo announced the designation of two former Lebanese ministers for political and economic favors to Hezbollah, including awarding government contracts worth millions of dollars to Hezbollah-owned companies and moving government money to Hezbollah-associated institutions, according to a statement.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah addresses crowd on television on April 15, 2018. (Aziz Taher/Reuters)

Hezbollah draws its ideological inspiration from the Iranian revolution and the teachings of the late Ayatollah Khomeini. Most of its funding, estimated at $700 million annually in recent years, is provided by Iran, the report said.

Hezbollah was the only militia group that was allowed to keep its arms after the end of the Lebanese civil war in 1990 under the pretext of protecting Lebanon from [the] Israeli enemy, Edy Cohen, an expert on the Middle East at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, told The Epoch Times in an interview in August.

In the last Lebanese general election in 2018, Hezbollah won only 12 seats in the 128-member unicameral Lebanese parliament. However, it holds 70 seats together with groups and individuals that are politically aligned with it.

As a result, Hezbollah has veto power over decisions unfavorable to it, Cohen said.

Hezbollah has been heavily involved in the ongoing conflict in Syria, fighting on the side of Bashar al-Assads regime where it has committed numerous war crimes and human rights violations.

Hezbollah has placed about 150,000 rockets at its southern border aimed at Israel, according to the U.S. State Department report (pdf). Missile systems, precision-guided missiles that Hezbollah holds in the south, they all pose a risk to the security of the region, Pompeo said at a press conference earlier this month. Everybody disarms but Hezbollah, he added.

Hezbollah has to give up its weapons and its members should live normal lives like other Lebanese, Cohen said, adding it will not surrender its arms unless it is forced to.
At least 100,000 Belarusian protesters took to the streets of capital Minsk on Sunday in one of the biggest anti-government demonstrations ahead of crunch talks between President Alexander Lukashenko and Russias Vladimir Putin.

A wave of protests has swept Belarus since the August 9 presidential election, which demonstrators say was actually won by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.

Lukashenko denied the polls were rigged and has blamed foreign powers for the protests.

At least 250 protesters were arrested, police said. Some 250 people were detained in various districts of the capital, the interior ministry said in a statement, adding that those detained were carrying flags and offensive placards. Despite the crackdown, demonstrations show no sign of fading and Lukashenko has made no concessions.

Putin, who hosts Lukashenko for talks in Sochi on Monday, is determined opposition demonstrators wont topple the Belarusian president, said five people close to the Kremlin, who asked not to be identified discussing internal policy.

The crisis engulfing Moscows closest partner echoes revolts that swept away pro-Kremlin leaders in Ukraine and Armenia since 2014, and comes weeks after Putin changed Russias constitution to allow him to extend his two-decade rule potentially to 2036.

Belarus is of huge importance, said Mikhail Vinogradov, who heads the St Petersburg Politics Foundation. Putin doesnt want to end up on the losing side. The Russian leadership was taken aback by the scale of the unrest in Belarus, the people close to the Kremlin said.

While Moscow doesnt trust Lukashenko, it cant accept the opposition coming to power.
The federal government came out strong this week announcing an unprecedented Black Entrepreneurship Program. The initiative brings together public and private contributions totalling $221 million in support of small and medium-sized Black-owned businesses across Canada.

Investment in economic inclusion for Black communities is a necessary pillar in any national approach to combating systemic racism, but its a molehill when compared to the mountains that are justice and police transformations, which the prime minister ensured are forthcoming during his announcement on Wednesday.

There are several ministers responsible for various reforms in response to calls for action on systemic racism. Minister David Lametti is the lead on the justice file, and ministers Marc Miller and Bill Blair are mandated to co-develop a legislative framework recognizing and expanding Indigenous policing as an essential service.

Questionably, Blair is leading on what Trudeau has described as modernizing policing structures and updating standards regarding the use of force.

Why Blair has been entrusted with this task is beyond my comprehension.

The values Blair has displayed over the course of his career as chief of the Toronto Police Service and now minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, provide no indication that he will do anything beyond defend the status quo.

Blair has a long way to go to atone for his own contributions to the broken systems currently under review. He helped lay the foundation that is the base of the distrust being protested today.

He ushered in the problematic Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy (TAVIS), which blurred the lines between protecting and terrorizing Black communities and especially youth. He placed police in schools that are now being removed with great community effort. Under his leadership, coded media language in policing was reinforced, such as known to the police devaluing lost human lives.

Just last month a $16.5 million settlement was reached in the class-action lawsuit launched in response to the treatment of G20 protestors in 2010, again, under his leadership.

This is a man who publicly resisted oversight bodies in response to requests to see modest reforms implemented.

Political leadership must play a role in truly understanding the damage done by community policing initiatives, no matter what the intentions were when they were deployed.

Where trust has not been earned, at minimum a demonstration of an alignment of values is necessary, and Bill Blair lacks both. The longer Blair is the point person on police reform, the longer the prime ministers commitments to taking action sound meaningless.

We need someone with a better track record on human rights and the courage to act boldly.

Trudeau has a lot of strength to pull from within his caucus of human rights advocates and parliamentarians who have displayed sincere efforts to dealing with the issues surrounding systems of discriminatory policing head on.

Provincial conservative governments have gutted minor and hard fought community gains in police oversight, turning police reform into a partisan wedge issue.

One of Doug Fords first acts as premier was to roll back long advocated for police oversight put in place by the previous government.

We continuously ask Black and Indigenous communities to dredge up story after story of abusive practices, and expect them to trust that each consultation process will be different and that community oversight will be taken seriously  this time.

This conversation is exhausting. We need to transform first-response in this country, and especially when responding to individuals experiencing mental health crises.

Someone is needed to lead this portfolio who is not starting from a community trust deficit.

As Trudeau continues to kick justice and police transformation plans further down an already uncertain political road, he needs to reset the tone with an understanding of the historic community harms to which Blair has contributed.

Trusting Bill Blair with this file is more than a political miscalculation, its downright disrespectful.
Tony Blair and Sir John Major today joined forces to accuse Boris Johnson of 'shaming' Britain and 'embarrassing our nation' over his plans to tear up parts of the Brexit divorce deal.

The two former prime ministers united to launch an attack on the current occupant of 10 Downing Street as they urged Parliament to block Mr Johnson's plans.

Mr Blair and Sir John said the PM's decision to try to override parts of the Withdrawal Agreement struck with the EU last year imperils the Irish peace process, trade negotiations and the UKs integrity.

The EU has given Mr Johnson until the end of the month to withdraw his plans or face legal action, with trade talks also expected to collapse if the PM does not perform a U-turn.

But the Government has insisted it has no intention of backing town, putting Britain and the bloc on a collision course.

Tony Blair and Sir John Major, pictured in Northern Ireland ahead of the EU referendum in 2016, today joined forces to savage Boris Johnson's Brexit plans

Mr Johnson is planning to override parts of the Withdrawal Agreement struck with the EU last year. The Government has admitted the proposals will break international law

The latest row with the EU was sparked by the publication of the Government's UK Internal Market Bill.

The legislation, which the Government is hoping to crash through the House of Commons in the next two weeks, will enable the UK to unilaterally make decisions on key issues, like customs arrangements between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland, contained within the Withdrawal Agreement.

Brussels is adamant that the decisions must be made by a joint committee made up of people from both sides.

The Government has admitted its proposals will break international law, prompting fury from Mr Johnson's political opponents but also from Tory backbenchers.

Writing in The Sunday Times, Mr Blair and Sir John said that what Mr Johnson is proposing to do is 'shocking'.

They warned it will be impossible to 'salvage' Britain's 'credibility' if ministers 'so blatantly disregard our commitments the moment we sign them'.

The Government has argued that the proposals are necessary in order to protect the integrity of the UK and the Good Friday Agreement.

But Mr Blair and Sir John, two of the architects of the landmark peace accord, said the 'Government's action does not protect the Good Friday agreement - it imperils it'.

The pair of former PMs wrote: 'We both opposed Brexit. We both accept it is happening. But this way of negotiating, with reason cast aside and cavalier bombast posing as serious diplomacy, is irresponsible, wrong in principle and dangerous in practice.

'It raises questions that go far beyond the impact on Ireland, the peace process and talks on a trade deal, crucial though they are. It questions the very integrity of our nation.'

They added: 'As the world looks on aghast at the UK, the word of which was once accepted as inviolable, this government's action is shaming itself and embarrassing our nation.'

They said Mr Johnson's 'latest ruse' had 'misfired spectacularly and must stop now' as they urged Parliament to reject the PM's plans.

Sir John had warned last week that Mr Johnson's proposals could cost the UK its 'reputation for honouring the promises we make'.

The former PM said: 'For generations, Britain's word  solemnly given  has been accepted by friend and foe. Our signature on any treaty or agreement has been sacrosanct.

'Over the last century, as our military strength has dwindled, our word has retained its power.

'If we lose our reputation for honouring the promises we make, we will have lost something beyond price that may never be regained.'
It was about 2:30 pm on Friday, September 11, when seven armed men, four of them hooded, attacked a bullion van at Manso Mem in the Amansie West District of Ashanti and made away with two large metal cases said to contain cash meant for distribution to banks around Kumasi.



Amidst indiscriminate shooting, the robbers also left a cashier, identified only as Attakorah, 35, dead from gunshot wounds, while one of two policemen escorting the Toyota Hilux bullion with registration number GE 3978-20, Cpl. Felix Agyei Agyeman of the Kumasi Central Police band, and the driver, Antwi Boasiako of Agate Mabot security company, sustained serious gunshot wounds.



The other police escort, Sgt. Enock Kwame Teye also of the Kumasi Central Police band escaped unhurt, however, the robbers managed to seize the two policemens AK47 rifles loaded with 30 rounds of ammunition each.



A preliminary police situation report sighted by Graphic Online indicates that while Attakorah, the cashier died on the spot, the two injured men were sent to the St. Martin's Catholic Hospital pending referral to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.



The report says the bullion was on its way from Manso Asaaman and its environs on its way to various banks in Kumasi when on reaching the mid-section of the road at Manso Mem Junction, they were attacked.



According to the report, they were attacked by seven armed men with four of them wearing facial masks wielding AK 47 assault rifle and pump-action guns (.) Amidst indiscriminate firing, the robbers succeeded in robbing them of unspecified sums of money concealed in two big metal boxes and the two AK47 rifles loaded with 30 rounds of ammunition each on the policemen (.)



The report further said that the Regional Police Command has commenced investigations into the incident and has thus deployed its intelligence to gather credible information to unravel the circumstances of the heinous crime and get the perpetrators apprehended and also retrieve the two service AK 47 rifles.





Source: Graphic.com.gh









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Scams cost Australians $77 million in the first six months of 2020 with fraudsters using the bushfires and the pandemic to their advantage.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increase in online shopping scams  particularly puppy scams, or those involving the sale of personal protective equipment, heavy vehicles and farm machinery, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

Scammers can access their victims' account months before making their first move. Credit:Shutterstock

In the first six months of 2019, losses reported to Scamwatch exceeded $58 million, but losses over the same period in 2020 are up by more than $19 million.

"Unfortunately scammers take advantage of times of uncertainty and natural disasters. Earlier this year scammers took advantage of the bushfires through fake charity scams," an ACCC spokesperson said.
Chinese regulators have granted a domestic fund custody licence to Citigroup, making it the first American bank to receive one after mainland regulators tweaked the rules this year to further open up the country's mutual funds sector.

Rule changes by the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission this year allowed local branches of foreign banks to apply for fund custody licences for the first time.

This licence granted by the CSRC lets Citibank (China) provide custody-related services to both mutual funds and private funds domiciled in China after passing an on-site inspection later this year.

"Citi's China domestic fund custody licence is great news for our global clients," David Russell, Citi's Asia-Pacific head of securities services, said in a statement. "As international fund managers, securities firms, and insurance companies set up in China, we believe they will want a trusted service provider to help them mitigate risks and reduce costs."

Standard Chartered was the first foreign bank to receive a domestic fund custody licence in 2018 under prior rules that allowed local subsidiaries to apply for such licences.

Banks, insurers and asset managers are scrambling to take control of their joint ventures in China this year after Beijing relaxed rules on the foreign ownership of financial services firms, which came earlier than expected.

Since April 1, global fund companies have been able to apply to the CSRC for approval to buy 100 per cent stakes in fund management joint ventures, which would allow them to create and distribute mutual funds for the US$2.3 trillion retail investor market in China.

JP Morgan Asset Management won an auction last month to take majority control of its onshore asset management joint venture, while the likes of Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have moved to take majority control of their securities joint ventures this year.

Story continues

HSBC said in August that it plans to hire between 2,000 and 3,000 wealth planners in China within the next four years as it looks to tap into growing incomes in the mainland, particularly in the Greater Bay Area.

Vanguard, the world's second-largest asset manager after BlackRock, said last week it would close its Hong Kong and Japan offices and move its primary regional office to Shanghai as it shifts its focus in Asia to mainland China.

BlackRock received approval last week to set up its own wholly-owned mutual fund business in Shanghai.

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.
Seven more deaths and 41 new cases is the latest COVID-19 snapshot from Victoria.

The figures released on Sept 13 for the past 24 hours take the states death toll to 723 and the national count to 810 since the start of the pandemic.

The number of new diagnoses keeps the state on track for its plan to ease lockdown restrictions in coming weeks. Regional Victoria is expected to ease its restrictions within days.

As that occurs, Premier Daniel Andrews said road checkpoints may be stepped up to make sure Melburnians dont escape to the country.

On Sunday News Corp released footage of a woman being dragged from her car by a police officer at a vehicle checkpoint about 45 kilometres north of Melbourne.

The footage suggests she had refused to give her name to the officer and was subsequently forcibly removed from the car after refusing to get out herself, saying she felt unsafe.

Victorias two weeks of low infection rates have prompted Andrews to indicate the possibility that regional Victoria could jump two steps out of lockdown by mid-next week.

This will mean, among other things, that regional residents would very soon be able to go out for a coffee or meal.

He said he wasnt worried about Melbourne residents trying to get to regional areas because travel limits of 5km are still in place in the city for some time.

But he said police checkpoints on key roads out of Melbourne could be bolstered to ensure compliance.

It may go to a new level to make sure that only those who absolutely need to be travelling into country Victoria are doing that, he said.

By Andi Yu
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Afghanistans acting Foreign Minister Mohammed Haneef Atmar expressed the war-torn nation's gratefulness to India for its commitment and solidarity on Sunday, September 13. Taking to Twitter, Atmar thanked MEA S Jaishankar and the Ministry of External Affairs for reaffirming Indias support for peace and prosperity in Afghanistan.

My sincere appreciation to HE EAM @DrSJaishankar and @MEAIndia for reaffirming Indias support for peace and the free will of the Afghan people. We profoundly remain grateful to Indias commitment and solidarity with Afghanistan.  Mohammed Haneef Atmar    (@MHaneefAtmar) September 13, 2020

Read: US Secretary Of State Mike Pompeo To Attend Intra-Afghan Peace Talks In Qatar

Afghanistan grateful for India's role in peace process

Mohammed Haneef Atmar's statement comes amid the ongoing intra-Afghan peace talks between the Afghan government and Taliban in Qatar's capital Doha. The talks began on September 12 in Qatar after the prisoner exchanges between the two sides were finally completed

The intra-Afghanistan Peace talks are being considered a diplomatic breakthrough that could potentially stabilise the war-torn country after nearly four decades of conflict. US Security of State Mike Pompeo, in a statement, said the peace talks were a historic opportunity to end the conflict in the country as the people of Afghanistan have carried the burden of war for too long.

Read: International Support For Afghanistan Peace Talks

The start of Afghan peace talks was attended by Jaishankar through video conference and during his, address the External Affairs Minister stated that the peace process should focus on the rights of minorities and women and should also be Afghan-led. He also added that Afghanistans territorial integrity should be maintained at all costs and that Afghan soil should not be used for anti-India activities.

Addressed the conference on Afghan peace negotiations at Doha today. Conveyed that the peace process must:



 Be Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled



 Respect national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan



 Promote human rights and democracy pic.twitter.com/wFG3E2OVlJ  Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) September 12, 2020

The Intra-Afghan peace talks were also attended by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who flew out to Qatar for the talks. Back in February the US and the Taliban had come to an agreement wherein the US committed to reducing its troop count in Afghanistan while the government and Taliban agreed tp exchange a pre-determined number of prisoners, after which peace talks between the parties began.

Read: Kabul Residents React To Afghanistan Peace Talks

Read: US Will Reduce Its Troop Strength In Afghanistan To 4,000 In A Very Short Period Of Time: Trump
From tomorrow, it's illegal to visit someone who lives in a restricted zone in Northern Ireland inside their homes.

But you can meet them, and dozens of drunks, in the pub, and nobody will bat an eyelid. Your family and theirs - along with those of complete strangers - will be able to freely mix in soft play areas indoors.

Covid-19 must be a very smart virus. It seems to magically disappear in the presence of cash tills.

The restrictions announced by Arlene Foster and Michelle O'Neill make no sense at all, and that seriously damages the battle against Covid-19.

If you're explaining, you're losing. The number of people asking questions on social media after last Thursday's press briefing show that Stormont's messaging is as clear as mud.

That means more and more ordinary folk who did pay heed back in March just won't listen now. And it plays right into the hands of the crazy conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers.

It's not just young people who are no longer tuned in. I see my own friends' increasingly casual and careless attitude to coronavirus.

Remember the days when we looked across the Irish Sea as English people engaged in all sorts of foolhardy behaviour in bars and beaches? How we raised eyebrows at those packed Tubes?

Well, there's no reason to feel smug now. Northern Ireland has the highest rate of infection of these islands at 35 cases per 100,000, and Belfast's is almost three times that.

If we don't take action, increased infection rates will convert into death rates because young people will spread the virus to the older and more vulnerable in our community.

There are currently 22 outbreaks in care homes here.

Is it out of sight, out of mind? Do their lives not matter because they're not visible?

High rates of community transmission mean it's inevitable that staff will bring the virus into care homes.

I'm sick, sore and tired of listening to the argument, 'It's only the old and those with pre-existing conditions at risk'. Social Darwinism was once the preserve of the far right. A 'survival of the fittest' approach is creeping into our everyday discourse.

Covid-19 must be a very smart virus. It seems to magically disappear in the presence of cash tills

The Executive needs a robust, radical PR campaign to reach young people. They must be told while they are low-risk, they could seriously harm or kill those they love.

Do they want a dead dad or a granny in an ICU bed on their conscience? It is not a time for pussy-footing around. The messaging on this has to be as emotive as it is on drink-driving.

It's time to involve celebrities to help communicate that message, like the stars of Derry Girls or Snow Patrol.

The very urgent issue of hospital waiting times increasing for people with other illnesses has been raised. Cancer services have been severely disrupted, no doubt costing lives.

Everything possible must be done to address this. It should be a far greater priority for the Executive than opening wet bars.

Yet the restoration of health services must be done with Covid in mind. It has penetrated Craigavon Area Hospital and is reportedly also in Daisy Hill.

Four patients in Craigavon have died, seven are very ill and 21 staff have tested positive. A repeat scenario in other hospitals across Northern Ireland could bring catastrophic consequences.

There are big decisions to be made over the coming months in Northern Ireland, not just at Stormont. The Executive's messaging may be muddled and inconsistent, but that should not be an excuse for breaching regulations.

Each and every one of us has personal responsibility in this. Do we want to take steps now, in early autumn, to save lives, or are we prepared to let people die unnecessarily in the dark winter months?

It's not just about Stormont. There are critical choices facing us all.
For all Potterheads, it is a dream come true to come face to face with a Hogwarts style castle. Apparently, footage of something like this has appeared on Chinese social media.

According to a report published in The Daily Mail, a Hogwarts like castle was spotted in Chinas Shandong Province. If the local media reports quoted by the news portal are to be believed then this is a natural phenomenon called a mirage.

The video of this incident was recorded at 11 am in Jinan. The said place is the capital of Shandong Province. The clip was shared on Chinese microblogging site Weibo. People on the portal compared the structure with the Hogwarts castle in the Harry Potter series. Some users of the portal also joked about it.

One person wrote: Is this the Shandong branch of Hogwarts? Another fan jokes: How can muggles see Hogwarts? A third viewer commented: Has Hogwarts finally come to China to recruit students?

This phenomenon usually occurs when moisture in the air becomes warmer than the temperature of the water below. So, when sun rays from the colder air into the warmer air, it gets refracted. This thereby leads to the creation of reflection in the air.

Normally, the patterns in such cases are blurred and shimmering with some sort of familiarity in comparison to human structures.

For the unversed, Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels that have been written by British author J. K. Rowling. The series revolves around the lives of a wizard, named Harry Potter and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. The three of them are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The majority of the series is basically about Harrys struggle against Lord Voldemort, who is basically a dark wizard who intends to become immortal.
A man has died after a stabbing in Rexdale on Saturday evening, Toronto police say.

Officers were called to Rexdale Boulevard and Bergamot Avenue, police said in a tweet just after 9 p.m.

The victim was a member of the International Muslims Organization mosque which is at the intersection.

There are no words for what happened to the member of this congregation, said a statement from the National Council of Canadian Muslims.

Police report finding the victim lying on the ground when they arrived and described lots of blood from trauma to the head, including stab wounds to his neck.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The suspect fled the scene on foot. Police described him as slim, wearing a black hoodie and pants.

The homicide unit has taken over the investigation.

We further encourage our community not to speculate on what happened as the investigation is ongoing, the statement from the Muslim council said. Instead, we ask that you keep our brother and his family in your prayers.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-5100 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS.

With files from Kevin Jiang

Breanna Xavier-Carter is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Stars radio room in Toronto. Reach her via email: bxavier@thestar.ca

Kevin Jiang is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Stars radio room in Toronto. Reach him via email: kjiang@thestar.ca
Bahrains National Broadband Network (BNET), responsible for providing broadband network services across the kingdom, has announced the launch of both Operations Support System (OSS) and Business Support System (BSS) powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform.

This is as part of the complete separation of BNETs information systems technologies from Batelcos, marking a significant milestone in the legal separation stage, and in line with the requirements of the Fourth National Telecommunications Plan, said a statement.

The launch of BNET was announced by Batelco Chairman Shaikh Abdulla bin Khalifa Alkhalifa in October last year during a press conference in the presence of the Minister of Transport and Communications Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed, and BNET CEO Mohammed Bubshait, and a number of CEOs of telecommunications companies as well as members of the media. As a result of Batelcos legal separation into two entities, BNET became the responsible provider for broadband and connectivity infrastructure with the aim of providing high-speed internet services at competitive prices to all service providers, who in turn, will provide them to customers, positively affecting all internet users across the kingdom.

The separation process was initiated to meet the requirements of the Fourth National Telecommunications Plan, established to set clear goals and objectives for the telecommunication sector in Bahrain, including developing solid infrastructure of comprehensive, high-speed broadband services, improving and enhancing access to internet applications and services, and establishing Bahrain as a regional centre of information and communication technology.

BNET, in cooperation with Batelco, is working to complete the separation process within the time-frame set by the Fourth National Telecommunications Plan in order to enable licensed operators to deliver the latest high-speed broadband services to 95% of households and 100% of businesses across the kingdom. The launch of the BSS and OSS services marks establishing BNET as an independent entity with its own customer services and operations process management, reinforcing BNETs role as the primary entity responsible for the Kingdoms national broadband network operations.

Mohamed Bubashait, CEO of BNET, said: We are proud to have completed yet another step towards the separation of Batelco and BNET in accordance with the Fourth National Communications Plan, considered to be a very important national projects designed to make a positive contribution to the telecommunications sector in the Kingdom. The process of separating the BSS and OSS systems provides BNET with the independence required to manage operational processes and procedures, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of the services we provide to our customers.

He added: I would like to take this opportunity to thank the BNET team for their hard work and effort in making the separation a success. Additionally, I would like to extend a special thanks to Batelco Chairman, Shaikh Abdulla bin Khalifa Alkhalifa, for his direct support in providing us with the resources and capabilities necessary to complete the separation according to the strategic objectives in line with the set timetable. I would also like to thank the Chairman of the BNET, Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa Alkhalifa, for his unwavering support in prioritizing the separation project due to its importance to the Telecommunications sector and the Kingdom of Bahrain as a whole.  TradeArabia News Service
New Delhi: No all-party meeting will be held this year prior to the monsoon session of the Parliament due to coronavirus, said government. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi was scheduled to hold the all-party meeting which is now cancelled to avoid any kind of health risk due to the coronavirus.

The all-party meeting is held to discuss the agenda and set targets before the Parliament session. In the meeting, the Speaker and Rajya Sabha Chairman discuss the issues and the list of Bills to be introduced in the session.

However, the Business Advisory Committee of Rajya Sabha is scheduled to conduct a meeting in Parliament at 11 am on Sunday.

Also Read: Sonia Gandhi flies abroad for routine medical check-up, likely to miss most of Parliament's Monsoon Session

The Monsoon Session of the Parliament is scheduled to commence on Monday and is slated to conclude on October 1. There will be no question hour and private members' business during the monsoon session.

Live TV

All employees and officials will undergo an RT-PCR COVID-19 test ahead of the session. While the attendance of parliamentarians will be recorded through a mobile app designed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to combat COVID-19 spread.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had earlier said that 257 members will be seated in the Lok Sabha hall, 172 in the Lok Sabha gallery, 60 in Rajya Sabha, and 51 in the Rajya Sabha gallery owing to the coronavirus crisis.

Birla also said that Chambers will be sanitised and MPS will have to undergo the RT-PCR test before being allowed to attend the session. He further claimed that this monsoon session will be 'historic' as it is being held amidst a pandemic that is raging across the country.

On the first day of the Session on September 14, the Lower House will meet from 9 am to 1 pm, and sitting in the Upper House will begin at 3 pm to 7 pm. On subsequent days, proceedings in Rajya Sabha will be held from 9 am till 1 pm while the time for Lok Sabha sittings has been fixed from 3 pm to 7 pm.

(With ANI inputs)
Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see PulteGroup, Inc. (NYSE:PHM) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. This means that investors who purchase shares on or after the 18th of September will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 6th of October.

PulteGroup's next dividend payment will be US$0.12 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of US$0.48 to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, PulteGroup stock has a trailing yield of around 1.1% on the current share price of $45.3. Dividends are an important source of income to many shareholders, but the health of the business is crucial to maintaining those dividends. So we need to investigate whether PulteGroup can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.

See our latest analysis for PulteGroup

Dividends are typically paid out of company income, so if a company pays out more than it earned, its dividend is usually at a higher risk of being cut. PulteGroup is paying out just 11% of its profit after tax, which is comfortably low and leaves plenty of breathing room in the case of adverse events. 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. It paid out 8.3% of its free cash flow as dividends last year, which is conservatively low.

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 fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. It's encouraging to see PulteGroup has grown its earnings rapidly, up 27% a year for the past five years. With earnings per share growing rapidly and the company sensibly reinvesting almost all of its profits within the business, PulteGroup looks like a promising growth company.

Story continues

Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. In the last seven years, PulteGroup has lifted its dividend by approximately 13% a year on average. Both per-share earnings and dividends have both been growing rapidly in recent times, which is great to see.

Final Takeaway

Has PulteGroup got what it takes to maintain its dividend payments? We love that PulteGroup is growing earnings per share while simultaneously paying out a low percentage of both its earnings and cash flow. These characteristics suggest the company is reinvesting in growing its business, while the conservative payout ratio also implies a reduced risk of the dividend being cut in the future. There's a lot to like about PulteGroup, and we would prioritise taking a closer look at it.

With that in mind, a critical part of thorough stock research is being aware of any risks that stock currently faces. Every company has risks, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for PulteGroup you should know about.

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.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-14 02:35:27|Editor: huaxia

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ATHENS, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Greece is willing to enter dialogue with Ankara once "provocations" stop to de-escalate recent tension in the Eastern Mediterranean over maritime borders, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Sunday, welcoming the return to Antalya of Oruc Reis, the Turkish seismic survey vessel which had been conducting research in a disputed area.

"It is a positive first step. I really hope there will be more to come. The end of provocations will be the beginning of dialogue. Greece is always ready to sit around the table," he said, referring to exploratory talks with Turkey over an agreement on the delimitation of maritime borders which stopped in 2016.

Oruc Reis has returned to the southern province of Antalya, state-run TRT broadcaster reported Sunday, adding that it anchored off the Gulf of Antalya on Saturday night.

In August, Turkey dispatched Oruc Reis and two auxiliary navy vessels to the disputed region near the Greek island of Meis, also known as Kastellorizo, prompting the Greek claims that the sea area lies within its continental shelf.

The military delegations from Turkey and Greece met in NATO's headquarters on Thursday after NATO's secretary-general initiated de-confliction talks between the two NATO member states.

During a press conference held in the context of Thessaloniki Helexpo forum in northern Greece, Mitsotakis said he was open to a meeting with the Turkish president for dialogue in good faith.

Greece does not intend to enter an arms procurement race with Turkey, but will make only the absolutely necessary purchases, he stressed, responding to a question relating to his announcement on Saturday during the same forum.

Regarding Greece's largest refugee camp Moria that was destroyed in a huge fire earlier this week, the prime minister said he has requested the European Union (EU) for more involvement in the management of the new reception and identification center that is to replace Moria and for more actions from EU partners to show solidarity with Greece.

Greece cannot shoulder disproportionate burdens, he repeated. More than one million people have reached the country from Turkey since 2015. Most continued the journey to other European countries until the closure of borders along the Balkan route in the winter of 2016. Currently 100,000 people are stranded in Greece.

Talking about the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic and its repercussions on the economy, Mitsotakis reiterated optimism, but ruled out the prospect of a second full nationwide lockdown after the one imposed in spring for over a month to control the spread of the virus. Enditem
A 30-year-old Portland man was shot and killed Friday in East Portland, police said.

Portland police said Christopher Klein died where he was shot, at Burnside Street and 122nd Avenue. The shooting occurred around 9:30 p.m.

After the shooting, Portland police initially said only that the intersection was closed. Police did not disclose someone had been fatally shot until Saturday afternoon.

Klein is the second Portlander shot and killed in as many days. Lasalle Shakier, 29, was killed Wednesday in Northeast Portland. The city has recorded a historically high number of fatal shootings this summer.

Police have not disclosed any details about the circumstances of either shooting.

-- The Oregonian/OregonLive
MANILA, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Washington has never stopped making waves in the South China Sea. In its latest malicious move, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, when meeting with his counterparts of Southeast Asian countries, accused Beijing of "aggressive campaigns" in the region and asked ASEAN countries to ban Chinese companies "helping build islands."

Pompeo's China-bashing and impudent pressure on ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries only exposed his own intention to stir up troubles in the South China Sea and to sow discord between China and its neighbors, which will find no support nor succeed.

While trying to portray China's action as "aggressive" in the South China Sea, the United States itself is the most dangerous factor fueling militarization and stoking tensions in the region.

Facts speak for themselves. The United States, tens of thousands of miles away from the South China Sea, has sent nearly 3,000 sorties of military aircraft to the region in the first half of 2020.

And despite the unfettered passage of tens of thousands of commercial ships via the waterways every year, Washington sent aircraft carriers and other warships here more than 60 times between January and June under the pretext of protecting "freedom of navigation."

People cannot help but wonder the true intentions of U.S. muscle-flexing here. Does Washington want to maintain peace in the region, or does it just intend to turn the South China Sea into a geopolitical wrestling ground for its own interests?

Washington's coercion tactics against ASEAN are not likely to work. Earlier this month, Philippine presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said President Rodrigo Duterte had already rejected calls to halt infrastructure projects involving Chinese firms blacklisted by the United States. Roque said Duterte "clearly said that he would not kowtow to the directives of the Americans because we are a free and independent country, and we need the investors from China."

The Philippines' position reflects the collective sentiments of ASEAN countries that stability and development are of vital importance to the region.

In recent years, China and ASEAN countries have shown willingness and wisdom to jointly safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea and their efforts have yielded positive outcomes.

Last year, China and ASEAN countries finished the first reading of the Code of Conduct (COC) Single Draft Negotiating Text ahead of schedule, an important step toward reaching an agreement. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, both sides have been working together to push forward negotiations.

Defying the pandemic's economic shock, China's trade with ASEAN countries rose 7 percent to reach 2.93 trillion yuan (428 billion U.S. dollars) during the January-August period.

China, ASEAN and some other regional partners are currently working toward the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement within this year as planned. In the future, ASEAN countries will see their trade with China even more prosperous.

A peaceful South China Sea is to benefit all regional countries, while a troubled South China Sea would only serve Washington's selfish interests.

If Washington really cares about peace and stability in the South China Sea and the development interests of regional countries, it should immediately stop any interference or muscle flexing and learn to respect the rights and wishes of relevant countries.
A fuel security plan to shore-up Australias long-term supply by building new domestic storages and introducing financial enticements to keep refineries open will form a key part of next month's federal budget.

The Morrison government will on Monday announce a suite of reforms and investments to secure levels of key transport fuels onshore as a buffer against potential supply shocks caused by global events such as wars or pandemics.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will introduce a fuel security plan to shore-up Australias long-term supply. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

A minimum stockholding obligation of 24 days will be introduced to act as a safety net for petrol and jet fuel stocks while diesel stocks will be increased by eight days, to around 28 days of supply.

The policy will aim to bolster local industry through a $211 million investment in competitive grants to build an additional 780 megalitres of onshore diesel storage.
The provinces Special Investigating Unit is now investigating a serious crash in Milton Sunday that has left a young man hospitalized and others injured.

The police watchdog, which investigates incidents involving police that result in death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault, said a break and enter had occurred prior to the collision.

Preliminary information suggests that around 12:15 a.m., Halton police officers responded to a break and enter at a business located at 188 Main St. E. in Milton.

Shortly after, officers located a vehicle  a Honda Fit  connected to the break and enter, and the officers followed the vehicle, according to an SIU statement.

In the area of Regional Road 25 and Derry Road, less than three kilometres from the break and enter scene, the Fit became involved in a collision with two other vehicles  a Dodge Ram pickup truck and a Toyota Venza.

The 21-year-old man driving the Fit was extricated from the vehicle and transported to hospital for treatment of serious injuries, the SIU said.

The 33-year-old man driving the pickup truck and the 31-year-old woman in the passengers seat were also transported to hospital.

The SIU said two investigators and two forensic investigators have been assigned to the case. One subject officer and one witness officer have been designated.

The SIU is urging anyone who may have information about this investigation to contact the lead investigator at 1-800-787-8529. The Unit is also urging anyone who may have any video evidence related to this incident to upload that video through the SIU website.

Read more about:
I still have my old copy of Quotations From Chairman LBJ. The book was inspired by Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-Tung (the little red book). Compiled by Jack Shepherd and Christopher Wren and published by Schuster in the annus horribilis of 1968, the book consisted of supposedly laughable quotes uttered by President Johnson. It was popular enough to go through multiple printings. My copy derives from the third printing. Despite its success as a publishing venture I cant find much in the book that in the fullness of time has proved laughable or derisory except the attitude it displays toward Johnson as the left turned on him.

I dont think any Democratic president since Johnson has inspired the same kind of book. The form has been dedicated to documenting the supposed stupidity of Republican presidents such as Ronald Reagan (Reagan Quotes, compiled by Mark Tracy from two books by liberals about Reagan) and George W. Bush (George W. Bushisms, compiled by Jacob Weisberg).

I tried to resurrect the form for President Obama in several posts I called Quotations From Chairman Barry. Has any president ever served up anything remotely like the ludicrous celebration of himself that Obama delivered in June 2008 in St. Paul to mark his winning the contest for the Democratic nomination for president over Madam Hillary? He actually said this: I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal Now that is risible.

In his Boston Herald column today, Howie Carr gets the ball rolling for Dementia Joe, as he calls him. He collects quotable quotes from the past week. Each one is risible, not for its megalomania or falsity, but rather for its incoherence and confusion. As I have been saying, the man has half a mind to be president.

Howie observes: Practically none of this Biden babbling ever makes the network newscasts, because the reporters are all Democrat stenographers with press passes. The campaign seems to permit no questions except from those card-carrying comrades reliably in the satchel.

Here are two Biden quotes from Howies column:

If you change the tax rate it went from 38 percent to 21. If you just send it back to 20 uh  38%, um, if you  36% to 28, thats what we started trying to do.

He [i.e., Trump] promised his administration would enforce every last buy in American provision on behalf of the American people and what makes his wild claims and hopes, he now hopes we dont notice what he said or wont remember and when he does follow through or doesnt do when follow through, the exact opposite.

More here.

The humor will be harder to detect when the guy is elected president and takes up residence in the White House along with Dr. Jill Edith Biden.
JERUSALEM: A prominent Israeli minister resigned on Sunday in protest over an expected government decision to impose a nationwide lockdown this week ahead of the Jewish New Year due to rising coronavirus cases.

Housing Minister Yaakov Litzman, who served as health minister during the initial outbreak of the virus in Israel, criticized the anticipated lockdown measure as extreme and said it would cause undue suffering to the public.

Litzman, who heads an influential ultra-Orthodox faction in the coalition government, expressed particular ire toward restrictions that will limit observant Jews from attending communal prayers at synagogues during the upcoming holidays.

The decision to impose a full lockdown over the holidays was planned in advance out of a lack of appreciation to the Jewish holidays," he said in his resignation letter. My heart is with the hundreds of thousands of Jews who come to synagogue once a year and won't this year because of the lockdown."

Israel earned praise earlier this year for its initial handling of the coronavirus domestically, moving quickly to seal the countrys borders and appearing to bring the outbreak under control. It has since been criticized for opening businesses and schools too quickly and allowing the virus to spread once again.

With the country reporting record levels of new coronavirus cases each day, the government is expected to vote Sunday in favor of another nationwide lockdown to curb the outbreak.

Israel has had more than 150,000 confirmed cases of virus and more than 1,100 deaths. Given its population of 9 million, the country now has one of the worlds worst outbreaks.

Litzman himself contracted the virus earlier this year.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced a national furor over his handling of the pandemic. Weekly protests demanding his resignation over corruption charges have now grown to include those demanding he resign over his handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

Perhaps more damaging politically is the anger boiling among ultra-Orthodox Jews, who have been among Netanyahu's strongest supporters. Their leaders have used their political weight thus far to curb sweeping restrictions against their lifestyle of group study and prayer.

Infection rates in ultra-Orthodox communities have been among the highest in the country. The ultra-Orthodox tend to live in poor, crowded neighborhoods where the virus can quickly spread. Synagogues, the centerpiece of social life, bring men together to pray and socialize in small spaces.

Last week, Netanyahu announced overnight curfews on some 40 cities and towns hit hardest by the coronavirus, including several with large ultra-Orthodox populations, but backed away from reported recommendations for full lockdowns after an uproar by politically powerful religious politicians.

Israelis typically hold large family gatherings and pack synagogues during the important fast of Yom Kippur, which comes days after the Jewish New Year.

At the start of his weekly Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu expressed regret over Litzman's resignation, though he said he respected it. He said severe measures were now needed after health officials raised a red flag."

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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Michigan Made Open Air Market returned this weekend from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday to Canturbury Village, located at 2359 Joslyn Court in Lake Orion, for its 2020 run, according to Canterbury Villages Facebook page.

The show, which took place outside behind the Canterbury Castle this year, featured arts and crafts and homemade items from Michigan craftsmen, such as Michigan patio-shaped chairs and jewelry.

It also featured Michigan-made food and drinks, as it does traditionally, including beer, wine, cocktails and Faygo pop.

This year, however, the market of Michigan-made items was set up with additional sanitation and safety measures in accordance with the state of Michigans current guidelines with regards to the coronavirus pandemic, with masks required. This is also likely why it was held outdoors this year.

Admission was free to all participants; however, there was a $5 parking fee.

Many craftsmen set up booths at the event this year, including Cheryl and Glen Brittingham, of the VFW Post 822 in Flint.

Glen is an executive chef and the couple makes chips and salsa in Flint. They have a shop at Canterbury Village.

Cheryl said the business is more for charity, however, because their profits from making the chips and salsa go to the veterans they support.

Well, it goes back to the VFW Post where we make (the chips and salsa), she said. Any charity that has something to do with veterans, we are there. So far, we have donated over $40,000 since 2012.

Roxann Kesterson, another vendor whose business, Carved Coins, LLC, specializes in custom carving coins into pendants or in collectors cases.

Necklaces in the shape or outline of Michigan were displayed at the market on Saturday.

About seven years ago I started having back pain and went through six minor surgeries on my spine and I could not work a standard job anymore,Kesterson said, explaining how she got started.

My husband and I got a little desperate and started selling his grandfathers coin collection just to pay the bills an get by. We started buying, selling and trading silver at Gibraltar and we found someone that was laser cutting jigsaw puzzles out of silver dollars and my husband thought that it was really cool, she said.

But, we could not afford the (lasar tool, which was was $20k). But, it was $20 for a handsaw, so I ordered a $20 saw and bought a roll of quarters and a roll of pennies from the bank and I just started playing, Kesterson said.

Now, she also sells her art online, and her website, carvedcoins.com, showcases many different designs, including carved initials and the Batman symbol.

For more information on this years show, visit Canterbury Villages website or see their page on Facebook.

Michigan Made Open Air Market returns to Canterbury Village, in photos

Oakland County area orchards and cider mills open for the season

Women can learn self-defense at free classes in Oakland County

Canterbury Village hosts Hippie weekend in Lake Orion

Make the most of your home improvement dollars
New Delhi, Sep 13 : Banks have sanctioned loans worth over Rs 1.63 lakh crore to MSMEs and other eligible businesses so far, under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for over 42 lakh borrowers, the Finance Ministry said on Sunday.

Out of the total sanctioned amount over Rs 1.18 lakh crore has been disbursed, it said.

"As on 10.09.2020, as reported by Public Sector Banks and top 23 private sector banks, additional credit amounting to Rs 1,63,226.49 crore has been sanctioned to 42,01,576 borrowers. Amount of Rs 1,18,138.64 crore has been disbursed to 25,01,999 borrowers as on 10.09.2020," it said.

The ministry statement laying down the progress of the schemes announced under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat economic package in May, said that as on September 11, around 37 proposals involving an amount of Rs 10,590 crore have been approved under the Rs 30,000 crore Special Liquidity Scheme for NBFCs, housing finance companies and micro finance institutions.

Six more applications seeking financing of Rs 783.5 crore are under process.

On the Rs 30,000 crore Additional Emergency Working Capital Funding for farmers through NABARD, the ministry said that as on August 28, 2020, Rs 25,000 crore has been disbursed.

It added that the balance amount of Rs 5,000 crore under the Special Liquidity Facility (SLF) has been allocated to NABARD by the RBI for smaller NBFCs and NBFC-MFIs and ANABARD is finalising operational guidelines to roll it out soon.

Besides, NABARD has also launched Structured Finance and Partial Guarantee scheme in collaboration with two agencies and banks to help unrated NBFCs and MFIs to get credit from lenders.

This mechanism worked out with two such agencies and banks will enhance eligibility of credit by 5-6 times to those small MFIs who do not have any rating. Once all the earmarked Rs 500 crore for this scheme is deployed, credit availability to those small NBFCs and MFIs is expected to reach to an extent of Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,000 crore.

Further, refunds of over Rs 1.01 lakh crore have been issued to more than 27.55 lakh taxpayers between April 1, 2020 and September 8, 2020. Income tax refunds of Rs 30,768 crore have been issued in 25,83,507 cases and corporate tax refunds of Rs 70,540 crore have been issued in 1,71,155 cases.

All corporate tax refunds up to Rs 50 crore have been issued in all cases, wherever due, it said.
Something to look forward to: Sony will conduct one last, special "PlayStation 5 showcase" livestream this week. In it, theyre expected to announce the price and release date of the PS5, while showing off gameplay from launch titles.

Sony describes the event as one more look at some of the great games coming to PS5 at launch (and beyond!) and says it will weight in at around 40 minutes, and feature updates on the latest titles. The stream will be available on Twitch and YouTube this Wednesday, September 16, at 1pm PT / 4pm ET.

Last week, Microsoft announced that the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S will both launch on November 10, and cost $499 and $299, respectively. Pre-orders start on September 22. Sony is expected to battle Microsoft at every point of contention.

Friday brought the rumor that Sonys planned price for the PS5 had to be reduced to match the Xboxs value. Let's not forget their failure to do so in 2006 is what doomed the launch of the PS3. Analysts now expect Sonys console to match the Xbox Series X at $499. The disc-less version, meanwhile, could arrive at $399.

Relative to Microsofts pricing, Sony could have a tough fight on their hands. The Xbox Series X is expected to be more powerful than the PS5, but Sonys console has an impressive new fast storage implementation. Microsoft is offering the stellar Xbox Game Pass, but Sony will have more exclusives  its no wonder they want to show them off on Wednesdays livestream; hopefully, theyll soften the blow once we hear the price.
STATEN ISLAND N.Y. -- When everyday life came to a halt, these brave Staten Islanders continued to move forward.

Meet some of Staten Islands essential workers, who have been reporting their jobs every day to serve our community.

From medical personnel to Amazon drivers to deli clerks, we are looking to highlight the ones who have been on the frontlines since the start of the pandemic.
Ex-Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness believes Liverpool and Manchester United are 'blackmailing' the Champions League winners over the signing of Thiago Alcantara.

The Spanish international has been heavily linked with a move to the Premier League this summer, and has made it known to the German club that he wants to explore a new challenge with just a year left on his contract.

Premier League champions Liverpool are the frontrunners, with United also interested, but Hoeness has accused the two English clubs of underhand tactics in order to sign the 29-year-old for a cheaper fee later in the window.

Ex-Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness has accused Liverpool and Man Utd of 'blackmail'

Bayern midfielder Thiago is keen for a new challenge with just a year left on his current deal

'It is a difficult situation,' he told German outlet Sport1.

'A while ago we agreed on a new four-year contract. Some days later he said: "I'm looking for a new challenge." Which is totally okay.

'I think he obviously has an agreement with Liverpool or Manchester United or both of them. Now both clubs are bluffing, and no one has contacted Bayern Munich officially.

'From my point of view, that has no style. They're trying to blackmail us, by waiting until the last week, when they're going to make a cheap offer.

'In that case FC Bayern have to ask themselves the question: do they want to go along with that or do they tell the player that he has to stay. It's going to be a hot three weeks until [the transfer window closes on] October 5.'

The Bayern Munich midfielder has been linked with Anfield for the entirety of the summer

The 68-year-old added that he felt uncomfortable with the manner in which top European clubs now communicated with regards to signings.

'At this time, there is a style evolving, even between the big clubs, which I did not know until now,' Hoeness added.

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp last week refused to completely rule out a summer deal for Thiago.

'If I could invent a word that would end speculation I think I could become really rich,' Klopp joked.

The Spaniard is currently on an extended holiday with his wife and children in Barcelona

'I cannot end speculation as long as the transfer window is open so that's all really I can say. Did I mention Thiago Alcantara is a really good player? Long ago already!

'It's nice we are linked with him but that's pretty much all really. It's because he's a good player and Liverpool is big club so that's nice.'

Latest reports from German outlet BILD state that Thiago has agreed personal terms with Liverpool, with the Bayern Munich midfielder currently spending time on holiday in Barcelona.
Bentley Systems, a leading global provider of comprehensive software and digital twins services for advancing the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure, has announced the launch of OpenGround Cloud, a new cloud service that enables geotechnical professionals to access reliable geotechnical data for better engineering decision support and to improve collaboration across the entire supply chain.

OpenGround Cloud offers a complete solution for planning, data entry, borehole log production, lab data management, reporting and visualization.

The cloud service improves collaboration across multidisciplinary project teams and significantly increases the value of geotechnical data by making it easily accessible to key project stakeholders.

Geotechnical project team dynamics and the applications and services they require to manage natural resources are changing rapidly.

According to Bentley, relevant geotechnical data is typically dispersed across various applications and devices and can be cumbersome to gather and consolidate, complicating the effective and timely use of this data.

Now, with OpenGround Cloud, geotechnical engineers can readily access reliable, high-quality current and historical geotechnical data for the modeling, simulation, and analysis of infrastructure projects ground conditions, it stated.

Scott Devoe, senior director, geotechnical information management, Bentley Systems, said, "OpenGround Cloud provides a single enterprise repository of multiple data sources for all ground investigation projects - a long-sought improvement for geotechnical and geological professionals."

"It eliminates the need to retain copies or to exchange data and ensures that everyone in the supply chain has the correct access rights to the most current version. As a result, OpenGround Cloud helps minimize project delays due to encountering unforeseen ground risks during construction," he noted.

Richard OBrien, principal process engineer with Atkins, said: "From a risk management perspective, we are now able to more easily identify the gaps in data, to highlight risk items and, if required, assist in the planning of targeted ground investigations."

"From the tender process, when local site data availability is limited, through to detailed design, we are now able to undertake data-driven assessments to aid in our decision-making," he added.

OBrien pointed out that the OpenGround Cloud gives the ability to determine and cross-reference the organizations geotechnical parameters and correlations with those available from literature sources.

"Tender design is made more efficient and we can consider a wider range of site properties leading to reductions in geotechnical risk. Ground investigations are planned more effectively taking into consideration multidiscipline and multiproject data leading to reduced costs," he explained.

"And, detailed designs are delivered from a more complete perspective, which leads to greater value for the client," he stated.

Cedric Allenou, ground engineering lead, Lower Thames Crossing, said, OpenGround Cloud improved the workflow for all members of the team. The various add-ins are faster within the cloud version of the database, which is useful when dealing with large datasets such as CPT data.

"In addition, maintaining the link with the database when members of other organizations need to access the data has also improved the workflow due to the servers being cloud-based," observed Allenou.

"As a result, external support teams can more easily solve issues that arise. The process allows rapid responses and minimizes potential downtime on the project," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
On the eve of a visit to California as wildfires continue to rage across the state, Donald Trump doubled down on his claim that bad forest management is to blame for the recent devastation there.

After repeating his false claim that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is hiding in his basement during the campaign, Mr Trump touted his busy travel schedule.

I'm all over the place. Im going to California from here, going over to see some of our great people that are doing such a great job with these monster fires that they have, he said at a roundtable with Latino voters in Nevada on Sunday.

And again, forest management. I keep telling them: forest management. And to manage your forests, Mr Trump said.

Oregon Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley pushed back against Mr Trumps position that forest fires are the product of poor forest management, saying it is not supported by science and is a cover for the real culprit: anthropomorphic climate change.

The president has said it's all about raking the forest.  It's just a  a big and devastating lie, Mr Merkley said in an interview with ABC News on Sunday.

The wildfires have also wreaked havoc across communities in Mr Merkleys state and in Washington.

The Cascade snowpacks have gotten smaller, the senator said. Our forests have gotten drier. Our ocean has gotten warmer and more acidic. And this has been happening steadily over the last several decades.

Mr Merkley urged Mr Trump to get serious about the root cause of the record heat wave that has stricken California and states on the West Coast this summer, contributing to the wildfires.

America not only has to get its own act in order, it has to help lead the world to take this on," Mr Merkley said. This is a planetary-scale tragedy of the commons that we need leadership to end.

Mr Trump has expressed a reluctance to send aid to California during the current wildfire crisis as well as past ones throughout his administration.

"I said you've got to clean your floors, you got to clean your forests," the president said at a rally in Pennsylvania in August.

Maybe we're just going to have to make them pay for it because they don't listen to us, Mr Trump said.

At least 25 people have died in the wildfires this summer, officials have reported. The fires have damaged millions of acres of land, including vast swaths of farmland.

California is the largest food-producing state in the country.
BERRY CREEK, Butte County  When Ira Payne reached the green suspension bridge over Lake Oroville at about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, the hill beside it was in flames and an overturned car was blocking the only road out.

Payne and his neighbor doubled back to a boat dock along the lake, with a line of cars and two fire trucks behind them. For an agonizing half-hour, about 100 people could do nothing. It was pitch black. They couldnt see the fire, but they could smell it burning.

Right there was probably the most nerve-wracking, Payne said. Basically hell.

Once firefighters cleared the flipped car from the road, the residents raced down the mountain and across the bridge, which was ablaze in orange flames. But in the massive, fast-moving inferno of the North Complex that exploded that night, not everyone made it out. The Butte County Sheriffs Office confirmed Saturday evening that 12 people had died, with two identified from Berry Creek. Sheriff Kory Honea said the victims were aware of fire but chose not to immediately evacuate.

Their deaths were the result of a confluence of factors, said residents who fled and family members who lost loved ones. Strong winds pushed the fire, which had been burning for three weeks north of Berry Creek, straight toward the town, leaving little chance for warning. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. had shut off power Monday night, a planned outage to prevent wildfires, leaving some residents without TV or internet in an area where cell phone service is hit or miss. And in the fire-weary community, some residents shrugged off the evacuation orders they receive every year.

This is one of the fires where there was no warning, said Zygy Roe-Zurz, whose 77-year-old aunt died near her car, trying to escape. On Saturday, he was still waiting for word of his uncle and mother, who also lived there and were missing. He wasnt hopeful.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

The power was out. The major means of communication wasnt available to them. All these things came together to create this tragedy, he said. Its really, really unfortunate and Im really sad.

Berry Creek, a town of around 3,000, drew people looking to escape into the mountains, to raise their kids in peace and quiet, or to pay less to live. The town had a small school with about 50 kids up to eighth grade, and a handful of businesses. In the past few years, evacuation orders have annually driven residents out of their homes, with fires devastating nearby areas but never quite reaching Berry Creek.

This year was different. As soon as Cal Fire sent word of the imminent danger, Honea sent out an evacuation warning to the town around 2:45 p.m. Tuesday, and then an order 45 minutes later.

As soon as we understood the gravity of the situation from our counterparts in the fire service, we issued evacuation orders utilizing multiple ways and methods including sending deputies up into those areas, and got that evacuation going, Honea said Friday.

Some residents left immediately. Others, lulled into complacency from their past experiences, didnt. Still others said the lack of communication services left them in the dark about the risks, with some but not all residents receiving push alert notifications to evacuate on their cell phones. Payne said he never got an alert: The same day, his sister tried to call him for three hours, with no answer.

Samantha Jarrell, who lived in Berry Creek for 9 years, did get a warning on her phone to evacuate, but wasnt worried. She left only after seeing the fire on the evening news three hours later, grabbing the familys Social Security cards, birth certificates and tax papers. Her three kids packed three outfits and their favorite books. They all thought they would be back soon.

Samanthas husband, Josh Jarrell, stayed behind to ride out the fire at their home on Sugar Pine Drive. But by 11 p.m., it started snowing ash. Embers flew through the air. The bottoms of his boots started to melt.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

Jarrell, the last one on his road to leave, careened in his beat-up white truck to the Village Market, the only gas station and grocery store in Berry Creek. The owner and some residents were still in the parking lot.

Fire Tracker Follow wildfires across the state Latest updates on wildfires burning across Northern and Southern California

People were in hysteria, Josh Jarrell said.

He honked and yelled at them to get out as he took off. Driving down Oro Quincy Highway, the ash was so thick he had to use his windshield wipers.

He could hear propane tanks exploding. The tops of the trees were glowing and flames shot up on both sides of the winding road.

Just north of Berry Creek in Brush Creek, Chris Woolf knew he had to leave when he put his drone up in the sky and saw flames engulfing trees on three sides of his cabin. Within 15 minutes, he and his sister grabbed their three dogs and drove down the dirt road between walls of orange flames before screeching onto the highway and heading to Oroville.

Woolf, who lived in Brush Creek for nine years, had never followed evacuation orders, even when the Camp Fire, which burned through the town of Paradise in 2018, got within a quarter-mile of his home.

Too many times the warning came out and we would ignore it, he said. Every year about this time theres been a question of am I going to get burned out. This was the year it finally got me.

Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mallorymoench
The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court has refused to grant emergency parole to four convicts in the March 1993 serial bombings in Mumbai.

The four convicts, Sardar Shahwali Khan, Mohammed Moin Faridulla Qureshi, Niyaz Ahmed and Shaikh Ali Shaikh Umer, are serving life term at Harsool central prison at Aurangabad. They had moved the court after their applications for emergency parole, following a May 8 notification by the state for decongesting prisons in view of Covid-19 pandemic, were rejected by jail authorities on July 7 on the ground that they were convicted under provisions of a special statute -- the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) (TADA) Act -- and therefore, were not entitled to the benefit.

The bench of justice TV Nalawade and justice MG Sewlikar upheld the decision and held that the TADA convicts were not entitled to emergency parole. The bench said the notification states that those convicted for serious economic offences or bank scams or for offences under special Acts etc. were not entitled to emergency parole, and that these categories also included convicts under the TADA Act.

Two hundred and fifty seven people died and about 1,400 others were injured when a series of 13 high-intensity bombs exploded in Mumbai on March 12, 1993. Sardar Shahwali Khan, a civil contractor and aide of prime accused Tiger Memon, was convicted for conspiracy.
Bahrain moves to please the US, deter perceived regional threats by following in the UAEs footsteps, analysts say.

Twenty-six years after Bahrain welcomed an Israeli delegation for the first time, the small Gulf archipelago last week became the latest Arab country to agree to normalise its relationship with Israel.

It did not come as a surprise. Ever since US President Donald Trump announced on August 13 that the United Arab Emirates and Israel had agreed to establish diplomatic ties, there had been rife speculation that Bahrain would be next.

Despite Bahrain declaring last month that it was committed to the creation of a Palestinian state, the island state was always likely to follow the UAE suit once the taboo had been broken, Ian Black, visiting senior fellow at the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics, told Al Jazeera.

Home to the US Navys regional headquarters and connected to Saudi Arabia by a 25km (16 miles) causeway, Bahrain in recent years seemed less reluctant to publicise its relations with Israel.

In February 2017, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa met Jewish leaders in the United States and reportedly expressed opposition to the boycott of Israel by Arab countries. Later that year, the government-backed This is Bahrain interfaith group sparked outrage among Palestinians when it visited Israel only days after Trump had announced his controversial decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital and move the US embassy there.

Fridays deal with Israel was slammed by the Palestinians as another betrayal by an Arab state, further undermining their efforts to achieve self-determination and leaving them isolated under a new framework to regional peace dictated by Trumps administration that also views Iran as malice.

There is no doubt that this represents a grave blow to the Palestinians  and a bleak sense that their cause is no longer a priority for Arab regimes, Black said.

The Palestinian leadership wants an independent state based on the de facto borders before the 1967 war, in which Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and annexed East Jerusalem. Arab countries have long called for Israels withdrawal from already illegally occupied land, a just solution for Palestinian refugees and a settlement that leads to the establishment of a viable, independent Palestinian state in exchange for establishing ties with it.





Saudi influence

Even though regional heavyweight and Irans archenemy Saudi Arabia has so far signalled it is not ready to take the same step itself, analysts say the recent deals would not have happened without its support.

Bahrains political agenda is pretty much dictated by Saudi Arabia, according to Marwa Fatafta, a policy member with the Palestinian policy network Al-Shabaka.

In late 2018, just months before Manama agreed to host a US-led conference to unveil the economic part of Trumps so-called Middle East plan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait pledged $10bn in financial support for Bahrain to steady its finances.

Besides being financially dependent on its neighbours, Bahrains new alliance with Israel may help it entrench its power and crush any resistance to authoritarianism or efforts towards freedom and democracy, Fatafta said.

In 2011, during the onset of the Arab Spring uprisings, Saudi Arabia sent troops to Bahrain to suppress anti-government protests. Many of those who rallied against the Bahraini monarch were from the countrys majority Shia population who have long complained of repression.

So, joining the bandwagon led by the US may also provide the Bahraini monarchy continued protection against its own people, said Mouin Rabbani, co-editor of the Jadaliyya publication.

In normalising ties with Israel, Bahrain is ensuring it has gained an ally that is equally committed to maintaining the status quo and preventing the success of any popular uprisings, he said.

On Sunday, Bahrains top Shia leader Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, who lives abroad, rejected the recent normalisation deals with Israel and urged people in the region to resist.

Bahrain is the Gulf monarchy most at odds with its own people, argued Rabbani.

Common geopolitical interests

Strengthening the status quo also means singling out other main players in the region, such as Shia clerical state Iran, and even Turkey, according to analysts.

The US and Israel have launched a comprehensive campaign to remove the question of Palestine from not only the international but also regional agenda, and to replace the Arab-Israeli conflict with an Arab-Iranian conflict, Rabbani said.





At a time of regional upheaval, these Gulf states are driven by a desire to solidify their relations with Washington, he added.

Black said Bahrain cares more about pleasing Washington, but also noted that mutual hostility towards Iran is a key part of the emerging alliances.

Fatafta also believes that the teaming up comes with common geopolitical interests.

They found in Israel a strong ally against their number one enemy: Iran, she said.

For some of these states, the Iranian threat has grown in recent years, perhaps too quickly in neighbouring Yemen, as well as in Syria and Lebanon  which border Israel.

In Yemen, Saudi Arabia remains deadlocked in a war waging since March 2015 against the Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels, while in Syria, the proxies of the Shia Lebanese group Hezbollah fight in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assads government  a staunch ally of Iran.

Saudi Arabia, which said earlier this month it would allow all flights between the UAE and Israel to cross its airspace, continues to be the key in determining which countries could follow in the footsteps of Bahrain and the UAE.

One needs to distinguish between different Gulf states, Black said. Qatar and Kuwait are unlikely to follow the Emirati example. The key is Saudi Arabia which has reiterated its commitment to the Arab Peace Initiative he added, referring to the 2002 plan that laid out Arab countries conditions for normalising ties with Israel.

But that position may change in the future, Black said.





Reclaiming PLO

A signing ceremony for the deals between Israel and Bahrain and the UAE, which will normalise diplomatic, commercial, security and other relations, is expected to be held in Washington, DC on Tuesday.

Opening direct dialogue and ties between these two dynamic societies and advanced economies will continue the positive transformation of the Middle East and increase stability, security, and prosperity in the region, a joint statement by the US, Bahrain and Israel said last week.

Now, it seems unlikely that long-stalled negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian leadership would resume under the framework of the US-broked Oslo Accords, signed in the 1990s between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

While Oslo did little to help Palestinians, Israel has moved to further entrench its control over the occupied Palestinian territories, with Washingtons backing. Earlier this year, Trumps so-called Middle East plan greenlighted the Israeli annexation of large swaths of the occupied West Bank including illegal settlements and the Jordan Valley, giving Israel a permanent eastern border along the Jordan River.

If a viable two-state solution is no longer on the regional and international agenda, then there is no other workable solution for ending the occupation, Black said.

Fatafta concurred that the diplomacy track taken since Oslo by Palestinian leaders has failed and said Palestinians must reclaim the PLO if they wish to achieve self-determination.

Rabbani also said no change will come about unless there is a comprehensive restructuring and rebuilding of the national movement on the basis of a thorough disengagement from the structures and relationships developed on the basis of the Oslo agreements.

Its a tall order, not impossible, but will never happen until the current leadership passes or is forced from the scene.
Tension prevailed in Goghat town in West Bengals Hooghly district on Sunday morning after the body of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker was found hanging from a tree near the local railway station.

Relatives of Ganesh Roy, the deceased, alleged that he was murdered by Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers. Roy was our active worker and he was murdered. If he had died by suicide, the body should have been hanging. Roys feet were touching the ground, alleged Biman Ghosh, BJPs Arambagh organisation district unit president.

Talking on the condition of anonymity, an officer from Goghat police station said police personnel were stopped from taking the body to the morgue for autopsy. A crowd created disturbance and blocked the Kamarpukur-Kolkata highway. We had to chase them away, the officer said.

The body was later taken to Burdwan Medical College for postmortem. Additional police force was deployed at Goghat.

Killing our workers, leaders and hanging their bodies has become a routine in Bengal. Our legislator from Hemtabad was killed in a similar manner, said BJP state president Dilip Ghosh. He met governor Jagdeep Dhankhar to complain about law and order situation in the state.

Reacting to the BJPs allegation, urban development minister Firhad Hakim said, BJP is doing politics with every death that takes place. Whenever there is an unnatural death, they charge the TMC with murder.

Meanwhile, the criminal investigation department (CID) of the West Bengal Police on Saturday submitted charge sheet in the mysterious death of Debendranath Roy, the BJP legislator from Hemtabad in north Bengal. Roys body was found hanging outside a shop on July 13.

The CID has charged two acquaintances of Roy with criminal conspiracy, cheating and abetment to suicide. The accused were arrested after Roys death. We had said Roy was murdered and demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). We will move the Supreme Court with our demand, Ghosh said in Kolkata while talking about the Goghat incident.

In August, the Calcutta high court turned down the BJPs petition for CBI probe into the MLAs death. Subsequently, a Kolkata resident filed a petition in the Supreme Court.
Security footage of gunman firing at patrol car - Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department

Two Los Angeles sheriffs deputies were in a critical condition after being shot in an ambush outside a suburban metro station on Saturday night.

A security video showed a man walking up to the patrol car as if he was going to pass it, before pulling out a gun and firing shots through the passenger window.

Los Angeles Sheriffs Department said the shootings were without warning or provocation.

Both victims, who suffered multiple gunshot wounds, were rookie officers. They graduated from the police academy only 14 months ago.

One was a 24-year old man, the other a 31-year-old mother of a six-year old boy.

That was a cowardly act. The two deputies were doing their job, minding their own business and watching out for the safety of the people on the train, said Sheriff Alex Villanueva.

These are real people, doing a tough job, It shows the dangers of the job in the blink of an eye.

He described the shooter, who fled the scene on foot, as a dark-skinned male.

The shootings in Compton, which lies south of the centre of Los Angeles, took place against a backdrop of mounting tension in the area , with Sheriff Villaneuvas department facing criticism during recent protests.

With the officers fighting for their lives after undergoing emergency surgery, demonstrators gathered outside the hospital.

Donald Trump, who retweeted the video footage of the incident, described the shooter as an animal, who needed to be hit hard.

Aja Brown, the Democrat mayor of Compton, said she was devastated by the attack. "Both deputies and their families will remain in our prayers.

Speaking on CNNs State of the Union Los Angeles Democrat mayor, Eric Garcetti added: Of course theres an important conversation going on about policing in this country, but these are folks who put their lives on the line for us, and we will find justice for them.
KC Tribute Endures Pandemic

Kansas City 911 Memorial Stair Climb continues despite COVID-19 KANSAS CITY, Mo. - More than 300 firefighters converged Saturday in Kansas City, Missouri, to spend time over two days honoring those who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001.

Local Heroes Well Remembered

Hundreds gather to raise money for scholarship fund honoring fallen KC firefighter Lenexa KS- Hundreds came together Saturday to raise money for scholarships - and to remember a fallen hero. On October 12, 2015, Firefighter John Mesh answered his last alarm. He died from injuries he received responding to a building fire that was intentionally set. Following his death, John's brother, Jim, set up the John V.

Newspaper Promotes Shame

Chiefs watchers from Washington to Virginia are ashamed of the booing at Arrowhead I'm done, Chiefs. I was settling in to watch Kansas City take on Houston when the pregame booing started. I switched channels, and you lost a fan. This, of course, after the self-serving display of Christianity by your owners and all the bragging about "Kansas City nice" when you won the Super Bowl.

Everybody Selling Panties And Soap For The Holidays

Hiring kicks off to fill hundreds of thousands of roles for the holiday shopping season A handful of retailers, e-commerce sites and delivery giants are announcing their plans to hire hundreds of thousands of workers to prepare for a holiday shopping season unlike any other. Americans spent more than $730 billion on holiday shopping in 2019, according to the National Retail Federation.

Top Trading Partner Statement

Chinese military spokesman: US is 'destroyer of world peace' A spokesman for China's defense ministry said on Sunday that the U.S. is the "destroyer of world peace" while criticizing a Pentagon report on Beijing's military goals. The Associated Press reported that Col. Wu Qian called the Department of Defense report released earlier this month a "wanton distortion" of his nation's intentions.

Prez Speaks Up For Police

Trump says suspect in ambush shooting of LA sheriff's deputies 'must be hit hard' President Trump called the suspect in the ambush shooting of two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies "animals" as he continued a three-day swing through western states to push his law-and-order platform. "Animals that must be hit hard!," the president posted on Twitter early Sunday morning after a campaign speech in Nevada.

In Defense Of COVID Response

Exclusive: Top health officials defend Trump against Bob Woodward's coronavirus claims President Trump's most senior health officials leaped to his defense against allegations that he mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic, insisting that he based his decisions on the best scientific advice and saved lives.

PROTECT THE VEEP!!!

Joe Biden's security breached while boarding campaign plane Johnstown, Pa. - An unidentified photographer breached Joe Biden's Secret Service perimeter this afternoon as the candidate boarded his charter plane in Pennsylvania.

Americans Need New Check

Where we stand with second stimulus checks, unemployment benefits and ban on evictions As Congress remains deadlocked over a new coronavirus relief package, the future of stimulus checks, unemployment benefits and the ban on evictions remains uncertain. Much of the coronavirus relief provided to Americans in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act has been used, and lawmakers in Congress are still in disagreement on the price tag attached to another round.

Local Artsy Life Explored

Art House Extra | 'The Disrupted' Explores Working Life in America TOPEKA, Kan. - Fifth-generation Kansan Donn Teske's commitment to family farm survival and humility inspired by German Lutheran lineage argued against taking part in a documentary capturing adversity of three seemingly divergent middle-class Americans compelled to adapt in a turbulent economy.

Golden Ghetto Training Day

Lenexa Police Department hosts use-of-force workshop KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Members of the general public were put into realistic police scenarios on Saturday in Lenexa. The Lenexa Police Department hosted a use-of-force workshop, which it has done since 2016, to be transparent about its practices. Attendees used video firearms simulators to mimic scenarios that officers face on a daily basis.

Glorious Sunday Kansas City

Beautiful Sunday, highs in upper 70s IT IS LIMITED, BUT IT IS FINE. OUR TEMPERATURES RIGHT NOW, IN KANSAS CITY IT IS 58. OVERLAND PARK, 50 EIGHT DEGREES. GRANDVIEW, 55. INDEPENDENCE, 56 THIS MORNING. THIS AFTERNOON IS GOING TO BE ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL DAYS YOU COULD ASK FOR.

Quick review of pop culture, community news and some of the top headlines for today . . .is the song of the day and this is the OPEN THREAD for right now . . .
BOSTON  It was the fourth day of her freshman year at Northeastern University, and Maddie Harrington still hadn't met anyone living in her dorm.

Harrington, 18, said people weren't making much of an effort to say hello in the hallways, because COVID-19 safety protocols restrict freshmen from entering anyone's dorm room but their own. Worse, she knew that if she found herself caught up in camaraderie and decided to visit someone else's room, she could be dismissed and sent home, just as 11 other freshmen were after having been found in a hotel-turned-dorm room on Sept. 4. In a show of force, the university kept the students' tuition  which was more than $36,000  before the students had even completed their first week of college.

Harrington, who is from Gloucester, Massachusetts, said the traditional ways to meet people on campus, like running into them at dining halls and libraries, have disappeared. Now, to make friends, freshmen must approach peers standing next to them in lines to pick up cafeteria meals. But Harrington said it's difficult to put herself out there, given that such introductions involve weighing potential health risks.

IMAGE: Maddie Harrington (Ben Kesslen / NBC News)

Students at hundreds of colleges who returned to campus in August and September are grappling with a new normal. College life, 2020 style, is theoretically devoid of roaming free, party-hopping and congregating in the dining hall.

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

At Northeastern, home to around 20,000 undergraduates, the administration is gambling on staying open during the pandemic by implementing a complicated hybrid remote and in-person plan, strict social distancing and masking rules, and mandatory testing guidelines that require students to be tested every three days. In other words, student life as it was once known has been sacrificed to the hope of keeping the campus, and the school's bank accounts, alive.

At Northeastern, classes are offered both in person and online, depending on density restrictions, and students get to choose week to week whether they want to be in class or virtual. Nearby Boston University has cobbled together a similarly complicated hybrid model paired with a testing regimen.

Story continues

At Harvard University, all instruction this fall is remote, whether students are on campus or off. In July, Berklee College of Music threw up its hands and announced that it would be fully remote for the fall. The only consensus was that there was no perfect solution.

When Boston locked down in mid-March and the Northeastern campus closed, Masako Donahue, 19, then a freshman, went home to Tokyo. She continued to attend online, but waking up at 3, 4 or 5 a.m. for classes because of the time difference quickly made remote study untenable. "There was no doubt I wanted to go back to campus," she said.

Donahue called the new campus safety measures, like testing every three days and steep consequences for breaking the school's COVID-19 pledge, "a bit extreme," but she said she understands why they exist. She feels bad for the 11 dismissed students, who were all supposed to be studying abroad their first semester but instead found themselves housed in a Boston Westin Hotel far from the main campus.

"I think the school suspended them to show others they aren't being lenient," she said. It worked. "It scared us, for sure."

The guidelines meant to keep students on campus, however, are also taking away campus culture, Donahue said. "Our freshman year, we went to frat parties. Yesterday, we had to go to a field."

Donahue's friend Maya Osman, a sophomore, decided to opt out of dorm life this year altogether.

"I was supposed to be in a single, which would not be good for my mental health," she said. "My parents live 20 minutes away, and I'm saving $17,000 by living at home."

Decisions like Osman's, to save money and stay home, are in part why schools like Northeastern have invested so much in reopening. It's a simple calculation: Without students on campus, the university loses money. The pandemic and its subsequent economic turmoil have destabilized higher education budgets, especially when private universities like Northeastern are able to charge students thousands in residency requirements. And the decision affects more than just students, because local economies suffer without students and campus staffers discover that their jobs are in jeopardy.

IMAGE: Gerald Cotten (Matthew Modoono / Northeastern University)

Despite saving money on housing costs, Osman still wonders why she is paying more than $55,000 in tuition and fees when all of her classes happen to be online and she has to make an appointment to use the library.

In person, the lengths Northeastern is going to to stay open have turned the campus into a pale shadow of what campus once was. On weekday afternoons, long lines now stretch around the campus as students, staff members and faculty members wait to enter Cabot Cage, a gymnasium-turned-large-scale testing facility.

In addition to the mandatory student testing requirements, faculty and staff members and contract workers who visit the Boston campus more than once a week are tested twice a week. Under the new rules, students can't take even sips of water during class. Entire floors of books have been removed from the library to make way for single-person carrels spaced apart. Masks must be kept on outdoors, even when people are socially distanced.

In August, the school sent letters threatening to rescind admission to 115 incoming freshmen who responded to an Instagram poll saying they would party on campus this fall. The school set up a hotline where students can report their peers for breaking social distancing guidelines. On campus, students mostly walk around solo, with earbuds, visibly nervous. Indoors, they eat alone, at tables set for one and purposefully too far apart to really hold conversations. Clubs are online. The campus center is mostly empty.

Osman described the COVID-19 protocols as "a little bit prison-esque."

Jill Jacobson, 21, a graduate student from North Carolina who got her undergraduate degree at Northeastern, worries about the long-term sociological impact of the new guidelines.

"The university has a massive infrastructure to report rule-breaking," she said. "That sort of whistleblowing and surveillance creates tension, hostility and distrust. We spend a year hiding, and I'm not sure it will be easy to come back from that."

IMAGE: Jill Jacobson (Ben Kesslen / NBC News)

Jacobson's fears are backed up by experts, who say shaming and blaming won't be effective tools to get college students to stay safe and that they could make things worse.

Julia Marcus, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School, previously told NBC News that it is "unconscionable" for administrators to blame students for the "failure of their own public health plan."

"They're not going to tell anyone that they attended a party, because they've been told they're going to be thrown off campus," she said, adding that colleges should, instead, focus on harm-reduction models.

The university seems to be "practicing wishful thinking," Jacobson said, adding that she has been taking classes in person on campus nonetheless, because her education can't be replicated online.

Northeastern insisted that it wants to "create a culture of care" that helps the entire community stay healthy.

"We have encouraged people to call and report things. We have also encouraged people to engage someone walking down the street who is not wearing their mask properly," said Madeleine Estabrook, the school's senior vice chancellor for student affairs.

Estabrook said she isn't focused on what students can't do but instead on helping them find new and safe ways to get to know one another and build a community, pointing to a socially distanced circle of students on their laptops, all playing cards together virtually.

Northeastern said that as of Thursday, it had only 41 positive cases in 72,819 tests and that its seven-day average positive test rate was a low 0.06 percent.

IMAGE: Cabot Testing Center at Northeastern University (Ruby Wallau / Northeastern University)

Still, the school took some heat from the student body, faculty members and the community. At a City Council meeting in July, UNITE HERE Local 26, a union that represents hospitality workers in Boston, raised concerns that the school's plan to house students in hotels would create additional risk for hotel staffers, according to the school's independent student newspaper, The Huntington News.

More criticism came when a now-removed webpage that appeared in August promised a coming book by university President Joseph Aoun titled "We Will Remain: A University, a Global Crisis, and Lessons of Leadership." Students lambasted the book's premise online, saying the school was prioritizing brand building over their safety.

In a description, the book said Aoun's leadership "offers lessons for every organization" and framed his management of the crisis as complete and finished. MIT Press, the book's publisher, said a "data error" was responsible for publication of a proposal for a book that has since been killed. A Northeastern spokesperson said plainly that there is "no book," but some students still wonder whose interests are at the heart of the school's plan.

In line to get a mandated COVID-19 test, Damla Cehreli, a graduate student from California who uses they/them pronouns, said they have no interest in being on campus. Cehreli is skeptical of the school's decision to offer in-person instruction, especially because, as an urban campus, it's not in anything near a closed environment, the way some smaller, rural schools might be.

Cehreli, 23, comes to campus only to get the mandatory COVID-19 tests and then leaves immediately.

Like many Northeastern students, they feel a mix of sympathy, pity and understanding about the decision to dismiss 11 students who were trying to get to know one another.

"If the school encouraged everyone to go remote," Cehreli said, "this wouldn't have happened."

CORRECTION (Sept. 13, 2020, 7:45 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated how often students are Northeastern University at tested for the coronavirus. They are tested every three days, not every two weeks.
India saw 31 children die by suicide every day in 2020; experts say Covid upped psychological trauma

IIT-Bombay student jumps to death from 7th floor of hostel building, cites depression in 'suicide note'

NEET 2020: Tamil Nadu witnesses a spate of suicides

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Sep 13: Tamil Nadu on Saturday witnessed a spate of alleged suicides by medical aspirants on the eve of the National Entrance cum Eligibility Test (NEET), with political parties opposed to the qualifying exam stepping up their demand for its scrapping.

The deaths brought back the focus on NEET in the state, with all political parties but for the BJP opposed to the qualifying exam.

NEET 2020: 19-year-old girl from Coimbatore commits suicide; second such death in a week

A girl and two men, aged between 19 and 21, allegedly died by suicide in Madurai, Dharmapuri and Namakkal districts, sending shock waves across the state.

Opposition parties in the state led by the DMK slammed the BJP-led Centre over the NEET issue, even as the ruling AIADMK, also opposed to the exam, rued the deaths of the youngsters.

The victims, a 19-year-old girl from Madurai and a 20-year-old youth from Dharmapuri, were found hanging in their homes in the respective districts, shocking people in the state that has witnessed a spate of suicides over the issue in the past three years.

Dalit girl Anitha from Ariyalur was the first victim who died by suicide in 2017 after she failed to crack NEET, despite good scores in Class XII exam, prompting the state political parties to mount an offensive against the Centre and demand for cancelling the exam.

On Saturday, Jothisri Durga and M Adithya allegedly ended their lives by hanging, police and district officials said in Madurai and Dharmapuri.

Similarly, Motilal (21) of Tiruchengode in Namakkal district also allegedly ended his life and was found hanging in his house, police said, adding, he had earlier appeared for NEET twice.

Durga, daughter of a Sub-Inspector, in a purported suicide note left behind by her said she was 'apprehensive' about NEET though others had high 'hopes' on her, police said.

Adithya, on the other hand, appeared for NEET exam last year but could not clear it. He had been preparing since then.

He was found hanging at his residence in the evening, Dharmapuri Collector S Malarvizhi said citing preliminary investigation.

His parents had gone to Salem to see the NEET exam centre where their son was to appear for the exam on Sunday.

"But they returned home to find their son hanging from the ceiling fan. His parents say Adithya has a good academic record," Malarvizhi told PTI.

NEET to be held today for over 15 lakh candidates amid strict Covid-19 precautions

The deaths come days after another medical aspirant in Ariyalur in the state also allegedly died by suicide.

Durga's death in the morning drew sharp responses from Tamil Nadu political parties opposed to NEET, even as Chief Minister K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam of the ruling AIADMK expressed shock over the incident.

DMK President M K Stalin said NEET "is not an exam at all."

Taking to Twitter, Palaniswami expressed grief over the "sad" incident and said students have many avenues to taste success and resorting to such extreme steps was distressing.

"It is distressing to see students, the hope for the future, taking such steps," he said.

Condoling the girl's death, he expressed his sympathies with the family.

In a tweet, Panneerselvam expressed grief over such incidents concerning the students, who are the "pillars of the future."

"Students should learn to face any situation with guts and parents should aid them in this," the deputy CM, also the AIADMK Coordinator, said.

State Revenue Minister R B Udhayakumar visited the family and consoled them.

School Education Minister K A Sengottaiyan said the Tamil Nadu government is against the NEET and has been urging the Centre to exempt the state from the test. He was responding to reporters' queries in Gobichettipalayam in Erode.

Stalin, Leader of the Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, expressed shock over the alleged suicide, but said killing oneself was not the solution.

"We can realise from the death of Anitha to Jothisri Durga that NEET is severely affecting students," he said in a tweet.

"I repeat, suicide is not a solution; NEET is not an exam at all. #BanNeet_SaveTNStudents," he added.

In a separate statement, he appealed to students not to resort to such extreme steps, asserting that success has to be achieved through struggle.

Training his guns on the Centre and the state government, he said "the student community is falling prey to the fire called NEET fuelled by them."

Assuring his party's support to the students on the issue, he said the DMK was prepared to take forward any legal or political struggle against NEET and it will be scrapped in the DMK rule, he said, in an apparent reference to the elections due next year.

Meanwhile, DMK Youth Wing Secretary and Stalin's son, Udhayanidhi visited the family and provided an assistance of Rs 5 lakh.

PMK MP Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, whose party is an NDA constituent, also condoled the student's death.

"#SayNoToNEET #BanNEET," the PMK Youth Wing leader tweeted.

His father and party founder Dr S Ramadoss condoled the deaths of the two and called for scrapping the exam.

Odisha govt to provide accommodation, transportation for NEET aspirants

MDMK founder and Rajya Sabha MP Vaiko slammed the BJP-led Centre, saying suicides of students in the state was happening due to the "imposition" of NEET on them.

Recalling various instances of suicides by students in Tamil Nadu, including that of Anitha, which had sparked an outrage in the state, Vaiko alleged that despite their high class XII scores, students from the poorer sections were 'filtered' in NEET and their medical dreams 'destroyed.'

"Cancellation of NEET alone can prevent such deaths," he said in a statement.

Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam leader and independent legislator, T T V Dhinakaran and Makkal Needhi Maiam founder Kamal Haasan also expressed anguish over Durga's death.

Many on Twitter expressed grief over the deaths and demanded that NEET be scrapped.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court had refused to entertain a batch of pleas seeking deferment or cancellation of NEET scheduled for Sunday.

A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan had said authorities will take all necessary steps for conducting the NEET-undergraduate exam amid the COVID-19 pandemic for admission in medical courses.

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Story first published: Sunday, September 13, 2020, 7:55 [IST]
The withdrawal of the southwest monsoon from west Rajasthan, which was likely to take place this week, is expected to be delayed due to the formation of cyclonic circulations, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Sunday. The IMD has also issued an orange alert for Telangana, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry for Monday.

The southwest monsoon was likely to start withdrawing from west Rajasthan this week. "But due to the formation of two low-pressure areas, the easterlies will travel all the way to Rajasthan. So, the withdrawal of monsoon from ...
While appearing at a 9/11 memorial Friday, state Sen. Michael Doherty remembered the hundreds of emergency responders  many from New Jersey  who died during the 2001 terrorist attacks and how hundreds of others have succumbed to related illnesses in the two decades since.

Doherty, one of the most outspokenly conservative members of New Jerseys Democratic-controlled state Legislature, then said recent calls across America to defund the police have come from Marxist organizations  including the Black Lives Matter movement  seeking to create chaos and mayhem in the United States.

The lawmaker, who is white, also insisted systemic racism is an evil lie" and doesnt really exist in the country.

Doherty, a former soldier in the U.S. Army, made the comments during a ceremony in Flemington honoring the 19th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

When trouble arrives, and people need help, first responders, the police, fire, and EMS, step into the breach, the lawmaker said. We need to support these heroic individuals.

Doherty, a frequent critic of Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and a longtime supporter of Republican President Donald Trump, proceeded to call 2020 a very disturbing year and that perhaps the most disturbing development has been the attack on law enforcement and calls to defund the police.

These demands to defund the police are based upon allegations of systemic racism being thrown about by Marxist organizations, such as Black Lives Matter, which have burned cities, burned churches, destroyed private property, and terrorized American citizens, Doherty said.

The United States does not have systemic racism, he added. It is an evil lie. We must have the courage to oppose these wicked, baseless allegations.

What does systemic racism mean? How is systemic racism defined? Doherty continued. Is it systemic racism when an African American, Barrack Obama, is elected twice as president? Is it systemic racism to provide free, taxpayer-funded health care for anyone who cannot afford it, regardless of race? Is it systemic racism to provide free, taxpayer funded food vouchers for those who cannot afford food, regardless of race?

Doherty delivered the remarks the same day Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver told law enforcement at a separate 9/11 ceremony in West Orange that we will never defund you.

To law enforcement, I want to share a message with you: We need you, we appreciate you, and want you to know with all the noise thats going on, we will never defund you, said Oliver, a Democrat and the highest-ranking Black elected state official in New Jersey.

Protests against police brutality and racial injustice, as well as calls to defund the police, have gained momentum across the U.S. in the wake of wake of the May 25 police-involved death of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minnesota. They have continued amid a number of other police-involved deaths of unarmed Black people in recent months.

Protesters have called for police to stop using overt use on against unarmed civilians, particularly people of color.

On its website, the Black Lives Matter movement says: We call for an end to the systemic racism that allows this culture of corruption to go unchecked and our lives to be taken. We call for a national defunding of police. We demand investment in our communities and the resources to ensure Black people not only survive, but thrive.

Many supporters say defund is a misunderstood term. They say it doesnt necessarily call for all funding to police be cut but suggests taking some funding that usually goes to law enforcement and putting it toward programs that might help residents and improve communities and thus prevent the need for police presence in the future.

Though a majority of protests against police brutality and racial injustice in recent months have been peaceful, some have led to rioting and violence in a few cities. Trump has accused Democratic leaders in cities like New York, Portland, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. of allowing anarchy, violence, and destruction."

Murphy, New Jerseys proudly progressive governor, marched in a pair of Black Lives Matter protests in June and said in a speech around that time that systemic racism is a crisis that has infected every aspect of American life." He vowed to work tirelessly to address it and its cascading effects in New Jersey.

The Democrat, who is white, was asked during his latest coronavirus briefing Friday in Trenton whether he supports Olivers comments that New Jersey will never defund the police.

Murphy said hes more concerned with including funding in the state budget to help residents and communities with education, health care, and more.

Its less about what youre doing with law enforcement than it is: What are you doing with the surrounding community investments? Murphy said. You know, forget about what you say, where you put your money, is that where your mouth is?

Asked in June if he agrees with the defund the police moment, Murphy said: I recognize the passion right now on the notion of defunding police. To me, its, Whats the ultimate end state? What are we trying to get to?

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said a July webinar on police reform that immediately withdrawing these types of resources from law enforcement puts them in an untenable position and instead calling for increased funding to improve training.
Kamala Harris courted Venezuelan, African-American and Jewish voters during her first visit to Miami on behalf of her running mate, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

But other than a Sa k pase  by Harris  Creole for whats happening  Haitian American representation was mostly absent from Thursdays campaign stop, reinforcing feelings of neglect by a large contingent of the South Florida Black community that has long felt overlooked by Democratic politicians.

When I turn on my TV, you hear everything in the Hispanic community about [President] Trump or about Biden. Bidens team is always in the Hispanic community but they forget about the Haitian community, said Christie Chenier, 35, a community organizer and voter who lives in the heavily Haitian city of North Miami. We feel left out.

That feeling of being slighted again swept through South Floridas Haitian-American community Thursday when Harris, after surprising potential Venezuelan-American voters in a Doral restaurant, sat down with African-American community leaders at a live-streamed forum held at Florida Memorial University in Miami Gardens.

At the table: Miami Rep. Frederica Wilson, FMU President Jaffus Hardrick, Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce President Eric Knowles, Miami Shores Mayor Crystal Wagar, Miami-Dade NAACP President Ruban Roberts and Faith in Florida Executive Director Rhonda Thomas.

All are Black leaders but none are from the South Florida Haitian community, even though as recently as June, two prominent Haitian-American physicians, Larry Pierre and Jean-Philippe Austin, held a fundraiser on Harris behalf. Several Haitian-American leaders contacted by the Miami Herald said they were not invited, including Philippe Bien-Aime, the mayor of North Miami; Alix Desulme, vice mayor of North Miami and president of the National Haitian American Elected Officials Network, and Vanessa Joseph, North Miami city clerk and chairwoman of the Haitian-American Voter Empowerment Coalition.

Story continues

Haitian activist Marleine Bastien was invited to participate in the roundtable, but declined due to travel and the last-minute invite.

It would have been a great time to announce that there is a future meeting with the Haitian community, said Vanessa Joseph. Or explain that on this particular stop there would have been time to only have two stops, however, they are in the process of organizing something else.

Frantz Michel, a North Miami real estate agent and voter put it more bluntly: Its a lack of respect.

The Democrats are always thinking, I already got the vote, because all Haitians are Democrats and no matter what, were going to vote Democrat. But it doesnt work like that, said Michel, 46.

The Haitian community wasnt entirely overlooked. Two Haitian-American politicians  state Rep. Dotie Joseph and Miami-Dade County Commissioner Jean Monestime  were invited to meet with Harris privately after the FMU roundtable. During Josephs meeting, the recently re-elected Florida legislator asked Harris, whose father is Jamaican, to record video shout-outs to Haitians and Caribbean Blacks for digital release.

And later that evening, Harris chief of staff, Karine Jean-Pierre, made a brief cameo during a virtual town hall featuring Biden Florida adviser Karen Andre. Both women are Haitian American, and the event  meant to rally Haitian-American influencers across the country  was sponsored by a newly organized grassroots group called Ayisyen pou Biden, which means Haitians for Biden in Creole.

During the video conference, the 100 or so attendees were told by the campaigns representatives that the Haitian vote was critical, especially in a battleground like Florida. As part of the partys African-American outreach, the campaign said it planned to bring on two more staffers: one to focus on voters from the English-speaking Caribbean and another, the Creole-speaking Caribbean.

We want every sector of the larger Black, African-American community, diaspora to feel like they have representation from inside the campaign, Andre said during the video conference.

COVID-19, a stigma to many, quietly taking toll on South Floridas Haitian community

The campaign is finalizing spots for Creole-language radio and cable stations in places like South Florida and Orlando, where there are large swaths of Haitian voters.

This campaign knows that to win Florida, we must build a broad, diverse coalition of support, which requires investments in everything from our organizing to our paid media program conveying Joe Bidens commitment to the Haitian-American community, Andre said in a statement provided Friday to the Herald by the Biden campaign.

But with the Biden-Harris ticket aggressively seeking Latino voters through Spanish-language radio and television ads and Harris stop in Doral, Haitian community leaders and voters fear that any delay in reaching out to their community could cost the party votes at a time when a global pandemic will already make casting ballots difficult.

Its probably coming when it always does  completely last-minute, when its not going to make a difference, said Francesca Menes, co-host of Konekte, a political program about Haiti and the U.S. that airs Mondays and Wednesdays on Island TV. Mail ballots will start dropping Sept 24. People will be starting to vote. My concern is the Democratic party, both in the state and nationally, arent prioritizing a group of people they think they already have  but they dont.

Kamala Harris, U.S. vice presidential nominee for Democratic candidate Joe Biden, meets with Miami-Dade County Commissioner Jean Monestime in a private meeting during her first campaign visit to Miami on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020.

Haitian Americans make up a unique and politically influential segment of South Floridas elections. There are upwards of 500,000 people of Haitian ancestry living in the state, according to the U.S. Census. Accurate estimates on how many are active voters are difficult to come by, but University of Florida political science department Chairman Daniel Smith has said a low-ball estimate is 115,000. During recent elections, several Haitians either won political office or made it to runoffs, demonstrating the power of Haitian-American votes.

The Republican party has actively courted Haitian voters for years.

Trump, despite reportedly referring to Haiti as a shithole country and his administrations efforts to end Temporary Protected Status for undocumented Haitians, is still trying to reel in Haitian-American support. In 2016, he visited Little Haiti hoping to capitalize on Haitians frustrations with the Clinton Foundation and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clintons work over the years in Haiti. And activists say his campaign is reaching out ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

Djenane St. Fleur Gourgue, the vice president of the Haitian American Chamber of Commerce in Broward, said she is among several Haitian community leaders, including pastors, who have been contacted by Trumps re-election campaign for meetings next week.

From what I am seeing, Trump already won if  in Broward and Miami  the weight is on the Haitian vote, said Gourgue, who describes herself as non-partisan. The Democrats dont know what they are doing.

Gourgue said she logged into the virtual Ayisyen pou Biden town hall on Thursday at the end of Harris visit. The idea of trying to rally Haitian-American influencers across the United States is a good one, she said. But from her observations, the group of mostly young Haitian Americans didnt show that they understood the demographics of the community and what will get out the vote.

Its OK for Karen Andre and Karine Jean-Pierre to come and do their photo opp and say, Im a senior adviser,  said Gourgue. But without visible respect for the community, she said, including a seat at the table when Harris or Biden come to town, the Democratic party may need to prepare for a repeat of 2016 when Democrats failed to mobilize Haitian voters in support of Clinton.

Monestime, the Miami-Dade Commissioner, disagrees. Haitians, he said, are more engaged today than they were four years ago.

The vast majority of Haitian voters are Democratic voters and I believe they will come out, he said. I am not as skeptical as others.

One thing Haitians do agree on is that this years presidential election is being closely watched by the community, if for no other reason than the issue of U.S. policy toward Haiti.

As with other ethnic minorities in South Florida, foreign policy can be a deciding factor in U.S. elections. With Haiti steeped in protests and gang violence, and a president  Jovenel Moise  who has stayed in power with the silent backing of the international community led by the United States, many Haitian Americans are anxiously waiting to see what happens in the U.S. election.

The diaspora loves Haiti no matter what. But we cannot go to Haiti right now and everybody is looking at Trump because, whatever Jovenel is doing, hes got the support ...because of Trump, said Chenier, the community organizer from North Miami. The Haitian community sees that and they can give the Democratic party another chance because of whats going on now in Haiti. But they are going to have to work for it.

But does this mean some Haitians will once again give their vote to Trump?

I dont think they are going to go vote for Trump. They are just going to stay quiet, she added. Some Haitians voted for Trump the first time  just because Trump came to Little Haiti. Thats how Haitians are. But if they feel like you dont respect them, and they are nobody, they are going to stay home.
On September 3, a fire broke out in a large crude carrier MT New Diamond off the eastern coast of Sri Lanka. The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC)-chartered ship was carrying 270,000 tonnes of oil en route to Odisha and was helped by the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and Navy to douse the fire, rescue crew members, and prevent an oil spill. Indias response was initiated through the South Asian Cooperative for Environment Protection (Sacep) for coordinating pollution response in the South Asian Seas region. In 2018, India signed an MoU with Sacep assigning the ICG as the competent authority for implementation under the initiative.

This response is unique in that it was evoked through a regional framework for addressing environmental emergencies. Historically, a key feature of Indias humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) strategy has been the emphasis on bilateral engagement with the affected country. This year, for instance, Indian assistance to tackle the MV Wakashio oil spill in Mauritius and the help provided to countries in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic have both technically been bilateral in nature. An often-cited reason for this is Indias insistence on respecting territorial sovereignty while extending relief measures. The emphasis on bilateral emergency assistance has impeded the development of a regional mechanism for disaster relief in Indias neighbourhood.

In the aftermath of the 2015 Nepal earthquake, India launched its biggest-ever relief operation. Although successful, the operation garnered criticism from a few quarters in Nepal who accused it of hindering other international efforts. Moreover, the international response featured bilateral assistance from six different South Asian countries but lacked a coordinated relief effort, including from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec).

As seen in the MT New Diamond case, Indias neighbours would probably approve of the deployment of Indian military assets through a regional agreement as opposed to a unilateral relief operation on their soil. In a recent Brookings India policy brief, Neighbourhood First Responder: Indias Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief, I highlight the bilateral and regional dimensions of emergency assistance provided by India in its neighbourhood over the last 20 years.

Saarc has codified disaster management by adopting the comprehensive framework on disaster management in 2006 and establishing the Saarc Disaster Management Centre (SDMC) as part of its mandate. In 2011, Saarc approved the Agreement on South Asia Rapid Response to Natural Disasters (SARRND), which formalised a policy for a cooperative response mechanism in the region. Also, the Saarc Food Bank was established in 2007.

Under Bimstec, India has been leading efforts towards the Environment and Disaster Management priority area and established the Bimstec Centre for Weather and Climate as a platform to share information and build capacities on disaster-warning systems.

While these are commendable initiatives, there is still a long way to go towards building an effective regional disaster relief mechanism. This is best exemplified by the fact that despite having an official policy in the form of SARRND, no Saarc-level contingent has ever been deployed during emergencies in the region. Similarly, in Bimstec, although member-countries have shown a willingness to work together on relevant issues, there is a large gap to fill in terms of establishing operating procedures for joint relief campaigns.

With climate uncertainty, humanitarian emergencies in the region are poised to grow. India must invest in regional frameworks for disaster management and take the lead in setting up a road map for greater cooperation. Building capacities through training and joint exercises and coordinating comparative advantages for collective action will help India leverage goodwill among its neighbours through its disaster relief programmes.

Saneet Chakradeo is a research analyst at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress (formerly Brookings India)

The views expressed are personal
Lucknow:

Keeping their fingers crossed over ECs decision on cycle symbol, leaders of rival Samajwadi Party camps on Sunday discussed various options and possibilities even as ticket seekers thronged residences of party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.



The EC, which reserved its order on the dispute over cycle symbol, has kept both sides guessing with leaders of warring camps exploring various scenarios as little time is left for process of filing nominations to start for the first phase of the staggered polls in Uttar Pradesh.



The state will have a seven-phase polling beginning February 11 and filing of nomination papers starts as early as Tuesday.



While Mulayam and Akhilesh stayed put in their separate residences in Lucknow, a large number of ticket seekers accompanied by their supporters, gathered outside their bungalows in the VVIP security zone which has seen high voltage political drama ever since the family feud broke out in the Yadav clan six months back, splitting the ruling party ahead of the crucial elections.

Also read | UP polls 2017: Samajwadi Bahu Dimple Yadav comes out of family shadow; dominates poll posters



Akhileshji is our face and we will seek vote on it. New symbol, if given by EC, however, be a challenge but we are prepared for all situations. We are relying on the work done by the CM in past five years and people will support us, a highly confident SP MLC Sunil Singh Sajan, considered close to Akhilesh, told PTI.



Interestingly, the Mulayam camp, which too has declared its candidates, are confident of retaining the symbol and waiting for the EC decision before deciding its next step.



Confusion still persists in both the SP camps as a number of candidates declared by both factions are common. We will work on it and decide our strategy once ECs decision is out, a senior SP leader said.

Also read | Samajwadi Party feud: 'Bicycle' war may end in truce as 'Margdarshak' Mulayam tones down stance, EC reserves order on symbol, expected to pass interim order before Jan 17



Shivpal Yadav, who returned to Lucknow after presenting his side before the EC in Delhi, when asked at the airport said, I hope EC will decide in favour of netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav). The situation will be clear very soon.



SP state president Naresh Uttam, appointed by Akhilesh replacing his warring uncle Shivpal, has said, The entire party is behind our national president Akhilesh Yadav, who was elected unanimously...we are confident of retaining the cycle symbol.



Uttam, who paid a courtesy visit to Mulayam yesterday on the occasion of Makar Sankranti, has said, Father and son are very much together. We will fight under Akhilesh and netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) will guide us. He is not only father but also our leader.

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2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #37

Posted on 12 September 2020 by John Hartz

A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Sep 6, 2020 through Sat, Sep 12, 2020

Editor's Choice

With California ablaze, Newsom blasts Trump administration for failing to fight climate change

Trinity River Conservation Camp crew members drown embers Friday in Oroville. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Standing among charred trees in Oroville, Gov. Gavin Newsom insisted that California will do more to fight climate change and took the Trump administration to task for its policies that reduce environmental protections.

People that want to roll back vehicle emission standards so you could spend more money at the pump and produce more greenhouse gas emissions, to create more of what you see around me  its beyond the pale of comprehension, Newsom said. Were fighting against that and will prevail as long as more people come to this cause.

The governor warned that the problems facing California and states along the West Coast would soon be experienced across the country.

This is a climate damn emergency, he said. This is real and its happening.

Newsom made a passionate argument for increasing efforts to address climate change as the number of acres that have burned in California so far this year topped 3 million and other state and foreign governments sent resources to battle major blazes statewide.

Click here to access the entire article originally published on the Los Angeles Times website.

With California ablaze, Newsom blasts Trump administration for failing to fight climate change by Taryn Luna, California, Los Angeles Times, Sep 11, 2020

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Demonstrators hit the streets of the capital before talks between Alexander Lukashenko and Russias Vladimir Putin.

Belarus police violently detained hundreds of protesters as tens of thousands demonstrated in the capital Minsk in advance of talks between strongman Alexander Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Masked policemen in uniform and plain clothes seized people who gathered for the March of Heroes demonstration on Sunday, pushing or punching them, video posted on the Belarusian news site Tut.by showed.

Oktyabrskaya Square in central Minsk was fenced off with barbed wire with armed law enforcement forces seen behind it. Independence Square was also sealed off.

Demonstrators were heading towards the Palace of Independence, President Lukashenkos residence.

Soldiers rounded us up in several circles, people were selectively pulled out of the crowd and beaten, one unidentified demonstrator told Reuters news agency.

Lukashenko  in power for 26 years  is facing a groundswell of public anger after declaring a landslide win in last months presidential election that his opponents say was rigged. He denies the allegations.

I came out for freedom and I am going to protest until we win it through peaceful means, 60-year old marcher Oleg Zimin told AFP news agency.

He said he did not vote for Lukashenko last month. He always lied to us, said Zimin.

The opposition urged Lukashenko not to sell the country ahead of his first face-to-face meeting with Putin since demonstrations began, which is set to take place in Russia on Monday.

A protester with a historical white-red-white flag of Belarus is detained on Sunday [Tut.By via Reuters]

Snatching people





A vast column protesters marched through the capital chanting Long live Belarus and Youre a rat, a taunt that has frequently been used against Lukashenko during demonstrations.

They came to a halt and chanted fascists as hundreds of riot police with shields blocked off the road.

Police said they had detained over 400 people in Minsk alone. A Reuters witness said that detentions were continuing on Sunday evening.

Al Jazeeras Step Vaessen, reporting by phone from Minsk, said the internet was blocked and security forces had been making it extremely hard for protesters to gather.

Yet, she said tens of thousands rallied in the centre of the capital, although at different locations than initially planned.

An Al Jazeera cameraman was briefly detained and nearly dragged into a van but escaped, Vaessen reported.

Vans of masked policemen are driving around the city at high speed, stopping and snatching people from the street, she said. It is very clear that the strategy today is to clamp down on any more moving towards the Sunday rally.

On Saturday, at least 5,000 people marched through the city demanding the release of a jailed opposition leader in the latest wave of mass protests after the August 9 presidential vote. Key opposition figures of Belarus have been either jailed or forced out of the country.

Meeting Putin

Vaessen said Lukashenkos meeting with Putin was crucial. He wants to show that he has these protests under control, and images of very large gatherings are not something that he wants to see today.

She said the government and demonstrators were digging in and neither wants to compromise.





Its a complete standoff. Lukashenko has repeated again and again that he is not willing to step down. People here are also not willing to stop the protests because they have started something they are calling the awakening of Belarus. After so many years, 26 years of dictatorship, they have passed the point where they can accept it any more.

Peter Zalmayev from the Eurasia Democracy Initiative said the month-long mass rallies each Sunday are single-minded in their purpose, the removal of Lukashenko and his iron-fisted rule.

The one goal the protesters have is to get rid of the guy and theyre doing it in a spectacularly democratic fashion with no single leader, with the leadership dispersed, and with a true popular uprising the likes of which Belarus has never witnessed, Zalmayev told Al Jazeera.

He said the only reason Lukashenko was hanging on was because of the loyalty of his security forces.

On Sunday, Russias defence ministry said it would send paratroopers from its elite Pskov division to Belarus for the joint drills starting on Monday and running till September 25, the TASS state news agency reported.

Andrei Gorbachevsky, a 29-year-old doctor, accused Putin of treating Belarus as if it were a Russian province.

He is supporting Lukashenkos regime, hes playing a strange game and thats why our people no longer trust him, he said.

Putin and Lukashenko are set to meet in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, with the Kremlin saying the talks will cover plans for closer integration between the neighbouring countries as well as key trade and energy projects.

Putin has been keen to unify Russia and Belarus, and Moscow has accompanied its offers of military and economic aid with calls for tighter integration.

Analysts say Putin may seek to exploit Lukashenkos political vulnerability to wring concessions from him, but any agreements compromising Belaruss sovereignty and independence are likely to enrage Belarusian protesters further.

The big unknown is Vladimir Putin who has sent contradictory signals. From what we have seen, he is unwilling to contemplate a victory by a street protest, which would create a very unpleasant precedent for Russia and for Putins rule, said Zalmayev.
Former Union Minister and ex-Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh passed away at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here on Sunday, where he was admitted and was being treated for post-COVID complications.

New Delhi [India], September 13 (ANI): Former Union Minister and ex-Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh passed away at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here on Sunday, where he was admitted and was being treated for post-COVID complications.



He was 74 years old. Former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav took to Twitter to post: Dear Raghuvansh Babu! What did you do? I told you the day before yesterday, you are not going anywhere. But you went so far. I am speechless. I am sad. Will miss you very much.

Kedar Yadav, a close aide of the departed leader said: Raghuvansh Babu, the guardian of poor and close aide and friend of Lalu Prasad Yadav is no more. May God give peace to the departed soul and strength to the family. The whole RJD family is with them.

Janata Dal-United (JDU) MP Lalan Singh also condoled the demise of Raghuvansh Prasad Singh



Raghuvansh Babu was a socialist leader and a man of character. With is demise a true Bihari who always thought about the welfare of the state is lost. This is an irreplaceable loss, said Lalan Singh.



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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday expressed his condolences at the demise of veteran leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh saying his demise has left a void in the political sphere of Bihar as well as that of country.



Raghuvansh Prasad Singh is no more with us. I pay tributes to him. His demise has left a void in the political sphere of Bihar as well as the country, the Prime Minister said describing him as connected to roots and one who understood poverty. The Prime Minister said Singh tried to live the ideology he grew up with. When I used to work as BJP organisation worker, I knew him closely since then, he said.



Recalling those days, the Prime Minister said: In several TV debates, we used to exchange arguments. He was a Cabinet minister in UPA, I used to be in constant touch with him for developmental works as Chief Minister of Gujarat.



The Prime Minister said he used to keep himself updated about Raghuvansh Prasad Singhs health.



He was in news for last 3-4 days. I used to keep myself updated about his health. I used to think that he will recover soon and will be back to serving Bihar, he said.



Possibly in an indication towards the senior leaders recent resignation from RJD, PM Modi said it was no longer possible for Singh to go with ideals with which he worked and the people with whom he worked.



3-4 days ago, he had expressed his sentiments in a letter. But he was equally concerned about the development of his region. He had sent a list of developmental works to the Bihar Chief Minister. The concern of Bihar, its people is visible in that letter, the Prime Minister added.



I would request Nitish Jee that we try to fulfill the sentiments expressed by him in his last letter, he said.

The President, Ram Nath Kovind, also made a statement. The passing away of Raghuvansh Prasad Singh is tragic. An outstanding leader rooted to ground, Raghuvansh Babu was a true stalwart with phenomenal understanding of rural India. With his spartan and sagely lifestyle, he enriched public life. Condolences to his family & followers. he said.

Ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections, Singh resigned from RJD on September 10.



The senior leader was admitted at AIIMS Delhi where he was undergoing treatment for some health complication. With a handwritten note, Singh conveyed the decision of his resignation to the RJD founder.



On September 11 he shot off a letter to Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar seeking the fulfilment of his three demands, which also included bringing ordinance regarding amendment of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) law. (ANI)

Also read: Pakistan dismisses Indias request for Indian lawyer to represent Kulbhushan Jadhavs case
Seen next to a smartphone are Samsung Electro-Mechanics' power inductors. The company said Sunday it successfully developed the industry's smallest power inductor, a core electronic component for electronic devices. / Courtesy of Samsung Electro-Mechanics



By Baek Byung-yeul



Samsung Electro-Mechanics has developed the world's smallest power inductor, a core electronic component that ensures stable electricity supply to semiconductors, with an aim to capitalize on rapidly growing market demand, the company said Sunday.



The global supplier for high-end components used in electronics and mechanical devices said its new power inductor comes in a size of 0.8 millimeters by and 0.4 millimeters, which is a significant decrease compared with the industry's previously smallest products with dimensions of 1.2 millimeters by 1 millimeter.



Samsung Electro-Mechanics sees the tiny power inductor becoming the company's next growth engine along with multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCC), another of the core components used in almost every electronics device.



"The power inductor is a core component necessary to supply stable electrical power coming from the battery to the semiconductor, and it is a necessity in smartphones, wearable devices and electric vehicles," the company said.



As it has successfully developed the industry's smallest product, Samsung Electro-Mechanics said it will supply the product to a global mobile device manufacturer.





Samsung Electro-Mechanics' power inductors / Courtesy of Samsung Electro-Mechanics
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 15:09:26|Editor: huaxia

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BOGOTA, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Colombian Foreign Minister Claudia Blum on Saturday praised her compatriot Luis Alberto Moreno's contribution during his term as president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Moreno, who began his term in 2005, will step down from that position on Oct. 1.

Blum said Moreno's time at the IDB is characterized by "his effective and committed work that has allowed the financial institution to strengthen and expand its participation in infrastructure projects, economic and social development, innovation and the environment, among other fields, in the different countries of the region."

Mauricio Claver-Carone, deputy assistant to U.S. President Donald Trump as well as senior director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council, will succeed Moreno for a five-year term.

He will be the first non-Latin American president of the bank since its establishment 61 years ago. Enditem
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  It was a Wednesday evening when Emily Everhart spiked a fever, started coughing and developed a sore throat. She was anxious: All three are tell-tale symptoms of COVID-19. And Everhart, a mental health therapist, had good reason to fear shed been exposed: There had been a recent outbreak of 10 cases at the rehab center where she worked.

Everhart called her supervisor at the Life Healing Center in Santa Fe and described her symptoms. She thought she should stay home in quarantine. Instead, her supervisor told her that if her temperature had fallen by morning  which it had  she should show up at work.

A few days later, she tested positive for COVID-19.

It was egregious, Everhart said. Not only did she have symptoms, but also her supervisor knew shed been in direct contact with clients whod tested positive for the virus. For them to be asking me to come in anyway just seemed really ridiculous. She resigned over the incident.

Everhart, along with another former employee who declined to be named for fear of jeopardizing their career, described lax safety measures at Life Healing Center, a 46-bed inpatient treatment facility for people with substance use disorder, mental illnesses and trauma. For months, masks were optional, even as COVID-19 cases began to surge across New Mexico, the former employees said. Weeks after the state mandated that employees at all businesses wear masks to prevent spread of the novel coronavirus, Life Healing Center still wasnt following the rules.

We kept saying, Why arent we following these guidelines? And we just kept being told, Because were an exception to the rule,  the other former employee said.

When it comes to COVID-19, many group living facilities around the country have sidestepped guidelines. As a result, the disease has spread quickly through numerous nursing homes, prisons and other settings where people live together in close quarters, killing tens of thousands.

Alarmed by the potential for large-scale outbreaks in residential treatment centers, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and two Democratic congresswomen launched a probe last month: They wrote to 10 leading companies in the addiction and behavioral health treatment business, seeking information about what the firms were doing to combat COVID-19.

One of the companies was Acadia Healthcare, the multinational behavioral health behemoth that owns Life Healing Center. Last year, Acadia reported $3.1 billion in revenue; it has nearly 600 treatment centers in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Everharts dilemma is common not just in rehabs, but also in the health care industry as a whole, surveys show. During the pandemic, medical workers have frequently been pressured to go to work even when theyre sick, Kaiser Health News reported. And the issue isnt unique to the coronavirus: Restrictive or nonexistent sick-leave policies have long put employees in the difficult position of choosing between going to work sick and potentially infecting others, or losing a paycheck or a job.

Life Healing Centers CEO, David Hans, declined a request for an interview. An Acadia spokesperson did not respond to multiple interview requests. In an emailed statement, Hans wrote that his facility followed national and international public health recommendations, and that the safety, health and well-being of our patients and employees are our top priorities. Employees are required to wear masks, he wrote, and clients are encouraged to do so.

Masked and alone

On June 1, Everharts first day on the job, about two dozen residents lived in cabins scattered across the campus, which is nestled in the Sangre de Cristo foothills. The states coronavirus case count was mounting: at least 7,800 New Mexicans had tested positive and 362 had died. To slow the spread, the Department of Health (DOH) had issued orders on May 15 directing employees at all businesses to mask up.

But when Everhart showed up to work, she noticed the rule wasnt being enforced.

There were very mild recommendations to wear masks, but the culture was that basically no one was, she said.

Everhart said she raised concerns with managers and was told that wearing a mask was just a general recommendation for the public and was not a mandate for health care providers.

The message, according to the other former staffer, was: If you care to wear one, it is up to you.

They werent the only ones with concerns. The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED), which oversees workplace safety, also received two complaints about the facility.

Months before, on March 25, the state notified Life Healing Center about a complaint with a bevy of allegations: Food was being served communally and patients were gathering for large group therapy sessions. Clients would occasionally cry and drip mucus from nose and wipe off with hand without access to adequate disinfectants or hand washing stations, the NMED wrote.

On June 4, the state notified Life Healing Center that it had received a second complaint, this one about the lack of mask wearing.

In a June 5 letter responding to the second complaint, Hans responded that he was unaware that his business had to follow the state guidelines published three weeks earlier. He said he would notify employees that they should wear masks when in close proximity to others. The state deemed Hans responses to both complaints satisfactory.

More staffers began wearing masks in July, said Everhart and the other former employee. But clinicians  who run therapy groups or offer one-on-one treatment  decided not to wear them while conducting some sessions. It would be really hard to facilitate a two-hour group wearing a mask, in small rooms, and without anybody being able to see our mouths move, Everhart said.

Eventually, the novel coronavirus found its way into the facility.

On July 20, Life Healing Center staffers were notified that one of its clients had tested positive. The next day, DOH workers came to the facility, and tested every employee and all 27 clients, DOH spokesperson David Morgan said. On July 27, the state notified the center of nine additional positive cases. Both clients and staff were among the infected.

Everhart had tested negative. But she decided to get a second test on July 28, when the DOH came to the facility again.

On July 29, while waiting for the results, she developed the fever and cough.

What followed that evening and the next day was a confusion of phone calls, emails and conflicting advice from her employer. Her fever had dropped, so she showed up to work, as her supervisor advised. Once there, a company nurse told her to go home and wait for her COVID-19 test results. Later, the nurse reversed course and said she should actually stay at work, a decision Everharts boss affirmed.

You can report to work with [personal protective equipment], her supervisor emailed her.

Everhart resigned later that day, offering to stay on for several weeks to finish therapy sessions with her clients.

Her cough and sore throat persisted, but she was expected to go into the office, she said. On August 1, she got the call from the DOH: She had tested positive.

I am really upset that I was advised to come in the last few days, Everhart wrote to Hans and others. I have no words for how irresponsible it was.

Searchlight New Mexico is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that seeks to empower New Mexicans to demand honest and effective public policy.
The Middle East and North Africa has been, traditionally, at the core of French diplomacy. Prior to World War I and until World War II, France had been an active great power in shaping the destinies of millions of Arabs, not to mention the diplomatic efforts made by successive French governments under the Fifth Republic to implement UN resolutions related to the Palestinian question. Whether its the founder of the Fifth Republic, General Charles De Gaulle, or his successors, from the Right and Left, all adopted pro-Arab and pro-Palestinian positions in the context of French support for these resolutions. The Declaration of Venice in June 1980 on Palestinian rights was adopted by the then European Community due to French efforts under former French president Valery Giscard dEstaing.

Throughout the 1990s and the first two decades of the third millennium, till President Donald Trump was elected in November 2016, various US administrations have been very active in Middle Eastern politics, be it the Palestinian question and the Peace Process or other crucial regional issues. In this historical context, the role of the European powers and the European Union were secondary to the American role. In the Peace Process, the European Union became a member in the Quartet, and a decade later, three leading European powers  namely, France, Germany and Great Britain  co-signed with the United States, Russia and China the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (the JCPOA) in July 2015 to curb Iranian nuclear activities. On the other hand, France and other European powers had joined the International Coalition to Degrade and Defeat Daesh (the terrorist group known as the Islamic State) under the leadership of the United States in 2014.

At the end of 2018, the Trump administration announced its troop drawdown in Syria, alleging that the Islamic State group had been defeated. In later months, the US administration made clear that US global strategy would center on containing China in the Pacific-Indo region. The age of deep American involvement in the Middle East is coming to a close.

The two visits by French President Emmanuel Macron to Beirut on 6 August and 31 August, and then his lightening visit to Baghdad on Wednesday, 2 September, signal a reinvolvement by the French in the Middle East as well as in the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa, a traditional domain for French diplomacy. Some would argue that the three visits mark a strategic shift in the Middle East for years to come where France would play a greater diplomatic and military role after the departure of American troops from the region in the next three years, unless the Democratic candidate in the US presidential elections in November, former vice president Joe Biden, wins and decides to roll back the Trump decision to withdraw American forces from the Middle East.

Needless to say, France, on its own, cannot make up for the military presence and diplomatic clout of the United States in the region. For its role and influence to be effective it would need local and European partners and allies to shoulder costly military involvement in the Middle East.

For one, its newfound role should be supported openly by the United States, which would call for more political coordination with Washington  coordination that has not been smooth most of the time, particularly when it comes to the Palestinian question and how to deal with the theocratic regime in Tehran.

Secondly, French diplomacy  to succeed in the region  should steer away from taking sides in the Sunni-Shia confrontation across the Middle East, especially between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The exercise of balancing the interests of both camps will not be easy, especially if President Trump would be re-elected and his administration would continue implementing its maximum pressure strategy against Iran.

Thirdly, how French diplomacy would deal with the situation and the future of Syria would determine, to a great extent, its success or lack of in the Levant. To succeed in Lebanon would necessitate a minimum of coordination with Syria, and understandings with Iran. This would be key in unlocking the intractability of the role of Hizbullah in the future stability and security of Lebanon. French diplomacy cannot ignore the Shia of Lebanon, in particular the hundreds of thousands of followers of this Party of God.

Fourthly, recent developments in Arab-Israeli relations in light of the tripartite agreement between the United Arab Emirates, the United States and Israel  which is expected to be followed by similar agreements with other Arab countries, if we are to believe statements by American and Israeli officials in this respect  would call on the French government to adopt a new approach in tackling the Palestinian question, aiming to reconcile the growing trend of normalisation with the resumption of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, on the one hand, and the ultimate implementation of the two-state solution on the other. A complicating factor facing French diplomacy will be the fate of annexing Palestinian territories and the Jordan Valley to Israel proper. For the time being, the Israeli annexation plan is on hold because of an American veto, but no one can predict for how long this veto would remain in force.

Despite, the challenges and the obstacles, one thing is sure  renewed involvement by France in Middle Eastern affairs is welcomed by Arab governments, and that is a very good starting point for President Emmanuel Macron in his quest to make France an indispensable and reliable partner in the search for security, stability and prosperity in the Middle East and North Africa.



*The writer is former assistant foreign minister.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 10 September, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Kevin Myers has revealed, in a newly published memoir, the chain of events which led to his sacking by the Sunday Times in 2017 after an article in which he connected the Jewishness of BBC presenters Claudia Winkleman and Vanessa Feltz with their salaries.

In his new book, Burning Heresies, Myers says he intended some of the controversial piece to be tongue-in-cheek and didn't realise he was "playing into some objectionable Jewish stereotype".

After the piece was published, Myers says he received a call from the page editor of the Sunday Times on the Sunday morning the piece appeared - July 31, 2017.

He was told he was in trouble. "I was astonished: for what? If anything, I assumed it was for my disrespectful remarks about Jeremy Vine."

In the book, he goes on to describe the Twitter reaction to his piece, writing "tweeters duly responded, denouncing the Jew-hating, woman-despising creature Kevin Myers".

Martin Ivens, the former editor of the Sunday Times took down the column and issued a statement apologising for it. "Around noon, I received a text asking to phone the administrative manager of the Sunday Times in London", Myers writes.

"I did, he asked me no questions, sought no explanations, offered no due process, but instead curtly told me I was being sacked. Ivens never once spoke to me.

"The newspaper then publicly announced that I would never work for it again, as if I had just been exposed as an undercover neo-Nazi agent, thereby rendering me a journalistic pariah all over the world."

Myers adds: "My career, my good name, and position in public life in Ireland were incinerated beyond recovery in the most merciless pyre of recent journalistic history."

Myers says he wrote a letter to the board and trust of The Irish Times about its "energetic role in my public lynching" but received no response and the letter was not published. 

In the aftermath of the controversy, the author says that the production company which had optioned his 2011 memoir Watching the Door dropped the project and subsequently his contributions to journalism during the Troubles were generally ignored.

He then took legal action against RTE after he was described as a Holocaust denier on Morning Ireland by presenter Audrey Carville in a broadcast which went out on the same day that the Sunday Times article was published.

In his book, Myers draws a connection between the art sale which RTE held in November 2019 and the confidential settlement which he received the same month.

The sale, Myers writes, "netted RTE some 150,000, every penny of which, and far more, would now be squandered on settling my case.

"Not one newspaper connected the two events or attempted to join the dots to see that RTE had preferred to lose money in their ideological quest against me than tell the truth. Whereas from the outset, I would have settled for an apology and a retraction, without damages."
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-12 22:41:18|Editor: huaxia

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Visitors view exhibits during an Italy-themed exhibition held at the Hongqiao Import Commodity Exhibition and Trade Center in east China's Shanghai, May 8, 2020. An exhibition featuring Italian commodities was held here on Friday, presenting Italian culture, food and fashion trend to visitors. (Xinhua/Fang Zhe)

The list of the top non-EU countries from which Italy imported goods was headed by China, followed by the United States, Turkey, Russia, and Switzerland, according to the 600-page "Blue Book."

ROME, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Italy imported more from China than from any other non-European Union (EU) countries in 2019, showed the annual "Blue Book" released by Italy's Customs and Monopolies Agency.

The list of the top non-EU countries from which Italy imported goods was headed by China, followed by the United States, Turkey, Russia, and Switzerland, according to the 600-page "Blue Book" released on Friday.

The United States bought around 45.1 billion euros (53.4 billion U.S. dollars) worth of Italian exports last year, making it Italy's largest buyer outside the EU. It was followed by Switzerland, with 24.0 billion euros, and China with 13.8 billion euros. The totals were mostly accumulated before the United States raised import tariffs on an array of European products late last year.

Both lists excluded trade from EU member states, since trade within the 27-nation bloc is not taxed by customs agencies.

Overall, Italy's exports to non-EU countries continued the trend of increasing in terms of value last year, rising by 5.2 percent compared to the previous year. Imports increased by 8.0 percent year-on-year.

However, agency officials said those trends would be reversed when data is totaled for this year, due to the economic impacts of the global coronavirus outbreak. (1 euro = 1.18 U.S. dollars) 
Imperial Valley News Center

President Donald J. Trump Has Brokered a Historic Deal Between Israel and the Kingdom of Bahrain

Washington, DC - "Now that the ice has been broken, I expect more Arab and Muslim countries will follow the United Arab Emirates lead." ~ President Donald J. Trump

SECURING ANOTHER HISTORIC AGREEMENT: President Donald J. Trump has brokered a deal to establish full diplomatic relations between Bahrain and Israel  the second such agreement between Israel and an Arab nation in less than one month.

Israel and Bahrain have committed to begin the exchange of embassies and ambassadors, start direct flights between their countries, and launch cooperation initiatives across a broad range of sectors.

This peace deal is a significant step forward for both Israel and Bahrain. It further enhances their security while creating opportunities for them to deepen their economic ties.

This deal comes on the heels of the historic normalization agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are the first Arab nations to normalize relations with Israel in more than 25 years.

The United States will continue to support the people of Bahrain as they work to counter terrorism and extremism, develop economically, and build new peaceful partnerships across the region.

CREATING THE CONDITIONS FOR PEACE: President Trumps wise foreign policy strategy has created the conditions for peace between Israel and its neighbors.

When President Trump took office, the Middle East was in a state of extreme turmoil.

President Trump has worked to rebuild trust with our regional partners and identify their shared interests, moving them away from the conflicts of the past.

Thanks to the Presidents bold foreign policy vision and his acumen as a dealmaker, nations across the region are realizing the benefits of his thoughtful approach.

As the Presidents work continues, more Arab and Muslim countries will likely seek to normalize relations with Israel.

Each country that normalizes relations will build upon the other, bringing peace and prosperity to the region and the people who live there.

AN UNPRECEDENTED REGIONAL TRANSFORMATION: After decades of instability and crisis, nations across the Middle East and Africa are increasingly working together to build a more peaceful and prosperous future.
Wildfires are burning out of control in the western United States, cities are choking on toxic air, and Hurricane Laura battered the Gulf Coast just weeks ago.

So why isn't the threat of global warming dominating the election contest between President Donald Trump and former vice president Joe Biden?

Climate change has in fact risen near the top of Democrat voters' concerns since surveys first began two decades ago, but remains anchored to the bottom of Republicans' priorities, meaning that the candidates don't need to spend much time sparring over the issue.

Talking about it helps Biden connect with his party -- but this year green issues have been partly crowded out by the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting economic crisis, as well as racial justice protests, experts say.

Jon Krosnick, a professor of political science at Stanford University, told AFP that while the absolute number of people concerned by climate change was at its highest ever, it remained only one of several concerns.

"If he talks only about climate, he's hurting himself because he has to talk about other issues," he told AFP.

Trump, a famous climate-denier, has been silent on the issue.

There is little point in him using the issue to try to appeal to California, the state worst-hit by the fires, because it is so solidly Democratic.

If Biden has to weigh how much time he spends on climate change against other issues, and balance how an aggressive green agenda might turn off swing state voters in places like the Midwest, other Democratic lawmakers are more willing to go on the offense.

"It is just a fact that the Trump administration has the worst environmental record in history," New Mexico Senator Tom Udall, who is among the most green lawmakers in Congress, told AFP.

"The Trump administration stands with the special interests at the expense of everyone else," he continued, citing the president's withdrawal from the Paris agreement and axing of numerous environmental and wildlife regulations.

- Democrats greener than ever -

Talking about climate change helps Joe Biden connect with his party -- but this year green issues have been partly crowded out by the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting economic crisis, as well as racial justice protests, experts say /  GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP

One group of voters who are particularly charged by climate issues is the left of the Democratic party, said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.

Among Democrats who call themselves liberal, it is now the second most highly ranked issue, while it's the eighth for moderate Democrats, according to Yale's latest survey published in April.

That's why every Democratic candidate in the primaries had to make a climate pitch during the party's primaries and vowed to re-enter the Paris accord.

Indeed, the Biden campaign's goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 would have been considered a radical idea when he himself was vice president, just five years ago.

Paul Bledsoe, a lecturer at the Center for Environmental Policy at American University, said it was notable that when Biden invokes the climate, he does so through the lens of economic opportunity in the form of a Green New Deal.

"When I think about climate change, the word I think of is 'jobs'" Biden said in July.

"So these issues have sort of merged, I think, in the public consciousness," said Bledsoe, who worked on former president Bill Clinton's climate task force.

- Republicans unmoved -

President Donald Trump shares a the stage with Florida governor Ron Desantis; this week he announced a ten-year ban on offshore drilling /  GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File

As for Republicans, it's not that they don't care about the environment -- it's that climate change in particular has become a wedge issue, a result of their increasing hostility to collective action and the influence of fossil fuel donors, say experts.

When Americans first became conscious of environmentalism in the late 1960s, it was a non-partisan cause -- indeed, it was under President Richard Nixon that the Environmental Protection Agency was created.

Basic goals like having clean air and clean water can still resonate today.

That's why, for example, Trump this week announced a decade-long ban on oil drilling off the Gulf Coast, a U-turn that surprised energy executives.

This was an objective shared by Republicans and Democrats in Florida, who feared the possible impact of oil spills on the state's tourism industry.

Francis Rooney, a Republican Congressman from Florida who is one of the few lawmakers from his party to proudly call himself an environmentalist and to back a carbon tax, said of Trump: "His environmental track record is not good at all."

"I have spoken with him about offshore drilling in Florida a lot, and I will say at least he gets that, he's decided that if he wants to win Florida, he needs to clearly oppose offshore drilling," he told AFP.

Rooney, who will stand down at the end of this term, said he was frustrated his party was no longer interested in environmental stewardship and said younger generations of conservatives were being turned off.

"I'm worried that we're going to lose. We're going to lose because we don't have a broad enough voting base," he said.
Though voters in battleground states see Biden as trustworthy, they are less sure of him on the economy

President Donald Trump is trailing Joe Biden nationally and in most swing states. He trails on questions of character, the coronavirus, health care, and even crime.

Read More: Trump says George Floyd is looking down in awe of economy, draws outrage

According to Yahoo News, most voters think that Biden is more empathetic, honest, and more trustworthy than Trump. But when it comes to the economy, Americans in battleground states continue to put their faith in Trump.

As Election Day nears, Biden supporters are becoming nervous about Trumps edge on the economy, and theyre worried that the president could use his advantage to nail down swing voters. Surprisingly, Trumps lead in battleground states persists. Thats despite an 8.4% unemployment rate during a recession that Democrats say has worsened due to Trumps mishandling of the pandemic.

Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks briefly with journalists after returning to his home state at New Castle County Airport September 11, 2020 in New Castle, Delaware. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

I do think theres work to do here in connecting the dots, said Hari Sevugan, a Democratic campaign veteran who worked for President Barack Obamas 2008 campaign. We need to do a better job of showing that a failure to deal with the pandemic was a failure to look out for the economy.

Regarding which candidate is best at handling the economy, a new poll by Marquette Law School shows Trump leading Biden by 8 points in Wisconsin, 13 points in Florida, and 10 points in Pennsylvania.

Weve done a really good job saying Trump is incompetent at handling just about every other issue, Sevugan said. The only thing that is his escape hatch is his handling of the economy.

Rick Tyler, a Republican strategist, and outspoken Trump critic said the president has an advantage on the economy because he has repeatedly told the public ad nauseam that he built the greatest economy in history.

Story continues

Its all smoke and mirrors, Tyler said. It is a false story, but, nevertheless when there are no facts being offered to refute it, it becomes a truth. 

Yahoo News reports that in fact, The Trump administration inherited a healthy economy from Obama and took unearned credit for its stability. While the pandemic eliminated jobs in retail, travel hospitality, sports, and associated industries, the unexpected jobs recovery in August in some sectors is something Trump took credit for as well.

Read More: Biden says post-pandemic economy can fight racial inequality

If President Trump is going to win four more years, it is because voters are hopeful about the future, not fearful, says Liam Donavan a former GOP strategist whos now a lobbyist. After a bumpy 2020, people are looking for some semblance of normalcy or at least hope. The recent jobs numbers and anticipated GDP data could easily be worked into the argument that things are under control and moving in that direction.

Have you subscribed to theGrios podcast Dear Culture? Download our newest episodes now!

The post Trump has leverage over Biden on one important issue in battleground states appeared first on TheGrio.
LONDON (AP) - Kim Darroch is astonished.

Britains former U.S. ambassador, whose career ended abruptly when his frank views on President Donald Trump were leaked, spent 40 years as a diplomat. But he says hes never before seen a British government saying it plans to break international law.

"Its all-round extraordinary," Darroch said about Prime Minister Boris Johnsons intention to override part of the legally binding Brexit agreement that the British government struck with the European Union.

"Its one of the things that we thought was a basic principle of Britains face to the world: that we stuck by international law and agreements," Darroch said.

Darroch is speaking during a tumultuous political week. The British government says its "specific and limited" breach of international law is needed to guarantee trade can flow freely to Northern Ireland regardless of the outcome of EU trade talks. But Johnsons proposed law has infuriated EU leaders, who are threatening legal action. A political battle is looming in Britain's Parliament, and the governments top civil service lawyer has resigned.

"What does it do for our reputation? How will others look at us if we are saying: `We will sign a deal with you, ... but if we look at it six months later and decide we dont like that, well just change it unilaterally, and youll just have to live with it?" said Darroch, who also previously served as Britain's ambassador to the EU.

FILE - In this Friday, Oct. 20, 2017, file photo, British Ambassador Kim Darroch hosts a National Economists Club event at the British Embassy in Washington. Darroch, who was British ambassador to the United States until leaked comments about Donald Trump ended his career in July 2019, says he's not bitter about the way his career ended, and he tells his side of the story in a new memoir "Collateral Damage." (AP Photo/Sait Serkan Gurbuz, File)

He could be forgiven for having a sense of deja vu.

Darroch became envoy to Washington in 2016 and had a ringside seat for the first chaotic years of the Trump administration. He describes it in "Collateral Damage," an entertaining account of his tenure in Washington and its dramatic end. The book is scheduled to be published Oct. 13 in the U.S. by PublicAffairs.

Darrochs illustrious diplomatic career imploded in July 2019 when the Mail on Sunday newspaper published leaked confidential memos in which the ambassador described Trumps White House as dysfunctional, incompetent, clumsy and inept.

Such frankness is expected by governments of their ambassadors. But an enraged Trump branded Darroch "a very stupid guy" and said the U.S. administration would no longer deal with him. Darroch was on a flight back to London within days.

The book vividly conveys the vertiginous feeling of being at the center of a political and media storm. But Darroch is remarkably philosophical about the sudden end to his diplomatic career.

"I dont really do bitterness," Darroch, who now holds the title Lord Darroch of Kew as a member of Britain's House of Lords, said. "Its a deliberate choice."

"Collateral Damage," is just as interested in exploring how Trumps insurgent, often dysfunctional administration operated as in analyzing the secrets of the presidents appeal. In the book, Darroch calls it an "intoxicating mix" of star quality, media savvy and an ability to tap into popular resentments.

Boris Johnson helped end Darrochs career when, after the leak, he publicly declined to say that the ambassador should keep his job. But -- ever the diplomat -Darroch is even-handed about the British leader. He thinks parallels between Johnson and Trump have often been overstated.

Unlike Trump, Johnson is generally supportive of immigration, extols free trade and accepts the need for strong action on climate change.

But Darroch says Johnson, who shares a ruthless streak and an intense ambition with Trump, is "fascinated" by the U.S. president,

"Particularly by Trumps use of language," he said. "He does speak with a simplicity and a directness, also sometimes a divisiveness, that is kind of unique."

Theres a similar directness to the simple slogans -- "Take Back Control" and "Get Brexit Done" -- that helped Johnson win the 2016 Brexit referendum and the 2019 U.K. election.

Darroch also thinks Johnson may be emulating Trump in the British governments disruptive approach in Brexit negotiations, such as the resent move to break provisions of the divorce deal and international law that has outraged and upset the EU.

Darroch said that Johnson gave a 2018 speech "saying that if Donald Trump had been asked to negotiate Brexit, he would have made some apparently outrageous and provocative demands right at the start. There would have been total chaos, lots of harsh words in both directions, lots of noise. But eventually things would have settled down. And maybe he will have got a very good outcome."

"Its the chaos theory of negotiating," Darroch said. "Making your negotiating partner think that youre so crazy that youd better give him what he wants, because who knows what he will do next. And I just wonder if there are some echoes of that" in the governments Brexit approach.

So far, it doesn't seem to be working on the EU. But Darroch thinks that if Trump wins a second term, "Boris can be his best friend in Europe."

"That relationship could be very close," the former ambassador said. "I think youd get a (U.S.-U.K.) free trade deal quite quickly, though one that involves us making some serious concessions on agriculture" such as accepting chlorine-washed chicken, something many in Britain find hard to swallow.

While many in British government yearn for the relative stability promised by a Joe Biden presidency, Darroch thinks a U.S.-U.K. trade deal would be harder to secure if Biden wins.

"Without overstating this ... I do wonder about whether for a Biden administration a free trade deal with the U.K. would be the absolute top priority," he said. "Biden was part of the Obama administration, and Obama said wed be `back of the queue (for a trade deal) if we left the European Union."

Darroch took Trump seriously from the start, cabling London in February 2016 to say he was likely to be the Republican presidential candidate and could win the presidency. Once Trump took office, Darroch wondered how the president would deal with a major crisis.

"And I think were now starting to get an answer to that in terms of how the pandemic is going in America," he said.

Still, he says, the president should not be underestimated.

"It would be very unwise to count Trump out," Darroch said.
Image: ANI



#WATCH I met Governor Koshyari & told him about unjust treatment I've received. I hope justice will be given to me so that the faith of all citizens including young girls, is restored in the system. I am fortunate that the Governor listened to me like a daughter: Kangana Ranaut pic.twitter.com/aZRohVVUhi

 ANI (@ANI) September 13, 2020

Stating that Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari listened to her "as a daughter", actor Kangana Ranaut, who met him at Raj Bhavan in Mumbai, said she appraised him about the "unjust treatment" she had received.

Ranaut's meeting came against the backdrop of her tiff with the Shiv Sena, one of the ruling parties in Maharashtra, over her comments on Mumbai Police's tackling of the Sushant Singh Rajput case, as also her likening the financial capital to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Ranaut arrived in Mumbai on September 9, the day when the Sena-controlled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had razed parts of her Bandra office, which the civic body claimed were built 'illegally'.

Earlier on September 13, during his address to the state, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray assured people that along with the COVID-19 crisis, he would fight the political crisis too. "I will have to remove the mask of Chief Minister to respond to politics. I don't speak doesn't mean I don't have answers," he stated.
(Newser)  The shooting of two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies in an apparent ambush prompted a manhunt, reaction from the president, and protests outside the hospital where the 31-year-old female deputy and 24-year-old male deputy both underwent surgery Saturday evening, reports the AP. The deputies were shot while sitting in their patrol car at a Metro station and were able to radio for help, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said in a late-night news conference. Villanueva, whose department has come under fire during recent protests over racial unrest, expressed frustration over anti-police sentiment as he urged people to pray for the officers. It pisses me off. It dismays me at the same time, he said. The department shared video showing a person open fire through the passenger window of the patrol car. The gunman walked up on the deputies and opened fire without ... provocation, the department said.

story continues below

The video sparked thousands of reactions, including from President Trump, who responded, Animals that must be hit hard! Protesters gathered outside the ER where the injured deputies were being treated. To the protesters blocking the entrance & exit of the HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM yelling We hope they die referring to 2 LA Sheriffs ambushed today in #Compton: DO NOT BLOCK EMERGENCY ENTRIES & EXITS TO THE HOSPITAL, the sheriff's department tweeted. Peoples lives are at stake when ambulances cant get through. A radio reporter near the protest was taken into custody, KABC-TV reported. The sheriff's department later tweeted that she interfered with the arrest of a male protester. The female ... did not identify herself as press and later admitted she did not have proper press credentials, the department said. A rep said officers were blanketing the area in search of the shooting suspect. We have a very, very generic description," he said.

(Read more ambush stories.)
In the cases of the women, MBS has conceded even less. In early 2019, eight of those arrested in 2018 were released to home detention, and they and four others were put on trial. The charges against them were ludicrous: For example, Hathloul (who was not released) was said to have committed the offense of providing information to human rights groups and the European Union. Maybe that explains why the trials soon went dormant. There have been no hearings in months, and none are scheduled.
Australias Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton on Sunday defended the governments right to intelligence raids to prevent foreign interference, after China condemned searches on the homes of its journalists working in Australia.

Dutton declined to directly confirm that the Chinese journalists were questioned by Australias intelligence agency in June, saying an investigation was still underway, but said there was some activity by the countrys intelligence agency.

Where (the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) has sufficient grounds for the execution of a search warrant, or for activities otherwise, then theyll undertake that activity, Dutton said on the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) television.

If people are masquerading as journalists or business leaders or whoever they might be, and theres evidence that they are acting in a contrary nature to Australian law, then . (the) agencies will act.

The raids were revealed by Chinas foreign ministry last week in the wake of two Australian journalists departing China after questioning by Chinese police. Australias trade minister said on Friday the agencies acted on evidence related to a foreign interference investigation.

On Saturday, Chinas state media condemned the raids.

Relations between Australia and its top trading partner China have been deteriorating gradually over the recent years and have soured further this year after Canberra called for an investigation into the origins of the novel coronavirus, angering Beijing.

China has imposed trade restrictions on products including barley and wine, prompting Australia to tighten national security tests for foreign investment.
Tropical Storm Sally is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane as it approaches the Gulf Coast Monday morning.

As of late Sunday night, the storm was about 185 miles east-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River with sustained winds of 60 mph, and was moving northwest at 8 mph.

The storm's track had a notable shift eastward late Sunday, increasing the odds of a more significant impact on the Mississippi coast and potentially lowering the impacts on southeastern Louisiana, including New Orleans. But the shift doesn't mean New Orleans is in the clear yet.

Sally is forecast to bring life-threatening storm surge, hurricane winds and torrential rain along the Gulf Coast beginning Monday.

The storm is expected to near the southeastern Louisiana or southern Mississippi coast by late Monday, then slow down significantly. The storm is expected to strike the coast as a strong Category 1 or possibly low-end Category 2 hurricane.

PHOTO: Tropical Storm Sally is forecast to hit the Gulf Coast as a hurricane. (ABC News)

Heavy rain continues to fall on the eastern side of Sally, especially from the Florida Keys to Sarasota.

Key West, Florida, recorded nearly 4 inches of rain in just one hour overnight causing flash flooding there. Additionally, Key West observed 9.37 inches of rain Saturday.

Flood watches have been issued for a large part of the Southeast U.S.

Regardless of the wind speed of Sally, the primary and most major concern remains the water.

Sallys outer bands should begin to reach the Gulf Coast Monday morning with significant progress inland not expected until Wednesday morning.

This likely allows for up to 48 hours of storm surge and rainfall which could be a very dangerous situation.

PHOTO: The rainfall forecast now calls for up to 20 inches along the Gulf Coast. As with all hurricanes, this rainfall will be realized east of the center and could cause major flash flooding. (ABC News)

The rainfall forecast now calls for up to 20 inches along the Gulf Coast. As with all hurricanes, this rainfall will be realized east of the center and could cause major flash flooding.

The storm surge forecast is now up to 11 feet, again east of the center.

Hancock County, Mississippi, issued orders for a mandatory evacuation beginning Monday at 7 a.m. local time, for all low-lying areas and residents living on rivers, river inlets, bayous and creeks, and in travel trailers, modular homes, mobile homes, homes under construction and partially constructed homes.

Story continues

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves issued a state of emergency Sunday evening, hours after New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell did the same for her city.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said that the storm poses a "very significant threat to the people of Southeast Louisiana," in a statement Sunday.

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey also said her state is "keeping a close eye" on the storm and that "it is likely that this storm system will be impacting Alabamas Gulf Coast."

A mandatory evacuation has been issued for Grand Isle, Louisiana, according to a press release from Grand Isle Mayor David Carmadelle's office. The town of Grand Isle will open an evacuation center at the Raceland Recreation Center, located at 221 Recreation Drive, Raceland, Louisiana.

PHOTO: Sally is just one of seven tropical systems in the Atlantic basin. (ABC News)

Sally is just one of seven tropical systems in the Atlantic basin.

Paulette is currently a Category 1 hurricane as it continues to close in on Bermuda. Sustained winds at are at 85 mph as the storm moves northwest at 14 mph.

Rain bands and gusty winds are beginning to impact the island, and additional strengthening is forecast over the next 24-48 hours.

Paulette is expected to increase to a Category 2 hurricane as it impacts the island nation, where a hurricane warning is in effect. The magnitude of the impacts will depend on how close the center of the storm tracks to the island, but either way a prolonged period of heavy rain and strong winds with dangerous storm surge is expected to pound Bermuda through Monday morning.

There are also two more tropical waves pushing off Africa, as well as Tropical Depression 20.

Tropical Storm Sally expected to hit Gulf Coast as slow-moving hurricane originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Mali's military junta on Saturday vowed to establish an 18-month transition government to return the country to civilian rule after last month's coup, but key figures protested the army's continued influence.

A junta-appointed committee adopted a "transition charter" by acclamation at the close of talks on the handover of power, a move that paves the way for a placeholder government taking over before staging fresh elections.

But one of the most contentious issues remains unclear: whether the transition government will be headed by a civilian or a soldier.

While AFP has not seen the final version of the charter, an earlier version stated that another junta-appointed committee would appoint the transition president, raising questions about the military's influence.

And some of the forum's roughly 500 delegates cried out in protest as the rapporteur for the committee overseeing the talks, Moussa Camara, announced that the transition charter had been adopted.

'Not democratic at all'

The three-day forum was marked by stark divisions over issues such as the length of the transition government, and the military's role in it, notably among members of the June 5 Movement.

Demonstrators backing the army took to the streets in Malian capital Bamako this week amid wrangling over how to end its military junta. By MICHELE CATTANI (AFP/File)

The loose coalition of opposition groups, religious leaders and civil figures engineered a months-long wave of protests against President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, which led up to his ouster and arrest in a military coup on August 18.

Sy Kadiatou Sow, a leading M5 member and former government minister, said earlier on Saturday that the charter had been "butchered" and did not reflect earlier discussions.

"This is not democratic at all," she told AFP. "I am very sad and worried".

At the forum's closing ceremony, the head of the junta, Colonel Assimi Goita, addressed delegates and vowed to establish the transition government.

"We make a commitment before you to spare no effort in the implementation of all these resolutions in the exclusive interest of the Malian people," he said.

"We ask and hope for the understanding, support and assistance of the international community in this diligent and correct implementation of the Charter," he added.

International pressure

Last month's coup -- Mali's fourth since gaining independence from France in 1960 -- came after months of protests, stoked by Keita's failure to roll back a bloody jihadist insurgency and fix the country's many economic woes.

Mali's neighbours have watched with concern, fearing the country could spiral back into chaos -- a scenario that eight years ago helped fuel the jihadist revolt which now rattles Niger and Burkina Faso.

The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States has taken a hard line, insisting that Mali's ruling army officers hand over power within 12 months. It has also closed borders and banned trade with the nation of some 19 million people.

It remains unclear how Mali's neighbours will react to the plan for an 18-month transitional government.

Junta officials are due to meet ECOWAS heads of state in Accra on Tuesday, an official from Ghanaian foreign affairs ministry told AFP.

Mali's junta had initially talked of a three-year transition, corresponding to the time left in Keita's second five-year mandate, that would be overseen by a soldier.

A junta-appointed expert committee then proposed a two-year transition, which delegates whittled down to 18 months after debate in the forum.

Moussa Camara, the committee's rapporteur, said on Saturday that the new government would be composed of at most 25 members, including the prime minister.

A 121-person legislative body will also be established, comprising M5 members, political parties, journalists, civil-society figures, religious leaders, women, young people and members of Mali's diaspora.

Under an earlier version of the charter seen by AFP, neither the president nor transition-government ministers would be able to stand for office when their term comes to an end.
Tomorrow, Facebook will file High Court papers challenging Helen Dixon's preliminary order to stop data transfers.

It smacks of panic.

In case you missed it, the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) gave a preliminary order to Facebook to stop transferring users' personal data to the US.

This has always been regarded as a nuclear option. But it's happened. And it will almost certainly affect everyone reading this in some way.

Facebook is spooked. But it believes that the DPC has moved far too quickly. It will present its legal arguments as to why next week. A good guess is that it will say the Irish DPC has boobed by opening an enquiry and making a preliminary decision at the same time, contrary to what a regulated entity might expect.

Is this just a stalling tactic to delay the inevitable?

The problem with Facebook's argument is that the DPC is really only doing what the European Court of Justice said it now has to do.

In July, in the Schrems-Facebook case that saw the transatlantic 'Privacy Shield' data transfer agreement struck down, the court said that the US treats EU citizens' privacy like dirt. Consequently, it said that data regulators now had to start shutting off data transfers that are based on existing legal mechanisms like 'standard contractual clauses'.

So that's what the Irish DPC is doing. Hence the order to Facebook.

If the tech giant argues that the Irish regulator should, in fact, wait a bit longer to see whether European colleagues can come up with something of a replacement to standard contractual clauses, should that be heeded?

It very much depends on who you ask.

To trade organisations, this has the potential to be a disruptive nightmare. Remember what we're talking about here: legal uncertainty (or even prohibition) from using cloud hosting services, ecommerce portals and video-conferencing platforms as they're currently set up.

An extreme case was set out by Facebook's global affairs vice-president (and former UK deputy prime minister) Nick Clegg.

"In the worst-case scenario, this could mean that a small tech start-up in Germany would no longer be able to use a US-based cloud provider," he said.

"A Spanish product development company could no longer be able to run an operation across multiple time zones. A French retailer may find they can no longer maintain a call centre in Morocco."

To be fair, Clegg would say that, wouldn't he? But he isn't alone. There are a lot of trade bodies who are freaked out by the possible implications from all of this.

On the other hand, consider the position that the Irish DPC is in. What is the overwhelming criticism that her office gets, day in, day out?

That it moves too slowly.

That it pays too much heed to the considerations of the tech giants it's regulating.

That it holds back from implementing the most serious enforcement remedies.

Given that it now effectively has a directive from Europe's highest court, and is still fighting rearguard actions against privacy campaigners ceaselessly snapping at its heels to move quicker to stop transatlantic data transfers, isn't it understandable that it has made this preliminary order?

When this topic gets discussed in detail, my experience is that it makes many people's eyes glaze over. The absence of that middle ground is quite important. It leaves the debate in the hands of profit-driven companies and privacy true believers, who are at polar opposites of the spectrum.

The problem with the companies is that they can't see much further than their own bottom line. But the challenge with leaving everything up to the privacy advocates is that many of them are willing to blow up trade in defence of privacy, which they regard as a bigger priority. No more Facebook or Amazon or Google? Sounds great, many of them say. To be sure, there is an arguable case here. Big tech companies haven't helped themselves on many occasions over the last few years. But it's less clear whether the general public is quite in step with a view that we'd be largely better off without them.

Regardless of any of that, the actual question here is an even bigger one. There is a fundamental issue that we can no longer dodge: the EU and the US do not agree on what an acceptable level of 'security surveillance' of citizens' data is. Both sides appear happy to sink transatlantic trade to defend their core view on it.

For instance, does anyone really believe that Donald Trump's administration - or even a Joe Biden one - will suddenly agree that Europe's objections to its security surveillance laws are to be adhered to? If you're one of those who argues that the power of the EU's market to persuade them of this should do the trick, you may be more isolated than you imagine.

And it's a similar question for the Americans. Do their authorities and politicians really believe that European 'wimps' will get in line on the US's "proportional" security response in the form of surveillance laws? Sorry, but that boat seems to have sailed. And there's no longer the UK to act as a proxy on it inside the Union.

Even if we wanted to tone it down on this side of the Atlantic, we can't.

"Supervisory authorities are required to suspend or prohibit a transfer of personal data to a third country where they take the view, in the light of all the circumstances of that transfer, that the standard data protection clauses are not or cannot be complied with in that country and that the protection of the data transferred that is required by EU law cannot be ensured by other means," said Europe's highest court in July.

This is very, very serious. We need to get ready for an unprecedented level of disruption very soon.
The sort of politics being done in Ghana requires a great deal of new face of political leadership to restore integrity, dignity, and sanity in the system.

It is against this background that Ms. Bridget Dzogbenuku, flagbearer, Progressive People's Party (PPP), for the 2020 elections has promised a new leadership with bold ideas and actions to transform Ghana

She also pledged to restore good values, discipline and patriotism in the country when voted into power.

Ms Dzogbenuku made the pledge when she was outdoored as the Flagbearer of the PPP in Accra on Saturday.

She said, We have been promised a better Ghana and real change over the years but all we have seen is two sizes of the same coin with widening gap between the rich and poor.

For the nation to progress, she appealed to the electorate to vote for the PPP to implement its innovative ideas to develop the country.

The PPP Flagbearer promised to lead an incorruptible government, ensure a Free Compulsory Basic Education, peace and security, growth at all levels as well as, inclusive leadership.

She advised the public to be wary of political parties promising freebies because they were unsustainable and dis-empowering.

Ms. Dzogbenuku was the running mate of Papa Kwesi Nduom on the ticket of the PPP in the 2016 general election and the first woman to have been selected as the party's Presidential Candidate.

Brigitte Dzogbenuku is the founder and Executive Director of Mentoring Women Ghana (MWG), which inspires and empowers young women and girls to make a positive difference in their communities.

Her commitment to the cause won her the Fortune/Goldman Sachs Women's Leadership Award in 2008.

Paa Kow Ackon, National Secretary, PPP, said the Party would promote progressive principles, policy for education of all, the power to the grassroots and provide infrastructure of care to Ghanaians to flourish in all spheres.

He described the Party as the third-largest opposition party having contested two major elections.

Paa Ackon said the Party would pay any price...to guarantee its survival and win the 2020 general election.

---GNA
Sue Gordon, former principal deputy director of national intelligence, told CBS News' "Face the Nation" Sunday that President Trump's message that the electoral system can't be trusted "is exactly what the Russians particularly hope to achieve."

Why it matters: Trump's critics have repeatedly said the president is undermining the elections by sowing distrust into Americans. He has previously claimed, with no evidence, that voting by mail leads to widespread voter fraud.

What she's saying: "That message that you can't trust our system, that you can't trust the vote, that you can't trust the other party, that you can't trust is exactly what the Russians particularly hope to achieve. And their aim would be to sow divisions and to get Americans to say, you know what it's not worth it, I can't trust it, so we're not going to vote."
O God,

because without you we are not able to please you,

mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may

in all things direct and rule our hearts;

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God,

now and for ever.

Amen.
Political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services have repeatedly asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to revise, delay and even scuttle weekly reports on the coronavirus that they believed were unflattering to President Donald Trump.

Current and former senior health officials with direct knowledge of phone calls, emails and other communication between the agencies said on Saturday that meddling from Washington was turning widely followed and otherwise apolitical guidance on infectious disease, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports, into a political loyalty test, with career scientists framed as adversaries of the administration.

They confirmed an article in Politico on Friday night that the CDCs public morbidity reports, which one former top health official described on Saturday as the holiest of the holy in agency literature, have been targeted for months by senior officials in the health departments communications office. It is unclear whether any of the reports were substantially altered, but important federal health studies have been delayed because of the pressure.

For latest updates and live news on coronavirus, click here

The reports are written largely for scientists and public health experts, updating them on trends in all infectious diseases, Covid-19 included. They are guarded so closely by agency staff members that political appointees only see them just before they are published. Health department officials have typically only received notice of the titles of the reports.

Michael Caputo, a former Trump campaign official installed by the White House in April as the top department spokesman, said on Saturday that the person most involved in reshaping the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports was Paul Alexander, an assistant professor of health research at McMaster University in Canada and an adviser Caputo hired to help with him on the science of the pandemic.

He digs into these MMWRs and makes his position known, and his position isnt popular with the career scientists sometimes, Caputo said. Thats called science. Disagreement is science. Nobody has been ever ordered to do anything. Some changes have been accepted, most have been rejected. Its my understanding that thats how science is played.

But Caputo and Alexander appeared to view the reports, which have presented dire new findings about the spread of the virus, as incompatible with the Trump administrations push to move beyond the pandemic and present the country as on the upswing, officials said.

The New York Times interviewed five current and former federal health officials Saturday with direct knowledge of efforts to warp the weekly reports. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to frankly discuss internal deliberations at the Department of Health and Human Services.

In an email obtained by Politico and confirmed by a person with direct knowledge of the message, Alexander accused CDC scientists of trying to hurt the president with the reports, which he referred to as hit pieces on the administration. Alexander asked Dr Robert Redfield, the CDC director, to edit reports that had already been published, which he believed overstated the risks of the virus for children and undermined the administrations efforts to encourage schools to reopen.

CORONAVIRUS SPECIAL COVERAGE ONLY ON DH

Caputo and Alexander also tried to stop the publication of a report  issued last week after a delay  on use of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, an unproven treatment that Trump and conservative allies have heralded and used as a kind of litmus test of resistance to scientific consensus. In discussions with the CDC, they questioned the political beliefs of the reports authors.

The political involvement undermines the credibility of not only the MMWR but of the CDC. And the CDCs credibility has been tarnished throughout Covid already, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University who sits on the external editorial board of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports.

The MMWR had an unblemished reputation as being accurate, objective and science-based, free from political influence, he said.

The reports have an internationally respected place in public health history, often breaking news about developments in disease research. Perhaps the best-known is the one the CDC published on June 5, 1981, about five previously healthy young gay men in Los Angeles who had developed a form of pneumonia ordinarily seen in people with depressed immune systems. Two of them died. It was the first recorded report of the illness that would be named AIDS and has killed an estimated 32 million people around the world.

The reports have been so successful that it has been the model for other similar communicable disease bulletins by ministries of health around the world, Schaffner said.

Caputo, who is known to promote conspiracy theories, occupies a job at the health department typically conducted in an apolitical way, coordinating the messaging of an 80,000-person department that functions as the centre of the American public health bureaucracy.

But since his arrival, during the biggest health crisis, the department has ever faced, he has turned his office into what current and former senior administration officials have referred to as a bullying operation. Caputo still uses social media to attack reporters and Democratic politicians.

Caputo has also helped install allies in other communications positions at health agencies under the Health and Human Services Department, and even an interim chief of staff at CDC.

Alex Azar, the health secretary and a member of the coronavirus task force, said in a statement that he had insisted that the president have direct access to the countrys top doctors during the pandemic. He has always been receptive to the data and science presented by me and other members of the task force, he said.

The meddling from Washington has concerned Redfield, who often pushed back when Caputo called to pester him about the morbidity reports, according to former senior government health officials with direct knowledge of the conversations.

The efforts were an attempt to write an alternate reality into official CDC literature, one of the former senior health officials said.

15 countries with the highest number of cases, deaths due to the Covid-19 pandemic

One CDC scientist working on the coronavirus response said in an interview Saturday that some career officials at the agency were so fed up with political meddling that they were considering resigning. Political officials have repeatedly tried to undermine the research of CDC employees, the scientist said, even going as far as cancelling interviews with the news media before the release of high-profile reports, depriving them of the chance to explain their own work.

The CDC earlier this year was first asked for titles and synopses of the reports before their publication. Agency officials were then asked for full drafts, a request that Redfield resisted. Caputo and his aides wanted to add caveats and add commentary, according to one of the officials.

Alexander at one point demanded the CDC stop publishing the reports until he had the ability to review and edit them in their entirety.

One federal health official emphasised that while the CDC now sends portions of draft weekly reports to the Health and Human Services Department, their publication is not conditioned on department approval. Still, the official said, the draft reports are returned with specific critiques from Alexander and demands for revisions.

Noncoronavirus reports, such as those on tuberculosis and the flu, have been passed over, the former official said. But reports on the coronavirus have received extra scrutiny.

Publication of a 10-state study of coronavirus infection numbers was inexplicably delayed for several weeks, another official said, until Redfield jarred it loose with a news conference call in late June that hinted at the coming data. That report concluded the actual number of coronavirus infections was likely 10 times the official number.

Our best estimate right now is for every case reported there were actually 10 other infections, Redfield said at the time, without citing the source of his information.

The official said the study had been delayed because it was in conflict with messaging. The day after Redfield held the call, its authors scrambled to publish the data on the agencys website to back him up.

Also read: Donald Trump admitted playing down coronavirus danger, says new book

The paper, which did not fit in with Trumps various claims that either the pandemic would go away or the number of cases was high because the United States was doing so much testing, also appeared online on the Journal of the American Medical Associations internal medicine website.

Another study suggesting the novel coronavirus was in the United States in December  not January, as health officials have said  has been ready since June 30 but still hasnt been published, this official said.

Joshua Sharfstein, an expert in public health communications at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said he often used the reports, such as one on the benefits of vaccination, in his classes. And it was the weekly report, he said, that first identified the scale of the current opioid epidemic.

I think of it as the core vehicle for CDC to communicate scientific findings, he said. Its very common for those articles to have an immediate impact in thinking about public health challenges.
A government official has invaded a farm owned by a white commercial land owner in Zimbabwe, a month after President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced that evicted farmers will be paid $3,5 billion for properties appropriated by the state since 2000.

In a video circulating on social media, Protea Farm owner, Martin Grobler, tells a Mr. Chuma and his colleagues, accompanied by police and other unidentified people, to leave his farm.

The invaders are seen milling around the farm, vowing to stay put. Reports say they have now seized the farm that has a flourishing tobacco crop.

Indications are that the farm has been seized by Ivy Rupindi of the Ministry of Agriculture, who claims that she is the rightful owner of the property, which was allocated to her by the government a couple of years ago. Its unclear why she has not occupied the farm after it was allocated to her under the land reform program.

The Ministry of Information says it is investigating the issue amid an international outcry over the invasion of the farm.

In a statement, the ministry said, We have been made aware of a video depicting an eviction of a farmer and his family. Government is trying to establish the facts behind this matter. What is known so far is that there is a legacy legal issue between the parties and the matter is being dealt with by the courts.

Information secretary Nick Mangwana and Grobler were unavailable for comment as they were not responding to calls on their mobile phones.

Over 4,500 white commercial farmers lost their land following violent farm invasions by war veterans, Zanu PF supporters and government officials in 2000. Some farmers were killed when their land was appropriated under the ruling partys sanctioned agrarian reform program.
Today we'll do a simple run through of a valuation method used to estimate the attractiveness of Eleco Plc (LON:ELCO) as an investment opportunity by taking the forecast future cash flows of the company and discounting them back to today's value. We will take advantage of the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model for this purpose. Before you think you won't be able to understand it, just read on! It's actually much less complex than you'd imagine.

Remember though, that there are many ways to estimate a company's value, and a DCF is just one method. Anyone interested in learning a bit more about intrinsic value should have a read of the Simply Wall St analysis model.

See our latest analysis for Eleco

Is Eleco fairly valued?

We are going to use a two-stage DCF model, which, as the name states, takes into account two stages of growth. The first stage is generally a higher growth period which levels off heading towards the terminal value, captured in the second 'steady growth' period. To begin with, we have to get estimates of the next ten years of cash flows. 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, 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) UK4.43m UK4.88m UK5.24m UK5.53m UK5.77m UK5.96m UK6.12m UK6.26m UK6.38m UK6.49m Growth Rate Estimate Source Est @ 13.81% Est @ 10.04% Est @ 7.39% Est @ 5.54% Est @ 4.24% Est @ 3.34% Est @ 2.7% Est @ 2.26% Est @ 1.95% Est @ 1.73% Present Value (, Millions) Discounted @ 8.3% UK4.1 UK4.2 UK4.1 UK4.0 UK3.9 UK3.7 UK3.5 UK3.3 UK3.1 UK2.9

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = UK36m

Story continues

The second stage is also known as Terminal Value, this is the business's cash flow after the first stage. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield of 1.2%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 8.3%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2030  (1 + g)  (r  g) = UK6.5m (1 + 1.2%)  (8.3% 1.2%) = UK93m

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= UK93m ( 1 + 8.3%)10= UK42m

The total value is the sum of cash flows for the next ten years plus the discounted terminal value, which results in the Total Equity Value, which in this case is UK78m. In the final step we divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Relative to the current share price of UK0.9, the company appears about fair value at a 10.0% discount to where the stock price trades currently. The assumptions in any calculation have a big impact on the valuation, so it is better to view this as a rough estimate, not precise down to the last cent.

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 Eleco as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 8.3%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.024. 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 is only one of many factors that you need to assess for a company. It's not possible to obtain a foolproof valuation with a DCF model. Preferably you'd apply different cases and assumptions and see how they would impact the company's valuation. 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 Eleco, we've put together three essential factors you should look at:

Risks: For example, we've discovered 1 warning sign for Eleco that you should be aware of before investing here. Future Earnings: How does ELCO'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.
By launching its brand-new Enyaq iV, Skoda is taking the next systematic step in the implementation of its e-mobility strategy. The all-electric SUV is the Czech car manufacturers first production model to be based on Volkswagen Groups MEB modular electric car platform.

The Skoda Enyaq iV offers rear- or all-wheel drive, along with a range that is perfectly suitable for everyday use, covering up to 510 km in the WLTP cycle, and brand-typical spaciousness. The new SUV features an all-new interior concept offering design selections instead of classic trim levels and a brand-new structure of the options available.

Thomas Schafer, Skoda Auto CEO, said, The launch of the Enyaq iV sees the start of a new era for Skoda. This is our first all-electric car to be based on the MEB platform. By launching this model, we are making e-mobility simply clever  with long ranges, quick charging, ease of operation and affordable prices. The Enyaq iV is made in Skodas heartland, Mlada Boleslav, making our main plant the only production facility for MEB-based vehicles in Europe outside Germany. This is a great testament to Skodas expertise, and I would like to thank the entire team that got the Enyaq iV rolling. It's a great car, and I'm really proud of the team."

Skoda Ireland brand director, John Donegan, said: Despite the economic and industry challenges, we are confident of achieving our long-stated aim of achieving fourth position in the Irish market for 2020. With the arrival of the new Octavia this September we are determined to maintain this position in 2021.

By the end of 2022, Skoda will have more than ten electric or partially electric iV models in our range. This portfolio of new models, together with our strong dealer network and partnership with Volkswagen Financial Services puts the Skoda brand in an ideal position to challenge for the number two position in the Irish car market.

For the Irish market  there will be Enyaq iV 50 (55kWh battery, 340km range), the Enyaq iV 60 (62kWh battery, 390km range) and the Enyaq iV 80 (82kWh battery, 510km range). The Enyaq iV 50 (55kWh) comes with 18 steel wheels, LED headlights, Dual-zone Climatronic, Keyless Go with Cruise Control, a 10 infotainment system and Bluetooth and Smartlink and four speakers.

Move up to the Enyaq iV 60 (62kWh), and you get 19 alloy wheels, a rear parking sensor, power-folding mirrors/rain sensor wipers, black roof rails, a front centre armrest and a 13" infotainment system with eight speakers.

The Enyaq iV 80 / 80x (82kWh - latter is 4WD) also has 19 alloy wheels, a front parking sensor, rear-view camera, chrome surrounding the windows and on the roof rails, a heated steering wheel and Drive Mode Select.

The Enyaq iV 80 is expected to make up the bulk of sales (55%), followed by the Enyaq iV 60 (25%), the Enyaq iV 80x (15%) and the Enyaq iV 50 (5%).

Ireland will receive 270 units of the Enyaq iV in 2021, so demand is expected to outstrip supply of this new model. First to arrive will be the 80 models, followed closely by the 60 models and then the 50 a month later. Irish buyers can find out more information on the Enyaq iV at www.skoda.ie/ models/enyaq-iv/enyaq-iv.

Contact Sheehy Skoda in Naas on 045 906600 or www.sheehyskodanaas.ie.
LAHORE, Pakistan - Pakistani police on Sunday said they have arrested one of two suspects in the rape of a woman who was dragged from her car and attacked in front of her children after her car broke down on a desolate highway in central Punjab province.

The police said the woman had locked her car doors when she ran out of fuel. She called highway police for help. As she waited, police said two attackers broke her car window, dragged her outside and raped her in front of her terrified children. The suspects are also accused of stealing cash and jewelry from the woman before fleeing.

Chief of the criminal investigation wing of the Punjab police, Atif Nazeer, said the arrest of one of the men was made after security tracked phone records and collected forensic evidence from the scene near the eastern city of Lahore.

Nazeer said the suspect denies any involvement in the rape, which took place Wednesday. Some local media are reporting that the suspect turned himself over to police to plead his innocence.

The assault drew widespread condemnation on social media, with protesters demanding the perpetrators be publicly hanged.

Recently appointed Lahore police chief Umar Sheikh has been criticized for apparently blaming the victim for travelling alone with her two children after midnight without checking whether her car had enough fuel. Womens rights activists have urged the government to fire Sheikh over his remarks.

Gang rape is rare in Pakistan, although sexual harassment and violence against women is commonly reported. Nearly 1,000 women are killed in Pakistan each year in so-called honour killings for allegedly violating conservative norms on love and marriage.

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An Indian army convoy moves on the Srinagar- Ladakh highway at Gagangeer, northeast of Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir. PTI Photo

The Ladakh imbroglio has been a complex interplay between military jostling at the Line of Actual Control and talks at the official, military and political levels. The Galwan setback was followed by a military-to-military understanding on the PLAs pullback.

Video conferences followed between external affairs minister S. Jaishankar and national security adviser Ajit Doval with Wang Yi, who doubles up as Chinas foreign minister and state councillor. However, till Augusts end, the Chinese were unwilling to fully restore the status quo.

In fact, they consolidated their hold on the northern bank of Pangong Tso and other areas like Depsang Plains, threatening Indias access to Daulat Beg Oldie and the Karakoram Pass.

Surprised by Chinas lightning deployment of heavily armed troops at multiple points on the LAC, India also needed time to mirror deployments, with troops needing acclimatisation for high-altitude duty. Even the threat of economic decoupling, with over 200 Chinese apps barred, left Chinas military posture unaffected.

On August 28-29, the Indian Army dramatically seized the highest Kailash range mountaintops, overlooking Spanggur Tso and the Chinese military garrison at Moldo.

Below them lies Spanggur Gap, between two lakes, through which Chinese troops attacked in 1962. Indias positions were then overrun as they were at lower heights.

Mukhpari, now held, and to its northwest Black Top, perhaps contested, dominate the entire region from south of Pangong Tso to Spanggur Tso lake and beyond, overlooking Chinese roads and military installations.

This just preceded the meeting of the Indian and Chinese defence ministers on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting.

Chinas rhetoric changed instantly, with allegations of India breaching agreements and the LAC, aping Indian allegations earlier. India was clear its forward push was pre-emptive and only up to Indian claim lines and understanding of the LAC.

India was merely following the playbook the Chinese used since April. After the Galwan betrayal, the rules of engagement were also changed with local commanders empowered to use all means at their disposal to protect their troops and defend Indian posts and territory. With three of five agreements -- those signed in 1993, 1996 and 2013 -- breached by China, India also set them aside.

Indias countermove levelled Chinas first-mover advantage somewhat, giving Indias diplomats vital negotiating chips.

It was against this background that Jaishankar arrived in Moscow for an on-the-sidelines meeting with his Chinese counterpart. Most analysts were sceptical about a positive outcome as there was no consensus about Chinese motives. Was Chinese ire persisting over the constitutional and territorial changes made by the Indian government in Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019, which China strongly condemned?

Or was China paranoid over the India-US strategic convergence, symbolised by excessive bonhomie between Narendra Modi and Donald Trump at the Howdy Modi and NamasteTrump extravaganzas? Finally, was it Indias rejection of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative or the perceived Indian sabotage of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership?

Alternatively, was the provocation more local over Indias upgraded infrastructure, or misreading of jingoism of Union ministers threatening to seize Pakistan- and China-occupied Kashmir, or perceived threat to Chinese investments in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor?

However, there is no doubt over one overweening purpose, rekindled by President Xi, to create a China-dominated, Sino-centric Asian regional order. Cutting India, its only possible strategic rival, down to size has been a Chinese preoccupation since 1962.

China has chosen the moment well, with the world distracted by the Covid-19 pandemic, the US presidential election and a global economic slowdown.

Chinese assertiveness over territorial claims and international affairs manifested after the 2008 financial crisis. It was sharpened as Xi took the presidency in 2013.

Instead of moderating its behaviour and recognising Chinas constructive liability for the pandemic, China has shamelessly and aggressively pursued narrow national interests. But globally China is facing headwinds as even Europe is beginning to see demerits of engaging China blindly.

Whoever wins in America or succeeds Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, the decoupling from China will continue. Xi faces a major Communist Party plenary in October, where he wants his choice of the next Prime Minister endorsed.

Chinas economy may have revived fast, but the developed world and larger markets are circling their wagons. Australia, India and Japan are discussing a supply chain resilience initiative, while Japan is subsidising Japanese companies wishing to shift businesses out of China.

Jaishankar and Wang produced a five-point joint statement which recalled the consensus reached by Modi and Xi, reiterated the need to reduce tensions and abide by agreements and suggested the resumption of dialogue at the civil, military and political levels.

The only new element was a recognition that after the situation eases, new confidence-building measures are needed, allowing both sides to address strategic and local concerns. But the relief was shortlived as the individual statements by both sides seemed to undercut the feelgood joint statement.

China asserted its stern position said India must stop provocations like firing and recall all personnel and equipment that had trespassed, to enable an enhanced dialogue.

It claimed Jaishankar accepted Chinese policy towards India had not changed and bilateral relations did not depend on settlement of the boundary question. India naturally contested Chinas claims, insisting that Jaishankar had forcefully sought restoration of the status quo.

What does this dissonance between an agreed statement and separate claims mean? Both sides may be posturing for home audiences, while agreeing in private to slowly restore normality.

It could also mean Chinese unwillingness to exchange its cross-LAC territorial gains for Indias vacating the heights south of Pangong Tso.

The next few weeks will show whether de-escalation will start or jostling for tactical gains and capture of vantage points, in a barren terrain littered with ridges, continue.

If the latter, the possibility lingers of armed local action spiralling into the use of heavy arms or even air power.
There are many avenues, of course. The simplest is to contact your GP and talk about getting a Mental Health Treatment Plan, which entitles you to 10 subsidised mental-health sessions a year. If you live in Melbourne, or another area subject to COVID-19 public health orders restricting your movement since July 1, you are entitled to 20 sessions. I pay $200 for my 50-minute sessions. Medicare rebates me $128.40, leaving me out of pocket by $71.60. I budget in advance for this expense under my health spending category. But theres a sting in the tail.

While there are substantial benefits from seeking support, there can also be substantial financial ramifications under the current system. I know, because it happened to me. Let me explain. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a man or woman in possession of a substantial mortgage must be in want of income protection insurance, to ensure you can keep a roof over your head should tragedy strike. Being the newly financially responsible adult that I am, I inquired earlier this year about my options through a financial planner. He talked me through the importance of getting a fully underwritten policy  one where the insurer has a good look at you first and assesses your personal circumstances  rather than an off the shelf type policy, which you may find does not cover your personal situation.

So far, so wise. The planner also discussed the benefits of own job insurance. That is, a policy that would pay out in the event I am unable to perform the functions of my job. Otherwise, should the insurer decide I am still capable of performing some other job, like stacking shelves at Coles, they could deny my claim. However, heres the rub. To obtain a fully underwritten policy, you are required to disclose all relevant details about your circumstances, including your mental and physical health.

Of course, I disclosed the mental health support I have received. Of the four quotes my planner sourced from potential insurers, each decided to slap me with a two or three year mental health exclusion, which is to say, they would not pay out in the event my inability to work arose from anything to do with my mental health. This could be reassessed after the exclusion period, and lifted, but only if I sought no additional support during that time. No thanks! I get that insurance companies are in the tricky business of balancing risk and return. And mental health claims are one of the fastest-growing types of claims. But denying or limiting cover for people who seek mental-health support is a classic example of what economists call a perverse incentive. It doesnt work for either insurers or the insured.

Under the current system, many people actively avoid seeking professional mental-health care because they would lose out on their insurance. However, failing to get the support you need only undermines your ability to work, increasing the chances you might need to claim. Loading The twist for me is that as a journalist and writer, perhaps the one thing that could really stop me from working would be if my brain were in some way incapacitated. So, whats the point of insurance which doesnt cover that? Particularly at an annual premium cost of about $5000 a year (albeit tax-deductible). Im still investigating my options. But, at this stage, the plan is to effectively self-insure, by living like a monk for a couple of years and building up a substantial liquid savings buffer.
A Barrie man has been charged for his alleged involvement in an international fraud scheme that spanned eight years and scammed hundreds of victims out of millions.

Charles DeBono, 62, is facing several charges including laundering proceeds of crime, personation with intent and fraud over $5,000, Ontario Provincial Police report.

The scheme began in 2012 in Barrie, police said, however it wasnt until September 2018  after multiple victims across Canada came forward  that the OPPs serious fraud office was assigned to investigate.

Victims claimed to have suffered losses through the Ponzi scheme , which involved point-of-sale debit terminals.

They believed they were buying terminals from a legitimate company called Debit Direct, and would receive a royalty of 15 cents per transaction on each purchase made on the terminals, police said.

Victims were unaware that the terminals never existed and any profits received were obtained from money put forward by new investors, police said.

The accused allegedly collected $56 million from more than 500 victims across Canada, with total losses of about $24 million, police said.

DeBono was deported to Canada from the Dominican Republic and was arrested upon his return. He is to remain in custody until his next court appearance at the Ontario Court of Justice in Barrie, on Monday.

Complaints came from victims in Toronto, Calgary and Barrie, among other jurisdictions.

Breanna Xavier-Carter is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star's radio room in Toronto. Reach her via email: bxavier@thestar.ca
Some microorganisms, the so-called methanotrophs, make a living by oxidizing methane (CH4) to carbon dioxide (CO2). Ammonia (NH3) is structurally very similar to methane, thus methanotrophs also co-metabolize ammonia and produce nitrite. While this process was observed in cell cultures, the underlying biochemical mechanism was not understood. Boran Kartal, head of the Microbial Physiology Group at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, and a group of scientists from Radboud University in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, now shed light on an exciting missing link in the process: the production of nitric oxide (NO).

Nitric oxide is a highly reactive and toxic molecule with fascinating and versatile roles in biology and atmospheric chemistry. It is a signaling molecule, the precursor of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O), depletes the ozone layer in our atmosphere, and a key intermediate in the global nitrogen cycle. It now turns out that NO is also the key for the survival of methanotrophs that face ammonia in the environment - which they do more and more as fertilizer input into nature increases. When methanotrophs co-metabolize ammonia they initially produce hydroxylamine, which inhibits other important metabolic processes, resulting in cell death. Thus, methanotrophs need to get rid of hydroxylamine as fast as possible. "Carrying a hydroxylamine-converting enzyme is a matter of life or death for methane-eating microbes", Kartal says.

For their study, Kartal and his colleagues used a methanotrophic bacterium named Methylacidiphilum fumariolicum, which originates from a volcanic mud pot, characterized by high temperatures and low pH, in the vicinity of Mount Vesuvius in Italy. "From this microbe, we purified a hydroxylamine oxidoreductase (mHAO) enzyme," reports Kartal. "Previously it was believed that mHAO enzyme would oxidize hydroxylamine to nitrite in methanotrophs. We now showed that it actually rapidly produces NO." The mHAO enzyme is very similar to the one used by "actual" ammonia oxidizers, which is quite astonishing, as Kartal explains: "It is now clear that enzymatically there is not much difference between aerobic ammonia- and methane-oxidizing bacteria. Using essentially the same set of enzymes, methanotrophs can act as de facto ammonia oxidizers in the environment. Still, how these microbes oxidize NO further to nitrite remains unknown."

The adaptation of the mHAO enzyme to the hot volcanic mud pots is also intriguing, Kartal believes: "At the amino acid level, the mHAO and its counterpart from ammonia oxidizers are very similar, but the protein we isolated from M. fumariolicum thrives at temperatures up to 80 C, almost 30 C above the temperature optimum of their "actual" ammonia-oxidizing relatives. Understanding how so similar enzymes have such different temperature optima and range will be very interesting to investigate."

According to Kartal, production of NO from ammonia has further implications for methane-eating microbes: "Currently there are no known methanotrophs that can make a living out of ammonia oxidation to nitrite via NO, but there could be methanotrophs out there that found a way to connect ammonia conversion to cell growth."

###
New Delhi:

Amid a row over Narendra Modi replacing Mahatma Gandhi on KVIC calendars and diary, NCP leader Praful Patel on Sunday said no controversy should be made in the matter as the Prime Minister is using Charkha which is Gandhis gift to the nation.

Charkha is Mahatma Gandhis gift to the nation. Countrys PM is using a charkha & I feel there is no need to create a controversy over it, he said in a tweet.

Haryana Minister Anil Vij had yesterday said that Modi is a better brand than Mahatma Gandhi whose image did not help khadi and led to devaluation of Indian currency.

He was responding to controversy that erupted over Modis photo on the calendars and diaries brought out by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) for this year.

It is a good move to replace Gandhis image with Modi. Modi is a better brand than Gandhi. With the Modi brand name, Khadi sales increased, he had told reporters in Ambala, which he represents in the state assembly.

Vijs comments drew widespread criticism, with Rahul Gandhi using the comments to attack the Prime Minister, saying even dictators like Hitler and Mussolini were powerful brands.

The insulting remarks by Vij were slammed by Tushar Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhis great-grandson, who alleged it was part of a well orchestrated campaign by the high command and the minister was speaking the language of RSS.

Roundly assailed, Vij later withdrew his remarks. The statement given by me in connection with Mahatma Gandhi was given in my personal capacity. To avoid hurting anyones sentiments, I am withdrawing it, the Minister tweeted.

The government and BJP had dismissed the controversy as unnecessary.

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A family in Chandigarh has has the most harrowing time, thanks to two contradictory coronavirus reports of a pregnant woman from the family within a span of two days.

The family from Sector 27 in the city has taken up the matter with the area councillor Devinder Singh Babla who has approached the UT administrator and sent the two different RT-PCR test reports to the latter along with a letter narrating the incident, the Indian Express reported.

The woman took an RT-PCR test on September 8 and the report came back positive. The next day, her husband made calls to another lab staffer to do another test for cross-checking. The samples of all other members in the family were also sent to test this time. This time, the reports came back negative for all the family members.

Express reported the womans husband as saying, I decided to get my wife tested for Covid-19 as she was in the last stage of pregnancy and the test is mandatory then. After she tested positive, I decided to test all family members and my wife too. 15 members of the family gave samples at that time. I took my wife to a private hospital in Mohali and she was admitted to the Covid care ward where she delivered a baby yesterday. Also, my family members, including my wife, came back negative in the second test. Who do I believe?

He was quoted as saying that since his wife is in the Covid ward, they have not been allowed to meeet her and the baby was put in the neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) as precaution.

Councillor Devinder Singh Babla, who has received a complaint from the family came down heavily on the private labs operating in the city and said they have been giving out wrong reports to patients and charging more money.

Babla demanded a shift to government operated testing facilities, which would make the tests more localised and also ensure no discrepancies and help in making out the actual scenario in the number of positive cases in Chandigarh.
Egypt is currently biggest wheat importer globally, according to the FAS Grain: World Markets and Trade report for September

Egypts wheat imports declined to 12.685 million metric tonnes in 2019/2020, down from 13.3 million tonnes the year before, a decline of 615,000 tonnes, according to a report by the US Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS).

However, Egypts wheat, flour and products imports saw an increase to reach 13 million tonnes by August of the current 2020/2021 marketing year -- which runs from July to June -- up from 12.685 million tonnes in 2019/2020, according to the report.

Egypt is currently biggest wheat importer globally, according to the FAS Grain: World Markets and Trade report for September.

FAS said Egypts wheat production increased slightly by August of 2020/2021 to reach 8.9 million tonnes, up from 8.77 million tonnes in 2019/2020.

Egypts wheat consumption increased to 20.8 million tonnes by August of 2020/2021, up from 20.3 million tonnes in 2019/2020.

In North Africa as a region, which includes Egypt, wheat imports increased to 29.6 million tonnes by August 2020/2021, up from 27.863 million tonnes in 2019/2020.

In the Middle East, imports of wheat decreased to 25.885 million tonnes by August of 2020/2021, down from 30.217 million tonnes in 2019/2020.

Wheat production in North Africa meanwhile declined to 16.778 million tonnes by August of 2020/2021, down from 18.399 million tonnes in 2019/2020.

Production of wheat in the Middle East rose to 45.348 million tonnes by August of 2020/2021, up from 44.482 million tonnes in 2019/2020.

Egypt was the second lowest country in an FAS list of rice producers, after South Korea.

Egypts rice production stood at 4.3 million tonnes by August of 2020/2021, the same figure as in 2019/2020, while the countrys consumption and residual use of rice increased to 4.5 million tonnes by August of 2020/2021, up from 4.4 million tonnes in 2019/2020.

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A forum in Mali debating how to restore civilian rule after last month's military coup entered its final day Saturday, with several thorny issues left to be resolved to secure a workable roadmap.

On the table before some 500 delegates from political parties, unions and NGOs is a proposal for an 18-month transition government, after experts appointed by the ruling military junta initially proposed a period of two years.

The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States is insisting that Mali's ruling army officers hand over power within 12 months, scared that a prolonged crisis will affect regional stability.

The talks, which began on Thursday, mark the second round of discussions between the young officers who overthrew President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on August 18 and civilian representatives, many of whom had campaigned for Keita to resign.

The latest version of the "transition charter" discussed on Saturday appears to both shorten the length of the proposed transition, and to scale down the military's role in government.

An earlier version proposed a president appointed by the junta, as well as a legislative body headed by a military officer.

But the current text stipulates that a committee appointed by the junta would appoint the president, and that either a civilian or soldier can head the legislative "national transition council".

The charter, which the delegates are due to decide to adopt on Saturday, also sets the length of proposed the transition government to 18 months.

Proposing to shorten the length of the transition comes as the international community has leaned on Mali's military junta to swiftly hand over power.

While the talks are set to conclude Saturday, it remains unclear whether the forum will bridge divisions over a range of issues.

Some members of the June 5 Movement (M5) -- which engineered a wave of protests against Keita before the coup -- have expressed concern about the army's hand in picking the president, for example.

"Our wish is that the choice of the president of the transition is not made only by the military," said M5 member Adama Ben Diarra, adding that his group should be part of the committee that appoints the president.

It remains unclear whether a final version of the transition charter text discussion will be released, or whether the junta will follow its recommendations.

'Accountable to no one'

The coup -- Mali's fourth since gaining independence from France in 1960 -- came after months of protests, stoked by Keita's failure to roll back a bloody jihadist insurgency and fix the country's many economic woes.

Just hours after the coup, the junta pledged to restore civilian government and stage elections within a "reasonable time".

Military officers had initially talked of a three-year transition, corresponding to the time left in Keita's second five-year mandate, that would be overseen by a soldier.

Speaking on Friday, Yeah Samake from the Civic and Patriotic Action Party said he supported a 12-month transition government.

"The transitional institutions are accountable to no one, which is why the transition must be short term," he said.

Former Malian prime minister Moussa Mara said during a workshop on Friday that "we can go beyond 12 months.

"Let's put the responsibility for duration (of the transition government) on the decision-makers we are going to put in place," he said.
Android 11 has started rolling out, and it comes with new features, UI changes and privacy features. But there are some features that Google has made exclusively for its Pixel phones.

Google rolled out its latest Android 11 update last week. The new Android OS is available for Pixel smartphones, and its rolling out to more phones soon. As customary, Google has made some Android 11 features exclusively for its Pixel phones.

Android 11 can be downloaded and installed on these Pixel phones - Pixel 2 series, Pixel 3 series, Pixel 3A series, Pixel 4 series and Pixel 4a. The update hasnt reached Pixel users in India yet but Google has confirmed it will be available next week. Android 11 comes with new features, UI changes and privacy settings which you can read about here. As for the Pixel-exclusive Android 11 features, heres the list.

Live View

Android 11 brings live view in Google Maps for Pixel phones. This feature can be used with location sharing in Google Maps. Once location sharing is turned on, tap on your friends icon and then select live view. You will then see where exactly your friend is and how far they are from you.

Smart Reply

Google Pixels keyboard gets the smart reply feature along with the Android 11 update. Smart reply basically offers helpful suggestions while using chatting apps. Smart reply is currently available in English and it can be used with the Gboard app.

App suggestions

Your Google Pixel will start suggesting apps now based on your daily routines. The app suggestions will depend on what time you use that particular app. So if youre using apps like messages frequently, your phone will suggest this app for your daily check-ins. Similarly, it will suggest media apps, productivity apps and more.

New overview actions

It will be easier to select text and images on your Pixel with Android 11. New overview actions will offer more options to copy, paste, save and share content that you want on your phone.

Customisation

On Android 11, your Pixel phone will suggest folder names for apps that can be grouped on the home screen. This will help in categorising apps and putting them in folders depending on their theme such as photography, news, fitness, media and more.
The US on Saturday called a decision by Beijing to impose restrictions on all American diplomats on Chinese soil an "escalation," the latest rebuke in an ongoing tit-for-tat dispute over foreign missions.

Relations between the world's top two economies have deteriorated in recent months, with both sides locked in fierce recriminations over trade disputes, human rights and the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

On Friday China announced "reciprocal restrictions" against US diplomats, days after Washington announced new restrictions on staff working for Beijing's foreign missions.

Beijing said that the unspecified countermeasures will apply to all US embassy and consulate staff, including the consulate-general in Hong Kong and its personnel, and called the move a "legitimate and necessary response."

But the US said Saturday that the Chinese measures went further than anything it had done.

A State Department spokesperson who spoke on condition of anonymity said Beijing's move was an "escalation," citing the targeting of its representative in Hong Kong and restrictions on Chinese citizens meeting with Americans in the form of a "new meeting pre-notification requirement."

"These notification requirements now include American citizens with no affiliation to the US government. We have no such requirement for PRC citizens," the spokesperson said, using the acronym for the People's Republic of China.

The dispute over foreign missions flared up in July when Washington ordered the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston, prompting Beijing to shutter the American presence in Chengdu.

The battle over diplomatic outposts is only one front in an escalating confrontation between the US and China.

Washington has imposed sanctions on officials accused of helping orchestrate China's mass internment of Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities in the country's Xinjiang region, a program that has prompted a global human rights outcry.

Last month it blacklisted officials it accused of suppressing "freedom and democratic processes" in Hong Kong, after the imposition of a national security law aimed at quelling civil unrest in the financial hub.

The move prompted China to issue its own sanctions against several prominent Americans.

President Donald Trump has also provoked a furious reaction from Chinese officials by blaming Beijing for the global spread of the coronavirus

And Washington has additionally accused Chinese tech firms and platforms -- from Huawei to TikTok -- of working in the interests of the Chinese Communist Party.

Beijing denied on Friday it was attempting to meddle in the upcoming US presidential election after tech giant Microsoft said it thwarted cyberattacks from overseas groups -- including from China.
Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu has undergone a Covid-19 test ahead of the monsoon session in Parliament, informed the Vice Presidents Secretariat on Sunday.

The secretariat further informed that it is mandatory for all members of the Upper House to undergo a Covid-19 test before attending the session.

Preparing himself to preside over the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament beginning on September 14, 2020, Chairman, Rajya Sabha, M Venkaiah Naidu underwent Covid-19 test today. It is mandatory for each member to undergo Covid-19 test (RT-PCR) before attending the upcoming session, according to an advisory issued to all Rajya Sabha members, the Vice President Secretariat said in a statement.

As per the secretariats statement, the members have been asked to get their test done within 72 hours before the commencement of the session at any hospital/laboratory authorised by the government or at Parliament House Complex.

The secretariat further said that in order to ensure social distancing norms, the Rajya Sabha chamber, galleries, and the Lok Sabha chamber will be used to seat members--57 of whom will be accommodated in the chamber and 51 in galleries of Rajya Sabha. The remaining 136 will be seated in the chamber of Lok Sabha. In all, there are 244 members and one seat is vacant.

Four large display screens in the chamber will show the members speaking and there will be seamless live telecast of the proceedings on Rajya Sabha TV. In addition, six smaller display screens and audio consoles have been installed in the four galleries, the statement read.

Various Parliamentary papers including List of Business, Bulletins, Bills/ and ordinances would be sent to members only through an electronic mechanism. Members can access their portal accounts. Accordingly, the circulation of hard copies of these papers is being discontinued. Members may bring their e-Reader devices to the House to refer to the Parliamentary papers or carry print-outs of the same for their use, it added.
Former CBI Director M Nageswara Rao came under intense backlash after he said in a tweet that death popular Arya Samaj leader Swami Agnivesh was a good riddance. The tweet was taken down by the Twitter on Saturday after uproar from several quarters of the society.

Raos tweet came hours after renowned leader passed away on Friday. Rao said Swami was an anti-Hindu in saffron robes" and said his death was a good riddance".

Taking to microblogging website Twitter, IPS officer M Nageswara Rao, who served as interim director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2019, mounted a scathing attack on Agnivesh, who was often under attack by Hindu extremists for his stand on controversial issues. Swami passed away at Delhis Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences after succumbing to liver cirrhosis.

GOOD RIDDANCE @swamiagnivesh. You were an Anti-Hindu donning saffron clothes. You did enormous damage to Hinduism. I am ashamed that you were born as a Telugu Brahmin," Rao wrote while sharing the news of his death. He went on to call Agnivesh a lion in sheep clothes" and added, My grievance against Yamaraj is why did he wait this long!".

The statement was condemned by several people and groups, including Indian Police Foundation.

Tweeting such hate messages by a retired officer posing as an IPS officer - he has desecrated the police uniform which he wore and embarrassed the government. He demoralises the entire police force in the country, especially the young officers. https://t.co/qOiI8D6dkO Indian Police Foundation (@IPF_ORG) September 12, 2020

Swami Agnivesh was celebrated campaigner against bonded labour, a bridge between the government and Maoist leadership, part of Anna Hazares anti-corruption crusade, Arya Samaj leader and a reality TV participant. He was best-known for his concerted battle against bonded labour. His organisation Bandhua Mukti Morcha (BMM) was formed in 1981 to rid India of what his website calls scourge of bonded and child labour".

He was also a firebrand politician. In 1977, he was elected to the Haryana Assembly and even was made education minister after a while. However, the rebel he was, he resigned from the post soon enough.

Always found to be wearing a saffron robe, he used to call saffron the colour of sacrifice, commitment and purity. It matters little if you call me Swami Agnivesh or simply Agnivesh". All that matters is the fire inside me, the presence of the divine in the inner temple of my being, should continue to blaze till the end," he had once said.

A popular leader of the Arya Samaj, he was elected President of the World Council of Arya Samaj (Sarvadeshik Arya Pratinidhi Sabha) in 2004.

One of the visually disturbing images of him that stayed in public memory was him being attacked by nationalist groups, alleged to be BJYM members, during a visit to Jharkhand.

However, an unexpected move that surprised and amused his admirers at the same time was Agnivesh participating in the reality show Bigg Boss.
President Trump plans to hold a fully indoor rally, where thousands are expected, for the first time in three months on Sunday in Henderson, Nevada, CNN reports.

Why it matters: The rally, which will be held at an Xtreme Manufacturing facility, is expected to violate Nevada's restrictions on gatherings of 50 or more people.

"The City of Henderson has issued a compliance letter and verbal warning to the event organizer that the event as planned would be in direct violation of the governor's COVID-19 emergency directives. Specifically, gatherings of more than 50 people in a private or public setting is prohibited," City of Henderson spokesperson Kathleen Richards told CNN in a statement.

The venue isn't expected to enforce social distancing, but a campaign official said every attendee will get a temperature check and be provided with masks.

Flashback: The last time the Trump campaign organized an indoor rally was in June in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where attendance was lackluster.

Trump's Tulsa rally brought major criticisms against the president for organizing a potential superspreader event during the coronavirus pandemic.

A Tulsa health official later said that the rally, where masks were optional, likely contributed to a surge in coronavirus cases.

What they're saying: "If you can join tens of thousands of people protesting in the streets, gamble in a casino, or burn down small businesses in riots, you can gather peacefully under the 1st Amendment to hear from the President of the United States," a Trump campaign official told NBC.
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Malis military junta, which staged a coup last month, agreed Saturday to an 18-month transitional government led by a military or civilian leader that would pave the way to elections.

Three days of consultations with leaders of political and civil society groups laid out a charter for the transition, which will also include a vice president and transitional council that will serve as the National Assembly.

The president and vice president will be chosen by a group of people appointed by the junta, according to Moussa Camara, spokesman for the talks.

Malis opposition coalition, the international communities and the West African regional bloc have called for a civilian leader for the transition.

The 15-nation West African regional bloc known as ECOWAS has warned the junta must designate a transitional civilian leader by next week or face further sanctions.

ECOWAS has already stopped financial transfers into the country and has closed its borders with Mali.

The military junta, known as the National Committee for the Salvation of the People, previously proposed a three-year transition, saying that a new constitution should be written first.

On Saturday, the leader of the junta, Col. Assimi Goita, said he hoped for the support of the international community.

We ask and hope for the understanding, support and accompaniment of the international community in the implementation of the charter and the transition roadmap, he said.

Member of opposition coalition M5-RFP movement Kante Fabou, said there is hope and "that really helps to lay the bases for a new Mali".

The charter approved Saturday gives control of defense, security and re-foundation of the state to the vice president.

ECOWAS leaders will hold a summit in Ghana on Tuesday to discuss the Mali transition with the junta.

The president and prime minister of the transition will then be appointed.
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Bhubaneswar: Veteran Odia film actor Ajit Das died at a private hospital here on Sunday, family sources said.

He was admitted to the COVID-19 hospital on September 1, but the authorities are yet to declare the reason behind his death.

According to the rule of the state, one cannot reveal the identity of a COVID-19 patient until it is declared by the government or local authorities or by the patient concerned.

Das was 71 and is survived by his wife and three daughters.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Pratap Sarangi and many others condoled his death.

An alumnus of National School of Drama, Das acted in more than 60 Odia films and produced several others. He was also a former head of the department of drama at Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya, Bhubaneswar.

Born in 1949, Das started his film career with 'Sindura Bindu' (1976). He became a household name in the state after popular films such as 'Hakim

Babu' and Tundabaida' were released in the 1980s. He played the lead roles in these movies.

His last film, 'Ishq Puni Thare', was released in September 2018.

Das died barely two months after the demise of another acclaimed actor Bijay Mohanty.

"The demise of Ajit Das has created a great void in the Odia film industry which will take years to fill. Ajit Das will continue to live in the hearts of innumerable cine lovers of Odisha," Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said in his condolence message.

Das was a genius who left an indelible mark in Odia film industry he said.

In a tweet, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, "He had enticed Odia cine viewers for a long period with his performance. With his death, there is an end of an era in Odia film industry."

Union minister Pratap Sarangi said, "I am saddened by the demise of Ajit Das. His absence will create a big loss to the Odia film industry."

State Congress president and others also mourned the death of the veteran actor.
Washington, Sep 13 : Mauricio J. Claver-Carone, a senior White House official, was elected to head the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)), the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean, amid strong opposition.

Claver-Carone, who will succeed current President Luis Alberto Moreno, will take office on October 1 for a five-year term, Xinhua news agency quoted the IDB as saying in a statement on Saturday.

The IDB will have a non-Latin American President for the first time.

Since its establishment 61 years ago, all members have followed an unwritten tradition that only Latin Americans will run the bank.

The US has never before even nominated a candidate to lead it.

Argentina, Costa Rica, Chile and Mexico had insisted on postponing the election until March 2021, arguing that the pandemic prevents a face-to-face election as would be appropriate.

Argentina and Costa Rica had put forward alternative candidates in an effort to keep the bank in Latin American hands but both withdrew in the days before the vote after failing to receive adequate support.

Claver-Carone is currently deputy assistant to President Donald Trump as well as senior director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council.

He has previously served as US representative to the International Monetary Fund and senior advisor to the Under Secretary for International Affairs at the Treasury Department.

The controversial vote came after several former US officials earlier this month made efforts to persuade IDB shareholders to postpone the election until next year.

"Claver-Carone is a political appointee in the Trump White House whose controversial nomination would break a longstanding precedent that a Latin American serves as President of the IDB," they wrote in a joint statement.

They argued that electing Claver-Carone to a five-year term only weeks before the US presidential election would "trigger an immediate institutional crisis at the IDB and put in jeopardy US support for the bank".

Established in 1959, the IDB seeks to finance viable economic, social, and institutional development projects and promote regional trade integration in Latin American and the Caribbean.
President Trumps longest acting political advisor and convicted felon, Roger Stone, wants him to rip up the U.S. Constitution and Declare Martial Law and seize power even if he loses the election.

The U.S. Constitution is explicit. Donald J. Trumps last day in the office as President of the United States is January 21, 2021, if he loses the general election in November. This means that any declaration of martial law could be ended by President Joseph Biden that day; Trump cannot use the declaration of martial law to extend his term in office.

Roger Stones rationalization comes down to the same as the one President Trump is using in every stump speech and news interview -- the election already corrupt and fixed to guarantee his defeat even though he cant possibly lose the election. Thats how it works in Russia, Belarus, and other authoritative regimes.

According to Roger Stone and President Trump, the only election result that on November 3, 2020, that could possibly be legitimate if the real winner  Trump  takes office, regardless of what the votes say. Stone argues that a loss would be justification for Trump to use force to take over the nation.

Roger Stone worked as an adviser in the last Trump campaign and is believed to be a conduit of communications between Russia and his campaign in 2016. Stone made this astonishing admission to create an American Dictatorship on Thursday during an interview with far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones host of the internet based InfoWars program. Alex Jones is famous for declaring the slaughter of children in Newtown, Connecticut, a phony staged event.

The Stone and Jones interview discussed what they call an ongoing coup against Trump, and Stone inexplicably claimed that he predicted, almost three decades ago that this moment would come. Hes famous for arguing that Richard Nixon was innocent and should never have resigned.





During the interview, Stone made it clear hes resigned to Trump losing the upcoming election  and is following the Presidents but blamed it on the baseless claim that early voting has already been corrupted.

To safeguard Trumps re-election, Stone called for the President to use federal authorities to seize the mail ballots in Nevada and to use FBI agents to physically block certain (Black, Hispanic, Independent and Democrat) voters from casting their ballots.

Stone also wants Trump to use his martial law powers to order the widespread arrests of his political opponents to solidify his power, first reported by Media Matters.

During the Alex Jones interview with Stone, the Presidents sycophant said

Under martial law and the Insurrection Act, Trump would have the the authority and power to arrest Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, the Clintons and anybody else who can be proven to be involved in illegal activity.

Stone also called for the immediate arrest of James Mattis, his former Secretary of Defense, for sedition, apparently because he is quoted as saying Trump was unfit for office, according to Washington Post journalists to Bob Woodwards upcoming book, Rage.

Stone also advocated for the arrests of journalists

If the Daily Beast is involved in provably seditious ... acts in a new Trump future, their entire staff can be taken into custody and their office can be shut down. They want to play war; this is war,

Besides demanding that the ballots in Nevada on election night should be seized by federal marshals and not counted, claiming with absolutely no evidence that they are completely corrupted.

Harvard law professor and Constitutional expert Laurence Tribe , warned that Stones advocacy of totalitarian takeover by Trump has to be taken seriously. Stone and Trump are likely speaking with each other and, as a result, has his ear and influence to push the President into trying to pull off this off-the-rails suggestion.

Former Nixon White House counsel John Dean blasted Stone for calling on Trump to declare himself Americas Dictator  voicing what many Republicans crave.

Thanks to a commutation of his prison sentence by President Trump in July, Roger Stone dodged 40 months in prison. Roger Stone was convicted of seven federal felonies, including lying to Congress and witness tampering in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Alex Jones hilarious referred to Roger Stone during his interview with the felon as almost a political prisoner.





Trump commutes Roger Stone's sentence. Here's why he did it - 2 Months Ago










Tamil Nadus information technology (IT) sector has registered Rs 25,000 crore in software exports in the last two quarters, while overcoming various challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic over the last six months, a top official said.

Over 90 per cent of employees in the IT industry, working from home due to the outbreak, fulfilled the commitments made to the clients. In the last six months we have shown Rs 25,000 crore exports in the last two quarters of this financial year, Sanjay Tyagi, Director, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) said.

Speaking at an event organised by the Confederations of Indian Industry (CII)  Tamil Nadu, Tyagi further said this figure is more than last year's exports during these two quarters and called it phenomenal. He however did not give out figures for software exports made in the two quarters of the last financial year.

Stating that Tamil Nadu has a very important role to play in making India a $5 trillion economy, Tyagi added that the state has to at least contribute $500 billion to the GDP."

Follow our LIVE Updates on the coronavirus pandemic here

Also speaking at the event, Hans Raj Verma, the additional chief secretary  IT, urged industry captains to create jobs in rural areas. "We must create sustainable jobs at the village level. Then the next round of jobs will come from Tier II and III cities," he said.

"We will train our youth to become industry ready and they will be the USP of Tamil Nadu. With this new generation, the IT, ITeS and electronics and manufacturing sector will give Tamil Nadu the edge", Verma added.

He said that the Centre's announcement of a defence corridor connecting Chennai, Hosur, Salem, Coimbatore and Tiruchirappalli as nodes would make the five cities serve as potential clusters and would have ecosystems for defence manufacturing.

(With inputs from PTI)
New Delhi:

A 38-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting school girls by trapping them by saying that he has been sent by their parents for giving them some items or others in east Delhi's New Ashok Nagar area, police said on Sunday.

Sunil Rastogi was arrested on Saturday on the basis of tip off, DCP(East) Omvir Singh said. "The accused told police that he used to target minor girls.

Whenever he would find any minor girl going to home from school, he used to mislead her on the pretext that her father had sent some clothes or some other articles to give her and take her to an isolated place," he added.

The accused works as a tailor and is married with five children, including three girls, said another officer, adding that his daughters are being counselled to know whether he had also targeted them.

On January 10, two cases of kidnapping were registered in New Ashok Nagar police station wherein complainants alleged a man misled their daughters, aged 10 and 9, said the officer.

The accused allegedly took them on the stairs of a building and fled when they raised an alarm, he said. Earlier, on December 13 also, a case under sections 376 (Punishment for rape) and 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation) of IPC and section 6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) Act was registered on the statement of a minor girl, said the officer.

He said since all the three cases had a similar pattern, it was suspected that the same person was involved in all of them and investigations were taken up.

"In all the three cases, victims were minors in the age group of 9-10 and it was also revealed that the accused first misled the minors by telling them that their father had given some clothes or articles for them and then he took them to isolated place where he allegedly tried to sexually assault them," said the officer.

A team under inspector CR Meena, SHO, New Ashok Nagar police station, and ACP (Kalyanpuri) Rahul Alwal took up the investigation. CCTV footages from cameras installed near the places of incidents were obtained and some images of the accused were developed, said Singh.

During interrogation, he confessed he committed the alleged offences and also revealed he committed similar offences with other girls in New Ashok Nagar, Delhi, Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), and Rudrapur (Uttarakhand), said the officer.

It has also been revealed from interrogation that many cases including under NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act) and of theft and molestation were registered against the accused at various police stations in Rudrapur, Delhi and Ghaziabad.

Rastogi is a permanent resident of Rampur in Uttar Pradesh and came to Delhi in 1990 with his family and left Delhi in 2004. "He resides in Rudrapur now. He studied up to fifth standard at government school in his village. He is being interrogated regarding other offences committed by him at different places," added the officer.
It took four-year-old Mia Wilkinson just 48 hours to go from healthy to critically ill with sepsis causing her to lose her limbs.

Opening up to Channel Seven's Sunrise program about the life-threatening condition that infects an estimated 55,000 Australians per year, her mother Amy Wilkinson warned the nation that sepsis is often mistaken for gastro or the flu.

'It just hits so fast,' she said on Sunday.

Amy Wilkinson (left) with daughter Mia, 7, on Sunrise on Sunday, showing off Mia's new running blades. Mia is doing well after losing her lower arms and legs to sepsis two years ago

'So many stories I've heard are people have gone to the doctor or gone to emergency and they've been diagnosed with flu or gastro and sent home to rest.

'So what we say to people is the symptoms are like flu and gastro but we want to empower people to not just hang your hat on that diagnosis, to go back to the ED (emergency department) and say "could it be sepsis"?'

Sepsis is a life-threatening condition caused when the body releases chemicals to fight an infection, but the chemicals attack the body's own tissues and organs leading to shock, organ failure and potential death.

Ms Wilkinson said her daughter Mia, now seven, was adapting to life without her lower arms and legs after doctors were forced to amputate.

Mia before she lost her limbs at age four. She was sick with a sore stomach and threw up before she became lethargic, feverish and developed a light purple rash on her legs. She had sepsis

Mia now attends school and walks with the help of artificial blades.

'Mia's got new running blades about four weeks ago and so she's just zooming around school,' Ms Wilkinson said.

'We're doing good at the moment which is wonderful.'

Ms Wilkinson said the brave seven-year-old loved her new blades.

'She's always bouncing around, like at the kitchen table,' she said.

'I think it's like being on a trampoline all day, which is for a kid is just awesome.'

Mia Wilkinson (pictured) was initially diagnosed with gastro but within 48 hours of her first symptoms was in critical condition with sepsis. Her blood pressure was so low it couldn't pump oxygen to her extremities and her lower limbs began to turn black and die

Mia's father Peter comforts her in hospital before she had her amputations. 'I don't want them to take my hands' she said.

Mia was a healthy, happy four-year-old in October 2017 when she came down with something that appeared to be flu on a Friday night.

She told her mother that she had a sore tummy and started throwing up about 5pm.

Her parents, thinking it was gastro, let her skip dinner and go to bed.

After throwing up during the night and developing a fever they took Mia to a doctor, who said it looked like a case of gastro and diarrhoea and sent her home.

Mia rapidly deteriorated and her worried parents took her to emergency.

She was diagnosed with influenza B and viral myositis - and was once again sent home to rest.

Amy and her husband Peter did not question the hospital's diagnosis although they had a gut feeling something worse was wrong with their daughter.

By Sunday evening, Mia was in bed with a temperature, lethargic, not eating or drinking and had developed a light purple rash on her legs.

They took her back to emergency where it was obvious immediately that Mia's condition was serious.

If Mia had been wearing leggings, her mother said she might have missed the rash and not taken her to hospital - and her daughter would have died.

At emergency, she started struggling for breath and was intubated.

L-R: Mia's sister Ellie, her father Peter, Mia, her mother Amy, and her brother Max

Staff told Amy and Peter to go and get a cup of tea so they would be spared from seeing the distressing intubation process.

But when they returned Amy told Seven News she could hear them yelling: 'We're losing her!'

The dedicated staff managed to bring her back from the brink of death, however.

Mia was rushed to the paediatric intensive care unit at the Queensland Children's Hospital where she languished on multiple organ support.

Her blood pressure dropped so low that it could only pump oxygen to her brain and vital organs, and not down her limbs to her fingers and toes.

Her father Peter previously told Seven's Sunday Night of his distress as he saw her limbs begin to die.

'It started with her fingertips,' he said.

'[They] went dark, and then it just went black and it just crept up. I can't describe.'

As Mia's limbs turned black and died, the doctors gave her parents the horrific news; to save her life they would have to amputate.

Mia's life changed forever when she lost her lower limbs, but she is learning to adapt

'I don't want them to take my hands,' little Mia said, but there was no choice.

They took the arms below the elbows, and the legs beneath the knees, leaving Mia with no hands or feet.

With the support and love of her family, and the help of thousands of people who continue to donate to the family's fundraising page, Mia is now living a happy, healthy life.

Mia and her mother Amy appeared on Seven's Sunrise on Sunday for World Sepsis Day to raise awareness for the illness.

Doctors sent Mia home twice saying she had gastro and needed rest. Her mother saved her life after noticing a light purple rash on her legs and taking her back to emergency

Amy Wilkinson has become an advocate to ensure that people are empowered to ask medical staff: 'could it be sepsis'? when they are severely ill but diagnosed with gastro or flu.

Ms Wilkinson is part of a consumer advocacy group lobbying to change hospital clinical standards so there is a national standard to detect and treat sepsis.

That way wherever people live, if they go to hospital with sepsis symptoms they will have a better chance of being treated.

'It happens so fast,' she said.

'That will empower doctors and nurses to be on the lookout for it and escalate it as well.'

Mia's parents Peter, (left) and Amy (right) have helped their daughter recover from her amputations. Amy Wilkinson is now campaigning for hospital clinical standards to change

According to figures from the Australian Sepsis Network, about 5000 people die of sepsis in Australia each year, which is more than four times the 2019 national road toll of 1182.

A Global Burden of Disease study published in The Lancet estimated the death toll was higher at 8700 deaths per year and 55,000 infections, the Australian Sepsis Network reported.

The GBD study found that sepsis peaks in early childhood, with more than 40 per cent of all cases occurring in children under age five.

There are more than 15,700 new cases of sepsis treated in intensive care units in Australia each year, and each case costs an estimated $39,300 each to treat, according to the Australian Sepsis Network's epidemiology page.
The beheading of Sir John A. Macdonalds statue in Montreal was a shock to many Canadians, in part because of the symbolism, but mostly because of its violence. The act was repugnant but in way perfectly understandable. It showed that the aggressive demonstrators did not know what they were doing; they were never taught anything positive or realistic about Macdonald.

The event in Montreal was preceded by similar acts in Ontario. Monuments to Macdonald were spoiled in Picton, at Kilbride Castle and in Toronto, where the front of the statue was splashed with paint. Macdonald stands at the southern tip of Queens Park, his back to the Legislative Assembly. The reality is that the government of Ontario has been throwing its own disfiguring paint on the statue for generations.

I first learned about Sir John A. Macdonald in Grade 7, almost 50 years ago. I attended a French-language Catholic school in east-end Ottawa. The teacher, a proud Franco-Ontarian, presented Macdonald to us as the chief architect of Canada, a political arm-twister who created an enduring coalition of French, English, Catholic, and Protestant dreamers to take a chance and set aside their prejudices to form a new nation called Canada.

Macdonald stared down separatists in Nova Scotia and convinced British Columbia and Prince Edward Island to join this gravity-defying political project. To fend off American ambitions in the West, he negotiated the acquisition of the Western plains and formed Manitoba. He was the prime minister of Canada for almost 20 years, elected or re-elected with solid majorities six times.

Our education on Macdonald did not go much beyond that. But in hindsight it went very far. For two generations now, Queens Park actively has encouraged teachers to depict Macdonald as the arch-criminal of Canadian history.

Macdonald is not taught in high school. The current Ontario Curriculum for History and Geography (Grades 7 and 8) mentions John A. Macdonald three times. In the first instance, he appears as responsible for Indigenous residential schools. In the second, he is presented as responsible for triggering Metis opposition to becoming Canadians. The third time, he shows up among a list of Victorians, but the question is What is the legacy of Louis Riel? Riel is mentioned eight times.

The section on Creating Canada cites one of Macdonalds pronouncements in favour of residential schools (his far more numerous expressions of support and sympathy for Indigenous peoples are not mentioned). Teachers are asked to favour this line of inquiry: What does it imply about the policies the government would pursue with respect to First Nations? Residential schools appear 22 times in the curriculum.

Not a word about Macdonald beyond these, but that hardly makes him exceptional. Ontarios most influential and accomplished citizen has been cancelled. Its just one example of how lopsided and unfair the Ontario history curriculum has become.

The curriculum also dismisses the contribution of European Canadians. Etienne Brule, the first European to walk the lengths of Ontario, gets one mention. Samuel de Champlain gets three. There is no mention of Regulation 17, the measure that outlawed the French language in Ontario schools (my Grade 7 teacher taught us that too).

In fact, the word Franco-Ontarian never comes up. In Grade 7, we learned about the Balwin-Lafontaine alliance as key to the foundation of Canada. Now, the Torontonian Robert Baldwin gets one mention, lost in a list; Oliver Mowat, the Premier of Ontario for 25 of its most formative years, is never invoked.

Looking for a mention of the historical contributions of immigrants to our province? Blacks get one mention; Italians and Germans appear twice; the Chinese are mentioned 22 times, but almost entirely in the context of the building of the transcontinental railway in the 1880s and immigration restrictions, not in terms of their heroic resilience. Here again, the villain is Macdonald.

Such an unbalanced curriculum takes its toll; it ignores Macdonalds vital contributions and instead tells students that Canada was programmed to be a human embarrassment from its very beginning. Sadly, the gist of the Ontario curriculum is representative of what is taught across the country. It needs to be fixed urgently.

Macdonalds head came off in Montreal a few weeks ago. It should not hide the truth that Queens Park lopped it off decades ago.
Many Air France-KLM planes have been grounded for months because of the coronavirus

The survival of the Air France-KLM group is not guaranteed if the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic continues, Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra warned Sunday.

France and the Netherlands, each with a 14-percent share of the group, have poured out billions of euros in aid to help national carriers that virtually came to a standstill in the first half of 2020.

"It's not a given," Hoekstra said in an interview with Dutch public television NPO, stressing the need to cut costs.

In the spring, Paris gave Air France seven billion euros ($8.3 billion) in loans, and The Hague granted KLM similar aid worth 3.4 billion euros.

The bailout for KLM must be accompanied by "a comprehensive restructuring plan" as well as commitments to reestablish performance and competitiveness.

Hoekstra said he had insisted in talks with KLM on the importance of changing direction.

Dutch press agency ANP said KLM has to develop a restructuring plan by October 1.

Air France-KLM suffered a loss of 2.6 billion euros in the second quarter as air traffic virtually shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic.

This followed a loss of 1.8 billion euros in the first quarter.

Air France said it would cut almost 7,600 jobs by the end of 2022 and KLM up to 5,000 jobs.

smt/lc/tgb
Hong Kong insurance companies are developing more online sales channels and introducing more medical and retirement products to boost sales as the sector is poised for its worst slump on record, according to industry players.

Mainland Chinese, until now huge spenders on Hong Kong insurance policies, spent only HK$839 million (US$108 million) on them in the second quarter, down 85 per cent from the first three months. In the first half, their spending dropped 76 per cent year on year, according to Insurance Authority data.

Coronavirus travel restrictions have prevented mainlanders visiting Hong Kong to buy the policies.

Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.

"The full-year sales are not looking good. Cross-border traffic has not picked up. The government has tightened social distancing since July due to the third wave of infection. This has stopped the 100,000 salespeople from meeting clients to sell the policies in person," said Eric Hui Kam-kwai, chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Insurers (HKFI), the industry body for the sector.

Total new sales of life insurance in the first half-year dropped 34 per cent from a year earlier. If the trend continues, it will be the worst slump on record, bypassing 2008 when sales dropped 25 per cent during the year.

To cope with the challenges, HKFI earlier this month introduced a virtual platform to assist insurance companies in developing online sales channels.

"Local insurers have also been selling more medical and retirement products to Hong Kong customers since April last year when the government introduced tax incentives for these products," Hui said.

The HKFI is also working closely with the Insurance Authority and its mainland equivalent to introduce the so-called "Insurance Connect" in the Greater Bay Area, Hui said. The plan, which has no launch date yet, will allow the HKFI to rent office space in Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Guangzhou, Hui said. The three services centres will allow Hong Kong insurers to provide post-sale services to clients, and hopefully expand to cross-border sales in the longer term.

Story continues

"After the outbreak is under control, mainlanders will come back to buy policies in Hong Kong [where there are] more product choices and good investment returns," he said.

HSBC Life, AIA and BOC Life have all seen more online sales this year.

HSBC Life's digital sales rose 5 per cent year on year in the first half of 2020, with one in four of its protection policies sold via online channels. The insurer introduced video conference services for its staff to explain policies to customers.

Bank of China Life saw its online sales in the first half double from a year earlier.

AIA, the largest insurer in Hong Kong, allows thousands of salespeople to use telephone, video conference and other online tools to sell policies.

"We have seen great receptiveness from our customers as well as our financial planners in adapting to digital channels for insurance purchase," said Peter Crewe, chief executive of AIA in Hong Kong and Macau.

"AIA also allows clients to purchase insurance policies and make claims online," Crewe said.

The pandemic led to greater demand from customers for medical insurance products. HSBC Life launched a new medical plan in July that offers HK$40 million of coverage per year, the highest amount in the city.

"The outbreak of Covid-19 has raised Hongkongers' awareness of the need for sufficient protection," said Edward Moncreiffe, chief executive of HSBC Life Hong Kong. BOC Life also plans to introduce more medical and retirement products.

It is not just humans getting more protection, but also their four-legged friends. OneDegree, an online insurer that offers pet coverage, saw its sales double every month since its launch in April, according to co-founder Alvin Kwock Yin-lun.

"We see very strong sales momentum. It's partly due to pandemic and strong growth of the e-commerce market," Kwock said.

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.
By Panu Wongcha-um and Panarat Thepgumpanat

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai authorities have summoned the heads of universities to tell them to stop students demanding reform of the monarchy, warning that such calls could lead to violence, a member of the military-appointed Senate said on Sunday.

Thailand has faced near daily protests since mid-July calling for the departure of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former junta leader, and for a new constitution and elections.

Some groups have also listed 10 demands to curb the powers of King Maha Vajiralongkorn's Royal Palace, breaking a long-standing taboo in the Southeast Asian country.

Senator Somchai Sawangkarn told Reuters that letters had been sent by state-appointed provincial governors to university heads, summoning them to meetings ahead of protests planned on Sept. 19 in Bangkok and elsewhere.

"University administrators should create understanding with the students on this and should put a stop to the demands on the monarchy," he said.

"We did not tell the governors to block the protests but we want them to create understanding with university officials, especially on the 10 demands for the monarchy."

An interior ministry official confirmed that such letters had been sent and said it was standard procedure. The Palace did not respond to requests for comment.

Student leader Panusaya "Rung" Sithijirawattanakul, 21, who was the first to read out the list of 10 demands for palace reform, told Reuters it amounted to "desperate tactics".

"They are using this tactic to try to suppress and threaten people," said Panusaya, one of more than a dozen activists arrested over previous protests before being released on bail.

A letter to one university reviewed by Reuters said: "There are concerns about the behavior of some groups taking part in the protest that are inappropriate, for example those that want to topple the monarchy and those that demand voiding Article 112 of the criminal code."

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Article 112 refers to Thailand's lese majeste laws, which sets a jail term of up to 15 years for insulting the king.

"COULD LEAD TO VIOLENCE"

"This is a sensitive matter that could lead to violence," the letter says - referring specifically to incidents in 1976 and 1992, when security forces killed scores of anti-government protesters.

It said police would take legal action against anyone behaving inappropriately at protests while the digital ministry would take legal action against anyone using social media "to distort and defame the monarchy" or to incite protests.

A participant at one meeting said authorities asked his university to draw up a list of potential troublemakers.

Government spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri said he was not aware of the letters from the interior ministry. He said the government would not try to stop the protests, but authorities would enforce the law and did not want "escalation or clashes".

Most Thai universities are sponsored by the state.

Anusorn Unno, a lecturer at Thammasat University, who joined over 100 academics in a statement supporting students' freedom of expression in August, said such orders were not unusual.

"The only difference this time is that some evidence has leaked," he said.

Prime Minister Prayuth, a former junta leader who rejects accusations that last year's elections were unfair, has said protests should be allowed but not criticism of the monarchy.

The Senate helped in assuring Prayuth's position as prime minister after the 2019 election. It was appointed by Prayuth's previous military government and protesters want it scrapped under a new constitution.

Among the 10 reforms sought to the monarchy by some student groups are a reduction in the king's constitutional powers as well as his personal control of the royal fortune and some units of the army.

(Writing by Matthew Tostevin; Editing by Kim Coghill)
It was when she found the dead cat that Susie McMillan finally broke down.

The 76-year-old wildfire evacuee hadnt cried at first when she returned to the smoldering ruins of Phoenix, a town of 4,500 surrounded by vineyards and fruit orchards about 25 miles north of the California state line. She kept her composure despite the fact that her hometown now resembled pictures she'd seen of war-torn Syria. Four people had died in the fire that erupted Tuesday and at least one more was still missing, the entire town treated as a crime scene as forensic crews combed debris for additional remains.

Wildfire evacuee Susie McMillan, 76, cradles a stray kitten she rescued after visiting the charred remains of her home in Phoenix, Ore., this weekend. (Molly Hennessy-Fiske/Los Angeles Times)

McMillan had fled with her four pets, a safe packed with vital documents, a bottle of wine and a few clothes, expecting to return within hours. Instead, it took her four days to return and sift the ashes where her home of 15 years had stood. Circling the burned-out remains of her house and two cars, McMillan  a retired medical transcriptionist and self-described "Caligonian" originally from San Jose  was excited at first to see a colorful porcelain birdbath and ceramic pots that had survived. She also found the metal water dishes she had used to feed stray cats.

"I hope they got away," she said.

Moments later, McMillan stumbled on the blackened feline remains. Instantly, she doubled over, unsteady and sobbing. Her daughter, who had come up from the Bay Area to help, rushed over to comfort her. They suddenly realized why the sheriff's office had wanted to escort residents back: They didn't know what carnage remained amid the ashes.

I cant do this anymore, McMillan said.

Susie McMillan, 76, evacuated before a wildfire destroyed her home and had stayed in touch with neighbors from her Orchard Place cul de sac in Phoenix, Ore. (Molly Hennessy-Fiske/Los Angeles Times)

It was a sentiment shared by thousands across Oregon, Washington and California, exhausted by weeks of deadly fires that have run rampant over more than 4 million acres. Already, at least 33 people have died as wildfires cut a deadly swath through the West Coast, ten of the victims in Oregon, and authorities feared winds that fed several dozen fires last week in Oregon could kick up again, fanning the flames.

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There is a chance of rain Monday that could help dampen fires and pervasive smoke, which had reduced Oregon's air quality to the worst in the world. But Sunday, the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning because of potentially windy, dry weather in southern Oregon and neighboring California counties. Some areas could see gusts as high as 40 mph, and forecasters said winds would likely contribute to a significant spread of new and existing fires.

President Trump is scheduled to visit California on Monday to be briefed on the wildfires, which he has blamed on forest mismanagement, while Western Democrats and opponent Joe Biden have faulted climate change.

It is apocalyptic, Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, said Sunday on ABC's This Week. I drove 600 miles up and down the state, and I never escaped the smoke. We have thousands of people who have lost their homes. I could have never envisioned this.

The death toll in Oregon could still rise in areas like Phoenix, where residents were forced to flee overnight on short notice from half a dozen subdivisions and mobile home parks that were gutted.

Phoenix, Ore., Mayor Chris Luz stands amid the remains of homes in his town of 4,500. (Molly Hennessy-Fiske/Los Angeles Times)

Late Sunday, 33 fires were still burning statewide, some completely uncontained. The Almeda fire in Phoenix was 60% contained late Sunday; a nearby fire was 20% contained, said Rich Tyler, a local spokesman for the Oregon State Fire Marshals Office.

A hazardous-materials team entered Phoenix on Sunday to address open gas lines, downed power lines and sinkholes in 40% of the burned area. Urban search-and-rescue teams from Utah and Nevada were assessing damage to buildings and searching for human remains, he said.

If fires are controlled in coming days, forensic investigators will be able to expand their search for remains, and the death toll could increase, Tyler said.

As the hazards continue to diminish, we can get those investigators into the scene and those numbers could change, he said.

Cynthia Schmidt Jones was among those searching for her older brother after the U.S. Army veteran refused to evacuate one of Phoenix's destroyed mobile home parks, Bear Lake Estates. Donald Schmidt, 55, had survived a stroke and brain tumor in recent years that left him weak but still determined to protect his home, family said.

We will find his stubborn self, she posted on Facebook.

Her son William Billy Jones said the ornery handyman refused to leave with his German shepherd mix Roxy as the fire approached, even though his wife and neighbors did. The family held out hope that when sheriffs deputies made a last pass through the area, taking holdouts to nearby Grants Pass, they had forced Schmidt to leave and he was stuck at a shelter, incommunicado.

But late Saturday, sheriffs deputies arrived to deliver the news: Schmidts body had been found in his mobile home with that of his dog. Jones, 25, said he doesnt think anything could have induced his uncle to evacuate.

If theres any way that he could have gone out, he would have still been trying to save the life he and his family had built and the families around him, he said.

Of 185 people initially listed as missing in the Almeda fire, authorities said they had winnowed the list to one by Sunday. They were still investigating two potential points of origin of the fire and had arrested a man on suspicion of setting one of them, in brush near railroad tracks. The suspect, 41-year-old Michael Bakkela, was charged with two counts of arson, 15 counts of criminal mischief and 14 counts of reckless endangerment.

At least 1,000 houses, apartments and mobile homes had burned, Phoenix Mayor Chris Luz said. A half-dozen mobile home parks were gone, many home to seniors and low-income working families who had little notice to evacuate as late-night wind-whipped fires spread from nearby Ashland.

Most of Phoenixs main street was consumed by the blaze, Luz said, up to 50 businesses, including Umqua Bank, Garrisons Furniture, La Tapatia Restaurant and Pucks Donuts. Many local businesses and homeowners cannot afford to rebuild, destroying the tax base and budget, the mayor said. For the lucky few who still have homes, utilities remained shut off Sunday, barring all but a handful from returning.

Luzs cleaning business and home narrowly survived, his yard fence charred and surrounding neighbors homes destroyed. He had a generator and was camping inside with his 16-year-old son as sheriffs deputies patrolled to scare off thieves whod been spotted lurking in the area, including a man caught trying to crack a safe with a crowbar.

Luz said theres no way the town, founded in 1850 and one of the oldest in the surrounding Rogue Valley, can build enough temporary housing for residents to return in coming weeks. Many homeowners and businesses were uninsured, he said, and can't afford to rebuild.

Theyll have to move away, at least in the short term, Luz said as he surveyed his street, where firetrucks circled, their crews still dousing embers. "It will come back, but it will be different. It won't be the same city."

Retiree McMillan stayed in touch with Orchard Place neighbors via a text thread after they evacuated to hotels as she did, to a shelter in the local expo center or family homes in neighboring towns. She worried about a woman she used to buy tamales from who lived around the corner in a mobile home park, and hoped she had time to escape.

McMillan said she planned to move back as soon as she could to camp at a friends house in town that had survived the fire, and to rebuild.

Phoenix, well rise from the ashes, right? she told a neighbors family before leaving Saturday. Were going to find out what community really means.

As she walked out of the neighborhood, McMillan ran into a woman whose house was also destroyed. She was searching for her lost cat and was feeding strays. At her feet was a ravenous orange kitten. It was feisty, mewling and scrutinizing McMillan before settling into the crook of her arm. McMillan had already crammed her pet cat and three dogs into her hotel room, which her niece had dubbed Noahs Ark. But McMillan decided to take the kitten too, a fellow survivor.

As she plodded slowly out of town, examining the kitten, she mused about possible names. Her favorite: Phoenix.
One of the most famous animal sanctuaries in the Sahel faces a troubled future after suspected jihadists murdered eight people, six of them young French aid workers.

The Koure Giraffe Reserve, located 60 kilometres (35 miles) southeast of Niger's capital Niamey, is a rare success story for conservation on the vast hard-scrabble rim of the Sahara.

It is a haven for the West African giraffe, a species that once roamed from Lake Chad to Senegal but whose numbers catastrophically declined, surviving in pockets, as its habitat was destroyed.

According to Niger's environment ministry, the reserve had 50 giraffes in 1996 -- a tally that rose to 664 in 2019, thanks in large part to income from European tourists.

But that sunny picture has now been darkly clouded after the August 9 attack, in which six French humanitarian workers based in Niamey were slaughtered at the park along with their Nigerien guide and driver.

Six French humanitarian workers based in Niamey were slaughtered at the park along with their Nigerien guide and driver /  AFP/File

"What's the future for the park?" asked Aicha Ide, who lives in the adjoining village of Kanare.

"We are deeply saddened by the deaths... we are all brothers, because we live thanks to the giraffes," said Ousseini Idrissa, one 11 guides who are now out of work.

"If the white peoples stop coming to see the giraffes, our families will also suffer, because the giraffes are our only means of survival."

- Locals 'the big losers' -

One of the poorest countries in the world, Niger is facing a double jihadist threat -- from insurgents coming from Mali in the west and Nigeria in the south.

After the August 9 massacre, the government closed the park and France, Niger's former colonial power, placed the site in its so-called red zone -- a move that says it is not advised for French nationals.

The 842-square-kilometre (325-square-mile) park, traversed by a highway, lies in a semi-desert region where shrubs grow in stoney soil.

Numerous guides at the Koure reserve have lost work since the attack /  AFP/File

International NGOs have been financing projects to help local people diversify their income, making them less dependent on growing crops that can become a giraffe's lunch.

"If the closure lasts for long, this presupposes that all activities in the park will be stopped, including development projects, which are costing millions in funding, to help villagers," said Omer Dovi, of the Association to Safeguard Giraffes in Niger.

The list of benefits for neighbouring villages is long, including pharmacies, schools, mills to grind grain, seeds and fertilisers, as well as no-interest loans to women to help them set up a small business.

"This water pump has been financed by an NGO which protects giraffes," said Assa Issa, a villager clustered among fellow women who had come to fetch water.

"If the park no longer operates we will be the big losers," she said.

The park has been a huge success in conservation terms. As giraffe numbers rose, the authorities in 2018 transferred seven females and three males to the Gadabedji park in central Niger, 600 kms away, to help prevent overpopulation.

- Extinction fears -

Sani Ayouba, of the Young Volunteers for the Environment, said he fears the attack will bring about "the end of all the activities which help keep the giraffes in this reserve".

He suggested that the park needed more trained rangers, "like parks in other countries".

Prime Minister Brigi Rafini visited the reserve, vowing better security /  AFP/File

Guides such as Idrissa rely on the presence of military and security forces in the area.

"There is no miracle to bring back the white people: drastic security measures must be imposed on the entire site," Idrissa said.

Prime Minister Brigi Rafini visited the park after the attack, vowing more security and that the government would "take all actions to help recreate hope in Koure".

Ramatou Issa, a fruit vendor near the entrance to the reserve, said "the government must set up a military base here immediately!"

"If the area is abandoned, it will become a den of bandits."

Heavily armed military patrols have combed the reserve since the attack, and residents have been told to report any suspicious activity to the authorities.

A map of Niger locating the Koure reserve /  AFP/File

The giraffes are also at risk, according to an expert speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Everything must be done to keep the giraffes in Koure -- if they permanently migrate to conflict zones, the species will go extinct," the expert said.

Dovi meanwhile fears a rise in poaching.

"If the locals no longer benefit from the presence of giraffes, then they will attack one giraffe, then two, then three..."
Two people are dead and six are hospitalized after shots were fired at an off-campus party near Rutgers University.

The shooting happened around 1:30am on Sunday during a house party on Delafield Street, which sits just half a mile away from the university campus.

It's unclear what specifically prompted the gun fire, but the Rutgers University Police Department said in a pres release that the matter is under investigation.

The Rutgers University Police Department said a shooting took place on Sunday morning at a residence near the New Brunswick campus

'In this incident, it is reported that an unknown perpetrator(s) fired several shots from a weapon striking individuals who were present,' it read.

'Those injured were transported to an area hospital and injuries are reported to be serious.'

Two men were pronounced dead at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, NBC New York reports.

Eight people were shot during the incident, resulting in the deaths of two men and the hospitalizations of six others

Authorities said that so far, evidence does not show the shooting is affiliated with Rutgers University or its students

The victims' identities have not been released, and the current condition of the six injured individuals have not been disclosed.

So far, the preliminary investigation did not suggest that the victims or the shooting involved any affiliation to Rutgers University students.

'Information as to the description(s) of the perpetrator(s) is limited at this time and the investigation is active and ongoing,' authorities said. No arrests have been made.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact the New Brunswick Police Department Detective Bureau at 732-745-5217.
Back-to-school time looks a little different for most families this year. But whether kids are going back to classes, doing distance learning from home, or adults are returning to the office full time, schedule changes can be stressful for dogs.

The sudden switch from long summer days of playing with the kids to being alone in the house for long periods of time can be a tough adjustment. Your family dog can start to feel left out or become overwhelmed during this transition and you may notice him acting differently as a result.

The American Kennel Club shares the following tips to keep your dog happy during these changes.

More adorable dog photos

Here are 25 adorable photos of dogs to brighten up your day.

For more tips on dog ownership, visit the American Kennel Club website at www.akc.org.
Christian schools open up for in-person classes after Wis. Supreme Court temp suspends restrictions

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court temporarily suspended restrictions barring most schools in Dane County  including private and religious schools  from holding in-person classes, ruling against the county which argued that restrictions were necessary to stem the spread of COVID-19.

Schools that educate students in grades three through 12 had been ordered by the county to educated students virtually. But after the court ruled in favor of a coalition of private religious schools that challenged the order, many private schools are preparing to restart in-person learning for their students, according to Wisconsin Public Radio.

The court recognized this attempt to shut down private schools for what it is  a slap in the face to educational choice, an affront to families who believe that children should be in school, and a direct violation of parental rights, Thomas More Society Special Counsel Erick Kaardal said.

Kaardal is part of the team representing the independent schools and their constituencies that filed a lawsuit against the county.

We really believe that in-person instruction is the better mode, compared to virtual, Chuck Moore, principal of High Point Christian School, which has campuses in Madison and Mt. Horeb, told WPR.

Were a religious school, and we have a dual mission  we want to help the students grow academically, but we also want them to grow spiritually, and both of those modes seem to be less well done, from the perspective of parents, and also from national testing that is showing that children are struggling to get the same value from education when it's virtual, Moore added.

The conservative legal groups Executive President and General Counsel Andrew Bath said, We are pleased that the court has seen the problems with Dane Countys illegal order and has issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the county from enforcing it.

Public Health Madison & Dane County issued Emergency Order No. 9 on Aug. 1 and amended it on Sept. 1, which prohibited schools throughout Dane County from providing in-person instruction to students.

The courts opinion declared that the petitioners have substantial interests in advancing childhood education and providing students a stable and effective learning environment. It also noted that they went to great lengths  and expended non-negligible sums  to provide students, teachers, and staff the ability to resume in-person instruction with safety precautions in place.

Angela Hineline, director of Learning and Enrollment Services at St. Ambrose Academy in Madison, said 64 of the 66 families had told the school they wanted an in-person option, according to WPR.

We just really believe that the right to determine what is the safest, most secure, most stable situation for a child really needs to be in the hands of a parent, because they have a full picture of each child's life circumstance, she was quoted as saying. It was really upsetting for us, given what we know especially about our families in risk situations. It was really distressing for us to see that they would be blocked from something that they needed.

The court also observed that these educational institutions and parents voluntarily seek in-person instruction, understanding the health risks associated with doing so, and deemed the county's order as both broad and without apparent precedent.
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Linkedin Panu Wongcha-um and Panarat Thepgumpanat (Reuters) Bangkok  Sun, September 13, 2020 16:39 495 e22cd4161040e111d73a5626c4492a83 2 SE Asia Bangkok,Thailand,protest,student Free

Thai authorities have summoned the heads of universities to tell them to stop students demanding reform of the monarchy, warning that such calls could lead to violence, a member of the military-appointed Senate said on Sunday.

Thailand has faced near daily protests since mid-July calling for the departure of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former junta leader, and for a new constitution and elections.

Some groups have also listed 10 demands to curb the powers of King Maha Vajiralongkorn's Royal Palace, breaking a long-standing taboo in the Southeast Asian country.

Senator Somchai Sawangkarn told Reuters that letters had been sent by state-appointed provincial governors to university heads, summoning them to meetings ahead of protests planned on Sept. 19 in Bangkok and elsewhere.

"University administrators should create understanding with the students on this and should put a stop to the demands on the monarchy," he said.

"We did not tell the governors to block the protests but we want them to create understanding with university officials, especially on the 10 demands for the monarchy."

An interior ministry official confirmed that such letters had been sent and said it was standard procedure. The Palace did not respond to requests for comment.

Student leader Panusaya "Rung" Sithijirawattanakul, 21, who was the first to read out the list of 10 demands for palace reform, told Reuters it amounted to "desperate tactics".

"They are using this tactic to try to suppress and threaten people," said Panusaya, one of more than a dozen activists arrested over previous protests before being released on bail.

A letter to one university reviewed by Reuters said: "There are concerns about the behavior of some groups taking part in the protest that are inappropriate, for example those that want to topple the monarchy and those that demand voiding Article 112 of the criminal code."

Article 112 refers to Thailand's lese majeste laws, which sets a jail term of up to 15 years for insulting the king.

"Could lead to violence"

"This is a sensitive matter that could lead to violence," the letter says - referring specifically to incidents in 1976 and 1992, when security forces killed scores of anti-government protesters.

It said police would take legal action against anyone behaving inappropriately at protests while the digital ministry would take legal action against anyone using social media "to distort and defame the monarchy" or to incite protests.

A participant at one meeting said authorities asked his university to draw up a list of potential troublemakers.

Government spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri said he was not aware of the letters from the interior ministry. He said the government would not try to stop the protests, but authorities would enforce the law and did not want "escalation or clashes".

Most Thai universities are sponsored by the state.

Anusorn Unno, a lecturer at Thammasat University, who joined over 100 academics in a statement supporting students' freedom of expression in August, said such orders were not unusual.

"The only difference this time is that some evidence has leaked," he said.

Prime Minister Prayuth, a former junta leader who rejects accusations that last year's elections were unfair, has said protests should be allowed but not criticism of the monarchy.

The Senate helped in assuring Prayuth's position as prime minister after the 2019 election. It was appointed by Prayuth's previous military government and protesters want it scrapped under a new constitution.

Among the 10 reforms sought to the monarchy by some student groups are a reduction in the king's constitutional powers as well as his personal control of the royal fortune and some units of the army.

Topics : Bangkok Thailand protest student
13.09.2020 LISTEN

Organisers of the National Maths and Science Quiz (NMSQ) have been urged to include private schools in the well acclaimed competition as their thirst to participate is long overdue.

Public Relations Officer of Bright Senior High School at Akyem-Kukurantumi, Dr. Isaac Asare was of the view that private school students should also be given the opportunity to be part of the competition to help boost their morale in the choice of their academic preference.

Speaking to the media on why the school is sponsoring the publicity of this year's edition of the competition, Dr. Isaac Asare hinted that, Bright SHS sees it to be one of the best ways of evaluating the performance of both students and schools in the field of Science and Maths.

He added that, despite the exemption of private schools in the competition, "we thought it wise to sponsor it this year because we have keenly been following it for a long time and it is our hope that private schools will get the opportunity to join in the competition to show off what we got".

He assured the public of his outfit's unflinching commitment to support any educational event initiated by either government or private organisers that, seeks to the development of our educational sector as well as improve the well-being of students.

Justifying why private schools should be included in the competition, Dr. Isaac Asare stressed that it would improve the standard as the public and private schools would be battling for supremacy.

The NMSQ has been held over a decade with only public schools having the opportunity to partake in the competition, leaving private schools to their fate in evaluating their performance at the biggest platform.

Meanwhile, the PRO, however, used the opportunity to congratulate all past students who participated in the just-ended WASSCE and also wish the BECE candidates success as they sit for the final exams on September 14th, 2020.

---Nsemgh
Twitter once again flagged a tweet from President Donald Trump, this time for a message that sure made it seem like the commander in chief was encouraging some people to vote twice. The social media platform placed a warning label on one of the tweets Trump sent Saturday. Twitter placed a public interest notice on the message and limited its circulation for violating its policies, specifically for encouraging people to potentially vote twice. In his message, Trump called on North Carolinians to potentially vote twice by saying they could send in their mail-in ballot and the go to their polling station to see if it was counted and if they saw it wasnt they could cast another ballot. Dont let them illegally take your vote away from you! Trump wrote.

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We placed a public interest notice on this Tweet for violating our Civic Integrity Policy, specifically for encouraging people to potentially vote twice. https://t.co/yy674OE26n  Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) September 12, 2020

The tweet itself wasnt as blatant as previous comments by Trump in which he outright called on supporters to vote twice in order to test the system. But even under the conditions outlined by Trump in the tweet voting twice is illegal. One person who made that clear was North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, who responded on Twitter with a message to voters: Do NOT do what the president directs. Stein went on to write a thread detailing all the different ways voters in North Carolina could cast their ballot. Stein noted that the only GOOD thing about Trumps tweet is that he FINALLY encourages voters to VOTE BY MAIL.

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NORTH CAROLINA: Do NOT do what the President directs. To make sure your ballot COUNTS, sign and send it in EARLY. Then track it ONLINE with BALLOTTRAX. Do NOT vote twice (its a felony), or waste your time, or unnecessarily risk exposure to more people. https://t.co/jOKYoR4hnr https://t.co/1cF6tJoHA4  Josh Stein (@JoshStein_) September 12, 2020

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Important Thread on VOTING in NC:

1. Register to vote before Fri 10/9

2. Request mail-in ballot ASAP

3. Mail in your ballot ASAP & track receipt by text/email

4. or Vote during 17 days of early vote (Th 10/15  Sat 10/31)

5. or Vote on Election Day (Tu 11/3)

6. DO NOT VOTE TWICE  Josh Stein (@JoshStein_) September 12, 2020

Twitter wasnt alone in flagging Trumps message. Facebook also flagged Trumps post on voting in North Carolina, placing a banner underneath the post that read: Voting by mail has a long history of trustworthiness in the U.S. and the same is predicted this year.
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New Delhi, Sep 13 : The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Sunday asked seven big states to ensure adequate oxygen availability in hospitals while facilitating unrestricted intra- and inter-state movement of the gas.

The virtual meeting was called by the Union Health Secretary, in which the Industries and Internal Trade Secretary and the Pharmaceuticals Secretary urged Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to make sure of seamless supply and availability of oxygen in all their healthcare facilities.

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal also attended the virtual meeting.

The states were given a number of suggestions to tackle shortage of oxygen in their territories.

These included ensuring facility-wise/hospital-wise oxygen inventory management and advance planning for timely replenishment so that there are no stockouts, imposing no restriction on movement of medical oxygen between states/UTs, and provision of a "Green Corridor" for liquid medical oxygen (LMO) tankers within cities.

Noting hospitals and institutions have long term tender/contract agreement for supply with oxygen manufacturers, which need to be honoured, the Central officials stressed that states must not impose restrictions on free movement of oxygen.

The states were also asked to ensure timely payment of the due bills to manufacturers and suppliers to maintain uninterrupted supply of oxygen, as well as improving power supply infrastructure to ensure uninterrupted supply to oxygen manufacturing units, and ensuring proper disinfection of oxygen cylinders as per protocols while sending cylinders for refills.

They were also asked to maintain effective coordination with steel plants for oxygen procurement since they provide approximately 550 metric tonnes oxygen daily in addition to oxygen manufacturers who provide 6,400 metric tons per day.
National Conference President and former Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) chief minister Farooq Abdullah will attend the Monsoon Session of Parliament for the first time since the abrogation of Article 370 in August last year when local leaders, including Abdullah and son Omar, were placed under detention.

Confirming he will be attending the Monsoon Session of Parliament, Abdullah told the newspaper: "Yes, I am going to attend Parliament. Though they have kept no provisions to ask questions, I will raise our issues there."

According to the report, Abdullah's presence is bound to draw attention to the allegations that some leaders in J&K were placed under detention illegally, and could also spark a debate around People's Democratic Party (PDP) President Mehbooba Mufti's continued detention.

Earlier last year, during the debate on the revocation of special status for J&K, some Opposition leaders had demanded that Abdullah be allowed to attend Parliament. This had come after Union Home Minister Amit Shah had claimed that Abdullah had not been placed under house arrest and that he was free to move.

On his part, Abdullah had claimed that he had to break the door of his house to come out of detention. Both Abdullah and Omar were released on March 13 and March 24, respectively. While most of the other mainstream political leaders have been released, Mufti's continues to be under detention.

The Monsoon Session of Parliament will begin from September 14 with extraordinary measures being put in place to check the spread of COVID-19, due to which proceedings had to be cut short in March.
A petition to ban Amazon sellers from selling T-shirts promoting hate speech against people with Downs syndrome has been signed by more than 5,000 people.

The Change.org petition is calling on the online retailer to take a stand against such items, which bear phrases such as lets make down syndrome extinct.

"We want to see companies who sell items on Amazon that incite hate speech against any minorities Banned from ever selling on Amazon again," the petition reads.

"Many people from the Down Syndrome Community have contacted Amazon time and time again to remove product inciting Hate speech against people who have Down's syndrome.

"We would like you to find a way to stop these items being listed for sale on Amazon and if Amazon hold such stock to distribute Via Amazon prime, we would like to see said stock destroyed.

"Hate crime is no joke and is on the rise against people with learning disabilities.

We hope to see Amazon helping the Down's syndrome community fight against hate crime.

Downs syndrome is a genetic condition caused by the presence of an extra chromosome in a babys cells.

The condition is typically diagnosed at birth and can go on to cause learning disabilities for the child, in addition to certain physical characteristics.

Down's syndrome affects roughly 40,000 people in the UK.

A spokesperson from Amazon told The Independent: All sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who do not will be subject to action including potential removal of their account.
This is the third time the home minister is hospitalised for COVID related ailments

Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Shah has been re-admitted to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) after complaining of breathing issues on Saturday. (PTI)

New Delhi: Home Minister Amit Shah has been re-admitted to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) after complaining of breathing issues on Saturday, merely two weeks after he was discharged from AIIMS a second time on August 31.

The 55-year-old BJP leader had tested positive for COVID-19 on August 2 and received treatment at Medanta Hospital in Gurugram. He was then discharged on August 14 after testing negative, only to be re-admitted in AIIMS days after to treat his post-COVID syndromes on August 18. He had complained of breathing issues then also.
The Senior Pastor of Omega Fire Ministries, Apostle Johnson Suleman, has reacted to the apology offered to the founder of Living Faith Churc...

The Senior Pastor of Omega Fire Ministries, Apostle Johnson Suleman, has reacted to the apology offered to the founder of Living Faith Church, Bishop David Oyedepo by controversial On-Air Personality, Daddy Freeze, over an old clip.

Freeze took to his social media pages, to upload a video of him saying he was sorry of insulting the cleric and promised to cut out the confrontational way of addressing faith-based issues.

Suleman, in a tweet via his verified handle, warned Freeze that he can criticize but not insult.

According to the cleric, Freeze had insulted him too in the past, but he has forgiven him as instructed by the Bible.

Just watched the video of Ifedayo Olarinde (Daddy Freeze) apologizing to Papa Oyedepo over the video he did 2 years ago.

He equally did videos against me. I forgave because the Bible enjoins us to forgive. Thats what is expected of us.

You can criticize but dont insult, Suleman wrote.

The resurfaced video had caused so much controversy that has led to Pastor Paul Enenche of Dunamis International Gospel Centre and David Ibiyeomie of Salvation Ministries tongue lashing Daddy Freeze.
Whether fish farms in the Gulf of Mexico are a good idea is a question that evokes strong opinions.

Environmentalists and commercial fishermen say no, but seafood dealers and believers in President Donald Trump's laissez-faire approach to business say yes.

It should not make any difference who is right on the merits of Gulf aquaculture, for the courts have thrown out the regulation that permits it in federal waters. The administration plans to allow fish farms in the Gulf anyway, which seems even more pig-headed in light of President Donald Trump's alleged devotion to law and order.

The regulation was promulgated during the Obama administration in 2016 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which administers the Magnuson-Stevens Act, passed by Congress in 1976 to conserve and manage the fishery resources found off the coasts of the United States.

The 2016 regulation is a whopper, allowing up to 64 million pounds of seafood to be farmed in the Gulf annually. Opponents, fearing that aquaculture would pollute the Gulf with chemicals, spread diseases in wild fish stocks and drive down prices, challenged the regulation in a lawsuit and prevailed.

Last month they won again when the Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld the district judge's opinion that NOAA had exceeded its authority. The Magnuson-Stevens Act reserves to Congress the power to permit offshore fish farming.

NOAA claims it can continue to nurture offshore fish farms because other statutes allow what Magnuson-Stevens has been found to prohibit. Lawyers get paid a lot of our money to come up with cockamamie ideas like that.

It won't wash, though. If you are in favor of offshore aquaculture, lobby Congress. The Court of Appeals' opinion makes any other tactic a waste of taxpayer money. Unless Congress, hitherto cool to fish farms, should change its mind, the courts will finally put the kibosh on NOAA's aquaculture ambitions. By that time, we will have shelled out millions.

NOAA appears to think it can defy the court opinion on the reach of Magnuson-Stevens, by dint of the National Aquaculture Act of 1980. That act empowers NOAA to designate offshore aquaculture opportunity areas and conduct environmental impact studies. Shortly after the appeals court ruling was handed down, NOAA did indeed deem some Gulf zones suitable for fish farms, where huge numbers of the finny tribe are raised in floating pens.

But the power to designate aquaculture opportunity areas in federal waters will surely mean nothing so long as aquaculture in federal waters remains illegal. As Marianne Cufone, director of Loyola University's Environmental Law Center points out, No agency has been given the authority to permit these facilities to operate.

Cufone is an opponent of offshore fish farming, but she is obviously a reliable authority on the relevant law. She forecasts further litigation if fish farmers try to set up in the Gulf.

Trump administration policy has always been to free business from the allegedly excessive restraints of rules designed to protect the environment and promote public safety. In that spirit Trump in May signed an executive order reducing the regulatory burdens on the offshore fish farms that will evidently remain a figment of NOAA's imagination for the foreseeable future.

The administration did its best to persuade the appeals court that it had the authority under Magnuson-Stevens to introduce aquaculture to the Gulf of Mexico. The court evidently found the case such a no-brainer, however, that the judge who wrote the opinion, Stuart Kyle Duncan, was free to amuse himself with piscine wordplay. Thus, the government's legal theories were a slippery basis for empowering an entire industry the statute does not even mention, and we will not bite.

Just in case there is any doubt that federal judges know about the problems that afflict the Gulf of Mexico, the opinion adds, As far as aquaculture, the Magnuson-Stevens Act is a textual dead zone.

Or, to put it another way, NOAA's position is unfathomable.

Duncan cannot resist adding, Unable to land support for its interpretation in the words of the Act, (NOAA) goes angling for ambiguity.

We get the picture. Until Congress changes tack, NOAA is just spinning its wheels.

Email James Gill at gill504nola.@gmail.com.
Press Release

September 13, 2020 Gatchalian seeks prompt aid for displaced teachers, non-teaching staff with enactment of Bayanihan 2 Senator Win Gatchalian is seeking the immediate and smooth distribution of aid for displaced teaching and non-teaching personnel now that the Bayanihan to Recover As One Act (Bayanihan 2) is signed into law. On September 10, the Department of Education (DepEd) reported that 748 out of 14,435 private schools nationwide are not operating for the school year (SY) 2020-2021 which affects 3,233 teachers and 40,345 learners. Only two million (2,050,797) learners have enrolled in private schools for SY 2020-2021, an equivalent of 47.63 percent compared to the 4,304,676 learners enrolled in SY 2019-2020. On September 12, the number of private basic education institutions suspending operations rose to 846. DepEd officials have yet to quantify how many additional teachers and learners are affected. Bayanihan 2 allocates P300 million to provide one-time cash assistance to displaced teaching and non-teaching personnel in private and public elementary, secondary, and tertiary educational institutions. The provision covers part-time faculty and non-permanent teaching personnel. Part-time faculty in State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) who have lost their jobs and have not received their salaries are also covered. The lawmaker urged DepEd to build a database for the smooth distribution of aid. To do this, DepEd needs to proactively seek out displaced teachers, personnel, and students and coordinate with school associations. According to Gatchalian, teachers and non-teaching staff should be spared from the glitches of implementing the Social Amelioration Program (SAP), noting that teachers and non-teaching staff have long waited to receive financial support amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Aside from the one-time financial cash assistance to affected teaching and non-teaching personnel, P600 million is allotted to subsidies and allowances for qualified students in public and private schools who were affected by lockdown measures and are not part of government educational subsidies and voucher programs. These subsidies, which will be released directly to schools, will be applied for unpaid tuition in SY 2019-2020 or the payment of tuition for SY 2020-2021. Gatchalian added that building this database of displaced teachers and non-teaching staff would help DepEd target candidates for its teaching and non-teaching positions, including para-teachers and tutors for distance learning. According to the National Expenditure Program (NEP) 2021, 43,780 of the 976,520 authorized DepEd positions are yet to be filled. "Ngayon at ganap nang batas ang Bayanihan 2, dapat siguruhin nating agarang maipapaabot sa ating mga guro at mga kawaning nawalan ng trabaho ang ayuda mula sa pamahalaan. Matagal naghintay ang mga guro at kawaning nawalan ng trabaho kaya dapat nating siguruhing hindi magkakaroon ng aberya ang pamamahagi ng tulong pinansya para sa kanila," said Gatchalian, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture. ### Gatchalian hinimok ang pagbibigay ng agarang tulong sa mga apektado ng class suspension Nagpahayag ng pangamba si Senador Win Gatchalian kasunod ng dumadaming bilang ng mga paaralan na hindi muna magbubukas ngayong school year. Noong Seytembre 10 ay iniulat ng Department of Education (DepEd) na mahigit pitong-daang (748) pribadong paaralan ang hindi muna magpapatuloy ng operasyon dahil sa naging pinsala ng COVID-19 pandemic. Apektado dito ang mahigit tatlong libong (3,233) mga guro at mahigit apatnapung libong (40,345) mag-aaral. Pagkalipas lamang ng dalawang araw, umakyat sa mahigit walong daan (846) agad ang bilang ng mga pribadong paaralang titigil muna ng operasyon. Kaya ngayong isa nang ganap na batas ang Bayanihan to Recover As One Act o Bayanihan 2, isinusulong ng senador ang agarang pagmamahagi ng ayuda sa mga guro at non-teaching personnel na nawalan ng trabaho. Batay sa datos ng DepEd nitong Setyembre 11, mahigit dalawang milyon (2,050,797) pa lamang ang nag-e-enroll sa mga pribadong paaralan, wala pa sa kalahati (47.63 porsyento) ng mahigit apat na milyong (4,304,676) mag-aaral sa pribadong sektor noong nakaraang SY 2019-2020. Sa ilalim ng Bayanihan 2, may tatlong daang (300) milyong pisong nakalaan para sa one-time cash assistance na ipapamahagi sa mga apektadong guro at non-teaching personnel ng mga pribado at pampublikong paaralan sa lahat ng antas. Kabilang dito ang mga part-time faculty at non-permanent teaching personnel, pati na rin ang part-time faculty ng mga State Universities and Colleges o SUCs. May anim na raang (600) milyong piso namang inilaan ang Bayanihan 2 para sa ayudang ipamamahagi sa mga mag-aaral na naapektuhan ng lockdown ngunit hindi nakatatanggap ng tulong pinansyal mula sa mga kasalukuyang programa ng pamahalaan. Hinimok ni Gatchalian ang DepEd na magkaroon ng isang database upang maging maayos ang pamamahagi ng ayuda. Aniya, dapat makipagtulungan ang kagawaran sa mga school associations upang matukoy kung sinu-sino ang mga apektadong guro, kawani, pati mga mag-aaral. Ayon pa sa mambabatas, hindi dapat maranasan ng mga guro at kawani ng mga paaralan ang mga suliraning naranasan sa pagpapatupad ng Social Amelioration Program o SAP, lalo na't matagal na silang naghihintay ng ayuda. Dagdag ni Gatchalian, ang pagkakaroon ng database ay makakatulong sa DepEd na punan ang kinakailangang bilang ng mga guro at kawani, kabilang ang mga tutors at para-teachers sa distance learning. Ayon sa tala ng National Expenditure Program 2021, mahigit apatnapu't tatlong libo (43,780) sa halos isang milyong (976,520) posisyon sa DepEd ang kailangan pang punan. "Ngayon at ganap nang batas ang Bayanihan 2, dapat siguruhin nating agarang maipaabot sa ating mga guro at kawaning nawalan ng trabaho ang ayuda mula sa pamahalaan. Matagal naghintay ang mga guro at kawaning nawalan ng trabaho kaya dapat nating siguruhing hindi magkakaroon ng aberya ang pamamahagi ng tulong pinansya para sa kanila," ani Gatchalian na Chairman ng Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture.
First published in the Sydney Morning Herald on September 15, 1956

(Edited extract)



All workers in the Mail Branch at Sydney G.P.O. walked off the job last night, paralysing the handling of mail.

At a mass meeting the men decided to remain on strike until another meeting at Leichhardt Stadium to-morrow afternoon.

The strike decision affects 2,500 members of the Postal Workers Union employed at the mail branch and 300 members employed at the parcels office.
A woman was charged with assaulting a police officer after she refused to step out of her car and resisted arrest at a COVID-19 checkpoint north of Melbourne.

A video shared on Facebook by Natalie Bonett shows on Sept. 12 the 29-year-old being dragged out of the drivers seat after refusing to get out of her car at Kalkallo, about 60 kilometres north of the city.

I am shaking, crying and in complete disbelief that I was treated this way, Bonett, who was wearing a mask, wrote of the incident.

Victoria Police confirmed Bonett was arrested after allegedly refusing to provide her details and drivers licence.

Police spoke to the female driver at the checkpoint in relation to her mobile phone obstructing her view due to its position on the windscreen and explained that this was an offence, a Victoria Police statement said.

The woman refused to remove her phone from the windscreen.

In the video posted on Facebook, the male officer can be heard asking for Bonetts name and address.

The problem is youre not stating your name to me, the officer is heard saying.

Bonett again refused to get out of the car.

I dont feel safe. Youre armed, she said.

Youre safe, dont you worry about that, the officer replied.

The footage then shows the officer lean into the vehicle as Bonett protests, before she is forcibly removed.

Police said Bonett had been warned she would be arrested if she did not provide her details.

She was later released and is expected to be charged on summons with driving with obscured vision, fail to produce a licence, fail to state her name and address, resist arrest, assault police and offensive language.

Victoria Police reminds all drivers that the Road Safety Act requires that they must state their name and address and produce their drivers licence when requested to do so by a police officer, the police statement said.
The Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) has notified the federal government of its decision to withdraw its services in all tertiary health institutions across the country starting from Sunday midnight.

JOHESU, the group of other health workers except for doctors, said it reached that decision after a meeting with the government on Thursday yielded no positive result in meeting their demands.

The union also said it was left with no other option but to go on strike since the 15-day ultimatum it gave the government elapsed on Sunday.

JOHESU made this disclosure in a strike notice letter to the labour minister, Chris Ngige, dated Saturday, September 12.

The letter, seen by PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday, was signed by JOHESU national chairman, Joy Josiah; A. A Adeneji, the president, National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANM) and five others.

It came about three days after resident doctors suspended an ongoing strike on Thursday following a meeting on Wednesday with the government which resulted in a truce.

While JOHESU also met with the government on Thursday, the meeting ended in a deadlock.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the union said it would embark on a nationwide seven-day warning strike if the government fails to meet its demands which includes payment of hazard and inducement allowance by midnight of Sunday, September 13.

JOHESU said the warning strike will only involve federal institutions while the states and local government health institutions will be placed on red alert for possible entry into the fray if the federal government foot-drags in attending to our demands.

JOHESU in July threatened to down tools over what it described as gross discrimination against its members in the implementation of the newly-approved inducement and hazard allowances for medical workers.

In the letter to the labour minister, JOHESU said nothing concrete was achieved at the said meeting with the federal government, hence the strike notice.

Threats

In a phone interview with PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday afternoon, the national chairman of JOHESU, Ogbonna Chimela, said the union was even irked the more after Mr Ngige again threatened them with, no work no pay policy should they insist on embarking on industrial action.

While some of the governments proposal was not in tandem with our demands, the labour minister once again threatened us with the no work no pay rule. We responded by letting him know that by embarking on a 15-day ultimatum, due process has been followed, making our strike very legitimate, he explained.

The JOHESU vice-chairman, Mr Chimela, listed their demands as follows: COVID-19 hazard allowance; withheld salaries; non-adjustment of the CONHESS salary structure; implementation of several court judgments; and repairing of several decaying health structure and infrastructure across the country.

He reaffirmed the stance of JOHESU that only tertiary health institutions will join the seven-days warning strike.

After the seven days and our demands are not yet met, the states and even our workers in COVID-19 isolation centres will now join, he noted.
The Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED), Hohoe-Kpeve Cocoa District in the Volta Region today, 10/09/2020 held a Mini-Cocoa Farmer Rally at Nkonya Wurupong in the Biakoye District of the Oti Region to sensitize Cocoa Farmers and its key stakeholders on Environmental and Social Sustainability Project (ESSP).

The project spans from 2016-2020 and is jointly implemented by UNDP and the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), with support from Mondelez International with a focus on Forestry and biodiversity conservation; climate change under UNs Sustainable Development Goal 13& 15.

Facilitating the rally to over 150 cocoa farmers today at Nkonya Wurupong, Mr. Derick ALarbi-Donkor, the District Extension Coordinator (DEC) of Hohoe-Kpeve Cocoa District said ESSP has two key objectives:

Cocoa Farmers should adopt environmentally sustainable and climate change resilient cocoa production practices on their farms;

Cocoa Farmers should manage cocoa farms sustainably to conserve ecosystems and natural resources.

To achieve the above objectives, Mr. Alarbi-Donkor advised farmers to avoid the use of weedicides in cocoa farming, integrate economic trees comprising of 5 species (Mahogany, Ofram, Kokodua, Hyedua and Mansonia) in the cocoa farms to conserve the land and protect ecosystem. Excessive bush burning and practices that causes bush fires in Cocoa farms was also raised. Felling of trees without replanting was also raised and farmers were advised to desist from the practice.

Mr. Alarbi-Donkor took his time to anwers questions from farmers on Good Agronomic Practices (GAPS), COCOBOD subsidized fertilizer for Cocoa farmers, Artificial Pollination, Cocoa Mass Spraying and other trending issues in the cocoa industry.

The Cocoa Technical Officer for the area, Mr. Francis M. Eshun stated that, since he started work in the operational area in late part of 2019, he has facilitated the formation and registration of four Cocoa Farmer Cooperative, viz:

Nkonya Wurupong Yonkudor Cooperative Cocoa Farming and Marketing Society Ltd. (REG. NO: VR/P/AC/436)

Nkonya Ahenkro Ebaalee Cooperative Cocoa Farming and Marketing Society Ltd (REG.NO: VR/P/AC/439)

Nkonya Asakyiri Cooperative Cocoa Farming and Marketing Society Ltd (REG. NO: VR/P/AC/437)

Nkonya Tayi Cooperative Cocoa Farming and Marketing Society Limited (REG. NO: OR/P/AC/030)

He expressed optimism that Nkonya Ntumda and Nkonya Tepo Cocoa Farmers will soon also register their cooperative society. He added that, since late part of 2019 to now, he has facilitated the delivery of 2 CP Knapsack Spraying Machines; PPEs (gloves, googles, wellington boots, overall and nose mask) to Nkonya 9 Spraying Team of 9 people; 2800 Sachets of Attack Botanical Insecticides; 164 litres of Cocoa Agyenkwa Liquid Fertilizer; 70 litres of Cocoasett; 4000 Sachet of Qualico Fungicides; 230 litres of Sidalco Liquid Fertilizers; 600 Sachets of Fungikill Fungicides; 2500 Seedlings of Cocoa by SPD; 66 economic trees (Ofram) and 14 Sharp power motorized. He added artificial pollination and Cocoa Mass Spraying is ongoing in the Operational Area and appealed to every cocoa farmer to register and be part of the Cocoa Farmer Cooperative to aid extension delivery.

The Municipal Cooperative Director for Kpando Municipality, ( as well as Biakoye and South Dayi), Mr. John Vorvor appealed to the elders of the Communities to release lands for the various Cooperatives to begin a Cooperative Cocoa Farm. He said, that farm will help serve as Demonstration Farm and also raise money for the Cooperative in the long run. He stated, the leadership of the Cooperatives should account to the members each quarter to ensure transparent leadership.

The Cocoa Purchasing Clerk for Nkonya Wurupong, Mr. Eyram Atisu disclosed that, for the 2019/2020 season, Nkonya Wurupong produced One Thousand, Six Hundred and Fifty Two bags (1652) of Cocoa which he purchased. He said, with the current initiatives and efforts by the Technical Officer for the Area, he is sure, the coming season will see a rise in production in the area. He thanked the farmers for the support and Cooperation.

Mr. Michael Obour and Godwin Nnogam, MOFA Extension Officers in the area used the platform to educate farmers on Acarp Compost (Fertilizer), improved maize seeds and chemicals provided for control of fall army worms.

NADMO Director for Biakoye District, Mr. Henry Kojo Danso stated that, the Cooperatives should come together to raise their own nurseries with support from COCOBOD to help expansion of Cocoa Farms. He expressed delight in the lvel of commitment shown by the farmers in cocoa farming and challenged them to do more to ensure increase in production of cocoa in Nkonya.

The rally was chaired by Nana Owusu Ansah II, the Omankrado of Nkonya Wurupong Traditional Area. Executives of Nkonya Wurupong Yonkudor Cooperative Cocoa Farming and Marketing Society Ltd are Mr. Gilbert Yeboah (Chairman), Mrs. Juliana Yempew (Vice Chairperson), Mr. Emmanuel Latse (Secretary), Mr. Paul Adu ( Assistant Secretary), Mrs. Betty Otusafo (Treaseurer), Hon. Francis Ampomah ( Executive Member), Mr. Thomas Cogbe ( Executive Member) and Mrs. Florence Obiri ( Executive Member). Other Executives include Mr. Godfred Adondo (Nkonya Tayi), Mr. Theophilus Addae (Nkonya Ntumda), Mr. Daniel Ansah (Nkonya Ahenkro), Mrs. Juliana Yirenky (Nkonya Tepo). The rally was attended by over 150 farmers from Nkonya Wurupong, Nkonya Tayi, Nkonya Tepo, Nkonya Ntumda, Nkonya Ahenkro, Nkonya Ahondwo and Nkonya Asakyir.
A handout photo made available by Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry shows Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov following their talks in Moscow, Russia, 11 September 2020. EPA-Yonhap



By Sidney Leng





The United States should "better manage" its own affairs and stop meddling in those of other nations, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday.

"Now is the time for China to ask the United States not to interfere in China's internal affairs," the minister was quoted as saying in a transcript released on Saturday by the foreign ministry in Beijing of the joint press conference he held in Moscow with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.



"The National People's Congress [China's rubber-stamp parliament] has never discussed formulating bills targeting the internal affairs of the United States, but the US Congress has frequently introduced various bills on the internal affairs of China," he said.



"The US has gone too far and stretched its hands too long!" Wang said. "We suggest some people in the US better manage their own affairs first, abide by the principles of international relations and stop interfering in the internal affairs of other countries."



His comments came after US tech company Microsoft said on Thursday that in recent weeks it had detected cyberattacks from China, Russia and Iran that were designed to interfere in the US presidential election in November.



Chinese hackers had attacked people associated with presidential candidate Joe Biden's campaign and other important figures from the international affairs community, Microsoft said, adding that the Chinese hacking group Zirconium had launched thousands of attacks between March and September, resulting in nearly 150 compromises.





Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meeting on the sideline of the 11th edition of the BRICS Summit, in Brasilia, Brazil November 13, 2019. REUTERS-Yonhap
The newly appointed doctors and health workers recruited on a temporary basis for Covid-19 duties in government hospitals of AP have not got their salaries since the past two months. This is causing them severe hardships, as they are unable to support themselves and their families.

The state government had issued a G.O. to recruit 1,170 specialist doctors, 1,170 general duty medical officers, 2,000 staff nurses, 306 anaesthesia technicians, 300 FNOs, 300 MNOs and 300 sweepers on contract for a year to take care of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Following this, doctors and health care personnel joined duties and started attending to Covid-19 work. Many young girls aged around 20 years joined as staff nurses in government hospitals hoping to get good money.

They hired rooms on a rent and cooked their own meals before going for work. In the process, whatever money they brought from home got exhausted. In the absence of salaries, they are struggling to pay rent and buy food.

When contacted, East Godavari district medical and health officer Dr. B. Subramanyeswari said, Once we get attendance of health personnel for Covid-19 from their concerned heads, we will get approval from the collector and remit wages into their bank accounts.

Similar is the stand taken by higher officials in other districts with regard to payment of wages.

There are also nearly 1,700 health workers taken on out-sourcing basis for six months in all 13 districts, who too have not got their wages for two months.
The 20th Amendments provisions to remove and weaken provisions related to accountability in the Governments handling of the countrys finances can lead to increased corruption in the country.





by Javid Yusuf





The 19th Amendment to the Constitution has been criticised and demonised on the basis that it created two centres of power that prevented the smooth functioning of Parliament. As discussed in this column last week this is not substantiated by any evidence.









The fact that there were conflicting opinions between the President and the Prime Minister during the Yahapalana Government that impacted on the performance of that Government is highlighted by the proponents of the 20th Amendment as a justification for abolishing the 19th Amendment. That it was simply the inability of the two leaders to iron out their differences while in Government and not any structural difficulties in Governance caused by the 19th Amendment is lost on those who support the repeal of the changes brought about by the 19th Amendment.





The fact that the 19th Amendment is eminently workable is amply proved by the performance of the Government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa who was elected to office in November 2019. One of the biggest challenges that the current Government faced since its assumption of office was the situation caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic. The current Government counts its handling of the situation as one of its achievements. The 19th Amendment clearly did not stand in its way in dealing with this challenge.





The main ground on which the proponents of the 20th Amendment wish to repeal the 19th Amendment is that it creates two centres of power  the office of the Executive Presidency as well as the office of Parliament and thereby making governance difficult. If that was the intention it could have been simply done by transferring all necessary powers to the office of the Executive Presidency.





But the provisions of the 20th Amendment go far beyond that and seek to bring about changes that do not have an impact on the quality of Governance but for collateral purposes. One example is the proposal to remove the bar on dual citizens entering Parliament. Clearly the absence of dual citizens in Parliament does not in any way adversely impact on the quality of governance. In fact this is being increasingly recognised within the ranks of government as evidenced by the number of voices of dissent being raised against the removal of the bar on dual citizens enacted by the 19th Amendment.





Nor does the scheme of appointments to the higher Judiciary and the Independent Commissions set in place by the 19th Amendment impede efficient governance. In fact it does exactly the opposite by strengthening the independence of the administration of justice and depoliticising the public service and police thereby strengthening the efficiency of these agencies of the State.





In the context of the Government announcing its intention to enact a new Constitution it is difficult to understand the indecent haste with which the 20th Amendment is being pursued. It would be prudent to introduce a Constitution after wide consultation and which is acceptable to all sections of society. The new Constitution should facilitate democratic governance and social justice rather than authoritarian tendencies.





Contrary to the claims made that the 20th Amendment is being introduced to remove the obstacles to governance, a number of provisions in fact promote governance without accountability. An examination of some of the new provisions that are included in the proposed 20th Amendment give credence to this conclusion.





The 19th Amendment ensured that even with the reduced powers of the Executive Presidency, the President was subject to the Fundamental Rights jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. Through this process the public could call any action of the President to account and if he was in violation of the Law, the Supreme Court could grant relief to the aggrieved person.





Under the scheme of Governance proposed by the 20th Amendment which entrusts enhanced and almost absolute power to the office of the Executive Presidency, there is no right granted to the ordinary citizen to call the President to account.





The Constitution requires the President to be responsible to Parliament for the due exercise, performance and discharge of his powers, duties and functions. While on the face of it this provision makes the President accountable, there is no specific mechanism to make accountability a reality. In fact the power given to the President by the 20th Amendment to dissolve Parliament after one year makes such a provision of little or no effect.





In the event of Parliament seeking to call the President to account he can resort to the simple step of dissolving Parliament with no questions asked.





The current Constitution gives Parliament the power to oversee and monitor Government expenditure. This is a salutary power given to Parliament to ensure that the Government as a whole acts prudently with regard to the finances of the country but here too the power of the President to dissolve Parliament after one year weakens such oversight powers.





Another provision in the proposed 20th Amendment that has serious repercussions for accountability is the proposal to abolish the National Audit Commission and the National Procurement Commission which were set up as a result of the 19th Amendment. In desperation the trade union of Audit representatives have made representations to the Mahanayake Theras regarding this threat to accountability.





Equally dangerous is the weakening of the Right to Information Commission which empowers the citizen to call government to account.





Introducing the 1978 Constitution J. R. Jayewardene justified the Executive Presidency on the grounds that the holder of such office would not be subject to the whims and fancies of Parliament. But today the 20th Amendment seeks to make Parliament subject to the whims and fancies of the Executive President.





The 20th Amendments provisions to remove and weaken provisions related to accountability in the Governments handling of the countrys finances can lead to increased corruption in the country. When the 1978 Constitution was enacted J.R. Jayewardenes cry was let the robber barons come. The 20th Amendment seeks to go beyond this and can result in the creation of more home-grown robber barons.





The 20th Amendment can therefore not only reduce democratic accountability but also economic accountability which can prove disastrous for a country struggling to meet post COVID- 19 challenges to the economy.





(The writer can be reached javidyusuf@gmail)
If you still had any question whether 2020 is a very strange year when the completely unexpected can quickly become "normal," we now have this: Major airlines have started eliminating one of the most arbitrary, but profitable, things about their business: the "change fee." You know, the $200 (or more) they pocket whenever your plans change and you need to do the same with your flight.

Delta had already gotten rid of the fee for most of the year in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. At the end of last month, it announced it would permanently eliminate the change fee for flights within the U.S., and extend the waiver on international flights through the end of the year.

Delta wasn't the first airline to make that announcement. That would be United, which killed the penalty for changing your plans earlier the same day. Delta's CEO, Ed Bastian, however, explained the company's reason why in a blog post, and I think it's worth a deeper look.

We want our customers to book and travel with peace of mind, knowing that we'll continue evaluating our policies to maintain the high standard of flexibility they expect.

I actually think that statement is an extraordinary example of how to create and manage expectations, and I want to break this down into three reasons why:

"Peace of Mind"

Bastian starts by setting forth the goal, which is for "customers to book and travel with peace of mind." Peace of mind could be defined as being free from anxiety or worry. A common reason people experience those feelings is when they are faced with the unknown or with uncertainty. Air travel always involves a degree of uncertainty, even for regular travelers.

Bastian's statement talks both about booking, as well as actually traveling. Right now, in both of those cases, uncertainty is amplified exponentially. It's hard to make plans at a time when it feels like the circumstances of the world around you are changing faster than you can keep up. It's especially difficult if those plans involve getting on an airplane at a time when many people still feel awkward about going to the grocery store.

Delta wants to reduce the fear and anxiety associated with flying by giving customers a greater sense of certainty that they'll be safe if they choose to travel, and they won't be penalized if those plans have to change.

"Continue Evaluating"

Even when they don't agree with them, most people would acknowledge that policies are important. They help create boundaries around the way we interact with companies. Often, however, companies create policies that seem to only exist to protect the bottom line, not provide the best customer experience.

That's why it's remarkable that Bastian makes a point to tell customers that the company is committed to "continue evaluating our policies." The company is taking a proactive approach to looking at the overall customer experience and making changes when the policies in place don't align with the experience Delta wants to provide.

"Expect"

Finally, and maybe most importantly, Bastian talks about expectations--which are everything, especially now. Before you dismiss that as cliche, take a moment to think about the way expectations influence your perception of every experience you have. Your level of satisfaction, happiness, frustration, discomfort, and even peace of mind is often driven by the way an experience meets--or fails to meet--your expectations.

I traveled to New York City last month, and I flew on a Delta flight. I wrote, at the time, about how Delta was doing a great job of communicating exactly what travelers should expect, and I think this does the same. The blog post mentions that Delta plans to continue blocking off middle seats until January 2021, and talks about the other steps Delta is taking to keep its customers safe.
Two people were taken into custody by the Illinois State Police, but others in the Durango ran from the accident scene. Lockport police later located two others from the vehicle, and all four were taken to the sheriffs office for questioning.
Jimmy Barnes is not shy of discussing his devastating battle with drugs and alcohol in the late 1990s.

And Jimmy, 64, has now revealed how meeting a homeless woman selling her drawings on the street was the trigger he needed to begin recovering from his substance abuse spiral.

Appearing on his new podcast Story Time with Jimmy Barnes, the Cold Chisel rocker said he was living in Los Angels to record his 2000 album Soul Deeper, when he decided to venture out in search of vodka and cocaine.

'This encounter made me realise how lucky I was': Jimmy Barnes, 64, has revealed how a chance encounter with a homeless woman in 2000 helped him overcome years of alcohol and drug abuse

'I walked out of the studio. It was 11, or 12 o'clock in the day and we're just about to get stared. And the horn section weren't there yet, so I thought I could dash out and get prepped for the day.'

'I was going to buy a bottle of vodka and then I was going to get a whole pile of cash from the ATM in case any drug dealers walk up,' he explained.

During his outing, Jimmy crossed paths with a woman sitting under a tree trying to sell her paintings.

'I thought I could dash out and get prepped for the day': The Cold Chisel rocker said he was living in Los Angels to record his 2000 album Soul Deeper, when he decided to venture out in search of drugs and alcohol. Pictured in 2000

Feeling sorry for her, Jimmy struck up a conversation and discovered that the woman was a former art teacher whose husband had died.

'I was in a bit of a bad state, but this encounter made me realise how lucky I was,' the songwriter recalled.

'She was educated, sweet woman who just before this had lived in a nice house with a dog and her husband died and his finances weren't in order and suddenly she ended up on the street. Her kids didn't care, they'd moved away.'

I felt better about myself': During his outing, Jimmy crossed paths with a woman sitting under a tree trying to sell her paintings. Heartbroken, Jimmy decided to purchase all her artworks using the $500 he was going to spend on drugs.

Heartbroken, Jimmy decided to purchase all her artworks using the $500 he was going to spend on drugs.

'I went back to the studio and realised I wasn't going to buy any drugs that day, but I felt better about myself,' he explained.

'It's like the dominoes, it was one of those things that started making me change the way I thought about life,' he said, describing the woman as an 'angel'.

For confidential support in Australia, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or click here.
Almost 100 elementary school students have suffered alleged food poisoning this week after having lunch at a school in Ho Chi Minh City, according to an official.

Twenty students have been hospitalized after having meals at Binh Trung Dong Elementary School in District 2, Nguyen Phuc Huy Tung, head of the districts Bureau of Education and Training, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Sunday.

A total of 98 students had lunch at the school on Friday and have showed unpleasant symptoms since.

They ate rice noodle soup cooked with shrimp for lunch and cream puffs for late-afternoon snacks.

"On Saturday, eight students were admitted to District 2 Hospital, said Tung.

"Twelve others were rushed to the hospital on Sunday morning with the same symptoms like vomiting, fever, and diarrhea.

Tungs bureau has collected the food samples for a check, he added.

This is a case of suspected food poisoning as neighboring Nguyen Van Troi Elementary School has not reported the same problems despite having a similar menu for its students.

"Both schools use the same supply of food and also have on-site kitchens, Tung elaborated.

"The students of the two schools had the same dish for lunch but they ate different snacks.

While Nguyen Van Troi offered flans, Binh Trung Dong fed them cream puffs.

Students have lunch at Binh Trung Dong Elementary School in District 2, Ho Chi Minh City in this a photo taken from the school's Facebook account.

Tung noted that the flans were made by the same company that supplied food to the two schools.

The firm paid a third party to make the cream puffs, he added.

The twenty students admitted to the District 2 Hospital have suffered from the same symptoms, according to Tran Van Khanh, director of the institution.

All of them are now treated in the pediatric ward.

"The students have had symptoms like vomiting, fever, diarrhea, and digestive disorders, Khanh said.

There are various levels of health conditions among them.

We are closely monitoring them.

This could be food poisoning but only test results can confirm it, Khanh continued.

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13. 9. 2020

cas cteni < 1 minuta

Please, retweet. Watch how riot police were detaining peaceful protesters in Minsk today. I am wondering if the EU/US will be brave enough to impose individual sanctions against all those involved in the violent crackdown on non-violent protesters in Belarus. pic.twitter.com/KDIMDbyFHe
Fans in the student section in Norman, Okla. during the Missouri State vs. Oklahoma NCAA college football game on Sept.12. (Photo: Sue Ogrocki-Pool/Getty Images)

The school year is just getting started, but coronavirus cases have already been reported at colleges and universities in all 50 states.

More than 40,000 coronavirus infections have been reported among students, faculty and staff at colleges and universities across the country, according to CNN estimates.

Despite the risks, some college students continue to gather in groups and attend parties without social distancing or wearing masks  even, as with some Miami University students, despite knowing they are infected with coronavirus.

Experts say this risky behavior in the face of a global pandemic isnt surprising  and part of that can be chalked up to the fact that adolescent brains are still developing.

It was believed that adolescence ended at 18, says Yahoo Life mental health contributor Dr. Jen Hartstein of Hartstein Psychological Services in New York. We now know that it begins at puberty and ends in the mid-20s. Part of adolescent development is the learning of self-regulation skills. Most young people in college do not have these yet, so they tend to be more impulsive, not considering the risks and just [acting] without thinking it all through.

Jill M. Emanuele, PhD, the senior director of the Mood Disorders Center at the Child Mind Institute, explains to Yahoo Life that, biologically, theres a difference between adult and teen brains because adolescent brains are still maturing well into their 20s.

The part of the brain that helps [teens] organize, plan and think ahead  the prefrontal cortex  is key in this, Hartstein tells Yahoo Life. As it is not fully developed, many young people end up feeling that risks do not apply to them, so they just keep moving forward without thinking about what might happen. As they begin to see the cause and effect of things more clearly, their behaviors might change.

But in general, college students take more risks, says Emanuele, thinking, Hey, this isnt going to happen to me, she says. Theres this sense of invincibility. I just want to have my life back.

Story continues

Barbara Greenberg, PhD, a clinical psychologist who specializes in the treatment of adolescents, agrees, saying: They feel immortal.

Theres also a strong desire for teens to be with their peers. Many of these teens have been in quarantine for many months and want to get back to a sense of normalcy and are really struggling with that, says Emanuele. They are willing to take the risks to do that.

Greenberg explains thats because adolescents weigh the positives more heavily than the negatives. She adds: Its not that they dont see the negatives  they do  its that the positives of being with friends weighs more heavily than the risks of getting COVID-19.

Teens have an intense need to socialize and be with friends, says Greenberg, and are very afraid of peer disapproval. They want more than anything else to fit in. When you have a group of teens, they make decisions that they wouldn't necessarily make as an individual. A teen who would wear a mask when alone may not necessarily wear a mask in a group if others arent.

Adding to the challenge is that teens and their parents have gotten mixed information about how adolescents are impacted by the virus, notes Hartstein. Some may think that they are invincible, as there is an element of that for young people, and others may hold on to the belief that they wont get it because of their age. So, its a mixed bag.

While younger people tend to have more mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms, and those 17 and under have a lower risk of hospitalization and death from the disease, some can develop serious infections  and experts are still trying to understand the long-term health effects of the virus.

How to help your teen make safer choices

Experts say there are a few ways that adults can reach teens to help encourage them to make safer choices.

If your teen is still living at home, model the behavior you want to see, suggests Hartstein, such as wearing a mask, washing hands frequently and social distancing. The good part about developing brains is that its possible to have influence over them, she says. If you model the behavior you expect to see, they are more likely to follow it.

Also, communicate with them openly and honestly. Talk with them about how they are feeling, what they understand ... especially as it relates to the coronavirus, says Hartstein. Maybe they dont understand some things or are holding on to old information.

Health experts recommend that parents of college students emphasize the risks of COVID-19 and the importance of wearing masks and social distancing. (Photo: Getty Creative stock image)

Greenberg says its important to convey that kids are getting sick. The rates of kids getting sick have gone up, she says. They have to know their peers are getting sick. Show them articles so they can be aware. You dont need to terrify them  you need to educate them.

But dont make it a lecture. You [also] want to listen to your teens perspective, says Emanuele, so theres some sort of collaborative discussion going on. How can you see your friends safely? Whats a risk and whats not a risk? If you see this person and you get sick and bring this back, everyone is going to get sick. Do you understand that?

Since banning them from seeing any of their friends is likely unrealistic, especially if theyre away at college, discuss with your teen how to safely spend time with a couple of close friends  namely, meeting friends outdoors while social distancing and wearing masks. Use the outdoors as much as possible in safe numbers [to] at least get some socialization, suggests Greenberg.

Above all, says Hartstein, keep the communication going: Repetition is key. Seeing the pros and cons of behaviors is important. Understanding consequences is helpful. Keeping the conversation going helps young people to learn and understand what is needed during this weird and challenging time.

For the latest coronavirus news and updates, follow along at https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please reference the CDCs and WHOs resource guides.

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Two men have been arrested by the Pune police crime branch on Saturday for running adulterated ghee production units in Pune.

The two have been identified as Sohil Mehendi Bhanodiya and Dinesh Mehandi Bhanodiya.

The police have seized 750 litres of ghee from two godowns owned by the men in Wadgaonsheri. The raw material, equipment and ghee seized during the raid were estimated to be worth 7,00,000, according to police.

On receiving input regarding some people indulging in manufacturing of adulterated ghee, anti-narcotics (west) team co-ordinated with Food and Drug Association (FDA) and raided the place and arrested two people. Seizure of 750 litres ghee worth 7 lakh was done. Further legal action is going on, said Bachchan Singh, deputy commissioner of police, crime, Pune.

There were rats seen inside some storage containers of the ghee manufacturing units.

The police called upon officials of the Food and Drug Association (FDA) and raided the two godowns. The FDA officials have taken samples for further testing and are conducting an investigation.
Michael Osterholm, a renowned infectious-disease expert and the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday that leaders must tell the truth when it comes to public health and that "telling the truth never causes panic."

Why it matters: Host Chuck Todd asked Osterholm if President Trump had made a mistake by not being upfront with the American people about the dangers of COVID-19 and the threat of a pandemic. In an interview for Bob Woodward's new book "Rage," Trump said that he was purposefully "playing it down" so as not to create a "panic."

What he's saying: "If you just tell people the truth, they will respond and they will trust you to continue to tell them the truth. The great leaders of the world have done that," Osterholm said.

The big picture: Osterholm conceded that the early days of coronavirus spread were confusing to a lot of people, but that by March  when Trump sat for one of his 18 interviews with Woodward  it was clear that the pandemic threat was real.

"I hope that we stick with the science and not with all this rhetoric that we're hearing right now," Osterholm said.

Trump has continued to say that the country is "rounding the turn" on the coronavirus, while Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said life may not return to normal until the end of 2021.

The other side: Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel defended Trump earlier on the program, saying that he had acted decisively by banning travel from China in January.

"Think about what would have happened if he'd gone out and said, 'This is awful, we should all be afraid, we don't have a plan.' It would have been a run on the banks, it would have been a run on the hospitals, and the grocery stores," McDaniel insisted.

"The president was calm and steady at a time of unrest and uncertainty, and I think history will look back on him well as to how he handled this pandemic."

What's next: "We really have another 1214 months of a really hard road ahead of us," Osterholm said, backing Fauci's assessment about how long the coronavirus will remain a threat.
Abu Dhabi Ports has announced that the expansion work on its Khalifa Port project was moving at a steady pace with 80 per cent of construction already completed within Phase One of its South Quay development which is on track for completion by the year-end.

Upon completion, the project is expected to substantially increase handling volumes by providing additional deep-water access and enhanced infrastructure.

To date, 200 m of quay wall and almost 175,000 sq m of land within Khalifa Port Logistics (KPL) have been handed over ahead of the projects full Phase One completion in Q1 2021, said the statement from Abu Dhabi Ports.

The Khalifa Port expansion, announced in December 2019, aims to attract new business and significantly boost capacity in line with evolving customer expectations, and has progressed significantly since its inception despite the challenging economic conditions presented by the global pandemic.

At the same time, considerable progress has also been made on Phase One of Khalifa Ports South Quay development that is slated for completion by Q4 2020.

With 80 per cent of construction already complete, a total of 650 m of quay wall, containing two berths alongside 37,000 sq m terminal yard, is now available in advance of receiving its first shipment.

Progress has also been made on Abu Dhabi Terminals (ADT) expansion plans with the delivery of five new ship-to-shore cranes.

With each unit boasting a lifting capacity of 90 tonnes, the new cranes have boosted capacity at the terminal significantly and have put Khalifa Port Container Terminal on track to meet its target of 5 million TEUs by the end of the current year.

Head of Ports Cluster Saif Al Mazrouei, said: "The continued expansion of our infrastructure at Khalifa Port demonstrates Abu Dhabi Ports commitment to transforming trade and logistics in the region."

"Thanks to the strategic direction and guidance of the Government of Abu Dhabi, our emirate is ensured to experience increased direct foreign investment and growth of non-oil GDP" he noted.

We are confident that the ongoing expansion of Khalifa Port will significantly enhance our operational and cargo handling capabilities," remarked Al Mazrouei.

"Our ports are not only gateways to the Gulf, but also convenient departure points to markets around the world, connecting east and west. The multimodal connections between Abu Dhabi and global markets through land, sea, air, and future rail channels have elevated the emirates status as a leading trade and logistics hub in the Middle East," he added.

The addition of land plots with adjacent quay wall and deep-water access at Khalifa Port provides a host of new customer opportunities, particularly for industrial producers requiring prime land plots in proximity to Khalifa Port Industrial Zone (KIZAD) and cargo owners that wish to import, export and trans-ship with global markets via Khalifa Ports multimodal touchpoints.

One example lies with Arabian Chemical Terminals (ACT) which recently signed a 50-year agreement to establish the first commercial bulk liquid and gas storage terminal at Khalifa Port that will be located on a plot with 16-m direct deep-water quay access within the newly developed KPL.

This project is well under way with the front-end engineering design (FEED) having been awarded in May.

Khalifa Ports assets and future growth plans were discussed during an exclusive Khalifa Port trade and investment webinar headlined by Abdulla Al Saleh Undersecretary of the UAE Ministry of Economy.

Al Saleh was joined by Al Mazrouei in addition to Mohamed Al Menhali, Port Director of Khalifa Port; Kim Larsen, VP of Commercial & BD, Ports Unit; and Paul Vrijhof, Strategy and Business Development, Ports Cluster.

Also participating in the webinar were Salmeen Al Ameri, CEO of Al Dahra Agriculture, and Kasper Castricum, GM of Arabian Chemical Terminals Abu Dhabi, who shared their insights on how establishing themselves at Khalifa Port had accelerated their strategic goals and opened up new opportunities for them to target the wider global market.

In addition to highlighting progress on the expansion project at Khalifa Port, the session also provided an overview on ongoing trade and economic recovery efforts in the UAE, the ports role as part of these recovery efforts and its ongoing mission to facilitate global trade and logistics, as well as the latest developments with Abu Dhabi Ports portfolio of global partnerships.-TradeArabia News Service
Choi Jong-kun, first vice minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, speaks to reporters at Incheon International Airport, Sept. 12. Yonhap



By Do Je-hae



Choi Jong-kun, new first vice minister of foreign affairs, returned to Seoul, Sept.12, after his first meeting with his U.S. counterpart, Stephen Biegun at the U.S. State Department.



In a statement following the meeting, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the two sides had "agreed" on the establishment of a new format of bilateral talks at the director-general level. The ministry said that the role of the tentative consultative body would be to check and coordinate on a wide range of bilateral issues. The ministry highlighted the new type of bilateral talks as a primary achievement of the new first vice minister. But some local media have taken issue with a discrepancy in the statements released by the ministry and the U.S. State Department about the outcome of the Choi-Biegun meeting.



In particular, the State Department's readout makes absolutely no mention about any kind of new talks between the two allies. The first vice minister tried to assuage concerns over the discrepancies during an encounter with reporters at Incheon International Airport.



"The two statements could be seen as different from one another, but press releases routinely put a focus on what the respective country wants to emphasize," Choi said. "Deputy Secretary Biegun and the U.S. side showed strong understanding for the formation of the talks."



Choi explained that the two sides will enter negotiations for the talks to begin as early as mid-October. "This will enable regular consultations at the director-general and vice-ministerial level."



Also missing from the U.S. statement is the "close cooperation for a swift resumption of talks between the two Koreas, the U.S. and North Korea," which also appears at the forefront of the Korean statement.



Sensitive issues for Korea



It is also noticeable that the U.S. statement actually mentions some very sensitive issues for the Korean side, particularly cooperation with Japan and the Indo-Pacific strategy.



The statement underlines cooperation on "a broad range of shared interests, including coordination on COVID-19 response and recovery, peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, a free and open Indo-Pacific, and cooperation with Japan to promote regional security."



"The Deputy Secretary and Vice Minister discussed the Special Measures Agreement, reaffirmed the enduring strength of the U.S.-ROK alliance, and discussed ways to enhance the Alliance to ensure it remains a force for peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific for the decades ahead," State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said.



The statement comes at a time when concerns are rising on Korea being sidelined from trilateral security cooperation with Japan. In addition, Korea has faced additional challenges to its diplomacy from the escalating competition between the two superpowers and Washington's call for allies in the region to join its Indo-Pacific strategy aimed at containing China, a country that has been prioritized in President Moon's foreign affairs agenda.





In this file photo from June 30, 2019, President Donald Trump, left, meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on the North Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone in the village of Panmunjeom. AP-Yonhap



With the U.S. presidential election less than two months away, experts are underlining the need for Seoul to maintain close communication with Washington on North Korea as well as bilateral issues.



"The most important thing now is how to prepare to take the initiative in Korean Peninsula issues after the elections are over," Yang Moo-Jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, told The Korea Times.



In a recent letter to Pope Francis, President Moon said he will "never cease efforts to establish peace on the peninsula under any circumstances." In a recent reshuffle, the South Korean leader filled his senior leadership positions for dealing with North Korea with figures who have years of experience in arranging talks with the North. The surprise appointment of Choi as vice minister is also seen as strong display of Moon's resolve to keep the talks with Pyongyang going. The former presidential aide at the National Security Office was closely involved in President Moon Jae-in's summit diplomacy with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.



But the dominant view is that Moon's eagerness to turn things around in the stalled talks with Pyongyang and the nuclear negotiations between North Korea and the U.S. in the coming months are ill-timed and unlikely to bear results. "History has shown that there have rarely been any breakthroughs in U.S.-North Korea relations during the presidential election season," Yang said. "Seoul should use this time to prepare to get exemption from international sanctions on inter-Korean projects and boost communication with the U.S."



The professor explained that, from the North Korean point of view, its diplomatic priority after turning the corner on the COVID-19 situation would be to improve relations with China, not resuming talks and diplomacy with the U.S. or South Korea.



Regarding bilateral issues, the biggest point of concern is the Special Measures Agreement (SMA) to determine Korea's share of the costs for the maintenance of U.S. troops. The SMA is one of the few issues that is commonly mentioned in the statements of the two countries following the Choi-Biegun meeting.



Experts say it is important for Seoul to prepare strategies to resolve the bilateral conflict over the SMA quickly and dispel views that the talks may hamper the alliance.





President Donald Trump speaks during an event on judicial appointments, in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, Sept. 9. AP-Yonhap
RPM Access LLC (RPMA), an independent Iowa wind developer, announced today the signing of a 20-year power purchase agreement with Central Iowa Power Cooperative (CIPCO). The power and its renewable energy credits will be generated by its 54 MW Independence Wind Farm located near the town of Ryan in Delaware County, Iowa. RPMA anticipates full commercial operation before the end of 2021.

Adding the Independence wind project to our energy portfolio comes at an important time. With economics being a key driver, this resource will deliver cost-effective electricity to our member-owners, stated Bill Cherrier, CEO and Executive Vice President of CIPCO. The addition of this wind farm further enhances our commitment to local energy production and environmental stewardship. We are proud to work with a local developer like RPM Access on another wind project that supports rural Iowa.

We are excited to work with CIPCO again and appreciate their continued confidence in our relationship. This project will be our second wind farm in Delaware County where RPMA built the Elk Wind Energy project in 2011, said Mr. Stephen Dryden, Principal of RPM Access. We are very grateful for the support provided by the landowners, County government, and local communities that host and welcome our projects.

When complete, the Independence wind project will utilize a total of 19 turbines on approximately 292-foot high towers. Construction activities at Independence have been ongoing with turbines scheduled to arrive in the summer of 2021.

ABOUT RPM ACCESS LLC: RPM Access LLC (RPMA), headquartered in De Soto, Iowa, is a privately held, independent power producer focusing on the development, construction and operation of utility grade wind projects in the Midwest. Over the last twenty years, RPMA (also formerly known as Midwest Renewable Energy Corporation or MREC) has initiated and completed development of approximately 1.5 gigawatts of operating wind farms in Iowa and Kansas.

ABOUT CIPCO:

CIPCO is a generation and transmission electric cooperative owned by member cooperatives and the communities they serve. With a balanced, 24/7 energy portfolio, CIPCO is committed to providing cost-effective, safe, and reliable energy. CIPCO and its 13 members serve over 300,000 Iowans in 58 Iowa counties. CIPCOs offices are located in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Creston, and Wilton, Iowa. For more information visit http://www.cipco.net.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

RPM Access - Felix Friedman: (312) 3305050; Email: ffriedman@rpmaccess.com

CIPCO - Dawn Sly-Terpstra: (515) 975-8433; Email: Dawn.Sly-Terpstra@cipco.net
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, nearly 87.7% candidates appeared in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for the undergraduate (UG) level in the state capital on Sunday. NEET is a medical entrance examination.

Of the 36,000 candidates who were registered to appear in the examination in Lucknow, 31,584 were present. Thus, 87.7% candidates took the exam at 72 centres in the state capital, said a district administration official.

The candidates expressed satisfaction with the social distancing measures taken at various examination centres. They said only 9-12 candidates were made to sit in a room and sufficient distance was maintained between them. Candidates were given masks at the entrance and invigilators regularly sanitized their hands.

Follow NEET 2020 live update

Vaishnavi Prasad, a class 12 passout from La Martiniere Girls College, Lucknow, said, Before the exam, I was concerned about my health. But the measures at the exam centre were incredible. Adequate distance was maintained. I was really happy with the arrangements.

Vaishnavi also said, The paper was balanced. It was a good mix of easy and tricky questions. Those who came with better preparation were comfortable with the question paper.

Hari Om, a candidate from Sitapur, said, The question paper was not very difficult. Tahira Bano said it was a moderate paper, adding that the physics portion was tougher than chemistry and botany. Both Hari Om and Tahira said they were pleased with the social distancing protocol followed at the examination centre.

District magistrate Abhishek Prakash visited the examination centres to see the progress of medical entrance examination. He went to Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan Public School, Gomtinagar and Maharaja Agrasen Public School. He asked the centre superintendents to ensure Covid-19 measures were in place.

A total of 1,66,582 candidates from Uttar Pradeshthe second highest after Maharashtras 2,28,914 registered to appear in NEET that was held at 320 centres spread across the state on Sunday.

Candidates were relieved that the examination was finally conducted after being postponed twice because of the Covid-19 outbreak. Sumit Kumar Tripathi, who obtained 99.75% marks in his ISC exam, said, We can now breathe easy.

Another candidate, Harsh Tewari, said, We can now relax a little. It was tough to stay focused on studies during the lockdown period.

Centres national testing agency (NTA), conducted the exam at 3,843 centres across India in which nearly 15.97 lakh candidates were registered to appear. Last year, NEET was held at 188 centres in UP and 2,546 centres across India. This year, the number of candidates per room was reduced from the earlier 24 to 12 in the wake of the Covid pandemic.

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OTTAWAAline Chretien may have been the most influential political figure Canadians never knew.

She was often seen at political events  a petite, elegant figure standing demurely at the side of her gregarious husband, former prime minister Jean Chretien  but was seldom heard. At least not publicly.

Behind the scenes though, she was Chretiens confidante and most trusted adviser, his Rock of Gibraltar, as he always called her.

Aline Chretien died surrounded by family Saturday morning at her home in Shawinigan, Que., a family spokesperson said Sunday. She was 84. A cause of death was not specified.

Prime Minister Chretien, I think, would be the first to say that without her he never would have been prime minister, says longtime Chretien aide Eddie Goldenberg.

She knew very well that she had not been elected herself so she didnt try to take the limelight. She felt that would be the wrong thing to do. She felt her role was to be supportive and ... to be very candid with advice and she could do that best in private.

Aline was instrumental in all Chretiens seminal political decisions: to stay in the federal arena despite appeals in the 1960s to run for a seat in Quebecs National Assembly; to quit politics in 1986 after losing the Liberal leadership to John Turner; to return to the fray in 1990; and to go for a third consecutive mandate in 2000.

She even arguably saved Chretiens life on Nov. 5, 1995, when a jackknife-wielding, mentally unstable intruder broke into the prime ministers official residence in the middle of the night. After encountering him in the hall outside their bedroom, Aline Chretien slammed and locked the door before calling the RCMP guardhouse and waking her husband, who then famously armed himself with a soapstone carving of a loon.

It was Aline who advised Chretien to recruit academic and future Liberal leader Stephane Dion to his cabinet after Canadas near-death experience in the 1995 referendum on Quebec independence.

And throughout his 40 years in federal politics, it was Aline who warned him when she thought he was too loud or too aggressive or embarking on what she considered the wrong course of action.

Those of us who worked for prime minister Chretien knew sometimes, if there was a problem, that she was, (as) I called it, the last court of appeal, recalls Goldenberg.

We could call her and say, Id like it if you could talk to your husband about something because hes not listening to anybody else. And he sure listened to her  always.

Aline Chaine and Chretien grew up in blue-collar families, just a few blocks apart in the Quebec pulp-and-paper town of Shawinigan. But their love affair began with a chance encounter on a bus when Aline Chaine was 16, two years younger than her eventual husband.

Chretien credits Aline with restraining some of his more boisterous youthful impulses and instilling him with self-discipline.

Aline had dreamed of studying languages at university but went instead to secretarial school at 16 so she could help support the Chaine family.

She adopted a similar support role once married to Chretien, staying home to raise daughter France and sons Hubert and Michel. During Jean Chretiens early years in federal politics, she stayed in Shawinigan, where she was his eyes and ears in the riding.

But she never stopped her education. She became quadrilingual, learning as an adult to speak English, Italian and Spanish in addition to French. She became an accomplished pianist, studying with the Royal Conservatory of Music.

And she did eventually make it to university in 2010  as the first chancellor of Laurentian University in Sudbury.

In her autobiography, former U.S. first lady Hillary Clinton described Aline as intelligent, sharply observant and elegant.

But despite travelling the world with her husband and rubbing shoulders with some of the planets most powerful leaders, Aline always maintained close contact with family and lifelong friends in Shawinigan. The couple kept a home at nearby Lac des Piles, where Aline spent her final days.

In a rare interview with Macleans magazine in 1994, Aline described herself as Madame Tout le Monde  Mrs. Everybody.

She recounted calling her husband in a fury in 1973 when the federal Liberal government of the day was debating a cut in family allowances.

I said Jean, if you touch that, youll be in trouble. This is the only money some women in Shawinigan have got for themselves. You can have, as I did, a Madame Tout le Monde point of view when you are at home, listening to the radio with your kids.

Peter Donolo, who was communications director for Chretien when he was Opposition leader and during his first term as prime minister, says Aline had refined taste in art and music but was totally unpretentious and never forgot her roots and, thus, kept her husband grounded.

She was never impressed by wealth or power, Donolo says.  She could see through phonies in like a nanosecond.

The first time he met Aline, Donolo says, she asked him about his young family and then advised him: Remember, its very important that you not ignore your family while youre working in politics because, after everything is done, all you have left is your family.

She was, Donolo says, the love and mainstay of Chretiens life for almost 70 years.

I cant think of a stronger bond between husband and wife thats lasted this long and is as intimate and close.

Aline and Jean Chretien marked their 63rd wedding anniversary on Sept. 10, just days before she died.

Family spokesperson Bruce Hartley said only a private ceremony is being planned for now because of restrictions associated with COVID-19, with a public memorial planned for sometime in the future.

Condolences were flowing to the Chretien family on Sunday, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau describing her as a strong mother, and a devoted wife for over 60 years, who tirelessly supported one of Canadas longest serving prime ministers during some of the countrys most pivotal moments.

We owe a great debt to Aline, who faithfully served Quebecers and all Canadians, championed multiculturalism and bilingualism, and helped bring us closer together, Trudeau said. Authentic and honest, she taught us the importance of persevering, even when things get tough.

Conservative Leader Erin OToole and Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet also offered their condolences to Jean Chretien and the rest of the Chretien family, as did former prime minister Brian Mulroney and his wife Mila.

Aline Chretien was a formidable contributor to Canada in a long lifetime of service, the Mulroneys said in a statement

She was a wise counsel and able defender of her family and of the former prime minister. An elegant, eloquent, and loyal friend to many, she was also a highly trusted adviser, inside politics and beyond.

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RHOBH's Erika Girardi Shares Rare Photo of Her Police Officer Son: 'People Say We Look Alike'

Erika Girardi couldn't help but point out the resemblance between herself and the police officer

Erika Girardi is taking a trip down memory lane.

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star shared a rare throwback photo on Instagram of her adult son as a child, captured years ago in Tanzania during one of her "favorite" family trips.

"I took this picture on New Years's Day in Tanzania years ago. This trip was one of our favorites," Girardi, 49, captioned the snap of her son from her first marriage, Tommy Zizzo.

"Travel with your children, show them the world," she added.

Erica Jayne/Instagram Erika Girardi's son, Tommy Zizzo, as a child

RELATED: Stars Whose Kids We Rarely See

The photo comes months after the mother of one posted a present-day photo of Zizzo  who has never made an appearance on RHOBH  on Instagram in May.

In the snap, Zizzo, a police officer, stands facing the camera in his uniform.

"People say we look alike," she captioned the shot.

"No, you can't comment," she added with a laughing emoji, referencing her decision to disable the comments section on the post.

Erica Jayne/Instagram Erika Girardi's son, Tommy Zizzo, in his police officer uniform

Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Erika Girardi

Though Girardi has introduced her fans to her son on social media, he likely won't be making an appearance on RHOBH anytime soon.

"Probably not," she said during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen last year. "I don't think so, no. You know he has a private life; he's a police officer."

RELATED: RHOBH's Erika Girardi Defends Son Who Is a Cop on Social Media  'His Job Is to Protect All'

In 2016, she told the Daily Dish of her son, "I'm very proud of my son being in law enforcement, but obviously it can get a little nerve-racking."

Story continues

"It's a dangerous profession," she added. "I've known my son was going to be in law enforcement from the time he could walk and talk. That's all he's ever wanted and that's kind of your role as a parent is to honor who your children really are."

Girardi once said that Zizzo lived with her and her husband, Tom Girardi; it's unclear if they still reside together.

"I actually love having my son there. He's free security," she told the Daily Dish in 2017. "Free security and he never lets me forget it. But, you know, Tom's very busy and travels all the time. I travel all the time, and my son is super busy. So it's nice. We have a really big house, so it's nice to have him there."

On the most recent season of RHOBH, Girardi praised her husband for embracing his stepson.

"That's the one thing I loved most about Tom  when my son was younger, he welcomed him with open arms," she said on the show, according to BravoTV. "I'm very thankful. That's my guy."

Part three of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills reunion airs Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
Explained: What is mYoga app, how does it work?

Delhi govt to start online yoga classes for Covid patients in home isolation from today

Practice yoga, eat chyawanprash: Centre issues new protocol for recovered Covid-19 patients

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Sep 13: Yogasana, Pranayama, meditation and intake of chyawanprash are among some of the suggestions given by the Union Health Ministry in its new management protocol for patients who have recovered from COVID-19.

Calling for a holistic approach for follow up care and well-being of all post-COVID recovered patients, the Health Ministry said such patients must continue COVID appropriate behaviour by use of mask, hand and respiratory hygiene, physical distancing.

The protocol provides an approach for managing patients who have recovered from COVID-19 for care at home.

However, the procedure is not meant to be seen as preventive or as curative therapy. "The recovery period is likely to be longer for patients who suffered from more severe form of the disease and those with pre-existing illness," it said.

At individual level, the protocol suggested drinking adequate amount of warm water (if not contra-indicated), taking immunity promoting AYUSH medicine prescribed by a qualified practitioner of AYUSH and if health permits then regular household work to be done.

It advised people to resume professional work in a graded manner.

Ensure coronavirus patients not denied beds, get prompt treatment: Health ministry to pvt hospitals

Daily practice of Yogasana, Pranayama and meditation, as much as health permits or as prescribed, breathing exercises as prescribed by treating physician and daily morning or evening walk at a comfortable pace as tolerated were among other measures.

The protocol also called for self-health monitoring at home of temperature, blood pressure, blood sugar (especially, if diabetic), pulse oximetry etc (if medically advised).

"If there is persistent dry cough/sore throat, do saline gargles and take steam inhalation. The addition of herbs/spices for gargling/steam inhalation. Cough medications, should be taken on advice of medical doctor or qualified practitioner of Ayush. Look for early warning signs like high grade fever, breathlessness, unexplained chest pain, new onset of confusion, focal weakness," it said.

At the level of community, the ministry said recovered individuals should share their positive experiences with friends and relatives using social media, community leaders, opinion leaders, religious leaders for creating awareness, dispelling myths and stigma.

"Take support of community based self-help groups, civil society organizations, and qualified professionals for recovery and rehabilitation process (medical, social, occupational, livelihood). Seek psycho-social support from peers, community health workers, counsellor. If required seek mental health support service," the protocol said.

The ministry also advised recovered patients to participate in group sessions of yoga, meditation etc. while taking all due precautions like physical distancing.

In healthcare facility setting, the ministry advised the first follow-up visit (physical/telephonic) should be within seven days after discharge, preferably at the hospital where he/she underwent treatment.

"Subsequent treatment/follow up visits may be with the nearest qualified allopathic/AYUSH practitioner/medical facility of other systems of medicine.

"Poly-therapy is to be avoided due to potential for unknown drug-drug interaction, which may lead to Serious Adverse Events or Adverse Effects," it said.

The use of chyawanprash in the morning with luke warm water/milk is highly recommended.

Immunity promoting AYUSH medicine like mulethi powder, ayush kwath, Samshamani vati and Ashwagandha powder have also been recommended by the Health Ministry in its protocol.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 21:52:22|Editor: huaxia

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YANGON, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar authorities seized 13.2 kg of heroin in Mandalay region, according to a release from the Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control (CCDAC) on Sunday.

Acting on a tip-off, the joint anti-narcotic police force made a seizure in Pyin Oo Lwin township on Sunday morning.

Heroin worth 792 million kyats (586,666 U.S. dollars) were confiscated from a vehicle.

The township police filed a case against three suspects in connection with the case and further investigation is underway under the country's Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Law, the release said.

According to a latest release issued by the President's Office, a total of 1,320 drug-related cases were registered across Myanmar while 2,022 people were charged in connection with the cases as of Sept. 5 this year, since the formation of the Drug Activity Special Complaint Department on June 26, 2018. Enditem
Dhinesh Kallungal By

Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Disregarding the protest of the state cabinet which recently passed a unanimous resolution seeking to hand over the Trivandrum airport to Kerala government, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has signed a letter of agreement with Adani Group for Trivandrum airport along with two other airports- Jaipur and Guwahati. With this the process for the formal takeover of the airport has begun after ending around two year-long uncertainty over its privatisation.

However, the AAI has reportedly sought an undertaking from the Adani Group which promises that it would abide by the outcome of the court ruling in connection with the privatisation of the airport. The state government and Airport Authority Employees Union have challenged the Union governments decision to privatise the airport disregarding the protest of the state. If there is an adverse ruling against the private entity which takes over the airport, they will hand over the airport to AAI and the AAI will have to refund the amount paid by the private entity and also the investment it made in the airport.

In short, there is only one major hurdle left for the Adani Group to take control of the airport for 50 years. With the letter of agreement being awarded to the winning concessionaire, the group will have to sign a concession agreement with the AAI in two months. And once the concession agreement is signed, it has to pay the security deposit and take necessary clearances from the ministry of civil aviation in 45 days.

Next three months, the airport will have to be operated jointly by the AAI and private group. In the next phase, the private group will have to hire 60 per cent of staff in one year failing which the combined operation will be extended to three years, said an AAI source.Although the formal takeover of the airport has begun, it will not be easy for the private entity to take control of the airport. First, it will have to get a favourable court ruling which can be challenged in the apex court.

Next, the state government is insisting that it will not sign the state support agreement with the private group which is necessary for running the airport. So the chances for a prolonged legal battle cannot be ruled out, said sources.
Jamshedpur, Sep 13 : Jamshedpur FC added two more players as the club comes close to concluding their squad-building process for the Indian Super League (ISL) 2020-21.

Forward William Lalnunfela and winger Bhupender Singh were added to the Jharkhand side's roster. Both players have been signed on a three-year contract, which will see them wearing the club colours till 2023.

William comes with an impressive CV having won the I-League in 2016-17 and with an impressive Federation Cup campaign in 2016 where he became runners-up, both with Aizawl.

On completing his move, the 25-year-old Mizo forward said: "I am delighted to be part of a club of Jamshedpur FC's stature. Since I began my professional career, I dreamed of playing in the ISLand the club has provided me with a chance to prove myself at the highest level in India.

"I hope to stand up to the expectations and contribute my best to help the club win lots of silverware during my tenure here. The vehement and highly-spirited fans of the club deserve some trophies and we are committed to bringing success to the club." William made his debut with Aizawl in the I-League in 2015 and also went on to represent Mohun Bagan. The forward has also appeared for Aizawl in the AFC Cup and the AFC Champions League qualifiers.

Young winger Bhupender Singh joins the club after a two-year stint with Spain's Tercera Division Club's U19 team, Olimpic Xativa. Bhupi, as he is fondly known, joined the Spanish side after a successful time with Sudeva FC's youth sides where he impressed with his performances in the Youth I-League.
By PTI

MUMBAI: Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut, who is locked in a bitter battle with the ruling Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, met state Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari here on Sunday to apprise him of the "injustice" done to her.

She said she explained to the governor her "point of view" and sought "justice".

The meeting took place days after the Sena-ruled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) demolished alleged illegal alterations at Kangana's bungalow at Pali Hill in suburban Bandra following a verbal spat between the ruling party and her over her remarks on Mumbai and the city police.

Talking to reporters after the meeting at Raj Bhavan, the actor said, "I met the governor. He heard me as a daughter. I came to meet him as a citizen. I have nothing to do with politics."

"I told him about the injustice meted out to me and what happened was improper. It was indecent behaviour," she said.

WATCH | Kangana Ranaut's video admitting she 'was a drug addict' goes viral

Kangana was accompanied by her sister Rangoli Chandel.

Both of them removed their masks for clicking photos when they met the governor.

Kangana bowed to touch Koshyari's feet.

About the meeting, she later tweeted, "A short while ago, I met his Excellency the Governor of Maharashtra Shri Bhagat Singh Koshyari ji. I explained my point of view to him and also requested that justice be given to me. It will restore faith of common citizen and particularly daughters in the system."

The trouble between the Sena and Kangana started after the actor recently said she feared the Mumbai police more than the "movie mafia" and likened the Maharashtra capital to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Reacting to her statement, Sena leader Sanjay Raut had purportedly said, "We kindly request her not to come to Mumbai. This is nothing but an insult to Mumbai Police."

ALSO READ | Rhea to Ragini: BJP ensuring spotlight on celebs to cover up its failures, says Congress' BK Hariprasad

The 33-year-old actor, who returned to Mumbai on Wednesday from her home state Himachal Pradesh the same day her house was partially demolished by the civic body, had alleged that the Maharashtra government was targeting her because of her clash with the Sena.

She had also criticised Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, saying his "ego will be destroyed" the way her Bandra home was demolished.

On Friday, the "Queen" actor had urged Congress president Sonia Gandhi to intervene and stop the "harassment of women".

In a tweet, she had asked Gandhi if she was not anguished by the treatment given to her by the Maharashtra government, in which the Congress is also a part.
Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE on Saturday proposed to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to expand their Phase 3 pivotal Covid-19 vaccine trial to about 44,000 participants while increasing the diversity of the trial population.

The initial target figure for the trial was up to 30,000 participants, which the companies said they expect to reach by next week.

The proposed expansion would also allow the companies to enroll people as young as 16 and people with chronic, stable HIV, hepatitis C and hepatitis B, they added.

Drugmakers racing to develop a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine pledged in July to ensure their larger clinical trials would include diverse sets of volunteers.

Diversity in clinical trials is a priority for Pfizer and is critical given that Covid-19 disproportionately impacts communities of color in the U.S., Pfizers Chief Business Officer John Young said in a U.S. congressional hearing in July.

If the study is successful, the companies could submit the vaccine for regulatory approval as early as October, putting them on track to supply up to 100 million doses by the end of 2020 and 1.3 billion by the end of 2021.

As stated previously, based on current infection rates, the companies continue to expect that a conclusive readout on efficacy is likely by the end of October, the companies added in the joint statement on Saturday.

The vaccine candidate utilizes chemical messenger RNA to mimic the surface of the coronavirus and teach the immune system to recognize and neutralize it. Although the technology has been around for years, there has never been an approved messenger RNA (mRNA)vaccine.
TOM CRUISE has been spotted rehearsing for the new Mission Impossible film in South Oxfordshire.

The star was photographed on a 135m temporary motorcycle track that has been built in a field in Ewelme by the production company behind his 2018 hit film Mission: Impossible  Fallout.

Jupiter Spring Productions is using an old quarry for rehearsals for the next film, the seventh in the series, which is due to be released next year.

Cruise, 58, was seen leaping from an off-road bike as it left the ramp at high speed, with both the actor and bike attached to safety wires.

The actor, who plays Ethan Hunt, leader of the fictional IMF team, has already been seen practising his stunts elsewhere in an Oxfordshire field during the covid-19 lockdown.

He reportedly raced around a dirt track on a motocross bike before piloting a helicopter.

Last month, Cruise shared a video of himself touring London in the back of black taxi.

He was seen driving past Buckingham Palace and waving to fans outside who recognised him even though his face was covered.

He joked: How does that happen? Im wearing a mask.

He also visited the BFI IMAX cinema to watch Tenet, Christopher Nolans latest release.

He said: Great to be back in a movie theatre everybody. Asked by a fellow film-goer if hed enjoyed the film, he replied: I loved it.

Vanessa Kirby and Rebecca Ferguson will be reprising their roles in the latest Mission Impossible film, which will be directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who also made the last two installments, Rogue Nation and Fallout.

The quarry was used last year to shoot a scene for 1917, a British war film directed, co-written and produced by Sam Mendes that was released later in the year.

Cruise also stars in a sequel to his 1986 film Top Gun, which has also been delayed until next year due to the pandemic.
Ahead of the 25th round of boundary talks between China and Bhutan, the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) is set to open a front against the Kingdom with a build-up in its western and central parts to settle the border on terms favourable to Beijing, people in the know told the Hindustan Times.

In the forthcoming negotiations, China may use transgressions and encroachments in central Bhutan by the PLA for a trade-off on already encroached areas and the Kingdoms western part, the people said. However, Bhutan has been sensitised about the PLA threat at the highest levels, they added.

India and China recently reached a five-point consensus to resolve the four-month-long military standoff in eastern Ladakh, agreeing to quickly disengage" troops, avoid any action that could escalate tensions and take steps to restore peace along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

However, as Bhutan lies next to the Siliguri corridor, any territorial compromise by Thimpu would have an adverse effect on Indias defences in the area, the report states.

In 2017, India had assisted Bhutan in holding its own against the PLA during stand-off at Doklam which lasted for 73 days. But people from Indias military, diplomatic and security establishment told HT on condition of anonymity that the PLA had not stopped testing the Indian and Bhutanese armies in the area.

Beijings territorial claims in Bhutan include 318 sq km in the western sector and 495 sq km in the central sector. The PLA continues to build roads and construct military infrastructure to intimidate the Bhutanese Army by ways of aggressive patrolling and denial of access, the people said.

The PLA has intruded into five areas of western Bhutan and laid claim to a new boundary extending about 40 km inside Bhutan, to the east of Chumbi Valley, diplomats based in Thimpu and New Delhi said.

PLA patrols crossed the main stream of Torsa nullah (Dolong Chu) into south Doklam and asked Bhutanese herders (who were grazing their livestock) to vacate the area near Raja Rani lake on August 13 and 24, the report mentions.

Through these moves, the Chinese Army wants India and Bhutan to agree that the countrys boundary extends to Gyemochen on Jhampheri ridge rather than on the Sinche la -Batang La axis, the true alignment of the trijunction. This is what Indian Army had stopped the PLA from doing in 2017.

National Security planners said PLA had increased surveillance in north Doklam by installing surveillance cameras. It continues aggressive military technical upgradation" on the Chinese side of the contested plateau, they said.

Bhutan has asked its Army to prepare for a reaction plan by deploying additional troops to prevent PLA from coming south of Torsa nullah or unilaterally alter the disengagement lines which Beijing agreed to in Doklam in 2017.

China had also raised an objection against Bhutans Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary (SWS) Project in June, on the contention that it was located in a disputed border area. The 750 sq km sanctuary is located in the eastern Trashigang Dzongkhag of Bhutan, and borders India and China. India may become part of this contest as the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary abuts Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing claims as its territory.

This new claim by China was a surprise for Thimpu as Beijing had never before claimed any land in Eastern Bhutan, analysts said. China had not even mentioned the area in the 36 years of diplomatic talks with Bhutan to resolve their boundary disputes.

Thimpu has rejected the claim and conveyed that Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary is not disputed and is a sovereign territory of Bhutan. However, Chinas Foreign Ministry has made an official declaration stating that the boundary between China and Bhutan has never been delimited. There have been disputes over the eastern, central and western sectors for a long time.
America is facing an unprecedented threat from the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) as their ship has become numerically superior to the U.S. Navy. This naval growth has been unchecked and now a force in the east is giving U.S. Military planners more to plan in the coming 2020s.

What was once a fledgling navy about 20 years ago is not a fleet that is one of the biggest rivals of America on the high seas. Compared to the Russians, who were the former threat compared to China pales in comparison. Though still bigger but most technology is wrapped in secrecy, the Chinese fleet is developing alongside the Navy into an unknown future, reported USNI.

According to Toshi Yoshihara, who co-wrote a report about the subject of Chinese naval growth. The title of the report is "Which Way the Dragon?" That looks into how much more can the PLAN expand in 15-years and into the critical 2030s. The analysis will look over China's population that will be aging and facing problems of an elderly majority. How China will be facing a decision on spending on arms or care for its elderly majority.

In the report, Yoshihara made several observations on the rise and expansion of China to the 2030s. According to him, this is when the U.S Military leadership will have to make the right choices. These choices will be impactful on what is used to upgrade U.S. Forces, determining its responses in the 2030s.

What the report offers are possibilities and outcomes that stem from politics in China, economic state, domestic relations, and how well it can achieve its far-reaching ambitions, note Ex Bulletin.

Also read: US Navy Destroyer Sent to South China Sea After China Tests Aircraft-Carrier Killer Missiles

The Belt Road will be one of China's important projects that will be affected by such factors of naval power.

One of the report's objectives is to account for the best response's years from now, especially for the U.S. military. A school of thought is to cultivate thinking out of the box, as China has been full of surprises of late. Seeing if the Xi Jinping regime stays or is replaced by another one, it could be that another leadership change might abandon expansionism and pursue changes in mainland China. One example is democratic reforms from its present state.

One observation is that China is a shipbuilding leader and the Chinese Communist Part with Xi's leadership. The Chinese government wants to expand farther for global influence via the PLAN and other military means.

Spending on arms is something that is affected by a slowed-down economy is under scrutiny. One big thorn is how insistent the CCP is on reclaiming Taiwan by any means, said Ross Babbage, an Australian-based security expert.

As the PLA modernizes, it won't come cheap for China at all. The PLA Air Force has been spent on a lot, but only on 4th generation planes, making it the largest conventional air force in the Indo-pacific. The CCP wants more advanced 5th gen like the F-35, it will be costlier.

Both Yoshihara and Babbage are in agreement that earlier moves of investing in vessels and planes paid off. This has caused a disparity for the U.S. and its allies to correct in time, but despite China's numerical lead which might not factor in the future, cited Pakistan Defense.

Experts and analysts agree that China's naval growth is unexpected, leaving the U.S. and allies devising means to stop a PLAN that might occupy all maritime seas.

Related article: War Games Concern the Department of DefenseThat China Military Power Can Upset US

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Since it would be too much of a stretch to refer to a series of stage performances as Carnival, the Government has decided to offer instead a Taste of Carnival.

For traditional Carnival interests whose events will be facilitated and supported by the State, the proposal presented on Wednesday by the Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts, Randall Mitchell, must be a welcome case of half a loaf being plenty better than none.
We must protect Harris from racist, sexist attacks while still holding her to account for her own anti-Black policies.

In 1968, Shirley Chisholm cemented her name in history when she became the first African American congresswoman. I came across her autobiography, Unbought and Unbossed, a few years ago, and it has stayed with me ever since. It not only chronicles her extraordinary life but serves as a radical Black feminists global paradigm for navigating politics in a racist, sexist, anti-poor society.

In the book, published just two years after her election to Congress, she writes: In a just and free society it would be foolish. That I am a national figure because I was the first person in 192 years to be at once a congressman, Black and a woman proves, I think, that our society is not yet either just or free.

Fast forward to 2020, Chisholms words are just as relevant and instructive, especially after another formidable Black woman, Senator Kamala Harris, accepted the Democratic Partys vice presidential nomination, and became the first Black woman and first woman of South Asian descent to run for vice president on a major party ticket.

As a Black feminist, upon hearing the news of Harriss nomination, my knee-jerk reaction was to celebrate another Black womans political achievement. Black women have to work twice as hard to prove ourselves as capable enforcers, organisers and leaders. So for a Black woman to ascend to this political height is sensational.

At the surface, the nomination is honourable and a symbolic framework from which we can build our own potential. However, amid global efforts to organise against white supremacy, state-sanctioned violence, and patriarchy, it is important to confront the complicated contradictions in Harriss public service record head-on. Not doing so would do a disservice to those who are still suffering as a result of the policies she pursued during her career as a progressive prosecutor.

Accountability, abolition and abrogation are important tenets of Black feminism in a world where Black bodies are disposable to the justice system. It would be dishonest to celebrate Harriss nomination as a Black history moment without reckoning with how she has supported policies that have contributed to a broken criminal justice system that predominantly targets Black men and women.

As Californias attorney general, for example, Harris helped pass a truancy law which made it a criminal misdemeanour for parents in California to allow their children to miss more than 10 percent of school days without a valid excuse. As a result of Harriss efforts to resolve the problem of truancy using the apparatus of law enforcement, many parents, and especially Black, underprivileged mothers, were fined or even jailed. Cheree Peoples of Bueno Park, whose daughter, Shayla, suffers from sickle cell anaemia, was one of these mothers. Despite explaining to the authorities that her daughters condition makes it impossible for her to attend school on a regular basis, she was arrested, pep-walked in handcuffs in front of cameras, and prosecuted for two years. The charges against her were eventually dropped, but she told Huffington Post in a recent interview that as a result of the ordeal she felt like she lost her life and herself.

Feminist scholar Angela Davis acknowledged that there are problematic areas associated with Harriss record as a prosecutor but asserted: Its a feminist approach to be able to work with those contradictions.

Harriss contradictions may be acceptable and workable in the eyes of the older generation just because she is a Black woman who achieved political success in a racist and sexist system. But Black feminists today should not, and cannot afford to, settle for symbolism.

At a time when Black people are killed by police or imprisoned for misdemeanours every day, we cannot afford to sanitise this plight with someone who has dedicated her career to a criminal justice system that prejudicially incarcerates Black people. The Democratic Partys nomination of a Black woman for vice president cannot be accepted as a powerful incentive to vote blue, as long as that candidate fails to demonstrate her concerted efforts towards change.

With that being said, Harris is still by miles a more credible vice presidential candidate than her white male counterparts. Harris being a Black woman allows us to imagine the possibility of a society where Black bodies can be saved through negotiation and lobbying.

Harris herself will experience intense racism and sexist prejudice on her campaign trail. Black feminism calls on us to shelter her against these attacks on the premise that we value Black women regardless of religion, sexual orientation, social status, politics etc. In honouring our commitment to protect Black women against racist and sexist attacks, however, we should also not shy away from holding Harris to account for her own anti-Black policies and other contributions to a broken system.

Unlike Shirley Chisholm, who unequivocally dedicated her career to teaching and political defiance, Harriss well-documented career collaboration with the criminal justice system against Black people and people of colour, makes for a first Black qualifier that is both unnerving and distracting.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
Cairo, Sep 13 : An Egyptian court sentenced Mohamed Badie, the Supreme Guide of the banned Muslim Brotherhood group, to life in prison over a violent 2013 incident, state-media reported.

Along with Badie on Saturday, Mohamed El-Beltagy, Safwat Hegazi, and nine others of the group's leaders were sentenced to life in prison in a retrial over a police station incident in the coastal Port Said province that followed the ouster of late President Mohamed Morsi, Xinhua news agency quoted the state-run Ahram Online as saying.

The retrial comes after the Court of Cassation in 2017 cancelled the previous jail sentences against the defendants and ordered their retrial, Ahram Online added.

The prosecution charged the defendants with the murder of five people, the attempted murder of 70 others, vandalizing public and private property, the theft of ammunition and weaponry from Port Said's El-Arab police station, and inciting violence and chaos.

The sentence is not final and can still be challenged in front of the Court of Cassation, according to Ahram Online.

Life imprisonment is 25 years in prison according to Egyptian law.

Badie, the Muslim Brotherhood's elected eighth chief in 2010, was handed a death sentence in another case for ordering the murder of 10 people in Cairo in 2013.

He also received life imprisonment verdicts in violence-related charges, totaling over 100 years.

In August 2015, Badie and 94 other Muslim Brotherhood leaders were sentenced to life imprisonment by the Port Said Criminal Court, of whom 19 were sentenced in absentia, with a further 76 on the run as fugitives.

An additional 28 others were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in the same trial, with a total of 68 defendants acquitted of the charges.
The administration of US President Donald Trump has given the UAE a commitment that Washington would not recognise Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank until 2024 at the earliest, The Times of Israel reported, citing sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

The pledge was reportedly made during negotiations on the normalisation of ties between Israel and the Gulf Arab country that were initiated by Trump last month.

President Trump announced on 13 August that the UAE and Israel had agreed to establish full diplomatic ties as part of a deal to halt the annexation of occupied land sought by the Palestinians for their future state.

The announcement makes the UAE the first Gulf Arab state to do so and the third Arab nation to have active diplomatic ties with Israel.

The Israel-UAE accord is set to be signed on Tuesday at the White House.

On Friday, Bahrain followed in the UAEs footsteps in striking an agreement to normalise relations with Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had for months vowed to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank as early as July 1, but that plan was officially suspended as part of the normalisation agreement with the UAE.

However, the sides have not formally provided an exact timeframe for how long the matter of annexation has been taken off the table, as US President Donald Trump put it last month.

According to three sources with direct knowledge of the normalisation negotiations, Emirati officials, led by the UAEs Ambassador to the US Yousef Al Otaiba, focused on seeking assurances from the US, rather than Israel, on the matter, the Israeli newspaper reported.

They were largely uninterested in receiving an Israeli commitment to an annexation freeze, the sources said, since they understood that Netanyahu would not move forward with the move without US support; the Israeli premier for months had said as much himself.

Rather, a key priority for the UAE during the negotiations was receiving a commitment from the US that it would withhold its support for annexation if Netanyahu once again began promising to immediately carry it out, the sources said.

Trump administration negotiators, led by senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, agreed to set a timetable that was consistent with the one laid out for the Palestinians in the Trump peace plan, the sources said.

The Trump Administrations Peace to Prosperity plan unveiled in January 2020 gives the Palestinian Authority a four-year window to engage with the peace plan, during which Israel is barred from expanding into areas earmarked under the plan for a future Palestinian state.

The UAE received a commitment from Washington that it would hold off on giving its blessing for Israeli annexation based on that same time-frame  that is, until January 2024.

The White House declined to comment for this story, as did UAE officials in Washington and New York, The Times of Israel said.

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You cannot invisibilise someone if you recognise their contribution. And as a society, we have always sought to invisibilise Dalits, says author Gunjan Veda

Before she had decided exactly what the focus of her book was going to be, author and public policy strategist Gunjan Veda knew that its title was going to allude to Rampatars  the chipped or broken tea cups and glasses left outside upper caste houses for Dalits, since they didnt want to pollute their own utensils by letting Dalits use them.

Veda had heard of a 2003 100-day foot-rally joined by around 200,000 people, marching across villages and sharing tea in the same cup, removing and often smashing Rampatars, and chanting the slogan Ram patar chodo, Bhim patar apnao (abandon the Rampatar, accept the Bhimpatar).

A broken tea cup then became a movement toward equality, a breaking of stereotypes. So came the title, The Museum of Broken Tea Cups: Postcards from Indias Margins.

The book focuses on the cultural contribution of Dalit communities to Indian society, by documenting the stories of individuals and artists who languish in the forgotten galis (lanes) and mohallas (colonies) of our villages and towns. From Kuntavati Sika, the sole female Sambalpuri Ikat weaver, to musician Rekha Dewar, and from the naqqara player Gangaprasad Naqqarawadak to the Lavani dancer Kaajal, these artists are an integral part of the countrys cultural fabric. She also shares stories of individuals fighting for equality and of children who are the future of the movement.

Veda records their stories as postcards that shes writing during her travels around the country, and then sharing with readers. Together, all these postcards are curated as a textual museum, recording each individuals fight for equality as they go about symbolically smashing Rampatars.

In an interview with Firstpost, Veda talks about her interest in the arts, the challenges for Dalit artists, the lessons she learnt while putting together the book, and more.

Edited excerpts below:

Your previous book Beautiful Country: Stories from Another India with Sayeda Hamid also touches upon stories from Indias margins. Where did your interest in these lives and arts stem from?

To be honest I don't know. I want to say maybe it comes from being a traveller but then I wonder if I only travel to listen to stories. Everyone has a story to tell  and yet it is only a few that breach the walls of comfort, busyness and privilege that we build around ourselves. Finding these stories and voices has always been the most fascinating part of travel for me  that and how people open their lives to perfect strangers. Their generosity puts the cynic in me to great shame.

My interest in the arts is easier to explain. I have always appreciated dance and art forms and like most middle-class kids in India, I dabbled in them during my school years. But my engagement with them began when I joined the Planning Commission and suddenly found the handlooms and handicrafts sector among my responsibilities. To my utter mortification, I knew nothing about the sector and so I started to learn. To visit weavers and craftspeople, artists and artisans to understand their needs. And somewhere between listening to their stories, witnessing their pride and pain, and watching them breathe life into scraps of thread, metal or some mundane everyday material, I fell in love with the sector.

Youve mentioned that discourse about Dalit identity generally forgoes any discussion about their contribution to Indias art and culture. Why is that?

My hypothesis is that it is because you cannot invisibilise someone if you recognise their contribution. And as a society we have always sought to invisibilise Dalits. To not see, not hear, not touch. The caste system is based on ingrained feelings of superiority and inferiority. It is a social contract that uses humiliation as a tool to disempower people.

Yet, how do you humiliate someone who makes a valuable contribution to your life and society? It is easier to not recognise their contribution.

The logical question then is why haven't the Dalits sought to remedy this and highlight their contribution. And I think this is where one begins to appreciate how complex the issue is and the legacy of pain it carries. A large section of the Dalits view these art forms as tools of discrimination and the fact is that they were indeed tools of discrimination. The Madiga men did not choose to be dappu players or the Kolhati women Lavani dancers  they were forced to do so.

So, for many Dalits, disassociating themselves from these art forms or denouncing them was an act of rebellion against an oppressive system that sought to impose these on them. Even those who embraced the art and felt pride in their work admit that the very art that gave meaning to their lives and brought joy into the lives of others also became a caste identifier. Also, the fact is that many of these art forms are now dying. They no longer enjoy the popularity and the value that was once associated with them. So there is little incentive to continue to nurture them or to seek recognition for them.

When outlining the scope of the book, why did you decide to focus on performing artists more than, say, painters or writers? Could you talk briefly about some other arts not mentioned in the book?

It wasn't a conscious decision to focus on the performing artists. But one must recognise that it was in the case of the performing arts where the art unfortunately also became a conduit for discrimination. People were forced to practice the art forms because they were Dalits and they were then systematically subjected to violence  physical, emotional, and sexual  because they practiced these art forms.

I don't believe this was the case with painters (though this is mere speculation on my part  I do not know the stories of Dalit painters yet). The weavers, the cobblers, the kolhapuri chappal makers all did face discrimination because of the work they did, just like the performing artists. And I did go to Kolhapur and speak to the families that make the chappals just as I spoke to tattoo artists in Chhattisgarh and Orissa. Perhaps their stories will become another book.

As far as writers go, one has to remember that for the longest time, Dalits were not allowed to read and write. Instead they relied heavily on oral storytelling traditions and folk theatre. I have tried to capture some of them in the book. Having said that, the 1960s did see the emergence of the Dalit Literary Movement, particularly in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, and the book does not document their work or stories.

Some art forms not covered  the Theyyam dance from Kerala (performed by male Dalit artists), Godna paintings from Bihar (Dalit Foundation works with them), the kolhapuri chappal makers from Maharashtra, the mochis from Punjab who made the jootis, tamasha artists from Maharashtra, acrobatics and jugglery by the Bajania Nat, acrobatics by the Bazigar community in Punjab, Karinga from Awadh, Karagam from Tamil Nadu... I am sure there are many more that I am not aware of.

The dream with which I wrote this book was that it would serve as a starting point for these conversations and that we would all be able to curate and add to this body of knowledge.

How did it come to be that when such art forms are performed on Indian stages, theres no recognition given to the original practitioners?

I think the bridge often happened through that one individual who perhaps loved the art too much to care about caste restrictions or who defied them, because he or she did not believe in them. Or perhaps it was born of necessity. I don't think it was a conscious decision to take the art away from the communities who practiced them  but that is what happened. Again, all this is mere speculation on my part, trying to piece together different scraps of information that came my way. And that is why I don't mention it in the book.

In the case of the Sadir dance and Bharatanatyam, this appropriation was linked to the anti-nautch movement by the British and the response of people like Krishna Iyer and Rukmini Devi who sought to save the dance. Was the resultant sanitisation and dissociation with devadasis a systematic attempt to invisibilise their contribution or just a desperate move to preserve an art form? Views differ depending on which side of the spectrum one stands on.

You talk about how the advent of technology means that the demand for folk performances is dwindling. Theres also changing mindsets, as in the instance of Chesta Chhatriya who weaves the kapta saree, which was once considered practical but is now seen as immodest, and as a result, such weavers are relegated to lesser jobs. For those who take the discrimination in their stride and are still interested in being practitioners of an art form, what challenges lie ahead?

I think the first and foremost challenge is of recognition. How can an art form that is considered immodest or vulgar or any other such epithet survive? And this is where technology can be an enabler as much as it is a challenge. It is so much easier today to document this work, to document the artists and communities who do it and to preserve and share their stories. In documenting, one recognises value. And only when this value is recognised will we seek to preserve it. Why or how will I choose to learn a dance form or instrument I have never heard of? But if I hear an instrument and it moves me, if I hear the story of a tradition and it speaks to me, I may begin to look for people who will teach me this form.

The challenge is that for the people who practice them, time is running out. In many cases, it has run out. Not even their families respect their work right now. As one artist told me, his biggest dream is for his grandchildren to recognise him as an artist. But if the world sees their work as demeaning then that is how his grandkids with access to technology and societal opinions will also view him. Change and evolution are constant. And many of these art forms have the potential to evolve, to once again become relevant  but that fermentation requires a meeting of the new and the old. Right now, the new view it with disdain and the old no longer have the energy to fight the stereotypes.

You often mention how younger generations, where they have an option, do not want to carry forward these artistic traditions, riddled as they are in caste-based discrimination. If India as a society cant dispel its casteism and respect such practitioners as artists, is losing these ancient art forms perhaps what we deserve?

Partially yes, but I also believe it is unfair to thrust the responsibility of carrying forward these art forms on Dalit communities. In an ideal world, a naqqarchi should be regarded as a guru, and children from all communities should be able to learn from him, if they are interested in the art form. This is happening in a few pockets, particularly in Tamil Nadu with the parai or the dappu. For my book launch we flew in a parai artist (Jeyakumar) who now teaches the drums to children from all communities in villages around Madurai. But such instances are few and far between. This is the only way to preserve and nurture these art forms. Art is important, but to me, the artist is more important.

We cannot seek to preserve an art at the cost of the artist. So yes, if we cannot respect them, we do not deserve them.

In your quest for learning about the origins of the Rai dance, you talk about the hostility of Pathariya villages residents and the ambiguity of your conversation with Umedi Bai. Besides this instance, could you tell us about the challenges you faced when putting together this book?

I think the biggest challenge for me was the personal journey. Recognising how blind I had been to the reality around me. In terms of information, I was amazed at how open and generous people were. It is not easy to revisit the darkest corners of your life. To do it for a stranger takes incredible courage. But one has to remember that these stories are people's reflection of their own lives and of very painful times. To expect them to do it objectively is not just foolish but insensitive.

In the beginning I attempted to don my journalist hat and fact check. I worried that timelines didn't match, that an art form that was attributed to a community was actually not born in that community. Or that a proponent was perhaps not the first proponent as claimed by people. I actually mention this dilemma in the book. It took me a while to realise that somehow whether the incident happened in August 1988 or September 1987 was irrelevant. It took me a while to stop my frantic search for resources to confirm and verify every word that was uttered. Some of it was not verifiable and some did not need to be verified. I think shedding my own biases, my own need to safeguard myself by citing a wide array of sources to justify anything that anyone said was my biggest challenge.

And of course, the decision to not probe. As a writer, I wanted the full story, but as a human being, how could I force someone to talk about something that was causing them immense pain? At the end of the day, the people whose stories are being told are the ones who decide how much can and should be told. But remembering and respecting that was not always easy.

Youve written about how caste-based violence is not a freak incident as made out to be by the mainstream media, but rather still an integral part of society. Can you elaborate on this?

The truth is we only see what we want to see or what we are looking for. And so it is easy to ignore how deeply woven caste-based violence is in our lives. How many of us keep separate utensils for the help? How many of us don't allow the sweeper or the garbage collector to cross the threshold of our houses? Would you let them have tea with you at your table? To sit on the chair and not the floor in your house? Do we even know how many Dalits continue to die as they clean sewers in our cities? How is it that we don't talk about it? Or the statistics for violence against Dalit women? And as far as rural India is concerned, one only needs to look at the organisation of houses in a village  the spatial location shows how real the caste system is. The rampatars still exist. Quietly go to a village school and observe the mid-day meals. Children from upper caste households still refuse to eat with children from other communities. Doctors refuse to operate on women from some castes. The devadasi system continues. People continue to be killed for drinking water from wells of the "upper caste" or lynched for trying to marry across caste lines. These are not stray instances. They are in fact so much of an everyday occurrence that one does not even find them report-worthy.

The Museum of Broken Tea Cups: Postcards from Indias Margins by Gunjan Veda is jointly published by YODA-SAGE Select.

The photos included in this article were originally published in The Museum of Broken Tea Cups: Postcards from Indias Margins, Copyright 2020  Gunjan Veda. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder and the publishers, SAGE Publications India and Yoda Press, New Delhi.
Mayor Linda Tyer and her husband, Barry Clairmont, at her re-election launch last year. Clairmont has filed a defamation suit against Tyer's mayoral rival Melissa Mazzeo.

Pittsfield Mayor's Husband Files Lawsuit Against Election Rival

PITTSFIELD  Mayor Linda Tyer's husband, Barry Clairmont, filed a lawsuit in Berkshire Superior Court alleging Melissa Mazzeo tried to defame him after the 2019 mayoral election.

Clairmont, an accountant, filed the suit earlier this month claiming that former City Councilor and mayoral candidate Mazzeo defamed him and should compensate him for damaging his reputation.

Mazzeo ran against Tyer in 2019 and lost by more than 500 votes.

Later in November, Mazzeo called for a recount that resulted in Tyer actually gaining two more votes bringing the final count to 6,185 votes for Tyer and 5,657 for Mazzeo.

In Mazzeo's request for a recount and in communications with the secretary of state's Elections Division, Mazzeo had stated an "individual closely related to the Tyer Campaign" had had inappropriate proximity to the ballots.

This person was Clairmont, who had been in the city clerk's office during absentee voting. Clairmont was there pick up records he had requested; the city clerk had him wait in her office. The Elections Division dismissed the complaint finding that he had no access to ballots and no interaction with voters.

After the recount, Mazzeo's attorney Andrew Hochberg suggested Mazzeo may still appeal the election citing irregularities in the handling of the ballots from the registrar's office to the City Council Chambers upstairs. That apparently did not happen and Mazzeo has since moved to Dalton.

iBerkshires.com reached out to Mazzeo on Friday afternoon, and she said she only recently was served the lawsuit and had no comment at the time.

"I was served with the lawsuit about an hour ago, she said. "I have not even had time to talk with anyone, especially an attorney so I really can't comment right now.
New Delhi, Sep 13 : The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has said that about 25 per cent small shops and businesses, totalling 1.75 crore, across the country are in a bad situation and on the verge of closure amid the pandemic.

In a statement, the traders' body said: "The domestic trade of India is suffering amid the worst days of the century due to Covid-19, which has brought the traders on their knees with no sign of respite in the near future." Noting that the Indian domestic trade consists of more than 7 crore traders providing employment to more than 40 crore people, CAIT said that the banking sector has so far failed to provide formal finance to this sector since only 7 per cent of the small businesses are able to obtain finance from banks and other financial institutions.

The rest of the 93 per cent traders are dependent upon informal sources to meet their financial requirements, it said.

CAIT said that traders are under financial obligation for payment of central and state government taxes, repayment of monthly instalments of loans taken from formal and informal sources, EMIs, water and electricity bills, property tax, payment of interest, payment of wages to the labour and various other payments.

It urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take immediate cognisance of the issue of the traders and announce a package policy for traders and help them in revival of their business.
Iran says US-brokered deal makes Bahrain partner to Israel 'crimes' US President Donald Trump discusses the Israel-Bahrain deal in the Oval Office

Iran on Saturday angrily accused Bahrain of stirring instability after US President Donald Trump announced Manama and Israel were opening ties in a landmark deal that reinforces America's push to redraw Middle East conflicts.

Calling it a "truly historic day," Trump said on Friday that Israel and Bahrain were establishing full diplomatic and commercial relations.

"They will exchange embassies and ambassadors, begin direct flights between their countries and launch cooperation initiatives across a broad range of sectors, including health, business, technology, education, security and agriculture," he said.

Bahrain said in a joint statement it had agreed to formalise the deal with Israel at a ceremony Tuesday in the White House, where the United Arab Emirates will also sign off on its own thaw with Israel announced in mid-August.

Shiite Iran, which has especially tense ties with Bahrain and is a sworn enemy of the United States, slammed its Gulf neighbour over the deal.

"The rulers of Bahrain will from now on be partners to the crimes of the Zionist regime as a constant threat to the security of the region and the world of Islam," it said.

Bahrainis opposed to the agreement vented their frustration on social media, using the hashtags "Bahrainis against normalisation" and "normalisation is betrayal".

"A black day in the history of Bahrain," wrote former lawmaker Ali Alaswad.

Turkey also condemned the deal, saying it undermined the Palestinian cause.

"The step will be a fresh blow to efforts to defend the Palestinian cause and will further embolden Israel to continue its illegal practices toward Palestine and its attempts to make the occupation of Palestinian territories permanent," it said.

Bahrain, a Sunni-ruled kingdom with a large Shiite population, relies heavily on the United States, which stations its Fifth Fleet in the tiny but strategic Gulf archipelago.

Story continues

- 'More to follow' -

The joint statement said Bahrain's King Hamad, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump had spoken hours before announcing the new breakthrough.

It said during the phone call, the king "stressed the need to reach a just and comprehensive peace as a strategic option, in accordance with the two-state solution and relevant resolutions of international legitimacy".

A senior official in Manama said the deal would boost regional "security, stability, prosperity".

Until now, Israel had been able to strike just two peace accords with Arab countries -- Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994 -- and Trump is hoping the latest deals will give him badly needed momentum going into the November 3 presidential election.

At the White House, Trump called the development "very, very important for not only the Middle East, but for the world".

"When I took office, the Middle East was in a state of absolute chaos," he said.

In Jerusalem, Netanyahu hailed the agreement.

"Citizens of Israel, I am moved to be able to tell you that this evening, we are reaching another peace agreement with another Arab country, Bahrain. This agreement adds to the historic peace with the United Arab Emirates," the Israeli leader said.

The UAE sent congratulations to Bahrain and Israel.

"Today marks another significant and historic achievement which will contribute enormously to the stability and prosperity of the region," said Hend al-Otaiba, director of strategic communications at the foreign ministry.

Trump said more Arab nations could open their doors to Israel.

"I am very hopeful that there will be more to follow," he said.

- Trump redraws lines -

The Republican businessman has styled himself as the most pro-Israeli US president in history.

He has taken a string of decisions highly beneficial to Israel, from recognising disputed Jerusalem as the country's capital to tearing up an international accord meant to end Iran's isolation in return for verified controls to prevent militarisation of its nuclear industry.

At the same time, Trump has pushed to wind down the United States' own military footprint after decades of bloody entanglements in Iraq and elsewhere.

The UAE's announcement broke with years of policy on the Middle East conflict, prompting angry pushback from the Palestinians.

The Palestinians, who see Arab support as crucial to their limited power in resisting Israeli occupation, also condemned the Israel-Bahrain deal.

The agreement was "a stab in the back of the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people," Ahmad Majdalani, social affairs minister in the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, told AFP.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said it was an "aggression" that dealt "serious prejudice" to the Palestinian cause.

Trump, who has made crushing sanctions and diplomatic pressure on Iran a priority of his administration, predicted however that there would be a "very positive" development in the standoff with Tehran.

"I can see a lot of good things happening with respect to the Palestinians," he said, arguing the Palestinians would end their conflict with Israel once enough Arab countries had taken the initiative.

"As more countries normalise relations with Israel, which will happen quite quickly we believe, the region will become more and more stable, secure and prosperous."

sms/amh/burs/dv/kir
A man will face a Sydney court after a nurse was allegedly punched and shoved into a door and a security guard also attacked at the city's Westmead Hospital.

Police allege the 26-year-old was receiving treatment about 5am on Friday when he firstly struck the 40-year-old security guard in the face and arm with his fists.

He then approached the nurse's station and allegedly punched the 31-year-old nurse in the back of the head before grabbing and shoving her, causing her to fall and strike her head on a door.

She suffered a head injury and was treated by colleagues before being transferred to a nearby hospital for further care.

The security guard suffered minor injuries and was treated on scene.

Bec Davies suffered an injury after allegedly being attacked by a patient. Source: Nine News

The accused man was restrained and sedated before being charged on Saturday morning with common assault, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and reckless wounding.

The nurse, identified as Bec Davies by Nine News, said she needed 16 staples for her head after it split open on the door.

She claimed the man jumped out of a hospital bed and started punching him (the security guard) in the back.

"He looked like he wanted to kill someone," she told the publication.

"I was shocked that I became the target, out of nowhere."

The accused was refused bail and will appear in Parramatta Bail Court on Sunday.

with AAP

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 13) US Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton has extended his sympathies to the family of Jennifer Laude almost six years after killing the Filipino transgender woman in 2014.

Pembertons legal counsel shared the message on Sunday the same day the American serviceman was deported and flown back home to the United States.

To the family of Ms. Jennifer Laude, he extends his most sincere sympathy for the pain he caused, the statement shared by his lawyer Atty. Rowena Flores read.

According to the letter, Pemberton, during his detention, has spent much time contemplating the many errors in his ways during the night of Laudes murder on October 11, 2014.

He wishes he had the words to express the depth of his sorrow and regret, the message further said.

On Sunday morning, Pemberton was released from solitary confinement in Camp Aguinaldo after only serving five years and 10 months for killing Laude.

READ: Revisiting the Jennifer Laude murder case

Pemberton was granted freedom following the absolute pardon from President Rodrigo Duterte, whom he thanked for the move.

Mr. Pemberton wishes to express his deepest gratitude to President Duterte for granting him an absolute pardon. He is extremely grateful for this act of compassion, the message read.

Flores earlier noted that her client wanted to get in touch with the Laude family, and that Pemberton expressed interest to personally apologize to them.

But the camp of the victim brushed it off, arguing that the US marine had the chance to do so during his years-long stay in prison.

In response to the latest message, Laude family lawyer Atty. Virgie Suarez meanwhile said she hopes Pemberton finds peace of mind.
Tirupati: It's raining accolades from pilgrim callers across India for the live streaming of various Parayanams in Sri Venkateswara Bhakti Channel (SVBC) of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) during the monthly 'Dial your EO Programme' that took place in the meeting hall of TTD Administrative Building in Tirupati on Sunday (September 13, 2020).

Callers appreciated the Veda Parayanam, Sundarakanda Pathanam, Virataparva Parayanam and the newly introduced Bhagavat Gita Parayanam and complimented the efforts of TTD EO Anil Kumar Singhal and Additional EO Sri AV Dharma Reddy who is also the MD of SVBC.

Pilgrims Gita Prakash from Hubli, Karnataka, Sri Subramanyam from Chennai of Tamilnadu, Ramachandramurthy, Sujata and Sandhya from Hyderabad, Telangana, Prasad Rao and Srinivasulu from Nellore, Chengappa from Ramasamudram, Ramadevi from Tenali called in to thank TTD for designing Parayanams and telecasting live on SVBC especially during COVID pandemic and sought to continue forever.

Thanking all the pilgrim callers through a live phone in a program, the EO said, all the parayanam programs have won not only from across different parts of the country but globally.

"Never before in the history of SVBC since its inception some 12 years ago, has received such an overwhelming response for its programs and we are glad to see the reception from devotees," he said.

Further he said, "TTD will continue the programmes for ever as SVBC is the best tool to reach wide range of pilgrims to take up Hindu Sanatana Dharma to the nook and corner. Apart from Parayanams, we are also contemplating to design some programs targeting children and youth as there is every need to imbibe and teach the values embedded in our epics and scriptures to the next generations", he maintained.

Answering a question from a caller Appanna from Visakhapatnam, who sought protection to sacred chariots of TTD in view of Antarvedi incident, the EO said, "TTD has hi-fi security cover for its properties and chariots.

"Our Chief Vigilance and Security Officer along Urban SP also had an elaborate meeting on how to extend protection at all temples recently. So no need to worry as we are fully geared up", he added.

When a pilgrim sought to resume Sarva Darshan, EO said, "TTD has earlier released 3000 tokens of time slot Sarva darshan tokens in offline. But following a caution call about the spread of corona as devotees are gathering in thousands from other states owing to Peratasi holy month floating the norms of Social Distancing and wearing masks, we have temporarily stalled issuing tokens at Tirupati till this month-end."

On a query on Vaikuntha Ekadasi Darshan during December, EO said, "The decision will be taken based on the Covid situations and norms issued by Central and State Governments."

CAG FOR TRANSPARENCY

Before taking the calls from pilgrims, the EO is said a transparent audit of TTD properties will be carried out by Comptroller and Auditor General.

The EO said, "TTD is often dragged into multiple controversies by those with vested interests saying that our funds are being diverted to other causes other than Hindu Dharma Prachara and auditing by CAG will put an end to all."

Additional EO AV Dharma Reddy, JEOs P Basanth Kumar, Sada Bhargavi, CVSO Gopinath Jatti, CE M. Ramesh Reddy were also present.
On Thursday, supermodel Kendall Jenner is expected to put her shapely best foot forward to open Burberry's digital fashion show, broadcast live from the Yorkshire countryside.

Heralding the official start of London Fashion Week (LFW), that small step by the American model will mark a giant leap for Britain's fashion industry.

This is, after all, the fashion week we feared might never happen.

Some might argue it is brave  mad even  to go ahead during a pandemic. But the alternative  to deny London and its designers its fashion bonanza  could be far worse.

After all, the twice-yearly showcase is an integral part of the UK fashion sector, which in 2019 contributed 35 billion to the economy. Fashion employs more than 890,000 people. Or it did.

This year's London Fashion Week is going to be entirely digital. Pictured: Last year's show

In March, fashion shows, along with life as we knew it, stopped.

From shop closures on the High Street to travel bans, a massive fall in spending from tourists and touch-free photoshoots requiring masked and gloved make-up artists, the nature of the fashion industry means that almost no aspect has been left untouched by coronavirus.

Consumers have undergone a massive shift in shopping habits, ditching suits and heels for more casual outfits to work from home.

Against this backdrop, designers in the capital will, from Thursday, introduce their latest work to international Press, buyers and, in a huge change for the industry, you, the general public.

Signalling the upheaval under way, this new LFW will be open to all as never before.

Gone are the days of gilt-edged invitations and fashion editors elbowing their way to the 'frow' (front row).

In this brave new world, digital presentations  think catwalk shows that are streamed live online  are the new normal. And everyone's invited (digitally, at least).

From Thursday until next Tuesday, anyone can access the official LFW hub (london fashionweek.co.uk), which will be hosting exclusive multimedia content.

It was feared that this year's fashion week would never happen because of the coronavirus pandemic. Pictured: How this year's show might look

While physical audiences will be much reduced, more people than ever before will virtually explore the designers' work.

You may already consume some of your fashion information from brands posting online, or influencers showing their outfits on Instagram.

These channels of conversation help ping fashion trends around the world  and, in tandem, bring in orders from all four corners of the globe.

Because, for all the glamour and spectacle, fashion shows are actually all about those lucrative orders.

Around 100 million is usually placed during LFW each season from industry buyers shopping for designer stock for high-end department stores, boutiques and fashion websites.

But what really fills the coffers are the more affordable make-up, fragrance and accessories snapped up by the rest of us. And it's trendsetting fashion weeks that help shift them.

So what can we expect?

GQ editor Dylan Jones is Menswear Chair of the British Fashion Council (BFC), the official industry body that organises LFW.

He explains the line-up will be a combination of virtual, physical and 'phygital' (a bit of both) events by 80 designers  including Vivienne Westwood, milliner Stephen Jones, Roksanda Ilincic and Molly Goddard.

Most (around 50) will be digital-only.

Nonetheless, five key designers (Burberry, Victoria Beckham, Molly Goddard, Osman and Eudon Choi) are planning smaller 'salon' shows, some livestreamed.

They will look and feel different  the opening virtual show from Burberry, one of the biggest brands to show at LFW, will have no audience; others will see VIPs seated two metres apart.

On Thursday, supermodel Kendall Jenner is expected to put her shapely best foot forward to open Burberry's digital fashion show

Because the scaled-down show format cannot deliver the usual 'wow factor' many, including Victoria Beckham, have created digital films to dazzle, too.

Other designers are offering more intimate one-to-one showroom appointments to present to small fashion teams.

This all comes in stark contrast to the usual 50 to 100 shows staged over six days during LFW, where designers out-do each other in choosing extraordinary venues, from car parks to gin palaces, and hundreds of bodies cram into a tight space.

'Extravagant fashion shows must be produced on a modest scale,' says Dylan. 'This is not the time to go guerrilla and try to do crazy things.'

LFW receives government funding and its parent, the BFC, has been ensuring safety measures are intact.

Halted supply chains and factory closures have meant many Autumn/Winter 2020 styles have yet to be put into production, let alone arrive in stores.

Meanwhile, without international Press in town to witness them, justifying the expense of traditional shows is harder.

Since March, the BFC has lobbied the Government to do more for fashion, including putting further policies in place to protect manufacturers and designers facing order cancellations.

'The Government could move faster than what they are doing,' says Dylan. 'The current travel restrictions don't work.'

Until a month ago there was still an appetite from European buyers to attend LFW in person, but when quarantine rules were announced for arrivals from key fashion markets  including the world's largest, China, followed by the U.S.  those plans were shelved.

And just as London was returning to its 1980s glory days, too.

Yet even if London could have gone ahead with its schmoozing events, already change was in the air.

Before the pandemic, the rigid six-month catwalk-to-shop lead time (the time it takes ready-to-wear catwalk collections to be ordered, made and delivered to shops) of Paris, Milan, New York and London had begun to break down.

Because the scaled-down show format cannot deliver the usual 'wow factor' many, including Victoria Beckham, have created digital films to dazzle, too

Shoppers wanted to wear what they saw on models now.

Menswear and womenswear, once segregated, had begun to morph into one, with designers including Gucci, Saint Laurent and Burberry parading men's and women's in the same show.

As for focusing collections on the traditional fashion seasons  Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter, each shown six months ahead of time  LFW September 2020 will not even specify the clothes being displayed are Spring/Summer 2021, as they normally would.

The way we dress now rarely involves packing away wardrobes every six months.

This accent on low-cost, tradition-busting, digital shows may well be to London's advantage.

'Young designers prefer to use LFW than fashion weeks in their own country,' says Martyn Roberts, who runs Fashion Scout, an independent, avant-garde platform that offers an alternative to the BFC schedule and hosts international designers.

This year Fashion Scout is digital-only, with no physical shows at all. Making her debut that way is Didi Akinyelure, a Nigerian/British designer whose brand is called April & Alex.

'Our big plan for 2020 was to launch a pop-up store in [London shopping mall] Brent Cross in April and we were ready to go,' she says  before lockdown ended that dream.

However, her digital presentation (documenting the fashion shoot for her 'look book', photos taken to showcase a designer's outfits), she says, 'will reach a wider range of people who traditionally may not have been able to attend; so that in itself is exciting'.

Amanda Wakeley, an established fixture of LFW, has also been heavily impacted. 'In lockdown I had to give 80 per cent of my time to my online business rather than my five retail stores,' she says.

She began writing blogs for her website, telling the story of each piece of clothing to entice customers.

Happily, it increased sales. 'I wanted to make every piece celebrated,' she says. 'The old wholesale way of selling clothes six months ahead is broken. It's not how my customer wants to shop.

'She is not interested in buying a winter coat in May when she is thinking about Ascot.'

Caroline Rush, chief executive of the BFC, says: 'It is essential to look at the future and the opportunity to change, collaborate and innovate.

Amanda Wakeley, an established fixture of LFW, has also been heavily impacted

'The past few months have proved the importance of resetting.'

With no fashion circus in town, does that mean the days of American Vogue's Anna Wintour sweeping into The Ritz trailing six Louis Vuitton trunks is over?

Show producer John Walford, who worked with Vivienne Westwood in her heyday at LFW, is reluctant to accept the traditional fashion show is dead.

'When I started doing catwalks in 1985 I was told this. It never happened.'

Martyn Roberts adds: 'Fashion films can't replace physical events. But to the 99.9 per cent who never got a front-row seat for a show, to watch on a laptop is intriguing.'

As for those LFW shows which do take place in more traditional form, fashion author Gill Stark expects the smaller 'salon' shows, such as Victoria Beckham's, will resemble those of the 1800s, where super-wealthy clients would have watched local models.

'I always preferred intimate salon-type shows where the audience could get up close to the models,' says British couture designer Bruce Oldfield, part of the original line-up in the 1980s.

This season may yet herald a renaissance, with a swing away from excess to sustainability.

In the meantime, the message is that the show will go on.

As Dylan Jones says: 'London is not just about fashion shows, it's about parties, dinners, social interaction and it holds up an example of genuine diversity.

'London has a much bigger flag to wave than anyone else.'

Amen to that.

The frow will be me and my two dogs watching at home... says Elle UK editor-in-chief Farrah Storr

About this time every year I stand in front of my wardrobe and plan what I am going to wear when London Fashion Week revs into action.

I will already have spent most of my month's salary 'topping up' my clothing repertoire  a new pair of shoes, a bag, perhaps some trousers with a nice little detail.

The idea is that this will take me all the way from London Fashion Week right through to the first week in October, when Paris Fashion Week closes.

But not this year.

Because the three weeks of the year when fashion editors, buyers and influencers from across the globe collide looks quite different this time around.

Certainly no foreign Press will be travelling to London, because who wants to get on a plane right now?

And there will no crowded shows to be seen at. Which means there will be no photographers and thus no influencers pulling poses in the middle of the street.

The fashion Press famously slink around town in black Mercedes.

It's where we huddle together, catch up on gossip and eat Percy Pigs. But this year it's one person per car, and no glossy branding.

Elle has a strict one-person-per-event policy, so where I would usually travel with my team, I will go alone.

Burberry is doing a digital show, so I'll probably watch that in my cashmere joggers at home.

Simone Rocha is doing one-on-one presentations. As is Molly Goddard and Alice Temperley.

There are whispers Victoria Beckham may find a way of staging 'something' that abides by the new Covid rules.

My schedule, which is usually characterised by a raft of dinners, post-show drinks and parties that linger long into the night, is very small and still with many question marks.

And there are no dazzling parties.

There is still, I suspect, every chance LFW will in the end be watched from behind my computer screen on my kitchen table.

And the 'frow' (front row) will simply be me and my two dogs watching clothes I pray the world can go out and wear in six months' time.
Sit down in your armchair and grab a can as we bring to you the 10 countries that consume the most beer in 2020 (click to skip ahead and see the top 3 beer consuming countries). Alcohol has been a part of many people's lives globally throughout history, especially for societal engagements. If you want to learn more about history outside of your books from school, you'll learn about dozens of wacky alcohol fueled adventures throughout history, because if there's one thing that has rivaled gold and money throughout history, it's man's thirst for alcohol. I'm sure it's very likely that most of the people have their own alcohol related hijinks that they're reliving after reading this paragraph.

Of all the types of alcohol, beer is by far the most popular. One of the reasons for that is you can consume a lot more beer than other harder alcohol before getting drunk, and is the choice of drink for most on a normal night to conclude the weekday. In 2018, the total global consumption was over 3 billion 500ml cans. That is absolutely astonishing. Think of it this way; if the Tokyo Dome was capable of filling up 1.24 million KILOliters, you could fill it 152 times just to equal the global consumption of beer.

Pixabay/Public Domain

While the above numbers may be beyond comprehension, it actually gets even more insane. There are 1.8 billion Muslims in the world, and in Islam, alcohol is strictly forbidden in any way. Now even if we assume that 10% of the total Muslims aren't that religious and don't mind consuming alcohol, that still leaves over 20% of the entire global population not drinking, and we are still consuming over 3 billion cans!

Another interesting aspect is the fact that many people now prefer low alcohol beer, perhaps because it tastes better or perhaps because it is cheaper than beers with higher alcohol content. These trends are especially prevalent in Europe, which is perhaps the most popular region for beer and alcohol in general. That's why beer companies such as Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (BUD) derive a significant share of their sales from Europe.

Story continues

To find the countries which consume the most alcohol in the world, we considered not just the total volume consumed (because then countries with the highest population would always top the list), but also the per capita consumption of each country, to arrive at far more accurate rankings, using Kirin's report. However, the report only mentioned the top 25 - 30 countries for both total consumption, and for per capita consumption, leaving some gaps. To cover the gaps, we gathered information on the populations of each country and if we had total consumption but not per capita consumption, we simply divided total consumption with the population. On the other hand, where we had per capita consumption and not total consumption, we simply multiplied per capita consumption with total consumption. This is why China doesn't even make our list even though on an overall level, no other country consumes more alcohol. If you're wondering which companies provide the majority of beer to these countries, you can check out the 11 largest beer companies in the world in 2020. So let's take a look at the countries where a beer belly is a way of life rather than an anomaly, starting with number 10:

10. Brazil

Brazil is the third largest beer market in the world, though a comparatively lower per capita consumption means it barely makes our list.

Pixabay/Public Domain

9. United Kingdom

You may have an image of sophisticated British people sipping wine as they sit in an exquisite dining room and chat about politics and finance, but the truth is, the British love beer as much as any other nation.

Pixabay/Public Domain

8. Austria

There will be a lot of European countries in the list of the countries which consume the most beer in 2020, and Austria is no exception, with the second highest per capita consumption in the world.

Pixabay/Public Domain

7. Romania

Pubs serving beer have been common in Romania for nearly 150 years now, and even most of the local beer brands are owned by some of the biggest global beer companies.

Pixabay/Public Domain

6. Mexico

Mexico is the 4th highest overall consumer of beer in the world, and this should come as no surprise in the country where beer has been popular for around 600 years!

Pixabay/Public Domain

5. United States of America

Only China drinks more beer than the United States of America, and in fact, international beer brands are incredibly popular in the United States as well such as Heineken, while their own brands such as Budweiser can also be found at most stores in even the most remote areas of the country.

Pixabay/Public Domain

4. Czech Republic

For 26 years, Czech Republic has topped the list of beer consumption per capita, and its not even close, consuming over 80 liters per capita more than any other country. With this record, it seems unlikely that any country will come even close to toppling Czech Republic.

Click here to see the top 3 beer consuming countries in the world.

Pixabay/Public Domain Disclosure: 10 Countries that consume the most beer in 2020 is originally published at Insider Monkey. No positions in any of the stocks mentioned in this article.
Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton kept his cool amid the mayhem caused by an unpredictable circuit, winning a crash-marred Tuscan Grand Prix on Sunday for the 90th win of his incredible career to move one behind Michael Schumachers record.

But Hamiltons focus was elsewhere as he stood on the podium wearing a T-shirt featuring the words Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor. The message was in capital letters on the front of his black shirt.

Taylor, a 26-year-old Black emergency medical technician, was fatally shot by police as officers attempted to serve a no-knock search warrant at her apartment on March 13. The shooting has sparked months of protests in Louisville, Kentucky with calls for the officers to be charged in her death.

Justice for Breonna Taylor, Hamilton said. It took me a long time to get that shirt, and Ive been wanting to wear that and bring awareness to the fact that theres people that have been killed on the street and theres someone that got killed in her own house.

The first F1 race on a Mugello track with super-fast corners usually used by MotoGP riders was incident-packed. Two crashes on the first seven laps saw six drivers go out, and a red flag suspended the race for the first time after the second one.

A second red flag late on following Canadian Lance Strolls heavy crash meant another grid restart  on Lap 46 of 59  and gave Valtteri Bottas another chance to beat race leader Hamilton if he made a strong start from second.

With all those restarts, total focus was needed, Hamilton said. It was really, really hard.

Hamilton held firm and Bottas is now 55 points behind Hamilton, who is odds on to equal Schumachers record of seven F1 titles.

It was all a bit of daze. It was like three races in one day. Just incredibly tough today, a relieved Hamilton said. This track is phenomenal and keeping Valtteri behind was not easy.

Bottas pushed hard and got to within 1.1 seconds of Hamilton on the penultimate lap but the British driver clocked a fastest lap on the last one to take a bonus point.

That is how it goes. I will just keep trying to get better, Bottas said. It has to turn out well for me at some point.

Red Bull driver Alexander Albon drove well to finish third and clinch a first career podium that will boost his chances of keeping his seat alongside team star Max Verstappen next year.

It was brutal, especially the high speed. It is more adrenaline going in my body than anything else, Albon said.

Hamilton can equal Schumachers record at the Russian GP in two weeks.

The race was far from easy for Hamilton, however, and he looked out of breath sitting in his car moments after crossing the line.

He had started from pole position for a record-extending 95th time but was overtaken by Bottas brilliant move off the line.

It was a dream start for me, said Bottas, who could not profit from it because of the imminent crashes.

Verstappen started third for Red Bull but he and Pierre Gasly crashed moments in, bringing the safety car out on Lap 1.

Verstappen got clipped by Kimi Raikkonens Alfa Romeo after falling back because of engine problems. Carlos Sainz Jr. somehow avoided getting seriously hit when his McLaren span in the middle of the track and cars swerved around him.

After the safety car ended, a zig-zagging Bottas backed everyone up. Some of the cars tightly bunched at the back were early on the throttle after presuming the race was back on, accelerating into the middle of the pack.

Chaos ensued as Antonio Giovinazzis Alfa Romeo speared into Kevin Magnussens Haas and Nicholas Latifis Williams while Sainz then slammed into the back of Giovinazzi.

Its really dangerous like that. Those at the front have to think of those behind, Giovinazzi said. We were flat out.

No drivers were hurt but several were angered by the tactics deployed at the front.

They want to kill us or what? asked French driver Romain Grosjean, who narrowly avoided crashing. This is the worst thing I have seen.

Sainz called the incident unacceptable.

When the race re-started it was on the grid, meaning Bottas was on pole ahead of Hamilton.

But Hamilton got a tow on Bottas and passed him easily, and Bottas was nearly eight seconds behind Hamilton when he came in for new tires on Lap 32.

If he was trying to undercut Hamilton, by forcing him to come in one lap later, it backfired and with 20 laps remaining Hamilton was still six seconds ahead.

Then, Strolls Racing Point flew over the gravel and the cars front smashed into the barriers. The red flag nullified Hamiltons lead and gave Bottas another shot at victory.

But he failed to take it.

Ferrari reverted back to an age-old burgundy livery for its 1,000th F1 race, reflecting the colour first used by the famed Italian manufacturer. But there was little to celebrate as Charles Leclerc finished eighth and Sebastian Vettel 10th.

Verstappen, meanwhile, was angry with his team after a second straight retirement following the Italian GP last weekend, where Gasly won his first F1 race.

Similar issue to what I had in Monza. No power, Verstappen said. Its the second time we lose points like that, its stupid.

___

More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/apf-AutoRacing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sport
Chloe Zhao attends the Telluride from Los Angeles drive-in screening of "Nomadland" on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. AP-Yonhap



"Nomadland" by director Chloe Zhao scooped the top prize at the Venice film festival on Saturday, the first woman to win the Golden Lion in a decade.



The film, an ode to American wanderlust and the highs and lows of the open road, won the top honour in a competition billed as a relaunch of global cinema bruised by the coronavirus crisis.



Starring Frances McDormand, it is set among a motley tribe of ageing van dwellers, down on their luck and roaming the West. The double-Oscar winner plays a widow who takes to the road after losing her home.



Its Chinese-born director Chloe Zhao picked up the coveted award 10 years after Sofia Coppola's 2010 win for her film "Somewhere", in a year in which nearly half of the films in the main competition were directed by women.





Frances McDormand attends the Telluride from Los Angeles drive-in screening of "Nomadland" on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. AP
Ghana Export and Import Bank has been responding to claims that it paid GH2 million to dancehall artiste Shatta Wale.

During the Public Accounts Committee sitting on Wednesday, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Kumbungu, Ras Mubarak, asked the Deputy Chief Executive Officer with oversight of the Finance & Administration Division of the bank, Kwame Adu-Darkwa, whether payments had been made to some members of the creative arts industry, including Shatta Wale and Alexander Kofi Adu, popularly known as Agya Koo.

He alleged that GH2 million was given to the dancehall artiste who recently made headlines over his recent video with superstar Beyonce.

However, responding to the allegation, Kwame Adu-Darkwa denied making any payments to Shatta Wale.

According to him, a media consultant was engaged to help promote made-in-Ghana products so the artistes could be brand ambassadors for the campaign.

He, however, denied engaging such ambassadors directly or making payments from the accounts of Exim Bank to them.

The Chairman for the Public Accounts Committee, James Klutse Avedzi, however, stated that management of the bank will be summoned again after the committee has gathered the needed evidence to the contrary.

Mr. Mubarak, according to a report by Joy News, had said Shatta Wale does not deserve the GH2 million given to him when compared to other mature artistes.
Pennsylvania has dropped two states, which had been hotspots for coronavirus outbreaks, from its travel quarantine list.

Travelers coming back to Pennsylvania from the states on the list are asked to voluntarily quarantine for 14 days upon their return.

California and Texas have both been dropped from the list, as of Fridays update from the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Illinois has been added to the list.

Seventeen states remain on the list:

Alabama

Arkansas

Florida

Georgia

Idaho

Illinois

Iowa

Kansas

Louisiana

Mississippi

Missouri

Nevada

North Dakota

Oklahoma

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

The quarantine is not required nor is it enforceable, but Gov. Tom Wolfs administration has repeatedly asked residents and guests to do the right thing to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

Travel increases your chances of getting and spreading the coronavirus, and staying home is the best way to protect yourself and others, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Before traveling, health officials recommend checking to see if the coronavirus is spreading at your destination. Also, refrain from traveling if you live with someone who could become very ill or if you are likely to get very ill from COVID-19.

For international travelers, the Department of State has issued country-specific travel advisories.
Once billed as the diplomatic high point in China-European Union relations, a summit on Monday is likely to show how far the relationship has ebbed, with the main achievement a deal involving Irish whiskey and Pixian bean paste.

Originally due to take place in Leipzig, the summit will be held by video and bring together Chinese President Xi Jinping with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the EU's chief executive and its chairman, after a tense video call in June. In contrast to a summit in April 2019, when Xi pledged to open up the Chinese economy to EU companies, the meeting is set to show how wide the differences are on issues ranging from climate to trade, Hong Kong and the coronavirus.

"The ball is deep in the Chinese court when it comes to building a reciprocal trade relationship," said a senior EU official preparing the meeting, which starts on Monday.

No final communique is planned, EU officials said.

European attitudes have hardened towards Beijing because of the novel coronavirus, which many scientists believe originated in China, and because of a new security law on Hong Kong that the West says curtails basic rights.

The EU has warned China of consequences over its security law in the former British colony of Hong Kong, although it has avoided economic sanctions. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has described China as a "new empire", urging the bloc to take a tougher stance on Beijing.

The EU and China will sign a deal to protect European regional food designations in China and Chinese equivalents in the EU.

The pact significantly expands the number of foods protected as "geographical indications" (GIs) and should help boost trade in higher-value goods such as Irish whiskey, feta and China's Pixian bean paste.

However, efforts to agree an investment pact by the end of the year, which would give European companies greater access to the Chinese market, have stumbled.

Bloomberg
When a team overperforms like the Giants in this odd season, their actual place in the league hierarchy can be shrouded by their successes. Then come days like Sunday, when the veil disappears and one sees the huge steps the Giants must take before they can be true contenders.

The Giants have had two days like that in 2020, doubleheaders against the Dodgers last month and the Padres on Sunday in which the Giants have scored once in 28 innings and endured four of their 24 losses.

Those numbers might reflect two strange situations.

The Giants had to play two against the Dodgers after Los Angeles made a social statement not to play Aug. 26 at Oracle Park. Sundays 6-0 and 3-1 losses in seven-inning games followed a two-day hiatus after what proved to be a false-positive coronavirus test for outfielder Alex Dickerson.

However, the circumstances cant mask the different stations of the Dodgers and Padres on one hand and the rebuilding Giants on the other. To their credit, the Giants did not blame Sundays results on off-field happenstance.

There were certainly some challenges associated with the last couple of days and late last night, manager Gabe Kapler said. But theyre not challenges that are insurmountable. Theyre part of the challenges of a major-league season.

It was our responsibility to come to the ballpark to play a doubleheader today and be prepared for the two games. I think we were. We just werent at our best.

Said Evan Longoria, who went 0-for-6 with three strikeouts and a double play in the doubleheader, said the players focus was on Dickersons well-being and not their own.

Trying to put myself in the same shoes, there would be a certain amount of panic in my mind as well, Longoria said.

As a team, were not going to make excuses for that. We came ready to play. We knew the potential we were going to play, so its not like it was a complete ambush.

The best news for the Giants on Sunday was the short distance between Petco Park and the airport. The Giants had a Triangle of Misery in San Diego: three losses in three games, the Dickerson saga and the potential loss of a key starter.

After Johnny Cueto allowed six runs (four earned) in the opener, losing to Mike Clevingers two-hitter, Logan Webb had to start Game 2 in place of Kevin Gausman, who is headed for an MRI exam Monday after he awoke with elbow tightness that he first felt while playing catch a few days earlier.

The Giants have 13 games left to secure a playoff spot, including three in Oakland and four at home against the Padres. Losing Gausman would toughen the task.

We have one of our best starting pitchers getting an MRI, Kapler said. Anytime that happens, theres reason to be concerned.

Webb gave the Giants reason for hope in one of his better outings of late. He held the majors best offense to a Wil Myers solo homer in four innings. If Gausman goes down, Webb is one starter who has to step up.

Things went awry when Kapler replaced Webb with Sam Selman in a 1-1 game. The lefty walked the seven and eight hitters to start the fifth, leading to two runs on singles by Jurickson Profar and Manny Machado.

The Giants scored twice in the three games at Petco, on Wilmer Flores solo homer in Thursdays loss and a Mike Yastrzemski double in Sundays nightcap.

They get a day off Monday before playing two in Seattle on Tuesday and Wednesday. Even after their lost weekend, the Giants maintained a playoff spot, the final one in the National League, and have a 1 -game lead on their closest pursuers, the Rockies and Brewers.

But the Giants still have four games left against the Padres, who own them this year at 5-1. If the Giants cant reverse that when they meet over the seasons final weekend, they almost certainly will not play beyond Game 60.

Thats a tough ballclub over there, whether you have to play them in a nine-inning game or two sevens, Longoria said. We just have to find a way as a group to get on track and offensively get back to what we were doing.

Henry Schulman covers the Giants for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: hschulman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hankschulman
Scientific experts have warned of a second wave of the pandemic and another complete nation-wide lockdown in the UK unless stricter measures are adhered to amid a rising number of infections in the country over the past week.

Peter Openshaw, a professor of experimental medicine and an expert respiratory medicine at Imperial College London, said the new rule of six restrictions on large gatherings which comes in force from Monday is extremely crucial.

"I think everyone is in agreement that we really need to act very quickly now in order to prevent this from growing exponentially and that's the main point, is that we must act fast because it is so much harder to get this sort of thing under control if you delay even a few days, Openshaw told Sky News'.

"But if we don't do this [rule of six] now we are going to be right back in hard lockdown in short order, that's the only way we have at the moment for controlling this but there are other things on the horizon. We need to act quickly," he said.

"This isn't a game. We shouldn't be out trying to party as hard as we can in the run up to Monday's lockdown. We should all be thinking about what we can do to slow down the spread," he added.

Sir John Bell, Oxford University's Regius Professor of Medicine and member of the UK's Vaccine Taskforce, welcomed the resumption of the Oxford vaccine trials after a brief pause but warned that a COVID-19 vaccine is unlikely to be ready in time for a second wave.

We're not going to beat the second wave now, he told The Daily Telegraph'.

We're probably right at the front end of the second wave now, but a vaccine might arrive towards the end of the second wave We're probably about three to four months ahead of anybody else with a practical vaccine, he said.

From Monday, gatherings of more than six people in England will be subject to a 100 pounds fine, rising up to 3,200 pounds for repeat offences. The move was announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson last this week amid a spike in the number of cases across the country.

Meanwhile, police forces shut down a series of illegal parties overnight on Saturday as people tried to make the most of a final weekend before tougher restrictions from Monday.

Greater Manchester Police said it had halted illegal gatherings across the city and fixed penalty notices were issued at each of the incidents, which breached existing bans on groups of more than 30 meeting.

Nottinghamshire Police said it issued a reckless teenager with a 10,000 pounds fine for hosting a house party which saw more than 50 guests gather in breach of existing rules.

As a result of other localised lockdown measures, nearly 8 million people will be subjected to even tougher isolation measures in the West Midlands and Scotland.

From Tuesday, households in Birmingham, Sandwell and Solihull will be banned from mixing after the region reported a surge in coronavirus cases.

In Scotland, Lanarkshire joins areas around Glasgow subject to tougher controls, with the new rules already in force.

UK government figures revealed the number of new infections were 36 per cent higher compared to last weekend. The rate of the coronavirus recorded through tests conducted largely across care homes on vulnerable age groups had quadrupled since the start of the month and now stands at an estimated 1,100 new cases every day.

This winter will place unique pressures on the health and care system. COVID-19 will be circulating with seasonal flu and other viruses and transmission may increase, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in a warning memo to care homes in the country.

The latest warnings come as the dreaded R number, or the rate at which an infection spreads within the community, reached 1.7 meaning that cases are nearly doubling each week.

(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.)
Police body camera footage from a George Floyd protest in San Jose, California (San Jose Police Department)

Body camera footage from George Floyd protests in San Jose, California, show a police officer reveling in the chance to use force against protesters.

During one of the body camera videos, a police officer can be heard shouting "Hell yeah! Let's get some!" and "Let's get these motherf******" before attempting to apprehend protesters.

The footage also showed an incident in which a police officer who hit a fleeing individual with his motorcycle and another showed police beating a man with a foam baton after he was pulled over the police skirmish line.

The San Jose Police Department released the footage on Friday after months of heavy criticism from community members about police conduct during the protests. Police Chief Eddy Garcia said he hoped releasing the footage would "provide the public more clarity into each of these incidents."

"Each video is only one piece of information used to fully understand a complex event," Mr Garcia said. "Some opinions and conclusions may be affected after watching certain videos; others will not."

In one video, officer Jared Yuen can be heard yelling "Hell yeah, let's get some" and "Let's get these motherf******" as police descend on a man who allegedly threw a bottle.

Concerned community members have called for Mr Yuen to resign over his commentary and general attitude toward dealing with protesters. The police department claims it has launched a probe into Mr Yuen's conduct which is still underway.

At another point in the video, an officer calls a woman demonstrator a "b****."

"Everyone's upset. Everyone's angry. Why are you on that side? Why are you not standing with us right now? Why do you have a baton in your hand?" she asked.

"Shut up, b****," the officer responded.

An unidentified protester then yells "f*** you n*****," to the officer.

In another clip, police officers chase a man through the streets after he allegedly attempts to enter a closed bank. During the chase, an officer fires a non-lethal projectile at the fleeing individual and hits him in the lower part of his body. The man then darts into the street and runs parallel to the sidewalk until a police officer on a motorcycle plows into him, knocking him to the ground.

Story continues

A third clip shows a protester being wrestled to the ground by police after they declared the gathering an unlawful assembly. Police claim the protesters were throwing objects like rocks and bottles at them. They further claimed that the man who was wrestled to the ground attempted to grab one of their batons and tried to punch them.

Read more

Shocking video shows white police punching black man after taxi carrying him stopped

We have the power: Trump vows to put down any protests arising from his re-election
BREESE  Ashley and Ryan Driemeyer are in a rebellious mood.

The Driemeyers continue to serve customers inside their two restaurants in Breese and Pocahontas in defiance of Gov. J.B. Pritzkers directive issued on Sept. 1 for Metro East bars and restaurants to stop indoor service because the southwestern Illinois regions positivity rate for the coronavirus surpassed 8%.

The positivity rate continues to surge in Clinton County, says the health department spokeswoman, because the public hasnt heeded Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations and the department has no means of enforcing them.

Pritzker on Thursday agreed, saying the Metro East continues to fail at its efforts to reduce the number of COVID-19 cases while another Illinois region in Will and Kankakee counties was on the path to having restrictions lifted.

Mr. Pritzker doesnt pay my bills, Ashley Driemeyer said. If he would like to come down here and pay them for me and then shut me down, that would be a different story.

I cant take it anymore, she said. I just have too much on the line.

The Driemeyers established The Fainting Goat bar and restaurant at 509 N. Second St. in Breese last year. Earlier this month, just as the latest ban on indoor service was issued, they opened The Fainting Goat - Pocahontas/Interstate 70 in the former Lucky Jacks site at 408 W. Johnson St.

Ridiculous is how Ryan Driemeyer summed up the latest mitigation measures from the state.

The new rules for bars and restaurants include:

No indoor service permitted. Takeout and outdoor service is allowed.

No dancing.

Reservations required for each party.

All bars and restaurants must close at 11 p.m.

Video gaming permitted to continue.

The first full day for the new rules was Sept. 2. They are targeted at the bars and restaurants in what the state calls Region 4, which covers seven Metro East counties: St. Clair, Madison, Bond, Clinton, Monroe, Randolph and Washington.

The Driemeyers two restaurants are in Region 4 with the Breese location in Clinton County and the Pocahontas site in Bond County.

Ashley Driemeyer said other bar and restaurant owners in the area also are still serving customers inside. She also is a longtime friend of Bond County attorney Tom DeVore, who has filed multiple lawsuits against Pritzker alleging the governor does not have the authority to issue orders for multiple months during the COVID-19 pandemic.

DeVore met with area bar and restaurant owners last week and received applause when he said, If enough of you stay open, this is over, according to the Times-Tribune newspaper in Troy.

And in a Facebook post on Tuesday, DeVore wrote, I have yet to have a health department try and shut down a client for indoor dining. Business owners need to watch whats going on around them. Its a big shell game everybody!!

DeVore ended his post by saying that people arent dying at a rapid pace from the coronavirus after eating in bars and restaurants.

Positivity rate for COVID-19

The decision to maintain indoor service in the Metro East flies in the face of guidelines from public health experts.

Clinton County Health Department spokeswoman Louise McMinn said the countys positivity rate for COVID-19 is rising completely from community spread, meaning people dont know where or how they got the virus. She said many of the cases are being tracked back to social events and gatherings.

Thats happening due to a lack of buy-in from frustrated Clinton County residents, McMinn said.

We do not have a lot of support from the community as far as following guidance goes, McMinn said. There is a lot of frustration in our community so I think thats playing into where our positivity rate is coming from.

On top of that, the health department has no way to enforce the guidelines if individuals or businesses do not follow the implemented restrictions, McMinn said.

In recent weeks and especially over the Labor Day weekend, the department received reports of businesses ignoring the states order, she said.

All the department can do, she said, is offer guidance.

Unfortunately, on a local level its guidance, she said. We can offer that guidance but as far as going in and enforcing it, we have no real way of doing that.

The Belleville News-Democrat reached out to the Clinton County Sheriffs Department for comment on whether the department was actively enforcing or intervening when restrictions are being ignored. The department had not responded as of Friday.

Clinton Countys positivity rate rose from a roughly .70 seven-day rolling average positivity rate in early August to a 16.9% positivity rate on Friday, making it the county with the second-highest rate in Region 4, according to the latest available data from the state.

The positivity rate is the percentage of coronavirus tests that come back positive.

Nicholas Dean Soulakis, an assistant professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University, announced on Sept. 2 that contract tracing determined that over 1,400 COVID-19 cases and contacts had been linked to people who had been in bars and restaurants in the previous 60 days.

Public health experts agree, this virus spreads easily and theres potential for substantial asymptomatic spread in close quarters, Soulakis said in a news conference.

And in a new study of 314 adults who were tested for COVID-19, the CDC found the persons who tested positive were about twice as likely than those who tested negative to have gone to a restaurant, McClatchy News reported Thursday.

Public health officials are battling a virus that is linked to over 193,000 deaths nationwide and over 8,500 in Illinois, according to the COVID Tracking Project and Johns Hopkins University.

Nineteen deaths and 938 positive cases have been reported in Clinton County and four deaths and 234 cases were reported in Bond County as of Friday. The Driemeyers have restaurants in each.

Elsewhere in the Metro East as of Friday, there have been 179 deaths in St. Clair County with 6,583 cases; 114 deaths in Madison County with 4,723 cases; 14 deaths in Monroe County with 568 cases; eight deaths in Randolph County with 847 cases; and one death in Washington County with 149 cases.

Legal battle over orders

The lawsuits filed by DeVore are pending in circuit court in Sangamon County after the state Supreme Court ordered that the cases be consolidated in Springfield.

DeVore has argued that Pritzker does not have the authority to restrict businesses with continuing orders and directives while the state attorney generals office has said Pritzker has legal power to take such actions under the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act.

Scott Szala, an adjunct professor in the University of Illinois College of Law, said he agrees with the attorney generals office on this issue.

Its certainly my legal opinion that its a valid legal opinion from the governor under the Illinois Emergency Management Act, said Szala, who noted he was giving his personal view and not speaking on behalf of the university.

Szala said he empathizes with restaurant owners such as the Driemeyers.

The difficulty is you have to weigh property damage versus loss of life, he said. This issue has gone on now for months and months and we dont have a vaccine, we dont have a cure and between those two things normally life wins out.

Szala said ultimately he expects the lawsuits involving coronavirus orders to be considered by the states appellate court and Supreme Court.

Restaurants deal with indoor dining ban

The Driemeyers, like thousands of restaurant owners across the state, shut down their indoor dining in March as Pritzker ordered.

They participated in the federal Paycheck Protection Program during the shutdown but the aid was for their employees and not for the owners. Also, they could not get insurance coverage for the products lost during the shutdown.

Ryan Driemeyer, who is a farmer in Bond County, said they spent $5,000 to improve the patio with a 40-foot carport roof at their Breese location and that offering carryout service only is not cost effective.

Now, after reopening in June, they believe they can safely serve their customers and keep their employees on the payroll.

I have employees that rely on this income, said Ashley Driemeyer, who also is an insurance agent in Highland. I rely on this income. Just because the governor decides to shut businesses down, doesnt mean the bills dont stop coming in. I still have to pay my mortgage and my car payment and provide for my children.

We just decided were not going to take it anymore, she said. I think all the bar and restaurant owners in this area have all come to an agreement that were going to keep our doors open. You know, unless they forcibly come in and require us to close, were going to keep running this business as usual.

Ashley Driemeyer said customers should be able to decide whether they want to go inside her restaurants.

I believe if somebody is at risk, then they know to stay at home, she said. Most people can make that decision themselves whether they feel comfortable wearing a mask, not wearing a mask, coming out to dine inside or outside.

She argues that America is based on giving citizens the freedom to choose their way of life.

To see those kinds of things taken away from us right now, its disheartening that we have such a tyrannical government right here in the state of Illinois.

Bellevile News Democrat reporter Kelsey Landis contributed information for this article.

Get to know Illinois: 15 state symbols
Hundreds marched in Angola's capital Luanda on Saturday to protest against police brutality after a doctor caught breaching anti-coronavirus rules died in custody.

Police claim Silvio Dala, 35, suffered a heart attack after he was arrested for driving without a face mask on September 1.

But questions were raised after Dala's body was sent to the morgue covered in blood with scarring to his head.

The doctor is believed to be the latest victim of security forces violently enforcing lockdown rules in the impoverished southwest African country.

At least seven young men were shot dead by police and army officers between May and July, according to Amnesty International.

Angola's doctors' union led protests in Luanda to denounce police violence and demand an investigation into Dala's death.

Hundreds of demonstrators chanted and waved face masks over their heads.

Many wore black t-shirts with slogans such as "we want justice" and "don't kill us, the people need us".

They marched through the city centre and hung fake blood-stained medical clothes in front of the doctor's association.

There were calls for Interior Minister Eugenio Laborinho to step down and for government to implement police reforms.

Protesting doctor Rodrigo Joao deplored the death of a fellow healthcare professional who could have "served the nation for many years".

"We need to draw attention to this mistake and correct it so that a citizen will not lose his life next time," Joao told AFP, denouncing the officers' lack of "humanity".

Police at the scene allowed protesters to demonstrate peacefully and no clashes occurred.

At the end of the march, doctors' union president Adriano Manuel reiterated calls for clarity around the circumstances of Dala's death.

"We will pursue our mission," Manuel vowed as he addressed the crowd.

"We will bring (the case) to court next week because we have concrete proof that our colleague did not die of a heart attack."

Angola's government imposed restrictions in March to help curb the spread of coronavirus, with soldiers deployed to help police implement the new rules.

But people have continued to mass at markets and water points -- breaching curfews and gathering bans.

For many, poverty and lack of access to basic services outweighs concerns about catching coronavirus, which has infected over 3,200 people and killed at least 131 to date.

str-sch/har
A 20-year-old lady, Bilikisu Isa, a resident of Aso Mararaba, in Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, has died from complications she sustained after she was allegedly tortured by the police, her family said.

She was arrested penultimate Monday, August 31, alongside her friend, Rukayya Muhammed, who said Bilkisu was forced to remove her hijab (head covering) and repeatedly beaten with wire.

The inspector slapped, flogged and hid Bilikisu, but he gave me his number that he likes me and spared me from torture. She fainted in the station. He poured water on her, Ms Muhammed said.

Ms Muhammed added that her friend was arrested and tortured in connection with an alleged theft carried out by a man simply identified as Abdul, said to be the deceased ex-lover.

The police OC even went ahead and started calling Bilikisu names like ashawo, prostitute, accusing her of visiting the suspect in the hotel without evidence, she said.

She was no longer in any relationship with the suspect since last year, still the police picked and harassed her publicly.

Family members who spoke with this reporter said both ladies were granted bail around 9 p.m. of the same Monday of arrest, but when Bilikisu arrived home, she began to bleed and vomit, and died last Sunday.

When visited, Bilikisus mother, Hadiza Isa, said her daughter was sick before she was arrested.

We begged the police to leave my daughter alone due to her illness but they ignored our pleas. They rather detained and tortured her for hours that caused her death, Mrs Isa said in an interview with this reporter.

I am appealing for support from the general public for those that led to the death of my daughter to be brought to justice, she said amidst sobs.

The elder brother of the deceased, Zakariya Isa, also noted that while Bilikisu was ill when she was arrested, after she was released we never noticed on time that the torture left her with internal injury that claimed her life.

Police reaction

When this reporter visited the police outpost located along Calvary Road, Maraba, where Bilikisu was allegedly tortured, the officer-in-charge, who declined to give his name but was identified by truecaller as Alpha Lamurde, denied all allegations.

Subsequent calls placed to his line for further reaction were futile as his line was not reachable.

The spokesman of the Nasarawa police command, Ramhan Nansel, also denied the allegations. He said Bilikisu was released unconditionally and was not tortured.

The incident happened in a car dealership center in Maitama, Abuja. The Abdul in question took the ATM card of his boss who reported him to the police, Mr Nansel said on Sunday.

While Mr Nansel said that Bilikisu was arrested because she was seen at the crime scene, Bilikisus mother said her daughter was arrested in their Karu residence.

=======================================

=======================================

Asked if Bilikisus parents house was what he meant by the crime scene, Mr Nansel said that the information he got was that she was arrested in Abduls house.

The lady in question (Bilikisu) was also in the house when the police stormed the house, he added, saying investigation was still ongoing on the whereabouts of Abdul.

Mr Nansel maintained that she was not tortured, denying allegations of torture witnessed by Bilikisus friend.

No one can be interrogated without a lawyer, he said.

But why was Bilikisu released unconditionally without interrogation since she had no lawyer, he was asked.

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To that, he maintained that she was not tortured, rather she had been sick before the arrest.
She recently returned from a luxury getaway to Venice with her rocker husband Rod Stewart.

And Penny Lancaster was getting back to reality as she left a morning yoga session with friends in Hertfordshire on Sunday.

The beauty, 49, showcased her lean legs in grey snakeskin leggings as she made her way along the street.

Trendy: A makeup-free Penny Lancaster cut a casual figure in grey gym gear as she left a morning yoga session with friends on Sunday

She completed the sporty look with a light grey jumper, beige trainers and carried a pink water bottle in her hand.

Despite going makeup free for the outing, Penny still managed to look glamorous as she tied her blonde tresses up into a pony tail.

The Loose Women panellist looked in no rush to head home as she chatted to a group of friends outside after the class had finished.

Radiant: Despite going make-up free for the outing, Penny still managed to look glamorous as she tied her blonde tresses up into a pony tail

Sporty: The Loose Women panellist looked in no rush to head home as she chatted to a group of friends outside after the class had finished

Chatty: The blonde beauty caught up with her gal pals as she made her way back to her car to go home

Penny and Rod are parents to Alistair, 14, and Aiden, nine. The couple married in 2007 and have been spending lockdown at their homes in Florida and London.

Rock star Rod has eight children in total, with the singing sensation sharing Sean, 39, and Kimberely, 40, with his first wife Alana Stewart.

He has Ruby, 32, with model ex Kelly Emberg, as well as Renee, 26, and son Liam, 24, from his second marriage with Rachel Hunter.

Casual: She completed the sporty look with a light grey jumper, beige trainers and carried a pink water bottle in her hand

Glowing: The beauty, 49, showcased her lean legs in grey snakeskin leggings as she made her way along the street

Reality: Her yoga session comes after she recently returned from a luxury trip to Venice with Rod

Morning routine: Penny was up early on Saturday morning to head to the yoga class in Hertfordshire

Rod also has first child - Sarah Streeter, 55, from his romance with then-art student Susannah Boffey - who was given up for adoption after he fathered her at age 18.

Her outing comes after Penny spoke about her experience of menopause during lockdown, revealing when she first experienced symptoms.

The TV star admitted she has found the past few months extra tough because of her symptoms, but gushed that her husband and sons have been very understanding.

Speaking from her home, she told her Loose Women co-stars: 'Rod and I have a very close and intimate, open relationship about all sorts of things.

Low-key: The star looked comfy and relaxed in the grey ensemble for the morning exercise class

Blondes have more fun: Rod leaned against his leggy wife Penny as the pair soaked up the setting sun during their romantic boat trip in Venice last month

'I talk to him about how I'm feeling in the lead up to my period, feeling a little down or sad or I always say, "Darling give me space today, it's the time of the month."

'I've explained to them [my family] about the hormones I'm experiencing since March, my last period.

'I've been having the really hot sweats, and then freezing cold my body temperature is fluctuating all over the place. It affects your mood swings, I've been putting on more weight.'
Syracuse, N.Y. -- Central New Yorks daily rate of positive coronavirus tests is up to 2%, according to test results returned to the state on Saturday, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomos office.

Thats the highest daily positive rate for the region since June 23, according to state data.

Now, Central New York is tied with Western New York with the highest daily rate based on the most recent tests.

Onondaga Countys most recent daily rate is at 0.41%, according to Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon.

The regions higher return rate of positive tests comes as SUNY Oswego, in neighboring Oswego County, has seen a spike of cases.

Oswego County health officials confirmed another 43 cases on Saturday, bringing the total number of cases this semester at 126. SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras is visiting the campus today to address the outbreak.

Regionwide, the state received 2,955 test results on Saturday. Of those, 59 came back positive. Thats a 2% return rate.

Statewide, the positive test rate from Saturdays results is just under 1%.

The state received the results for 72,668 tests on Saturday. Of those, 725 -- or 0.99% -- were positive, according to state data. Overall the state has confirmed 444,365 positive cases of Covid-19 since March.

Six more people died related to the virus on Saturday, according to Cuomo. The state has recorded 25,390 coronavirus deaths.

Here is more daily information from the state, based on Saturdays data:

Patient Hospitalization - 464 (-3)

Patients Newly Admitted - 57

Hospital Counties - 33

Number ICU - 131 (+4)

Number ICU with Intubation - 54 (+3)

Total Discharges - 75,767 (+60)

Got a story idea or news tip youd like to share? Please contact me through email, Twitter, Facebook or at 315-470-2274.
LAS CRUCES  A historic hearse that is believed to have carried the Old West lawman known for killing Billy the Kid to his grave is now part of the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum.

The hearse was the only one available in Las Cruces when Pat Garrett was fatally shot in a dispute over a southern New Mexico ranch. That has created the widespread belief that the horse-drawn wagon delivered Garrett to his final resting place.

The chances are if his family decided they wanted to put him in a hearse, they put him in this hearse, said Leah Tookey, the museums history curator.

But theres no photographic evidence and Garretts family was poor.

The odds are just as good they probably put him in the back of their farm wagon and drove him to the cemetery, Tookey said.

Still, the hearse likely will draw interest in Garrett, who rose to fame when he was appointed sheriff of Lincoln County in what was then the territory of New Mexico and captured Billy the Kid. After escaping, Garrett tracked down the Kid at Fort Sumner and killed him in 1881.

So many people and generations will get to see it here, said Dona Ana County Sheriff Kim Stewart. I love history and this needs to be preserved and displayed in something thats more than an office space.

The hearse has changed hands many times over the years. It was at the Historical Museum of Lawmen in the lobby of the Dona Ana County Sheriffs Office until recently when the museum closed. The museum got it from the late Las Cruces resident Cal Traylor, who had an interest in Garrett.

Garrett died in 1908 and is buried at the Masonic Cemetery in Las Cruces.

The Womens Improvement Association of Las Cruces owned the only hearse in town from 1894 to 1912 and rented it to local residents for $10  half of which went to the local livery stable to pay for the horse, driver and feed. The association bought it from a ranch near Las Cruces. It had chickens roosting in the cargo bed and was in need of restoration.

Before that, people had been using an ice wagon to transport the dead.

Tookey said the hearse will be displayed in the heritage museums main gallery along with a chuck wagon, milk wagon and farm wagon. The museum plans to add the names of other prominent Las Cruces residents who died around the same time as Garrett as part of the display.
Former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, whose recent resignation from the RJD founded and headed by Lalu Prasad left political waters in Bihar a stir, passed away on Sunday, a day after he fell critically ill and was put on a ventilator.

Singh, who was admitted at AIIMS, Delhi, for about a week after developing post-Covid-19 complications, resigned from the primary membership of the party on Thursday and followed it up with an open letter, a day later, addressed to Prasads arch rival and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, triggering speculations about his future moves.

A staunch loyalist of the RJD supremo whom he supported in thick and thin, Singh ran afoul with the party a few months ago when murmurs about mafia don turned politician Rama Singh,his rival in Vaishali Lok Sabha constituency, led him to resign from the post of the national vice-president.

A cabinet colleague of Prasad in the Manmohan Singh government, Singh thereby stymied Rama Singhs entry into the party and although he did not give up the primary membership at that time, he stayed away from the RJDs day to day affairs which was attributed, in part, to his ill-health. On Thursday, his hand-written note addressed to Prasad declaring that he has had enough went viral on the social media.

On the same day, the RJD supremo sent a letter to Singh from Ranchi, making an emotional appeal to his companion for over three decades not to leave the party. On Friday, Singh wrote another letter from hospital, this time addressed to Nitish Kumar, which was seen as his attempt to cosy up to the chief minister, who heads the JD(U) and has been a fierce rival of the RJD supremo for decades.

Often called the architect of the MNREGA scheme, which was floated when he was the Union minister for rural development, Singh had been in political wilderness for some time, having lost two consecutive elections in 2014 and 2019 from Vaishali which he had represented in the Lok Sabha a record five times. His relations with Tejashwi Yadav, younger son and heir apparent of Lalu Prasad, turned sour when he started pitching for Nitish Kumar back to the Grand Alliance helmed by the RJD after the party received its worst-ever drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls last year.
Boris Johnson is facing a mounting Tory rebellion over radical plans to 'concrete over' rural Britain to build more homes as senior back-benchers blame the policy on a 'mutant algorithm'.

Senior Tory backbenchers are said to have warned the Prime Minister that the proposals to build 300,000 homes a year will spell electoral doom for the party.

They are concerned that the plans, in their current form, include more house building for Tory-supporting shires and less development in Labour-supporting cities.

Leaked analysis of a proposed new national housing formula reveals Tory-run local authorities outside London overall should deliver more than 30,600 extra houses every year.

In contrast, Labour-run town halls would be asked to deliver 1,500 fewer homes each year.

Areas such as Oxford, Epsom and Ewell, Sevenoaks and the Isle of Wight could all see a surge in house building, while Salford, Newcastle and Liverpool would see a large decrease.

The warning comes as around 30 Tory MPs are said to have joined a WhatsApp group aimed at opposing the plans, reports The Sunday Times.

Boris Johnson faces a mounting Tory revolt over radical plans to boost house building amid claims the 'disastrous' policy could spell doom for his party

They have accused housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, who is leading the plans, of 'concreting out, not leveling up' with the planned reforms, reports the paper.

Last night, senior Tory MP Sir Bernard Jenkin signalled he would not vote for the plans  warning that imposing more homes on England's green spaces amounted to a 'circle of doom for rural areas in the Home Counties'.

He was joined by Leicestershire MP Andrew Bridgen, who said 'concreting over' rural areas was a 'timebomb' for the Tories which would go off in the approach to the next General Election.

The areas set to be most affected by the housing plans These are the five areas facing the biggest rise in house building in terms of percentage per year under the plans, according to analysis circulated by MPs, reports in the Sunday Times today. Three Rivers (Hertfordshire): +292% Eastbourne (East Sussex): + 274% Epsom and Ewell (Surrey): +266% Thurrock (Essex): +263% Oxford (Oxfordshire): +262% These are the five areas facing the biggest decrease in house building in terms of percentage per year under the plans: Salford (Greater Manchester): -59% Newcastle upon Tyne: -56% Liverpool: -48% Nottingham: -38% Leeds and Manchester: Both -30% Advertisement

Former Minister Caroline Nokes also urged Ministers to rethink the proposals.

But one Cabinet Minister told The Mail on Sunday that the Government would not back down, insisting the need to provide more homes was fundamental to Mr Johnson's vision.

Last month, the Prime Minister unveiled a 'once-in-a-generation' planning reform to speed up the delivery of new homes across England by restricting the power of local councils to oppose new development.

However, the plans were accompanied by a new formula of recalculating where housing developments would go that critics have branded a 'mutant algorithm' cousin of the methodology which led to this summer's exams results chaos.

More than 30 Tory MPs have now joined a rebel WhatsApp group to co-ordinate opposition to the plans.

Messages leaked to The Sunday Times from the rebel WhatsApp group, include one, which said: 'This is lighting a slow fuse for an explosion ... when our constituents see that we are fast-tracking housing developments in all the wrong places.'

Another added: 'This is the equivalent of Gavin Williamson's disastrous exams algorithm fiasco.'

The MoS can reveal that outside London, the draft formula would mean asking Tory-run councils to provide more homes every year compared to Labour authorities.

Bob Seely, the Tory MP for the Isle of Wight, told The Sunday Times: 'Take my constituency ... the proposals will see our target increased by more than 100%.

'Half the island is designated as an area of outstanding natural beauty, yet we will be ordered to build more houses a year than either Portsmouth or Southampton, both cities with major infrastructure and services, and populations almost 70% larger.'

He added: 'It won't help our young, either. Increasing house building does not necessarily result in increased affordability.'

Essex MP Sir Bernard claimed that as the new algorithm was based on population growth, it would simply keep adding more houses to local authorities that were already building them.

Robert Jenrick (pictured left), who is leading the plans, of 'concreting out, not leveling up' with the planned reforms, reports The Sunday Times. Isle of Wight Conservative MP Bob Seely (pictured right) has raised his opposition to the plans

Mr Bridgen, MP for North-West Leicestershire, said the formula for deciding the housing plans was a 'mutant algorithm'

Last night, senior Tory MP Sir Bernard Jenkin (pictured left) signalled he would not vote for the plans  warning that imposing more homes on England's green spaces amounted to a 'circle of doom for rural areas in the Home Counties'. Romsey MP Caroline Nokes (pictured right) cast doubt on plans to reduce local councils' power over housing allocation

That would create 'a circle of doom for rural areas in the Home Counties', with more development in rural areas and potentially less on brownfield sites in urban areas, he said.

Sir Bernard added: 'I am not inclined to vote for a relaxation of the planning laws to make things easier for the mega-housebuilders when the real problem is a failure of local authority and powers to ensure that the right houses are built in the right places.'

He also warned that even if the Government pressed ahead with the current plans, 'it will generate such an adverse reaction that in the end it will be stopped in its tracks'.

Mr Bridgen, MP for North-West Leicestershire, said: 'I cannot countenance a formula based on some mutant algorithm that seems set on concreting over our remaining green space and rural areas, but bizarrely spares inner-city and urban brownfield areas.'

Romsey MP Caroline Nokes cast doubt on plans to reduce local councils' power over housing allocation, saying: 'The A-levels fiasco has rammed home the message that machine learning and algorithms are a poor substitute for practical experience.

'The algorithm deployed to generate housing numbers appears to be a triumph of mathematics over common sense.'

Housing Ministry sources insisted last night that any new local allocation figures were currently only estimates as final decisions were yet to be made.

But a Ministry spokesman said: 'The current formula for local housing need is inconsistent with our aim to deliver 300,000 homes by the mid-2020s, and so we are committed to reviewing it at this year's Budget.'
Kastellorizo lies just a mile off the coast of Turkey - AFP

Greeces president will head to a tiny island that is at the heart of the countrys bitter dispute with Turkey on Sunday as Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkeys authoritarian leader, threatened to resolve the two nations differences on the battlefield.

Katerina Sakellaropoulou, Greeces first female president, will visit Kastellorizo, a picturesque island of beaches, bays and pastel-coloured houses that lies just 1.2 miles from the Turkish coast.

While life on the island is sedate, with turtles bobbing in the harbour and cafes lining the quaysides, it has been plunged into the deepest crisis between Greece and Turkey in decades.

Greeces most far-flung island, it is key to the confrontation because it enables Athens to claim a vast area of exclusive economic interest that clashes with Turkish claims.

A view of the main port of Kastellorizo, with an old Turkish mosque and minaret - AFP

Ankara says it is unfair that such a tiny territory should enable Athens to stake a claim to a vast area of sea that is potentially rich in oil and gas, right in its backyard.

President Erdogan this week condemned the plans of those who try to confine a country of 780,000 square kilometres to its shores using an island of 10 square kilometres in the eastern Aegean, a clear reference to Kastellorizo.

While speaking in Istanbul, he issued another threat towards Greece, referring obliquely to the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne and other pacts that established the borders of modern Turkey.

"They will understand Turkey has the political, economic and military power to tear up immoral maps and documents imposed on itself. Either they will understand this with the language of politics and diplomacy or through painful experiences on the battlefield.

A century ago, we either buried them in the ground or threw them into the sea. I hope they do not pay the same price now.

The president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan - Anadolu

The bellicose rhetoric follows weeks of tension in the eastern Mediterranean after Turkey sent a survey ship, backed up by an escort of warships, to prospect for oil and gas in waters claimed by Greece.

Story continues

Turkey wants to pressure Greece into making concessions. There's a proverb in Turkish - the chain snaps at its weakest link. Erdogan believes Kastellorizo is Greece's weakest link, said Robert Ellis, a veteran Turkey analyst and a former adviser on Turkish affairs to the European Parliament.

In tactical terms, it would be very difficult for the Greeks to defend the island. The Turks are circling it like hawks.

Erdogan is an opportunist and he is very good at assessing his opponent's weaknesses. He is intimidating Greece.

Some analysts think it is unlikely that President Erdogan will go so far as to launch military action against Greece. Mr Ellis is not so sure.

A Greek flag etched into a hill on the island of Kastellorizo - Anadolu

I wouldn't exclude that possibility. This is a man with his back to the wall domestically. The economy is tanking and support for the AKP has fallen drastically, said Mr Ellis, a member of Vocal Europe, a think tank on diplomacy in Brussels.

I think he could contemplate an invasion of Kastellorizo. I wouldn't put anything past him.

He pointed to the fact that Yossi Cohen, the head of Israels Mossad, has reportedly said that Turkey is a bigger threat to regional stability even than Iran.

Athens is invoking the support of the EU. The European Council is to discuss whether to impose sanctions on Turkey at a meeting on September 24-25.

A group of seven European countries, led by France, said on Thursday that sanctions should be imposed if Turkey failed to cease its "confrontational actions".

A view of Kastellorizo from the Turkish coast - Anadolu

The countries met at a summit hosted by President Emmanuel Macron, who has taken a hard line towards Ankara and dispatched warships and fighter planes to back up the Greeks in the region.

Turkey called the declaration by France, Italy, Malta, Cyprus, Greece, Spain and Portugal biased and disconnected from reality.

Greece should give up its illegal and maximalist claims over maritime zones," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.

The EU is acutely aware that Turkey has a powerful weapon that could hurt Greece without a shot being fired  allowing tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of migrants and refugees to stream across the Aegean.

The immense pressure that asylum seekers have placed on Greeces islands was all too evident in Lesbos this week, when a fire burnt down a squalid camp that housed 12,000 migrants.

Greece has said it will not enter any talks with Turkey until it withdraws its survey ship and naval escort from disputed waters.

Stelios Petsas, the Greek government spokesman, said Turkey should refrain from embarking on any provocative behaviour when President Sakellaropoulou visits Kastellorizo.

Otherwise, he said, there was a risk of further escalation in a crisis which many analysts see as the worst between the two countries since Turkeys invasion of Cyprus in 1974, which followed a coup attempt in which the military junta in Athens sought to unite Cyprus with Greece.
The Federal Election Commission closed its file on Tulsan Joan Farr, an independent candidate for U.S. Senate, without rendering a decision.

Farr had asked for an opinion on whether she could give away copies of a book she wrote as an incentive for contributors.

The FEC, which is supposed to oversee federal election laws, is unable to reach a quorum, however, because the Trump administration has been slow to appoint or reappoint commission members as their terms expire.

Landing strips: Jones Airport in Bristow, which recently completed a $3.9 runway project, has received a $2.7 million federal grant to build a taxiway, 3rd District Congressman Frank Lucas office announced.

Lucas also said Skiatook Municipal Airport is receiving $2 million for runway rehabilitation.
On July 22, around 2:30 a.m., police say gunmen shot into this house on Claredon Avenue SW several times.

According to 19News, Canton Police released video of the gunmen where you can see two suspects caught on camera, walking around with guns in their hands and lurking in the back of the home just before 2:30 a.m.While asleep in their living room, Ace was fatally shot in the head, and Arcel was shot in the leg, and is said to be recovering from his injuries.

Anyone with information is urged to call Canton Police at 330-649-5800 or 330-489-3144.

These are all cases of innocent children losing their lives for something they had nothing to do with. These children are someones daughters or sons, brothers or sisters, granddaughters or grandsons, who had their whole lives ahead of them, and didnt need to die.

The Black Lives Matter movement came in under the pretense of change and reform, which we can all get onboard with, however, that is not how it remained. It turned into violence and looting and an over all excuse to create anarchy in the streets.

Police were told to take a back seat to crime fighting, and criminals took full advantage of that. Shootings and violent crime rates are soaring in most major cities, and police are not able to do a thing about it, as politicians are running the show with their own skewed agendas.

Someone needs to stand up and start putting an end to this violence. Someone needs to stand up and start saying the names of these children, and the many many more who have lose their lives since this mayhem began in May.

Here is another story Law Enforcement Today brought you about another innocent child who lose his life in Chicago.

CHICAGO, IL  On Friday, July 31, 2020, nine-year old Janari Ricks played with friends behind the Cabrini Green townhomes on North Cambridge Avenue.

At about 6:45 p.m., he was shot twice; once in the back and once in the arm, and killed.

Like most kids his age, Janari had a lifetime of events and memories in store for him. And then he was robbed of all that, as were his parents, extended family, friends, and all those who would have otherwise come to know him.

July of 2020 was a bad month for Chicago. There were more than double the number of homicides from the same month in the previous year, 105 compared to 44.

The last time a higher number was recorded was twenty-eight years ago, in September of 1992, when 109 homicides were committed.

The mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, likened gun homicide to covid-19, describing it as a health crisis.

She went on to suggest that gun violence be treated as one would any other disease, with mental health professionals, street outreach, support for community police officers and gun control.

Lightfoots idea isnt new and it hasnt gotten any better with age. It would be nice if mental health professionals could search Chicago for troubled individuals and help them, thus preventing gun violence.

That picture might work if we had some reason to believe that all or most crimes involving gun violence were perpetrated by people suffering from mental illness.

It makes sense that gun crimes are committed by the mentally ill, because logically, who else would do it?

Weve seen 200 mass shootings in the United States between 1982 and 2012, and many of them were perpetrated by people diagnosed with schizophrenia. However, 200 cases isnt enough to establish statistical validity.

A better number to work with is the 120,000 gun-related killings recorded nationwide between 2001-2010. Of those, less than 5% were caused by people suffering from mental illness.

This doesnt mean we should give guns to schizophrenics, confident that they will only commit five percent of gun-related murders. It means that we shouldnt expect to solve more than five percent of the problem by utilizing the methods suggested by Lightfoot.

Lightfoots resolve to uphold law and order in Chicago can be seen in her response to demands made by the Marxist group Black Lives Matter (BLM). They told her to remove two statues of Christopher Columbus.

Lightfoot complied.

Her commitment to law and order, it seems, only extends as far as she is allowed by her leash, held firmly by Marxist agitators who seek to destroy law and order in Chicago and around the country. Lightfoots record speaks for her. More than double the number of gun crimes from the previous year.

The investigation of Janari Ricks murder has resulted in the arrest of 39-year-old Darrell Johnson.

Johnson previously served four years in prison for carjacking and weapons charges and two years probation for battery. Thanks to a surveillance video and police work, Johnson was identified and captured.

His arrest and, if found guilty, his punishment, will not bring Janari back. Janari is gone forever. The capture of Darrell Johnson may have prevented more murders he would have otherwise committed. Maybe he would benefit from some form of mental health treatment.

One thing that is certain is that Janari Ricks wont benefit from anything that Lori Lightfoots office, Johnsons prosecutor, or anyone else might do.

The best thing anyone could have done for Janari would have been to keep Darrell Johnson away from him and every other potential victim. The impulse to sympathize with the mental illnesses suffered by some criminals, their drug addictions, lack of intelligence, and the circumstances they inhabit shows that we are human.

However, if we allow altruistic impulses to favor the forces of destruction and evil, we will only encourage more tragedies like the death of Janari Ricks, left lying alone on the ground on a hot July afternoon.

One last thing, not that it matters and it doesnt, but both Janari Ricks and Darrell Johnson are black. What matters is that one human, for whatever reason, killed another. That matters. It matters a lot.

As we reported earlier this week, the number of shooting victims under the age of 10 has tripled since last year. At the end of July 2020, 24 children, 10 years and younger were shot and five of those innocent children lost their lives.

According to Fox News, as of July 31st, there were 2,268 shooting victims of various ages for the year, marking a dramatic increase of 45 percent over the same time frame in 2019.

Of those who were shot, 222 victims were 17 or younger, showing an increase of 36 percent when compared to last years statistics.

Charges Filed in the Murder of 9 Year Old Chicago Boy, Janari Ricks https://t.co/oFnCbzhwWy  Power 620 (@Power620SYR) August 4, 2020

Additionally, there were 30 children under the age of 17 who were shot to death in 2020, compared with 19 from previous years count. Many of the victims were shot while playing in their yards, lounging in their homes, walking down the street, or sitting in car seats. Several of the tragic deaths were infants under the age of 1-year-old.

Over the weekend, 25 people were shot. Nine of those individuals died from their gunshot wounds, including a young boy, who has since been identified as Janari Ricks.

Ricks, a 9-year-old boy was playing with a group of friends when he was shot in the chest. He was pronounced dead an hour after being transported to Lurie Childrens Hospital.

According to police, the gunman walked up to the children and opened fire. Brian McDermott, the Chief of Operations for the Chicago Police said that the young boy, Ricks, was an unintended target.

A Cook County judge has denied bail for Darrell Johnson, who is accused of fatally shooting 9-year-old Janari Ricks in Chicagos Cabrini-Green neighborhood last week. https://t.co/ZFY9dBFmgf  WBEZ (@WBEZ) August 4, 2020

Ricks mother, Jalisa Ford told the Chicago Sun-Times that her son was a straight-A honor roll student preparing to start fourth grade. He called himself Young Curry in reference to his favorite basketball player, Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors. Ford said:

If he wasnt able to pursue his dreams of becoming an athlete he wanted to do construction. He wanted to help rebuild the community, rebuild something that the kids can enjoy later down the line.

Ford said that her son had been inside most of the day before the shooting. She said:

He didnt come out until 5 and he came out to play with his friends and my baby never been able to make it back home. He was very, very loved by so many people, everything knew him, everyone.

Darrell Johnson, 39 is facing a first-degree murder charge in the murder of Ricks. Allegedly, surveillance video shows Johnson coming to and from the area of the shooting. Multiple witnesses also identified Johnson as the shooter.

On Monday, during a news conference, Chicago Police Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan credited neighbors with helping officers find Johnson as quickly as they did. Deehihan said in a statement:

Were not in this position without the help of the community who came forward and gave us information, which allowed us to identify and arrest the suspect.

Johnsons criminal history includes a 2005 conviction for aggravated vehicular highjacking. He was sentenced to serve four years in prison for committing the crime.

Back on July 4th, a 7-year-old girl was fatally shot at a Fourth of July party with her family. According to reports, the girl was standing on the sidewalk in the 100 block of North Latrobe just after 7 p.m. Two shooters got out of a light-colored car and opened fire in her direction.

2 kids slain among 79 shot in July 4th weekend gun violence in Chicago; 3rd weekend straight of children dying https://t.co/XjZu8RBloR via @SunTimes  Jennifer King (@jenapradio) July 7, 2020

The young girl, since identified as Natalia Wallace, was rushed to Stroger Hospital, but was later pronounced dead. According to the autopsy, she died from her injuries and her death has been ruled a homicide.

So far, police have arrested three men allegedly involved in the deadly shooting of Natalia. Charges have been filed against Reginald Merrill, 33, the alleged driver in the shooting and Davion Mitchell, 22, one of the alleged shooters.
The regional political parties in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday criticised the Indian government for warming up to the Taliban-Afghan government talks in Doha while employing harsh measures in Kashmir.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peoples Conference leaders asked why the muscle-flexing was only for Kashmir.

No issues joining a meeting with Taliban but Mehbooba Mufti must be in jail and nothing but the gun must speak to teenaged Kashmiri youth, tweeted senior PDP leader Naeem Akhtar while sharing the news of Delhis shift towards the intra-Afghanistan negotiations.

On Saturday, Union external affairs minister S Jaishankar joined the inaugural session of the intra-Afghan negotiations in Doha, Qatar, via videoconference and reiterated Indias support for an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled peace process.

Representatives of the Afghan government and Taliban will come face-to-face for the first time on Monday for peace talks in Qatars capital for a negotiated settlement after nearly two decades of war.

Spot on. The bravado is only for Kashmiris. The might is only for Kashmiris. Wonder where the muscle-flexing disappears when it comes to species like the Taliban or for that matter the PLA, responded Peoples Conference president Sajad Lone to Akhtars tweet.

Kashmir has been in the throes of militancy since 1989 over demands of Aazadi. Though the violence has come down considerably, every year hundreds, majority of them being local and foreign militants, die in gunfights with the security forces.

Akhtar and Lone, both former ministers in PDP-BJP government, were among nearly all of Kashmirs mainstream political leaders who were detained for months when the central government effectively nullified Article 370 of the Constitution on August 5, 2019, which accorded special status to the region, and bifurcated the state into two union territories  Jammu and Kashmir with a legislature and Ladakh without one.
Work on the annual Economic Survey will start soon. It is intended to provide Parliament with a detailed exposition on the economy. From its inception it had a broad approach of data and analysis. It was a dull old thing and very few people took it seriously.

Then in 2010 Kaushik Basu, the new chief economic adviser (CEA), started a new practice: of expounding his private views on a variety of subjects, including on corruption. Since then this sort of exposition has often been included in the Survey as an integral part. It appears as a separate chapter. This public airing ...
Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said on Sunday that a conspiracy has been hatched to malign the state by several people amid criticism over the rising cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and the row involving Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut.

Some people may feel that now coronavirus disease is over and they should start their politics again. I will not talk about politics but there is a conspiracy to discredit Maharashtra, Thackeray said in a televised public address.

He, however, did not name anyone.

Maharashtra, which is the worst-hit state in the country, has seen more than a million cases of the coronavirus disease. There has also been a controversy recently over Ranaut after her office was demolished by the state government-controlled civic body Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The chief minister assured people that he is ready to face any storm be it a political one or that of the coronavirus disease. Whatever political storms come, I will face them... I will fight the coronavirus pandemic too, Thackeray said.

My silence doesnt mean that I dont have answers, he added.

In his latest address, which came a day after Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra crossed the 1 million mark, Thackeray also said that his government has done effective work to tackle the pandemic.

Speaking on Covid-19 situation in the state, Thackeray said that it is likely to become more severe in the coming days. He also urged people to follow all social distancing norms to control the virus spread.

Ranaut and Thackeray-led Shiv Sena have been engaged in a bitter war of words after the critically acclaimed actor said she feels unsafe in Mumbai and has no trust in Mumbai Police after the death of Sushant Singh Rajput.

On Wednesday, Ranauts office in Bandra was partially demolished by BMC, triggering criticism from several political leaders and her Bollywood colleagues. Flanked by security guards provided by the Union home ministry, Ranaut had reached Mumbai hours after the BMC carried out the demolition.

Maharashtra is among the worst-hit state by the Covid-19 pandemic. On Sunday, the state reported 22,084 new cases, pushing its tally to 10,37,765 including 7,28,512 recoveries and 279,768 active cases, according to the state health department.
Introverted and flinchy, Fraser is an unsettling character to enter the story through, with an awkward, defensive personality and hints of a troubled past. At one point he slaps Sarah over a minor annoyance; at another, she accidentally cuts herself and he instinctively puts her finger in his own mouth.

They fight and comfort each other intimately, and his problems seem to frustrate and terrify her. (Sevigny, who made her debut in Larry Clarks 1995 teen-panic flick, Kids, is nuanced and convincing as the commanding officer uncertain on the home front.) But he is a lot of work, maybe more work than youll want to invest as a viewer.

But We Are opens outward with the second episode, which shows us the same day through the eyes of Frasers neighbor Caitlin (Jordan Kristine Seamon, an astonishing newcomer). Shes more settled than Fraser  popular and close to her conservative father (Scott Mescudi, better known as the rapper Kid Cudi)  but is also searching for her place, experimenting with her gender expression and testing her friendships.

As the two meet and form a close, platonic alliance, the focus broadens to Caitlins circle of friends  white and Black, Christian and Muslim, American and European, military and civilian, all thrown together in a limbo thats both America and Italy and yet not wholly either, living a curious existence thats both tightly regimented and exhilaratingly free.

Im not sure if this is a realistic portrait either of overseas base life or of military family dynamics, but the uncanniness of the setting feels key to the story. The seriess real setting is adolescence. The physical location is simply an otherworldly backdrop for its flirtations and fights to play out against, like an enchanted wood in a Shakespeare comedy.
WASHINGTON  When President Trump flies to California on Monday to assess the states raging forest fires, he will come face to face with the grim consequences of a reality he has stubbornly refused to accept: the devastating effects of a warming planet.

To the global scientific community, the acres of scorched earth and ash-filled skies across the American West are the tragic, but predictable, result of accelerating climate change. Nearly two years ago, federal government scientists concluded that greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels could triple the frequency of severe fires across the Western states.

But the president has used his time in the nations highest office to aggressively promote the burning of fossil fuels, chiefly by rolling back or weakening every major federal policy intended to combat dangerous emissions. At the same time, Mr. Trump and his senior environmental officials have regularly mocked, denied or minimized the established science of human-caused climate change.

Now, as he battles for a second term in the White House, Mr. Trump has doubled down on his anti-climate agenda as a way of appealing to his core supporters. At a rally in Pennsylvania last month, he blamed Californias failure to clean your floors of leaves, threatening to make them pay for it because they dont listen to us.
Shell Lubricants India plans to launch an engine warranty scheme for the pre-owned cars of its loyal customers. It started piloting the project as the demand is rising for the used cars after COVID-19 outbreak, which forced people to reduce the use of public transport and taxi services.

Shell is working with a global team to launch the programme to give peace of mind to the used car buyers, Raman Ojha, Country Head, Shell Lubricants India told BusinessToday.In. The programme will be called Shell Helix Engine Warranty. "If the customers use Shell Ultra/Shell Helix Ultra/Shell Advanced Ultra engine oil for six months regularly, we will be willing to provide them engine warranty," said Ojha.

Shell will create an Ultra club and monitor engine performance of the used cars. They are in the middle of working out a model to launch the scheme by end of the year. The used cars usually don't come with engine warranty.

Shell is focusing on care, continuity and cash to return to normalcy and gain market share in the post-COVID-19 phase. "We focus on care for employees, customers and society at large. However, we also need to ensure that the business continuity is maintained and cash is there in the system. The businesses which will struggle to generate or maintain cash can come under severe pressure in these difficult times," said Ojha.

Shell offered Corona Kavach insurance policies to all its employees. It maintained staff strength and their compensations despite the slip in business, he added.

Shell supported the mechanics' community, who are badly hit by the outbreak, by providing rice and pulses. It carried out truck and ambulance relief camps for providing basic support to truckers and drivers. It has also reached out to distributors and the salesforce with financial aids.

"We realized that passenger car customers are reluctant to go to the workshops because of safety and sanitization concerns. So we launched a safe sanitized zero-contact doorstep car services ecosystem in partnership with Pitstop. For the motorcycle consumers, we launched doorstep services, called Shell Hoopy," he said.

Shell's business has almost reached pre-COVID-19 levels, said Ojha. "So we want to launch Atma Nirbhar mission to create 5,000- 10,000 entrepreneurs in the mechanic community, helping them to open workshops, including Shell Pitstop mobile services. We are also trying to create entrepreneurs in the motorcycle/two-wheeler mechanic community," he added. Shell will invest in workshops with toolkit, ramps and branding. It will also help the mechanic to advertise online. Shell has over 40,000 mechanics in its community.

During the lockdown time, Shell helped 100 mechanics to set up their workshops. It is also funding for the vans to set up mobile service stations. Ojha's dream is to empower 10,000 mechanics to set up workshops in the next 12 to 18 months.

Lubricant industry will degrow this year and next year compared to 2019. But the company expects to outgrow the market. "The companies close to the consumer and understand the retailer's needs have gained volume in this turbulent period. The companies which are rigid to change have lost market share," Ojha added.

Also Read: Atmanirbhar Bharat progress report: Rs 1.18 lakh crore given to businesses, Rs 25,000 crore to farmers

Also Read: Pfizer, BioNTech plan to expand COVID-19 vaccine trial; expect final results by October

Also Read: PM Modi inaugurates 3 petro projects in Bihar; vouches for Nitish Kumar's role in development of 'New Bihar'
On September 15th in New York, Sothebys will let buyers place bids on hip-hop memorabilia

Well-known international auction house Sothebys will pay tribute to Hip Hop next week with its first auction dedicated to the culture.

On September 15th in New York, Sothebys will let buyers place bids on hip-hop memorabilia, some items dating back to the 1970s.

One of the most iconic items up for auction is the crown worn by Brooklyn-born Biggie Smalls during the 1997 King of New York photo shoot. The portrait he took with that crown was his last before he was killed in Los Angeles three days later.

The auction will also feature more than 20 love letters written by a young, 16-year-old Tupac Shakur to his high school sweetheart.

Read More: Tupac Shakur gets apology after governor accuses him of unemployment fraud

Since its birth in the Bronx in the 1970s, Hip Hop has become a global cultural force, whose massive influence continues to shape all realms of culture: music, fashion, design, art, film, social attitudes, language, and more, Cassandra Hatton, Vice President & Senior Specialist in Sothebys Books and Manuscripts Dept. said.

This sale is a celebration of the origins and early eras of that influence. We are pleased to announce the auction with two renowned and beloved icons whose lives and lyricism continue to resonate  Biggie and Tupac  with lots that offer an introspective look, in their own way, at the personalities behind their respective public personas.

B.I.G.S KING OF NEW YORK CROWN

American rapper Notorious BIG (born Christopher Wallace) attends the 1995 Billboard Music Awards, New York, New York, December 6, 1996. (Photo by Larry Busacca/WireImage)

The crown was obtained by photographer Barron Claiborne, who has had it in his possession since the now renowned photoshoot. Included in this lot are three specially sized prints, signed by Claiborne, of the iconic K.O.N.Y photograph, the 10th anniversary K.O.N.Y. photograph, and the contact sheet, which is estimated to sell around $200,000-$300,000. The interior of the crown is signed by both Biggie and Claiborne.

Im very excited to share this iconic piece of Hip Hop history with the public. With the tragic events that unfolded just days after the photoshoot, this image of a crowned Notorious B.I.G. became much more than a portrait  the image transformed Biggie Smalls into an aristocratic or saint like figure, forever immortalized as not only the King of New York, but a king of Hip Hop music and one of the greatest artists of all time,  said Claiborne.

Story continues

TUPAC SHAKURS TEENAGE LOVE LETTERS

Rapper Tupac Shakur poses for photos backstage after his performance at the Regal Theater in Chicago, Illinois in March 1994. (Photo By Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)

22 autographed love letters written by a 16-year-old Tupac Shakur to Kathy Loy, a high school sweetheart from the Baltimore School for the Arts are estimated to sell at around $60,000-$80,000. The lot includes 42 pages on 24 sheets of paper and one greeting card. Tupac signed all the letters.

Shakur would have been in the 10th grade when he wrote the letters. He and Loy took theater classes at the school. The letters span from late March 1987 to April 1988, from their meeting to an eventual breakup.

The letters even show Shakurs close friendship with fellow student Jada Pinkett. In one letter he wrote Jada told me she can see how much I love you

Shakur also wrote about his doubts about his music career. He wrote, my old manager came over and said she doesnt want me to retire from rap but I think I am because I cant handle too much rejection and I dont have the time

Shakur also admitted to fearing rejection and his lack of confidence, noting that I just want to be less sensitive and less of a pest. What I am feeling has to do with my insecurities, and I have to handle that on my own.

In the final letter, Tupac penned to Ms. Loy nearly a year after the pairs break up, Shakur shared how he has moved out of his mothers home and sincerely expresses regret over their break-up.

Read More: Will Smith admits he was insecure and jealous of wife Jada and Tupacs friendship

.@Sothebys is set to host its first-ever hip-hop auction, headlined by Notorious B.I.G.'s 'King of New York' crown and love letters written by Tupac Shakur.



Senior Specialist @the_lynx_eyed details the event and the selection process. #CheddarLive pic.twitter.com/U2xozoTAOP  Cheddar (@cheddar) September 11, 2020

Overall, the sale will feature more than 120 pieces including: unique artifacts, contemporary art, one of a kind experiences, photography, vintage and modern fashion, historic and newly designed jewelry and luxury items, rare ephemera including flyers and posters, important publications, and more.

The majority of items in the sale have been consigned directly by artists or their estates and the full contents of the auction will be announced at a later date.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Queens Public Library Foundation, to support their Hip Hop Programs and also Building Beats, a non-profit organization that teaches tech, entrepreneurial and leadership skills to underserved youth through music programs.

Monica Lynch, former president of Tommy Boy Records (1981-1998), collaborated with Sothebys to organize the event. Lynch helped launch the careers of legends Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force, Queen Latifah, De La Soul, and Naughty by Nature, among many others.

Those interested in viewing the auction items in person will need to set up an appointment in Sothebys York Avenue galleries beforehand. Slots are open from September 11th 15th. The public can also see the exhibition online.

Have you subscribed to theGrios podcast Dear Culture? Download our newest episodes now!

The post More details about Biggie and Tupac auction at Sothebys appeared first on TheGrio.
4 People Arrested for Arson Across West Coast Amid Wildfires

Two people in Washington state, one in Oregon, and one in California have been arrested on arson charges as firefighters battle numerous wildfires throughout the West Coast.

Michael Jarrod Bakkela, 41, is accused of starting the Almeda Fire, said the Oregon State Fire Marshals Office, reported OregonLive. Bakkela was arrested on two counts of arson, 15 counts of criminal mischief, and 14 counts of reckless endangerment, officials said.

A witness in Phoenix, Oregon, said they saw a person who was later identified as Bakkela lighting a fire behind their house on Quail Lane. Residents were forced to flee their homes after seeing him allegedly set the fire.

Michael Jarrod Bakkela. (Jackson County Sheriffs Office)

According to the Jackson County Sheriffs Office in a statement, police arrived to find that Bakkela was standing close to a very large fire threatening several homes.

They also found that Bakkela was lodged on a probation violation detainer for possession of methamphetamine of more than two ounces.

Local reports said that the Almeda Fire has destroyed hundreds of homes and left at least two people dead.

Authorities arrested two people in connection to fires in Washington state, identifying one as Jeffrey Alan Acord, who is accused of starting a fire along Highway 167. Officials said that he live-streamed himself setting the blaze and apparently reported himself to police.

Witnesses told KIRO7 that Acord allegedly was seen walking on the highway with a lighter and cardboard. The outlet reported that he is a regular at Black Lives Matter and anti-police rallies in Seattle.

Joint team effort!! WSP, Fife Pd and Puyallup PD just arrested a 36yr old Puyallup resident. He was caught in the median on SR-167@ Meridian setting a fire! He is currently on his way to jail! Great job everybody!#playstupidgames pic.twitter.com/8N3wHcT5kJ  Trooper Ryan Burke (@wspd1pio) September 9, 2020

Jacob Altona, 28, was arrested in connection to arson in Washington state near State Route 512 and State Route 7, officials said.

In California, Anita Esquivel, 37, was arrested for deliberately setting fires in California, said the California Highway Patrol, according to KION-TV.

The Monterey County District Attorneys Office told KION that there is no evidence that Esquivel has a connection to Black Lives Matter or the far-left group Antifa.

Officials said Esquivel allegedly set fires on Highway 101 near Boronda Road in Salinas. She was taken to Monterey County Jail on arson charges.

On Saturday, the National Interagency Fire Center noted that about 97 fires have burned 4.7 million acres across the West Coast.

More than 29,000 firefighters and support personnel are assigned to wildfires. Evacuation orders are in place for 40 large fires in California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Idaho, and Utah, the agency said.
The recent jaw-dropping news that 441 people died of drug overdoses in San Francisco last year offered a detailed account of the health issues surrounding the deadly epidemic, but the Department of Public Health Department report made little mention of the elephant in the room.

That we allow open drug dealing on the street corners of the Tenderloin, Tenderloin Housing Clinic Executive Director Randy Shaw said. We are all concerned about drug overdoses, but we are not doing anything about San Francisco being a place where people can indulge in drug use.

More than half of the deaths involved fentanyl, a drug that can be 100 times more potent than morphine.

Fentanyl can be manufactured all over the place, and it is easy to ship and extremely difficult to detect, said Dr. Phillip Coffin, the health departments director of substance use research. It is so much less expensive than other drugs, so it winds up commanding the market.

In San Francisco, dealing fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin has become an open-air business, largely supplied and run by organized gangs that have turned the Tenderloin into a superstore for drugs.

Some of the drug crews working the corners, like the Honduran gang busted by federal agents last year, commute into the city from Oakland on BART or in car pools.

In a Sept. 1 posting on Twitter, the Tenderloin Police Station reported its officers were approaching 1,000 arrests for drug dealing since August 2019. In one recent bust, police seized $2,000 and more than 70 grams of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl. Of the six people arrested, two were fugitives in other drug cases.

District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who was elected on a platform of restorative justice over imprisonment, said, drug sales cases remain one of our largest categories of felony cases and also the highest rate of felony rebookings of any crime. But we need better, more effective approaches to stop the cycle at the outset and to save lives.

Police who work the street often cite the lack of serious jail time and the release of offenders with multiple cases pending as a key reason the open dealing flourishes.

One example of the revolving door is in an Aug. 25 Twitter posting on the Tenderloin Police Station account:

Last night, officers had a fentanyl dealer under surveillance. After watching him do a drug deal, he was arrested. 8+ plus grams of fentanyl, digital scale; $284 seized from him. His third arrest in 90 days for dealing fentanyl at this same location.

Boudin, however, says street-corner arrests arent the answer.

Todays problems are the result of a failed approach in the war on drugs that we will not replicate. Law enforcement should focus on drug suppliers, rather than on the small-scale, street-level sellers, he said. We also must create specialty courts for those sellers who are, in fact, themselves victims of human trafficking.

Meanwhile, the dealing and the deaths continue.

Dr. Coffin is a specialist in addiction medicine, but he doesnt claim to be an expert in public safety.

Coffin does, however, have a prediction on where where San Francisco is headed when it comes to overdose deaths.

Its going to get a lot worse.

Say what? In a move that may stun many people, the Oakland police union has come out in support of a November ballot measure to strengthen the independent, citizen Oakland Police Commission, which has been leading voice for defunding the department, reducing the use of force and greater disciplining of officers accused of misconduct.

I can understand why people might be surprised,  Oakland Police Officers Association President Barry Donelan said.

After all, the commission and the police union have been at odds over just about every major issue. So why support a measure that would give the commission even more power?

The thinking is that instead of going back and forth about this and that with the commission, lets give them everything they need, Donelan said. Then there will be no more excuses, and we can get on with the real business of fighting crime and protecting the real people who are affected by it.

As unlikely an ally as the Oakland officers association may appear to be, Police Commission Chair Regina Jackson said the members are glad to have the cops backing.

Barry Donelans voice has been steadfast inside the OPOA, Jackson said. Having met with him and discussed our collective responsibilities to the city of Oakland, I am delighted with OPOAs decision to support Measure S1.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Phil Matier appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KGO-TV morning and evening news and can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 415-777-8815, or email pmatier@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @philmatier
M edics are reportedly preparing to reopen coronavirus wards following a surge in cases in the UK.

Doctors are said to have been told emergency measures are likely to be necessary from October 2.

Hospitals built to help the NHS meet demand during the first wave, including Nightingale Hospital in east London, are getting ready to take on new patients, the Sunday Mirror reported.

It comes as confirmed cases of Covid-19 rose above 3,000 for the second day in a row.

A consultant told the publication: "Plans are in place for Covid wards to be reopened to cope with a fast-rising rate of infections.

More people are going back to work, schools are open and more people are socialising in spite of the new restrictions. We have to be ready.

Doctors are said to be preparing to take new Covid-19 patients / PA

The Government has introduced new social distancing rules to try and avoid a second wave.

From Monday, the "rule of six" will come into force in England meaning that people can only meet up with five others outdoor and inside their homes. Babies and children will be included in the count.

This could scupper Halloween, Divali and Bonfire Night plans, although Michel Gove said he hoped Christmas could go ahead without increased restrictions
NORTH RIDGEVILLE, Ohio

Drunken driving: Woodbridge Court

A motorcyclist suffered serious injuries in a crash on Aug. 23. He was arrested and charged with driving under the influence, excessive blood-alcohol content and failure to maintain reasonable control.

Assault: Manchester Circle

Police were dispatched for an assault complaint on Sept. 7. An 18-year-old and a 15-year-old were arrested and charged with assault and aggravated trespassing. The 18-year-old woman was transported to the Lorain County Jail. The 15-year-old was turned over to her parents and will be referred to Juvenile Court.

Disorderly conduct: Creekside Lane

A woman reported an incident that occurred between her and her neighbor on Sept. 4.

Drug investigation: Ohio 10

On Sept. 5, police initiated a traffic stop. The driver was under suspension and a passenger had multiple warrants for her arrest. The car was impounded.

Drunken driving: Lorain Road

An officer observed a driver commit several traffic violations on Sept. 3. The driver was arrested and charged with failure to stay within marked lanes, drunken driving and excessive blood-alcohol content.

Read more news from the Sun Sentinel.
SoftBank is near a deal to sell the British chip designer Arm to Nvidia, two people briefed on the matter said Saturday, which would raise billions for the Japanese technology investor and create a powerhouse in the semiconductor industry.

The two sides are close to an agreement for a cash-and-stock transaction whose price could potentially be more than $40 billion, these people said. A deal could be announced within days, though these people cautioned that final details have yet to be ironed out, and the talks could still fall apart.

A transaction  which would be one of the biggest announced so far this year  could also raise concerns from antitrust regulators around the world and from customers of Arms chip designs, which drive the majority of the worlds smartphones.

Nvidia is one of the worlds biggest computer chip companies, specializing in powerful chips that are used for computer graphics, data centres, cars and artificial intelligence. As of Friday, its market value was more than $300 billion  nearly $100 billion above that of Intel, the longtime standard-bearer in chip technology  and its stock has been one of the best performers of any technology company this year.

Should the two sides strike a deal for Arm, it would net billions for SoftBank as it seeks to sell assets as part of a business turnaround. It had paid $32 billion for Arm in 2016, as an audacious bet by its chief, Masayoshi Son, on a global rise in internet-connected devices.

In announcing that deal, Son described the so-called Internet of Things as shaping up to be the biggest paradigm shift in human history, a phenomenon he was willing to bet big on. That explained the steep price it paid for Arm  43 per cent higher than where Arm had traded the week before the deal.

Arm has an unusual business model: It doesnt sell semiconductors itself, and instead supplies design information that other companies incorporate into chips, charging royalties on its specifications. Its customers include Apple, Samsung, Qualcomm and Huawei.
Researchers say an ancient wild dog known for making unusual singing noises has been rediscovered after 50 years.

Scientists had theorized that the breed, called the New Guinea singing dog, had likely gone extinct by the 1970s.

The dogs are native to the Pacific Ocean island of New Guinea, the second largest island in the world. The western half of New Guinea belongs to Indonesia, while the eastern half makes up the independent country of Papua New Guinea.

Researchers say genetic tests have confirmed that the New Guinea singing dog is in fact closely related to wild dogs seen in New Guinea in recent years. That breed is known as the highland wild dog. It is thought to be the rarest and most ancient dog-like animal in existence.

The genetic research was recently reported in a study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It uncovered many genetic similarities when comparing the DNA from the two breeds.

Researchers from the National Human Genome Research Institute carried out the study. The institute is part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, or NIH. Scientists from Indonesias Cenderawasih University also took part, along with researchers from other educational organizations.

The New Guinea singing dog was first studied in 1897. It became known for its ability to make pleasing, singing-like sounds. The sounds are unlike any produced by other dog populations. The sounds have been described as a wolf howl with overtones of whale song.

Scientists have estimated that only 200 to 300 New Guinea singing dogs currently exist in captivity in zoos and protective centers. Observations of the highland wild dog are also rare in New Guinea.

There had been reports of highland wild dogs living in an area in Papua New Guinea in 2009, the study noted. But there were only two known cases of highland wild dogs being seen and photographed up until 2016.

"The New Guinea singing dog that we know of today is a breed that was basically created by people," said Elaine Ostrander in a statement. She is an NIH investigator and lead writer of the study. "Eight were brought to the United States from the Highlands of New Guinea and bred with each other to create this group."

Many researchers had suggested that the highland wild dog might have been the predecessor to New Guinea singing dogs. But the lack of sightings and genetic information on highland wild dogs made it difficult to test this theory.

But in 2016, researchers led a trip to a rural mountain area in Papua, Indonesia. The group found 15 highland wild dogs near the Grasberg Mine, the largest gold mine in the world.

A follow-up visit in 2018 permitted researchers to collect blood samples from three highland wild dogs. The samples were examined and compared with DNA from captive New Guinea singing dogs.

Heidi Parker is a scientist with the National Human Genome Research Institute. She said in a statement that the comparisons showed the two breeds had very similar genetic sequences  much closer to each other than any other dog-like animals.

The researchers noted that the genetic sequences of the two dogs are not exactly the same. This is likely because of physical separation and continued inbreeding over many years among New Guinea singing dogs.

However, the researchers stated that since the two share such a large number of genetic similarities, they are, in essence, the same breed. This finding proves that the New Guinea singing dog population is not extinct in the wild, the researchers added.

The research team says it hopes to start breeding efforts between highland wild dogs and New Guinea singing dogs in captivity to help create a true New Guinea singing dog population.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from the National Human Genome Research Institute, the New Guinea Highland Wild Dog Foundation and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

Quiz - Ancient New Guinea Singing Dog Rediscovered after 50 Years Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

breed  n. a kind of animal

extinct  adj. no longer existing in nature

DNA  n. short for deoxyribonucleic acid -- a substance that carries genetic information in the cells of plants and animals

howl  n. a long, sad sound made by a dog or wolf

overtone  n. something that is suggested, but not clearly stated

predecessor  n. something that comes before another thing in time or in a series

sample  n. a small amount of something that gives you information about the thing it was taken from

sequence  n. the order in which nucleotides (chemical substances) are combined with DNA

in essence  phr. relating to the most important characteristics or ideas of something
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Linkedin Dian Septiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, September 13, 2020

Indonesia welcomed an initial step toward peace in Afghanistan after decades of conflict on Saturday, which marked the start of the negotiation process between the Kabul government and the Taliban.

The intra-Afghan negotiations follow an agreement between the United States and Taliban in February.

The agreement outlined the withdrawal of foreign forces starting May next year in exchange for peace guarantees and Taliban promises to open negotiations with the Afghan government, which the group had previously refused.

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By Harichandan Arakali

It was some six years ago that Infosyss founders started their experiment with the companys first professional CEO with Vishal Sikka, a former senior executive at business software behemoth SAP. Announcing Sikkas appointment to the chief executives post, founder NR Narayana Murthy was in a great mood, joking with reporters at a press conference that sikka meant coin or money, and therefore, he hoped Vishal Sikka would make even more money for the company.

Three years down the line, Murthy would fight bitterly with Sikka and his board until the CEO decided it was time to leave. Some of the board members left too. Infosyss first experiment with professional management, therefore, ended prematurely. Enter Salil Parekh.

Parekh, a former Capgemini senior executive, seemed to be the opposite of Sikka in some ways. Especially in the way he kept a low public profile, whereas Sikkas ideas about everything from murmurations to grassroot innovations and the need for Infosys employees or Infoscions becoming problem finders and not just problem solvers, were lapped up by the media and others.

here is no doubt that Sikka was a highly capable and deeply committed technocrat, but Parekh didnt mind coming off as less glamorous. He set the company on its next strategy to help customers Navigate their next. It was built on four pillarscustomer relevance, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to re-energise the core, employee focus including massive re-skilling, and localisation in the most important marketsthe US, Europe and Australia.

The strategy seems to be working. And when clients saw Infosys effectively and efficiently send 99 percent of its workforce to continue doing what they did best, but from their own homes, in a matter of weeks, many were impressed. And it re-applied the stamp of authenticity to Infosyss ability to execute on important projects of massive scale. In this case, the company had equipped 99 percent of 2,40,000 people to work from home. And they, in turn, ensured that that clients business continuity didnt suffer.

One deal, recently, brought home the message that Infosys was back with a bang. The company signed the biggest order its history with Vanguard, a Pennsylvania-based financial services company. According to a report by The Times of India, the contract is worth at least $1.5 billion. Infosys hasnt provided financial details, but the company is to take 1,300 Vanguard staff onto its own rolls in the US with guaranteed pay parity for a year.

A senior Vanguard executive would also move to Infosys to become the IT companys chief client officer, as well as head a centre of excellence in the US. Meanwhile, Infosyss pipeline has grown, and its large deal total contract value has grown 3x of what it was two years ago. Revenue from digital services as a share of the overall sales has doubled to some 45 percent.

The pandemic that saw Infosys massively enable work from home, will continue to provide a tailwind as the IT companys biggest customers return to spending in an environment where tech is the strategy, as many industry executives like to point out.

There are also potential headwinds. First, politics has permanently changed how Infosyss biggest markets look at outsourcing. Political leaders would like to see more local hiring. Infosys has committed to raising its local hiring to a total of 25,000 in the US by 2022, from about 13,000 today. Second, and related to the first, it is possible that Infosys and other top Indian IT companies will likely see themselves targeted more for racial discrimination.

And third, Infosyss own rules, which the founders enshrined in an attempt at superior corporate governance, could also prove a distraction. Parekh too, in the short span that he has been at the company, wasnt spared the anonymous whistle blower, although nothing seems to have come out of it so far.

Parekh himself, in an interview with Forbes India, acknowledged that his biggest challenge will be to keep the entire companys focus fixed entirely on clients needs, and responding quickly and effectively. In that he has chairman Nandan Nilekanis backing: Infosys is an organisation deeply rooted in values of learning and doing the best for our clients. Salil has intensified this culture of learning and innovation. Today, Infosys is fast evolving into a sentient, live enterprise, Nilekani said in an interview.

(This article first appeared in Forbes India, here
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday paid a moving tribute to former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, saying his death has left a deep void in Bihar and national politics. Modi described Singh, who died at AIIMS, New Delhi,after a prolonged illness, as a grassroots leader with deep understanding of poverty and problems of the poor.

He also obliquely referred to "churning" that the departed leader faced in his last days, hinting at his disenchantment with his party the RJD and its leader LaluPrasad. "An inner 'manthan' (churning) was going on in him during his last days. He remained true to the ideology he believed in..In the recent past, he had been in news.

"He was obviously in a state of inner turmoil since it had no longer remained possible for him to be by the side of his old associates. Finally, he gave expression to his feelings through the letters he wrote from the hospital bed, the prime minister said. Modi made the remarks before dedicating to the nation three petroleum projects via video conferencing in Bihar.

The prime minister recalled his interactions with Singh when the RJD leader was a Union minister and he the chief minister of Gujarat. I had occasions to interact with Raghuvansh babu many times. We used to take part in TV debates long back, putting forth our respective points of view. He used to represent his party while I used to represent the BJP as an office-bearer ofthe organization, said the prime minister.

"I was worried about his health and often inquired about him," Modi said. The prime minister spoke with admiration about Singh'sconcern for Bihar.

He referred to Singh's letter to Bihar Chief minister Nitish Kumar days before his death where he raised the issue of development of his erstwhile Lok Sabha seat Vaishali. "I will request Nitish Kumar to execute the development projects he wrote about in the letter. Let'stogether-the state and the Centre-fulfill his wishes," Modi said.
September traditionally signals back-to-school, but has the month signaled something else for investors? To follow up a historic rally, September has seen steep losses across the board, with the S&P 500 slipping 5% since the month kicked off. This decline has led some to wonder, is this just a correction, or is it the beginning of another bear market?

Hedge fund manager David Tepper has said the market is maybe the second most overvalued he has ever witnessed, only behind the 1999 dot-com bubble. The market's pretty high and the Fed's put a lot of money in here ... the market is by anybody's standard pretty full, he commented. That said, while Tepper is taking a relatively conservative stance, he is still watching out for opportunities.

Based on Teppers storied career, it makes sense why the Street is giving serious thought to his commentary. The legend, who began as a credit and securities analyst with Equibank, co-founded hedge fund Appaloosa Management in 1993. Appaloosa wowed clients early on as the fund, which started with $57 million in capital, delivered 57% returns on its assets and grew to $300 million in 1994, $450 million in 1995 and $800 million in 1996. If $1 million had been invested at the time of inception, it would have grown into $181 million. To this end, Appaloosa now manages about $13 billion.

Bearing this in mind, we decided to look at Appaloosas recent activity for inspiration. Running two stocks the fund picked up during Q2 through TipRanks database, we found out that the analyst community is also on board, as each sports a Strong Buy consensus rating.

Boston Scientific Corporation (BSX)

First up we have Boston Scientific, which develops and manufactures interventional medical devices. Following its recent estimate-beating performance, some believe this names long-term growth narrative is strong.

During Q2, Appaloosa pulled the trigger on 835,000 shares, increasing its holding by a whopping 727%. With the funds total BSX position now standing at 950,000 shares, its value comes in at $38,275,000.

Story continues

Five-star analyst Matt O'Brien, of Piper Sandler, sides with the bulls. Citing the companys Q2 earnings release, the analyst tells clients he is confident in the recovery outlook.

Turning to the details of the print, sales landed at $2 billion. Although this figure reflects a 29% year-over-year decline, it surpassed both OBriens and the Streets estimates. Going forward, BSX still believes Q3 total sales will be down, but not to the same degree as Q2, and Q4 organic revenue is expected to increase year-over-year.

To this end, OBrien has several takeaways. First, as it relates to the elective procedure recovery, Boston was pleased with the sequential improvements delivered throughout the quarter (and even into July). Boston is well positioned as a result of the more emergent nature of their procedures (most procedures can only be deferred for weeks rather than months) and the ability to complete the majority in an outpatient setting, he explained.

On top of this, OBrien sees BSXs pipeline as a key point of strength. The company is not only set to launch new products in 2H20, but specific products are gaining momentum amongst the medical community.

The analyst added, In addition, Boston remains committed to investing in the infrastructure and digital capabilities that support these new product rollouts (which we believe will help bolster training and the willingness of clinicians to adopt the product).

The final piece of the puzzle? OBrien highlights BSXs strong capital position. In our opinion, the company has struck the right balance in terms of managing their capital structure, improving liquidity to help manage through COVID-19, and ensuring that the company can both re-invest and execute on tuck in M&A. With COVID-19 impacting almost every sector imaginable, Boston remains assured in its ability to achieve its longer-term goals of 6% to 9% top-line growth with the ability to drive operating margin improvement (under a more normalized environment), he noted.

It should come as no surprise, then, that OBrien stayed with the bulls. He kept an Overweight rating and $50 price target on the stock, implying 24% upside potential. (To watch OBriens track record, click here)

All in all, other analysts echo OBriens sentiment. 13 Buys and 3 Holds add up to a Strong Buy consensus rating. With an average price target of $46.07, the upside potential comes in at 14%. (See Boston Scientific stock analysis on TipRanks)

HCA Healthcare Inc. (HCA)

HCA Healthcare counts itself as one of the largest integrated healthcare delivery systems in the U.S., with its scale and infrastructure making it a leader in the space. Given its solid showing against the backdrop of the pandemic, this stock has earned quite a bit of praise.

Among HCAs fans is Tepper. 765,000 shares were bought up by Appaloosa in Q2, with the total position now landing at 1,050,000 shares. After this 269% boost, the position is valued at $140,700,000.

Writing for RBC, five-star analyst Frank Morgan told clients, HCA is again demonstrating why it should be a core holding in the healthcare space, delivering a strong upside vs. our expectations (which were well above consensus) despite the significant challenges related to the COVID-19 outbreak... driven by a better-than-expected month-to-month volume recovery, strong patient acuity and payor mix, and impressive cost controls.

Looking at the volume improvement, SS admits for June were 1%, an impressive rebound from -12% in May and Aprils -27%. This improvement was driven by the reopening of HCA's markets and the execution of reboot strategies. The same trend was also witnessed in ER visits and surgical procedures. Management estimates ~40-50% of the cases that were deferred during the shutdown period have been recaptured (either performed or scheduled), and is hopeful it can recapture the remainder, Morgan noted.

On top of this, HCAs cost cutting initiatives demonstrate its flexibility, in Morgans opinion. HCA reported an 11% year-over-year reduction in SWB, supplies and other opex  or a $1.1 billion reduction versus the $1.5 billion drop in revenues, with these cost reductions maintained even as volumes began to improve.

What else is noteworthy for Morgan? With over 33,000 COVID-19 inpatients having come through its doors, HCA has developed increasing capabilities throughout the pandemic. We believe the company is well prepared for a resurgence, he stated.

Summing it all up, Morgan commented, HCA's better-than-expected performance amid the pandemic demonstrates an impressive ability to flex the model in response to changes in the operating environment. Results also confirm that the underlying demand in its markets remains strong, despite the likelihood for continued ebb and flow in patient census as reopenings progress and adjust to flare-ups.

All of this prompted Morgan to leave his bullish call and $168 price target unchanged. This target conveys Morgans confidence in HCAs ability to climb 25% higher in the next year. (To watch Morgans track record, click here)

What does the rest of the Street have to say? 12 Buy ratings and 3 Holds have been issued in the last three months. So, the consensus rating is a Strong Buy. In addition, the $144.47 average price target suggests 8% upside potential. (See HCA Healthcare stock analysis on TipRanks)

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.
Eleven days after a cargo ship carrying 43 crew and almost 6000 cattle capsized in the East China Sea, the loved ones of crew are holding onto hope that they'll be found alive.

Tom Suttor is half expecting William Mainprize to turn up at his door or send him a text. The pair have been friends for eight years and it was Mr Suttor who introduced him to working as a stockperson, responsible for monitoring the welfare of animals.

William Mainprize has been missing since September 2, when the ship he was on with 40 other crew capsized off off the Japanese coast.

Mr Mainprize's sense of adventure and love of animals has kept him working on cargo ships.

After completing a trip, Mr Mainprize, from Avalon on Sydney's northern beaches, would set off to explore: cycling around the Middle East or exploring Mongolia. He also worked as a wilderness guide in Tasmania and the Northern Territory, and had plans to get a master's degree in teaching.
New Delhi, Sep 13 : Over a month later after a man supposedly died of jaundice in a hospital here, the Delhi Police have arrested his brother for culpable homicide after the post-mortem report revealed that he had suffered head injuries.

On August 11, the Safdarjung hospital informed Okhla Industrial area police station that a man identified as Surender (33), a resident of Harkesh Nagar, was admitted in an unconscious state by his cousin.

On investigation, it was revealed that Surender was suffering from chronic liver disease (with jaundice) due to prolonged alcohol consumption. Since he was unconscious, his statement could not be recorded.

On August 14, the hospital said that the patient had expired during treatment. On the same day, his post-mortem examination was conducted and the body handed over to his relatives for cremation.

Since there was no external injury on the body of the deceased and no foul play was suspected, hence the proceedings under section 174 of the CrPC were initiated. Thereafter, autopsy report of the deceased was collected wherein, the doctor said that the "cause of death" is due to cerebral damage as a result of injury sustained to head consequent to blunt force impact in a case of chronic liver disease.

However, the viscera has been preserved to rule out any associated intoxication.

"Keeping in view of the cause of death due to head injury, a case was registered.

"The investigation revealed that on the fateful night, Surender's brother had beaten him up under the influence of alcohol and as a result, the victim fell unconscious. The CCTV footage of the area was analysed in which the accused was found beating his brother with fists and kicks. Thereafter, the accused, namely Raju Kumar, was arrested," DCP, South East, R.P. Meena said.
After Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb was heard saying that he would not forgive over-excited" newspapers for creating confusion" about the Covid-19 situation, journalists in the state have said that they fear the threats issued by him and gave the BJP leader three days" to take back his remark.

According to a report in The Indian Express, the CM was recorded making the statement at Sabroom, where he had gone to lay the foundation of Tripuras first Special Economic Zone.

Some newspapers are trying to confuse people, getting over-excited. History will not forgive them, people of Tripura wont forgive them and I, Biplab Deb, shall not forgive them. I do whatever I say, history is testimony to that, he is heard saying in the video clip that has been doing the rounds on social media.

A member of the Forum for Protection of Media and Journalists in Tripura was quoted as saying, The ruling party and the government are issuing regular threats to media organisations through press conferences. The CMs threat to media organisations at a public gathering has shoved us into fear. We werent this afraid even during the Emergency."

We condemn the undemocratic and unconstitutional comments from the chief minister. We hope he will withdraw his remark within the next three days," Chairperson Subal Kumar Dey said.

Dey also claimed that journalists are facing threats and being assaulted in different parts of Tripura following Debs statement.

Two journalists have been assaulted in the last 24 hours. We are deeply anxious and have decided to approach Governor R K Bais, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the Editors Guild of India," he said.

Dey, who is also the president of Agartala Press Club, alleged that the ruling BJP is issuing regular threats to media organisations.

The state is trying to enslave media persons. State government orders are issued to choke journalists voices," he said.

Meanwhile, police said a scribe associated with a local daily was attacked by a group of people after midnight.

The journalist had criticised Deb in a social media post for his comments.

The Chief Ministers Office, has, however, denied the allegations that Deb had threatened journalists.

The CMs media advisor was also quoted as saying that the Tripura government is committed to press freedom and media rights. The advisor, however, accused some local newspapers of working with some agenda.

(With PTI inputs)
Mauritians on Saturday marched for the second time in a month as public anger festers over the government's handling of a devastating oil spill off the coast.

A sea of colourful demonstrators waving flags and chanting slogans descended on Mahebourg on the southeast coast, where a cargo ship ran aground in July and leaked more than 1,000 tonnes of fuel into the pristine sea.

Police said 25,000 attended but organisers estimated the turn-out was at least double that.

The spill has inflicted untold damage on the Indian Ocean archipelago of 1.3 million people that depends on its fabled coastline for fishing and ecotourism.

Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth and his government have been accused of not acting fast enough to prevent the worst environmental crisis in the country's history.

Demonstrators thronging the coastline at Mahebourg, many with painted faces, chanted "He Must Leave!" and waved placards calling for the government to resign over the disaster.

"We are here to call on the government to pack their things and go. The people no longer trust this government," said Marie, a protester who only gave her first name.

It was the second major rally over the spill after tens of thousands marched in the capital Port Louis on August 29 in the biggest demonstration witnessed in Mauritius in 40 years.

"We will keep up the pressure on the unpopular government of Pravind Jugnauth," said Ashok Subron, one of the protest organisers

'Criminal negligence'

The MV Wakashio crashed off Mauritius on July 25 with 4,000 tonnes of fuel aboard but did not begin leaking oil for more than a week.

By the time Jugnauth issued an urgent appeal for international help the slick had reached the shore, coating mangrove forests, fragile ecosystems and coral reefs.

An army of volunteers scrubbed the coastline but the stricken bulker kept leaking, even after salvage crews declared the last of the fuel aboard having been removed on August 12.

"The MV Wakashio (incident) illustrates the incompetence of this government," said Bruno Laurette, another protest organiser.

"Criminal negligence has had an impact on the flora and fauna of our country. Enough. They have to be put out of harm's way."

The ship eventually split and the larger piece was towed out to sea and sunk, further angering conservationists. The smaller section remains stranded on the reef and is visible from Mahebourg.

The washing ashore of nearly 50 dead melon-headed whales only spurred further outrage, as did the death of two sailors involved in the salvage process when their tugboat collided with a barge.

The Japanese owner of the MV Wakashio pledged this week to pay at least $9.4 million to help fix the damage caused by the spill.

It is still unclear why the Wakashio was so close to shore when the accident occurred. Jugnauth has commissioned a formal investigation and promised a full and transparent inquiry.
The 21-year-old patient residing in Thanh Hoa returned to Vietnam from Russia on September 8. He tested positive to SARS-CoV-2 and is being treated at the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanois outlying district of Dong Anh.

The country has so far confirmed 1,060 infection cases, 691 of them are locally-transmitted.

The same day, nine patients in Da Nang, Quang Ngai, Quang Nam, Dak Lak and Hai Duong were given all-clear from the virus, raising the total number of recovery cases to 902. There have been 35 deaths from the disease to date.

Among patients under treatment at medical establishments, 16 tested negative once, 17 twice and 21 others the thrice.

As many as 35,799 people who had close contact with patients or entered from pandemic-hit areas are under quarantine, 603 of them are in hospitals, 16,432 in other establishments and 18,765 at homes.

Amid the complicated developments of COVID-19, the ministries of health, information and communications have called on residents to install Bluezone app to receive infection risk alerts.
By Express News Service

BHOPAL: No barrier of religion, caste or colour can affect the eternal bond of friendship.

While Hindus across the globe pay tributes to their ancestors through rituals and special prayers during the ongoing fortnight of Pitrupaksha, a man in Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh has been performing similar rituals to pay tributes to his long time friend Syed Wahid Ali, who died three years ago in a road accident.

"Syed Wahid Ali has been my best friend since childhood. He was an advocate who practised law in Gopalganj area of Sagar district. He died three years back in a road accident. Just like I perform tarpan of my ancestors in the Pitrupaksha fortnight, I performed tarpan for my late best friend, praying that his soul be in peace and we are born as friends again," said Pandit Ram Naresh Dubey, a resident of Chaturbhata village in Surkhi area of Sagar district.

Every day, the elderly Brahmin performs special prayers and rituals before the pictures of his ancestors and Ali.

Tarpan is performed facing south, remembering the ancestors by their names with offers of water, milk and black sesame seeds.

"My father died in November 2017. Three years later, his friend Ram Naresh Dubey, not only keeps visiting but has performed special prayers in my father's memory. This is one of the best examples of the secular fabric of our country and the Ganga Jamuni culture," said Syed's son Wajid Ali.

The priest who performed the Tarpan ritual for Dubey said, "I've never seen such a deep bond of friendship, which even death has failed to break."

Dubey's village is located in Surkhi area -- one of the 27 assembly segments of MP going to by-polls within a few weeks. It was from Surkhi assembly segment only that the BJP launched the Ram Shila Pujan Yatra, reportedly to reap the benefits of the Bhoomi Pujan of Ram Temple at Ayodhya.
Om Birla says it pained him that Lok Sabha did not run smoothly during Monsoon session

No all-party meet before monsoon session begins tomorrow

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Sep 13: In the wake of coronavirus, for the first time in two decades, the parliament will not host all-party meeting in the monsoon session which begins on Monday.

No all-party meet ahead of the Monsoon session of the Parliament that begins tomorrow |Oneindia News

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi will not be holding the meeting which is conferred before the commencement of parliamentary sessions to discuss the agenda and set targets.

A meeting of the Business Advisory Committee of Rajya Sabha is, however, scheduled to be held in the Parliament on Sunday.

BJP confident of blunting Opposition attack in Parliament

A meeting has been called of the Business Advisory Committee today to discuss issues including abolition of Question Hour and the curtailing of Zero Hour. The speaker will discuss the agenda of the house in the meeting which will go up till October 1.

The opposition is likely to raise India-China standoff, contraction in the economy and the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, News18 had earlier reported that a discussion on the India-China face-off is unlikely to be allowed soon.
Trump claimed that the Democrats running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, would be president in about a month if Biden won, asserting that the former vice president would be but a figurehead and that Harris would hold power. He claimed that the media would treat Biden like Winston Churchill if he was able to merely stand on the debate stage in three weeks. And embarking on a swing that would also include stops in Las Vegas and Phoenix, Trump mocked Bidens slower travel schedule. You know where he is now? He is in his damn basement again!
The officers of the Nigerian Police filed malicious charges against a UK-based Nigerian entrepreneur in an attempt to extradite him from the country, PREMIUM TIMES can report.

Bankole Ogunnowo, 41, said he also suffered extortion in the hands of the Nigerian police on marital issues between him and his British ex-wife.

Mr Ogunnowo, who married his ex-wife, Eileen Odumosu, at the Ikeja Marriage Registry in February 2012 explained how altercations between them led to several court cases in the UK.

Unable to obtain a favourable court judgement in the UK, Ms Odumosu made complaints against Mr Ogunnowo to the Nigerian police.

Ms Odumosu is a British of Nigerian extraction and a filmmaker based in the UK.

In copies of the statement obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, Ms Odumosu accused Mr Ogunnowo of deceitfully marrying her so he could obtain a UK visa, domestic violence, and abuse.

Based on her statement, the Nigerian police levelled an eight-count-charge against Mr Ogunnowo on fraudulently contracting marriage with the intent to deceive, the swearing of a false affidavit, among others.

The police, thereafter, obtained court approval to extradite him from the UK with the offence of threat to life, falsification of documents and impersonation.

Narrating his ordeal to PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Ogunnowo said the Nigerian police acted based only on the complaints of his estranged wife.

The Nigerian police did not carry out any investigation, the next thing was I was notified of the extradition request in The UK court. They didnt bother to call me or hear from me, there were court cases between me and my ex-wife that were thrown out of the UK court.

I do not live in Nigeria and I have not committed any offence against Nigeria state. I now wonder how a matter between me and my ex-wife that we both live in the UK become a matter against Nigeria Government or the Police, Mr Ogunnowo said.

Mr Ogunnowo said he has no criminal records in Nigeria or the UK.

I have a legitimate job in the UK well known to the UK authority and Nigeria High Commission in the UK, he said.

Background

The drama between the estranged couple began in 2017 when Ms Odumosu approached a family court in the UK to level several charges against Mr Ogunnowo.

Part of the charges was that he did genital mutilation for the child he had with his ex-wife in Nigeria, Mercy Adetokunbo, and that his ex-wife had been impersonating her in Nigeria.

Mr Ogunnowo had a daughter with his first wife, Ms Adetokunbo, while in Nigeria.

The allegations by Ms Odumosu had been struck out in a family court in the UK for lacking merit.

PREMIUM TIMES could not get a copy of the family court judgement as it is against the laws of the UK to publish materials from a family court without obtaining approval from the judge. However, a British judge who rejected a Nigerian police request to extradite Mr Ogunnowo made reference to the family court ruling.

The issues with my ex-wife started when her mother started interfering in our marriage, Mr Ogunnowo said.

It got to a time when my mother-in-law approached my employer to make a request that my salary be paid into her account. I refused and this resulted in frequent issues in the house.

As a result of incessant domestic disputes, the police removed Mr Ogunnowo from their shared apartment in 2013.

Since then, my estranged wife and her mother have vowed to get me deported back to Nigeria, send me to prison, or have me killed, Mr Ogunnowo continued.

They have backed their threat with action by coming up with spurious, baseless, and malicious allegation of crime against me here in the UK. The allegations were duly investigated by both the UK Police and family court and I was found not culpable.

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Mr Ogunnowo further explained that after their failure to nail him in the UK, his estranged wife and her mother approached the Nigerian police to allege that he forged papers to secure a visa and also forged the birth certificate of his daughter in order to secure a visa for her.

She also said I belong to an evil gang in Nigeria, all these were what she presented against me in the UK. The UK government investigated and saw that the allegations were baseless.

The British police reprimanded her twice and the court later gave a restraining order. I have not been in touch with her whatsoever, neither is she allowed to contact me, he narrated.

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted Ms Odumosu about the matter, she refused to confirm her identity, claiming that there is no such person with the name, Eileen Adetokunbo, (formerly Eileen Adetokunbo Ogunnowo and now Eileen Odumosu) as contained in the statement she wrote to the Nigerian Police.

If this is a hoax or my estranged husband is trying to start indirectly harassing me again with him having a warning. I will inform the police, she later responded in a WhatsApp chat.

Mrs Odumosu did not reply to all questions asked about her statement to the Nigerian Police and what transpired between her and her estranged husband. Her number has since then been unreachable.

My Nigerian Police experience

Mr Ogunnowo said he has been a victim of harassment, extortion and abuse of human rights in the hands of the Nigerian police.

In a petition submitted to the Inspector-General of Police in 2019, he complained about conspiracy, malicious prosecution, official misconduct, abuse of office and breach of his fundamental human rights by the Nigerian police.

Mr Ogunnowo alleged that following the complaint by Ms Odumosu, a charge was filed against him at the Federal High Court in Abuja which he was unaware of until his extradition papers were sent to the UK.

My vindictive wife was able to buy the Nigerian police. It is disheartening to see how the police handled the matter without hearing my side of the story. The claimed police investigation was concluded and the extradition process without even investigating me.

The complainant does not even have a Nigerian passport, not a Nigerian, she does not live in Nigeria or ever went to Nigeria to write a statement at any police station in Nigeria. But the police took sides, after collecting money from her.

Mr Ogunnowo said the same officers who facilitated the charges against him after have since been exhorting him.

They collected over N1 million from me to facilitate the withdrawal of the charges against me, he said.

Mr Ogunnowo shared a proof of different payments made to one Olanrewaju Lawal, a police officer at the Interpol office in Abuja, who he said facilitated the extradition and assured to see to the withdrawal of the charges.

UK throws out extradition request

The request to extradite Mr Ogunnowo by the Nigerian government was dismissed at the Westminister Magistrate Court, London, for lacking merits needed for extradition.

PREMIUM TIMES obtained a copy of the judgment delivered by the District Judge (Magistrates Court), Michael Fanning, where he discharged the Requested Person (Mr Ogunnowo) on the grounds of inadequate particularization and inherently weak case.

The court findings state that the complainants statement was written in the Nigerian Police Pro-forma style and was written by the complainant herself without being physically present in Nigeria.

I strongly suspect she did that herself, in London. I am certainly no sure to the contrary. On this basis alone, I am compelled to order RPs discharged under s.84(5), the judge said while also making stating that the same allegations against Mr Ogunnowo had been dismissed by a UK family court.

According to the judge, the request to extradite Mr Ogunnowo appears to be only the second of such requests made of the UK by Nigeria and there are no established bilateral relations between Nigeria and the UK in respect of extradition.

The court noted that Mr Ogunnowo had gone to the police prior to the allegation being made, warning them that his estranged wife had threatened to make a malicious allegation against him.

In short, if he is extradited on what appears to be an inherently weak case, and faces potentially lengthy (and arbitrarily so) pre-trial detention in prison conditions that are wholly inadequate, that must amount to an impermissible interference with the Article 8 rights of RP and his family, the judge said.

It was on this basis that the court concluded that there was no extradition offence and discharged Mr Ogunnowo.

Nigerian Police React

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted Olanrewaju Lawal, an inspector of police at Interpol, he said there was an ongoing process to withdraw the case.

We are Interpol, it was the General Investigations (GI) in Lagos that investigated the matter. They only sent the request for extradition to us. Now that he requested a withdrawal, we have sent our report to GI.

It is for GI to write to us, if they write to us, we will write to the Ministry of Justice that they should withdraw the charges and extradition, he said.

Mr Lawal declined comments when asked if he received about N1 million from Mr Ogunnowo and why he did so.

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted Markus Basiran, the head of the Police Compliance Unit, he said a report had been submitted to the Inspector General of Police (IG) on the matter and comments should be sought from the Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba.

My report directly goes to the IG. I have sent my report to the IGs office, the IG will look at it and give a directive on that before it goes public. If there are inconsistencies or mistakes, administrative or otherwise, they will be the ones to vet it and determine when it goes public.

When asked whether there will be a withdrawal of the charges and extradition of Mr Ogunnowo, Mr Lawal said he can only make recommendations and it is the prerogative of the inspector-general of police to determine the outcome. He refused to disclose what his recommendations were.

All efforts to reach Mr Mba on the case, as well as how and why the police filed such criminal charges against Mr Ogunnowo without adequate investigation were unsuccessful as he did not respond to calls and text messages to his phone.
Ewan McGregor has voiced his support for Scottish independence, stating that the Brexit referendum has changed his mind on the issue.

The Moulin Rouge actor said that probably its time for Scotland to leave the UK.

Speaking via video chat on the US talk show Real Time with Bill Maher, McGregor said, I was always for keeping with the union, I think it worked, it works.

Then after the Brexit vote I think for sure Ive changed my tune about it. I think Scotland has been voting for a government that they havent been given for years.

McGregor, who is originally from Perth in Scotland, explained, Were a very left-voting country, Scotland, and weve been under conservative rule for years.

Actor starred in Danny Boyles iconic 1996 film Trainspotting

The Trainspotting star had previously spoken out against Scottish Independence. However, in a 2016 interview, he claimed that the Brexit vote in 2016 left him feeling totally confused.

The 49-year-old said he was in Scotland filming T2: Trainspotting when the Brexit vote took place.

After looking at the map of areas that were voting leave, McGregor told Maher, I thought thats it, you know. The Scottish people want to stay in the European Union and the English dont.

He concluded, So I just think, I think probably its time.

I think once Boris became prime minister, Scotland was like, Right thats it, were f***ing out of here, the Star Wars actor laughed.

McGregor has previously said that at the time of the Scottish referendum, he tried to steer clear of the independence debate because he was not allowed to vote in it and had not lived in Scotland since he was 17 years old.
By Trend

Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 31 times, Trend reports referring to Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.

Armenian armed forces were using sniper rifles.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The Louisiana Department of Health reported 1,353 more coronavirus cases and 33 more deaths in its daily noon update Sunday.

The number of hospitalizations declined by 43, and the number of patients in need of ventilators declined by 10.

Phase 3 in Louisiana: Some bars can reopen as other businesses expand capacity to 75% As Louisiana moves to Phase 3 of coronavirus reopening this weekend, some bars can reopen. The mask mandate will remain in place.

Sunday's totals reflect two days worth of data because the LDH does not give updates on Saturdays to ease the burden on its officials and on lab testing.

Here are a few key statewide statistics as of Sunday:

-- Total cases: 1,353

-- Total deaths: 5,065

-- Currently hospitalized: 680

-- Currently on ventilators: 107

Vaccine news in your inbox Once a week we'll update you on the progress of COVID-19 vaccinations. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

-- Presumed recovered: 140,440 as of Sept. 7 (updated weekly)

-- Probable cases: 935 as of Sept. 9 (updated weekly)

Note: The Advocate and The Times-Picayune staff calculates daily case count increases based on the difference between today's total and yesterday's total of confirmed coronavirus cases. The Louisiana Department of Health releases a daily case count on Twitter based on the deletion of duplicate cases. That case count can be different than the one listed here.

You can view more graphs and charts breaking down the data by clicking here.

Louisiana began reopening for Phase 1 on May 15-16 then moved to Phase 2 on June 5. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards extended Louisiana's Phase 2 restrictions twice in August before moving the state to Phase 3 on Sept. 11.

This is a developing story. More details and analysis to come.
Businesses need to run, and so do heavy duty vehicles, which is why mechanics who can keep these vehicles in working order are so important.

According to TireBusiness.coms article, Tackling the Truck Technician Shortage, a severe shortage of diesel technicians has been predicted by industry experts. With the retirement pending of baby boomers, who make up 40-50% of the active heavy-duty technicians, the demand is even greater. It also stated that freight tonnage has grown progressively with the demand of same-day, two-day and overnight shipping.

Michael Burns, Ph.D., Lone Star College Dean of Instruction, Career and Applied Technology, said the demand for entry level diesel technicians is very strong.

We still have employers looking to fill positions, Burns said. Its a continuing demand. The baby boomers are retiring at a high rate now. There was little push 20 years ago to enter the field. Now there is not just a hole, but a vacuum in the industry.

Darrin Brust, campus president, Universal Technical Institute  Houston campus, agreed stating that demand is expected to remain high through the pandemic and as the nation recovers. He added that the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated pre-pandemic there would be more than 110,000 job openings for auto, diesel, and collision repair technicians on average in the U.S. through 2028.

In an economic downturn, people and businesses keep vehicles longer. Trained technicians remain in demand, said Brust.

The demand is industry-wide added Burns.

The diesel industry touches most aspects of our day to day life, from transportation to power generation. All of these types of employers are experiencing the same gaps in their shops. Our field continues to be a very vital and necessary industry, Burns said.

Brust said that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security deemed diesel mechanics and technicians essential to supporting the nations infrastructure during the pandemic.

Employers continue to report a need for trained technicians, said Brust. During a global pandemic, it is vital to have trucks operating as they move essential needs such as food, medical supplies, and household products.

Getting the right credentials and training is imperative.

Burns said Lone Star Colleges Level 1/2 certificates are recognized as the minimum for entering the field.

The knowledge the students gain from these certificates along with some hands-on experience at a diesel shop can get them Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) certified, said Burns.

Brust stated employers have different requirements, depending on the job and their business needs, and there are also advantages to getting a certificate or a degree from a technical school.

We offer concentrated and highly specialized training programs without the need to also take general education courses, said Brust. Our programs can often be completed faster than at community college. Our curriculum is focused on providing specialized training with training aids and environment to give students a distinct edge.

UTI partners with manufacturers for specialized training on specific trucks and equipment. Employers also offer tuition reimbursement and other incentives to our graduates.

This is more important than ever, as trucks are more complex, and have their own unique systems and diagnostic software/equipment, Brust said.

For more information, visit www.lonestar.edu and www.uti.edu.
Two men were shot dead in separate incidents allegedly by some unidentified persons in northeast Delhis Dayalpur area, police said on Sunday. The deceased have been identified as Abdul Hamid (50) and Farukh (45), they said. The incidents took place on Saturday around 9 pm. Both the deceased were known to each other, police said. Police said that both the incidents took place within a span of 10 to 15 minutes.

According to a senior police officer, Hamid was present inside his office around 9 pm at Nehru Vihar when some unidentified persons fired multiple rounds at him. He died on the spot. After 10-15 minutes in Monga Nagar, Farukh was shot dead when he was standing near his factory. The accused later escaped from there, the officer said. Farukh was also declared dead on the spot. Both the deceased men knew each other. The bodies have been sent to the mortuary, they said. Police are investigating the case from all angles and also trying to find out whether the accused in both the cases were same or not.

Two cases have been registered and CCTV cameras of the area are being scanned to identify the accused persons, the officer said. Farukh was a history-sheeter with involvements in Uttar Pradesh, police said.
Total planned investment is around 500 million USD over five years to raise manufacturing capacity

over five years to raise manufacturing capacity Continues long-term strategy of increasing capacity to respond to growing industry demand and new market opportunities

Cytiva hiring nearly 1,000 personnel in Austria , China , Singapore , Sweden , Switzerland , and the United States

, , , , , and New manufacturing lines, 24/7 shift patterns, and increased automation will deliver additional manufacturing capacity

AMERSHAM, United Kingdom, Sept. 13, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cytiva, a global life sciences leader, is expanding its manufacturing capacity and hiring personnel in key areas to support the long-term growth of the biotechnology industry.

Emmanuel Ligner, President and CEO, Cytiva, says: "We know from our customers that availability and lead time are the most important considerations after quality. Cytiva's long-term commitment is to deliver the best product, at the right time, and support our customers with expertise. The industry is growing rapidly, now even more due to COVID-19. Accelerating this investment will reinforce these commitments."

While the COVID-19 pandemic is increasing short-term demand, the biotherapeutics industry was already predicted to grow by double digits between now and 20251. Cytiva's global product manufacturing and distribution network encompasses 13 sites across Asia, the Americas, and Europe. The investments, totaling around 500 million USD, will respond to in-region, for-region demand, bolster security of supply through dual manufacturing, and increase overall global capacity in key product areas.

Cytiva is investing in talent, too, hiring nearly 1,000 people around the world. Ligner says: "We're acquiring talent in every area of our business, from commercial to those on production lines, in order to better serve customers for the long term."

Single-use technologies are used to manufacture 85%2 of the biologics currently in pre-commercial and clinical manufacturing lines. As regulatory approvals occur, demand for single-use products at manufacturing scale is expected to grow substantially. Through additional equipment and infrastructure at multiple sites, Cytiva's capacity to manufacture single-use products will more than double.

In Asia-Pacific, single-use capacity will triple through a partnership with one of the largest healthcare technology suppliers in China, Wego, which is already producing consumables for Cytiva's customers in the region.

Cell culture media production will increase thanks to new manufacturing lines and cleanroom space in Logan, Utah, as well as additional shifts and personnel. The Singapore and Pasching, Austria locations are increasing output through more personnel and additional work shifts. This follows on from a tenfold increase in powdered cell culture media production announced in May 2018.

The manufacturing capacity of Cytiva's MabSelect and Capto chromatography product platforms has doubled, as part of a 70 million USD per year (2017 - 2022) capacity gains and facility modernization program at its Uppsala, Sweden site. Now, the plant is fully automated with the latest technology to allow continuous manufacturing. Other elements include the capacity extension of the Sephadex resin, setting-up additional facilities for in-house manufacturing, and the development of automation and digitalization infrastructure.

Cytiva is also enabling the rapidly growing cell and gene therapy market through an investment in a new facility in Grens, Switzerland to manufacture single-use kits for its Sepax and Sefia cell processing systems.

Cytiva has a longstanding and comprehensive Security of Supply program in place which enables manufacturing output to respond to market demands while ensuring that operations and service capabilities continue safely. For some product lines, part of the solution is having multiple sites able to deliver to customers.

Ligner says: "Dual manufacturing assures our customers that if one location encounters capacity constraints, we have plenty of back-up ready to activate."

About Cytiva

Cytiva is a global life sciences leader with over 7,000 associates across 40 countries dedicated to advancing and accelerating therapeutics. As a trusted partner to customers that range in scale and scope, Cytiva brings speed, efficiency, and capacity to research and manufacturing workflows, enabling the development, manufacture, and delivery of transformative medicines to patients.

1 BioPlan's 2020 Report and Survey of Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Capacity and Production, p 29

2 BioPlan's 2020 Report and Survey of Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Capacity and Production, p 58

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1252653/Cytiva_Capacity_Expansion.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1138636/cytiva_Logo.jpg
Australias Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton on Sunday defended the governments right to intelligence raids to prevent foreign interference, after China condemned searches on the homes of its journalists working in Australia.

Dutton declined to directly confirm that the Chinese journalists were questioned by Australias intelligence agency in June, saying an investigation was still underway, but said there was some activity by the countrys intelligence agency.

Where (the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) has sufficient grounds for the execution of a search warrant, or for activities otherwise, then theyll undertake that activity, Dutton said on the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) television.

If people are masquerading as journalists or business leaders or whoever they might be, and theres evidence that they are acting in a contrary nature to Australian law, then .... (the) agencies will act.

The raids were revealed by Chinas foreign ministry last week in the wake of two Australian journalists departing China after questioning by Chinese police. Australias trade minister said on Friday the agencies acted on evidence related to a foreign interference investigation.

On Saturday, Chinas state media condemned the raids.

Relations between Australia and its top trading partner China have been deteriorating gradually over the recent years and have soured further this year after Canberra called for an investigation into the origins of the novel coronavirus, angering Beijing.

China has imposed trade restrictions on products including barley and wine, prompting Australia to tighten national security tests for foreign investment.
Donald Trump has said he has signed a new executive order aimed at lowering the cost of medicines in the United States.

Critics of Americas healthcare system - among then progressives such as Bernie Sanders - have long denounced the fact that prescription medicine costs far more in the US compared to other nations.

The president has often vowed to take on big pharma, which benefits from the fact the government does not regulate prices, unlike many countries where government agencies negotiate prices for every drug.

During the 2016 campaign he said he would lower their cost, and his first speech to the joint houses of Congress in February 2017, he vowed to bring them down immediately.

 Trump signs executive orders on lowering drug prices

Critics say he has not done that.

On Sunday he tweeted that he had signed a new executive order aimed at lowering drug prices in the United States by linking them to those of other nations.

My Most Favored Nation order will ensure that our Country gets the same low price Big Pharma gives to other countries. The days of global freeriding at Americas expense are over, he wrote.

Also just ended all rebates to middlemen, further reducing prices.

The details of the order were not immediately clear.

The president this summer signed four executive orders that he claimed would lower the costs of medicine.

These included allowing certain drugs to be imported from Canada and making changes to the way discounts negotiated by middlemen were passed on to Medicare patients.

A report by the House Ways and Means committee published last year found individual drug prices in the country ranged from 708 to 4,833 per cent higher than the combined mean price in 11 other countries studied.

On average, US drug prices were 3.7 times higher than the combined average of the other 11 countries.
By Naini Thaker

The Covid-19 outbreak has brought untold miseries to many businesses, but the healthtech landscape has grown through it, devising ingenious mechanisms and technologies to fight the public health crisis. According to DataLabs by Inc42+s Indias Healthtech Landscape In A Post-Covid-19 World Report 2020, the size of the healthtech market in India is likely to touch $21 billion by 2025.

Forbes India looks at five such startups in a series. Today, we will look at Pune-based Nocca Robotics, which moved from cleantech to healthtechmaking robots that clean solar panels to making ventilators.

While the lockdowns restricted the availability of raw materials, broke the supply chain, and made labour scarce, a number of healthtech startups augmented or revamped their existing resources to fight Covid-19. Take for instance, Telangana-based Marut Dronetechs drones that were re-engineered to help with disinfection and surveillance across 19 districts in Telangana, or Bengaluru-based Invento Robotics that launched two robots and also raised 2 crore in the process.

Founded in 2017, Punes Nocca Robotics saw an opportunity to diversify during the pandemic. While moving from cleantech to healthtechmaking robots that clean solar panels to making ventilatorswas never a part of the plan, the lockdown forced IIT-Kanpur graduates Nikhil Kurele and Harshit Rathore to think of ways to survive.

Our investors warned us the pandemic was here to stay and we should plan our cashflows for the next one year, and asked us to look for new opportunities, Rathore says.

Around the same time, the director of IIT-Kanpurs incubation centre contacted them with a list of items that would help the government fight Covid-19. After mulling over some ideas, they decided to make ventilators. Our first concept for the ventilator was created overnight. We took it to a some doctors to further develop the idea. says Kurele, We decided to focus on getting the product right, even if it meant a delay in getting to the market.

The commercial production for their ventilatorNoccarc V310started around mid-July. Even now, after all the validation and certification we have, we ensure every ventilator is tested at least 24 hours before it reaches the market, says Kurele. Their facility, which was earlier used to make solar panel-cleaning robots, is now used entirely to make ventilators. Our production capacity is 1,000 units per month. We are getting orders mostly from private hospitals or CSR wings of companies who wish to donate ventilators, says Rathore.

The startup has received a total funding of $1.9 million so far, with most of it coming from Indian Angel Network Fund, and the rest from IIT-Kanpur and other angel investors. After the pivot in our technology, we have seen a lot more interest in funding in the last couple of months, says Kurele.

Along with funding, the company is also growing in revenue and team strength. From a team of 19, they now have 55 people. Since we halted commercial sales last year for research, we clocked in less than 1 crore. This year we are hoping to make 20 crore, says Rathore.

Seeing the rise in demand for high-flow oxygen therapy for moderately critical Covid-19 patients, Nocca has launched a low-cost High Flow Nasal Cannula (HFNC) device. A lot of hospitals cannot afford ventilators now, we have seen a lot of demand for HFNCs from them, says Rathore, adding that the existing ICU ventilator V310 also includes the HFNC function. The approximate cost for the Noccarc V310 ventilator is 4 lakh.

Now with things opening up, Nocca plans to restart and scale up operations for its cleaning robots. But at the same time, they wish to continue in the health care space. We are looking for a bigger factory space, where we can simultaneously produce ventilators and the robots, says Kurele.

(This article first appeared in Forbes India, here
New Delhi [India], September 13 (ANI): Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu has undergone a COVID-19 test ahead of the monsoon session in Parliament, informed the Vice Presidents Secretariat on Sunday.



The secretariat further informed that it is mandatory for all members of the Upper House to undergo a COVID-19 test before attending the session. Preparing himself to preside over the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament beginning on September 14, 2020, Chairman, Rajya Sabha, M Venkaiah Naidu underwent COVID-19 test today. It is mandatory for each member to undergo COVID-19 test (RT-PCR) before attending the upcoming session, according to an advisory issued to all Rajya Sabha members, the Vice President Secretariat said in a statement.



As per the secretariats statement, the members have been asked to get their test done within 72 hours before the commencement of the session at any hospital/laboratory authorised by the government or at Parliament House Complex.



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The secretariat further said that in order to ensure social distancing norms, the Rajya Sabha chamber, galleries, and the Lok Sabha chamber will be used to seat members57 of whom will be accommodated in the chamber and 51 in galleries of Rajya Sabha. The remaining 136 will be seated in the chamber of Lok Sabha. In all, there are 244 members and one seat is vacant.



Four large display screens in the chamber will show the members speaking and there will be seamless live telecast of the proceedings on Rajya Sabha TV. In addition, six smaller display screens and audio consoles have been installed in the four galleries, the statement read.



Various Parliamentary papers including List of Business, Bulletins, Bills/ and ordinances would be sent to members only through an electronic mechanism. Members can access their portal accounts. Accordingly, the circulation of hard copies of these papers is being discontinued. Members may bring their e-Reader devices to the House to refer to the Parliamentary papers or carry print-outs of the same for their use, it added. (ANI)

Also read: Pakistan dismisses Indias request for Indian lawyer to represent Kulbhushan Jadhavs case
As the supporters of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput continue to join in prayers seeking justice for the Bollywood star, his sister Shweta Singh Kirti has appealed to Sushants well-wishers to make a prayer anytime between 10:45 am and 12 noon on Sunday terming it as an auspicious period of planetary confluence'.

Kirti and her family, which firmly believes in the power of prayer and astronomical influence, have said that several major planets would be in their own houses before noon and hence it would be a propitious moment to pray for Sushant.

An extraordinary planetary confluence is set to happen today between 10.45 am and 12 noon.Most of the major planets will be in their 'own houses'.This is a very auspicious period or muhurtham to pray for Sushants Justice. #UnitedForSSRJustice pic.twitter.com/p9Dhs7KPrK  Shweta Singh Kirti (@shwetasinghkirt) September 13, 2020

READ | Sushant Case Exclusive: Key CBI Witness Says, 'SSR Never Consumed Drugs During Kedarnath'

SSR gets Kolkata tribute before Durga Puja

Earlier in the day, fans of Sushant Singh Rajput continued to pay rich tributes to their icon in different ways and remember him for his outstanding performances. One such fan of Sushant is an artist in Kolkata who has drawn paintings of the late actor ahead of Durga Puja.

Manas Rai, an artist in Kolkata, paid a heartwarming tribute to the late actor through his painting. He stated that Sushant would have been the appropriate choice to represent Goddess Durga's son Kartik in a movie. The 34-year-old actor was found dead at his Mumbai residence on June 14 and central probe agencies are investigating the matter.

READ | Dr Swamy Claims Agencies Have Enough For CBI To Prove Sushant's 'murder By Conspiracy'

"Sushant Singh Rajput was a very good artist. He had a lot give but sadly he passed away. If a movie would have been made on Kartik, Sushant would have been the apt choice," Rai told ANI.

Sampa Chakraborty, a member of a Puja committee in the city, said that people see an impression of Kartik in Sushant.

"This year, Sushant Singh Rajput's face is being created in place of Goddess Durga's son Kartik as a mark of tribute to him," she said.

READ | 'Uddhav Thackeray Not Welcome In Ayodhya' Say Angered Seers & VHP Over Kangana Row

Sushant's case death probe

Meanwhile, the CBI investigation into the case is still underway, after taking over from Mumbai Police, which had first investigated the case. At this point, it is being probed by as many as three separate central agencies - the NCB and ED along with CBI.

Rhea is currently lodged in the Byculla jail till September 22, following her arrest by the Narcotics Control Bureau, after links emerged in a drug nexus probe with which her brother and Sushant's staff Dipesh Sawant are also connected and under arrest. The agency had started the probe on the basis of evidence provided by the Enforcement Directorate, which is also probing the financial impropriety allegations levelled by Sushants family.

READ | Sushant Case Exclusive: Key CBI Witness Says, 'SSR Never Consumed Drugs During Kedarnath'
It's one of the more curious aspects of cancel culture that the cancellations themselves never seem to be especially permanent. The attention span of the mob wanes as new victims are sought and yesterday's heretics are pulled from the fires to discuss their singed careers and shaken self-belief. JK Rowling has a new novel in the pipeline. Louis CK was back onstage just last month. And now Kevin Myers, against whom JK herself led the pitchfork charge, has prised the nails from his own coffin.

He has a new book out. It's a memoir of his long career in journalism, spanning a Douglas Gageby-era Irish Times through periods as a war correspondent in the Middle East and the Balkans. There are gripping, and at times moving, accounts of his scrapes in war zones, where his instinct for self-preservation vies with his obsession with generating good copy. There's sex - he reveals he had one encounter with Monica Carr and turned down Frankie Byrne.

And there's a sense of him that was thoroughly lost in the orgy of outrage at his fateful Sunday Times column - that he can be quite funny. At one point, half-cut on champagne, he can't remember how to address the Queen, who is standing in front of him, and so settles for Mumm - the brand of said champagne. If One was amused, One didn't let on. The wry humour is a reminder that there was always so much more to Myers than controversy.

And yet the title of the book, Burning Heresies, inevitably draws us back to the Sunday Times article which finished his journalism career. The 2017 column had a headline which he says he didn't write: "Sorry, ladies - equal pay has to be earned", and noted that two of the best-paid female presenters at the BBC, Claudia Winkleman and Vanessa Feltz, were Jewish. Myers wrote: "Good for them. Jews are not generally noted for their insistence on selling their talent for the lowest possible price, which is the most useful measure there is of inveterate, lost-with-all-hands stupidity."

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He got his first inkling of the storm to come as he drove to Cork on the Sunday the article appeared. "That's Kevin Myers, he's very, very famous," he heard a man in a petrol station tell his young son. "And he's in big, big trouble."

The Sunday Times apologised but the damage was done. Rowling called the column "filth". Leo Varadkar deemed it "misogynistic and anti-Semitic". Dara O Briain tweeted that a national "blowhard" had found a bigger stage. And you suspect that there was a tiny part of Myers that relished the infamy. Although North Korea had just fired a nuclear missile, his ill-advised column was the biggest news story "around the world", he notes.

He was dropped by the Sunday Times and there was a general pile-on, with his former colleagues at the Irish Times, Fintan O'Toole and Kathy Sheridan, among those lambasting him in print.

"There are no words to describe what happened to me," Myers says over tea at a Dublin hotel. "I don't think there was a single other journalist in Irish life who has experienced anything like it I completely withdrew, I didn't sleep for three days and then, I think on the Thursday, I got something like two or three hours' sleep. The purpose was to destroy me."

Given his reputation as a fearless controversialist, it might have been satisfying if he had stuck to his guns regarding the sentiments and language in the piece but once the storm gathered, Myers was full of regret.

"Obviously what I said was very foolish and I bitterly regret not only my foolishness but the offence I caused," he says now. "But the whole thing has to be taken in the context of the person making the observation and his intent. Was it my intent to make an anti-Semitic observation? No! Was it my intention to make a misogynistic observation? No! Over the previous 17 years, nobody had accused me of any of those things."

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And yet while the spectacle of the pile-on was itself a bit nauseating, there was a sense that Myers had this reaction - or something like it - coming. A rummage through his archive reveals that while the pot-stirring pieces were not quite as frequent as they seem in memory, he certainly ran roughshod over a lot of political correctness, and got away with it in a way that others didn't.

While the mob was coming for John Waters during the marriage referendum, for instance, it ignored Myers, who had even more objectionable views on gay marriage. While deploring the earlier criminalisation of homosexuality in Ireland, Myers also wrote that he would not like it if gay marriage became part of international law. He doubted in print how a gay couple - male or female - could consummate a marriage. Of gay adoption, he wrote: "Today babies are to be allocated in order to enrich the adoptive parents' lives, and make menopausal lesbians feel useful."

"That's not anti-gay! A lot of gays would say that," he responds when I repeat the quote. "It's just an opinion. You can't pigeonhole someone into groupings like misogynist, anti-gay, merely because they have opinions about how family life should be conducted."

His statements on the Holocaust seem, if anything, even more filled with contradictions. He once wrote a column in the Irish Independent with the headline, "I am a Holocaust denier" (which he says he didn't write) but RTE, which took this literally, later had to make an apology because Morning Ireland apparently failed to look at the overall context, which showed that he definitely was not a Holocaust denier.

Even here, there is an intellectual maze in which the listener might struggle to locate the exit. The most famous Holocaust denier of the last few decades has been David Irving, whose research Myers once wrote was "often brilliant" and whose "work on Hitler is conclusively adamant". "Any researcher who has looked at Irving says that his research is brilliant," Myers tells me. "His research is astonishing. His judgments based on that research are mad."

What of Irving's belief that three million, rather than the more widely accepted six million, Jews were murdered during the Holocaust?

"Even the Holocaust museum in Israel still hasn't got a handle on the number," Myers responds. "In this book, I say that the number could be well over six million because of the numbers of Russian Jews killed as soldiers. These number things get us nowhere. The numbers change every day."

As with the gay issue - where his talisman against accusations of homophobia was his admissions of his own adolescent homosexual curiosity - he has (to him) an unimpeachable alibi on the Jewish question. "Why would the Jewish Council of Ireland have said that Kevin Myers has told the Irish people the truth about the Holocaust? They wouldn't have invited me to so many events if they thought that I was in any way anti-Semitic."

I feel slightly guilty at re-litigating these arguments with him, even if controversy was once his stock-in-trade. He reserves the right to disagree with his old columns, which seems fair enough. And there is a note of vulnerability in his otherwise imperious manner. The last few years have been tough on him. His hair went white. He didn't sleep well for years. I catch sight of the old-fashioned Nokia on the table in front of him and it's a reminder that this is a 73-year-old man who lost his livelihood.

His florid and sometimes archaic speech reminds me a little of Stephen Fry and, like Fry, he had a difficult adolescence, only flourishing when he went to college. Myers grew up in Leicester in England in a very Catholic household. His father, a GP, died when he was 15 and he says he suffered grief for years after that, which impacted his performance in school. Ireland represented an escape from all that.

"I failed all my A-Levels twice over and that was why UCD was so significant to me. The only place that offered me escape from mediocrity was Ireland. I had lots of family living in Dublin."

As he describes it, he sort of fell into journalism. "There was no plan. My only plan was to bring about revolution and have sex with as many women as possible. Neither of those was especially successful."

He worked in Northern Ireland for much of the Troubles, a period covered in his brilliant 2006 memoir, Watching the Door. He speculates that by the time he came back to Dublin, he was suffering from a form of PTSD, for which he self-medicated. "My drinking at all hours in my flat in Mountjoy Square was deranged but I never had counselling or therapy. But it never goes away. I tried to bury the trauma, and walk away. I still remember events regularly but I don't have flashbacks. They're fleeting, not obsessive."

He began contributing to the Irish Times but he and the then editor Gageby had a clash of personalities. Gageby "has a family who will not like it [the new book]. I had a great deal of respect for him, he was a complex man. He didn't like me but he ran a good newspaper. We had different personalities and different perspectives. He knew quite early on that I didn't subscribe to the general myths that he did. He didn't subscribe to the idea that I was a rising star. He didn't want me to write An Irishman's Diary but a lot of people didn't want the job, which was five days a week at that time."

The idea that it was an incessantly pot-stirring column is wrong, he says. "In the early days, the 1980s, it wasn't an opinion column, it was taking the odd and ends of country life and writing approvingly of them. The reputation of me holding controversial opinions was put about by people who disagreed with my views but for the most part, there was no controversy. Throughout my years as a columnist, many more people agreed with what I wrote than disagreed, that is just historical fact. I never set out to provoke."

Myers met his wife Rachel, a musician and 22 years his junior, when he wrote about her for the Irish Times. A working-class Dubliner, Rachel is a sister of broadcaster and former Big Brother star Anna Nolan. To some he and Rachel might have seemed an unlikely pairing. "We were an unlikely pairing in that the age difference was so vast," he responds. "Otherwise no, because she and her entire family - there are seven children - are incredibly intelligent and conversational and they were the most incredible family to marry into." She has sometimes taken issue with what he has written, he adds, but for the most part they have not discussed his work.

He sounds a bleak note about modern media - "the Titanic is going down with astonishing speed. There will hardly be a newspaper left by 2030" - but you get the feeling that he would still like to be a part of it. "I would like to contribute, but what journalist today would take the risks that George Hook, John Waters or Mary Ellen Synon - none of whom I agree with - took?"

He spends his days now "walking my dogs, reading and writing articles and books that might possibly see the light of day when sanity is restored to the world, probably around 2045".

Could he foresee a rehabilitation for himself? "People have come back from the dead - Toby Young has done so in England. But there is a resistance now to being exposed to ideas with which one disagrees. I'm very sorry I'm not writing now, I'd love to be writing about events in the world, but let's face it, it's not going to happen."

Burning Heresies: A Memoir of a Life in Conflict 1979-2020 is published by Merrion Press 19.95
A horrifying video has emerged showing police officers booting an unmasked man in the head during a brutal arrest in Melbourne.

Shocking footage posted online on Sunday shows a group of officers chasing a man on to the median strip of a road in Epping in the city's north.

Once surrounded, an officer can be seen kicking the shirtless man as he lay flat on the ground, rolling him into a face-down position.

As the man wriggles in an attempt to get up, a second officer kicks his head down.

The group of six officers then pile on to the man's back to pin him down before putting him in handcuffs.

Police officers were filmed (pictured) kicking a man during a brutal arrest in Epping, in Melbourne's north, on Sunday afternoon

Distressed onlookers watching the skirmish unfold pulled over in their car to film.

'Are you f*****g kidding me?' the driver can be heard saying.

The motorist then yells at the police to stop kicking the man before his passenger urges him to be quiet.

Victoria Police said the incident unfolded after officers were called to Cooper Street to reports of a male behaving erratically about 4.10pm.

'Upon arrival the male allegedly became aggressive and damaged a police vehicle whilst attempting to avoid arrest,' a police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia .

'During the highly dynamic incident a police officer was assaulted and OC spray was deployed before the man was arrested and subsequently taken to hospital for assessment.'

The arrest has been referred to Professional Standards Command.

The disturbing incident came just hours after hundreds of protesters clashed with police during a violent anti-lockdown demonstration at the Queen Victoria Market, in the city's CBD.

Victorian police officers arrest a female protester near the Queen Victoria Markets, during a popup anti-mask and anti lockdown protest at the market on Sunday

A sea of police descended on the demonstration, which saw 74 people arrested and 176 infringement notices issued

A police motorcycle rider could be seen knocking an anti-lockdown protester to the ground as tensions escalated over the Victorian government's strict coronavirus restrictions

Up to 250 residents amassed as tensions escalate over the city's Stage Four restrictions, which prohibit Melburnians from leaving home for non-essential reasons.

Protesters chanting 'Freedom' and 'Power to the people' were outnumbered by officers, with some demonstrators throwing fruit at police after raiding market stalls.

Seventy four people were arrested and at least 176 infringement notices were issued for breaching the Chief Health Officer directions.

Police said many protesters were aggressive and threatened violence towards officers, however no members of the force were injured.

'It was extremely disappointing to see people not just protesting, but putting the lives of other Victorians at risk despite all the warnings,' a Victoria Police spokesperson said.

A woman was detained by police as hundreds flocked to Melbourne's CBD to demand restrictions be eased

'Our investigations into this protest will continue, and we expect to issue further fines once the identity of individuals has been confirmed.'

Footage of violent scuffles and officers on horseback moving through a group inside the market has been posted online.

'There were a few tense moments when protesters started grabbing fruit and throwing it at police,' photographer Erik Anderson said from the scene.

Protesters yelled 'this is not a police state' and 'you've got to be on the right side of history'.

Huge crowds of protesters were filmed marching down empty streets in Melbourne, calling for Daniel Andrews to ease the city's draconian lockdown restrictions.

One man was spotted kicking a police horse as officers attempted to calm crowds hurling abuse at them as they rode through the markets.

Melbourne remains in a Stage Four lockdown, meaning residents cannot leave their houses without a valid reason, and restrictions are in place to limit movement more than 5km from a person's home.

A woman hangs out of a car window near police wearing masks during the anti-lockdown protest

A man appeared to be in pain as officers restrained his arms as he laid on the cement

Pictures taken at the scene show officers shepherding protesters through the streets and arresting people who do not comply with orders

The restrictions remain in place, and both a State of Emergency and State of Disaster, have been extended a further four weeks despite the embattled state only recording 41 new cases and seven deaths on Sunday.

The latest figures released on Sunday morning take the state's death toll to 723 and the national count to 810 since the start of the pandemic in late January.

Leading up to the demonstration, organisers used encrypted phone apps to communicate, in an attempt to avoid police finding out the location of the planned rally, the Herald Sun reported.

In messages sent to participants, organisers encouraged people to 'be agile, like water' and stick together throughout the course of the day.

'Be ready to swarm the location to assemble. Once we have assembled, we are all safe,' one of the organisers said.

Police previously vowed to issue more $1,652 fines ahead of Sunday's protest.

Police arrest a protester during an anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne, Sunday, September 13

Mounted police used their horses to break through heavy congestion, moving people along in the process

'Police had significant prevention activity in the lead up to and duration of today's which included visiting 90 persons of interest to urge them not to attend,' a police statement on Saturday said.

'Our investigations into this protest will continue, and we expect to issue further fines once the identity of individuals has been confirmed.'

'Anyone thinking of attending a protest can expect the same swift and firm response from police as has occurred today and at previous protests that were in breach of Chief Health Officer restrictions.'

Friction between authorities and residents has been heating since Premier Dan Andrews declared a state of disaster and ordered Victoria into lockdown on August 2.

Footage of violent scuffles and officers on horseback moving through a group inside the market has been posted online

One man was arrested after calling out to police and showing them an anti-government sign on Saturday morning

In response to growing resistance to restrictions, police have stepped up enforcement measures on those caught breaching COVID-19 laws, with videos of dramatic arrests going viral online.

Hours before the weekend's protest, a young woman was filmed being dragged from her car by police at a COVID blockade in Wallan, 60km north of Melbourne.

Natalie Bonett, 29, was stopped and told it was against the law to have her phone attached to a car charger which was mounted onto her windshield.

When she refused to state her name or step out of the vehicle, an officer reached into the car to remove her as she screamed and resisted.

A clip earlier this month featured a pregnant woman being arrested in front of her young children after posting about an anti-lockdown rally online, while another man's door was kicked down for the same offence.

An hour before an ultrasound appointment, Zoe-Lee Buhler, 28, was handcuffed on September 2 over Facebook live stream from her Ballarat home and charged with incitement after allegedly organising a protest via social media.

The heavy enforcements have drawn public scrutiny, including from a man claiming to be a former Victorian police officer, who slammed the Andrews government's response to coronavirus as 'disgusting'.

Footage of violent scuffles and officers on horseback moving through a group inside the market has been posted online

Speaking to Rebel News at a Freedom Protest last week, the man said Victoria had turned into a police state and the strict measures were unwarranted.

'I'm disgusted by the way the police handled these two incidents,' he told reporter Avi Yemini, reflecting on the viral arrests.

'I'm an ex-copper. Coppers can do no wrong as far as I'm concerned, but that is just absolutely beyond the pale.

'I didn't mind the lockdown originally, but now it is just becoming a joke. We feel like the French resistance in World War Two.

'The whole scenario is just not what it should be.'

Another mask-wearer was seen being spoken to by an officer while holding a sign that read: 'I am just exercising...my human rights'

A man wears a face shield with Mr Andrews' head on the back while speaking to police at the march

The 64-year-old said the force was different when he served in the 80s and 90s because officers would 'punch on with hard criminals, not people'.

Based on his experiences working in courts, the man said experts could be hired to say what is wanted by those who employee them.

The man said he believes heath experts' advice is being guided by the directives of the Andrews' government.

A woman, who said she also an ex-member of the Victorian police force, agreed with his sentiments.

'I am also disgusted with the state of affairs,' she commented on a video of the interview posted online.

'In particular, the attitude and behaviour of VicPol in this whole sorry saga

'What a disgrace.'

Under the state's emergency declaration, Victorian police have been granted extraordinary powers, including the ability to seize private property, enter people's homes and stop them in the street.

A man, who claims to be a former Victorian police officer (centre), said he is 'disgusted' by how the lockdown has been managed

A woman, who said she also an ex-member of the Victorian police force, said she felt the attitude and behaviour of officers during lockdown has been disgusting

On Sunday, Mr Andrews announced an extension of the State of Emergency and State of Disaster in Victoria.

Minister for Health Jenny Mikakos said the extension of the State of Emergency, which will now last until at least October 11, was crucial for the implementation of necessary COVID-safe guidelines.

'The State of Emergency ensures we have all the tools we need to fight this virus  keeping all of us safe,' she said.

Meanwhile Minister for Police and Emergency Services Lisa Neville said it wasn't an easy decision to make.

'Extending a State of Disaster is never a decision we make lightly  and it won't be in place a moment longer than it needs to be,' she said on Sunday.

'We are at a critical point right now. And we have to do everything we can to hold onto the gains we've made, which means giving Victoria Police everything they need to enforce the Chief Health Officer's directions as we keep driving down cases.'

The Andrews government on Sunday announced a financial rescue package that will inject up to $1.1billion into small and medium sized businesses that are most affected by restrictions.

A further $251million will be dedicated solely to support bars, restaurants, pubs, clubs and hotels which have been decimated during the two lockdowns.

The Licenced Venue Fund will provide grants of up to $30,000 to venues, while the government has also waived liquor license fees for 2021.

What is the difference between a 'State of Emergency' and a 'State of Disaster'? State of Emergency A State of Emergency can be declared when there is a serious risk to public health. It first came into effect in Victoria on March 16 to give Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton wide-ranging powers to enforce new coronavirus restrictions. Professor Sutton had the authority to direct health officials to detain people, force entire suburbs and regions into lockdown or search premises without a warrant if he felt it was necessary to protect the health of the public. The State of Emergency initially allowed the government to enforce social distancing and mandatory quarantine. State of Disaster While the State of Emergency grants powers to Professor Sutton, a State of Disaster grants additional powers to police and enforcement agencies. The State of Disaster came into effect on August 2nd and has faced several one month extensions since then. To declare a State of Disaster, the premier must be concerned that an emergency 'constitutes or is likely to constitute a significant and widespread danger to life or property in Victoria'. A pandemic, plague or epidemic falls into this bracket. The State of Disaster allows the enforcement of curfews and restrictions of movement within a city. Advertisement

Zoe Buhler, 28, was handcuffed in her lounge room in front of her children on Wednesday afternoon and charged with incitement

'For our state to recover, we need our businesses to recover too. As we take our first safe and steady steps towards COVID Normal, this support will help make sure we get through this together,' Mr Andrews said.

'We'll continue meeting with and listening to businesses, so we can do everything we can to support them and their workers.'

From Monday, the city of Melbourne will move from the strict Stage Four lockdown into the first step of the roadmap toward reopening.

While modest, the changes will allow for more time outdoors and social interactions.

Mr Andrews said if numbers were kept low the state could open with 'real confidence' and keep them low.

'You can open up and stay open,' he said. 'That is what we want and that is what we will deliver.

Mr Andrews (pictured at a press conference on September 11) has extended the State of Emergency and State of Disaster for a month

'That is what we will deliver in regional Victoria and right across metropolitan Melbourne, not bouncing in and out of lockdowns, but making sure that everything that Victorians have given counts for something and delivers us, as I said, a summer that will be like no other.'

People living alone or single parents will be able to invite one other person into their homes.

Mr Andrews said he would allow 'social bubbles' even when exercising outdoors, which will now be extended to up to two hours per day - which can be split over two sessions.

Playgrounds and outdoor fitness equipment will reopen, and Melbourne's 8pm lockdown has been pushed back to 9pm.

Regional Victoria will also enjoy the loosening of several restrictions after successfully stemming the spread of the virus.

Up to five people from two separate households will be able to gather in public places, while outdoor pools and playgrounds will also open.

Religious services will be able to go ahead with up to five people.
This week's March On Kansas City established peaceful protest as the continuing standard March on Kansas City, September 4. // Hundreds of protesters gathered downtown in front of police headquarters in the middle of a hot, summer afternoon on Friday, September 4th. They were there to participate in The March on Kansas City to honor the 57th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's March on Washington.

As the election approaches, there's a battle for the "social justice protest" narrative.Here at TKC we'veand violent confrontation with police that occurredagainst police brutality.Earlier this year we remember that the Country Club Plaza enduredof violent confrontation with law enforcement.Now, here's a look at "progressives" attempting to erase that history with a more hopeful vision.And whilst this protest was, in fact, peaceful . . . This year that has been the exception and not the rule.Checkit:
It was a struggle Saturday afternoon for Yvan Pierrelouis just to shift from his wheelchair to a stretcher outside a rehab center at 18th and Lombard Streets.

Two medical technicians from the NYPD, sent to Philadelphia to bring home a fellow officer, supported his weight.

Im like, holding back my tears, said Diane Latham, Pierrelouis' daughter.

One hundred and thirty-six days earlier, Latham had rushed from work to drive from Philadelphia to North Shore University Hospital on Long Island to see her father on what doctors said would be his deathbed. Even then, she refused to accept the diagnosis.

I just never believed it in my heart, she said. I never thought it was the end.

Latham, a nurse at Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, was shocked by what COVID-19 had done to her father when she saw him April 29.

The robust, garrulous New York City police lieutenant was unconscious on a ventilator, bloated by 50 pounds of fluid, with sores on his face from lying on his stomach, a position that helps COVID-19 patients breathe. His doctor told Latham and her mother, Isabelle, he would soon be taken off the ventilator whether they approved or not. Pierrelouis had no chance of surviving, Latham recalled the doctor saying, and the ventilator was needed for other patients.

Saturday, Latham escorted her father out of Good Shepherd Penn Partners in Center City. He needed a wheelchair, still too weak to walk any distance, and oxygen tubes snaked out from beneath his surgical mask. But he was alive.

Weve seen people who have been as sick as him, but not just to have a recovery that was so prolonged, but ultimately was so successful , said Andrew Courtwright, a Penn transplant pulmonologist who oversaw Pierrelouis' treatment. Its a remarkable testament to him and his family.

All told, Pierrelouis spent 75 days comatose on a ventilator, and for the past two months, has contended with an arduous physical and emotional recovery from the trauma. While he lay unconscious, he was treated at three hospitals, finally being brought to Penn, where his daughter works as a nurse.

Pierrelouis himself never believed he would die from the virus. The 59-year-old said hes always been a fighter.

Im an immigrant you know, he said. Thats why I work so hard for my children to be better than me.

Hes very energetic, said Garfield McLeod, a New York City police captain. Hes the life of the room. He has a lot of charisma.

A platoon commander overseeing booking at New York Countys Criminal Court, Pierrelouis stood out for his compassion toward the people who passed before him, his commanding officer, McLeod, said.

He treated everyone fairly, from the guy thats charged with murder to the guy charged with petty larceny, McLeod said. If they were being uncooperative he would take the initiative to try to talk to them, to try to listen to their problems.

It was that job, though, that likely led to Pierrelouis' infection. As the virus spread through New York City, bookings were divided, into people suspected of being sick and those who were not. Pierrelouis was assigned to work with those believed to be infected.

It was a scary time, McLeod said. We wore latex gloves, we tried to do a little social distancing, and we did the mask, but at the same time we were very, very nervous.

Pierrelouis was among the New York City Police Departments 5,800 members who have tested positive for the virus. Of those, 46 have died.

After he was put on a ventilator on March 29 in the Long Island hospital, doctors tried treating him unsuccessfully with hydroxychloroquine and proning.

You could tell a story about the pandemic just based on kind of the understanding of the disease at different times, Courtwright, the Penn doctor, said. Toward the end was steroids. That seemed to make the biggest difference for him.

Even when doctors told her Pierrelouis would not survive, Latham saw hope in her fathers chart. His lungs were badly scarred, but he showed no sign of the widespread organ failure that had doomed other victims of the virus.

He was a person who came here at the age of 13 from Haiti, she told his attending physician in Long Island. He gave 29 years to the NYPD. He was a frontline personnel. This is how he got it. You need to help him out.

The next day, Latham arranged to have her father transferred to Philadelphia.

Latham recalled when her father called her mother to tell her he would have to be put on a ventilator, his last words were, Im going to continue to fight.

He did exactly what he said he was going to do, Latham said.

While Penn Medicine evaluated Pierrelouis for a transplant, Courtwright saw positive signs. The officer was requiring less oxygen from the ventilator and there was evidence the scarring left on his lungs was beginning to heal. Rather than go forward with a transplant, Courtwright elected to give Pierrelouis time.

As he lay unconscious, receiving oxygen through a tracheotomy, his dreams swung wildly, he remembers. In one he had become the police commissioner back home in Haiti. In another, he walked ceaselessly, but never reached his destination.

Every time we tried to take the paralytics off, he was too unstable, Courtwright said. He was in that coma for a really long time.

Latham became the de facto decision maker for her fathers care. She visited daily once he transferred to Penn, and continued working full time on her own ward. It became her routine to call the hospital four times a day, her husband, Kristian, said.

If it wasnt for my wife pressing and calling and challenging, he said, his father-in-law definitely wouldnt have made it.

Pierrelouis came off the ventilator on July 12, and initially he experienced bouts of delusion, where he was convinced he was in jail. That gave way to a long, arduous recovery. One of his therapists, Natalia Sobotka, said his enthusiasm quickly became apparent even as he struggled with basic, painful tasks.

I dont want to miss one minute of my exercise, said Pierrelouis, who received three hours of therapy each day. I even ask for more.

Among the New York City police escort outside Good Shepherd Saturday was one man in dress uniform. Ralph Remy, a patrol officer, said Pierrelouis, his father, was more than an influence in his decision to become a cop.

He was pretty much all the influence, he said.

After being loaded into the ambulance, Pierrelouis' 3-year-old grandson, Kristian, waved goodbye to him.

I love you, Pierrelouis said.

One of the EMTs lifted the boy into the ambulance to give his grandfather one more hug.

Pierrelouis remains deeply proud of his profession, he said, but will not return to the NYPD. He described his recovery as a second chance, and as he looked ahead to a long recovery, his priorities have shifted.

I want to enjoy life, spend some time with my grandchildren, he said. I dont have any desire to go back.
I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times Ive met Sasha Swire, the wife of former Tory MP Hugo Swire whose sensational memoir, Diary of an MPs Wife, was the subject of an interview with her this weekend

I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times Ive met Sasha Swire, the wife of former Tory MP Hugo Swire whose sensational memoir, Diary of an MPs Wife, was the subject of an interview with her this weekend.

But to be honest, once would have been enough.

She is one of those women who leaves an indelible impression on the mind, a force of nature whose innate self-confidence and complete inability to self- censor makes her the centre of attention at any social gathering.

She certainly used to make me feel like a bit of a wallflower, and thats no mean feat.

A big part of it, I think, was to do with class: She has that effortless, unconscious entitlement common among the British upper classes, that unbridled sense of self-importance that comes with growing up around power.

And, judging by the interview and extracts, she hasnt changed. Still as mischievous as ever, still fond of her own opinions and unsparing in her criticism of those  invariably almost everyone  found wanting.

The daughter of the former defence secretary and one-time Lazard bank chairman Sir John Nott (who, as it happens, has form when it comes to racy memoirs, once confessing that he fancied Margaret Thatcher something rotten), she is married to Old Etonian Hugo Swire, whom David Cameron fired as shadow culture secretary after he intimated that the Conservatives might put an end to free museum entry.

At the time Sasha was furious and made no secret of the fact  something I rather respect her for.

But it was always understood that Cameron, a fellow Etonian, would make it up to his old pal Swire. He never made it into the Cabinet  but Cameron did knight him in his resignation honours list.

Indeed the Swires were a key part of the support network the Camerons fell back onto after the fallout from the 2016 referendum (Hugo toyed with the idea of coming out for Brexit, but in the end decided to support Dave instead). They were guests at the Camerons house in Cornwall just a few weeks ago.

So quite how this book will go down in their immediate social circle is anyones guess. But judging by the messages I had yesterday from various mutual friends, not entirely favourably.

Theresa May is described as Old Ma May, while George Osborne becomes Boy George in the book.

One described it as an act of social suicide, another as baffling. Another said, Sasha always felt that Hugo should have been in the Cabinet. She never quite forgave Dave for that. Perhaps this is her revenge.

Who knows. Perhaps she just needed the money, but more likely, I suspect, is her desire to be seen as a writer in her own right. Certainly allowing herself to be photographed next to a prominent copy of the Alan Clark diaries gives you a sense of how she sees herself.

And she has written at least one literary novel (not bad, by all accounts) that has never been published, and when interviewed she was keen to mention its existence. Perhaps her hope is that this will now see the light of day.

Nevertheless, it does seem odd that someone whose position in society has always been of paramount importance should choose to spill the beans so dramatically. I wonder if, because of the breezy confidence her background has instilled in her she may have dramatically underestimated the ripples this may cause.

Swire herself grew up in London, living in the familys grand house in Chelsea but also, for a while, in Admiralty House in Whitehall when her father was defence secretary under Thatcher.

According to another mutual friend she harboured ambitions of being an It girl; that never quite transpired, possibly because in truth shes more country than town, the kind of woman who makes a pair of wellies look impossibly sexy, and who talks enthusiastically about bonking  more Jilly Cooper than Candace Bushnell, if you know what I mean.

I certainly always got the impression that she thought the whole lot of us were utter fools, and that she and Hugo were the only people with any iota of sense. And Im not sure she was even that certain about Hugo.

If I recall rightly, the first time I encountered her was at supper at the Camerons house, in their old place in North Kensington, probably circa 2005.

Those suppers were always fairly convivial, relaxed affairs, but I remember her being amazingly confident in her own opinions and, it seemed to me, overtly and unnecessarily combative.

She had a way of haranguing people, particularly men, that hovered somewhere between a come-on and a punishment beating.

Poor things never quite knew how to respond to this rangy blonde with legs that seemed to go on forever.

Hugo would look on in abject adoration as she held forth with breezy confidence about everything, from welfare cheats to the Big Society.

Ive not had sight of the book itself. In the extracts published she describes me as always meddling, and she pooh-poohs my friendship with Samantha Cameron, painting me as some sort of willing skivvy, making fish pie while Samantha swanned around being glamorous.

Sasha Swires candid journal about her life as wife of former Foreign Office minister Sir Hugo Swire is due to be published next week. In it, she calls Boris Johnson a calculating machine and his partner Carrie Symonds a hot young vixen

I honestly dont recall ever making fish pie for Samantha, in fact I dont think Ive ever made a fish pie in my life (not one you could serve to guests at No10 Downing street, at any rate).

As to being Samanthas skivvy, yes its true I used to help her out  but only insofar as good friends do when life gets busy and complicated.

There were many during those years who saw our friendship as a threat to their own sphere of influence, and it would appear that Swire was one of them.

But perhaps whats most disturbing  and many of those I spoke to yesterday about the book echoed this sentiment  is the calculated nature of these diaries. The idea that, after every dinner party or weekend away, she was recording events in a manner designed clearly to be malicious, feels somewhat sinister.

Over the years people have often asked me if Ive been keeping a diary, but the truth is I have not (more fool me, if the rumours of the large advance she received are true).

Ive done and witnessed some incredible things in my time, and while Im always happy to share some of the more harmless anecdotes of my existence (often with readers of this newspaper), there are some which will forever be out of bounds to all but those concerned.

And thats the trouble with these kinds of memoirs: No ones interested in reading about the good times; being nice doesnt sell.

To be successful you have to be as uninhibited and unsparing in detailing the foibles of others as possible. And, judging by what Ive read so far, Sasha has certainly managed that.

No doubt these diaries will provoke a good deal of mischief and scandal. Inevitably, though, there will be a price to pay and, as someone who has seen first hand what a rough old game politics can be I do hope for Sashas sake shes got her tin hat firmly on.
If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





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Photo credit: ITV

From Digital Spy

The Singapore Grip caused some controversy ahead of its premiere tonight (September 13) after it was accused of showing a "harmful and deeply upsetting" portrayal of colonialism.

Based on the 1978 novel by JG Farrell, the ITV drama takes place during World War II and follows a British family living in the titular country at the time of the Japanese invasion.

However, its depiction of colonialism isn't the only reason for its controversy  an unsettling father-daughter relationship is at the centre of its story.



During an exclusive interview with Digital Spy, the cast explained how the relationship between David Morrissey's Walter Blackett and his daughter Joan (Georgia Blizzard) is "uncomfortable to watch".

Photo credit: ITV

"His relationship with his daughter is not incestuous, but it's definitely wrong. There's something inside there that's not right," The Walking Dead star Morrissey said.

"They have a physicality with each other, an intimacy with each other, which is to the exclusion of his wife, and that is slightly an odd relationship.

"But again, not a relationship a million miles away from the man in the White House. Some of the things he says about his daughter, you're like 'what?!'

"So there's definitely places I can look at that for that type of relationship."

Photo credit: Mammoth Screen - ITV

Morrissey went on to explain that the two characters team up to ensure he becomes a major shareholder in a company he owns and "what he's delighted about is that she just gets it".



"But not only does she get it, she wants to do it. She's up for it. She's absolutely 100% behind his work view without any shame.

"She's not ashamed in any way about using her wiles to gain power, and he's suddenly so proud of that and they team up in this very off way."

Jane Horrocks, who plays Walter's wife Sylvia, said she found the relationship "uncomfortable and creepy" to watch back.

Story continues

Photo credit: ITV

"Whether Sylvia is aware of the relationship that Joan has with her father and turns a blind eye to it, I don't know. But when I watched it, I actually found it a bit uncomfortable and creepy, their relationship.

"It's quite Lolita-esque at times. I think it's brave to have that."

Georgia Blizzard, who plays their daughter Joan, also agreed the relationship was "uncomfortable" to watch, but called the characters "a real meeting of minds" and added that they both have each other "under a spell".

"It's an incredibly interesting relationship and I think there was a lot for David and I to play with. These two characters, who are a real meeting of minds. And it was very interesting for him and I to see how far we could push certain things, how tactile we wanted them to be."

Photo credit: Mammoth Screen - ITV

Related: The Singapore Grip star says Britain needs to "be honest" about "ourselves and our history"

Blizzard explained the fact that Walter had chosen his daughter and not his son to be in business together showed how "intelligent" and "ruthless" she is.

"It isn't this sort of daddy's girl thing, where Joan will do whatever he says. I agree it's quite uncomfortable to watch at times, but they really are partners.

"She's giving just as much as she's getting. And she's got him under a spell and he's got her under one also, so it's not just a case of her following her dad."

Regarding the show's depiction of colonialism and lack of representation, BEATS  a UK-based advocacy organisation founded by British East and Southeast Asians across the theatre, film and TV industries  released a statement earlier this week.

Photo credit: Mammoth Screen - ITV

"The television adaptation could have taken a more enlightened perspective in keeping with the progress that has happened in the half century since the novel's publication," it said.

"Instead, even the cynical desperation and callous decadence of Farrell's Caucasian characters is bled out in favour of jauntily-forced, comedic indulgence, presenting this traumatic period of Singapore's history as little more than breezy and inconsequential."

Screenwriter Sir Christopher Hampton has since addressed the backlash, arguing: "Its very subject is possibly the greatest catastrophe to befall the British Empire during its decline, a disaster the colonists were themselves squarely responsible for.

"The most sympathetic and resourceful of the central characters is a Chinese woman, a member of the Resistance against the Japanese, who is able to educate our hero and open his eyes to what he is already becoming aware of, namely the corrupt practices and casual racism of the ruling British elite."

The Singapore Grip airs on ITV.

Digital Spy has launched its first-ever digital magazine with exclusive features, interviews, and videos. Access this edition with a 1-month free trial, only on Apple News+.

Interested in Digital Spy's weekly newsletter? Sign up to get it sent straight to your inbox.

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By Trend

The trade turnover between Turkey and Georgia rose by $27.3 million in June 2020 compared to same month of 2019, having surpassed $130.2 million, the Turkish Trade Ministry told Trend.

In the reporting month, Turkeys exports to Georgia made up $111.99 million, while imports from Georgia - $18.2 million, the ministry said.

From January through June 2020, the trade turnover between the two countries dropped by $7.7 million compared to the same period of last year, amounting to $703.8 million.

Turkeys exports to Georgia for the first half of this year amounted to $591.9 million, and imports from Georgia - $111.93 million.

Reportedly, Turkey's exports increased by 15.7 percent in June 2020 compared to the same month of last year, amounting to $13.4 billion.

Imports of Turkey in June 2020 rose by 8.3 percent over the year and exceeded $16.3 billion.

From January through June 2020, Turkey's trade turnover amounted to over $174.1 billion.

In 1H2020, Turkey's exports dropped by 15.1 percent compared to 1H2019, making up $75.2 billion, the ministry said.

In the first half of this year, Turkey's imports declined by 3.2 percent compared to the same period of 2019, amounting to $98.8 billion.

The foreign trade turnover of Turkey in 2019 made up $374.2 billion.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Astra Space Inc's first attempt to launch a rocket into orbit came to a disappointing end as it veered off course and catapulted to the ground.

The California start-up conducted launch from the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak, Alaska, on Friday evening.

Video showed the 38-foot-tall rocket taking off at 7.19pm local time and flying for about 30 seconds before it fizzled out and came tumbling to the ground, creating a fiery explosion upon landing.

'Successful lift off and fly out, but the flight ended during the first-stage burn. It does look like we got a good amount of nominal flight time. More updates to come!' Astra tweeted.

Scroll down for video

Astra Space Inc made its first attempt to launch a rocket into orbit on Friday in Kodiak, Alaska

Video showed the 38-foot-tall rocket taking off from the Pacific Spaceport Complex at 7.19pm local time and flying for about 30 seconds before it veered off course and fizzled out

The rocket created a fiery explosion as it landed in a designated crash area

Astra is among a number of space start-ups working to create small, low cost rockets that can be sent into orbit on a daily basis.

Friday's flight marked the first of three scheduled to take place in the coming months as Astra aims to work out kinks with its hardware and software.

The first-time failure was unsurprising given that other companies have seen similar issued with debut flights.

Competitor SpaceX - founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk - experienced similar growing pains when it started sending up rockets and took four tries to find success.

After hearing about Astra's launch, Musk offered support on Twitter.

'Sorry to hear that. I'm sure you'll figure it out though,' he wrote. 'Took us four launches to reach orbit. Rockets are hard.'

SpaceX founder Elon Musk shared his support for Astra on Twitter

The founder and CEO of Rocket Lab - the only company that has managed to conduct successful commercial flights - also shared encouragement.

'Data in this game is so hard won, so big congratulations to the team for pulling down actual flight data from today's attempt!' Peter Beck tweeted.

Astra had said beforehand that it was not expecting perfection the first time around, as it hopes to achieve orbit within three flights.

The goal for the first flight was to achieve a nominal first-stage burn. While that didn't happen, the company said that it did gain valuable insights going into the second attempt.

'We didn't meet all of our objectives, but we did gain valuable experience, plus even more valuable flight data,' company representatives wrote in the blog post.

'This launch sets us well on our way to reaching orbit within two additional flights, so we're happy with the result.'

Astra had said beforehand that it was not expecting perfection the first time around, as it hopes to achieve orbit within three flights

Astra co-founder and CEO Chris Kemp praised the launch, saying that systems worked as expected and fed ample information back for engineers to plan the next flight.

'Obviously, it didn't do everything we wanted it to, but it launched, and we got a ton of great data,' Kemp said.

'We learned things that we would not otherwise learn unless we flew.'

Fellow Astra founder Adam London, the company's chief technology officer, said that early findings indicated an issue with the rocket's guidance and navigation software.

When the rocket began to veer off course, a safety officer shut off its engines to ensure that it would land in a designated safety zone, the company said.

London assured that the crash wouldn't cause any lasting environmental issues.

'Our rocket doesn't have any toxic propellants,' he said. 'It is quite a benign thing environmentally.'

Adam London, Astra's co-founder and chief technology officer, assured that the crash wouldn't cause any lasting environmental issues

Astra is aiming to build a simpler rocket than other companies in the field that could significantly undercut competitors on price.

Rocket Lab, the current market leader, charges about $7.5million per flight, while Astra says its rockets would cost just $1million per flight.

Astra had hoped to be further along in the trial process but its timeline has been disrupted on several occasions this year - including by bad weather and the pandemic.

It's second rocket is already waiting in the wings for round two, which likely won't take place for a few months as engineers analyze what when wrong with the first launch.
This question is premised on the difference between my perception and the reality we meet at the old secretariat of Niger State where the office of Niger State Pilgrims Board is situated. The office houses both the Christian and Muslim Pilgrims Board headed by a board of directors. It was a courtesy visit by Independent Hajj Reporters geared towards creating a partnership in the areas of pilgrims enlightenment.

That was the day Independent Hajj Reporters was confronted with a question from a journalist and the question was not ordinary. Who is bankrolling who can land you in trouble water? Who is bankrolling Independent Hajj Reporters he asked and today, I am giving it back to them. So, who is bankrolling the activities of Niger State Pilgrims Board?

Upon our arrival in Mina on 2nd of September the stage has been prepared awaiting the August visitor in September apology to Mallam Umar Maku.

After the formal introduction and my address, The Executive Secretary of Niger State Pilgrims Board, Mr Umar Maku Lapai begins his welcome address in front of Journalist and cameramen.

As a journalist, I listen with rapt attention with a focus on the areas of my interests.

The board has six different units. The enlightenment units, the accounting unit, passport control unit, ICT units, General administration unit with each serve as a compliment to others. In Niger state, pilgrims paid for Hajj fare through certified bank draft. One unique feature in Niger is that pilgrims are requested to write the details like name, passport number, telephone number, and local government at the back of their bank draft before submission to avoid swapping and creates internal checks and balance.

He continued. Here in Niger State, we operate private Hajj camp which is different from what is obtained in other states. Niger state government sponsors all the activities in the Hajj camp including the personnel. We sponsored over 80% of the activities at Mina international airport. Every year, we mobilize all the agencies to do the job for us. This we have been doing without intervention from any quarter.

Besides, Alh Maku told Hajj Reporters that Niger state government has acquired a large portion of land for the building of permanent Hajj camp through the development levy projects and that they are only waiting for NAHCON team to arrive to formalize the arrangement.

The reforms being undertaken by the boards may have the tacit support of the State Governor because after the 2017 Hajj operations, Niger Gov Abubakar Sani-Bello Niger State promised to restructure the pilgrim's board for efficient service delivery. A statement signed by Jibrin Baba Ndace, the then Special Assistant to the Governor on Media hinged the Governors stance on lapses observed during Hajj 2017 exercise.

In that reports, Alhaji Shehu Umar Danyaya. who was the immediate past Secretary to the State government and the Amir Hajj during hajj 2017 called for restructuring and capacity building for the boards management for efficient service delivery in future. The Amirul Hajj also advised that the Executive Secretary of the board should be a career civil servant who can effectively translate and transmit the policies of the government to the board The recommendation might have been effected and the results are thereof.

The administrative structure in Niger state pilgrims board was carefully restructured into different departments with a check and balance linkage to ensure efficient coordination of Hajj activities. We were taken around the offices with the head of each department give us a tit and bits of how it operates.

Hajj 2020 pilgrims 32 kg and 8 kg suitcases have been supplied and kept in the warehouse before the COVID 19 cancelled out Hajj 2020 operations.

The boards operate on a zone by zone and pilgrims from each zone have a different colour of the file in the office. A blue file is for pilgrims in Zone A and green file filed the documents of pilgrims in Zone B and Yellow file housed details of each pilgrim from Zone C. Sorting of pilgrims database has been made easy and reduce the possibility of interchange of pilgrims

Do you know who an administrative genius is? Its someone who knows and implements one more thing about administration than you do. In the administrative world, what I experienced in Niger State Muslim Pilgrims Boards is referred to as expertise gap.

Expertise gap is the gap between someone elses knowledge and experience and your knowledge and experience in a given area.

To broaden their communication skill, Niger State Pilgrims boards is conducting Arabic lecture for its staff on weekly basis and a periodic staff capacity building exercise. He revealed his plan to swap the staff from one unit to another to make them an all-rounder in terms of Hajj services.

Alh Maku said they have broken the states into three Zone. Zone A with 8 local government, zone b with 9 and zone C with another 8 local governments There is also Headquarters pilgrims meant for cater for the people in the city who may not able to book for a seat like VIPs.

However, while the board has laid a good administrative structure platform for hajj operations, it must strive hard to improve in the areas of media relations and staff motivations. Motivations are not limited to financial doll out or promotion. It connotes periodic shows of appreciations to those who have excelled.

Motivation can facilitate the self-development of individual staff at the board. Once he/she meets some initial targets, they realise the clear link between effort and results, which will further motivate them to continue at a high level.

Most importantly, an employees efficiency level is not only based on their abilities or qualifications. There is a need to have a good balance between the ability to perform the task given and willingness to want to perform the task. This balance can lead to an increase in productivity and an improvement in efficiency.

It is my suggestion that Niger State Pilgrims boards explore the possibility of sponsoring a weekly radio or television programs to educate the public on the activities of the beards as this will help promotes its image.

As stated during Hajj Reporters opening address, the boards should put a thinking cap on how to be self-reliance in terms of finance. Hajj operations is going digital and the existence of state pilgrims board will depend on how they can operate without goes cap in hand to government for financial needs.

It should be noted that during the 2019 Hajj Stakeholder meeting, the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) honoured the Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello with the prestigious award of the "Most Supportive State Governor to Pilgrims Welfare".

The award ceremony which took place at the Stakeholders Meeting on 2019 Hajj at Conference Hall of the National Mosque in Abuja was in appreciation by the Commission of the untiring and unparallel commitments and efforts of Governor Sani Bello at ensuring the welfare of pilgrims to and in the Holyland during pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. Deputy Governor, Alhaji Mohammed Ahmed Ketso represented the governor at the ceremony.

In the same vein, Independent Hajj Reporters bestowed an award to Niger State pilgrims board as the Best State in Pilgrims Welfare during 2019 Hajj.

Finally, the structure has been laid but the board must work hard to translate it to efficient Hajj service delivery.

Ibrahim Muhammed is the National Coordinator of Independent Hajj Reporters
Police are looking for the shooter responsible for critically wounding a man early Sunday outside a west Houston hookah lounge.

Gunfire erupted around 12:30 a.m. in the parking lot outside the Nomad lounge in the 5800 block of Westheimer Road. Police found a man on the ground and he was rushed to a hospital.
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is committing at least $100 million to help Joe Biden's presidential campaign in the crucial battleground state of Florida.

Bloomberg's late stage infusion of cash reflects Democrats' concerns about the tight race in a state that is a priority for President Donald Trump.

A victory for Biden in Florida, the largest of the perennial battleground states, would significantly complicate Trump's path to reaching the 270 Electoral College votes needed to secure a second term.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (left) will donate $100 million to help Joe Biden (right) beat President Donald Trump in Florida

The Bloomberg million will go toward television and digital advertising to help Democrat Joe Biden (left) beat President Donald Trump (right) in Florida, Trump's adopted home state as of October 2019

Trump lashed out at Bloomberg on Twitter Sunday morning, likely in response to the reports that Bloomberg would be throwing money at Biden's campaign to help the Democrat win Florida

Trump lashed out at Bloomberg over Twitter on Sunday morning, over the money infusion.

'I thought Mini Mike was through with Democrat politics after spending almost 2 Billion Dollars, and then giving the worst and most inept Debate Performance in the history of Presidential Politics,' Trump wrote. 'Pocahontas ended his political career on first question, OVER! Save NYC instead.'

The president was referring to the opening scene in the Las Vegas debate in which Sen. Elizabeth Warren went after Bloomberg for his use of non-disclosure agreements to gag former female employees.

'In the highly competitive world of high tech, how come nobody has ever challenged Mini Mike Bloomberg and his very average, & supposedly outdated, "stuff" that he sells to so many? Did he use his position as Mayor of New York to create what is now a monopoly? Just askin'?' Trump also wrote, likely a reference to the Bloomberg terminals, which made Bloomberg worth more than $50 billion.

The billionaire Bloomberg launched his own campaign for the Democratic nomination late last year amid worries about Biden's strengths.

Bloomberg spent approximately $1 billion on his presidential campaign.

The former New York City mayor only seriously competed in the Super Tuesday primaries on March 3 and only won American Samoa.

He dropped out of the presidential race on March 4 and quickly endorsed Biden.

Bloomberg and other moderate Democratic presidential candidates backed the former vice president in order to stop Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' momentum, who campaigned farther to the left.

Biden and Sanders stopped campaigning due to the coronavirus pandemic in mid-March, and by April Sanders had also bowed out of the race and backed Biden.

Bloomberg's new spending is intended to boost Biden before the start of early voting in Florida, which begins on Sept. 24.

A Bloomberg adviser said much of the money will go to television and digital advertising.

Trump changed his residency to the important swing state in October 2019.

He registered to vote from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
What is conspicuous is that neither of the candidates are seriously debating the foreign policy and immigration policies of the US in the coming years.





by N.S.Venkataraman





Every Presidential election in the USA in the past has been marked by bitter criticisms , allegations and provocative debates. Therefore, it is not a surprise that the ongoing campaign for the next US President is also being marked by such a climate of bitter confrontation between the two candidates.





However, in the past elections, the neutral voters ( those who are not pledged followers of Democratic party or Republican party ) have not remained so confused and uncertain as in the case of the present Presidential election.













One Presidential candidate is 74 year old and the other candidate is 77 year old. With their ageing flesh and consequent possibility of slowing down their thought process, many voters wonder as to why a younger person has not been chosen as Presidential candidate by either of the party.





The role of the section of the print and visual media in taking sides between the two candidates and expressing more views than news Is also confusing the voters. There seem to be sections of the media who are bitterly opposed to President Trump and are suspected to be prejudiced in the choice of the news published and sometimes even censoring the news which amount to distorting facts. With sections of the media losing credibility to some extent, many voters have started thinking that the views and comments of the media can not be considered as credible factors for arriving at a judgement about one candidate or the other.





What is even worse is the fact that racism has become a much debated point while talking about the choice of candidate for voting. It is now said that most of the blacks will not vote for Republican party and the section of whites will not vote for Democratic party and the browns will be divided in voting for the Democratic party or Republican party. Of course, Democratic party naming an African American candidate for Vice Presidency can not be faulted. But, why argue that the race of the candidate should be a decisive factor in the choice of the next President ?





Though everyone in the USA understands that COVID 19 caught the US government unaware with no medicine available, with the US government and people helplessly seeing thousands of people dying due to COVID 19 , both the candidates should be honest enough not to make the COVID 19 an issue in the Presidential campaign. Certainly, Trump was helpless and any other person including Biden could not have handled the situation better. It is known that in the USA, the governors of the provinces have enormous powers and no US President can compel a Governor to act in a particular manner in handling the COVID 19 crisis. The ground reality is that no one had any clue about handling the COVID 19 crisis.





What is conspicuous is that neither of the candidates are seriously debating the foreign policy and immigration policies of the US in the coming years.





China is a big issue in the election campaign with the ongoing U S China trade war. Again, there is lack of clarity, since a large number of American companies have huge investment in China and have gone to China with their technologies to set up projects, which has benefited technology advancement in China significantly. Certainly, it is a fact that American companies have made China a strong competitor for the USA , both in the USA and other parts of the world.





While trade war may continue between USA and China, the impact could be only limited, since several American, West European, Japanese, South Korean and Taiwanese companies are not in a position to pull back from China in the foreseeable future , in view of the heavy investments made. While both the candidates say that China has to be tackled strongly by the US government, there is no deep and informed debate as to how it could be done in the future.





With regard to the immigrants in the USA, the fact remains that thousands of immigrants in the USA from across the world are illegal immigrants and the US government does not know their whereabouts.





While many US citizens feel that immigrants have taken away their jobs from their hands in the USA, the fact is that the companies in the USA want the immigrants for employment due to the comparative low pay structure and are outsourcing the jobs, promoting unemployment in the US.





U S universities want immigrant students in a big way , as they are a big source of funds for US universities. Many immigrant students do not want to go back and want to stay in the USA by getting citizenship. What would be the long term impact of the increasing percentage of immigrants in the USA on the social and cultural life of the future USA has not been analysed or discussed by both the candidates.





All that the US voters hear now is the slang match between both the candidates, bordering more on hate speeches than intellectual and well informed discussions.





In such circumstances, US citizens, uncommitted to either of the party, seem to be thinking that there should have been a third candidate and voting for either of the present candidates would be a choice between a devil and deep sea for them.
Ottawa, Sep 13 : Canadian health authorities have expressed serious concerns over the steady rise in the number of coronavirus cases across the country after more than 630 infections were reported on a daily basis in the past one week.

In a statement on Saturday, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) said that was more than 20 per cent higher than the previous week, and over 65 per cent higher compared with four weeks ago when an average of just over 380 cases was reported daily, reports Xinhua news agency.

The country has so far reported a total of 135,626 positive cases and 9,163 deaths.

Labs across Canada have tested an average of 47,806 people daily over the past week with 1.1 per cent testing positive, said PHAC.

The four most-affected provinces -- Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta, are each reporting between 100 to more than 200 new cases per day, the agency said.

On Saturday, Quebec reported 244 new cases, the highest daily figure since the beginning of June, while Ontario confirmed an 232 infections, also the highest daily surge.

"Increasing daily case counts signify heightened disease activity that poses a risk for accelerated or 'exponential' epidemic growth to occur," Theresa Tam, Canada's chief public health officer, said in the statement.

Meanwhile, Toronto opened a centre for those with Covid-19 who cannot self-isolate at home, a service the Canadian government said is open to other cities across the country.

Toronto reported 77 new cases in the province on Saturday, the highest single-day count since mid-June.

Lower-income neighbourhoods were disproportionately affected by Covid-19, in part because individuals living in these communities, once they tested positive, may have experienced difficulty to properly isolate themselves, Toronto Mayor John Tory said.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Genetically engineered, virus-free specimens and semen for sale that guarantees offspring of a certain gender: thankfully, Genus is a company aiming to feed the world rather than a bad sci-fi story.

The company's roots are in the Milk Marketing Board and a formerly listed business called the Pig Improvement Company (PIC), which did exactly what it said on the tin.

The scientific breakthroughs mentioned above apply only to cows and pigs and are designed to meet chief executive Stephen Wilson's stated aim of 'helping to nourish the world'.

Fighting viruses: African swine flu has ripped through China's pig population

Before Covid even appeared, Wilson was already an old hand at viruses. He's been dealing with the fallout from African swine flu, which ripped through China's pig population, and has bred a type of pig that's resistant to PRRSv  a virus that is practically endemic in Chinese porkers.

Perhaps we should put him in charge of Britain's Test and Trace system, since this week's full-year figures suggest he's doing a pretty good job.

Despite operational challenges caused by Covid including supply chain disruption and significant price volatility, as well as the usual need to keep staff and customers safe while doing business, Genus posted a 13 per cent increase in revenue to 551.4million, while profit before tax rose 16 per cent to 71million.

The company also increased its dividend five per cent, and Wilson said he anticipated further growth in the coming year. Brokers don't think Wilson is telling porkies.

Alistair Campbell, at Liberum, has a 'buy' rating on the stock, and says that the company has performed 'exceptionally well' during the pandemic.

Campbell says there is plenty of headroom for growth in China, where porcine production is 20 per cent below demand because of the effects of Asian Flu and many suppliers want to restock.

He's also bullish (or cowish) about the prospects for Sexcel semen, sold to dairy farmers who want to produce female calves rather than male ones, which is driving growth in the firm's cattle business.

Midas Verdict: Virus-resistant anything sounds like a good idea at the moment, and Genus's porkers are popular with the recovering Chinese market. The company's performance is testament to good leadership and market-leading products, a winning combination.

Genus's share price, which stood at a record high of 39.80 on Friday, reflects its popularity and puts the firm on a toppy 37 times forward earnings with a prospective yield of 1 per cent. As Genus's customers will tell you, you have to pay for quality. It's worth going to market for this little piggy as it might just bring home the bacon.

Traded on: Main market Ticker: GNS Contact: genusplc.com or 01256 347100
With India locked in a standoff with China on the Line of Actual Control, Nepal has started to play its games with renewed vigour. The K.P. Sharma Oli government is increasingly sending feelers to people living in three villages adjoining the Kalapani region in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand to shift their loyalties to Nepal in order to stake claim over the villages which are administered by India.

Coming at a time when the Nepal Army is believed to be assisting China expand its military bases close to Mount Kailash, China seems to be behind the latest move by Nepal, which is seen as a quid pro quo arrangement between the two neighbours.

In return, the Nepal government is promising tonnes of money, land and houses along with Nepalese citizenship  most of which is believed to be funded by China.

Sources in the know of the Nepalese operation told this newspaper that for the past few days, agents working for the Nepal government have got in touch with people residing in Kuti, Nabhi and Gunji villages  located a few kilometres from Kalapani territory in Pithoragarh district  asking them to consider shifting loyalties to Nepal.

The locals of these three Indian villages, located at an altitude of over 10,000 feet, who share a roti-beti relationship with the people of Darchula in Nepal, are getting multiple calls from people on the other side asking them to consider the irresistible offer.

Information reaching Indian security agencies is that these agents have been either been making calls directly to the villagers, claiming to be their well-wishers, or taking the other easy way of making the locals of Darchula speak with their friends and relatives in the three villages.

For decades, people on both sides have remained in constant touch with each other, hopping in and out of Indian territory almost every day as they either have business links or relatives on the other side. Many Indian girls have married into Nepali families in Darchula and elsewhere in Nepal. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the India-Nepal border has been sealed for the past few months. People on both sides communicate with each other using Nepal Telecom SIM cards.

With the frequency of such calls increasing by the day  which has now become a point of discussion in the three villages  the villagers are contemplating writing to the Centre that there is no question of shifting loyalties and that they firmly remain with India. Many of them even held a meeting among themselves on Friday. In all three villages put together, there are more than 850 residents. Prior to the pandemic, people on both sides used to meet every day. Many on the Nepal side depend on the Indian side for their livelihood.

Sources said that though there were some indications earlier that Nepal might resort to such moves, especially after it claimed Kalapani to be its territory, the attempts at wooing with the villagers with land, money and Nepalese citizenship has increased manifold even as tensions between India and China along the LAC is at an all-time high.

For quite some time now, Nepal has left the people in its border villages along the tri-junction between India, China and Nepal at the mercy of Chinas Peoples Liberation Army, which supplies food and essentials to the villagers to win them over, even as the Chinese Army has been steadily taking control of certain areas inside Nepalese territory. In May, Nepal triggered a diplomatic row with India after it claimed Kalapani and Lipulekh in its political maps. Later, it showed Limpiyadhura within its boundaries.
There have been sightings of various PS5-related promotional materials going up in retail stores around the world as the wait for the full disclosure of Sonys next-gen console continues. Some PS4 games have new labels on their boxes for PlayStation 5 preparation, and Sony appears to be performing quite a pantomime over at PAX Online.

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

It has been a busy week for Sony PlayStation 5 rumors, no doubt spurred on by the numerous Microsoft-related revelations about its Xbox Series consoles. While Sony has avoided rising to the bait by revealing the prices and exact launch date for the PS5, there have been more subtle changes going on that have been noticed by the consoles legions of fans. For instance, marketing material for retail stores promoting the next-gen console has been spotted in countries like Australia and the Netherlands, which certainly shows the world is gearing up for the PS5.

Game publishers have also been preparing for the arrival of the PlayStation 5, with an innocuous but important label now appearing on certain current-gen titles. The little blue label simply states PS5 Upgrade Available, and it will indicate to buyers of a cross-gen game that there will be a method of playing the title on the next-gen console, although the particular method (free/via subscription/one-off payment) will apparently depend on the publisher.

Retail marketing material and small changes on game boxes might not be enough to suggest a PS5 event is finally incoming, but Sonys PAX pantomime certainly does. The companys attendance was soon noticed, with Sony being spotted on the PAX Online event participation list. PS5 detectives rallied around and quickly discovered that Sony had some sort of event booked for Friday September 18.

However, it wasnt too long after that the time slot was erased, as was the Sony holder. Its possible the company pulled out of the online event, and theres also the chance that the planned appearance had little or nothing to do with the PlayStation 5 anywayor just maybe, Sony and the PAX organizers have come to an agreement for the firm to spring a huge surprise on September 18 and blow us all away with every last detail about the PS5.
NORVELT, Pa.  Lois Weyandt was only 7 when her family moved to this government-built town in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

They had lost their home during the Great Depression, and Norvelt was a so-called homestead founded by New Deal Democrats to help out-of-work coal miners and other struggling families. Now 91, Weyandt glowingly recalls the tidy lawns in front of Cape Cod-style houses, the kind neighbors, and the idyllic community of her childhood.

Everybody helped everybody else, Weyandt said from her home in nearby Greensburg this month. It was a very good community. If you needed something, you just went to your neighbor.

Norvelt, first established as the Westmoreland Homesteads, was one of 92 such government-planned communities established by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Families who successfully applied to live here got a house, a chicken coop, and a plot of land with a grape arbor, for which they paid rent.

There was a co-op farm where everyone was expected to work, a dairy barn, and a garment factory. The community was so collaborative that a local newspaper once described it as communism on the prairie. Weyandt remembers being called a socialist.

Weyandts love of Norvelt hasnt changed. But her politics have. A lifelong Democrat, she became a Republican during Barack Obamas presidency and supported Donald Trump in 2016. While she may have shrugged off the socialist label as a young homesteader, today she sees the 2020 election as a battle against socialism.

I dont believe in people working and getting what they make on their own and then somebody saying, Well, I want some of it, and getting to take it," she said. "Thats wrong. Let em work for it. In Norvelt, people worked for it. We worked hard.

People here once so admired Eleanor Roosevelt, who insisted the homes have running water and electricity, that they renamed the town for her, using the final syllables of her first and last names. But Norvelt has been bending toward the Republican Party for decades.

Now, Trump signs are everywhere. And the presidents framing of his campaign against Democrat Joe Biden as an existential fight against creeping socialism in America is rallying voters here. Disaffected current and former Democrats in surrounding Westmoreland County, and across small Rust Belt towns in Southwestern and Northeastern Pennsylvania, make up the core of Trumps support in the state. These onetime Democratic bastions swung hard to Trump.

Interviews with more than a dozen voters, as well as historians who have studied Norvelt, suggest that the ethos of community born 86 years ago has given way to a more individualistic outlook  and quite a bit of fear.

Theres this fear that were going to work hard and pay all the taxes for illegal immigrants to come in and not work as hard and get the same benefits, same schooling, said the Rev. David Greer, pastor of the historic Norvelt Union Church, who lives in one of the original 1930s homes. And were afraid of what were seeing. We dont want our houses burned down.

The fear here is not new and reflects familiar parts of Republican politics over the last 40 years, dating to when Ronald Reagan won over Democrats in places like Southwestern Pennsylvania by warning of welfare queens. But its been intensified amid sweeping peaceful protests against systemic racism, the looting and rioting that have occasionally followed those protests, and Trumps efforts to make the violence a defining issue.

People in Norvelt are afraid what theyve earned will go toward government help for those they think dont work as hard. Theyre afraid of losing their religious rights. Of losing their right to bear arms. And that the scenes they see playing out on TV in larger, faraway cities will come to their town of about 1,000 people.

Most residents work in nearby Latrobe, where Trump held a rally this month, or about 40 miles west in Pittsburgh. Theres a pizza place, a funeral home, an insurance broker, a hardware store, and a gun shop.

More people are buying guns around here than since Sandy Hook, Timi Fowler, who has worked at the Johnson Gun Depot for 12 years, said of the 2012 elementary school shooting that killed 26 people.

Theyre afraid of the Democrats getting into office," she said. "Thats their biggest fear. Theyre saying they took over the cities, now theyre going to take over our little towns. ... You just gotta protect your own.

Fowler has worked since she was 17, first at a factory making soda bottles, then loading trucks at Dicks Sporting Goods. She helps support her son and husband.

Biden wants to take everything you have and give it to people who dont work or who dont want to work, she said. "Im sorry, Im 58 and Ive worked too many years to lose everything I have.

Strictly speaking, socialism is a theory of societal organization in which a community shares ownership of goods and regulations. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), who identifies as a democratic socialist, advocates policies like Medicare for All and across-the-board free college tuition. Biden, a relative moderate, hasnt gone that far. Colloquially, the word socialism is thrown around as a stand-in for many things.

But painting Biden as a Trojan horse for left-wing leaders in the Democratic Party is a core campaign theme for Trump, and it resonates in Norvelt. Asked about Biden, voters here were quick to bring up Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.).

I dont think Biden would really be in control, said Bob Horrell, 64, an electrical worker on disability and a Democrat-turned-Republican who once voted for Obama.

There were 254 families that originally settled in Norvelt. Many stayed, and property was passed down to children and grandchildren. That history bonds second- and third-generation residents, several of whom gathered one day this month in the Norvelt Room, a small museum that houses town mementos and archives.

I was born in that house, Betty Sue Mondack said of her familys Norvelt homestead. Gesturing to her older sister Virginia Vahaly, sitting beside her, Mondack added: She came home from school one day and there was a baby.

The family had moved from a three-room house with outdoor plumbing into a homestead with five bedrooms, running water, and electricity in 1935, when Vahaly was 7.

Vahaly, 92, and Mondack, 81, still live on that same property.

Few in the Norvelt Room saw parallels with their familys fresh start and debates over government aid today.

Three professors who cowrote Hope in Hard Times, a book about Norvelts history, found that after World War II, when families were able to purchase their homes from the government outright, the tight-knit community started to become more individualized. An economic rise and conservative social views led to the growth of the local Republican Party, partly in opposition to the Great Society programs of the 1960s.

Only one of the original 254 families was Black. The Ku Klux Klan had a presence in the county in the 1920s, the authors found, and the regional newspaper was bought in 1969 by the late Richard Mellon Scaife, a major backer of conservative think tanks. The town is still 99% white, according to census data.

That history has shaped how people distinguish between what helped lift their families and government support today, said Tim Kelly, who chairs the history department at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe and who cowrote Hope in Hard Times.

In my experience hardworking is a stand-in for white in Westmoreland County and Western Pennsylvania, Kelly said. So the story that Norvelters tell themselves is: Our grandparents were poor, but they were hardworking. And they needed assistance, but they didnt need a handout. "

Theyve [made] a clear distinction between hardworking and the undeserving, the lazy, Kelly added. "And I think thats a stand-in for racism today.

Greer and several others disputed that characterization, saying they dont want to abolish all government aid  theyre just wary of expanding it and think many current programs need reform.

I really dont think most people are racist," the pastor said. I think Republicans, they like President Trump, but they are also a little embarrassed by him. We dont want to be categorized as a racist.

The loss of mining and industrial jobs, which weakened labor unions, was also a key driver of Norvelts shift from a more altruistic society, said Margaret Power, another coauthor.

There was this whole sense of Its us working-class buddies together, and then there was this shift and that sense of individualism was really reinforced, Power said.

Bob Heide, 88, a retired steelworker, stayed a Democrat even as many around him didnt. Hes voted for every Democratic presidential candidate since Adlai Stevenson in the 1950s. Heide, who lives in Latrobe and whose wife, Sally, grew up in an original Norvelt homestead, doesnt understand his neighbors' fears of socialism. Bidens no socialist," he said. Hes a very good man.

Ann Misselli, who lives in one of the original homesteads, drew a distinction between the Great Depression and the current coronavirus-driven economic crisis, which, like Trump, she blames on Democratic governors who she said have been too strict about public health rules to stem the pandemic.

Norvelt has not been hit particularly hard by the virus, and most people only wear face masks to go into stores. Several people said they werent big believers in the virus.

It was sort of socialism here, but FDR was trying to pull the people of the poor rural areas out of the Depression because they had absolutely nothing," said Misselli, 65 a retired business owner. "The big difference is the Democrats are causing this depression. (Gov. Tom Wolf has lifted most restrictions, and Trumps coronavirus response coordinator said this month that the state has done a remarkable job handling the pandemic.)

The homesteaders of Norvelt, Misselli said, listed skills they could offer the town on their applications. You couldnt just come in here and be a nobody or be a slouch, she said. You had to be able to work the farms. The women had to work the sewing factory or the schools. Was it socialism? Yeah, but there was a fair return.

That sentiment frustrates Courtney Kubovcik, a member of the progressive group Voices of Westmoreland, who lives in nearby Jeannette.

People are like, You have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. That only works if you have boots," Kubovcik said. "It only works if you have the tools, and unfortunately for a lot of our communities who are primarily minorities and primarily living in poverty, they were not given the tools to come out of that.

Norvelt is home to three generations of Jim Novotnys family. His grandfather was an original homesteader and hes spent his life here, running the pizza place behind the church.

Novotny, 57, said he isnt against all social-welfare programs. He just opposes their expansion.

Were not vicious people, Novotny said. We just want to keep whats ours. We just want to keep the country the way it is.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 09/13/2020



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[ Spoilers Warning: This report includes spoilers revealing whether Paul and Karine are still together and the latest about : Happily Ever After? couple.]

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So did Karine dump Paul and travel to Brazil without him or did she stay in America?

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So did Karine and Paul work through their issues and stay together?

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Karine's made jaw-dropping allegations against Paul when filing her protective order

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Paul denied Karine's shocking allegations of assault and abuse in August

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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

couple Paul Staehle and Karine Martins are planning to return to Brazil temporarily on Season 5 of : Happily Ever After?, so did the decision strengthen their relationship or did they break up -- and is the couple still together and married?Paul, a 35-year-old from Louisville, KY, and Karine, a 23-year-old from Tonantins, Brazil, previously starred on Seasons 1 and 2 of : Before the 90 Days as well as Season 1 of : The Other Way.Paul and Karine met on a dating app and communicated for over a year before Paul decided to fly to Brazil and meet his love interest face to face for the first time.Despite their culture differences and a language barrier, Paul and Karine fell for each other quickly and got married in 2017.After suffering through several heartbreaking miscarriages, Karine announced she was pregnant with their first child in October 2018. By the end of the month, Paul and Karine revealed they had a baby boy on the way.But a baby didn't exactly bring Paul and Karine closer together. Just before baby Pierre's birth on March 22, 2019, Karine threatened to file for divorce from Paul because she was tired of fighting with him. Karine also had enough of Paul's trust issues.Karine didn't feel supported or loved, but Paul insisted he was doing everything he could to provide for his wife and be there for her.: The Other Way's first season featured Karine and her mother leaving Paul behind in Tonantins and traveling to Manaus via boat to file for divorce shortly before Pierre was born.However, Paul stepped it up in the delivery room and was there for Karine when she gave birth, so she opted to give Paul another chance, especially since love was at the root of their relationship.Paul and Karine had been married for two years by the time Season 5 of : Happily Ever After? filmed. The couple had been in Brazil for over a year but Paul said they were "barely getting by" financially.Paul and Karine therefore planned to move to the United States so Paul could get a job and make more money. He wanted to give his wife and son a better life."It took a lot, but I was able to sponsor Karine on a CR-1 visa, which is a spousal visa and allows Karine to apply and get a two-year Green Card before she even enters America," Paul told the cameras."She already has her Green Card approved; she is a complete permanent resident."Karine, however, wasn't looking forward to leaving Brazil and being so far away from her family. Her spirit was also deflated when she found out Paul's mother Mary wasn't going to help them out or give them money.Mary had said numerous times Paul needed to learn how to stand on his own two feet and be a man.Once the couple landed in the United States, Paul found a one-bedroom "studio" for his family to move into. The place appeared to be a renovated shed with a little front porch, but Paul cleaned it up nicely and Karine actually liked it."Paul is really trying to make me happy. This house is the first step for me to feel comfortable here in the U.S. And right now, it makes me happy," Karine noted.But Karine's happiness didn't last long because Paul couldn't find a job thanks to having an arson felony on his record."I wouldn't want to be with somebody who is kind of like a deadbeat," Mary admitted to her son.After one month of being in America, Karine was having trouble adjusting to her new life in America, but Paul begged her to be patient with him and give it some time."I'll give you two months to find a job. Otherwise, I'll pick up Pierre and we'll leave for Brazil," Karine told her husband.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 he therefore determined, "Failure is not an option for me -- whatsoever."Not long after Karine made her threat, Paul said his wife was having "a lot of mood swings lately" and tended to lock herself into a room for like five or six hours at a time."I just want to find out what I can do to make things better," Paul explained. "I am emotionally exhausted. It's one thing after the next, and it's really difficult."Paul acknowledged this was "the worst" he had ever seen Karine and he worried she'd just hop on a plane back to Brazil without him.Karine then met with an immigration attorney by herself because she said she wasn't adapting to life in the United States and had been arguing with Paul a lot.Karine wanted to find out her options and rights in terms of traveling to Brazil alone with her son."I have to choose between my husband and my family," Karine said. "So I don't know what I'm going to do... But I need somebody to help me. I am desperate."The lawyer, Rania Attum, had a Portuguese translator, so Karine was glad she wouldn't need Paul to translate for her.Karine explained to the attorney she and her husband weren't doing well and had been fighting a lot. Karine shared she had set a deadline for Paul finding a job or else she'd go back to Brazil.Rania admitted Karine's situation was complicated but Karine had every right to take her baby and go to Brazil. Rania, however, couldn't promise there wouldn't be any consequences or resistance if Paul didn't agree with her decision to leave America.Karine learned Paul could try to stop her at the airport or put her through court proceedings. Rania therefore asked Karine to really think this one through in order to not make a big mistake."I will never stop Paul from seeing Pierre. But it's a delicate issue. I see that too many fights is not good for me. It's not good for Paul and it's definitely not good for Pierre. I just want the best for Pierre, and if that means going back to Brazil, that's what I'm going to do," Karine explained.Paul said he had applied for numerous jobs but hadn't heard anything back yet, and then Paul freaked out when Karine came clean with him about having met with an immigration lawyer.Paul was very upset given he had provided Karine with a car, food and cell phone. Paul angrily asked, "You're going to jump ship?!"Karine claimed she just needed time with her son and family and Brazil, which Paul called "messed up."Paul was afraid to be left alone and lose his family, and so he reminded Karine that he has "50 percent rights to the child." Paul said he would talk to his lawyer in Brazil and fight this, and Karine replied, "F-ck you!"Karine attempted to end the conversation before it got worse, but Paul said, "I will prosecute. In Brazil and America, you can't keep the child from me."Karine cried, saying Paul didn't know when to stop and he had upset her.Paul apologized and admitted he had taken things "too far.""I know if I don't go back to Brazil, Karine is going to leave me. But I know our lives would be so much better here in America because there are a lot more opportunities here... I am stuck between a rock and a hard place," Paul explained in a confessional.Two months then passed since Karine had made her ultimatum, and Paul was still without a job.Paul took Karine to a water-treatment plant so he could show her what America has to offer and he could maybe even apply for a job there, but once again, he came up empty-handed.Karine said she didn't care if America is better than Brazil, and it seemed like nothing would convince her to stay in the United States -- except for Paul finding a job.Paul felt disappointed in himself for not being able to support his family, so he suggested they could compromise and all go back to Brazil together.Paul said they had enough money to fly to Brazil as a family, and Karine gushed, "I am happy. I'm excited.""Giving up and going back to Brazil was not my plan. I wanted to live here [in America] and make a better life for everybody. I did everything I could and I couldn't make ends meet," Paul told the cameras."I couldn't make it work. I feel like I failed my family. We're going back temporarily, but I'm definitely concerned that once we're in Brazil, Karine is never going to want to come back."According to Paul, Karine threatened him with divorce both in early September 2019 and again only weeks later.Paul claimed Karine was angry with his mother for spoiling their son in early September and then told Paul later that month she didn't want him in her life anymore."Karine asked me to remove our photos. And let everyone know that she doesn't want me in her life," Paul wrote in a since-deleted Facebook posting from September 27, according to screenshots captured by his followers.Paul then also wrote a subsequent posting in a mix of Portuguese and English. When translated, the text states, "Karine's divorce lawyer called me. Guess I need a lawyer."Shortly afterward, Paul deleted the second posting as well and then removed most photos of Karine from his page.The couple appeared to be at peace for another month or so, and they celebrated their second wedding anniversary in early November 2019.But later that month, the pair openly discussed filing for divorce, once again.Paul claimed Karine had "started divorce proceedings in Manaus," and Karine told Us Weekly on November 12 that she was "looking for a lawyer.""Over the course of our Christmas dinner Paul and Karine broke up, got back together, broke up, got back together, broke up and this just in -- are back together. Stay tuned for more on this developing story," Instagrammer John Yates posted on December 25.In December 2019, Paul alleged Karine had taken off with their baby and was with a new man named Blake. He also said Karine was demanding a divorce again at the time.But fast-forward to 2020, Paul posted an Instagram video on May 19 of a bike he had purchased and was putting together for Karine.That same month, Paul also took to Instagram to happily announce Karine's pregnancy with Baby No. 2. It appeared Karine was already several months along into her pregnancy at the time.In June 2019, Karine posted a photo of Paul playing with Pierre in late June and captioned it, "Happy Father's Day." She also added a blue heart to her post.Paul and Karine's relationship took a dramatic turn for the worse in July 2020, when Paul lashed out at Karine on Instagram for allegedly calling Paul a "horrible father and husband" and threatening to move their son Pierre back to Brazil.Paul took to Instagram on July 15 with the angry message to Karine and quickly deleted it afterward, but Yates captured a screenshot of the rant and posted it on his own account.Paul blasted Karine in saying, "Yelling at me in public calling me horrible father and husband. We spend every penny we have on bills and designer [clothes] and video games for you. I did not buy anything for myself.""I made sure you and Pierre had everything you all could possibly want and I bought nothing for myself. I try to show my family USA History and I get shunned. Because only your country and culture matter," Paul continued."I take you to the hospital and stay by your side, make sure [you're] at all your doctors appointments and let you spend all your money only on what you want -- but I am a Bad Father and Husband you yell in public... I also never ever cheated on you.""But I understand you want to take Pierre to Tonantins and live because I am such a horrible person," he concluded.The pair appeared to briefly reconcile for about two weeks, but then things changed and Paul and Karine went on to have what appeared to be the worst fight of their relationship On July 30, Paul posted a lengthy Instagram Live video in which he and Karine had both made assault allegations against each other and Karine had called the police on her husband.Paul said he wanted to file for full custody of their son Pierre after Karine allegedly cheated on Paul and violated a Child Protective Services case against her.During the Instagram Live video, an apparent friend of Karine's also told the police Karine wanted to be taken to a "shelter" where someone could "help her."The woman said Karine depended on Paul -- who seemed to be holding Karine's passport and other documents -- for everything, including money, and so Karine basically didn't have a way out.Later that night, at around 4AM on Friday, Paul posted another video on his Instagram Stories and seemed to claim the police were called again."I apologize to you guys for earlier. It's been crazy here. I did not get arrested. The cops did come back," Paul said."We had a storm and Karine got on her cell phone and called the police because the WIFI disconnected. She said I was halting her communications... which didn't make any sense to me because she had her phone the whole time and the WIFI just randomly went out.""Sometimes Internet goes out in our houses -- it happens right?! But you're going to call the cops? For that? The cops weren't too happy about it."Paul added it's "been stressful" for the couple and they "need prayers.""I don't want Pierre in dangerous situations," he said. "Pierre has been in a very dangerous situation before and that's why things happened."Paul subsequently made additional Instagram postings, reportedly, in which he claimed Karine had gone "missing" with Pierre while he was in the hospital being treated for a STD. He seemed to blame the alleged STD on Karine for allegedly cheating on him after she arrived in Kentucky."I've never cheated on Karine, ever, but apparently I've tested positive for an STD and they are giving me treatment for me," Paul said in one video.A couple of hours later, Paul then reportedly claimed Karine had filed a "full restraining order" against him and posted photos showing a copy of the order Karine had filed against him."I'm not allowed to be around her or my son, within 500 feet of them at all," he said.Paul subsequently made surprising claims about his estranged wife in his own protective order he had filed against Karine on July 30."I previously found glass in my food," Paul alleged in court documents obtained by Us. "I found similar glass shards from an item she broke."Paul also alleged that Karine's friends were calling him with death threats."[They are] threatening to come to my home and kill me. They requested I pay them $10,000 or I would never see my son again," Paul reportedly claimed, adding that Karine allowed Pierre to "run in the street [and] get into the chemical cabinets.""I fear for my wife's safety and mental well-being. I fear for my son's safety," Paul concluded.A judge therefore reportedly ordered Karine to stop all communication with Paul and stay 500 feet away from him at all times.Karine publicly confirmed in early August that she had left Paul and obtained an emergency protective order against him.Karine said she wasn't "missing" but needed to be "rescued from an environment" that was no longer healthy for her and her child, adding on Instagram, "Relationships are hard and sometimes it just can't be fixed anymore."Karine's protective order included an array of shocking claims -- including that Paul had physically assaulted her, sexually assaulted her, and prevented her doctor from prescribing contraception to her.In the emergency protection order application Paul had shared on social media, Karine claimed Paul "forcefully rapes me," "hold[s] my Green Card and all my documents," monitors her phone, uses cameras to monitor her on his phone when he is not home, has forced her to drink beer while pregnant, and has forbidden Karine's doctor from prescribing birth control to her."On multiples occasions in the past 3 weeks the respondent pushed me, grab my breast squ[ee]zing and twisting, hurting me, pushing me to the floor, covering my mouth. He force his penis into my mouth and forcefully rapes me. If I refuse he throws things, he yells, or he threat[ens] to call police," Karine wrote in the handwritten two-page application."He currently hold[s] my Green Card and all my documents. I am not allowed to leave the house, he monitor[s] my phone, he [has] cameras around the house and he can see through his phone who arrives and who leaves. He threat[ens] take out son Pierre away if I ever leave. He forced me to drink alcohol by threat[ing] me so I drunk some so he calm down."Karine continued, with the help of a language translator, "He is constantly on social media making videos of me against my will saying I am crazy, saying I have mental illness. Recently he called [Child Protective Services] and told [them] I was always drunk, aggressive, and abusive to him.""He post on social media [that] I have [cheated with] several [men] even knowing that he [has] cameras around the house and I can't leave. I have no access to money for my son or myself.""I went to the doctor to try [and] get contraceptive," she wrote. "In the doctor's office he said 'no' because I would be doing an abortion. The doctor explained the contraceptive was only for preventing [pregnancy] and I would not get pregnant [but] Paul said 'no' and took me home."According to her application, Paul also refused to let her return home to Brazil but she feared she still wouldn't even be safe in her native country."I came to U.S. to visit my in-laws and now he [does] not let me go back. We got married in Brazil, not in U.S.," she wrote. "When I ask to go back to me family he threat[ens] [to] take my son away.""I am terrified he will hurt me or hurt my son because I runned away from him and I am even afraid to go back to Brazil now because He Can go to Brazil and hurt us."Karine ended her application by stating she was also afraid of Paul's mother Mary and wanted no contact with any of his family or friends."I have my family in Brazil but I don't feel that law enforcement will protect me from him there," she wrote. "I am afraid of him and his mother because his mother knows and sees what he does and she refused [to] report her son. I have witnessed him threat[en] and being violent with his own mother.""I do not want any contact with or his mother, his friends or family. I do not want them close, I am afraid of them hurt[ing] my son for revenge.Paul took to his Instagram Stories on August 10 to shoot down the claims Karine had made in her protective order filing."It truley [sic] breaks my heart it has come to this. I have bent over backwards. I found work. Got a new home. A new car. Let her buy anything she wanted. I did the cooking, cleaning, laundry and took care of Pierre," Paul wrote in his Instagram Stories."I have never in my life physically or sexually assaulted anyone."Paul has claimed for quite some time that Karine has mental health issues, and so he addressed his beliefs in the message to his followers."I have made motions to the court for Karine to get mental help. I have had to double up on my therapy to cope with this madness," Paul wrote."Her motion against me with false allegations is for a 3 year restraining order against me and both my children. Alimony and child support. But I can not see her or my children at all."One day later, Paul vented about how social media has basically ruined his life."I will be deactivating all my social media accounts soon. My social media addiction has caused me nothing but pain. It is time people put their phones and social media down and focus on your loved ones," Paul wrote."Do not allow social media to destroy your relationships and family. I never knew my heart could feel such pain. I always took for granted my son would be around me every day... I never want to date or remarry [or] to ever feel this pain again. To not be a part of your childrens life born and unborn is beyond painful."Paul continued in his Instagram Stories posting, "I regret oversharing private matters on social media and to other people. I regret taking for granted my family would be together for ever and live happily ever after," Paul lamented.Paul advised other men to treat their wives and children well and to "listen, forgive" and "not hold grudges" in relationships."But most of all, keep your marital problems private," Paul concluded."This is a pain no one should have to endure. Not knowing if my children [are] ok. If and when I might see them again. I forgive all those in my life who have ever made false accusations against me."Also in August, Paul posted a photo of little Pierre on Instagram and captioned it, "No Matter Where You Are I Will Always Love & Cherish You."As of early September, the bio in Paul's Instagram account reads, "God please grant me a miracle," but the sentence is written in Portuguese.Following a three-week break from social media, Paul took to his Instagram Stories to reveal he was in Brazil and Karine was in Indiana."For everyone thinking I am chasing karine in Brazil. Karine is in Indiana, USA. I came here alone to clean and organize our brazil home. It needs to be sanitary and baby safe," Paul wrote."I have been keeping busy since she left. I finished cleaning and organizing USA house so now I am doing the same thing in Brazil. All my work is on the internet so as long as I have internet I can be anywhere. Even court is on the internet these days."Paul then switched topics from his current location to the fact he's been missing his family."My life revolved around them. I have not seen my son since July. Next court date is now in December. I will not see my sons for a very long time," Paul continued."So I am keeping busy and constructive. Karine is not in Brazil. I knew that when I traveled here. Now my mother is having a mental breakdown because she is also forbidden to see Pierre. I have lost my sons."Paul clearly confirmed Karine is pregnant with another boy because he wrote "sons" multiple times.Paul went on to suggest he's doing everything possible to keep his mind off being alone."I just want to stay busy and be productive. I have to accept the fact I will probably never see my wife and son again . Or see the birth or ever see my unborn child," Paul wrote."That being said, I think I am mentally doing what is best -- staying constructive and busy."Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage!
Expected to launch in 2022 or 2023 at the latest , the yet-to-be-named workhorse is going to be a badge-engineered version of a Hyundai pickup. The chief operating officer of Kia Australia said in July 2019 that work is already underway and that body styles will range from a single cab to a slightly roomier dual cab.Imagined by Kleber Silva with the face and taillights of the Telluride and the body shell of the half-ton GMC Sierra, you cant help but wonder how much Kia will copy from American brands. After all, theyre the most proficient at designing pickups and they also happen to sell the most trucks by a long margin.Dont, however, brace yourself for U.S. availability because neither Kia nor Hyundai want to lose to the Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and Ram. This gets us to Australia, which is the land of the mid-size pickup, and the mystery trucks capability. The golden standard for towing in this segment is 3,500 kilograms (make that 7,716 pounds) while payload should exceed 1,000 kilograms (2,205 pounds), figures that should give the Toyota Hilux a run for its money.Speaking of which, Kia is poised to offer a more affordable alternative to the best-selling Hilux and the Ford Ranger, the two most popular mid-sizers in the Land Down Under. The Toyota starts at 22,325 dollars in Australia for the Workmate trim level with rear-wheel drive while the Blue Oval is charging 28,340 for the XL Low Rider with the 2.2-liter turbo diesel and a six-speed automatic box.Both Kia and bigger brother Hyundai are likely cutting their teeth at pickups in Australia before theyll try the U.S. market for the second generation of these trucks, but only time will tell if the South Korean companies will make a business case for selling trucks in North America. After all, its the hardest market to break because the Big Three in Detroit have so much more experience in this segment.On a related note, have you heard that Hyundai prepares to roll out the Santa Cruz "crosstruck" next year in the U.S. of all places? The unibody pickup will be manufactured in Alabama, and chances are the newcomer will go on sale as a 2022 model if everything goes according to plan.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, September 13, 2020 13:53 495 e22cd4161040e111d73a5626c4485539 1 City COVID-19,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,COVID-19-Jakarta,West-Jakarta,anies-baswedan,Jakarta-administration,PSBB,large-scale-social-restrictions,emergency-brake,rem-darurat,coronavirus Free

Jakarta administration secretary Saefullah and West Jakarta Mayor Uus Kuswanto have tested positive for COVID-19, officials reported on Saturday.

Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan confirmed the news, adding that both city high-ranking officials had shown no symptoms of COVID-19.

We sincerely hope they will recover soon, Anies said at City Hall in Jakarta on Saturday.

City Council deputy speaker Muhammad Taufik previously demanded that the government publicly announce when city officials were infected by the virus.

Getting infected with COVID-19 is not a disgrace to hide. But it is necessary [to be publicized] for further contact tracing, he said as quoted by tempo.co.

Read also: Central government supports return to full PSBB, Anies says

On Wednesday, Anies Baswedan announced that the administration planned to reimpose full large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) starting Monday due to a rising number of new COVID-19 cases in the capital.

The Jakarta administration is scheduled to hold a press conference regarding the details of the policy on Sunday afternoon.

According to the official government count, Jakarta had 52,840 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 1,386 deaths as of Saturday. (trn)
California

A Canadian flight was cancelled and police were called because a child was not wearing a mask.

Safwan Choudhry says WestJet wanted his 19-month-old to wear a mask, but the baby girl would not stop crying.

The airline says the issue was not with the infant, who is below the age required to wear a mask, but with Mr Choudhry's three-year-old.

Tuesday morning's Flight 652 from Calgary to Toronto was stopped, and all passengers were ordered to disembark.

morning's Flight 652 from Calgary to Toronto was stopped, and all passengers were ordered to disembark.

California has the most cases of any U.S. state, with more than 747,000 people diagnosed, according to Johns Hopkins data. California is followed by Texas and Florida, with over 667,000 cases and over 652,000 cases respectively.

Nearly 170 vaccine candidates for COVID-19 are being tracked by the World Health Organization, at least six of which are in crucial phase three trials.
Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut and her sister Rangoli met Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at Raj Bhavan here on Sunday afternoon, amidst escalating tension between her and the ruling Shiv Sena party.

Following her meeting, Kangana tweeted: "A short while ago I met His Excellency the Governor of Maharashtra Shri Bhagat Singh Koshyari Ji. I explained my point of view to him and also requested that justice be given to me, it will restore faith of common citizen and particularly daughters in the system."

A short while ago I met His Excellency the Governor of Maharashtra Shri Bhagat Singh Koshyari Ji. I explained my point of view to him and also requested that justice be given to me it will restore faith of common citizen and particularly daughters in the system. pic.twitter.com/oCNByhvNOT  Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) September 13, 2020



The actress drew the ire of the Shiv Sena government after she compared Mumbai with Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir in her tweets.

She received strong-worded reactions from Sena leaders, following which she was given Y-plus security.

On September 9, she arrived in Mumbai amid tight security. On the same day, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had conducted a demolition drive at her Mumbai office, razing portions that they claimed were illegally built.
Rajya Sabha will convene in the morning from 9 am to 1 pm and Lok Sabha will sit from 3 pm to 7 pm, as part of the precautionary measures

New Delhi Parliament is fully prepared for the 18-day Monsoon Session from Monday under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic with many firsts, including sitting of the two Houses in shifts without any off day, entry only to those having a negative COVID-19 report and compulsory wearing of masks.

In run-up to the session, while over 4,000 people including MPs and staff have been tested for COVID-19, most parliamentary operations have been digitalised, entire premises sanitised and doors made touch-free.

The first-of-its-kind Monsoon Session will see Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha sitting in two different shifts, while special seating arrangements have been made for MPs in adherence to social distancing guidelines.

Barring on the first day, Rajya Sabha will convene in morning shift from 9 am till 1 pm, and Lok Sabha in evening shift from 3 pm to 7 pm. The chambers of both Houses along with their respective galleries will be used for sitting of the members in each shift.

In between the two shifts, the entire complex will be sanitised.

Entry in the premises will be allowed only on production of a COVID-19 negative report, with the test conducted not more than 72 hours before the start of the session.

Frequent sanitisation of the entire parliament complex will also be carried out, while arrangements have been made to sanitise various parliamentary papers as well as footwear and cars of MPs, officials said.

Frisking of people will also make way for touch-less security scanning, while thermal scanning will also be totally touch-free.

For making the entire Parliament complex a safe zone in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu had held a series of extensive discussions with officials of the Home Ministry, Health Ministry, ICMR and the DRDO.

As per the standard operating procedures finalised for holding the session from 14 September till 1 October, the MPs and staff of secretariats of both houses, as also the media personnel covering the proceedings, will be asked to undergo COVID-19 test, not more than 72 hours before the start of the session.

Officials said arrangements were made for tests of close to 4,000 people, including the MPs, staff members and journalists. Only MPs and ministers will be allowed inside the main building, while necessary seating arrangements will be made for separate sitting of their personal staff in the complex.

A new seating arrangement following social distancing guidelines has been prepared by both houses for their respective members. The MPs will also be allowed to address the Chair while seated and wearing their masks so that the risk of infection might be minimised.

It has also been decided that air of air conditioners will be exchanged six times every day to avoid any possible infection. The DRDO will also provide multi-utility COVID-19 kits to all MPs.

Each kit will contain 40 disposable masks, five N-95 masks, 20 bottles of sanitisers of 50 ml each, face shields, 40 pairs of gloves, a touch-free hook to open and close doors without touching them, herbal sanitation wipes and tea bags to enhance immunity.

The two houses together have more than 780 members at present. The Health Ministry has also suggested that the movement of Members of Parliament in chambers of both the houses can be made unidirectional to avoid face-to-face interactions.

The Ministry will make available short video clips to all MPs on awareness about COVID-19 infections and the benefits of wearing masks, etc.

Touchless sanitisers will be kept at 40 different places within the Parliament House complex, and emergency medical teams and ambulances will also be stationed.

All guidelines related to COVID-19 prevention will be strictly followed, the presiding officers of both houses have said.

The provision of ultraviolet boxes has also been made to sanitise various parliamentary papers handled by the presiding officers and members. Arrangements are also being made for sanitisation of footwear and cars used by the members and those provided by the Secretariat by providing mats of required dimensions soaked in Hypochloride gel placed in troughs.

Marshals will also wear masks and face shields.
Rahul Gandhi gives adjournment notice on giving unhindered access to pasture lands in Ladakh

'Do you work for govt?' Rahul Gandhi asks reporter; BJP calls him entitled brat

Word 'lynching' practically unheard of before 2014, 'Thank You Modi-Ji': Rahul Gandhi

Hindu and Hindutva are not different things: Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi

Even teleprompter could not take so many lies: Rahul's dig at PM Modis Davos speech

In an abyss of reduction: Rahul Gandhi on GDP

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Sep 13: Taking a dig at the government, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said its "well planned fight" against coronavirus has allegedly put India in an "abyss" of GDP reduction of 24 per cent, 12 crore job losses, 15.5 lakh crore additional stressed loans and globally highest daily COVID-19 cases and deaths.

The Congress has been accusing the Modi government of not handling the COVID-19 pandemic effectively. The government has dismissed all such claims in the past.

Fall in GDP alarming; time for bureaucracy to take meaningful action: Raghuram Rajan

"Modi Govt's 'well-planned fight' against Covid has put India in an abyss of: 1. Historic GDP reduction of 24% 2. 12 crore jobs lost 3. 15.5 lac crores additional stressed loans 4. Globally highest daily Covid cases & deaths," Gandhi said in a tweet.

But for the government of India and the media "sab changa si (all is well)", the former Congress chief said.

India's COVID-19 caseload has gone past 46 lakh, while 36,24,196 people have recuperated so far taking the national recovery rate to 77.77 per cent on Saturday, according to Union health ministry data.

Later, in another tweet, Gandhi said there was no hope of job creation and safe future for youth anytime soon.

Tagging a report quoting Unilever global chief executive Alan Jope as saying that increasing COVID-19 cases is a worrying trend in India, Gandhi tweeted, "One of India's biggest employers is in 'wait and see' mode since Covid cases are rising.

"So, no hope of job creation & safe future for youth anytime soon. Yet another outcome of Modi Govt's sudden & unplanned lockdown which has snowballed India's already-precarious economy," he said.

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Story first published: Sunday, September 13, 2020, 7:58 [IST]
The Peel District School Board has delayed the start of online classes after thousands of students switched over to virtual learning at the last minute.

Students were originally supposed to begin online school on Monday, but in a letter sent to parents on the weekend, the board said elementary students will now be starting those live classes on Sept. 21 and high school students will begin Sept. 22.

The school board says it now has more than 64,000 students enrolled in online classes.

Due to this recent increase in online enrolment, we require additional time to staff online classes and reconfigure timetables to ensure an equitable and successful start for all staff and students, the board said in its letter to parents.

In the meantime, from Sept. 14 to 18, elementary students will be given online assignments to work on independently.

High school students will be assigned cross-curricular projects to complete before the online classes start.

The Peel board says high school students will receive their timetables for the upcoming quadmester on Sept. 18.

The quadmester system, where students study two subjects at a time for about two months, is being used by a number of boards during the reopening of schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The board has also allocated Sept. 17 and 18 for both groups of students to virtually meet with their teachers.

These are truly unprecedented times, the board wrote. We appreciate your patience and understanding during this transition back to school.

Breanna Xavier-Carter is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star's radio room in Toronto. Reach her via email: bxavier@thestar.ca
LONDON  Oxford University announced Saturday it was resuming a trial for a coronavirus vaccine it is developing with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, a move that comes days after the study was suspended following a reported side-effect in a U.K. patient.

In a statement, the university confirmed the restart across all of its U.K. clinical trial sites after regulators gave the go-ahead following the pause on Sunday.

The independent review process has concluded and following the recommendations of both the independent safety review committee and the U.K. regulator, the MHRA, the trials will recommence in the U.K., it said.

The vaccine being developed by Oxford and AstraZeneca is widely perceived to be one of the strongest contenders among the dozens of coronavirus vaccines in various stages of testing around the world.

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock welcomed the restart, saying in a tweet that it was good news for everyone that the trial is back up and running.

The university said in large trials such as this it is expected that some participants will become unwell and every case must be carefully evaluated to ensure careful assessment of safety.

It said globally some 18,000 people have received its vaccine so far. Volunteers from some of the worst affected countries  Britain, Brazil, South Africa and the U.S.  are taking part in the trial.

Brazils health regulator Anvisa on Saturday said it had approved the resumption of tests of the Oxford vaccine in the South American country after receiving official information from AstraZeneca.

Although Oxford would not disclose information about the patients illness due to participant confidentiality, an AstraZeneca spokesman said earlier this week that a woman had developed severe neurological symptoms that prompted the pause. Specifically, the woman is said to have developed symptoms consistent with transverse myelitis, a rare inflammation of the spinal cord.

The university insisted that it is committed to the safety of our participants and the highest standards of conduct in our studies and will continue to monitor safety closely.

Pauses in drug trials are commonplace and the temporary hold led to a sharp fall in AstraZenecas share price following the announcement Tuesday.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca study had been previously stopped in July for several days after a participant developed neurological symptoms that turned out to be an undiagnosed case of multiple sclerosis that researchers said was unrelated to the vaccine.

During the third and final stage of testing, researchers look for any signs of possible side effects that may have gone undetected in earlier patient research. Because of their large size, the studies are considered the most important study phase for picking up less common side effects and establishing safety. The trials also assess effectiveness by tracking who gets sick and who doesnt between patients getting the vaccine and those receiving a dummy shot.

Dr. Charlotte Summers, a lecturer in intensive care medicine at the University of Cambridge, said the pause was a sign that the Oxford team was putting safety issues first, but that it led to much unhelpful speculation.

To tackle the global COVID-19 pandemic, we need to develop vaccines and therapies that people feel comfortable using, therefore it is vital to maintaining public trust that we stick to the evidence and do not draw conclusions before information is available, she said.

Scientists and others around the world, including experts at the World Health Organization, have sought to keep a lid on expectations of an imminent breakthrough for coronavirus vaccines, stressing that vaccine trials are rarely straightforward.

Italys health minister, Roberto Speranza, welcomed the resumption of the vaccine trial, but warned that prudence was still necessary.

Science is at work to give the world efficient and secure treatments and vaccines, he said. In the meantime, the key continues to be our behavior.

Italy, which was ground zero for Europes outbreak, is one of the main countries investing in the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Two other vaccines are in huge, final-stage tests in the United States, one made by Moderna Inc. and the other by Pfizer and Germanys BioNTech.
Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, will resume passenger flights from Abu Dhabi, UAE, to Casablanca and Rabat in Morocco.

Effective September 19, the airline will operate return flights three times a week from Abu Dhabi to Casablanca. This service will be followed by direct flights between the two capitals - Abu Dhabi and Rabat - on October 28.

Those wishing to book tickets are advised to visit www.etihad.com to view their options and to remain informed on the appropriate entry regulations at their end destination. Flights are also available for booking through the mobile app, by calling the Etihad Airways Contact Centre on +971 600 555 666 (UAE), or through a local or online travel agency.

The addition of Casablanca and Rabat brings the total number destinations Etihad is operating to 58 worldwide. - TradeArabia News Service
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-14 04:59:27|Editor: huaxia

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ADEN, Yemen, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- The total number of COVID-19 cases in Yemen's government-controlled provinces increased to 2,011 on Sunday, as two new cases were officially 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 rose to 1,212 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 583 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 capital Sanaa. Enditem
Commanding a high spot overlooking the middle Rio Grande Valley, soldiers stationed at Fort Craig were well-positioned to meet threats along the El Camino Real.

It was near here, south of Socorro, where Confederate soldiers sweeping north through New Mexico tried to lure Union troops from the fort for a pitched battle in what became known as the Battle of Valverde  one of two significant Civil War clashes in the state.

Established in 1854, Fort Craig was one of eight outposts built along El Camino to protect travelers and traders, said Brenda Wilkinson, who was a Bureau of Land Management archeologist stationed in the area for 25 years.

Although now little more than a few rows of adobe walls, and a couple of masonry walls, the fort holds plenty of interest with some 300 visitors monthly, said Mike Comiskey, BLM outdoor recreation planner.

Its role in the Civil War is still examined by Army officers, who visit it to visualize how the 1862 clash unfolded, Wilkinson said.

About once year on average, wed get requests for military staff rites, she said. To me its amazing an impact for this fort that was decommissioned over 130 ago and it is still relevant to todays military, Wilkinson said.

The battle unfolded as southern Gen. Henry Sibley moved north with a force of 2,510 officers and men. Fort Craig was seen as vital to the success of a campaign into the north because of its supplies.

Col. Edward Canby commanded the fort with 3,800 men, but only 1,200 were Army regulars. The rest were made up of volunteers from New Mexico, Colorado and about 500 militia.

Canby refused the bait to attack the mounted southerners, who eventually moved north to the Rio Grande ford at Valverde, where a battle was joined.

Although the battle was essentially inconclusive, it was notable as the first major Civil War clash in the West. But it sucked precious resources from the southern troops.

The battle was additionally noteworthy because it featured a failed lancer charge by the Confederates. It was the first and last lancer charge of the Civil War.

Following the war, the fort was home to Buffalo Soldiers of the 9th Cavalry and 38th and 125th Infantry, the predominantly Hispanic New Mexico Volunteers and New Mexico Militia.

It also brought together people from across the country, Wilkinson said.

It was such a melting pot, she said. They were from all over. In the 1860s, you could be hearing different languages and accents from all over.

And, of course, whats an old fort without some ghost stories to give it a sense of the supernatural?

A lot of people wont tell you about ghost experiences for fear of losing respect or credibility, but I have heard a number over the years, Wilkinson said. Heres one. About 15 years ago, our resident on-site hosts had friends visiting overnight. A little after dark, the wife went outside the host compound to take the dog out. When she came back in she was pale, and asked the host Were you just out there? He told her he hadnt moved from the couch. She said she had seen someone outside who looked a lot like him, but his clothes were shabby, and he was holding a lantern.

Visitors can follow a newly ADA-compliant, self-guided interpretive trail around the fort. A small visitor center features some displays and some information, Comiskey said.

The adobe walls are the officers quarters and are the most prominent ones, he said. As you go along the trail, you can see the ruins where they stored the supplies and things like that. In the back, you can see where the corrals were, where they stored the livestock and some of the walls of the hospital.
Liberia's President George Weah has declared rape a national emergency after pressure from activists who are calling for better laws and more support to protect girls and women. The move will see 1.7 million euros allotted to the fight to stop gender and sexual violence.

Under the national rape emergency, Weah announced several measures, including the appointment of a special prosecutor for rape and the establishment of a National Sex Offender Registry and a National Security Taskforce on sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), among others.

We are witnessing an epidemic of rape within the Covid-19 pandemic, affecting mostly children and young girls across the country, Weah said at a national anti-rape conference earlier this month.

According to feminist activists, over 900 cases of rape have been perpetrated against women and girls including acts of sodomy targeting under-aged males since the coronavirus hit.

Push for change

The presidential declaration comes two days after an anti-rape and sexual and gender-based violence conference in the capital Monrovia, aimed at highlighting the National Roadmap on rape and SGBV produced by the Inter-ministerial taskforce Weah recently set up.

The president insisted his administration will spare no effort in ensuring that sexual violence is curtailed. Additional measures, such as an executive order to protect the vulnerable and to ban harmful traditional practices such as Female Genital Mutilation, will also be introduced shortly, he said.

Organisers of the nationwide "March for Justice" demonstrations welcomed Weah's announcements.

We are now going to monitor how effective the government is in implementing the SGBV roadmap, Titus B. Pakalah, March for Justice director and lead campaigner told RFI.

Liberian women's rights activist and Nobel Peace laureate Leymah Gbowee praised the protesters for helping to bring about the new anti-rape laws.

'Dangerous' rape law

Activists are pushing the Liberian legislature to amend the rape law to ensure a harsher punishment for convicted rapists.

Rape is currently a non-bailable offence and perpetrators have no access to parole while serving their prison term.

However, Nimba County lawmaker Samuel G. Kogar says the current law, a martial law, needs to be amended because people are taking advantage of it.

As soon as you are accused of being a rapist, it's non-bailable. The law is dangerous, he told RFI, saying that it allowed people to falsely accuse others, some of whom have been behind bars for years without trial.

To make the law fairer, Kogar says rape needs to become a bailable offence.

Those accused of rape should be placed under bond and once they are found guilty, they should be sentenced to life imprisonment. That would be a good law and I will affix my signature to it, he indicated.

Blaming the victim

The United Nations has long campaigned against the culture of blaming the victim  saying a women's behaviour or choice of clothing can incite rape or sexual assault.

This attitude is prevalent Liberia, according to a UN study that found 83 percent of people thought a woman's appearance could contribute to her chance of being assaulted.

MP Kogar shares the view, saying the way a woman dresses can serve as "provocation.

Campaigner Pakalah rejects the attitude as "unbelievable".

You cannot tell me because a lady wore a mini skirt it is enticing you to sexually abuse her," he says.

Despite the enduring culture of blaming the victim, activists say the government's move to implement the anti-rape roadmap is a strong step towards making Liberia a safe place for women and girls.
By PTI

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday lashed out at the BJP, saying the suicide by a Tamil Nadu girl student on the eve of NEET was the murder of the "Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao" slogan.

The 19-year-old Madurai girl and two other medical aspirants in Tamil Nadu had committed suicide on Saturday, prompting the opposition parties to demand the scrapping of the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET).

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court had refused to entertain a batch of pleas seeking deferment or cancellation of the exam scheduled for Sunday, saying the authorities will take all necessary steps for conducting it amid COVID-19.

Referring to the girl's suicide, the SP chief in a tweet asked the BJP who was responsible for her "murder".

"The news of suicide by a medical aspirant in Madurai yesterday has shocked every family," he said while paying tributes to the girl.

"Heartless BJP should tell who is responsible for this. This is a murder. Along with this, the slogan of 'Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao (teach daughter, save daughter) has also been murdered," he said.

ALSO READ | Despite assurance of a separate room, COVID positive NEET aspirant in TN denied entry to write exam

Later in a statement, the former UP CM said the attitude of the BJP towards the youth has always been insensitive.

"Because of the wrong policies of the BJP, UP is lagging behind. Both law and order and business have been hit. The youth are committing suicide," he said.

Yadav alleged that the BJP believes in its "own political expansion" and "monopoly of power" due to which development has been hit in Uttar Pradesh.

"A conspiracy is being hatched to slowly end schemes of public interest such as the 181 women helpline, which were implemented during the SP regime," he said.

The SP chief said it was the SP government which started the Metro service in Lucknow.

"Even today, it is only confined to here (Lucknow). People in the constituencies of the prime minister and chief minister have not been able to see the Metro till today," Akhilesh Yadav said.

Rebutting the statement of Akhilesh Yadav, UP BJP media co-convenor Navin Srivastava said, their party is working to ensure development reaches the last man of society.

"During the SP regime, development was confined only to Saifai and the Saifai family. The motto of the BJP is 'sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas', unlike the SP, which believed in appeasement of a few," he said.

ALSO WATCH:
L: President Donald Trump at the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on March 13, 2020. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images) R: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) makes a statement about a coronavirus aid package, on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 13, 2020. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

Pelosi Optimistic About Congress Passing Virus Stimulus Bill Before Elections

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) last week said she was optimistic about Congress passing COVID-19 relief legislation before the Nov. 3 presidential election.

Im optimistic. I do think that we should have an agreement, Pelosi remarked during a CNN interview on Sept. 11. Thats what we all want.

On Sept. 10, the Senate killed a Republican-proposed bill that was far smaller than previous proposals and bills, including $300-per-week unemployment benefits, liability protections, funding for schools, and more. Nearly all Republicans voted for the measure, but it didnt garner support from Democrats and did not pass the 60-vote threshold to allow it to advance for a debate.

Both Democrats and Republicans accused the other side of trying to play politics with the measure.

Pelosi, in the interview, said she was happy to see Senate Democrats reject that terrible skinny bill to a massive problem that we have.

Last month and in July, top Democrats and the White House held daily talks on how to come to an agreement on a stimulus funding package, but those negotiations ultimately stalled before members of Congress left Washington. The Senate returned last week, and the House of Representatives is scheduled to return on Sept. 14.

In the CNN interview, Pelosi did not say whether any new negotiations between her, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and White House officials would resume. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told media outlets earlier this month and in August that he is not interested in taking up a more than $2 trillion proposal from Democrats.

Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) leaves after a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on March 17, 2020. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Earlier in 2020, Congress passed several bills, including the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, to offset damages incurred by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic and associated business shutdowns. The House passed the $3.4 trillion HEROES Act, but the Senate has not taken up the measure, saying its too expensive and contains many provisions that are unrelated to the pandemic.

Pelosi last week, after the bill failed to advance on Thursday, told Democrats in a conference call that she may try to take action to break the stalemate. The reason why is because some House Democrats who are up for reelection may feel vulnerable for not being able to pass a stimulus bill before then.

We dont want to go home without a bill, but dont be a cheap date, Pelosi said, according to Politico. When you are in a negotiation, the last place to get weak knees is at the end.

Last month, about 100 Democrats called on Pelosi and House Democratic leaders to take up a smaller stimulus bill that includes an extension of $600 weekly federal unemployment benefits, which expired at the end of July. That was rejected by Pelosi.

Schumer, who spoke in the call, said that he believes the GOP will come back again to negotiations.

The weaker they are, the better off we are. And that means the more heat they get and the more that Mnuchin is able to persuade Trump, that if he doesnt get something done here, its going to be certain that he wont be reelected, he said.
Iran based Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim says the people of Bahrain and the region have to resist this defeat.

Bahraini opposition groups have rejected a decision by the Gulf state to normalise relations with Israel with a leading Shia Muslim leader calling on the people of the region to resist.

Muslim scholar Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, who lives in Iran, said on Sunday he was against normalisation between Arab countries and Israel, in a statement published by dissolved Bahraini opposition party al-Wefaq, a group close to Qassim.

The accords struck between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last month, and between Israel and Bahrain on Friday, go against the will of the people, he said.

There is a great divergence between the rulers and the ruled in thought, mind, aims and interests. Governments are experiencing a psychological defeat and want to impose it on the people, and the people have to resist this defeat, Qassim said.

A group of Bahraini political and civil society associations, including the Bahrain Bar Association, on Sunday voiced their opposition to the deal in a joint statement.





What results from normalisation will not enjoy popular backing, in line with what generations of Bahrainis have been brought up on in terms of adherence to the Palestinian cause, the statement said.

Finding solutions

The head of Bahrains highest court ordered judiciary employees not to criticise government policy or express opinions harming national unity, al-Bilad newspaper reported on Sunday.

Bahrains foreign minister said Palestinian rights remained a priority for the kingdom.

Bahrainis have previously criticised their governments engagements with Israel, including last Junes conference in Manama to launch a US-led $50bn economic formula for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Parliament last April joined social media calls to stop Israeli business and government officials attending an international entrepreneurship conference. The delegation did not attend.

Bahrain has had a Jewish population for decades, although emigration means it is small today.

A television period drama released this year by a Gulf network about the trials of a Jewish midwife in a multireligious community took inspiration from real-life Jewish midwife Umm Jan who lived in Bahrain.

Ebrahim Noonoo, the head of Bahrains Jewish community, said the agreement would enable Israelis to come to Bahrain to visit its synagogue and cemetery, where family members may be buried.

With this understanding comes new and open ideas that help us in finding solutions for any problems between Jews and Muslims, he said.

Bahraini worker Ali Abdallah said he hoped the deal would help regional peace and stability and would facilitate all Muslims being able to pray at Jerusalems Al-Aqsa Mosque.
By Trend





Export of steel from Turkey to Russia grew by 23.52 percent from January through July 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, having reached $49.7 million, Turkeys Ministry of Trade told Trend.

In July 2020, steel exports from Turkey to Russia increased by 98.96 percent compared to July 2019, and amounted $12.7 million.

Export of steel from Turkey to world markets dropped by 16.4 percent in the first 7 months of 2020 compared to the same period of 2019 and amounted to $12.7 billion.

According to the ministry, the overall export of steel from Turkey made up 7.8 percent of the country's total export over the reporting period.

In July 2020, Turkey exported $1 million worth of steel abroad, which is 15.4 percent less compared to the same month of 2019, the ministry noted.

Turkeys steel export for May 2020 amounted to 7 percent of the country's total export.

From July 2019 through July 2020, Turkey exported the steel in the amount of over $12.5 billion to foreign markets.
STRATFORD  Sixty-five police officers in town are now equipped with body-worn cameras for all service calls, Stratford police Capt. Frank Eannotti said.

Eannotti said all officers in the department were trained in how to use the cameras and that officers began to use them on patrols last week.

Any time an officer is dispatched, initiates a call, conducts a motor vehicle stops or interview a witness, Eannotti said the cameras must be turned on.

The point is to record your daily, job-specific duties, Eannotti said.

Eannotti said if an officer is on break or personal relief, having lunch or just sitting in their car, that information doesnt need to be recorded.

But there are certain situations when a camera should be turned on normally that officers wold be required to actually turn off the cameras, Eannotti said.

He said if officers are responding to a call that involves undercover officers or informants, the officer is not required to utilize their body camera.

If an officer responds to a medical call, the officer does not need to record the incident unless the person is combative or violent, Eannotti said.

Footage from medical calls and for incidents involving juveniles will not be released, he said.

It may be recorded for safety, but it isnt releasable to the public, Eannotti said.

If someone is looking for footage of an incident, Eannotti said a Freedom of Information Act request may be formally sent to the department and the person can receive the footage if the case is closed.

If somebody requests a video and its an ongoing case, it will not be released, Eannotti said.

Making copies can be costly and time-consuming, so Eannotti said there will be a fee involved with obtaining body camera footage.

Other Fairfield County police departments have taken the plunge and purchased body cameras for officers.

Milford, Ansonia and Westport police departments have officers using body cameras.

Fairfield police participated in a pilot program using body cameras in 2016.

But the cost of the body cameras and their storage tend to be an issue for police departments.

The Bridgeport Police Department has not followed through on its plan for body cameras because of the cost of storage, police Chief Armando Perez told Hearst Connecticut Media in April.

Eannotti said the cost of storage varies based on the size of the department.

He said the Stratford Police Department found its way around the expensive storage costs by working in-house.

Rather than storing all the body camera footage in the cloud, Eannotti said the department purchased a server and a backup server that is kept at headquarters to store all the information.

This move kept the departments cost for body cameras and storage around $83,000, Eannotti said. He said less than $3,000 of that total cost came from taxpayers money.

Through a grant process with the Office of Policy Management in Connecticut, Eannotti said the department will get reimbursed for the body cameras and storage.

Eannotti said he hopes the inclusion of body cameras within the department will help the department in the long-term.

Were looking at it as a positive tool. Its going to help improve our services, Eannotti said. People always talk about transparency and this will help that go both ways.
A video of the full chat has emerged online, and you will find it at the bottom of the page. Elon is speaking to what seems like a large group of people, taking questions shot at him at rapid fire and doing his best to address most concerns. Its a chaotic situation without mediation from any PR-type, and it speaks to Musks desire to be the peoples champion.Among other things, he talks about why Tesla in such a hurry to build this factory, saying we can no longer afford to wait for stuff to happen gradually and revealing how theyre using prefabrication as a means to speed up the process. We need to accelerate the transition to sustainable energy, he says. To that end, the Berlin Giga will be building more than cars: it will also have a research center, and will build batteries and cells.Musk also addresses the water shortage concerns in the area and talks about recent controversy that, at one point, threatened to halt the construction . He also takes a question about his son, admitting that, indeed, X  A-12 does sound more like a password than a name. For his next visit to Germany, Musk is considering to bring his son along, assuming, of course, the health crisis has passed by then.Other details disclosed in this interview include Teslas plan to build two train stations that will connect the factory to Berlin and thus encourage more people to get a job here and commute daily. A rave cave is culturally necessary, Musk explains, touching on a subject he first discussed on Twitter, as he is known to do.There will also be a paint factory, and Musk says Giga Berlin will probably be better than the U.S. version.Critics often say that Musks peoples champion stance is more or less a marketing strategy meant to ultimately sell cars. This video should prove the contrary.
Several college students  one of whom had tested positive for the coronavirus -- were cited after they were found throwing a party over Labor Day weekend in Ohio.

The incident at a house in Oxford, Ohio, near the campus of the Miami University, made national headlines as colleges and universities around the country try to resume classes during a pandemic and struggle to crack down on such gatherings, cited as the root of many collegiate outbreaks, the Washington Post is reporting.

The incident was caught on a police officers body camera, which can be seen on Clevelands CBS 19 News.

According to 19 News, an Oxford police officer approached the gathering, and one of the students said 20 people had attended the party.

The officer ran one of the students IDs and told him, Ive never seen this before, theres an input on the computer that you tested positive for COVID? the officer asked.

The student answered, Yes.

Sighing, the officer pointed out the student was not quarantining if hes mixing with other people.

This happened as the university reported more than 1,000 students testing positive for the coronavirus, Clevelands Local 12 reports.

Six students who live at the house received citations and a civil penalty, which includes a $500 fine each, but no criminal charges were filed, according to the Washington Post.

A spokeswoman for the university told the Washington Post she cannot comment on individual cases, but students who violate a quarantine order or host large gatherings are in violation of a city ordinance and will face disciplinary action at the school. In-person classes are expected to begin there Sept. 21.

In Pennsylvania, the number of new coronavirus cases has risen in September after dropping steadily in August. State officials have also tracked an uptick in new cases among younger adults.

We have seen a significant increase in 19-to-24-year-olds, Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said in a news conference, adding the department has tracked increases in COVID-19 cases at colleges and universities.

There are nearly 500 positive cases of COVID-19 at the 14 state-owned universities, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. One student has died, TribLive.com reports

Of Pennsylvanias state colleges, Shippensburg University is holding about half of its classes remotely. Lock Haven University chose to close down in-person classes for two weeks once the rate of positive tests on campus reached 5 %.

At non-state schools, Penn State University has reported 433 cases of the virus. Temple University suspended nearly all of its in-person classes for the fall semester after 368 students tested positive. Gettysburg College ordered all of its students to quarantine in their dorm rooms after 32 students tested positive.

Around the country, larger universities are having a difficult time restricting large gatherings.

The University of Alabama, for example, had more than 2,000 positive cases, issued 639 individual sanctions to students as of Thursday, and 33 students have been suspended, The Associated Press is reporting.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign had a plan in place to test students twice per week and track them with an app, but student parties led to more than 400 new cases, according to the New York Times.
The Maharashtra government is planning to allow reopening of religious places for the first time since they were ordered to close in March, even as COVID-19 cases in the state continue to surge.

This planning comes amid growing demands from with the ruling alliance and opposition parties.

According to a report by Mumbai Mirror, the administration in its meeting earlier this week with the states COVID-19 task force, discussed how places of worship could reopen.

The plan reportedly involves temples, mosques, churches and other places of worship open 24 hours and allowing them to offer virtual and in-person darshan. Booking process for in-person darshan could be taken online in some cases.

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

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The management would be responsible for maintaining social distancing norms and other guidelines issued by the state government.

The report suggests that no decision has been made yet and the plan could be submitted for approval this week.

The news report cites senior officials as saying that it would be more practical to keep religious places open 24 hours a day so that there will be smaller crowds. Popular temples and other places of worship that draw large numbers of people will have to set up waiting halls that can fit up to 500 people.

While some states have permitted religious places to reopen with certain safety measures, Maharashtra has refrained from doing so as the state's caseload remains high.

On September 10, responding to a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a non-governmental organization demanding reopening of temples, the state government had told the Bombay High Court that it was not practical at this point.
Sonia Gandhi on Friday reconstituted the CWC. Party leaders said that the AICC revamp is "balanced" and some of the signatories to the letter have been given prominent roles.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi has sought to bring about a generational shift through organisational revamp done on Friday with an eye on future electoral challenges and has also sent a signal that the party has moved on from the fierce intra-party debate generated by the letter of 23 leaders to her which had called for sweeping reforms.

Party leaders said that the AICC revamp is balanced and some of the signatories to the letter have been given prominent roles. She has sent a signal that the party has moved on from the letter episode. This is in keeping with her words earlier of bygones being bygones and about working together, said a party leader, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Twenty-three party leaders in their letter to her had called for sweeping changes including full-time and effective leadership, an institutional mechanism to guide the party and elections to Congress Working Committee.

Also read: DCGI directs Serum Institute to suspend recruitments in Covid-19 vaccine trial

Also read: CM Khandu, Kiren Rijiju thank Indian Army after return of five missing Arunachal Pradesh men

Senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mukul Wasnik and Anand Sharma were among signatories to the letter and had sought elections to CWC and have been retained in the highest decision-making body.

In the reshuffle announced on Friday, Azad, Motilal Vora, Ambika Soni, Mallikarjun Kharge and Luizinho Falerio were dropped as general secretaries and younger leaders were given charge of several states as part of efforts to build the partys team for the electoral challenges in states ahead and the next Lok Sabha elections.

Apart from Randeep Singh Surjewala, Jitendra Singh and Tariq Anwar were brought in as general secretaries. A party functionary said there has been a generational shift with several young leaders given responsibilities. He said Surjewala and some other leaders have been rewarded for their hard work.

Surjewala is the biggest gainer in the reshuffle as he is now a full member of the working committee, is the general secretary in charge of Karnataka besides being a member of the panel to assist chief Sonia Gandhi. Both Surjewala and Jitendra Singh are considered members of team Rahul, which has gained in the reshuffle.

Other leaders who are relatively young and considered part of Team Rahul in extended CWC include Manickam Tagore, Sushmita Dev, Kuldeep Bishnoi, Jitin Prasada, Shaktisinh Gohil, Devender Yadav, RPN Singh, Dinesh Gundu Rao, Sachin Rao, Rajeev Satav, Lalji Desai, Deepender Hooda, Vivek Bansal, Neeraj Kundan and BV Srinivas.

The expanded CWC now has 57 members from 52 earlier. Jitin Prasada, who was among the signatories to the letter, has been made in-charge of West Bengal, a crucial state which will go for elections next year.

The special committee of six leaders assist the Congress President in organisational and operational matters includes Mukul Wasnik, who was among signatories to the letter. The six-member committee will continue to function until the next AICC session. He has also been made general secretary in-charge of Rajasthan.

The five members of reconstituted Central Election Authority also includes former Delhi minister Arvinder Singh Lovely, who was among the letter signatories. While most of the general secretaries and in-charges of states are younger leaders of the party, the CWC is a mix of young and experienced leaders.

Also read: Sushant Singh Rajput death case LIVE news updates: West Bengal Congress holds rally in Rhea Chakrabortys support
- Dr. Kwame Fordjour, also called Dr. UN says he does not need the consent of UN to give awards

- He was speaking in an interview with Nana Ama McBrown on her United Showbiz show

- D-Black, who was a victim of the award, and was present in the studio during the conversation appeared hurt as Dr. UN spoke

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Dr. Kwame Fordjour, the man behind the infamous fake UN Awards scandal that rocked some celebrities in Ghana including Sarkodie and D-Black, has spoken.

According to him, he does not need the consent of the UN to organise and give awards to anyone in Ghana.

Popularly known as Dr. UN, Fordjour said he has a team that is very competent enough to organise an award without the go-ahead from the United Nations.

Dr. UN with Sarkodie and D-Black. Photo credit: @sarkodie @dblackgh.

Source: Instagram

READ ALSO: Michy opens up for the first time on living with Shatta Wale in Nima in video

He was speaking in a telephone interview with Nana Ama McBrown on her United Showbiz in a video sighted by YEN.com.gh.

Asked if he knew that using the UNs logo in his award was a crime, Dr. UN said it is not so, stressing that he has even been invited to speak at a UN programme coming off in November.

One of the musicians who got the fake award, D-Black, was in the studio during the discussion and was listening. With a faint voice, he spoke back at Dr. UN, asking him to WhatsApp him again so he could have his number.

Dr. UN agreed, assuring D-Black that the award was not fake. He stressed that even before he was called on to take the award, D-Black himself knew that he was doing well in his field as a musician.

READ ALSO: Video of how Pastor Sylvester threatened his wifes family with death drops

Some fans are not pleased with Dr. UNs words and have criticised him.

Larry, for instance, wrote in the Akan language that Dr. UN could not even speak good English:

rahina.larry: Me n my team. Ni br)fu tantan bi.

Deeva described him as a man who got nerves

omosexy_deeva: This man gat nervesd.

Others who got that fake awards are Berla Mundi, Graphic News Editor, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Johnny Hughes of TV3, who makes a tall list published earlier by YEN.com.gh.

We also published the video of Sarkodie taking the fake awards at the ceremony with pride. He was in the company of another friend. Sarkodies demeanour as he came to sit at his table proved how much he felt about being recognised by Dr. UN and his team.

READ ALSO: Family of Scorpion, Kumawood actor who was shot, suspect assassins were hired to kill him

VGMA21 full performances | #Yencomgh

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Source: YEN.com.gh
This article was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

WASHINGTON  A retired Minnesota National Guard colonel whose daughter recently deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on her second tour is accusing the military of dangerously isolating a company of military police for 14 days to protect the base from the coronavirus.

The 150 members of the 34th Military Police Company arrived on Sept. 6 from Fort Bliss, Texas, where they were also quarantined, but collectively. Over the summer, the same soldiers were the first National Guard troops deployed to the streets of Minneapolis during the unrest after the police killing of George Floyd in May.

Now, according to Eric Kerska of Rochester, Minn., who served three deployments in Iraq and retired as a colonel in 2015, enlisted troops like his daughter, Staff Sgt. Mackenzie Kerska, have been confined individually inside 9-foot-by-12-foot containerized housing. They are given 7 a.m. temperature checks followed by three meals left at their door throughout the day by troops who knock and disappear.

My complaint is about the solitary confinement, Mr. Kerska said in interviews over the weekend. Lack of human contact is dangerous. We all know that. Studies are clear.
Newt Gingrich's wife is being mocked on Twitter for her poorly edited photo where she smoothed out her skin to appear younger, but left her husband's face untouched.

Callista Gingrich, 54, shared a photo on Twitter on Saturday posing with her husband Newt, 77, sharing a close up of their faces.

But her face was clearly edited, with her wrinkles smoothed out and forehead given a blurry, glowing effect.

However, she seemed to leave her husbands face untouched, only taking to editing her own.

Newt Gingrich's wife Callista Gingrich, 54, is being mocked on Twitter for her poorly edited photo she shared on Saturday where she smoothed out her skin and blurred her forehead to appear younger, but left her husband's face untouched

Chrissy Teigen shared Callista's photo Saturday saying: 'get u a girl who will Facetune u both'

Teigen then facetuned Newt's face to have a matching blurring effect edit. The final edit pictured right

Chrissy Teigen shared the photo on her Twitter on Saturday with the caption: 'get u a girl who will Facetune u both' where it racked up more than 105,000 likes and 5,000 retweets.

Teigen added a follow-up tweet using the editing app FaceTune to edit Newt's face to match his wife's.

Twitter users shared the photo with their own jokes, cracking up at the photo editing job.

'Omg she must really hate her forehead,' one Twitter user said.

Twitter users mocked the couple for the editing job where Callista's forehead was excessively blurred

Newt married Callista, his third wife, in a private ceremony in Alexandria, Virginia in August 2000

'Her forehead looks like when google blurs out license plates,' another added.

'When you just swipe across your forehead and forget to dip around the sunglasses,' one Twitter user added noting the lines around her sunglasses that suggest the image was edited.

'OMG, so obvious,' another added.

Callista shared the photo from St. Peter's Square in Vatican City. She is an ambassador to the Holy See, the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church.

Newt married Callista, his third wife, in a private ceremony in Alexandria, Virginia in August 2000.

Neither have commented on the photo.
Ghanaians have been implored to gear up for unprecedented development within the next four years of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government under Nana Akufo-Addo.

According to the Ashanti Regional Chairman of NPP, Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, popularly known as Wontumi, Ghanaians will see 'wonders' with a total transformation of their lives in all sectors.

According to him, the Akufo-Addo administration has done well in less than four years, and it will do greater things if it is retained in power.

He said the NPP administration had laid a concrete foundation for massive transformation in the country, for which reason it should be retained.

President Akufo-Addo will do wonders in his second term in political office because he has laid a concrete foundation to ensure smooth and rapid national development, he said on Kumasi-based 'Wontumi Television'.

In this regard, in the interest of the country, I am humbly appealing to the electorate to vote massively for the NPP government to lead us into the promised land, he added.

Wontumi stated that Ghanaians had realized the good works of the NPP so they would vote for the party, come December 7.

The Ashanti Regional NPP chairman, who sounded very confident, declared that ex-President Mahama was just 'wasting his time', saying he would lose again in the general polls.

John Mahama has nothing good to offer this country after he had presided over a corrupt and gross incompetent NDC government for four solid years, he pointed out.

He said the electorate had experienced the positive works of the NPP administration hence they would cast their ballot against the NDC.

We do politics for the transformation of the country and the citizens have realized that President Akufo-Addo is on the right track; therefore, they would vote for the NPP, he added.

Still jabbing former President Mahama, Wontumi said the NDC presidential candidate had occupied all the topmost political positions in the country, yet he failed to deliver.

Mahama started as assemblyman, then to MP, deputy minister, minister, vice-president and president, he said, asking what does he want again? He is just greedy.

---Daily Guide
Bengaluru, Sep 13 : The Kuki Students' Organisation held a candlelight march on Sunday near Byrathi cross on Kottanuru main road in the city to mark the 27th anniversary of the Joupi massacre in Manipur.

Speaking to IANS, Gin Doungel, president of the organisation, said that hundreds of Kukis were butchered and forced to leave their homes, lands and fertile fields.

"On this 27th anniversary of the Kukis genocide, we the Kuki people in general and Kuki Students' Organisation in particular urge the Union government to ensure justice, to defend and secure our land. As even after 27 years of Joupi Masscare, both central as well as the state governments have failed to rehabilitate the Kukis to their villages which were taken during those years," he explained.

According to Doungel, the Kukis majorly inhabit Manipur and the other North-Eastern states of India and the North-Western parts of Myanmar and the Chittagong Hill tracts of Bangladesh.

"We are the indigenous people in these geographical areas since time immemorial, living in peaceful co-existence with its neighbours. September 13, 1993 has been the darkest day in the history for us, as more than a hundred of them were mercilessly butchered by National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) or NSCN (IM) on a single day in different parts of Tamenglong and the erstwhile Senapati district of Manipur which is also known as the 'Joupi Massacre'.

"The Kukis all over the world have ever since, observed this day as Sahnitni or Kuki Black Day not as a retaliation but as a day of mourning and to remember the departed souls," he observed.

He further added that from 1992 to 1996, more than a thousand Kukis have lost their lives, including women and children, hundreds of their villages "their ancestral lands taken over by NSCN (IM) for its greater Nagalim plan."
* Lukashenko to visit Putin in Black Sea resort of Sochi

* Pressure grows as 100,000 protest in Minsk on Sunday

* Protesters demand he step down following disputed election

* Russia, Belarus start military drills near Poland on Monday

By Katya Golubkova

MOSCOW, Sept 14 (Reuters) - President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus will seek the backing of Russia's Vladimir Putin at a crucial meeting on Monday after a fifth consecutive weekend of huge protests demanding that he step down.

Lukashenko, facing the gravest crisis of his 26 years in power, will travel to Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi with his fate in Putin's hands.

Economic and military support from Moscow could help tip the balance in his favour as his security forces crack down hard on the opposition.

The Belarusian opposition accuses Lukashenko of rigging last month's presidential election, which he says he won fairly with 80% of the vote. Since then, thousands of people have been arrested and nearly all the opposition's key leaders have been detained, deported or forced to flee the country.

At least 100,000 protesters took to the streets of the capital Minsk on Sunday, taunting Lukashenko with chants of "You're a rat". Police said they detained over 400 people.

Putin's actions so far suggest he has no desire to see the leader of a neighbouring ex-Soviet country toppled by pressure from the streets - even if Lukashenko has often proved a prickly and difficult ally.

The Kremlin leader said last month he had set up a "reserve police force" at Lukashenko's request, but it would be deployed only if needed. On Monday Russia will send paratroopers to Belarus for joint "Slavic brotherhood" military drills until Sept. 25, RIA news agency quoted the defence ministry as saying.

Russia has also offered to restructure Belarusian debt and support the banking system.

The cost of further Moscow backing could be Lukashenko's acceptance of even greater Russian dominance in the relationship between the two countries.

Story continues

The Kremlin has long pushed for closer political and economic integration with Minsk, including a joint currency, but Lukashenko has resisted the pressure from his more powerful neighbour.

Yet the veteran Belarusian leader's position could become increasingly precarious should the protests persist, and grow.

Sunday's demonstration was one of the biggest yet.

"We have to show with this march that he doesn't control the country, that he is not in a position to speak on behalf of Belarusians," said Gennady, 35, a logistics worker who declined to give his last name. (Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Pravin Char)
YouTube is facing a landmark legal battle for allegedly breaching the privacy and data rights of millions of British children  potentially saddling its parent firm Google with a 2.5 billion bill.

Documents claiming the company has harvested the data of users under 13 without consent, then sold it to advertising companies in breach of both UK and EU law, have been lodged with the High Court, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

It is understood that Google will strongly dispute the claim. One of its arguments is that the main YouTube platform is not intended for those under 13, who should be using the YouTube Kids app, which incorporates more safeguards.

YouTube is accused of selling the data of children using their service to advertisers in contravention of EU and UK law

The case, which was lodged in July and is the first of its kind in Europe, is being brought by privacy campaigner Duncan McCann

Google is also expected to point to a series of changes that it introduced last year to improve notification to parents, limit data collection and restrict personalised adverts.

The case, which was lodged in July and is the first of its kind in Europe, is being brought by privacy campaigner Duncan McCann.

If successful, he believes damages of just 500 would be payable to those whose data was breached.

But crucially it would set a precedent, potentially making YouTube liable for payouts to the estimated five million children in Britain who use the site as well as their parents or guardians.

Confirming the case has been lodged, Mr McCann last night said: We used to be worried about how children used the internet, the dangers of children being exposed to pornography or being groomed.

That is still a problem, but we should also be aware of how the internet is using children, which was not the case ten years ago. Are we comfortable with children being products of the internet rather than products of their parents?

Mr McCann, 41, will argue that YouTube and Google have breached both the UKs Data Protection Act and the EUs General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

His claim also alleges that, without the consent of parents, the firms sell the information gleaned from children to companies such as toy manufacturers who target youngsters with adverts.

He said: It cannot be right that Google can take childrens private data without explicit permission and then sell it to advertisers to target children. I believe it is only through legal action and damages that these companies will change their behaviour, and it is only through a class action that we can fight these companies on an equal basis.

YouTube has denied selling users personal information.

The case, which focuses on children who have watched YouTube since May 2018 when the Data Protection Act became law, is backed by digital privacy campaigners Foxglove, and the global law firm Hausfeld. Lesley Hannah, of Hausfeld, said: This is an incredibly important case. Tech titans such as Google cannot be above the law.

Foxglove director Cori Crider added: The cost of YouTubes free services is kids addicted, influenced and with no privacy. Google wont clean up its act until it is forced to do so by the courts.

Last night, a YouTube spokesman said: We dont comment on pending litigation. YouTube is not for children under the age of 13. We launched the YouTube Kids app [in 2015] as a dedicated destination for kids and have made further changes that allow us to better protect kids and families on YouTube.

The case is not expected to come to court before next autumn and has been underwritten by Vannin Capital, a company which will take a cut of any compensation that remains unclaimed. The action will also depend on the outcome of another data and privacy case against Google which does not cover children.

Under the Data Protection Act and the EUs GDPR, which will be brought into UK law after Brexit, people have the right to decide whether personal data is collected and how it is used.
A former US Navy pilot is opening up about his infamous alleged ufo sighting off the coast of California in 2004.

Commander David Fravor said he witnessed a Tic Tac-shaped object in the sky in November 10, 2004 performing extraordinary aerial maneuvers that he said no modern human technology was capable of.

'This is not like we saw it and it was gone or I saw lights in the sky and it's gone  we watched this thing on a crystal clear day with four trained observers,' Fravor said in a sit-down interview with Russian-American YouTuber and MIT researcher Lex Fridman on September 8.

He said the phenomena committed an 'act of war' by jamming the military's radar when they tried to trace it.

Former US Navy pilot Commander David Fravor along with three others reported a potential UFO sighting off the coast of California in 2004. He said on the sighting: 'I don't like to get into little green men but I don't think we've developed it ... I think you can hide things for a while. This is a giant leap in technology'

Video of what the Navy was able to trace of the object was leaked in 2017 and the case was declassified by the Pentagon earlier this year

Electronic jamming is a form of electronic warfare and is illegal in all 50 states. While its not always considered an act of war, it is interpreted as hostile.

Video of what the Navy was able to trace of the object was leaked in 2017 and the case was declassified by the Pentagon earlier this year.

Fravor and others were conducting a routine training mission when the radio operator asked them to check out a mysterious aircraft they had been tracking for two weeks.

The operator said the object would suddenly appear at 80,000 feet, hurtle toward the sea, hover at about 20,000 feet, then shoot back up into the sky.

Fravor and Commander Jim Slaight and two others were sent out in fighter jets to observe the shape.

'We see this little white Tic Tac because were about 20 feet above it and its going north, south, north, south, and it's abrupt,' he said.

He explained that it didnt move like helicopters or other aircraft he was familiar with.

The operator said the object would suddenly appear at 80,000 feet, hurtle towards the sea, hover at about 20,000 feet, then shoot back up into the sky

'By this time were driving around and were just watching this thing and I go, "hey Im gonna check it out,"' Fravor recalled.

'Its aware of us and it goes bloop and start coming up, so it knows that were there. This is like five minutes,' he added.

'Im going to meet it and Im probably a half mile away and its coming across my nose and it just accelerates and disappears at about 12,000 feet in less than a half second and its gone,' Fravor said.

'I remember telling the guy in my back sat, "Dude, I dunno about you but Im pretty weirded out,"' he said in the interview.

Fravor said he and the other jets went down towards the water to see what the object was potentially hovering around as they noticed white water when the object was over it, but it was 'clear blue' when they reached it.

Fravor said the object committed an 'act of war' by jamming Navy radars when they tried to track the object. The 18-year Navy pilot pictured above

After landing Fravor mentioned the UFO to colleague Chad Underwood who successfully located the unidentified object to get video on his radar. But when he attempted to trace the shape, the flying object jammed the radar.

'When he first sees [the object] he gets an energy lock on it. When he goes to lock it up, now hes putting a bunch of energy on it. Hes telling the radar, "Stare down the line of sight, whatever is there I want you to grab it and build a trace file on it," which will tell you where it is, how fast it is and the direction that its going,' Fravor said.

'The radar is smart enough that when the signal comes back if it's been messed with, it will tell you - it will give you indications that it's being jammed .... It's being jammed into about every mode you can see ... You can tell it's being jammed.

'When you actively jam another platform, yes its technically an act of war,' he added.

When asked if he believes that Tic Tac shape could've been from another planet, Fravor said it could be possible.

'I don't like to get into little green men but I don't think we've developed it ... I think you can hide things for a while. This is a giant leap in technology,' he said.
RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, the driving force behind the rural jobs scheme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), breathed his last at the AIIMS on Sunday due to post Covid-19 complications.

He was 74.

A strong supporter of RJD founder Lalu Prasad, Singh had a fall out with the party a few days back and had shot off his resignation letter from the hospital bed. Lalu Prasad, who is incarcerated in the Ranchi jail, had written back to him rejecting the resignation.

Singh had also written a letter to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, which was seen as an attempt to cozy up to the JD(U) ahead of the Bihar assembly elections later this year.

A doctorate in mathematics, Singh was linked closely with the farmers movement in Bihar and had a keen understanding of rural India, an experience that held him in good stead during his stint as Rural Development Minister in the UPA-I government.

Singh was regarded as the brain behind MGNREGA which has stood the test of time in creating employment opportunities in villages across the country.

A five-term Lok Sabha member, Singh was pushed to the margins of the RJD after the incarceration of Lalu Prasad and the emergence of Tejashwi Yadav to the forefront of party affairs.

Singh contested unsuccessfully from Vaishali parliamentary constituency in 2014 and 2019.

Dear Raghuvansh babu, what have you done. Only the day before yesterday I had said you are going nowhere. And now you have gone so far away. I am speechless. I am sad. You will be remembered a lot, Lalu Prasad said on Twitter.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh remembered the mathematician-politician as a powerful speaker in Parliament who earned the respect of one and all by his transparent sincerity and integrity.

Ramesh said the MGNREGA was promised by the Congress in its 2004 Lok Sabha manifesto and Singh, as Rural Development Minister, took it forward, giving it final shape and piloting it through the Union Cabinet and Parliament with great exuberance and skill.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 13:25:26|Editor: huaxia

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NEW DELHI, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- India's COVID-19 tally rose to 4,754,356 and the death toll surged to 78,586, as 94,372 new cases and 1,114 deaths were reported from across the country in past 24 hours, revealed the latest data released by the federal health ministry on Sunday.

India's new cases detected per day are more than double the daily average of the United States and Brazil, the other two worst affected countries.

Still there are 973,175 COVID-19 cases across the country, while 3,702,595 people were successfully cured and discharged from hospitals.

A total of 56,260,928 samples tests were done till Saturday, out of which 1,071,702 tests were conducted on Saturday alone, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

India has emerged as the worst hit country globally in terms of new COVID-19 cases discovered every day. Over the past one week the average number of daily infections has been over 90,000. This average was around 24,000 two months ago, and 58,000 a month ago.

Considering the current steep rise in the number of new COVID-19 cases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday appealed to the citizens that there should be no complacency till a vaccine is found to control the pandemic. He said wearing face masks and maintaining social distancing are necessary for everyone to keep safe. Enditem
By PTI

GAYA: Senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday dismissed speculations that the ruling NDA in Bihar may rope in Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut as one of its star campaigners for the upcoming assembly elections in the state.

Fadnavis also took potshots at Uddhav Thackeray, who has succeeded him as Maharashtra chief minister, saying that the Shiv Sena chief seemed to be "more interested in fighting Kangana than battling corona".

"We need no other star campaigner as the NDA has, in Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the biggest star campaigner," Fadnavis, who has been appointed as the BJP's election in- charge in the state, told reporters here.

He was responding to queries about reports in a section of the media that Ranaut, who is considered sympathetic towards the BJP, might canvass for the ruling coalition in Bihar in the assembly elections due in October- November.

About Ranaut's spat with the Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra following the demolition of a part of her house in Mumbai by the municipal authorities, Fadnavis said, "Uddhav Thackeray needs to concentrate more on battling corona, by which the state has been the worst hit. But he seems to be more interested in settling scores with Kangana."

Ranaut has been at loggerheads with the Shiv Sena government following her outburst over the death of Patna-born actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

ALSO READ | Kangana-Sena row: Actress meets Maharashtra Governor Koshyari, discusses 'injustice' done to her

The governments of Maharashtra and Bihar had also engaged in a tug of war after the deceased actor's father K K Singh lodged a complaint at a Patna police station, accusing actress Rhea Chakraborty and others of cheating and abetting his son's suicide.

The Maharashtra government supported Chakraborty's contention that Bihar had 'no jurisdiction' in the matter and took exception to the Nitish Kumar government recommending a CBI probe, which was later upheld by Supreme Court.

Fadnavis, who has been touring Bihar since Friday, asserted that "there were no big or little brothers in the NDA" and that the JD(U), BJP and the LJP will contest the elections together and achieve a huge victory.

He made the remark in response to queries about the acrimony between Janata Dal (United), headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) which was founded by Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan and is now headed by his son Chirag Paswan.

The BJP leader also paid rich tributes to former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, saying that he was an "ajeya yoddha" (unvanquished warrior).

Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, who recently resigned from the RJD, died at AIIMS, New Delhi, on Sunday.
Like many parents, Chantel Hamilton is worried about sending her kids back to school amid a resurgence of COVID-19 infections in Toronto.

And like many residents of the Regent Park community, the 34-year-old mother of four is adding those concerns to others, including recent tragedy that shook her family.

For people here, the virus threatens health, employment, food security and more. Data shows racialized and lower-income groups are already suffering disproportionately due to long-standing inequities related to poverty and racism.

Im not totally comfortable with sending my oldest two to school but theyve been home since March and I trust theyll follow all the procedures and wear their masks, which is life as we know it now, Hamilton says.

For her and others lined up Saturday in warm sunshine outside a Dundas Street East building, the tension eased a bit thanks to some homegrown help to lighten the back-to-school load.

Families entered a large room and walked a line of friendly volunteers handing out backpacks, personal protective equipment including masks, fresh produce and more. They emerged, arms and strollers laden, to the sight and smells of a free barbecue lunch.

People in this community have suffered a lot due to the pandemic, employment and being stuck indoors, said Murwan Khogali, an event organizer with grassroots youth group Healing As One.

This is an opportunity to guage commmunity needs and say, Hey, life is not too bad. We tried to create an event that transitions to the new normalities and accommodate for needs in a marginalizing, gentrifying community.

His brother Walied Khogali Ali, a Regent Park community organizer, said the back-to-school event grew from successful pandemic aid in the form of free meals for low-income families during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

With virus rates rising and families facing the fear of school resuming, he said, multiple organizations stepped up to lighten their load even more.

The Red Cross and federal government donated PPE. Penny Appeal Canada and Yonge Street Mission also helped with masks and school supplies. FoodShare Toronto offered boxes filled with fresh produce.

The effort continues, with families offered financial literacy courses, with an eye to finding a path to home ownership in coming stages of the Regent Park redevelopment, and prepared meals and fresh food distribution through the fall.

Guiding her children to the door, Asae Kanna, expressed gratitude for the help and a little bit of lightness in a heavy time.

My kids are 14, 8 and 6, Kanna says. Im going to keep them home for a couple of weeks to see what happens. Im scared. But this is a big help  Ill be busy and cant go get groceries all the time.

David Rider is the Star's City Hall bureau chief and a reporter covering city hall and municipal politics. Follow him on Twitter: @dmrider
Inmate firefighters arrive at the scene of the Water fire, a new start about 20 miles from the Apple fire in Whitewater, California on August 2, 2020. - More than 1,300 firefighters were battling a blaze that was burning out of control August 2 in southern California, threatening thousands of people and homes east of Los Angeles. The so-called Apple Fire that broke out Friday near the city of San Bernardino has so far charred more than 20,000 acres, sending up columns of smoke visible from far away. JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill on Friday that allows formerly incarcerated firefighters to have their nonviolent criminal records expunged.

Over 1,200 incarcerated people are currently serving as firefighters in California, paid a couple of dollars per day for their service.

"This legislation rights a historic wrong and recognizes the sacrifice of thousands of incarcerated people who have helped battle wildfires in our state," Newsom said in a statement.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

California is making it easier for formerly incarcerated firefighters to go professional, with a new law enabling nonviolent offenders to have their criminal records expunged.

For decades, liberal California has relied on its massive prison population to fight wildfires. Detained men and women are trained on how to fight blazes, sleeping in camps, and earning a couple of dollars a day. But until now they were largely unable to put that experience to use once free.

In a statement on Friday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he was signing a bill, AB 2147, to fix that.

"This legislation rights a historic wrong and recognizes the sacrifice of thousands of incarcerated people who have helped battle wildfires in our state," Newsom said.

Many fire departments reject candidates with a troubled legal past. Under AB 2147, formerly incarcerated people can petition a county court to have that past excised.

"I am thrilled we have this law on the books," Romarilyn Ralston, a formerly incarcerated woman who fought fires while an inmate, told Business Insider. "It is long overdue."

California has more than 1,200 incarcerated firefighters, The Fresno Bee reported, with prisoners helping fight some of the largest fires in state history, a million acres already torched.

Story continues

"Signing AB 2147 into law is about giving second chances. To correct is to right a wrong; to rehabilitate is to restore," Assemblymember Gomez Reyes, the bill's author, said in a statement. "Rehabilitation without strategies to ensure the formerly incarcerated have a career is a pathway to recidivism."

Have a news tip? Email this reporter: cdavis@insider.com

Read the original article on Business Insider
National carrier Vietnam Airlines (VNA) will start operating regular flights to Japan next week, with a one-way ticket costing more than VND10 million (US$430).

A VNA official confirmed on Friday that the airline will begin reopening regular international flights from September 18, following a long period of suspension due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

The plan will start with one-way flights from Vietnam to Japan.

Passengers of these flights will be people who need to travel from Vietnam to Japan for study and work.

VNA will closely work with authorities to prevent the spread of COVID-19 aboard the flights.

The carrier is expected to operate three flights from Hanoi to Narita International Airport in Tokyo at 11:45 pm on September 18, 25, and 30.

Another flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Narita airport will take off at 0:00 on September 30.

Passengers will be transported by Boeing 787 aircraft.

Flights from Japan to Vietnam will be operated after relevant agencies make an official decision.

All air crew members will have their health monitored and be quarantined after returning to Vietnam, while planes will be disinfected after each journey.

Passengers can book tickets for the Vietnam-Japan flights from September 11, each costing over VND10 million.

Vietnam Airlines is planning to restore flights to South Korea, China, Taiwan, Laos, and Cambodia in the near future.

Vietnam began barring entry to foreign nationals on March 22 and suspended international flights from March 25 in a bid to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Since then, charter flights to the country have only been arranged to bring in foreign experts, skilled workers, and diplomats, and to repatriate Vietnamese citizens stranded in other nations and territories due to the pandemic.

The Ministry of Transport has detailed a plan to reopen international air routes to Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Laos, and Cambodia from September 18.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Photo: The Canadian Press Gun owners hold signs criticizing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as they participate in a rally organized by the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights against the government's new gun regulations, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

Pro-gun activists marched in Ottawa on Saturday to contest what they describe as the "injustice and ineffectiveness" of the federal government's assault weapon ban.

The Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights is behind the outdoor event on Parliament Hill, dubbed an "integrity march," to advocate for the rights of its members.

The organization, which did not respond to a request for comment, said on its website the event was aimed at showing Canadians that gun owners are "your friends, colleagues and neighbours."

In a post on its Facebook page, the group chided the federal government for its "ineffective and expensive" gun ban, saying Canadians don't support it.

The Parliamentary Protective Service said roughly 800 people attended the event.

In May, the Liberal government announced it would be banning a range of 1,500 types of assault-style weapons, which it says were designed for the battlefield  not hunting or sport shooting.

Nathalie Provost, a survivor of the Polytechnique massacre and a spokeswoman for gun control group PolySeSouvient, said the objective of the federal government was not to penalize everyday citizens who take part in activities like hunting, for example.

"A hunter has the right to hunt. My family has hunters  there's no problem," Provost said. "What worries us the most is there is little gun control."

Provost said she believes pro-gun activists are organizing the march because they are worried.

"They are worried about losing a privilege," she said. "I think they are very worried and they realize many Canadians want those weapons removed from the market."

The Trudeau government announced in May that it is now banning the use, sale and import of assault weapons into Canada. The government has set up a buy-back program to take the guns out of circulation, but that program would be voluntary and not compulsory, which rankles gun control advocates.

"The tap that allowed the entry of new assault weapons is closed, but there are still quite a few in the pool," Provost said.

Provost wants these types of weapons to disappear completely from the Canadian landscape.

"The worst horror scene of my life  it didn't last very long, but it killed six people. And (for) me, it's four bullets in my body," she said.

"It's maddening the speed at which these weapons destroy."

For its part, the CCFR has challenged the constitutionality of the Trudeau government's ministerial order in Federal Court.

It argues in its challenge that the banned rifles are weapons intended for hunting and sport shooting, since that is how their owners have used them for decades.

The group argues that the new regulations, enacted by ministerial decree, are illegal and go beyond the scope of the powers conferred on the federal cabinet.

A spokeswoman for Public Safety Minister Bill Blair did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.
DUBAI, UAE, Sept. 13, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- There is no doubt that 2020 will go down as an extraordinary year. The humanitarian and economic toll of the COVID-19 pandemic has been felt far and wide. For total rewards professionals, this means year-end planning for 2021 will certainly deviate from the norm. In fact, for some companies the usual plan of action may be completely irrelevant. So, how does one deal with the forthcoming cycle when everything feels so different?

To begin, even those fortunate enough to be part of an industry that has been largely unaffected by the pandemic, the usual tactics are still worthy of review. Yes, some companies, such as those in online retail or essential goods and services, may have benefitted when the government shut down many non-essential, in-person businesses. Even so, if business remained prosperous, it's likely competition did as well. Therefore, companies need to assess the rising demands of employees and deliver accordingly if they want to retain them. Remember, the best talent always has options in the marketplace.

Unfortunately, for many rewards professionals, the core focus for the remainder of the year will be quite different. As the year-end compensation cycle approaches, firms will face new challenges and unforeseen questions that were likely not accounted for in their 2020 strategies. As this somewhat daunting task is tackled, it's important to remember to not bury heads in the sand  there is much more to do this year than normal, and planning needs to be more effective than ever before.

To that end, Aon has outlined three key steps to take to help guide businesses through a most unusual year-end compensation planning cycle.

Step 1: Determine Your Business Priorities

Prioritization is important when analyzing your compensation cycle strategy. Start by defining the overarching short-term goal of your business. If cost cutting is the top priority, evaluate which parts of the organization are carrying too much capacity. If operational flexibility is key, determine where you have opportunities to shield the organization from unnecessary expenses in the short term.

Once your top priorities are determined, you must be able to identify the staff that you want to retain and, just as importantly, review your ability to exit less pivotal colleagues from the business with minimal reputational damage or disruption to operations. However, most employers would agree that layoffs should be treated as a last resort. Reducing your workforce may have a further negative impact on both cash flow and morale. There are also legal factors to consider. In some parts of Europe, for example, cutting staff can be very difficult and expensive due to the strength of the Works Councils. Therefore, it is common for organizations to look for alternate, more creative ways to manage cost before even contemplating this option. Headcount reductions could also potentially exacerbate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) issues and limit pay equity progress.

If changing your business model is the answer, have you identified employees with the right skills and flexibility to adapt to this new corporate strategy? If you are going to aggressively try to capture market share left behind by failing competitors and grow your way out of the doldrums, do you have the right sales capabilities and talent on board to deliver? How do legislative programs aimed at easing the impact of COVID-19 alter the path forward for your company or the alternatives available? For example, in the United States, some industries, such as airlines, made commitments around employment in exchange for government funding, while other companies utilized supplemental federal funding for unemployed workers to keep employees whole or above whole and increase short-term organizational flexibility.

Whatever your business is proposing, ensure that your people and rewards strategies are ready to support the plan in place. Rewards professionals need to make the case to business leaders for a more strategic approach to allocating incremental spend in advance of 2021.

Step 2: Take a Triple-Headed Approach to Your 2020 Compensation Review

Once your go-forward strategy is clear, it will provide you with your direction. However, there is still a great deal to sort through regarding the finer details. We recommend breaking these challenges into two parts: What do you need to do to close out 2020, and what do you need to do to plan for 2021.

It may sound obvious, but there has never been such a clear-cut need for effective employee communication strategies. Expectations should be set well in advance of typical year-end processes. Move this "to-do" item to the top of your list and make sure senior management owns the message you wish to convey. If a wait-and-see approach is necessary to ensure operational flexibility, communicate early to ensure employees know what to expect and the metrics by which leaders are guiding their decisions.

Overall, a triple-headed approach to the 2020 compensation review will be needed. This includes:

Identify colleagues that are behind the market Use a performance management system that will decide which colleagues are top performers Implement a business strategy that will dictate which jobs will be prioritized

Many organizations are increasingly applying an equal pay lens to this part of the process by addressing internal equity before looking at the external pay market. Social and regulatory environments in various countries around the world, mean that internal equity often takes precedence over external data. This also makes it more challenging to focus pay increases on priority jobs.

However, external data can't be ignored. If you lag the market, it's important to be aware of this reality. When the current downturn cycle ends (and it will), your employees will have choices and other opportunities to pursue. Therefore, being clear about where you sit relative to your competition is a crucial component for planning ahead.

Step 3: Reevaluate Your Target Setting for the Future

In addition to closing out 2020 as strongly as possible, firms need to have a solid plan for 2021, with a focus on target setting. You need to certify that 2021 targets are in touch with reality. For instance, increasing 2020 results by 10% may be too low, however, trying to bounce straight back to 2019 high points will likely be idealistic for many companies. This year's target-setting process requires critical thinking and the use of strong market data to make informed decisions.

When contemplating your course of action, rewards professionals should note that while most employees may accept a poor pay cycle in 2021 in exchange for job security, disappointment will prevail if the market perks up but the 2022 pay cycle still generates a zero return. Thus, we advise you to be as proactive as possible  planning ahead to allow the bonus pool to reignite for recovery in 2021 actually needs to happen now.

Looking Ahead

As mentioned earlier, one of the key differentiators for engaging companies is the strength of its internal communication program, which starts at the top. Unfortunately, employees are likely to feel angst and disappointment due to market conditions, making it even more crucial to engage with your leadership now, develop core messaging and prepare workforces for what lies ahead. By being clear and transparent, it instills a sense of trust and gratitude that will in turn keep engagement levels high despite the difficult business climate.

All in all, the forthcoming compensation cycle will be hard work. Whether companies have resources to spend, job security but no budget to offer, or in the worst-case scenario, are looking to cut costs across the board, there is always work to be done. However, by following these steps and carefully thinking through compensation strategy, firms can have a solid finish to an arduous year and hold onto a positive outlook for a brighter path forward.

To learn more about compensation planning or to speak with a member of our rewards consulting group, please write to [email protected]

Author Contact Information

Martin McGuigan

Partner, Rewards Solutions Middle East and Africa

Aon

+9 714 389 6355

[email protected]

Stuart Hyland

Associate Partner, Reward Solutions

Aon

+44 (0) 20 7086 0625

[email protected]

Joshua Ross

Partner, Reward Solutions

Aon

+1 281 882 2074

[email protected]

About Rewards Solutions

The Rewards Solutions practice at Aon empowers business leaders to reimagine their approach to rewards in the digital age through a powerful mix of data, analytics and advisory capabilities. Our colleagues support clients across a full spectrum of needs, including compensation benchmarking, pay and workforce modeling, and expert insights on rewards strategy and plan design. To learn more, visit: rewards.aon.com.

About Aon

Aon plc (NYSE: AON) is a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions. Our 50,000 colleagues in 120 countries empower results for clients by using proprietary data and analytics to deliver insights that reduce volatility and improve performance. For further information, please visit aon.com.

This article provides general information for reference purposes only. Readers should not use this article as a replacement for legal, tax, accounting or consulting advice that is specific to the facts and circumstances of their business. We encourage readers to consult with appropriate advisors before acting on any of the information contained in this article.

The contents of this article may not be reused, reprinted or redistributed without the expressed written consent of Aon. To use information in this article, please write to our team.

2020 Aon plc. All rights reserved

COVID-19 Disclaimer: This document has been provided as an informational resource for Aon clients and business partners. It is intended to provide general guidance on potential exposures, and is not intended to provide medical advice or address medical concerns or specific risk circumstances. Due to the dynamic nature of infectious diseases, Aon cannot be held liable for the guidance provided. We strongly encourage visitors to seek additional safety, medical and epidemiologic information from credible sources such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization. As regards insurance coverage questions, whether coverage applies or a policy will respond to any risk or circumstance is subject to the specific terms and conditions of the insurance policies and contracts at issue and underwriter determinations.

General Disclaimer: The information contained in this article and the statements expressed herein are of a general nature and not intended to address the circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Although we endeavor to provide accurate and timely information and use sources we consider reliable, there can be no guarantee that such information is accurate as of the date it is received or that it will continue to be accurate in the future. No one should act on such information without the appropriate professional advice after a thorough examination of the particular situation.

SOURCE Aon
It was a busy lockdown for the manager of investment trust Jupiter US Smaller Companies as he sought to protect the fund from pandemic fallout.

Although Robert Siddles quickly managed to offload a number of holdings whose businesses he thought would suffer from a prolonged lockdown, the trust's share price still fell sharply in March.

This precipitous correction is reflected in the short-term performance numbers with losses of 9 per cent recorded over the past year.

'It's been a tough time,' admits Siddles who has managed the 104million fund since 2001. 'The trust was hit hard in March and April, but the share price has since improved.

Yes, the performance numbers do not look good when compared with the price gains registered by some big US technology stocks. But markets move in cycles and the out-performance of the technology companies will not go on forever.'

Siddles believes the shock to the market, triggered by the pandemic, persuaded many investors to opt for the 'security' of leading stock-market-listed US companies. But as the US economy recovers, he is confident that investors will 'go back into the small US company arena'.

Stocks that were jettisoned as the pandemic struck include Allegiant Travel Company and real estate specialist Colliers International.

'Basically, I sold those companies where demand for their services would be badly hit,' Siddles says.

New stakes were taken in companies with an interest in 'digital transformation'  the likes of digital consultant Perficient and IT services company Grid Dynamics. The result is a 39-strong portfolio.

Siddles describes himself as a stock-picker and a 'value' investor, constantly searching for businesses where the share price has fallen  but which he believes are 'natural winners'.

'When I see a stock's price fall, I will dig a bit deeper,' he says. 'I assess whether the share price correction is justified or whether there is shareholder value in the business that others don't see.

'Ultimately, I'm looking for undervalued companies with strong business franchises, that are generating lots of cash, and where management are shareholders. A combination of these attributes will get me excited.'

While his judgment as a stock-picker is the main driver behind the trust's long-term performance, he is buoyed by a positive outlook for the stock market  a result, he says, of improving business confidence in the United States and the Federal Reserve's continued support for the economy.

Siddles has managed the trust for nearly 20 years although when he took up the reins in 2001, he was working for rival investment house F&C and the trust was called F&C US Smaller Companies.

When he moved to Jupiter in 2014, the trust's independent board kept him as the investment manager, hence the trust's re-labelling.

Over the years, Siddles has somewhat adapted his management style. He now holds his investment winners for longer  previously he would already have sold most of his current top 10 holdings  and runs a more concentrated portfolio than previously.

Despite this change in tack, a number of US smaller company funds have delivered stronger returns, both over the short and long term. They include JPM US Small Cap Growth and Artemis US Smaller Companies.

Scrutineer FundCalibre labels the Artemis fund as one of two 'elite' US smaller companies funds, the other being managed by Miton. Annual charges on the Jupiter trust are just under 1 per cent.
New Delhi: With a record 81,533 people recuperating from COVID-19 in a day, India's total recoveries on Saturday surged to 36,24,196 of which 60 per cent of the cases are from five states, including Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

India's COVID-19 case fatality rate has further dropped to 1.66 per cent while the recovery rate has risen to 77.77 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry.

Sixty per cent of the total recovered cases are being reported from five states - Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, the ministry said on Saturday.

Maharashtra has alone contributed more than 14,000 and Karnataka has contributed over 12,000 to the new single-day recoveries, it highlighted.

Also, 60 per cent of the total cases are reported from only five states - Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.

"These states have also reported the maximum new recoveries in the past 24 hours," the ministry underlined.

"With its focussed strategies and measures, India has been continuously reporting a high number of recoveries. The highest ever single-day recoveries of 81,533 have been registered in 24 hours," the ministry said.

Of the 97,570 new cases added in a span of 24 hours in the country, Maharashtra has contributed to more than 24,000 of the additional cases. Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka both have contributed to over 9,000 infections, it said.

In a span of 24 hours, 1,201 deaths have been registered with 36 per cent of deaths reported on Friday are from Maharashtra with 442 deaths, followed by Karnataka with 130 deaths.

Of the total deaths, 69 per cent fatalities are concentrated in five states and union territories of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi.

India's COVID-19 caseload mounted to 46,59,984 with a record 97,570 infections being reported in a day, while the death toll climbed to 77,472 with 1,201 people succumbing to the infection in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.

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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Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts - Michael Dwyer/Alamy

A surge in internet searches about gut ailments is helping researchers predict the next Covid-19 hotspots, a study has revealed.

Massachusetts General Hospital found areas where there was a spike in Google queries relating to diarrhoea and loss of appetite frequently reported a sharp rise in cases of coronavirus three to four weeks later.

Other markers included a loss of taste, nausea and abdominal pain.

A link between Covid-19 and gut ailments was first identified in China earlier this year, with about a third of sufferers reporting gastrointestinal rather than respiratory sickness. Other patients complained of suffering from both.

The link between gut problems and the virus prompted Massachusetts researchers to examine data from the Google Trends online tool.

Researchers examined material from 15 states and tracked the search results against the incidence of the disease four weeks later. They found that the data provided a potential Covid-19 early warning system.

The correlation was particularly marked in New York, New Jersey, California, Massachusetts and Illinois which were among the worst-hit states at the start of the pandemic.

Our data underscore the importance of GI symptoms as a potential harbinger of Covid-19 infection and suggests that Google Trends may be a valuable tool for prediction of pandemics with GI manifestations, Kyle Staller, one of the studys authors, told Bloomberg.

Other techniques for tracking the disease include testing wastewater - a method which was used in the past for early detection of diseases such as polio.

It is credited with heading off a major coronavirus outbreak at the University of Arizona last month. Similar methods have been used in Israel to track Covid-19 outbreaks across geographic regions.

According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the US, sewage testing is intended to complement, rather than replace, conventional coronavirus testing.
Bruce Johnson has a lot of stories to tell from his nearly 30 years of teaching and his 93 years of living.

The former Badger High School English teacher, who retired in 1986, is sharing stories with the public in his first-ever published book, And Gladly Would He Teach and Learn.

The book includes stories about Johnsons teaching career and his interests in music, photography and sports.

The stories come from nearly 1,500 essays Johnson began writing in 1988  shortly after his retirement  to help keep himself active.

I sat myself at the desk, and I decided I was going to write something, he said. It was a step forward, then I began to write on various subjects as they occurred to me.

The essays were hand-written at first, then typed on his Smith-Corona Galaxie manual typewriter, which he still uses today.

Johnsons daughter, Debbie Ipsen, said she is excited that her father published a book to share his life stories and experiences.

As I read the book, to me, its an autobiography, Ipsen said. Its a different type of autobiography, but certainly writing about who he is and was.

Johnson began his teaching career in 1957, working at a school in the northern Wisconsin community of Osseo. He moved to Badger High School the following year, and spent the next 28 years teaching English and journalism in the Lake Geneva school.

Former student Cathy McCormick, who graduated from Badger in 1969, said Johnson inspired her to pursue a journalism career. Now living in Indiana, McCormick has worked for newspapers in Wisconsin, Arizona and Colorado.

He was funny and interesting, and he made you think, she said of her former teacher.

And Gladly Would He Teach and Learn was published May 3, two days before Johnsons 93rd birthday. It is available for $16.80 at amazon.com.

Friend and colleague Robert Pavlik, also a retired Badger teacher, helped to edit and compile the publication.

Pavlik began reading and editing Johnsons essays in 2017, and then typed about 250 of them into a computer so they could be published in a book.

Pavlik said he enjoyed being involved in the project, and he was honored to handled his colleagues personal reflections.

He inspired many of his students and student teachers to become literate citizens, teachers, journalists and public servants, Pavlik said. He inspired me, as well.

Ipsen said her father had considered publishing his essays in the past, but he was not certain how to go about doing it.

Pavliks assistance was vital to moving the project forward.

Bob knew that Dad really wanted to put a book together, but Dad just didnt have the scope to figure it out, Ipsen said. Bob read all of those essays. He categorized them and determined which ones might go together.

Johnson dedicated the book to his late wife, Beverly Johnson, who also worked as a teacher at Badger.

Ipsen described her mother as a true angel.

She was patient and caring, Ipsen said. She was just giving of herself. That was the driving force for all of this, as well.

Besides the stories about her fathers life, the book also is a good read for anyone who is considering teaching as a career.

Theres some wisdom, Ipsen said, about the attitude you need to enter that profession, and the experience of working with students.

Some of Johnsons essays have been published previously in area newspapers, including the Lake Geneva Regional News.

Johnson said he mostly enjoyed working with senior-year students and helping them prepare for life after their graduation from high school.

High school seniors, you got them on a hook, he said. Next year, something different is going to happen, and theyre not quite sure what it is. You keep them aware that life is going to change for them.

McCormick said she still keeps in touch with her former teacher by phone, as they talk about music, books and old television shows.

She said she is impressed with how much Johnson remembers about his former students.

He can remember what year you attended his class and where you sat, she said. I dont know of many retired teachers who can remember the names of their students and where they sat.

During Johnsons years at Badger, he take photographs of students and then prepared slide presentations for graduation ceremonies and class reunions.

Ipsen said her father last year attended Badgers Class of 1969 reunion  McCormicks class  to show that groups slide presentation. And he received a standing ovation from his former students.

Dad was very attached to that class, Ipsen said. The standing ovation was very spontaneous.

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Jackson County District 5 firefighter Captain Aaron Bustard works on a smoldering fire in a burned neighborhood in Talent, Ore., Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, as destructive wildfires devastate the region. (Paula Bronstein/AP Photo)

Oregons Top Fire Official Resigns, Governors Office Preparing for a Mass Fatality Event

Oregons top fire marshal resigned on Sept. 12 as wildfires continued to rage across the state, and he was replaced by Chief Deputy Mariana Ruiz-Temple, according to the governors office and state police.

Fire Marshal Jim Walker submitted his resignation to the Oregon State Police superintendents office after he was put on administrative leave, the police agency stated in an announcement. No reason was given for Walkers resignation.

[Ruiz-Temple] is assuming this position as Oregon is in an unprecedented crisis which demands an urgent response, Oregon State Police Superintendent Travis Hampton said in a statement, as reported by OPB.

This response and the circumstances necessitated a leadership change. I have the absolute confidence in [Ruiz-Temple] to lead OSFM operations through this critical time. She is tested, trusted and respectedhaving the rare combination of technical aptitude in field operations and administration.

Ruiz-Temple will now take over the fire agency as more than 1 million acres have burned across the state in recent days. At least 10 people have been killed in the fires across the state.

[Ruiz-Temple] has led with grace, transparency and courage, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, said in a statement. She embodies the experience Oregon needs to face this crisis, in this moment.

Smoke and small fires in a neighborhood in Talent, Ore., Friday, Sept. 11, 2020, as destructive wildfires devastate the region. (Paula Bronstein/AP Photo)

Commissioner John Lindsey, a Linn County official, said there has been a lack of coordination from the state in responding to the fires.

The one consistent denominator missing was the state, he said, according to Oregonlive.

In Oregon, Brown called the perilous blazes a once-in-a-generation event, and the director of Oregons office of emergency management, Andrew Phelps, said authorities were bracing for the possibility of mass fatality incidents.

Oregon Fire Marshal Jim Walker (L) resigned on Sept. 12, 2020. Succeeding him is Chief Deputy Mariana Ruiz-Temple (R). (Office of the State Fire Marshal/Oregon State Police)

There are going to be a number of fatalities, folks that just couldnt get warning in time and couldnt evacuate their homes and get to safety, Phelps told MSNBC on Sept. 11.

Phelps also said officials are preparing for a mass fatality event as thousands of structures have been destroyed.

President Donald Trump is slated to visit the West Coast next week, according to the White House.

In Portland, where more than 100 days of political protests have turned increasingly violent in recent weeks, the Multnomah County sheriff chastised residents for setting up their own checkpoints to stop cars after online claims stated that far-left group Antifa or Black Lives Matter were responsible for the fires. Some local officials said the claims arent accurate. There were counter-claims online that far-right groups were behind the fires.

Over the weekend, the FBI issued a statement about the claims.

FBI Portland and local law enforcement agencies have been receiving reports that extremists are responsible for setting wildfires in Oregon. With our state and local partners, the FBI has investigated several such reports and found them to be untrue, the FBI Portland Division said in a statement.

Reuters contributed to this report.
They recently returned from their first holiday together in Croatia.

And Bianca Gascoigne put on a loved-up display with her boyfriend Kris Boyson as they enjoyed a date night at The M Kitchen in Bexley, London, on Saturday.

The model, 33, upped the glamour in a red jacket with zip detailing and leather trousers as she headed into the eatery.

Loved-up: Bianca Gascoigne upped the glamour in a red jacket and leather trousers for a date night with her beau Kris Boyson on Saturday

She completed the going-out look with yellow peep-toe heels and a large black leather bag.

The blonde beauty wore her light tresses in loose waves over her shoulders and pulled together the whole ensemble with a slick of red lip.

Meanwhile Kris showed off his gym-honed physique in a tight black t-shirt and ripped grey jeans.

Style: She completed the going-out look with yellow peep-toe heels and a large black leather bag

Bianca recently revealed she moved in with her personal trainer beau Kris after their first date in a interview.

The couple took their relationship to the next level as they spent the UK's nationwide lockdown together just weeks after embarking on a romance.

Despite dating for only five months, the reality stars admitted they'd definitely want to get married and start a family in the future as they 'completely trust' each other.

Date night: Meanwhile Kris showed off his gym-honed physique in a tight black t-shirt and ripped grey jeans

Katie Price's ex told new! magazine: 'We've spent every single day together practically since we met.

'You wouldn't lock down with someone for 100 days if it was a showmance.'

Bianca and Kris were introduced to each other three years ago when he provided her with healthy meals in preparation of a charity fight, which got cancelled when her opponent, his ex Katie Price, pulled out.

Smitten: The model, 33, and the personal trainer, 31, took their relationship took the next level as they spent the UK's nationwide lockdown together just weeks after embarking on a romance

They lost contact for a while, before fitness enthusiast Kris slid into her Instagram DMs earlier this year.

The couple currently reside in Kent and are renovating their pad with a cinema room and a new bar.

When asked about the prospect of marriage and kids, influencer Bianca admitted their future looks 'very promising' and her mother Sheryl Gascoigne is 'desperate for grandchildren'.
Fresh erosion along the banks of the Ganga has washed away more than 50 houses, two temples and acres of agricultural land in the Shamsergang area of Bengals Murshidabad district since Friday night.

Most people of the affected Dhusuripara village have left home with their belongings to settle down elsewhere.

The erosion in the Shamserganj area started with the destruction at Dhanghara village around a month ago. With the river in spate because of heavy rainfall in north India, the second village to face natures wrath was Natun Shibpur. Large tracts of agricultural land, bamboo groves and mango orchards were also washed away.

Fresh erosion at Dhusuripara has become a cause for concern for the administration and local people.

Kalu Singha, a resident of the village, said, The river started eroding its banks on Friday afternoon but the real devastation started after 8 pm. Two temples and more than 50 houses were washed away within hours.

Sumati Das, another resident, said, The erosion started so suddenly that many villagers did not even get the time to salvage essential items from their homes. We have taken shelter in a local school. We dont know who will provide us food and where we will go from here.

Since Saturday, residents of many houses that are likely to be destroyed by the river have started demolishing their own homes. They are ferrying the doors, window frames, furniture and bricks to safer areas.

Amirul Islam, Trinamool Congress (TMC) legislator from Shamserganj, said, We cannot understand why the erosion started again in new areas. Irrigation department officials are working on war footing.

The local TMC unit has provided tarpaulin and food to the homeless people, he added.

Sujit Das, president of the Bharatiya Janata Partys Murshidabad (North) organisational district, said, The state government has failed to tackle the erosion in Murshidabad. It can be done only if the state works in coordination with the Centre.

Joydeep Chakraborty, the block development officer of Shamsarganj, said, The irrigation department is trying to save the banks in some areas.
A club and function centre in Sydney's southwest has been slapped with fines totalling $10,000 after hosting a birthday party and christening in breach of COVID-19 restrictions.

Liquor & Gaming NSW inspectors visited the Croatian Club in Punchbowl on September 5 and saw about 50 guests at an 18th birthday party, some of whom were allegedly mingling and drinking while standing.

Records showed the party was booked for 75 guests, Liquor & Gaming NSW said in a statement on Sunday.

When inspectors revisited the venue on September 8, they discovered that the day after the birthday party, the club hosted a 75-person christening.

The Croatian Club in Punchbowl, southwest of Sydney, (pictured) was fined $10,000 for hosting two functions which were in breach of COVID-19 restrictions

Liquor & Gaming NSW says the duty manager claimed it was too hard to cancel the christening so close to the event despite being told that a booking of that size was not allowed.

The club has been warned that it now risks closure if further breaches are detected.

'Big functions and large group bookings put people in the sort of close proximity that contributes to virus transmission, and a happy occasion can easily turn into a tragedy that directly impacts your nearest and dearest,' Liquor & Gaming NSW compliance director Dimitri Argeres said.

The club was handed two fines totalling $10,000 for the alleged breaches.

Liquor & Gaming NSW inspectors visited the Croatian Club on September 5 and discovered an 18th birthday party which had about 50 guests attending (stock picture)

More than 120 fines worth $552,000 have been handed to hospitality businesses for alleged COVID-19 breaches in NSW.

This includes two fines totalling $10,000 to the Whisky Tango Bar at Len Waters Estate.

When inspectors visited the bar in Sydney's southwest on September 5, they allegedly discovered several breaches including patron crowding exceeding the one person per four square metre rule and people standing and mingling while drinking.

'All of these issues are a recipe for transmission,' Mr Argeres said,

'The majority of clusters in NSW have derived from hospitality venues because of the ease with which the COVID virus can spread in enclosed indoor areas where people are eating and drinking.'
The idea of the increasingly deranged Trump with his sweaty finger on the nuclear button is terrifying. No one person should have the power to unleash a nuclear war that could destroy the globe.





by Eric S. Margolis





President Donald Trump is not always in control of his runaway tongue or his impetuous nature. So its entirely possible he could have dismissed fallen American soldiers as losers, as the media and political opponents now claim.









But I strongly doubt that Trump knew anything about the bloody 1918 Battle of Belleau Wood at which the US Marine Corps distinguished itself and helped blunt the final German offensive against Paris. Trump was supposed to have paid tribute to fallen American marines there but declined, we are told, because of rain.





Trump likes to add military props and lots of flags to his orations and speak of his generals, but, beyond that, military affairs are of no evident interest to our tough-talking president who likes to style himself a war president.





In fact, I am always outraged when I see Trump saluting his aircrews and grandstanding before the stars and stripes. Our commander-in-chief Trump reportedly dodged the Vietnam era draft six times, at least once because of a little bone spur in one of his dainty feet that were more used to the floors of New York discos than far-flung battlefields.





While Trump was evading military duty, far better men were dying or being wounded in combat in Vietnam - nearly 60,000.





I enlisted in the wartime US Army to go fight in Vietnam. I didnt have to. I had been accepted to do advanced degrees at Britains Oxford University and Londons War College. Instead, I chose to sign my life away to the Army.





During the rigors of basic training, I broke a small bone in my left foot, described by medics as a march injury from too much stress on the foot. It was very painful and forced me to hobble and limp while drill sergeants roared abuse at me. Somehow, I graduated from basic and advanced infantry training and still managed dawn bayonet practice against straw-stuffed dummies while yelling, Kill the Kong! Kill the Kong!





As a student of Roman history I strongly believed it was each male citizens duty to perform military service. The Roman Republic fell to ruin once its citizens shirked army service and resorted to hiring armies of unruly mercenaries, paving the way for dictators and generals.





My thinking about the need for military service has not changed since then, even though the Vietnam War was revealed to be a gigantic, bloody disaster and quite unnecessary.





All presidents should be military veterans. The idea of two draft dodgers, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, serving as commanders-in-chief is appalling and an insult to the memory of those who served the nation.





The idea of the increasingly deranged Trump with his sweaty finger on the nuclear button is terrifying. No one person should have the power to unleash a nuclear war that could destroy the globe.





One might agree with Trump that those American soldiers who died in France during World War I were suckers. They were thrown into an imperialist bloodbath in which America had no interest or business.





But, unlike Trump, those farm boys didnt have rich fathers to buy them out of military service. Vietnam, Afghanistan and the Mideast conflicts were similarly phony wars, based on lies, propaganda and poor intelligence. Trump promised to end the wars in Afghanistan and the Mideast. He has not so far.





Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2020
The Purple Wiggle Lachlan 'Lachy' Gillespie became a father last week, when he and ballet dancer fiancee, Dana Stephensen, welcomed twin daughters.

Having kept their pregnancy under wraps, the couple shocked fans when they unveiled the arrival of their adorable babies on Friday evening.

On Saturday, Lachlan, 34, shared a photo from within the hospital proudly holding his newborn girls - Lulu and Lottie - in his arms.

'Double happy': The Wiggles star Lachlan Gillespie shared his first photo holding newborn TWIN daughters on Saturday as fiancee Dana Stephensen rests up in hospital

Captioned 'double happy', The Wiggles performer smiled at the camera with his surgical mask pulled down to his chin.

Mother Dana, 34, also re-shared the photo to her own Instagram Stories.

Prior to Dan's shock birth announcement, neither Lachlan nor Dana gave any hint that they were expecting over the past nine months.

Lachlan debuted their bundles of joy to the world with a sweet hospital bed snap of Dana having skin-to-skin contact with the twins.

He wrote in the caption: 'Oh Lulu and Lottie, your mummy and daddy love you with all we have - you are both so beautiful - and I would love to sing to you both forever'.

Shock arrival! Wiggles star Lachlan announced that he and fiancee Dana Stephensen had welcomed twin daughters. In an Instagram post shared Friday, the 34-year-old shared a photo of the newborns - Lulu and Lottie - resting with their mother Dana, 34, in bed

Fans were stunned, with many voicing their complete shock at the news.

One person commented under the photo: 'Whaaattt! Congratulations to you both' while another added: 'WAIT WHATTTTT'.

Someone else added: 'Wow didn't see that coming congratulations to the three of you!'

Lachy wrote in the caption: 'Oh Lulu and Lottie, your mummy and daddy love you with all we have - you are both so beautiful - and I would love to sing to you both forever'

Who knew? Fans were stunned, with many voicing their complete shock at the news

The couple announced their engagement in April in a sweet Instagram post, with Lachlan writing: 'On Thursday night, Dana asked me to marry her at home under a fairy light sky and a very excited little boy in a beautiful bow tie.'

In the photo, Lachlan was pictured cuddling up to Dana and Dana's son Jasper, four, inside a bedroom festooned with fairy lights.

The couple, who went public with their relationship in October, beamed with joy as they cuddled up for the milestone photo.

Congratulations: Lachy announced his engagement to ballet dancer Dana after she proposed to him at home in April. Pictured with Jasper - Dana's four-year-old son from a previous relationship

Meanwhile, Dana shared a post on her Instagram announcing the news and revealing that Lachlan had actually proposed a month earlier.

'At the end of our summer holidays, I walked into the most beautiful surprise - a room filled with the most incredible flowers and Lachy singing at his piano and then asking me to marry him. It was such a surprise and so special. Our faces say it all,' she wrote next to a selfie of the couple.

'It was something very meaningful for us to both have the opportunity to propose to one another, each in our own way,' she continued.

Surprise! Meanwhile, Dana shared a post on her Instagram announcing the news and revealing that Lachlan had actually proposed a month earlier

'Last week, with the most beautiful (and excited!) little boy by my side in a special bow tie, it was our time to ask Lachy our special question - and it was so, so wonderful,' she added.

Dana and Lachlan are living together as they self-isolate amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In January, Dana spoke warmly about their relationship when asked about Lachlan in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.

Smitten! Dana and Lachlan are living together as they self-isolate amid the pandemic

Happily ever after! Dana spoke warmly about their relationship when asked about Lachlan in an interview with The Daily Telegraph in January

'He's just amazing and I just love him so much,' she said.

The mother-of-one, who is a senior dancer for The Australian Ballet, also described the moment she met Lachlan on the set of The Wiggles television show in early December 2018.

'Lachy and I just had a really beautiful connection straight away. It was between us, but after the fact quite a few people noticed,' she said.

Happy couple: 'Lachy and I just had a really beautiful connection straight away. It was between us, but after the fact quite a few people noticed,' she said

Lachlan separated from his Wiggles bandmate Emma Watkins (a.k.a. The Yellow Wiggle) in August 2018, after two years of marriage.

He confirmed his romance with Dana in October 2019 when he shared a selfie of the pair to Instagram.

On New Year's Day, Lachlan revealed that he'd met Dana's son Jasper, four, who she shares with her photographer ex-husband, Michael Kai.

Cute couple: Lachlan met Dana on set of The Wiggles' television show in December 2018

Milestone moment: On New Year's Day, Lachlan revealed he had met Dana's son Jasper (pictured)

Posing alongside Dana and Jasper on a trampoline, Lachlan captioned the adorable photo: '2020.'

Dana also posted the family photo, which showed her and Lachlan smiling with Jasper sitting on their shoulders.

She then uploaded another picture to Instagram, which was captioned: '[I'm] the luckiest girl because of these two.'

Still friends: He had previously separated from Wiggles bandmate Emma Watkins (left) in August 2018, after two years of marriage

Meanwhile, Lachlan and his ex-wife Emma continue to be on good terms, despite their very public divorce.

Speaking to Who in August last year Emma said: 'We are the best of friends and we were always meant to be. We were close before we started dating and now we've come full circle!'

Meanwhile, Emma is dating The Wiggles' musician Oliver Brian, 32.
MINDEN, Nev. - Kicking off a Western swing, President Donald Trump barrelled into Nevada for the weekend, looking to expand his path to victory while unleashing a torrent of unsubstantiated claims that Democrats were trying to steal the election.

Trump defied local authorities by holding a Saturday night rally in tiny Minden after his initial plan to hold one in Reno was stopped out of concern it would have violated coronavirus health guidelines. Unleashing 90-plus minutes of grievances and attacks, Trump claimed the states Democratic governor tried to block him and repeated his false claim that mail-in ballots would taint the election result.

This is the guy we are entrusting with millions of ballots, unsolicited ballots, and were supposed to win these states. Who the hell is going to trust him? Trump said of Gov. Steve Sisolak. The only way the Democrats can win the election is if they rig it.

As part of his ongoing crusade against mail-in voting, lawyers for the presidents reelection campaign are urging a federal judge in Las Vegas to block a state law and prevent mail-in ballots from going to all active Nevada voters less than eight weeks before the election.

Addressing a mostly mask-less crowd tightly packed together, Trump spoke in front of mountains draped in haze, the scent of smoke in the air from wildfires raging a state away in California. The president expressed his condolences to the victims but, declaring that I dont have to be nice anymore, focused on tearing into his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.

Trump claimed that the Democrats running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, would be president in about a month if Biden won, asserting that the former vice-president would be but a figurehead and that Harris would hold power. He claimed that the media would treat Biden like Winston Churchill if he was able to merely stand on the debate stage in three weeks. And embarking on a swing that would also include stops in Las Vegas and Phoenix, Trump mocked Bidens slower travel schedule. You know where he is now? He is in his damn basement again!

And, for good measure, Trump invoked his 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton, leading the crowd to launch into its traditional Lock Her Up! chant. The president claimed he usually tried to stop the chant but on Saturday declared, I dont care if you say it anymore and, breaking yet another norm of the office, suggested that Clinton should be in jail.

Trump also offered a fierce defence of his handling of the pandemic, which has killed more than 190,000 Americans and still claims nearly 1,000 lives a day. And he blamed Democratic governors across the nation, including Sisolak, for deliberately slowing the pace of reopening their states to hurt his election chances.

State Republicans claimed Sisolak tried to stop the rally, but the decision to cancel the Reno event was made by airport officials. Sisolak has limited in-person gatherings indoors and outdoors to 50 people since May, a recommendation based on White House reopening guidelines.

Privately, the Trump campaign welcomed the fight, believing it highlighted a reelection theme: Trumps insistence that the nation has turned the corner on the pandemic, while Democrats, including Biden and governors, are hurting the nations economy and psyche with stringent restrictions. Its the kind of political fight that Trumps team relishes and underscores the growing importance of Nevada in Trumps quest for 270 electoral votes as the race looks tight in a number of pivotal states.

Several thousand people covered the tarmac in Minden, including Tom Lenz, 64, of Sparks, Nevada, who said he didnt vote for Trump last time.

But I will this time. I think he knows what hes doing, said Lenz. Hes pro-faith, pro-life, hes made more peace in the world. Biden cant even talk.

Trump narrowly lost Nevada in 2016 to Clinton, and the state has trended further toward the Democrats in the past decade. But Trumps campaign has invested heavily in the state, relying on its ground game to turn out voters. Democrats, by contrast, have largely relied on virtual campaign efforts during the pandemic, save for the casino workers Culinary Union, which has sent workers door to door.

The White House announced Saturday that, while out west, Trump will also visit California on Monday to receive a briefing on the devastating wildfires racing through the region. He has largely been silent on the blazes, which Oregons emergency management director said was a possible mass fatality event.

Some Democrats fear a possible Trump momentum gain in Nevada, with the president showing increasing support from Latinos and non-college education white voters, two important constituencies in the state.

The tightening race in a number of the most contested states, including increasing concern on the presidents team about Arizona, has led to a renewed effort for Trump to expand his electoral map. Once considered fairly safely in Trumps column, Arizona has been ravaged by the coronavirus and the Trump team has grown worried about a slip in support among the states older residents.

If Arizona slips away, Trump campaign officials privately acknowledge that it would complicate his path to 270 electoral votes. If he loses Arizona, winning Wisconsin  the most likely Midwest state for Trump to retain  would not be enough even if he keeps Florida and North Carolina. It would require him to win somewhere else, which has led to a renewed focus on Minnesota, New Hampshire and the at-large congressional districts in Nebraska and Maine.

And Nevada has become a particular focus, with hopes of turning out huge numbers in rural areas, including Minden, population 3,000.

Trump was hosting two fundraisers in Las Vegas on Sunday. The Republican National Committee said it expected to raise $18 million, which would be shared by Trumps campaign, the committee and several state GOP committees. Trump and Republicans raised $210 million in August, a robust sum but far behind the record $364.5 million taken in by Biden and his party that month.

___

APs Advance Voting guide brings you the facts about voting early, by mail or absentee from each state: https://interactives.ap.org/advance-voting-2020/
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will speak to Mason Greenwood about his private life after the Manchester United striker landed himself in trouble for the second time in a week.

Greenwood, 18, was seen inhaling nitrous oxide  known as hippy crack  in a video filmed in a Manchester apartment several weeks ago.

Greenwood issued a statement through United on Saturday after the film emerged on social media of him inhaling from a balloon in the company of a female friend.

Mason Greenwood heads into the new season following a couple of off-field incidents

The striker was sent home by England boss Gareth Southgate (right) after inviting two women back to his hotel while in the company of international team-mate Phil Foden in Iceland

He said: 'I have now been made aware of the health risks associated with this practice  and accept that even trying it, as shown in these historical pictures, was poor judgment on my part. I strongly urge others not to follow my example.'

Last week, Greenwood and England team-mate Phil Foden were sent home in disgrace by manager Gareth Southgate for inviting two women into the team hotel after making their senior international debuts in Iceland.

United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is now keen to speak to the 18-year-old about his behaviour

And a concerned Solskjaer will speak to him about his off-the-field behaviour. While the United boss is committed to supporting Greenwood through the first controversies of his fledgling career, the player is expected to be reminded of his responsibilities and told to steer clear of trouble.

Greenwood had to train alone on Friday while undergoing a Covid risk assessment. He should return to full training, but it is unclear if he will be picked for Saturday's Premier League opener at home to Crystal Palace.
(Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Sally will begin hammering the U.S. Gulf Coast with flooding rains late Monday, making landfall the next day between New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama, and potentially causing as much as $3 billion in losses and damage.

Sally rapidly strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with maximum sustained winds of 90 miles (145 kilometers) per hour, the National Hurricane Center said in a special update. Sally, which has sparked evacuations from some offshore energy platforms, will make landfall sometime Tuesday morning or afternoon. The storm may reach 105 mph, NHC said, which would make it a Category 2 hurricane.

The U.S. has been pummeled by natural disasters this year, with wildfires devastating the West, storms causing billions of dollars of damage in the East and along the Gulf Coast, and a derecho ripping through the Midwest earlier this summer. Sally is one of five named systems currently in the Atlantic, the first time that has happened since 1971, said Jim Rouiller, lead meteorologist with the Energy Weather Group. With the emergence of Tropical Storm Vicky, the basin has now produced 20 storms, the second most on record. Only 2005 had more storms, with 28.

We have everything from fires to hurricanes and everything in between, said Rouiller. He expects Sally to strengthen to a Category 2 hurricane before landfall, though the most destructive part of the storm may miss New Orleans.

A larger weather system over the U.S. is making an exact track difficult to forecast, but Sally could be the second hurricane since late August to hit Louisiana, which is still recovering from Hurricane Laura.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards declared an emergency, and New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell issued a similar warning for the city. The storm could raise ocean levels 7 to 11 feet (2 to 3 meters) at the mouth of the Mississippi River, which could overtop some levees.

The storm could potentially lead to between $2 billion to $3 billion in damage and losses, said Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler with Enki Research. Damage estimates have fluctuated because Sallys forecast intensity and track have shifted several times in the last few days. The price tag could rise even more if Sally gets stronger or takes more time moving through the area, or if water overwhelms flood control systems in New Orleans.

Oil Disruption

Sally will sweep the eastern edge of the offshore production area, probably halting oil and natural gas drilling for a short time and adding further disruption to the industry. Hurricanes Marco and Laura, as well as Tropical Storm Cristobal, all disrupted work across the Gulf this season.

Chevron Corp. said Saturday its evacuating workers and shutting in production at its Blind Faith and Petronius platforms, while Royal Dutch Shell Plc has curtailed operations at three Gulf platforms. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port has suspended operations at the Marine Terminal as Sally approaches in the Gulf of Mexico, according to its website.

Mississippi River bar pilots also halted operations Sunday. Phillips 66 has begun a shutdown of the Alliance refinery, the company said in a statement.

Along with its storm surge, which can vary due to tides and exactly where the storm makes landfall, Sally could bring 2 to 3 feet of rain in some places, causing massive flooding, Rouiller said. If Sally continues to slow, the potential impact could be worse, and refineries may be down for longer.

I am worried it is going to slow up and intensify, Rouiller said. Sally may become known for the severe flooding.

The floods could impact cotton, corn and peanut crops through the region, though widespread damage isnt expected, said Don Keeney, a meteorologist with commercial forecaster Maxar.

I dont think we are going to see any massive damage, but there will be some localized flood damage right along the path, Keeney said. I dont think it will have much of an impact on the Delta.

Seven storms have hit the U.S. in 2020, including Laura, which devastated southwest Louisiana, and Hurricane Isaias, which temporarily knocked out power to millions in the Northeast.

In addition to Sally, Hurricane Paulette is battering Bermuda. The other storms -- Rene, Teddy and Vicky -- wont be an immediate threat to land.

2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Here are todays top news, analysis and opinion. Know all about the latest news and other news updates from Hindustan Times.

Listened to me like his own daughter: Kangana Ranaut meets Maharashtra guv

Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut on Sunday reached Raj Bhavan in Mumbai to meet Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari amid a row over the demolition of her office in the city by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Read more

Culture ministry goes digital, plans web series, virtual tours

The Ministry of Culture is planning a massive overhaul into its usual functioning and will introduce a host of digital initiatives including a web-series on Indias struggle for independence and virtual tours of important monuments. Read more

China, Russia key adversaries to world order: Top UK intel official

In a rare media interaction, the chief of Britains Defence Intelligence (DI) on Sunday identified China and Russia as key adversaries challenging the existing world order without promoting direct conflict, and operating in the expanding grey zone between war and peacetime. Read more

Nudges from PM Modi were critical in Indias Covid battle: Cambridge study

Using nudge theory that involves subtly leading people to desired directions, a study of Indias public policy response to Covid-19 has concluded that nudges from Prime Minister Narendra Modi were critical in creating herd effect on lockdown and social distancing norms. Read more

Twinkle Khanna writes on Rhea Chakrabortys media trial: They took a young woman and cut her in half

Twinkle Khanna has written about the media trial faced by Rhea Chakraborty ever since the death of her boyfriend Sushant Singh Rajput. The author drew the allegory of a magicians act to get her point across. Read more

Royal Enfield Himalayan BS 6 road test review: Indias own ADV

over the years, Royal Enfield introduced several updates on the bike and recently we got to ride the most recent BS 6-version of the Himalayan. Read more

CIA shares spot the difference post. Can you find them all?

The foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) shared a post on Twitter testing peoples observations skills. Put your observation skills to the test. Can you spot the 10 differences in the photo below? they wrote and shared two images. Read more

Raghuvanshs death has left a void in political sphere of Bihar, nation: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences at the demise of former Union Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh is no more with us. I pay tributes to him. His demise has left a void in the political sphere of Bihar as well as the country, said PM Modi. Watch
Doha: The Taliban and the Afghan government have begun historic peace talks in Qatar, aimed at shaping a power-sharing government that would end decades of war that have consumed Afghanistan and left millions dead and displaced.

But as the Qatar talks begin, against the backdrop of an American troop pullout and grievous violence against Afghan officials and civilians, some critics of the process argued that the Taliban insurgency was still, in essence, holding a gun to the government's head.

Deputy Head of Political Office of the Taliban Abdul Salam Hanafi, attends the opening session of the peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, on Saturday. Credit:AP

The peace talks opened on Saturday morning in Doha, the Qatari capital, with formal ceremonies held under tight security and strict coronavirus restrictions. The negotiations will be complicated at every turn by the threat of continued insurgent assaults, deep political divisions after a disputed election, decades of loss and grievance, and by foreign powers pulling Afghan factions in opposing directions.

Still, the fact that delegations from the two sides are finally coming to the table, after repeated delays, offers the nation a rare opportunity in its recent history: finding a formula of lasting coexistence before the withdrawal of another foreign military creates a vacuum.
The top appeals court rejected an appeal by two of the defendants in the case, which dates back to 2009

The top appeals court rejected an appeal by the two defendants, upholding the jail sentences and a EGP 50,000 fine each.

The case, which dates back over a decade, saw authorities foil an attempt to smuggle around 388 artefacts to Spain in a furniture truck, in what was described at the time as one of the biggest smuggling attempts in the country.

A Damietta criminal court gave the sentences in the initial ruling.

Earlier this year, the Egyptian parliament approved the addition of a new article to the existing law on the protection of antiquities, stipulating that those who are found in possession of or who sell antiquities abroad without official documentation will be punished by imprisonment and a fine of between EGP 1 million and EGP 10 million.

In February, a Cairo criminal court sentenced the brother of Mubarak-era finance minister Youssef Raouf Boutros-Ghali to 30 years in prison for two charges related to smuggling artefacts to Europe.

Botros Raouf Ghali was ordered to pay a fine of EGP 6 million.

In January, a former Italian honorary consul received a 15-year jail term in absentia for his convictions in relation to the same incident.

* 1 USD = 15.7 EGP according to the exchange rate of the Central Bank of Egypt

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Michael Cohen's daughter Samantha has described Ivanka Trump and 'phony and gross' in an explosive new interview as her father's tell-all memoir is released.

In a wide-ranging interview with Vanity Fair, Samantha Cohen speaks about comments Donald Trump allegedly made about her body, how Ivanka ignored her and her friendship with Tiffany.

It comes as the president's former lawyer's book Disloyal hits bookshelves. It details the moment Donald Trump allegedly said of a 15-year-old Samantha in 2012: 'Look at that piece of a***. I would love some of that.'

Cohen writes that when he told Trump that it was his daughter, Trump replied: 'When did she get so hot?'

'When did you get such a beautiful figure?' Trump allegedly asked Samantha when she came over to speak with Trump and her father, with the future president telling her that he would eventually be dating one of her friends.

But Samantha, now 24, explained to Vanity Fair that the remark was not the first time she had heard similar comments because there were 'so many creepy men'.

Michael Cohen claimed that Donald Trump made comments about his daughter's looks when she was just 15 years old in 2012

'When did you get such a beautiful figure?,' Trump allegedly asked Samantha, Cohen said in his book Disloyal

'It was almost meaningless to me at the moment because I'd heard them before,' she said. 'If you can hit on a 15-year-old, I am pretty sure there is something wrong with you, and when you allow someone with that little integrity to be in the most powerful office, that sets the tone for the rest of the country's culture.'

Samantha, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania like Trump's own daughters, told a different account of what happened when she met Trump as a 15-year-old teen.

'My dad always tuned out everything negative Trump said about him, but what I remember was Trump saying, "Thank God she got those looks from her mother. She certainly didn't get them from you." That's the part that stood out to me,' she explained. 'I was not desensitized to someone putting down my dad and insulting him and degrading him.'

'That was one of the reasons I hated Trump so much. It always felt like, God forbid my dad came close to not needing him. If my dad had any successes outside of the Trump Organization, Trump cut his bonus or cut his salary. He would find ways to undermine my dad in the office. Trump was holding him back. He had a twisted umbilical cord to Trump.'

Samantha said her father had 'Stockholm syndrome,' describing Trump as having 'occupied 99.9 per cent' of her father's time

Cohen was aware of how mean Trump was to his own children, Samantha said, which made him believe he was being treated on the same level as the family when the president was 'blatantly mean to him'

Samantha said her father had 'Stockholm syndrome,' describing Trump as having 'occupied 99.9 per cent' of her father's time. She describes Trump as being 'blatantly mean' to Michael Cohen, quickly snatching her father from his usual routine of things - like driving her to school.

'We'd be on vacation and he'd be down the beach trying to get cell signal,' Samantha asserted. 'When my dad says the first call and last call of Trump's day were to him, I can tell you without any question how accurate that is because I was there for all of it.'

Samantha shared that her father as being 'really close' with Don Jr. when he first started working with Trump, describing a moment when their two families enjoyed a 'big family dinner in Palm Beach' (Samantha pictured in 2018)

Cohen's daughter says her father was constantly aware of how Trump treated his own children, believing Michael Cohen was fine with the abuse because he felt a part of the family.

'That was hard for me to understand at the time, but then I realized that he spent 10 hours a day with him, and he had this whole second life,' Samantha said. 'He was correct when he says he was attracted to the power and the allure, but he also believed he loved Trump. When he loves someone he would do anything for them, and unfortunately he came to care about the wrong person.'

Samantha shared that her father as being 'really close' with Don Jr. when he first started working with Trump, describing a moment when their two families enjoyed a 'big family dinner in Palm Beach.'

'My dad used to tell me how mean Trump was to Don Jr. and how badly he felt for him,' she said, saving her more icier comments for Ivanka.

Samantha added: 'Ivanka lived in our building. She would totally ignore me if she ever saw me. I always found it so strange because she loved my dad. She came over one night because he made his "famous" lasagna. Whenever we were alone, though, she'd look past me. One time she told on me after she saw me smoking cigarettes outside of our building. It was so lame.'

Samantha said that Ivanka would 'totally ignore' her when she saw her

'I had an interaction with her last year. It was a couple of months before my dad got sentenced. I was walking out of the building. I knew that she was in town because Secret Service was everywhere. I walked out of the building and she was standing waiting for her driver. She saw me and I thought she was going to ignore me, as she had the rest of my life. But she grabbed my arm and said, "We all feel so terribly about what's happening to your dad. Our hearts are breaking for him. I'm so sorry that this happened to you guys," in this high-pitched, sugary voice.

'I knew how fake it was. I have no idea why she said that to me because I know she doesn't care, and it was too late to send a message to my dad. I don't know if she was trying to make herself feel better, or if she did it for show because there were other people in the lobby. It just felt like someone threw a bucket of slime on me because it was so phony and gross. But no one actually gave a rat's a*s about my dad or my mom or my brother or me. We were all, as my dad likes to say, collateral damage.'

Samantha shared that her father was surprisingly close with Tiffany Trump, who she said the president 'never wanted to deal with.' As a result, the two got 'super close,' according to Samantha, who said that the two often hung out together in New York.

Samantha said that Tiffany Trump was made to feel her entire life as if she was 'unwanted' and believes she is just trying to fit in

Their relationship was so close that when she was a junior in high school, Samantha went to visit Tiffany at Penn. The two would continue to be friends at university, Samantha shared.

'This isn't anything she's explicitly said to me, but it can't be easy being made to feel your entire life like you're unwanted,' Samantha shared. 'I won't speak to her now, but if I could, I would say something. When I see her speaking at the RNC, I know there's no way she believes that s**t. She has friends who are gay. She's an Ivy Leagueeducated woman. There's no way that she thinks that any of this is a good idea, and her dad treated her like sh** her whole life.

'She never really got the perks of being a Trump kid before. But this is how and when she wants it? Being part of the most hated family in America?'
TDT | Manama

In a game-changing decision, Bahrain has announced normalising its ties with Israel.

The historic announcement follows a telephonic conversation between His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

As agreed during the talks, Bahrain will establish full diplomatic relations with Israel.

Another HISTORIC breakthrough today! Trump tweeted following the announcement.

Our two GREAT friends Israel and the Kingdom of Bahrain agree to a Peace Deal  the second Arab country to make peace with Israel in 30 days!

Trump also shared on this twitter feed a joint statement describing the deal as a historic breakthrough to further peace in the Middle East.

King Hamad and Prime Minister Netanyahu expressed their deep appreciation to Trump for his dedication to the region, the statement said.

The statement also commended the UAE and Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed for his leadership on August 13, 2020, in announcing full diplomatic relations with Israel.

Bahrain, the statement said, also accepted Trumps invitation to join Israel and the UAE at the historic signing ceremony on September 15, 2020, at the White House.

Trump, earlier in a White House news conference on Thursday, said, "You'll be hearing other countries coming in over a relatively short period of time. And you could have peace in the Middle East.

The current decision also follows Bahrain opening its airspace to Israeli planes flying to the UAE, a day after Saudi Arabia announced that it would allow Israeli overflights to the UAE.

Israel and the UAE said on Aug. 13 they would normalise diplomatic relations in a deal brokered by US President Donald Trump that reshapes the order of Middle East politics from the Palestinian issue to the fight against Iran.

Following which UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan issued a decree abolishing a boycott law as part of the UAEs efforts to expand diplomatic and commercial cooperation with Israel, leading to bilateral relations by stimulating economic growth and promoting technological innovation.

The current decision also makes Bahrain the fourth Arab country to reach such an agreement with Israel since exchanging embassies with Egypt and Jordan decades ago.
In 1849, Henry David Thoreau, furious with the pro-slavery policies of the populist US president, asked in his book Civil Disobedience what a good citizen should do in the face of an oppressive government.

He famously concluded that, under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is a prison.

That idea of employing independent thought against, and rejecting blinkered obedience to, government would inspire both Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Theres nothing so powerful as an individual conscience set alight by injustice.

Protesters at last weekend's anti-lockdown rally. Credit:Justin McManus

Today that spirit is alive in the streets of Melbourne, with Daniel Andrews and his lockdown methods being attacked not just by a motley band of freedom fighters organising on social media but now also by both conservative MP Tim Wilson and leading human rights advocate Julian Burnside QC, who says the use of CCTV and other surveillance devices breaches Victorians' human rights.




U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun has expressed Washington's support for efforts to build peace on the Korean Peninsula at a regional security forum, his office said.







During the video-linked ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Ministerial Meeting on Saturday, Biegun, who also serves as the U.S. special representative for North Korea, "was joined by several foreign ministers in underscoring ... the U.S. support for a path to lasting peace in the Korean Peninsula," according to the State Department.







Also discussed at the meeting were tensions in the South China Sea and human rights issues in Hong Kong, the department said.







The virtual meeting brought together representatives from 26 countries, including the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the United States, North Korea, China and Japan, as well as the EU High Commissioner.







From South Korea, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha called for Asia-Pacific countries to send a "unified message" for the resumption of dialogue with North Korea.







North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Son-gwon did not participate in the session, but An Kwang-il, a senior North Korean diplomat in Indonesia, attended. He did not make any direct response to Kang's call.







Inter-Korean dialogue has remained stalled amid a deadlock in nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang, which has continued since their summit in Hanoi in February last year ended without a deal. (Yonhap)


Walt Disney Co CEO Bob Chapek has been urged to explain the company's connection with "security and propaganda" authorities of China's Xinjiang region during the production of live-action war epic "Mulan," by a group of bipartisan lawmakers including former presidential candidate Marco Rubio.

A bipartisan group of US senators has called on the CEO of Disney, Bob Chapek, to explain the movie giants cooperation with the authorities in the Chinese autonomous region of Xinjiang during the production of the Mulan live-action remake, according to the website of Republican senator Marco Rubio.The Disney film has run into controversy for partly being filmed in the Xinjiang region, where US senators have accused the Chinese authorities of oppression against ethnic Uyghurs.

Thirteen senators took part in sending a letter, which was published in full on Rubios official website, to the Disney CEO. We are writing to inquire about The Walt Disney Companys cooperation with elements of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Regions (XUAR) security and propaganda authorities in the production of Mulan. Disneys apparent cooperation with officials of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) who are most responsible for committing atrocitiesor for covering up those crimesis profoundly disturbing, the letter read.



In May, the House of Representatives passed Senate-approved legislation to sanction China over alleged human rights violations against the Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups in the country. The international community has alleged that Uighurs are being held in so-called re-education camps.Beijing has denied the existence of these camps on multiple occasions and has stressed that the country is fully in compliance with the UNs International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.Disney first released Mulan as an animated film in 1998. The movie is based on a 6th-century Chinese folk-tale of a young woman who disguises herself as a man to participate in military combat.

ALSO READ: US, UAE sign agreement for increased consular privileges and immunities

ALSO READ: US urges for international order to address tensions in South China Sea at ASEAN Regional Forum ministerial meet
Delhi Police arrested former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Umar Khalid under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for instigating the North-East Delhi riots that broke out in February this year.

Khalid was one of the main conspirators of riots in which 53 persons died and over 400 were injured, special cell of Delhi Police said after the arrest.

The former JNU scholar has been questioned twice by the police over the last two months for speeches he delivered at the Shaheen Bagh protest site. According to the police, Khalid had planned the riots with former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain.

Khalid was charged with sedition and arrested in February 2016 too, for allegedly shouting anti-India slogans inside the JNU campus along with former student union president Kanhaiya Kumar and others.

We arrested Umar Khalid late Sunday night, said a senior police officer associated with the probe, requesting not to be named.

On August 3, the suspended AAP councillor had reportedly confessed to his crime and told the police that he was given the task to collect as much glass bottle, petrol, acid, stones as possible during the violence.

Communal violence broke out in Delhi between anti-CAA and pro-CAA protesters in February this year. Hundreds of people were detained in connection with the violence and police faced criticism for their slack management of protesters and ineffective handling of the riots.
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Linkedin -- (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, September 14 2020

A Rohingya refugee in Aceh died of a respiratory illness on Friday, only a day after two other refugees died of similar causes.

Lhokseumawe city public relations head Marzuki said the refugee, a 19-year-old named Senowara, had been admitted to Cut Meutia General Hospital (RSUCM) in North Aceh after complaining of high fever and breathing difficulties.

Marzuki could not confirm whether or not the patient had contracted COVID-19. Weve taken her swab sample, but the result has not come back yet, he said on Friday as reported by kompas.com.

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An occasional roundup of unusual OPP news releases:

A 30-year-old man in Middleton, in Norfolk County, called 911 on Sept. 9. Was it a kidnapping, a burglary, a fire?

It was determined that they called the emergency number after their neighbours grass clippings were blown onto their property by the lawn mower, police said.

OPP urge people to dial 911 only if its a real emergency.

Please do not call 911 about a power outage or to inquire about road conditions or if you have a sick raccoon on your property. This is NOT an emergency.

Speaking of grass

Well, that was an expensive phone call.

On Sept. 4 at 2:30 p.m., police saw a motorist using a cellphone while driving on Highway 401 in Thames Centre, near London.

When they pulled over the car, police found $800,000 worth of dried, packaged cannabis and $130,000 in cash.

A Toronto man, 42, was charged with possession for the purpose of distributing, possession of the proceeds of crime and driving while using a phone. A passenger from Beeton, 35, was charged with possession of the proceeds of crime and possession for the purpose of distributing.

Cryptic message

If the culprits were trying to send a message, it was difficult to decipher.

On Sept. 6 at 12:50 p.m., police were called to investigate an act of mischief at a residence in Simcoe.

It was determined that in the early morning hours, unknowns attended the address and threw several eggs at their residence and left a large root beer at the end of the driveway, police said.

The investigation continues.

Tractor driver charged

Heres one you dont see every day  a drunk driver behind the wheel of a farm tractor.

On Aug. 28 at 5:40 p.m. police were called to a disturbance in Erin, 35 kilometres northeast of Guelph.

While en route officers were advised that the suspect had left the scene and was travelling back to their residence on a farm tractor, OPP said. Police found the driver, an Erin man, 60, and charged him with impaired driving.

Bad place to speed

Police didnt have to go far to catch a suspected drunk driver.

On Aug. 29 at 8 a.m., officers saw a pickup truck speed past the OPP detachment on Highway in Wiarton. The driver, 28, of West Grey was charged with impaired driving and speeding.

Bear scare

A black bear was spotted on Sept. 8 in Goderich.

Described as weighing about 250 pounds, the animal was seen wandering near a corn field.

In June a black bear was seen on a trail just north of town.

Missed the target

Around 4 p.m. on Sept. 5, a man reported hearing gunshots and damage from a bullet in his home in Wroxeter, northwest of Listowel.

Police arrested a man who had been skeet shooting north of the residence. Firearms and ammo were seized.

A Howick man, 29, was charged with careless use of a firearm and discharging a firearm into a place in a reckless manner.

The good, the bad

A good Samaritan foiled the theft of his neighbours pickup truck but almost got run over.

At 4:45 p.m. on Sept. 6, the man confronted a suspect trying to steal the truck in Simcoe. The suspect ran to a waiting vehicle and the good Samaritan gave chase.

The driver of the vehicle then attempted to run over the good Samaritan, police said. The suspect vehicle immediately fled from the area and is described as a grey coloured Volkswagen Beetle.

Guardrail proves dangerous

A guardrail struck by a car went right through the vehicle.

On Sept. 5 at 8 a.m. the car hit the rail and rolled over in a ditch on Highway 69, 60 kilometres south of Sudbury.

The guardrail sliced into a female passenger, 52, severing her foot. A male passenger, 27, suffered fractured ankles. The driver, 56, of St. Catharines was not injured. He was charged with careless driving.
Varanasi, Sep 13 : A proposal seeking tax exemption for ancient mutts and temples at three important Hindu 'teerths' (holy places) -- Kashi, Ayodhya and Mathura -- has been submitted to senior RSS functionary Indresh Kumar.

Indresh will be meeting RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat in Lucknow on Sunday and was expected to take up the issue with him.

Mahant Balak Das, Head of the Patalpuri Sanatan Dharm Raksha Parishad, said : "The proposal was given by Rajiv Srivastava of Vishal Bharat Sansthan on behalf of the authorities of mutts and temples." He said the proposal demanded exemption of all types of taxes from the mutts and temples at Kashi, Ayodhya and Mathura. These mutts and temples do not have any regular source of income but they have been keeping alive the ancient tradition of 'gurukul' for 'Vedic' students.

"Free electricity should be supplied to the mutts and facilities like ration cards to Vedic students and mutt authorities, subsidized gas cylinders, scholarship to Vedic students and grants for the renovation of old mutts should also be ensured," he added.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Grand Isle Mayor David Camardelle has called for a mandatory evacuation Sunday morning "due to sudden changes in Tropical Storm Sally."

Sally's track shifted west overnight, and the intensity forecast was increased to a Category 2 hurricane at landfall.

The evacuation order begins at 9 a.m.

"Because of the high tides on LA Hwy 1 this would cause some difficulties in leaving the island," Camardelle said in a news release.

An evacuation center will be opened at Raceland Recreation Center at 221 Recreation Drive.

On Saturday, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell issued a mandatory evacuation order for Orleans Parish residents living outside of the parish's levee protection system.
Gurugram, Sep 13 : A 60-year-old man in Gurugram was duped of over Rs 1.24 crore by a woman fraudster posing as a US Army "Anti-Terrorist Department" official, police said on Sunday.

According to the police, complainant Dhirendra Kumar, a resident of Maruti Vihar of Chakkarpur village in Gurugram, received a WhatsApp message from a woman named Poonam Makela.

The woman told him that she was working in the Army Anti-Terrorist Department in the US, and later, they exchanged phone numbers.

"The woman told me that she wanted to open a medicine company in India and for this, she is sending around $8.7 million dollars to me. Later, from June 19 to July 17, 2020, I received multiple calls from someone who claimed he was a customs official and said that I have got a box from the US and have to deposit money to get it. I then deposited the amount through an online platform," the victim said in his police complaint.

"In connection with the matter, an FIR has been registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the IT Act at Cyber Crime police station. Further probe into the matter is on," said Subhash Boken, spokesperson of the Gurugram police.
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.  Two men were killed and six other people were injured in a shooting early Sunday morning near Rutgers University in New Jersey, authorities said.

Police responded to the area just before 1:20 a.m. local time and found eight people with gunshot wounds. The victims were taken to various area hospitals and two men were pronounced dead at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone and New Brunswick Police Director Anthony A. Caputo said in a statement.

Police continue to gather evidence along Delafield Street in New Brunswick early Sunday, September 13, 2020, where two men were killed and six other people were injured after a shooting.

Rutgers Police Chief Kenneth Cop said in a statement an unknown suspect fired several shots striking individuals at a house party. Cop said the injuries were serious.

The investigation has determined the shooting has no affiliation with Rutgers University or its students, authorities said.

Information about the description of the suspect was limited, Cop said. The area remained under investigation late Sunday morning and the public was asked to avoid the area.

No additional information, including a possible motive, was released by authorities.

The shooting is being investigated by the New Brunswick Police Department and the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office.

Follow reporter Cheryl Makin on Twitter: @CherylMakin

'Everything's gone': Many neighborhoods destroyed as fire, smoke devastate Oregon families, workers and homeless

Storm watch: Sally roars through Gulf, forecast to strengthen to hurricane before striking coast

This article originally appeared on Bridgewater Courier News: New Brunswick, NJ, shooting near Rutgers University: 2 dead, 6 hurt
New IRA chief Thomas Mellon did not attend meetings of the terror gang bugged by MI5 because he was in a huff over his treatment following the murder of journalist Lyra McKee.

His petulance appears to have saved him, with Derry dissidents Gary Hayden (48) and Joe Barr (32) charged with taking part in the summits organised by double agent Dennis McFadden.

Both men are behind bars accused of directing terrorism alongside seven other alleged New IRA members.

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Republican sources say that Mellon stayed away from the February and July meetings at rental properties in Co Tyrone because he was at loggerheads with the leadership.

"Mellon accused the leadership of hanging him out to dry after the murder of Lyra McKee," revealed a New IRA insider.

"Not a single member from outside Derry came to stand with him in the months that followed the killing, or when he was in court to be convicted of taking part in an illegal parade.

"He had asked others from Belfast, Armagh and Tyrone to come up and show their support, but they refused. They said they didn't want to be linked to the Lyra McKee shooting."

Expand Close Thomas Ashe Mellon (left, wearing the army jacket holding the Zack Smith sign) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Thomas Ashe Mellon (left, wearing the army jacket holding the Zack Smith sign)

A furious Mellon accused other New IRA units of abandoning Derry and allowing the media to turn him into a dissident bogeyman who would be forever associated with the writer's killing.

"He took a massive huff and refused to attend leadership meetings, which has turned out to be a blessing in disguise for him because it's meant he wasn't entrapped by MI5," added the insider.

"Mellon even quit the New IRA for a period of time but was encouraged to come back on board when the organisation realised the whole Derry unit would leave with him."

In an effort to appease Mellon, members of Saoradh - the New IRA's political wing - from outside Derry attended a white-line picket he organised in the Bogside last weekend.

Some were seen alongside him holding posters in support of dissident republican inmates in Maghaberry Prison.

Mellon had been vocal in his criticism of those New IRA members closest to double agent Denis McFadden, whose deceit has led to the arrest of nine of his pals, labelling them "barstool republicans".

However, its political party Saoradh has attempted to play down any internal rift, saying: "Despite claims to the contrary in the gutter press since an MI5-led intesification of attacks against the party, Saoradh remains cohesive, disciplined and dedicated.

"Put simply we are here to stay."
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-14 04:08:27|Editor: huaxia

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BEIRUT, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Two political parties announced on Sunday their decision not to participate in the next Lebanese cabinet.

A statement issued by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri's office indicated that he has informed the newly appointed Prime Minister Mustapha Adib of a decision not to participate in the government which will mainly be "a technocrat cabinet that lacks affiliation and belongs to one's political party while being formed with foreign intervention."

The statement added that Adib was informed of "Amal Movement's readiness to cooperate for the sake of Lebanon's stability and public finances, while facilitating reforms to save the country's economy."

Berri insisted, over the past days, to keep hold of the Ministry of Finance, while he said in a previous press statement that "the Finance Ministry belongs to the Shiite sect which is a charter issue."

His stance on the finance ministry was met by criticism by other political parties while French President Emmanuel Macron failed to solve this obstacle during a phone call with Berri, according to media reports.

Meanwhile, Member of Parliament Gebran Bassil announced at a press conference on Sunday that he won't be participating in the government but his party will help in achieving reforms.

"We have no desire to participate in the government in a bid to facilitate the success of the new cabinet's mission, but we will help it achieve its goals," he said.

Bassil emphasized the importance of accepting the French initiative because it focuses on a reform program with a priority to get out of the financial and economic crisis without taking into account political elements such as Hezbollah's weapons and parliamentary elections.

Macron visited the Lebanese capital twice after Beirut port's explosions and met with political leaders in Lebanon while urging them to form a government within two weeks to implement reforms in the country.

On Aug. 31, Lebanese President Michel Aoun assigned Mustapha Adib to form a new government after the resignation of former Prime Minister Hassan Diab's government on Aug. 10 following the Beirut port's explosion on Aug. 4.

Adib is expected to propose a list of ministers to President Michel Aoun on Monday.

Lebanon has so far failed to form a sustainable government capable of implementing necessary structural reforms aimed at saving the country from economic and financial collapse.

Political conflict over cabinet's shares constituted the biggest obstacle facing government formation in Lebanon over the past years while hindering previous cabinets' success in implementing reforms. Enditem
The persecution of Rhea Chakraborty, the actors one-time partner, borders on lunacy, if we are to cling to some notions of rationality and humanity

When the NDA was returned to power with an unassailable majority in 2019  303 members in the Lok Sabha  the talons that were partially sheathed during its first tenure became fully visible. There are three instances to demonstrate this.

The first, chronologically, is the Elgaar Parishad and Bhima-Koregaon case. On 31 December 2017, Elgaar Parishad meetings were held in Pune, preparatory to the bicentennial celebrations to mark on 1 January 2018 the victory of a combined British army detachment and a Mahar regiment against an army of the Peshwas. Since the Peshwas were Brahmins and the Mahars then considered untouchables, this victory became emblematic for the latter.

Since then, this anniversary has been celebrated regularly. The Elgaar Parishad meetings in this case were attended by, among others, cultural, social and, specifically, Dalit activists. Speeches favouring Dalit emancipation and condemning the politics of Hindutva were made alongside plays, recitations and other performances. Two rallies had passed through the town before the meetings. The day had passed without incident.

The following day, Dalits congregated in large numbers at Bhima-Koregaon to celebrate the bicentennial. It was reported in retrospect that there were murmurs amongst upper-caste villagers about the event. Once it had started, the Dalit congregation was attacked and many people were injured. A bandh was called and protests broke out throughout Maharashtra. Two people were killed in clashes, one of them reportedly in police firing.

In the initial stages, the finger of suspicion pointed towards some Hindutva groups. Police began investigations on these lines and two people were identified as the people who organised and stoked the conflict. They were Manohar Bhide, aka Sambhaji and Guruji, and Milind Ekbote. The former, said to be a confidant of Modi, was never even questioned, while Ekbote was held, and later released on bail, but only after the Supreme Court passed strictures against the Pune Police.

Curiously, however, the investigation into the incitement of violence and the role of the Hindutva brigade were abruptly dropped despite a committee formed by the Pune Police, consisting of senior officers, submitting a report on 20 January 2018, which nailed Bhide and Ekbote for orchestrating the violence.

Even more curiously, the investigations took a huge detour practically ignoring the events of 1 January 2018 to focus on the uneventful programmes of 31 December 2017. A large number of people were arrested in tranches, including five activists in countrywide arrests at the crack of dawn on 28 August, in scenes reminiscent of less salubrious historical contexts. All the arrested people are in jail. The number incarcerated has now gone up to 15 with the arrest of three folk artistes  Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor and Jyoti Jagtap  on 7-8 September.

It was reported, moreover, on 6 September, that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) mailed one Partho Sarothi Roy, a molecular biologist at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research currently working on the containment of the COVID-19 pandemic, asking him to be present for questioning in Mumbai on 10 September. Roy declined the invitation, citing important work. Though he has not spoken, his associates say he has never visited the Bhima-Koregaon area.

On 7 September, K Satyanarayana, a professor at Hyderabads English and Foreign Languages University, and KV Kurmanath, a journalist, were also sent NIA notices. Both are sons-in-law of Varavara Rao, a cultural activist who was jailed in the dawn raids of 28 August.

The net has been cast wide and is being cast wider  among those who have been drawn in are academics, lawyers and activists. They have one thing in common  Dalit rights activism. In the meantime, of course, the Hindutva leads have vanished, as they were meant to. We may not have suspected that this betokened the BJPs systematically blighted version of the rule of law, had it not been for whats happening with the Delhi riots cases.

It has been reported on Sunday that CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav, and academics Jayati Ghosh and Apoorvanand have been named in a supplementary chargesheet in the Delhi riots case. Their crime seems to have been provoking and mobilising protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019. Though some confusion seems to prevail over the exact manner in which the names occur in the document, it appears to be part of a strategy to target people who have protested against a piece of legislation many consider unconstitutional.

This is of a piece with the calibrated way in which the two Special Investigation Teams constituted to investigate the riots have been functioning. The blatant bias in the proceedings should not, in the first place, cause any great surprise, given the track record of the two officers heading them. Quite apart from that, two classes of people have been disproportionately targeted to be arrested and proceeded against: young Muslim men and women, whether or not connected to the movement against the CAA and National Register of Citizens, and people closely associated with the movement, regardless of faith.

It is not quite a state secret that the proximate cause of the riots was an incendiary speech delivered by Kapil Mishra, the would-be Delhi MLA who had days before been trounced in the elections. It is beyond a shadow of doubt that it was the storm troopers of the Hindutva forces who began hostilities. It is beyond the same shadow of doubt that the bulk of the attacks on persons, properties and the arson and general mayhem were carried out by these storm troopers. It is, finally, also beyond doubt that the hugely preponderant loss to life, person and property was suffered by the Muslims.

If Mishra was the man who held the figurative smoking gun, the riots were enabled by an election campaign that was beyond sectarian and toxic, even by Hindutva standards. The men who led the way in making it so were men in responsible positions: minister of state for finance Anurag Singh Thakur, who exhorted his followers to shoot people they didnt agree with (in his understanding, traitors) and Outer Delhi Lok Sabha member Parvesh Singh Verma, who told an audience that anti-CAA agitators would enter their homes to rape and kill their sisters and daughters. Beyond being taken off the campaign roster, no action against Thakur and Mishra (incitement to murder), or Verma (incitement to communal hatred) has been forthcoming. The majority of the rioters, pillagers, arsonists and, not to put too fine a point on it, murderers, too, are roaming free.

Still, we could conceivably discern in this maelstrom of illegality and insanity some coherent strategy. The Sushant Singh Rajput case takes arbitrary authoritarianism to an absurd level. The persecution of Rhea Chakraborty, the actors one-time partner, borders on lunacy, if we are to cling to some notions of rationality and humanity. It is the scapegoating of a no one in particular in the pursuit of designs that have nothing even remotely do with either her or Rajput.

The three objectives the BJP government is chasing are transparent: the desire to get even with the Shiv Sena, which is a practically stated goal; the attempt to generate mileage for the impending Assembly election in Bihar; and the desperate scramble to deflect attention from the gross mismanagement of the pandemic and the economy. The desperation of throwing on the Narcotics Control Bureau, having failed twice with the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate is surreal. It signals that no one  dissident or compliant, active or passive, rebellious or complaisant  is safe, if his or her destruction affords the regime some gain. The BJP's present strategy is all the more Kafkaesque for being speculative, if not notional, because there is no guarantee that this utterly unscrupulous stratagem will help the BJP win Bihar, unsettle the Thackerays or succeed in deflecting attention from the raging pandemic and the tanking economy.

Chakrabortys fathers comment on these machinations is not one that a government that is even remotely responsible will ever want to hear: "Congratulations India, you have arrested my son, Im sure next on the line is my daughter and I dont know who is next thereafter. You have effectively demolished a middle-class family. But of course, for the sake of justice, everything is justified. Jai Hind."
Hyderabad/Amaravati, Sep 13 : Telugu states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh present a contrasting picture of Covid-19 situation.

While one state with continuous surge has climbed on to the second position in the country in terms of number of cases, the other has succeeded in controlling the pandemic. At least this is what the statistics suggest.

Both the states claim to be handling the situation well. Andhra Pradesh attributes the high number of cases to massive testing while dismissing the criticism for fewer tests and allegations of hiding deaths and underreporting cases, Telangana claims that its strategy helped in containing the virus.

As of September 12, Andhra Pradesh with over 5.57 lakh cases stood second on the list of states with most cases, next only to Maharashtra, which so far saw 10.15 lakh cases.

Andhra Pradesh has been adding 10,000 cases and reporting 70-80 deaths every day for the last few weeks. With 4,846 deaths, it also has the fourth highest death toll in the country.

On the other hand Telangana's tally of Covid cases as of September 12 stood at nearly 1.55 lakh. The average daily jump in cases has stabilized around 2,400-2,600 while daily fatalities mostly remained in single digit.

Though one of the first states to report Covid cases in early March, Telangana is at ninth place in the list of states with highest number of infections. With 950 deaths, it is also at ninth spot in terms of fatalities.

Though Telangana ramped up testing over the last one-and-half month, it still lags behind with 20 lakh tests, which is not even 50 per cent of the tests conducted by its neighbour.

One of the first states to ramp up testing, Andhra Pradesh has so far tested over 45.27 lakh tests, next only to Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. However, it stands at the top in tests per million ratio among nine states of its size (Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh) with a figure of 84,786. The national average ratio is 39,790.

Andhra Pradesh also has the second highest positivity rate at 12.32, next only to Maharashtra (20.02). The state also has one of the highest number of active cases at 95,733.

The Andhra health officials, however, point out that the state has one of the best recovery rates at 81.96 per cent. The number of daily recoveries stands around 10,000.

As of Saturday, the state recorded 4.57 lakh recoveries, second biggest number of after Maharashtra's 7.15 lakh.

With 20 lakh tests, Telangana has one of the second-lowest testing numbers among nine states. Its positivity rate is 7.57 per cent. The experts point out that this is one of the highest among the states who have conducted 20-30 lakh tests.

Telangana has also seen nearly 1.20 lakh recoveries. Its recovery rate stands at 78.29 against the national average of 77.77 per cent.

Despite the fourth highest number of fatalities, Andhra Pradesh's mortality rate is 0.87, one of the lowest among the states of its size.

The government of Telangana also cites the state's low mortality rate at 0.62 per cent and high recovery rate as the proof of the effective steps taken by it to contain the virus spread.

Health Minister Eatala Rajender pointed out on many occasions that Telangana was the first state to impose lockdown and effectively implemented it, ensured strict monitoring of those who reported positive on arrival from other countries, traced and tracked primary and secondary tests.

He claimed that the state also controlled the situation with the ramping of tests and improving the health infrastructure for Covid treatment in Hyderabad and districts.

Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao told the state Assembly last week that Telangana is on a better footing than many other states in handling Covid-19 AA month ago the situation in Hyderabad was a cause of concern with 800-900 daily jump in cases. Director of Public Health Srinivas Rao said sustained efforts considerably brought down the numbers.

While admitting that the cases were on rise in tier-II cities, he exuded confidence of bringing the situation under control across the state by September.

Telangana government came under flak from various quarters for its poor testing. It was only after High Court orders on several PILs that the government acted to ramp up testing.

From around 1,000 daily tests in early June, the state ramped up testing. Roping in the private sector on the court's direction, the state increased the numbers and since last month, it is testing over 60,000 samples every day.

A total of 17 government and 38 private laboratories and 1,076 rapid antigen tests centres are conducting the tests.

Samples tested per million population in Telangana is at 55,989. "This is much higher than the daily testing target of 5,600 per day as per the World Health Organisation (WHO) benchmark of 140 per million per day," said director of public health Srinivas Rao.

Telangana's recovery rate is 78.7 per cent while the national average is 77.75 per cent. The total number of recoveries has crossed 1.21 lakh.

The number of active cases in the state stands at 32,005 including 25,050 in home/institutional isolation.

Taking a series of steps, the state succeeded in ramping up infrastructure for Covid treatment. Currently the state has 42 government-run hospitals for Covid treatment with 8,052 beds. Over 5,000 of them are vacant.

Nearly 200 private hospitals are also treating Covid patients. They have 10,433 beds, out of which 6,202 are vacant.

With several leading corporate hospitals located in Hyderabad, 50 per cent of Covid patients undergoing treatment here are from Andhra Pradesh.

The Andhra Pradesh government says the state has 138 Covid care hospitals with 37,441 beds.

It was on March 2 that Telangana had reported the first Covid-19 case while the first infection in its twin state was detected on March 12.

As on May 1, Andhra Pradesh had 1,463 cases and 33 deaths while these figures for Telangana were 1,039 and 26.

The number of cases in Telangana has spiked sharply after the state relaxed stringent lockdown guidelines under the Centre's 'Unlock 1' plan from June 1.

The number of positive cases in Andhra Pradesh more than doubled in a month between May 2 and June 2 -- from 1,525 to 3,200.

On August 30, Andhra Pradesh overtook Tamil Nadu to have the second highest number of cases in the country.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Stimulus check 2 went through a lot, yet there has been no agreement between the Republican and Democratic lawmakers. For many proposals that the lawmakers took down, this one amount was proposed for the second round of stimulus checks-the $4,000 COVID-19 relief package for a family of four offered by the Republican senators. The question is, is it still possible to get the $4,000 check?

Since the proposal was never voted down, eligible Americans could get a $4,000 stimulus check, as per Heavy. But, it's less likely that the second round of stimulus checks will pass Congress at all. If it does, it could be in smaller amounts, which is $1,200 for each individual with $3,400 for a family of four.

Meanwhile, Democratic senators proposed for $2,000 monthly stimulus checks until three months after the COVID-19 pandemic ended. But that is not likely to happen as it was proposed by Democrats including Kamala Harris, Joe Biden's vice presidential running mate.

The amount of the second round of stimulus checks should make it through the Republican-controlled Senate. Republicans put forth a streamlined plan called "skinny bill." This bill does not include the second round of stimulus checks. Then the Democrats voted down the skinny bill and called it an "emaciated bill" that won't do enough for local and state governments.

On Fox News Sunday, the U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said, "Let's not hold up the American workers and American businesses that need more support." Republicans blame Democrats and say, "The speaker has refused to sit down and negotiate unless we agree to something like a $2.5 trillion deal in advance,"

On the other hand, Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker, told USA Today that Senate Republicans appear dead-set on another bill that does not come close to addressing the country's problems as the Democrats scramble to make up for the historic mistake. Pelosi added that the "emaciated bill" is intended only to help the vulnerable Republican Senators. Giving a "check the box" vote to maintain the appearance that the Republican Senate is not held hostage by the extreme right-wing who doesn't want to spend a nickel to help people.

Here's the background on what's been going on

Republicans and Democrats in Congress have not agreed on a second round of stimulus relief plan. The negotiations kept ongoing, but those observed broke down into a war of words. President Trump is on the record of supporting the second stimulus checks, but the U.S. Constitution grants authority to Congress on spending issues.

Both sides repeatedly voiced their support for getting the discussion done. However, both parties folded into larger plans, and neither side agreed to the overall price tag, with the local and state aid. Republicans and Democrats proposed their plans, which include $1,200 stimulus checks that follow the same guidelines as the first proposed plan passed. That's why the $4,000 stimulus check is not likely to happen as the compromise plan didn't make the Republicans' official stance that would give a family of four $600 less.

Check these out:

New Stimulus Bill Could Fix These Problems If Lawmakers Agree

Senate Reveals $500 Billion Relief Bill, but Will It Include Stimulus Check 2?

Stimulus Letters Bound to 9 Million People Who Have Not Yet Been Paid
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-13 12:14:31|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- China's imports of major commodities including crude oil, iron ore and soybean climbed in the first eight months of the year, as the country's economic activity gradually recovered from the COVID-19 hit, according to customs data.

Imports of crude oil surged 12.1 percent to 368 million tonnes during the January-August period, while refined oil imports rose 1.3 percent to 20.77 million tonnes, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

The country's soybean imports surged 15 percent from one year earlier to 64.74 million tonnes in the first eight months. About 65.07 million tonnes of natural gas were imported, up 3.3 percent from the same period last year.

Iron ore imports climbed 11 percent year-on-year to 760 million tonnes during the period.

The country's total imports of goods fell 2.3 percent to 9 trillion yuan (about 131.58 billion U.S. dollars) from January-August, compared to a decline of 2.6 percent in the first seven months. The trade surplus expanded 17.2 percent year-on-year to 2.05 trillion yuan. Enditem
Victor explains that when the crowd approached her, their cause wasnt immediately apparent. When she asked them who they were and why they were marching, she got no answer. But, she admits, even if she had known who they were and their purpose, she would not have raised her fist.

She agrees with their goals but objects to their imperious demands, writing ...it is never okay to coerce peoples participation; that is just bullying.

Victor ends on a hopeful and generous note. She confirms her support for BLM, as well as for an individuals right to decline to participate in a protest. And she gives her harassers credit for working together to sustain a movement to uphold Black peoples civil rights.

Several commentators  New York Times columnist Bret Stephens and comedian Bill Maher, for example  note that episodes like this are just the sort of thing that will ensure President Donald Trumps reelection.

Their point is well taken. Nobody wants to be scolded into conformity by a mob of overbearing, ultra-woke bullies. Still, we need to coin a word to describe the ironic double standard that we so often apply to the left and the right in such instances:
The Wonder of the Seas. Royal Caribbean International

Royal Caribbean's upcoming Wonder of the Seas will be the world's largest cruise ship.

The ship will begin sailing from Shanghai and Hong Kong beginning March 2022.

Take a look at the ship, which is under construction in France and will have eight "neighborhoods" once completed.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Royal Caribbean's new Wonder of the Seas cruise ship will begin sailing from China in March 2022.

The construction of the ship was first announced in 2019 as the fifth boat in Royal Caribbean's "Oasis" lineup, which consists of the world's biggest cruise ships. However, this latest addition to the family will be larger than its four predecessor, and will have the prestigious title as the "world's largest cruise ship," according to Royal Caribbean.

Keep scrolling to see the Wonder of the Seas, which will hopefully debut during better times:

The Wonder of the Seas ship was originally set to embark from Shanghai in 2021, but its initial debut was delayed due to the COVID-19, USA Today reported.

Construction on the Wonder of the Seas at the outfitting dock in the Chantiers de lAtlantique shipyard in France on September 5. Royal Caribbean International

Source: USA Today

Now, the cruise ship will be setting sail in March 2022 from Shanghai and Hong Kong, and will shuttle passengers to famous Asian destinations like Taipei, Tokyo, and Chan May, Vietnam.

The Wonder of the Seas. Royal Caribbean

"By introducing Wonder of the Seas and the iconic Oasis Class to China, our strong commitment to the market's growth is reaffirmed yet again for years to come," Michael Bayley, president and CEO of Royal Caribbean International, said in a press release.

The Wonder of the Seas. Royal Caribbean

Source: Royal Caribbean

In total, the Wonder of the Seas will be 1,188 feet long, 215 feet wide, and 236,857 tons. All of this will hold the 18 decks and 2,867 staterooms, which will be able to accommodate 6,988 passengers.

Construction on the Wonder of the Seas at the outfitting dock in the Chantiers de lAtlantique shipyard in France on September 5. Royal Caribbean International

The cruise ship will have eight "neighborhoods" with different features and amenities.

The Wonder of the Seas. Royal Caribbean International

This includes the "Central Park" neighborhood filled with plants, restaurants, and shopping and the "Boardwalk" that has activities like rock-climbing, carousel, and an AquaTheater for water shows.

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The keel of the Wonder of the Seas being lowered into the Chantiers de lAtlantique shipyard in France to begin construction in 2019. Bernard Biger/Chantiers de lAtlantique

Source: Orlando Sentinel

Like any ship, the Wonder of the Seas will also have a "Pool and Sports Zone" neighborhood with amenities like an 82-foot zip line, mini-golf, a 10-story water slide. But if you're more interested in shows or karaoke, you can head to the "Entertainment Place" instead.

Construction on the Wonder of the Seas at the outfitting dock in the Chantiers de lAtlantique shipyard in France on September 5. Royal Caribbean International

The "Royal Promenade" neighborhood will be home to shopping, food, music, and entertainment, while the "Vitality Spa and Fitness Center" will offer the opportunity for a quick workout or some rest and relaxation.

Construction on the Wonder of the Seas at the outfitting dock in the Chantiers de lAtlantique shipyard in France on September 5. Royal Caribbean International

Like most family-friendly cruise ships, the Wonder of the Seas will also have a "Youth Zone" for infants up to teenagers. But the last zone, the "Suite Neighborhood" - with a private deck, lounge, and eateries - will only be available to guests staying in suites.

Construction on the Wonder of the Seas at the outfitting dock in the Chantiers de lAtlantique shipyard in France on September 5. Royal Caribbean International

If all of this sounds appealing to you, Royal Caribbean is now accepting bookings for its Wonder of the Seas sailings.

Construction on the Wonder of the Seas at the outfitting dock in the Chantiers de lAtlantique shipyard in France on September 5. Royal Caribbean International

Read the original article on Business Insider
Photo: Colin Dacre

B.C. could be headed for a colder-than-usual winter.



The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center officially issued a La Nina Advisory Thursday, replacing a watch that was implemented earlier this year.



The Center says La Nina conditions are present in the Pacific Ocean, and gives the weather pattern a 75 per cent chance of persisting through the Northern Hemisphere's winter. That forecast is based recent findings that show "below-average sea surface temperatures extending across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean."

The Canadian Government defines La Nina as "the appearance of cooler than normal waters in the eastern and central Pacific Ocean"A.K.A. the waters off B.C.'s coast. Sometimes also referred to as "a cold event", the climate pattern is generally considered to be the opposite of El Nino, and is usually great news for skiers and snowboarders hoping for a season full of champagne powder.

La Nina is thought to occur due to increases in the strength of the normal patterns of trade wind circulation.

According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, sometimes, the end of an El Nino cycle usually brings about a return to normal conditions. In other cases, conditions can flip, with a La Nina cycle taking over. "The arrival of La Nina can be seen as a return to 'more than normal' conditions," Environment and Climate Change Canada writes. "An increase in the amount of cooler water toward the coast of South America, causes increases in the deep cloud buildup towards southeast Asia, resulting in wetter than normal conditions over Indonesia during the northern hemisphere winter."



La Nina patterns tend to appear approximately every three to five years, and typically last anywhere from one to two years. They're known to bring about colder-than-usual winter temperatures to Western Canada, and drier, warmer weather to the continent's southeast.

That said, it is believed that cooler waters in the equatorial Pacific as a result of La Nina's can support hurricane formation in the western Atlantic. El Nino conditions, meanwhile, usually suppress potential tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic, but can play a role in increasing the number of tropical storms over the eastern and central Pacific Ocean.

The prediction also lines up with the Old Farmers' Almanac long-term winter forecast that was released last month.

Based on a "time-tested weather formula," that forecast has been dubbed, "The Winter of the Great Divide: Wet, white, and wild in the West, everything crazy in the East." It calls for significant snowfall across most of the country this winter, which, for western British Columbia, translates to higher-than-average amounts of rainfall rather than the white stuff.
Trade group UKHospitality (UKH) warned thousands more jobs could be on the line if the government fails to act before current protections end on 1 October. Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA Images via Getty Images

A stark warning was issued to the government on Sunday, as business groups said a failure to act urgently to solve the burgeoning rent crisis in the hospitality sector will trigger a slew of business failures.

Trade group UKHospitality (UKH) warned thousands more jobs could be on the line if the government fails to act before current protections end on 1 October.

The government has so far brought in protections for businesses from the most aggressive enforcement activity by landlords through lease forfeiture and debt enforcement moratoria.

In a letter sent to the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities & Local Government Robert Jenrick the group called for these protections to be extended to 31 March 2021.

Unsettled rent in the past six months now totals up to an estimated 760m ($972.4m), and with looming payments in September, that figure is due to rise to an estimated 1.1bn.

This is mostly held by otherwise viable businesses that are not able to pick up the rent bill due to the almost total elimination of revenue in Q2 and the slow return to business, the group said.

Other demands outlined by UKH were for the government to ensure County Court Judgements are prohibited for rent debt and for the government to work with landlord and tenant bodies on levers to encourage negotiations.

READ MORE: Top tips to save on your 'staycation'

UKH chief executive Kate Nicholls said: The rent crisis, with the September quarterly rent day fast approaching, is the biggest threat to the recovery and future of hospitality. The sector has enjoyed a much-needed boost through August with the successful Eat Out to Help Out scheme which brought people back into our venues to enjoy the pleasure of eating and drinking out.

But a huge economic shadow hangs over the sector; as things stand, later this month, many businesses will not be able to pay rent that is due. Landlords will be able to take back the keys and thousands of sites and the jobs they support will be lost, Nicholls continued.

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UKH says many landlords have already made it clear that they intend to use the end of the moratoria to issue winding-up petitions to tenants, both large high-street chains and individual businesses.

While the hospitality sector has suffered through this crisis, we appreciate the landlord community has too. We would be keen to work with Government to build on our constructive partnership to ensure any future moratorium is targeted at those most in need and, potentially, conditional so that it brings parties together, said Nicholls.

READ MORE: Brexit, jobs and GDP rebound: How the UK economy fared this week
Bannon, in turn, has emerged as one of the biggest champions of Guo, who casts himself as an anti-communist dissident in dozens of fiery videos posted online. Even as other critics of the Chinese government have grown skeptical of Guos claims that he is a political victim of Beijing, Bannon has said Guo has valuable insider information that could help take down Chinas Communist Party, or CCP, and says he has been prescient about Chinas crackdown on Hong Kong and its handling of the novel coronavirus.